The final week of Armada Games EDH League 6 showed what EDH games can be like, with giant haymakers and counterpunches, and then when the combatants are all punched out, a final blow crushes the opponent.
Turnout is a little thin due to States coming up, and with folks either saving their pennies or running their test gauntlets, but we still have two full tables. I mention I can only play in round 1, since my wife is returning from business travel, and I have to pick her up at the airport at 10 p.m. Her flight is unintentionally conveniently timed to give me plenty of time for a full round and still get to the airport on time.
I’m seated with Talian (Scion of the Ur-Dragon), Peaches (Lord of Tresserhorn), and David (Omnath, Locus of Mana). The first enchantment up is Reparations, which we all assume is going to draw cards for everyone, and ends up doing nothing.
My start isn’t terrible, suspending Greater Gargadon turn 1 and casting Survival of the Fittest turn 2, except that I don’t have any creatures in my hand. I draw Eternal Witness turn 3, which I pitch to cast Farhaven Elf, intending on getting Primeval Titan with the next creature I draw.
David meanwhile has dropped Emerald Medallion and Vigor. Peaches has kept a two-lander and isn’t going to do much in the next few turns. Knowing that Taliah doesn’t run any answers to anything—her whole deal is to kill with Scion in one way or another—I feel like I’m going to have to deal with David all alone—a task which I don’t think my deck is up to. I’m fortunately wrong, but it sure felt that way as we got started.
Taliah ruins my plans by casting Bribery and getting my Primeval Titan. She will use it over the next several turns to get out a pile of land to fuel her massive attacks. Her choice is fortunate for Peaches, who has out a Shapesharer and uses it to copy Titan and attack so he can catch back up on the land front.
David has a reasonably sized Omnath, but uses the mana to cast Kozilek, Butcher of Truth instead. David’s an interesting EDH player. It’s clear his head goes right to Tier 1 deck and card choices (the other deck of his we’ve seen is Niv-Mizzet, for which he keeps a little “sideboard” to swap in against the serious Spikes), but his heart says to work in the interest of playing a good group game, and it shows. There will be a few times in this game that he can attack with Omnath and force people to make bad blocking choices, but he lies back instead. I look forward to playing with him a little more since I know that he’s quite good (certainly a more highly skilled player than I am)
and
he “gets” EDH the way I see it.
On the ensuing turn, Taliah casts Bladewing the Risen, and targets the Oros, the Avenger in her yard, but I use Scrabbling Claws to get rid of it.
Peaches and I have discussed my Lord of Tresserhorn deck and concluded that his is the same—it doesn’t work as well without Graveborn Muse. He finally draws and casts it, and I follow up with Lurking Predators. Then the enchantment change comes: it’s Zombie Infestation.
On his turn, David does turn some guys sideways, sending Omnath at me, which gets chumped and Kozilek at Taliah, who has so many lands already that the annihilator doesn’t much matter. He then casts Terastodon, and I know what’s coming. I trade Lurking Predators, Survival, and Tsabo’s Web for three elephants.
Taliah puts Bear Umbra on Primeval Titan, and I know Aggravated Assault isn’t far behind. She holds back from attacking this turn, though. At end of turn, Peaches casts Intuition, and I hint I might let him keep the Living Death that he shows (not really, since the Infestation will let him dump his hand into the yard, and the rest of us are card-shy) along with Nevinyrral’s Disk and Carrion Feeder. I tell him to keep the Disk. He pitches all of them to make Zombies, however, and casts Insurrection. I can fortunately sacrifice all my tokens to Gargadon, and then went it comes into play, sacrifice it to Phyrexian Tower, but it’s still a saucy board for him. He can’t kill everyone—actually unlikely to kill two players.
David definitely has the best board, so he swings exactly forty damage that way and the rest at Taliah. He’s forgotten that David can make Zombies in order to block. David goes to 23, Taliah to 30. He then casts Lord of Tresserhorn, letting me draw and sacrificing Vigor and one other creature that’s not Primeval Titan—which ends up a mistake.
The new enchantment comes, and it’s Powerstone Minefield. David casts Duplicant to get rid of Lord of Tresserhorn. We have a brief discussion about the General rule and how Duplicant won’t be 10/4, since Peaches can choose to ship it to the Command Zone. David swings back at Peaches, dropping his life total relatively low.
Taliah casts Scion, then searches up and pitches Hellkite Charger to it. Bear Umbra and Hellkite Charger for infi attack steps—looks like we’re done, right? She swings twice at David, killing him. When she uses her third attack step on me, David—who has specifically stayed in his seat to point this out—mentions that the Minefield kills the Scion-turned-Charger. Taliah facepalms and Peaches laughs. I still have a decision to make about either taking the damage, using Makeshift Mannequin to get out Gargadon and block, at least getting rid of the Umbra, or using Momentous Fall on the Gargadon to gain life and draw cards. The latter seems like a much better play. After combat, she plays Mana Reflection. On Peaches’ turn, she turns Scion into Scourge of Kher Ridges and hits everything on the ground for four.
