^{Indoor sunglasses*}

So, it looks like I have a column now.

Hmm… Where to start? This is the first thing I’m writing here, so it should probably be some type of introduction, something semi-biographical to tell you a bit about who I am, right? Ok then…

My legend begins in the 12th century… Huh? No? Fine…

Ok, basic information… That stuff is boring, I’d probably skip over it and scroll until I saw some real content or a picture or something… Fine, I’ll give you both!

Actually, I’m not going to tell you much about myself. You can get to know me in the only way that really seems fitting; through my decks.

The Beginning

Zur the Enchanter
Yes, that Zur the Enchanter. Some love him, most of you hate him and probably already hate me for mentioning him first. Zur was the first deck I built after learning about EDH. Not because “OHEI LOOK AT ALL THE BROKEN STUFF” or anything like that either. I had only started actively playing around Kamigawa, I first learned about EDH during Time Spiral, something from one of the casual articles over on the main site. At the time, my Magic budget was literally lunch money (Whatever I didn’t spend eating food at school went directly toward Magic).

I didn’t have enough of anything good to work with the mono or dual colored legends of Kamigawa and Ravnica even if I wanted to. That lead me to the two tricolor legends I had; Zur the Enchanter and Garza Zol, Plague Queen. I don’t remember what lead to my decision then, but judging by my thought process now, I probably saw Garza Zol the same way I do now, she’s boring… Also, she costs too much, but mostly she’s just boring. I don’t remember what kind of ridiculous deck I first had for Zur, but it was horrible – the type of horrible you get only get when you throw together three colors worth of random junk rares, some basic lands, and every bad enchantment that Zur could fetch around then.But that didn’t matter to anyone… Because no one else in my group played EDH. But even if no one else I knew did, I liked the idea, so I kept the deck together.

Intet, the Dreamer
Planar Chaos brought Intet, the first legend I saw that I immediately wanted. As luck would have it, I came across one pretty early on. Sadly I’ve never actually built a deck for her. I have a grand scheme of what she could be, but it’s really just a pipe dream. Realistically, it would just be a mass chaos deck everyone would end up hating me for so for the most part I’m ok with her just being the one that got away. But a hint of her chaos lives on in another deck you’ll read about a bit further down.

Gaddock Teeg
At the time of Lorwyn, I still hadn’t convinced anyone to play EDH. I don’t know what it was, but Teeg made me want to build another deck. Yeah, it was horrible, basically the same way Zur was but made of only two shades of horrible instead of three. Not long after that, my LGS closed. I didn’t really keep up with any of the players there since there was a pretty substantial age difference. So that lead to a kind-of-long time of me just not playing… About three years, or so.

So… [timeskip]

^{_{*Because I lack curtains and didn’t have good picture available to use…}}

^{_{(Pages, because walls of text are intimidating.)}}

]]> http://www.commandercast.com/unexpected-results-001/feed 1 http://www.commandercast.com/social-contract-from-below-7?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-contract-from-below-7 http://www.commandercast.com/social-contract-from-below-7#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 04:14:24 +0000 nclauson http://www.commandercast.com/?p=6257 Hello everyone and welcome back the (Social) Contract from Below.  As always, I am your host Nole Clauson and I will be walking all of you through the fine print that is written on the social contract that makes our format so unique.

This season on Social Contract, I want to try something a little different. While we are still going to be talking about the social contract, I want to take some time this season to tackle a single issue. In doing so, I’m going to need your help.

I’ve noticed that one of the most common barriers to entry to the format is the fact that most people do not have a commander deck.  With the commander precons two years old (and the few online being super expensive), breaking into the format can be quite a challenge. While my theory holds that if people try this awesome, crazy format they will find that they love it enough to build a deck, taking that initial plunge is a big enough turn off to many.

It’s important that a “my first Commander” deck (with credits for this name to Cass and Mr. P over at Generaldamagecontrol.com) do certain things and not do other things. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on building a good deck for new commander players.

1. A beginning commander deck has to be easy to understand.

Let me be clear, this is not a commander deck designed to teach someone to play magic (TBH, using commander to teach someone magic is probably not the greatest idea), this is a designed to teach how commander works. That being said, the biggest problem I have handing my decks to someone is that my decks all take some explaining. If you cannot summarize what your deck “does” in lungful or two of air, it’s probably not one you should hand to a new player.

2. A beginning commander deck should teach what Commander is about and what is “good” in commander.

It would be easy to build a five color, Child of Alara, goodstuff deck and call it a day, however that would be a disservice to the player. A good first commander deck will teach players about things like using your commander wisely, about how a deck can be shaped around a commander, that a commander deck should be more than just a pile of good cards (seriously people, play more enchantment hate!), as well as teaching about what kinds of effects are good in Commander.

