DH has fast become my group’s only mode of playing Magic, ousting Standard (since we haven’t bought a ton
of new cards / have nothing worthy of bringing to FNM) and our “casual” play (centered around Vintage restrictions for cards, etc).
Each of us has our favorite color(s), as most Magic players do. My brother’s favorites center around red for instance (extending into green for his Ulasht, the Hate Seed deck and black for his Kaervek the Merciless deck). One of our good friends plays a Scion of the Ur-Dragon, but also plays Nicol Bolas as well as Ertai, the Corrupted, so I’d argue he centers on blue. His brother is constantly changing his decks, so he’s probably not sure (though he has an awesome Rith, the Awakener deck at the moment).
And myself?
Well, when I was just beginning getting into EDH, I happened to have a Bant deck which I played “casually.” It was Standard legal, but I didn’t have many of the cards needed to make it competitive, so I transformed it into an EDH deck when our group first began playing the format. In the meantime, I was just getting into Standard after some years of not playing Magic at all. I was learning the ins and outs of rules, what made a card good, what colors were powerful… I was reading spoilers nearly every day (and even did mockups for Worldwake during that rumor season that made it into a ChannelFireball.com episode of
Magic TV
), and reacquainting myself with the game and becoming a more active member of the community (specifically MTGSalvation.com). In any case, I happened to be spending mad money on cards at the time, and thus, we all too quickly realized the power that Rafiq of the Many had as a general. After a few games, I’m thinking, “
Awesome!
I have one of the greatest generals in our group!! :DDD!”
That was until Mr. Uril, the Miststalker came in. See, I’d based my deck off of the idea that many exalted creatures would just pump Rafiq to a ridiculous power/toughness, then double strike to kill someone in a couple of turns (several times I did this in a single turn with general damage thanks to Finest Hour). The problem with this was that while my deck was built around my general (as I believe most EDH decks should be, but I’ll get to that later), it required a lot of setup to accomplish what my goal was.
My friend playing the Uril deck, being a lot like me, started a movement toward a more competitive list. Now, not only was my board being wiped with Winds of Rath or Wrath of God (after Shield of the Oversoul was on Uril of course), Rafiq was getting Condemned or Arrested… basically just getting put out of commission. So much so, unfortunately, that I scrapped the deck and went back to Standard (where I wasn’t doing so well either). During this break from our newly found format, I did a ton of research on EDH generals and stumbled upon the following…
Yes, that’s Azami, Lady of Scrolls,
one of EDH’s most-hated generals.
What I forgot (conveniently) to mention, was that one of my original decks was a tribute to my friend’s (the one who plays Scion, Ertai, and Bolas) UU draw-go deck, which was built around Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact + Braingeyser/Stroke of Genius/Ambassador Laquatus. Back in the day, this deck was unbeatable within our group. To even get close to winning a 1v1 game was praiseworthy. I mimicked it (the way I see it, copying is the highest praise to an idea… that and I wanted to win games), and ever since then, I’ve been hooked on blue. I even built two other decks in the color shortly after, one built on Capsize + Stasis, and another simply a Wizard tribal deck (Patron Wizard of course played a large role there). The problem with my addiction to the often most-hated color of Magic was that during Shards of Alara, not only was a blue control deck not playable, but I didn’t know enough about Standard to realize that 5-Color Control, while not monocolor, was right up my alley. But I digress. My point here is that, I love the color blue. As you can probably tell by everything I’ve said already, I also really like to win, and I love to do redonkulous things (combos).
All of my research pointed that this was definitely the general for me. Azami is strictly blue, and is centered around pretty much any combo you can think of that would fit in the color (several of which are mentioned already). Pretty soon, just like the official EDH video says, I became one of the most hated players at the table. Games started ending left and right by my (or Azami’s) hand. Soon, our group was discussing banning her from play for being
too
powerful.
I couldn’t believe it, after all the time put into researching the deck, trading to get the cards, playtesting, changing… My deck was about to become null/void. I mean, my deck might be centered around a combo, but is playing Uril and then stacking a bunch of enchantments on him not a combo?
