Category Archives: Commander

Am I back?

Commander, magic, MtG

“People Keep Asking If I’m Back, And I Haven’t Really Had An Answer. But Now, Yeah! I’m Thinking I’m Back!” John Wick

I think that quote kinda sums up where I am about MtG at the moment.

Well not exactly.

I’m only playing casual or kitchen table MtG.

No prerelease, no FNM, no store tournament, just games with friends and family.

The games with friends and family will be using precon decks, such as the challenger decks, game night kits, and starter kits.

All decks I can just throw in a bag and take to a game night, or planned MtG session. Where we grab a deck that grabs us and play.

That’s basically been the three times I’ve played MtG in the last couple of weeks.

It all started off teaching Dave and Clack MtG, then some games with Nath when I visited him, followed by an evening this week playing with Dave.

I had a blast playing again. I was reminded of what I love about playing the game besides the deckbuilding.

I love those moments the game gives where it all looks lost but somehow you hold in there, and manage to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. Dave had one of those in our last game on Wednesday.

Sometimes the cards hate you and you get mana screwed (or the opposite mana flooded). It happens. You shrug it off. Shuffle and start the next game.

I love the complexity. The incomplete information you play with. Not knowing what cards your opponent has, you have an idea the sort of cards they might have, but you don’t know for sure. Why have they left mana untapped? What do they have in their hand? Is it a counter spell or removal? Dare I play the card? The bluffing can be delicious.

Oh and that feeling of satisfaction when you pull off something cool.

As for the precons I’m enjoying playing the ones I have. The Game Night Kit is designed for this sort of play. It’s been great fun both times I used it with Nath and Dave. The one I got was the 2022 version. There is a 2019 edition to. It’s also designed as a multiplayer game, but I’ve not used it that way yet.

The challenger decks have been fun too. I have 3 pioneer decks (using archetypes I enjoy), plus a couple of the standard ones.

Plus the starter kits have been useful in this casual play. I have a couple of these. These decks I use like the old duel decks. They have been fun to play also.

I still have a couple of the CardKingdom battle decks. Which are great value. But may not be after shipping has been added on (just ordered a couple of decks, the shipping was ok). These are great fun to play also.

This casual approach to MtG is a lot lighter on the pocket, and just as much fun.

So yeah I’m back casually.

A magical Friday evening

Commander, game night, MtG

I’ve not talked about or played MtG for a long time now. Which should worry WotC. Some-one who loves the game, loves playing it. Not playing it,buying product, or talking about it.

But that changed Friday evening when I taught Dave and Clack how to play.

On the way home I had popped in to my FLGS to try and pick up a copy of the game night kit free for all kit (a box of five standard decks that can be opened up and played by a group of friends). Sadly they did not have one.

They had also sold out of jump start decks.

I needed something I could use with new players. That was new player friendly.

So I ended up with a Starter Kit, plus a Pioneer Challenger deck (I already had two others I could use).

A mad dash back home in record time (all the traffic lights en route were in my favour) to pick up what I needed for the evening. Saw me arrive 10 minutes later than we had arranged.

I started off teaching MtG using the Starter Kit decks for Dave and Clack, whilst I used an old Card Kingdom battle deck I had.

This was a fun first game. They both attacked me a lot declaring me as the main threat because I knew how to play the game!

I managed to stabilise at 4 health before being able to hit back and grab a victory.

Next I gave out a random 2021 D&D Commander deck (not the current set) and went over the brief changes to the format.

Our commanders

I need to look into the themes of these decks. Mine was obviously a dragon deck and all about getting them out. Clack’s deck was possibly a voltron style deck. Dave’s was the confusing one, and seemed all about venturing through dungeons and getting those benefits and graveyard shenanigans?

This game Clack got mana screwed. It happens. As a MtG player you just accept it happens, and hope you live long enough to try and mount some sort of comeback once the lands start showing up.

In a game of Commander being mana screwed might be an advantage early on as other players don’t see you as a threat, and leave you alone as they beat up on each other.

I was ramping up nicely in this game, got my commander out. Was the monarch (a great mechanic for Commander) spamming out tokens. Life was good for the dragons.

Unchecked I was just able to swing in and single shot both Dave and Clack for the victory.

Our second game it was my turn to get mana screwed. It happens. See previous comments above about it.

Eventually I was able to start playing cards and building up a presence on the battlefield.

Clack’s voltron deck was firing off, and some rather threatening creatures were being equipped and made nastier. Dave and I were at risk of dying from Commander damage by Clack.

Dave made it hard for Clack and I to block his attacks, as we were for large chunks of the game only able to block with legendary creatures.

