Welcome to my blog. This is where I write about the Commander games I've been playing. Over on CoolStuffInc.com I write about Commander every Monday but here I've taken to simply recounting my games as best I can. They're not always great and I don't always remember every little detail, but I do my best to go over my wins and losses, my high points and my train wrecks in all their hilarious glory. The latter are often more amusing than the former, but I try above all else to write with candor and some humility. I'm definitely not the best Commander player out there, but as a writer in the format I feel some sense of responsibility to share how my games have been going.
This past week I played both on Tuesday night at our game store's "casual" night and in our Saturday EDH League.
Casual Night
Tuesday night I headed off to our weekly casual night with a burr under my saddle. The previous Saturday I had started the day off with a pretty unpleasant game and I had something I needed to get off my mind. The game in question started with me sitting down at a table in possession of a pretty comfortable lead in our month's rankings. I had been playing well, but also benefited from the theme bonus that one of our players had suggested and which had been voted in at the end of the previous month. I sat down at the table and my memory of what followed is that the same player who had suggested the new rule decided that it "wasn't good for the league" for anyone to have a comfortable lead in the rankings. He then switched to a deck that would be able to beat either of the decks I was playing that month at least 9 times out of 10, if not more, and then proceeded to tell me that he was going to kill me first.
I don't mind that much having a good game and dying first. It's annoying if it happens too quickly but it's not the end of the world. I've died first plenty of times. What I really, really don't like is when someone acts like something of a bully and makes it personal. Telling someone who just sat down at your table that you're killing them first and then switching to a deck that gives them practically no chance in the game pretty much soured my mood for the rest of the day. Of course he crushed the table because he had chosen to not make it a fair fight. He decided to bring a gun to our knife fight. I could have switched up to a more powerful deck, but I'm playing on theme for the month, as I usually do, and didn't want to compromise my principles just because someone decided to be a bit of a jerk.
This player - we'll call him the Marwyn player, was there on Tuesday night and I proceeded to tell him that in the future I'd really like him to not be a jerk to anyone when playing in league. He's a little clueless sometimes about social interactions and doesn't always get when he's being an ass, but I made it crystal clear. It's a free league. Sitting down, switching to your best deck and telling someone you're going to kill them first is completely unnecessary and demonstrates that you don't give a crap about whether or not your "target" actually enjoys the game. Nobody likes being bullied and that's basically the actions of a bully. I asked him to keep that shit to himself. You can kill someone first. You can switch to freakin' Food Chain Tazri if that's what you want to do. Just don't be a confrontational ass about it, do your business, and be a good table mate.
I'm glad I didn't switch to a better deck on Tuesday night just to deal with the fact that I was being trolled. I stuck to my principles, played my on-theme deck and predictably got crushed. I'm also glad that I gave him a piece of my mind about table manners and not being a jerk to me or anyone else in our league.
Then we shuffled up and played some Commander games.
Game One
In the first game I played my Lazav, the Multfarious deck. The Marwyn player I had just chewed out played Atraxa. We also had a Ghave player, a Wort, the Raidmother player and an Endrek Sahr player.
I was vaguely surprised the that the Atraxa (Marwyn) player didn't go after me first. My Lazav deck probably wasn't worth targeting. I was playing it in its very first game and I'm not running combos or really anything that great, especially if the deck doesn't get anything into the graveyard for a while.
In the early game the Ghave player got out to a good start. Atraxa played his commander and started banging away at the Endrek Sahr player, who plays a lot of force-sacrifice effects. I was on board with that, but he knew better than to make it easy for me to get Lazav set up to do anything. More likely he didn't know or care what I had going on as it was a five player game and he was the furthest from me at the table. I don't recall what the Wort player had out, but I think he got off to a slow start.
I was able to get a bunch of low-cost dudes out, including a one-drop unblockable creature and a couple of Myr but I didn't swing at anyone. The deck wants to kill opponents using commander damage. It might be a suboptimal strategy but it's also a first step towards eventually turning the deck into a Necrotic Ooze combo deck.
