This One Goes to 11: Cranking Up Thada Mono-Blue Eldrazi

It's been a couple of weeks now since I turned in my drive to the local gaming store for a keyboard and a monitor. Moving to MTGO to get my Commander fix has been a good experience. It may end up just being a break, but we'll see.

One great part of moving to MTGO has been the ability to play a lot more games in the same amount of time I spent driving, waiting for a table to open up, shuffling, and all the other "stuff" that goes along with playing Commander in person with semi-strangers. Who else loves it when someone yells, "judge!" in the middle of a turn?



I am a big fan of my mono-Blue Eldrazi and Artifacts decks called, Gods, Robots, and Monsters. It started as a Braids, Conjurer Adept deck, but now Thada or sometimes Thassa takes her squishy place. I was trying to figure out what to build on MTGO and realized that even though my collection isn't identical between the real world and the virtual world, it was similar enough to basically build the Thada deck.

Although there are some big differences in individual card choices, the structure of the deck is the same with cards that play the same roles in almost every slot. In fact, having a different card pool to work with made the deck building experience interesting. I came up short in a few areas, but after some searching found suitable replacements that wouldn't break the bank.

I added $5 worth of bot credits and tried to fill in everything that I was missing. It helped considerably that Thada was $0.30. Thassa was out of my price range, clocking in at over $6 by her lonesome. But, I was lucky enough to have a Sensei's Diving Top from before it was a thing. That, along with Crystal Ball and Darksteel Pendant filled in for a few cards I was missing. The other big difference is that the ramp, card draw, and even creatures for my online deck ended up looking different than the cardboard version.

This is where things get weird.



The specific creatures don't matter too much. Anything big and with a cool effect is enough to get the job done. So while I don't have the bomber brothers of Ulamog and Kozilek in my MTGO version of the deck like I do in real life, Stormtide Leviathan and Tromokratis are still darn scary. And totally affordable at $0.05 each.



Quick aside to talk about price differences. I was surprised to find that Palinchron, a card I've been looking for in cardboard for a long time, was $0.05 online and readily available. This was true of several other cards where picking them up for my MTGO deck is no big deal. Many of the staples commanded higher prices, though. Again, I was lucky to have Tezzeret the Seeker from back in the day in my MTGO collection, a card that I still haven't picked up in cardboard.

Anyway, I'm to the point where the overall mix of cards in the deck is what matters now. It's not really about the cards themselves, but the balance of the different types of cards in the deck that makes the difference. For me at least, finding that right mix comes with played the deck - a lot. Something I couldn't do in real life. Moving to MTGO gave me the opportunity to quickly test a different mix of cards.

Did I need more card drawing? More ramp? Less lands?

Switching a handful of cards out between games is simple online. And playing more games in less time also makes all the difference when you only have so much time to throw at testing. Some things that seem to work on paper and may even work from time to time in an actual game become clear that they really don't work all that well when you play several games in a row.



The deck doesn't really go to 11. It actually goes to 12. The biggest spell is the deck is It That Betrays at 12 mana. It's relatively easy to ramp into 12 mana if no one interferes. Plus, there are also several ways to cast things for free.

But what I realized by playing more games in a row is that the deck can go even bigger. It really can. And it probably should. Somewhere around turn 10, everyone has been playing for about 20-25 minutes each. There's a timer in MTGO, so you can watch it. That means that turn 10 is about an hour and a half total, give or take.

An hour and a half is about right for a pick-up game of Commander.

If you have a lot more time available, then you will have time to play two games. Otherwise, one game is about the length of a movie. So, build your deck to do its thing by turn 10. Do this, and you're doing everyone a favor. On turn 10, take a big turn and try to win.

If you don't play on MTGO and want to see how things works, put an extra die by yourself and tick it up every turn. Watch what happens as you play and get to turn 10. Unless there's some rules question that comes up and drags the game out while everyone argues, you'll be about an hour and a half into the game and hoping that someone has the guts to try to end it.



