Hello everyone and welcome to CommanderCast Episode 388! This week Mark and Adam are planning on a way out of Theros by escaping. The new Escape mechanic has caught our eye and we’re taking a good look at it for ways to use it in Commander.   We also go over a new Commander Nights event starting soon and how it could play out in the community.

And all you have to do is Click the IB!!!

CommanderCast Episode 388

Posted: February 3, 2020

Intros: 

Adam

Mark 

Keep up with the conversation on Facebook & Twitter.

Community

WPN’s post about “Commander Night”

Interstitial fodder:

• • Movies with the word “Escape” in the title
  • Barred for Life: How Black Flag’s Iconic Logo Became Punk Rock’s Secret Handshake

Strategy

Escape as a mechanic & its viability in Commander

702.137. Escape

702.137a 

Escape represents a static ability that functions while the card with escape is in a player’s graveyard. “Escape [cost]” means “You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost.” Casting a spell using its escape ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2f–h.

702.137b 

A spell or permanent “escaped” if that spell or the spell that became that permanent as it resolved was cast from a graveyard with an escape ability.

702.137c

An ability that reads “[This permanent] escapes with . . .” means “If this permanent escaped, it enters the battlefield with . . .” That ability may have a triggered ability linked to it that triggers “When it enters the battlefield this way.” (See rule 603.11.) Such a triggered ability triggers when that permanent enters the battlefield after its replacement effect was applied, even if that replacement effect had no effect.

Rulings:

• Escape’s permission doesn’t change when you may cast the spell from your graveyard.
• To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you’re paying (such as an escape cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The converted mana cost of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was and no matter whether an alternative cost was paid.
• After an escaped spell resolves, it returns to its owner’s graveyard if it’s not a permanent spell. If it is a permanent spell, it enters the battlefield and will return to its owner’s graveyard if it dies later.
• If a card has multiple abilities giving you permission to cast it, such as two escape abilities or an escape ability and a flashback ability, you choose which one to apply. The others have no effect.
• If you cast a spell with its escape permission, you can’t choose to apply any other alternative costs or to cast it without paying its mana cost. If it has any additional costs, you must pay those.
• If a card with escape is put into your graveyard during your turn, you’ll be able to cast it right away if it’s legal to do so, before an opponent can take any actions.
• Once you begin casting a spell with escape, it immediately moves to the stack. Players can’t take any other actions until you’re done casting the spell.

Pros:

• Recursion without exile
• Works with all cards types

Cons:

• A little slow
• # of cards in graveyard is a limiting factor
• Needs to lean on self-mill to be truly viable

Technology

Escape cards worth running in EDH

• Chainweb Aracnir
• Cling to Dust
• Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis
• Escape Velocity
• Fruit of Tizerus
• Glimpse of Freedom
• Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
• Loathsome Chimera
• Mogis’s Favor
• Ox of Agonas
• Pharika’s Spawn
• Phoenix of Ash
• Polukranos, Unchained
• Satyr’s Cunning
• Sentinel’s Eyes
• Sleep of the Dead
• Sweet Oblivion
• Underworld Breach
• Underworld Charger
• Underworld Rage-Hound
• Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
• Voracious Typhon
• Woe Strider

Outtro/Contacts:

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

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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!