Category Archives: Commander

Kill me I dare you, I’ll only come back stronger

Commander, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Back at the start of July you had to endure a post of mine pontificating about plans for a future Commander deck built around big blue creatures such as leviathans, kraken, octopuses, squids etc. A blue version of the green stompy deck basically.

Well I’m still undecided about a Commander for the deck. I don’t really have any candidates yet to consider. So undecided is a bit of an exaggeration, more haven’t a bloody clue.

However I do have a card I want to include in the deck. It’s a fun card that requires the following 3 tokens.

The card I found when it dies creates the 3/3 fish token. Which snowballs up to that 9/9 Kraken token.

So what creature starts off this insane sequence of events?

This is kind of an anti-removal card. It’s not in my opponents interests to board wipe, or remove the creature because it gets replaced by something much bigger. It’s initially a bit like the Raptor Hatchling. A chump blocker that gives me something bigger. Yeah this discourages an opponent attacking too.

I like cards like this, Rekindling Phoenix, the Dragon Egg token, it makes them hard to remove, or punishes your opponents for attacking by making you stronger or giving you some benefit. The only way to stop that dying ability triggering is exile.

Plus I can kick this whole sequence of events off myself. If I have to sacrifice a creature, guess which one it will be? If I have to place a -1/-1 counter, do damage to a creature I control. The target will be this creature if it’s out. Why wouldn’t I? It’s win win for me.

Could this be my Commander?

Would give me access to the green ramp, is fairly cheap, and thematic.

Graveyard Shenanigans with Muldrotha Early Look

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

This is an early look at some of the cards I’m putting (at the moment) into my Muldrotha graveyard shenanigans Commander deck.

Naturally considering the name of the deck, Muldrotha, the Gravetide is my Commander.

Which means this deck is all about treating the graveyard as an extension of your hand. So I actually want cards in my graveyard.

So there are cards that have me discarding or sacrificing as part of their cost. Which is fine because these are cards are not gone, I can bring them back either to my hand with spells or use my commanders ability.

I’m also using cards that make use of landfall, or lands on the battlefield and graveyard.

But what’s my win condition? How am I going to win the game? I think it’s going to have to be swing in with creatures. I know at the moment I’m light on the creature front. I think I’ll aim for 25 in total. What the remaining 12 will be I’m not sure.

I know on the spell front I need some targeted removal, especially for getting rid of potential graveyard hate. Can’t have people disrupting the game plan. Because graveyard hate is a big threat to the deck. With access to blue, I can include some counter spells, black will give me access to some board wipes.

Yes Sol Ring, Field of Ruins, Evolving Wilds, and Command Tower will be in the deck. They are a given really.

I need to do more research on the card front for sure.

Ok here are the cards so far.

Creatures:13

1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Eternal Witness
1 Isareth the Awakener
1 Gravedigger
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 World Shaper
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
1 Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar
1 Protean Hulk
1 Torgaar, Famine Incarnate

Spells:11

1 Crop Rotation
1 Vessel of Nascency
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Harrow
1 Krosan Grip
1 Sultai Charm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Scapeshift
1 The Mending of Dominaria
1 Worm Harvest

Watching paint dry

Commander, magic, MtG

In this awful lizard weather there isn’t much going on. Well most of my friends are working while I have a day or two off. Due to swapping jobs I have less holiday over this summer than normal, so I’ve used some of it this week to be around to help Mum as she recovers from last weeks dalliances with ill health.

I have sourced a booster box of Battlebond for a good price that should be with me the end of next week. So like the booster box of Conspiracy 2 I have sitting around, the plan is to draft them with my friends, play some Magic, put the cards into a cube themed on that booster box. Then I can draft that set whenever I want with my friends. Plan is to do this also with Unstable. That’s been the plan/dream I’ve talked about before on hear. The reality of getting folks together to play makes it much harder than how simple it sounds.

Yesterday also saw me buy some paints and primer. Yes that old I must learn to paint my minis has cropped up again. I’ve done the dead easy bit on one of the halfling wizards, I’ve applied the primer. Along side it I’ve primed a spare plastic model that I will use to practice techniques on before trying them for real. I just need to muster the energy and enthusiasm up to continue on with this project. Especially in this heat.

Now I’ve bored you enough with the mundane happenings of life in the super slow lane of the middle aged, here is some more Commander 2018 spoilers…

So what goodies did yesterday’s spoilers bring us?

