EDH (Commander) with Karador, Ghost Chieftain!

Today I am going to take a break from my usual competitive view on the game and take a walk on the wild side. I built my first EDH (Commander) deck! I haven’t even played it yet and I am already excited about it!

I know that I am late to the party with regards to the format. So late, in fact, that Wizards has Commander listed as an official Casual format on their website.  Most players, however, still regard the Elder Dragon Highlander page as the official EDH/Commander ruling body.

My view on the format is that it is supposed to be fun. You should do things in deck construction and game-play that are fun for you to do. Personally, I like the black version of card advantage where you use your graveyard as a resource. This makes green and black obvious choices for my starting colors. I threw white in there because of my love of the Green/Black/White cards.

I then had to decide on a general, and while there are many competitive and “spiky” generals out there (Doran, the Siege Tower, for instance), I want to have fun. Enter the eight-mana Centaur Lord… Spirit… Guy… Yeah…

This guy is so BA. Look at that art… I mean, he’s got a GHOST BEAR and a Ghost Elf!!  I am terribly excited to cast sweet creatures from my graveyard every turn! There’s no holding back now… Behold! My first attempt at an EDH deck:

GENERAL
1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain

SPELLS
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Vraska the Unseen
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Regrowth
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Syphon Mind
1 Reanimate
1 Sol Ring
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Disturbed Burial
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Jarad’s Orders
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Mulch
1 Path to Exile
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Golgari Signet
1 Syphon Soul
1 Ancient Craving
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Cultivate
1 Harmonize
1 Skullclamp
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Farseek
1 Grave Pact
1 Attrition

CREATURES
1 Armada Wurm
1 Thragtusk
1 Verdant Force
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Trostani’s Summoner
1 Eternal Witness
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Teneb, the Harvester
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Spike Weaver
1 Angel of Despair
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Spike Feeder
1 Acidic Slime
1 Gravedigger
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Lotleth Troll
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Force of Nature
1 Pale Recluse
1 Spiritmonger
1 Dark Hatchling
1 Shattered Angel
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Shriekmaw
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Brawn
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Avatar of Woe

LANDS
4 Plains
7 Swamp
8 Forest
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Homeward Path
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Tainted Field
1 Tainted Wood
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Volrath’s Stronghold

Okay, be gentle, I am a Commander virgin after all. I have no idea how this deck draws or plays, but I do know that I will likely have fun with it. I tried to put in quite a few mana sources and land cyclers/artifacts. Hopefully it’s enough to make it somewhat viable.  Unlike most of my Magic playing, this deck is IRL only.  If you see me at Gamer’s Gauntlet or elsewhere in Metro Detroit, I’d definitely be willing to play some EDH inbetween rounds if I have the time!

The first opening hand I drew with the deck contained Force of Nature.  I think that seals the deal, this is the EDH deck for me.

So… I built an EDH deck and drew a sample hand… #meanttobe #edh #commander pic.twitter.com/9RXzI7gQnV

— Force_of_Nature (@moxdoogle) July 1, 2013

Who’s your general?

Once Upon a Friday Night Magic

I managed to get out of the house on a Friday night! woot! I sleeved up the last version of my Junk deck (see last post) and took to the streets! Well, not exactly the streets… Gamer’s Gauntlet is close enough, right? Here’s the deck for reference:

The Vitu-Ghazi Guildmages were actually Garruk Relentless, I just didn’t have them on MTGO when I pulled the decklist. 

The tournament took a good while to start because some guy called and said he was on his way. Not sure if he showed up at all, but a 7:10 PM start and six rounds (40+ players) does not a happy panda make.

Round One – UWR Delver

Yeah, that’s right… DELVER.  Anyone else see any Delvers lately? No? Didn’t think so.  This was literally an American Delver deck. Game one I mulliganed to five on the play and he flipped Delver into Geist into burn. Amazingly enough I managed to take him to three life with Smiters and a Mangler but the Angel tokens were too much when I couldn’t draw more than one black mana for Murder. Also didn’t draw Abrupt Decay this game.

Game two was even worse.  I kept a good hand with no black mana. Well, he Spear’d my Gyre Sage and I proceeded to not draw black again (I thought I fixed that manabase… hmm…) despite having two Murders and two Abrupt Decays. When I finally got the black I was so low it didn’t matter. If I had the mana in a timelier fashion, I could have pulled this one out.

0-1 Matches, 0-2 Games

Round Two – Dimir Mill

This kid was very nice. Game one was pretty lopsided in my favor, although if I hadn’t of had a removal spell for his Deathcult Rogue, his Hands of Binding could have kept my team tapped down for a while. Thanks Abrupt Decay!

Game two was much mo interesting. He held me off very easily with a Wight of Precinct Six. That card is actually darn good if you can use some cheap mill. Also, Jace’s Phantasm came out to play effectively (killed my Garruk). I was able to build up too many dudes, though, and when I finally got my Sever the Bloodline, I had enough mana to play and flash it back to remove his team and get in there for like 18.

1-1 Matches, 2-2 Games (50% ain’t half bad! or is it?)

Round Three – Boros Aggro

This was a wild match. In the first game he got me to three life with Pyreheart Wolves, Hellriders, and Stromkirk Nobles. Obzedat came down on the key turn and started ticking me up by 2 life a turn. After gaining 6 life, I drew some more creatures to stave off lethal Hellrider topdecks and took the game.

In game two it was close because I got stuck on four land for three turns. When I finally hit my fifth land, it was, of course, an Overgrown Tomb. But I happily payed 2 life to get my Thragtusk out. Then I followed that up with a Thragtusk, then another Thragtusk. Tusk Tusk Tusk. It was kinda gross. I also had some random dudes/removal in my hand but it didn’t matter. A trio of Tusks is usually enough to take a game from an aggro deck.

2-1 Matches, 4-2 Games

Round Four – Blue/White Hexproof Auras

And this is where I had had enough. Game one saw me with a slow start and he turn 3 Geist’d into Silverblade Paladin with Mizzium Skin to protect his angel token from Abrupt Decay, followed by some flying Aura on Geist to finish the job.

Game two was actually a game. I was able to put out some dudes and remove some of his dudes and that was all she wrote, I took this one down easily.

Game three was pretty gross. I sided in *one* Golgari Charm because he had only drawn 1 or fewer copies of Knight of Glory in each previous game. This game was Turn 2 KoG, Turn 3 KoG, turn 4 Enchantments. Ugh. Selesnya Charm didn’t show up and I quickly lost once Geist came down.

Matches 2-2, Games 5-4. DROP.

It was about this time that I realized I was tired of playing and had another two rounds to go to try and eke out 8th place. I declined to go for it and went home instead. This way I could go to bed by midnight and retain my sanity.

I think next time I will play something like RG Aggro so I can try to beat these random decks before they get off the ground. Until next time… whenever that is!