CommanderCast S3E12: Call-InFerno

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

It's our second listener participation show! The Call-InFerno returns from season two with more of our mans from around the world being jammed into a Skype room to contribute to CommanderCast's ongoing audioscape adventure! I had the privileged of being joined by nine insightful/funny/awesome guests who volunteered their time and voice to help me craft a new episode of CommanderCast. This one went extremely well, with virtually no hiccups on the technical side. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

On a quick side note, I'll be at Canadian Nationals in Toronto this weekend. If you want to play some Commander, throat-punch me for something I said on the podcast, or just haggle for drugs, hit me up via e-mail or Twitter and let me know your intentions.

>>>>> DOWNLOAD IN MP3 FORMAT HERE <<<<<

SHOW NOTES

00:00 to 03:30: Intro: A brief explanation of what you're listening to.

03:42 to 1:39:14: SUPER COMMUNITY TOPIC: CALL-IN SEGMENT

Caller: Dominic

Topic: Flavour Decks

• Dom's Link: The Ocean-Themed Deck
• Eyebot Memnite and some other alterations
• Farming-themed deck
• Elephant deck

Caller: Austin

Topic: Monocoloured VS Polycoloured Decks

• Atomic Baby decklist and article

Caller: Uriah

Topic: Foils, Foiling, and Alternative Pimpology

• CMDRDecks
• Sandreline and the alters she did for me
• Hippo Genocide 01
• Derfington, CommanderCast's Grand Imperial Archduke of Pimpology

Caller: Christian

Topic: International Magic

• The Ib Made of Ibs and Giant Sharks

Caller: Eli

Topic: Sacrifice Outlet Secret Tech

Eli's Choices: Viscera Seer, Martyr's Cause, Altar of Dementia, Skullmulcher

Donovan's Suggestions: Krovikan Horror

Andy's Picks: Sadistic Hypnotist, Read the Runes

Pat's Picks: Phyrexian Tower, Helm of Possession, Shivan Harvest, Carrion

• Bonus: Eli's 3D Wurmcoil Tokens and his cash-money Wrexial

Caller: Pat

Topic: Precons and Netdecking

Caller: Sean

Topic: Is Animar OP?

• Here's Sean's Animar List, should you be interested in building it yourself
• Sean's bonus link

Caller: Matt

Topic: 1v1 Commander

• Rules Committee's banned list
• French banned list (I have no idea how up to date this is)
• MTG Salvation banned list

Caller: Imshan

Topic: Playing Expensive Cards in Commander

• Pretty proxies in this thread
• Imshan's Chisei list (the only one I've seen so far)

1:39:28 to close: Outtro

Mid-Week Update: August 10

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

Wednesday means an update, as usual. This week we have the return of Old Man Fred, this week talking about Old Man Cards. Gather 'round, everybody, as he regales you with tales of Magic before there were things like 'Cycling' and 'Cumulative Upkeep' wasn't even a running joke. After talking to you about Mill strategy last week, he's returned to tell you about deckbuilding restrictions with an awesome retro twist.

Watch this space on Monday for the Call-In episode! It was super awesome and I want to thank everyone who participated yet again. This show can obviously only work with the help of our listeners. I really think you will all enjoy it.

LAST-SECOND ADDED BONUS: Peep this hotness courtesy of GU Doug aka Season 2 Contest Winner aka Mr. Mad Sick Alterations:

On to the article!

Creativity Thrives on Restriction
By Fred Cole
Fred’s General EDH Disclaimer:
What I’m about to say, while written to be as broad as possible, is not applicable to every person in every play group everywhere. If some guy in your play group uses Evil Eye of Orms-By-Gore in every deck, and that somehow makes what I’m about to say totally wrong, don’t flame me. Your mileage may vary.

As long as Mark Rosewater isn’t talking about EDH, he often has interesting and insightful things to say (this is not a dig at MR. I like MR. However, he stated in his article about EDH that he doesn’t play the format, and then went on to pontificate about how it should be changed). Before he came to work for WotC, he was a writer, including for the TV show Roseanne. He has lots of interesting things to say about writing and the idea of creativity.

