A couple weeks back I decided to try something new – open up my email to those of you who’d like me to “deck doctor” your EDH deck. I got a pretty good response, enough for several deck doctors, so if you like how this goes let me know and I’ll do some more here and there on the slow weeks. I got two requests for Teneb the Harvester, so I figured I’d kick things off with my personal favorite Dragon! Travis from Madison, Wisconsin was first in line, but I’ll also touch on chronos.paradox’s Teneb as well.
(Note: If you’ve already sent in a deck doctor request but have updated your deck already or sometime in the near future, feel free to email me the changes. If you want to send in a future EDH deck doctor request, make sure to read The Rules at the bottom of this column!)
Most of the suggestions I make in these Deck Doctors are going to be reasonably priced options, either high-quality “budget” cards, or slightly more expensive cards that I consider staples for your EDH toolbox. If a card costs more than $5-6, I won’t suggest it unless it’s key towards addressing some issue your deck is having, or if you indicate you’re willing and able to spend a little bit extra for singles.
Travis from Madison, WI writes:
“Hi Bennie, love the column, nice to see that SCG is getting more into EDH! I chose Teneb the Harvester as my general because I’ve got a soft spot for reanimation and card advantage. As a control player, I like to have an answer for just about every possible threat that could come my way, and a way to dig for it.
“I’m extremely weak against the likes of Tormod’s Crypt and Relic of Progenitus. I’ve had a few mana issues, but for the most part the deck is above average when it comes to acceleration. The one card I wish I owned for this deck is Survival of the Fittest, but as of right now I can’t really justify spending $20 on a single card for a casual format like EDH.
“I usually play with a small circle of friends from high school. I was playing EDH for about six months before the rest of the group finally caught on. One guy in my group, his only goal is to piss off as many people as possible; he has three decks: Sliver Queen combo, Bant enchantments, and Nath of the Gilt-Leaf (discard + land destruction).
“I’d really like to get some feedback on my lists from someone who has played as long as or longer than I have. Thanks for taking the time to read this!”
Teneb Elder Dragon Highlander
By Travis from Wisconsin
1 Teneb the Harvester
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Order of Whiteclay
1 Stonecloaker
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Archon of Justice
1 Karmic Guide
1 Knight-Captain of Eos
1 Reveillark
1 Apprentice Necromancer
1 Withered Wretch
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Gutless Ghoul
1 Hell’s Caretaker
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Thrashing Wumpus
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Wood Elves
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Acidic Slime
1 Genesis
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Vigor
1 Hag Hedge-Mage
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Shambling Shell
1 Divinity of Pride
1 Mobilization
1 Attrition
1 Haunted Crossroads
1 Grave Pact
1 Liliana Vess
1 Greater Good
1 Doubling Season
1 Perilous Forays
1 Necrogenesis
1 Aura Shards
1 Debtor’s Knell
1 Golgari Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Ashnod’s Altar
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Minion Reflector
1 Path to Exile
1 Reanimate
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Life from the Loam
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Buried Alive
1 Victimize
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Miraculous Recovery
1 Rout
1 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Polluted Mire
1 Slippery Karst
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Barren Moor
1 Krosan Verge
1 Dust Bowl
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Kor Haven
1 Terrain Generator
1 Tainted Field
1 Tainted Wood
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Riftstone Portal
6 Swamp
6 Plains
6 Forest
Thanks for writing in, Travis! At first glance, it looks like you’ve got a great mix of solid cards you’d expect from a Green/White/Black deck. Before we dig down to the nitty-gritty, let’s do a quick and dirty top-level analysis of your deck:
Mana curve:
One cc: 2
Two cc: 9
Three cc: 21
Four cc: 5
Five cc: 18
Six cc: 3
Seven cc: 7
Eight cc: 1 (or two cc)
Even in EDH, you want to keep an eye on your mana curve. EDH games tend to take a while to get rolling, but there are going to be some players who come out the gate quick, whether it’s because someone drew turn 1 Sol Ring/Signet, or because someone’s brought a more aggressive deck to the table. Your deck has two huge peaks, at three mana and at five mana, accounting for 65% of your non-land cards! As I look for cards that need to be trimmed from the deck, I’ll likely be looking at three and five.
Card distribution: 40 lands, 32 creatures, 28 spells
In competitive Magic, 40% mana is the norm, because when you’re dueling, the last thing you want to have happen is to stall on mana and get run over. In EDH you’ve got a different dynamic working—first, you’ve typically got pretty generous mulligan rules to throw back bad hands, and second, you will typically have more time to develop and draw out of mana stalls. 40 lands strike me as too much mana, especially with additional non-land mana sources (your Signets, Elves). My rule of thumb is 34-36 mana-producing lands.
