More limited EDH, of course!

Got together with the boys last Saturday to do some Magic - ended up being a very long five player game with two Limited EDH virgins! Mark and Paddy stopped by to sling some cards with old school Limited EDH homeys Neal and Joel. Neal reworked his Bryon Stoutarm deck using Scion of the Ur-Dragon as his new general. Joel and I had done a little M10 and Zen updating of our Sliver Overlord and Vorosh general decks, respectively. Mark and Paddy made their decks in record time! The collection now includes all expert level expansions (three boosters) from Onslaught forward plus M10 and Chinese-language Odyssey and Torment, and one booster of Unhinged. That's 70 boosters of magic cards to slog through and they did it in just about an hour. Sure, their decks weren't as tuned as they'd like, but they did an awesome job getting the job done so we could play.

Need More Time

To play Magic is like William Shatner talking about climbing a mountain. No, I don't know why.

I am doing another blog, one I was already contemplating before starting Gemstones Mine and one that Gemstones Mine was possibly going to be - a single card a week love-fest. That single-card love-fest is now called The Weekly Fondle. Check it out!

Limited EDH, Take Two!

The other night we experienced part 2 of the Limited EDH experiment. Joel, Tom and I sat down to sling some "dragons" in my basement. Tom was held up at clinic by some ugliness with a patient which gave Joel and I some time to work on his deck. Joel was wondering if he had any good generals. I looked. He had a slew of mono-colored generals and one glaring five-color general - Sliver Legion.

Time for fill in the blank: The first thing we did was check to see how many _______ he had.

Did you say slivers? BZZZZZZZ. Wrong, sliver boy!. This is limited and you're thinking five colors. The correct answer is multiple-color producing lands, land fetch, and color-filtering. So how much did he have? Plenty. An embarrassment, if you will. As in 14-15 lands that could do double duty or more. If I recall correctly, there were three panoramas, two of the Alara shard lands, four or five of the Ravnica common two-fers, an Exotic Orchard, Tendo Ice Bridge, and Murmuring Bosk. He had three snow lands (Mountain, Plains and the dually Tresserhorn Sinks) and an into the north. Kodama's Reach, the Alara enchantment that makes a land a Forest, Plains, and Mountain. There were Three Obelisks, a Darksteel Ingot and five or six Signets.

Then we looked at Slivers. 14 or 15. Not bad. Four changelings and a Mistform critter later and we were above twenty.

When this deck rocked out, it was Impressive. In only two practice games I was once on the wrong end of him casting his general on turn 4! With the mana fixing and acceleration in the deck, I'm guessing that he will be able to do this at least once every four games or so. It's possible that he is too heavy on the artifact mana producers, as he seemed to glut on it in the game we played.

Speaking of the game, here's what I remember. Tom was using a deck that I built from another ULC for my wife, should I get her to be interested (and yeah, I just wanted another excuse to fiddle with my teeny cardboard friends). It uses Momir Vig and Kiyomaro as Joint Chiefs. When I sat down the night before to run Shari through it, she walloped me good and sound. I got off to a faster opening and beat her down to just below twenty life and then she locked me up on the back of Blazing Archon protected by Aerie Mystics with Covert Operative to do the dirty work. I could not draw the kind of removal I needed for such a scenario. Tom started piloting it and then did something I wasn't expecting - he cast Kiyomaro instead of Momir Vig as his primary General. But, really, that wasn't too bad. Slow starts on my part and Joel's meant that a vigilant 7/7 or 8/8 that pumped Tom's life up ten points per shot wasn't too bad. This would later come back to haunt Tom. Cue foreshadowing....

Kiyomaro and a few helpers got us to a life scenario of Tom at 51 and Joel and I at 20 and 24, respectively. Kiyomaro was dealt with and I got a board together that included a Forgotten Ancient carrying a Diviner's Wand, who was also pumped up and faux-vigilanced by a Murkfiend Liege, plus some other random dude and the permanent that was scaring more people than it should have - an Isochron Scepter with a Turn To Mist imprinted on it. Tom then played the spell he said he hadn't seen before - Hallowed Burial. Board was reset. A few creatures hit the board and I finally got a second green to safely cast Mire Boa and have it carry a Wand of Card Drawing Goodness. I also got out a Yavimaya Dryad that helped me get a leg up on Joel and Tom's land count. At least until Tom offed the Dryad, unable to get the main culprit - the Scepter. Tom had a few utility creatures come into play and Joel had a changeling and a Deadshot Minotaur that started wielding a Heartseeker. Tom had raised Joel's ire more, so Joel went after Tom's non-regenerating critters. After he offed several and I wanted to make a move, I Creeped his equipment. Many turns went by as Joel got out Slivers, including his gerneral, while Tom and I sat behind regenerators equipped with Wands, drawing cards and confounding Joel's small, non-evasive Sliver fleet. Witness on Tom's part helped Hallowed Burial hit again and it nailed Joel's general, the Sliver Legion. Ouch.

