Elder Dragons, Tiny Leaders, And Invitational Wealth

This is gonna be a “kitchen sink” kinda column, featuring a variety of things I wanted to write about but none warranting an entire column to focus on. So
let’s get cracking!

Return of the Elder Dragons!

This week we’ve been treated to some sweet previews for the upcoming Dragons of Tarkir set, and given that the set has Dragons in the name, you knew we
were going to get some sweet Dragon goodies. Day one of the previews sure delivered on that front, with Dragonlord Silumgar!

Silumgar, the Drifting Death has survived all these years since Fate Reforged with his casting cost intact and his toughness just a little worse for wear.
He’s traded in hexproof for deathtouch, which means his three power is moot-if he gets in combat with something, it’s gonna die. He’s shed his dragon
trigger of indiscriminately killing little dudes as the child he once was for the more direct power move of grabbing control of the biggest, baddest
creature or planeswalker on the table so long as Dragonlord Silumgar rules the battlefield. Silumgar, the Drifting Death was exquisitely built to kill
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and all her tokens; Dragonlord Silumgar bends her to his will and forces her to join the other team.

I’m not entirely sure the Dragonlord incarnation is better than the Drifting Death incarnation in Standard, but I have no doubt the new version will
immediately be embraced by the Commander community looking for a fresh new Dimir leader. I look forward to stealing other player’s commanders and killing
them with their own Commander damage! But what really has me excited about the Dragonlord Silumgar preview is its creature type:

Legendary Creature – Elder Dragon

Yes, Elder Dragon! We’ve seen legendary Dragons before, but you have to go all the way back to Legends (and Chronicles) to find actual Elder Dragons:

If you’re new to Commander, you may have heard the format referred to as EDH, an acronym to its original name of Elder Dragon Highlander, and in its first
incarnation each player built their deck around one of the original Elder Dragons. Dragons are cool and all, but when they’re actually Elder Dragons you
know you’ve got something special.

As of this writing there’s only been one more Elder Dragon spoiled, Dragonlord Kolaghan, who looks pretty sweet as well! I can’t wait to see the other
three… and look forward with anticipation to the day we run across the enemy-colored Elder Dragons down the road!

Tiny Leaders

The Tiny Leaders format has exploded in popularity over the past few months, and since the format is based on Commander, I’ve had a lot of people ask me my
thoughts on it. At first I thought it was a nifty Commander variant-50-card deck, no card more than three casting cost, starting life 25-but then I
realized that Tiny Leaders was built as a dueling format so it was much closer in style to “French rules” 1 player vs 1 player Commander. Nothing against
that style of play, but removing the multiplayer aspect of certain cards and the social/political nature of gameplay takes away most of what I enjoy about
traditional Commander. I’ve joked that Tiny Leaders is Commander for people who don’t like Commander, since really it plays more like a casual Legacy
variant than a traditional game of Commander. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy Tiny Leaders and traditional Commander-I’ve been working on putting
together a Tiny Leaders deck and look forward to smashing some fast-paced duels against other Tiny Leader decks. When I do I’ll share my experiences with
you here, hopefully soon!

The Mountain Comes Back to Richmond!

In early December 2010, the Invitational came to Richmond, Virginia. Back then the only way to earn an invite was to win or place highly in certain Magic
tournaments, and I attempted (and failed) to score one through a grinder they held before the Invitational. Since then they’ve changed the invite policy a
little bit:

See it? The fine print…

Oh yeah… now that’s what I’m talking about! That grinning dude peeking in to the right? That’s me.

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked about that extra rider to the invite policy, and have been chomping at the bit to play in one of these prestigious
events… but unfortunately, the Invitational hasn’t been back to Richmond since 2010! I rarely have the time to travel to Magic tournaments anymore, so like
Mohammad I’ve had to wait for the mountain to come back to me. It’s been over four years, but finally… the mountain makes it a stop in my hometown in just
a few short weeks.