I had started the game with Hatred in my hand. While the Atraxa / Marwyn player and I have a bit of a history by now, I didn't actually have hatred anywhere else but in my hand. I'll admit that I did have a a pretty strong desire to get him back for the indignity of my first round ass-whipping from the previous Saturday. While casual games mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, I didn't pass up the opportunity to kill him. I turned Lazav into a copy of the unblockable Gudul Lurker that was in my graveyard, swung and cast Hatred, paying 20 life to give my commander +20/+0. He didn't have an answer and he was the first one out.
It was pretty amusing that after the conversation we had just had, I got the chance to kill him with Hatred. Over the past few years I've grown to like the guy a lot but he still acts like a jerk sometimes. I'm sure we all do, but I'm not about to get disrespected or treated poorly and not say something about it when I get the chance. I was able to both get that load off my mind and get him back by killing him first.
I was now at 20 life and fully expected to die next. I did, with a little help from the Ghave player. I think he played a Beastmaster Ascension and swung with enough to kill me. I was fine with that, though I don't actually think I was the biggest threat at the table. It's scary when someone kills an opponent out of the blue like I did.
I expect the Marwyn player may well kill me first if we happen to share a table this Saturday. Sure, it'll be a little annoying if he does it with one of his best deck while I'm playing on theme, but I've lost to him plenty of times and will lose to him plenty more times. Hopefully he understood what we talked about Tuesday night and he will be a little less grating on the nerves of his opponents when he decides he needs to turn a fun game into an exercise in pubstomping. Either that or I am being an overly sensitive, whiny-ass bitch. Maybe both?
I'm not sure who won that game, as other players showed up and I soon found myself in another game.
Game Two
In this game I played my Lazav deck again. I was at a four player table with an Oketra deck, another Lazav, the Multfarious deck and a Tuvasa deck.
One of the troubles with playing too many games in a night is that I have a hard time remembering all the details. I know I got a bunch of Myr out, but I was never able to get to anything that would let me pump up my Lazav. Making your commander unblockable is all well and good, but when you're just going to be hitting for a tiny little speck of damage it's not a very effective way to clear a table. I'm not sure I even put any of my opponents on a 21 turn commander-damage clock in this game.
I swung a few unblockable creatures around in the early turns but Tuvasa pretty much ran away with it. He was playing a deck with something like 50 enchantments. The Oketra player was able to assemble a pretty impressive boardstate. The other Lazav player was going after game-ending combos but never got the right pieces into the graveyard to go for the win.
This second Lazav game didn't fill me with confidence for the future of the deck. I could tune it towards a Necrotic Ooze wincon but I generally feel a little bad when I win out of nowhere with a combo. That doesn't stop me from doing so, but it usually deflates the mood of the table in a way that I don't enjoy being responsible for. More on that later...
Game Three
In game three I switched to my Jhoira of the Ghitu deck. The other Lazav player switched to Selvala. The Tuvasa player switched to Yahenni. The Oketra player switched to Trostani Discordant.
I had built my Jhoira deck with a bunch of Eldrazi Titans and extra turn spells, with the idea that suspending those kind of big impact spells and essentially playing them for 2 mana after a short wait might work out nicely. The problem with most Jhoira decks I've seen is that they don't develop much of an early boardstate and they are kind of slow.
I had been hoping to play my Jhoira Turns & Titans deck against the player who has switched to Selvala. He runs a bunch of Eldrazi Titans so it seemed fair for me to play a deck with Titans in it on "casual" night if someone else was also running Titans. I didn't think I had much hope of competing for the win. His Selvala deck is really quite good and my Jhoira deck had never even seen a game yet, but I wanted to give it a try.
As it turned out, his Selvala deck did what Selvala decks generally do. He played lots of big creatures, including a few Eldrazi, and combo'ed off before long. It culminated in a Temur Sabertooth, infinite mana and dribbling an Ulamog so everyone's board got exiled. Fun stuff... at least for him.
For my part, I was able to counter a few things to delay his inevitable victory. It took all of us working together just to slow him down for a few turns, but the Selvala win was impossible to stop with the decks we were running. I was able to suspend an extra turn spell but the Selvala deck was so fast that I never even got to take the last time counter off of it.
I don't know if the Selvala player enjoyed the win, but I don't think anyone else particularly enjoyed it. That's OK - one of the reasons we play lots of games is that you're going to run into a few crushing defeats and games in which you just don't have much of a chance.