Your creature/spell mix isn’t bad, though with Teneb’s special ability I’d want either more creatures of my own I’d want to recur from my graveyard, or more ways of getting my opponents’ creatures in their graveyard. In fact, since you emphasize having problems with Tormod’s Crypt and graveyard hosers, I’d push a little harder on utilizing the graveyards of your opponents to force them to nuke their graveyards.
Mana distribution: 42% black, 29% green, 29% white
Mana source distribution: 34% black, 34% green, 32% white
Lands producing colorless mana: 5
Your choice in spells slants more heavily towards black mana requirements, while your mana source mix is evenly split. When I propose a final list of creatures and spells, we might need to tweak the mana sources to better synch that up.
A word on lands that produce colorless mana. There are some fantastic lands out there that do great things for your deck without taking up a spell slot, but let me warn you: if you’re playing a deck with three or more colors, you want to strongly consider cutting those types of cards way, way down or eliminate them from your deck altogether. Drawing too many of them early really increases the odds of color screw. In two recent three-color EDH decks I’ve cut all colorless mana lands and have found that they perform much better.
What’s Your General Up To?
“I chose Teneb the Harvester as my general because I’ve got a soft spot for reanimation and card advantage.” Teneb certainly plays perfectly into that theme… and yet you definitely want to be careful about overloading on the theme since it does open you up to vulnerabilities you’re concerned about. I see you’ve got a lot of sacrifice outlets and reanimation cards besides Teneb. This is naturally going to have your own graveyard attract a lot of unwanted attention. That’s why I’d like to see you push some attention outwards towards your opponent’s creatures, killing them and putting them into your opponent’s graveyards for use; creature-based removal like Shriekmaw, Bone-Shredder and Dark Hatchling seem perfect. We can also choose to rely more heavily on Teneb’s ability since, as your general, you can be sure he’ll be available much more consistently than the singleton copies of other spells.
Of course, Teneb and the other dragons of his ilk have a problem; when it comes to their ability; they need to attack—and connect with your opponent—in order to activate the ability. While some players will take a six point smack from a creature in stride, taking six points of general damage puts them ¼ of the way to Loserville no matter how much life they’re at. You can expect a higher degree of resistance to Teneb’s attacks than normal, whether its chump blockers, nullifiers (Maze of Ith), or removal spells. So you’re going to want a fair degree of “protect the queen” type of spells in your deck.
Zendikar has two high quality cheap spells that would go perfect in this deck: Vines of Vastwood and Brave the Elements. Going back a little bit, Stonewood Evocation would be a great response to a Maze of Ith activation. You’ll also want to make sure Teneb can’t be easily chump blocked, so I’d like to see a few cards like Rancor and Brawn in here.
There are a group of creatures that work incredibly well together to help keep your creatures — including your general—alive and well on the board while causing problems for your opponents. You’ve got a few in your deck already, but all of these should be staples for any G/W/x deck, especially a deck like Teneb:
Saffi Eriksdotter
Dauntless Escort
Loxodon Hierarch
Magus of the Disk
Karmic Guide
Deadwood Treefolk
Adarkar Valkyrie
All of these cards are pretty reasonable as singles, and you’ll get great use of them as a package to put into many different decks. My online Commander deck enjoyed great success with craziness like sac Saffi targeting Hierarch, then sac Hierarch, then pop Magus of the Disk to sweep away all my opponents stuff, but all my creatures regenerate. The coast clear, you can freely swing in with Teneb and pick the best creature from your opponents’ graveyards to bring back (or get Saffi back to do it all again).
Okay, so here are my recommended adjustments:
Lands: 4 Swamp, 1 Plains, 1 Forest, Dust Bowl, Riftstone Portal, Terrain Generator, Phyrexian Tower, Tainted Field, Tainted Wood OUT; Orzhov Basilica, Selesnya Sanctuary, Golgari Rot Farm, Rupture Spire, Sunpetal Grove, Graypelt Refuge IN
I trimmed out a few of the colorless mana lands to reduce the chance of color screw, and cut some of the less reliable colored lands. Overall I reduced the number of lands, but adding in three of the awesome “bouncelands” from Ravnica adds a few “virtual” lands back to the mix. Rupture Spire belongs in any deck that wants three or more colors, and I added two pain-free green/white duals to balance out the colors.
