WotC Headquarters And PAX West!

Disclaimer: No PAX Wests were harmed in the recording of these events.
In fact, no actual PAX Wests were attended. I instead went to

Mox Boarding House Ballard

for the Commander celebrations there an ancillary part of the
convention. Then I went to the Wizards of the Coast offices to visit
some old friends and sit in with folks from R&D on Commander
discussions. While PAX West was the reason I went out to Seattle, the
only piece of it I saw was driving through the convention center on
Monday on my way to lunch. This report will tell you about my
experience at Mox Boarding House, what it told me about the format, and
as much as I can about the Commander discussions at WotC. It won’t be a
great deal, but it’ll be important.

The main purpose for heading out west was the Commander celebration at MBH.
Let me say something about Mox Boarding House: I nerdgasmed when I stepped
into the place. It’s the culmination of all the gamer hopes I’ve ever
dreamed. Board games, trading card games, tabletop games, RPGs, you name
it. Add to that a friendly (super friendly) and knowledgeable staff, and
you’re already in the stratosphere of game stores. Tack on the cafe with
decent food and a great beer list, and we’ve cracked the vault of heaven.

Wizards of the Coast wanted me to be there from 7-11 Sunday night, but that
just didn’t seem like enough time to play as many games of Commander as I’d
like. Fellow Commander Rules Committee member Scott Larabee and I headed to
the shop just after noon. It was quiet save for the Modern tournament going
on, so we sat in the trading card game area and played a few 1v1 games with
our non-1v1 decks. As we sat down, I realized that I had left the super
cool Karador playmat that Scott had given me back at the hotel. Aric, who
was running a Modern tournament at the moment, didn’t hesitate to lend me
one of his. And when Simon, who was stocking shelves, overheard that I had
also left my Sharpies back at the hotel, he jumped right up and brought me
a few. It was top shelf service which I will never forget. It speaks to a
MBH culture that you just have to love.

It didn’t take long until some folks came in and we got a four-player pod
going. Scott played a new Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle deck, which is new by
just adding it as the commander to his existing deck that’s full of sea
monsters: Krakens, Leviathans, and Octopuses. I played Purple Hippos and
Maro Sorcerers. Here’s the latest list:

Phelddagrif

Sheldon Menery

0th Place at Test deck on 12-30-2012

Commander

Creatures (29)

Lands (38)

It had been so long since I’d played the deck that I ended up playing with
it all day, since I simply enjoy running it. It’s hardly broken, can stay
in games, and occasionally do epic stuff. In other words, it’s the perfect
Commander deck.

We were playing with David (Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer) and Brendan
(Thrasios, Triton Hero paired with Vial Smasher the Fierce). David is an
experienced player and long-time Commander fan. Brendan says he’s been
playing about three months and is just getting into Commander after having
played quite a bit of Modern. He’s a little further along in his play skill
than I would have expected at three months; he still has the occasional
question about how the rules work, but otherwise, he’s spot on. David’s
deck is pretty much what you’d expect, having some fun creating Myr tokens.
What we get out of Brendan’s deck early is pretty much good stuff in the
colors, drawing cards, a little ramp, and the like.

We have a decent game, but nothing too wild. My biggest contribution is
getting to have Martyr’s Bond and Estrid’s Invocation on the battlefield at
the same time. Scott actually designed both of those cards, so it was fun
to use them against him. He was the early- and mid-game threat, as
Arixmethes helped him get into the big monsters. Whelming Wave helped him
get ahead on us quite a bit. David’s cool contribution to the game was
putting Scott’s Reef Wurm into the Mimic Vat. Mimic Vat exiles the creature
token (which means he wouldn’t get the upgrade path of Fish/Whale/Kraken),
but David was ready with numerous ways to sacrifice creatures. Scott killed
Brendan just before he went infinite with some mana rock/Paradox Engine
combo, which he was assembling while we dealt with his Jin-Gitaxias, Core
Augur. We stopped him once when I used Nimble Obstructionist to counter his
critical Paradox Engine trigger.

Scott swung an alpha strike at David the turn after he killed Brendan,
which enabled me to play Keep Watch, filling up my hand with potential
answers. Even a modest attack, like the six creatures Scott swung in with,
are enough to make Keep Watch great value. Drawing six for 2U is pretty
saucy. I got an answer, kind of, in Equal Treatment, one of my favorite
hidden gems. In this situation, it wasn’t an answer so much as a delaying
tactic, but it would enable me to survive the turn to plop down Akroma’s
Memorial, which I had drawn off of Keep Watch, supporting the Overbeing of
Myth and Suramaro, First to Dream I had on the battlefield, plus the
Multani, Maro Sorcerer which I had also drawn off of Keep Watch.
Unfortunately, Scott had Counterspell-the original, which I had insisted
half an hour earlier wasn’t that great a card in the format. Guess I ate my
words. The discussion afterward, as we were shuffling up for another,
became the most important element of the game.

