#the deck is Not Good without urabrask

[dravidious]

You're the most amazing kitty of

Mentioned this already today but this card in Brawl is very silly. If the opponent doesn't stop you by the time you get to chapter 3 you just win

[inventors-fair]

Hybrid Legend Commentary: From Across the Multiverse

I'm glad to see that a lot of people were excited for this contest, and I think that swinging for the fences in terms of what we know people will like pays off. There's no specific balance that needs to be struck, no lessons to be learned as if we're taking a test. Knowing what's fun is its own test, really, when you compare it against base desires. Is this getting a little too philosophical? Fine, let's get personal.

Sometimes I have contest ideas that are cerebral and weird and make sense only to me. Frankly, I have a lot of those, and those ideas are also based off of the notion that I know more about MTG than I actually do. Shocker: I'm just a dude playing cards. And I'm also someone who sees cool things happen and forms emotional attachments to them. Wort really was just a card that I fell in love with when I was looking at ways to make my very first precon deck happen back in the day. I played random Spirit cards, random creatures—and it worked, and it was fun. Now that we're in the present and I can think critically about card design, I still love those memories. Applying them here and watching everyone else apply them is what makes this all worthwhile.

As we get into commentary, don't forget that JUDGE PICKS are cards that either had an awesome idea I wanted to point out, challenged me in a cool way, or were just plain good and limited by the fact that we can only have so many slots in the top six. Carrying on:

@corporalotherbear — Glissa, Flame of Evolution (JUDGE PICK)

Giving haste in mono-green is super aggressive, but not entirely unheard of; without looking it up, green is either secondary or tertiary in it, right? On a legend, it's a bit of a push but WAR Samut did it, right? I think with the combat trigger, expanding the combat damage trigger from Glissa herself to other creatures is a nice twist on tradition. A curious thing to contend with is the integration of red... Who is the tyrant to which she is referring? Elesh Norn, Vorinclex? The red feels like it's coming from a non-Phyrexian philosophy, ish. Urabrask is a complicated character. Still, her role in the Hunter Maze feels fairly freeing to me. 

For the record, the abilities here are pretty great as it stands. Green and red could both use the growth ability, and it makes T5 plays (and small creatures, too) into Sliths, which is really damn neat. There's a chance that this could be a 5-drop just because of the benefit it brings to your board presence, but that's also assuming they can connect, so who knows? As an aggressive legend, she's pretty hard to deal with, and even if she attacks and dies the turn she comes down, it'll beef up your board and make for a wild time. I think GU would be the wildest combination, honestly—hasty blue creatures in the shell are nasty if they have the right evasion.

Unrelated to the card, back to the color philosophy questions: evolution is a strange beast when it comes to red philosophy. Is there inherent self-drive with how individuals are affected by their environments, or would a red-aligned character resist evolution and its involuntary chain of relationships? There's a wild conflict there that's really cool to think about.

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@cthulhusaurusrex — Teysa, Envoy of Law

As far as non-interactive cards go, this one is certainly one that fits the bill. I think that first strike is one I'd have to hear an argument for in terms of blue's slice, but if there's enough relevance with the return, well... I get what the argument might be, but I don't think I'm swayed, especially since this card isn't the most fun for a board state. Only having one is probably best since it muddies up the board and is essentially a good taxing defender. Without the ability to utilize the stall on this particular card, I've got the current impression that this card wouldn't do much beyond being a big brick in the middle of combat. Nobody gets in, nobody gets out. Can't say that it's a fun incentive.

But the flavor is something I suppose I can roll with. Once more, we have a maze runner running with a different crew, and I'll admit that the Dragon's Maze version of Teysa was pretty great and had some power going for it. I can imagine that that's where you got your inspiration, since this card doesn't seem to have anything to do with either of Teysa's other cards. Fine by me! I just wish there was something more that she did besides gum the battlefield here. Still, the combat orientation is a nice touch.

~

@curiooftheheart — Gaddock Teeg, Paranoid Cenn

I want to defend this card because it feels remarkably fun and hateful; I used to play hardcore Azorius control back in the day, and having something like this on the battlefield is sometimes even better than Grand Abolisher. I mean, Grand Abolisher is incredible, but this also stops triggered abilities from triggering, it looks at abilities of lands... Oh, wait, it looks at the abilities of lands. Might want to clarify that your opponents can do mana abilities, because otherwise things will get real litigious. IIRC mana abilities can't be countered, right? I'll need to read up on that a bit more.

All the same, I think you were the only person who shifted a Lorwyn character, which makes sense because there actually weren't too many. Brion, Nath, and Wydwen were the only others, right? Maybe so. No matter! In another world, on a shadowy moor, the paranoia increases. Honestly even though it's already established as something that's been tried and true I like the approach you took to this prompt in a way that's actually canon-adjacent. Unless Gaddock died. In which case, shame on you. But yeah, I'm personally a fan of hatebears. I am also of the mindset that cards like this might be too complex for some players. They can just keep a Gaddock count or something, though. Not my problem.

~

@damndroid — Adrix, Unparalleled Genius

Ambitious, granular, and weird! Let's talk about it and start with the flavor. This is a dark turn for sure, and I have the feeling that we'd have to really dig deep to find what happened in the past. Nothing wrong with that, though! From childhood friends to adulthood fiends, you've got an evil genius who uses their friend's body for unethical experimentation. Or something. See, I get the gist, but I'm a little muddled in how the mechanics are supposed to convey the flavor.

