Casual Night
This past Tuesday night I was coming off of a bad night's sleep and was pretty exhausted by the time I got home from work in the late afternoon. I had not had much success on Saturday in my league games, though, so I decided to man up and head down to NexGen comics to play some Commander anyways. I've found that when I'm already pretty tired it's harder to keep my emotions in check so I tried to make a point of just bringing "beater" decks and not harboring any real hope of piling up the wins. The goal was to see friends and get some games in more than it was to see if any particular deck could notch a victory on the night.
I filled up my bag with 6 decks plus my Ramos hybrid mana deck and then threw another in on a lark before I hit the door.The real question was whether I'd need a Mountain Dew to help get me through the night.
As usual, I missed the first games of the day. I think the guys have been coming straight from work and starting their games in the mid-afternoon. Fortunately I was able to jump into a game without too much of a wait and wound up playing three with some of my favorite table mates.
Game One
I decided to start the night with my Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa / Tana, the Bloodsower partners deck. I used to love this deck as it works with combat tricks and can be really explosive. Before we even started one of my buddies commented on how powerful it is. To be honest - it used to be pretty strong but the meta has evolved and at this point I feel like it is more on the average side. It doesn't win by combo and can only really work well if the commanders actually stick around.
The game was a four player match with me on my Naya Partners deck, a player on Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, a Ghave player and a Wort, the Raidmother player. The Wort player was the one who complained about my choice of decks and I pointed out that every game where I see him play Wort, he does some crazy ramp, makes crazy mana and kills the table. I only picked Naya Partners because there was another partners deck at the table, and figured I'd be outclassed and would probably start the night with a loss.
I was OK with that. I was pretty tired and didn't want to get too focused on trying to be competitive. When I'm exhausted I'm more likely to let frustration get the better of me if I care too much about winning every game.
As it turned out, that was probably a good thing. In the early game I was able to play Tana, but I think she got sent back to the command zone before I could swing with her. The player to blow her up was of course the Wort player. Maybe he wasn't wrong to do so, but it was a little annoying. Of course, I was going to swing at him if I had a chance, and I had two instants in my hand that would have made her a 9/6 to give me 9 saplings. The following turn I would have swung with the nine 1/1 saprolings and pumped them all up to be 3/3. It would have been great, and I did owe the Wort player for a loss he handed me on Saturday.
With Tana out of the picture, I struggled to get out enough creatures and ramp enough to be able to play her again and also maintain my board state. I blew one of my instants (a +3/+3) to protect my Sidar Kondo from a pair of Valakut damage triggers, but with that early speed bump thrown at me by the Wort player I wasn't able to recover.
The Wort player had been able to conspire a ramp spell to put some ridiculous number of lands onto the battlefield - including a ton of mountains which he used to clear the battlefield. He played an Impact Tremors and on his next turn he again conspired a spell, this time to create creature tokens and kill the table with Impact Tremors damage. It all played out pretty much as I predicted.
I hadn't predicted that the Wort player was going to stop me in my tracks, but there's a reason I no longer play my Naya Partners deck that often. It's fun but maybe a little too fair for the current meta to be able to compete.
Game Two
The Naya Partners deck was sharing a deck box with my Nikya of the Old Ways deck so I decided to play that for game two. The Ishai / Reyhan player stuck with his deck. The Ghave player switched to Rakdos the Showstopper. The Wort player switched to Thalia, Heretical Cathar.
I drew an opening hand with Platinum Angel, Primal Surge and two forests and decided to try my luck. The deck as it is currently built has no other non-permanent spells, so a Primal Surge is a dedicated win con. I would put my deck onto the field and probably win or seal a loss on that turn.
Thalia got out fairly early and I don't think she ever left the battlefield. I was able to get out a steady stream of lands and got NIkya out, but I wound up having to weather a number of board wipes. I had a Temur Sabertooth on the field and had to bounce Nikya to my hand a number of times in response to various threats.
After maybe forty-five minutes or an hour of trying to get myself to the position where I could go for the win, I finally had Nikya out and was in the position to be able to go for it.