Brendan said “yeah, I need to find a way to combo off faster with Paradox
Engine.” Nicely, it wasn’t just Scott and I who contributed to the ensuing
conversation, but also David. We explained the more social nature of
Commander to Brendan. He listened intently. We described how one player
taking all the time in the game (although let’s face it, dredge is worse
for bogarting the time than Paradox Engine combos are) is contrary to the
format’s ideals. We talked about how something happening on Turn 13 is
different than the same thing happening on Turn 3. We were careful to point
out that if everyone at the table is in agreement that the kind of game
they want is to see who can combo out fastest, then that’s great; we’re not
against folks enjoying their games in any specific fashion. The critical
point here is that players who want to combo out Turn 3 are not the
baseline of Commander players. If you’re wandering into pick-up games at
the card shop, you’re far more likely to encounter players who want the
longer, more social experience. From the Rules Committee perspective, it’s
incumbent upon the fast combo player, or the Stax player, or anyone who
thinks they might be playing decks outside the expectations of the format’s
primary demographic to warn people before getting into a pickup game (this
obviously doesn’t apply to competition; there, all bets are off). Being a
social format means at least some nod to the idea that everyone at the
table has some fun or at least the opportunity to. It’s what’s kept
Commander alive all these years. Brendan heard what we had to say and
replied “Okay, show me. Lend me a deck.” Scott loaned him the sea monster
deck, and we had a fun game that he enjoyed quite a bit.

The main event started at 7pm. In addition to me and Scott, Josh Lee Kwai
and Jimmy Wong were the “celebrity” spell-slingers. Alli Medwin from
Wizards of the Coast also showed up to play with some of the folks as well.
The idea was to just keep bringing folks in to play with us; the
expectation was that each of us would play two games. I ended up playing
only one, but it was loads of fun.

I was at a table that could comfortably seat five, so I played with four
folks, who it turned out were two different sets of friends. Sarah and Matt
were relatively new players who brought the pre-constructed decks with
them. Sarah played Nature’s Vengeance, led by Lord Wingrace; Matt played
Exquisite Invention, led by Saheeli, the Gifted. Jeff and Jared were
experienced players. Jeff decided he wanted to play the Adaptive
Enchantment deck that he had just picked up, commanded by Estrid, the
Masked. Jared brought one of his recently-built decks, led by Yuriko, the
Tiger’s Shadow. Seeing that the others were playing the pre-cons, he took a
few of what he called the more brutal cards out of his deck. I had expected
to play with all experienced players and more highly-tuned decks, so I was
going to play You Did This to Yourself; seeing that the power level was
low, I ran Phelddagrif out there again. I might have grabbed a pre-con
myself, but didn’t want to slow down the process any further.

Jared became the early threat with Yuriko hitting twice for eight and six
damage, respectively. Once he was quelled, everyone began developing
nicely. There were no super-spicy plays, just a normal Commander game that
swung back and forth, with one player getting an upper hand, then getting
brought back to equilibrium, then the pendulum swinging another direction.
There was a moment deep in the game (Turn 15 or so) when I thought I was
going to kill the table, as I had Myojin of Seeing Winds in hand with
Psychosis Crawler on the battlefield. I had just played Mirari’s Wake, so
if the Myojin didn’t finish them off, I could also play Blue Sun’s Zenith
for another ten or so. Sarah was wise enough to destroy the Psychosis
Crawler before I untapped. In the end, we weren’t enough for the Jeff’s
Estrid assault with Angels spawned by Sigil of the Empty Throne. I think I
also remember Cold-eyed Selkie being 8/8 at one point (and that wasn’t with
Octopus Umbra). There were plenty of politics and plenty of laughs, with
Jeff finally killing me right before our scheduled end time. It was a
fitting end to a fun evening with great people. I was happy to have the
chance to get to know them a little personally as well (like the fact that
Matt and Sarah are friends despite the fact that she’s a defending
attorney, and he’s a prosecutor).

The other part of the weekend I suppose you’re interested in hearing about
is my trip to the WotC offices on Tuesday. It started with a great lunch
beforehand at Din Tai Fung with Scott, Gavin Verhey, Bill Stark, and Mike
Turian-the latter two whom I hadn’t seen in quite a few turns of the
calendar. Food was good, company was better. I visited some of the old
guard, like Ron Foster, Witney Williams, and Laura Kilgore (folks in OP who
have done quite a bit of work in their times making sure you have great
tournaments to do to) before a scheduled meeting down in R&D. I talked
about the format for just over an hour with Gavin, Scott, Glenn Jones,
Ethan Fleischer, Jules Robins, and Ken Nagle, all of whom are in one
fashion or another involved in Commander design and/or development.

