Trading for the Long Term

Trading for cards in a commander deck puts you in a very advantageous trading position.  As a noncompetitive format, it lets you trade without needing any one card.  In addition, with little to no events that require you to have a streamlined deck, you are also in no hurry to pick up the cards you want.  Cards that are popular in Commander are going up consistently over time. 

Trade grinders look at most Commander players as easy pickings.  Most casual players do not keep up to date with current price changes.  Trade grinders grab cards from the Commander players and trade them to competitive players.  The tactic here is to exploit the casual players during the time it takes for them to realize the price of a card has changed.  Using this tactic requires a vast amount of time researching card prices and keeping up to date on the competitive trends.  Trade grinders are like day traders.  It is nearly a full time job to keep up with and predict market movements.  You usually only make a small amount on each trade.  Each trade is a risk.  Trading with other grinders is a competitive activity. 

As a Commander player, you can trade like a long term investor.  The idea isn’t to make value at the time of the trade.  The idea is to gain valuable assets for the long term.  If the cards you get in a trade are effective commander cards, you will use them for a long time and they will go up in value over time.  For example, a year ago, a Solemn Simulacrum was worth $1.50.  Today that same card is worth about $4.00.  This card is used almost exclusively in Commander.  The only cards that are commonly used in Commander that have gone down or just maintained value are cards that were reprinted in Planechase or any of the Dual decks.

Once you realize that a card is exceptional in your deck, you can confidently trade for the card at its current value.  Even if you lose a slight bit of value on your first trade, the long term gains will cover your losses.  This goes double for foils.  If you find a foil that is good in Commander that you can pick it up for 2x the non-foil cost, do it.  Commander centered foils can reach over 10x the regular card cost. 

For long term investments, I would suggest picking up the following cards;

Scarecrone (Foil)

Current Price: 3.99 (Sold Out)

This card doesn’t need to go into a Scarecrow deck to be good.  It consistently reanimates artifact creature, without any other card engine required.  It has a draw mechanic.  It is cheap to cast.  Most artifact decks could benefit from playing this card.  The non-foil used to sell for .25.  Its current value is only $1.50.  The fact that the foil is already selling for 3x or more the non-foil should show that this card has started to get attention.

Thornbite Staff (Foil)

Current Price: .99 (Sold out)

The biggest combo that goes with this deck it Kikki-Jikki.  But, it has proven to be more and more powerful as its usage has increased.  The untap ability lets a general like Arcum combo off in a single turn, rather than multiple turns.  When you combine this with a mana producing myr and the Thopter Foundry/Swords combo, you get infinite life and infinite creatures.  The way this staff can be abused just goes on and on.

Burgeoning

Current Price: 5.99

People have finally started catching on to this tech.  A year ago, this was a dollar rare.  As turn one mana accelerants go, this is one of the best.  In decks that play it, they want to see it more than Sol Ring.  As Commander gets more popular, expect this to rise.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this break $10 by the end of the year.

Hallowed Burial

Current Price: 1.99

This is the best wrath in Commander.  The foils are sold out at $7.99.  This is one of the few ways to permanently rid you of a commander.  It takes care of Eldrazi and Blightsteel annoyances.  This hasn’t seen a price bump from the format yet, but don’t expect it to stay this low forever.

Oblation

Current Price: 0.99 (Out of Stock)

Current Foil Price: 4.99 (Out of Stock)

I can’t believe that this card is still considered a dollar rare.  I have seen stores selling this as low as $0.14.  The cheapest mint foils are $2.99.  This card gets rid of anything without shroud.  This card shouldn’t be this cheap for how effective it is.  I don’t see it becoming a $10+ card, but I would expect it to lift itself out of the dollar bin.

Godo, Bandit Warlord

Current Price: 0.49

I thought this price was a joke when I first saw it.  This guy searches equipment, puts it into play, and gives you additional combat phases.  Make sure to read the card, it’s not just him and samurai that get the additional phase.  If you have vigilant creatures, they get to swing again as well.  Just grab Sword of Vengeance , whatever you equip gets 2 swings a turn.

I am positive there are many, many more cards to keep your eye on.  This format has proven that it can drive prices.  Just keep your trades fair, and your decks strong and you will end up gaining value in the end.

On another note, this blog will be tapering off for awhile.  A twitter friend of mine is starting a website, and I have volunteered to write for the site.  My articles will be about Commander tactics. More of my energy will be going into that site; this site will be used primarily to track projects I am working on.  Follow me on twitter @swordstoplow or friend me on Facebook to get the link to the new site, as soon as it is fully up.