I tapped all my lands for mana and then used Temur Sabertooth to bounce Nikya to my hand. Once she was out of the way, I'd be able to cast an instant or sorcery. I cast Primal Surge and confessed to the table that I had no other non-permanents in the deck. The only problem was Thalia. My creatures would all enter tapped.
My nonbasic lands all entered tapped, but my basic lands entered untapped, allowing me to play my Platinum Angel from my hand. The Ishai/Reyhan player scooped. Apparently this was his usual reaction to anyone doing anything vaguely disgusting in a game.
My deck includes a Champion of Lambholt and Craterhoof Behemoth. The dozens of creatures all entering at once resulted in Champion getting a ton of +1/+1 counters, and I was able to use Temur Sabertooth to bounce Craterhoof and replay him.
I only had two creatures who were able to attack, but with a double-craterhoof pump, the remaining two players conceded the game.
If I had been more on my game, I would have realized that I could have set up my ETB triggers to have Gruul Ragebeast allow my creatures to fight Thalia but it didn't wind up mattering. I could have passed turn and started a new turn with no library and survived thanks to Platinum Angel. I think I had an Archetype of Endurance out so my creatures weren't targetable.
This was my first Primal Surge win with NIkya and while it was fun, I find myself wondering if I should add a few more non-permanents into the mix just to make it more fun. I could see Nikya being a great general for an Eldrazi Titans deck, a dragons deck or any of a number of big-mana decks.
Game Three
The last game was a weird one. After a win, I usually pull out a much weaker deck, so I turned to my Hanna, Ship's Navigator build. The scooper switched to Estrid. We were joined by a player on Teysa. The Rakdos player switched to Zacama and the Thalia player switched to Saskia.
I wound up doing very little in this game, never really pulling into any major threats. I did put a bunch of enchantments on Hanna but forgot I had a counter in hand when I swung with her at the Teysa player and he blew her up. I was really tired at that point in the evening. The Teysa player was having a pretty good game and had a Crested Sunmare out and was slowly assembling an army of indestructible horses. He was also steadily gaining life and before we realized it, he was pushing up close to 100.
The Estrid player had gotten an early threat out but hadn't been able to protect it, and after swinging for over a dozen damage at several players, he found himself the target. He faced several turns of moderate removal, got really salty, and a few turns later he again scooped.
The game went a good bit longer. I never really posed a threat to anyone. The Saskia player got out an Kalonian Hydra and swung it at me, but then decided to focus on the Teysa player as none of us had an answer for his sky-high life total.
i almost had a chance to kill the Saskia player and even though I had no shot at the table win, I would have taken him out, but I wound up a few power short. We all just went after the Teysa player, but in the end the Zacama player stumbled into a game-winning loop. He had a Temur Sabertooth out and thought that he had a way to make infinite mana. We were all fine with conceding the game to him, though afterwards he apparently realized that he only had the ability to infinitely replay Zacama from his hand. It didn't really matter - we were all set with the game and were ready to head out.
EDH League
This post is going up on Saint Patrick's Day, which in America is a silly excuse to wear green and do weird things like eat green bagels for breakfast. There can also be a lot of drinking, but this past Saturday in honor of Saint Patrick's Day I made my usual batch of cookies with green mint chips and with a little green dye thrown into the mix. I also used only white sugar - usually it's 2/3 brown sugar, 1/3 white sugar, so they came out crisp, sweet, and an odd pale green that kinda worked with the green mint chips.
I had just reworked my Ramos, Dragon Engine deck to no longer be a hybrid mana heavy deck. It had been fun and more casual, but the league had just voted us from 13 poison counters to kill a player down to the official 10 poison counters and I was keen to see if I could re-engineer my old wincon to be more efficient. The old build had a long and complex process involving flickering Ramos and cascading Maelstrom Wanderer into a couple of other cascade creatures to get the job done. The new build is sleek and efficient if I can get the right cards (or card) in hand and I have enough mana.
Saturday morning I realized that I was going to want to play my Marwyn deck because it's green, but also that I needed to tweak Ramos a little further. Again in honor of St Patrick's Day, I decided to rebuild him as Ramos Lucky Charms. I went through my collection and pulled out seven charms to slot into the deck in place of other spells that weren't likely to pull their weight. Seven seemed an appropriate number and I had already just reworked the deck to have a ton more answers than any Ramos draft I had ever piloted so I expected it to be an interesting day.