Speaking of mechanics, your wording is all over the place, captain. Let's break it down. To the best of my ability, this card should say: "Whenever a non-Merfolk token you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, create a copy of that token, except its name is Nex, Research Assistant, it's 0/1, and it's a legendary Merfolk Zombie in addition to its other types. It gains haste. This ability triggers only once each turn." I'm a little stumped on the flavor of copying things like Treasure and Blood, or how the haste in blue is okay here. I think that aspects of this card would be okay, but perhaps a little more flavor explanation and mechanical directness could serve you well. Right now I'm not as on-board as I'd like to be.

~

@edenzom — Liesa, Vengeful Valkrie

Something tells me that this one wasn't supposed to be common, but the rarity didn't get added in? Don't worry about it too much. I'll assume rare or mythic, probably rare. With that, I do like the triggered ability, and I like the concept of the unearthing. Unless unearth is a big mechanic, I think you could've spelled it out as just an activated ability of this Liesa, but that's your call. I feel that there are a few too many restrictions on the cost of the unearthing, though. Sacrificing humans may be enough. You're also in a trap, though, where you want to run high numbers of humans, but you also probably want the relevant demons, devils and vampires to make this card work the way that it wants to. Is that going too wide? I have the feeling that we're playing with too much flavor and not enough archetyping here.

Still, I'm definitely okay with Liesa going a little bloodthirsty here. She's tapping into the red of the plane and coming back with the power of the demons with which she once forged allyships with. There are costs to everything, but one would be forgiven for assuming that she was a demon herself were it not for the typeline there. With all the avenues that people went for this week, I think this one is really cool conceptually and aligned with the real possibilities that Innistrad's past could have gone down. What if the demons come back, y'know? I think a little mechanical smoothing could've made it go down quiet well.

~

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Reyhan, the Dragonslayer

The flavor of this card from an Abzan standpoint, as well as a warrior standpoint, is pretty on-point for me. I'm curious what you were envisioning for the remainder of the timeline—did Reyhan succeed in defending her clan? If I'm interpreting right, then I can see a world where she becomes an outcast of sorts, a vigilante among the dragon-tribes. It's certainly an interesting angle, focusing more on the individual character rather than their role as a stalwart leader. White's heroic focus isn't often touched upon, at least when compared to the sometimes solitary nature of green and/or white's focus on the group and community.

The mechanics are a little iffy for me, specifically because of the keywords. The eternal hybrid problem is finding a way that both colors can have the overlap, and I feel that some flavor got in the way of in-pie reasoning. Reach is tertiary in white at best, and practically never appears in black (unless it's on a spider-themed card from what I can see). Deathtouch is out of white's pie. First strike is where there would be the most overlap, and that one's fine; it's still overshadowed by the other two. Regarding the wording choices, it's hard to find proper templating but I believe this card could read as: "Reyhan has X as long as it has at least one +1/+1 counter on it, Y as long as it has at least two +1/+1 counters on it, and Z as long as it has at least three +1/+1 counters on it." What would be the best XYZ abilities, I wonder? First strike could be a good aggressive baseline to start, but black and white together have flying, lifelink, double strike and in corner cases indestructible... It's up to you how these things stack and maybe keywords aren't the best place to go, honestly.

~

@helloijustreadyourpost — Zegana, Conclave Visionary (JUDGE PICK)

Oh my goodness, it's supposed to be HAND, that's why the flavor didn't make any sense to me on the first readthrough. Anyway, let's ignore the ribbing that I had planned and point out instead that yes indeed, we have another maze-runner-turned-strange here on stage, and I'm living for it just like I was then. Now, people who are deep into the Ravnican lore might give me crap for this but I like the idea of there being inter-Selesnyan conflict, a little bit. Kkkkinda. Conflict isn't the right concept, but like, different points of view I suppose? Green and white merfolk are bizarre but everyone's accepted, so there's that. Zegana's a cool character from what I remember, so this would be a cool break indeed.

And there's one thing that Zegana's known for, and you've brought that to life here for sure. I wanted to commend this card as a judge pick because of how much of a pain it would be in limited and how the Selesnyans really needed a card like this to go hog wild. It's a card that probably would entice commander players with its swinginess and it fits perfectly into the shells that already want the +1/+1 counters. Board buffs make the world go round and she's no exception. It's also super interesting that everyone BUT her gets the counters. That benevolence is a good touch to show the differences between both card and character.

~

@hypexion — Feather, the Fallen (JUDGE PICK)

Angels without flying definitely get my attention. Looking up Feather's past (again, I'm not super deep into Ravnica), the fact that she had her wings bound makes this card agonizing to see. An angel that has to walk among the blood-soaked streets and make her mark known, disgraced in her power, sword in hand... What's really cool to me is how not-Rakdos she is here. There's no sense of joy or revelry, no art in what she does. There's business to attend to, refracted through the blood covering her eyes... I'm reading too much into this but the POINT is: it's cool.

The mechanical thoughtfulness is also a good touch. While it's a little close to home, the fact that it has to target Feather herself is a good step. Removal begets removal, and buffs mean more removal. I do think that she should be rare and not mythic, but only because opening her would mean a hyper-narrow combat deck if you're gonna build around her aggression. I don't think there's that much real estate to be had. Now, cantrips in the right shell might make her far stronger than I'm initially thinking. Right now, though, I'm landing in the camp of decreased rarity, one line of flavor, and you're golden. Unlike Feather. Poor angel.

~

@kalinary — Etrata, the Consumption

I always thought that oozes were more of a Simic thing, but I'm willing to buy that the murky and stinky under-sewers would be home to a nasty character like this. As for the how and the why... Well, I think that we're missing a couple things on this card. I'd like to have known more about what this card really represented, what she does here, what part of her is still vampyric and the like. "The Consumption" is a pretty big title. I'm not currently getting a sense of story scale.

