Entry 3: First Impressions ~ When wielded by a true believer, it matters little whether the sword is a relic or a replica ~ There aren't many moments in magic that compare with the pure excitement the first game with your new commander deck. Finally sleeving up your cards. Shuffling the deck for the first time. Drawing the initial opening hand. Mulliganing that opening hand because you didn't draw any lands and holding up the game for 20 minutes so you can get that really good shuffle. Nothing compares. There's also an inherent tension for that first game. Building a commander deck is an investment. We invest our time, and our money, into these decks, and you certainly hope that they will work. The tension was a bit different for my first game with this Taranika deck. In my second entry, I discussed my intention to strike a balance between function and limitation. If the deck didn't function perfectly, that was more than fine. The goal, after all, was to upgrade and tune this deck throughout the year, but what if the deck just wasn't fun? What if I had curbed the power too much? My plan is to play this deck with frequency over the course of this year. If the deck wasn't fun to play with or play against, the first few months of this project might turn out to be miserable. THE GAMES My concerns for any potential failings at the outset of this project were soon put to bed. My first game, and every game there-after, has been a blast. The deck has completely over-performed. Currently, the decks overall record stands at 2-3 (40% win rate) with the two wins coming in the first two games I played. More important than winning though, the deck is just plain fun to play.
While Taranika could aggressively attack my opponents life totals, the deck was also great at protecting my own. In part, this is because of the vigilance and vigilance-like abilities described above, but I also found that the answers I had were completely serviceable. This deck does not feature any fast mana so making sure the game lasts long enough for me to win via combat damage is a must. I've been able to cast a wide variety of the removal in the deck and I've been impressed by both the spot removal and board wipes. Neither Slash the Ranks nor Nevinyrral's Disk are the best at what they do, but they've been extremely serviceable. Slash the Ranks feels especially good after a Taranika attack, and the spot removal offers enough versatility to to deal with most permanents.
CONCLUSIONS AND CHANGES I've been impressed with how this deck has performed so far. It has exceeded my initial expectations, and I'm happy with my ability to get the most out of my card choices while playing. That isn't to say that there aren't weaknesses. The deck unsurprisingly has some issues with consistency and everything I do is fairly telegraphed. Playing Etched Oracle for card draw hasn't been ideal either. I can meet the conditions to activate it, but that doesn't mean I ever will. For now, I'm uncertain of the changes I want to make. On one hand, I have the opportunity to address some initial functionality issues. On the other hand, there are tons of cards that didn't make it into the initial build that I'm curious to play with. My plan right now is to address potential changes and make my first edit later this week so be on the lookout for that post. Till then, I'm sure I'll be jamming games still because right now, I'm a big believer in this deck — even if it's only a shell of what it might grow to be.
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Entry 2: The Build ~ "I don't know where my destiny lies, but I know it isn't here" ~ The construction of this deck was a balancing act. I had two opposing forces: the goal of making an effective budget list and the desire to avoid a non-linear gameplan. A linear gameplan can be a huge boon for budget decks allowing the builder to extract the most power out of otherwise inexpensive and innocuous cards, but that's not the goal of this project. I'm not looking to create a finished product right away nor am I looking for a deck with a clear, or straightforward, path to improvement. The deck I want is one that can evolve and adjust as I try new cards from both the past year and moving forward. My strategy for creating a deck that fit this goal began with a choice in commander — Taranika, Akroan Veteran.
THE COMMANDER Taranika serves three main functions that assist my goals for this deck: she's budget friendly, she's strategically flexible, and she's far from the best option. Being kind to the wallet was an obvious requirement for the commander. As outlined in my introductory post, no card in the starting deck is worth more than one dollar including the commander. Better mono white commanders exist for less than one dollar, but Taranika has two additional benefits. Her ability is an interesting build around, but not necessarily a powerful one. This deck features a focus on counters and double strikers to help take advantage of Taranika's ability. However, I'm not completely attached to Taranika as the deck moves forward. As the year continues, a new commander may come out that I want to test or I may want to completely evolve the gameplan of the deck. Striking the balance between commitment and flexibility is exactly what I was looking for in a commander at the outset of this project. THE REST As for the 99, the same tenets applied. The deck is constructed to balance between flexible and linear which is normally the opposite of where you want to be