As you’re reading this, I’m on a flight to San Juan for the Pro Tour, after having finished the final week of v.4 of the Armada Games EDH League, in which Emrakul makes a turn 4 appearance at Table 1. Read on.
Before we move forward, I’d like to talk a little about a ruling. And before I do that, I’d like to talk about ‘official’ EDH. When I say ‘official,’ I’m talking about the EDH that you can expect to play when you go outside your local group. Your local group is welcome to play however you choose, but the reason there is an ‘official’ version is so that people know what to expect when they play at places other than those groups. It’s so that no one gets confused, disappointed, or upset by different people’s interpretations of what’s legal and what’s not. You know that when you go to play at convention XYZ or tournament ABC, no one is going to pop out with “Black Braids is a legal General.” In this regard, EDH is more like a DCI-Sanctioned format than a casual one—but it’s no different than playing a casual game of Standard. When two (or more) people agree to play a format, they’re making an agreement to use a particular subset of cards and/or rules. With the broad player base of EDH, it makes sense for us to clarify those rules on occasion.
Anyway, we got some questions on the EDH rules forums about Spawnsire of Ulamog’s 20 mana ability. As far as official EDH is concerned, you cannot get any cards with it—just like Wishes. They’re useless cards in the format. The only way Ulamog and Wishes (or Ring of Ma’Ruf) work is if you’re using the optional sideboard rule (of which I’m not a huge supporter, but I get where it’s coming from). You can’t get cards from your trade binder or your 500-count box or your collection in your apartment that’s only two blocks away. We even added a rule (#15) to clarify. EDH is a 100-card game, and we’d like it to stay that way (despite the aforementioned optional sideboard experiment).
I don’t put a great deal of preparation into things this week, having spent more of my time deciding what to play for Armada’s Wednesday night Standard. I guarantee you this will be the toughest 16-player local event in which you ever find yourself. The only people that show up are the really serious ones, making it far more difficult than FNM. I’ve won a couple of them, but I’m usually happy to escape 2-2. I was going to bash with an Eldrazi list my friend Mike Palmer sent, but it was just a little too slow getting out the giant monsters, so I clipped Chapin’s Vengevine Jund. In fact, I like GerryT’s Vengevine Naya even better, but I didn’t have time to find the 3 or 4 extra cards I needed. No one is trading away their Vengevines because “they’re worth $30.” I have news for you, sparky: they’re worth 0 if they just sit in your binder. I did indeed 2-2, beating a Valakut deck and W/u Allies, then losing to W/r Allies (came down to the last turn) and Super Friends.
Without a great depth of thought about what I was playing, I simply reached for my favorite, Kresh. I did swap out the Null Rod (you’ll see what a mistake that was) for Summoning Trap.
When I get to the shop, they have standings for the league posted, and I’m surprised to have a comfortable lead. I know I’ve won a fair number of tables, but I haven’t run up the points like I’ve seen Tory and Ryan do on occasion. Apparently Tory hasn’t played enough times to get his score up, and Ryan has had a couple of weeks where he only scored a few. I have a 19 point lead on Nate, who is 10 ahead of Ryan. Kyle is drifting back in fourth place, probably not able to catch up.
GAME 1
It’s like DCIR paired us. Nate, Ryan, Tory, and I are all at the same table. Nate is playing his new Group Hugs Phelddagrif deck, Ryan his new Ulamog (which he decided at the 11th hour he liked better than Emrakul), and Tory his new(ish) Cromat/Wall deck.
Turn 1
Me: Refuge (41)
Nate: Forbidden Orchard
Ryan: Shimmering Grotto, Conjurer’s Bauble
Tory: Halimar Depths
Turn 2
Me: Stomping Ground tapped
Nate: Gives Tory a token and plays a bounceland
Ryan: Blinkmoth Nexus
Tory: Swamp, Relic of Progenitus. That hurts.
Turn 3
Me: Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and Goblin Bombardment
Nate: Skyshroud Expanse and Rites of Flourishing. Here we go.
Ryan: Crystal Vein and Ghost Quarter, then Sensei’s Divining Top.
Tory: Panorama to get Plains and then drops a Mountain
Turn 4
Me: Urborg (the old, crappy one—but I have it in foil) and Savage Lands
Nate: Plains, Mikokoro, Gate to Aether. Oh, geez.
