So, since I read about EDH on the mothership site, I looked through my pile of rares, found Borborygmos, built a deck, and haven't looked back since.
I now have a Riku deck and a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa deck in addition to my first one. And they've all gone through their own evolution. Since the beginning I have pretty much only played red, blue, and green, so of course I had to get the commander deck with those colors (that's the Riku pre-constructed deck: Mirror Mastery released by Wizards). Then one night I wanted to play 3-way, but I only had two decks, so I built my Kamahl deck the next day so that that would never happen again.
My Borborygmos deck has turned into a land/artifact hate deck with cards like Shatterstorm and Ruination. Mostly because when I was building it I was jealous of other EDH decks and all their cool artifact toys, and fancy non-basic lands. Well, if I can't have it, then no one can! I also put in a bunch of board sweepers, and then just plan on Voltroning my Borborygmos for General damage (Swiftfoot boots, Darksteel Plate, Sword of Vengeance).
Kamahl is actually a pretty scary aggro commander. With Elves he can easily hit the table on turn 4, and start swinging with an army doing 20+ damage on turn 5. The deck consisted of basically every elf I owned, some other random ramp, some flier hate, some artifact/enchantment hate, and some card draw and utility. For being thrown together in a couple of hours, this deck is surprisingly strong.
Then there's my Riku deck. This is my pet project. It has a bunch of equipment for Riku to suit up in, a bunch of variety hate (artifacts, enchantments, graveyard, counters, fliers), a bunch of clones and other copying spells like Rite of Replication, Parallel Evolution, and Followed Footsteps. Then it also has a bunch of cantrips, and a few tutors and combos. The tutors are Mystical Tutor, Worldly Tutor (which surprisingly I just had laying around - I've never played an eternal format before, so I never really even looked at them), Fauna Shaman, Birthing Pod, and Tooth and Nail. The combos are Spliter Twin/Kiki-Jiki + Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite. So I can either Combo out, get multiple copies of whatever bomb someone else is playing via clones, Rite, etc, or just Parallel Evolution and copy it with Riku to make 4x all my already copied spells, then 16x after flashback.
The Riku deck's variety hate is mostly in the form of creatures (Druid Lyricist, Manic Vandal, Veridian Shaman, Aether Adept) so when I Parallel Evolution it can get pretty fun. I also have Call to Mind, Eternal Witness, and Elven Cache (I know, I need Regrowth) for recursion.
I've gotten a lot of my tech from listening to CommanderCast, but I'm pretty brand new at this (like 1-2 months old) so don't blame my crap decks/decisions on them. But all the good stuff you can probably attribute to them. No, I'm a pretty smart guy in general, being a Software Engineer and a Mathematician, but I'm just not all that experienced at Magic, despite having played it since I was 8 or 9. I'm just saying, those guys who have been playing for the last 20 years straight are obviously way better than me.
Even though I just picked up Magic again 3 months ago, and EDH even more recently than that though, having played it before, and always been very interested in the rules, in deck construction, and in the mathematical analysis of the game (mana curves, expected damage by turn X for aggro decks, etc). I guess I've always strayed away from control strategies because they're difficult to analyze mathematically.
When I started this blog I thought all I would be doing is playing Standard. But EDH is way more fun. Its so weird, I thought Standard was the coolest thing ever, but now I don't even want to play it. It seems boring to me in the blink of an eye.
That's all for now folks. I guess I am too lazy/don't care enough to deck out this blog with any kind of images/cool appropriate fonts etc. so I'm just leaving everything at default now. Mostly I just care about writing as a creative outlet. Maybe someone will read this and enjoy it too. Probably not though unless I advertise somehow, but I'm not that interested. I'm not trying to make money, or make a name for myself or anything. I'm just having fun. And that's why I like EDH. Its just about having fun.
Ttyl.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Metagame Blown Wide Open
Jace the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic have both been in almost every deck built the last few months. With Caw Blade (a deck wielding four copies of both) being by far the best deck in Standard, the banning of these two cards as of today, will totally blow away the existing metagame. The best competitor to Caw Blade since the release of New Phyrexia has been Splinter Twin, which also ran four copies of Jace the Mind Sculptor.
Lucky for me, this doesn't affect my Red Deck Wins list that I ran at my local FNM on the 17th, and won with. (Celebrate!) This was kind of a big deal for me, as it was my first Standard tournament in about four years (since whenever Cold Snap came out), and I believe my second one ever. (You could call the tournament I played in '93 "standard" because I believe no other formats existed at the time, but it isn't today's Standard format.) I'm also thinking that Splinter Twin might find a suitable list without Jace.
