Kerstiaen DeKeunink - A Mountainous Landscape With Travellers (1600). Jugan, the Rising Star by Shishizaru.
In searching for a topic for this week's post, I have come to the realization that none of the Amonkhet legendaries excite me.
I opened a Bontu, the Glorified, but he went into my Ghave deck because I'll almost always have saprolings to sacrifice to make Bontu indestructible.
I picked up a Samut, Voice of Dissent to put into my Tana & Sidar deck because she's a haste enabler with lots of upside and I have yet to combo off with Tana and Breath of Fury.
I opened a Neheb, but have no interest in building Minotaur tribal and only slight interest in building a hellbent deck.
The only legendary I was even tempted to build around was Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. I think Hapatra is the best of the lot by far, but I didn't open one and I'm not excited enough about Hapatra to go out of my way to pick one up as a single. Also, a friend in our EDH league built Hapatra, and I tend to avoid making decks with legendaries that someone I play with regularly has already built around. My son is building Temmet, so while Temmet is interesting, I'm not planning on building a Temmet deck.
I do love deckbuilding and I love having a project to work on, I've recently finished up Ghave and thrown together a Sidar & Ravos infect deck, but neither is inspiring me enough to warrant an entire blog post.
I think that means it's time to take stock in my library of decks.
I think it's time to reflect on what I've built so far, what might be next. I've been seeing lots of those posts in social media these days so it got me to thinking. How far am I from having a deck in every color combination?
For the purposes of this list I'll only list one pick per color combination, and will only include decks I own and play, whether or not they see frequent play. They don't have to be sleeved, though being unsleeved is about the closest one of my decks gets to being thrown right on the scrap heap.
Mono-colored Decks
While monocolored decks are generally viewed as intrinsically weaker than two and three colored decks due to their lack of access to a decent range of answers and strategies, I've found plenty of power in this category. My single best one v. one deck is mono-colored and another is the result of having a deck that was so explosive that I started getting hated off the table and pulld it apart. With every card ever printed at your disposal, answers can be found in any color and a clever deck-builder can definitely get it done with access to only one color.
White
My only white deck is Odric, Lunarch Marshal. It started out as a keyword soup deck, but wasn't very good. I reworked it into a vehicles deck because I thought it would be hilarious to have vehicles crewing other vehicles, but to no surprise, it wasn't very good either. The deck did win one game when I managed to drop Pariah onto Stuffy Doll, naming the only player left after I failed to draw a single vehicle the entire game. Go figure. I've still got the deck together, though I think I unsleeved it to sleeve up another deck.
Blue
I've built Talrand counterspell tribal but I only used cheap counterspells. Nothing expensive, so while it was OK, it didn't have the impact that it could have had. I might not have even put Cyclonic Rift in, and I eventually took it apart. I did wind up building Padeem, Consul of Innovation and that deck is still together. It's good but not great and at one point was an excuse to play a foil Show & Tell I had opened in a booster. I might someday try to build a Leviathan / Sea Monsters deck and if I did it would of course be mono-blue.
Black
I've had good and bad experiences building mono-black. The bad was my recent attempt to build Endrek Sahr. I'm not sure why but it just never seemed to click. The good was my Skythiryx deck, which is brutal in one on one games, but tends to come up short in larger multiplayer games. I might someday try to rework it to be better in multiplayer but for now I just keep it on ice, ready to go if I'm playing one on one and want a good chance at a win.
Red
One of my first great mono-color experiences was in Red. I built Purphoros with a bunch of "dash" creatures so that I could hopefully maximize the number of ETBs I could get in a given turn. In time the deck evolved and turned into a token-generating machine, getting so dangerous that I started getting hated off the table in our EDH league. I don't like getting hated off the table, so I reworked it into Zada, Hedron Grinder and it now provides an even more varied experience. Expedite on Zada when you have 30 creatures on the table thanks to Krenko is pretty nuts and that amount of card draw can position you to win a game pretty nicely.
