Mirko's Here and He's Thirsty

Someone get this guy a Gatorade. He looks like he's running low on electrolytes.



That's right, Mirko's here. Let's see what we can do about that drink.

For a peek back into Magic history, check out this card:



In Magic, one way you can lose the game is by drawing a card when there is no card to draw. In other words, if you can run your opponent out of cards he would lose the next time he had to draw. Millstone was one way to speed things down that path. Every turn, you could slowly "mill" away at your opponent's library. Thematically, "millstone" is a great name for what was happening. It wears away at "what your opponent knew." This became known as "milling" and there are a lot of variations on this throughout Magic's history. Mirko is the walking (flying), talking (skulking), rock god (creepy dude) incarnation.

Running everyone at the table out of cards is tricky for a lot of reasons - especially in Commander format because the decks are so big - but doing it without being a jerk is damn near impossible. Did I do it?

For a current decklist, check it on out tappedout.net: Dimir State of Mind... Drinker

The astute among you will notice that the deck contains several infinite combos that border on douchbaggery. That's not exactly on purpose, but rather a byproduct of what I needed to do to keep the deck in-theme and flavorful (with one exception).



For example, Mindcrank and Duskmantle Guildmage combo to damage (or mill) a guy out. But, I like both of those cards for this deck. They fit with the theme. They work with the other cards, too. Besides, it's a two card combo that relies on a small creature and requires either 7 mana to start or 3 mana when someone takes damage. Furthermore, it smokes one guy - not the entire table.



Okay, so what about that "one exception" I mentioned? Rings of Brighthearth (which is awesome with the fetchlands) and Basalt Monolith make unlimited colorless mana. That's all fine and good, but it gets downright silly with Oona, Mindshreiker, or Mind Grind. It's my get-out-of-jail combo for when the going gets tough. In Commander, you need something that takes your deck over the top when things go long. This is my way out.

If you are building a deck like this and want to avoid the unlimited mana, switch out Rings of Brighthearth with Strionic Resonator and smack people by copying all of your crazy triggers. Pull the Basalt Monolith and put in another counterspell for added protection. I may end up going this route myself.

So, what is this deck doing? It's all about the synergy! Let's look at some of the cards.

This is basically a (bad) control deck coupled with a (bad) combo deck. It draws all kinds of hate because you are actively "attacking" the libraries around the table. Players often feel like you are cutting them off from the cards they "could have drawn" if only you didn't mill them. Plus, in addition to taking forever to actually knock someone out, milling does almost nothing to keep people from killing you. Don't play this deck if you want to win. You have been warned.

With that out of the way, what's happening here? We need to play some defense.



No Mercy, Forcefield, Maze of Ith, and Vengeful Pharaoh team up to make us a slightly less attractive target. Coupled with the handful of counterspells we run, we have a shot at stopping terrible things from happening to us along with some protection from combo. It's not much, but politics is a thing. Just nod knowingly at the guy playing reanimator. That usually works. They love getting milled, right up until the last card.

If we are going to be milling anyway, is there anything else we can do to really twist the knife?



Consuming Aberration and Guiltfeeder both love a full graveyard. An active Bloodchief Ascension is bad news all around. Oversold Cemetery, Volrath's Stronghold, and Beacon of Unrest give my guys a second chance to make a first impression. Sepulchral Primordial brings friends to the party. Lest we forget the humble Crucible of Worlds to ensure that we never miss another land drop. Good God Y'all if Liliana gets to her ultimate.

All good things, but what else can we do?



Building around cards that look for cards drawn gives this deck a little shove. Teferi's Puzzle Box is a fun little card. Add Psychosis Crawler to the mix and things get interesting. When you draw a grip of cards from the box, everyone gets smacked.  Speaking of which, Windfall, Whispering Madness, Jace's Archivist, and Memory Jar can turn this into a one-two punch. It's relatively easy to cast-then-trigger-cast Whispering Madness in a surprise, single turn. Oh, and don't forget Underworld Dreams.



Building around cards that look for cards discarded gives the deck an even bigger shove. Liliana's Caress, Megrim, the aforementioned Bloodchief Ascension, and Sangromancer lap it up. In addition to the Windfall, Whispering Madness, Archivist, and Jar all causing multiple discards Forced Fruition really packs a wallop. Try to cast your way out of this and see where it gets you.

Which brings me to good old-fashioned mill.

Every deck slot is precious. Cards that only mill (and nothing else) need to be incredibly good to make the cut, simply because they don't do anything on their own. In this deck, I have some of the best. They either hit everyone at the table, hit one guy really hard, or play nice with the other cards.



