Friday Flashback – September 23
September 23, 2011
Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
It’s Friday. This means Flashbacks! Each Friday on CommanderCast I like to provide everyone with a roundup of the work done by our affiliate websites this week and provide you with links to them all in one convenient place. To bring the tradition to CommanderCast.com this week, we’ve got stuff on theme decks, a ban list update, and even a letter to Mark Rosewater from a surly (possibly drunk) zombie. Where else can you find this much awesome packed into one update? In case you missed any of these during the week, don’t miss them now that the link is right in front of you!
Additionally, on Fridays we post video content. CMDRDecks, without fail, has something new for us every Friday. For this special Friday in particular, he’s doubled up and is dual-wielding Ezuri videos. This week we’re also joined by a favourite contributor, MistVielPlains, with another super in-depth video decklist primer. This time he covers a Commander I’ve gotten many e-mails about; Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker! Sit back with your preferred snack foods and beverages and enjoy!
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
- Here at CommanderCast, we had a week-long blitz of material that concludes today.
- I posted S4E1: Unleash Your Hateful Spirit
- Brionne treated us to Proxies How-To: Part 1
- Old Man Fred dropped wisdom with Begging to Be Fed
- Sean made his CommanderCast debut with Master Your Meta
- On The Crazy 99, Bob aka Balthor the Defiled has sent Mark Rosewater a letter on the state of Zombies in Magic (spoiler alert: colourism is rampant!)
- The Captain is back up in this bitch on Three To The Face!!! Despite a rough breakup with Black, he’s posting up a Plants vs Zombies B/G theme deck
- Muse Vessel’s Graveborn Muse is discussing Commanders, perception, and threat assessment in Very Little Retreat; Hardly Any Surrender
- WOOBERG.com posted an interview with none other than myself as part of his ongoing Hidden Gems series. Be advised; like I say in response to the first question, I’m really not that interesting.
MISTVEILPLAINS VIDEO PRIMER: SHIREI
CMDRDECKS VIDEO: CHRIS’ EZURI DECK
CMDRDECKS VIDEO: BRIAN’S EZURI DECK
(Social) Contract from Below #1- Fashion Show Commander (or “The one where your humble author takes a crack at fixing the biggest problem in commander”)
February 5, 2013
By Nole AKA @mtgnole
Hello and welcome to (Social) Contract from Below. My name is Nole Clauson and I will be your host (and Demonic Attorney) for this series. I’ve been playing magic off and on since Portal and when I am not playing Commander or Cubing, I moonlight as a level 2 judge (Quick shameless plug for the judge program: If you are interested in becoming a judge, get with a local judge and get involved. The people in the judge community are truly some of the most hard-working people out there and their passion for this game is intoxicating to be around. We are always looking for more people to join us).
Together, we are going to look at the community that we, as commander players, foster and build. Commander is defined as a social format and has the unique nature of being about more than just winning. This “social contract” is what makes commander such a unique format. With that introduction out of the way, let’s get rolling.
If I say “commander for prizes,” what comes into your head?’
Friday Flashback – September 30th
September 30, 2011
Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
Week two at CommanderCast.com is wrapped up with another Friday Flashback. The week was somewhat hectic because I’ve been busy transferring all my crap from my old, dilapidated computer to me new, shiny computer. There has also been a LOT of Battlefield 3 Beta-ing (results: disappointing). But last year we were still posting new stuff during Christmas, so you know something as trivial as a new computer can’t put the brakes on CommanderCast. And thusly, I present the following links both from our own offerings and around our affiliate network.
I would also like to take a moment and thank everyone who has been helping me iron out the technical side of the website by emailing me with your glitches and bugs you’ve spotted. Moving all the content was a lot of work and there were bound to be mistakes, so they can only be corrected if they are pointed out to me. I think we’ve managed to fix most of the broken links and weird-looking stuff thanks to everyone offering their time to e-mail me and I appreciate it.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
- Here at CommanderCast:
- I posted S4E2: Sideboarding In Throat Punch
- Imshan’s article series Generally Speaking debuts with Game Changer: Horobi, Death’s Wail
- Max is dropping Pauper Science in his series Peasant Rebellion with Pauper EDH: Your Guide to a Vacation from Commander
- You know the Captain can’t stay away for a week. Three To The Face!!! is on deck with theme deck (piracy!), the U/B pirate posse!
- The Command Zone is bringing a mighty theorycraft set review of Innistrad in multiple parts! Hit up the link for an index to his comprehensive overview.
- Muse Vessel is packing akimbo articles: “INN to decks” by Graveborn Muse and “At ‘Random’” by Seedborn Muse.
- On You Can’t Handle the ‘Nath, Cassidy is serving up his view on Gold Bordered cards in “The GB Debate” and on TCG Player he’s offering up “Holy Spirit and the Wasted Angels”, his take on Geist of Saint Traft!
CMDRDECKS VIDEO: MATT’S NORIN THE WARY DECK
Friday Flashback – October 6
October 7, 2011
Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
While Friday for most of you means you get some days off, for me it often signified the beginning of six days of drudgery. This is one of those weeks. Unfortunate, but necessary (C.R.E.A.M. and whatnot). But the fact I work a day job in no way, shape or form should prevent you from getting your satisfactory fix of Commander-related content, especially with this Friday Flashback as a helpful guide for the week’s worth of content from our affiliated websites.
