Hallar & Hellkite Charger

Welcome to my blog! This is where I run down the games I play. I write about Commander every Monday over on CoolStuffInc.com but I also play as often as I can. On an average week that means twice, once on Tuesday night and once on Saturday in the EDH League I run.

Casual Night

Power levels are a funny thing. This past Tuesday I headed off to our local game store with a bunch of decent but not great decks to play with anyone I could play a game of Commander with.

Game One

My first table was with a more experienced player and a couple of younger players. I asked what the power level of the table was and was told that I should play a low powered deck.

I had brought a bunch of decks that worked with +1/+1 counters, as that's going to be our theme for the next month of our Commander League. I had Ramos, Ezuri Claw, Hallar, Haunt and Marath. I decided to go with Ezuri for our first game, as my Ezuri deck is full of morph creatures and isn't particularly deadly. I had just added Simic Ascendancy to the list, but didn't seriously expect it to do anything that impressive.

The table was made up of myself on Ezuri, Claw of Progress, the experienced player on Kumena, and the younger players on Estrid and Saheeli.

I struggled to get out much of a board, and I think I might have burned through a Heroic Intervention relatively early on, but I was struggling to establish much of a board state. The Estrid player was having as bad a start to the game, if not worse, but the Kumena and Saheeli players were really establishing strong board states. I had no way to deal with flyers and the Saheeli player had a creature that would turn all of the defender's creatures into 1/1 creatures with no abilities when it attacked, so I was in a pretty bad spot.

I was able to get out some face-down morph creatures, including one that could un-morph and return all tapped creatures to their owner's hands, so I was vaguely optimistic that I might be able to survive or politic my way to second place. I think the Saheeli player killed the Estrid player and eventually wound up with over 50 thopters and an Unwinding Clock on the field. I had been hoping to catch my opponents all with tapped creatures, but the Kumena player had a Murkfield Liege on the field so nobody was going to get caught with their pants down (or their creatures tapped).

I wound up having the Saheeli player say they were going to swing their thopter army at me. I told them that the one to swing at me would lose the game, but he was too curious about what I had under my morph tokens, so he decided to force my hand. I unmorphed Thousand Winds, he lost his army and if I remember correctly, the Kumena player then won in fairly short order.

It wasn't a great game, but I was expecting to probably get stomped. An optimized Ezuri Claw deck would look very different from the morph tribal list I've kept together. It's janky fun stuff, but not particularly effective. The one game I remember winning with this version of the deck was when I was able to drop a ton of counters on Cultivator of Blades.

Game Two

I offered up a choice between my Ramos and Lathliss decks for the next game and the guys wanted to see Ramos. It is a hybrid mana tribal list with a dearth of answers and an even greater lack of win cons. It's still fun, but it's not a very serious version of Ramos and it's a long shot from my old Cascade combo Ramos deck that won a month of EDH League a few years ago.

The Kumena player switched to O-Kagachi, the Estrid player switched to Niv-Mizzet, Firemind and the Saheeli player switched to Mirko Vosk. My first commander ever was Mirko Vosk, so it was fun to tell the young fellow all the horrible things you can do to people with just the right combination of mill cards. He already knew some of them, but he was impressed by stuff like Hinder into Tunnel Vision.

That conversation wound up being more entertaining than the game itself.

The O-Kagachi player wound up jumping into a series of divinity counter shenanigans that let him dump tons of creatures from his hand onto the table, draw a bunch of cards and dump a bunch more creatures onto the table. The slightly irksome part was that he ran through his plays so fast that I didn't have a fair chance to decide whether or not to use the Cyclonic Rift (un-kicked) that was stuck in my hand. We went from all of us struggling to create a decent board to him having a fairly ridiculous board state so fast (and without giving us a decent chance to consider interrupting him) that I just asked if there was any point in continuing the game.

The other players were equally done and we conceded the game to the O-Kagachi player. I was a little annoyed, as I didn't feel like I had a proper understanding of what he had been doing and didn't remember him explaining what his cards did when he played them. It felt a little unfair in the way he played it out (and how fast he played it out) but these things happen. I tend to point at my own threats, explain (or admit) which ones are removal-worthy and make sure opponents have a fair shot at interrupting my more powerful plays. At least, I think I do that. I certainly hope I do.

