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ROGUE DECK
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You Should Be Playing: Nezumi Graverobber
Champions of Kamigawa is secretly the most influential set in the history of Commander. It was there at the beginning, and you can still feel it's influence all these years later in decision space, card design, and format philosophy.
But there are a ton of cards that were near format staples that have been forgotten over the years. Some of them, like Nezumi Graverobber, are absolute blowouts.
What are you looking for in your to drops?
Utility? I'll guarantee you're not playing enough graveyard hate as it is. Nezumi Graverobber isn't the most efficient tool in the world, but he is more than sufficient to hold back the reanimator and value players at the table.
Need some tribal synergies? Here's a useful little Rat Rogue or Wizard for you.
Value through the entire game? Here's one two-drop that is just as good a draw on turn 6 as it is on 2. In fact, it probably has more targets to remove if you draw it late.
How about the ability to single-handedly win the game? Not too many two-drops can dominate the end game like Nezumi Graverobber. Reanimate opposing fatties to dominate combat, trigger every EtB known to man, or just get the biggest, scariest dude you can find to close out the game.
Not bad for a two.
EDHREC Stats (9/23): 6680 total decks. 0% of all decks.
Pairs nicely with:
Arvinox the Mind Flail
Nath of the Gilt Leaf
Anvil of Bogarden
Stronghold Rats
Eternal Witness
Syr Konrad the Grim
Heartstone
#mtg#mtg edh#commander#magic the gathering#edh#mtg commander#you should be playing#the little rat who could#play more graveyard hate#kamigawa for life
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You Should Be Playing: Miraculous Recovery
Nothing portents a great commander game like an instant-speed blow-out from a weird, off-color card from the 90's.
That's why I play a ton of Miraculous Recovery. Five mana isn't nothing, but being instant speed solves a ton of problems. And no one ever expects it.
White is technically second in reanimation to black - but nobody really thinks about that.
And that's why you will wreck folks in your Boros, Azorius, and Selesnya decks.
Cheat that fatty out. Ambush folks in combat. Go get those EtB triggers. All at instant-speed. With nothing but white mana.
Oh yeah - you also get a +1/+1 counter. For funsies.
EDHREC Stats (08/23): 2791 total decks. 0% of all decks.
Pairs nicely with:
Faithless Looting
Mageta the Lion
Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Sun Titan
Angel of the Ruins
Archaeomancer
Falco Spara, the Pactweaver
Thundering Raiju
Kyler Sigardian Emisary
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
#mtg#edh#mtg edh#mtg commander#commander#magic the gathering#you should be playing#white reanimation#blow out in a box
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Let's go ahead and indulge our inner hipsters for a bit.
In the Marvel Champions card game Valkyrie isn't considered... the best. In fact, I think most players consider her near the bottom of the tier list - only keeping herself from the bottom of the list by standing on the massive, disappointing back of The Hulk.
But that's the beauty of playing non-competitive, and mostly-solo, games. We can experiment with the things competitive folks would just throw away.
And then we get to sit back, smugly, when we actually figure out how to crack her.
So Why Valkyrie?
On the surface, Valkyrie's core 15 seems fine.
She's got 3 big, direct damage cards that can get overkill.
She's got card draw that also finds minions the lean into her slayer strategy.
She's got two cards that can remove 5 threat from any scheme.
She's even got upgrades that give +4 HP and can turn her into a 4 ATK monster.
So Why NOT Valkyrie?
With all of these amazing tools at her disposal, shouldn't Valkyrie be a monster? At least a average role-player? Some characters aren't necessarily the strongest (especially in solo play) - but on the surface, Valkyrie doesn't seem like the coaster she's positioned as being.
Well, her natural stat line doesn't help anything. 1/2/1 doesn't inspire much confidence - and unfortunately also implies a couple downstream issues.
First off, 1 DEF means you're going to get smacked around. Her natural 12 HP is better than average, but you'll still need to flip down every once in a while to stay alive.
But with only 1 THW that flip down can be devastating.
Which is why it is so surprising that some of her core kit only works in Alt Ego.
And even all those good cards we mentioned above - most of them only work if you have attached your "Death Glow" to a target. This is a tempo hit, and you'll often find Death Glow is on the wrong enemy at the wrong time.
Oh yeah, and if you hit Shadows of the Past, it's basically game over. Enchantress is probably the most lopsidedly unfair nemesis in the game.
So we've got some struggles.
Leadership to the Rescue
With all of this headwind, I think the best aspect to lean into is Leadership. It's already the most naturally powerful aspect. And allies help mitigate the immediate need of threat removal and defense.