One thing he wrote once, that the more I thought about the more I realized how true it was, is that creativity thrives on restriction. It’s very true. There are examples all throughout history and all over the world of people being restricted in some way, and finding a way because of sheer will. I am a firm believer in the idea that “where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Now in his discussion of creativity thriving on restriction, Mark Rosewater was talking about the limits of card design. I am not a card designer. I am a deck builder. So I’ll be talking about limitations in deck building.

Some History
More than ten years ago (my brief research on the subject could not yield an exact date) Extended rotated. My understanding is that now this is a normal occurrence, but the first time it happened, it was a shock.

Let me explain: Back in the day, there were two constructed formats: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 was every set plus a banned and restricted list. Type 2 was more recent sets plus a banned and restricted list. Yes, once upon a time, Type 2 had a restricted list.

Then they wanted to make seem Type 2 less luck based, so the restricted list became a banned list. Now you didn’t win or lose because you drew your one-of restricted power card. That’s when they created Type 1.5, with the same premise, the restricted cards from Type 1 became banned in 1.5. That’s why, for so many years, the 1.5 banned list was tied to the Type 1 restricted list. But back in the mid 1990s, people were afraid of power cards like Kird Ape and Hypnotic Specter (no, this is not a joke), so the format known as Extended, or Type 1.X was born. It was like 1.5, except better, because a few power cards like Kird Ape and Hypnotic Specter and Juggernaut were banned (no, really).

And everyone was happy, until WotC decided to screw with everything again around 1999.

They decided to rotate older sets out of Extended, including Revised and 4th Edition. Everyone went bonkers, because by this time, Extended was known as the format you could play dual lands in. Since they were so expensive (20 bucks each!), they made an exception; Revised and 4th Edition and several other expansions were rotated, but they made a specific exception for the ten original dual lands. But they said there would be another rotation in a few years, and they’d be rotated at that time.

And everyone was happy, except for me.

The Birth of Fred Block
See, I started playing in January of 1995. My first ever cards were from Revised, and my first expansion was from Fallen Empires. To clarify how long ago 1995 was, it was before the new tap symbol and before the new white mana symbol (did you know there was an old white mana symbol?).

I have a sentimental attachment to Revised and 4th Edition. For example, 4th Edition was the last time for several years they reprinted Lightning Bolt, Savannah Lions, Stasis, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, Swords to Plowshares, and several other cards that defined Magic for me in my early years.

So I was annoyed that I wouldn’t be able to play Lightning Bolt in Extended anymore. I knew of Type 1.5, but I didn’t play it regularly, nor was it as common or mainstream as Legacy is today. So, I piled all these cards that were no longer legal in Legacy into one box.

Then I hit on an idea. I could create a format where all these cards were legal. So I did.

Since I’m an egomaniac, I called it Fred Block. In it was any pre-Ice Age cards, and a very specific banned and restricted list, based on what was banned and restricted back around 1995, like Regrowth, Wheel of Fortune, and Balance. Things like Black Vise and Strip Mine, that I had seen first hand unrestricted were restricted. I exempted from the banned list Chaos Orb and it’s bad knock off cousin from Legends. Instead, I restricted Chaos Orb. I figured if someone had a Chaos Orb and wanted to play it, they were welcome to.

I also realized that most people do not/did not have the card pool that I have, and since I wanted to play this format, I built several decks to play with: a white weenie, a black weenie with Mind Twist (also restricted), a bad red/green aggro deck built as an excuse to play Barbary Apes, a control-ish blue deck, a red/blue Urza-tron deck, that kind of thing. It was fun to play with these ancient cards, but eventually it got old and I got tired of playing against my own decks, so I disassembled them. However, I still keep a Fred Block binder. Every time I pick up something really old that I’ll never use anywhere else, it goes in there (Fishliver Oil ftw!).