The younger players left the table for a bit and the older guy and I chatted for a bit. I apologized for being a little salty and complimented him on how well the deck's win con fell together in the game. I felt a little bad not wanting to watch him be able to pilot the deck to the finish line - I shouldn't have suggested we concede the game. I was right, of course, that he had the game won. He even had a Cyclonic Rift in hand (as did I) with the mana to overload it (which I did not).

Game Three

The young guys eventually game back to the table and we were able to get in one last slightly rushed game of Commander.

For this one I played Lathliss, Dragon Queen. The O-Kagachi player switched to Alesha. The Niv-Mizzet player stayed with Niv-Mizzet and the Mirko Vosk player switched to mono-Green Ezuri.

My Lathliss deck has been reworked to run the Mana Echoes that I had purchased to run in Najeela during February for EDH League. I never saw the card hit the battlefield, but it's going to be fantastic in Lathliss.

I was able to get a Dragonlord's Servant and a Dragonspeaker Shaman on the field, saving me 3 mana on any dragon spells, but an opponent killed the Shaman before I could cast Lathliss. I then played a Herald's Horn and soon had Lathliss on the field.

The Alesha player had been swinging at everyone and decided to blow up my commander. I had a Lightning Greaves in hand and instantly regretted not playing it before playing Lathliss, but I hadn't wanted to put off casting her.

I got a Sunbird's Invocation out, letting me cast spells for free off the top of my deck based on the size of spells I cast from my hand. I was able to get Lathliss out again and cast a dragon and cast a free Extraplanar Lens so mountains would tap for one extra mana.

It was getting late and the guys had to go, so I didn't feel bad when I cast a Mana Geyser to make 19 mana, add some additional mana and swing a bunch of +13/+13 dragons for a game-ending alpha strike.

I've been thinking about alters lately, and I'm starting to think a Smaug alter of Lathliss using artwork from the old Rankin/Bass animated version of The Hobbit would be pretty sweet. Of course, if I did that, I'd be tempted to also get a Bard alter of Hallar, the Firefletcher and possibly a Bilbo (or Thorin) alter of Gaddock Teeg made as well. I suspect having alters made is a slippery slope… but I digress.

Game Four

The guys I was playing with earlier in the night left and I hung out for a while chatting with the store manager until a game ended and a space opened up for me to jump in on one last game for the night.

My Hallar, the Firefletcher deck had won two straight games on Saturday and I decided that it was time to let Hallar get his first loss. The table was filled with some pretty strong players who typically run a lot of answers and removal, so I figured it was a long shot to be able to win my last game of the night.

I was on Hallar and was up against a Gonti deck, a new Multani deck and an Edgar Markov deck. The Gonti player is the judge who set our league record for points in a day (not with his Gonti deck) and the Multani player is one of the best players in the store (though not on his best deck). Edgar Markov is always dangerous, so I figured it would be a rough game.

It would up being a longer game than I expected.

I was able to get Hallar out and even swung with him a few times before folks had blockers out to keep me from swinging. I got a couple of kicker spells to land and Hallar soon had three +1/+1 counters on him. The table was full of decent decks and very good players, so I was soon in turtle mode, hoping to draw into something helpful and watching the balance of power shift between my opponents. The Gonti player took a lot of lumps early on, complained about it a little and then used Gonti to play a kicker spell that wasn't even from my deck that shot his life total up into the 70s.

I was delighted to have seen a kicker spell cast at the table, even if it wasn't mine and wasn't cast by me, but we now had our hands full. Over the next few turns, mostly with aggro from the Multani player, we were able to whittle Gonti's life total back down below 40.

My Hallar damage had been slowly lowering everyone else's life totals and before long I was the only one left in the 30s. I suspect if the table had wanted me dead, they could have just focused on me, but the Multani player rightly seemed more concerned about making sure Gonti didn't get away with anything.

The Edgar Markov player had been able to cast a Sorin planes walker and get the emblem forcing us all to sacrifice a creature on each of our upkeeps so we all basically agree to engage in player removal. I was able to swing unblocked thanks to a Rogue's Passage and when the Multani player pointed out that all I needed was a kicker spell to finish off the Edgar payer, I obliged by kicking a Vines of Vastwood.

I'm not sure but I think the Gonti player killed off the Multani player (unless i did) and soon it was down to myself and Gonti. I was still in the 30s and he was at 20. I was able to swing with an awakened Forest along with two other creatures and the turn after that I was able to swing for lethal. Gonti hadn't been able to dig for an answer in time and to my amazement - Hallar was now 3-0.