But there are also a couple archetype cards in leadership that synergize in a nice, odd way with Valkyrie - and even let us stay in Alt Ego for longer.
Sky Cycle: While slapping the Sky Cycle/Honorary Avenger combo onto Annabelle Riggs isn't as good as it is with Wong, you still get to draw two additional cards per turn. This is amazing for a hero kit that doesn't have built-in resource generators.
Sneak Attack: Rapid Response is probably the best leadership card, but Sneak Attack is my favorite. This doesn't do a ton for us on defense, but getting thwart machines like Falcon fulfill their role for a fraction of the price. This card is really interesting for Valkyrie in particular because she is Asgard traited even in Alt Ego. That means you can drop absolute bombs like Heimdall and Beta Ray Bill to keep things in order while flipped down. (Pro tip: slap your backup Honorary Avenger on Valkyrie and she can sneak in Avangers allies when flipped down too).
Command Team: Command Team is kind of a natural fit for sneak attack decks anyway, but here you can get some extra value with Annabelle. If drawing 2 extra cards a turn is good, drawing 4 has to be better... right?
Band Together: I tend not to consider resource cards are cornerstones of any deck. Having more resources is good - yay! But I think two copies of Band Together are really special in this deck. Since you want to keep Annabelle on the board forever, it's easy to get the full three allies in play. And even when you're short, Sneak Attack lets you quickly get back to quorum. Band Together ends up being a great bridge to help change your quick tempo plays with Sneak Attack into more stable resource building (ie. Avengers Tower), or to turn the corner for the killing blow with "Have At Thee."
Let's be honest with each other for a minute.
Valkyrie still isn't a top-level contender in Marvel Champions. Her kit has so many internal contradictions that she'll never be able to stand toe-to-toe with Dr. Strange, Captain America, and Miles Morales.
But that doesn't mean she can't be successfully built.
I think this deck is really interesting. Does it have a 90% win ratio? Nope. Not at all.
But it does feel competitive in most scenarios. And more importantly, it's fun.
So don't give up on the "also rans" of Marvel Champions. I think if you spend some time in the Island of Misfit Toys, you'll probably find something that is more fun to play with that that infinite combo Ant-Man deck... again.
#marvel champions#lcg#valkyrie#hipster deckbuilding#card game#don't have to be the best to beat the best#girlboss
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One of the things I love about board games is their ability for emergent narratives.
It's a magic trick to take bits of cardboard, plastic, and wood and come out the other side with stories -- to take fundamentally mechanical rule sets and transform them into memories and in-jokes as if you we actually part of an intergalactic struggle or siege of the wizard's castle.
While many games do this well, for my money, Root is the best.
In Root, you take on the role of an adorable woodland dynasty and hack, slash, cajole, and strongarm your way to domination. Don't let the meeples fool you - this is a ruthless war game.
But it is also SO much more.
In addition to the normal rules of movement and combat, Root is a completely asymmetric game. When you choose your faction, you get a unique player board that defines your personal goals and mechanics throughout the game. Out of the box, you have four completely different factions.
Marquise de Cat: The current lords of the forest, the Cats start with the most pieces on the table. They score by building up their supply lines and industrializing the forest.
Eyrie Dynasty: The Birds are an explosive factions that works by programming actions turn after turn. But watch out - if you ever can't complete your program, your subjects revolt and depose you as a ruler.
Woodland Alliance: Everyone's favorite angry toast meeples represent the subversive movement in the forest. They spread sympathy/propaganda through whisper campaigns until they violently overthrow the invading forces.
The Vagabond: While the other players are in the middle of a war game, the Vagabond is playing his own RPG. He travels around the forest leveling up and raiding items from ruins.
While you can get hundreds of hours of great gameplay from the core box alone, there are a myriad of expansions that unlock the games true potential.
The Riverfolk is a big box expansion that brings along two new factions: The Lizard Cult who have limited, but extremely powerful actions and the war profiteering Otters who sell their services to any other faction needing mercenaries.
The Underworld is the second big box that introduces new maps along with more factions: The murderous Crows who sneak around the board setting traps, and the Moles who can spring up from their tunnels to jump-start their colonization.
The newest big box expansion, The Marauders, introduces Hirelings that give more options for smaller player counts. It also brought us the Lord of the Hundreds who commands his Rats to raze as much of the forest as possible, and the Badger templars who use their military prowess to delve for ancient relics.
And that's just the beginning. There are more hireling packs, an additional deck of cards, landmarks, and plenty of aesthetic upgrades you can buy.
Root is a full-on, five-star game for me. It is significantly different than the other euro and card battler games my group favors, but that palate cleanser is an incredibly fun challenge. Root also requires more direct interaction and table talk than anything else on the shelf.
