Woke up this morning feelin' fine There's something special on my mind Last night I met a new girl in the neighborhood, whoa yeah Something tells me I'm into something good
Forgive me for quoting a song so old it was recorded five years before I was even born, but it pretty much sums up how I'm feeling.
Also, who doesn't love a good Herman's Hermits reference?
I've built a lot of decks but it's been pretty rare for me to think I've built a strong deck around a brand new commander, and then for the deck to actually hit the ground running, win games and perform well right out of the gate. That happened for me with Sidar Kondo & Tana, the Bloodsower and with Ramos, Dragon Engine in 2017 and it seems to have happened again.
Let's not jump to the end. Let me share how my casual and League games went this past week.
Casual Night This week was our first Tuesday night of Commander since the Dominaria prerelease. I had thrown together a deck around Firesong and Sunspeaker and Marwyn, the Nurturer, grabbed a couple of other more casual decks and headed to NexGen comics hoping to see what they could do. I wound up playing four games on the night and almost kept my recent 50% winrate intact. As it turns out, one of the new decks is pretty good, one is pretty Boros, and I was able to kill someone with a Commander that I never imagined could present a threat for a voltron kill. Fun was had.
Firesong and Sunspeaker For game one I pulled out my first draft Firesong and Sunspeaker deck. These Boros minotaurs give red burn spells lifelink and give you the equivalent of a lightning bolt for each white instant or sorcery you cast that gains you life. One of my opponents had been working on a build of this deck, and as a result they had the idea that it was worth keeping my commander off the table. I started with lots of lands but my first attempt to resolve F&S was countered. Eventually I was able to get my commander out, but was never able to land any meaningful spells. I had a Barrage of Boulders in my hand for a long time but my opponents saprolings - of which there were many - always seemed to be protected by an Akroma's Memorial or boosted by a Coat of Arms. I was eventually rolled by a bunch of 8/8 saprolings without ever really posing much of a threat to anyone. I did have a Grafted Exoskeleton in hand for a while and I was able to play it, attach it and hit a player for 10 infect but in our meta we use 13 for our infect count. While it was a moral victory on some level, it didn't keep me from getting killed on the next turn. I've got lots of cards on order for this deck, so it's possible that when I get those added into the deck it will be a little better. I'm still expecting this to be my fallback deck after I win a game and want to power down a notch for the next game. It'll eventually get some wins and it might even be fun, but its potential for having an explosive game is still very much in question. While I wasn't optimistic about my deck in round 1, I was actually quite optimistic about round 2. I switched to my new Marwyn, the Nurturer deck. Marwyn taps to give you mana equal to her power and she gets a +1/+1 counter when an elf enters the battlefield under your control.
Marwyn the Nurturer My Marwyn build is designed to try to create infinite mana and then win using any of a number of infinite mana outlets. It's not built (yet) to win on the turn where I blow up, so my opponents have a chance to boardwipe. I might be OK with that, as it creates risk and excitement and there will be plenty of times when they don't have an answer. Over time I may go towards a more competitive build and if I do I'll need some haste enablers. I got out to a quick start, was able to put a ton of +1/+1 counters on Marwyn and draw somewhere around half of my deck. That's where I ran into trouble. I had Thornbite Staff out but had no way to sac creatures to create infinite mana and an infinite board, or if I did - I didn't see it. As a result, I spent WAY too much time poring through my cards and searching for a way to combo off. I got Reliquary Tower out so I didn't have to discard and rather than waste more time, I swung for lethal with Marwyn on the player to my left who didn't have blockers and then passed turn. My opponents didn't draw into any answers and on my turn I drew more cards and spent more time searching through my ridiculous hand and trying to figure out how to win. I did win the game but it became clear that any deck like that has to be practiced with far more than I had practiced with my Marwyn build. I sheepishly apologized for taking so long and listened to them tell me everything I should have been running in the list to let me win the game more quickly. I actually think I've got a good list with good wincons, but I was stuck on not being able to combo with Thornbite Staff, as it requires me to sac a creature and I couldn't find anything to do that. I may need to either pull that card or add in some green creature sac outlets so I can use the staff as a reliable combo piece.