In the single target department, Traumatize (or a well-targeted Telemin Performance) can be devastating, especially when backed up by Keening Stone. Nemesis of Reason and Jace, Memory Adept both come with a handy, repeatable 10-card deck flip. Alter of Dementia can turn your massive Consuming Aberration into a surprise library-eater. With enough mana, Oona can eat library and crap out blockers. Lord of the Void is no slouch either. I like to think of him as Oona's counterpart. And Mirko swings for the quad-land-mill!



In the multiple target department, Consuming Aberration's triggered ability can work wonders if you can stack multiple spells in a single turn. Mind Grind or Mindshreiker pumped with enough mana will work a table over, too. Dreamborn muse is both sexy and flips over cards, big time. But the crowning jewel here is Mesmeric Orb. It's a beautiful, simple, and savage card.



Undead Alchemist is happy to get his jambi meat-hooks on all of this hot milling action, turning creature after creature into cold zombie death. This can get out of hand pretty quickly if you drop a big mill right after the Alchemist.

Which brings me to good old-fashioned beat down.

If you can get a big Consuming Aberration to connect, it's usually too much to handle. With 3-4 opponent's at the table and a couple of mill spells, the monster will be huge. Remember, when you cast Traumatize (for example), everyone is going to mill to a land from the Consuming Aberration trigger. That's good for roughly 10-15 power right there. Then the Traumatize resolves and Dreads didn't know what hit him. That's likely another 30-40 power.



The Consuming Aberration (and Guiltfeeder) can go from "eh" to "lethal" in seconds. Dauthi Embrace, Rogue's Passage, Sword of Body and Mind, and Whispersilk Cloak give you a way to push that damage through. These also helps keep Mirko alive and working away. He's no good if you can't connect. Dauthi Embrace has the added fun effect of being able to give your opponents' creatures shadow, too. If you are paying attention, you can use it to kill people by giving an attacker shadow before the other guy declares blockers.

What's wrong with this deck?!?

It's already in a bad position by relying on a tactic that draws attention (and hate) from the table. Layer on that quite a few cards in the deck don't do much to affect the immediate board state or help you put up a fight, and it's easy to get blown out. If you find that you need to cram in counterspells and tutors to make a deck work, that's not a good sign (or at least not the spirit of the Commander format).

But, this deck does create some "edge of the seat" moments. I've had eyeballs on short, short libraries the turn before I got ran over. I've double Whispering Madness into an active Bloodchief Ascension. I machine-gun-preachered someone with the Duskmantle Guildmage. And I've ran people over with a massive, clicking, skittering, Consuming Aberration. Fun stuff. Now I'm thirsty.

Oloro in Commander 2013

No commander at my FLGS this weekend. Big PTQ. But hey, that's okay.

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.

Identity Crisis

The unnamed milling deck with Mirko at the helm was a blast to play this weekend at my friendly local gaming store. I'll put up a decklist with commentary in a different post, but even though I didn't win this weekend with it I felt like I was on the right track because I had a good time.

Check out this link to the MTGSalvation Wiki for a quick overview about psychographic profiles in Magic. What the heck is that? These are "types" players and what motivates them within the game.



I like U/B decks. I always have. The cards that have the right "feel" in both colors are awesome and I get to play with a boatload of my favorites in this deck. It's the Vorthos* in me. The deck, for example, has a little storyline that goes along with it. You see, Mirko is a rock star. I mean, just look at the guy. Nirkana Revenant and Sangromancer? Groupies. For sure. Playing the deck feels like putting on a huge show, with tons of card drawing, discarding, milling, and triggers. We play loud music and your brain goes to mush.



But, the deck is also a Melvin deck. The deck is designed to be a layered interaction of cards that I really enjoy playing. Consuming Aberration is an awesome card. It does exactly what a U/B card should do. It's strong, but in a way that is interesting and dynamic. Mesmeric Orb is a key card and oh so delicious. It's sinister. In all of my games, it has never been countered or destroyed (specifically). Yet, by the time the other players are stressing about how small their libraries have become, they often don't realize that simply tapping the lands to try to dig themselves out of the hole only digs them in deeper.



I'm not a Johnny, at least not in the strong "combo" sense. I do like playing with a deck that I designed, even though a lot of deckbuilding is just starting with a strong list of cards and going from there. And, I do like the way cards interact with one another. But, game-ending combos aren't really my style.



