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Back At It


Welcome to my blog. This is where I write about the Commander games I've been playing. I took last week off in part because of the Ravnica Allegiance prerelease but also because I didn't feel like blogging. My games the previous Tuesday didn't fill me with enthusiasm about sharing their stories, but I should probably touch upon them briefly just for the sake of being thorough.

Casual Night Before Ravnica Allegiance

I was coming off a long losing streak and was really hoping to have a good game on the night. The very first game I played my Dead Red Najeela deck. It's filled up with Goblin Warriors but also has some Najeela goodstuff, so it's not optimized but also not at all bad. I got out to a good start, was starting to get to the point where I thought I might be able to win when one of the players decided to Tooth & Nail into Mike & Trike to win the game. In general on Casual night the biggest goal in my eyes is to have games where the victory is won on the battlefield, not by some cheesy-ass combo, so it was not unlike someone walking into the store and taking a big steaming dump on the middle of the table. I sometimes don't know why I play games with this fellow, to be perfectly honest. There was something deeply selfish about his win that still bothers me, but it was a perfectly legal play that simply showed us how utterly ignorant he is about what we're trying to do on casual nights. He'd been winning games right and left in League on Saturdays so it's not like there was any good reason for him to play that deck or win that way. Still, I'm coming across as a whiny-ass bitch and ultimately the fault is mine for at least trying to kill him first. You're allowed to win games on casual night, but nobody has to enjoy the way you go about getting your wins.

The rest of the night wasn't much better, though I did win a "BANG" game. We had seven players and played two BANG games. This is a game where with seven players you play EDH with one player as the King, one player as an Assassin and the rest are either Knights or Bandits. Each role has a different win condition and in the first game an Animar deck played as King, comboed off and won really quickly. In the game I won I had the Assassin role. That meant that I had to kill every Bandit (or Knight? I cant really recall) and then kill the King. I went with my Xantcha deck, which is way too spikey for casual night, but I figured it was my only hope to even try to fulfill my win condition. I couldn't envision any way that the more causal decks could possibly pull it off. I wound up making infinite mana and using Walking Ballista to kill the table, killing the King last.

Am I a hypocrite for being annoyed by a Mike & Trike win earlier in the night and then using a combo to win a BANG game?

Quite possibly.

Am I making excuses for my deck choice on "casual" night because my role seemed impossible if I didn't pull out a combo deck?

Absolutely. Life is full of contradictions and so am I.

We closed out the night with a Planechase game. I played my Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. I still haven't won with Mortal Combat, but I was able to build a strong board and because it was casual night I spread out my attacks and basically was trying to have some fun. I wound up scooping after a swing at the player with the biggest board got bounced to my hand by his buddy with an Aetherspouts. The player who cast the Aetherspouts had absolutely no good reason to save his friend and could have just waited until I swung at him to bounce my entire board to my hand. I was screwed and conceded the game because it was late and I didn't have time to stick around even if the table let me get back into the game. These two guys have a bad habit of colluding or even throwing games for each other, but it was probably clear that I was pretty annoyed. I did my best to not show it too much. I'm a "heart on my sleeve" kind of guy. I don't hide how I feel, and I was pretty frustrated.

The Ravnica Prerelease wasn't particularly noteworthy. I went 1-2 but the only win I got was against a really young player. I was hoping to get in some EDH games, but my kid went 3-1 and wanted to get going so we could get home and split up the box I bought.

Casual Night After Ravnica Prerelease

With a bunch of shiny new decks thanks to the new set that just dropped, I was excited to get to the LGS on the casual night after the prerelease. I built Nikya and Haunt of Hightower and had also planned to play my Marath deck against one of the guys who has a Zacama deck. My Marath build is loaded up with Dinosaurs with the Enrage keyword and I had wanted to have a Dinos v. Dinos game with him.

Game One

The first game was the one where I played Marath. It was a four player game with a Shattergang Brothers deck, an Elesh Norn deck and the Zacama Dinosaurs deck. I would like to say that I was able to play a bunch of awesome Dinosaurs and ping them with Marath, but it didn't exactly work out that way. My starting hand had Cathar's Crusade in it. That enchantment is nuts with Marath, but I wasn't planning to go for that wincon. The Elesh Norn player played their own Cathar's Crusade relatively early on and I figured if THEY get to have a Cathar's Crusade, why can't I?