Mechanically, I'm also underwhelmed. Having to pay a cost that's also contingent on combat damage, AND the fact that it has to eat a creature, AND the fact that it has no evasion and the body is really underwhelming for a mythic... There's a lot left to be desired with this card. When making these big mythics, the things to consider aren't just how the character on them is depicted, but also: if this card is filling in a powerful slot in a set, what can you do to make it theoretically stand out above the theoretical rares? What's the floor/ceiling for that balance? It's a fine card conceptually and I don't dislike the ability. It just feels like a bulk uncommon that's missing flavor text more than a big Golgari legend.

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@maypletreeway — Gor Muldrak, Trailblazer

I think that I'd've wanted to be told more about Gor's journeys through an attached blurb rather than the flavor text we have here. In that limited space, what I would have wanted to see was how Gor changed completely. What about the red separates him from the blue of his research? From the beginning, I mean—because here and now, I can definitely sense the gist: crazy research guy cuts down the land, makes the paths, discovers the salamanders. That I'm on board with. With how the flavor text is written, I feel like this is more on the continuation of a timeline rather than the alternate/twisted universe.

What I don't fully understand is why, mechanically, Gor has protection from salamanders here. It made sense on the Commander card, but not as much when you're looking at a table where you're the only person making them. Flavor as justification only goes so far. Frankly I think that a solid protection from blue would've been fine. IMO the only reason his first card has any kind of protection is because it was intended for folks to turn salamanders against one another. What I really like about this card is the aggression that you're putting on display. Sacrificing a land to get a 4/3 is pretty bonkers even if it's not as fast as Titania + Safekeeper or something. I'd run a version of this in Gruul aggro.

~

@misterstingyjack — Vargus, Wrathful Raider

Vargus is one of the hottest pirates to sail the multiverse seas, so you've got a lot to make up for in that department. What's happening here, I think, is that you've made a strange Commander-y card that's an odd duck in limited. The thing about goading is that you've got this scenario where you're encouraging folks to attack in a multiplayer manner—goad's specific wording implies it. With a standard set, is that the most grokable? I don't think so, not to the extent that it should be one's first choice for mechanics here.

Still, the vibe of the card is significantly different. Cutting the blue takes the seafaring nature out of the pirate and replaces it with the brutality of plundering. Brutal indeed—a strong way to spread the love. If we're just looking at this from a multiplayer perspective, this card does everything it needs to do well, and the small pirates get to swing in and create trouble for an already troubled opponent. Giving them creatures that deal damage is pretty nuts even if they might not stick around, y'know? In 1-v-1 limited, you're going to get your hits in and I think that this card can hold its own. I'll contend that this design is better in a Commander set than a standard set. I'll also contend that it's pretty slick regardless.

~

@nine-effing-hells — Kruphix, God of Whispers

You're gonna have to make a pretty strong argument for having a mechanical shift from devotion being less than five to less than seven, and why you changed the wording when Phenax is available for a template. As for scrying and surveiling, I think that highlights a personal pseudo-frustration that we live in a world where both of those things are viable in a standard environment. As far as the gods go, I have to say that this card itself feels weak comparatively. There's Eligeth who does it without the life loss, and the build-around is asking for more than I feel is reasonable.

A lot's not changed between this and the original Kruphix with same mana value, same stats. With the manifestation, though, I'll admit that you've made a super cool connection between Kruphix as a prophetic god of knowing re:possibility and as a god of knowing re:accruing that knowledge. Greatness at any cost and whatever, right? The people demanded knowledge and there came a god that rewarded both cunning and ambition. That much I'll absolutely give to you. The rest of the card isn't making me super enthused.

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@spooneater457 — Tolsimir, Bane of the Conclave

The alternative history you've presented here is concise and pretty well-done. What's up with everyone bringing up Ravnican legends in cool ways this contest? Anyway, not knowing much about Tolsimir beyond the wiki, I think the sense of story you've made is quite interesting. Tolsimir lives, and the dryad is punished, and there's a lot of shakeup in the guild. If nothing else, you can take the joy in knowing that your card made me actually look up the Karlov Manor story to fully understand what was happening.

I do know my mechanics, though, and I know that you've given lifelink to a creature that's red and green, and neither one of those colors have access to lifelink even on their own. Riot's another story, and I appreciate that, although it could've used some reminder text. The damage trigger is, AFAIK and unfortunately, out of red's pie. Green can get some contingent damage, but this is pretty widespread. I think that this card's the sum of its parts and some of its parts are really messed up to the point of being way out of line. As much as I think your story path is one of the coolest divergent splits, I would go back and check the hybrid relationship.

~

@stareyedesper — Dack, Enduring Scoundrel

As you might've seen by now, this was a hybrid contest, not just a multicolor one, where you had to change (e.g. replace) one of the character's colors. Additionally, this was supposed to be based on legendary creatures and not planeswalkers. I'll make some quick judgements, but do keep in mind the contest requirements for next time.

Mechanically, I think it was ambitious to have the specific haunt clause on there. For ease of access, I feel that it could've been easier to just have a death trigger that was contingent upon Dack remaining in exile.

Flavorfully: this is where I'm also a little bit lost. Where is the alterternate aspect happening here? As far as I can tell this takes place right after War of the Spark when Dack dies, and thus becomes a ghost, but that's just one possibility and not a full change of timeline. 

~

@tanknspank — Kaseto, Orochi Maverick (JUDGE PICK)

The orochi are a weird bunch, aren't they? I think you're really pushing the limits of green recursion here, but hey, green gets cards back, red gets the temporary reanimation—there's nothing technically being broken here. It's a great modification staple, and I feel that seeing the orochi reclaim their wild side is an interesting move. Reading up on Kaseto, I can see where you've gone for the change of timeline pretty exactly: he rejects his ancestors and fights against the encroaching world centuries later.

