A quote attributed to (or made famous by) David Price regarding Magic was “there are no wrong threats, only wrong answers.” One important element to keep in mind for any smart deckbuilder in any format is adding answers to your deck to address threats from your opponents, and EDH is no different. There’s a pretty big issue though when it comes to a format as wide open as EDH – there are an infinite number of threats clever players can add to their decks, and drawing the wrong answers to pressing threats can be devastating.
EDH was designed from the very beginning to promote social interaction. It is founded (and dependant) on a social contract, otherwise known as a gentleman’s agreement, to avoid playing certain cards and strategies represented by a banned list put forth by the EDH rules committee and periodically updated. The problem of course arises when players who all love the format don’t agree on the interpretation of the social contract, or whether there even needs to be one.
“If you want to enjoy the type of games you’ve heard associated with EDH, avoid cards like these…”
Intro to the EDH banned list
It’s no surprise to my regular readers where I come down on this issue, and I think this introductory sentence to the banned list really gets to the heart of what the social contract is all about. In my opinion, “cards like these” means that the banned list is a guideline to point you in the right direction, and shouldn’t mean that, outside of this specific list, every single other card and strategy is perfectly fine. For me personally, the goal of each EDH game experience is to maximize enjoyment for as many people around the table as possible, and most of the EDH fans I know first hand share that sentiment, at least to some degree.
There is a huge advantage of having a broad social contract that everyone can generally agree upon — quite simply, it opens up space in your deck. The more answers you have to stuff into your deck to keep from losing, the less space you have for the cool, fun stuff that makes you want to play EDH to begin with. Especially when you choose a flavorful general that you want to build your deck around, deck space is at a premium. In my Karrthus deck for example, every answer card I had to add to the deck was one less Dragon or Dragon-themed card I could put in there. Flavor cards like Greed, Sarkhan Vol, and Dragon’s Shadow went to the scrapheap to squeeze in more cards like Pernicious Deed, Krosan Grip, and Tormod’s Crypt.
Now, each EDH play group is going to be different, and the equilibrium point for what’s cool, fun, and acceptable is going to be different depending on the personal preferences and expectations of each guy or gal who sits down and shuffles up their deck. That equilibrium point may not end up being exactly where you’d prefer to be, but that just means you need to make some adjustments in how you build your deck, and likely how many and what sort of answers you need. In today’s column, I’d like to address some common “problems” that arise in some EDH games, and a variety of answers that will hopefully help you address those threats without being so narrow as to leave you with a dead draw if your opponents don’t happen to be asking that particular question.
I’d like to make this a semi-regular feature, so please send me any issues, problems or just flat out nasty cards or strategies that are diminishing your EDH fun, and I will compile them and offer up some answers in a future column.
Problem: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is too powerful, and makes the game unfun.
Emrakul is obviously designed to answer the question if I can play 15 mana to play a creature, what sort of badass will I get? In a duel situation, getting to 15 mana can be quite tough, but given the pace that EDH games unfold, and given the vast card pool available, ramping up to 15 mana isn’t all that difficult. Plus, as a creature there are quite a few easy ways to bring Emrakul back to your hand and play him again. So, how do you deal with someone who builds his or her EDH deck for the express purpose of abusing Emrakul?
Answer #1: Bribery
Also Helm of Possession. Probably the best way to get someone to stop playing Emrakul is to steal it and start attacking them with it, especially on turn 3 or 4. Way back in the day, I stopped playing Multani, Maro Sorcerer (and Verdant Force) in my multiplayer decks for a while because the Blue players stopped playing threats and instead loaded up their decks with ways to steal my threats. Bribery was always a heartbreaker, and is nearly always a great spell whether or not Emrakul is around to nab.
Answer #2: Trickbind
Also Stifle, Voidslime. The two most devastating abilities of Emrakul are triggered: the time walk ability when it’s played, and the annihilator 6 ability when it attacks. While Emrakul itself can’t be countered, both of these abilities can be countered, which will buy time for the table to figure out a solution to the big bastard. These cards are also plenty useful even if no one is playing Emrakul shenanigans.
Answer #3: Tajuru Preserver
The people who made Rise of the Eldrazi put a handy answer for the annihilator ability of the Eldrazi, and he’s useful creature types Elf and Shaman. Keep an eye out for other popular cards at your table that make you sacrifice (Grave Pact springs to mind) and if there are enough toss one of these in your deck. Of course, you still have to deal with a 15/15 flier, but starting at 40 life helps…
Answer #4: Icy Manipulator
Scepter of Domination, Tawnos’s Coffin, Opposition, Glare of Subdual. The beauty of this solution is that you keep Emrakul on the board (so it can’t be drawn and cast again), and you also keep yourself in the position of being key to keeping Emrakul from rampaging – thus people have to keep you around at least long enough to deal with Emrakul first. These are also incredibly great, all-around useful cards.