Thanks for reading!

Hated Out

Recently on twitter, I voiced my opinion about authors who complain about certain Commander strategies.  My biggest complaint was that they were discouraging people from playing these strategies rather than offering up solutions to defeat these strategies.  I figured that if I was going to criticize authors about how they write, I should do it in a way that is constructive.  This article will cover some of the most hated strategies in Commander, and ways to deal with them other than just stop playing with the players who use them.

#1 – Arcum Dagsson’s prison lock

This consists of a Darksteel Forge protecting either a Winter Orb/Static Orb + Icy Manipulator or the more common Mycosynth Lattice + Nevinyrral's Disk.

The easiest way to stop these combos is to remove the Forge from the game, so that you can use regular artifact destruction on the other pieces.  As an added bonus, all of these cards are good at destroying any artifacts (Blightsteel Colossus).  So, you don’t have to worry about them being useless when you are not playing against combo.  You can use some of the following spells;

Altar’s Light

Amulet of Unmaking

Dust to Dust

Furnace Dragon

Into the Core

Return to Dust

Revoke Existence

Splinter

#2 Erayo + Arcane Laboratory

This combo creates a lock that counters every spell you cast.  The Erayo based general decks are some of the most unfun decks around.

The best ways to deal with Erayo is to play spells that can’t be countered and cheat your cards into play.  The nice thing about doing this is that cheating big creatures in and using uncounterable spells are never bad strategies.  Here are just a few recommendations;

Aether Vial

Belbe’s Portal

Boseiju, Who Shelters All 

Call of the Wild

Cryptic Gateway

Gaea’s Herald

Leyline of Lifeforce

Root Sliver

Spellbreaker Behemoth

Vexing Shusher

#3 Zur the Enchanter + Necropotence (or some other crazy enchantments) 

On the Commander forums, Zur has been voted the most hated general in Commander.  In a multiplayer setting, everyone turning on the Zur players generally takes him down very easily.  This deck is built around its general so much that any effect that takes control of Zur, throws him on the bottom of a library, destroys all enchantments, or prevents players from searching shut him down completely.  Any of these tactics give you cards that are useful in a number of situations. Here are some of my favorite answers to Zur (there are a ton of answers);

Aven Mindcensor

Bant Charm

Condemn

Hallowed Burial

Hinder

Leonin Arbiter

Mind Control

Mindlock Orb

Proteus Staff

Tranquil Grove

#4 Uril the Mistalker

Uril, like Zur is much more difficult to deal with in 1v1 battles.  In group games, there are enough board wipes to counter his troll shroud.  When I fight against an Uril deck, I find the best course of action is to either counter Uril, and make sure he never touches down, or have enough board control that he isn’t able to swing through.  The cards I have found that deal with Uril better than any other are as follows;

Austere Command

Hallowed Burial

Final Judgement

Aurification

Constant Mists

Blazing Archon

Flooded Woodlands

War Tax

Ensnaring Bridge

Fog Bank

Magus of the Moat

Stormtide Leviathan

These are just a few examples of problems and possible solutions to those problems.  If you don’t particularly like a style of deck, make sure to build your deck in a way that stops players from wanting to play that deck against you.  You will find it is much more fun to consistently crush the players who you believe are playing degenerate decks, than it is to just complain about them.

Feel free to message or email me anytime if you would like advice on dealing with a particular problem.  Thank you for reading!

Draft to Build

One of the best ways for new Magic players to start building a collection is drafting.  They get to learn all the rules of the game, while grabbing new cards.  Eventually, they can get enough cards from drafting and trading the cards they draft to build constructed decks. 

After being out of commission for a week, due to being sick, I was able to play in a draft this last Sunday.  This wasn’t your standard Scars and Besieged Draft. It was an Urza’s block draft.  I started playing Magic at the end of Shadowmoor. Consequently, I had never drafted from Urza’s block and I was unaware of most of the cards I would be drafting. 

In situations where I am drafting a set that I am uninformed about, I go straight to the BREAD method. (Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Aggressive, Dregs).  For my biggest bomb, I ended up getting passed a Shivan Hellkite.  I got it pack 1 pick 5, which is insane.  I would have picked this card over nearly every other card I saw in this format.  It is a bomb that can be used for removal and has evasion in the form of flying.  I ended up playing a primarily blue Grixis deck.  Blue had powerhouse cards like Palinchron, Rewind, Miscalculation, Thornwind Faeries and Thieving Magpie.  Black had some amazing removal. I grabbed multiple Bone Shredders, Befoul and multiple Sick and Tireds.  This draft format was so slow, that I wasn’t hurt by having 3 colors and no mana fixers.