3. A beginning commander deck should appeal to a wide range of players.

I will admit that I enjoy being the control player in my commander games, regardless of the colors I’m playing. Some people I know have the opposite problem and every deck they have is hyper aggressive. A good deck for new players should fall somewhere in the middle. While I am not saying that a my first Commander deck has to be midrange (though that is acceptable), on a scale of 1 to 10. With 1 being all-out aggro and 10 being complete control, a beginning deck will fall somewhere in the 4-7 range.

4. A beginning commander deck needs to be aware of the social contract (as the player will not be).

It is safe to say and completely forgivable that a new commander player will accidentally break the social contract. It is important, however, to not make breaking the contract the “correct” play and to keep the opportunities to accidentally break the unwritten rules to a minimum. In this regard, a “my first Commander deck” should do things like keep the tutors to a minimum, avoid hated strategies like prison, mass land destruction, and infinite combos, and not create overly complicated decision trees that take forever to process.

5. A beginning commander deck needs to be able to run with the big dogs.

Nobody likes playing a game where they expect to lose. A beginning commander deck needs to have a chance to win against a field of players. Should a person expect to win their first game of commander by playing this kind of deck? No, but they should at least have a sporting chance.

By now I’m sure you are wondering why I’ve spent a whole article talking about this. Well here is the exciting part. This season on (Social) Contract I want to (with your help) build a “my first commander” deck. I find that most of the decks I create tend to a) be overly answer-filled and b) feel like a deck that “Nole made” so I’m hoping that by all of us working together we can create something cool. Once we get a deck together, I will build and test it and let you know how it goes. However the real test of our collective mettle will come in the final week when I hand the deck off to someone who has never played commander before and we see how he does.

Next week (BTW (Social) Contract is a weekly column this season!) we will be choosing what general we want to build around. I have limited the choices from the 400+ legendary creatures to 4. However, there is still one seat at our table. If you think you know a good general for a my first Commander deck, then either send me an email at noleclauson@yahoo.com, hit me up on twitter @MtGNole, or state your case in the comments below. If looking forward to getting this project rolling. See you next week when we choose our Commander!

Nole

P.S. In an effort to strike up some speculation the 4 Commanders I have chosen I leave you the following clues. The four generals I have chosen are:

• A lady Gaga look-alike

• The card voted “Most likely to be mistaken as being from the commander precons”

• A lady in love with elementals

• The Dragon’s Maze maze runner most likely to listen to C.W. McCall (“we crashed the gate doin’ 98 I says let them truckers roll 10-4”)

A lot’s happened while we were on break: Dragon’s Maze, slivers, a whirlwind of disappointment regarding a highly touted character from Doug Beyer’s “The Secretist”.   Regardless, we’re going to go through as much as we can to catch up within the upcoming weeks.

Also, be sure to check the show notes for some important announcements regarding the future of Commandercast.

As always, show notes, links, and download link are below.

INTRODUCTION
00:00 to 16:31: Silly stuff/Introductions:

Recorded on: May 16, 2013

Favorite Commanders:

• Nole – Oros, the Avenger

Podcast News:
- Check for daily updates on articles by CommanderCast writers

- This will be our last season as “Commandercast”

-       Calvin is my new official co-host

-       Trying to go for a shorter show to conserve space on topic discussions, so only one topic per piller now.

Nole wanted to make an announcement about his articles

COMMUNITY SEGMENTS

17:23 to 33:31: Free for all roundtable – Slivers:

Slivers are back…or are they? A very polarizing tribe, how do the new slivers make us feel? Whether you love em’ or hate em’, slivers are coming out to play in the upcoming Magic 2014 core set!

Strategy SEGMENTS
33:59 to 55:40: The Elf No One Wanted: Emmara [20 minutes] EVERYONE’S weighed in on Emmara, so we might as well too. Does she have a practical use, or is her ability way too narrow? Don’t even get me STARTED on the flavor dissonance (stupid Voice of Resurgence). We also check out some of Gather’s comments on her to see what people REALLY think.

Link to the Emmara deck list by Bennie Smith
TECHNOLOGY SEGMENTS
57:13 to 1:37:15: – Undiscovered Tech: Dragon’s Maze [15 minutes] Dragon’s Maze is full of really splash cards that look TONS of fun! Chances are that you’ve already heard of them. So today, we’re each going to share a common, uncommon, and a rare that hasn’t been getting a ton of early spotlight and put it up for consideration. Keep an eye out to see if they hold up down the line for our set review!