That’s what I’d like to take a moment to examine. In EDH, Azami is considered a “degenerate combo deck.” Other decks/generals which might (read: do) fit into this category would include Zur the Enchanter, or Sharuum the Hegemon (both of which I also play, but I bet you weren’t really surprised by that). What I find amusing is why some people seem so dead-set on hating these decks out of the format completely through banning (though I admit, I’ve had this moment with Uril). I like playing combos! Which reminds me… Wizards itself has determined that most players fit into one of
three main categories…
Timmy
Timmy is what we in R&D call the “power gamer.” Timmy likes to win big. He doesn’t want to eke out a last minute victory. Timmy wants to smash his opponents. He likes his cards to be impressive, and he enjoys playing big creatures and big spells.
Johnny
Johnny is the creative gamer to whom Magic
is a form of self-expression. Johnny likes to win, but he wants to win with style. It’s very important to Johnny that he win on his own terms. As such, it’s important to Johnny that he’s using his own deck. Playing Magic is an opportunity for Johnny to show off his creativity.
Spike
Spike is the competitive player. Spike plays to win. Spike enjoys winning. To accomplish this, Spike will play whatever the best deck is. Spike will copy decks off the Internet. Spike will borrow other players’ decks. To Spike, the thrill of Magic
is the adrenalin rush of competition. Spike enjoys the stimulation of outplaying the opponent and the glory of victory.
As you can see from reading above, I’m very clearly a Spike/Johnny (the former being the more important of the two). That being said, this is simply a part of who I am. I can change my likes/dislikes about Magic about as easily as I can change what my favorite foods are (spaghetti or pizza, by the way). In fact I have my friend to thank for inspiring me to move from a G/W Johnny/Timmy player (when I first started Magic) to a UU Spike/Johnny (though I do play other colors, control is by far my favorite deck type). EDH is supposed to be a casual format, so I can understand players’ apprehension towards a deck like Azami, especially new players. It’s not a lot of fun to get told “No.” to everything you try and do, which is
something blue
was
really
good
at
(or is still good at, depending on what format you’re looking at). I also understand that winning on turn 2 isn’t very fun either. In fact, in the case of the latter, I had a Painter’s Servant + Grindstone deck once upon a time, which I sold because it wasn’t fun to win
with
it; it was
too
easy. 
However, astute readers will realize one flaw in being Johnny Combo Player…
All of the combos which I’ve listed up until this point have required
multiple cards.
You see, it’s fun for Johnny to win games using powerful cards, but, just like trying to double strike general damage at an opponent for the win in a single turn, it requires a lot of setup. Because of that, most combos are easily able to be disrupted; if you destroy a single piece of the combo, you could be setting Johnny back a great deal.
Now, hopefully everyone here knows the rules of EDH, because they play a big role in what I just said. Just in case though, let me go ahead and quote two in particular I’m thinking about…
5. An EDH deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the General.
6. With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same English name.
That’s right. Not only does Johnny have to assemble his multiple-card combo in order to win, he has to obtain it from a 100-card deck which cannot contain multiples of any combo piece. If an opponent resolves Jester’s Cap, Memoricide, Extract, Lobotomy, or any other of probably a dozen (or more) cards which can exile one of those combo pieces, Johnny may
never
be able to win the game, and let’s face it… Johnny likes to win on his own terms, but he’s not stupid enough to
exile his library
to try and save one piece.
Now, put that together with a little Spike mentality, and even if one of the above cards is resolved against him, he isn’t going to tell you what combo pieces his opponent should be looking for. Spike isn’t in the business of helping his opponents; either they know what cards are being played in the format (and what decks those cards are being played in), or they don’t and will suffer lost games for it.
It’s my feeling that the competitive nature of a Spike added to a Johnny deck, which is associated with its own iconic combo, is why so many players call for the banning of cards in a casual format like EDH, or within their group of fellow players. Chances are, most of those players probably wouldn’t think twice about that Strip Mine in your deck unless you tucked a Crucible of Worlds in it as well. That Sensei’s Divining Top? Pay it no mind… until you see those two islands tapped to cast Counterbalance. As I said before, a lot of these combos require setup. The problem most players probably have with combo decks is that they let the combo deck get out of control, or they don’t have a way to deal with the combo deck once a combo hits play.
The former is the problem I’d like to address first. I’ll go ahead and use myself as an example. After many games, our group also pretty quickly realized the power Azami has as a general. She’s basically a creature that has haste for all intents and purposes (you can use her ability right after a Wizard enters the battlefield) and gives all your other creatures haste.