Fred Block meets EDH
The notion of Fred Block never died. I still have the binder. So I set out to build a Fred Block EDH deck.

The card pool of pre-Ice Age sets is very limited:

Alpha
Beta
Unlimited
Revised
4th Edition

Arabian Nights
Antiquities
Legends
The Dark
Fallen Empires

It’s not as big as it looks. Alpha, Beta and Unlimited are, for all intents and purposes, the same 302 cards. And Revised and 4th Edition have reprints, but only up through The Dark. So the total card pool is only around a thousand cards.

On top of that, certain card functions that we take as commonplace did not exist back then. For example, there are only two land search cards (Untamed Wilds and Land Tax), there’s very little mana fixing, there’s no Brainstorm or Impulse type effects, comes-into-play abilities were unheard of, and there are literally ZERO mono colored legendary creatures.

I began this project with a general. Since it’s Elder Dragon Highlander, I figured I’d use an actual Elder Dragon Legend. I have tons of reprints, but the only one I have from Legends at the moment is Arcades Sabboth.

So I had my color combination and I built the deck. Then one night, as the deck was coming together, I traded for a Legends legend that fit my colors, and would be an amazing general: Angus Mackenzie!

He is white/blue/green and costs WUG to cast. He is a 2/2, and his ability is pay WUG, tap: FOG! This guy is a repeatable fogger! This change, this last minute audible I called, ended up defining the entire nature of the deck.

What I did with this deck was take modern concepts of deck construction, mana curve, mana balance, card advantage, and applied them to this very restrictive and very primitive (not putting it down at all, just stating a fact) card pool.

The result was an amazingly fun and functional EDH deck.

Why this tale? Why did I tell you about the first Extended rotation, creating my own format and about building an EDH deck in that format? To prove a point: creativity thrives on restriction. This deck is a blast to play because the restriction means I end up playing and making people fear Book of Rass. It gives me a chance to build something interesting and awesome. Try to tell me that isn’t an accomplishment.

You’re reading this because you play EDH and probably love it. And if you love EDH that’s because you love building unique and creative decks. There’s no pro tour deck list of EDH decks that people copy. I would want to punch anybody who copied some kind of winning EDH deck card for card. It’s ok to steal ideas, steal concepts, steal combos, but we build for EDH and we play EDH because we love a format where creativity and ingenuity are rewarded.

So I challenge you to challenge yourself. Come up with your own restrictions and build decks around them. You will find it is a very satisfying enterprise.

Fred’s Bonus:
I teased you enough, here’s the deck listing. Two notes: I built this out of the cards I have and I built it out of what was available. Yes, Tundra belongs in this deck, I only own one and it was in a better deck at the time.

General:
Angus Mckenzie

Creatures and creature makers:
Arcades Sabbath
The Hive
Azure Drake
Vesuvan Doppleganger
Time Elemental
Serra Angel
Preacher
Phantom Monster
Clone
Rubina Soulsinger
Mahamoti Djinn
Air Elemental
Phantasmal Forces
Apprentice Wizard
Witch Hunter

Counters:
Counterspell
Avoid Fate
Remove Soul
Spell Blast

Land Search/Mana Generation:
Land Tax
Wild Growth
Untamed Wilds

Card Advantage:
Regrowth
Recall
Disrupting Scepter
Jayemdae Tome
Brain Geyser
Book of Rass (Fear it!)
Sylvan Library

Control Cards:
Crumble
Control Magic
Dust to Dust
Unsummon
Disenchant
Hurricane
Boomerang
Twiddle
Flood
Tranquility
Swords to Plowshares
Icy Manipulator
Steal Artifact
Desert Twister
Horn of Deafening
Presence of the Master (Einstein ftw)

Fog Effects/Life Gain:
Ivory Tower
Festival
Holy Day
Fog

Artifact Mana:
Sol Ring
Copy Artifact
Fellwar Stone
Basalt Monolith
Mana Vault

Lands:
Maze of Ith
City of Brass
Havenwood Battleground
Svyelunite Temple
Ruins of Trokair
Savanah
Tropical Island
Strip Mine
12 Forest
12 Plains
13 Island

Mid-Week Update: August 3rd

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

Wednesday, being the middle of the week, was just begging for an update. So after I dragged my ass out of bed, I posted this. I hope that it satisfies your Commander cravings until our next update on Friday; if not, might I suggest you peruse our back catalog of works? If that doesn't beat the cravings, try putting yourself in a medically induced coma until Friday and you should be good.