Well the third Planeswalker along with these cards that caught my eye. Naturally these are not all,of the cards that were spoiled. Just the ones that I liked the look of and said wow that would be good in deck xxx.

I’m really loving the storm series with these decks. Much better than those curses from 2017. Taking those curses out were the first thing I or anyone did when upgrading those decks. I can see and appreciate the design/idea about them. I just think they were bad. This storm series I can see myself getting hold of extra copies of these cards.

Plus there is a card that gives me a hard decision about stepping out of the horrors from the deep deck idea being mono blue.

Angel Tribal Commander Initial Version

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


Back to back deck techs, this time it’s my initial version of my Angel Tribal deck. This was a deck that I had been planning and thinking about on and off for few months before it actually became a reality.

Can you guess the game plan for this deck? Yep death from above. The flying version of big stompy. But it has a plan B! Plan B just so happens to be Approach of the Second Sun. Not much of a back up plan I know.

The hardest decision for this deck for me I think was who to have the Commander. I nearly went with a multi-coloured Commander. But it was hard enough being mono coloured and cutting cards. Add in cards from another colour, and mana fixing cards.

I’m so happy with the theme in this deck. It really comes across in the card names or the art.

I did surprise myself that I didn’t go bigger on the tribal cards. I suppose it helps that a few of the angels give others buffs of some kind when played. Whether that’s +1/+1 counters, lifelink, vigilance, etc all of a sudden my battlefield can become quite scary.

So let’s look at the stats etc for this deck.

The AMC doesn’t surprise me. And considering that angels are generally costly creatures to cast, the mana curve is not a surprise either. What was a surprise was the cost of building the deck if I was to buy it today. Bloody hell it’s expensive. For a deck that’s meant to be a fun casual thing to play. Wow!

Commander: Lyra Dawnbringer

Here is that all unimportant deck list.

Creatures:29

1 Angelic Wall
1 Angel of Condemnation
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Gisela, the Broken Blade
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Restoration Angel
1 Angel of Invention
1 Angel of Sanctions
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Herald of the Host
1 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Reaper of Flight Moonsilver
1 Serra Angel
1 Aegis Angel
1 Angel of Renewal
1 Angel of the God-Pharaoh
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Serra’s Guardian
1 Subjugator Angel
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Winged Shepherd
1 Angel of Retribution
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Reya Dawnbringer

Spells:36

1 Authority of the Consuls
1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Land Tax
1 Path to Exile
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ashes of the Abhorrent
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Pearl Medallion
1 Rest in Peace
1 Take Vengeance
1 Thought Vessel
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Herald’s Horn
1 Invoke the Divine
1 Teferi’s Protection
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Angelic Accord
1 Cast Out
1 Day of Judgment
1 Helm of the Host
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Regna’s Sanction
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Thran Temporal Gateway
1 Wrath of God
1 Fumigate
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 Austere Command
1 Hour of Revelation
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Approach of the Second Sun
1 Overwhelming Splendor

Lands:35

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Field of Ruin
33 Plains

So that is my initial angel deck. What next? Well there are some new cards in Core set 2019 that I want to look at. Will they be good enough to force their way in?

Sunday Commanderin

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

Sunday saw some 40k players taking part in a tournament over at Chatteris.

Luckily there was enough space for not only these miniature gamers but also other gaming like MtG and board games. So an invite was issued for others to come and make use of it.

My FLGS The Hobbit Hole was holding a MtG Standard Showdown, some of us had turned up to play Commander, other general board gaming.

With a failed attempt (once again) to organise a Commander session the previous day to play the new Anthology. I had decided to use the opportunity to play on Sunday to pick up my 2 copies.

When I arrived there was already a Commander game running using a couple of the new reprinted decks. The Atraxa deck being played had a Doubling Season added to it. So while that was going on I picked up my order and opened one up. I then immediately started sleeving the Atraxa deck. This is a deck I really wanted to play. For me it was almost at a mythic/legendary status because of its high cost to buy since coming out in 2016.

In the game currently running, the Atraxa deck was doing it’s thing. However I wish I was paying attention to what the other deck was from the Anthology being played was, because that was the one that ended up victorious.

I really like the presentation of the Anthology set. The only drawback I can think off is instead of the little included leaflet that is more flavour text for the deck than helpful, is a little bit about the tactics, how to play the deck for newer players. A “it would be nice to have” for these anthologies (this includes both sets) is the giant version of the Commander cards that come with the Commander decks when they were sold separately (I’m assuming that the older decks had these).