On the rebound from this reset was when things could have gone either way. Tom and I had dueling Wand-wielders. Joel was getting left in the dust as Tom and I each started drawing two to five cards per turn. Tom seemed to be getting slightly better draws with his, as he got down the Archon, a Cytospawn Shambler and a Wall of Reverence. His life kept climbing and I was desperately trying to fend off his Covert Operative carrying some Opaline Bracers (for three). Joel decided the worst artifact on the table was the bracers, as they would hasten our demise (Joel and I were in the 12 to 14 life range). Tom didn't slow down too much, but started playing out his hand. He then chuckled as he complimented the deck design choice of a card from unhinged: Granny's Payback. Turns out Tom is30 years old. which meant that he went to 89 life. Joel then found a second artifact kill and went after Tom's Wand. Why? Because Tom's life total was huhge andhe had a scarier board presence. Two turns later I finally leveraged all my mana and drew five cards. The next, pretty much deciding turn, went like this: Eyeblight's Ending the Archon, Witness the Ending, End the Wall of Reverence, cast Nulltread Gargantuan to put Witness on top of library, use wand to draw Witness, Witness the End, and End the Shambler. Tom knew it was the end, thenks to the Eternal End engine (E cubed FTW!) I swung with my previously cast and Murkfiend Liege-pumped general. Tom took 8 and Vorosh became a 14/14. Next turn Tom was dead, but spite neck-snapped Vorosh (He had to get going, and it was inevitable at that point). Joel pretty much conceded one turn later, after I drew another four cards with the wand and he had no flying defenses to speak of for when Vorosh came back.

Here's a DUH statement: Card drawing in limited games is good. Tom even suggested banning the Wand because of it's brokenness. However, there were four artifact kill spells cast that game and only one was aimed at a Wand. Granted, Tom was going to aim one at my Scepter (still not my Wand), but I cast a Riptide Replicator for 8 so he dealt with that instead. But he might be right. Because of the Wand, I never made any Factory tokens off Urza's Factory and made very few Pests from the Nuisance Engine. I always filtered extra mana into the Wand for more cards. Good times, man, good times.

The game went rather long, perhaps a shade too long, but I blame Tom and his bottom of the library reset shenanigans. I actually had a Stir the Grave in my opening hand and kept it the entire game because almost all the stuff I lost went to the bottom of the library instead of my graveyard. That and I usually saved my mana for Wand activations. Maybe Tom was right about banning the wand.....

Time to fly,
Rodolfo

"What's the difference between EDH and Vintage?"

"40 cards."

That was in the signature on a post over at MTGSalvation that I recently saw. Kinda funny and kinda sad, really. EDH is going through some growth pains right now. It's risen in popularity over the past few years. Like any alternate format I've seen, it's now undergoing it's transition to a "competitive" format. That's a loaded statement, of course. What do I mean by "competitive?" Simply this: When enough people who care STRICTLY about winning get involved in a format, it gravitates towards a state where it becomes dominated by a handful of viable archetypes comprised of a set of cards that are considered the best available. This is just about the definition of vintage, and it flies in the face of the original intent of those players who developed EDH.

So what? Why does this matter? It really shouldn't I've heard tell that Wizards may be considering using EDH as a sanctioned format and along with that an uproar from the EDH community that doing so would ruin EDH. Huh? How? I know there exist some really brutal EDH decks out there. Some that can lock out opponents within the first few turns. Possibly even the first. Great. But you know what? Those folks are NOT going to be playing with my group, and anyone who tries bringing a deck like that to my kitchen table is going to receive some serious peer pressure to get some personality.

EDH was designed to be fun, yes, but how so? The rules were meant to support the play of big spells, starting with, obviously, the generals. It was also designed with the thought of group play in mind. There is, nor will there ever likely be, a sanctioned format for group play (Two-Headed Giant doesn't count as it's a team format, which I consider different than a group format.) So don't worry about EDH. If Wizards sanctions it, it will be a stripped down version for duels. If they do that, then it really won't be EDH any longer.

One last thing. If you really want to experience EDH in a fun way - try limited EDH. Just read up on the rest of this blog to find out how we've been doing. So far, it's been really fun.

What's the difference between vintage and limited EDH?