Answer #5: Shapesharer
Also Clone, Vesuvan Doppleganger, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Dance of Many, Spitting Image. If someone cheats out Emrakul, your Shapesharer can immediately put an end to its foolishness provided you’ve got the mana available. During your own turn, provided you haven’t already been annihilated into oblivion, you can cast one of the clone cards and take advantage of the time walk while destroying Emrakul and being the hero.
Answer #6: Brittle Effigy
Also Seal of Doom. It’s nice to have a permanent solution to Emrakul sitting out there ready to pop, though having to keep that much mana open may mean you could get caught with your pants down if you need to cast something. Seal of Doom isn’t as permanent a solution, but once you cast it you don’t have to pay any mana to fire it off. These are particularly good instant-speed solutions to recurring Emrakul nonsense.
Answer #7: Rout
Also Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral’s Disk (untapped). When Emrakul comes down, either with haste or with time walk attached, you may never get a chance to play that Wrath of God in your hand. Having the instant-speed option of Rout can stop the madness before it begins.
Answer #8: Dragon Broodmother
Also Verdant Force, Deranged Hermit, Captain of the Watch, Siege-Gang Commander, Verdeloth the Ancient, Orochi Hatchery, Snake Basket, Gelatinous Genesis, Mogg Infestation, Artifact Mutation, Aura Mutation, AEther Mutation, Death Mutation, Night Soil, Necrogenesis, Homarid Spawning Bed, Carrion, Mercy Killing, Battle Screech, Decree of Justice, Elemental Mastery, Sengir Autocrat, Belfry Spirit, Conqueror’s Pledge, Infernal Genesis, Tombstone Stairwell, Morbid Bloom, Necromancer’s Covenant, Storm Herd. Making tokens—the more the better—is key toward blunting the impact of the annihilator ability, and there are a ton of options available
Answer #9: Day of the Dragons
Turning all your creatures into 5/5 flying dragons can give you some “free” sacrifice subjects, and make it much more likely that you can gang block Emrakul and kill him. It also potentially gives you a ton of sacrifice fodder, including the Day itself (which will then bring all your creatures back).
Answer #10: Penumbra Spider
While not a total solution, Penumbra Spider both can blunt the annihilation trigger and be a blocker for the big flying bastard.
Answer #11: Obliterate
Also Wasteland, Strip Mine, Creeping Mold, Acidic Slime. If someone’s trying to ramp up to 15-16 mana to cast Emrakul — and possibly recur it — there should be some pretty obvious signs that it’s coming. Mana control can pull the plug on that stuff, with the uncounterable Obliterate being a pretty big weapon for that purpose. Pinpoint removal isn’t quite so drastic, but can take some serious steam out of their plans by hitting the Gaea’s Cradle or Cabal Coffers that was going to bring the noise.
Answer #12: Dual Nature
Not only does this enchantment give you — and everyone — a bunch of extra token creature as annihilator fodder, but it also makes Emrakul into a really expensive time walk. Not quite as impressive, eh?
Answer #13: Mirrorweave
While you can’t stop the annihilation trigger, you can set up a pretty nasty ambush, turning every creature in play — including the attacking Emrakul — into copies of that 1/1 Saproling token… one of which will hopefully step up, block and kill that little fella.
Answer #14: Ixidron
Emrakul is much less scary as a face-down 2/2 morph, no?
Problem: One of my friends insists on building combo decks stuffed full of tutors to reliably get the combo to fire off quickly.
In most Magic formats we value consistency in our decks, but the Highlander format was conceived as a way to build variety directly into the format by forcing every card to be a singleton and a 100 card deck size. Variety is supposed to be the spice of life, but some people can’t help but violate the spirit of the format by stuffing their deck with tutors in order to set up some kind of table-killing combo. Here are some ways to stop them:
Answer #1: Time Stop
Also Mindbreak Trap. Time Stop is really the aspirin of EDH—it’s just good for what ails you. There are not a whole lot of ways you can stop a Storm Combo from killing a bunch of players. Time Stop is one, and so is Mindbreak Trap. Of course, Time Stop does so much more, like stopping a lethal combat step or removing a troublesome recurring creature from the game as it sits on the stack. Whenever I decide on a general that has Blue in his casting cost, Time Stop is the second card I add to the deck.
