Phelddagrif Play-By-Play

The purple hippo was my original signature commander, back when we called them generals, back when there was a “league” rule where only one person in a local group could claim a particular legend (so back before they were the type legendary creature) as their own. While I don’t get particularly nostalgic, I have fond memories of the fun we had exploring this new format and its possibilities. Choosing the card was born out of bringing EDH to my new group of friends when I moved to Virginia in 2003; I wanted them to have first picks of the Elder Dragons, and I was left with the weakest one, Arcades Sabboth. They were pretty casual players and didn’t have particularly large collections, so I wanted to downshift even more. Phelddagrif, in the same colors so I didn’t have to rebuild the deck, seemed like the choice — especially since Questing Phelddagrif was a recent card, got some Standard play, and was acknowledged as the superior of the two. Little did we know how good Phelddagrif tricks would be in the format. While I didn’t go there, it spawned a whole archetype of Group Hug decks. I certainly had no idea that the card would achieve a level of iconic status for both the format and for me.

Phelddagrif is now only one of an ever-increasing stable of decks, so it doesn’t get the repeated play it used to. Being the one deck I had, it got played at every Pro Tour and Grand Prix that I went to (which, back then, was quite a few). I played it nearly every Sunday when the gang came over. It was a close friend. Over the years, the deck has gone through numerous iterations and rebuilds – it was at one point a Replenish deck – to the point that the only cards which are the same are probably the Forest, Island, and Plains (okay, there are a few others, like Krosan Grip, Trygon Predator, and Coiling Oracle). The current incarnation, Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers, is all about “hand size matters.” There are a few techy cards, like Equal Treatment, Polymorphous Rush and my personal favorite, Keep Watch. When you’re playing white, especially when you’ve revealed a propensity for playing cards like Comeuppance and Mirror Strike, players might think twice about attacking you. When they point attacks the other way, you can still play Keep Watch for full value. When they summon up the courage to attack you anyway, especially with an army, you can draw into something to blunt the attack. My only Fate Reforged change was taking out Karn, Silver Golem (since he now commands his own deck) and replacing it with Fruit of the First Tree. The only reason Karn was in there was to be able attack with Spine of Ish Sah and Akroma’s Memorial (and occasionally blow up noncreature artifacts when someone wrathed), so it wasn’t a major part of the theme.

I sat down with Armada Games regulars Chris, Shea (also a Monday Night Gamer), and Cole (also my podcasting partner on Bulls Radio) for a game before League started last week. I generally only record games when I’m playing non-League games with regulars. While I’d love to bring you coverage of more League games, writing down the details of a four-player game takes time. It slows down the game, and since we’re on a time limit, I don’t want to waste other peoples’ time. Additionally, with League being random seating, I often play with new players. I’d rather spend my time chatting and interacting with them instead of having my nose buried in a notepad. Some folks have recommended video recording and subsequent transcription, which is likely to eventually happen when I get a grip on the technology. Maybe Cole and I can take everyone into the radio station, mike us up, and go from there.

Shea played Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Chris ran King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, and Cole trotted out his new Ruhan of the Fomori (which doubles as a Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest) deck. I won the Dino Dice roll (with a measly four, but everyone else rolled single T-Rex), and we were off.

Turn One

Me: Hallowed Fountain

Shea: Godless Shrine

Chris: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Cole: Sacred Foundry.

Turn Two

Me: Sunpetal Grove, Explore, get an Island and play it.

Shea: Sunpetal Grove, Riftsweeper with no targets.

Chris: Terramorphic Expanse

Cole: Island

Turn Three

Me: Forest, Phelddagrif. The hippo beatdowns will begin!

Shea: Reliquary Tower, Sakura-Tribe Elder, battles Chris with Riftsweeper (38).

Chris: Dusk Urchins. Chris is fond of the card, which almost always draws the cards he wants while providing a few early attacks — or, in the worst case, a single chump block and card draw.

Cole: Plains, Viashino Heretic. The Heretic was one of the strong cards back when Phelddagrif first started running around, so I was happy to see it make an appearance.

Turn Four

Me: Breeding Pool tapped, attack Cole with Phelddagrif (36).

Shea: Command Tower, Solemn Simulacrum getting a Swamp, attack me with Riftsweeper (38).

Chris: Attacks me with Dusk Urchins, which gets a -1/-1 counter (35).

Cole: Flooded Strand, cracks it to get Steam Vents into play untapped (33), Ruhan.

Turn Five

Me: Tundra, Martyr’s Bond. At end of turn, Shea pops his Sakura-Tribe Elder for a Forest; Chris says he might as well search at the same time and cracks Terramorphic Expanse to get a Swamp.

Shea: Casts Sun Titan, getting back Sakura-Tribe Elder with the trigger. That little snake shaman will be doing some work today. Attacks Chris with Riftsweeper and Solemn Simulacrum. Chris casts Bile Blight on Solemn, goes to (36).

Chris: Attacks Cole with Dusk Urchins, which gets a second counter. Cole, suspecting tricks, takes it (31).

Cole: Ruhan randomly attacks me (26). He casts Elixir of Immortality and drops Izzet Boilerworks, bouncing back a tapped Plains.