And as far as limited goes, this one feels like a beater, and there's not much more to say about it. I can see the late game having some awesome auras coming down from the creature that had died before with the auras on them, and equipment in the form of reconfigured creatures makes the aggro deck that much more aggressive. Zero complaints here. I think he's a fun casual commander, a fun limited card, and you can use a lot of natural development and sacrifice to make him worthwhile. Maybe I'm not having my heartstrings tugged at with this change of life experience, but that hardly matters when the snake kicks butt—hence a well-earned JP.

~

@wildcardgamez — Killian, Memory Mage (JUDGE PICK)

Young Killian embracing his light side and kindling it with the fires of independence? Yes please! That's a nice change, and as much as the Strixhaven story was...something I didn't really follow, reading up on it makes this card far more unusual. The question the becomes whether or not the Lu family was now all Lorehold in their history (complete alternate universe) or whether this is the path where Killian has broken completely free of his father's shadow. I dunno about the rest of the Lorehold folks, but Killian here certainly feels more education-oriented and down-to-earth. Mechanics are pretty rad for heroic nonsense as well. The timing window restricts this card, but you've got to learn when to play it so that you can maximize the value. Additionally, there's no reason you can't run it out for exile-from-graveyard synergy, but what happens afterwards? Well, maybe it was a mistake to do that, or maybe not, and you learn as you play the cards more. I think the benefit of an school-themed set is that it's fun to have meta moments in that vein. It feels meta to me, anyway. One note is that it should be "exile an instant card" and not just "an instant," because of the way that objects in zones are referred to. I like how it's utilized both for removal and for combat benefits. Neat all around!

Tune in tomorrow for the heat death of the universe. Love yall! @abelzumi

[flusterfluff]

A lot of the problem I have with the Phyrexian faction stems mostly from two things. Well three but the third doesn't really count. The first and most important is the lack of consent and the morality of people trying to convert others against their will, which is mostly done by, second the Orthodoxy. Tl;dr fuck Elesh Norn, and fuck the experiments that Jin Gitaxias was doing back when I was originally getting into the story back in Scars block.

The third is, well gonna be honest, personal bias. As young magic player, I had been on a budget of free cards and put under the heels of the oppressive praetor effects, and told that my first deck literally couldn't play a creature against an opposing Norn, that the same deck's ramp meant nothing to an opposing Vorinclex, and that the control style I tried to shift into to combat the meta couldn't hold cards in hand against a S+T'd Jin Gitaxias. My formative years in the game were spent under the oppression of three of the five of the praetors, and the only one I stood a chance against was the red aggro deck that made a bunch of goblins and regularly swept my legs with hasty threats before I could do much. But at least Urabrask wasn't an imperialist bastard. At least Urabrask wanted to let those not consenting to Compleation be. That was okay.

Looking past personal experiences and gameplay, we get back to the heart of the matter. Phyrexia is an imperialist regime. They conquer. They assimilate. They do not give a choice. They are a VERY good villain faction. That there's some dissent within speaks to how flawed as a faction they are. I'm not going to say that body modification is wrong. Body modification is freaking awesome. But there are _so_ many ways to pursue that without supporting or adding to the influence and forces of a group that wants to bring everything under its control.

Neo Kamigawa has some great potential for body mods. The Simic... Post Kraj-ening are mostly good for that, too. Granted, Ravnica sucks and all of the guilds are leeches on society that make life actively worse for statistically most of the plane's inhabitants, but they're SO much less awful than giving your consciousness and soul over to an imperialist regime that will just use your newfound control of and freedom of expression with your body to forcibly assimilate people that don't want it.

Yeah, it's a really cool monstery aesthetic, but just planeswalk into the blind eternities for a bit and unshackle yourself from a physical form altogether. Become an omnipotent deity, reclaim the power that Urza stripped from you, and project whatever form you want on the petty reality of whatever plane you wish as an Eldrazi.

Then use that power to give Norn what she really deserves. A swift, but brutal death that will be sung about for millenia to come across all planes that their tree has touched.

I just read a post that was all

"people who like Phyrexia are rooting for the cult, that's creepy"

and... my guy are you sure you're not making up a guy to be mad at? cos there could be different fandom ecosystems i'm not in but the Phyrexia stans i know are all

"Man, WotC really screwed the pooch with these stories. Urabrask is supposed to be stockpiling Halo and leading a rebellion! Where are the 2/2 red Phyrexian rebel tokens? Ixhel is lovely but come. ON."

and

"so they've just forgotten about

and

and Xantcha and Belbe"

Don't get me wrong--I always have and still do think it's okay to identify with the villains full stop, too.

So I'm not going to be alarmed at someone going "^ǩaπa-š’iimashaǩ. :-)" either really. People are allowed to think villains are sexy. They're written to be!

But I also think some people are missing where a lot of us who identify strongly with Phyrexia are coming from.

It's the transhumanism/body modification, not the cult.

It's the feeling like a monster for having or wanting a modified body, especially one that doesn't fit social norms, not the inflicting modification on nonconsenting people.

It's having been in a cult or other high control group, and struggling with the tension between wanting to fit in and be accepted and lovebombed over and over and knowing something isn't right here.

[jeskaim]

Streets of New Capenna Part 1

Today officially kicks off spoiler season for Streets of New Capenna and I have to say it looks like an interesting set. I like the whole 1920s Prohibition-era U.S.A. feel to go with the whole theme of the set being crime families. Elspeth looks like she was ripped straight from that era in her regular frame Planeswalker card. Supposedly this plane is her home plane and except for New Capenna it’s completely dead (according to Vivien Reid).