-       Calvin:  Hired Torture, Gleam of Battle, Savageborn Hydra

-       Nole: Crypt Incursion, Carnage Gladiator, Possibility Storm

-       William: Uncovered Clues, Gruul War Chant, Ready & Willing
OUTTRO
1:37:16 to END: Outtro: Thanks for listening!

• Off Color Cast
• Commandercast Facebook Page
• Top and Go Productions/Youtube Affiliate

CONTACT INFORMATION
William: E-Mail: CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)CommanderCast
Calvin: E-Mail: CaptainRedZone(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)CaptainRedZone
Nole: E-Mail: NoleClausonMTG(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)MTGNole

 Time Spiral Review. GO!

I’m joined by Brionne, Calvin, and Sean as the finale launches itself into a three hour marathon of card discussion. This is a REALLLY long review, so thanks to you guys for waiting it out while this episode not only comes out a week later than originally planned, but for sticking with me for a whole season.

We’ll be taking our three week following today, but everyone will be back with more articles and videos around May 13’th…except for the podcast. I’ll be moving around that time, so I’m putting off the show’s return by a week or so, but I should have everything taken care of by then.

I’ll be spending most of my time trying to catch up with my personal life as well as trying to get the website updated and fixed. The archives look horrible, staff isn’t current, and I really need some sort of website admin to help out. If you want to volunteer to help and know a little something about WordPress, send me an email! I  could also REALLY use an editor or two to help everyone with their articles. Our current system doesn’t work as well as I’d like it to.

Now, without, further ado, shownotes, links, and download link are below.

PS: I’ll email the winners of the Season 9 contest privately since there was only one entry.

INTRODUCTION
00:00 to 06:03: Introductions:

Recorded on: March 13, 2013

Favorite Commanders:

• Calvin – Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran
• Brionne – Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
• Sean – Karona, the False God

HELP WANTED:

Link to our ‘Help Wanted’ post

TIME SPIRAL SEGMENTS

06:51 to 42:23: TIME SPIRAL REVIEW INTRO: 

Favorite card/Mechanics:

William – Greenseeker

Calvin – Curse of the Cabal

Sean – Hypergenesis

Brionne – Return to Dust

Link to reference video:

MECHANICS:  buyback, echo, flanking, flashback, madness, morph, shadow, and storm

New mechanics: flash, split second and suspend

SLIVERS!!!

WHITE CARDS:

42:36 to 1:01:14

Angel’s Grace, Detainment Spell, Evangelize, Icatian Crier, Magus of the Disk, Momentary Blink, Pull from Eternity, Restore Balance, Return to Dust, Spirit Loop, Temporal Isolation,

BLUE CARDS:

1:01:26 to 1:31:46

Ancestral Vision, Cancel (first printing), Draining Whelk, Fool’s Demise, Ixidron, Magus of the Jar, Mystical Teachings, Ophidian Eyes, Paradox Haze, Temporal Eddy, Trickbind, Truth or Tale, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Voidmage Husher, Walk the Aeons,

BLACK CARDS:

1:32:13 to 1:50:56

Curse of the Cabal, Demonic Collusion, Dread Return, Fallen Ideal, Living End, Magus of the Mirror, Smallpox, Urborg Syphon-Mage,

RED CARDS:

1:51:10 to 2:05:08

Ancient Grudge, Barbed Shocker, Bogardan Hellkite, Empty the Warrens, Firemaw Kavu, Fortune Thief, Grapeshot, Greater Gargadon, Ignite Memories, Magus of the Scroll, Reiterate, Sulfurous Blast, Volcanic Awakening, Wheel of Fate, Word of Seizing

GREEN CARDS:

2:05:20 to 2:11:44

Aspect of Mongoose, Greenseeker, HYPERGENESIS, Krosan Grip, Magus of the Candelabra, Scryb Ranger, Search for Tomorrow, Squall Line, Thelonite Hermit, Verdant Embrace, Yavimaya Dryad

ARTIFACTS/LANDS:

2:11:57 to 2:32:49

Candles of Leng, Gauntlet of Power, Hivestone, Lotus Bloom, Prismatic Lens, Stuffy Doll,

Academy Ruins, Flagstones of Trokair, Gemstone Caverns, Kher Keep, Swarmyard (for Mistform Ultimus deck), Terramorphic Expanse (first printing), Urza’s Factory, Vesuva, Storage lands,

LEGENDS:

2:33:04 to 3:08:14

Dralnu, Lich Lord, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician, Ith, High Arcanist, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, Kaervek the Merciless, Lim-Dul the Necromancer, Mangara of the Corondor, Mishra, Artificer Prodigy, Norin the Wary, Saffi Eriksdotter, Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Stonebrow, Krosan Hero, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Thelon of the Havenwood, Tivadar of Thorn
OUTTRO
3:08:45 to END: Outtro: Thanks for listening!