With the day of reckoning close at hand, I’ve been mulling over what decks to play. Despite the string of great performances with Villainous Wealth since
Khans was released, I strayed from the path and gave a few other brews a try over the past month, with results that ranged from mediocre to disastrous.
Finally I drove my cheating heart back into the arms of Villainous Wealth, which has since spruced itself up with some new cards from Fate Reforged. Turns
out that two of the best cards in the set – Whisperwood Elemental and Tasigur, the Golden Fang – fit the deck perfectly. I sleeved it up and took it out
for a night on the town last Friday, winning FNM with a 3-0-1 record. I had to wonder why I’d ever left! To illustrate, check out one game’s boardstate,
this is what I was facing down across from me:

So yeah-my opponent had a Hydra Broodmaster and went monstrous enough to make five 5/5 hydras, cast Genesis Hydra for six to find Whisperwood Elemental,
and had a Temur Sabertooth on the board to keep doing silly things with Genesis Hydra. What in the world was I going to do against that board?

Cast Villainous Wealth for twelve, of course!

The top row are his creatures and two of my manifest dudes. The flying deathtouch dudes in the trenches between he and I are his cards but under my control
thanks to Villainous Wealth snagging his two Hornet Queens. I took to the air since he had no way to block, and twelve points of damage would kill him in
two turns. Yeah, I won this game.

Whisperwood Elemental

As the world has caught on, this is a powerhouse card for most any green deck, but it is particularly amazing in Green Devotion. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is
a ridiculously overpowered card, but the devotion that green most often provides comes in the form of creatures. The deck gets more powerful the more
creatures you put on the board, but that leaves you vulnerable to board sweepers. Playing around End Hostilities was always a tricky dance, and now we’ve
got to worry about Crux of Fate too. With Whisperwood Elemental in the deck, you suddenly don’t need to worry about overextending into a board sweeper
unless your opponent deals with that creature first on a different turn than the sweeper. That could give you the time you need to put the game away.

Another thing that’s sweet is you generally don’t need to play anymore creatures once you play Whisperwood Elemental, since it puts a creature into play
each turn, advancing the board for no further real card investment. Plus, you’re typically playing a large number of actual creatures in your deck, so the
odds of the manifest card being a creature you can flip over – and possibly quite a threat – is a real possibility your opponent has to worry about. Is he
going to get hit with a 2/2 face down creature, or will it suddenly turn into a 5/5 legendary hydra?

Lastly, those manifested cards have the subtle effect of eventually putting more cards in your graveyard when the 2/2s die, which helps…

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

It’s no secret Tasigur is an incredible card. The moment I saw it I knew it was going to be a hit; it gave me a very real Tarmogoyf vibe-a powerful and
cheap creature that goes into all sorts of decks, a rare from a small set that won’t be opened nearly as much as other sets. Of course, since the advent of
the mythic rare, regular rares don’t hold value quite as much, but I felt confident that I’d both get a ton of “rent” playing the heck out of the card, as
well as it holding its value long term. I knew I’d want access to a full playset, and so I pulled the trigger on preordering it and got mine for around
$2.50 a piece. Considering it’s been hovering in the $9-10 range for a little while now, I’d say I did pretty good on that call.

Whisperwood Elemental and Tasigur both did a lot of great work in securing my victory last Friday. They raise the number of “must deal with” cards in the
deck, overloading most deck’s removal capabilities. After playing the deck Friday and making a few adjustments, here’s where the deck stands today:

Villainous Wealth Devotion

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 03-06-2015

Standard

Creatures (29)

Lands (24)

Spells (7)

Sideboard

Last week, Brad Nelson wrote a sweet article
on the Premium side presenting his argument for the best decks currently in the format, so I thought that would be a good start in trying to craft a good
sideboard. I have to admit, most of the time I wing it with the sideboard, and it’s definitely cost me games along the way. While I don’t have time to do
extensive testing to figure out the optimal sideboard, I can go about building a sideboard in a systematic and logical way that will help optimize my
fifteen slots.