Turn Six

Me: Command Tower, Coiling Oracle into Island. That card is so good, even when it only gets a basic land.

Shea: Verdant Catacombs. Sun Titan attacks Cole, gets back Riftsweeper. Cole blocks with Viashino Heretic and activates it, blowing up Solemn, taking Shea to (36). Shea casts Deathbringer Liege.

Chris: Still looking for lands, Chris attacks Shea with Dusk Urchins, getting the final counter and drawing three. There’s no love for him there, so he has to discard. Since there’s a player with graveyard recursion at the table, we ask what he’s pitching. He throws away Worst Fears, Tsabo’s Decree, Wound Reflection, and Cabal Conditioning.

Cole: Casts Keranos, God of Storms. Ruhan attacks Shea this time, who blocks with Sakura-Tribe Elder. She sacrifices it to get a Plains.

Turn Seven

Me: Skyward Eye Prophets. I think it qualifies as a Hidden Gem. Drawing cards or putting a land onto the battlefield for free is all kinds of good.

Shea: Bojuka Bog on Chris. It’s unlikely that any of the stuff he threw in the graveyard would be coming back, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure. Casts Maw of the Obzedat. With the two triggers off of Deathbringer Liege (the best of all the Lieges?), he taps Phelddagrif and destroys Ruhan. He attacks me with Sun Titan, getting back Sakura-Tribe Elder. I block with Coiling Oracle. Martyr’s Bond triggers. He sacrifices the Elder because he wants to keep the other three creatures, which are forming a nice offensive base. He says he wants especially to keep Maw of Obzedat because, like me, he loves sacrifice outlets.

Chris: Nothing. Seems like he kept a weak hand hoping to get into something off that Dusk Urchins and it hasn’t panned out.

Cole: Keranos trigger reveals Temple of Triumph. Draws, drops the Temple. Likes his scry. Casts Warstorm Surge.

Turn Eight

Me: Windreader Sphinx. I think about the clever play of giving Phelddagrif flying so that I can attack and draw a card, but I decide to play a little more defensively and keep the mana up to bounce it if someone casts a board wipe. I play Azorius Chancery, bouncing a tapped Island.

Shea: I realize the card would have been better when Shea casts Butcher of Malakir. He attacks Chris with Sun Titan and gets back, you guessed it, Sakura-Tribe Elder.

Chris: Nothing again, discards nothing scary.

Cole: Keranos reveals Darksteel Ingot, bolting Riftsweeper. Shea responds by sacrificing it to Maw of the Obzedat, starting the cascade. I respond by activating Skyward Eye Prophets, drawing Psychosis Crawler and bouncing Phelddagrif. It seems only sporting to have Chris draw the card. We resolve all the sacrifices, with me losing Skyward Eye Prophets and Windreader Sphinx, Shea losing Sakura-Tribe Elder and Deathbringer Liege. Cole casts the Darksteel Ingot and then Hero of Bladehold. Warstorm Surge triggers and he domes Shea (33).

Turn Nine

Me: I have no active cards. With Butcher of Malakir online, I don’t want to cast Phelddagrif again, so I just hold my hand, which includes Cleansing Meditation, Austere Command, and Cyclonic Rift in addition to the Psychosis Crawler I revealed and the card that I hope will get me there when I have the land to cast it, Myojin of Seeing Winds.

Shea: Avacyn, Angel of Hope. So much for the Austere Command plan. Attacks Cole with Sun Titan, once again bringing back Sakura-Tribe Elder. Cole to (25).

Chris: Finally gets fourth land. Casts Night of Souls’ Betrayal. This makes my Phelddagrif potentially more interesting since I can give tokens to Shea, triggering Butcher of Malakir and subsequently Martyr’s Bond. Shea responds to NoSB by sacrificing Sakura-Tribe Elder; Cole responds to that by casting Swords to Plowshares on Butcher of Malakir, but still has to sacrifice Hero of Bladehold. Shea to (38).

Cole: Keranos reveals Lightning Greaves, doming Shea (35). Casts Ruhan, which comes into play and triggers Warstorm Surge (for 6 because of NoSB), taking Shea to (29).

Turn Ten

Me: Draw and cast Sea Gate Oracle, revealing two lands. Keep a Plains and play it.

Shea: Harmonic Sliver. Cole responds by activating Elixir of Immortality (30), but the only viable target is Martyr’s Bond. It’s on the Can’t Complain list, so there’s no complaining. It still triggers, so Chris gets rid of Night of Souls’ Betrayal and Cole chooses Warstorm Surge. Shea then casts Karador for 3 and Deathbringer Liege out of the graveyard. He battles Chris with Avacyn, Cole with Maw of the Obzedat, and me with Sun Titan (any guess what he gets back?). Cole blocks with Ruhan, I block with Sea Gate Oracle, and Chris blocks with his face (19). Shea sacrifices Karador and Sakura-Tribe Elder to Maw of the Obzedat to kill Ruhan.

Chris: Consuming Vapors, targeting Shea, who sacrifices Maw. Chris to (24).

