Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

LETS GET IT!

Season four of CommanderCast is here, and with it, we have the birth of CommanderCast.com! Rising from the digital, hideous ashes of CommanderCast.blogspot.com, we’ve vacated the old digs and dragged all our stuff with us! The transplant of the team from one spot to another wasn’t without trials but I think this is totally worth it. I hope you agree. Take a moment to look around and investigate the Content Index, where you can find practically every piece of work I’ve ever posted! Check out the Staff Page and see behind the curtain at who’s helping create and maintain the unstoppable torrent of content coming your way! Be sure to check out the new Friends page to get acquainted with my internet posse! There’s all kinds of stuff here to check out and enjoy, and there’s TONS more coming in the future!

But enough about CommanderCast.com… let’s get on to the podcast! Season Four is IGNITED by myself, Byron, and Donovan filling out the regular crew and joined by an as-of-yet-unheard component of the CommanderCast staff roll… Conor, our sound man. Notorious for laying waste for dead air in prior podcasts with his prooflistening skillz, now he’s here to help fill that space with his own thoughts and advice. With this mean team forming a podcasting machine, we go on to discuss playing to win, midrange strategies, and perhaps our most bizarre Entourage segment yet!

Community, Strategy, and Technology are back son!

Show notes and pertinent links below. Enjoy!

SHOW NOTES

00:00 to 07:39: Intro: It’s CommanderCast! What is this show about and who’s on it? In case you didn’t know, we’re going over it again.

• Want to join the team? Contact us.

COMMUNITY SEGMENTS

07:49 to 20:16: Free-for-All Roundtable: From the Vault: Legends: The recent release of From the Vault: Legends has been met with a mixed reception. What are our thoughts on the contents and execution of the whole package? What’s good, what’s bad, and what’s just plain shit? We break it down in our season’s first Free-For-All.

• Jesse’s in-depth financial analysis on Castles & Cooks

20:26 to 36:54: Playing to Win: Sometimes, playing to win has a negative stigma attached to it. But when we sit down to play a game, we’re agreeing that at some point, by definition, somebody will win if the game comes to a convention end as defined by the rules.

• Neale aka Wrongwaygoback’s works on QuietSpeculation.com, who believes playing to win is good and natural
• Conor’s group’s achievement list

STRATEGY SEGMENT

37:08 to 57:40: Archetype Rundown: Midrange: Let’s talk midrange. This is a phrase that doesn’t just mean “check out my pile of somewhat expensive cards”. What defines midrange strategy, and how do they change when ported to Commander? How do you differentiate a midrange deck from an aggro or control deck? And of course, we go over why you’d bother playing one of these in the first place and maybe even how to do it!

TECHNOLOGY SEGMENTS

57:57 to 1:18:00: Entourage: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy: (topic suggested by Louis) Mishra has always been the forbidden fruit of Commander.  He seems so cool, so aloof… and so tragically worthless in a singleton format. But that’s never stopped us from doing Entourages in the past on the show, and it sure as hell isn’t going to stop us now, even if Mishra has an EXTREMELY whack haircut. Check out our deck skeleton for this deceptively awesome Master Artificer!

• Conor’s Picks: Spelljack, Acquire
• Donovan’s Picks: Not suggesting Nether Void (secretly suggesting it FO REALZ), Planar Chaos,  Ice Cave
• Byron’s Picks: Scroll Rack, Soothsaying, Sensei’s Divining Top (super secret! [not secret])
• Andy’s Picks: Shared Fate, Knowledge Pool
• Group Riffs and Gimmies: Most artifact staples (Sol Ring, Duplicant, etc.), Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Praetor’s Grasp, Grinning Totem

1:18:12 to 1:47:25: Hands-On Set Review: New Phyrexia: New Phyrexia seems like a bit of a mixed bag for Commander players, at least for me. We got all kinds of new goodies, but some of these goodies have brough anguish to us as well. Listen in and hear which cards fall where in our minds.

New ‘Staple’ Cards: All Praetors, Beast Within, Karn Liberated, Caged Sun, Dismember, Phyrexian Metamorph, Birthing Pod

Byron’s Picks: Likes Noxious Revival and Phyrexia’s Core: dislikes Beast Within and Triumph of the Hordes

Andy’s Picks: Likes Psychic Surgery aka The SLLLICE, Chancellor of the Spires: dislikes all the non-red Praetors

Donovan’s Picks: Likes Gitaxian Probe, Omen Machine: dislikes Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer, Sword of War and Peace and isn’t on speaking terms with Maul Splicer

Conor’s Picks: Like Pristine Talisman, Melira, Sylvok Outcast: dislikes Batterskull and Karn Liberated

• Byron’s video on Elesh Norn

OUTTRO

1:47:36 to closing: Outtro: Thanks for listening!

• Conor’s personal website

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Andy: E-Mail: CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)CommanderCast
• Donovan: E-Mail: donokun(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)d0su
  
• Byron: E-Mail: surgingchaos19(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)surgingchaos
• Conor: E-Mail: sfx.conor.odonnell(at)gmail(dot)com // Twitter: (at)conorpodonnell

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