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.

Doran Revisited

Last week, I went over my formula for building a Commander deck from your personal collection.  This week I am going to go over what kind of cards you should be on the look for when you are looking to improve your Commander deck. I have been playing the Doran deck for about a week now.  The deck has been performing very well.  Even so, I felt like it was lacking the epic feel that most commander decks bring to the table.

As luck would have it, the local card store made a large purchase of a player’s personal collection.  I was able to strike while the iron was hot and pick up a ton of cards for the Doran deck to help illustrate what I look for when I am upgrading a commander deck.  

The first set of cards I look for when upgrading, are lands.  I want lands that can tap for multiple colors, lands that can tap for a ridiculous amount of mana, or land that have strong abilities.  Dual lands from the original sets as well as the onslaught dual combine well with fetch lands.  If a land taps for colorless, it should carry a useful ability.  Good examples are; Academy Ruins, Hall of the Bandit Lord, and Wasteland.  From the cards the shop had available, I picked up the following;

•          Volrath’s Stronghold – Graveyard Recursion
•          Horizon Canopy – Taps for multi and can draw cards
•         Thawing Glaciers – Mana fixes + guarantees you have mana drops
•          Strip Mine – Land Destruction
•          Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – See next card
•          Cabal Coffers – Taps for a ridiculous amount of mana
•          Flagstones of Trokair –When this goes to graveyard, get a dual land
•          Marsh Flats – Fetches are always good, they can get duals as well as basics
•          Verdant Catacombs – See above
•          Windswept Heath – See above
•          Godless Shrine – Dual lands make land specific searches better
•          Temple Garden – See above
•          Savannah – See above
•          Bayou – See above
•          Murmuring Bosk – Works like a dual land for most purposes

 In the last article, I encouraged you to go grab whatever mana fixers you could find.  As you go along, you will find that a certain style of mana fixing and accelerating better matches your color identity.  Blue decks like to run heavy artifact acceleration. Red decks may use Gauntlet of Power. Mono colored decks like to use cards like Gauntlet of Power and Extraplanar Lens.  In green decks, I look for green spells over artifact accelerants.  In general, more people have answers to artifacts than lands.  In addition, if you play a lot of green land tutor spells, you thin your deck so that you can draw into more effective spells.  These are the mana fixers and accelerants that I was able to get a hold of; 

•          Sol Ring – Always good
•          Deep Reconnaissance – Not the best, but you can flash it back
•          Seedborn Muse – This card is nuts in multiplayer
•          Sakura-Tribe Elder – A blocker with an upside
•          Seedguide Ash – This card is insane, when it dies you get 3 dual lands
•          Mirari’s Wake – Doubling your mana production is never a bad thing
•          Crucible of Worlds – Recurring fetch lands will keep you running
•          Land Tax – This is just an amazing card early on
•          Krosan Tusker – Cycle for land or play for beats
•          Search for Tomorrow – A good turn 1 play
•          Primeval Titan – Go get Cabal Coffers and Urborg
•          Journey of Discovery – Good even without the entwine
•          Kodama’s Reach – Cultivate #2
•          Far Wanderings – Threshold is so easy to achieve.  I always get 3
•          Solemn Simulacrum – Get this guy if you can, he can go in every deck
•          Nature’s Lore – Brings in a Dual land untapped

One of the differences between a good Commander deck and a great Commander deck is the way the deck draws cards and searches for answers.  The more you draw and the better your tutor, the more consistent your deck will be.  Deck consistency is difficult to achieve in a singleton format.  Any cards that can help you get around this problem will make your deck better. I found the following cards to throw into this Doran deck;

•  Survival of the Fittest – This card got banned from legacy for a reason.  Its power level is off the charts.
• Sensei’s Divining Top – It is rare that a Commander deck would not benefit
• Phyrexian Arena – When your life total is 2x normal but your hand stays the same size.  Paying life for drawing cards gets a lot better
• Chord of Calling – Instant speed creature tutoring and playing is a beautiful thing
•  Eldamari’s Call – Just tutoring at instant speed isn’t bad either
• Tooth and Nail – Do you know a better way to cast Ulamog and It That Betrays?
•  Demonic Tutor – One of the best tutors ever printed

The removal cards that were in the original deck were mostly subpar. When I am looking to upgrade my removal suite, I look for efficiently costed cards that go above and beyond your normal removal.  This general means removing cards from the game, acting at split second, or effecting multiple targets.  Here are the new removal cards I grabbed for Doran;

• Krosan Grip – This is a must have for Green.  It stops combos and kills tops
• Return to Dust – Your answer to indestructible artifacts and enchantments.
• Damnation – Any wrath effect that costs 4-5 mana can be included in a Commander list
• Woodfall Primus – Kills a planeswalker, and then kills another the first time it dies.
• Austere Command – This is one of my favorite wrath effects.  By choosing the right modes you can make the wrath one sided.
• Duplicant – This is a great way to kill an indestructible creature with a large upside.

In the original article, I only had a few categories of cards I was looking for.  When I expand a deck, I also expand the types of cards I find useful.  There are utility cards that I like to put into decks to help push through the big finishers in the deck.  At this point I am looking for cards that protect my creatures and recur spells and creatures from the graveyard.

•          Genesis – What’s better than Terrastadon? Cast him twice!
•          Eternal Witness – If you play green, play this card
•          Lightning Greaves – When you play big powerful creatures, you want to start hitting with them as soon as possible.  This is useful in almost every Commander deck

After putting in these new cards, I was able to play a few games with the new and improved deck.  The upgrades made for some impressive plays that I was unable to achieve with the previous build.  I am very happy with the way the deck has been improved.  I hope you can use this guide to improve upon a Commander deck that you own.

With these purchases, I am forced to slow down for a few weeks on getting the last few cards for the Arcum deck.  Next week, I am going to go over tactics about dealing with facing multiple opponents who are working against you.

Thanks for Reading!