It's not really about comboing off, though that is certainly one option. It's about making your turn 10 into the biggest turn you can. Casting a Big Genesis Wave, Craterhoof into an army of guys, Rise of the Dark Realms, back-to-back Army of the Damned, all that stuff is big and splashy, and can end the game quickly without a combo.



In other words, cheating Jin-Gitaxis into play on turn 3 and making him stick behind a wall of counterspells probably isn't a good time. But! Casting Jin-Gitaxis on turn 10 when everyone else has already run out of gas seems perfectly reasonable. Is it a coincidence that Jin is 10 mana? Maybe not.

Khans of Tarkir Spoiler: Butcher of the Horde, Kheru Lich Lord, See the Unwritten, Hooded Hydra, Empty the Pits, Utter End, Banners, Refuges

(Don't forget that you can see a visual spoiler of the new cards as they are revealed over at MythicSpoiler.com)

Keeping track of the new demons in Magic is a hobby of mine. We have a couple of new ones in Khans. Check this guy out: Butcher of the Horde.



A 5/4 flyer for 4 mana is a good deal, even if it is in three colors. The triple color combinations are going to throw off a lot of card evaluations. Even with all of the new color-fixing, getting three colors consistently is no walk in the park. I like my demons like I like my coffee: black. This demon is a bunch of colors. His ability is in-theme for demons, so that's nice.


Kheru Lich Lord, See the Unwritten,



I like cards that let me play stuff for free. Bonus points if it's random. Hey, I like spinning the wheel! Kheru would be sweet as a Commander, but alas he is not legendary. Still, if he's in your colors you can get extra mileage of your creatures. See the Unwritten feels "hobbled." Cards like Genesis Wave have a much bigger top end. But we only get one Genesis Wave, right?

I takes what I can gets.



Haymakers are what makes Commander fun, for me at least. Empty the Pits is one of those cards. Like Army of the Damned, it can give you a swarm of Zombies. It's awesome because it's an instant. For flavor reasons, Zombies have been coming into play tapped for a little while now. Thematically, I like it. But, it means waiting around for the clawing and digging Zombies to get up through the graves. Unlike in the movies, your opponents don't stand there, slack-jawed, while the Zombies come to life. With Empty the Pits, you can summon your Zombie army just before you untap. Evil.

Hooded Hydra



Dat art.

Lots of the art in Magic is questionable. It's gotten better over the years, but every once in a while there's a picture on a card that's just so damn cool. Hooded Hydra is one of those. The way all the heads are turned, like it just found it's prey. Woah.



Green creatures have also gotten pretty crazy over the years. It started a long time ago. Red got Lightning Bolt and Green got Giant Growth. All things being equal, you could cast Lightning Bolt as long as you had a Red mana. Giant Growth required a Green mana, but it also required a creature. So, to get the same amount of damage through, you needed a creature to target and that creature needed a way to get through.

If you only got to choose one spell for your deck, it would be Lightning Bolt. It's less restrictive. Even though Giant Growth can theoretically "do more" to save your creature in a fight, Bolt gets the job done with less fuss. (Besides, a well-timed Lightning Bolt can save your creature in a lot of situations, too.)



Things were out of balance. They knew it. They printed Shock. Effectively, they were saying, direct damage spells with no restrictions need to be "slower" and less versatile. That worked for a while. But Green still felt underpowered. I remember winning a small, local tournament with a mono-Green deck back in the day and feeling like a god. It was a big deal because Green was a joke.

As time marched forward, Green got better designed cards. The cards feel "more Green" now. Look at Hooded Hydra. It scales with how much mana you have. It leaves behind snakes when it dies. And it has tricks.

You know what it doesn't have? Deathtouch.

It looks like it should have Deathtouch, but there isn't room on the card for anything else.

It does have Morph, though. I can't wait for the confusion to begin. For a game with as many rules as Magic has, Morph is in the running for the most complicated. Explaining it and understanding it are relatively easy. Using it properly is tricky.

I'm not saying the card isn't cool. It's damn cool. I just would have traded Morph for Deathtouch. Cleaner card. More flavor.

