This blog site is where I post my weekly digest of the games I've been playing. If you're looking for my articles, those are over on GatheringMagic.com. I play Commander at least twice a week, for anywhere from four to six or even seven games. As part of trying to become a better player and because it struck me as a good idea to write about them, I've been going over those wins and losses here on the site where Commanderruminations started out back in January of 2017.
This week sees the start of a new Commander league theme. I've been on a run of winning around 50% of my games, which for me is incredible. Will that continue or is it time to fall back down to Earth? Let's find out...
Casual Night
I rolled into our Tuesday casual night a little early and we actually got our first game going a little before 6:00pm. We wound up playing three games sort of... in one of them we had players scoop and we didn't really play it out but I'm getting ahead of myself.
GAME ONE
I again decided to play my Firesong and Sunspeaker deck on casual night and again, it proved to be pretty darn casual. I was at a table with an Atraxa deck, a Ramos, Dragon Engine deck and an Elesh Norn deck.
I started with a five-land hand and decided to keep it because having lands in a Boros deck is one way to try to cope with having very few decent ramp options. I'll be the first to acknowledge that it's still not a great deck but I often play my more casual decks a lot until they notch their first win.
I got Firesong & Sunspeaker out early but didn't get out much in the way of creatures. Then the boardwipes started happening. By the end of the game I was looking at paying 14 to cast my commander. My last casting was only possible because of a Mana Geyser. I was able to put On Serra's Wings and Sunforger on my commander and hit the Elesh Norn player for 9 damage, but it was next to impossible to keep my minotaurs on the field.
Somewhere along the way I used Sunforger to grab a Gamble and tutored up Aetherflux Reservoir. I was lucky and while I only had three cards in hand, the one I discarded was something else. My life total was up in the 70s, so as soon as it hit the table I had a way to defend myself. The Ramos player had a Door to Nothingness out, so if either of us tried to use our "kill target player" option on the other, we'd be killed in response.
I did have was a ton of removal spells. I was blowing up things nearly every other turn and also got some use out of Sunforger for the first time in my magic playing career.
At one point I tutored for a Path to Exile to attempt to get rid of an opponent's Avacyn, Angel of Hope, but they responded with Heroic Intervention. I then got the bright idea to use Sunforger to tutor for another removal spell. As I did that, my friends actually chatted about how Heroic Intervention lasted until end of turn so I couldn't just get a Swords to Plowshares and try again.
I was neither thinking nor listening to them and went and got one anyways. Seriously.
It was one of those moments where I was so "in my own head" that they were literally saying exactly what I shouldn't have been doing as I was doing it and I didn't hear a word of what they were saying. It was a brain fart of epic proportions.
Needless to say, they all got a good laugh out of it, and I can't say it wasn't well deserved. I wound up using it on Ramos instead of Avacyn.
After a while, the Ramos player was sick of the deadlock and used his Door to Nothingness on me, leaving me with no other choice but to use my Aetherflux Reservoir on him so I woudn't die. I did, but suddenly had no answers. I did have a Star of Extinction and used it to clear the board of creatures. All I had out was a Boros Keyrune, Sunforger and Grafted Exoskeleton, so I was able to hit the Elesh Norn player for 7 infect damage in two consecutive turns.
I killed a player with a Boros Keyrune. That's something to be happy about. Sadly, I had no answers for the Atraxa player and they took the game fairly easily with a pumped-up Spinebiter.
I suspect if I had played less aggressively I might have been able to play Star of Extinction with lifelink from my commanders, but I think I'm still learning this deck. I need more creatures and I need to be a little more careful about casting my commander into boardwipes.
GAME TWO
For the second game I switched up to my Multani, Maro Sorceror deck. Multani has shroud and has a power and toughness equal to the cards all players' hands. The Atraxa player switched to their excellent Tana, the Bloodsower deck. Elesh Norn switched to play Rhys the Redeemed and Ramos switched over to a deck led by Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker.
I was able to play Multani on curve and swing at the Shirei player for something like 19 commander damage. They wound up scooping, as they had a bad start, were seeing their permanents getting blown up, and didn't think they'd live past my next turn. I wasn't 100% sure I was going to kill them but once they scooped my Multani was suddenly much weaker.
I was able to hit the Elesh Norn player for a bunch of commander damage and then they scooped. They didn't think they were going to be able to keep up either and suddenly Multani was down to 9 power and I was wondering what the hell was going on. I hadn't actually confirmed that I was going to kill either one of the opponents who scooped and to be honest - keeping them in the game and drawing cards would have helped me keep Multani at a size where it might have been able to take out the Tana player. Instead of even being able to let me make those political plays, those guys dropped out.