• Off Color Cast
• Commandercast Facebook Page
• Top and Go Productions/Youtube Affiliate

CONTACT INFORMATION
William: E-Mail: CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)CommanderCast
Calvin: E-Mail: CaptainRedZone(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)CaptainRedZone
Sean: E-Mail: SeanisrightIamwrong(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)swordstoplow

Brionne: Email: Snapplecoffee(at)gmail.com // Twitter: (at)snapplecoffee

This week we take a dive into the altered art of Xela.  Xela is a Magic enthusiast and card alterist whom I have had the pleasure to meet through a mutual friend.  The first time I had a chance to flip through the binder of works she has done, I was amazed by how crisp and vibrant her works was.  I hope you enjoy her work as much as I have.  There are plenty of pretty pictures to look at, so lets dive in.

To kick things off, Xela gives us some background about how she got into doing alters and how she got into Magic in general:

“I only got into Magic about a year and a half ago. I had always been interested in learning to play, primarily because the art appealed to me. When I was really little and would go to the collectibles store with my dad to buy booster packs for the Lord Of The Rings card game we played, I would always look at the Magic cards and wanted them just for the artwork. As I got older and Magic grew in popularity I always looked over the shoulders of those playing seeing what the pictures were and wondering how the game was played. Then, after to many years of just wondering how the game works and having gained some amazing friends who are really passionate about the game I finally got into playing the game!
It would take some six months before someone looked from my canvases to my magic cards and said to me, “You should paint Magic cards.”
I was already a painter, but my personal work is in oils. That lead to a long experimentation phase in which I used bad paint and poor judgement as to what would work, but after some time I found a comfort zone. It has been a year now and I have had some amazing commission opportunities and love having this work to turn to and remind myself that I can be appreciated as an artist.

You may remember, but if you haven’t been reading Massive Art Attack since day 1 I gave everyone a glimpse of Xela’s work in my first article http://www.commandercast.com/horses-of-glass  She did some pretty amazing alters for our friend’s sliver commander deck.  Go check that out as well!

Xela also gives a glimpse into the woman behind the art:

“I am 23 years old, only a year out of college and living in my fathers basement while simultaneously robbing him of his attic as I use it for a studio. I studied Art History and Philosophy, which would lead one to reasonably conclude that I must not have a job, but my studies were to great avail as I now work as an educator in a local museum. I am an artist that needs to paint more and a writer who is not published, (though this is also known as being in your twenties). I try and mix two of my many loves, painting and youtube, on my youtube channel XelaTheGeek and somehow magic cards end up being altered in the process.

I do not know how to drive a car. At all.

(I figured that after saying so many things that I am doing, I should mention a common thing that I never, ever do.)”

Be sure to take a look at her Facebook profile as well!

I also requested Xela pick out a couple of her favorite works to share.  Here are a couple great pieces that she selected:

It’s Zedruu, king of unwanted gifts.  Playing against this guy you’re sure to be in line at the customer service exchange counter the next day.  Except he’s a total dick and he didn’t give you a reciept, so at best you are getting store credit at the Illusions of Grandeur Outlet.

Xela says: “This is the alter where I feel I best blended my work with the original art.”

I’ll agree, if Zedruu is going to ruin your day she might as well look good doing it.

Who would want to crash the gates when they look this good?  My favorite detail is the edge of the steps continuing to the left side of the text box.  I’m amazed detail that small can be painted.  I know I certainly couldn’t pull that off (mostly because I can barely write legible words never mind paint.)

Xela says: “And this Selesnya Guildgate is the piece I am most proud of.”

A great choice indeed.

To cap off this article I leave you with a time lapse alter.  As always send your comments or alters to olwhiskeyboots@gmail.com.  Be sure to check out and enjoy more of Xela’s work.  Also a big thank you to Xela for sharing her work with us this week.  Keep up the awesome work!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Well, it’s been a full season of CommanderCast, and it’s time to wrap up for now. Some of my articles have been good, some have been bad, some have been…interesting. Regardless, there’s only one way for me to close out the season. We’re going tribal today, with the best tribe in all existence.

That’s right, today we will be calling upon the might of the Squirrels, easily the most feared and exalted tribes of the multiverse. Unfortunately, there are no actual Legendary Squirrels, but we can use the next best thing: Karona, False God. She’s similarly feared and exalted, and boosts Squirrels! What could be better?

Now, Karona gives us access to all colors, which is good because we’ll need to boost our ranks of Squirrelly goodness with some Changelings. Before that, though, let’s look at the available actual Squirrels.