And what would this set be without Ob Nixilis who appeared on the teaser art? Supposedly his goal is to take over New Capenna by taking out all five families but knowing Wizards and the way they write their stories he won’t succeed.

With the last set having a Phyrexian praetor a lot of people aren’t surprised that Urabrask is in this set. According to the wiki Tezzeret makes an alliance with him in an attempt to double cross Elesh Norn and sends him to New Capenna to find Elspeth because her presence on New Phyrexia could turn the tides in favor of the Mirrans. If that’s not a hint at a return to New Phyrexia I don’t know what is.

Now onto the mechanics. Casualty is a perfect mechanic for Grixis colors. This is another reason I’m disappointed that Grixis didn’t go to the family of mages because it’s perfect for them. I guess with the Maestros being the family of assassins a mechanic like this fits them since it sacrifices creatures to copy spells.

We got a sneak peek of connive when all five family leaders were spoiled but now that we’ve seen some of the other mechanics it looks like an interesting one.

For the Riveteers I like this one. It reminds me of Dash from Fate Reforged but with the downside of the creature being destroyed at the end of the turn. I can’t wait to see what other cards have this mechanic.

For the Cabaretti (the party family) a mechanic like Alliance suits them. It works good in token decks which I assume this set will have a lot of cards that make them, especially Cabaretti cards. On a side note I love the flavor text on Devilish Valet.

And finally the Brokers mechanic. I’m not sure if this is it or if there’s another one but shield counters are an interesting concept. The only downside I can see is that you don’t have a choice on whether or not you can remove it so if a creature with more than one toughness takes even one point of damage it triggers causing you to lose the counter. From today’s previews the Brokers rely on different kinds of counters so this fits right in.

And finally this one. This card reminds me of a card in Yugioh caller Dark Brine that negates a spell or trap but let’s your opponent draw a card. It used to see a lot of play but as the meta became more combo-focused it stopped being played because letting your opponent draw a card started to become too risky. I doubt this will see a lot of competitive play because even though it has a mana value of one giving your opponent two treasure tokens is too much of a downside.

I can’t wait to see more of this set. So far the only cards I have my eyes on are the Maestros tri-land, Maestros Charm, and Urabrask for my Phyrexian praetor collection.

[housebeleren]

Random Commander Challenge: Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire

Aaaand back to Magic. I’ve gotta say, I really love doing this random commander thing. It really gives me a chance to stretch my deckbuilding muscles, and keeps the games fun and casual, since I can’t have too high a budget. It’s even inspired some of my playgroup to do similar things, building offbeat commanders with restrictions, so I highly recommend trying it out. For October (I’m way behind), the wheel landed on Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire from Core Set 2019. I feel like the 5 Elder Dragons from M19 were all super exciting when they landed, but were quickly cast aside in the excitement of the Ravnica guilds. But back to M19 it was, and with a deck I was really excited to try out, particularly since I almost never build these colors.

Art: Steven Belledin

Theme

Vaevictis Asmadi, at least on his second time at the rodeo, has a really interesting mechanic. He wants you to swing, and every time he does, he polymorphs something of your choice of every single player’s board. So right there, that presents us with a few clear jumping off points to work with. We’ll definitely want things to sacrifice to him, and we’ll want to hit a permanent as many times as possible, since it’s really painful to have all your opponents flip big creatures into play and have you whiff on a non-permanent. So with that in mind, I thought, “What if I made the deck almost all permanents?”, which naturally led to the follow up, “What if I made this a Primal Surge deck?”

Naturally.

So that’s the direction I went. This deck is very much about the mechanical identity, and very little about the flavor or lore identity. Sorry, Vorthoses, this one is for the Mels out there. (Though to be fair, there’s very little actual lore on the Elder Dragons besides Bolas.) But yes! Ramp to get to Vaevectis Asmadi, lots of sacrifice Fodder to feed his ability, and some payoffs, plus the lone spell Primal Surge to serve as an alternate path to victory. Let’s look at them in order.

Card Groups

Ramp - We definitely want plenty of ramp in this deck, as Vaevictis Asmadi is a 6 drop who needs to swing before he does anything, so chances are we’ll be casting him at least once to have any shot of winning. However, given his restriction, we don’t want lots of spell ramp like Cultivate in the deck. Instead, we want Creature and Artifact based ramp. I particularly like some of the Creatures that go find Lands to put on the battlefield, since they increase your chance of hitting actual cards with your commander’s ability. Of this group, Farhaven Elf, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Ondu Giant, and Solemn Simulacrum all made the cut. I also added Khalni Heart Expedition and Curse of Opulence as more off the beaten track ways to ramp (the latter of which can also be used as sac fodder). Lastly, I included 10 rocks and dorks, and which ones you prefer don’t really matter, as long as you have plenty of acceleration.

Haste & Protection - Vaevictis Asmadi is great, but has one major challenge. He’s a 6 drop without Haste that needs to attack before he’s useful. Normally, I’d say don’t stress it or wait until you have 8 or 9 mana to hold up protection after you cast him, but this deck is so tuned around his ability, we really need to get him attacking. For that reason, I think some Haste enablers are basically mandatory for this deck. Rhythm of the Wild and Fires of Yavimaya are fantastic, and feel right on with the flavor as well. I also included Anger, Bloodsworn Stewrd, and Urabrask the Hidden as additional redundancy. Lastly, as silly as it is for dragons to wear boots, I included Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots, which both also have the advantage of protecting him from targeted removal.