While it can seem untenable from the outside, the rules system is logical and cleanly laid out. It isn't particularly hard to get up and running in a game.
And even if it was, it is worth the effort to be able to play with these little fellas...
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hat tip to: Commander's Sphere
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It took a minute, but people finally realized Jahiera, Friend of the Forest is cracked.
Who would have thought that turning easy-to-produce junk into mana would lead to anything fair. There isn't even a limitation on the token type. Creature, non-creature, artifact -- it's all going to power out the next phase.
Coming up with tokens is pretty easy already, but since we want to pick a background anyway, let put a token maker into the command zone with Feywild Visitor.
The rest of the deck is incredibly flexible. Making tokens, doubling tokens, and getting benefits from tokens is second nature in Simic - the Strixhaven commander deck was built on that theme (and you'll want to use a good number of those cards in here).
Ultimately, this pairing plays like an old-school Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck. You want to play early fliers like Spectral Sailor, Ice-Fang Coatl, and Esior Wardwing Familiar. With your evasive beaters on turn one and two, you play out your commanders and the engine is live.
Then you start dropping bombs.
Maybe you want to draw a bunch of cards. Cast a Stroke of Genius for a billion.
Need to end the game in a hurry? Avenger of Zendikar has your back.
Simic isn't particularly known for it's board wipes, but Distorting Wake does a pretty good Cyclonic Rift impression.
Just make sure you bring some haste enablers like Lightning Greaves or Thousand-Year Elixir. You don't want to wait an entire turn cycle to get use from your tokens.
In addition to all the evasion and token generation, Simic can easily lean into landfall. Meloku is the glue that holds all of it together. Meloku is powerful enough that you'd sacrifice your land drop to make a flier, but with Jaheira around, you don't lose any mana advantage.
While not quite secret Commanders, Ashaya Soul of the Wild and Yedora Grave Gardener give extra oomph to Meloku. You get to reuse your EtBs, retrigger landfall, and make combat miserable for your opponents all for the low, low cost of playing amazing creatures.
It's not often I'd consider a simple utility piece a cornerstone card, but in this deck Meeting of Minds represents amazing power (and it is incredibly underplayed across the board right now, so I want to talk about it).
I already think people need to play more cheap, instant-speed card draw. And it doesn't get much cheaper than free.
Meeting of Minds is also great in this particular deck because it allows you to get use from your tokens even if they don't have haste. Unlike casting your other "fair" spells, convoke can be used the turn the creature (sic. token) comes into play.
Every deck needs a way to win the game. While this deck is thoroughly capable of dropping big bangers to win the traditional way, sometimes you have to fight through Propagandas or other nightmares that make combat difficult. That's why I always like having a backup plan.
Throne is that fallback that doesn't require you to do anything special. You are going to create a ton of creatures. You are going to tap them every turn. That becomes a self-perpetuating growth engine that transforms Throne into a must-deal with clock.
With Feywild Visitor in the command zone, it isn't hard to make tokens - but it can sometimes feel slow and clunky. Since both commanders cost 3, you often won't get the engine going until turn four.
But you don't have to rely only on Faerie Dragons to jump-start your mana production. Jaheira works with any token you produce. There are a ton of ways to get tokens down without having to set up the engine and attack.
Tireless Provisioner is probably the best since you can use the treasures for mana if your other pieces aren't online yet. Tireless Provisioner (and his good friend the Tracker) also connect your token and landfall themes.
Make it a priority to get incidental tokens early on. Gala Greeters and Lonis Cryptozoologist are 2-drops make tokens as you build out your board. Even a lowly Hard Evidence becomes an all-star when it makes two Moxes for a single blue mana.
Every deck needs graveyard hate - so go ahead and make it synergistic. Night Soil is a goofy-yet-underplayed card that can absolutely wreck graveyard focused decks.
Getting a Mox/token for your effort is just golden.
#commander#edh#mtg#mtg commander#elder dragon highlander#simic#simic great stuff#jaheira friend of the forest#feywild visitor#token decks#big mana
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Note: I'm trying something new with deck overviews. Inspired by Rachel week's, instead of getting a long-form discussion of decks you'll know get a brief logline about what the deck is trying to achieve, 4 guidepost cards to show you what the deck cares about, and then a lovable weirdo.
I think this will be faster to get into cyberspace, easier for you to digest, and less prescriptive. The idea isn't to get people to copy my decks. It's to inspire them to make one of their own.
Check out her discussion of decks and approach here.
Logline:
How much value can you get in Boros? Keep your hand full and the free spells flowing. Sort of like a voltron deck without relying on Commander damage to win. Let's see how many subthemes we can jam into a deck and still make it function.
