Druids & Dragons

Every now and then I like to share a piece of art that I've cobbled together that hasn't even been shared over on CoolStuffInc.com yet. Today is one of those days. Maybe I'm making up for the fact this week's game log is shorter than usual. I normally write about my Tuesday night and Saturday games, but the prerelease for War of the Spark has our league not playing until next week. As such, I've only got my casual night games to share, so I figured I'd show you my favorite new Commanderruminations art mashup (above). It's Fblthp, lost in a misty swamp. The art is by "Morning" by Caspar David Friedrich from 1820, and Fblthp is by the amazing Jesper Ejsing.

Casual Night

This past Tuesday night I was faced with a minor quandary. The Boston Bruins were playing in game 7 of the first round of the NHL playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a lifelong Bruins fan, I decided I'd head down to NexGen comics straight from work, get in some games and make it home to catch at least part of the game.

For some reason I packed a bunch of good decks along with a new project - Sidisi, Galvanic Genius. I figured I'd do my best to win at least one game. If the Bruins were to drop their game and lose the series to the Maple Leafs I didn't want to risk having an evening where nothing at all went right.

By the time I got to the store at around 4:15, folks were already playing. I hung out and chatted with folks until one of the buys finally closed out the game and I jumped into the next one.

Game One

For some reason I decided to play Sydri, Galvanic Genius for my first game. I'm struggling to figure out what direction the deck wants to go in, and this was its very first game. With black in her color identity there's no reason I can't run win cons and enough tutors to be able to find them, but I always build in too many directions when I first build a deck. It's rare that I'm willing to just focus down on one or two really strong win cons and a fast path to get to them.

The table was made up of myself on Sydri and players on Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Jodah and Oloro.

I started out with some early mana rocks, including a Darksteel Ingot. i was vaguely excited about the idea of being able to use Sydri to turn it into a creature and then give it deathtouch and lifeline using her activated abilities. I had a Wrath of God in hand, though, but I was happy to be able to wipe the board to try to slow my opponents down. Of course, none of them were playing creature-heavy decks, but it was still nice to have it in hand. I actually drew into Damnation but then the Niv-Mizzet player wheeled the table and my sweepers got tossed into the graveyard.

The Niv-Mizzet player cast what I think was an Epic Experiment for six or seven and lined up a series of spells he'd be casting, one of which was another wheel. I had a Bojuka Bog in hand and knew that I had to exile his graveyard or he'd use the Past in Flames he got from his Epic Experiment to go nuts and build up a ridiculous storm count.

I used a tutor to grab Cancel and countered his wheel. His turn wound up not being quite so crazy, and on my next turn I was able to exile his graveyard with Bojuka Bog.

All this time, the Oloro player was shooting his life total up and had managed to Ult the Ajani that gives you an emblem that prevents all but one damage from each instance of damage. I'm sure I botched that description, but the bottom line is that he was getting out of control.

When he played Aetherflux Reservoir we knew we were in trouble, but I had an answer. I wasn't sure it was a great answer, but it involved playing a little politics and I love to play politics in my Commander games.

I had Sydri on the field and offered to the Oloro player to make it so that he could use his Death Ray and not have to lose any life. Then he and I would duke it out for the win.

This guy doesn't win an outlandish percentage of his games, so I figured there was a good chance he'd jump at the chance of being handed two free kills. I was right.

Sydri made Aetherflux Reservoir into an artifact creature for one blue mana, and then gave it death touch and lifelink for a black mana and a white mana. He proceeded to kill the Niv-Mizzet and Jodah players and to his credit, he resisted the urge to use it on me.

On my next turn I played a Magister Sphinx and set his life to 10.

It felt clever as hell, but I had a feeling I might not have enough to overcome his life gain. I hadn't drawn into any more board wipes and before I was able to swing with my Sphinx the Oloro player exiled it. I had removed his sole flying blocker, and his board state was still pretty imposing. I had a Propaganda out though, so we went through a bunch of turns where I didn't draw into anything helpful and he kept forgetting to leave up enough mana to attack.