Ryan: Gates in Quicksand. Temple of the False God and Zoetic Cavern. Sculpting Steels the Gate. Of course.
Tory: First Gate gets Jungle Barrier, second gets Wakestone Gargoyle. Casts Wall of Omens, drops Arcane Sanctum.
Turn 5
Me: I whiff on the first Gate (Living Death, which is less of a whiff than something else might be), which means I get nothing off the second one either. Temple of the False God and Forest, then Acidic Slime, blowing up the copy of the Gate.
Nate: Gate reveals Rewind. Does nothing else. At EOT, Ryan Tops.
Ryan: Gates in Amber Prison. Bant Panorama and Tectonic Edge. Defense Grid, which practically makes Nate jump out of his seat to counter with Rewind. He gives Ryan a token as consolation prize. Casts Pentavus.
Tory: Gates in Prismatic Omen, then casts Mind’s Eye.
Turn 6
Me: Gate in Spinerock Knoll, and as has become habit, it’s not particularly good. Three creatures, and only Lord of Extinction worth putting under. Cast Armillary Sphere, play 2 Swamp, and Sapling of Colfenor, which I add a counter to with Oran-Rief. At EOT, Nate casts Vision Skeins plus we all draw one from Mikokoro.
Nate: Gates reveals Words of Wisdom. Casts Top, uses it, puts it back on top and plays an Island.
Ryan: Gates in Gilded Lotus. Is there an infinite combo coming with Dross Scorpion? Casts Expedition Map and Vedalken Orrery. Piles of mana and artifacts as Instants seems a little scary.
Tory: Gates in Skyward Eye Prophets. Casts Top, uses it. Drops an Island then casts Warmonger’s Chariot and Wall of Souls. On Nate’s turn I had already searched up my two lands for the Sphere and set them aside, so I crack it now.
Turn 7
Me: Gate in Swamp. Gate has been less than friendly to me. Drop 2 Forest, attack Nate with Sapling (37). Reveal Wilderness Elemental. Ouch. I take 7 (34). Cast Stalking Vengeance, which Nate responds to with first Words of Wisdom and then Cryptic Command. At my EOT, Nate now tapped out, Ryan flashes in Forge[/author]“]Darksteel [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author].
Nate: Sol Ring, Darksteel Ingot, and Hunted Wumpus. I get Spearbreaker, Tory gets Guard Gomozoa, and Ryan gets Dross Scorpion. There’s the combo.
Ryan: To make things sillier, he Gates in Staff of Domination. This game is basically over, or so we think. He draws five cards, casts Cloud Key and The Hive. He could go infi any time here, but as he later tells me, he can pile up more League points by keeping the game going. Makes sense, especially since it’s the last week, and he can catch me with enough points. If that’s the case, however, he should eliminate me and then run up the score against the other two. That’s not what happens, though, which leads to the insanity to come.
Tory: Gates in Sunscape Familiar. Graven Cairns. Activates Top, activates Prophets, gets Wall of Reverence. Casts Living Wall and Glory of Warfare.
Turn 8
Me: I Gate in Defense of the Heart. Nate thinks it triggers because it says “During,” but I remind him that the Oracle text has it as a beginning of upkeep trigger. Drop Swamp and Forest. At this point, I know the game can end at any time, so I’m just trying to set up myself for a few points, and just maybe, if Ryan makes a mistake, slip in a kill on someone else. I attack Ryan with Sapling, getting Eternal Witness (33). I have two choices here. The cheaper one is Makeshift Mannequin to get back the Stalking Vengeance. The more expensive one is to cast the Eternal Witness and then hardcast Stalking Vengeance. I figure I should do the latter because I can always then Mannequin it back if it gets killed. That’s what I do, but when I go to cast it, Nate has Mindbreak Trap. So much for that plan. I drop Withered Wretch and hope I get another turn.
Nate: Gates in Ghosts of the Innocent, which we all have to read. Interesting choice. Makes a swarm of 1/1 tokens useless, and makes Goblin Bombardment nothing but a sac outlet. Tops, gets a land, and casts Heartwood Storyteller. At EOT, Ryan makes 10 tokens (for the Chumpzilla point).
