Fancy vs. Expensive

From way back, I've always liked foreign and signed versions of cards. Well, foreign to me anyway. Before "foils" were a thing, I was collecting cards that were different from the cards you might crack in a pack here at home. It was the early days of trading online and I got burned a few times, but I still have cards in my collection that I look back on and remember getting.

As the Commander format started to gain steam, it became apparent that I am not the only one in the world who approached card collecting this way. Lots of people online post montages of the decks they bring to the table. It's not just a list of cards. The actual cardboard matters because the cards themselves are special in some way.




They call this "pimping" your deck.

Let me explain where I think that term comes from. There was a period of time where men who I presume were actual pimps dressed in outlandish ways, showing off their style and flaunting their wealth. The idea of showing off in that particular way was linked to the term "pimping." That term had (and continues to have) a separate connotation that is confusing in this context. But, there is it.

The morphology of the term went something like this, I'm guessing:

• That guy is all dressed up, super fancy. He's a pimp.
• That fur coat is something a pimp would wear. It's pimp.
• Your car is ugly. I will pimp it by making it look outrageously awesome.

And, there you go. Replacing all of the boring non-foil cards in your deck with foils makes it pimp. Ergo, you are pimping your deck. (Yo dawg, I heard you like foilz. Thanks Xzibit!)



Loaning your deck out for others to use (for a price) would be more in line with the other use of the word. But, I digress.

Where was I? Oh yes, fancy vs. expensive. There are cards that are just flat out expensive. Moat, for example, is perfectly legal in Commander and is worth over $300. The Tabernacle and Pendrell Vale is another perfectly legal card that is worth upwards of $500. Both of these cards are covered by the official reprint policy. In other words, unless you happen to have one of these cards in your collection already, or you are rich, or you find one at a garage sale, the chances that you will run out and buy a single card for a price that doubles most of the decks you'll face at the table is slim.



Moat and Tabernacle are certainly fancy, but they are also expensive. When you field cards like this, your opponents have no chance of picking up on your strategies and running with them. A friend of mine put up a post that he was looking to sell his Underground Sea playset. Someone else posted that they would be willing to pay $270 for one. I thought he was joking. My friend countered with $300. Per card. I just about fell out of my chair.



If you play Magic competitively or you have $300 laying around, there is no doubt that Underground Sea is the best at what it does. But, it is also a single card that is worth about as much as many of the decks I run into at my friendly local gaming store. I have Underground Seas in my collection because I've always had Underground Seas in my collection. But, it just doesn't sit right with me to throw them onto the table in a casual game of Commander.



On the other hand, I have tons of foils and promo cards in my mono-black deck. Most of the cards are foreign. My commander, Sheoldred, is foreign and foil and promo. It's super fancy. However - and this is the point - if someone liked my deck or strategy, they could run with it by using the regular copy of Sheoldred. It works exactly the same as a non-foil, non-promo, non-foreign card.

Want a more obvious comparison?

My mono-black deck runs all full art swamps from the Unhinged set. They are trading for about $9 each. I have 30 of them in the deck. They look awesome. I've had them forever. Although it makes my deck look fancy, a normal swamp from any of the recent sets that isn't worth the cardboard it is printed on does the exact same thing. It's not like my fancy Unhinged swamps tap for 1.15 mana. They don't do anything special in the game except look dead sexy on the table.



The Commander format is becoming more popular. That's awesome. I love having new people to play with. But with this popularity, the price for some cards is skyrocketing. I get it. I would never sell my original dual lands unless there was a serious emergency and I needed cash. Lots of people are probably like me, so the price goes up. There's a lesson about supply and demand in here somewhere. But, some of these cards are so strong that it's almost like the people who have them aren't playing the same game as the people who don't.

I've played a few games with my old cards. Invariably, someone who is relatively new to the game will say something like, "That card is awesome!" Then, someone else will say, "Yeah, it's also $500." To which they will reply with, "Oh." I lose at that point even if I win the game.

I lose because there is nowhere to go from there. How many times does a new player run into this situation, decide that they will never be able to afford those cards, never be able to complete, and quit the format? Even if it's not true that you need those cards to compete, I bet it happens. And when it does happen, we all lose.

Commander Deck Storage: Ultra PRO Satin Tower

My wife recently bought me one of these deck boxes from Ultra PRO. It is the Satin Tower, in black naturally.

I only play a few Commander games a week, so I tend to bring one deck with me. The Satin Tower works well for this. It's simple, holds everything that I need, is sturdy, and looks like an imposing monolith of doom.

For reference, the Satin Tower separates into three pieces. It has a top cover that comes off completely, revealing a large compartment. It also has a smaller bottom cover that comes off completely, revealing a small compartment. The top compartment is large enough for my double-sleeved Commander deck, several tokens, and my Duelist abacus life counter. It's a tight fit, though. If you use dice for a life counter instead, there's plenty of room for cards. The bottom compartment is for dice and counters. It comfortably holds a couple of D20s and 4 large D6 casino dice, with room to spare.