This week we have another new contributor spitting hot fire into the cipher. It's not Brionne (she's in jail or something? I skimmed the e-mail) on this Wednesday, but rather the non-incarcerated Fred dropping some wisdom on why you should play mill strategies in Commander. Who's Fred? He e-mailed me some articles. Who am I to say no? You didn't see it coming, but IT HAPPENED ANYWAY.

Because It’s There: Building Mill for EDH
By Fred Cole
Fred’s General EDH Disclaimer:
My first exposure to the term YMMV on the internet was on the EDH rules page. After asking six people all at once on AIM what it meant, only one was able to tell me. It means Your Mileage May Vary. That means what I’m about to say, while written to be as broad as possible, is not applicable to every person in every play group everywhere. If some guy in your play group uses Evil Eye of Orms-By-Gore in every deck, and that somehow makes what I’m about to say totally wrong, don’t flame me. Your mileage may vary.

The Why
Why do we play Magic? I haven’t done the research. But Wizards of the Cost, who obviously has an interest in the answer, has. They’ve determined that Magic players play for different reasons. If you haven’t already, go read Mark Rosewater’s classic article explaining the different player types entitled “Timmy, Johnny, Spike.” As much as I despise the classification, I am a “Johnny.”

Here’s how Mark Rosewater describes Johnny:

“Johnny is the creative gamer to whom Magic is a form of self-expression. Johnny likes to win, but he wants to win with style. It’s very important to Johnny that he win on his own terms. As such, it’s important to Johnny that he’s using his own deck. Playing Magic is an opportunity for Johnny to show off his creativity.”

“Johnny likes a challenge. Johnny enjoys winning with cards that no one else wants to use. He likes making decks that win in innovative ways. What sets Johnny apart from the other profiles is that Johnny enjoys deckbuilding as much as (or more than) he enjoys playing. Johnny loves the cool interactions of the cards. He loves combo decks. Johnny is happiest when he’s exploring uncharted territory.”

That’s me, with one exception: I’ve seen too many unfair and unfun combo plays in my time to love combo decks, and despise them (I stopped playing Legacy, for example, after they “fixed” the format, and I lost on turn zero to a combo deck). I see deck building as a challenge and a form of self expression.

To that end, I’m willing to try unusual things as long as they interest me. For the longest time I resisted building a Sharuum the Hegemon deck because it held no interest to me. It was too easy to make, too powerful, and too obvious a deck choice. After Scars of Mirrodin came out I built one, but only because I could draw from four artifact blocks’ worth of artifacts to build it (Saga, Mirrodin, Shards, Scars), and even then, I only included cards I found interesting. Despite much magnificent internal synergy, I’ve never fully powered it up. That’d be too easy.

So I’ll often challenge myself to build certain decks with certain generals, and make the decks work; take a sub optimal idea and make a functional EDH deck out of it. There’s skill in this task, because you need to understand why and how decks work.

The Who
By now, many of you who have bought the Commander Precon with The Mimeoplasm in it have discovered an obscure and much overlooked legendary creature named Szadek, Lord of Secrets. He first came to us in Ravnica block. The blue/black color combination (known as Dimir) had a theme of milling. He’s potent but expensive.

One day while flipping through a pile of gold cards I came across him. He spoke to me, told me his sad tale of lifelong obscurity, and put the question to me: “Should not every card be played at least once?” This was reasoning I could not argue with. “And,” he continued “As a legendary creature, should I not be a general?” True enough. So I promoted him to general, and built a deck around him.