When you wind up with players who ONLY play for that kind of unbalanced victory, you simply stop playing with them, but this guy is far from a trollish tablemate. Both he and his girlfriend are great to share a game with and I sure don't begrudge him the occasional guilty-pleasure Selvala stomping.
I'm now unsure on whether I'm going to keep the Jhoira deck together. I have been considering building Brudiclad, so that might be a sensible direction to go in next. I'm always building or thinking about the next project so it's possible this Jhoira deck will never get played again. This first game sure didn't fill me with confidence for the deck's future.
Game Four
I usually bring five or six decks with me when I go to play Commander. This night I had only played Lazav and Jhoira, and I decided to switch to a deck that ought to give me a chance at winning a game. I switched to my Xantcha, Sleeper Agent build. It's a combo deck, and I had played enough pushovers so far that night so I figured it was my turn to play something good. The Trostani player stayed with Trostani. The Selvala player switched to Edgar Markov. The Yahenni player switched to Varina.
I didn't realize until I had already picked my deck that the new Trostani has an extra bit of text on it that might affect my game. Trostani Discordant reads "At the beginning of your end step, each player gains control of all creatures they own." Xantcha enters the battlefield and immediately goes under an opponent's control. If she were to return to my control, that would pretty nicely screw up any plans I might have to try to make infinite mana, kill an opponent and draw into a wincon.
Still, I had made my pick and decided to stay with it. I couldn't easily have a worse game than some of the other ones I had endured earlier in the evening or on the previous Saturday.
In the early game I got out a few creatures and when it came time to play Xantcha I realized that the Trostani player was pretty mana-screwed. The Selvala player had crushed us so badly the previous game that I think we all kinda wanted to kill him first, but he was on another fairly powerful deck so it wouldn't be easy. In part to give the Trostani player an extra reason NOT to play her commander, I played Xantcha and gave her to the Trostani player as early as I could.
I figured it would be a kindness to give her something to do, and she dutifully swung my Xantcha at the Edgar player. Over the next few turns he took 10 commander damage, but I think he removed her twice, so I was soon in a position where I wasn't going to be able to re-cast her.
My board was pretty underwhelming, but that's basically how my Xantcha usually works. She's not trying to overwhelm you in combat. She wants to combo off or make infinite mana and drain someone, hopefully drawing into something good. I had Triskelion and Exquisite Blood in hand, but didn't have a tutor or the other combo piece so I just hung out and didn't do much in the mid-game.
The Edgar player was off to the races and the rest of us didn't have a heck of a lot going on. The Varina player was so mana screwed that he wound up dropping out of the game to go play at another table with some "game night" decks one of the guys had just bought. Sometimes when another game is starting up and you just know you're going nowhere, the best option is to cut your losses and try to make your last game a good one.
I'm pretty sure the Edgar player, having just crushed the table with Selvala, took his foot off the gas pedal and went easy on us. The Trostani player was finally developing a boardstate but wasn't at the point where she could push for a win. I asked the table about tapped lands and everyone figured out that I was sitting on a Mana Geyser. The Edgar player even tapped a few extra lands when I first asked, clearly wanting one of us to get the chance to do something fun so the game wouldn't just be another blowout. As I said - he's a great tablemate who really gets that everyone wants to have fun and get in a good game on the night.
I didn't wind up playing that Mana Geyser and when he swung at me for a heap of damage I just took it. The following turn I don't think he swung at all, though I wouldn't have blamed him if he had. The Trostani player was having a bad game and from all outwards appearances I was also dead in the water. I had just tutored though, and I had gone and searched up Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.
I was sitting on a Cabal Ritual, Mana Geyser, Sudden Spoiling, Triskelion and Mikaeus and had a Grinning Ignus on the field. I might not be the best player ever, but I was able to turn that into a win. I used Sudden Spoiling on the Edgar player, unsure of whether he'd have an on-board way to stop my combo. If his creatures lost all abilities, that would solve any possible interruption coming off his board. I then used a red mana to bounce Grinning Ignus to my hand and make two colorless mana and one red mana. The real issue was whether I'd have enough black mana but with Cabal Ritual I did, so I played Mike & Trike and won the game.