Mayael the Anima For game three I pulled out my old Mayael the Anima deck. It's chock full of big threats and I had just added in a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight that I opened in a M25 pack. I got out to a decent start and got Mayael out but because of the previous game, everyone just pummeled me until I got out a blocker. Mayael isn't really a blocker so I was down around 24 life and had taken 10 commander damage from the Samut player before my first attempt to use Mayael's ability. As luck would have it I flopped into Worldspine Wurm and suddenly had a 15/15 blocker and the room to start messing around a little. I had a Loxodon Warhammer out and was able to play a Bloodfire Colossus and on my next turn attach the warhammer and do 6 lifelink damage to each player and each opponent. Someone cast Path to Exile on my Wurm but I still gained something like 78 life and now only really had to worry about the Samut player. I don't remember exactly how it happened but at some point they were able to get another 10 commander damage in on me, putting me at 20 commander damage. Samut has haste, so I was one swing away from dead and had to play very carefully from that point on. I was able to get out a Stonehoof Chieftain and Xenagos, God of Revels and get enough devotion to have two indestructible blockers. I also had Behemoth Sledge and Hammerfist Giant and was able to survive for a short time until I realized that I had a way to kill the Samut player. It's possible I could have done this earlier but I was able to play Bear Umbra on my 2 power Mayael, attach Loxodon Warhammer (+3 power) and use Kessig Wolf Run to pump her +5 until end of turn, giving her 10 power. I then went to combat and doubled her power with Xenagos' ability. I went to attack, untapped my lands thanks to Bear Umbra, paid four mana for Rogues' Passage to make her unblockable and used Kessig Wolf Run again to give her +3 and swung her at the Samut player who had 20 commander damage on me, killing him with commander damage. Mayael killed someone! The Savra player was able to eliminate the other player in the game but had too strong a board and kept creating and sacrificing white spirits to force me to lose my creatures. I was at over 80 life but had no answers for repeated sac effects. We played it out for a few turns and at 7 life I conceded. It was a fun game and I was able to do some dumb stuff that I had never done before, so I was happy. I probably should have focused on the Savra player earlier, and I should make a greater effort to not let that deck get to the late game if I can possibly manage it.
Marwyn, the Nurturer
The fourth game was at a new table with some folks I hadn't played with in a while. My opponents were on an Ur-Dragon deck, an Aurelia, the Warleader deck and a third player but I don't remember what they were playing. I played Marwyn again and got out to a decent start. I was up against a slew of flyers so I wasn't optimistic, but I was eventually able to get out a decent little board of elves with a Maryn with 5 +1/+1 counters from Increasing Savagery and a Priest of Titania who was tapping for 5 mana. I got out a Sandwurm Convergence, but the Aurelia player dropped Helm of the Hosts, blew up my only defense against flyers and proceeded to combo off with infinite attack steps. As it turned out, I was two cards away from drawing Umbral Mantle and would have been able to combo into an infinitely wide board with either saprolings thanks to Sprout Swarm or wolves thanks to Wolfbriar Elemental. Getting that close to a win might not mean much, but it reinforced my sense that Marwyn, the Nurturer is a very potent commander with the right strategy and I think I've got a pretty dangerous deck on my hands. It's definitely not cEDH level but it's pretty darn good and I may have to put some work into making it better. Commander League
So last month I went into the last week of our Commander League up by 8 points and I nearly blew my lead. I actually thought I had tied for the month's top point total but when I got home and doublechecked the sheets I had miscalculated my own points. "Player number two" did not actually tie me for the top spot - I won the month by a single point.
This month I went into the last week of our Commander League down by 9 points, with "player number two" in first place.
I had been playing Oona in the first two weeks of the month and had gotten the chance to do some fun, dumb stuff. I was enjoying the deck a lot, but after taking a week off for the Dominaria prerelease, I wasn't excited about playing it for our final two rounds of play in April.
My problem wasn't that Oona isn't fun. My Oona deck is a lot of fun but I didn't think I'd be able to do anything new and interesting that I hadn't already done earlier this month. Also, I've got the aforementioned Marwyn, the Nurturer deck that I've really been enjoying and I wanted to see if it had the stuff to be able to compete in our Commander League rather than just in casual games.
Our league runs themes each month and while Marwyn fits this month's theme - GLOW, or Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling - it wasn't going to fit a month's theme for quite a while after this weekend. Next month's theme is 5/c Commanders, after that is Commanders with attack or damage triggers and the month after that will be Commanders with the word "Graveyard" on their card somewhere. I want to play on-theme Commanders and I wanted to see if Marwyn could handle a slightly higher level of competition. Normally I play the same deck all month long but I decided I'd switch things up and play Marwyn.
Round One
In my first round I was at a table with a Thalia deck, a Garna deck and a Shalai deck.
I got Marwyn and some elves out early along with a Wirewood Lodge. I played a Sylvan Offering to give myself a modest number of elves and a treefolk token, and putting +1/+1 counters on Marwyn. We were all building up our boards but nobody had much of anything dangerous out.
Then the Shalai player decided to drop a Coat of Arms to see if he could speed the game up a bit.
Oh boy did he speed the game up.
I was able to get some more counters on Marwyn and using Wirewood lodge I tapped Marwyn for 28 mana, untapped her with Wirewood Lodge and then tapped her again to give me a total of 57 mana. I had Gelatinous Genesis in hand and was able to cast it to create twenty-eight 28/28 ooze creature tokens, all of which got +27/+27 thanks to the Shalai player's Coat of Arms. I had elves that could swing so on that turn I killed the Garna player and passed turn.
This is where my opponents should have boardwiped but it was early and either nobody had one in hand or nobody had the mana to pay for one. The Thalia player had a few elves, all of which were pretty huge thanks to the elves I had on the field, so he swung on the Shalai player to kill him and remove Coat of Arms from the equation. On my turn I swung with my ooze army and that was game.