The Why, Part II: Why Not
Frankly, mill is a bad strategy in EDH. In a 60 card deck, Millstone, the card eponymous for the entire strategy, mills two cards per turn. If you have multiple millstones, in a tightly constructed control deck, this can be an actual strategy for victory. I remember when Feldon’s Cane was in Type 2, and when Type 2 had a restricted list, hearing that Feldon’s Cane had been unrestricted. When I asked why this was done, I was told it was because Millstone decks were all the rage, and this was a way of dealing with that (yes, I’ve been playing Magic a long time). Back in 1995-1996, blue/white control decks could control things enough to kill someone with a Millstone.

EDH is different, not only because the decks are 40 cards larger, but the consistency isn’t nearly the same. Four Millstones can really do some library damage against 60 cards. One does much less. Glimpse the Unthinkable, a black/blue sorcery that mills for 10 cards gets nearly 20% of a deck when played on turn two against a sixty card deck, but only gets 11% of an EDH if played on turn two. Additionally, EDH is generally played as a multiplayer format, which destroys the math of the whole archetype. People say that if you’re in a four player game, your deck needs to be able to deal 120 damage. This isn’t so, because your opponents will also be clubbing one another over the head, so you’re probably not going to need to deal all 120 points of damage, because any damage you do will be synergistic with your opponents’ damage to one another.

If you’re milling someone, you don’t just have to mill 100 cards, you have to mill 300 cards, and since nobody plays mill decks, you can’t count on synergy with your opponents decks. Simply speaking, if you’re milling, no one else is helping your club your opponents over the head.

So If It’s Bad, Then Why…
So, mill is a bad strategy in EDH. This is no secret. Anyone who has played a few games of EDH (and probably people who haven’t) can do the math and realize how bad a general strategy it is.

Why was I doing this again? Because it’s there. How many mill decks are there in EDH? I’ve been part of two different and diverse play groups. I will tell you there are nearly none. If you deck someone in EDH, it’s rarely purposeful, unless its part of some freakish combo. You automatically get props for being ballsy enough to play mill in EDH. That’s the whole point. Szadek is never going to be an amazing feared power deck, the point is the challenge of building it and making it work, and the recognition from other players of seeing it done.

So Do It Already, and Here’s How
To be able to successfully build a functioning EDH mill deck, you need to acknowledge the information in the paragraphs above, digest it, nut up, and build a tight deck that can survive long enough to do its job (and point out to everyone at the table, at every occasion, how insane it is to play a non-combo based mill deck in EDH). Time is on your side. EDH games are often long, people draw lots of cards, so lots of crazy stuff happens. Use this to your advantage. People in EDH games burn their libraries alot.

What I did with Szadek was build a black/blue control deck with mill elements. Control is hard to do in EDH. In a duel, you control what your opponent plays, you sweep their board, you blow their stuff up, and you keep them under your thumb enough that they can’t beat you down. This doesn’t work the same in EDH. You can’t control three or more people. The math just doesn’t work. So all you need to do is scrape by long enough to make your parts work.

They’ve Given Us the Tools, Use ‘Em Already!
Back in 1995-1996, we had one tool in our tool box: Millstone. It was the offense, because that’s all there was. The past several years, Wizards of the Cost has given us more and more tools, bigger and better Millstones to do the job with. Some of these cards are better than others.
Any card you use to mill someone needs to fit one of three criteria:
1. It needs to be repeatable
2. It needs to get many cards
3. It needs to be so brutal that the cards it gets are worth the slot.

I tend to shy away from that second category. The card Nightmare Incursion certainly qualifies for the second and third categories, but it’s so brutal and unfun that I’d rather not use it (if you make the game very unfun for people, it defeats the point of a social game; pillaging someone’s deck is depriving them of the joy of playing their deck and will often ruin the game for them). Additionally, one shot cards without the potential for huge payoffs aren’t really that great. Glimpse the Unthinkable may hit for ten cards, but that’s only a small fraction of what you need.