The first step is to identify the enemy-those decks that are most likely to stop you on your path to victory. Brad identified them as: R/W Aggro, Sultai
Control, Abzan Control, and G/R Devotion. That might change once the Invitational rolls around, but it’s a good bet these decks will still be good in the
coming weeks so the work done now can still pay off. The next step is to identify the cards that are sub-optimal in each matchup without hollowing out the
powerful things your deck is designed to do. Finally, you’ll want to fill those holes with sideboard cards that are much better in each matchup than the
cards you’re taking out, and ideally many of those sideboard cards can be brought in against multiple matchups to get the most out of each sideboard slot.

R/W Aggro

Suboptimal Cards:

R/W Aggro is a scary and super-fast deck, and one that won’t typically give you time to execute a truly devastating Villainous Wealth, so cutting the two
copies from the maindeck seems like an easy call. Tasigur will often cost less than six but not always-sometimes your creatures are getting exiled with
Chained to the Rocks rather than getting killed to feed devotion. Also, you’d hate to draw a potentially dead card against a deck that puts you under so
much pressure, so cutting one of the two Tasigurs seems like a good call to me. My friend Kevin pointed out that boarding in removal spells will fill up my
graveyard sooner, which will make Tasigur easier to cast, and that I should keep two copies in the main deck. He’s got a good point, what do you think?

Sylvan Caryatid isn’t a bad card, but I’ve found that I’d much rather have Voyaging Satyr around to block and kill and survive Goblin tokens than Caryatid.
It’s weird, but whenever I’ve played Sylvan Caryatid against these decks, I end up getting steam-rolled because the one turn it blocks one small creature
doesn’t really do much to blunt your opponent’s attack, so spending a turn to ramp can set you back. Conversely, spending my second turn playing Heir of
the Wild or Voyaging Satyr means I’ve actually got significant board presence. I’ve actually held off Hordeling Outburst tokens with Voyaging Satyr while
my opponent waited for removal to clear the path, and that’s something Sylvan Caryatid would never do. Cutting some of my high end spells also means I
don’t need the ramp as much, so that opens up some space for sideboard cards.

Potential Sideboard Cards:

Bile Blight is the perfect answer to Hordeling Outburst and any random Goblin tokens generated by Goblin Rabblemaster, and it also directly kills
Rabblemaster and Soulfire Grand Master dead. Seeker of the Way can often grow larger than a 3/3, but you should be able to catch it small enough to kill it
eventually. Drown in Sorrow is superior for mopping up a bunch of little creatures, but I think if you wait the extra turn to cast it, you may have already
lost the game, so that’s why I’m going with a full playset of Bile Blight and rounding things out with a Drown. I’m not entirely sure Drown is the right
call, since I’m keeping in eight creatures that would die to it.

R/W Aggro features two incredibly powerful enchantments, so I want to maximize my Reclamation Sages in this matchup. Chained to the Rocks is such a potent
tempo play that you’ll want the Sage to steal the tempo back (play one card, get two creatures in play), and if you get a chance to nail Outpost Siege
before it can start pumping out cards, it’ll be you who’s making the tempo play.

Sultai Control

Suboptimal Cards:

Even though the metagame has shifted to where I think it’s fine to play two Reclamation Sages maindeck, here’s one matchup that doesn’t run any
enchantments or artifacts maindeck or sideboard, so they’re easy cuts. Murderous Cut is pretty useless too, and between the reactive spells, board
sweepers, and expensive delve cards, your Villainous Wealths are going to have a lot of air in them.

Potential Sideboard Cards:

One thing I’d really like to set up against this deck is recurring Thoughtseizes with Tasigur, focusing on hitting my opponent’s delve cards to prevent
reloading or forcing through Whisperwood Elementals or the Silumgar to combat their “kill everything that moves” plan. Silumgar is particularly sweet since
he dodges all their targeted removal and forces your opponent to choose between killing Silumgar or all your other creatures with Crux of Fate. Ugin, the
Spirit Dragon comes in to sweep away all the puny planeswalkers Sultai Control tries to win the game with.