One casting cost: Path to Exile, Reanimate OUT; Rancor, Vines of Vastwood, Skullclamp, Elvish Herder, Brave the Elements, Mother of Runes IN
I’m normally down with Path to Exile, but you don’t want to remove a potential Teneb target from the game. Mother of Runes is some additional protection for Teneb (and other creatures), and Elvish Herder provides additional trample. I know Skullclamp is a little expensive for a banned uncommon, but it’s a staple card — and a source of card advantage — you’ll want for just about any of your EDH decks.
Two casting cost: Apprentice Necromancer, Withered Wretch, Necrogenesis, Life from the Loam OUT; Sylvan Library, Saffi Eriksdotter, Wall of Roots, Fellwar Stone, Oversold Cemetery, Qasali Pridemage, Pull from Eternity, Sun Droplet IN
Bumped Wretch and Necrogenesis, see Path to Exile above. Life from the Loam is a fine card, but it does increase your vulnerability to graveyard hate, so let’s save that for another deck. Added some high-quality but inexpensive two-drops, and a Pull from Eternity so that you can recover a key card or creature that does get removed from the game.
Three casting cost: Order of Whiteclay, Gutless Ghoul, Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Hag Hedge-Mage, Shambling Shell, Mobilization, Attrition, Haunted Crossroads, Ashnod’s Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Buried Alive, Victimize, Harmonic Sliver, Necrotic Sliver OUT; Mortify, Putrefy, Bone Shredder, Dauntless Escort, Loxodon Warhammer, Behemoth Sledge IN
Here I cut some more of your reanimation theme and some random cards because your threes were so crowded. The Harmonic and Necrotic Slivers I replaced with instant speed Mortify and Putrefy. The Warhammer and Sledge are awesome trampling lifegainers that go great on Teneb.
Four casting cost: Hell’s Caretaker, Grave Pact, Diabolic Tutor OUT; Loxodon Hierarch, Solemn Simulacrum, Harmonize, Brawn, Filth, Nantuko Vigilante, Power Matrix, Galepowder Mage, Ambition’s Cost IN
Caretaker and Tutor are kind of slow and clunky, and since I’ve pulled back the sacrifice/reanimation themes Grave Pact is less effective (plus it’s gonna sometimes be hard to cast). Added in some card advantage (Simulacrum, Harmonize, Ambition’s Cost), and evasion (Filth, Matrix). Galepowder Mage can remove a key blocker, or play tricks with your creatures with comes-into-play abilities.
Five casting cost: Phyrexian Plaguelord, Golgari Grave-Troll, Divinity of Pride, Doubling Season, Perilous Forays, Minion Reflector, Thrashing Wumpus, Liliana Vess OUT; Shriekmaw IN
Five mana was another spot that was overloaded, so I trimmed these cards for being a little random, colored-mana intensive, etc. I added back in Shriekmaw since you can Evoke him for two mana in a pinch, to clear a blocker and swing in with Teneb and have mana to use Teneb’s ability.
Six casting cost: Vigor OUT; Deadwood Treefolk, Adarkar Valkyrie, Dark Hatchling IN
Vigor’s too color-intensive for a three-color deck.
Seven casting cost: Krosan Tusker IN
Any Green deck with some number of basic lands can use Krosan Tusker!
Alright, Travis—here’s how I’d recommend rebuilding your deck:
Teneb Elder Dragon Highlander
By Travis & The Deck Doctor
1 Rancor
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Skullclamp
1 Elvish Herder
1 Brave the Elements
1 Mother of Runes
1 Pull from Eternity
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Golgari Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Sylvan Library
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Wall of Roots
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Oversold Cemetery
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sun Droplet
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Stonecloaker
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Eternal Witness
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Aura Shards
1 Mortify
1 Putrefy
1 Bone Shredder
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Behemoth Sledge
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Greater Good
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Harmonize
1 Brawn
1 Filth
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Power Matrix
1 Galepowder Mage
1 Ambition’s Cost
1 Archon of Justice
1 Karmic Guide
1 Knight-Captain of Eos
1 Reveillark
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Acidic Slime
1 Genesis
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Miraculous Recovery
1 Rout
1 Shriekmaw
1 Teneb, the Harvester
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Dark Hatchling
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Debtors’ Knell
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Barren Moor
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Krosan Verge
1 Polluted Mire
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Slippery Karst
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Temple Garden
1 Savannah
1 Godless Shrine
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Kor Haven
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Graypelt Refuge
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Rupture Spire
5 Forest
5 Plains
2 Swamp
Mana curve:
One cc: 7
Two cc: 12
Three cc: 12
Four cc: 11
Five cc: 11
Six cc: 5
Seven cc: 2
Eight cc: 1 (or two cc)
Ah, that curve looks much better!