While the Standard Showdown was going on, 3 of us played Commander. I played my Dinosaur Tribal deck that now had Helm of the Host in it. Sam, John’s daughter played my Atraxa deck, and our third player was playing a Meren deck and all that graveyard shenanigans.

Sadly for the Meren player they were not really allowed to get the graveyard shenanigans going. I was forced by them to do an earlier than planned exiling of graveyards when they went to destroy my Silent Gravestone. But after that the Atraxa deck was exiling cards at will with one of their cards where they spend a swamp to exile a card from a graveyard, and if it’s a creature get a +1/+1 counter. Both our graveyards were hit that way.

I was starting to get a commanding board state, Rampaging Fericidon, and Gishath were out amongst others. Then bam, board wipe. But I was able to rebuild. Bought out my Commander, then Etali came out. I drew into Helm of the Hosts, and after my thinking, equipped Etali with it. Which with a kindred charge played, meant for one turn I was attacking with 3 Etali. Yes just think about that. That turn I killed the Meren player. Next turn Atraxa went down.

My deck had clicked. The Atraxa deck looks a lot of fun and I can’t wait to play it, both the standard unchanged deck, and a modified one. Yes I’m going to do the $20 budget upgrade from mtggoldfish as my starting point.

Sadly I wasn’t able to stick around for a second game of Commander, I made a poor judgement call earlier in the day. If I’d picked up the cat litter on my way out of town I’d have been able to play on. Sadly I didn’t think of that at the time, or I did and was too lazy. But the end result was I needed to hit the pet shop before it shut.

A big thanks to the 40K players for opening up the event to none players to use as well. Had a great afternoon.

Tribal Staples For Commander

Commander, magic, MtG, Uncategorized

I think most of you know by now a lot of the things I do are based on random finds on the internet. I’m not researching for anything, I’m just doing my normal happy go lucky stuff on the internet. And so it was while I was watching some of the regular channels on YouTube that they recommended a video by the Planeswalker Project titled “Ten Cards to Pick Up for Commander 2017“. Naturally these were cards that played on the tribal theme. So I watched the video, picked a handful and got them in.
To the cards that I got in from that list I’ve added 2 from the Ixalan block (Vanquisher’s Banner, and Radiant Destiny).

So what I present here are the cards that form my tribal staples. These are are cards that are like the Commander staples such as Sol Ring, are auto includes in any tribal deck that I build.

Here are 3 cards that although not specifically tribal, that fit really well in a tribal deck, or any deck really (colours allowing).


What are your Commander Tribal staples?

Mono Red Commander Deck

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

I listen to a podcast about Commander ( I actually listen to about 3 on this specific topic unsurprisingly) called Commanderin. There has been comments over the episodes of a mono red commander deck built by one of the hosts that they have two versions of. One with land hate and one without. Depending on the group they are playing with and the stance on mass land destruction decides on which version of the deck is played.

I liked the sound of this deck, and thought I’d build my own. I made a half hearted effort to find the deck list but didn’t find it. So I started researching red land hate cards. I had one already Blood Sun.

I also needed a win condition, so I went with some big or biggish red creatures that I could then swing in with multiple times in a turn. Yeah I have a couple of cards that gave me a second or multiple combat phases.

Eventually I did find that deck list. Surprisingly we both went with the multiple combat phases, although I think my deck is more hateful on the land front. I like the recycling of the graveyard, and discarding hands and drawing new hands. So I’ve taken that idea to use in my none hate version of the deck.

The Commander for these two mono red decks is the insane Etali, Primal Storm.

Both versions make use of the multiple attack phases on a turn.

Here are the mana curves and amc for both versions of the deck.

Let’s get to the two different versions of the deck, which you will find side by side below. Please remember these are initial versions of these decks. Particularly the none hate version. I’d like to add an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre at some point. Plus add one or two more cards that discard cards from the opponents. I might also look at even adding more none basic lands.

