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!

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!

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!

Playing Commander for Free

Not every Commander deck is planned and shopped for.  If you want to get into Commander, but you don’t want to pay any cash, you have to build with what you have got.  This week, I will share with you my process on how to build an EDH deck without buying any new cards. 

First are foremost, you need to choose a general for the deck.  When choosing a general I have three recommendations.  First, do not play a five color general.  Chances are you don’t have a good mana base just lying around waiting to be put into a deck.  Second, do not play a general that requires you to play a tribal deck.  Non-sliver tribal decks are bad to begin with.  If you are just working with what you have, they become nearly unplayable.  Third, do not play a mono-colored general.  Mono-colored generals require you to have a saturation of good EDH cards in just one color.  It is more likely you can build a good deck when playing 2-3 colors.  For this demonstration I will build a Doran deck.  He is three colors, a good agro creature, and I have an ample supply of cards in his colors.

There are several types of cards to look for when picking the remainder of the deck

•          Mana Fixers
•          Removal
•          Tutors/Card draw
•          Threats
•          Lands

Playing commander is like playing an online RTS like Starcraft or Age of Empires.  The winner of the game is almost always the person who gathers resources the fastest.  If you are playing Commander and you have no way to accelerate your mana production, you are going to lose. Mana accelerantion usually has the added benefit of also being able to fix any problems with colored mana that you may have.  I like to have at least 10 cards of the 99 be accelerants, to make sure I at least get one early on.  You will be surprised when you look through your collection, how many accelerants you end up having. For Doran, I went through all of my black, green, white, gold and artifact cards and pulled out the following;

•          Frontier Guide
•          Khalni Heart Expidition
•          Harrow
•          Everflowing Chalice
•          Felwar Stone
•          Orzhov Signet
•          Garruk Wildspeaker
•          Cultivate
•          Devoted Druid
•          Mul Daya Channelers
•          Worn Powerstone
•          Sol Grail
•          Golgari Signet
•          Yavimaya Elder
•          Rampant Growth
•          Oracle of Mul Daya
•          Coalition Relic
•          Star Compass
•          Coldsteel Heart
•          Phyrexian Lens

Unless you are playing a turbo-combo deck, you will need a way to stop people from using infinite engines to win the game.  Whenever I build a new deck, I go through and look for nearly every piece of removal I can find.  I want removal that can take care of multiple threats, remove a card permanently, or has a body attached.  When I looked through my cards I found the following removal tools;

•          Acidic Slime
•          Viridian Corrupter
•          Royal Assassin
•          Sunblast Angel
•          Slice in Twain
•          Massacre Wurm
•          Phyrexian Revoker
•          Grim Poppet
•          Heartstabber Mosquito
•          Kor Sanctifiers
•          Ioana’s Judgment
•          Sylvok Replica
•          Mold Shambler
•          Maelstrom Pulse
•          Admonition Angel
•          Steel Hellkite
•          Path to Exile
•          Qasali Pridemage
•          Nevinyrral's Disk
•          Decree of Pain
•          Brittle Effigy
•          Swords to Plowshares
•          Terastadon
•          Argentum Armor

Another important part of Commander is making your deck consistant.  You can achieve this through redundancy, card draw or through tutor mechanics.  Any card that can search up a threat or a removal spell is like having additional copies of those cards in your deck.   As a side note, make sure you have cards in your deck that your tutors can find.  I found the following tutors and card drawing in Doran’s Colors;

·         Primal Command

·         Stoneforge Mystic

·         Diabolic Tutor

·         Crystal Ball

·         Green Sun’s Zenith

·         Demonic Collusion

·         Syphon Mind

·         Font of Mythos

·         Temple Bell

Now comes the most fun part of building a Commander deck, choosing your threats.  This is the part of the deck that you can just throw in whatever you think can win the game.  This includes big creatures, game changing spells, and combos.  Looking through my cards, I found some cards that can quickly end a game;

•          Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
•          It That Betrays
•          Artisan of Kozilek
•          Baneslayer Angel
•          Sword of Vengeance
•          Grafted Exoskeleton
•          Bonehoard
•          Mimic Vat
•          Behemoth Sledge
•          Chameleon Colossus
•          Necrotic Ooze
•          Serra Ascendant

A commander deck should play between 35-40 lands.  You want a higher percentage of lands than a standard deck because you are playing a larger spells and longer games.  Never underestimate the power of playing a land every turn.   I slot 40 cards in the decks for land and I take of 1 land for each 2 mana accelerants I play.  Even so, I will never play less than 35 lands even if I have more than 10 mana fixers.  Choosing which lands to play depends on what cards you have decided to play.  I use every dual color producing land I can find.  Then, I put in basics according to the number of mana symbols of each color are present throughout the deck.  Think of this the same way you decide on what mana to put into a draft or sealed deck.

So, if you haven’t played Commander before because of the monetary investment.  Use this as guide to make a deck, and go start having some fun.  Pictures of the new Doran deck will be posted on my facebook page.  Feel free to leave feedback or ask me questions.

Next week I will have an update on how this deck is performing and any additions to the Arcum deck.   Thanks for reading!