There are two creatures that have “Squirrel” in their type line. Krosan Beast is an otherwise vanilla 1/1 that gets +7/+7 when you have Threshold. In it goes. Squirrel Mob, on the other hand, gets +1/+1 for each other Squirrel on the battlefield, so it can get vicious and fearsome rather quickly. Toss it in!

There are, naturally, things that make Squirrels. Acorn Catapult is moderately useful for pinging off utility critters and spreading Squirrels about, but most often it will be used in conjunction with Druid’s Call to give you two Squirrels for the bargain price of one colorless.

Acorn Harvest and Chatter of the Squirrel are your go-to token cards, each with Flashback. Squirrel Nest can turn a land into a Squirrel-producing Land of Awesome, so naturally we should put it in. Squirrel Wrangler, on the other hand, allows you to sacrifice lands to make Squirrels, which is an interesting trade-off, especially with things like Crucible of Worlds or Life from the Loam. Nantuko Shrine will most likely be sitting on the sidelines, because it doesn’t play nice with singleton. Liege of the Hollows is sort of Acorn Catapult en masse in that it gives Squirrels to everyone!

Deranged Hermit and Nut Collector are combination token machines and Lords, making each Squirrel even more deadly. Finally, we have Swarmyard, which will make your Squirrels into Time Lords by Regenerating them.

As far as Changelings are concerned, we want to only include ones that are actually useful in their own right; we’ll also want to remember that Green is out primary color, and everything else is splashable. Avian Changeling brings some much-needed evasion, as does Cairn Wanderer; Chameleon Colossus, Mirror Entity, and Taurean Mauler are the beef behind out army; and Crib Swap replaces someone’s big nasty with a tiny little Squirrel of adorableness.

As in many tribal decks with limited support, Brass Herald, Adaptive Automaton, Coat of Arms, and Door of Destinies are all great inclusions. Caller of the Hunt can act as another lord-type of creature, and Steely Resolve gives our Squirrels shroud, which is useful. I’d also like to point out Doom Cannon; it’s not a super great card, but a Doom Cannon sounds like something that those devious little nut chewers would use, don’t you think?

Because a lot of our army is in token form, populate cards are easy inclusions. I espcially like Rootborn Defenses, Sundering Growth, Trostani’s Judgement, and Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage. Additionally, Rhys the Redeemed allows you to double the fun by doubling your Squirrels (Parallel Lives and Doubling Season count, too).

Once you’ve amassed a large enough army, it’s time to attack! Legion Loyalist, Overrun, Akroma’s Memorial, Eldrazi Momument, Baru, Fist of Krosa, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Craterhoof Behemoth, Garruk Wildspeaker, Overwhelming Stampede, Stampede Driver, and Tromp the Domains are all great ways to make your Squirrel battalion victorious. My personal favorite, though, is Triumph of the Hordes, because it’s named appropriately, and it also grants Infect for the turn.

After that, you can fill in the holes with some mana ramp, some utility and draw, and some of your personal favorites. It doesn’t really matter what you put in, because the Squirrels will make it awesome.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t also point out a that creates an infinite combo. Earthcraft, when combined with Squirrel Nest, allows you to generate an infinite number of tapped Squirrels. Typically, infinite combos are frowned upon. I think that most playgroups will enjoy this the first time it occurs, so it’s worth throwing Earthcraft in if you have it, as long as you take it out after the first time it happens or only use it in emergencies.

It’s been a fun and exciting season for me, and I hope I’ve brought some cool cards, combos, and Commanders to your attention over its course. Let me know in the comments what cards you’d include in a Squirrel deck, and also any ideas you might have for future articles!

Welcome to this season’s final edition of (Social) Contract from Below. Today I want to take a little different direction than my previous articles. Rather than just talk about the social contract. I’d like to branch out and talk about something that I had (and I’m guessing most of you have) never actually seen before this came up.

The other day I was helping someone with their first Commander deck. (Note: While I am decent at commander (and magic in general) I’m probably not the one you should be asking for strategy advice. If you are looking for strategy advice, please check out Robert’s article series “Elder Mastery” every Thursday.) He had just picked up a Commander’s Arsenal Maelstrom Wanderer and had built what you would expect for a first time player (lots of big splashy spells, not a lot of utility). As I was walking him through this, I asked the all-important question “Where is your graveyard hate?” (Free Strategy tip: If you are looking for ways to improve your Commander deck, play more graveyard hate.) He then reached into his deck box and pulled out a handful of additional cards. For the sake of the article I recorded them here:

Me, being thoroughly confused at this point, asked what these ten cards were for. He explained that these were his sideboard. This started a group discussion about sideboards in Commander and what they did to the game. I came to the following conclusions:

