This past week we didn't wind up playing any EDH League games, as the M19 prerelease gave us the week off. We normally play on Saturdays, so occasionally we wind up skipping a week when other events conflict with our schedule. That doesn't mean I didn't play any Commander though. I actually wound up playing on both Monday and Tuesday nights.
Our July EDH League will have a point bonus for any commander with the word "Graveyard" in their text box or in the card's oracle text. I've got a bunch of decks that will qualify, so I went into this week's casual games wanting to play some of those decks. They aren't all "casual" but lots of folks play less-than-casual decks on casual nights.
Monday night casual
An old friend joined me on Monday night be unfortunately we had a hard time getting much of anyone else to show up. We still wound up playing a bunch of four player games, but I had been hoping to get more friends to show up.
I wound up winning one out of four games that night. I played my Mimeoplasm deck, my Muldrotha deck, my Anafenza deck and my Lazav deck.
The Mimeoplasm game was one in which I was close to being able to combo off a few times, but one of the other players was able to slow me down by destroying one of my lands with a Field of Ruin. I run zero non-basics, so I wasn't able to replace the land I lost. That play basically kept me from winning (or at least threatening to win). At one point I was able to Traumatize myself, putting half my deck into my graveyard. At that point all I wanted to do was play and kill my World Shaper, and the same opponent obliged me by swinging in with lethal. One of his creatures had first strike so I was able to block, see World Shaper die, put my lands onto the field before normal combat damage and then die. Seriously. It was a fun game, but that wasn't an end that I saw coming. I guess be careful what you wish for?
The Muldrotha game was the one win of the night. I was able to get out an early Peregrine Drake and Deadeye Navigator, draw my deck and win. The only problem was that I never actually got to put my "wincon", an awful card named Flamecast Wheel, onto the battlefield. They believed me that I had game, and I did, but it was anticlimactic not being able to actually put the cards on the field because they had scooped so fast. A win's a win I guess, but I was reminded of why I'm not so fond of combo.
The Anafenza game was against a Najeela, the Blade-Blossom deck that was quite well tuned. The game was over before it really got a chance to even begin. I had boardwipes in hand but was one mana away from being able to start using them to try to clear out the warrior threat. They won with Breath of Fury on a warrior when one of us (not me) didn't have any blockers.
The Lazav deck was almost a win for me. It was a game against an Edgar Markov deck and two Atraxa Superfriends decks. I wound up having Lazav as a copy of the 12/12 Kozilek with Annihilator 4. I was able to kill one player and play Rise from the Dark Realms to get all creatures out of all graveyards onto the battlefield under my control. I had enough to put the more threatening Atraxa player down to 3 and asked if the other would help by killing them so we could duke it out between the two of us. He said no, and since I had lethal on him I killed him but was unable to finish off the other one. I might have misplayed somewhere along the way but it was a long, fun game for me and I was in it until the end. It's nice to win, but just having a good game is enough for me to be happy. It was definitely a good game.
Tuesday night casual
The next night we were going to go to a see our town's fireworks display, but the heat was too much and I wound up being free to head over to the LGS for a second night in a row. I wound up playing five games that night, cycling through every deck I had brought with me. My luck was much, much better than the night before and I was able to come away with five wins. As before, I was playing my graveyard decks and they all tend to lean on combo more than your average deck.
Before we started I actually pulled some cards out of Muldrotha so that I could put in the Souleater cycle, as they combo with Second Chance. You pay your life total down and loop into infinite turns. It's dirty but if they have any targeted damage they can just kill you while your life is at the requisite 5 or less to be able to use Second Chance. I did play Muldrotha, but the deck didn't do much and I didn't win that game.
My Mimeoplasm deck was able to get a quick early-game win off of Hermit Druid into Dread Return into Laboratory Maniac, with the card draw coming from a sacrificed Commander's Sphere. That felt good but I was told I wasn't allowed to complain about anyone's combo deck (even jokingly) for the rest of the night.
My Lazav deck was able to get a win off of Duskmantle Guildmage and Mindcrank. A buddy of mine could have countered it, but he was having a terrible start to the game and was happy to see it end so a fresh new game could be started. I didn't have a counter in hand, so he would have stopped me from winning at that moment. I might still have been able to win later on, but he let it resolve and I was able to clear the table.
I played a game with my Neheb, the Eternal deck and was almost able to pull out a win. I had a low life total but turned Neheb and a couple of extra combat steps into an Aggravated Assualt and infinite turns, but enough players had blockers that I wasn't able to finish off the last player. On their turn they got me on the crackback. I was in topdeck mode at that point, though again I wonder if I could have misplayed and actually been able to win at some point by playing it differently.
My last and best game wound up being against two Saskia decks. I played what I thought would be the weakest deck that I had brought with me - Mayael the Anima. Luck was with me, because I was able to get Mayael out and tap her a few times. Eventually I flopped into Void Winnower before either Saskia had gotten onto the field. I also drew and played Seedborn Muse and had several turns of activating Mayael on my opponents' turns, getting out stuff like Godsire, some giants and then Blazing Archon. It was brutal and was an apt reminder that my "fair" decks can still pack a punch if things go right and my opponents don't have removal or answers.
Final Thoughts I'm still having trouble trying to find a balance between combo and semi-competitive play and casual play. I want to be competitive enough to sometimes win but I absolutely don't want to dominate play to the point where I'm viewed as un-fun to play against.
I've got a Pir and Toothy deck build to write up for next week that should wind up being pretty interesting. I might even have two, as my kid has worked up a pretty competitive build that might make for an interesting comparison to my decidedly casual, almost whimsical version.
In tomorrow's Commanderruminations column on GatheringMagic.com I've got a piece inspired by a recent reddit thread called "Issues with Winning". In it I search for a word to represent the opposite of a "Spike".
That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!