When I'm just flipping through cards, I'm a Timmy. The first things I look for in a new set are the big, flashy creatures. Just today, I saw an awesome low-budget Omnath deck and was tempted to put it together just for the raw green power. Genesis Wave for 30? Awesome. Why? Because I get all my monsters! For around $60, this deck would probably smash any of my decks in nine out of ten games. Green goodness. My Braids deck is really just a super-Timmy deck, except it uses the monsters that I really like to see (blue, artifacts, Eldrazi). But if green is your thing, check out Omnath.

Spike. Spike, Spike, Spike. I'm not a Spike, although there is a bit of a streak in me. I really enjoy the "playing" of the game, but I am not ruthless about winning. I don't care that the $60 Omnath deck would wipe the floor with me. I don't feel green, so I'm not going green. There are about five guys where I play that fall into this category, though. They show up every week with the same decks and usually combo everyone out. Just last week, Arcanis / Mind of Matter guy beat two tables to win the entire thing.



Out of spite, I built a 5c Control deck. You can see the basic deck list here. It is based on a deck from a forum post, here. I am fortunate to have been playing Magic for many years and have enjoyed it enough to hold only my cards the entire time. So, I have most of the "old" cards I need to put something like this together. I did. I tried it out. It's about as non-interactive as it looks and no fun to play or play against. Don't get me wrong. It "wins," but it doesn't win in style.


*I'm being liberal here with my interpretation of the Vorthos profile. My little story has nothing to do with the actual storyline behind Magic and Mirko, but that's not the point. The idea is that the deck is more than just a loose collection of cards. It's even more than a theme. I run Nirkana Revenant, for example, because she fits with my story, not because she fits with the deck.

Winning With Milling

We had a good turnout this weekend where I play Commander. Five tables with four players each.

Oh, and we had a miracle.

No one was playing combo. At least, no one that made it to the final table.

I had quickly put together a version of my Lazav deck without poison, time walks, counterspells, or any of that stuff, the night before. It was a little light on land, but I tested five or six hands and seemed to hit what I needed.

At my table, it was my Lazav with Krenko, Edric, and Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar.




The guy playing Tomorrow had left most of his cards at a friend's house, so he had a pile of cards with him that was "less than tuned" shall we say. That was a point of luck in my favor, certainly. He did have bucket loads of counterspells, but not the backbreaking deluge of card advantage I normally see from a blue deck. Krenko was a good build, capable of crazy goblin shenanigans. The Edric deck was also full of Simic goodness.

Lazav, in all his glory, is not the strongest of Commanders. He's got to be out. He's got to have a good creature to copy, and when he does Xerox the creature the "enters the battlefield" effects don't even trigger. While I've hit a good copy with him from time-to-time, he usually just sits there looking all cloak and dagger as a 3/3 hexproof with his bad self. This game was a little different, though.



At one point, I had a Consuming Aberration out with a Whispersilk Cloak on it. "Here, put this on. They'll never notice you." I cast Bribery on the Edric player, taking his Deadeye Navigator. I didn't bother counting graveyards because the Edric player hadn't been touched and I figured that the Aberration was big, but not that big. As it turns out, he was 40+ power, so I took out Edric in one hit. There goes my Navigator.



When Krenko's turn comes around, he casts Mogg Infestation at me, kills my creatures, and gives me 6 Goblin tokens for my trouble. I recast Lazav on my turn along with a Mesmeric Orb. On his turn, he mills for a handful and turns over a Goblin Piledriver. Oh, I'll copy that. Thanks for the goblin tokens. Fun stuff. The blue player didn't know what hit him.



Krenko was dangerously close to making truck loads of goblins and using Goblin Bombardment or something equally evil to kill me. My solution? Cast Keening Stone and activate. He had exactly the number of cards in his graveyard to mill out. I passed turn and won when he couldn't draw, putting me at the final table.

At the final table, my light land count came back to bite me. I sat at two mana-producing lands and a Maze of Ith for most of the game. One guy seemed really upset about every little thing that affected him negatively in any way, no matter how small. Maybe he was having a bad day, but I'm not sure what he expected. His attitude was like, "What? You would cast spells that interfere with my plans to win the game? Who do you think you are?" Weird.

The winner is a guy who is usually in contention each week with his Jhoira deck. The win is the typical strategy: suspend something awesome and blow the world up. Sometimes it's Blightsteel Colossus. Other times it's an Eldrazi.



All things considered, I'm looking forward to taking this U/B deck in new directions. Undead Alchemist looks like a lot of fun. The key card is Mesmeric Orb. It's inexpensive to cast and sinister. Mid-game, untapping 10-15 permanents per turn is typical. Grind. Grind. Grind.