1. Sideboards let you feel OK about playing social contract-violating cards

I would feel bad about playing about half of these cards (Arcane Lab, Choke, Chill, Lifeforce, Anarchy) in my Commander decks, as (to me) they represent some of the worst things you can do in a game; target one player and deny him the chance to play at all. These “super color hosers” are the cards you expect to see in 60 card sideboards. While they are undoubtedly powerful, they aren’t really necessary. (Also Arcane lab and Choke are not good for a deck that expects to cast multiple spells a turn and has islands in its mana base. Those were easy cuts)

2. Sideboards add yet another thing to add time to the game:

We let him try his sideboard a couple of times (I’m all for experimentation). I quietly kept time to see how long added to our game. It took him on average 4.5 minutes at the beginning of the game and 2.5 minutes at the end of each game to make sideboard choices and deboard after each game. With us playing three games that afternoon that is over 20 minutes wasted not playing. Those that regularly read my column know that slow play is a pet peeve of mine and I feel like we probably could have convinced the store owner to stay open for one more game if we hadn’t burned almost half an hour waiting for one player.

3. Sideboards allow you to get away with sloppy deckbuilding:

To me at least, one of the biggest challenges of Commander is getting everything I want to put in a deck into 100 cards. With an extra ten spots of sideboard space, you are able to take the utility cards out of your deck and stick them in your sideboard. By doing this you don’t have to think as much about your card choices (especially since most commander sideboard cards are utility cards rather than something that the deck “does”) and you decks are more sloppily built because of it. Anyone who is trying to get better at building commander decks shouldn’t consider a sideboard as it gives you a free pass on including things like graveyard hate, enchantment removal, etc.

4. Sideboard makes your commander decks worse:

The problem with putting so much utility in your sideboard is that you will never have it all when you need it. As veteran players know, sometimes you win games simply because you top deck that Return to Dust,  Krosan Grip, or Boros Charm. By putting all that kind of stuff into a board you will never have what you need but didn’t know you would need it.

5. Sideboard gives you another opportunity for you to make bad decisions (Where you probably will.)

In one of the games we played I played my Karona 5 color chaos deck, we had Lazav (blue/black control mill), Uril (not evil Uril, mostly Naya Goodstuff), Krenko (every card in this deck cost 3 or less goblins) and our poor sap who was playing MW. When we asked him what he brought in, he told us the Chill (a decent choice), Grafdigger’s cage (I thought it stopped Lazav), and Stranglehold (He thought I was a 5-color combo deck). This resulted in him having several cards that were suboptimal to say the least. He would have been better off building a few answers built into the deck and leaving the chill (which drew him an incredible amount of hate) in his binder.

So what is my final conclusion about sideboards? If you cannot tell, I’m not a fan. To be honest I do not think they are necessary, you can build a 100 card deck, still do everything you want it to, and still play enough answers to be competitive.

So that does it for me for this week and this season. As always I’d love to hear what you think in the comments, at my email, or on twitter. The contact info is below.

I hope you have enjoyed this look into the social contract. Next season (assuming William doesn’t fire me) I’m going to look at a single issue in commander; getting new people playing this game. While the details are still in the works, I will be involving all of you in the process. In the meantime, I’m going to kick back, sip a delicious beverage, and dream easy dreams of sweet new Commander Shenanigans.

Nole

noleclauson@gmail.com

Twitter: @MtGNole

A Little Background on Frames

Old School Borders

Alpha and Beta burst on to the Magic scene with black borders and old school frames. The old school frame went through some tweaking as it served Magic from its inception in 1993 until its replacement in 8th edition in 2003.

In Unlimited the card borders changed from black to white.  From then on all core sets maintained white borders until Tenth edition in 2007.  Meanwhile the expert expansions kept the black borders.  The problem with the white borders is that they showed dirt and grime from play very easily.  Also the black border tends to be simply more aesthetically pleasing with the colorful cards anyways.  Its a wonder the white borders lasted as long as they did.

A couple of other subtle changes came along.  The double line beveled edge for Limited and Unlimited disappeared in revised and then made a cleaner come back in fourth edition.

The old school borders saw another subtle change around 1996 when the text box was widened to the same width as the card art.

The Good:  The old school frames had more character that evoked the whole fantasy feel of each color.  Green had the wooden text box, black had worn parchment and bubbling muck frame, blue had swirling arcane power and rippling water text box, red was a little more dull with cracked stone, and white had patterned text box and almost snake skin looking texture border.  The old school borders certainly helped you feel like you were immersed in a fantasy game.  They conveyed that sense of wielding the power of the different magical elements.