With just two Wizards in play, you can easily pay the five mana and draw three extra cards in a single turn. If she doesn’t get destroyed or exiled or what have you, you can easily draw way more than that, since you’ll probably draw into even more Wizards. As a result, Azami can easily get out of
control turn 5 and later (sooner if you manage
to
grab
some
ramp
also
available
to
you
). And so, it wasn’t uncommon for Azami to be cast many many many many times in order to try to provide the card draw needed to get my combo pieces (the most I think I ever paid for her was fifteen or something), due to the fact that everyone at the table would target her (or me/my deck). The thing about this was that
I
wasn’t having any fun.
After some time this objective of “taking out the control player” dissipated to a degree (as you can probably guess from my being here talking about this problem with you). Should it really have happened at all though? I mean, it wasn’t like
I
was specifically targeting any one person and making them unable to play the game. In fact, in more cases than not it’s the opposite; I’m over here with my deck and kinda doing my own thing until someone tries to target me, and
then
I react to that by saying “Nah, I don’t think so.” Not only that, but I often have countered a spell which would have ended the game for another player too quickly, giving them a chance to win the game. Did I have to? Absolutely not, and doing so probably left me with one less counterspell than I needed in order to prevent the destruction of my Power Artifacted Grim Monolith.
Now, some people (the same people who hated Jacerator in standard) will say “Seriously? You’re just sitting there not even interacting with the board?” Well, to you I say yes. Playing a combo deck needs to be done defensively, and that might seem like playing non-interactively. The way to make up for this is by the blue player being the “ruling” player; by using diplomacy to his advantage, as I just described. The blue player at the table can often be your greatest ally. That Akroma’s Vengeance that’s about to wipe everyone’s board (except the player casting it, who has no board, which is why he’s casting it)? The blue player probably doesn’t like it any more than anyone else due to his combo pieces getting destroyed, so he probably makes a judgment call. “Is it possible for me to recover from this? Is sacrificing my pieces worth the destruction of my opponent’s fields? Should I counter this to take the focus off of me?” These are the questions that the Johnny player asks himself when he says “Hang on… I’m thinking about whether or not to let that go…” That minute or so of thinking could turn the tide in your favor later on, despite it leaving a couple of Johnny’s combo pieces on the field, since you have the answers for them.
Speaking of which, that leads me to my second point… If you want to play Magic well (or at least not lose), you can’t always complain about “what a lucky draw” your opponent had or “those expensive cards” he “luckily pulled.” You have to know what’s being played, and you have to know what makes Sejiri Refuge strictly better than that Coastal Tower you are playing. Relating this to Johnny, you have to know what combos are available to him. You have to know that a Sensei’s Divining Top by itself isn’t as dangerous as that tapped Grim Monolith, especially when you saw it’s controller holding the Power Artifact needed to enchant it last turn when he transmuted Muddle the Mixture. You can’t blame Johnny for your play mistakes, or for not knowing his card pool, or for having no way at all to deal with an artifact in play. Maybe it’s the Spike in me that wants to tell players “it’s your own fault Johnny combo’s out every game…” But in reading this, you know that there’s been a mistake or two you’ve made that cost you the game. As far as getting better cards for your deck? Get out there more! Every card I own in my own Azami deck I traded for. Sure, that involves spending money on cards to trade, but nothing in life is free. Playing Magic is an ongoing process; even I have cards that I’d like to get my hands on (Jace, the Mind Sculptor comes to mind) that would significantly improve my deck. But not everything is as expensive as Mr. Wallet Sculptor. Simply throwing a couple dual lands like Azorius Chancery or artifact acceleration like Armillary Sphere can greatly improve your mana curve. How about taking out that Shock and putting a Lightning Bolt in it’s place (assuming you aren’t running both already of course)? There are plenty of little tweaks to improve your deck that you can make for cheap, or even free if you have the cards and do some reading on the Gatherer.
I really hope that I’ve helped put some things into perspective for you Timmys and Spikes out there. It’s as important to me as the next guy that Magic stay a fun and balanced game, which I think EDH shows off with flying colors. What’s more than that, is that I understand that many times things that seem unfair can often simply be difficult to overcome. And with that, I’ll leave you with your mice, keyboards, and monitors. Get to researching those artifact destruction and target changing spells!