Good Question

It's been a few weeks since I had a chance to play any Commander, but I had a few hours this past weekend to drop by my friendly local gaming store for a round or two. I got smashed by combo - again.

There are "not great" things going on here.

The format itself is set up for long games. That's awesome. When I get assigned to a pod where no one is playing combo, it's almost always a great game. Big things happen. Control of the game passes around the table. Alliances are made, and broken. In short, it's everything I know and love about the Commander format.

Enter the combo player.

Suddenly, the game is either over so quick that I've barely done anything. Or, just when things are getting interesting the fatal combo is assembled and wipes everyone out. There's basically no "game."

I'm not bitter about it. Like I've written before, combo is part of Magic. I get that. But here's what actually happened last weekend. Tell me if you think this is good for the format.

We have a decent turnout on Saturday and are being assigned to our pods (tables) for round one. We are in groups of four players and there are four tables for a total of sixteen players. Nice. I'm introducing myself and meeting everyone at my table while we shuffle, cut, draw, pitch, draw, shuffle, cut, and ready our life totals. At the table across from us (not my pod), I hear someone say, "I mill you all out."

Wait, what?

We haven't even started yet. I break etiquette and probably tournament rules by shouting over to the other table to find out what the dealee-yo.

"Oona."



Apparently the guy was able to cast Oona, generate infinite mana, and mill everyone at the table out, generating a swarm of rogue faeries... on turn four. Wee! I didn't see it happen myself, but I understand it involved Basalt Monolith and Power Artifact. 



My game went to turn nine where the guy across from me drew cards and generated mana with Mind Over Matter and cast Blue Sun's Zenith on everyone in turn. All of this with multiple counterspells in hand, you know, just in case.



I decided to watch the final pod of four players.

It's Oona combo guy. Mind Over Matter combo guy. Jhoira combo guy. And, Mayael, who was not playing combo.



The combo guys were so worried about each other that Mayael won. It was pretty spectacular. He dropped Lurking Predators. No one countered!? And then passed. They were trying to go off, countering, re-countering, and so forth. By the same it came back around to his turn, it was annihilator 5000 and dragons on their asses.



In a small way, it was a victory of the non-combo deck over the others. But, that Lurking Predators was a lucky drop that no one was in a position to counter. Otherwise, he would have been marginalized even with a couple of turns to activate Mayael before someone at the table ended the game.

During the match, one of the guys says something to the effect of, "Almost everyone is playing combo." Then, he proceeds to tell a story. I'll paraphrase:

I was at a different gaming store to play some Commander. I brought my Kaalia deck. I was like turn three Master of Cruelties, smash this guy's face, turn four cheat this out, smash that guy's face. I wrecked the table. I go up to get my prize and the store guy tells me that there are no prizes. So, I ask him, "No prizes? Why was I just playing like such a dick?"

Good question.

Commander 2013 Spoiler: Nekusar, Jeleva, Baleful Force

More spoilers for Commander 2013 over at MTGSalvation!

We got a look at the new Grixis commander option, Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, a while back.



With enough ways to generate mana or even bouncing and recasting Jeleva, you could start to make a dent, but she's more appealing for the sweet ability to cast rip-roaring spells for free - provided your opponents' bring something good to the table. That never happens, right?

Joining Jeleva in the Grixis commander colors today, we have Nekusar, the Mindrazer.






One way to go with this guy is to build a "wheel" deck around him that pushes card drawing to the max. Classic spells like, Wheel of Fortune and Windfall, along with Memory Jar and even Teferi's puzzle box, can really push the card drawing theme and punish your opponents for doing what we all love. A little Forced Fruition anyone? Some wheeling and dealing, perhaps?



With enough ways to get your key spells back and recast them, you are off to the races. Cards like Call to Mind, Deja Vu, Mystic Retrieval, Relearn, Sage's Knowledge, should get your deck started. Plus, there are a bunch of creatures that will bring back your key sorceries, too. Can you chain your "wheels" into mana and combo everyone out? Probably. Plus, it's a good excuse to throw most of the banned list from Vintage into a deck and call it a day.

Last, but not least, a new elemental joins the team. Will it be part of a cycle? I think so. Check out Baleful Force.



A 7/7 dude for 5BBB mana puts it in the zone for showing up on the table. It's no Consecrated Sphinx, but drawing 2, 3, 4, or more cards before it is even your turn again? Awesome. Sadly, it's not a demon.