He was also venturing through those dungeons a lot and pulling creatures back from the graveyard.

Our decks were doing stuff.

I think this game felt more commandery than our previous one. There was more politic stuff going on. More “don’t attack me I’m not a threat, look at that big creature they have. Now that’s a threat!”

Despite that distinct lack of mana for what felt like an eternity I managed to hold on in their and win.

It was a fun evening of MtG.

Not only did I get to introduce new players to the game. But I was reminded what I like so much about the game.

Plus the Starter Kit and Pioneer decks I can play with Nath when I visit him next week.

Win, win.

Tapestry of Dragons

Commander, Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night, magic, MtG

Friday evening saw some Commander action taking place. This time it was against some ex-students.

The first game we played saw me take my Eldrazi deck out for a spin. But it was too slow, and none of us could stop Bob doing the inevitable and defeat us all. Once he had his Emrakul, The Aeons Torn out it was game over. I wasn’t finding any answers. I definitely wasn’t getting to my big Eldrazi hitters. All we could do was say “gg” through gritted teeth.

Our second game saw my Ur-dragon deck hit the table. Two cool things happened in this game. Firstly I got to play Tiamat. Which is an obnoxious card to play. Being able to get from your deck your five most nastiest dragons is obscene. It puts a big target on you as your opponents know what you just got.

Secondly despite having over 100 life I was still able to have my dragon horde swoop in and kill Bob. Giving double strike to them all really helped. Sadly only 20 points of that damage was Commander damage. Despite me trying to find a way to get that final single point of damage.

Taking Bob out meant I was also dead. But there was nothing I could do to stop the silly number of hydra tokens that were coming my way.

It was a fun evening of Commander. But my losing streak was continuing.

Saturday saw not only Diego playing Tapestry but Jonathan joined us as well.

Both had not played before. But that didn’t scare me off from teaching the game with Plans and Ploys (P&P), and the Arts and Architecture (A&A) expansions thrown in to the mix.

I had rigged the tech and tapestry decks so that we got to see the new cards from the newest expansion A&A. Plus we only chose civilisations from the two expansions. I also didn’t use the advanced capital city mats from A&A. However I did shuffle up both sets of landmark cards from the expansions before drawing four of them.

Even taking into account the above setting up, plus the addition of the fifth track and masterpiece cards. I don’t think with the expansions added into the mix there was too much additional stuff, or over complication to the game to make it too much for new players to take in.

I specifically advanced on the new Arts track because I wanted to see it in use, and try the new masterpiece cards.

Tapestry

I have to say I liked the new masterpiece cards. But not the card size! Can’t sleeve them unless I cut some sleeves down.

Loved being able to use the inspiration tiles to upgrade one of the resource tracks.

I was already a fan of the landmark cards after they were introduced in P&P. So having more of them is just great.

Another thing I like about the arts track is that you choose which type of income building you move to your capital city. It made hitting the landmark card trigger I had very easy.

I need to sleep on the above and get some more games in so I can expand on those very basic initial thoughts above. At the moment there is a germ of a thought that the above is too powerful. But is it? Does it balance out if others are also doing it?

I think this was the most I’d done completing rows and columns in my capital city. It felt pretty cool. It certainly looked pretty cool.

I knew Diego would like the game. But would Jonathan?

He did indeed like it. And that’s despite getting salty over the dystopia tapestry card I played allowing me to grab any landmark on the landmark board. Naturally I went with the tallest (on the off chance there was a tie for first place).

Plus the end of turn trigger for one of his landmark cards was an issue. Jonathan will explain better than me in the comments his issue with this. For me it was not an issue.

Anyway here are the final scores showing I had indeed broken the week long losing streak I’d been on.

You know how this post is ending.

Photos taken by Jonathan

Pity Win

Commander, Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, MtG

Last night saw a Commander session at The Luxe with myself, Diego and new member Sam battling it.

Whilst Diego was playing with some of Sam’s decks. I played my Ur-Dragon deck that I hadn’t played in a long long time.

Some new cards had been added during that time, such as Tiamat, and one or two Nicol Bolas cards. So the deck was long overdue an outing.

The first game of the evening was over pretty quickly. I hadn’t hit my land drops, didn’t get to any of the mana rocks or ramp. Diego was doing much better with the enchantments deck he was playing, however neither of us had any answers to the problems Sam was presenting on the battle field. Especially when damage was getting doubled.

I stuck with the dragons for game two. Sam went to a new deck, and Diego stuck with the enchantments (I really should have made a note of the Commanders, next time).

By all rights I should have lost this game. However thanks to mercy or pity (take your pick which) from Sam I didn’t. I was down to 8 life. Sam needed help taking on Diego. So a deal was made. I wouldn’t attack him if he let me live.

