Hi, my name is Jeff, and I’m an EDH addict.
“Hi, Jeff.”
I’ve been addicted to EDH for about 7 weeks now. I used to be a pretty hard-core spike. I’d play the best deck, and spend an entire week contemplating one card in the deck versus other options. I enjoyed winning above all else. I spent hours upon hours at work trying to break what are supposed to be casual formats (Like Emperor Peasant Vintage) because there were prizes involved.
But all that has changed now. Let’s take last week for instance. We have EDH on Tuesday nights and FNM is on, of course, Friday Nights. I spent all week working on 2 new deck ideas for EDH, and exactly 0 on Standard. Heck, I had to remember to grab a regular negate, because I had taken my MPR textless negate out of 5-color Control and put it into by burgeoning Sygg deck. I’m sorry, standard, but I’m just not that into you right now. Maybe after your Zendikar facelift and the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor liposuction, we can reevaluate our relationship, but for now, EDH is attracting my fancy.
So, it seems safe to say that this week, and possibly next, will be about EDH, at least until Zendikar cards start coming in hot and heavy. This week, I’ll run you through the ropes on how I build a deck, and in my best Mr. Rogers imitation, we’ll build one together.
Can you build an EDH deck? I knew you could.
So, first we need an idea behind the deck. Most people will tell you to build around either colors or a general, which is fair. But there are two other ways I build my EDH deck.
The first option is to build around a card. Pick a card, probably your favorite card, or maybe a small synergy. This card may not define your colors entirely, but at least partially. For instance, I like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. I can’t make him my general. (Although I think Planeswalkers should become eligible as Generals, they aren’t currently, and I’m waiting until we have a more established group to start making waves) I really want him in my deck. He will mean I am at least 3 colors, Blue, Red, and Black. But let’s say you love Warp World. That just means you will play red. You build with cards that accent Warp World, adding colors as necessary, and then you pick your general from there. This is how “… And Nicol Bolas Smiled” came about, because I wanted to use Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.
The other method I’ve used is to build around a theme. As an example, for a few weeks, I was working on a Dragon themed EDH deck, which just seemed natural. I mean, the format has Dragon in the name, so making a fun Dragon stompy deck just fits. You could do the same thing with Clerics, Giants, or even Minotaurs. Those are tribal themes, but you can also use other themes. We had a few aggro decks go crazy a few weeks ago before the meta self-corrected, but I was seriously looking at playing a deck full of sweepers galore and a few indestructible creatures. Wrath, Damnation, Planar cleansing, and every Wrath variant I could get my grubby little hands on. Just keep sweeping as often as possible, and let the Sherman tanks rumble in. I ended up just co-opting my Dragon deck into “…And Nicol Bolas Smiled” and dropping a few of the green Dragons out of the build.
Well, let’s move on to the actual building. I decided I wanted to use Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and Cruel Ultimatum in my deck, pretty much cementing me in Grixis. From there, I looked at a few generals, but decided that the only feasible General, from a flavor standpoint, was Nicol Bolas, 7/7 Dragon.
From there, I just brainstormed a list on my Blackberry Memopad of cards I’d used or wanted to use in my Oona, Queen of the Fae deck, and red cards I thought would be fun. Here’s that list:
Time Stretch
Time Warp
Tezzeret, the Seeker
Jace Beleren
Liliana Vess
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Trinket Mage
Nucklavee
Chaotic Backlash
Isochron Scepter
Counterspell
Remand
Negate
Remove Soul
Inkwell Leviathan
Darksteel Colossus
Call the Skybreaker
Standstill
Blightning
Doom Blade
Terror
Tombstalker
Hunted Horror
Hunted Phantasm
Hunted Dragon
Bituminous Blast
Deny Reality
Kathari Remnant
Fact or Fiction
Force of Will
Puppeteer Clique
Venser, Shaper Savant
Mindslaver
Banefire
Cryptic Command
Sensei’s Divining Top
Plague Wind
Pact of Negation
Slaughter Pact
Stock Tutor Package (Demonic, Diabolic, Mystical, Personal, Vampiric, and Merchant Scroll)
Vendilion Clique
Dark Confidant
Mulldrifter
Makeshift Mannequin
Lightning Greaves
R/B parts of the dragon deck
Not necessarily everything on the list will make it in, and not everything that will make the deck is on this list, naturally, but it’s a good start. After that, I go through my rare binders and foil boxes (it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that bling!) and just start pulling things that look fun. Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang came out this way, as did Boom/Bust. Dragonstorm is a potential add, depending on how the play goes on Tuesday. If I see some point where I go “I could have cast Dragonstorm there, and it would have been AWESOME!” then I’ll probably give it a go. But overall, it’s hard to make storm work in EDH.