Abzan Control

Suboptimal Cards:

Any deck packing End Hostilities might worry me about running too many ramp creatures, but now that I’ve got Whisperwood Elemental, I no longer have the
fear. While Reclamation Sage isn’t totally worthless – hello, Courser of Kruphix – it certainly falls under the suboptimal umbrella. I’m not really unhappy
with anything else in the maindeck, and I’m especially happy to have Silumgar the Elspeth killer.

Potential Sideboard Cards:

Even though this is a “control” deck, there are enough flexible cards that I’m fine actually going up to three copies of Villainous Wealth in this matchup.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is also a nice way to mop up any permanents that might have gotten out of hand, or punishing your opponent for burning their copies
of Hero’s Downfall on your multitude of threat creatures.

G/R Devotion

Suboptimal Cards:

I thought long and hard trying to figure out what maindeck cards were suboptimal against this matchup and was rather surprised to conclude that it was
Whisperwood Elemental. Don’t get me wrong-Whisperwood Elemental is a fine card, but I can easily see gamestates where the board is flooded with manifest
tokens on both sides and just bogging the game down. Devotion on Devotion can turn into a miserable grind, and I think the best course of action for me
personally is try to actively prevent that happening.

Reclamation Sage can do some work in this matchup between their maindeck Coursers and possibly a few sideboard Outpost Sieges, but in sideboard games I
think we can do better.

Potential Sideboard Cards:

So post-sideboard, my plan is to leverage Thoughtseize to punish their ramp plan-either taking away their ramp and leaving them stranded with a bunch of
spells they can’t play, or taking away the big spell they planned to cast and leaving them with a bunch of ramp and no action. Hopefully Tasigur can do the
same sort of work recurring Thoughtseize here that he does against the control decks. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon isn’t perfect – if he’s had Whisperwood out
there manifesting for a few turns he’ll look a bit silly – but it’s one way to de-clutter a devotion deck’s board if Thoughtseize doesn’t keep them off
their game.

I’m not entirely sure bringing in the third Villainous Wealth is the correct call – between Genesis Hydra and Crater’s Claws there’s definitely the
possibility that Wealth will whiff. But I also think most of the time Villainous Wealth is going to net a whole bunch of cards that enhance my own board
position as another green devotion deck-how much fun will it be to nab their Shaman of the Great Hunt?

I had two sideboard slots that don’t really apply to any of these matchups, so I dropped in Briber’s Purse, which is some nice technology against W/x
Heroic decks I stumbled across a few weeks back. I’ve lost badly to every W/x Heroic deck I’ve played against with Villainous Wealth, and while
conventional wisdom seems to be that the deck isn’t very good right now, I had two slots open and will sleep a little better knowing I could draw a Purse
or two against Heroic if I get matched up against it.

Now, I won’t claim this sideboard is perfect, but I think it’s a step up from the way I’ve been flying by the seat of my sideboard pants thus far. I’m
definitely curious to hear any and all suggestions and feedback from those of you who might be experienced in playing these topdecks or playing against
them, whether my decisions seem sound to you, and if there might be some better options I’ve overlooked.

For the Legacy side of the Invitational I’m still planning on playing some version of Nic Fit as I wrote about here. Worst case scenario, the
Invitational will be a great way to get in a lot of game reps against some really good opponents and will tune up my performance for the Standard Open the
next day! Best case, I make a run for the money and have some epic plays along the way that will make for some great stories.

As always, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

New to Commander?

If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

Commander Primer Part 1
(Why play Commander? Rules Overview, Picking your Commander)
Commander Primer Part 2
(Mana Requirements, Randomness, Card Advantage)
Commander Primer Part 3
(Power vs. Synergy, Griefing, Staples, Building a Doran Deck)
Commander Starter Kits 1
(kick start your allied two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 2
(kick start your enemy two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 3
(kick start your shard three-color decks for $25)