Be sure to tune in next week. We have a podcast discussing competition and Commander, Stax/Tax decks, and the oft-requested Retro Cycle Review of the Lorwyn Commands; additionally, we’re announcing a super-special project and this season’s contest. To follow up the podcast this week we will have an article by Old Man Fred on budget five-colour mana bases and Imshan’s second article, this time discussing Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant. Don’t miss it or you’ll have to look it up later!
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
- Here at CommanderCast:
- I posted S4E3: Purity of the Race.
- Sean doubles up his CommanderCast presence with a two part article: The Good Stuff Part One and Part Two.
- Captain on deck! Three To The Face!!! has Calvin bringing us an Experiment Kraj deck this week.
- On The Crazy 99, Zimagic is talking about gearing up with equipment in Swords of Schwing and Schwang Musings.
- Speaking of Musings, Muse Vessel has Graveborn Muses’ “Security, Theory and Multiplayer Success” and Seedborn Muse has “A Very Special Interview”, with the emphasis on ‘special’.
CMDRDECKS: ANDREW’S GRAND ARBITER DECK
Friday Flashback – October 14
October 14, 2011
Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
This was a week full of surprises. I mean, not really in the context of content production. I generally have to read the articles posted here, and listen to the podcast a MIND-BENDING three times before it’s released (trust me, it’s not nearly as exciting after the second time). But what was surprising was the overwhelming positive response to Gifts Given, which I will honestly say I was worried would just be annoying to a lot of people. Instead, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the curtain pulled back, revealing a huge swath of CommanderCast listeners who are a secret cabal of super-ballers with charitable inclinations. This is, in case you’re wondering, the greatest kind of shadowy cabal to discover lurking in the depths of any community. So, thanks to everyone who helped make the first week of the charity drive a outrageous success. Is this momentum sustainable? I doubt it, since I honestly can’t imagine something topping this week, but you never know.
Speaking of Gifts Given, check back this Sunday for the first video with the raffle giveaways and some other random prizes. Be advised: Ghettovision™ production values will be engaged.
Anyway, here’s the stuff for this week.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
- Here at CommanderCast:
- I posted S4E4: I’m A Sphinx.
- The Gifts Given Charity Drive kicked off.
- Old Man Fred is dropping more Ancient Wisdom with his fourth article, “How To Play Five Colours On The Cheap”
- Sinis has his first in a cycle of Kamigawa Ascendant decklists, “Rune-Tail, First To Flip”
- It’s do or die time on Three To The Face!!!, where CaptainRedZone is brewing up an all-in R/W attack step deck in “First Strike!”
- Cassidy is back on TCGPlayer with his latest blistering-hot piece, “Grimgrin’s Zombocalypse”, and there’s all kinds of stuff jumping off on his personal blog.
- Muse Vessel up in this bitch! Graveborn Muses’ “Security, Theory and Multiplayer Success, Part Two” is upon us. Windborn Muse has “Commander VS Chaos”, where he tries to compel Commander players to give traditional 60×4 multiplayer a go.
- We have an interesting community project this week; the first (to my knowledge) MtG film, called Tap: Max’s Game. It’s being produced as we speak. The plot seems to follow the real-life trajectory of many Magic players (great times at a club, group splits up, one guy keeps playing and eventually everyone gets back together), only it looks a LOT more dramatic than I ever remember Magic being. This is a good thing because a movie about me playing Magic would be intolerably boring. Check out the trailer to see what I mean:
CMDRDECKS: PHIL’S KARADOR DECK
Friday Flashback: October 21
October 21, 2011
Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
This was another pretty kickass week for Gifts Given. You guys will hear all about it on Monday, and hopefully my wife will bring the camera back from her vacation unbroken so I can record a TERRIBLE video giving away prizes to contributors (warning: prizes may be worth virtually nothing). But the value of the auction lot continues to ascend, and that’s what really matters here. I guess I could give away extravagant prizes to donors, but then why not just auction them to bring up the value of the auction lots?
Anyway, this week was chock-full of Commander goodness. On top of the usual links, we also have another MistVeilPlains video! How awesome is that? (Hint: the answer is ‘pretty awesome’)
In a special note, my man HyphenJones done did it on Twitter with the following newsflash:
“Giant Shark is the only common from The Dark that is sold out at SCG.”
BLOOD IN THE WATER SON
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
- Here at CommanderCast:
- I posted S4E5: Scoopy McGee and the Salt Truck.
- The Gifts Given Charity Drive continues. I promise I’ll try to update it’s pages fully this weekend.
- SwordsToPlow puts The Arcum Engine out there for you to test run.
- Maxwellian2000 finishes with Pauper Vacation Guide with Format Staples.
- Oh Captain, My Captain! Three To The Face!!! has a new take on Jhoira in an attempt to help her shed her bad rap.
- Shoe of WOOBERG.com returns tot he “Unsung Heroes of EDH”, this week going over “OP: I Don’t Think So!” Commanders.
- On The Crazy 99, Zimagic has my MOST RECOMMENDED ARTICLE OF THE WEEK: “Choosing the Right Zombie General For You“. It’s exactly what it sounds like (aka sweet).
- Muse Vessel has Graveborn Muses’ “Mo’ Monday, Mo’ Magic”, talking budget-stretching tactics for the fiscally prudent mage; Seedborn Muses’ “X Rated” is a listing of sick X-spells for your decks; and Windborn Muse talks about his Captain Sisay deck, and how it’s continuing to evolve with time.
CMDRDECKS: MAIKEL’S LORTHOS DECK
MISTVIELPLAINS VIDEO PRIMER: ZEDDRU THE GREATHEARTED