I'm sure most of the magic community will be happy with this announcement. Not those who stretched the bounds of their financial means to acquire four copies of Jace the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic (at one point nearly $500 with Jace running as high as $100, and Stoneforge over $25 at times), but hopefully they will hold some value as they are still playable in Legacy, which is still growing slowly in popularity (maybe not as fast as Magic in general, but still growing none the less).
I forget all the promises I made in my last pose, if any, so I'll go check, and then maybe I'll fulfill one or some of those, but until then, may all your outs be live (I guess that doesn't really apply to Magic, huh?), and all your draws be keepers (as opposed to mulligans, that makes sense, right?).
Lucky for me, this doesn't affect my Red Deck Wins list that I ran at my local FNM on the 17th, and won with. (Celebrate!) This was kind of a big deal for me, as it was my first Standard tournament in about four years (since whenever Cold Snap came out), and I believe my second one ever. (You could call the tournament I played in '93 "standard" because I believe no other formats existed at the time, but it isn't today's Standard format.) I'm also thinking that Splinter Twin might find a suitable list without Jace.
I'm sure most of the magic community will be happy with this announcement. Not those who stretched the bounds of their financial means to acquire four copies of Jace the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic (at one point nearly $500 with Jace running as high as $100, and Stoneforge over $25 at times), but hopefully they will hold some value as they are still playable in Legacy, which is still growing slowly in popularity (maybe not as fast as Magic in general, but still growing none the less).
I forget all the promises I made in my last pose, if any, so I'll go check, and then maybe I'll fulfill one or some of those, but until then, may all your outs be live (I guess that doesn't really apply to Magic, huh?), and all your draws be keepers (as opposed to mulligans, that makes sense, right?).
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
I'm Playing Magic Again
I've been on and off Magic again and again. This is about my fifth time being "on." Of course I'm referring to playing, and then not playing, etc.
I first played in '94-'95 when Magic: The Gathering was just picking up pace. Unlimited Packs were being sold. There was a guy in McMinnville (my town) who was trading for and eating Lord of the Pits. I played in a tournament at the way too green (as opposed to ripe, oh, that's why they call it green!) age of 8. My older brother Eldon had built me a RG fireball deck with the Channel+Fireball combo, along with a bunch of Lightning Bolts, Kird Apes, and Llanowar Elves. I assume he kept his Birds of Paradise for his deck. David, the younger of my two older brothers, was playing White/Black with White/Black Knights, Serra Angel/Sengir Vampire, Veteran Bodyguard, Hypnotic Specter, and maybe even some COPs. For some reason I have no idea what Donny (that's what we call Eldon, since Eldon is my dad's name too) was playing. I lost two matches in a row, and it was double elimination. I don't even remember what happened, exactly. I had never seen most of the cards before. I was locked down, tapped out, and thrown to the side. I didn't get to fireball for 20 damage even once. But what can you expect, I was 8.
I played again in high school (2001-2002). This almost ten years later, in the Odyssey block. (Actually came after playing Star Wars CCG for the first couple sets.) I picked up a bunch of pre-built Seventh Edition decks, some boxes of Odyssey, Torment, and one too many of Judgement (how do I have so many copies of Book Burning?). I tried really hard to make a deck with Lone Wolf, Pride of Lions, and Thorn Elemental. I just gave up on it at some point, but for casual play it was fun, especially after I discovered Might of Oaks. I played some mono red madness with Patchwork Gnomes and Barbarian Bully, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption, etc, but finally settled on blue/green (UG) madness once Judgment came out. Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Wonder, Arrogant Wurm, Roar of the Wurm. Its fun playing 6/6 flying wurms from your graveyard for 4 after swinging with your pumped Wild Mongrel and Arrogant Wurm on turn 4. Plus having the drawing and Counterspells of blue for card advantage and protection.
I played a little again during Onslaught, but not even enough to build a new Type 2 deck. I just bought a few cards, and played my UG deck. Played some more in Mirrodin, although I don't even remember playing, I just have the cards that I assume I bought with Ryan, because he was playing at that time (2003-2004).
I actually played a little during the Ravnica block in 2005-2006. I built a nice red/green (RG) aggro deck that rivals my madness deck in speed. Kird Ape was back again, I finally bought myself a playset (4) of Birds of Paradise. Nostalgia can bring a lot of value to a game. I just feel happy when I play with those cards. Weird, huh? I know that's not really what's important in the world, and I may very easily criticize someone else for their wasteful habits, but I shouldn't, because I understand that life is this funny kind of enigma. Before I quit again I built a Magnavore land destruction deck with Stone Rain and Cryoclasm.