Round 1 – Mono Green Stompy

Game one - He dropped some huge creatures down onto the board.  I ended up casting Bone Shredder three times thanks to bounce spells, and countered some of his bigger threats.  Eventually, I resolved a Palinchron, and that was more than he could handle. 

Game two – He stalled out on land, while I hit 7 land drops in a row with the help of a Thieving Magpie.  Turn seven was huge.  I resolve both Palinchron and Shivan Hellkite on the same turn.  Faced with such a large air assault, he scooped up his land.

1-0

Round 2 – Black/Red Fast

Game one – His deck was based on the idea that he would play a lot of little creatures and burn.  He tried to end the game as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately for him, I drew both of my Sick and Tireds the first game and resolved Thornwind Faeries.  His little creatures couldn’t stand up to that level of removal so the board was clear for my fliers like Palinchron to bash through.

Game two – The second game played out nearly identically to the first game.  Once again, the card advantage created by Thieving Magpie, paired with spells like Snap and Rewind, were too much for a straight aggro deck to handle.  After Shivan Hellkite hit the board, he scooped up his cards.

 2-0

Round 3 – UG Elves and Wizards

In an unusual turn of events, 2 people ended up going to time and tying for a round.  This meant that I was actually paired down for the last round and played someone with one win and one tie.  I had seen this Elf deck playing earlier and I had to give him some credit for trying to get the tribal theme to work.  Ironically, I had drafted Engineered Plague which would keep about half of his deck off the field.

Game 1 – He wins the toss.  I keep a very control heavy hand while he mulligans to five cards.  I play a turn 3 Thornwind Faeries.  This locks down almost every creature in his deck, while allowing me to slowly chip away at his life total.  I find that he is running a lot of library manipulation, such as Frantic Search.  His only big play I see all game is a Whirlwind.  He plays the Whirlwind, but I still have a grip full of creatures.  Shivan Hellkite proves to be too much to handle.  At the end of this game he promises to hold onto the whirlwind next time.

Game 2 – I go on the aggressive with my fliers, while keeping the ground clear with Sick and Tired.  I hold onto the Hellkite until I have 9 lands available.  When I finally play the Hellkite, he has the Whirlwind in hand to kill it.  Fortunately, I was planning for this and a timely Miscalculation keeps the Hellkite alive to win the game.

3-0

You may be wondering why I would write about an obsolete draft format in a Commander themed blog.  At this particular store, we draft the rares after an event is over.  On the day of this draft, only one good rare was opened.  That rare was Time Spiral.  If you look at the list for Karona, Time Spiral is one of the more expensive cards on the list.  By winning the draft, I was able to pick up one of the most expensive cards on the list without trading or buying any singles.

I recommend drafting to everyone who plays magic.  I try and find stores that draft the Rares afterwards.  It gives a little more control to player over which cards they get and gives additional incentives to draft well instead of rare drafting.  It also makes sure that each player leaves with at least 3 rares or foils.  This fosters a steady growth in players trade binders.

I was given a foil proxy Timetwister by a friend recently.  With Timetwister and Time Spiral taken care of, the rest of these cards fell together rapidly.  I have spent 247.94 out of the $309 maximum for the deck, and there are only six cards remaining to get in foil.

• Mana Reflection
• Mirari’s Wake
• Forbidden Orchard
• Grand Coliseum
• Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• Reliquary Tower

The total value of these foils on SCG is aprx 50 dollars.  That would put me just under the maximum spending for the deck.  If anyone has any ideas for new a new collecting challenge, please let me know.  I would be happy to attempt to try something outrageous like “pack to commander” or something along those lines.

Thank you for reading!

Karona, First to Drink

“People will think, ‘Oh yeah your deck is really cool’ when it’s a completely foiled out Arcum Dagsson prison lock, until they actually have to play against it.” – Commander Cast, Episode 71

One of the obstacles with playing Commander is dealing with player expectations.  Every place I play has a different expectation for Commander games.  At the store I play at most often, nearly every deck is running cards like Mana Crypt, Divining Top, and Force of Will.  If I didn’t play a deck that is built to be as good as possible, players wouldn’t even want to play with me.  Alternatively, some of my other friends play at a store where good aggro decks are popular, and combo/control decks are hated.  Going further, there is a comic shop that is about 15 minutes from where I live that has its own, larger, banned list.  In that store, even my Isamaru deck is seen as being broken and degenerate.