Ryan: Gate in Planar Portal, as if it wasn’t crazy enough. Panorama and Vesuva, copying something. Mana Vault, Lightning Greaves, Grinning Totem. Totems Nate and gets Anvil of Bogardan. Draws 20 cards, casts Summoning Station, casts Everflowing Chalice kicked 100 times, passes. Says something like “Here’s your chance to get points.” He actually seems a little embarrassed by all of this.
Tory: Tops with the Gate trigger on the stack and gets Seedborn Muse. Shrugs, and casts Warp World. That would definitely give Ryan his whole deck on the table, but it might be the one way to kill him, if someone could then make him draw a card. Nate puts an end to that thought by countering Warp World with Draining Whelk. Activates Prophets, gets Sun Web.
Turn 9 (Hereafter known as the time we summoned Chthulu)
Me: Defense of the Heart triggers and Gate. Gate pulls up Butcher of Malakir. With Defense of the Heart, I get Brooding Saurian and Woodfall Primus so that I have a Straight Flush. I target Relic of Progenitus, so Tory blows it. Two lands and Greater Good. I sacrifice Eternal Witness. With the Butcher Trigger on the stack, Ryan Flashes in It That Betrays. Nate sacrifices the Hunted Wumpus. Then the trigger resolves, giving Ryan in Wumpus, Nate puts Arbiter of Knollridge into play. I put in Yavimaya Elder and Tory gets Clone, copying the Wumpus. With the Arbiter trigger on the stack, Ryan gains life up to 150. Then from the Cloned Wumpus, Nate gets nothing, I get Shriekmaw, taking out Seedborn Muse (because I forget that It That Betrays isn’t an artifact). In response, Tory plays Second Sunrise. Holy cow. There are probably no kills to be had now that life totals are so high, but I’m going to try to do something. Knowing that Ryan will get creatures is fine by me, since I have Insurrection in my hand. Brooding Saurian in play means that everyone gets stuff back at EOT anyway. Sacrifices and draws (Wilderness Elemental nets me 29 cards or something) happen – too much too fast to write it all down. When the dust settles, Goblin Bombardment is gone from Ryan getting the Persisted-back Woodfall Primus. I then cast Insurrection. Nate jumps the gun a little and responds with Holy Day. He could have waited to see who/how I attacked and maybe gotten a point for saving someone. Since I don’t have any sacrifice outlets left, I can’t get rid of the Ghosts, so there wasn’t going to be any killing anyway. At EOT, Ryan flashes in Keening Stone and mills me out. I’m not dead yet, and I might be able to do something ridiculous during my upkeep with the Grab the Reins in my hand. We’ll see.
Nate: Drops two lands then casts Wheel and Deal, targeting me and Tory. Ryan looks at all his stuff and finds no way to kill me in response. There is talk from spectators about how I should just kill myself (I can draw a card off of Yavimaya Elder) to keep Nate from getting it, and I strenuously object. That would be one of the most d*ckish things I could do, and Nate certainly doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment. When the fall is all that’s left, it matters a great deal.
The game proceeds for a bit after that, with Ryan killing Nate on his next turn, and giving Tory a turn or two to pile up some points. If the other table had been finished, he wouldn’t have waited, but since they were still playing there was no reason not to.
Ryan wins the table with a one-shot record of 27 points. I finish second with 10, and the two of us are off to Table 1.
GAME 2
Ryan and I are joined by Kyle (Cromat) and Patrick (Stonebrow). There is apparently some bad blood going on here between the two over the previous game. I think it involved Patrick’s creatures and Kyle’s Master Warcraft. Dunno what it is about Kyle, but he seems to work on some folks’ nerves to the point that they feel the need for retribution. Can’t be a good spot to be in.
Turn 1
Patrick: Sandstone Needle
Me: Overgrown Tomb
Kyle: Vesuva, copying Tomb. Aggressively points out that he gets a point for that. Maybe we’re revealing the source of the aforementioned irritation.
Ryan: High Market
Turn 2
Patrick: Raging Ravine
Me: Mountain
Kyle: Vivid Grove
Ryan: Crystal Vein, Doubling Cube
Turn 3
Patrick: Land, Elvish Piper.