Sacrifice Fodder - Now that he’s attacking, we need something to sacrifice. It’s all well and good making your opponents sacrifice their big bombs they’ve just put out, but we want expendable things. Token makers are essential. Grismold, the Dreadsower is one of my favorites, since he not only creates sac fodder, but grows off of them when they die as well. Tendershoot Dryad and Verdant Force make tokens consistently as well, though they are costlier to get going. One of the cheapest is Genesis Chamber, but that can backfire if an opponent has a deck with lots of Creature ETBs, so play it carefully. I rounded out my options with Endrek Sahr, Curse of Disturbance, and Slimefoot, among a few others. Also, don’t forget your land-fetching creatures can be sacrificed for value after they’ve done their initial thing.

Big Payoffs - Now comes the fun part: flipping your tokens into some giant monsters and things. I started with all three Cavaliers from Core Set 2020 that fit in the Jund colors, and they’re all great hits off the ability. The Red one can also grant Haste, so he serves double duty on that count. Sepulchral Primordial is also a fun hit, since you can reanimate creatures you just forced your opponents to sacrifice, or anything else they may have thrown in the bin. It’s definitely worth including Avenger of Zendikar, Craterhoof Behemoth, and Purphoros as good hits that can easily turn into win conditions. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest fills a similar role, as does Kokusho, especially when paired with Haunted Crossroads. Probably the granddaddy of all hits, however, is It That Betrays, which will completely dominate the game if you untap with it and Vaevictis on the board, as you slowly take control of everything. It’s the only Eldrazi I included, but the important thing is mix & match your favorite giant monsters and have fun.

Removal & Other ETBs - Lastly, there are also lots of creatures with useful ETBs that are good hits off of Vaevictis, so you’ll want to include some of those. Several of them are removal, like Ravenous Chupacabra, Reclamation Sage, and Loaming Shaman (yes, that’s removal against Graveyard strategies). I also included Plaguecrafter and The Eldest Reborn as punishment against decks with low creature counts. Several other good ETBs are graveyard retrieval, so you’ll want to include at least a few, like Eternal Witness and Gravedigger. And finally, I threw in Dire Fleet Daredevil for both the name (yes, I’m that ridiculous), but also because its ETB effect is really sweet. Pick your favorites and make room for them.

A few final one-offs that are worth including. 

Haunted Crossroads - I already mentioned this one, as it’s a great way to buy back big creatures that die by flinging them on top of the library in response to Vaevictis’ ability trigger (though you can’t return the same thing you sacrifice, sadly). 

Warstorm Surge - Good Purphoros redundancy

Aid from the Cowl - Basically lets you double up your hits each turn. 

Bonds of Mortality - Since Vaevictis does target, and this allows you to get rid of pesky Hexproof creatures at a low cost.

Possibility Storm - This is a must-include here, since you won’t really care what you’re casting, but it can completely screw up your opponents’ game plans.

Primal Surge - If you’re going all-in on permanents, why not? Most of the time, this card simply says “Win the game.”

Win Conditions & Lines of Play

I feel like the win conditions in this deck pretty much speak for themselves, so I’ll go through these pretty quick:

Avenger-Craterhoof  - I mean, duh. This is the classic combo for Green, and it works great here. With all the Haste enablers in the set, these two can come down on the same turn (say, from a Primal Surge?) and just immediately win you the game.

Purphoros/Warstorm Surge - These two cards are basically redundant, and your goal is just to get them out then either drop an Avenger of Zendikar, or Primal Surge into your deck. But, even if you get one of these early, you can still win pretty quickly off them just through creating tons of tokens off Verdant Force, so don’t sleep on that option.

Primordial Betrays Everything - Use either Sepulchral Primordial or It That Betrays to just take everything. You can amass a huge army of your opponents best stuff after only a couple turns with these guys. For the Primordial, you’ll need to sacrifice it and reuse it, probably with Haunted Crossroads. Oh, that works for Kokusho too, how convenient.

Stompy Dragon Mode - Use your giant commander and many of the other giant creatures in this deck and just smash. This deck can go really aggressive really fast, and it’s often hard for other decks to keep up when you’re removing their best stuff every turn. Definitely think about winning through good old fashioned face smashing.

If it wasn’t clear, you should basically always win dropping Primal Surge, because you’ll flip into some combination of the above. The only time it might not work is if you have an opponent who truly has an obscenely high life total, in which case you may have to try to win through commander damage, or attrition them out by slowly taking their entire deck over the course of every turn. The good news is, you can prevent yourself from decking, so this isn’t actually completely unreasonable, it’s just annoying. (But honestly, if someone gains “infinite” life, are they not the unreasonable ones?)

Conclusion

Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire has been awesome. He was always one of my favorites from the cycle, but I actually think there’s a competitive Commander build here as well. There’s tons of potential to make this deck really solid, though I prefer my kinda jank one. The deck played pretty consistently, thanks to all the ramp, and I actually won 2 out of 4 games with it, which is pretty good.

I went a touch over budget for this (as usual), but this was about the closest I’ve ever come to staying within the budget, thanks to already having Craterhoof & Purphoros on hand. But I did need to get a copy of It That Betrays, and plus a few other odds and ends for the deck, ended up spending about $30 on new cards for it. Still, not bad considering my theoretical $25 budget for new cards. 

So yeah, fun commander, and a blast to play. Would 100% recommend, both for veteran players looking for something a little different, and for newer players as a way to introduce them to some really great combos, but still have fun doing big splashy things.

For November (yes I know I’m, to quote Sex and the City, about a fucking month late), I got Medomai the Ageless, so apparently the universe decided that nobody else was allowed to have fun after this one. I’ll post that one here soon, after I get to play it one more time this week.

[birdfriender]

not an anon but curious - what specific kinds of good red cards would you like for commander? if its card draw, (or even if its not) how do you feel about: 1. how card draw can fit into red's colour identity, and 2. existing red "card draw" effects (specifically wheels and "impulse" effects like Act on Impulse and Commune with Lava)?