This differences in expectations are caused by differences in values between player groups.  Players put different values on either winning or having fun.  The Arcum deck was built to play in a shop where the focus is on winning above all else.  Now that the Arcum deck is basically complete, I am going to build a deck on the exact opposite end of the spectrum.  The opposite of a combo/control deck is a group hug deck. I chose Karona, False God as my new general.  The idea is to accelerate the game to foster epic matches.  I have not chosen which version of the cards I would like, but here is the list I am going to collect;

Commander:
1 Karona, False God

Main Deck:
1 Adamaro, First to Desire
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Jace Beleren
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
1 Kiyomaro, First to Stand
1 Magus of the Jar
1 Masumaro, First to Live
1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Seizan, Perverter of Truth
1 Soramaro, First to Dream
1 Trinket Mage
1 Walking Archive

1 Anvil of Bogardan
1 Archmage Ascension
1 Burgeoning
1 Cultivate
1 Exploration
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Font of Mythos
1 Howling Mine
1 Incendiary Command
1 Insurrection
1 Ivory Tower
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Mana Flare
1 Mana Reflection
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Eye
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Molten Psyche
1 Phyrexian Tyranny
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Rampant Growth
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Shard Convergence
1 Spiteful Visions
1 Sprouting Vines
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Temple Bell
1 Temporal Cascade
1 Thought Reflection
1 Time Reversal
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Untamed Wilds
1 Venser's Journal
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall

1 City of Brass
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Forbidden Orchard
8 Forest
1 Grand Coliseum
4 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Mirrodin's Core
4 Mountain
4 Plains
1 Rainbow Vale
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rupture Spire
4 Swamp
1 Terminal Moraine
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow

Over the next 3 months I will pimp this new deck.  To give this one a little challenge, I am going to get all the cards pimped while spending less than low value on TCGPlayer.com (current $354). Thanks for reading! 

I.GOALS

I have been in leadership training this last week and a half. Yesterday in leadership we were talking about setting goals and accomplishing objectives.  The lesson brought with it an interesting ratio.  When you try and accomplish any given task, you should spend 75% of your total time on the task planning.  This lesson is very relevant to Magic the Gathering.  The biggest difference between professional Magic the Gathering players and a PTQ grinder is the time spent preparing for events.

You can see the same phenomenon in Commander players.  The most dangerous decks you will see have been planned.  Decks that are thrown together rarely put up much of a fight in comparison to a well oiled machine.  It takes so much longer to tune a deck that had no goal it is trying to accomplish.  When you decide to plan and build a commander deck, you should have specific goals in mind. Today, I will use the Arcum deck as an example as I use a basic I.G.O.A.L model for planning a deck.

Issue: I would like to win Commander games with Arcum Dagsson as my general.

Goal: Achieve an infinite combo or win with Blightsteel Collosus as quickly as possible

                After you figure out how you want to win, you can put in cards that support that win condition.  In Arcum it is combinations of cards like Mind Over matter + Temple Bell or Planar Portal + Beacon of Tommorows.  In decks like Isamaru, it may just be equipment + Isamaru.

Obstacles:

At the phase in planning, you are wondering; what am I afraid of? What will stop me from winning?

1. Singleton format
2. Other players’ disruption
3. Playing 1 land a turn
4. Other players winning before you

Action:

When you are setting up a plan of action, you want to focus on finding ways to get around the obstacles you have outlined.

1. Singleton format
1. Card Redundancy
1. Hall of the Bandit Lord
2. Thousand-Year Elixir
3. Lightning Greaves
2. Tutoring
1. Kuldotha Forgemaster
2. Reshape
3. Transmute Artifact
4. Fabricate
3. Card Draw
1. Blue Sun's Zenith
4. Library Manipulation
1. Scroll Rack
2. Sensei's Divining Top
2. Other players’ disruption
1. Counter Spells
1. Counterspell
2. Force of Will
2. Protection Artifacts
1. Lightning Greaves
2. Darksteel Forge
3. Haste
1. Hall of the Bandit Lord
2. Thousand Year Elixir
4. Recursion
1. Academy Ruins
2. Scarecrone
3. Myr Retriever
3. Playing 1 land a turn
1. Cheat in Lands
1. Solemn Simulacrum
2. Artifact Accelerant
1. Sol Ring
2. Mana Crypt
4. Other players winning before you
1. Counter Spells
1. Hinder
2. Stoic Rebuttal
2. Spot Removal
1. Brittle Effigy
3. Mass Removal
1. Nevinyrral's Disk
4. Lock Down
1. Ensnaring Bridge
2. Winter Orb
5. Control Magic
1. Memnarch
2. Vedalken Shackles

        

Leverage:

Normally leverage would mean find people who can help you with achieving your goal.  In terms of deck building, this means adding the basic cards required to make your deck run.  For Arcum this means adding the lands and other cards required to make the deck run.  These are cards like Islands, Nuisance Engine and Blinkmoth Nexus.