for optimization purposes. The deck's primary strategy is winning via the combat step. To do so, I added variety of creatures with abilities that work well with Taranika. In this deck, Taranika's ability is primarily used as a "pump effect". To accentuate this ability, I added creatures with double strike, lifelink, or who enter the battlefield with counters. This means Taranika can turn a creature like Fencing Ace into an intimidating early threat. The deck also features a variety of plus one counter enablers and synergies which fit well into a combat deck but don't lock me into a specific direction. Part of avoiding a linear plan was avoiding ramp and other fast mana. Without ramp, you have to rely on answers to slow down your opponents. A deck then naturally evolves into a more midrange style. So as for staying alive, 2020 had a wealth of budget board wipes and spot removal to help me out. While weaker than the removal white is known for, cards like Humble, Sheer Drop, or Slash the Ranks are still completely serviceable if not ideal. The hope is to put together enough of a speed bump to slow my opponents down and keep myself in the game. THE WRAP-UP I think I accomplished precisely what I set out to do when I started this project which is simply — I don't know where this deck will end up. Especially in the early going, I expect the adjustments to this list will be haphazard and unspecific. There's a handful of cards from 2020 I want to try, as well as, new cards being released in Kaldheim. Perhaps as the year progresses I'll have a clear plan for this deck, but for now I don't know where it's headed, but "I know it isn't here." 2020 was – a year. I want to avoid a prolonged reflection of it, but for me it brought some notable positives. First, I started this blog. It has served as a great outlet for creativity, experimentation, and has been something productive to do throughout quarantine. Secondly, it saw me connect more with the commander community. As an extrovert in 2020, it’s been great to be able to socialize with other people who love magic in a year when it would have been otherwise impossible. However, despite the amount of time I spent thinking and interacting with magic in 2020, it didn’t feature a whole lot of new decks for me. Now I don't want to be misunderstand; I did brew. I brewed a lot, but these were just that – brews. Whether it was for my 31 decks in Moxtober, a post to this blog, or just general brainstorming, I spent a lot of time theory crafting. Those ideas, lists, or posts I crafted, never became paper decks. One of my goals for this year is to spend more time building — and tuning — new EDH decks. As I’ve become a more “entrenched” magic player, more and more of the building process has been front-loaded. Rather than building a deck and improving it over time, most of my deck building decisions are made before I play a single game. This is in stark contrast to when I first started playing commander and decks were more just an amalgamation of cards before being tuned over the course of months or years. I don’t believe the experience I described above is especially unique. The EDH Boxing League is one commonly used solution; however, the cost of this sub-format is outside my comfort zone. To recreate the feeling of the boxing league, I’ve created the following restrictions for myself. 1. Start with a deck made only of cards worth less than $1. The goal of this project is to create an initial deck that will be affordable, functional, and full of potential. Designing on a budget is a great way to not only save money, but acts as a natural power cap. 2. Start with a deck made of only cards printed in 2020. There are a variety of creators who build powerful decks on a budget. In order to further limit the initial potential of this build, I’m restricting the cards to which I have access. 2020 is a great year to do this because of the Mystery Booster Product which not only cut the cost on many cards but gives me access to a variety of reprints. This project gives me a chance to not only symbolically improve on the year 2020 itself, but also try out many of the new cards I otherwise haven’t had the chance to play. 3. After every 3 games upgrade that deck using only cards printed in 2020 or after. I want to make sure that this deck doesn’t have a linear path for improvement. By limiting the sets from which I can upgrade the deck, it forces me to improve and grow with new printings rather than reaching into the past for known strategies and powerful cards. The requirement of 3 games gives me plenty of games to explore each iteration of the deck. 4. Upgrades can be in the form of 3 cards, each with a value of less than $1 or a single card with value greater than $1. If I’m going to do this over a year, I need the deck to experience a controlled growth, but also has the flexibility to reach for a variety of cards. This price limit gives me a decision. I can either grab multiple cards to mold the deck more noticeably or grab a single card to possibly solidify a strategy or introduce a new one. I should have the initial deck built in paper shortly, and if you want to see the deck list you can find it here. As for the upgrading/tuning restrictions I have in place, those are currently still in flux. I’m not sure if I’ll need to extend the amount of time between each upgrade, change prices, or add a new restriction. That said, I do think that these base rules are a good starting point from which to begin this experiment.
