If it feels like forever since I've posted here, you're right. I've had a series of weeks where I just wasn't able to get many games in, and as a result I didn't have much to write about. Two weekends ago I missed out on our EDH League because I was sick and last weekend I had a wedding invitation take me away.
I've also been struggling a little with my regular Commanderruminations articles. I had one a few weeks ago that I felt went over pretty badly, and the past two weeks have been decklist articles that I feel make me look like something of a filthy casual. Of course, on some level, in my heart of hearts I am a filthy casual, so maybe that's OK.
Rather than continuing to write in detail about every game I play each week I'm thinking it makes more sense to focus on a single game. It will probably wind up being games that I won, but I'll try to recount the most memorable game of the week each Sunday morning even if that game is a loss.
Casual Night Tuesday night is our casual Commander night. I wound up getting there early and leaving way earlier than I would have liked. I could normally play for hours and hours but my kid has a smaller appetite for hours and hours of EDH. I still got in two games, though. In game one I played Marwyn, but took mulligans down to 5 cards and never really got much of anything going. I was never a threat and my kid, playing Pir and Toothy, drew her library, made infinite mana and recurred Blue Sun Zenith to kill the table. Game two was my first time playing my shiny new Rith, the Awakener deck. I actually wound up misgendering her in the article I wrote about the build last Monday. The deck seemed like it had some potential, with a basic game plan of playing Rith, giving her double-strike and finding a way to pay for her combat damage trigger twice. Her trigger lets you name a color and make a Saproling for each permanent on the field of the color you named. I didn't think it would be overwhelming but it managed to do pretty well on its first day out.
The game was a four player game with a Zurgo Helmsmasher deck, a Krenko, Mob Boss deck and an Animar deck.
I got out an early Land Tax and found myself tutoring up three lands regularly in the early game, but I was only dropping one land per turn, so while I was hitting my land drops I wasn't actually getting ahead. I was thinning my deck, though, and that felt pretty good. What didn't feel good was getting tagged with a Trespasser's Curse.
This two mana black enchantment will enchant a player and when a creature enters the battlefield under the enchanted player's control they lose 1 life and the enchantment's controller gains 1 life. The Krenko player was as good a target as me, but the Zurgo player decided to curry a little favor from the Krenko player by offering to use it on me if the goblin horde left them alone. The deal was made and I found myself cursed. The Krenko deck was soon poised on the edge of starting to really blow up in the early game. Animar was out, but Zurgo hadn't hit the field yet. I had a Dragonlord's Servant and Sylvia Brightspear out but I didn't want to risk letting Krenko run away with the game, so I cast a Fumigate to try to slow them down. The Krenko player sacrificed seven goblins to Goblin Bombardment and hit me for 7 damage. I wound up gaining five life off the Fumigate and lost a net of 2 life for my trouble. I had put the brakes on the Krenko player's plan, so it was well worth it. After the boardwipe I was sitting on a hand full of some pretty potent cards. I had lands, of course, but also Coat of Arms, Savage Ventmaw and Battle Mastery. As it turned out, that was all I needed. Well, that and the Fade into Antiquity that I managed to topdeck. I wound up being able to play Savage Ventmaw and Rith, the Awakener. I was still cursed, so I must not have looked like a threat. On my next turn I used Fade into Antiquity to remove my curse. Then I played Battle Mastery on Rith, giving her double-strike and I was able to swing and pay for Rith's ability on each of the combat damage instances. I named red for the first trigger and then green for the second trigger and wound up with twenty-nine saprolings.
I passed turn and hoped that nobody would have any answers. Zurgo had already hit me for 7, but now I had blockers. All he had to do was give Zurgo double-strike and make him unblockable, but as luck would have it he couldn't do either. The Krenko deck was still rebuilding and wasn't able to do anything impactful and the Animar player did a little digging but wasn't able to combo off.
The oddest thing is that removal was flying around on other players' turns but none of it came at me. I had just done 12 commander damage to the Zurgo player and had shown no indication of going after anyone else, so maybe they didn't deem me to be a threat.
I was really just hoping nobody would wipe the board and the Animar player would fail to leave mana up for counter magic. My wish was granted. On my turn I played my Coat of Arms, knowing that would either win me the game or really help out the Krenko player.
As it turned out, twenty-eight 28/28 saprolings were enough to kill the table. The Animar player had a counterspell in hand but hadn't left the mana up, and nobody had a fog. The game was mine. It always feels good when a deck wins its first game. I had intended to build a "fair" deck with Rith, but I suspect my deckbuilding instincts are still pulling me a little too much towards combo and towards overpowering strategies.
Technically giving Rith double-strike, paying for her triggers with Savage Ventmaw mana and then dropping a Coat of Arms on my next turn isn't actually a combo. It's beautiful, wonderful, lovely, strong, overwhelming synergy and I'm not sure at this point if my Rith deck is as "fair" as I had wanted it to be.
EDH League
On Saturday we played our final two games of June for EDH League. I was far out of the running for our point total, having missed two out of the previous three weeks. Our theme for the month was commanders with attack or combat damage triggers and I brought both Narset, Enlightened Master and Najeela, the Blade-Blossom as options to play. I also brought Rith.
In my first round I was up against some very good players, but also had an 11 year old kid who was playing his fourth game of EDH ever. I decided to play Rith, as it was my weakest deck. I wound up getting quickly and easily killed by a Uril player who I had zero answers for. The kid was happy, as he didn't want to be the first one killed at the table, so all in all I was OK with how things turned out. The Uril player won the game fairly easily.
In my second round I was up against another good player who was playing a Mayael, the Anima deck and two players who were playing in our league for the first time that day. The new players were on Tajic, Blade of the Legion and The Ur-Dragon.
Things went better in this game. I was able to kill the Mayael player and create 104 Saprolings. The Ur-Dragon player had their commander out and had Gisela out so they could get close to a commander damage kill, but I was able to exile Gisela with a well-timed Swords to Plowshares. I thought I was safe, but they also had Sylvia Brightspear in their deck and just happened to draw into it. On their turn, facing my board of over 100 saprolings they were able to play Bear Umbra to make their commander a 12/12 and play Sylvia so that they could swing with lethal damage on me.
Honestly, I couldn't complain. I had managed to kill one opponent and assemble a board that would have won me the game if I had been able to make it to my turn and attack with my saprolings. Sometimes an opponent will draw into the one card left in their deck that will save their ass. I congratulated him, gave him a high-five, and hung around long enough to see him finish the table and get his first win on his first day playing in our league.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Saturday wasn't a great day for my Rith deck, but so far it's won 1 out of 3 games it's played in, and I hadn't intended for it to be a super-competitive deck. I suspect with some key upgrades like faster mana, better lands, Impact Tremors and Purphoros, it could really do some work.
Next up is July and we'll be playing decks with a Graveyard theme. Any commander with "graveyard" on it or in its oracle text will qualify for additional "theme" points. I'm torn between a number of options and might even rotate between decks. I always play a deck that's on theme, though I certainly don't have to. It's an option, not a requirement.
I am happy to say that "player number two", also known as Matt, was able to win his second month in a row of our EDH League. Matt has been mentioned in past blog posts and has become one of the strongest players in our league. I had won March and April and now he has won May and June - by much more impressive margins than my wins. I have a strong feeling that he's going to be able to capture the top total for the year if he keeps at it. He's that good and has become that regular a player with us. He's also fun to play against, even when he's playing fairly nasty decks. Congratulations, Matt!
That's all I've got for you this week. Sorry I wound up taking a few weeks off but I should be able to get back to my weekly schedule of game recaps every Sunday morning. Thanks for reading!