I wasn't in the mood to even bother to see if I could duke it out with the Tana player, as the other table had finished, so I just conceded so that we could start the next game. I might have been able to win but I didn't really care. I don't like when folks (myself included) scoop and I'm quite capable of leaving people in a game when I could have killed them. They might have been able to have a decent game but they didn't feel like there was any point in continuing.
In retrospect I think it might have been a result of the fact that I didn't have good chances to swing at the Tana player and he and I get along pretty well, so the game might have had a feel of the two of us teaming up against them. I know that wasn't my intention but I can see how it might have looked that way. He and I were the top players in 2017 and 2016 in our league, so it would make some sense. Of course, it's probably not worth it to try to get into someone else's head - maybe they were just unhappy with how their decks were playing out that night.
GAME THREE
With a few players leaving we formed up a table of five for the third game of the night. I wanted to get a good game in with Multani but almost switched up until the other players told me to play it. Multani feels a little mean at a 5 player table, as it's hard to deal with and will hit someone like a ton of bricks on its first swing. They were OK with it, so I played Multani.
The other players were on a merfolk deck, a black deck... and... I don't even remember what else. I need to start writing this stuff down because it will make for much better commentary if I actually remember what happened in the games I played.
I had a decent start to the game and got out a Caustic Caterpillar and a Karametra's Acolyte, but my first attempt to cast Multani was countered by the Merfolk player who had saved a counterspell just for me. My arrogance at assuming I'd crush the table with my Multani deck was heard and remembered, and it looked like I might have to eat some humble pie to close out the evening.
When I tried to cast Multani again there were no counterspells to be seen and I basically gave my word that I wouldn't swing on anyone on my next turn. If I'm playing Multani and make a promise like that, I'm going to keep it, but you should be much more worried than if I somehow let out that I'll be attacking.
Everyone was happy to have me not swinging a 39/39 commander at anyone but they probably should have fetched up some counterspells. I think the next part all happened in one turn but maybe it was two turns. Either way, it felt awesome.
I played Garruk, Primal Hunter and used his -3 ability to draw cards equal to the greatest power among creatures I controlled. I think it was 39 cards.
I played Traverse the Outlands to put every single basic forest in my deck onto the battlefield tapped.
I played a spellbook and a Reliquary Tower and already had a Thought Vessel out, but I had promised not to swing at anyone so I passed turn.
I think on the same turn, but possibly on the next turn I then tapped Karametra's Acolyte for enough mana to play Fungal Sprouting. You might think that would be 39 cards, but Multani's power and toughness had just gone up with my card draw so now he was a 78/78 and I proceeded to create 78 1/1 saproling tokens.
I think I must have played another card draw spell along the way because I was soon down to a pitifully small library and a relatively enormous hand, but I had promised not to swing yet so I passed turn. My real problem was that I was searching for Concordant Crossroads but I wasn't finding it. My hope was to draw into it and be able to swing. The "promise" I had made was a few turns back so it wasn't really binding but I also couldn't kill the table so I figured it was better politics to hang back and not be aggressive.
Before my turn came around again, the board was wiped. My saprolings were all killed and Multani was back in the command zone, but I had a huge hand and all the mana I could ever ask for. I was feeling pretty good.
I had been drawing huge chunks of my deck and had been using Sylvan Library and Rites of Flourishing and found myself down to 4 cards in my library. I observed that I was on a two turn clock and would draw out, but neglected to tell my opponents that I had Primal Command in hand. That seemed to take the pressure off and I was able to use Primal Command to shuffle my graveyard into my library and buy me enough time to push for a win. I also played a Hall of Gemstone, locking my opponents into a single color for their turns.
I had shuffled my Fungal Sprouting back into my library, but I was able to play a ton of cheap mana dorks. I had a Constant Mists in hand, along with another 60+ cards, and was able to fog the only attack between my end step and the start of the next turn. Nobody found a boardwipe and I was able to close out the game.
I did it by playing Overwhelming Stampede to give my mana dorks trample and +X/+X where X is the greatest power of creatures I control. For good measure I also played Triumph of the Hordes, which got countered. I don't like my spells getting countered, so I used Reclaim to get it back, cast it again and killed the table with enormous, infectious mana dorks. That last part wasn't truly necessary, but it was the same buddy of mine who had countered Multani at the beginning, so it felt appropriate to make sure I was able to get Triumph to resolve.