Me: Swamp, Spawnwrithe. If this game starts slowly, I’ll be getting me some tokens.
Kyle: Exotic Orchard, Helm of Awakening, Howling Mine
Ryan: Strip Mine, Clock of Omens
Turn 4
Patrick: Primal Rage
Me: Farhaven Elf, get a Forest, attack Kyle (38), get a token.
Kyle: Bounceland
Ryan: Everflowing Chalice kicked twice. At EOT, Patrick Pipers in… Emrakul. This game just got a lot shorter.
Turn 5
Patrick: Land, Wilderness Elemental. Mulls over who to attack. Says “I could attack Kyle out of spite, Sheldon because he’s Sheldon, or Ryan because he has insane combo.” He pauses and says “I’m going with spite,” and murders Kyle. Kyle has to sacrifice all his land, which earns Patrick -2 for Chasm, but he shrugs it off and says “It was worth it.” Kyle to (23).
Me: I need a plan. I’m pretty sure that as the board sits, it’s smarter to attack Ryan than me, but I know the two of them are good buds, so one never can tell. I can threaten to sac all my lands to Chasm him again, or I can put out enough stuff to sacrifice so that I still have my lands and can play the Living Death in my hand as a Wrath. The only other thing I have is Greater Good, so I play it. I attack Ryan for 5 (35), giving me five creatures, so I can sacrifice them and the Greater Good if he comes my way. I also have Madrush Cyclops in my hand. All my creatures give me negative value for Greater Good, so that seems like a poor option unless I were to draw into a bunch of them and dump them in the yard post-Living Death.
Kyle: Refuge (24).
Ryan: Kind of tips his hand that he’s going to cast his General, so when he casts Blade of the Bloodchief, Patrick Pipers in Woodfall Primus, blowing up Doubling Cube. Ryan can now only get to 9 mana. He simply casts Dross Scorpion and says go.
Turn 6
Patrick: Refuge, giving him a point for Block Party (41). Pipers in Boartusk Liege and sacrifices the Needle to cast Stonebrow. Attacks Kyle to kill him and Ryan for 10 (35). Gets another -2 for Chasming Kyle. Says he doesn’t care. That dish of vengeance is really cold.
Me: I might as well go for it. I have Madrush Cyclops, which I can discard so I know I’ll be hasty. If I get even vaguely lucky, I’ll end up in a decent position. I cast Living Death, then sacrifice all my guys; I eventually empty my hand, but it’s to pretty good effect. I end up with all the Madrush, Farhaven, Spawnwrithe, and out of my digging, Stalking Vengeance, Deathbringer Thoctar, and Lord of Extinction. Patrick shuffles back in Woodfall instead of bringing him out. I explain that he could have stacked the triggers the other way (stack Emrakul and then Woodfall) and still ended up with the Woodfall in play and blowing up my Greater Good. I ask him if he wants to fix it, and I says no since he already shuffled it in. I swing and kill Ryan. This is the right choice for two reasons. The first is that his deck can literally vomit itself out onto the table in no time (or gain infinite life, or whatever). The second is that the 17 point difference that he ran up in the first game means he’s breathing down my neck for the League title. If I take him out now, he can’t catch up.
Turn 7
Patrick: Suspends Hypergenesis. Says “Don’t think I’ll see that resolve.” He’s right.
Me: I have more than enough to kill him, even if I don’t have the Greater Good and he has Woodfall Primus. Ryan, who is scorekeeping, tells me he’ll give me the point for killing him exactly, which doesn’t actually much matter. No sense in orc-piling or being greedy.
I win the league by a few points over Ryan, who has caught and passed Nate for second place. We talk a little about the next league, which will start on 10 June, with some new player-suggested awards. In fact, Armada is running a contest to suggest awards, so head over to their website for more details.
Speaking of websites, the folks over on the EDH forums at MTGSalvation have decided after reading last week’s article that they’re going to design for me the new deck of cards I don’t currently play with. I’m not exactly sure what prompted it, but the word “geezer” came up, so it sounds like they think I’m just old to do it myself. The General will be Isperia, I’ve asked for no griefer cards, and after that, it’s all up to them. As soon as they finish it, I’ll build it and play it. We’ll see how well it Embraces the Chaos.
See you in (from) Puerto Rico.