I never expect even my best decks to go 3-0 so seeing Hallar, the Firefletcher start out with such a run of success is a little mystifying. I'll readily admit that he's only been playing at casual tables, but it's still a very pleasant surprise.

EDH League

Last month I started out in first place after one week of play and proceeded to drop all the way down to fourth place before winding up the month in a distant third. I'm generally happy just being on the board, but this month's theme is "+1/+1 counters" so I was optimistic that I might be able to pilot my Marwyn, the Nurturer deck with some degree of success this month. I've got a bevy of decks that could qualify to be on theme this month, from Marwyn to Haunt of Hightower, Marath (Enrage DInos) and Ezuri Claw (Morphs) all the way to Ramos Hybrid Mana Tribal. I only really feel like Marwyn and Marath are EDH-League viable but I hadn't committed to any specific deck or decks for the month.

Round One

We've got some players who are so good that even if I played my best deck for the month, there's no guarantee that I'd have an easy path to the top spot. As it turned out, my first round of play was at a table where it didn't feel appropriate to play Marwyn. She can sometimes close out a game by turn five or six and while playing my best deck against a table of weaker decks might make for an easy win and a big pile of points, it wouldn't be fun for anyone but me.

The table was made up of Pir & Toothy, Kumena and another player's Ramos, Dragon Engine superfriends deck. The players were all people I enjoy playing with but none of them made me feel like I needed to pull out the big guns to have a chance at winning. We normally don't show our commander choices until we're ready to reveal them all at the same time - just to avoid someone picking strategically in response to what other players are playing, but the Ramos player is a guy who also has a budget Selvala cEDH deck so I knew I was sitting at a table where not everyone was playing their best decks.

I decided to go with Hallar. It had won its first three games, but they were all casual affairs and I had not yet played Hallar in a league game. I figured he'd have a chance, and if I lost I could always trot out Marwyn for round two and have a decent shot at a win.

I was able to start the game with a turn two Scrounging Bandar and a turn three Grow from the Ashes to search up a Mountain. I had kept a hand with all green spells and forests. On my next turn's upkeep I moved a couple of counters from my Bandar to Hallar, giving me a nice little jump on his ability to push out damage in the early game.

The Pir & Toothy player had an OK start to the game but didn't get his commanders out on time. The Kumena player had a good start. The Ramos player got a Nissa on the table that I swung Hallar at because he didn't have blockers and probably was in the worst spot of all of us.

I missed out on the chance to get the first combat damage point at the table because of a weird misplay where the Kumena player seemed to have gotten it and then realized that he couldn't have attacked for some reason (I forget the details) and took it back to correct his error. The fix occurred on my turn and I had already mentally noted that the first blood had already been grabbed, so I just missed the opportunity. Shame on me for not being more opportunistic, but in the long run I doubt I'll win or lose the month by a single point.

i was able to play a kicked Mold Shambler to blow up another planeswalker and drop a Strionic Resonator on the field. I was sitting on a hand that would win me the game but had three blue decks at the table and basically just had to hope that on my turn I'd be able to catch them all tapped out or without counters in their hand. Hallar had four +1/+1 counters on him, so he didn't seem that dangerous yet even if I would be able to pay two mana and use Strionic Resonator to copy the Hallar trigger.

My opponents were a little concerned that I might kick two spells on my next turn and do 18 damage to them all by copying one of those triggers, but I assured them that I'd be lucky have two kicker spells and the mana to use them. I had earlier cast an Eternal Witness to get back Grow From the Ashes and cast it kicked, so I was in a pretty good spot mana-wise.

The Pir & Toothy player passed turn with three open mana. The Kumena player had a bunch of Merfolk out and was swinging the unblockable ones around with no clear focus, but the real scare came when the Ramos player cast a Sorin Markov. He took a while trying to figure out who to put to 10 life. He didn't have the ability to kill someone by swinging with Ramos after casting and using Sorin, as Ramos simply wasn't that big yet. I think he picked the Kumena player, as their board was the scariest, with the clear understanding that he was setting me up to be able to kill someone with a kicked spell and a copied trigger.

What he didn't know was the surprise I had in my hand.

On my turn I cast a Triumph of the Hordes, giving my creatures infect.

The Pir & Toothy player hadn't countered Sorin, so I was banking on him not actually having a counterspell in hand.

