CommanderCast S7E1 – Real Names, All Gimmicks

August 13, 2012

This entry is part 1 of 14 in the series Podcast Season 7

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
If you’re not tired of hearing people drone on about fantasy trading card games, then you’re come back to the right poisoned well. CommanderCast ignites the noise-pollution belching, words-spewing multimedia blitz of FILTH that is season seven. For this onslaught of EDH-related oration I am joined by a classic crew setup. Byron, Carlos and Donovan have taken up mics to join a crusade of knowledge, wisdom, experience and entertainment that rampages across the audioscape as we delve into a bunch of different topics, ranging from the introduction of new format staples to a return to Secret Tech.

As we burss into action with another cycle of content product, I can tell you some pretty whoop-ass items are on the agenda for the near future. “Andy, what STUPID ideas are you hyping up now?” Well, we’re going to do a long-requested episode focused on Duel Commander, including a very special guest. There’s going to be approximately one million new pieces of content, including two new authors (one of whom you already know) and one returning from hiatus. There might even be some kind of contest. Oh, and these (FOR THE CHILDREN):

…so I guess, in summary, shit be bangin’

Show notes and pertinent links below. Enjoy.

 

SHOW NOTES

00:00 to 07:09: Introduction: Just what is this STUPID show about anyway? Who’s on it?

COMMUNITY SEGMENTS

07:22 to 22:17: Free-For-All Roundtable: Extra Staples: With each set we seem to get a few new cards introduced to Commander that scould be considered ‘staples’, which for some people means more good cards to choose from and for others signals the format being pushed further and further towards homogenization. Here we discuss how we feel about the upswing in very playable EDH cards printed in recent sets and whether we feel they make deckbuilding too cookie-cutter, easier for new players, and so on.

22:33 to 47:42: Hopes And Fears: Yearly Commander Product: At Comic-Con WotC announced they will be jumping on the Commander bandwagon until it breaks by releasing a yearly Commander-centric product. We don’t know much about this while endeavour, which creates fertile grounds for baseless speculation and discussion. What are we hoping to see in these products? What do we think would be the worst possible outcomes? How do we feel about Wizards becoming more interested in monetizing EDH?

STRATEGY SEGMENTS

48:00 to 1:01:48: Winning Friends and Influencing People: As D-Money so eloquently puts it, politics are probably the MOST important element of multiplayer strategy. In this segment, we discuss some political strategies to make yourself friends in-game and keep the target off your back. What kind of behaviours have won political favour and made people friendlier to suggestion? What are the worst things you can do to paint a bullseye on yourself?

1:02:03 to 1:19:01: Gimmicks: What exactly is a ‘gimmick’ in the context of Magic, and what purpose do they serve? In this strategy segment, we break down the definition of ‘gimmick’ and then discuss their applications. What use can a deck or strategy have for a few tacked-on gimmicks? Why implement these fragile, weird, and often over-complex systems into your deck instead of something proven?

TECHNOLOGY SEGMENTS

1:19:16 to 1:41:26: Super Secret Tech: We back up in here wit dat tech son. All four of us season one originals are dropping three new gems off in the Secret Tech vault before vanishing, never to be seen again. One common, uncommon, and rare apiece.

Andy Suggests: Hindering Light, Pain Magnification, and Tainted Aether

Byron Suggests: Totem-Guide Hartebeest, Manriki-Gusari, Sigil of the New Dawn

Carlos Suggests: Zealot Il-vec, Blood Artist, Horobi, Death’s Wail

Donovan: Prey Upon, Sylvan Scrying, Arena

OUTTRO

1:48:40 to closing: Outtro: Thanks for listening!

CONTACT INFORMATION

  • Andy: E-Mail: CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)CommanderCast
  • Byron: E-Mail: surgingchaos19(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)surgingchaos
  • Carlos: E-Mail: cag5383(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)cag5383
  • Donovan: Contact via MTGS forums
Series NavigationCommanderCast S7E2 – Macabre Waltz: The Nightmare Maker™ >>
Posted by CommanderCast
Filed in CONTENT, PODCASTS, Season 7
18 Comments »
  • Tantarus

    So now that you know about the 75 buck MSRP and the only 18 foil cards. How do you feel about it Commander’s Arsenal?

    • GHoooSTS

      I’m fine with it, but I don’t plan to buy it. Not every product that comes out is going to have me as the target audience. I’m sure there are people out there who will really enjoy it, but I’m hoping that in the coming years when they actually take time to design the thing as a standalone product they’re more like the previous Commander product.

      • http://twitter.com/GUDoug Judson Gruber

        but Andy!! Production Quality!!

        • Mark

          That life counter is the sickest shit I’ve ever seen, though. If I could get one cheap, I wouldn’t want to shell out the 75 bucks.