Some interesting cards fit into one or more the first two categories are:

• Jace’s Erasure – If you’re playing black/blue, you should be drawing some serious cards. (If not, you’re doing something wrong.) This also screws up certain tutors and other cards that use the top card of the library. Combine this with Brainstorm for instant speed fun.

• Trade Secrets – There’s a certain amount of politics involved in EDH. This is a way to make fun friends, draw cards, and subtly achieve your goal at the same time. People are greedy. This card is amazing. Especially combined with the above card.

• Traumatize – This card was once part of a brutal tedious two card combo with Haunting Echoes. That combo is somewhat less amazing (read: Horrible) in EDH. However, this card scales up from the 60 card game, and gets you where you need to go.

• Brain Freeze – This card is also potentially used in combo decks. Since I have such a strong objection to combo decks, I don’t use it that way. However, fun, weird, unpredictable things happen in EDH. If you end up witnessing a three way counter war, someone drops ten artifacts in a turn, or one of many other possible scenarios, this card can do some serious milling.

• Mind Funeral – This card has potential to mill for a lot. People do plenty of land searching in EDH. It’s a format where Land Tax and Thawing Glaciers both see play. My own observations say this card gets 10 to 12 cards on average in a normal 60 card duel, which puts it in Glimpse the Unthinkable range. But if used at the right time, for example after someone points out they’ve Land Taxed out all their basic lands, then this can hit for a huge payoff.

• Mindcrank – This is a newer card, and I honestly haven’t seen it in action. However, I used to use Crumbling Sanctuary, which I stopped using after it killed me. This hits your opponents and lets their efforts to damage your opponents work for you.

• Psychic Drain – This is an X mill spell. If you can generate a lot of mana in black/blue (which is entirely possible) then its worth playing. This also feeds your goal of helping you survive to mill more.

• Telemin Performance – This card can mill for zero and get you a Wall of Wood, or it can mill for 80 cards. Or sometimes it just kills people. Use it on the right person (pro-tip: the right person is the guy with the fewest creatures, so long as none of those creatures are named Phage).

• Twincast – This card is essential. Often fork effects depend heavily on what your opponent is playing. In this case, it should work well. Traumatize two opponents instead of one (do I really need to explain this further?).

• Keening Stone – This is the probably best card ever made for EDH mill decks. It’s amazing and it wins games by itself. Often you can play it and activate it the same turn in EDH. This is almost a certain win after a Traumatize. And the card feeds itself. Even if your Mind Funeral only mills for eight, those eight feed the Keening Stone. This is the MVP of any EDH mill deck. One piece of advice: hold it in your hand until someone has a stacked graveyard. No point in dropping this, having it sit around, and getting blown up before it can be used.

One Final Note
Mill often pisses people off. They don’t like seeing their stuff get milled away. As mill is a slow strategy, you might as well spread the milling around. It also often feeds people’s deck engines. Figure out who those decks are, and mill them less.

Fred’s Bonus:
Just so you don’t think I don’t practice what I preach, here is the deck listing for my Szadek deck. This just happens to be the current listing as of this writing1. I’ll often swap things in and out of the deck as needed.

General:
Szadek, Lord of Secrets

Mill Effects:
Millstone
Helm of Obedience
Thought Dissector
Keening Stone
Psychic Drain
Mind Crank
Mind Funeral
Brain Freeze
Traumatize
Jace’s Erasure

Counters:
Counterspell
Dismiss
Negate
Undermine
Spell Contortion

Card Draw/Card Advantage:
Brainstorm
Ancestral Vision
Trade Secrets
Future Sight
Fact or Fiction
Syphon Mind
Opportunity
Rhystic Study
Necropotence
Compulsion
Whispers of the Muse
Phyrexian Arena