Here’s the preliminary decklist I took down on Tuesday night:
…And Nicol Bolas Smiled
General:
Nicol Bolas
Artifacts
Rakdos Signet
Dimir Signet
Izzet Signet
Isochron Scepter
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Loxodon Warhammer
Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang
Deathrender
Scroll Rack
Enchantments
Standstill
Mirror Sheen
Crucible of Fire
Mind Control
Instants
Mystical Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Counterspell
Remand
Negate
Pact of Negation
Cryptic Command
Wild Ricochet
Memory Plunder
Brainstorm
Terminate
Evacuation
Shattering Pulse
Makeshift Mannequin
Planeswalkers
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Liliana Vess
Jace Beleren
Tezzeret the Seeker
Sorceries
Cruel Ultimatum
Time Stretch
Deny Reality
Earthquake
Flashfires
Personal Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Rise From the Grave
Banefire
Merchant Scroll
Creatures
Dragonspeaker Shaman
Izzet Guildmage
Bladewing the Risen
Tombstalker
Venser, Shaper Savant
Mulldrifter
Sower of Temptation
Dark Confidant
Mindwrack Liege
Kathari Remnant
Nucklavee
Bogardan Hellkite
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Vendilion Clique
Darksteel Colossus
Trinket Mage
Puppeteer Clique
Thunder Dragon
Body Double
Inkwell Leviathan
Hunted Dragon
Reiver Demon
Taurean Mauler
Glen Elendra Archmage
Land
Great Furnace
Vault of Whispers
Seat of the Synod
Wooded Foothills
Bloodstained Mire
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Graven Cairns
Sunken Ruins
Cascade Bluffs
Steam Vents
Blood Crypt
Watery Grave
Dimir Aqueduct
Izzet Boilerworks
Rakdos Carnarium
Tolaria West
Barren Moor
Lonely Sandbar
Forgotten Cave
Dreadship Reef
Molten Slagheap
Volcanic Island
Secluded Glen
Reflecting Pool
Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind
Exotic Orchard
Crumbling Necropolis
Academy Ruins
Vesuva
Reliquary Tower
Most of these should make sense, but I’ll run through a few of the choices here.
Tastumasa, the Dragon’s Fang is both incredibly flavorful for a deck with Dragons, but also combo’s very well with Deathrender, which is great as wrath protection. Throwing a Vendilion Clique on a Deathrender, then bringing in a Bladwing the Risen when he dies? Awesome.
Mirror Sheen never became useful, and so I think I’ll be dropping it. I never had a good chance to use it, and I cast it in 3 out of 4 games last night. It’s just very poor in my local group.
Memory Plunder was similarly poor. Not many broken Sorceries or Instants hitting my opponents’ graveyards that I wanted to copy with it. It was never good for me, and I now remember why I cut it from the Sygg deck.
Shattering Pulse was quite good, allowing me to have a reusable answer to random artifacts. With the glut of Artifacts running around everywhere, it was a good thing to have, expecially once the third Isochron Scepter hit the board.
Dragonspeaker Shaman was nothing fantastic, and completely at odds with Thunder Dragon, and will soon be cut. He’s nice, but honestly, I’d rather have more beef. Every time I had him, I didn’t have other dragons to cast easily, and just wished he was something beefier.
Izzet Guildmage never got used, as I always had more cards than mana, so while there’s probably a place for him, this ain’t it.
Bladewing the Risen was amazing both times I had him, regrowing Niv-Mizzet and Bogardan Hellkite, and has earned a place of honor in the deck. He’s another form of graveyard manipulation, and handsomely welcomed
Cards I’ll be testing out next: Bituminous Blast, Djinn of Wishes, random Dragons.
One thing I’m looking for is a way to regrow Planeswalkers out of my deck. The best I’ve come up with is Junktroller, so I can at least get them in the deck to tutor for, or shuffle away from the bottom. If you guys know of any other ways I could do so within the Grixis colors, let me know in the forums, please.
Moving on, we have some new Zendikar action this week, in the form of the following cards:
Well, well, there are quite a few pretty cards here. Some of these have been analyzed previously, such as Chapin analyzing Whiplash Trap. It seems pretty easy to play around, and would have been much better when Token decks were all the rage. Now, it just seems like a card that could be good if people didn’t play around it, which of course means they will. It’s sort of like a pseudo-Wrath, in that the threat of it will keep people from overextending in aggro decks. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s good enough to play when people are playing around it, so it will wax and wane as aggro does as well.
Kor Sanctifiers looks good, being able to potentially answer troublesome enchantments or artifacts. As I mentioned previously, I expect a large amount of artifacts to appear in this set. Look at the numbering, and you can see the numbering indicating about 40 cards per color, give or take a few, meaning that gold and artifact cards, along with non-basic lands, will run from 201 or so to 229. I don’t think we’ll see many gold cards, and lands will be similarly light, possibly one or two cycles of 5 and a few stragglers. That means realistically 20 or so artifacts, on the minimum side.
Oran-Rief Survivalist looks to be the potential start of a tribal theme amongst Allies, and we know black has their tribal theme with Vampires. Perhaps Green is getting the new kithkin aggro deck for standard. Depending on how far and wide these synergies range, there may be something usable here.
Quest for the Gravelord looks to be a potential beatstick, similar to Figure of destiny in that it’s an early drop with potential to affect the late game, but requires a lot less mana. I am glad it’s not in Standard with Persist, but I still think it will be a beating.
The Plated Geopede also looks strong, and may prosper very well in a Naya Zoo style build. I’ve heard comments that he’s susceptible to damage, but with Lightning Bolt being the new Damage du Jour, I think he’ll be just as resistant to removal. There’s no Mogg Fanatic to nail him, and you’re not really going to want him on defense anyway. Now, if only this was the set that Tarmogoyf was shifted from, Zoo would be amazing. I doubt it, but we can dream, right?
Finally, the new land, Teetering Peaks. Since it comes into play tapped, I like that it has some effect on the battlefield. However, it works best in an aggressive deck, which is exactly the kind of deck that doesn’t want to lose tempo playing lands tapped. Is +2/+0 worth losing a land drop? What if it read like this
Rage of the Land
(0)
Sorcery
Target Creature get’s +2/+0. Put a Land Token with “{T}: add {R} to your mana pool” into play tapped.
You may only play one Rage of the Land per turn, and only in lieu of your land for the turn.
Would you play that card in your deck? It’s essentially the same thing, with a few corner case exceptions
(Like the fact that Teetering Peaks is reusable with Boomerang, and is immune to them removing the target and trying to counter it on resolution, etc.)
Feel free to sound off in the forums. I look forward to your responses.
Next week, we’ll have a fresh new Preview card for you.
Until then, this is Jeff Phillips, reminding you: Don’t make the Loser Choice