By Sean aka SwordsToPlow
You can’t have a marriage with just one person. Building a lasting relationship is like creating a strong structure or making a successful Commander deck. If you really want to build something that lasts, it needs to be built on a solid foundation. Collaborate with your friends and you can build your Commander deck into a monument to your love of Magic. There are a variety of different tools on the web available. You can use these tools to collaborate, design, and improve decks.
Someday there may be a tool that combines all of these aspects into one convenient location. There many tools out there. Finding the ones that work for you can be a daunting task. Have no fear. I will show you which tools I like to use with my friends. I use these tools to guarantee I get to have as much fun as possible before I start buying and trading for cards.
Savor That Commander Flavor 03 – What’s in a General
May 17, 2012
Hello, and welcome back to the last part of my tri-facto pilot series “What’s in a General?” Last week, you might remember that took a stab at explaining what sort of person you might be depending on the general you’re using, as well as the build for that general.
We continue the stabbing by taking a look at three more possible personalities that you may or may not have had the pleasure of seeing in your own local play group.
Guest Article – Dragon Invasion! Rith Edition
May 17, 2012
By BART
Wizards made us 5 decks built around the Planar Chaos dragons, but what about the Invasion dragons? They need love too. So here is my first in a series of 5 articles which will focus on each Invasion dragon as a Commander.
If you want straight up Rith, The Awakener deck building ideas and want nothing to do with where I am coming from, skip this paragraph. I currently play EDH as my main format while sometimes playing Legacy and rarely standard. I am no Carlos when it comes to deck building, but I do enjoy it and feel like I have a pretty good handle on card choices, that is probably why I have 15 decks sleeved up right now. If you see a card choice that you absolutely don’t agree with please tell me why.
First up for this invasive dragon series is Rith, The Awakener. Rith’s colors are great colors for EDH. Many people say that Naya colors represent the “spirit of the format”: big creatures, cool abilities, and effects that affect the masses. Rith’s ability says “Hey mayn, you let me in Im’a throw tokens all over this board and they gonna eat you alive.” (rough language but then again he is a dragon, speaking at all is something) His colors also completely support a great token themed deck. I want this deck to function with or without Rith as tuck is a real thing. I am building this deck for my friend Tyler, who had Ulasht as a general but wanted some other options. Let’s do this! Read the rest of this entry »
Generally Speaking 12 – Two Colour Blues
May 16, 2012
By: Imshan AKA Sinis
For a some players, especially those who are game theory devotees, the decision-making process for games of Magic are very broad. Many players only think of decision-making as the set of choices they make after shuffling and before the game (or match, in a tournament setting) defines a winner. Yet, it isn’t really the case. We make all sorts of decisions before we shuffle up and draw our starting hands: we made choices about what cards we play and which general we choose. This makes a lot of intuitive sense when playing competitively; when choosing a deck or card choices, the best ones will be tailored to the local metagame.
Often, players don’t recognize that the choices that they make in deck construction can have very deep consequences in games, and that deck-building decisions should be taken as seriously as any in-game decision in terms of winning the game. A player who plays too many non-basic lands might find themselves the victim of a Ruination or Blood Moon-effect. Sadly, the vulnerabilities that many of these deck-building choices create can have really negative consequences on the enjoyment of the game.
The Shouty Game 01 – Cast the First Stone
May 15, 2012
Posted by Chris Lindores
I am here to tell you a most bizarre tale. A story of one man and his Commander playgroup, which is one woman…
I’ve played on and off for ten years or so, but about 18 months ago, after a big gap from playing regularly, I retrieved all my cards from back home and endeavoured to teach my partner, Ruth, how to play. However, we ran into a few problems. Here are Ruth’s top five:
Weirdy-beardy rules
Ruth: How can it possibly be reasonable that this creature can be in two places at once? Physics doesn’t allow for that; it’s not an electron.
Chris: The rules were created a good while ago and some of them are slightly arcane, but they seem to work well most of the time and the stack is tried and tested, with a simple system for resolving effects. Including creatures being sacrifice to themselves.
No two decks are created equal
Ruth: It would be quite difficult to learn chess if your opponent had three queens and you only had pawns.
Chris: I’ll give you that in my card collection, some colours, especially black, have more access to a greater range of effects than others due to my preference for those colours and subsequent trading for more cards of those colours, but… OK, you’ve got me here; we’ll sort this out.
Time Walking forever
Ruth: What can you conceivably still be doing? I’m going out for a fag.
Chris: Each step in each phase in each turn requires you to reevaluate the entire game state and how each card in hand, permanent in play and card in graveyard might impact it. This highly complicated decision matrix can take some time to work through.
S6E3 – Falls Count Anywhere
May 14, 2012
Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
I can’t even front: this is one of my favourite episodes of CommanderCast, ever.
How did that happen? Well, first of all we had show notes made entirely out of gunshots… what could be harder than that? Then I hooked up a roster of guests from all corners of the Commander community: myself providing a nonstop torrent of gibberish and screaming catchphrases, Justin bringing his judge knowledge and EDH Cube perspective, Derfington dropping science on Pimpology and then to round out the squad we have a blast from the past with Angry Graybeard bringing his wisdom and experience from his years as a wily veteran. This four-man tactical podcasting team storms your speakers this week with a show of dizzying heights and terrifying, depressing lows. All things considered, I had a lot of fun recording it and I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed talking.
What was the big deal with this week’s show? Well, consider the following:
1) Graybeard rapped.
2) Justin got confused a few times throughout (drunk/stoned? Both probably) and gave us some great bloopers, not all of which made it onto the show.
3) We had real topics! There should be something for everyone here, no doubt in my mind about that.
Show notes and pertinent links below. Enjoy.