We chatted about the existing state of the format (which we all agreed is
pretty healthy) and the future. Obviously, I can’t tell you any specifics
about future stuff, but I’ll tell you that they’re committed to producing
high quality content that resonates with the Commander target demographic.
They asked questions like “what would you like to see more or less of in
Commander products?” One of the things I shared with them, which isn’t a
secret, is that we’d rather see them not try to do too many different
things on one commander, like the case of Leovold, Emissary of Trest or
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. We talked about trying to get an Elephant lord
in an upcoming set. I asked their opinion on what cards we might unban;
“none” was the general consensus, and I got quite a bit of resistance when
I suggested that graveyard hate might be good enough these days to think
about Recurring Nightmare (no, we’re not actively talking about unbanning
it; the question was just a balloon I wanted to float past them). All in
all, it was a very productive meeting, and what I CAN tell you is that I’m
thoroughly excited about what they’ll be offering us from the next few
Commander releases.

Then I got to live the dream of playing games with cards from the future as
well as drafting while sitting in the middle of R&D. The floor on which
Scott works is relatively quiet, a cube farm with some offices and
conference rooms and things you’d expect from a corporate office. R&D
is a beehive, and you can feel the creative honey getting made just from
the activity. I was sad that I couldn’t stay longer, but I had a plane to
catch. Thanks to the folks in the office for being so welcoming and happy
to see me.

Question of the Week

Are you ever going to let hybrid mana be what it is in other Magic
formats? (from multiple sources)

First, let me say that letting spells with hybrid mana costs into
“off-color” decks would probably not wreck Commander. Second, I absolutely
understand the original intention of hybrid mana, and think that it’s cool
for other formats. What we’ve come to on the Rules Committee is the fact
that a hybrid mana symbol is both symbols, and if you don’t have both in
your color identity, you can’t play the card. To us, not playing Debtor’s
Knell in a white-blue deck is the same as not playing Grave Betrayal in a
white-blue deck. Simply put, Debtor’s Knell is a white card and a black
card, and you can’t have black cards in your non-black deck. We don’t see
moving off of this stance any time soon.

When I was down in R&D, I chatted for a minute with Mark Rosewater, who
was kind enough to come say hi, and who, despite not seeing eye-to-eye with
each other regarding hybrid mana in Commander (and Mike Long), I’m friends
with. I know it doesn’t happen much in 21st-century America, but we can
have fundamental disagreements with people and still, you know, respect
them.

Check out our comprehensive Deck List Database for lists of all my decks:

SIGNATURE DECKS

Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers

;

Kresh Into the Red Zone

;

Halloween with Karador

;

Dreaming of Intet

;

You Did This to Yourself

.

THE CHROMATIC PROJECT

Mono-Color

Heliod, God of Enchantments

;

Thassa, God of Merfolk

;

Erebos and the Halls Of The Dead

;

Forge of Purphoros

;

Nylea of the Woodland Realm

;

Karn

Evil No. 9.

Guilds

Lavinia Blinks

;

Obzedat, Ghost Killer

;

Aurelia Goes to War

;

Trostani and Her Angels

;

Lazav, Shapeshifting Mastermind

;

Zegana and a Dice Bag

;

Rakdos Reimagined

;

Glissa, Glissa

;

Ruric Thar and His Beastly Fight Club

;

Gisa and Geralf Together Forever

.

Shards and Wedges

Adun’s Toolbox

;

Angry, Angry Dinos

;

Animar’s Swarm

;

Borrowing Stuff at Cutlass Point

;

Ikra and Kydele

;

Karrthus, Who Rains Fire From The Sky

;

Demons of Kaalia

;

Merieke’s Esper Dragons

;

Nath of the Value Leaf

;

Queen Marchesa, Long May She Reign

;

Rith’s Tokens

;

The Mill-Meoplasm

;

The Altar of Thraximundar

;

The Threat of Yasova

;

Zombies of Tresserhorn

.

Four Color

Yidris: Money for Nothing, Cards for Free

;

Saskia Unyielding

;

Breya Reshaped

;

Yidris Rotisserie Draft Deck

.

Five-Color

Children of a Greater God

Partners

Tana and Kydele

;

Kynaios and Tiro

;

Ikra and Kydele

.

THE DO-OVER PROJECT

Adun Oakenshield Do-Over

;

Animar Do-Over

;

Glissa Do-Over

;

Karador Do-Over

;

Karador Version 3

;

Karrthus Do-Over

;

Kresh Do-Over

;

Steam-Powered Merieke

Do-Over;

Lord of Tresserhorn Do-Over

;

Mimeoplasm Do-Over

;

Phelddagrif Do-Over

;

Rith Do-Over

;

Ruhan Do-Over

.

If you’d like to follow the adventures of my Monday Night RPG group (in a
campaign that’s been alive since 1987) which is just beginning the saga The Lost Cities of Nevinor, ask for an invitation to the Facebook
group “Sheldon Menery’s
Monday Night Gamers.”