Guideposts:
Wheel of Fate: This is your Necropotence. Aisha needs significant card flow to keep the engine running. This one is the best because it synergizes naturally with your commander's ability to play it for free. Wheels also load up your graveyard for recursion shenanigans.
Sunbird's Invocation: is the lynchpin of the enchantment subtheme in the deck. You're hoping to use your recursion spells to cheat this into play early. Once you do, you get to double up on your free spells every turn.
Divine Reckoning: An asymmetric wrath. Sure your opponents get to keep their best creature, but you keep Aisha. This helps clean up the board without making you too much of a target. Could also be one of the other asymmetric wraths like Single Combat or Tragic Arrogance. Divine Reckoning sits nicely in the 4CMC slot, so you don't need anything else for Aisha to trigger it.
Goblin Dark Dwellers: When this deck is firing on all cylinders, you are churning through cards. You're wheeling, you're rummaging, you're casting free spells. Dark Dwellers gets you access to all those used resources. It's also a good signpost for the blink subtheme. Getting extra Dark Dweller activations keeps the wheels turning.
The Lovable Weirdo:
When you put all your eggs in one, attacking creature basket, you need to have some type of defense. One interesting wrinkle is that Aisha actually works on defense as well (you do combat damage on both sides of the coin), but you really want to be attacking with her and setting the tempo.
That's why you need an ace-in-the-hole to prevent you from the crackback. That's why we're going with Righteous Aura. This two-mana enchantment from Visions lets you spend a White and Two life to blank damage from anything.
Massive Fireball to end the game? Nope.
Some dragons beating you down? No thanks.
Since you're getting all your value for free, keeping some mana open as a rattlesnake of protection is sweet.
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I didn't care about the Street Fighter Secret Lair at all - but slap some in-universe art, and I'm playing all of them.
Except Blanka. That dude has to be the Street Fighter version.
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Nope! You need to play more Wraths.
I keep hearing content creators talking about how they are cutting back on Wrath effects. Some are saying they're playing three - or maybe even fewer ways to clear the board.
Just remember - everything you've been told about Commander is wrong!
Wait! What?!?
For what it's worth, I actually get what is going on here. Content creators need compelling content that plays well with the algorithm to drive traffic and engagement. The need compelling games with a ton of action to get viewers.
Nobody wants to watch a three hour game where the players just stare at empty boards. I don't care how charismatic you are, a wrath-heavy game isn't going to drive repeat views.
As always, "The Medium is the Message."
Also, Wraths make games less fun (to a point). The best part of Magic is playing awesome creatures, building a board state, and forcing opponents to react.
A single Wrath wastes all that hard work.
And on top of it all, they stretch the game out. So instead of getting in two or three games a night, you barely scrape by with a single game.
Maybe we should be playing fewer Wraths...
Not so fast my friend.
Here's the thing - all the above points are true. Wraths do make games go longer, and they do take away from the most fun parts of the game. But you still need an adequate number of Wraths in your Commander games.
Are you worried about value engines overwhelming all your games? Play more Wraths.
How abut a runaway leader problem. Excessive mana ramping? Treasures getting out of control?
Wraths are the answer. Magic is a balancing act, and wraths are the fulcrum.
As much as I see people talking about cutting back on wraths, I hear them lamenting the current prevalence of runaway value engines. Games don't seem interactive anymore. It's a bunch of multiplayer solitaire - waiting around on a player to be the first to find their combo.
They also complain that "EDH has sped up too much," and they can't play all their favorite old cards.
The answer to both of these is just play more Wraths.
Some people will tell you that the increase we see in single-target removal is a reaction to playing less Wraths. That's probably true. But the answer fits in balancing both options.
You need to play good, cheap, instant speed interaction. But in a four-player game, you just can't rely on having enough of it to carry you through the game. You will never have enough Swords to Plowshares to hit everything you need to.
Here's the Truth: You should be playing more Wraths.
I'm not going to give you a specific number. Some decks might be aggro inclined, and only want three. Some mid-range or control decks might want 5. I could come up with some deck ideas where you want a lot more.
But if you ever think you need to cut back on Wraths - stop! Ask yourself why.
EDH was originally created with a similar mindset of the original Type I deck builders who came up with "The Deck."
-- a quick history lesson --
The Deck was one of the first truly powerful competitive decks. It was a primarily UW (but actually 5-color) control deck that won with two copies of Serra Angel or Millstone.
It was also one of the first decks to put forward a coherent theory of Magic - with two axioms that we still live with today:
Card advantage wins games.