It goes without saying that not long after I had dropped mine, I had a board of Elementals with ridiculous numbers of +1/+1 counters on them and I was swinging for the fences. The Zacama player eventually blew up my Cathar's Crusade but it was way too late. I had two rows row of creatures with increasing numbers of +1/+1 counters on them and the front row had counters along with a single d20 set to 11 to remind me that those guys all had an ADDITIONAL eleven +1/+1 counters on them.

It was nice to get a win, but I was really hoping to either play some Dinosaurs and that didn't really happen. I couldn't resist going for the victory with dumb Marath shenanigans.

Game Two

The second game I pulled out my Nikya of the Old Ways deck. It's a creature-heavy deck that wants to ramp, play huge creatures and win on the battlefield. The Shattergang player switched to Wort, the Raidmother. The Elesh Norn player switched to Kambal and the Zacama player stayed with Zacama. I was able to get a decent start to the game but was quickly obliterated in an avalanche of Dinosaurs. The Zacama player had a better start and I probably died for the sin of winning the previous game. That's not uncommon in the groups that I play in. When you win, you're the most likely to get ganged up on in the next game even if you switch decks. It doesn't always happen, but I get it and I didn't particularly mind.

I think the Zacama player was the next one to be killed but I might have that mixed up. In the following half hour I got to witness the kind of thing that makes me love this format so much. Sadly, I was relegated to the peanut gallery, but it was still fun to watch.

There were two sequences that were pretty sweet. I don't recall how many turns this stretched over, but it was fun to watch.

The Wort player had a pretty wide board and played a Battle Hymn that I think he conspired to copy and get twice the mana. He then dropped a Purphoros and tried to cast a Goblin Offensive for enough to kill the Elesh Norn player. The Elesh Norn player played an Utter End on Purphoros so he wouldn't die. The Wort player then dropped a Craterhoof Behemoth and went to combat. His swing would have easily been lethal, but the Elesh Norn player, who didn't have his commander on the field yet, played a Settle the Wreckage to exile the attacking army. The Wort player got to put pretty much all of the basic lands from his deck onto the battlefield, but the Elesh Norn player bought himself another turn.

The other sequence must have happened a turn later. Elesh Norn didn't do much and on Wort's turn he played a Bonfire of the Damned for 21. I think he topdecked it and played it for it's miracle cost. The Elesh Norn player cast Teferi's Protection to try to buy himself another turn to find answers, but the Wort player played a Dualcaster Mage and put a copy of the massive Bonfire onto the stack. It was really great to watch these guys go back and forth and was a apt reminder that playing answers and being lucky (or skillful) enough to have them at the right time can make for some really exciting games of commander.

The Wort player won, but it was one of those games where I think the Elesh Norn player came away having enjoyed himself despite the loss. I'll take games like that any day over some a Tooth & Nail for Mike and Trike or even my infinite mana Walking Ballista. It would have been nice to still be in the game, but I was happy to just be able to watch those turns play out.

Game Three

The last game was the one I was most hoping to see go well. I was playing my Haunt of Hightower deck. The Wort player had switched to Drana. We were joined by a Muldrotha player and a player on Kangee, Aerie Keeper.

I got out to a decent start and was able to swing in for 8 commander damage on the Drana player. He had won the previous game and has been beating me a lot lately so i wanted to see if I could at least keep him from winning two straight. I didn't expect to be able to beat the Muldrotha deck.

The game actually wasn't a very good indicator of how my Haunt deck is likely to perform. I was able to force my opponents to discard cards and sacrifice creatures, and I benefited enormously from the Muldrotha deck constantly putting cards into his graveyard, but there was an Erebos, God of the Dead on the battlefield for pretty much the entire game. The life gain I would normally see from swinging with my commander wasn't happening so I didn't have that extra pad to help in case anything went wrong. I was playing commander so of course there were moments where things went wrong.