          Imagine if it had some LED action going on. o_o

      • Tantarus

        I am a bit disappointed because this product does little to encourage new people to try the format. It may even discourage them with the hefty price tag. Also I wish wizards would get over the oversided foil crap. They are terrible and no one uses them. Hopefully your right and next year’s is better. But 18 cards for 75 bucks is just weak. I feel they total are missing there target audience with that.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=50300736 Shawn Hudson

      You know what would be the best Commander’s Arsenal? A box of 300 gold-bordered/squared edge/purple-backed/etc. staples from throughout Magic’s history that cost $29.99. As is, this box seems like it’s aimed squarely at the EDH pimps who like foils. The price seems high and arbitrary, since – ya know – Wizards can reprint just about any card they want, whenever they want. When did Wizards enter the secondary market? Serious question … and what are the implications of that shift?

  • Ian

    Damn that mock-up looks sick. I can’t wait to see how these actually turn out!

  • http://twitter.com/LuisBarba Deafbeats

    That shirt looks sicker than a 4 dollar hooker yo, I want get down and slink into one of those.

  • http://twitter.com/GUDoug Judson Gruber

    Any way that you could get the CommanderCast shirts into the Commander’s Arsenal product to make the $75 worth it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=621609347 Ryan Sextro

    Talking about gimmicks… I love those decks. I have an Edric deck that plays 98 permanent cards and a primal surge and tries to win with an emptied library and a laboratory maniac. It’s super gimmicky and hilarious when it wins, but the deck is bad, so I usually just durdle with some value creatures until I can find one of the 3 (!!!) tutors that can get Primal Surge: Planar Portal, Archmage Ascension, Noble Benefactor (oh yes!)

  • http://www.facebook.com/allister.m.blossfeld Allister Michael Dodgson Bloss

    When you talked about being a graceful looser I find that the less experienced the player the more they complain both in game and after the game aside from the occasional man children. I only started magic a few years ago and I would frequently call things broken. I even got to the point of parodying myself. I would get killed by some combo or a single card or a weird alternate win con and not know to deal with. That would lead to frustration. Frustration leads to well bitching. I’m now a better player and there are very few cards I haven’t heard of as I spend lots of time on the gatherer. I wish that when someone starts to complain other players should try to help that player deal with the solution or suggest cards that their deck might want to include. Some do like to complain about everything, but if you offer a solution a lot of complaints will quiet down.

    During one of your podcasts sometime in the past you talked about mono black being a degenerate bully. I would like you do guys to do a segment on how to stop a blue deck(mostly mono blue) from dominating the game without adding specific hate cards that do nothing for your own strategy. For example seed time is a GREEN TIMEWALK(barring the right conditions). I feel that mono blue decks tend to be very hard to distrupt until they combo off. What are good ways of slowing done the mono blue try hard without devolving into a power struggle. I feel the wheel of fortune type cards put a decent dent against combo type decks.

    Oh and thanks guys for having a podcast about commander in your free time. Thanks also to guys who don’t talk in the podcasts but are a major contribution to commandercast.com like the guys in charge of editing, the website, and mtgsalvation.com(without them i’d not have heard of this podcast of cool)

  • agentofbolas

    Are new episodes still being posted on MTGCast? The last episode of the previous season still hasn’t shown up there.

    • GHoooSTS

      Yes, they just popped up today I think.

  • Ian

    Woah, didn’t notice that pain magnification only affects opponents. I originally thought this was just some Off-Color-Cast jank but it is defiantly going in Wort.

  • prinny

    Really bad price point, $75 is way too high. I was expecting at most 34.99 and hoping for it to be 19.99. The only people that would be ready to shell this are the old timers, no the people fresh to commander. We had 1 commander product at 35 then 75. That’s a huge jump. If they wanted to through in am expensive expansion i would say its better to throw this out like maybe 5-6 commanders sets down the line. It really feels like another cash grab from WoTC even worse is that they are gouging their best customer. If FTV is something that rewards the long standing customers, then Arsenal should be the same.

    Sleeve wise…uhh Ultra Pro at any time print planechase sleeves. Not that interesting, there are 100 sided die also. I wanted arsenal would be cards like sol ring and lightning greaves, not expensive legacy cards. How much of an arsenal is 18 for the 6 shades of magic?

  • nathones

    glad to see the dream team start off the new season!

  • Bruce Richard

    Thanks for the shoutout and link!
    I tried running Horobi, but he gets targeted almost right away. There is always someone who has something that can target him. I tried Spiritual Asylum, but that was very clunky. Hopefully Vish Kal can fix that. Try try again!

  • http://twitter.com/tgva8889 TM

    The best part is when you make a deck you think is a gimmick and it ends up being actually somewhat powerful or useful. My Numot pinger-synergy deck ended up turning into a powerful but very, very different control deck that defends itself and smashes through others.