I also recently finished up a Horde of Notions deck that runs as many answers as I could reasonably include. I usually lean away from interaction because I hate being messed with myself, so I tend not to mess with other players' boards. Those players who run lots of interaction do tend to win a lot of games, so I wanted to see if tribal answers could be built around a commander I had never thought of as particularly good. It was going to be an interesting day.
Round 1
I got to our LGS just before 2pm. Sometimes I can get there earlier but usually I'm just on time. We wound up waiting for one of our newer regulars who was running a little late and we split up 14 players into four tables. I wound up at a three player table with a couple of guys I very much enjoy playing with. I decided to go with Marwyn, the Nurturer. One of our Selvala players was with us and playing his Selvala deck with Marwyn at the helm so that he could pick up extra points for being on theme. Our theme this month is commanders with "+1/+1 counter" on the card somewhere. We were joined by a player on Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Bruse Tarl, Shirtless Lumberjack... or Beefy Metrosexual... or Brooding Herder, or whatever he's called. I can never remember. The Ishai / Bruse Tarl player is one of my favorite tablemates but also someone I've been "in the red" against for a while now. By that I mean that I generally have a sense that he's been killing me more than I've been killing him. In actuality, we're probably roughly on par with each other, but I do notice when he kills me and it happens more often than I'd like.
This wound up being a short game. The SelvMarwyn player (actually playing Marwyn but with basically a Selvala deck in the 99) got out to a very fast start and it was probably only thanks to a Disallow from the Ishai player that we survived past the early game. Fortunately for us, what the SelvMarwyn player was doing was bouncing lands to his hand to untap Marwyn to make more mana. That works to win but in a longer game it's unsustainable. At one point in response to a bounced land, the Ishai player disallowed the ability and at that point he was left with no lands in play and a decent little board but not enough to end either of us.
I had gotten Marwyn out but my early game was also messed with. I played a Wirewood Symbiote and played and equipped Lightning Greaves with the eventual goal of putting those greaves on my Marwyn. The SelvMarwyn player blew up my Greaves so I was more than a little concerned with my ability to "go off" uninterrupted.
The Ishai / Bruse Tarl player was probably at the wrong table to play that particular deck. Ishai benefits from having three or four opponents, but with only one it was unlikely we'd both play enough spells and not win outright. He's got a great deck and he's turned into a very good player but I'm not sure he was in a good position even from the outset. He was able to play Ishai but after playing it and passing the turn to me, I found myself with the opening I needed.
I had drawn into Staff of Domination and had been sandbagging it, hoping to be able to drop it and win on the spot. I had Marwyn out and had cast an Elvish Harbinger to put Elvish Promenade - a sorcery but with the Elf card type - on top of my library. I figured it was inoffensive and wouldn't freak my opponents out. When my turn came around I was able to play it to put 3 elves onto the battlefield and push Marwyn up to 6 power. I bounced an elf to my hand to untap Marwyn and was able to tap her for 6 and play Staff and win.
The Ishai player actually phased out with Teferi's Protection but I drew a big portion of my deck, dropped a bunch of artifacts and elves and swung lethal on the other Marwyn player. When the Ishai player's turn came up he had no answers and I won on my next turn.
I like to think my Marwyn deck is fairly well tuned, even if it's not a true cEDH deck, but it had lost its first two games of the month. It was nice to finally see her get back into the win column. The other tables were all done or nearly done because apparently we've all turned into a bunch of dirtbag tryhards (myself included) who like to win games quickly, so we were soon on to round two.
Round 2
The second round saw one player drop out after seeing what table he was in. He claimed to be heading off to see Captain Marvel and that I hadn't heard him say that he was dropping. I was going to be at a really fun table but I chose to re-shuffle the tables because I had it in my head that we had voted to not have more than two 3-player tables. In actuality the rule might be that we can have no more than one 5-player table, but by the time I had realized that I had already cleared it out and regenerated the round. We wound up with a five and two four and I was at the five.