The defining moment of the game for me, other than having Erebos hit the field, was when i went to swing lethal on the Drana player. He cast a spell that wasn't going to save him, but the Kangee player cast Swan Song on it, giving him a 2/2 bird that he could block with.

The Kangee player wasn't trying to be a dick to me, and he didn't have any particular reason to want to save the Drana player. He hadn't been in the previous game so he probably wasn't aware that Drana had just won - and even if he did know he might not have cared.

What the Kangee player was doing is what I've done plenty of times in my own games. He was making a play to have some impact on the game because he was going nowhere, wasn't getting enough land drops, didn't think he had a shot at the table and simply wanted to do SOMETHING in the game before he was out of it.

I've been there.

I've done that.

It probably killed any chance of my winning the game, as Erebos was under Drana's control and it wasn't going anywhere until the Drana player was out of the game. The Muldrotha player was blowing up like crazy. I think he killed the Kangee player. The Drana player wound up winning because the Muldrotha player's deck was heavy on recursion value and very light on actual ways to win the game.

I kidded with the Wort/Drana player that this much winning was going to go to his head, but he's actually a great tablemate whether he wins or loses and I'm usually happy to see him win. He's been beating me a lot lately, which is a tad annoying, but only because I don't particularly want anyone beating me a lot.

My takeaway from the game was that the deck is probably going to be surprisingly effective, despite the fact that it aims to win with commander damage. I don't think voltron is a terrible strategy but there's a reason commander damage is generally only effective in casual circles.

EDH League

I went into our last week of Commander league in third place, but not having played very good decks and not having won any games. It helps to be there every week, and it helps to be on theme, but aside from that I have no idea why I was even on our top 5 board. I had a good game in week two that I lost but racked up a decent number of points but going into Saturday I only really wanted to win a game before the month was over.

Game One

In our first round I drew a three player table and was with a Lazav player and the Zacama player from Tuesday night. I was on my Marwyn deck and got off to a pretty terrible start. Lands weren't flowing. The Zacama player, on the other hand, got off to another fantastic start. His deck can churn out the dinosaurs like nobody's business, and I was soon just hoping to not die to his aggro. The Lazav player wound up exhuming a Mike & Trike and winning somewhat out of nowhere. It wasn't much fun, but I probably missed a chance to stop the win. I had a Krosan Grip that I had played on the Zacama player's Descendant's Path and had returned to my hand from the graveyard, but didn't have open mana to play. The Lazav deck was the same one that had beat me in week one of the month, but this time piloted by its owner. As I've said, I'm not a fan of certain wincons, and no - not just "other players' wincons". I don't mind as much when the player landing the wincon doesn't win all the time. I did make her demonstrate how it worked, and it took her a moment, but she eventually got it.

Game Two

I didn't get any pickup games in but we launched into round two without too much of a delay. I got stuck with the player who was wrecking tables all month long and was well in position to win the month. He's the same fellow who dropped that Mike & Trike on casual night, so I wasn't particularly excited about having to play him.

I was on Marwyn. He was on flip-Liliana and we also had the Lazav player and an Estrid player at the table. Going into the game I knew he (the Lili player) was going to play hard control, tons of removal, deny us all the ability to maintain any kind of boardstate and then win out of nowhere with some big spell.

I was right of course.

I spent much of the game unable to go anywhere because of a Solemnity the Estrid player had out and kept recurring every time it got sent to the graveyard. That shut down Marwyn pretty hard, though the Estrid player is someone I'm generally always rooting for. He doesn't win a lot of games.

It was a particularly frustrating loss because I was teetering on the edge of being able to go off, and on the turn when the Lili player won I was about to go for the Staff of Domination win on my next turn. He's a great player, but incredibly frustrating to play against and utterly oblivious of why people don't appreciate his casual game shenanigans.