Life is just a resource. Winning at 1 life is still winning.
"The Deck" was created when it's designers started theorizing about a format with 40 life. If you could simply extend the game out long enough, and not lose, then you'd eventually win - especially if you had more cards than your opponent.
-- end lesson --
Longer games. Bigger spells. More time. More life. Sounds awfully familiar to the initial structures of EDH.
And just like old Type I, card advantage wins games.
That's the most important part about a Wrath. When played correctly, it is a card advantage machine. Single target removal is essential - but it is also a massive disadvantage against three other players. Best case scenario, you are just down a card to two players.
But a well-timed wrath can put you a dozen cards up on the table. Easily.
Wraths force engagement at the table. If you are relying solely on spot removal, you have to allow value engines and combos to build until that last critical point. You just don't have the resources to handle everything. This leads to both solitaire games and archenemy games - neither are particularly fun.
The New Rules.
You should be playing more Wraths. But you should also be playing them more responsibly - and that means playing them asymmetrically.
I think every new player has one similar experience when they start. We've all looked at Wrath of God and said, "Why would I ever want to kill all my own creatures."
It's a developmental stage in your play when you realize, Wraths are awesome when you don't have any creatures on board - or you have fewer than your opponents.
In Commander, Wraths need to be played in the same way - and with a focus on ending the game. So a couple of guidelines for wrathing:
Don't wrath after the 90 minutes mark, unless you have a follow up play you think will win the game. That's just extending the game for no reason.
Play more asymmetric wraths that leave you in an advantageous position. Tragic Arrogance should be played significantly more because it just wins games.
As counter-intuitive as it sounds, if you want more fun and interesting games, play more Wraths. Find new and interesting ways to get advantage from the (Blasphemous Act in Tajic anybody?). Just use them responsibly.
Note: After I wrote this article up, I did a quick Google search to see if there were any other points of interest I should bring up. Instead, I found an article written a year ago bringing up these exact same points. I wrote this article before reading that one, but the similarities are so striking I thought I should link/cite that one as well.
Card Kingdom | You Should be Playing More Wraths
#mtg edh#mtg commander#mtg#commander#magic the gathering#edh#everything you've been told about Commander is wrong#play more wraths
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...and yet people are still cutting back on wraths.
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You should be playing #13 - Glory
Here's a riddle: If a card straight up wins games, but no one plays it, does it even count?
Take a look at Glory for instance. You want to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, you should just play Glory. But no one really does (currently 0% of decks on EDHREC).
It's not the 3/3 flier for five that you care about. You include Glory in your deck to do three things:
Blank any targeted interaction that might mess up your plans.
Alpha strike for the win.
Blank opposing combat phases.
It seems to me that if you had one card that does any one of those you'd play it. A card that does all three is a slam dunk.
I honestly don't know why Glory doesn't see more play.
Is it the graveyard thing? Every color has ways of getting a creature into the yard. Looting, self-mill, sacrificing, etc.
Is it having to hold up mana? People already do that for counterspells. Even if you don't use it reactively, this is a way to close out games in white.
She's great in Go Wide. She's great in Voltron. She's great in reactive control. You want to get attack or on-damage triggers, you want Glory. Is you commander a key piece of your strategy, grab a Glory.
Folks play plenty of Anger. You'll even occasionally see a Genesis. But no Glory.
I don't get it.
Pairs nicely with:
Any red looting effects like Faithless Looting or Cathartic Reunion.
Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir
Greater Good
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Mask of Memory
Wheel effects
Strixhaven Stadium
Shifting Sky
#mtg edh#mtg commander#mtg#commander#magic the gathering#edh#incarnations#you should be playing#swiss army knife
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State of the Union | Spring 2023
I do A LOT of deckbuilding and evaluation. Every once in a while it probably makes sense to check in on the overall status of my collection and deck library. Things move pretty fast these days. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
I plan on doing this semi-regularly throughout the year, looking back on the same set of questions.
What decks do I currently have built?
I am currently sitting on 14 decks.
Pako & Haldan | Play from Exile
Vadrik, Astral Archmage | Spell reduction and copy
Daryl, Hunter of Walkers | Draw all the cards, Gruul Enchantress
Reyhan & Jeska | +1/+1 Counter and Sac
Hopper and Lucas | Affinty for Artifacts
Inquisitor Greyfax | Tappers and Fliers
Kelsien the Plague | Political Experience Matters
Obeka, Brute Chronologist | Tokens and EOT Shenanigans
Jaheira Feywild Visitor | Token Ramp
Mike & Max | Naya Value Train
Falco Sparra | Top Deck Matters
Tymna & Anara | Life gain and card draw
Belbe | Play all YOUR cards
Mimeoplasm | Rogue Mill
14 is too many decks, but some of these are permanent locks.
