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.

Every Slot Must Do A Lot

This is Commander. Your deck is 100 cards. Your opponents number in the threes, fours, fives, or more! Every single card in your deck must matter or else you simply pass your turn into oblivion.

I've written before about what you are trying to do when you sit down to a game of Commander. It's not about winning. It's about winning with style. I don't win most Commander games I play, but I do my best to create interesting board states that make the game into something compelling and memorable for everyone involved. I've also written about lands that come into play tapped and passing my turn without doing anything. That's no fun for me or anyone else. Plus, it seems like it takes for-ever for my turn to come around again.

Every slot must do a lot.

In the course of a typical game, you might see one-third to one-half of your deck. That means you won't be playing the same game every time. You do silly things. Your opponents do silly things. Commander is messy. The board state is in flux. Spells are cast and countered. The stack can get huge. The individual card choices matter as much when you are building your deck as when you are playing your deck.

Let's look at an example. Take Sol Ring, please!



Sol Ring is one of those cards. The ancient one. Banned and restricted and never to see the light of day. Totally legal in Commander, though. Why? Because what makes Sol Ring really good in a constructed duel is almost useless in most Commander games. Check it out.

If I'm playing a Vintage match, good ol' Sol Ring does some pretty broken things by effectively speeding my deck up a turn or more. It costs one mana and can be tapped immediately for two mana. On the next turn, it pumps out two mana again. Imagine this scenario with Sol Ring in your opening hand:

Turn 1: Land, Sol Ring
Turn 2: Land

Now, on turn 2, I have 4 mana available. I'm "two lands" up on my non-Sol-Ring-playing opponent. I can do all kinds of dirty deeds with 4 mana. Not to mention chaining Sol Ring into Sol Ring. No wonder it is restricted in Vintage and banned everywhere else. It's "broken" in those formats because it puts one player too far ahead too quickly.

But how about in Commander? Imagine this scenario with Sol Ring in your opening hand:

Turn 1: Land, Sol Ring
Turn 2: Land

Whooptie do. At best, you power out something that either paints a target on your head or allows you to chip away at one opponent (of many) who starts at 40 life. Good luck with that. If you happen to be playing combo, powering out stuff can still work to your advantage, but there is a special place in hell reserved for you anyway. By all means, please end the round more quickly so that we can get on to a real game.

In other words, while Sol Ring is damn near an auto-include in a constructed Vintage deck (and would be in other formats if it was legal), it is fighting for a card slot in Commander against a lot of other options. For example, I run Sol Ring in my demons deck because the deck wants to sit back and build up anyway. "What's he playing over there? Sol Ring? Oh, ok." Sol Ring almost never registers as a threat on its own, so I get a pass while still developing my mana. And I never play it on turn one. But in my other decks, I don't run Sol Ring. I don't need it. I'd rather fill that slot in my deck with something that does something right then and there.

This isn't a "right / wrong" type of thing. You can run Sol Ring. I'm just saying that every slot must do a lot. What is your Sol Ring doing for you? If you have it in your opening hand, are you actually powering out something special that wins you the game? If you draw it later, wouldn't you have rather drawn something else? A threat? An answer? Anything.

Hell, at least Mind Stone replaces itself if you draw it mid-to-late game.



When you are building your deck, pretend that your opponent has a Maralen of the Mornsong in play. He is almost certainly tutoring up combo or lock components. Are you putting cards into your deck that you would tutor for? It's not a perfect example because all kinds of crazy things can be happening in a real game, but if you are essentially in top deck mode halfway through the game, what card do you want to see smiling back at you on the draw?

Winning or losing, as long as I can cast my spells I'm going to enjoy the game. But I want my spells to matter. Making those spells matter starts when you build your deck. Every slot must do a lot. In Commander, it's all about the bombs.

---

If you find yourself disagreeing with me, consider how often you play against only one or two opponents. This probably happens a lot. You know a couple of people who play Magic and you play Commander with them into the wee hours of the morning. When you play with so few opponents, it's more like a duel where developing early and gaining a quick advantage matters a lot more. If you lose before you can cast your bombs, it doesn't matter how cool your spells are. But, in the bigger games, the late game matters more. And unless someone is running combo, you are likely to see the late game. So, plan for it.

What An Amazing Game

You know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

This is my 100th post to Aye Commander. And this game never ceases to amaze me.