We literally had a conversation after the game in which he accused me of "throwing games" on casual nights because I don't play fully optimized decks but instead enjoy playing a wide range of decks and often enjoy seeing other players get a chance to win games. For some players Commander is a zero-sum game that's all about winning and losing but I'll never reduce it to such a simplistic thing. It's fun to win and I write about winning and losing a lot, but it's really about so much more. It's about having fun and watching your friends have fun, and sometimes it's about "going easy" either by your play or by your deck choice because playing and caring only about your own enjoyment is a pretty selfish way to go about things.

You can imagine my desire to play casual games with him is somewhat lacking at this point.

After our second round I had to run points. I actually wanted to get in a casual game but my other decks weren't anything I felt any real confidence in, and I didn't particularly want to play a casual game with the guy who had just closed out game two and won the month. I didn't think I'd enjoy it, to be perfectly honest, and as I said - I had to tally up points for the month. It's a pity, as I had some casual decks i wanted to play (Haunt & Nikya), but I also didn't want to leave in any worse a mood than I was already in.

Final Thoughts

I didn't get my win on the month but I'm planning to play better decks for February and should have a decent chance to at least win a game in the month. I'll probably still find myself looking up at Mr. Removal Tribal at the end of the month but that's not the end of the world. As I said, he's a great player, if somewhat single-minded about matters of winning and losing. Apparently if you aren't running incredible amounts of control and removal and doing everything you can to win every single game, you're doing a disservice to the game or something.

I think I'm just really a casual player at heart. I like playing strong decks sometimes and I do like winning games, but I also love playing less tuned decks, stealing the occasional win with a deck that probably didn't deserve it, and seeing my friends win games as well.

Of course, in League play anything goes. If you want to play your best deck you're welcome to do so. I still don't know how I managed to get myself into second place but it's going to be a long year if our January winner decides to "bring it" every single month for 2019. I don't know how attendance would be affected if he simply won every month, but I think there's a chance that wouldn't happen. He's really, really good, but he isn't some crazy savant who is incapable of ever losing.

Of course, last year he stopped playing with us because he didn't enjoy how other player reacted to his play style and decided to either bring a true cEDH deck and show us all what he COULD be doing to us, or just stop coming. He chose to stop coming. If I were him I'd have learned to sometimes play at the level of the meta, but I don't think he'd enjoy that very much.

Before I wrap up, I want to take a moment to thank Matt Overson, who runs a league across the pond in the U.K.

I had recently been feeling less and less inclined to bother writing this weekly rundown of my own games.

I hadn't been doing well and I hadn't felt like I had anything positive to write. He and I chat occasionally and we've discussed issue involved in running EDH leagues. This past week he took a moment to tell me that he had shared my EDH league notes with some of his players and they had gone out of their way to tell him they were impressed with the quality of my writing.

I do my best to keep these posts upbeat and somewhat entertaining and in a moment where I had been thinking seriously about discontinuing it, he found a way to put wind back into my sails. I'm not necessarily playing any better, but it's nice to think that someone out there is reading these posts outside of the folks I play with on a weekly basis. I'd been thinking some of my regular table-mates were growing inclined to see what sort of reaction they could get out of my in my blog by playing crap like a Tooth & Nail into Mike & Trike. If nobody else was reading this, I'd be tempted to stop if for no other reason than to not give anyone a reason to give me more headaches in my games.

Thank you Matt, for reminding me that this part of my weekly writing is worth continuing. It meant a lot, and I should remind you all that content producers appreciate your feedback more than you can possibly imagine. We do this for ourselves, but also very much for you. If you like it, whether it's a podcast, video, weekly column or just an occasionally whiny blog - please let us know.

I don't know when my luck will turn and my winrate will start to approach the 25% many of us look at as our "fair share" in this challenging multiplayer format, but I will do my best to keep going through the bad times as well as the good times. I know full well that my opponents don't owe me anything. I also view the social contract in casual games as one where we all want to have a good time, and one player just endlessly crushing tables with a "git gud" attitude isn't the kind of thing I'll probably ever really appreciate.

Thanks for following along with me. Whether you agree with the way I approach the game, roll your eyes at my more hypocritical moments, or more likely both - I hope I give you something to think about. We all play the game in different ways and for different reasons, and the magic really happens when we can find enough common ground to come together and enjoy Commander together. For me, it's about community.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!

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