I hope you find this model useful for building decks for any format. That is all for today. Thank you for reading!

Even the Odds

Disclaimer: The advice in this article should only be used if you believe your play group plays no-limits Commander.  The author takes no responsibility for physical harm from altercations resulting from the use of the following advice.

In the first war with Phyrexia, the Coalition forces defeated Yawgmoth by assembling the legacy weapon.  This was incredibly effective, because Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians were unaware of the assembly and existence of the legacy weapon.  For some time, the Arcum deck has run using the same tactic.  Arcum would tutor up new and different pieces until a combo would lead to victory.  Players became aware of certain combos. As long as Arcum wasn’t assembling something they had seen before, they allowed pieces to be found and put together.  The Acrum deck stole victories from unsuspecting opponents.

Time would show that there was a flaw in this tactic.  Eventually, opponents of Arcum came to the conclusion that they did not need to understand what was being built.  Whatever Arcum would search for was part of something larger and more dangerous.  Arcum had become the archenemy.  This is a problem many combo generals have faced.  When a deck has become a threat serious enough to unify I’s enemies, two options are available; give up a tactic or find a way to even the odds.

The number one obstacle to overcome is card advantage.  Opponents will be drawing more cards, taking more turns and playing more lands than can be consistently outpaced.  The best that can be hoped for is negating the advantages. Locking down opponents’ lands and permanents with cards like Static Orb and Winter Orb can cull the additional mana resources they could have available.  To insure that the same disadvantages are not suffered, cards like Icy Manipulator, Mind over Matter, and Clock of Omens can be used to tap down the orbs at the end of opponents turn to free up mana.  Cards like Mishra’s Helix and Orb of Dreams can make things even more difficult for opponents.

Even through the strongest of locks, opponents can find ways to get through and throw permanents into play.  The best option is to steal anything that can get on to the battlefield.  This can be achieved through artifacts like Helm of Possession and Vedalken Shackles, or enchantments such as Corrupted Conscience.  Another option is to bounce permanents back to opponents’ hands.  Forcing opponents to replay spells will drain their resources that have been made few and precious. The spells that are preferred for such work are spells that can repeatedly bounce permanents, such as Capsize or Crystal Shard.  As a last line of defense, defenses can be set up to make traditional  creature based attack plans difficult.  Cards like Propaganda and Ensnaring Bridge can slow down the relentless assault of enemies. 

The basic idea behind getting past a group assault is making playing cards as difficult as possible for opponents.  The harder they have to work to break through a lock, the less resources they will have available to stop a doomsday device from being constructed. 

Keep in mind, that even after the use of the Legacy weapon, the Phyrexians are back and they are as strong as ever.  When you fight an inexorable tide, you will eventually be washed away.  You can use this advice to slow the flood of enemies, but you are fighting a very difficult battle.

The Arcum list has been updated to try and deal with the amount of hate thrown its way.  Here is the new list;

General
1 Arcum Dagsson

Creatures
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Memnarch
1 Myr Retriever
1 Scarecrone
1 Silver Myr
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Treasure Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Voltaic Construct
Spells
1 Artificer's Intuition
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Beacon of Tomorrows
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Capsize
1 Clock of Omens
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Counterspell
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Cryptic Command
1 Crystal Shard
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Fabricate
1 Force of Will
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
1 Helm of Possession
1 Hinder
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Over Matter
1 Mind Stone
1 Mindslaver
1 Mishra's Helix
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Nuisance Engine
1 Orb of Dreams
1 Pithing Needle
1 Planar Portal
1 Power Artifact
1 Reshape
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Rocket Launcher
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Static Orb
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Temple Bell
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Voltaic Key
1 Winter Orb
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Gargoyle Castle
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Inkmoth Nexus
15 Island
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Stalking Stones
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Tolaria West
1 Urza's Factory
1 Wasteland

Thank you for reading! Please let me know if there is any subject you would like to see discussed.