Mass Land Hate None Mass Land Hate

Creatures:26

1 Fanatical Firebrand

1 Harsh Mentor

1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

1 Raptor Hatchling

1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

1 Combat Celebrant

1 Magus of the Moon

1 Rampaging Ferocidon

1 Scalding Salamander

1 Zo-Zu the Punisher

1 Captivating Crew

1 Hazoret the Fervent

1 Needletooth Raptor

1 Purphoros, God of the Forge

1 Rekindling Phoenix

1 Charging Monstrosaur

1 Charging Tuskodon

1 Crimson Honor Guard

1 Glorybringer

1 Heartless Hidetsugu

1 Keldon Firebombers

1 Neheb, the Eternal

1 Burning Sun’s Avatar

1 Etali, Primal Storm

1 Angrath’s Marauders

1 Bearer of the Heavens

Creatures:29

1 Fanatical Firebrand

1 Harsh Mentor

1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

1 Narnam Cobra

1 Raptor Hatchling

1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

1 Combat Celebrant

1 Magus of the Wheel

1 Rampaging Ferocidon

1 Scalding Salamander

1 Captivating Crew

1 Golden Guardian

1 Hazoret the Fervent

1 Needletooth Raptor

1 Purphoros, God of the Forge

1 Rekindling Phoenix

1 Charging Monstrosaur

1 Charging Tuskodon

1 Crimson Honor Guard

1 Glorybringer

1 Heartless Hidetsugu

1 Neheb, the Eternal

1 Burning Sun’s Avatar

1 Etali, Primal Storm

1 Hellkite Charger

1 Angrath’s Marauders

1 Tyrant of Valakut

1 Bearer of the Heavens

1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Spells:42

1 Blazing Volley

1 By Force

1 Sol Ring

1 Abrade

1 Armillary Sphere

1 Boom // Bust

1 Comet Storm

1 Crook of Condemnation

1 Dowsing Dagger

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Pyroclasm

1 Thaumatic Compass

1 Aggravated Assault

1 Blood Moon

1 Blood Sun

1 Crystal Chimes

1 Devour in Flames

1 Hazoret’s Monument

1 Insult // Injury

1 Open Fire

1 Shake the Foundations

1 Worn Powerstone

1 Blood Mist

1 Boiling Seas

1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

1 Flame Lash

1 Flashfires

1 Hedron Archive

1 Melt Terrain

1 Nevinyrral’s Disk

1 Ruination

1 Vance’s Blasting Cannons

1 Violent Impact

1 Boulder Salvo

1 Hour of Devastation

1 Mana Geyser

1 Mass Mutiny

1 Sunbird’s Invocation

1 The Immortal Sun

1 Wake of Destruction

1 Star of Extinction

1 Obliterate

Spells:38

1 Blazing Volley

1 By Force

1 Sol Ring

1 Abrade

1 Comet Storm

1 Crook of Condemnation

1 Dowsing Dagger

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Pyroclasm

1 Thaumatic Compass

1 Thought Vessel

1 Aggravated Assault

1 Blood Sun

1 Chaos Warp

1 Crystal Chimes

1 Devour in Flames

1 Hazoret’s Monument

1 Insult // Injury

1 Mirage Mirror

1 Open Fire

1 Shake the Foundations

1 Worn Powerstone

1 Blood Mist

1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

1 Flame Lash

1 Hedron Archive

1 Nevinyrral’s Disk

1 Past in Flames

1 Vance’s Blasting Cannons

1 Violent Impact

1 Boulder Salvo

1 Hour of Devastation

1 Mana Geyser

1 Mass Mutiny

1 Sunbird’s Invocation

1 The Immortal Sun

1 Disaster Radius

1 Star of Extinction

Lands:32

32 Mountain

Lands:33

1 Arcane Lighthouse

32 Mountain

Elf Tribal Commander Deck

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

The basis for this deck is the 2014 and Commander Anthology Guided by Nature Commander Deck. I was going to create an Elf Tribal deck from scratch, but after playing the mentioned deck there were a lot of cards that I’d want for my deck. So I bought a secondhand copy of Guided by Nature to change. Why reinvent the wheel, or most of it?

Like my other tribal decks there are some staples I’m now including in all my tribal decks. This Elf deck particularly generates lots of 1/1 token creatures. These are particularly vulnerable to cards like Blazing Volley, Scalding Salamander, or XXX, that can clear the battlefield of tokens and small creatures. These tribal cards amongst other things buff up my creatures protecting them from such cards. I think the last piece to my jigsaw will be to find an affordable (ie cheap) card that gives all my creatures indestructible.

The game plan for this deck is simple. It goes wide really fast. But the idea isn’t to really to swing in with lots of little creatures. Elf decks exploit this numerical advantage in other ways, like generating lots of mana, life, or buffing a creature. With the tribal cards that swing in with lots of not so small creatures is an option. But in reality it will be swinging in with one or two pumped up creatures.

Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury will remain the Commander for this deck. Her +2 loyalty ability is what we are really after. Getting a 1/1 Elf Druid token that taps for mana. Ramp, and spamming the board with elves perfect. Her -2 loyalty ability is also pretty handy too. It’s there but not sure I’d use the ultimate. Plus I think the ultimate isn’t very threatening. Her +2 is the dangerous ability, and why opponents will target her.

I’ve played around with the decks mana base. Changed one or two of the non basic lands, and reduced the number of basic lands from 25 to 16! Which means I’m playing 28 lands in total. But with a Growing Rites of Itlimoc, a couple of mana rocks, elves that tap for mana I don’t think mana is going to be an issue. Plus there are a fair few cards in the deck that allow me to go search for a land.

Here is the deck list.

Counts : 100 main

Creatures:37

1 Boreal Druid
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Elvish Skysweeper
1 Essence Warden
1 Ezuri’s Archers
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Druid of the Cowl
1 Elvish Vanguard
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Leaf Gilder
1 Priest of Titania
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Wellwisher
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Branchbender
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Lifespring Druid
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Timberwatch Elf
1 Titania’s Chosen
1 Drove of Elves
1 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
1 Immaculate Magistrate
1 Ivy Lane Denizen
1 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Masked Admirers
1 Wild Wanderer
1 Wildheart Invoker
1 Yeva, Nature’s Herald
1 Tajuru Pathwarden
1 Elegant Edgecrafters
1 Gladehart Cavalry

Spells:34

1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Stoneforge Masterwork
1 Emerald Medallion
1 Land Grant
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lull
1 Moss Diamond
1 Steely Resolve
1 Thought Vessel
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Herald’s Horn
1 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
1 Presence of Gond
1 Pulse of Murasa
1 Root Out
1 Hunting Triad
1 Whirlwind
1 Coat of Arms
1 Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury
1 Overwhelming Stampede
1 Predator, Flagship
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 Desert Twister
1 Grim Flowering
1 Obelisk of Urd
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Wave of Vitriol
1 Zendikar Resurgent
1 Praetor’s Counsel

Lands:28

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Evolving Wilds
16 Forest
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Havenwood Battleground
1 Jungle Basin
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Scavenger Grounds
1 Slippery Karst
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Thicket

Magical Wizard Wars

Commander, magic, MtG

What happens when 2 wizards go to war? Well if you are the third person at that stand off you get to sit on the side watching fire balls and enchantments fly around.

Today in a pretty fun Commander game 2 arcane wizardry decks went up against each other, while a Hapatra snake token deck mainly got to do nothing.

My arcane wizardry deck has been upgraded to be focused around Kess as the commander, and her ability. So it has less focus on getting wizards out on the battle field, and more focus on instants and sorceries, and playing them multiple times using Kess’s ability and naturally other spells that do a similar thing or make a copy of a spell that has been cast. Most of my upgrade is based on the $20 upgrade from this MTGoldfish article. I’ve strayed a little with the odd card. And I’ll put the list I’m playing with up at some point soon. I did find at one point in this game wishing I had an unlimited hand size. I can fix that by trying to squeeze in a Thought Vessel.

The other wizard at the table was also using the arcane wizardry deck but with no upgrades, and had Inalla as the commander. So they wanted to get lots of wizards out to make use of Inalla’s ability.

By the end of the game Hapatra was costing 18 mana to get out. Yeah we were controlling that battlefield. These wizard decks are reactive, especially mine. So it must have been a bit frustrating for the student. I have to admit it almost became a challenge how much can we push up that casting cost of Hapatra?

By the time it had come to delivering my winning blow I had about 8 2/2 blue drakes on the field. Not bad for a deck not specifically aimed at playing creatures.

My killing blow was most apt for a Kess deck. I cast a Comet Storm, with an X of 28, kicked, and because I paid one of the 2 mountains required using a transformed Primal Amulet I was able to copy the spell!

I know after playing this game I need a card in that gives me an unlimited hand size. It would have come in real handy when I pulled back all my instants and sorceries from the graveyard to avoid them being exiled by a bit of graveyard hate. I have an artefact that will do this. But what do I lose to fit it in?

From the spoilers I’ve seen for Dominaria (the next set), there are one or two wizards that would sit nicely in an upgraded Inalla deck. I know there are a couple of angels I want in my angel deck. I’m hoping to have the first attempt at the Elf Tribal deck done next week. Then it’s some play testing. Followed by getting the angel deck done.