In the end I conceded the game. He had gone from 10 life all the way back over forty and I didn't think I was going to draw into any way to overcome the kind of constant life gain he was enjoying. It was way more than just 2 life per turn, and while I wasn't at the brink of death we had folks waiting for the next game to be able to start.

He earned the win, with a little help from me in the mid-game. I decided to switch up in power level for the next one.

Game Two

In game two I decided to play Muldrotha. The Niv-Mizzet player switched to Chainer, the Jodah player switched to Omnath (old, not angry) and the Oloro player stuck with Oloro.

In the early game I didn't do much. I got out some creatures but nothing impressive. The deck wants to combo off and when I drew into a tutor I held onto it until I had an opening.

The Oloro player was again blowing up pretty nicely. He had a Sheoldred out, and when the Omnath player went and got a Vorinclex I decided it was win-or-go-home time. I had no interest in suffering through a long game with both of those Praetors on the field. The Omnath player had an enchantment out that doubled our mana, and while I had forgotten it for a few turns, I remembered it when it mattered most.

Before my turn I tutored for Hermit Druid. I had Lightning Greaves out and already had Laboratory Maniac in hand, along with a 1 mana counter that would counter a spell that targeted a permanent I controlled. Also, I think everyone was tapped out from a counter spell battle over the Vorinclex.

I played my Hermit Druid, attached the Greaves, played Lab Man, tapped the Druid to mill my ENTIRE deck into my library, returned Narcameoba to the field, paid one black mana to unearth Dregscape Zombie, sacrificed Hermit Druid, Nacramoeba and the Zombie to flash back Dread Return, returned Alchemist's Apprentice to draw a card and won.

If the guys hadn't been screwing around with Praetors, I might not have bothered, but as far as I'm concerned if you drop a Vorinclex and a Sheoldred on casual night, you deserve what you get. Hermit Druid combo isn't particularly casual, but I've been known to play that deck and drive after slower lines of play just to have the game be fun for everyone.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't mad at them, but I also wasn't going to give up a chance to combo off if they're going to play very un-casual games on what is ostensibly our night to be able to play a more casual brand of Commander.

Game Three

There were some guys who had arrived after the first table had gotten rolling and I jumped at the chance to switch tables and play with them. I like mixing things up and some of these later arrivals are folks I really like to play with.

I decided to play my Marath Dino Tribal deck and found myself up against Drana, Hallar and The Mimeoplasm.

I've got a Hallar deck of my own, and I definitely went way too easy on the Hallar player in this game.

We all got out some early creatures. I got Marath out along with Ranging Raptors, and was hoping to use it to ramp and be positioned to compete in a longer game.

The Hallar player got out a Kalonian Hydra and had Hallar with one counter on him.

That was where I should have put everything I had into shutting down his board. I should have pinged Hallar to death and accepted that I'd take the Hydra to the face, but I have a soft spot for Hallar.

When the Hallar player cast Increasing Savagery to put Hallar at 6 counters, played a Strionic Resonator and attacked the Mimeoplasm player, he was able to double and then double again Hallar's counters. It was lethal and the Drana player and I weren't able to pull into anything resembling an answer.

I was happy to see Hallar win a game, but apparently this guy's Hallar deck has been winning at the same alarming rate that my Hallar deck had seen. Next time I'll probably put more effort into shutting him down, but it was fun to see Hallar do dumb Hallar stuff. It still seems astonishing that Wizards made a way to make Kicker spells so dangerous, at least in casual EDH.

Game Four

With a win under his belt, the Hallar player headed out. With the Bruins game starting, I was torn but decided to get one last game in. I switched to Lathliss, Dragon Queen. The Drana player switched to Shattergang Brothers and the Mimeoplasm player switched to his Dinosaurs deck - led by Zacama.

