If you are not familiar with the works of Mr. Lansdell, I recommend you investigate them; the toils of his authorship are readily available on Mana Deprived, and his podcast Horde of Notions can be found by following the link. Both should provide with an idea of what Chris is all about and hopefully leave you informed and entertained.
Anyway, this week's battery of topics was rounded up in a five-minute Skype scrum loaded with sexist jokes, gay innuendos, and Simpsons references, so you know this is another quality episode of CommanderCast. I'm glad you guys keep coming back.
Also, don't forget to vote on the Deckbuilding Challenge in the upper-left corner and get your sharpies out for the Season 3 Contest!
Show notes and links below. Enjoy.
00:00 to 03:05: Intro: Introducing the podcast, your hosts, and a brief rundown of podcast news for the week.
COMMUNITY
03:14 to 14:54: Free-For-All Roundtable: Poison Round 2: Back in Season One Episode 4, we did a Roundtable on poison, ultimately deciding we should probably wait and see what the completed Mirrodin/Phyrexia block brought to the table. Now we have all those tools. How do we feel about Poison in Commander?
14:05 to 17:05: Spotlight: CMDRDecks: If you remember the Deckbuilder's Spotlight in Season One of CommanderCast, this is something similar and better. CMDRDecks is a YouTube channel that updates every Friday with videos of deck rundowns sent in to the administrator. Give them a look in you're into this kind of thing, the content is some of the best of this kind out there.
17:15 to 36:42: Growing Your Game: Based on Chris' recent article, we talk about growing the game. Hopefully nobody is listening to CommanderCast and not playing Commander due to a lack of local players, but it can never hurt to have more. In this segment, we discuss how to encourage growth of your local scene and the tools you have at your disposal for this. We also touch on building an online playgroup that everyone finds mutually agreeable, and generally talk about how to serve as an ambassador for Commander.
STRATEGY
36:53 to 53:58: Archetype Rundown: Token Swarm: We're talking about how to play a Token Swarm-type deck to overrun your opponents with a crush of tokeny mans. Why bother with this archetype? Where will they fare well, and what are the weaknesses? Which decks give a Token deck the most trouble?
54:12 to 1:07:07: False Idols: 1-for-1s are Bad: Tearing down another of Commander's false idols, this week we're ripping the notion 1-for-1s are bad to shreds. Spot removal and the like are commonly looked down upon for not supplying card advantage, but they also serve a vital role that some people are seemingly losing sight of. Listen to this segment, and start putting Nature's Claim in your decks.
TECHNOLOGY
1:07:20 to 1:20:14: Technology: Secret Tech: Chris Edition: You know it, you love it. Secret Tech is back up in this bitch.
Chris' Picks:
Common: Armillary Sphere, Sprout Swarm, Whitemane Lion
Uncommon: Return to Dust, Treacherous Urge, Clutch of the Undercity
Rare: Phyrexian Rebirth, Planar Portal, Radiate
1:20:28 to 1:39:14: Technology: Humiliating Losses of Chump Cards: Sometimes you lose a game. Sometimes, you also lose a bit of dignity in the process. Listen as we form a tear-soaked support group over our losses to embarrassing cards.
Donovan's Humiliator: Dust Corona
Andy's Downfall: Leechridden Swamp
Chris' Dominatrix: Uril the Miststalker (?)
Carlos' Harbinger of Failure: Sorrow's Path (OH NO...)
COMMUNITY
03:14 to 14:54: Free-For-All Roundtable: Poison Round 2: Back in Season One Episode 4, we did a Roundtable on poison, ultimately deciding we should probably wait and see what the completed Mirrodin/Phyrexia block brought to the table. Now we have all those tools. How do we feel about Poison in Commander?
14:05 to 17:05: Spotlight: CMDRDecks: If you remember the Deckbuilder's Spotlight in Season One of CommanderCast, this is something similar and better. CMDRDecks is a YouTube channel that updates every Friday with videos of deck rundowns sent in to the administrator. Give them a look in you're into this kind of thing, the content is some of the best of this kind out there.
17:15 to 36:42: Growing Your Game: Based on Chris' recent article, we talk about growing the game. Hopefully nobody is listening to CommanderCast and not playing Commander due to a lack of local players, but it can never hurt to have more. In this segment, we discuss how to encourage growth of your local scene and the tools you have at your disposal for this. We also touch on building an online playgroup that everyone finds mutually agreeable, and generally talk about how to serve as an ambassador for Commander.
