I usually feel like I can wrap up my week's worth of Commander games in a fairly short blog post every Sunday morning for those of you who find it interesting to see what a CoolStuffInc writer is actually up to. To be blunt, I don't really know that Josh Lee Kwai or Jason Alt is playing EDH with any regularity. If they weren't, that wouldn't make their content creation any less valuable but it made me think I should try writing about my own games.
This past week saw me play Commander on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday night was when I finally got going on next week's Commanderruminations article, so I'm feeling like time is a little tight this week. As a result, I'm not going to go into quite the usual (probably still somewhat lacking) detail on my games but I will share how things have been going.
Sunday BroStorm
No, I didn't play Selvala on Sunday. I have my two brothers over a few times a year and we play board games or more often than not, we play Commander. One of them just borrows a deck each time and has little interest in actually getting one himself. The other has dipped his toe into the format, wound up building a Krenko deck and is now working on his second deck - Momir Vig. He's doing his own thing with the lists, which means they're still pretty casual. He's only playing with us a few times a year and hasn't yet tried to find a playgroup where he lives.
We played two games and both were 3 player games. My kid usually joins us but wound up sleeping in and not coming downstairs until we were already into the second round. I played my goofiest decks as I didn't want to wind up running away with any of the games against players who still spend as much time reading the cards and trying to understand what's going on as they do actually making plays.
Game One
In game one I played my old Zedruu deck, lent out my Purphoros deck to one bro and the other played his Momir Vig deck.
Purphoros got out to a fast start and before we knew it we were steadily losing life as he built up his board. Momir Vig wasn't going anywhere yet and when the Purph player put down Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs I realized we were done for if I didn't do anything. I was able to play Fractured Identity on Kazuul, giving me and the Momir Vig player our own Kazuul, and exiling the original. Now if the Purphoros player attacked with his ever-growing goblin army we'd have defenders. I then sidelined Purphoros with an enchantment and he chose to retaliate by swinging into me with his goblins. Not a strategic move by any stretch of the imagination but he loves to go to combat and doesn't really care that much about winning. I made a bunch of red Ogres thanks to Kazuul and he lost his army.
I was really hoping the Momir Vig deck would get a chance to do something in the game, but the Momir Vig player still didn't really know his deck that well and wasn't really developing much of a board. I was able to swing over two turns and kill the Purphoros player with Ogres. I then readjusted my life total with Illusions of Grandeur and used Zedruu to give it to the Momir Vig player. It didn't take long for me to get him below 20 and then pull that rug out from under him with Venser, causing him to lose 20 life and the game.
I don't think of my Zedruu deck as being that good, but I had the right answers at the right times and was able to extend the game long enough for Momir Vig to at least try to do something interesting.
Game Two
We played one more game and for that one I switched to my new O-Kagachi Maze's End deck. Momir Vig stayed with Momir Vig and the brother that was on Purphoros switched to the Raff Capashen deck that I built with the goal of learning how to better leave mana open and play on my opponent's end step. I explained the concept to him and he seemed intrigued, though it isn't a deck I'd normally give to a casual player.
Raff and I both got pillowfort dorks out, setting up a tax on creatures attacking us. That was fine with Momir Vig, who was actually tutoring and drawing off of creature spells this time around. I think he did a little of that in the previous game, but not well enough to make a difference. I got out some gates and started working towards the Maze's End wincon but not with any real focus or speed.
The Raff player had played and then recurred Burnished Hart and wound up with tons of lands and a decent board. My deck runs a lot of boardwipes and I think I must have wiped the board at some point in time - possibly in response to both of my opponents having much better boards than I had.
The mid-game saw the Raff player draw into lands and get mana-flooded. The Momir Vig player was able to play some sea monsters and mount a decent threat. I had lost one pillowfort-dork, Windborn Muse, but played Baird, Steward of Argive, so I had some defenses up. The Raff player wasn't just not going anywhere, he also was getting close to when he had to head home. I don't know how your games go, but whenever someone mentions that they're going to need to leave it doesn't take much for everyone else to pile on and kill them. Momir Vig was able to swing for a big chunk of damage and I finished Raff's controller off with O-Kagachi.