Removal/Bounce:
Hideous End
Terror
Doom Blade
Ashes to Ashes
Repeal
Recoil
Crystal Shard

General Protection:
Darksteel Plate
Diplomatic Immunity
Whispersilk Cloak
Mask of Riddles

Controls and Theft:
Control Magic
Confiscate
Volitions Reins
Phyrexian Infiltrator
Enslave
Beacon of Unrest
Telemin Performance
Body Double
Memory Plunder

Tutors:
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor

Mana Artifacts:
Dimir Signet
Thran Dynamo
Mind Stone
Gilded Lotus

Because It’s There:
Twincast
Chancellor of the Spires
Feldon’s Cane
Vile Consumption
Profane Command
Decree of Pain

Lands:
Lonely Sandbar
Halimar Depths
Academy Ruins
Dreadship Reef
Jwar Isle Refuge
Salt Marsh
Frost Marsh
Tainted Isle
River of Tears
Sunken Ruins
Duskmantle, House of Shadow
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Cabal Coffers
Terramorphic Expanse
Miren, the Moaning Well
Minamo, School at Water’s Edhe
Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
Svyelunite Temple
Ebon Stronghold
11 Island
10 Swamp

CommanderCast S3E9: Real Talk Redeux

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

An exciting week here at CommanderCast! Season 3 contest winners selected? Check. The end of the monocoloured madness? Check. Rules committee R&A, part two? YOU SEE IT! Brace yourself for this episode because it's totally sweet. There's a lot going on here (about two hours worth of material), but don't worry... between Donovan, Brionne, Alex and myself, we should be able to guide you through the material without an unexpected vomiting fits or joy seizures.


I also want to provide extra thanks to my co-hosts. Brionne was super helpful as our point man for the mono-white discussion, and I assure you she was very good in this role. Alex also deserves extra thanks for making himself super accessible to us and you, answering pretty much any question, and generally chilling with us. Alex and Brionne also both came through big time when a file was lost and re-recorded a segment with me early on the weekend. Also, as always, Donovan prooflistened this joint up.

Also, don't forget to check out the Circle of Judgement this week featuring Derfington! We pick our winners (if you're lame, you can also just check the contest results page and scroll down) and talk our picks.

Show notes and links below. Enjoy.

>>>>> DOWNLOAD IN MP3 FORMAT <<<<<

00:00 to 05:50: Intro:Who is this yelling at you? Why should you care? Also announcing the Season 3 Contest Winners and announcing the next Call-In Episode. Get the details and e-mail us to be on CommanderCast!

COMMUNITY

06:03 to 47:45: Rules Committee Real Talk II: Since S3E1, I have been soliciting your questions for the Commander Rules Committee's Alex, who made an appearance in season 2. Alex has been kind enough to descend from the RC's equivalent of Mount Olympus to grace us with his wisdom and insight. He answers questions from our listeners and ourselves for a long time.


48:00 to 49:37: Community Spotlight: Castles and Cooks: It's games, it's cooking, it's ridiculously tasty. Check out Castles and Cooks and start getting fat!

STRATEGY

49:50 to 1:12:51: Mono-White: It's mono-white's turn to be discussed. Why play mono-white, and where are it's strong points? What are the weaknesses? How can you compensate for the colour's shortcomings? As tricky as this can be, you can count on Brionne to guide you into this topic. In fact, you better be counting on it, because me and Alex don't know too much about mono-W in Commander.


As a note, this is a second recording of this segment, the first was lost. Donovan has a dramatic reenactment of the event. He was unable to make it to the recording.

Note, this is not what ultimately transpired, but is rather a horrifying view into what COULD have occurred.


TECHNOLOGY

1:13:02 to 1:24:16: Mono-White Technology: Here's some helpful cards for mono-white decks.