That bought me time to get pieces into place and get dragons on the battlefield. My dragons would be coming in with haste and dealing damage based on the number of dragons I controlled to a player or Planeswalker. So when Sam finished off Diego I was able to play some dragons and chip away at his life, and then swing in for lethal and victory.

The final game of the evening I broke out the new Eldrazi deck. Sam and Diego swapped decks also. They both had life gain decks. Both adding counters to creatures. But the one Diego was playing was generating counters and tokens like crazy. On top of all that life gain.

I was going under the radar for much of the early game. I had plenty of land but no cheap creatures to get out. Rounds 6 and 7 were the earliest I was going to get anything out. Field of the Dead was going to help me get some 2/2 zombie blockers out.

Despite drawing Helm of the Host turn 2 I sat on it for most of the game. It might have given a big hint to my game plan and put a target on my back.

I was forced to play my Commander so that I could trash my land that enabled me to fetch a colourless creature. This deck isn’t built around playing the Commander. It’s a nice +1/+1 effect if out. But not a crucial part of the plan. However as I said I was forced into this because Diego was getting out of hand, and his flyer with 19 counters on could kill me his next turn. So I went and got Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and took it out. Diego swore he wasn’t going to do that, but attack Sam with it. But previous turns that creature had been used to attack me. I wasn’t convinced.

Some how I got another turn and that’s when I played Helm of the Host and attached it to Ulamog. The token then swung at Diego. It was pretty much my last act of the game. Diego crushed me on his turn.

It was then a battle of the life gain decks. Both Diego and Sam broke the 100 health barrier. Neither were showing signs of getting the killing blow. The film for the evening had ended and the poor staff of The Luxe were cleaning up. A draw was called.

It was a fun evening. Sam’s decks were awesome and scary at the same time. Especially the one Diego was playing at the end. Can’t wait to play some more Commander.

Commanding Rivals

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG, Rivals, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals, vampire the masquerade: rivals

This morning three people gathered to duke it out on the battlefield with their chosen commanders.

It was a casual smack down using WotC Commander precon decks. I had all the precon decks from 2017 to now with me (except the anthology decks) for us to play with.

Gavin was using his own precon, while Diego and myself chose from the recent D&D ones. My precons were “naked”! I have 3 years worth of precons to sleeve. Which is a lot of decks, and I need to find the funds to purchase the Dragon Shields to do the job.

Here are the commanders we played.

  • Me – Vrondriss, Rage of Ancients (D&D precon)
  • Diego – Galea, Kindler of Hope (D&D precon)
  • Gavin – Adrix and Nev, Twincasters (Strixhaven precon)

Early on Diego established himself as a big threat. His Commander with a couple of nasty bits of equipment that gave it +10/+10 and double strike was scary. One hit death to Commander damage if it landed. Thank god there was no trample added to it.

I was way behind both of them on the land drops. So I was happy for Diego to be the big distraction as I tried to catch up and build up a winning board state (see the photo above). All I needed was to be able to chump block if attacked by him.

Luckily there were very few answers for them both to stop my flyers chipping away at them or stop me using direct damage to control their board state (ie remove potential blockers or sending Diego’s Commander to hell). It was also lucky that Diego wasn’t able to give his equipped Commander hexproof. That would have made life extremely difficult.

But in the end the dragon horde prevailed and won the game.

Next up was a learning game of Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals.

We played using the pre-constructed decks. I gave Gavin and Diego first choice and I played what was left. Below is who played what.

  • Brujah – me (rival was Gavin)
  • Toreador – Gavin (rival was Diego)
  • Ventrue – Diego (rival was me)

After a poor explanation of the rules and picking our rival we started playing.

Our first play was definitely a game of two conflicting experiences.

Gavin didn’t enjoy the game at all. He was polite and put it down to the cards he drew, and there being little he could do to make use of his clans abilities. I don’t think the poor rules explanation helped either.

I’m sure there were more rule misplays than the one we had. Well technically it wasn’t a misplay more missed rule! We missed that you could discard cards during the torpor/mend stage to heal vampires. Which would have kept Gavin in the game instead of seeing me win it. Thanks Diego for spotting that after the fact and casting a shadow over my glorious victory.

The Brujah deck I was playing was probably the simpler deck to play compared to the Toreador deck Gavin was trying to play. It is the Rivals version of a MtG aggro deck. Which is definitely one of the deck archetypes I like to play.

When Diego played Long-Term Investment I got a distinct Netrunner vibe and reminded of cards like Kati Jones.