The earlier games were pretty underwhelming but this final game was a lot of fun. I almost didn't play the deck because it didn't feel fair, and then I was able to demonstrate why it was so mean. The deck is designed to do pretty stupid stuff by taking advantage of a genuinely busted card with a pretty unique constraint. Having shroud is a real challenge and made me work to find ways to give Multani trample without trying to target him in any way.
I generally play more casual decks on Tuesday nights but I also hadn't played Multani in what felt like a long time so it was a treat to be able to break him out and get a good game in. Also, drawing over 30 cards at a time and creating over 70 saprolings is something that never gets old. Thank goodness nobody was playing any wheel or windfall effects.
Commander League
Saturday rolled around and I went into the first week of the month with much humbler goals than usual.
We're on to a new theme for May, and that theme is 5/color commanders. If you play a 5/c commander you get an extra point when you earn a "tubthumping" point. I'm going to be playing Ramos for the month. I love Ramos, Dragon Engine and have written about him on multiple occasions for my articles. While the deck is capable of winning games, I was going in with the goal of just winning a game or two over the course of the month. If I can finish in the top 3 I'll be very happy, but I have no idea if that's a likely outcome.
The deck is a new Ramos brew. The 2017 version would win with infect and Chandra's Ignition, but this version has other wincons. While I'm excited about playing it, I won a month with the 2017 build so I'm not going to be flying under anyone's radar.
ROUND ONE
My first game was with some of my favorite players They are folks I've played with a lot over the past few years and I really enjoy the atmosphere at the table when I get the chance to shuffle up with them. The guys were playing Tana, the Bloodsower, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, and Bruna, Light of Alabaster. The Bruna player was Jared, the same dude I went toe to toe with for weeks on end when playing Narset a few months back. The Tana player declared that I was dying first because he remembered my Ramos deck from last year. I insisted that it was a new brew, but that didn't matter. Resigned to my fate, we began the game.
I didn't get out to a fast start, but Bruna sure did.
Jared got out some artifact ramp, got Eldrazi Conscription in hand and set himself up with a Fact or Fiction to probably one-shot anyone he wanted. The Tana player had no choice but to go after Bruna, and for the sin of swinging at him, the Tana player died first. Bruna hit the ground, nobody had any answers and in three short turns we were all dead. Tana went first, then Thalia. I, with an imposing board of Ramos, Forgotten Ancient and Utopia Tree, was killed last. Not sure why but I'm not complaining.
Games like that make me wonder what a Ramos Answers deck might look like, but this build has its own goofy plans and I'm hoping to do something fun with the deck this month. We started a pickup game between rounds but didn't have time to finish. We were lucky enough to have 12 players show up, and the third pod finished not long after the first two.
ROUND TWO
In my second round I was at the same table as the Thalia player, who switched to Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. The other players were a Sen Triplets player and a local Magic Judge who was on Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. The Inalla player was the same guy who set a new record in our league for both points in a month and points in a day earlier this year. I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Sadly, my deck decided not to behave. I started with a 2 land hand but didn't draw into enough to even cast my commander before Inalla was able to win. He got out to a strong start and only the Sen Triplets player even had a boardstate by the time Inalla went off. He had been digging through is deck like crazy, not wanting to combo off with infinite turns, as our players had voted in a point penalty for too many extra turns some time in late 2017. Apparently he had the infinite turns combo ready by turn four. Yikes.
I died with another pretty meager boardstate. Ramos never made an appearance but I think I had a Forgotten Ancient a Bloodspore Thrinax, two Forests and a Plains on the field.
I'm still optimistic that in a longer game I'll have a decent chance of winning, but Ramos is not exactly a fast deck, especially if I can't even get past four lands.
Final Thoughts
So I'm going to start posting images here again. I'm a little sorry I didn't for so long, but apparently folks actually read this so I figure I should probably keep my self to some standards. You'll never see new header artwork on this site - new headers will be saved for my Commanderruminations articles over on GatheringMagic.com.
Speaking of my regular articles, I've got that write-up of my Marwyn, the Nurturer deck for you over on GatheringMagic.com. It'll be posted tomorrow. For the following week I'm probably going to build and write about Yargle, Glutton of Urborg. Yarglefest 2018 is just around the corner and while I don't necessarily plan to go all out to try to win, I do want to put a respectiable deck together.
That's all for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week, or tomorrow over on GatheringMagic.com!