Peaches doesn’t cast anything relevant on his turn, and I cast four different guys, none of which have flying. On her turn, Taliah peels and casts Aggravated Assault (after a halfhearted “I didn’t realize that was in my deck”), which Peaches throws a Forbid at. She simply flies over and kills him. On my turn, I don’t get any help, so on hers, she attacks and searches up Dragon Tyrant to kill me with General damage.
I have enough time to have some chats with folks before round 2 begins, and I have to head for the airport. I figure with my series of mediocre finishes in games the last few weeks and missing a round this week, I’m not high in the running for league prizes. Imagine my surprise when I found out Friday that I finish first. I guess a few weeks early on where I scored some healthy points carried me through. Participation has its rewards!
Continuing on from last week, we have the second half of my suggestions for cards you aren’t playing but might want to consider:
Night of Souls’ Betrayal: With all the token creation going on, I just can’t imagine why we don’t see this. It completely shuts down popular Generals like Rith, the Awakener and Sliver Queen, and the omnipresent Avenger of Zendikar. Note that when you search Gatherer for this card, the apostrophe is at the end of the word Souls.
Northern Paladin: I wasn’t even going to mention Southern Paladin due to red being the worst color in EDH, but I’ll stick the reference in there just for the link. I’ve seen Eastern and Western Paladin played a few times, and they only get creatures, but I haven’t seen much love for the original, who gets permanents. I tried playing Pentarch Paladin a few times, but his casting cost was a little onerous in anything other than a mono-white deck.
Null Rod: I asked about Null Rod some time back, and consensus seemed to be that it was “reasonable protection” and not “dickishness,” but I’ve still seen very little of it or its cousin Damping Matrix.
Penumbra Wurm: Along with his little brothers Penumbra Bobcat and Kavu, and the later-arriving Spider, the Wurm creates a harder-to-kill copy of himself when he goes to the graveyard. What makes the Wurm more interesting than the others is that he’s big and has trample while they’re pretty vanilla.
Perish: Green creatures tend to rule. Blowing them out for three mana is value. You probably don’t want to play it with Generals like Kresh or Nath, but otherwise your EV is extremely high.
Plagiarize: Everyone loves to draw cards. Plagiarize is the Gather Specimens equivalent for card draw. Too bad it’s target player and not “an opponent,” because that would make Windfall or even Jace’s “all draw” ability pretty insane. As it is, you don’t have to wait for the big blowout moment to get some value. Any card draw of two or more makes it worthwhile, while still giving you the possibility of something even better.
Planeswalker’s Mischief: Of the “Planeswalker’s X” cards, I find this one the most interesting, especially in situations where players are holding just a few cards, since that means they’re probably pretty good.
Proteus Staff: I’ve started playing this in my Intet deck, and I’d so far rate it “bonkers.” Sure, the thing you’re trying to tuck can get destroyed, but having someone waste a removal spell on an Eldrazi Spawn token is just fine with me.
Psychotic Fury: It replaces itself, and it makes most Generals extremely deadly. It’s cheap enough for what it does, and it can really bring a victory out of nowhere.
Pure/Simple: Restricted to Naya colors, Pure/Simple has the right kind of flexibility. In the circles in which I play, I feel like there are more multicolor permanents than monocolor, so it’s even better. I’m searching for one right now for my Rith deck.
Rack and Ruin: Another one that I think folks get scared off of because it needs two targets. There will always be two artifacts to target on your EDH battlefield. Being an instant is just plum in the pudding.
Read the Runes: I play it in every blue deck. I’ve never seen anyone else play it at all. Have I found a diamond in the rough, or am I just terrible? You decide.
Reflect Damage: With all the haymakers associated with the format, you’d think that cautious players might keep things like Reflect Damage tucked up their sleeves, creating giant swings and the killing of players with their own Generals. If you think Reflect Damage is alright at the moment, consider how much of a beating it will be with a bunch of infect creatures running around.
Rending Vines: It’s an instant and a cantrip, and it’s going to be able to get nearly everything you want to blow up anyway. Sure, it’s not taking out Planar Portal too often, but most of the stuff you need to get rid of is well within range of your normal hand size.
Renounce: People are going to blow up your stuff, sometimes in mass quantities. Why not get some value out of it? Also great protection against Insurrection.
Repay in Kind: We keeping talking about this card, threatening to play it, and no one ever does. I want to see it! Combo with Necropotence to approach the d-bag line.