At this point I had a lot of lands and had Amulet of Vigor on the field along with Maze's End. I was maybe 5 turns away from a win on that front, but I also had a Constant Mists in hand and Momir Vig had no flyers. I was able to close out the game with commander damage in the air, playing and buying back my Constant Mists when I should have been suffering a counterattack on my opponent's turn.
I still don't really think my O-Kagachi deck is that strong but at this point it was 2-0.
I think my brothers both had fun, even if Raff didn't really behave and I was able to eke out a win in both games. Normally my daughter crushes us all, and I'm sure if she had joined us the games would have gone very differently.
Tuesday Night
On Tuesday night we play Commander at NexGen Comics in Pelham, New Hampshire. It's a more casual environment than our Saturday league games, but we have our share of spikier players. This past Tuesday we played two games. I brought less powerful decks and wound up playing Yennett and then Mayael.
Game One
Game one was against a Roon deck, an Animar morphs deck, a Rhys the Redeemed deck and a Rowan & Will Kenrith deck.
I played my Yennett deck. The game was not a good one from my perspective. It seemed like everything I tried to do got stopped by the Roon player. I was able to get out a boardwipe relatively early when the Animar and Rhys decks were blowing up and I was at that point going nowhere. Roon didn't care about the boardwipe, nor did the Kenrith twins.
I lost an early Lightning Greaves to removal. In the mid-game I lost a Mind's Dilation before I was able to get any use out of it. I was able to hard-cast an Emrakul and that got removed too before I could even do anything with it. It felt like one of those miserable games where every time you try to do something one player shuts you down. I was the thumbtack and the Roon player was the sledgehammer. It wasn't much fun (for me).
My final (failed) attempt to relcaim some dignity that game was when I attempted to catch the Roon player with a full hand on his end step. With a Swan Song in hand I overloaded a Cyclonic Rift but he was able to counter both it and my Swan Song. I stayed in the game, but I was done. It was fair play by the Roon player but was certainly annoying.
His argument was that my deck was the most dangerous because I could cast spells for free. He didn't actually need to provide any explanation, but it was nice of him to do so.
The irony of it all is that I did get to swing one time with Yennett and cast a spell.
With all my topdeck manipulation and all my dangerous powers of casting spells for free, take a guess of what the one odd-CMC spell was that I got to cast for free.
Go ahead...
What do you think it was?
If you guessed...
Sol Ring
YOU ARE CORRECT!
Yep. All that ass-kicking I put up with because my deck was so darn powerful and my single big cheated-in odd-CMC spell was a fricking Sol Ring.
The game wasn't a total loss though.
I was very happy to see the Rowan & Will player do some ridiculous things but the Roon player isn't the kind of guy to let someone win if they can do something about it. Kenrith had my Rhystic Study for maybe a half hour and I just let him draw off my spells because he hadn't been messing with me. Everyone else was pretty much out of it, as Roon had way too much value and control elements on board for anyone to stop him. We certainly tried. Eventually, before the Kenrith deck was able to play with its emblems and see what fun it could get up to, the Roon player combo'ed off and told us we could continue playing or not, as we liked.
I don't really know how to describe my feelings about how he played and won that game.
It didn't feel like a "casual night" game to me, but then I'm always the first to say that folks can play good decks if they want and Roon isn't even his best deck. I also felt like I was the player most picked-upon, but that happens sometimes. I expect the other players enjoyed the game much more than I did, and I certainly can't begrudge the Roon player his win. He earned it, and reminded me that he probably should be targeted first in games we play with him. He always durdles. We often let him. On casual nights there's usually an atmosphere of letting folks play their decks rather than playing heavy control.
Game Two
In our second game the Roon player ditched, leaving us with a four player table. I switched to Mayael, the Animar player switched to Gahiji, the Will & Rowan player switched to Angry Omnath and we picked up a player on Ulrich tribal werewolves. There was no blue in sight and a lot of obviously casual decks!
The Gahiji player got his commander out early and was implicitly encouraging us to swing at each other. I swung at him as soon as he had played Gahiji mostly to send a message that we wouldn't necessarily play ball and let him sit and watch us beat each other up. He had also played an early Iroas and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and before long he had goaded my dudes and had me swinging my early creatures at my opponents.