I was right. I followed it up with a kicked Oran-Rief Recluse and then used my last 2 mana to copy the trigger, doing 5 and then 6 infect damage to my opponents and killing the table.

Hallar is now 4-0, which I find slightly incomprehensible. I suspect he'll soon have lost his ability to fly under the radar and I'm going to have a game where I get crushed first just to put an end to Hallar's implausible win streak.

Killing the table with infect netted a few extra points, making up for the earlier misstep where I passed up the chance to get the combat damage First Blood point. With a win under my belt for the month, we were soon splitting up into our round two tables.

Round Two

If i was lucky with my round one table, I was decidedly unlucky with my round two table. I drew the previous month's winner, again on Animar, the best player in our league on Tymna & Reyhan and the guy we joke that we should always kill first. He was on Animar as well. These were optimzied Animar decks and the Tymna & Reyhan player had won his round one and is always someone you have to take seriously even if he's playing a janky casual deck. He probably should have won the 2018 top point total, but he got bored with us and stopped playing in league for months.

My work was cut out for me and I didn't genuinely feel like it mattered what I picked. I decided to go with Marwyn because of all of the decks I could choose from, it was the one that theoretically had the best chance of threatening an early win. Even if I had a god hand, I didn't seriously think I'd be able to pull it off against these guys.

I was right. We all got out commanders out on time, but I didn't start with or draw into anything that could help me do anything strong in the early game. The Tymna & Reyhan player landed a combo win on his turn 5 (my turn 4) and won the game, taking penalty points for killing two players before their fifth turns.

I'm always somewhat annoyed when folks pull out these kinds of decks in league but I also encourage our players to play their best decks if that's what they feel like doing. Our casual night is where it's bordering on rude to be landing turn 5 wins, so if there's a place to really bring it, it is in our league.

With a vaguely unpleasant game behind me, the league's top player was able to pretty much guarantee he'd start the month in the top spot.

Pickup Game

The game was over so early, the guys asked about playing a pickup game. I had so emphatically not enjoyed that first game that I was hesitant to say yes, but after checking on the other tables and confirming that everyone else was still enjoying themselves in more "normal" league games, I went for it.

The first Animar player switched to a casual Reyhan & Ishai deck. The spike switched from his partners combo deck to Ur-Dragon. These guys clearly understood the concept of switching down to a more reasonable deck for a casual pickup game.

The guy that we joke about having to kill first if we want to have a chance in a game? Apparently he was unclear on the concept, because he whipped out his Uril, the Miststalker deck.

I sometimes don't know why I even play games with this guy outside of league games where I can't control the pairings.

None of us had decks that could keep up with a tuned Uril deck, but we're also not in the habit of telling people not to play the deck they want to play, so nobody bothered to explain to him the finer points of playing a casual game. It also served as a fine excuse to play a deck I had kinda wanted to play anyways.

Last fall I had torn apart my Narset, Enlightened Master deck. At its height it would have been a match for the Uril deck, but I had recently put it back together. Now it was "No Turns Narset", with a complete lack of extra turn and extra combat step spells - both of which are absolutely integral to having a Narset deck really fire on all cylinders.

I love Narset, and in particular I love the mechanic of flopping into spells and casting them for free. Even when I flop into three lands, I still enjoy the process of not knowing what's going to happen and sometimes having wonderful surprises waiting for you when you attack.

My rebuilt Narset is meant to be good, not great, and playable in casual games. This was going to be its first real test.

I started out with an early Reconnaissance but no creatures until I played Narset. She came out on or around turn 6, and by that point the Ur-Dragon was building a board of dragons and the Reyhan & Ishai player also had a decent board. I had taken some damage but wasn't being picked on in the way Narset players are normally (and rightly) targeted in the early game. Uril was out and was already getting dangerous.

I was able to get a Strionic Resonator out so that I could copy my attack triggers and I basically told the table that all I wanted to do was see what I could flop into before Uril killed us all. The Dragons player was getting a little scary but had mostly been attacking Uril. He had a Hellkite Charger and a Savage Ventmaw out, so he was already looking pretty frightening. I had no way to deal with flyers so I was mostly just grateful he was going after Uril.

In retrospect I probably cost the table the game, but at the time my decision seemed to make sense. I swung Narset and double-flopped into a Daybreak Coronet, some equipment and a Mind Control. I had swung at the partners player but used Reconnaissance to pull Narset out of combat even though I had Aqueous Form attached to her.

