What I’m Bringing To CommandFest DC

Experts will tell you that the best way to live a long and joyful life is do work that you love.  If that’s the case, I’m going to be old and deliriously happy, because I’m hyped about the “work” that I’ll being doing for CommandFest DC.  I’m rested and recovered from my long trip to Seattle and ready to get back out there.  Climbing on board the hype train, today we’ll discuss what I’m looking forward to doing while I’m there as well as which decks from my suite of 50+ which will be making the trip with me.

The Other Guests

One of the reasons I’m a fan of the shows we put on (generally speaking, that’s SCG CON, but this CommandFest applies) is that there’s a mix of regular and new guests.  I get to see the now-frequent crew, like Commander Advisory Group (CAG) member Olivia Gobert-Hicks, as well as her cosplaying coterie including Tappy Toe Claws, Nissa Cosplay, and more.  Just as exciting is the return of cosplaying legend Christine Sprankle. 

https://twitter.com/cspranklerun/status/1113120062360084480?s=20

We’ll also get to see Commander stalwarts Bennie Smith and the Commander VS team.  We’ll get another CAG member, Adam Styborski, as well as my former Wizards of the Coast colleague Aaron Reed.  Then I get to hang around with some folks I don’t see as often as I like, such as BDM and The Professor.  I’ve never met the Bens from LoadingReadyRun, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity.  This will be a party of special magnificence.

While the more jaded among you might think that this is just me dispatching my responsibility as part of the SCG stable of writers, I trust most of you know that if I weren’t actually excited about it, I wouldn’t say anything.  Call me idealistic, call me naïve, just call me when all these great folks show up, because I’ll be there to enjoy their company.  They’re a bunch of people who love the format, love the atmosphere, and will help make the show something quite special.  I’m as caught up in their excitement as I am my own. 

There aren’t any games on the schedule featuring a bunch of guests battling at the same table, but you had better believe we’ll put something together.  I had a blast playing with Olivia and Prof on camera at CommandFest Seattle, and even if we’re not rolling, we’re definitely getting in another game.  I haven’t played any Commander with BDM for quite some time, so it’ll be great to once again tilt with one of my dearest friends as well as a titan of Magic history.

The Players

People who show up for a CommandFest are the most heavily invested in the format.  Unlike a MagicFest, where we might get some drive-by traffic, everyone at this show will be there because of one thing: Commander.  The players who are taking the time and laying out the expense to travel are doing so because of their love of the format.  Some of us might like it in different ways, but we’re all simply jazzed that there’s an event focused on only us.  That means the mood in the room, like I experienced it in Seattle and heard it was in Chicago, will be positive and mostly tension-free.  No one will be worried about prize money or Pro Points, just raw enjoyment. 

If we’ve never met in person before, please come up and say hello.  I know your time is as precious as mine, so I don’t even mind if you briefly interrupt a game I’m in, so long as it’s not my turn.  I’m there to hang out with the fans of the format, so my time is your time.  Even if that means just chatting about your favorite format, I’m down.  Obviously, if you want a game, that’s what we’ll do.  I generally keep a signup sheet with me so no one gets missed (and also so you don’t have to stand around and wait for games to finish).  While there aren’t any panels on the schedule, I might try to arrange an impromptu roundtable discussion or two (keeping it to a manageable eight people or so), just to be able to get your input and feedback on the format.  Being there is more than about just playing games.  It’s about making the format as good as it can be, and your insights can go a long way to doing that.

The Decks

Of course, the main feature will be playing.  I’ll be bringing a different collection of decks than I had at SCG CON Winter in order to show off more of the suite, and just change things up some.  I hate to get into ruts, and with so many decks, it’s shame to leave any of them on the shelf.  I had Dreaming of Intet, You Did This to Yourself, Kresh Into the Red Zone, Aminatou’s Demonic Fate, Saskia Unyielding, and Queen Marchesa, Long May She Reign with me, as well as having had Muldrotha, Speaking Primely and Proliferating Chulane with me on the Seattle trip.  Here’s what’s coming this time:

You Did This to Yourself

I think that this will ways be included in my convention package.  It’s the deck that has provided the most epic games in all my Commander days, to include a few at the last SCG CON.

If you’re not familiar with it, the deck doesn’t really do much until someone else tries to do something broken.  Then it punishes them for it.  It all started with Parallectric Feedback as a response to the common “Exsanguinate for 50” finisher that was running around our tables circa 2011.  The idea blossomed into a full-blown deck that’s been featured multiple times here and on other sites.  I now regret not playing it on the stream from CommandFest Seattle; seems like it would have been the more fun choice.

Kresh Into the Red Zone

I’m repeating this one because I only played it twice during the Roanoke trip.  I’m not sure how it kept getting relegated, but even as one of my signature decks, I find that I’ve played it less than I like to.  I mean, I really love this deck.  It reflects my preferred, aggressive style.  It might be increasingly less-accurately named, because while it does indeed get into the Red Zone, its real finishing move is a healthy Fling (or Heart-Piercer Manticore) of something large, whether that’s the commander himself or a giant Lord of Extinction or Hamletback Goliath.  The other favorite way to go is an immense Living Death, especially with Urabrask the Hidden backing my play.