I had gotten out a Dawnbreak Reclaimer and a Stonehoof Chieftain, which meant I was swinging indestructible dudes. Fortunately my tablemates were able to both remove Grenzo and weather a Disrupt Decorum from the Gahiji player. I went out of my way to split the damage up so nobody got beat up too badly, at least by my dudes.
The game wound up being a fairly long one with lots of twists and turns and nobody out too early. The werewolves deck was able to play a werewolf whose power and toughness equals the number of cards in opponents' hands. I was able to play politics a bit and on a few occasions help out the Ulrich player by using Mayael's ability instead of casting spells.
I was able to use Mayael to play an Arbiter of Knollridge, resetting everyone's life total. We were all back up to 18 and the next turn I was able to play Colfenor's Urn and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. I think I also had Karametra out and was in a pretty good position. At one point my Arbiter found its way to the graveyard and the Gahiji player was killed - I think at the hands of the Omnath player.
Arbiter found its way back to the battlefield thanks to Dawnbreak Reclaimer and reset everyone's life total and later on after a boardwipe I was able to tuck it under Colfenor's Urn and return it one last time, again resetting everyone's life total. Stuff like that is why I love my Mayael deck - it can be mean but it can also pull an opponent from the brink of death back into the game.
I did wind up having too much for my opponents to deal with, thanks in no small part to Colfenor's Urn returning three of my creatures to my battlefield. I was then able to play a Void Winnower so my opponents couldn't block with their token creatures and we realized I had lethal on the two players left alive.
It was a fun game. I didn't knock anyone out early - I hate when that happens to anyone - and I was able to use Mayael a few times to flop into some big creatures. I had one "whiff" where I flopped into nothing I could use and had to put Seedborn Muse on the bottom of my library. Still, I can't complain. If the Gahiji player wound up feeling "picked on", he understood that his repeated goading us pretty much brought on any extra love (damage) we were showing him.
I suspect I discount how good my Mayael deck is because I don't play it that often - only a few times a year. In casual games it's quite capable of stealing a win here and there. Against competitive or fast decks with lots of boardwipes it folds like a cheap suit.
Wednesday Night???
I wound up getting together with some of my old playgroup on Wednesday night to play... you guessed it... more Commander! It's rare for me to play even three times during a 7 day stretch, but playing four times is a lot for me. My daughter came along and we went over to a friends house a town over.
I packed all my best decks because not only was my kid joining us but I had expected another player to be there who had an Oloro combo deck and a Black Mike combo deck, neither of which are particularly casual in my eyes. I didn't want to walk into a gunfight with a slingshot, but he wasn't even able to join us. We wound up playing one four player game and two five player games.
Game One
There isn't much to say about this one. I played O-Kagachi and made some poor choices. My friends were on Child of Alara and Scarab God. My kid played Aminatou.
A turn 1 Harrow into Maze's End sealed my fate. I never got over 3 lands for the vast majority of the game and all my low drops were green. It was my own fault, of course, and an apt reminder to not take silly risks just to surprise my friends with the fact that my deck has a Maze's End wincon. They hadn't played against it yet, and I did so little in that game that I think they still haven't really played against it.
My daughter was able to blow up and combo off pretty quickly. She's fantastic with that deck and it wins way more than its share of games. The host for that night's games was playing a Child of Alara deck and runs so much removal that he is usually able to stop the first few attempts to win at the table, but I think Aminatou had a counter when she went to close out the game.
Game Two
After a game where the most interesting thing I got to do was stare at my Amulet of Vigor - which sat there doing pretty much nothing - I decided to switch up a few notches. I played Marwyn - one of the most competitive decks I currently run. Aminatou switched to Pir & Toothy, Child of Alara switched to Locust God and Scarab God switched to Atraxa. I think the fifth player who showed up a little late was on Animar.
I was able to get out an early Wirewood Lodge and a turn 3 Marwyn. A few turns after that I had Stoneforge Masterwork attached to her, had 15 elves on the field and ready to go off.
