Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS
This week's CommanderCast has Andy and his right-hand man Carlos joined by newcomer Justin, CommanderCast's first DCI Judge guest-commentator and all-around baller. Justin was present for our first call-in show (the second is coming!) and also recently began writing for CommanderCast with his most recent article. I wouldn't be surprised to see Justin join the ranks of CommanderCast regulars as he fits into the show's crew quite well.
This week we're talking about the upcoming Commander product, 1-drops, barriers to entry for the format, and some other odds and ends. Be advised we recorded this on Wednesday last week, and literally saw Kaalia five minutes before recording the segment about new cards. After I finished having a 'joy seizure' and composed myself, we were all quite excited to discuss the ups and downs of the new set. We don't normally talk about unreleased product on CommanderCast, but how many times are we likely to see a product released specficially for the niche subgenre of the game we podcast about? It seemed like the best time to break the rule.
Join us next week where we'll be giving the raw, gritty, hands-on reviews from our initial days of playing with the new product! You can also get in on the action by e-mailing us your experiences with the precons and ideas for taking the new cards in bold and money-making new directions.
As a few quick reminders before you start listening to the show:
- Season 3 Contest. This one has been awesome, but time is running out! Get your entries in NOW!
- The Deckbuilding Challenge, in the upper-left corner, has moved on to Phase 2. Have your say!
- Check out the mid-week update on Thursday. It may be the last (for realz), before mutating into something new and... awesome?
Show notes and links below. Enjoy!
00:00 to 05:05: Intro: Introducing the podcast, your hosts, and a brief rundown of podcast news for the week.
COMMUNITY
05:15 to 06:08: Deckbuilding Challenge: White-Border Only: PHASE TWO ENGAGE. In the second voting segment of the Deckbuilding Challenge, we're picking a colour! Our Commander will be from Portal: Three Kingdoms, one of Magic's most exotic sets ever that just so happens to be white-bordered.
06:20 to 20:18: Free-For-All Roundtable: Commander Tower: One of the spoiled cards for the Commander product, the Commander Tower is a fascinating and somewhat controversial card. Delve into the discussion with this roundtable!
20:25 to 35:38: Barriers to Entry: Commander is probably Magic's fastest-growing format. Can I support that statement with evidence? Of course not. But will there be barriers to entry for these new Commander players, and are new ones cropping up? How can we deal with these as a community to strengthen the horde of 100-card deck slingers?
STRATEGY
35:48 to 58:18: Archetype Rundown: Ramp: A focused discussion on the ramp archetypes, broken down into both Artifact-based and Land-based. Why play these, and how do you fight them? Similar to our past segments on these subjects, but unique as we examine the two subsects of Ramp-style decks in parallel.
TECHNOLOGY
58:31 to 1:09:28: Curving Out: 1-Drops: In a new series, we're looking at points on the mana curve and suggesting some cards for them individually. Dialing things back from our discussions on Ramp strategies, we take things back to the foundations of MtG with the simple, yet oft-overlooked one-drop. In Commander, a card with a CMC of one needs to be truly awesome to hold up to a format where colossal-cost bombs are thrown throughout games. We each pick a creature and non-creature CMC one spell to put on a pedestal.
Andy's Picks:
Mystic Remora and Entrails Feaster
Justin's Picks:
Voyager Staff and Spikeshot Elder
Carlos' Picks:
Exploration and Weathered Wayfarer
1:09:40 to 1:11:14: Preview Card Hype Session: We take a look nat the upcoming Commander sets, examining the cards that excite us, take a brief detour into Hater Country to rag on what doesn't work for us, and then swing back into pure, unfettered glee to talk about the Commanders we can't wait to put our filthy hands on.
Carlos' Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Acorn Catapult
Biggest Disappointment: Ruhan of the Fumori
Favourite Commander: The Mimeoplasm
Justin's Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Hydra Omnivore
Biggest Disappointment: Karador, Ghost Chieftan
Favourite Commander: Kaalia of the Vast
Andy's Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Mana-Charged Dragon
Biggest Disappointment: Basandra, Battle Seraph
Favourite Commander: Kaalia of the Vast
COMMUNITY
05:15 to 06:08: Deckbuilding Challenge: White-Border Only: PHASE TWO ENGAGE. In the second voting segment of the Deckbuilding Challenge, we're picking a colour! Our Commander will be from Portal: Three Kingdoms, one of Magic's most exotic sets ever that just so happens to be white-bordered.
06:20 to 20:18: Free-For-All Roundtable: Commander Tower: One of the spoiled cards for the Commander product, the Commander Tower is a fascinating and somewhat controversial card. Delve into the discussion with this roundtable!
20:25 to 35:38: Barriers to Entry: Commander is probably Magic's fastest-growing format. Can I support that statement with evidence? Of course not. But will there be barriers to entry for these new Commander players, and are new ones cropping up? How can we deal with these as a community to strengthen the horde of 100-card deck slingers?