I don't enjoy winning with that particular combo, but I still run it in my more competitive black decks as it is pretty darn effective. I suggested that if they wanted to they should play out the rest of the game as if I hadn't won, since their boards weren't affected by the combo wincon. I'm not even sure if they did. The Trostani player hadn't had a great night, but some nights you can't guarantee everyone gets a win or has great games.
It was nice to notch a win, but I would have preferred to have used crazy amounts of mana to use Xantcha to kill someone, draw cards and see if I could combo off. Just having nothing going on, drawing into a tutor and landing the Mike & Trike win is better than nothing, but it's more than likely the Edgar player could have crushed the table if he had just played more aggressively.
Wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving I headed home. It wasn't my best night ever, but when you play every week you know you'll get another crack at it the following week.
EDH League
Thanksgiving came and went and once I had seen lots of relatives and eaten lots of stuffing and turkey, Saturday rolled around and I found myself heading off to our local game store for the final week of Commander League games for November.
I had jumped out to a 20 point lead in our rankings after two weeks of play, but last week I got shut down pretty well and my lead shrank to a mere 9 points. I liked my chances of being able to close out the month with a strong enough set of games to win my first month since last spring, when I won both March and April. Since then I've had some good games but haven't been playing my best decks and haven't been particularly competitive in terms of our league's rankings. I've often been on the "top 5" board but I've rarely been in competition for the top spot.
November's theme for our league was my choice and I decided to go with "commanders in pre-modern card frames". I've got a Multani, Maro-Sorceror deck (https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/stephenjohnson-03122018-walk-softly) and a Rith, the Awakener deck (https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/stephenjohnson-06252018-its-all-in-the-rith/) that I've been switching between all month long and they've been doing pretty well. We had a change in our scoring system at the start of the month that gave anyone playing "on theme" a whopping extra 5 points per game. Without that extra bump I'd be in second place, but playing on theme was enough to give me a modest lead and the knowledge that I'd get at least 10 points just for playing on theme this week.
Round One
In round one I was at a table with our resident Bruna player along with a Saskia player and a friend back from a trip overseas who was playing Estrid. I had played Multani, Maro-Sorcerer earlier in the month at a table with the Bruna player and had managed to knock him out and win the game. I really like variety and I decided to play Rith, the Awakener because I figured getting murdered again by Multani might get a little annoying. Both of my decks are good but nowhere near the level of the Bruna player's deck. It's a work of art, and it often takes the collaboration of a whole table to survive a game with him.
I got out an early mana dork, which was nice, but it was a Whisperer of the Wilds. It's a 0/2 and i wasn't going to be able to swing with it and get our league's "first blood" point. Much to my surprise nobody else got anything out early and I soon found myself playing another little mana dork and swinging with it to get the first combat damage at the table.
The Saskia player soon made it clear that he was playing Saskia infect. While that was a little nervous-making, I also didn't think I was seen as being the biggest threat at the table. When Saskia hit, the Bruna player was named and the Estrid player never really had any blockers so they both wound up taking a little aggro over the next few turns. I had played a Sunscorch Regent, had gained a little life and put enough +1/+1 counters on it that it was now a 8/7.
The Bruna player had Eldrazi Conscription in hand but I don't think he had Bruna out yet. I had the presence of mind to swing my flyer at the Bruna player's Jace, and I was able to get Rith out, but I think the Bruna player boardwiped before I was able to swing and use him to make Saprolings. While I was sad to lose my commander, I was pleased that I hadn't played another card in my hand - Tendershoot Dryad.
Once the dust had settled from the Bruna player's wrath, I played my Dryad and over the next few turns around the table I got to put out a total of 8 Saprolings. I also had a Blood Mist, so I could give a creature double-strike but I didn't have anything out that made me look very threatening.
The Bruna player was able to play his commander but before anything scary happened to anyone, the Estrid player pretty much saved the day. He dropped an Arrest on Bruna. The Saskia player had gotten a Skithyrix out and inexplicably never decided to swing it at me. I'm not sure why, but I guess the Estrid player seemed like (and was) an easier target.