I decided to play my reworked Ramos deck and found myself up against two Aminatou players, the SelvMarwyn player from round 1 and the Animar player who had crushed us all and wound up at the top of our rankings in February. He was on Animar, and I knew the other players all had very good decks so I knew I'd have my hands full.
The game started slowly for me. I didn't do an awful lot in the early game, drawing into and playing Pir, Imaginative Rascal but not having any blue to be able to follow up with Toothy. The Aminatou players were kept in check, but unfortunately so was I. My commander hit the field around turn 6 or 7 but was soon destroyed by a Naturalize from the Marwyn player. I wasn't the threat but I also didn't overreact to it. Killing a commander is often just a good idea, especially if that player doesn't have enough of a board to exact any revenge on you.
The Animar player was doing Animar things. He was pumping out a stream of creatures and Animar, while not huge, was getting big enough to be concerning. I had taken a hit from him in the very early game but was no longer the focus. I also had a play, albeit a pretty shaky one, to try to deal with Animar.
I started the game with a Bioshift and a Fate Transfer in hand. Bioshift is hybrid green/blue and will move counters from one creature onto another creature with the same commander. Fate Transfer will move all the counters from one creature onto any other creature. Animar has protection from black, so my plan was to play Ramos and use one or both of those to steal counters and then make a bunch of mana with my commander. What I'd do with that mana I had no idea, but that was the original goal. Then Ramos got blown up...
The Animar player got to a turn where he was going to try to knock out some players. I had been holding back my shenanigans as they weren't that powerful in the first place, and because I might be able to use them to my advantage. The Animar player played a Bane of Progress. My commander was already gone but he was going to blow up two of my mana rocks, probably ensuring Ramos would never hit the table again that game. I floated a colorless mana and a black mana and passed priority. The Bane of Progress resolved and the Animar player followed it up with a Craterhoof Behemoth and then used a creature he had to make a copy of it. I had almost messed with him and removed counters after the first one, but relented. My secret trick was still a secret, but the Animar player had it in his head that I might have an answer.
Before going to combat I told the Animar player that I wouldn't mess with his combat if he didn't send any attackers at me. It was a bold move, but one I made with the confidence of a player who knows fairly well how to bluff. My tablemates were less than pleased but they probably assumed I had a way to save them. I didn't, but I couldn't tell them that. Unsure of what he was dealing with and wanting to get the easy kills out of the way, the Animar player agreed and swung lethal on everyone else but me.
I was so sure that I was going to die next, I actually wrote a "3" onto my scoresheet for the number of players I had outlived in the game. I didn't think there was any chance I'd survive, but I was at 36 life and had my opponent worried about what I had in hand.
On my turn I was faced with not enough mana, no way to play my commander, and just a Pir, Imaginative Rascal and a Corpsejack Menace as my blockers. My opponent had two Craterhoofs, two Soul of Innistrads, a Bane of Progress with 4 +1/+1 counters and an Animar with 7 +1/+1 counters. I didn't draw into anything useful and passed the turn to him.
On his turn he swang a lot of them at me. He didn't swing everything, but I had my chance to play my silly cards. I used Bioshift to put the 7 +1/+1 counters from Animar onto Bane of Progress and then used Fate Transfer to put all eleven of them onto Pir. I almost put them on Corpsejack Menace but caught the error and put them on Pir so he could block Animar. I probably could have let Animar live, but I know combos in that deck revolve around the commander so I wanted it off the field. I took 16 damage and went down to 20, but now I had a 12/12 Pir who could block some of my opponent's attackers and possibly buy me time to think of an answer.
On my turn I again didn't draw into anything helpful. I had a tutor in hand but coudn't think of a way out. I passed turn and to my surprise the Animar player didn't swing the team at me. I figured he'd just put the pressure on until I was dead but I must have gotten into his head and made him want to dig a little until he was sure he could seal the deal. I must have a reputation for being able to pull rabbits out of the occasional hat. I wasn't going to invite him to swing and I certainly didn't complain
I must have drawn into either one of the cards I needed or into another tutor, but after another turn I saw my opening. The Animar player again didn't swing. He must have been worried about an Aetherspouts, but on his end step I tutored for an answer. I didn't know what I was looking for, but in the end I settled upon Naya Charm. It could tap all of his creatures and give me a free swing. He was at 40 life, but on my turn I cast my lucky Charm, tapped down his board and enchanted Pir with Phyresis. Pir was now a 12/12 with Infect. I swung in for the kill and he had no answer.