I woke up on Saturday feeling like I was pushed under water for a few minutes. Everyone at work has been dropping like flies, so it's fitting that I would make it to the weekend before the sickness caught up with me. My family and I moved a few months ago, even further from my friendly local gaming store, and between weekend projects and unpacking I haven't made it out to my regular Saturday Commander "tournament" at the shop. But I was really looking forward to getting out there again and slinging some spells, so I powered down some coffee, took a hot shower, and make the trek. I'm glad I did.

During my hiatus (moving!), the FLGS took the opportunity to do some remodeling. They actually opened the store up, big time. Supposedly, 150 players can be tapping lands for mana simultaneously now. They were running a grand prix qualifier but we still had enough people for a couple of tables running Commander. It was on.



I got matched up with Jhoira, Azusa, and Riku. I was playing demons with Nefarox at the helm. It was a good match all the way through. Even though Riku was running the Kiki-Jiki / Zealous Conscripts combo, he didn't entwine a Tooth and Nail until well into the game for it. And guess what? Azusa actually stopped the combo with a Beast Within! It was an up and down sort of game, with power switching all around the table throughout the match. I managed to flip Elbrus - only the second time ever. Jhoira ended up winning on the back of a suspended Artisan of Kozilek with Pathrazer of Ulamog in the graveyard, then casting Obliterate. There was no recovering from Annihilator 5 every turn. All in all, maybe the best game of Commander I've ever played, though.

But that's not what amazes me about Magic the Gathering.



I'm running three main Commander decks right now. Demons (Nefarox), Big Beats (Braids), and Bolas Is Behind It All! I keep track of my decks at TappedOut.net. What amazes me is that even after all these years, after all these individual games, my "maybe board" just keeps growing. I still want to rip apart decks and build them back up. I still want to switch out cards just to see if I can change how my deck plays. I still find new card combos and synergies. I still want to keep playing.

What is power creep?

A couple of weeks ago, Sam Stoddard over at MagicTheGathering.com published an article titled, "Dealing With Power Creep." He had this to say:

If we need to increase the power of the new cards we are putting in packs to keep the game exciting, then we will quickly outmode cards in the past and create a further requirement to push things in the future.

I'm going to say this right off the bat: The designers for MTG have done an outstanding job over the past 20 years (!) of balancing the game and not giving in to power creep. This post isn't about bashing anyone.

So, what is power creep?

Sam defines it as, "over time the cards become more powerful." Indeed. As a player, I don't really want that to happen. But there are instances where it makes sense and the designers do push the power level around. You can see that in Theros. Let's take a look at how this works.



Here's a simple concept from Magic: Cast this spell, draw some cards. This spell existed in the very first set. It was called Ancestral Recall. And it was broken. I talked in an earlier post about what "broken" means, but basically it means that the card "breaks" the format where it is played. It's "too good." In fact, it's banned in every format except Vintage where it is restricted. It's a whisper of a rumor of ancient power at this point.

So, the designers needed to figure out the "correct" power level for drawing cards with a blue spell. There are only a few levers to pull to make this work:

• Casting cost
• Spell type (instant vs. sorcery)
• Number of cards drawn
• Who draws the cards (choices)
• Additional effects or delays

That's it. That's what you have to work with if you are designing a card-drawing spell.

To make this simple, let's look at drawing two cards at a time. That's what the designers have generally come up with for a baseline card-drawing spell, one that replaces itself and gives you one additional card. You can see a search of all blue instants or sorceries that draw two cards at magiccards.info by clicking here. The least complicated example is Divination.



Divination costs a total of 3 mana, one of which is blue mana. It is a sorcery. And only you draw the cards. You don't get to force your opponent to draw cards with this spell. As a side note, Divination is a "functional equivalent" to an older card called Counsel of the Soratami. This was likely done for "flavor" reasons, not wanting the Soratami to appear in the M10 base set. As a player, I don't mind functional reprints at the common level. Commons tend to be relatively inexpensive, so reprinting a common with a different name doesn't ruin my day. But, it does allow a player to use up to 8 copies of a particular card in a given deck which is an important consideration for the designers.

To actually have power creep, you have to have context. Context is all of the other cards that exist in the game or in the format you play. So, even though I'm going to be comparing newer cards to older cards, all of the existing cards fit together like a puzzle to create context. For example, check out the spell Catalog from the Urza's Saga set:



This spell looks a lot like Divination, but at instant speed. So that it is not strictly better than Divination, the designers gave it an additional clause. You still get to draw two cards, but with Catalog you have to discard a card too. Even though this spell was actually printed before Divination, the designers are wise to consider that it exists when creating new cards to avoid power creep (or at least to be aware of it).