With the Mind Control I stole Hellkite Charger.

I really wanted to steal something with my new Mind Control Narset build. That's basically what it boils down to, and I was actually in the colors to be able to use Hellkite Charger's activated ability so it seemed like a good choice.

Allowing the Dragons player to have a combo on board that could let him loop into multiple attacks or possibly infinite attacks if he added something else into the mix seemed like a bad idea. I probably should have worked out a "leave me for last" deal and let him keep the combo. I could have put Mind Control and then Daybreak Coronet on Narset.

The Uril player killed the Ur-Dragon player in short order, and pretty much in self-defense. The result was that my stolen Hellkite Charger was gone from the game, along with the small pile of enchantments I had attached to it. With those in the graveyard, I proceeded to put everything I could on Narset and swing at the Uril player. That included an Eldrazi Conscription that I had been holding onto, hoping to be able to find a way to cheat it in with a Narset trigger. Unfortunately, her swing maxed out at 20 commander damage.

If I had swung at Uril earlier for 3, the 20 would have killed him, but I had not wanted to "poke the bear" and get killed first by Uril.

If I had left the dragons player with his dragons, Narset would have also been lethal thanks to the enchantments I would have put on Narset instead of on Hellkite Charger.

Uril, of course, shouldn't even have been played at a casual pickup game after our league game. One might argue that Narset also qualifies as being too strong for a casual game, but in my defense I wouldn't have played her if Uril hadn't already been in the mix. I still think that "pulling the teeth", or more specifically the extra turns and combat steps, out of Narset should be enough to make her palatable for these kinds of no-stakes pickup games.

I didn't need to win two games on the day, but the whole "let's play Uril in a fun pickup game" had soured my mood from the outset, and watching it all play out didn't make me any happier. Still, I had a good game on the day and that doesn't always happen so I couldn't complain too much. It was time to run the points and see how things played out for our first week of EDH League in March.

Final Thoughts

Running the points on the first week of the month is always easier. I just total them up and that's what I post on the board. That didn't mean I had time to get any extra games in on the night, but I had promised my wife I'd head home early if possible. We were supposed to get snow that afternoon, and while it didn't wind up being as snowy as expected, a promise is a promise.

By some minor miracle (possibly named Hallar) I found myself in second place on the day. Seeing that the league's top player may have decided that taking a month off was enough, it seems unlikely that I'm going to be able to claw my way into the top spot, but this month has five weeks so anything can happen and there's plenty of time left. I do have the bad habit of not playing my best deck in every League game, so it's likely I'll trot out a jankier deck than Hallar at some point this month.

Remember my deep-seeded need to have Hellkite Charger?

Sometimes life is a little strange. I try to support my local game stores, but I don't buy a ton of packs and there are often days where I go to the store and don't even buy a soda. I bring a water bottle, so while I sometimes pick up singles, I'm acutely aware of when I play at the store and fail to buy a single thing from them. It's really important to support your LGS so when I noticed that they had managed to pick up some Modern Masters boosters and were selling them - I decided that if I won a game I'd celebrate by picking up an overpriced booster pack.

I don't mean to disparage the store by calling the boosters overpriced, but the reality is that when you pay $20 for a booster you're probably going to come away with little more than the knowledge that you were helping the store to move product. It's a fool's game, especially for a commander player, but I do love the experience of opening up a booster and finding out what you're just purchased.

I decided to get a Modern Masters 2015 pack. I was vaguely hopeful that I'd find something cool that I could slot into a deck.

This is what I opened up...

Apparently, my desire to get that Hellkite Charger sent a ripple out into the Aether and it came back around to me in the form of this booster pack.

I don't actually need a Hellkite Charger. I'm pretty sure I've got one in each of my Dragons deck, one in my Mayael deck and maybe one in a binder as well. I'll put that Rampant Growth right into the pile of cards I'm stacking up for a Horde of Notions deck I'm going to build for April's league games, but I'm unlikely to use most of those other cards. Such is the life of a commander player - we buy boosters because they're fun to open and because we enjoy the surprise but the reality is that we probably should just be buying singles. I'll put the Faerie Rogue token next to the Oona I've got in a binder and I could see running the foil Narcolepsy in a deck, so I guess the pack wasn't a total loss.

It is pretty weird though that a Hellkite Charger found its way into my life at the end of the night, even if my stealing it earlier probably lost me a game.

Life is weird, and on that note I'm going to sign off.

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