I couldn't believe it. I rarely win two league games, and I sure as heck didn't expect to win this one. To his credit, my opponent took it really, really well. He wasn't upset though we both acknowledged that he could have killed me if he had just played more aggressively. We both share a common habit of feeling flustered when we have too crazy of a boardstate and we're trying to figure out what's going on, what the best play is, and how to close out a game when we've got people waiting. I had done my best to encourage him to take his time during his turn, but sometimes you just make the wrong call anyways.
It was pretty sweet to win a game off Bioshift, Fate Transfer, Naya Charm and Phyresis, and while I didn't expect I'd be catapulted into the top spot in the league's rankings, it felt great to win my second game of the day.
I ran the points and updated the league scoreboard but I'll save those details for my wrap-up. Before I headed out I did get to play a pickup game. It was a six-player planechase game.
Planechase Pickup Game
In this game I decided to play my new Horde of Notions "Horde of Answers" deck. It's chock full of ways to remove threats and shut down creatures with activated abilities. It's got some wincons but I had no idea if it would prove capable of extending a game long enough to be able to get to them.
I was up against Experiment Kraj, Kumena, Ghave, Krenko and a partners deck led by Ishai and Reyhan.
I had a slow start, getting out some mana dorks, but also drawing into some removal. The game was pretty much defined by the Krenko deck, who came out of the gate pretty fast and put pressure on everyone. He had a Goblin Sharpshooter out and he soon blew away everyone's 1 toughness creatures. I lost both a Smokebraider and another mana dork, and had been hoping to play my commander on my next turn. I was a little annoyed but I noticed that the Krenko player had only two lands and a Sol Ring.. I told him I was going to have to blow up his Sol Ring as retribution, and he seemed really concerned about the propsect of losing it, so I got him to agree to not use Goblin Sharpshooter on me. I wasn't a threat anyways and he didn't want to deal with losing key permanents that early in the game, so he agreed. There were plenty of other people to swing at and mess with, so we soon had a bit of a truce in place.
This turned out to be a pretty good thing. I was able to build my board a little while the Krenko player really got out of hand. He eventually had over a dozen goblins, many of which weren't tokens, a Furnace of Rath to double all damage and a Five Alarm Fire. It was clear that he had a pretty nice Krenko deck and he knew how to use it.
I haven't mentioned the planes we visited because they were impactful but not incredibly memorable - at least not up to this point. It was the usual planechase experience where we all forget to roll the die at least half the time once we get into the mid-game because we're more focused on the boardstate.
The Ghave player was the first to get the boot. The Krenko player had been swinging damage around a bit but once his Furnace of Rath and a haste enabler were in place, he was lethal. He swung enough at the Ghave player to knock him out and I realized I was at a table with few answers and no boardwipes.
Most of my tablemates had simply not been messing with the Krenko player in hopes that he'd leave them alone. I can understand that approach, but I decided to take one for the team. The Five Alarm Fire had over 15 counters on it, so with a damage doubler (Furnace of Rath) on the field he could do 30 damage to anyone who decided to mess with him.
I hate to see players stuck under that kind of threat and i had a tutor in hand so I went digging. As I searched through my library, a lively conversation came up at the table with the players and an onlooker about what could be done. Just as the onlooker pointed out the answer, I was able to plop it down on the table - Krosan Grip! With the Krosan Grip taking out the Five Alarm Fire, I was able to safely Naturalize the Furnace of Rath. I expected I would still take a ton of aggro from the Krenko player for my trouble, but it was worth it. Our truce was specifically about Goblin Sharpshooter and allowing him to keep his Sol Ring, and Sharpshooter was long gone.
I made a point to suggest that the rest of the table could either have my back by helping find a way to deal with the Krenko player before I got slammed by him on his next turn, or they could let him exact his revenge and try to buy time to do something on their own. I was hoping they'd choose the former and I was glad when they did.