What s my current favorite deck?
Usually, I’d say Pako & Haldan because it is aggressive, while still giving you plenty of interaction and random decisions. But right now, I am very into Reyhan & Jeska. It is the most aggressive deck I have, but with all the good value pieces you get from Jund. It gets to play with some of the great old Jund cards, but in a way that feels modern.
What is my newest deck?
I just built up Obeka. It’s still a little rough. There aren’t any extra turn spells, but you get to play with crazy cards like Zilarian of the Claw and Sneak Attack. I expected it to be a high value-driven deck (which it is), but it also has the ability to be incredibly explosive.
What decks have been recently retired?
Flamewar was the most recently retired deck. I liked her a lot. Rakdos artifacts with a heavy necron theme. Unfortunately, there were two issues that sent her off to the “farm upstate”
1. She competed on theme with Hopper & Lucas - which is a more fun artifact deck.
2. She did really fun things with discard and sacrifice abilities, but it was hard to build up an interactive board when you we playing with trinkets.
I do think there is a very strong deck there, I just don’t see me reaching for her all that often.
The other big retirement this time around is “Sliverless” Overlord. I really liked having a 5-color deck, and the creature type matters theme was unique. But the game play loops were very controlling and inevitable. No one really like playing against it - no matter how clever it was.
What are my favorite new card?
After being pretty down on sets for about a year, there are a ton of new (and or new to me cards) that I’m really excited about.
Firemane Commando is an immediate slam dunk for me. She’s adding a really nice, evasive source of card advantage that fits directly into decks like Kelsien and Inquisitor Greyfax.
Meeting of Minds is a sleeper uncommon. If you read a post below, you’ll see I’m very high on cheap card draw. A potentially free, instant-speed draw 2 fits in a ton of decks.
Defabricate is a nice utility piece. I think you’ll be surprised how many times you’ll want this effect to blank something terrible your opponent is about to do.
Halo Forager is probably the best uncommon in years.
Suspend was a sleeper card from Modern Horizons 2. I think in most games, this is equal to, if not better than Path to Exile.
Ancient Runes is excellent, old-school anti treasure tech.
What cards do I really want to find a home for?
I’m doing a pretty good job getting the cards I want to play into decks right now, but there are always a handful that get cut for slots, or that just don’t have a home right now:
Phantom Steed
Null Brooch
Sword of Hearth and Home
Jabari’s Influence
Eldrazi Displacer
Vhati il-dal
What have I learned about myself or the format recently?
First off, I’m starting to dial in my deckbuilding to create games that I think are fun. I currently only have one deck that contains a Propaganda or a Rhystic Study. I really want to be pushing the game forward. I don’t like going all out aggression and leaving myself open, but I don’t mind being the problem at the table. I’m not only trying to out-value the table.
Next, I’m pretty down on ramp in most decks - especially signets and talismans. There are some decks that want it, but I don’t think it should be default to put 10 ramp sources in every deck. Instead, I want a TON of fast card draw.
Similarly, I think people have forgotten how important Wraths are in the game. We’ll discuss more of that later.
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NOPE! You don't need that much (or any) ramp
Tell me if you've heard this one before:
You should have at least 10 pieces of ramp in all your commander decks.
Welp, everything you've been told about commander is wrong.
Wait! What?!?
If you pay attention to any of the top Commander content creators, one of the first pieces of advice you'll hear is to make sure you have plenty of ramp in your deck. There are a couple corollaries as well:
2-mana ramp has pushed 3-mana ramp out of the format
You should play at least 10 pieces of ramp in your deck
So why has this become such common knowledge?
First off, it really sucks to be mana screwed. There is nothing worse in a game of EDH than watching everyone around you get to play super fun, splashy cards while you're sitting on three lands.
Second, EDH is a game of massive, splashy effects. Our decks are often filled with 4-6 drops. It's not uncommon to even see 7+ mana value cards in decks - and often these are the most fun.
Finally, effective decks will often want to play multiple, high-impact cards in a turn.
So, it just comes to reason that adding cards that both ensure you get to play the game, and you get to play the expensive, fun cards is something you should do. Right?
Not so fast my friend.
Over-indexing on ramp is a fallacy that leads to bad deckbuilding.
Before we begin, let's agree to the previous points: 1. It is better to have plenty of mana to operate your deck; 2. EDH decks, on average, need to hit higher mana values per turn than your average 60-card deck; and 3. Making multiple plays in a turn is often correct.