So then I took a few years off, and now I'm back in the 2010-2011 Scars of Mirrodin block. I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't done too much, I'm building a few decks. Ryan and I have played a few 1-pack booster drafts, where you lay out land and can draw the land of your choice, or a card from your pack each turn, and you don't die from decking (running out of cards). That's a fun way to enjoy opening packs, and making sure you can at least get some play time out of all the cards. I also went to the pre-release event for the New Phyrexia set. Ryan and I built mono colored decks from commons of the core set. There are only 20 commons to choose from, so building a deck with 40 cards + 20 basic lands means choosing 10 out of those 20, and playing 4 each (roughly speaking). It's a fun little thing we made up that really gets you into the flavor of magic.
Anyways, I just wanted to say some stuff, get this blog rolling, and bleed my brain of some thoughts. I had fun writing this, I hope you had fun reading it. If not, I'm sorry, I know it is quite technical. If you haven't played Magic, most of this is Greek to you, and I apologize profusely.
I first played in '94-'95 when Magic: The Gathering was just picking up pace. Unlimited Packs were being sold. There was a guy in McMinnville (my town) who was trading for and eating Lord of the Pits. I played in a tournament at the way too green (as opposed to ripe, oh, that's why they call it green!) age of 8. My older brother Eldon had built me a RG fireball deck with the Channel+Fireball combo, along with a bunch of Lightning Bolts, Kird Apes, and Llanowar Elves. I assume he kept his Birds of Paradise for his deck. David, the younger of my two older brothers, was playing White/Black with White/Black Knights, Serra Angel/Sengir Vampire, Veteran Bodyguard, Hypnotic Specter, and maybe even some COPs. For some reason I have no idea what Donny (that's what we call Eldon, since Eldon is my dad's name too) was playing. I lost two matches in a row, and it was double elimination. I don't even remember what happened, exactly. I had never seen most of the cards before. I was locked down, tapped out, and thrown to the side. I didn't get to fireball for 20 damage even once. But what can you expect, I was 8.
I played again in high school (2001-2002). This almost ten years later, in the Odyssey block. (Actually came after playing Star Wars CCG for the first couple sets.) I picked up a bunch of pre-built Seventh Edition decks, some boxes of Odyssey, Torment, and one too many of Judgement (how do I have so many copies of Book Burning?). I tried really hard to make a deck with Lone Wolf, Pride of Lions, and Thorn Elemental. I just gave up on it at some point, but for casual play it was fun, especially after I discovered Might of Oaks. I played some mono red madness with Patchwork Gnomes and Barbarian Bully, Fiery Temper, Violent Eruption, etc, but finally settled on blue/green (UG) madness once Judgment came out. Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Wonder, Arrogant Wurm, Roar of the Wurm. Its fun playing 6/6 flying wurms from your graveyard for 4 after swinging with your pumped Wild Mongrel and Arrogant Wurm on turn 4. Plus having the drawing and Counterspells of blue for card advantage and protection.
I played a little again during Onslaught, but not even enough to build a new Type 2 deck. I just bought a few cards, and played my UG deck. Played some more in Mirrodin, although I don't even remember playing, I just have the cards that I assume I bought with Ryan, because he was playing at that time (2003-2004).
I actually played a little during the Ravnica block in 2005-2006. I built a nice red/green (RG) aggro deck that rivals my madness deck in speed. Kird Ape was back again, I finally bought myself a playset (4) of Birds of Paradise. Nostalgia can bring a lot of value to a game. I just feel happy when I play with those cards. Weird, huh? I know that's not really what's important in the world, and I may very easily criticize someone else for their wasteful habits, but I shouldn't, because I understand that life is this funny kind of enigma. Before I quit again I built a Magnavore land destruction deck with Stone Rain and Cryoclasm.
So then I took a few years off, and now I'm back in the 2010-2011 Scars of Mirrodin block. I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't done too much, I'm building a few decks. Ryan and I have played a few 1-pack booster drafts, where you lay out land and can draw the land of your choice, or a card from your pack each turn, and you don't die from decking (running out of cards). That's a fun way to enjoy opening packs, and making sure you can at least get some play time out of all the cards. I also went to the pre-release event for the New Phyrexia set. Ryan and I built mono colored decks from commons of the core set. There are only 20 commons to choose from, so building a deck with 40 cards + 20 basic lands means choosing 10 out of those 20, and playing 4 each (roughly speaking). It's a fun little thing we made up that really gets you into the flavor of magic.
Anyways, I just wanted to say some stuff, get this blog rolling, and bleed my brain of some thoughts. I had fun writing this, I hope you had fun reading it. If not, I'm sorry, I know it is quite technical. If you haven't played Magic, most of this is Greek to you, and I apologize profusely.
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