Everything.
Rodolfo

From The Mouths Of Babes

I was playing some Magic with a couple of the boys here at school. When boy one was whinging a little about boy two attacking him all the time because of my superior defenses, boy two said "First I'm gonna get out the pancake, then I'll go after the butter." Coolest game slang I have heard in years! Later in the game, as I took out boy number one, I told boy number two that he was now "butter boy." Ah, good times. Leads me to wonder how many spin off expressions there will be:

Who's the butter?
What's your flap, Jack?
It's slathering time!!!!!!!

I could go on, but maybe I'd better not, it could get ugly.

Lates!
Rodolfo

The Afterglow

It has happened. Limited EDH became a reality over the past weekend. Ah, how satisfying. For me, at least. I think Tom and Neal (no Joel) enjoyed themselves as well. I get the feeling, however, that both Tom and Neal have enough other Magic happening on a regular basis to have caused them to not concentrate entirely on the challenge before them. I have nothing else going on - Magic-wise - so I really spent some time, and lots of play testing (goldfishing) my deck, so I learned about it, made a few tweaks, and I think it showed.

The decks were as follows - Tom had a GWB Teneb deck, I had GUB Vorosh, and Neal had RW Brion Stoutarm. Tom rocked us hard at first with a big combo - Panoptic Mirror imprinted with Harmonize. He got one use off thanks to a misplay on my part. Thinking he wouldn't get much use out of the Mirror for a turn, I recklessly played my General with a Putrefy in hand. Instead of two-for-oneing him, he one-for-oned me and one-for-nothinged Neal. Then, my general was dealt with quickly. But, I was drawing mad mana and all star Citanuil Woodreaders for some good card-advantage and another appearance by General Vorosh. Tom soon fell to a big Vorosh and Neal, who was quite mana-hosed, fell soon thereafter.

Game two was much longer. Here's what I remember:

My opening hand was slower, with just one mana accelerant (like that's poor, considering there are four in the deck, total - two signets, coldsteel Heart, and Darksteel Ingot) and a few unspectacular playables. But the first few draws saw an Assault Zeppelid and his best buddy - a Murkfiend Liege. Now my 5/5 trampling, flying, pseudo-vigilant dude terrorized the board for a turn. Then the removal flew. Then Teneb flew, and that was bad. Tom had managed to get a Juniper Order Ranger online and Teneb hit me for 7 and a Murkfiend Liege. Ouch. Thank goodness for Citanuil Woodreaders (all-stars, did I mention???) digging me into a Damnation.

With the board reset we started building again, and I went for my general. Tom saw my general, and raised me with a +1/+1 counter on it, having recurred his Juniper Order Rangers. No sweat. I used Slave of Bolas to swing two generals at Tom and Neal Condemned my general. Ouch. But I had a plan - I Perplexed Neal's Condemn. He had a grip of 5 or 6, so surely he would let it counter. No, he didn't. He traded his hand for the ability to seriously hose my general. Double-ouch, then. I still had a few decent cards out, but I was down to less than twenty life and 7 points away from Teneb harvesting me. Neal had not done a ton, but threatened quite a bit with Brion, Scythe of the Wretched, and any random dude he could swing and fling with. Then he whipped out Martial Coup for 6! Luckily, I had been holding back a little, and had drawn some of my recursion cards (go, Go , GO to the just-as-anticipatedly awesome Soul Manipulation).

Several turns later, a Molder dealt with the scary Scythe and gained me a few life-point cushions. Those cushions disappeared fast and I was at 4 when I finally found the pieces to make my deck hum. These included Golgari Thug, Big Game Hunter, Nantuko Husk, Diviner's Wand, and a suspended Aeon Chronicler (drawing an extra card for less than 4 mana for the next 6 turns). Unfortunately, the deck doesn't hum so great when some legendary giant flings a four power creature at you. Faced with my expanding board, copious mana, and ability to draw 4-5 cards per turn, Neal thought it was time to act. Darn him and his uncanny logic! Soon after, Tom hit him with a Curse of the Cabal, and I, of course, taunted Neal that there would have been a different target if I had still been in the game. Of course, at that point, I think I could have easily survived it. Neal limped along a few turns before getting smashed by Teneb and a few of his own creatures.

I am looking forward to next time, when Neal will use his Scion of the Elder Dragon to bust all his good cards. Neal felt his collection had good cards, but lacked depth. He was also short on generals other than the Scion, and felt Brion was solid. I don't recall what Tom said about his deck, other than wondering if he was mana-heavy. Maybe he will make up his mind after paying 16 mana for his finally triumphant Teneb in game 2.