But these aren't the only considerations for deck building and game play. And importantly, you don't win the game for having the most mana.
Advancing your game state is important.
Building advantage engines is important.
Ensuring you have cards and effective play into the late game is important.
If you're ignoring these pieces of the game during the first three turns just so you can ramp, you better have a darn good reason to do so.
This is especially true because of the pace and length of a commander game. Because of the typical game's scope, there are two potentials that can erase all of your effort if you spent your first three turns only ramping:
Your mana rocks and elves can get wiped from the board. This is true for all permanent types, but if you've drawn two cards from your Mulldrifter or gotten a massive trigger from Silent-Blade Oni, you've still progressed your actual game plan.
You can miss a land drop and completely negate the benefit of ramping. It's nice to be at 4-mana on turn three, but if you miss a drop-you are still at 5 mana on turn five.
Here's the Truth: Card Draw is Better than Ramp
Way back in the day, Magic Hall of Famer Alan Comer broke people's brains by inventing on of the four most influential Magic decks of all time - Turbo Xerox (which then transformed into the Miracle Grow and Super Grow archetypes that essentially inform all Brainstorm-based aggro decks in Legacy).
The key innovation of the Grow decks is that a deck can actually run fewer lands, as long as they have enough cheap card draw and deck manipulation.
I'm not sure this was technically true, but the old heuristic was that you could cut 1 land for every four cantrips in your deck. This led to Comer's absolutely bonkers 10-land Quirion Dryad deck.
The secret is that with enough card draw in your deck, you are able to both ensure you consistently hit enough land drops for your deck to operate AND you have enough gas to make impactful plays. And very importantly, you don't find yourself top-decking junk in the late game.
Now, I don't advocate running an irresponsible number of lands in your deck (36-38 is probably in the wheelhouse), but recently, in most of my decks I've been running significantly higher amounts of card draw than ramp.
This is especially true these days. The prevalence of treasure makes ramp even less necessary. It seems like every color these days has an easy way to make incidental treasures. These little guys help keep your on curve if your draw stumbles, and they help fix your mana. You don't need to play a turn two signet if you just end up with a random treasure on two or three.
Different Archetypes Demand Different Answers
What's important to understand is that even in Commander, there are different deck archetypes.
Some decks want to play an aggressive game, playing high-impact spells quickly to gain an advantage before everyone has had the chance to set up. These decks don't want to waste their early turns ramping.
Some (possibly most) decks want to play a mid-range interactive value game. They want to build an engine based on synergies and incremental advantages that allow them to get into the mid-game. These decks should really be playing value pieces in the early game and not ramp.
Other decks want to control the game until they win through inevitability or by finding their combo pieces. With 40 life and three opponents, these decks have the time to set up their massive end game. They should be drawing cards to make sure they get there instead of ramping.
On the other hand, there are some decks who want to dominate by playing massive effects in front of the curve. Some of these are reanimator decks that can cheat your Kokushos and Primordials in early. Others are stompy decks that want to jump the curve to play Avengers of Zendikar and Apex Devastators early. it's really only these last decks that need significant ramp.
The New Rules
One of the things I learned playing Netrunner was the importance of mixing your drip and burst economy. You need a good combination of quick resources that let you get up and running, but also a steady flow that keeps your engine going throughout the game.
The same is true for card draw in EDH.
It's important that you can build engines to provide a steady flow of cards throughout the game (drip). Many players have an inherent knack for this. We see how powerful cards like Rhystic Study and Phyrexian Arena are. But these cards are often too slow to be the ramp replacements we're looking for.
Instead, we need cheap, effective, and flexible card draw. So what, specifically should we be looking for:
1-mana cantrips are fine, but they don't actually serve as card draw.
2-mana spells that draw 2 cards are insane - even if they have a drawback.
Getting a cantrip/card draw off a two mana creature is excellent.
3-mana spells need to draw at least two cards with a bonus if they are sorecery speed. Instant-speed 3s that draw at least two cards are much better.
You can, and should, play card draw spells that cost 4+, but those are for fueling your late game, not smoothing out your early turns.
Luckily, there are tons of great cards that fit into this mold. And I think people are really coming around on some of them. Here are my favorites:
Night's Whisper
Sign in Blood
Deep Analysis
Predict
Demon's Due
Thirst for Discovery
Tome of Legends
Chart a Course
Spirited Companion
Humble Defector
Scarscale Ritual
Words of Wisdom
Question Convention
I'm not sure I completely agree that the format is speeding up all that much. I do see that decks are being built in a more coherent way - with more impactful and interesting things happening earlier.