My Lathliss deck has generally been both consistent and powerful, but for some reason this game it decided to give me some trouble. I kept a hand with 2 lands, a Skittering surveyor and a Pilgrim's Eye. I knew if I was able to get to three mana, I'd be fine for the following two land drops because of those two creatures, as they tutor a land to my hand when they enter the battlefield.

I played my first two turns, dropping a land on each turn, dropping a Lightning Greaves on turn two, and then drawing and having to discard for at least the next three or four turns. Somewhere along the way I played a Stronic Resonator, but had no triggers to use it on, so it was just a hopeful little paperweight.

It was about the most miserable start to a game I'd had in a long time, though I did my best to keep my sense of humor about it. The Shattergang Brothers player and the Zacama player got a few creatures out and the former did a good job of forcing the latter to sacrifice creatures. If they had both focused on me, I'd have had no chance at all but they were being nice and trying to deal with each other rather than pick on the dude who was currently drawing into nothing but big stuff.

I did take a few shots along the way, but eventually dropped that elusive third land. I played my Pilgrim's Eye and my Skittering Surveyor, not caring if they died to a forced-sacrifice or to combat. Finally I was in a spot to try to do something.

For this game, "something" involved paying 3 mana for a Thran Turbine and then using that to play an Extraplanar Lens. The Shattergang Brothers player had a Treasure Nabber on the field and got a turn with my big mana rock. For some reason he didn't sacrifice it with his commander and on my turn I was able to play a Caged Sun. My mountains would now tap for three.

Apparently, this was a bridge too far, and the Shattergang Brothers player used Chaos Warp on my Caged Sun. I shuffled, hoping to flop it back out again, but I got a Mountain instead, which wasn't that much of a downgrade.

My next turn was when the horses (or the dragons) left the barn.

I was able to play a Sarkhan planeswalker that would let me uptick him to make mana that could only be used on dragons. I did just that and cast Lathliss, played a Hellkite Charger and used Strionic Resonator to copy the Lathliss trigger. I went from having maybe 1 power on board to having 21 power on board. I sent the Charger at the Shattergang player, figuring it made more sense to use it than to risk losing it to a board wipe and getting nothing at all out of my big turn.

At this point with the ability to make big mana I was poised to be able to kill someone by swinging out with my Dragons and pumping them. If they didn't pull into a board wipe, they were probably screwed.

The Zacama player got Zacama out and used it to kill my Strionic Resonator and my Extraplanar Lens, but those weren't really the problem. I wound up swinging a couple of dragons at each of my opponents and played a Dragon that could tutor up and exile an artifact. I got Caged Sun, even though I figured there was little chance that Dragon would wind up dying and putting the Caged Sun in my hand.

Over the next few turns I was able to close out the game. The Shattergang player had one flyer and the Zacama player just had Zacama. I took a little more damage in the exchange, but the kindness the guys had shown me in the early game had come back around. If they had beat me down back when I had no blockers, I'd have had no shot.

I definitely thanked them for that kindness - not in a jerky way, but more by acknowledging that I hadn't really earned the win as much as I'd been the beneficiary of their being decent table mates. Most of us don't hammer away at someone if they're having a bad early game unless they're either a terrible table mate or just richly deserve to get a beating at that particular time. I can only assume neither applied to me, though my handing the Hallar player the previous game could certainly have earned me some aggro.

After game four I headed home and made it in time to see the Bruins close out their first round with a game seven win!

Final Thoughts

This week's blog post was a bit on the short side, I should be back on track next week.

Our league's theme for May will be commanders with "artifact", "equipment", "enchantment" or "aura" in their text box. I've got a bunch of options. I could do with Nazahn, Brudiclad, Jhoira or even Sydri. There might be more, but chances are good I'll lean towards the latter two. If nothing else, I really want to avoid having another month where I go winless in my league games. It was a short month, but playing Horde of Notions didn't help much.

That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!