The Bad: Compared to the new frames the old had less room for text and art.  Some of the color contrasts weren’t optimal so text can be harder to read.  Also by 2003 they were honestly looking a bit dated since no one thought the game was going to explode quite they way it did when they were originally crafted.  There wasn’t a crack team of graphic designers perfecting the frames before its initial release anticipating the millions of cards that would be put into circulation with that design.

New Borders

In 2003 the release of 8th edition and Mirrodin debuted the new card frames.  They have remained mostly unchanged since their release.  The original, somewhat inexplicable idea of changing mana symbols in the text box in monochrome gray was quickly scrapped after the Mirrodin block.  Eighth and Ninth Edition are the only two sets to be released with white bordered new frames.  Other than that the new frames have remained pretty constant for the past ten years.

The Good: The new frames have a much cleaner and more modern design.  They look less “budget”.  They also have more room for art as well as text.  The text is also easier to read since they were able to use a black font.  The gold multi color frames do a better job displaying a cards color identity and creature cards have a much more prominent power/toughness.

The Bad:  To allow the text to be clearer, the colors are much more subdued where words are present.  A lot of the cool textures like the wooden text box from the old school frames disappeared.  It feels like overall the cards are easy to read and look good, but they don’t have that same character.  There is nothing that screams fantasy game about them to me.  It could be a card frame for a game about factions of battling Mechs, the elements of magical spells, or a fancy edition of Uno.  If you looked at just the frames themselves they could be for anything really.

My Favorite Frames

White

Now here we have all four major borders used for white.  Old School, New School, Time Shifted, and Future Shifted.  For the Time Spiral block wizards debuted alternate reality frames and the future shifted frame.  I really like the time shifted frames since they take on a lot of the character of the old school frames while still being easy to read.  However I think the time shifted frame is a little too yellow for my taste.  The normal new school frame is crisp without being boring.

Winner: New School Frame

Blue

The old school blue frame was pretty cool and the future shifted frame actually looks pretty fitting in blue.  However my pick has to go to the time shifted frame.  The normal new school frame is just too bland and I think the time shifted version solves that problem.

Winner: Time Shifted Frame

Black

To me the new school frame is too light.  There is too much gray and not enough black.  The future shifted frame is a bit murky, but not bad.  Despite the time shifted frame looking pretty cool, I’m giving the nod to the old school frame.  I love the parchment text box and all black frame.

Winner: Old School Frame

Red

Lets face it, the old school red border is too boring and uninspired.  The future shifted frame is too orange.  Also why was most of the art on future shifted cards murky as shit?  (I’m looking at you too goyf).  The time shifted frame is a clear winner here, blood red frame with a nice cracked texture all the way around.  Can’t we just scrap the new school frames and replace them with the time shifted style?  It almost seems like it was wizards go at getting the new school frames right.

Winner: Time Shifted Frame

Green

The new school frame bores me to tears.  The future shifted frame isn’t bad, but like all of the future shifted frames it doesn’t strike me as all that practical.  The time shifted frame wins this one too.  I dig the old school frame, but the time shifted version pulls in all the cool features of the old and new frames.

Winner: Time Shifted Frame

Hey Wizards its been ten years since the last major frame redesign.  Can we please acknowledge its faults and change it up a bit?  I think the time shifted frames were a great revision to the newer style frame.  I want some character and style back in my Magic.  Make it happen!  What are your favorite frames?  Are you nostalgic for the old school?  Thanks for reading!

One of the oldest and most beloved of all archetypes is the Enchantress deck. I mean, when you’re working with a bunch of lovely ladies, what’s not to love? Today I’ll walk through building a sample Enchantress deck, using Krond the Dawn-Clad from the 2012 Planechase set.

Now Krond here is a lucky dude, because he’s got all the ladies on his side. Which ladies? All the single ladies! Argothian Enchantress, Femeref Enchantress, Mesa Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, Enchantress’s Presence, and Kor Spiritdancer. These are all card drawing machines of war, yes they are. You may also wish to consider Umbra Mystic and/or Yavimaya Enchantress, both of which are beautiful women who work with enchantments but neither of which draws you cards. Additionally, Auramancer and Eternal Witness fetch enchantments back from your graveyard, so don’t leave home without them.

Krond usually wants to attack, so it makes sense to include Auras that make him more intimidating. Some of my favorites are Armadillo Cloak, Rancor, Bear Umbra, Angelic Destiny, Eldrazi Conscription, Canopy Cover, Unquestioned Authority, Spirit Mantle, Daybreak Coronet, Dragon Scales, Dragon Fangs, Vow of Duty, Vow of Wildness, and Shield of the Oversoul. Obviously, you’ll want to pick and choose based upon which you like best and which are actually available to you, because there’s more here than you’ll probably want. Note that although Krond already has flying and vigilance, you can always cast these Auras on your other creatures; additionally, Krond’s ability just checks to see if he is enchanted, not if the enchantment actually matters. Finally, I’ll give special mention to Instill Energy which is a very cheap to cast enchantment that grants pseudo-haste.