Cole: Keranos reveals Iroas, God of Victory. He bolts Shea (26). Casts both Iroas and Lightning Greaves. Greaves coming in starts a brief conversation about whether he should replace it in this deck with Swiftfoot Boots because of Shu Yun’s triggered ability being targeted. We make an argument for both, but if he has only one slot, Swiftfoot Boots seems the right way to go. Greaves equipping for zero is nice, but having hexproof instead of shroud is worth the one mana.

Turn Eleven

Me: Peel the mana I need to cast Myojin of Seeing Winds.

Shea: Casts Karador then Sakura-Tribe Elder out of the yard. Casts Wall of Reverence. Attacks Cole with Avacyn (21) and Chris with Sun Titan (17). He gets back Harmonic Sliver to blow up Lightning Greaves. At end of turn, Wall of Reverence triggers and he goes to (35).

Chris: In a desperation move, casts Beacon of Unrest on Shea’s Solemn Simulacrum (to get a Swamp).

Cole: Keranos reveals Temple of the False God. He plays it and casts both Urabrask, the Hidden and Archangel of Thune, which turns on Iroas. Attacks Shea with Iroas, Chris with Urabrask, and me with the Archangel. Shea to (28), Chris to (14), me to (25). Archangel triggers, putting a counter on all three creatures.

Turn Twelve

Me: Psychosis Crawler. If I can get it to hang around a turn, I can do some killing. I’m still holding that Cyclonic Rift, so things are looking good.

Shea: Savannah, Maw of Obzedat out of the graveyard, tapping Psychosis Crawler and killing Archangel with Deathbringer Liege triggers. I didn’t see the play, or I would have likely waited to cast Psychosis Crawler. Still not sure why he didn’t kill it, since the Myojin was staring him in the face. I think maybe he was focused on killing Chris. He casts Massacre Wurm, killing Urabrask with the trigger. He takes a very conservative play line by attacking Chris with only Avacyn and Sun Titan, which kills him with exactsies. At end of turn, Wall of Reverence takes him to 37. Doing the math, that doesn’t take him out of reach, assuming I can manage to keep both Psychosis Crawler and the hand I’ll draw off of Blue Myojin.

Cole: Keranos reveals Boros Charm, bolting Shea (34). Casts a Sun Titan of his own, getting back Lightning Greaves. It seems like now is the time. Cole has blue mana up, but I haven’t seen any counterspells yet from this deck. I overload Cyclonic Rift and go for the kill.

Turn Thirteen

Me: My draw for the turn takes Shea to (33) and Cole to (23). That draw is Unexpected Results, which I cast getting a Forest (which now gives me the right number of permanents to kill Shea) and recast, revealing Equal Treatment. I activate Myojin, drawing 14, taking Shea to (19) and Cole to (9). I battle Shea with the 19/19 Psychosis Crawler, killing him. The draw included a Reliquary Tower, so I drop it and get to keep the whole hand. I don’t think there’s much Cole can do, after I drop Qasali Pridemage and show him Icy Blast.

Cole: His draw does not bring him an answer, and we’re done.

The game would have gotten lots grindier if Shea had killed Psychosis Crawler. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to battle him for that much. I didn’t have too much gas in my hand after playing the Myojin, so it would have gotten popped even if it didn’t create a lethal situation, but I might have waited another turn or two, feeling safe with Austere Command in hand — and who knows what can happen at that point. That game over, we ended up playing several more before League started, all of which were utterly epic — especially the one in which my Lazav, Dimir Mastermind was at one point a Perplexing Chimera.

This week’s Deck Without Comment is the aforementioned Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers.

Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers

Sheldon Menery

Test deck on 11-30--0001

Commander

Creatures (28)

Lands (37)

Here is the latest database version of all my decks:

ADUN’S TOOLBOX; ANIMAR’S SWARM; AURELIA GOES TO WAR; CHILDREN of a LESSER GOD; DEMONS OF KAALIA; EREBOS and the HALLS OF THE DEAD; GLISSA, GLISSA; HELIOD, GOD OF ENCHANTMENTS; DREAMING OF INTET; FORGE OF PURPHOROS; KARN, BEATDOWN GOLEM; HALLOWEEN WITH KARADOR; KARRTHUS, WHO RAINS FIRE FROM THE SKY; KRESH INTO THE RED ZONE; LAVINIA BLINKS; LAZAV, SHAPESHIFTING MASTERMIND; ZOMBIES OF TRESSERHORN; MELEK’S MOLTEN MIND GRIND; MERIEKE’S ESPER CONTROL; THE MILL-MEOPLASM; NATH of the VALUE LEAF; NYLEA OF THE WOODLAND REALM, OBZEDAT, GHOST KILLER; PURPLE HIPPOS and MARO SORCERERS; ZEGANA and a DICE BAG; RAKDOS: LIFE IS SHORT; RITH’S TOKENS; YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF; RURIC THAR AND HIS BEASTLY FIGHT CLUB; THASSA, GOD OF MERFOLK; THE ALTAR of THRAXIMUNDAR; TROSTANI and HER ANGELS

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