STRATEGY
36:53 to 53:58: Archetype Rundown: Token Swarm: We're talking about how to play a Token Swarm-type deck to overrun your opponents with a crush of tokeny mans. Why bother with this archetype? Where will they fare well, and what are the weaknesses? Which decks give a Token deck the most trouble?
54:12 to 1:07:07: False Idols: 1-for-1s are Bad: Tearing down another of Commander's false idols, this week we're ripping the notion 1-for-1s are bad to shreds. Spot removal and the like are commonly looked down upon for not supplying card advantage, but they also serve a vital role that some people are seemingly losing sight of. Listen to this segment, and start putting Nature's Claim in your decks.
TECHNOLOGY
1:07:20 to 1:20:14: Technology: Secret Tech: Chris Edition: You know it, you love it. Secret Tech is back up in this bitch.
Chris' Picks:
Common: Armillary Sphere, Sprout Swarm, Whitemane Lion
Uncommon: Return to Dust, Treacherous Urge, Clutch of the Undercity
Rare: Phyrexian Rebirth, Planar Portal, Radiate
1:20:28 to 1:39:14: Technology: Humiliating Losses of Chump Cards: Sometimes you lose a game. Sometimes, you also lose a bit of dignity in the process. Listen as we form a tear-soaked support group over our losses to embarrassing cards.
Donovan's Humiliator: Dust Corona
Andy's Downfall: Leechridden Swamp
Chris' Dominatrix: Uril the Miststalker (?)
Carlos' Harbinger of Failure: Sorrow's Path (OH NO...)
1:39:51 to closing: Outtro.
PERTINENT LINKS
- Season 3 Contest (in case you somehow missed the other links or something)
- Chris' writings and podcastings
- Article on Growing Your Game
- My crappy YouTube videos from Season 1
- CMDRDeck's good YouTube videos
- Byron's "1-for-1s Aren't That Bad" video
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 Donovan: donokun(at)gmail(dot)com
- To E-Mail Chris: lansdellicious(at)gmail(dot)com
- To Tweet Andy: (at)CommanderCast on Twitter
When we recorded this, I totally forgot about Triumph of the Hordes, which is another Infect card that is actually great in Commander. Just for clarification, I still think Infect as a whole is fine, and I agree with Sheldon that nothing needs to be changed.
ReplyDeleteInfect decks will win games, but if you want to load up your deck with a bunch of fragile guys that don't do anything except swing, be my guest. I think the better strategy is to play a few "standalone" cards that give your deck an added dimension: Grafted Exoskeleton, Triumph of the Hordes, or even Phyrexian Hydra can really get there.
Great cast this week, guys! Chris was a cool guest, and this season overall is looking pretty sweet :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree on the "standalone" approach to Infect. Exoskeleton and Triumph of the Hordes have won me my fair share of games (although I feel a little dirty using Triumph). I've considered Corrupted Conscience as a Control Magic/Infect enabler, although I never drew it in any of my games. I wanted to use it as an alternate search target for Sovereigns of Lost Alara, but the Conscription was always first.
Most infect cards are garbage in EDH when played 'fairly'.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how metaing against a 'fair' infect deck by playing cheaper creatures for chump blocking is any different than dedicated hate towards other obnoxious strategies like prisonrape decks or the like.
The one for one stigma genuinely perplexes me.
Counterspells are 1 for 1s.
They're also the only way to say 'no' to backbreaking stuff like Insurrection, Time Stretch, Hex, etc. etc.
There are a number of permanents that can dominate the game in less than one go around the table;
Blightsteel, Debtor's Knell, the Praetors, Consecrated Sphinx, etc.
Being able to say 'no' to them if their a presence in your meta seems like a given.
Dudes with 187 effects seem like a given, I usually have no fewer than 3 duded that ETB shatter or naturalize in any red and/or green deck I play.
As far as instant speed goes, I'm fond of cycling cards.
Rather than Terror, I'd almost always consider Expunge in EDH.
The one mana difference seems negligible if I know I'm going to need the effect, and If it's a dead card, it isn't.
There's lots of cycling cards with that sort of flexibility at the expense of being 1 more expensive than their normal counterparts.