We happened to be on a plane (Naya?) where permanents that tapped for mana would produce an additional mana. The Kumena player kicked a Slinn Voda, returning all of our creatures to our hands. He then played a Stormtide Leviathan for good measure, turning all our lands into islands and making it so only creatures with flying and islandwalk could attack.
On the Krenko player's turn he was able to play out his army again and swing at me for 16 damage... or at least he thought he could - and so did I - until the Kumena player pointed out that the couldn't have attacked. We un-did the damage and the Krenko player said he wouldn't have played his cards out any differently and then passed the turn. He passed the turn without rolling the planar die.
At this point I should mention that I had some key cards in hand. I was sitting on a Food Chain and a Tooth and Nail. I had been teetering on the brink of having some combo in hand for a while and with the extra mana from the plane we were on, I'd be able to go for the win on my turn - if we stayed on Naya.
The Ishai / Reyhan player played out his hand and reestablished his board. To his credit, while he needs some work on his attitude in games, he actually had a pretty nice boardstate with some great synergy. He and the Krenko player are new to our meta and I very much hope they stick around, though I also hope the Ishai / Reyhan player finds a way to be more fun to play with. He often seems to brood and get frustrated easily.
Before he went to pass the turn, he said he was going to roll the planar die.
I stopped him and basically said that I'd really appreciate it if he didn't. I had just solved the problem of the Five Alarm Fire and the Furnace of Rath and I would really like for him to not roll and risk us leaving that plane.
One thing I've noticed in Commander is that if someone asks you insistently to not do something, it probably means you should do it.
He might have rolled and not moved us away, but to my slight surprise he agreed not to roll it that turn.
I hadn't told him I was about to win, and I feel the tiniest bit bad about that, but you're allowed to ask your tablemates for things that they probably shouldn't give you. He didn't know it, but he gave me the chance to go for the win.
My opponents had all been rebuilding their boardstates so they were tapped out and relatively unsuspecting.
I paid three mana and played Food Chain.
I then paid nine mana and entwined a Tooth and Nail, getting Eternal Scourge and Purphoros. That allowed me to exile and re-cast Eternal Scourge infinitely, killing the table with ETB Purphoros damage.
Was it effective?
Yes, most definitely.
Was it sporting?
Some might say no, but at that point in the game I felt I had earned the right to go for the win.
Before everyone scooped up their cards, I made a point to stop and encourage everyone to keep playing if they wanted to with their boards in their current state. My wincon hadn't affected anything really and while I needed to go, I didn't want to spoil the fun if they wanted to keep on playing that game. The poor Ghave player probably heard me saying that and wondered what I was thinking, but fortunately for him they were happy to start up a new game. As far as I could tell, nobody was salty about my win, not even the Krenko player. I had expected him to just kill me, so having my bacon saved by that Slinn Voda was pretty darn sweet.
Final Thoughts
It's rare for me to win two games on a day, so winning three is a rare treat. Removal and answers, while not a guarantee of victory, really do go a long way towards positioning yourself in a place where you can go for the win. That's not news to me, but it's an approach I need to use more often.
I was surprised to see that the league's top player didn't just roll through his games on Saturday. To his credit, he does mix it up and he gets bored of just playing optimal and auto-win decks.
His lead is narrower but i take some pride in having played a variety of decks (as has he) this month. I've now won games with Hallar, Marwyn and Ramos and we've got two Saturdays left in March. The order of the rankings didn't actually change at all - just the point totals.
One minor side note I should mention. Remember that second round in which I wrote down that I outlived 3 opponents? The above picture is actually incorrect because I had to fix my errant scoresheet so I actually have 86 points on the month. I doubt in two weeks I'd be able to catch our top dog, but I'm definitely going to play decent decks and give it a try. Our league has enough variance that it's anybody's guess what I'll be up against in the four remaining games. I don't like my chances but if nothing else I should be able to hold onto my second place position.
That's all I've got for you today. I'm actually writing this in the wee hours of the night because I couldn't sleep, but I'm going to post this and go back to bed. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!