At one point we had a pretty close call where the Saskia player tried to swing at the Estrid player with both Skithyrix and Saskia after hitting Saskia with Tainted Strike. It would have worked great, but for the Lightning Greaves that Saskia was wearing. Fortunately we caught the misplay before anyone scooped up their cards - it would have been lethal on two players if it had been allowed to happen. In our league we are generally fairly forgiving about misplays that can be rolled back and aren't a big deal but this one would have killed half the table. His opponents weren't about to let him go back to his first main phase, move the graves, use Tainted Strike, and move them back.
I had the city's blessing, so my Tendershoot Dryad made my Saprolings +2/+2 and I was able to swing and kill the Bruna player. I lost my Tendershoot Dryad in the process but it was worth it. I played Rith again, giving me a blocker, and now just had my 6/6 flyer and eight 1/1 Saprolings.
The Saskia player killed the Estrid player on their next turn and it was down to the two of us. I was able to play my favorite new bit of Rith tech - Divine Visitation - and swing at the Saskia player with double-strike. I paid the Rith activation once calling Green and made eleven 4/4 flying angels with vigilance. The Saskia player didn't wind up having any answers for that and I was able to win the game on my next turn.
Based on the way our points system works, I was able to earn a pretty healthy total from that game, virtually ensuring that I'd close out the month in first place even if the second place player had a good day.
We then played about fifteen minutes of a pickup game before the last table finished and we split up into pods for round two.
Round Two
In this game I decided to go with Multani, Maro-Sorceror. I had won a game with Multani earlier in the month and I really love the deck so I wanted to get one last game with it before we moved on to December.
I was at a table with the Saskia and the Estrid players from round one. The Saskia player switched to Oloro, the Estrid player stayed with his deck and we were also joined by a Krenko player and a Ghave player. Apparently the Krenko player had won his first game, or so I was told. Looking at his scoresheet later on, I'm not sure that was correct but it's possible he didn't do his points right.
With no obvious threats, I mostly just hoped I'd be able to get Multani out and murder someone before the game was over. Multani is a commander with what I like to call "diminishing returns". His power and toughness are equal to the cards in everyone's hands, so as there are fewer players in the game he gets smaller and smaller. He can win games, but it's rarely a simple process to do so.
I was able to start the game with a turn 1 Caustic Caterpillar, which I then used to hit someone to again get the "first blood" point for first combat damage at the table. I then set my mind to ramping, and played a Harrow and a Cultivate as we moved out of the early game.
The Krenko deck was off to a quick start but I dropped a Lignify on it to try to slow him down a little. It worked, but only for about two turns. Fortunately that was all I needed.
I think I played Multani on turn five or six, about one turn after playing a Noble Quarry. The Oloro deck, which is built around combo wins, didn't have any blockers and while my plan had been to kill the Krenko player, I decided it was wiser to kill the Oloro player since I wouldn't have to lose my lure dork (Noble Quarry) in the process. It turned out that he was sitting with one half of the Exquisite Blood / Sanguine Bond combo in hand. No regrets there - I've grown to dislike losing to Oloro combo so it was nice to have him out of the game. He had also put out a Ghostly Prison, so not wanting to have his pillow fort get out of control was a concern.
Before I swung at Oloro I told the Krenko player that I was initially planning on swinging at him, but if he'd "leave me for last" I'd swing at the Oloro player instead. It wasn't an idle threat - I could have killed anyone at the table I wanted to kill but you'll note that I also didn't promise I would leave HIM for last. Words matter, and I try to be both clear and careful about what I say in a game.
While folks were right to be concerned about the big green beatstick that had just murdered a player who was at 50+ life, nobody had any answers yet. Estrid was building up more and more of a pillow fort himself. Ghave was getting out some pretty scary enchantments, including Parallel Lives and Fecundity, but much like our resident Bruna player I was only going to be killing one player at a time.
On my next turn, as on every turn when Multani is out, I asked for a count of cards in hand. The Krenko player had only had three cards in hand for several turns in a row, making him an enormously tempting target. If I killed him I'd only lose three off of my commander's power and toughness. That pretty much made my decision for me, so I swung with Noble Quarry and Multani. He was tapped out, probably thinking that he was safe from having to deal with me for a bit. My earlier Lignify should have been a hint - I wasn't about to get overrun by goblins. The goblin horde dutifully crushed my "lure dork" unicorn into a thin paste and Multani slipped by and landed exactly 21 commander damage, killing their controller.