Somewhere along the way the Pir & Toothy player was able to get Toothy ridiculously large. We were all playing into a battlefield with haste thanks to my Concordant Crossroads but tapped, thanks to the Animar player's Blind Obedience. Pir and Toothy killed the Atraxa player, as when he untapped he'd have had a deathtouch blocker. Then I think the Locust God player locked Toothy down and then my daughter wound up conceding as she didn't think she had a way out of her situation. If Toothy left the field she'd draw out, and she didn't think she had the removal she needed. That left me, the Animar player and the Locust God player.
The next thing you know I was tapping, untapping and tapping Marwyn to power up a 32 mana Genesis Hydra. My goal was to flop into a combo piece and win. I saw both Sword of Paruns and Umbra Mantle and went to play Umbra Mantle, attach it to her and make infinite mana to pump into Ezuri, Renegade Leader for an alpha strike of infinitely big elves. Not a bad plan, but the Locust God player had an answer. He blew it up, foiling my plan to combo off..
The Animar player and the Locust God player didn't draw into any boardwipes and on my turn I was able to still able to generate ridiculous amounts of mana, so I used Ezuri to power up an alpha strike with my elves, giving them all +18/+18 and trample. That was game.
Game Three
After a win I usually tone things down but I hadn't brought any weak decks other than O-Kagachi, which I had already played. I wound up going with Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, as I thought they hadn't seen her yet.
The Locust God player switched back to Child of Alara. The Pir & Toothy player switched to Titania. The Atraxa player switched to Angry Omnath and the Animar player switched to Experiment Kraj. If it sounds like I'm sure of any of this, please be aware that I probably muddle up these details like crazy when I recount my games. I think this is mostly right, but if it isn't... well, I'm doing my best.
I was able to start with Basalt Monolith and Diabolic Tutor in hand and just for fun I played Xantcha as early as I could. Nobody seemed to want her and nobody had any sacrifice outlets on board, so I gave her to the best player at the table - my daughter, who was on Titania.
I tutored for Rings of Brighthearth and a turn later was testing my opponents to see if they had answers. Rings of Brighthearth resolved but when I cast Basalt Monolith the Child of Alara player was able to counter it with a spell that stole it. Those two artifacts can create infinite mana, but you kinda need them both.
I happened to have Cabal Coffers, Urborg and a land that untaps another land on the field. It's likely in retrospect that I could have generated infinite mana, but at the time I didn't see it. I would have killed Titania and probably drawn into a win, but I was still able to produce alarming amounts of mana with my lands and with the Magus of the Coffers I had played the previous turn.
With Xantcha activations I was able to do 12 damage to the Titania player, draw a bunch of cards and again test the table to see if it had answers. I had drawn into Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond - a dirty cheap combo that I only put in this deck because it's meant to be as "cEDH" as possible.
To my slight surprise, the Child of Alara player had an answer!
I didn't necessarily want to win that way but figured I'd try and maybe if I was stopped I would pull removal or counters out of someone's hand so someone else could win that hadn't yet won a game that night. If I had managed to win I'd have been OK with that too, but I had just won a game and I try not to be too greedy about such things.
The Titania player had a ton of 5/3 elementals out but hadn't yet gotten to swing with them. I suspected that someone might die if she got another turn, but she had just gone before me. Next up was Omnath, but he didn't have a way to push for a win yet. The Experiment Kraj player, however, did have a way to combo out.
I don't even recall exactly what he did, but he was able to set up some combo to make his few creatures infinitely big and unblockable and finish the table off. He didn't used to win a ton of games in our Commander meta, so I was happy he got the win. I had managed to draw out all the answers by pushing for the win first, not once but twice.
It was a fun evening. While I slightly regret not bringing a wider range of decks, the games and the company were good and it was nice to play with folks I used to play with a few times a month for several years running. We hadn't played since last winter so it had been a while.
Saturday EDH League
I went into the second week of Commander games this month not even in the top five in our weekly rankings, and we had eight players "on the board" at the end of last week. There was a tie for fourth and for fifth place for the first time ever. I was committed to continuing to play decks that are "on theme" in the second week of play, and headed to our favorite LGS with plans to play my Karona, False God deck and my O-Kagachi deck.