Gosh where to begin :P I’m going to answer this from the perspective of a kinda 75%-ish player. I think in terms of like my personal enjoyment of the game the thing that I feel I miss the most is value spells? I think red really needs more cards like Volcanic Offering that let you deal with multiple permanents (including creatures!!) for a reasonable mana cost. I think honestly like within reds colour pie they actually have all the tools they need to make red reasonable they just need to cost them more aggressively. Impulse effects are great for replacing actual card draw but just like divination style cards like act on impulse are never going to get there in EDH. I would like to see “Exile the top card of your library, you may cast it this turn” as an effect tacked on to other cards where other colours might get card draw. Something like a red Soul of the Harvest or Harvester of Souls? Idk.

I know they want to keep red combat focused to a certain extent and so I understand why they print cards like Prophetic Flamespeaker and Dream Pillager but. But. They dont always have to make it “Deal Combat Damage to a Player” they could let them trigger on general combat damage, or any damage to a player just so the abilities have a realistic chance of actually happening. Also please. PLEASE. Give some of them haste. I know Lightning Runner had haste and thats a great start but that card requires pretty serious commitment to a block mechanic to work. And if you cant give them haste at least give them some way to actual get damage through, menace or something some sort of evasion. What red really doesn’t need right any more of is easily chumpable creatures that have to sit around for a turn and then attack without dying to do anything at all.

Speaking of red being combat focused, I think they really could do more to explore combat interaction as it relates to red’s shortcomings in commander. This kind of relates to both of my previous points but some sort of Coastal Piracy type effect but with Impulsive draw might be interesting? I think there are loads of combinations of existing cards with red mechanics that would be interesting. 

I think the final thing red is short on is honestly just like, threats? Red doesn’t really have any cards in the vein of Avenger of Zendikar or Consecrated Sphinx or Sheoldred that just immediately give you a threatening board and can run away with the game if not answered. The closest things Red has all have to wait to attack to do anything and even still are generally weaker than the offerings in other colours. It really doesn’t help that red gets frequently shafted on big splashy mythic cycles like Urabrask is so much worse than the other Praetors and look at the new red god from Amonkhet. Purphoros is strong but still needs a deck built around him to function. 

Anyway yeah that’s my partial list of things I think red needs in commander instead of the millionth variant on unplayable chaos enchantment or unplayable phoenix or unplayable polymorph “removal” spell.

[inventors-fair]

Runners-up and Commentary

@follower-of-liliana‘s Sungazer and Glaring Purification 

Let me say that this ability is interesting in a good way. Following Ixalan block’s Ascend mechanic, this works similarly with that, once you add WUBRG to your mana pool and you are casting/controlling a card with Prismatic, you get the suns’ favor, or the suns are favoring you, or whatnot. On the one hand, it’s not super easy to track for beginners, who aren’t going to be able to follow someone who’s adding WRG their first main phase and UB their second, and it’s intuitive but not as easy as counting permanents.

Now, I like it. A lot. Because it’s difficult, it encourages weird mana-building, and I’d like to see the limited environment that supports it.

But that’s the thing - what kind of limited environment WOULD support it? Even if it didn’t follow Scars and Besieged, how would that look? In Commander, Prismatic cards would only be reasonable in hyper-pushed versions, and only in the rare five-color decks. In Modern, the only five-color deck is Humans. So, what I’m saying is that Prismatic is an ability that would only shine in Standard, and I’m not sure if I like that.

Whew. Lot to say about this. Thanks for your constant submissions regardless. I like thinking.

@arcadiamancer - Ghalma the Shaper

I think this card is well-designed and wouldn’t be out of place on Mirrodin. My only qualm is that the second ability is win-more, or at least it feels that way? No, the more I think about it, this IS a really cool card, because... Man, okay, I’m getting it now. You can have an artifact CREATURE or w/e. I’m just thinking about decks flooding the board with equipment, and then I realize, not only does it leave things open to nonartifact removal, but like, what if an artifact creature you control gets wiped out? Okay, I’m a lot more cool with this card now that I use critical thinking. My bad. Can you tell I revise things?

@tmstage - Urabrask’s Defectors

There was a lot of talk about counter removal in chat and around the clock. Y’know? How to remove poison counters and all that jazz. Thinking now, this kind of thing would be the only way to do it - through combat, through some tricks, something without crazy recursion. This ability right here is like the turning tide of war. A whole deck with cleansing vs. poisoning, based on attacking and action and all the Mirran things without directly taking over Phyrexian things. You can still get poisoned, but now you have a LOT more of a fighting chance... Sometimes. I don’t think this should be numeric, and I don’t think it should have... Let me just rephrase: “When Urabrask’s Defectors attacks, cleanse. (To cleanse, remove a counter from you or a permanent you control.)” Is it elegant? No. Could it be more elegant? Sure. “You may X, if you don’t Y” just feels better when you have DIFFERENT options. See again Fabricate.

[housebeleren]

Random Commander Challenge: Darigaaz Reincarnated

It’s time for my very favorite thing: a random commander! Now, I’m a bit behind, so this is actually the commander deck that I made for December. After Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire, the wheel of fate landed on yet another Jund Dragon, Darigaaz Reincarnated. The good news is they lend themselves to very different builds, so I got to be a little creative.

Art: Gregorz Rutkowski

Theme

Despite being another Jund dragon, Darigaaz Reincarnated is a lot less mechanically interesting than Vaevictis Asmadi. He’s basically just a giant beater, and way more suited for 1v1 play than multiplayer. And even his ability isn’t that great. Sure, he comes back without having to recast him, but 3 turns is an eternity in EDH. So I decided to go with the theme of reincarnation, even if I never use his ability, and made a Dragon Reanimator deck.