Green
Anyone claiming that monocolored decks aren't any good hasn't spent much time with Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. I built Yisan and even with a wonky and whimsical druid tribal build, it was very effective. You do have to learn the various verse-chains you are going to follow, but Yisan is an incredible tutor. The lines of play can get a little stale but they are effective. Avenger of Zendikar followed by Craterhoof Behemoth is a wonderful way to dole out huge amounts of damage, and Yisan can get you there quite reliably.
Allied Colors
The Ravnica block brought us guilds in every possible 2-color combination. The first five I'll cover are the "allied" colors, or colors that are next to each other in the color wheel. These color combinations tend to be colors that play well together. Strangely, I have only built decks in two of these five color pairings.
Azorious (White-Blue)
At one point in time I think i may have built Medomai as an enchantments deck but it didn't last long. I currently do not have an Azorious deck.
Dimir (Blue-Black)
My first deck ever was Mirko Vosk. Mirko turned into Phenax and I have won games with it using Duskmantle Guildmage to turn milling into direct damage. In general, while it has lots of mill combos, it's not a very strong deck. Too many players have mill-prevention and mill just isn't a strong strategy in multiplayer. I definitely don't play it often.
Rakdos (Black-Red)
I've long had a thing for the color combination of black & red, but I've never build a Rakdos deck. I would love an excuse to build one but I'd want a commander I'm excited about building around. That commander simply hasn't appeared yet. Sorry, Neheb.
Gruul (Red-Green)
I have actually build several Gruul decks. I started out with Borborygmos Enraged, but when our meta got too competitive for him to be viable, I took Bobo apart and built Mina & Denn landfall, with both Borborygmos and Omnath in the ninety-nine. I also built a Dragonlord Atarka deck that was meant for use as a loaner for friends who come play with us. I need to play it more to get a feel for whether it needs work or is actually OK.
Selesnya (Green-White)
At one point I toyed with building around Chorus of the Conclave but if I ever built it, it got taken apart long ago and I currently do not have a Selesnya deck.
Enemy Colors
The Ravnica guilds also included color pairings across the color wheel, commonly called "enemy" colors. The colors also tend to result in interesting and strong pairings. I've built decks in three of the enemy colors guilds - Izzet, Boros and Simic.
Orzhov (White-Black)
I've never built an Orzhov deck. The closest I might have come was opening a Kambal, Consul of Allocation, but that went right into my Saskia Screw Blue deck, alongside Ruric Thar. I seem to more often put new legendaries into other decks to make them better. I could have built Kambal, but for whatever reason I focus on improving what I already have over building new decks.
Izzet (Blue-Red)
I have a fairly successful Niv Mizzet, the Firemind deck. I don't play it a ton because it tends to lack an early game board presence. It has won its share of games. The combo with Tandem Lookout is brutal, and my eventual goal is to kick a Rite of Replication on a Fire Servant and grapeshot everyone for 1 damage each, turning that 1 into 1x2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 damage.
Golgari (Black-Green)
If I opened up a Hapatra, I'd build her, but so far I haven't seen a Hapatra deck that was able to really dominate a game. I also have a Jarad, but it's in my Ghave deck. Jarad could make a fine commander, but as yet I haven't built a Golgari deck.
Boros (Red-White)
For a while I was thinking about building Tajic but I'm just not that into soldiers. I do have a Brion Stoutarm deck that is a ton of fun and can really help a table deal with an opponent who is putting out big threats. It was born out of throwing lands around with Borborygmos Enraged, but I found Brion's lower casting cost made him much more viable in a meta in which decks were getting progressively faster. It's basically tribal steal-your-creature and then I either throw them at you or at someone else if you aren't really the threat at the table.
Simic (Blue-Green)
For some reason I have a slew of Simic decks. I started with Vorel, and really loved the fun of repeatedly doubling counters. I still have the deck, but don't play it that often. I picked up the Ezuri, Claw of Progress precon, and have shaped it into a pretty brutal elf deck with all the usual tech to make it really hum. It runs lots of token generators, Fable of Wolf and Owl, Blade of Selves, Sage of Hours, and lots and lots of elves make it a deck that can win games out of nowhere. I also built Momir Vig as an experiment in learning to play combo. It's all-in on ETB effects and aims to play and win with Deadeye Navigator. It has taught me that winning with combo doesn't feel that good, and that I personally prefer an "old fashioned" combat victory that relies on a non-infinite boardstate and combat tricks to put me over the top.