Game One
I'm going to be pretty brief about these games because they were just terrible. Round one saw me on my Karona, Myr tribal deck against my daughter on her Sasaya deck and two other players, one on Ishai & Bruse Tarl and the other on Lord Windgrace.
The game started out fairly quietly. I built up a modest board of artifacts but didn't draw into anything that could let me threaten to combo off or pose any threat at all. The Lord Windgrace player also had a pretty slow start. The Sasaya player was able to get her commander player out, show 7 lands in her hand and flip her commander, turning it into an enchantment that would let her tap her lands for ridiculous amounts of mana.
The Ishai / Bruse Tarl player was doing his usual thing. Ishai came out, didn't seem threatening and the slowly just crept up in power.
Before the Sasaya player was able to pop off, I decided to play Karona with the stated goal of having my other opponents use her to try to take out Sasaya before she could win. Her deck is easily capable of game-ending plays if it can generate enough mana, and she was at the point of popping off.
The Windgrace player was able to remove Sasaya and Ishai swung for lethal at her on his turn... or at least we thought he had swung for lethal. Unfortunately, he applied Karona's +3/+3 without actually swinging with her. Sasaya was scooping up her cards and the Lord Windgrace player was entering into his turn when I realized the issue. Sasays shouldn't have been dead. The Ishai player and the rest of the table agreed that Sasaya should reassemble her board and should still be in the game. She figured she'd be dead soon enough anyways but set up her lands and graveyard again anyways.
Windgrace didn't do much on his turn. He said he wouldn't have swung at Sasaya with Karona or anything else so Sasaya did get another turn.
The Sasaya player was able to re-cast her commander but didn't do anything else.
On my turn I was faced with a slight moral quandary. I had lethal on Sasaya if I wanted it. I also failed to catch the Ishai player's error when he didn't swing with Karona. I genuinely felt like "stealing" the Ishai player's kill would be vaguely dishonorable. He should have read Karona and played his combat correctly, but I rarely expect players to really know cards on the field that aren't from their own decks. I didn't draw into any answers for the Ishai player's board - he had at least two players dead on his next turn if nothing changed, but I did what I felt was the right thing and passed turn.
I had hoped that Ishai would have let me live one more turn as a "thank you" for not stealing "his" kill, but my hope was misplaced. He swung Ishai at me, forcing me to block with my tiny army of thopters to even survive and he killed Sasaya with Karona and another creature.
Lord Windgrace didn't draw into anything helpful, nor did I, and on his next turn the Ishai / Bruse Tarl player killed me. A turn or two later he killed the Lord Windgrace player.
My frustration with that game was largely based in my frustration with my deck. Karona Myr Tribal / awkward combo isn't working out very well, and the basic issue is that it wants to land a combo that requires too many pieces. While I love janky, odd decks with awkward combos they just aren't viable in our league as the decks are too powerful and too fast for such a deck to keep up. I might play it again, but I'm not even sure at this point.
Intermission
OK - we don't actually have an intermission but a really weird thing happened in between rounds. One player who has often played with us and has even won a month back in the day, has made a habit of being a bit of a nuisance. I don't really know how to describe it, but already in a bit of a bad mood from the previous game I went to ask the folks who showed up too late for round 1 if they wanted to play in the second round. One of our regulars - a strong player who rocks a fantastic Selvala Brostorm deck, said yes and I added him to the list.
The other player, who has a history of playing decks designed to troll his opponents, answered "Probably". He's been doing that recently - refusing to actually answer in the affirmative when all I want is a clear confirmation that I can add him to the list and have him join us. I told him I'd take that as a "no" unless he actually said he wanted to play.
I got our tables split up - we had four tables of four in our second round. At least twice I double-checked with him - trying to give him a chance to simply say "Yes" that he wanted to play. I think he gave me a "Maybe". I actually told him "OK" or "sure" would do and that all I wanted was a confirmation that he wanted to play, but he said something along the lines of "I guess I'm not playing". It was just super weird and while he might have issues with people in "positions of authority", I did my best to give him multiple chance to just say that he was in.