My deck list, for those interested:
Vorosh the Hunter - General
Eterenal Witness
Nantuko Husk
Dream Stalker (good to re-use CIPs, reset artifacts with choices, and re-suspend Aeon Chroniclers)
Forgotten Ancient
Mirri, the Cursed
Trygon Predator
Simic Signet
Shoreline Ranger
Riptide Replicator
Lorescale Coatl
Twisted Abomination
Creakwood Ghoul
Dread
Favor of the Overbeing
Damnation
Golgari Signet
Krosan Tusker
Enslave
Slave of Bolas
Reshape
Tolarian Sentinel
Diviner's Wand (STRONG)
Eyeblight's Ending (and Teneb was sure an eyeblight in one game!)
Sould Manipulation (need I say it?)
Cyclical Evolution (annoying to foes at times, useless to me at others)
Creeping Mold
Echoing Courage
Viridescent Wisps
Golgari Thug
Nuisance Engine
Big Game Hunter (Nice general assassin)
Double Header (from Unhinged, returns a two-worded permanent to owners hand. Stellar for most of the reasons listed above on Dream Stalker. almost all the best targets have two-word names)
Yavimaya Dryad
Citanuil Woodreaders (drew me 6 cards in one game!)
Dimir House Guard
Murkfiend Liege
Bonesplitter
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Dimir Infiltrator (transmutes if I don't get the Bonesplitter for him to carry)
Assault Zeppelid
Snakeform
Whispersilk Cloak
Stir the Grave
Molder
Turn to Mist
Grave-Shell Scarab
Agony Warp
Skinthinner
Darksteel Ingot
Drelnoch
Isochron Scepter
Nulltread Gargantuan (beastly big and helps reuse like others mentioned)
Quiet Disrepair (if only I had drawn it that last game...)
Keening Banshee
Countersquall
Coldsteel Heart
Putrefy
Simic Guildmage
Mire Boa
Perplex
Unmake
Aeon Chronicler
Jund Panorama
Bant Panorama
Dreadship Reef
Rupture Spire
Simic Growth Chamber
Urza's Factory
12 Swamp
10 Island
9 Forest

Notable cards not played (otherwise known as tough choices or mistakes):
Pit Keeper - Pauper All-Star and should be in
Shred Memory/Muddle the Mixture - both transmute for two, so are strong candidates if I tighten the focus and two drops figure heavily
Death Denied - most likely should be in for it's ability to get multiple cards
Putrid Leech - seems too aggressive as the deck is marginally controlling, but I might be wrong
Echo Tracer - I feel I have enough bouncers, but like the transmuters, it goes in if I tighten the focus
Various fliers, land walkers and fear creatures - I had a lot and they stand ready if I go more aggro, the best being Spiketail Hatchling, Patron of the Moon, Fender Clique, and Street Wraith.

I am really looking forward to more fun with the ULCs and EDH, regular EDH, and constructed 60-card decks with the ULCs.

Until later, may you be able to cast a 16-mana general for the win!
Rodolfo

Getting Closer... Plus A Limited EDH Rules Update

Things are looking up. This Saturday is the first try for Limited EDH. I have made a few last minute addendums to the rules set.

First, in case I haven't mentioned it, THERE IS NO BANNED LIST.

Second, OFF COLOR HYBRIDS ARE LEGAL (with the caveat that any other mana symbol on the card is legal as well. So, gosh, no off-color Guildmages from Ravnica. Shoot, I think I had a Selesnya, too!).

Third, generals are handled by what I call "Joint Chiefs" style - essentially you can use multiple generals to support up to, but not over, three colors. Meaning, you can't combine generals to get four colors or five colors. You could still play five color, but you'd have to be lucky enough to get a 5-color general AND have the mana base to support it. I think this is enough of a drawback. You pay +2 for your primary general and +3 for non-primary generals each additional time you cast them in a game, facilitating the need for a +2 counter and +3 counter for tracking purposes. The primary general will be the first one you cast during the game. You may only play one general at a time. You may play a general from outside the game only if ALL generals on your joint chiefs are removed from the game. The joint chiefs count as one card when putting the deck together. So 99 non-general cards plus your general or joint chiefs.

I put my deck together and we'll see how it goes. My general is Vorosh, the Hunter (GUB), and I was close to going with Zombies, but instead approached the build similarly to the build I did for the 5-Color tournament I won (see report on StarCityGames.Com). I concentrated on maximizing utility, card advantage, and a few other synergies. So far test draws seem to be alright. But the real test will be this Saturday when it faces off against the other decks.

Can't wait, so don't be late!
Rodolfo