STRATEGY
35:48 to 58:18: Archetype Rundown: Ramp: A focused discussion on the ramp archetypes, broken down into both Artifact-based and Land-based. Why play these, and how do you fight them? Similar to our past segments on these subjects, but unique as we examine the two subsects of Ramp-style decks in parallel.
TECHNOLOGY
58:31 to 1:09:28: Curving Out: 1-Drops: In a new series, we're looking at points on the mana curve and suggesting some cards for them individually. Dialing things back from our discussions on Ramp strategies, we take things back to the foundations of MtG with the simple, yet oft-overlooked one-drop. In Commander, a card with a CMC of one needs to be truly awesome to hold up to a format where colossal-cost bombs are thrown throughout games. We each pick a creature and non-creature CMC one spell to put on a pedestal.
Andy's Picks:
Mystic Remora and Entrails Feaster
Justin's Picks:
Voyager Staff and Spikeshot Elder
Carlos' Picks:
Exploration and Weathered Wayfarer
1:09:40 to 1:11:14: Preview Card Hype Session: We take a look nat the upcoming Commander sets, examining the cards that excite us, take a brief detour into Hater Country to rag on what doesn't work for us, and then swing back into pure, unfettered glee to talk about the Commanders we can't wait to put our filthy hands on.
Carlos' Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Acorn Catapult
Biggest Disappointment: Ruhan of the Fumori
Favourite Commander: The Mimeoplasm
Justin's Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Hydra Omnivore
Biggest Disappointment: Karador, Ghost Chieftan
Favourite Commander: Kaalia of the Vast
Andy's Picks:
Non-Legendary Card of Choice: Mana-Charged Dragon
Biggest Disappointment: Basandra, Battle Seraph
Favourite Commander: Kaalia of the Vast
1:41:47 to closing: Outtro.
PERTINENT LINKS
- Season 3 Contest (in case you somehow missed the other links or something)
- Justin's Article from the mid-week update.
- The Command Tower, and here's the complete visual spoiler for new cards.
- Brian's blog, the Command Zone.
- Carlos' Valakut deck article.
CONTACT INFORMATION
- General show contact/E-Mail Andy: CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com
- To E-Mail Carlos: cag5383(at)gmail(dot)com
- To E-Mail Justin: jagteq(at)gmail(dot)com
- To Tweet Andy: (at)CommanderCast on Twitter
Command Tower has been interesting to watch.
ReplyDeleteI've seen far more people bitching about the design philosophy of this card than I ever thought possible.
People complaining about it being lazy and whatnot. It's almost as if they're missing the entire damn point of the card; a multicolor land that helps EDH but does nothing for Legacy.
Whodathunkit?
A barrier to entry for me was those guys.
MY first experience with paper EDH, I refuse to call it a game, was in a 4 way game.
I was playing Godo, the guy to my right Wort the Raidmother.
The guys across the table were Augustin and Sharuum.
Needless to say, I did not have fun.
But I talked with people, and my local scene appears to be mostly people who don't feast on the blood of children, so I gave te format a second chance with the Commander product, and so far, I'm not regretting it.
Nice one drops.
One of my favorite non-creatures (and I'm not going to be a cheap lazy bastard and use one of the Mirage tutors as an example) is
Gerrard's Battle Cry. Most of the comments made towards Selesnya Guildmage apply towards this as well.
Mother of Runes. The capacity to hose spot removal is decent enough, depending on your meta. But letting your voltron general, or otherwise a creature that really wants to deal combat damage, deal that combat damage through enemy blockers is where she really shines. Never a dead card in my book.
Finally, I can talk about what really bugged me about this show;
Hatin' on Basandra.
Don't get me wrong, making her first ability symmetrical seems stupid to the absolute highest degree of stupid. But I mean you wouldn't say build a Rakdos deck where Rakdos is the only demon, so I can't imagine why you would even talk about Basandra being in a deck with Condemn or Fight to the Death (someone mentioned Master Warcraft. Master Warcraft still works with Basandra.)
Rather, I would be interested in building around her Bullwhip ability.
I think we're all in agreement that bullwhip is awesome and abuseable, so I think there's plenty of room to build around her.
Let's start with the obvious:
Caltrops
Lightmine Field
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Fumiko the Lowblood
Patron of the Kitsune
Powerstine Minefield
Righteous Cause
War's Toll
Darien, King of Kjeldor
Farsight Mask
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
Also, a card from M12 was found in the Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 game files:
Circle of Flame
1R
Enchantment
Whenever a creature without flying attacks you or a planeswalkeryou control, Circle of Flame deals 1 damage to that creature.
Is she ideal? No.
Is her symmetry powerfully stupid? Yes.
But she provides different building opportunities than the other RW legends, so I can't give her too much crap.
Plus her art is glorious!