Answer #2: Jester’s Cap
Also Sadistic Sacrament, Nightmare Incursion. Jester’s Cap is just an all-around great card for punishing decks that focus too much on a particular combo to win (along with all the ways to assemble that combo), and the fact that it’s an artifact, that can be cast and used for a reasonable six mana, means it should be a regular part of any EDH deck unless no one in your play group ever plays infinite combo kills.
Answer #3: Arcane Lab
Also Rule of Law, Ethersworn Canonist. These cards are a bit risky because they can be really annoying to a lot of players around the table (especially if their hands are getting filled up with Howling Mine effects), but when it comes to stopping Storm Combo, or the cast-tutor-for-kill-card-in-the-same-turn maneuver, it does a pretty strong job.
Answer #4: Aven Mindcensor
While this is certainly another really annoying card for all your opponents to have to face, they will thank you for the huge thorn you stick into the side of the guy who insists on playing Momir Vig all the time.
Answer #5: Leyline of Sanctity
Also Ivory Mask, Imperial Mask. While you may not stop combo guy from going off, you can often stop him from killing you personally by putting up a strong defense, and Leyline of Sanctity is among the best defensive cards around.
Problem: What do I do about mass land destruction?
Pinpoint land destruction is an important answer to have in nearly any EDH deck, because there are certain incredibly powerful lands that will win the game if you can’t stop them (Gaea’s Cradle; Cabal Coffers), or lands that are frustrating to your own goals (Maze of Ith; Prahv, Spires of Order). For that reason, Strip Mine, Wasteland, Acidic Slime and such are all perfectly fine cards to have in your deck. The issue arises when people go overboard, and instead LD as answers it becomes an actual strategy. EDH is supposed to be about fun, and there are very few things in Magic as unfun as sitting there being unable to cast your spells because your opponent has locked you out of your mana.
Answer #1: Darksteel Ingot
Also Sol Ring, Coalition Relic. Every EDH deck should run Darksteel Ingot. Not only does it give you any color you need, but it’s also indestructible. Once you play it, you can count on it no matter what happens. It’s also advisable to have other artifact sources of mana which will help make you less vulnerable to mass land destruction, though they become vulnerable to sweepers such as Akroma’s Vengeance or Oblivion Stone.
Answer #2: Darksteel Citadel
If you’ve got a Darksteel Ingot and a Darksteel Citadel in play, you have a pretty good shot of recovering from something like Obliterate blowing up the world. This is a card I don’t play much because most of my group doesn’t play mass LD, but if I got hit with one too many Obliterates, I’d definitely make this a staple.
Answer #3: Second Sunrise
This all-around helpful card can really make you the hero at the table when someone drops an Obliterate out of nowhere, and it’s cheap enough to keep up the mana without too many problems.
Answer #4: Karmic Justice
If someone’s dropping Armageddon to seal his board advantage, Karmic Justice can really throw a big fat monkey wrench into his plans.
Answer #5: Terravore
Also Knight of the Reliquary. In a big multiplayer game, having a Terravore in play can really make someone question the smartness of playing Armageddon.
Answer #6: Terra Eternal
Also Consecrate Land, Darksteel Garrison. If you happen to have a fair number of manlands in your deck, Terra Eternal can play a solid support role while also making sure the entire table isn’t going to be losing to mass LD anytime soon. Of course, beware because you’re also making sure those problem cards like Gaea’s Cradle and Maze of Ith aren’t going anywhere.
Answer #7: Crucible of Worlds
Obviously a great way to recover from a mass LD incident.
Answer # 8: Equinox
If someone loves to play a bunch of LD spells, this is certainly one way to stop them. Just make sure you mix with a few ways to untap lands (Magus of the Candelabra, Deserted Temple).
Answer # 9: The Zendikons
This cycle of enchant land Auras from Worldwake turn a land into a creature while also making sure that land comes back to your hand should anything bad happens. Pretty narrow, but an option to keep in mind depending on the LD shenanigans you might be dealing with.
Okay, that’s it for this week. Special thanks go out to Phelddagrif & dza76wutang from the forums for sending me their ideas on answers to EDH questions, many of which ended up here. Like I said before, I’d like to make this a semi-regular feature so please send me your problems at my email address below, and put “EDH Problem!” in the subject so I can compile them for next time.
For tonight’s FNM, I’ve got a brand new Standard deck I’m looking forward to trying out, one that uses a Titan that is not the Green one. Wish me luck, and maybe I’ll see you out there, if not for Standard then for some EDH afterwards.
Take care…
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
New to EDH? Be sure to check out my EDH Primer, part 1, part 2, and part 3.
My current EDH decks:
Phelddagrif (carrots & sticks)
Tsabo Tavoc (Red & Black nastiness)
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (more legends than you can shake a stick at)
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade (brain-eating zombies, Commander)