Riptide Mangler: Getting the power of a fatty for only two mana is really good, especially since the change is permanent. If you know your layering rules well enough, you can do funny stuff with this guy and an equipment. And unlike with Shapesharer, you can get the power of a legendary creature without killing your own dude.
Roots of Life: I’ve found that some life gain is always good (although extreme life gain might get you targeted). Life gain that doesn’t cost you anything past the original outlay is even better. You just have to remember the trigger.
Rootwater Thief: Just a couple of attacks with this guy will neuter the combo decks. In an environment where we’re seeing lots more Jester’s Cap and Sadistic Sacrament, I’m unsure why we’re not seeing more Rootwater Thief. Maybe EDH players’ distaste for Mike Long is so great that they just don’t want to play his card.
Roughshod Mentor: I finally saw this played for the first time while I was at the Phoenix Games Scars of Mirrodin Prerelease in Orlando. How can the heavy- or mono-green guys not play this and/or Fangren Pathcutter? One of the issues of having the green army is not being able to get through. Trample changes all that.
Safe Haven: Sure, it’s a land that doesn’t produce mana. Sure, it might get Wastelanded when you have dudes in it. Sure, you can only do it during your upkeep. Still, seems like there might be value to potentially bringing back your guys on the cheap. See also Colfenor’s Urn.
Scrounge: People don’t play bad cards (okay, for the most part). Scrounge is cheap enough that you can blow up someone’s artifact and then get it on the same turn.
Shizo, Death’s Storehouse: It might be that there are just too many black creatures getting played to make Shizo worthwhile, but I figure there has to be something here. Since everyone else is already playing Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in their decks, I might take it out of the ones it’s still left in and replace it with Shizo to see what happens.
Shrouded Lore: Black is a little weak in regrowing non-creatures, so this seems like a viable alternative.
Slave of Bolas: It was just starting to get some play right before it rotated out of Standard, but I haven’t seen it much in EDH, possibly because it’s a sorcery, and possibly because of its restriction to Grixis colors. And then after writing that I haven’t seen it played in EDH, I walked by a casual game the other day and heard a guy explaining how good Slave of Bolas was, and how he was going to steal someone’s General with it.
Snakeform: Another kill-a-fatty cantrip that I’m amazed we don’t see. I play Pongify in Phelddagrif, but this might be a suitable replacement. Diminish is cheaper, but doesn’t take away abilities.
Soul’s Fire: Again, it’s something that can be countered by someone removing the target, so it’s inherently weaker than a few other things, but it’s effectively double damage from an attacking creature if it gets through. I’m just surprised I haven’t seen anyone try it out. Perhaps in post-infect days, we might.
Spin into Myth: There are some creatures that are way more difficult to deal with than others, like the indestructible ones. This is the perfect answer. Its best use might be to tuck hard-to-kill Generals.
Spinal Embrace: Oh, combat chicanery, how we love you. You can play this to turn a combat defeat into a victory, or simply as a single-creature Fog plus some life gain.
Spore Cloud: Speaking of Fog, I’m of the mind that not enough Fog effects get played (shout out here to Tory for his Angus Mackenzie deck!). This one is kind of crazy, since you can cast it in a combat that you’re not even involved in for maximum value. Perhaps it’s just that no one has any Fallen Empires cards.
Stun Sniper: One damage is fine and may help, but W/R having a tap effect is a winner.
Sulfur Elemental: Anything that can take out armies of white tokens/weenies is good in my book. Flash and split second on a 3/2 body for three simply up the ante. You can also use him in your R/W/(x) decks to make your white creatures (with toughness two or greater) a little saucier. Is R/W/(x) going to come up as some kind of math function when I spell-check? [
Pfffft. Spell-check isn’t that cool. –LL
]
Tenza, Godo’s Maul: It’s cheap to cast, it’s cheap to equip, and it gives red guys trample. It makes red Generals +3/+3 and trample. Seems like one of the problems with Kresh might be solved.
Tower of the Magistrate: I’ve played this card forever, and I see no one else with it. Mostly it’s used to make equipment fall off or Lightning Greaves unable to get put on something in the first place. It’s one of those cards that I make sure I announce I have, and people still forget about it.
Trailblazer’s Boots: The first argument is going to be: “just play Whispersilk Cloak.” Sure. My counterargument is “play both.” I’ve come to understand that if your tricks are better, your dudes don’t have to be.
Trench Wurm: There are game-changing non-basic lands. Trench Wurm eats them. I guess you could just play Ruination instead, but then you’d be taking out your own good stuff.
Tsabo’s Web: I’ve recently put this in a deck or two as well, and it’s always great value. It replaces itself, and it shuts off the combo lands like Academy Ruins and Volrath’s Stronghold as well as the Mazes.