Card Groups

Dragons - This is the big one. You want a lot of good targets to reanimate, and having most or all of them be Dragons is not only flavorful, but it allows for some great synergies. Several inclusions from Commander 2017′s Dragon precon deck are phenomenal here, and I basically would never run this deck without Scourge of Valkas, Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury, Atarka, World Render, Utvara Hellkite, and Bladewing the Risen. Since it’s a reanimator deck, I also included Kokusho, the Evening Star and Ryusei, the Falling Star, and a couple of wheeling Dragons: Dragon Mage and Knollspine Dragon, to help fill my grave. And lastly, I filled it with some other great cards I had access to, including recent Standard pieces Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames. But basically, from here just pick your favorites and go to town. I included 16 Dragons in addition to my commander.

Ramp - When you’re playing with Dragons, you need lots of ramp to get there, even if your goal is partially to cheat them out. You want the option to just cast them, if need be. So, lots of rocks, plus some creature based ramp like Solemn Simulacrum and Sakura-Tribe Elder, which play nicely into the reanimator theme. Beanstalk Giant is another cute option here, as it works as both a ramp spell and a reanimation target if he ends up in your graveyard. I included 14 sources of ramp on top of my 36 lands to ensure I could always cast my beaters whenever I needed.

Reanimation - Now for the fun part. Obviously, Bladewing the Risen is perfect for this deck, but you need more. I included both Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead, so I could make some fun Worldgorger Dragon nonsense happen (because of course). On the slower side, Meren of Clan Nel Toth isn’t at her absolute best here, but she has a Dragon in her art so I can’t exactly ignore that flavor. Same goes for Fearsome Awakening. Sheoldred, Whispering One is both a good target for reanimation herself, and helps generate value the longer she stays alive. Some return to hand pieces are decent too, so Eternal Witness, Golgari Findbroker, and Palace Siege (more Dragons!) also made the cut. And lastly, Living Death for the occasional win out of nowhere, plus Finale of Eternity which served as a backup just in case. (See below)

Flavor - First up, I couldn’t do a Dragon deck without including at least one version of Sarkhan. I opted for Sarkhan, Fireblood and Sarkhan the Masterless, as they seemed the most helpful with this gameplan. Sarkhan’s Unsealing was also a fun inclusion, both for flavor and since my commander has 7 power, and I like the idea of a free Flame Wave every time I cast him (or any of the other big guys in the deck). In a Dragons deck, Crux of Fate is a must, and I also included some Dragon-themed cards, most notably Breath of Darigaaz (because flavor!), Khorvath’s Fury, which also stocks my graveyard, and Spit Flame, which is just value. Lastly, Dragon Tempest is an essential component of several win conditions, on top of being super flavorful.

Of course, you also want a couple more wheels, so I opted for Reforge the Soul and Dark Deal. And there are some staples in the colors you don’t want to miss out on, like Rakdos Charm & Terminate (bonus, the Apocalypse art features Darigaaz!) so fill out the rest of the deck with just good stuff.

Win Conditions & Lines of Play

Living Death - I mean, is there any doubt? Few things feel better than stocking up your graveyard and immediately slamming everything on to the table at once. For this path, you’d ideally like to have Dragon Tempest out or Scourge of Valkas in grave out for an insta-win. But if you don’t, the alternative is Haste. Karrthus and Urabrask are creatures you can include in the pile that grant all your things Haste, and Fires of Yavimaya and Rhythm of the Wild are good budget cards that accomplish the same goal.

Worldgorger Dragon - This is the classic Worldgorger/Animate Dead combo, and I’d be remiss not to include it in a literal Dragon Reanimator build. You do need a way to win off this, but there are a few options. Again, Dragon Tempest and Scourge of Valkas are options, and these are the main ones I opted for in my build. Other cards like Purphoros and Impact Tremors also work. Lastly, you will have infinite mana, so it’s totally possible to win off something like Comet Storm. And, incidentally, you can also use Spit Flame as a board wipe for all your opponents, which is a fun option even if you don’t have a win con ready to go.

Beating Face - I mean, we’re playing with giant Dragons. If all else fails, you can just ramp into your big beaters and keep swinging for the win. This is a totally viable path to victory, and the reanimation elements give the deck some longevity and ability to recover from mass removal, which would otherwise be the bane of big creature decks like this.

Conclusion

Between the two Jund dragons I’ve made, I think I preferred Vaevictis Asmadi just slightly, since he’s a bit more mechanically interesting. But Darigaaz Reincarnated was still quite enjoyable, and I do highly recommend Dragon Reanimator as a fun casual deck that can still hold its own against even somewhat tuned metagames. And, thanks to Commander 2017 and the relatively high density of recent cards, it’s a really easy deck to build on a budget too, with very few “necessary” pieces costing more than $5 or so. Even my build had only one card over $20, and that was Karrthus, who just is just barely over that line.

That said, I did go a bit over my new card budget, since I did need to get ahold of a few cards that were in the $2-5 range apiece, and that does add up. But, that was just for my build. Like I said, most of them are not really that essential, so I honestly could have done it and stayed completely within budget, which is great.

The deck played really well. I only won 1 out of 5 games played with it, but the deck felt appropriately competitive in every game, and I nearly pulled a win out once or twice more, just getting beaten to the punch by an opponent pulling out a combo a turn or two before I would have been able to secure my own. So all told, I actually think this deck performed very strongly, and would feel great about bringing it to a non-CEDH table.

For January, I got my first mono-color challenge, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, which proved very interesting. I’ll work to get through that recap sooner than I got through this one.