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Hello everyone and welcome to Commandercast Episode 169! We’re your weekly source for Community, Strategy, and Technology, hosted on MTGcast.com and our homesite: Commandercast.com! This week on the show William takes off for the week and leaves Calvin to host! Calvin bring along Clay, Eric, Chris, and Jon as the talk about Answers! We Spend a lot of time talking abotu playing the Answers but we never really took time out to actually talk about what an Answer actually is. So we talk about what an Answer card is, when to play them, a Deck based on playing nothing but Answers, and some of our personal favorites!

All this and more await with just the click of the IB!!

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Commandercast Episode 169

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October 2, 2014

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Guests:

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Eric- Definitely probably drunk

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Clay- Podcast voice, resident Red Panda

Jonathan- Former Commandercast writer

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Chris- Former Commandercast writer

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Favorite Commanders This Week:

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Eric – Purphoros, God of the Forge

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Jonathan- Zedruu the Greathearted

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Clay- Ixidor, Reality Sculptor

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Chris – Sydri, Galvanic Genius

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News:

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 Community Ban Poll

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Community: Thoughts on the Answers. Why you would want to play them instead of the Questions(Cards that need to be dealt with).

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Main Ideas: Group mentality of Answer cards. Generally people play answers for the deck they know their group will play. this usually leaves them open to new decks that functions in a different manner. Knowing your playgroup and their styles of play can hamper your decks ability to deal with new members.

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Chris Ideas: People who get “tunnel vision” and try to accomplish what they want while ignoring the big imposing threat on the table. (JM:Linear ‘tunnel vision’ decks are skipping answers are also the most vulnerable. re: Krug Damia)

Political impact of running answers: Being the hero by destroying the big threat vs. people thinking you are the fun police. (JM: Just because you have an answer doesnt make you a control deck)

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Jon Ideas: Multiplayer Magic is at it’s best when it’s a game of interactions. Answering your opponent’s threats or imposing boardstate is the difference between Magic and Solitaire. These interactions are also what make epic games

When does an ‘answer’ become a ‘Question’? Moat is a great way to stop fast aggressive decks, but at some point does it become more of a problem than a solution? (Blood Moon)

“Cop decks’ Decks that have all the answers to prevent degenerative strategies from taking over. -Danger is a playgroup relying on you to have the answer every time. (CB and JM rant about people not running removal)

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Strategy: How to play the Answers. How many are too many (Overkill for a certain deck or so many Answers that your deck doesn’t do anything else)? Should you make room in your deck for one type over the other (Creature removal vs Graveyard hate vs Spell hate vs Artifact hate)?

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Main Ideas: what is the ceiling on Answer cards? At what point does your Answer cards overtake your decks strategy? Can you win with a deck made of nothing but was to deal with your opponents cards?

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Chris Ideas: How much of a premium should you put on exile(JM:and tuck effects) vs. destroy effects?

Getting more wins by always having that “out”. (JM: almost every card and strategy has an easily viable and available answer, we don’t have a 15 card SB so Commander answers need to be built into the 99. Just as a Standard deck is weaker without a SB, Commander decks are weaker without answers built in.)

Common removal mistakes: Blowing a removal spell when it’s not yet needed. Blowing up something that is inconvenient to you but was keeping someone else’s abusive strategy at bay. (JM: Poor Multiplayer Threat assessment, make sure you have a plan when destroying cards keeping an oppressive strategy at bay)

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Jon Ideas: The ‘Krenko Test’: T1 Sol Ring, T2 Krenko. Sweepers can be too slow to answer. If a strategy is a problem for your deck, your answer must be fast enough to interact with it.

Major types of answers: Sweepers (most common), Pinpoint removal, and global effects

Pinpoint removal vs a sweeper. A sniper vs a nuke. Being able to use a flexible 1:1 answer may not spell ‘card advantage’ but can provide the solution faster without breaking your own boardstate. Commonly sweepers are deployed just to remove 1 threat. It’s important to choose your answers according to your deck’s design: A creature based aggro deck generally doesn’t want to be heavy on sweepers, but probably wants to ensure they have flexible removal for Enchantments and Artifacts preventing them from closing the game out. (Vindicate/Utter End/Council’s Judgement, Maelstrom Pulse)

Permanent based Answers or Hate cards: Leyline, RiP, Torpor Orb, Grafdigger’s Cage, Rule of Law, Notion Thief, Ob Nix, Possibility Storm

Flexibility at the cost of speed: Utter End is really flexible, but too slow for some threats (back to Krenko)

Knowing how to scale your answers: Propaganda and Crawlspace (just affect creatures attacking you) vs Moat

Cop decks’ Decks that have all the answers to prevent degenerative strategies from taking over. -Danger is a playgroup relying on you to have the answer every time. (CB and JM rant about people not running removal)

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Technology:

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Calvin – Aftershock, Brittle Effigy, Turn and Burn

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Eric – Angel of Finality, Reclamation Sage, Aven Mindcensor

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Jonathan – Hushwing Gryf Answer that advances your board state Draining Whelk is another example. One new and one old: Glacial Crevasses Love the Red Fog! (okay you should probably run Tangle) Time Stop because your turn is done!

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Clay – Mnemonic Nexus, Willbender (and its kin), Parallectric Feedback

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Chris – Faerie Macabre, Stranglehold, Merciless Eviction

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*Honorable mentions: Goblin Tinkerer Orim’s Thunder and of course Wrath of God

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Outtro/Contacts:

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William – Email: Commandercast(at)gmail(dot)com // twitter: (at)Commandercast

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Clay – twitter: (at)EDHPanda

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

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Eric – Email: EricBonvie(at)gmail(dot)com // twitter: (at)ThatBonvieGuy

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Jonathan – Email: kitchentabletactics(at)gmail(dot)com // twitter: (at)KTT_Magic

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Chris – Email: olwhiskeyboots(at)gmail(dot)com // twitter: (at)0hn0s3

If you want to message Commandercast be sure to check out our Facebook page. You can also tweet us (at)Commandercast or email us at Commandercast(at)gmail(dot)com. You can check out our tumblr at Commandercast(dot)tumblr(dot)com.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to our site, you’re all wonderful people. Thanks to Judson and Calvin for manning our facebook page. Music for our show is the “X meets Heavy Metal” series by 331Erock. We’ll see you next week with more community, strategy, and technology. Until then, LET’S GET IT!

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