The covers are held onto the main part of the box with small protrusions of plastic. It could be the newness of the box, but it is difficult to open. I was worried about bending my cards or dropping the case, so I took everything out and just opened and closed the box over and over to work it in. That seemed to help. Someone I talked to mentioned that he sanded down the plastic. That sounded extreme, but it's an option.

The entire box is made of plastic, but the outside has a strange finish. It has a matte appearance and feels textured. There are a few players at the shop who have worn in Satin Towers and the edges have rubbed and shine a bit. It doesn't look bad, but it's something to note. There are no hinges, velcro, ties, bands, or anything else to wear out or catch on any cards. The inside of the case is shiny plastic, top and bottom.

My custom deck box is going strong, and now holds the cube that I've been working on.

Assume the Position: Oloro in Commander

There seems to be a divide between the players that are working within the spirit of the Commander format and the players who are not. It's not a clear line, so there's always going to be some margin of error; but even if you aren't exactly sure where the line is, it's there.

In the grand scheme of things, I play 2-3 games of Commander each week all within the same block of time. There are anywhere from 10-25 people who show up to play Commander at my friendly local gaming store. Most have at least two decks. One deck is for "fun." The other deck is for the "tournament." Even if there isn't a bright, glowing "line," they know what's up.

The tournament is free to enter. The store clerks put the players into "pods" of three-to-four players. There are two rounds. If you win your first pod, you go to the final pod. Winners of the first pod receive $5 of store credit. The final winner receives another $5, for a total of $10.

Serious money is on the line.

Or, at least it seems like it given the way that the decks are built for the "tournament." Typical decks for the event are $500+ to build, often more. The winning decks use powerful combos, counter-magic, and are resilient to disruption. It's what you would expect from tournament play. And don't get me wrong: I don't begrudge the "tournament." Without it, I'm not sure as large or varied a group would show up for Commander.

Occasionally, someone new will show up to play Commander after picking up a pre-construct or maybe trying the format with friends. They may even feel confident with the deck they bring because it did so well at home. They get smashed. I never see them again. This can't be a good thing for the format, the store, or even for the other players.

Be the change you want to see.

Yeah right. Some people like to win. They do whatever it takes. I mean, $5 of store credit is on the line. That's justified, right? Last week, I lost to Niv-Mizzet / Curiosity. I tried to counter the Curiosity, he countered back. Boom. Game over. It was turn 5. His defense? "When in Rome...."



This week, I turned Esper Oloro into a horrible grief deck. Humility backed up by counter-magic? Sure. I got that. Slow, slow, slow Thopter / Sword beat down? I got that too. After 1.5 hours in the first round, I started using Jester's Cap to remove all of the ways my opponents could get rid of Humility. Three concessions later, I win. Wee!



Beating "creature" decks is easy. If you stick and protect Humility, many "fair" decks simply roll over. Dealing with Commanders is also easy. Terminus, Hallowed Burial, Condemn, Oblation, Unexpectedly Absent, and others spell game over to any deck with a strong focus on the Commander. Merciless Eviction, Final Judgment, and Tormod's Crypt / Academy Ruins make recursion decks grind to a halt. With enough counter-magic, you can even disrupt most of the combos out there. With enough time, you can cripple everyone at the table. Thanks to Oloro's steady life gain and the inability to be interacted with from the Command zone, time is on your side.

I don't feel good about winning. It's not winning in style. But, it is winning. I'm not even sure what I hoped to accomplish, except to maybe prove to myself that it can be done. My clever plan back-fired on me when at least one guy at the table said, "I'm putting Humility in my deck." Oh no!

At one point, all three players were trying to stop me. One guy had Rhystic Study out. The other two players were casting everything they could to let him draw cards. He must have drawn 20 cards, still no answers. Not that it would have mattered. I had a fist full of counter-magic. But still. Gang up all you want. You all lost 10 turns ago. You just don't know it yet.



So, if you really want to crush souls and win by getting concessions, think in terms of cards that are more than simply functional. Think of cards that absolutely cripple what your opponents are trying to do. Your removal spells shouldn't just destroy things. They should exile them. Your sweepers should tuck Commanders. (I caught all three Commanders at once with a Hallowed Burial a few weeks ago. Game over.) Your recursion should be game-breaking. Using Academy Ruins to put Oblivion Stone back on top of your library turn-after-turn will shut the table down. And there's almost nothing they can do about it. You can't fight inevitability.



Remember how I said that there is a line? The store where I play banned two different decks (so far). It's not entirely clear how these decks are banned, or how close you can come to building the decks before they won't let you play, though. I guess you know it when you see it. The first banned deck is Hermit Druid combo. The other is Ad Nausem combo. Both decks are absurd. I wonder how many weeks it would take for them to step in on what I'm doing? Maybe never. Lots of other decks are allowed, even if they win every week.

With a sufficiently large collection, it comes down to building a deck that reflects your chosen strategy for winning (or losing). You know what you are up against. You know what it takes to beat it. Speed? Disruption? Take your pick. Even in the most balanced meta-game where you play only with your closest friends and use house rules to ban whatever cards you don't like, even in those situations there are "best decks." And there are decks that disrupt those decks. It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole. You can keep at it, never quite fitting that peg. Or, you can change your peg.