Urborg Justice: Clearly situational, but when you start sacrificing stuff to Greater Good (or Goblin Bombardment or Altar of Dementia), you can get a reasonable amount of payoff. You can also use it in situations where there’s a one-sided Wrath effect, like Austere Command or some such.
Vengeful Rebirth: I saw Armada Games L1 Judge and fellow Team Lives in the Red Zone member Todd Palmer play this once or twice, but otherwise, it’s been mostly ignored. You get back something awesome, and you get to deal some damage. Then you shuffle it back in with Riftsweeper. Win-win-win.
Viashino Heretic. This guy was a staple in every red deck back in the early days of the format, and I was reminded not so long ago when David de la Michele played it during Armada’s EDH League. It blows up artifacts
and
it deals damage—the true definition of win-win. It’s cheap enough to come out early and keep some of the artifact ramp in check. Perhaps you can even make a friend by blowing up someone’s Solemn Simulacrum.
Victimize: I think the “enters the battlefield” tapped part scares most folks off of this card. I hate to keep mentioning Jens, but there are frequently things of your own that you want to sacrifice, especially for other things that have been so good that other players want them dead. Again, the problem is that the sacrifice is part of the resolution, so someone can wipe out all your dudes and effectively counter this, but the upside is that you don’t target what you’re going to sacrifice, so just having anything (Eldrazi Spawn token?) will do.
Voidmage Husher: It’s an overused phrase, but what a blowout! Getting to put her back in your hand just adds to the crazy since you don’t really have to be so picky about what you choose to counter. Being able to do it multiple times is kind of ridiculous. Watching the face of the guy who just sacrificed his giant thing to Greater Good would be priceless.
Vulturous Zombie: I’ve actually seen this one played a few times, especially right after Ravnica came out, but I wonder why we don’t see more of it. It’s gently costed for a 3/3 flier, and it can get big really, really fast. Perfect for that really tight Nath of the Gilt-Leaf deck you’re going to build eventually.
Wheel of Sun and Moon: Another card that I’ve heard people say would be reasonable protection against some recursion strategies but have never seen anyone try it out. I imagine for the combo players out there, there’s some way to abuse it casting it on yourself.
Whiplash Trap: People talked and talked and talked about how this was going to impact the EDH landscape, and then no one ever played it. It’s time to reconsider that, because you don’t have to return creatures from the guy who put two or more into play. And don’t forget you can just hard-cast it if you need to.
Whirling Dervish: This guy was such tech a million years ago, and there’s always someone to attack. Early game he’ll get really big, but I imagine late game he might be a dead draw. Still, in creature-based decks, you need creatures that get a greater damage-to-mana cost ratio, and this guy can do it.
Willow Satyr: Okay, it’s one of those cards from Legends that no one has ever heard of, and it’s so far off the color pie that it’s a color pudding, but stealing Generals (and other legendary creatures) for just the cost of the tap
in green
is simply obscene.
Wipe Away: The one extra mana is certainly worth pay for getting split second. I’m always a big fan of being uncounterable, and I imagine this will save your bacon more often than not.
Woebearer: As I’ve already mentioned, perhaps it’s just that there are too many quality black creatures getting played to make this guy worthwhile, but I’m more of the mind that there’s always at least one person to attack who can’t or won’t block. Favorite Regrowth target: You guessed it, Solemn Simulacrum.
With EDH League 7, Armada is taking a new and interesting tack. Here’s how they’ve broken it down:
Entry Fee: FREE!
EDH League will be a multiplayer format with each game having 3-5 players. Four players is the ideal for each game.
League play will be on an open basis. Play in 2+ games between 2 p.m. and store close on Thursday to qualify for that week.
Each week that you qualify for the League will get you one entry into the drawing for prizes to take place on January 6th (before the first week of League 8).
Prizes will include (but are not limited to):
- Free entry into a Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Sealed
- Free entry into FNM Standard tournaments for the month of February
- Free entry for each week in EDH League 8
- A full set of Mirrodin Besieged Preconstructed Decks
- Free alteration for a General of your choice
The best part of this is that the open play means you get to play with whom you want to. If four super-casual or super-Spike players want to play their style of game, they can, and everyone is happy (or at least no one is irritated). There’s a subtle genius to this, since it also allows you to avoid having to play with people you just don’t like and you can play with folks who you know you’ll have fun with (although your two games each week can’t have exactly the same players). I’m hoping it will bring a little of the joy back to playing EDH for folks on Thursday nights, since there have been some tensions and tempers over the last couple of leagues that simply weren’t there in the beginning. Here’s to returning to the original days and spirit of Embracing the Chaos.