With just two opponents left, I still had managed to keep Multani at a fairly dangerous size. He was no longer lethal, but he was big and nobody had any deathtouch blockers out or enough power to kill him.
The Estrid player had a pretty impressive pile of defensive enchantments on his field so I wound up going after the Ghave player next. He had a few creatures out but not enough to keep me from swinging. I had played a trample enabler, so he had to block with all of his Saprolings and still took a bunch of damage. On my next turn I was able to kill him, leaving just me and the Estrid player.
Estrid had "ulted" and had returned a bunch of enchantments that I had taken care to destroy earlier in the game, so my work was cut out for me. Fortunately he didn't have much of a boardstate and I was loading up my hand thanks to a Thought Vessel I had played earlier.
I was able to swing with a huge but not lethal Multani and Estrid had to block with a bunch of creatures, taking 10 commander damage in the exchange.
Here's where things got weird.
The Estrid player played Enchanted Evening, turning all permanents into enchantments. He then played Opalescence, reviewed his boardstate, counted up the power he had on all of his non-land permanents, decided that he didn't have a profitable attack and passed turn.
For the next few turns I swung with Multani and he blocked, using one of his enchantments to create cat tokens, in something of a war of attrition. I was up to 17 commander damage when we realized we had a problem.
All of our lands should have died when they became enchantment creatures with a power and toughness equal to their CMC - which of course is ZERO.
He was a little embarrassed for missing the interaction. I called over someone to confirm and we now were faced with a game that was impossible to roll back as it had been a few turns ago that the mix-up had occurred.
My biggest concern was making sure the eventual outcome was something my opponent would be OK with.
If we had been in competitive play I believe our lands would have immediately been put into the graveyard and we would have just continued on. To my opponent's credit he pointed out that he had been making blockers with mana he shouldn't have had and that my all rights I would have killed him with commander damage.
I couldn't argue. I certainly would have kept attacking with Multani and I had a Temple Bell out so Multani wasn't going to be getting any smaller. I also had a Stonehoof Chieftain out, but I don't remember now if it came out before or after the Opalescence hit the field.
I was comfortable with resolving the end of the game as if I had killed him with commander damage. It's the sort of thing I would have insisted upon if our positions had been reversed. I consider it a point of honor to "do the right thing" even if it means losing the game as a result. The Estrid player has always played like that so I accepted the win.
Final Thoughts
Once the dust had settled from that last game, I was looking at the most points I'd ever earned in a day of EDH League play. I had managed to win two games over the current month with Multani, Maro-Sorceror and one game with Rith, the Awakener. I even managed to take a slightly blurry shot of the month's scoreboard. I assure you, my camera is not a potato.
Not only did I win the month, I did it by a wide enough margin that nobody can say I rode the new 5 point theme bonus to the top of the rankings.
Without that change I would have totaled 144 points, but by playing on theme I got 184 points and set my new personal best of 66 points in a single day.
Next month's theme is commanders from the plane of Dominaria. If I had lost November I was going to play my own Marwyn deck for the month, but now that I've got another month under my belt and I'm pretty much a lock for the top point total of the year, I'm thinking I might mix it up a little. For a few months now I've been alternating between two decks each Saturday and I might just keep doing that.
It was a weird holiday weekend, as it was the first since both of my parents passed. It was also my "birthday weekend" and it was super sweet to have a great day of Commander and close out a winning month right before my birthday. I'm turning 49 tomorrow and it's still nice to have things go right on or around your birthday.
While I'm thankful that I was able to have a great day Saturday, I'm especially grateful to have such a fantastic group of players to play with every Tuesday and Saturday over at NexGen comics. It's rare that I'm not sitting at a table with at least one or two players that I've grown to really enjoy playing with. I get to play one of the greatest formats of one of the greatest games ever created not once but twice a week with people I genuinely love to shuffle up and play with. Even if my year has had more than its share of challenges, I've got an awful lot to be thankful for.
That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!