Pickup Game
In between rounds we played a pickup game with the same players. I played the Slimefoot, the Stowaway that I had just finished throwing together. In the process of building it, I made the conscious choice to keep all the cards with "saproling" on them. This isn't actually a good way to build decks. I do have a fair amount of good cards in the deck but my first draft is probably a midrange build.
When I manage to blow the doors off of a table in round 1 in league play and then we play a pickup game, the same thing tends to happen. I switch to a weaker deck for the casual pickup game and everyone exacts their revenge on me. This time it was no different.
Slimefoot got out a bunch of saprolings and I played an Ashnod's Altar, which someone quickly (and correctly) destroyed. I think I missed some saproling death triggers along the way. The Thalia player was playing what looked like a pretty good Thrasios / Sidar Kondo partners deck and after he turned my only swamp into an island he had a number of turns of free swings on me. I was stuck with a hand full of stuff like Grave Pact, Butcher of Malakir and Black Market. He had actually targeted one of my forests with the enchantment that turned my land into an Island but I pointed out that the optimal choice was my swamp, which kept me off of one of my colors. He hadn't seen the swamp, and he's one of my favorite people to play with, so my pointing it out was an easy choice even if it was disadvantageous for me.
I didn't draw into much of anything I could use and I was the first one eliminated from the game. I still think Slimefoot will be a fun deck but I have no illusions about it being a powerhouse.
Round Two
My second game didn't feature a player handing me the win, though the table did include the Shalai player, now playing a Nekusar deck. Also at the table were an Ur-Dragon precon and an Experiment Kraj deck.
I got a decent start to the game and was happy to watch the Nekusar player land a Mindcrank and see it get blown up. Fairly early on I was able to play Kamahl's Druidic Vow for 5 but only got one land and no legendaries off of it. Sometimes an early whiff with a spell with get your opponents to stop thinking of you as a threat, and it definitely seemed like I wasn't looking threatening to them. I had an Elvish Visionary and Marwyn out and not much else going on.
I was able to play Hunting Triad and Wildheart Invoker after drawing into Staff of Domination and I was able to get enough counters on Marwyn, play the Staff and create infinite mana. Once it had been determined that I had infinite mana, the Nekusar player asked if I had game. I said I thought so and proceeded to play something from my hand. I don't even remember what it was, but it wasn't important and as luck would have it, the Ur-Dragon player countered it.
With my current board on my next turn I'd be able to pump infinite mana into Wildheart Invoker and swing for the win, but I had something else in hand - Concordant Crossroads. After Tuesday night I made some upgrades, including a haste enabler. I played that, giving the elves that had entered the battlefield that turn (and all other creatures) haste. I proceeded to infinitely pump my creatures and give them trample and swing for the win.
Early results are looking really, really good so far for Marwyn. It can certainly be beaten but so far she's won three out of the four games she's played in, and the only loss was to an Aurelia / Helm of the Hosts combo win where i was a few turns away from a combo win myself. She seems to be widely considered a Tier 3 commander but I think she's easily Tier 2.
Running the Points
After the second round of every week of EDH League I run the points and to my astonishment I was able to not just close the gap between me and "player number two", I overtook him to win the month by one point. As it turns out, he had a brutal second round and while I didn't earn many generosity, or "Gen" points from my opponents, my wins were strong enough that I overcame a nine point deficit on the final day of the month!
I'm still convinced that "player number two" is going to win a month eventually, probably sooner rather than later. It was just bad luck that he didn't win March and that I was able to overtake him for April.
I'm into something good and it's Marwyn, the Nurturer. Don't sleep on Marwyn, and on Monday, May 7th you'll be able to read all about the build that catapulted me into the top spot for our League's rankings for April.
Final Thoughts
I run our Commander league and I am always a little torn about playing strong decks and winning. I want the league to be fun, but also to allow players to play strong decks. I also want to be a good player and part of that is building and playing decks (and tables) to the best of my ability. If I'm not putting my best game out there, how can I expect my opponents to do the same? I do like to see other people win, but over the course of each year I like to try to win a few months as well. I've now got two under my belt, which is enough to satisfy me for quite some time.
Next month we're going into our 5/c themed month and I'm going to be playing Ramos, Dragon Engine.
I was able to win a month of league in 2017 with a slightly different build of Ramos and I am fond enough of him that I'm going go play him again for the month of May. I don't know if this build is strong enough to win the top point total, but I know it's a pretty spicy brew and I've got a decent shot at it. Having won two months in a row, I'm a little hesitant but my only other 5/c deck is a terrible 5/c Myr deck led by Karona that I'm pretty close to taking apart. I think I'm going to stick with Ramos.
In other news, I've got a very special installment of Commanderruminations coming out tomorrow in GatheringMagic.com. I won't spoil it, but if you have any interest in Yargle, Glutton of Urborg, you'll want to check it out. I think there's the outside chance that it'll be one of those rare posts to "go viral" and get shared a lot, but I probably shouldn't get my hopes up too high. You should definitely check it out though - especially if you live in driving distance of southern New Hampshire!
That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!