Shards
I wasn't playing in Alara, when these color groupings saw lots of cards released. Shards are three colors that are adjacent to each other in the color wheel. I only bought one of the Shard commander decks - the Naya one - and simply haven't gone out of my way to build strong decks in any of the other colors.
Esper (White-Blue-Black)
I did build an esper partners deck around Ishai and Ravos called Esper Partners in Flight. Unsurprisingly, it featured a ton of fliers and was decidedly midrange. Eventually I tore it apart and used some of the bits in my rework of my Zedruu the Greathearted deck.
Grixis (Blue-Black-Red)
I've never owned or seriously looked into a commander in these colors. I'm not sure why, but it just hasn't happened.
Jund (Black-Red-Green)
I've also never built a Jund deck. Again, maybe I got into the game after the blocks where these colors were seeing a lot of play.
Naya (Red-Green-White)
One of the things I have figured out while thinking about and writing this week's post is that I might love Naya more than any other color combination. I have a big creatures deck led by Mayael and a tokens deck led by Tana & Sidar. I have seriously considered building Marath combo, Gahiji group slug and Uril voltron. While I'm currently only at 2 Naya decks, I could easily see buliding all five of these and enjoying a huge range of different styles of play available to me in just that color combination.
Bant (Green-White-Blue)
I built a Phelddagryf group hug deck for my wife to play, but she never really took to the game. I may sleeve up the deck and start storing it in my own collection, essentially making it my own. I've never seriously played hug, so it's worth doing for the experience, but I can't yet count it as mine.
Wedges
While I haven't built many decks in the 3-color shard color spaces, I have built a ton of "wedge" decks. The wedges are one color and the two "enemy" colors across the color wheel. Getting into the game just in time for the Khans of Tarkhir block probably had a lot to do with it.
Mardu (White-Black-Red)
Early on in the process of our getting into EDH, my son gave me a Christmas gift of Zurgo Helmsmasher along with a bunch of support cards for color fixing so that I could build a deck around him. That deck has gone through a number of revisions, but I still have it together and I still occasionally play it. There are folks in our LGS meta who have been knocked out of games by Zurgo really early for the sole crime of having no blockers. It isn't a great deck and hasn't won many games, but it's where I put my Damnation alongside every other board-wipe I could get my hands on. I still haven't played that Damnation, so clearly I should be playing my Zurgo deck more often.
Temur (Blue-Red-Green)
I'm a little surprised that I've never built a Temur deck, but my best guess is that the right commander simply hasn't fallen into my lap yet.
Abzan (Black-Green-White)
I'm currently playing a very staxy Ghave deck for EDH league this month. The goal is to force my opponents to sacrifice everything I can possibly make them sacrifice, clearing the way for me to attack with no resistance. So far it's been solid and it won its first game yesterday, making a strong enough showing that I'm currently in the top spot for the month with one week to go. I've also built a Sidar & Ravos partners deck built around playing small infect creatures and getting damage through with Sidar on the field. The only game it's won was a victory made possible by Vraska's 1/1 assasins and a well-timed swords to plowshares to make sure at least one assassin got through on each of my two remaining opponents. I've yet to be convinced that going wide with little infect dudes is a winning strategy in multiplayer but I haven't given up on the deck yet.
Jeskai (Red-White-Blue)
I have two Jeskai decks that I have had for a long time and just love. On the more competitive side there's Narset, voltron extra turns/combats. It's very strong, though of course less effective since the change from Partial Paris to Vancouver mulligan. On the more fun side there's Zedruu, which I have reworked from its old tribal-morph build into a more effective and interesting deck. It tends to close out a lot of games by giving some poor opponent Transcendence when I'm below 20 life and they are above 20 life. Giving away Transcendence is a cheap but highly effective way to finish up a final opponent no matter how much life they have or how great their boardstate is. I have one friend who has received this "gift" at least 3 or 4 times. I'm not sure why he still talks to me, to be perfectly honest. It's a horrible thing to do to someone...