Taking full turns off to play a ramp spell shouldn't be the default. Instead make sure your deck is chocked full of efficient card draw spells. Your games will be smoother from start to finish, and you'll be making impactful and interesting plays until the very end.
#mtg commander#mtg edh#everything you've been told about Commander is wrong#card draw is better than ramp
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Solo Marvel Champions is My New Main
I knew I had to jump into Marvel Champions from the beginning.
My all-time favorite game, Android: Netrunner, had just died an ignoble death. So my budget had a bit of an opening for a new LCG. I knew X-Men were coming eventually, and if I didn't jump in at the beginning, I'd need to go back and bulk buy eventually.
So I was one of the first in line for the original core set. And I mostly kept up with the hero packs. My normal game group even played a decent amount of it. It was even fine to play solo. I tended to go two-handed (playing two characters) because it gave me access to more cards, and covered some of the weaknesses a single hero would have.
And the game was... fine? Better than average definitely. Possibly a little too long. A little fiddly. And sometimes hard to keep track of all the rules exceptions. And like a lot of co-op games, you sort of knew the outcome way before the game ended.
I really liked how each hero deck really made you feel like playing that specific hero. But with all the little fiddliness of the game, it never really took over as the main game in our group.
And then Magic's 2022 happened.
2022 was supposed to be the best Magic year ever. We had a killer cyberpunk set coming out. Another Commander Legends set. Revisiting one of my favorite sets (Dominaria) and getting the Phyrexians back in a big way.
I was expecting to go broke on all this amazing content. But then something weird happened. I stopped getting excited about Magic.
I think product fatigue had something to do with it. But so did the abject money grubbing from Wizards. Neon Dynasty was a great set, but I didn't love raising prices on Commander decks. I lived Baldur's Gate more than most, but I didn't even acknowledge that Double Masters released. None of the main sets actually excited me like I expected. And then the 30th Anniversary packs happened.
2022 started as the most excited I'd been about Magic in a long time, and ended up with me barely registering new releases. For the foreseeable future I'm just going to buy a card or two that fit into existing commander decks.
In Walks True Solo Marvel Champions
Into this vacuum came Marvel Champions. X-Men finally hits the shelves with a new box featuring my favorite character (Shadowcat). The encounters are interesting and thematic. I even get a Mojo pack.
I definitely wanted to play some more Champions - but tracking all the nuances of Mojo was mentally taxing for two-handed solo. I had always been a little hesitant to play true-solo (one-handed, one character), but I thought I'd give it a try.
And oh boy is it the absolute best.
I'll still play multi-player Champions (2 or 3 players please), but I've been playing a ton of solo Champions recently. For a game where the designers explicitly state they don't test as a solo game, it's amazing how much gets fixed when you go solo:
There is no downtime between turns. You are always active.
The villain phase doesn't take too long either.
There is still a lot going on, but the amount of abilities and actions onboard never getting too overwhelming like they do with multiple players and encounter cards.
Games are FAST. Solo Champions does not overstay it's welcome.
Games are swingy. Because of the lower thresholds on the main scheme, you can go from in control to absolutely devastated in a single villain phase.
That last point might be a negative for some people, but I think it makes the game significantly better. No more are you simply going through the motions in the final three rounds. You never know what will happen.
Playing true solo has taken this from a game I like, but struggle to get to the table, to a game a love and can't wait to set up immediately after I get smashed by Ultron for the billionth time.
Currently Playing:
Storm Protection - It's Raining Multiple Men
Captain America Aggression - Overkill Anonymous
Miles Morales Justice - Confuse and Kill
Spider-Woman Leadership/Justice - SHIELD Sneak Attack
Regular Villains:
Ultron with Under Attack
Mutagen Formula with Sinister Syndicate
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saying “hm. must be the curse” every time something bad happens and refusing to elaborate is my new hobby
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You should be playing #12 - Edge of Autumn
Everybody wants to play two-mana ramp these days. But everyone is sleeping on one of the best.
Sure Edge of Autumn doesn't grab any dual land out of your deck. But if you're playing normal, kitchen table style magic you don't care. It's still a Rampant Growth with upside.
Yes. It's all upside. Who cares if you can't ramp beyond 4 lands. You don't need to. Unless you are playing a Green-based landfall deck (like Tatyova or Lord Windgrace) you would rather be playing real cards in the midgame - and drawing cards late.
And honestly, if you're playing one of those dumb landfall decks, you still probably want to play Edge of Autumn.
Pairs nicely with:
Soul of Windgrace
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Slogurk the Overslime
The Gitrog Monster
Ashaya Soul of the Wild
Ruminap Excavator
Erinis Gloom Stalker
Ancient Greenwarden
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Soratami Rainshaper
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