I'm at the point now where this guy is literally going to actually say some clear, positive answer when I ask him if he wants to play or he won't be welcome. It might sound like a silly thing, but given the time and effort I put into making the league run it's not much to ask someone to simply be polite and not just say "maybe" when asked if he wants to join us for league games that day. More than likely I just won't ask him. I've no interest in power struggles or dick-measuring contests and we'll be happy to play with the players we have. If he wants in, he'll have to ask, and he'll be on a short leash. Any crap (cheating, messing with league rules, etc...) and he'll be out on his ass. I'm guessing it won't be an issue, but with folks who like to troll and seek conflict you never know. He might decide it's more fun to try to mess with us than to sit out and not participate.
So I had some weird stuff to deal within between rounds, but I also had weirdness ahead of me.
Game Two
My second game was worse than the first. I played O-Kagachi Maze's End. One opponent was on Phenax Mill. The winner of the previous month's top point total was with us, playing Aminatou, and the guy he beat out was with us and playing The Locust God. The Locust God player was the same guy who practically trolled me out of a game on Tuesday night with his Roon deck, so I was dead set against sitting back and watching him durdle his way to a win in this game.
As it turned out, nobody really did much of anything in the game except the Aminatou player.
Early on I had a decent amount of ramp and used Return to Dust to blow up the Locust God's Thran Dynamo and some other enchantment he had out. When he went to play Locust God, I used a Swords to Plowshares on it once it had resolved.
It's a good thing I was using my removal because the next spell he played was Teferi's Puzzle Box.
What nobody saw coming was the next spell. I honestly don't blame him, but the Aminatou player pretty much had no choice. It was a league game. You're meant to play to win, pull no punches and make no apologies. It's not like casual night where we try to care about everyone's enjoyment - if you want to play dirty and fast you should feel free to do so.
The Aminatou player flashed in a spell.
Notion Thief hit the table.
From that point on, we would draw a card on our draw step, then put our hand onto the bottom of our library and the Aminatou player would draw that many cards. If we drew an instant and had enough mana to cast it, we might be able to do so but otherwise we'd be playing with no hands until either Puzzle Box or Notion Thief was removed.
I wasn't thrilled but I was OK with this. I mean... I didn't enjoy the rest of the game, but I didn't begrudge the Aminatou player his choice and we all blamed the Locust God player for playing Puzzle Box. We were half kidding, of course, but we were also half-serious. Playing Notion Thief in an Aminatou deck is far from the same kind of card choice as playing Puzzle Box in Locust God.
We went on and played turn after turn where nobody but the Aminatou player was able to do anything. I'm sure we all were hoping to pull into removal but I'm guessing the Aminatou player had counterspells on hand to deal with anything we threw at him. After much kidding around, and not really that much grumbling, the Aminatou player was eventually able to dig his way to a combo and won the game.
The weirdest part of the whole game was that the Locust God player seemed to try to put on an air of being utterly delighted at the idea that everyone else - or at least myself and the Phenax player - were just miserable. It was very strange, and felt like the Locust God player was overtly trolling us. The funny part is that while we weren't exactly having a ball, we were resigned to our fates and were happily "playing out the string".
Over time you learn who you enjoy playing with and who you don't enjoy playing with. You can't always control who is at your table, especially in a setting like a Commander league, but regardless of who you're stuck with you try to make the most of it. I doubt I'll start intentionally picking meaner decks based on sharing a table with the Locust God player but I'd be lying if I said the thought never passed my mind.
Final Thoughts
I hadn't intended to write a novel this week, but it seems insufficient to just gloss over a game and not really talk about what happened, and I played a ton of games this week.
I'm more hesitant than ever to stay with my decks for the current month. I've had bad months before, and I think I'll give it one more week before I punt and play what I want in the last week. If things go well next week maybe I'll stay on theme for all of October.
November's theme is going to be Commanders in pre-modern card frames. I've got a fun pick for that month that may be a challenge as it's a 6 drop that gets weaker as players get eliminated. I'm also working on a deck around Silvos that will have only black-bordered pre-modern cards in it. I don't expect that deck to be good, but I'm still looking forward to building it.
Unsuprisingly, I wasn't able to claw my way onto the board this week. The two players from my last league game on Saturday (Aminatou & Locust God) are in the top two spots, swapped from where they were after last week's games.
That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!