Sultai (Green-Blue-Black)
While I don't play it that often, I have a deck built around The Mimeoplasm that is pretty darn filthy. It's set up to be able to use Hermit Druid to dump tons of cards into the graveyard and can easily knock a player out from almost no boardstate. Mim coming onto the battlefield as a copy of a hasty, infectious Blackcleave Goblin with thirteen +1/+1 counters from Death's Shadow after a boardwipe makes for a nice way to eliminate somebody. The deck sometimes has trouble with a full table, but it's a pretty strong deck with the secret goal of someday winning via the enchantment Mortal Combat.
Nonocolor
If I had seriously been aiming to get a deck in every color combination I should have picked up all 5 of the 2016 precon Commander decks. While I play a lot, and I am pretty serious about EDH, I wasn't about to spend that much on decks I might not play very often. I did pick one up, but clearly this was a misstep if I ever wanted to get a deck for every color combination.
Yidris (No White)
Saskia (No Blue)
The Nono-Blue deck is the only 2016 Commander precon deck I purchased. I wound up reworking it into Saskia Screw Blue, loaded up with blue hate cards. I don't tend to play it much as I don't enjoy having to name a player to get the extra damage Saskia enables. Sure, it's good for dealing with pillowforts but it also doesn't lend itself to flexibility or subtlety. I like to be able to change targets on a dime and Saskia locks you in on one opponent unless you put in extra effort to bounce her somehow. I probably won't tear this deck apart but I will save it for when we eventually get another blue player dominating play.
Kynaios & Tiro (No Black)
Atraxa (No Red)
Breya (No Green)
Colorless
I built a Hope of Ghirapur deck but found it relatively uninspiring and took it apart. I haven't built any Eldrazi-led decks, so this category will remain empty, at least for now.
Five Color
It really doesn't see much play but for several years in a row I trotted out a Reaper King deck every October. It wasn't 5/color goodstuff but it's where I first started playing with fun artifact cards like Unwinding Clock. I eventually figured out that Scarecrows aren't exactly a super strong tribe. I did fall in love with the odd fact that Reaper King is a 10 cmc creature, making Hedron Matrix a fantastic piece of equipment for him to use.
Halfway There
I'm currently at 17 out of 32 possible color combinations. That's just over halfway there. If I had picked up all 5 of the 2016 decks, I think I might have been in a better position to take a run at getting a full set of 32 decks.
As I'm steadfastly against using a "binder system" and don't want to swap cards from deck to deck, the reality is that if I were to build 32 decks a lot of them would probably be pretty mediocre. I try not to spend too much on my decks, and I don't think I'd be happy with too many decks that felt like they had little to no chance of winning. The decks I play against can be brutal and full of quick win and answers to challenging boardstates. I'm sure I could build 32 decent decks but I'm not sure they'll be consistently strong enough to be worth the effort.
One thing I find myself coming back to is how much I love certain color combinations. I love Jeskai, and I really love Naya. The temptation to try to build a deck for every possible strategy just in Naya is pretty huge. I have a deck that goes tall (Mayael) and wide (Sidar & Tana). I could build combo with Marath and group slug with Gahiji, both of which I own. If I purchased Uril I could build him as voltron. That wouldn't cover every possible playstyle - there's still mill, group hug and stax, but it'd be a pretty good start. I was recently told that this idea is "adorable" so I might just have to do it eventually.
Final Thoughts
I think my conclusion is that "chasing 32" is for other folks but probably not for me. I might eventually get there but it won't be building decks just to try to fill those slots in order to "join the club". I'll keep building decks that pique my interest, present me with new challenges and ideas, and look like they might just be too much fun to pass up.
If you want to peruse the decks I've built, they are all on TappedOut.net. I believe there may be retired decks on the list that haven't been tagged with "[Retired]" in the deck name, but they should all be there. http://tappedout.net/users/SRJ26/mtg-decks/
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!