Like Netrunner there is a lot of jargon to get used to, especially if you are not into the whole Worlds of Darkness thing. Which can add to the confusion and make the learning curve a bit more steeper than it already is.

So while Gavin won’t be playing Rivals again Diego and myself will be. I need to play the other decks. And then want to get into deck building.

But once again it was great to be playing in real life again. Especially when I win. Plus there is more gaming to look forward to at the end of the week.

It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled

Commander, magic, MtG

“It’s been a long time, been a long time
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time”

This morning I was round Gavin’s to play some MtG.

It felt soooo good to finally play a game in the real world once more. Over 18 months since I last played with a real person in the same room. I’d almost forgotten what it was like.

Plus I got to meet the latest addition to Gavin’s household young pup Murphy. I’m hoping Murphy has got his name because Gavin is a Robocop fan. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of some tenuous link to Top Gun. Gavin is somewhat of a Top Gun fanboy.

We played some two player Commander. Yes it’s not really the same as playing with more players. But it gave Gavin a chance to try the Ur Dragon and Markov precons from 2017, plus play his Strixhaven precon. And I got to try a new deck I’d been working on during the lockdown.

There was also some standard played as well. It was Gavin’s mono green deck up against my mono red dragon deck. There was one game where I missed played that cost me the game.

I’ll have to get Gavin’s deck list off him. But mine I’ll look at in another post. There were a couple of times I ran out of gas, and was unable to end the game, going on to lose. But on the whole it did it’s thing.

Out of 11 games the final score was 8-3 to me.

It’s MtG Time Spiral Remastered Release Weekend

Commander, magic, MtG

It’s that time once again for a new release of MtG cards. This time WotC have gone back in time to 2006 and the Time Spiral block, and created basically a curated set of cards from that block, and released it as Time Spiral Remastered.

If you purchase a booster box or a ticket to the play online event this weekend (which gets you 4 booster packs to build a deck from and play online with using spelltable) you get a promo foil Lotus Bloom.

I’m not going to go through all my pulls but one pack had the following two cards in it. A foil Path to Exile and old style Etali! I was very chuffed to say the least.

Etali is my commander in the mono red aggro Commander deck I have. So I’ll be replacing the Ixalan card with this very cool retro looking one for sure.

I hope you got some cool pulls.

Big Green Stompy v2

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these deck posts. There are more planned. After all I have two new decks nearly finished, and three other decks that need updating with new cards.

I thought after the post the other day about one of the upcoming Kaldheim cards that I was really excited about I’d finally update the Big Green Stompy deck this morning.

Some times it is so easy to update a deck. Especially if its one I built a long time ago and I wasn’t using “good” cards but ones I had at the time.

Other times it’s so hard to do, as you don’t want to take cards out. But you have to because you want to use the new cards.

Below are the updated decks stats. The AMC has crept up.

Ok according to the Decked app that I use and CardKingdom if I had to replace this deck I would not be able to. But below I’ve listed the top 10 most costly cards that the deck currently uses.

Like so many cards, The Immortal Sun is in need of a reprint. It’s almost a staple for me, and possibly many others too. If at the same time they could reprint Growing Rites as well I’d appreciate it.

Ok here is the bit you really want the cards that make up this version of the deck.

Note yes it might be on the low side for lands. But there are mana rocks, cards that reduce the cost, creatures that tap for mana, and cards that search for lands. Plus cards that increase the amount of mana that lands tap for.

Creatures:35

1 Boreal Druid
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Feral Hydra
2 Hungering Hydra
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Leaf Gilder
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast (Alternative Commander)
1 Primordial Hydra
1 Voracious Hydra
1 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Lifeblood Hydra
1 Llanowar Tribe
1 Managorger Hydra
1 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Elvish Piper
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Yeva, Nature’s Herald (Commander)
1 Gigantosaurus
1 Ohran Frostfang
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Aggressive Mammoth
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Gargos, Vicious Watcher
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Hydra Omnivore
1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
1 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Giant Adephage
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Khalni Hydra
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:43

1 Adventurous Impulse
1 Animist’s Awakening
1 Attune with Aether
1 Sol Ring
1 Bonds of Mortality
1 Emerald Medallion
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Land Grant
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Nylea’s Intervention
1 Thought Vessel
1 Charge of the Forever-Beast
1 Crushing Canopy
1 Cultivate
1 Garruk’s Uprising
1 Gift of Paradise
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Krosan Grip
1 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
1 Retreat to Kazandu
1 Rhonas’s Monument
1 Unbound Flourishing
1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
1 Court of Bounty
1 Leyline of Abundance
1 Momentous Fall
1 Return to the Earth
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Whirlwind
1 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Doubling Season
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Primal Vigor
1 Vivien Reid
1 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
1 Caged Sun
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Wave of Vitriol
1 Zendikar Resurgent
1 Praetor’s Counsel
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 The Great Aurora
1 The Great Henge

Lands:22

1 Detection Tower
1 Emergence Zone
1 Field of Ruin
15 Forest
1 Guildless Commons
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary

Kaldheim Spoiler Gets Me Excited!