My blog will also shift focus to accommodate this new experiment. As I play and tune my deck, I’ll continue to update my blog with my experience and the evolving decklist. Once the deck is assembled, I look forward to getting to jam some games with it soon. This is the second part of a series on the worst cards in each of my decks. If you’re interested in reading Part 1, you can find that here. To recap, this series looks at an individual card in each of my commander decks and asks two questions: Why is it in the Deck? Why is it the Worst Card? Part 2 has a lot more decks that are built from a mechanical rather than a flavorful perspective. That means many of the cards in this list will be analyzed not from what they flavorfully add, but what they mechanically lack. Similarly to the original post, I won’t go into great detail on the decklists, so let your mind wander on what else could possibly exist in these lists. Sai, Master Thopterist Why is it in the Deck? My Sai deck underwent a facelift not long ago. When Sai was first spoiled, I absolutely loved the Adam Paquette art. It captured my imagination and made me want to build a deck with only cards from the plane of Kaladesh. When I started playing the deck further, I discovered I don’t just love the art of Sai, but I love the abilities as well. From that realization, the deck evolved by adding various artifacts from outside the restriction to which I had access. Why is it the Worst Card? There’s nothing exceedingly wrong with Darksteel Ingot. Compared to other cards from my previous list and this one, it’s completely playable. Essentially it comes down to the fact that Darksteel Ingot feels like filler in this deck. It’s completely replaceable and uninspired. In a deck unrestricted by theme, it would be the first cut and that makes it the worst card. Grenzo, Dungeon WardenWhy is it in the Deck? There aren’t many cards in magic that actually care about the bottom card of your library. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Cellar Door are two exceptions. While most commonly, my decks lean toward the Vorthos aspect of deck building, the focus being on flavor, this harkens to my Mel side. There aren’t many decks where Cellar Door would feel at home and this is the only one I own. Why is it the Worst Card? This deck is a combo deck, and as such the effect from Cellar Door, though easy to trigger, is somewhat irrelevant. While I can take advantage of the 2/2 zombies, the deck is not built around exploiting the tokens. Further, removing a card from the bottom of your library before activating Grenzo doesn’t come up that often since the only time you know the bottom card is when you put it there for Grenzo. So while the effect is fun, it’s still probably unnecessary if I were trying to optimize the list. Radiant Archangel Why is it in the Deck? Pilgrim’s Eye does a lot of things well for this build of Radiant. First, it’s a flyer which Radiant obviously wants. Two, it search for a land and there are a surprising number of flyers in this deck that care about landfall. In that same vein, an early creature that can ensure a land drop is always nice to help ensure a smooth start. Why is it the Worst Card? While a nice roleplayer that can definitely be justified, it’s also not anything special. In a deck that isn’t making room for flavor accommodations, that means that Pilgrim’s Eye finds itself at the bottom of the pecking order. Add to the equation that this list features hatebears like Hushbringer, Hushwing Gryff, and Tocatli Honor Guard and that means sometimes it’s a dead card. Daxos, Blessed by the SunWhy is it in the Deck? This was an experimental addition. Isolated Watchtower looks kind of interesting on paper. It only takes up a land slot so the opportunity cost appears to be relatively low. The upside is that should you fall behind this card can do some filtering and possibly ramp you. Why is it the Worst Card? I said I included this card because the opportunity cost “appeared” low. In practice, I’ve found the cost of playing this card over a basic plains has been high. I’ve actually not been behind enough to activate the card with any frequency. When I have been behind, it rarely does enough to catch me backup to my opponents. The clunkiness of this card earns it the dubious distinction of being the only land in this list. Dakkon BlackbladeWhy is it in the Deck? Dakkon Blackblade was the first deck I built and as such has undergone many iterations. My current list is primarily made without flavor in mind, but I couldn’t help but include some flavorful pieces for one of my favorite magic characters. In his story, Dakkon is a blacksmith so it only makes sense that I include an anvil in his deck. Why is it the Worst Card? Anvil of Bogardan is the most expensive card on this list. It’s also arguably the best card on this list. However, just because a card is good doesn’t mean it’s universally good in every deck. In this deck, Anvil is definitely a strong card, but it definitely enables my opponents more than it does me. This list is a traditional control list that wins using commander damage. As such, I don’t take advantage of the loot ability as much as some of my opponents and the symmetrical draw can help keep opponents in the game. Nonetheless, I don’t plan on cutting this card soon. NebuchadnezzarWhy is it in the Deck? I’m not a huge fan of foils, but occasionally I find a fantastic one. Psychotic Episode has an amazing foil treatment. The ability itself is also fairly unique. It has madness, which this deck cares about, and can not only take a card from your opponent’s hand, but you also get to check the top of their library too. Why is it the Worst Card? This deck was designed to be a discard deck in a format that normally doesn’t care about discard. There aren’t many targeted discard spells in the deck, but this is one survived because of its art. Targeted discard is obviously weaker in commander because you have more opponents, but Psychotic Episode gets special consideration. Atris, Oracle of Half-TruthsWhy is it in the Deck? Dralnu Lich Lord is a sweet Dimir card and having ways to take advantage of the graveyard is definitely something that Atris wanted. Similar to my Alela deck from part 1, this list was made of cards I had. I’ve had Dralnu for awhile but never found a good deck for it to go into. Being that Atris can at least take some advantage of the lich, I had to include it. Why is it the Worst Card? For Dralnu to be fun you kind of have to like high risk cards, and I do. That said, this is certainly not an optimal list for Dralnu and chances are that you’re going to be sacrificing some permanents to the Lich Lord. Luckily he can sacrifice himself as well to ensure that feel bads aren’t too severe. ConclusionIf you have a lot of commander decks, I highly recommend you try this exercise. Not only was it rewarding to reflect on some of my pet cards and pet decks, but it’s also a helpful exercise to understand the weak points in your decks. Perhaps after this exercise, making that next cut won’t quite be as difficult, but I doubt it.
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AuthorMonoWhiteBorder -- A man who loves MtG and his small dog. Archives
June 2021
Categories"MonoWhiteBorder" and corresponding content is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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