In other words, if the designers had printed Divination at instant speed it would have been strictly better than Catalog. This is the very definition of power creep.



Now, you can see the pattern by looking at a few other spells and what they can do. Perilous Research costs a total of one less mana than Divination and it still draws two cards, but it's at instant speed. How do we balance that out? Well, you have to sacrifice a permanent when you cast it. Ouch. Pulse of the Grid, on the other hand, costs the same amount of mana as Divination except there is a higher commitment to blue mana (1UU vs. 2U). What do I get for this commitment? Instant speed and the possibility of getting the spell back to use again. Of course, I still need to discard a card. How about if I spend even more mana, now what do I get? For one additional colorless mana, Inspiration allows me to choose another player to draw the cards instead of me.

With only so many levers to pull when designing a card, there's always going to be the possibility of power creep. Imagine if I designed a card that was just like Divination except it cost 1U instead of 2U. That would be better, right? But that's almost never what players want. That kind of "race to the bottom" mentality would have ruined the game eons ago.

With Theros coming out as the 62nd (!) expansion to Magic, there's bound to be some power creep. It's been 20 years, after all. Some older cards, like Ancestral Recall, are not likely to ever see reprinting in a current set. They are simply too good. And, the designers are going to have to push the power levels around from time-to-time to balance things out. It's a good thing, if it's done right. I want to thank the designers for keeping a close eye on the game we play. Thank you for coming up with new ways to revisit the same themes and concepts. Thank you for keeping it interesting.

Theros Spoiler: Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Erebos, God of the Dead, Whip of Erebos

Check out the current spoiler at MTGSalvation for more!

A few more cards have been spoiled that tickle my fancy. And by "my fancy," I generally lean toward blue and black. There's nothing quite like swinging with demons and drawing cards.

Up first! This guy:

 

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver - he weaves... nightmares! Cool artwork. At 3 mana, easily castable, too. The +2 isn't too exciting on its own, but the -X ability is pretty awesome. And the -10 is as backbreaking as any planeswalker ultimate should be. It's my understanding that Wizards hasn't been moving forward with publishing Magic novels. Too bad. I'd like to read more about what makes this guy tick.


With an opening act like that, what do we do for a follow up? How about a dark god and his toys:



When I saw the artwork for Erebos before the card was actually spoiled, I was brimming with excitement. Check that guy out! A 5/7 indestructible for 4 mana is certainly nothing to sneeze at, even with the devotion requirement. Plus, card drawing. Yes! Add in his sexy whip and boom, we've got life gain to fuel all that card drawing. The tap ability on the Whip looks good enough to throw into just about any deck looking to get some mid-to-late-game mileage out of dead creatures without too much fuss.

How are we going to cast all these cool spells in Theros? How about with some cool temples:



Temple of Deceit is only one of a cycle of temples for different color combinations. I am not a fan of lands that come into play tapped. They stop me from casting my spells right away and I hate that! Now! Now! Er, anyway. What I am a big fan of is scrying. Well, lookie here. These temples (get it?) scry 1 when they come into play (get it?!). I'm not sure that this makes the cut in my three-color Commander decks since it does still come into play tapped, but it's worth a try.


This card seems good:





Hero's Downfall reminds me of something. What could it be?



Oh, that's right. Dammit Wizards. Really? Tag "or planeswalker" on there and bump it to rare is your plan? For crying out loud.

Moving on.

Here's a couple of fun cards I'd probably never run in my Commander decks, but hey look at all the flavor!



I can't wait to see someone alter the Akroan Horse into an Akroan Bunny. You know that's going to happen! And the flavor text on the Fabled Hero makes me think of how you'd write a hero for a Disney movie (with artwork to match).

Up last, check out this beard:



Prognostic Sphinx is in the running for best beard in Magic, I'd wager. Scry, scry, scry. It's cool flavor for this set. It fits with Sphinx creatures in general. And, I love it. I run Darksteel Pendant in anything that's not blue just so that I can manipulate my library. I wish it was discard a card to scry 3 instead of attacking to make it happen. There are too many times that I don't want to attack, but I always (always) want to scry.