Utter End




















Oloro needed another way to deal with pesky permanents. Yeah, that's it. Oh, and look! A promo. Hell, it's even an instant. It can't target lands, but it does exile the target. Compare to Vindicate, Oblation, and Mortify. Pick your poison.

Banners







Color-fixing at common, one for each three-color combination. Can be turned in to draw a card. It's not super-exciting, but I'll take it.

Refuges



Okay, these aren't technically "refuges" by name, but they are lands that come into play tapped, tap for two colors, and gain you a life when they enter the battlefield. Slow lands aren't my thing, but these are at common and do color-fix. Plus, there's one for each two-color combination. The names they used on these lands are impressive and evocative of the areas they are supposed to represent. If they had reprinted true dual lands, these are what I would have wanted them to be named.

Khans of Tarkir Spoiler: Fetchlands, Sarkhan, Necropolis Fiend, and Tri-Lands

It's spoiler season again. This time, we're headed to Tarkir to see what those sassy Khans are up to. Catch up on the details over at Magic Spoiler.

The big (BIG) news is that the fetchlands are back. You know, the cards that you really want to play in some of the more expensive formats, but that are so expensive it's just not going to happen in your lifetime? Yes, those fetchlands are back. This is your chance.

• Polluted Delta
• Flooded Strand
• Bloodstained Mire
• Wooded Foothills
• Windswept Heath

We suspected that this was coming, but I think a lot of people were caught flatfooted when we found out that they were being printed so soon in the block. It will be nice for newer players to have access to cards that skyrocketed in price, but that are foundational to some of the formats that have developed since they were originally printed.

The new, mono-red Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker looks like a lot of fun. That +1 loyalty ability could be quite shocking since the dragon can come out of nowhere and flap on over on hasty wings.



With every new set, there's a least the possibility for new demons. So far, we have Necropolis Fiend to consider. At first blush, it seems like a long way to go to set up a delve that gives me a good deal on a 4/5 flyer. The potential is for a relatively large body with evasion for only two black mana. But, there's a fair amount of setup before that can happen. In addition to flying, the body comes with reusable creature kill. I'm not sure it earns a slot in my demon tribal deck, but it's worth another look.




The other spoiled cards (so far) that caught my eye are the new tri-lands. I really, really don't like lands that come into play tapped. But, if you are running a five color deck, it gives us a good way to get there without spending a fortune on dual lands. It's also nice for a three color deck to have lands that can color fix the entire range of colors in the deck. These color combinations were "missing" before this set.

Eating Money: MTGO

"Cram some money in your mouth-hole."

No, that doesn't seem right. But the saying goes something like that.

"Chow down on some tasty dollars."

Still not quite right.

"Put some money where the food goes."

Eh, close enough.

With my schedule, playing one or two games of Commander per week is where it tops out. Saturday afternoon is when my friendly local gaming store puts on a Commander tournament. For good or for ill, calling it a tournament brings 20ish people out of the woodwork. But, calling it a tournament also brings out some pretty cutthroat decks. Otherwise, I am lucky enough to have a couple of friends that play Commander and are up for a game from time to time.

My FLGS is about 25 minutes from my house. Let's call it about 15 miles, one way. My car gets about 30MPG, so round trip is one gallon of gas. At $4 per gallon, it's $16+ a month to play Magic.

I'm not recommending that everyone should think this way. It's just the way I'm wired. Always has been. I end up comparing the cost vs. what I get and spending almost an hour in the car to play a few games of Magic per week is right at the edge of what I'm willing to do. My work commute has gotten longer recently, so spending an additional day driving an hour has me contemplating other approaches to getting my Commander game on.

Which brings me to MTGO.



Playing Magic online is simply not the same experience as playing in person. Like most things, it has its plusses and minuses. On the plus side, there's no travel time. On the minus side, it's less social.

Magic Forever!

