Last weekend, I got a chance to check out one of the new Commander 2013 decks in action. It was the Eternal Bargain deck with Oloro, Ageless Ascetic at the helm. He didn't look "ageless" so much as "tired," or possibly "lazy." But, I guess that Oloro, Lazy Ascetic probably doesn't sell as well. Maybe he was doing his best impression of Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter. I bet that's it. I bet he's thinking, "I wish I had some bitch'n sunglasses."
Chris and I got a chance to play a three-player game with Darren. Cracking a new Commander deck might not be the best way to learn this game, but Darren is an experienced gamer overall so he jumped right in. We decided that he would play with his hand revealed so that we could suggest what cards to play (or at least explain what each card did). Otherwise, we played a normal game of Commander with Oloro, Mirko, and Teneb.
Oloro smashed us.
Remember, this is the pre-constructed deck we're talking about here. We were buried by Oloro's card advantage. Darren dropped an early Well of Lost Dreams with Oloro in the Command zone. At that point, it was his game. He was drawing so much, finding a way to win was inevitable. And with Oloro untouchable in the Command zone, it really came down to removing the Well without getting smashed by everything else he was throwing out there.
So now, with Darren drawing 2+1 cards every turn, never missing a land drop, and cartwheeling out threats, what was the exact instrument of our destruction? It was actually a pretty cool combo that's baked right into the pre-construct. Check it out:
Sanguine Bond. Disciple of Griselbrand. Serra Avatar.
With Oloro gaining life every turn, Darren was in the 60+ life range by the time he dropped the Sanguine Bond and Disciple of Griselbrand. He rips Serra Avatar off the top in one of his many, many draws. I'm not sure that he would have put this combo together on his own since this was his first game of Magic in 15-odd years, but either way it was there and it was awesome. He drops the Avatar, pays 1 to snackrifice it, and points the gun at me. Blamo.
He shuffles the Avatar back into his library, dutifully following the instructions on the card. And wouldn't you know it? Draws the Avatar the very next turn off of the tremendous number of cards he was picking up at this point. Drops the Avatar, snackrifice, blamo. Chris is out.
Nicely played.
Packing a deck full of sweepers and counters against Oloro would probably do the trick. Maybe. It's a neat, technical deck with lots of triggers and synergies. I like it! If Eternal Bargain is any indicator, the other Commander 2013 decks should be a great way to get a new player into the format without the worry of getting marginalized at the table.
No comments:
Post a Comment