Hello everyone and welcome to CommanderCast Episode 336! This week, Adam is away  so  Mark has another guest on the show, Mike. This week they go over an article that was written by Sheldon Menery and let just say the guys had a few disagreements with it. Plus some… interesting things about a certain pro player that forces me to remind you that the opinions expressed on this podcast do not reflect the views and opinions of Commandercast.com, it contributors, and are here as a form of entertainment.

So pull up your rocking chairs and click the IB!!!

CommanderCast Episode 336

Posted: November 5, 2018

Intros:

GUEST: Mike

Mark

Keep up with the conversation on Facebook & Twitter.

Community

Part 1: Why we hate Guilds of Ravnica and why you should, too.

Part 2: Why telling people what cards you should & shouldn’t play gets everyone’s shorts in a bind. We discuss “Commander Cards You Shouldn’t Play,” by Sheldon Menery. (*Side note: reading through the comments section on StarCityGames’ Facebook page makes me wish for literal armageddon.)

“…Commander is created to create the best possible social experience, so while a play style might not resonate with me or the rest of the RC, it might be just what you like. We’d like to keep as many of those avenues open to you as is reasonable. It bears repeating that while we on the RC have a concept of what makes the best kind of games for the broadest possible audience, we also have the idea that if a group is all on the same page, whatever kind of game that resonates with them is best.

What follows will be a reinforcement of the first part of the previous sentence; they’re cards that we choose to not play with and would invite you to consider the same…The obvious common thread is that these are cards which for the most part rob other players of the opportunity to play the game. The rest are cards which are so awkward that they deflate a game’s energy pretty quickly.”

Adam’s comment: “Sheldon is stupid”

Strategy

• Armageddon
• Back to Basics
• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• Mindslaver
• Palinchron
• Paradox Engine
• Seedborn Muse
• Sorin Markov
• Stasis
• Static Orb (for a Static Age???)
• Thieves’ Auction
• Winter Orb
• Wound Reflection
  • BONUS Commander: Derevi, Empyrial Strategist

Mike’s rant:

“I feel like Sheldon is using his platform on Star Sity to dictate what is “right or wrong” when playing EDH.  Through his influence as the godfather of edh he is telling a wide audience that if you play these cards that you are an asshole.  These cards may give people the “feel bads” but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valid strategies. All it means is that Sheldon doesn’t like them.  There isn’t one card on this list that doesn’t die to targeted removal which suggests to me that Sheldon either doesn’t put enough target removal in his decks or that his threat assessment is terrible.  While I myself love to play big dumb magic and smash my 9/9 into yours, that doesn’t mean that these cards don’t have a place in way. If these are an issue for Sheldon’s meta then he needs to sort that out with the people he plays with and not pontificate from his star city pulpit.  I appreciate that the rules committee tries to steer the format into a positive place but i’m tired of them dumbing down the format. The tuck rule and the ending of banned as commander were stupid decisions in my opinion and this article just shows how vanilla Sheldon wants to see the format.  

 

Our meta has seen all of these cards, as well as dozens of other feel bad cards and we have managed to solve the issue on our own without interjection from Sheldon.  The first thing we do is ask what level we are playing at, so when someone says competitive we know that these cards are a possibility and if we don’t want to play with those cards we just don’t play in that pod.  The second thing we do is teach new players how to assess threats and how to deal with them. The constant refrain at our LGS is “you need to play more spot removal”. And the third thing we have done is started introducing players to 2dh so that there is now a sub-meta of 2dh games going on inside the regular meta.  The cards on that list don’t show up in 2dh. Sheldon would have better served the community by offering suggestions on how to deal with these cards showing up in your meta instead of vilifying the players that use them. And even with the preamble of how he doesn’t like the word “shouldn’t”, he still uses the word and it still makes the guy who plays Armageddon look like an asshole.

 

Looking at the 5 decks Sheldon lists as his “signature decks” you can see that across the 500 cards that make up those decks he is running 6 pieces of instant speed spot removal.  No wonder when someone plays a paradox engine he shits his pants, he has no way of dealing with it. This is a fault of Sheldon’s and not of the players that are playing the cards on his list.”

Technology

Cards you can play to deal specifically with the cards Sheldon hates.

Armageddon

• Faith’s Reward
• Second Sunrise
• Lodestone Bauble

Back to Basics and every other enchantment/artifact on this list

• literally anything that says destroy/exile target artifact or enchantment.  
• Mike’s favourite (favorite) is Nature’s Claim.

GAAIV

• Lightning Bolt
• Pyroblast
• Terror

Palinchron

• Torpor Orb, or any of its white cousins

Sorin

• Suppression Field
• Pithing Needle
• Phyrexian Revoker
• Trickbind
• Stifle

Thieves Auction

• Counterspell

Outtro/Contacts:

GUEST: Mike  – reddit: u/mtgmetaman

CommanderCast  – Email: commandercast(at)gmail(dot)com // twitter: (at)CommanderCast

Calvin – Email: captainredzone(at)gmail(dot)com  // twitter: (at)CaptainRedZone

Mark – Email: mahlerma(at)gmail(dot)com

Adam – (at)squire9999 // (at)thetrinisphere

Be sure to check out our CommanderCast Facebook page.

And a big thanks to everyone here at the CommanderCast Network. We’ll see you next week with more community, strategy, and technology. Until then, LET’S GET IT!