I've always liked the idea that as long as I keep my cards, and nothing crazy happens, I can play Magic with these same pieces of cardboard forever. It's like a book you can read over and over, except way better. For this reason, I have been reluctant to buy digital copies of cards on MTGO. When the service goes away, the cards go away. Goodbye sweet, sweet Magic.

That doesn't mean that I have no digital cards. I'm one of the early adopters of the platform. And, the cards I bought all those many years ago are still right there, in my digital collection. But, I haven't spent nearly as much money or time on MTGO as I have on MTG. Plus, I do like my signed, foreign, altered, cards. There's not so much of that on MTGO.

The card economics between MTGO and MTG are worth some study. Since these are digital goods, there is no shipping cost to move them around. This means that sellers can provide cards for $0.03 each and still come out ahead. The bot system for selling cards is a little wacky, but it works. You can get just about any card you want, any time of day, sometimes for nothing.

That's right. Nothing.



There are several bots out there that give away cards as a promotion and a way to increase awareness for the cards they do sell. A good portion of my collection was acquired this way. You might be surprised how good the "free" cards actually are, especially for Commander. Just picked up a copy of Crystal Ball from a bot for free. I love me some Crystal Ball.



Most of the rares, especially the Legendary ones you would want as your Commander, are available for about $0.05 each. I just bought almost all of the three-color legendary dragons and a bunch of other eligible Commanders for less than $1, total. Plenty of deck-building potential for such a small amount of money. Plus, you can use the same card in more than one deck without having to fuss with desleeving and resleeving, sorting your cards to find that card you know for sure is in this box somewhere, and other time-consuming activities.



Because I don't like the idea of spending real money on digital goods, it's helpful if I think of it as a subscription for $16 per month. It's what I was spending on gas anyway, so I'm in the same boat financially. And from what I've seen, I'm going to rapidly run out of cards I want to buy if I plunk down $16 per month. With a few notable exceptions, like standard-legal planeswalkers, almost every card I want is less than $1 and most are closer to $0.05. Cards like Command Tower and Temple of the False God really are $0.05 each.

It's like Christmas!

Other than a less-social interaction online, another downside to playing on MTGO is the games are considerably more tedious. If you want to be on the ball, making technical plays, you end up having to acknowledge and pass priority all the damn time. The good part of this is that you can't be rushed, can't miss triggers, and there is no calling for a judge to figure out the crazy interaction you just blundered into. The game doesn't let people roll over you. They can disconnect and leave you sitting there, but that's about it.

The few games I've tried in the past week have been solid. There were no pedal-to-the-metal combo decks. It was interactive and fun. When I played the Singleton format on there years ago (before Commander was a thing), it was all overpowered decks. Not fun. Maybe the people who moved onto Commander got that out of their systems. Or, maybe I just got lucky. Time will tell.



I'm pumped about the possibility of quickly and easily playing a huge range of decks online. Being able to rapidly build new decks and new ideas takes the guesswork out of finding cards in your collection, sorting them, shuffling, self-testing, and whatever other voodoo you do when you brew. It doesn't quite have that hands-on feel, but I find that shuffling a deck of real cards while I think is similarly satisfying.

It also not quite as gut-wrenching to go into a pod on MTGO with an untested deck. When I would do it in real life, it was a real letdown if the deck didn't perform. It often ended up being my one chance to play all week. Not drawing lands is not a good way to spend a couple of hours. This promotes stale deckbuilding since going with what you know means you have some comfort that it will work.

I'm not saying that I will never play in person at my FLGS. I'm saying that it's a long way to go for what's turned into an explosion of powerful decks all trying to grab $5 of store credit. I long ago tuned all my Commander decks to this environment and somewhere along the way moved far, far from what the format is really all about. I'm hoping to recapture some of that again online.

Commander Cube for Fast Deckbuilding

Every format has staples. Commander is no different.

A couple weeks ago, I met a few new commander players and wanted to put a deck together that wasn't going to get me shunned until the end of time. Most of my decks are tuned to the cutthroat "tournament" scene at my FLGS. As I looked through my lists, I realized that none of that was going to be fun to bring to a new group of players.

What to do?