Commander, magic, MtG

At the end of this month MtG players get their hands on the new Norse inspired set Kaldheim.

Until then we are in the middle of what is known as spoiler season. Which is basically when WotC use various content creators (mainly streamers and YouTubers) that they deem worthy to reveal cards from the new set (and hopefully building up excitement) over like a two week peroid before revealing every card in the set.

WotC did spoil one card that has me very excited for it, and adding it to my Big Green Stompy Commander deck.

This deck is my mono green deck that plays big creatures. Naturally there are more than a handful of hydra in the deck. I think it would be fair to almost say I’m not far off from this being a hydra tribal deck.

To make those hydra and any other that I put a +1/+1 counter onto I have the following three cards in the deck.

As you can guess with just one of these cards out the hydras can come in pretty big. If I’m allowed to have more than one of these cards out at the same time (a pretty silly move by the other players) then the hydras start to become silly.

However I do play one hydra that just abuses the cards above and the math can get insane! That card is Primordial Hydra.

I think in a previous post many many moons ago now I told you about a Commander game at my FLGS where I indeed did have Primordial Hydra out with Primal Vigor and won the game swinging in with a 156/156 hydra. You can imagine how insanely large Primordial Hydra would have gotten at the start of my next turn.

Now with Kaldheim I will have a new instant add to the deck. And forgive any pun but it doubles down on the counter doubling for me! The new card is Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider.

For my deck it’s an insane card and increases the odds of me hitting a way to double my counters. That’s the bit I like a lot. A 6/6 with tramp and haste for 6 CMC is nice, and a green deck not a lot to pay, and possible to play early ahead of curve with the right ramp pieces in hand. And I have ramp in the deck. It’s green!

The final paragraph on the card is a really nice bonus. Which if I’m reading this correctly means that while Vorinclex is on the battlefield any Planeswalkers that opponents play comes in with half the counters on it! Which means it takes longer for an opponent to ultimate them and gives me and others longer to remove the Planeswalker. Plus it negates single +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters being placed if my understanding of the text is correct. But making sure that whatever permanent the other player brings in with counters is smaller is amazing.

So in my deck this is a monstrous card indeed. I think you can see now why I am excited about the card.

Hodge podge

Commander, magic, MtG, RPG

We are now in to the last few days before Christmas. A Christmas that will be unusual for many. Where time will be spent away from loved ones instead of with them.

Over on the Fenland Gamer discord server we have a game of chess in progress. Which at the moment looks mainly to be between Jonathan and myself. Gavin did suggest a couple of moves. But otherwise it hasn’t captured anyone else’s imagination and had them participate.

Sitting in my pile of RPGs to try are the new Fate Condensed rules, and the Fate Space Toolkit (a source book for running space themed Fate sessions).

It’s looking like the Cyberpunk Red core rules won’t be hitting the UK FLGS’s until the new year. It’s the now expected reasons for the delay of current world events. So I’ll try and get a copy then.

The last couple of days have seen the start of the Kaldheim spoilers.

If I remember correctly Kaldheim is a viking inspired set.

There have been a couple of cards spoilt that will be insane in my elf tribal Commander deck. Elven Ambush (below) potentially could give me an insane number of elves on the battlefield. With cards like Essence Warden (life gain), Elvish Vanguard (gets bigger), Ivy Lane Denizen (+1/+1 counter) also giving a major benefit from playing it.

Canopy Tactician gives a nice Lord effect making everything else bigger, and taps for 3 mana.

I like Sarulf, Realm Eater. I’d like to use it in the new deck I have in the works.

There are some nice looking angels as well in this set. And I really do need to revisit my angel deck and update it. Especially since Iona got banned.

Naturally I have preordered the two Commander decks that will be coming out along side Kaldheim. Plus a couple of the white and green themed boosters. I also have a prerelease kit preordered too. I’m still deciding whether I’ll get a draft booster or just a gift box.

I’m also tempted to pick up some of the excess prerelease kits that my FLGS has left over from previous sets. Thanks to world events times have been hard for all FLGS’s. It’s because of this that this rare opportunity is an option. Under normal circumstances this would not even be possible because they get sold out prerelease weekend. It’d be cool to use some as prizes once physical MtG is possible again to once more try and get something started locally.