Since Enchantments are going to be drawing us cards, I like to use them as my removal when possible! Prison Term, Faith’s Fetters, Nevermore, Oblivion Ring, Rest in Peace, Arrest, and Aura Shards are all great ways to handle threats.

Some great global enchantments to consider include Asceticism, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Wheel of Sun and Moon, Sylvan Library, Abundance, and Dueling Grounds.

Finally, a dash of tutoring never hurt. Totem-Guide Hartebeest, Idyllic Tutor, Academy Rector, Enlightened Tutor, and Three Dreams will get you whatever you should need.

My current list is below. Because my collection is in rather a state of disarray right now, it’s not where I’d like it to be, but it’s definitely able to hold its own. Aside from Bruna, Thrun, Uril, and Mr Krond here, what are some of your favorite Enchantment-heavy Commanders? Favorite Auras?

Krond the Dawn-Clad Enchantresses

Creatures – 24

1x Academy Rector
1x Argothian Enchantress
1x Auramancer
1x Ayumi, the Last Visitor
1x Dowsing Shaman
1x Elderwood Scion
1x Eternal Witness
1x Jugan, the Rising Star
1x Kor Sanctifiers
1x Kor Spiritdancer
1x Lucent Liminid
1x Mesa Enchantress
1x Molder Slug
1x Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Terastodon
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1x Umbra Mystic
1x Verduran Enchantress
1x Viridian Shaman
1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1x Wood Elves
1x Yavimaya Enchantress

Enchantments – 25

1x Angelic Destiny
1x Armadillo Cloak
1x Arrest
1x Asceticism
1x Bear Umbra
1x Defense of the Heart
1x Eldrazi Conscription
1x Ethereal Armor
1x Felidar Umbra
1x Flickerform
1x Indestructibility
1x Instill Energy
1x Lucent Liminid
1x Mirari’s Wake
1x Prison Term
1x Privileged Position
1x Rancor
1x Shield of the Oversoul
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Snake Umbra
1x Sylvan Library
1x Unquestioned Authority
1x Vow of Wildness
1x Wellspring
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon

Planeswalkers – 2

1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
1x Garruk Wildspeaker

Sorcery – 8

1x Austere Command
1x Cultivate
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Kodama’s Reach
1x Replenish
1x Retether
1x Three Dreams
1x Time of Need

Instant – 3

1x Crop Rotation
1x Eladamri’s Call
1x Swords to Plowshares

Land – 38

15x Forest
1x Grasslands
1x Krosan Verge
1x Mistveil Plains
14x Plains
1x Razorverge Thicket
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Savannah
1x Serra’s Sanctum
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Temple Garden

Today’s episode of Commanding on a Budget features Karston’s Stonebrow, Krosan Hero deck. It was in a game play on the channel and since then we’ve received a lot of requests to do a deck tech for it.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The deck was one of many different budget decks spawned from a little project within our play group. Each of us decided that we would build a deck that cost no more than $50. Karston decided to go a route he had not tried in Commander before – aggro. You’d think that it would be hard to build a $50 aggro deck that can hold its own in Commander, but that isn’t the case.

Since the deck is built around Stonebrow, it has tons of big, trampling beaters. A quick search for red/green color identity creatures with trample yields quite a list. Obviously the creatures in the deck would have to be easy on the wallet. This opened the door to using a lot of trampling creatures that never get their rightful place in the limelight.

One of the big things that stands out about the deck is that there is very little artifact and enchantment removal in two colors that have numerous cheap common and uncommons that could do the trick. That’s because this deck needs as many big beaters as it can get. There are quite a few creatures that can act as removal, but almost none of them are big enough or have trample. Woodfall Primus would be perfect, but he’s also about $10.

Like I said in the video, this deck is a blast to play. Stonebrow isn’t exactly known for being an awesome general, but when backed by the right cards he’s a nightmare. It’s a good thing for me that Craterhoof Behemoth‘s price shot up, because he won a lot of games for Karston when he was a budget card.

This deck could be improved by adding more expensive cards, but this deck is very powerful as is. Because there are so many cheap rares that are powerful in Stonebrow, there isn’t much need to spend a fortune to make the deck good. If I were to personally build this deck with no budget restrictions, it would probably come out to around $200 altogether. That’s quite a chunk of change, but when you think about the price tags other “optimal” decks it doesn’t seem so bad. That being said, the deck would lose a lot of its charm if it were to increase its price tag. There’s a lot of style in beating non-budget decks with a crap rare like Moldgraf Monstrosity.