First, I went back to my roots. The three-color dragon legends are almost always a good jumping off point to build a new deck. They are large and have cool abilities that lend themselves to themes and ideas. And building for three colors automatically adds some randomness and inconsistency that makes for a more varied (but not always more fun) game. I looked through my legends and decided to built for Intet, the Dreamer.

Okay, great. But I wanted to build this deck quickly and I wasn't going to get a chance to playtest. Now, what?

I thought about it for a while and further realized that my cube was a perfect source to build from. I decided to brew the entire deck from the cards in my existing cube. The cube was already sleeved, so that saved even more time.



My cube includes lots of cards that I like from the history of Magic. I collected those cards over all those years because I liked them in the first place. It's not surprising that they found a home in my cube. Plus, I played multiplayer singleton formats (like 75-card and 100-card "highlander") before it was a thing. Turns out the cards that are good in slower formats like that work great in Commander. And those cards can work great in cube if you build it around slower cards.

Some folks out there are finding great success with building a Commander Cube. That sounds awesome in every respect. I would go that direction, but I don't foresee having the hours it would take to draft in that format, additional time to build, and then time to actually play a few games of commander with the sweet, drafted decks.

But! We can approximate something like this by having a big cube of commander cards already sleeved up. Pulling cards from the cube lets us build lots of decks in short order. How do we select cards for the cube? It can't hurt to start with the staples. Here's why.

I'm going to agree with some of you out there that seeing the same cards every game is boring. But, consider this. Let's pick something like ramp as an example. In commander, your deck either needs to speed itself up or slow everyone else down. If you try to play it straight, you are going to end up squeezed by one of those two strategies.



If you go the route of speeding yourself up, you are "ramping." Almost every commander deck is going to do this to some degree, even if they are trying to slow everyone else down. Green is notable for ramping because it's something the color actually wants to do. For the most part, the other colors have to borrow from artifacts or special lands to ramp.

Okay, back to the staples of the format. If you are running green and you want to ramp, you should consider the Cultivate and Kodama's Reach one-two-punch.



Not only are these spells splashable, they ramp, color-fix, and give you card advantage. These spells are forgiving to cast, only requiring a single green mana. They curve nicely at three mana. They let you choose the (basic) lands you need to fix your colors. They ramp by putting one of those lands into play. And they give you two cards for one by putting the other (basic) land into your hand. It's a helluva deal.

I can hear it now, though. "That's boring! Everyone runs those spells. I'm tired of seeing the same spells in every deck. You suck! How did you get in here. Who are you?" Calm down, turbo. Suppose you didn't run those particular ramp spells, but you still wanted to ramp in green. Now what?



Fine, at three mana in green, you could run Far Wanderings and Journey of Discovery. Are they better? No, but if you don't want to run the staples, there's always going to be a next best spell.

That's the secret of Magic.

It's not about how powerful an individual spell is. It's about how much MORE powerful an individual spell is compared to every other spell that does something similar. Great cards are ones that make the players consider lots of different things to decide which spell is best in a given deck or situation. Variation around a central theme without any one spell being clearly better than another makes for good design.



At two mana in green, you could run Nature's Lore and Farseek. They come out sooner, but do less.



At four mana in green, you could run Skyshroud Claim and Hunting Wilds. They come out later, but do slightly more, especially if you are running true dual lands or shock lands.



With creatures in green, you could run Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves. Some builders prefer the ramp to come with bodies attached.

My point is that you can choose whatever green ramp spells strike your fancy to include in your commander cube, and therefore to include in your rapid deckbuilding pool. Whatever you decide to include is going to end up being your "best" card in that limited pool of cards. In the case of Cultivate and Kodama's reach, they are relatively easy to find, fairly inexpensive, and have a high degree of flexibility to fit in lots of different decks you might build. In other words, if you go that route your bases are covered.

So, if you're looking for a quick way to build lots of different commander decks to fit any occasion, start looking at the cards in your collection that work in lots of different situations and cube them up. Don't be afraid of using staples. Draft your next deck from the cube!