Card distribution: 34 lands, 34 creatures, 27 spells
34 lands might make you a bit nervous, but between the generous starting mulligan rules, the Ravnica bouncelands, and plenty of early mana-ramping spells, you should be fine.
Mana distribution: 25% black, 39% green, 37% white
Mana source distribution: 25% black, 38% green, 35% white
Lands producing colorless mana: 3
Mana sources line up much better here!
On Survival of the Fittest and Tutors in EDH
Travis mentioned that he’d like to have Survival of the Fittest in his deck, but “can’t really justify spending $20 on a single card for a casual format.” Now, I personally own a playset of Survival of the Fittest, but almost never use them in EDH. Why? Because tutors are time consuming, and I will tend to emphasize raw card drawing over tutors in my EDH decks to save time in what is already a time-consuming format. They are not usually too bad when you know exactly what you’re going to get… but there are times in a game when you don’t really need anything specific. You’ve just drawn a tutor instead of some action, and instead of just passing the turn, you go digging for whatever catches your fancy. Often you’ll select a couple different choices and then ponder which one is best for right now. This is a recipe for boredom around the table as they wait for you to decide. Things are even worse with Survival of the Fittest, since you can tutor at instant speed and put the game on hold whenever you want to spend a Green mana and pitch a creature card.
Playing Survival also pushes you towards stacking your graveyard with stuff that could freak out your opponents when the cards are put there all at once as opposed to gradually over the course of a game. Start with Genesis and Eternal Witness and go from there. So, what I’m saying Travis and others who are wishing for Survival of the Fittest—don’t sweat it, you’ll be fine — and possibly even better off — without it!
…
Alright, I’m pushing a pretty hefty word count here, so in deference to my esteemed editor Craig, I’m going to move chronos.paradox’s Teneb deck doctor to the forums.
Before I wrap up, I wanted to give EDH fans a heads-up about some fellow EDH enthusiasts who’re posting You Tube videos about this most awesome of formats. They were down at Tampa recently and talked to Aaron Forsythe and Patrick Chapin about EDH, be sure to check them out if you haven’t already seen them.
Magic: The Gathering – EDH and Aaron Forsythe
“… an outstanding appearance from Aaron Forsythe, Director of R&D at Wizards of the Coast. This is the man that brought us Cryptic Command, Elspeth, and other amazing cards. Aaron gave us an exclusive interview and brought some of his own decks for gunslinging during the event. Check out his interview and discussion on Wizards’ interest in the EDH format.”
EDH Interviews – Patrick Chapin
“Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour player Patrick Chapin shares his thoughts about the Elder Dragon Highlander format in a fireside chat at the Menery estate. This interview was filmed just before Grand Prix Tampa in October 2009.”
Have a Happy Halloween weekend! Savor the flavor and play some vampires, zombies, or skeletons why don’t you?
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:
Doran the Siege-Tower (toughness matters!)
Baron Sengir (Evile Vampires!)
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (big mana spells)
Sharuum, the Hegemon (equipment.dec)
Reminder: The Jay Coffman Memorial Tournament November 22nd
I wanted to alert you to a very special Magic tournament next month in Richmond, Virginia. Last year the Magic community lost one of its brightest when Jay Coffman succumbed to cancer after battling the disease for nearly a decade. Jay was a huge fan of Magic and played from its very first days and continued until his illness made it impossible. He was a deckbuilder at heart and loved coming up with new and interesting ideas to surprise people at tournaments. He was hugely instrumental in popularizing the Vintage (Type 1) Magic scene as part of a group of innovators based out of Richmond, which helped spawn the Star City Power Nine tournament series that began right here in Richmond. Jay appeared in Star City’s online coverage of one event (I believe the third Power 9 tournament), where his brutal “Stax 5/3 Hybrid” deck took him to a 2nd place finish:
Top 8 Profiles, by Bennie Smith
Quarterfinals Roundup, by Ted Knutson
Semifinals: Rocky McCumbee vs. Jay Coffman, by Jim Ferraiolo
Finals: Jay Coffman vs. Eric Miller, by Ted Knutson
Sunday, November 22nd Richmond Comix in conjunction with the VAComicon are going to celebrate our friend by holding a Magic tournament to benefit the Massey Cancer Research Center at MCV, the people responsible for giving us extra years with Jay. There’s going to be a ton of special prizes and all proceeds will go to a very worthy cause.
Here’s the link to the details on Jay’s tournament.
If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll find the time to come out play some Magic in Jay’s honor!