There are two new Throne of Eldrane cards I’m looking forward to playing with here:  The Cauldron of Eternity and The Great Henge.  The former might seem to be a little wonky in the deck, but the plan is to hold it until it needs to come down in a late-game situation.  It will cost only BB to cast at that point, and be online right away (maybe for that Heart-Piercer Manticore).  The Great Henge should be called The Great Value Henge, because that’s what it produces.  Again, it doesn’t cost much, and it provides mana plus incredible upside when your creatures enter the battlefield.  It might lead to some unpleasantness with Woodfall Primus and a sacrifice outlet, but that’s another finishing move, not a general plan. 

Myths and Legends of Korvold

Because it was built just as we were reconfiguring the website, this one hasn’t yet made it into the deck database.  I’ve listed it below for reference.  A huge percentage of the deck involves legendary creatures and artifacts.  It’s part of a real storytelling effort consistent with the fairytale quality of Throne of Eldrane, put into a playable deck.  It also has The Great Henge and The Cauldron of Eternity.  Putting two copies of new cards into decks isn’t something I do with much regularity, but these cards are just my style, and I don’t want to miss out on running them. 

Korvold is a commander I suppose we’ll see a great deal of in the near future.  It’s quite powerful and doesn’t need a particularly focused build to be extremely strong.  The commander is in some regards a one-card strategy, making me wonder if there’s a reasonable build that only has Korvold’s enters-the-battlefield or attack triggers as ways to leverage his ability.  That would be suboptimal, but I bet there are deck builders out there clever enough to do it.

Halloween with Karador

It’s a deck that I love, and one that I haven’t played in many months, since it didn’t make the Seattle trip.  It’s pretty durdly and controlling.  It’s certainly never going to win games quickly, since it’s an example of the battlecruiser style of Commander that got folks interested in the format in the first place.  It can take over a game, but not in a way that prevents others from playing it.  It also rolls over to good graveyard hate, although I’ve tried to build it to also function in such an environment.  As such, I rarely go all-in on the graveyard, hoping more for incremental advantage and only occasionally relying on the big blasts.  It’s representative of the kind of deck that I much prefer to play:  one in which I have to use the cards to adapt to and overcome the battlefield, rather than let the cards do all the work.   

As much as I’ve admitted I have a Temur problem, Abzan might be my favorite three-color combination.  White is generally regarded as one of the weaker colors in Commander, but its work as a support color is, in my opinion, unparalleled.  I mean, how “weak” are you when you have Karmic Guide and Reveillark? 

Ikra and Kydele

Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper is simply one of my favorite Commander cards.  It rewards attacking with lifegain, and I love turning them sideways.  This one also has one of my favorite individual cards, one which has created some crazy games: 

There’s nothing in the deck that really takes advantage of Endless Whipsers, save River Kelpie; it’s just one of those cards which engenders the kind of foolishness that Commander games are remembered for long after they’re over.  It contains the one card that you must play in every Sultai deck, even if you don’t build around it:  Villainous Wealth.  I’ll thank you in advance for playing cool cards.

Angry, Angry Dinos

I’ll need one deck that’s fun but doesn’t require all that much thinking to play.  It was either this one or Kar, and the one which has gotten the fewest plays in its lifetime wins out.  It’s the kind of deck I’ll play for the last game of the day, when my mind is a little fried and I’m slightly tired from all the energy we’ve expended over the course of the day.  Also, it’s not the kind of deck that is going let a game run on too long.  Nothing’s worse than the last game of the day going on and on and on.  Let’s have a fun resolution and then get some dinner!

Animar’s Swarm

Another favorite deck that simply hasn’t gotten enough reps lately, this one will be for when I’m ready to really get creatures into battle.  I know it’s a little bit of a simplistic statement, but I really love creatures in Magic.  Some folks love spells, but I like the bodies.  They often do more than one thing.  They’ll have an enters-the-battlefield trigger or a continuous effect and then there’s the obvious getting in damage.  They seem so permanent, so enduring, compared to spells.  Maybe it’s just me. 

Because I haven’t played the deck in quite some time, there are a few newer cards which I haven’t yet seen on a battlefield.  The top two are Faerie Formation and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor.  The first is just value in a mana sink; the token is nice, but the card is everything.  For the second, I should probably also dig a Varchild’s War-Riders out of the collection and put it into the deck.  Hopefully I’ll run into lots of folks playing Shapeshifters so I can gain control of them, too. 

Rakdos Reimagined

Slot number eight is for a deck that doesn’t get that much love.  In this case, it’s Rakdos.  It’s my version of Vampire tribal, and I simply don’t play it enough.  It’s another deck that’s not going to get mired down in a game all that often.  It’ll either be a mid-turn factor, or it will roll over to much stronger decks.  It’s also my choice for the lower-powered games.  It just does its thing without doing it too fast or running too many answers to the things that other players do.  While that might not be the most efficient way to win games of Commander, there’s a niche for this lower-power style of deck, and I want to have it available in case I sit down with players that also have some relatively low-power decks.

Wrap-Up

In additional to playing my own decks, I’m also going to take a page out of Gavin Verhey‘s book and occasionally borrow decks from the folks I sit down with, if they’re willing. Talking about the format is one good way of getting players’ opinions.  Putting yourself into their shoes is another.  I worry that sometimes I get into a narrow tunnel when I’m thinking about decks, since I have pet cards and pet strategies.  Seeing how other folks attack the format can help me break out of that habit.

I suspect that DC in December will be a little chilly.  What better time, then, to spend it indoors with a bunch of friends, some you haven’t met yet, and play endless hours of Magic’s best format with its best fans?  CommandFest DC will be an exclamation point on an extremely good year of Commander and the leaping-off point to 2020, which promises to be the format’s best ever.