Alex's Picks:

Tempest of Light, Honour the Fallen

Donovan's Pick:

Oath of Lieges, Divine Intervention

Andy's Picks:

Gift of Estates, Balancing Act

Brionne's Picks:

Soltari Visionary, Crib Swap

1:24:29 to 1:37:07: Entourage: Celestial Kirin: He's a Spirit, he's from Kamigawa, and he blows stuff up. He's underused. Mono-white? Check. A perfect fit for this podcast, we're assembling a skeleton around this explosive, underplayed Commander. Let's do this shit.

Andy's Picks:
Erratic Portal
Brionne's Picks:
Blinking Spirit, Kami of False Hope, Ranger of Eos, Shining Shoal, Yomiji, Who Bars the Way

Donovan's Picks:

Karmic Guide, Darksteel Plate, Eternal Dragon

Alex's Picks:

Cleanfall, Yosei, The Morning Star, Charge Across the Araba

1:37:21 to closing: Outtro.

PERTINENT LINKS

• Contest winners!
• How to join the live episode.
• The Comprehensive Rules, now with rules on Commander and sub-games: 714.2c and 714.5c!
• Three To The Face!: Calvin's blog
• Bruce on the Command Tower
• Cast Through Time

CONTACT INFORMATION

• General show contact/Andy: E-mail CommanderCast(at)gmail(dot)com / Twitter @CommanderCast
• To Contact Donovan: E-mail donokun(at)gmail(dot)com / Twitter @d0su
• To Contact Brionne: E-Mail snapple.coffee(at)gmail(dot)com / Twitter @snapplecoffee
• To Contact Alex: PM Ban-Ki Moon over on mtgcommander.com's forums

Friday Flashback: July 22

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

Friday Flashback up in this piece! Right now it's so hot here (and this is Canada, so you know something is wrong) I'm surprised the internet hasn't melted down, but if you're seeing this then we've managed to avoid that catastrophe. This week we've got links and CMDRDecks. No article since Justin continues to shield his next installment from our eyes, refining it until it's horrifying perfection can be released in a moment of face-melting awesomeness befitting his next opus. That and he's been like super busy.

Next season, we are going to have a new website. It will be better than this one, which is an extraordinarily low metric, but important nonetheless. My question to you is what kind of features or ideas you would find worthwhile on the site? I plan to keep the site very simple, but it should be easier to browse old content and the like. There should also be an improved comments section so you don't have to jump through hoops to drop a line to anybody. If you have ideas or suggestions you would like to make, please do them soon, the site is under construction now, and it's easier to integrate ideas now than later.

AFFILIATE WORKS

• My Muse Vessel homies were hustlin' this week. We have The State of Our Dark Union, a review of modern Black card design with an eye for Commander; We Said Hello Goodbye, examining some gems in M12 and M11; and Die Die-Roller, Die!, where people who use dice as target selectors are ragged on.
• On RedSiteWins, SwordsToPlow has Pauper to Prince, where he goes through a sweet by-dollar improvement program for one of the Commander precons, Counterpunch. This article is in-depth and incredibly well done.
  
• On The Command Zone, we have an experimental Animar, Soul of Elements Decklist. 
  

  
  

  CMDRDecks: Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

Friday Flashback: July 15

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTS

Friday. For some of us who do shift work like me, it has lost all relevance. For those of you doing more traditional jobs, attending non-tyrannical educational programs, and other more 'normal' folk out there, maybe Friday is still an awesome day to you because it heralds even more awesomeness to come (even if the second part never materializes). Hopefully, these updates make it even better. For some scrub like me straight up grinding at work, though, it just gives me something to do until I punch ou--ah, who am I kidding? My job is totally sweet.

Welcome to one of the four MtG related things on the internet this week that isn't about M12. This week I'm welcoming a new affiliate, Castles & Cooks. This is not a Commander-exclusive website. They engage in all manner of gaming, but maybe the best part is these sweet-ass-sweet recipes that they put on there. Check them out, you'll see what I mean.

AFFILIATE LINKS

• On the aforementioned Cooks & Castles, there is the standard M12 Review going down, accompanied by a tasty pizza blueprint.
• Completely Casual has returned, kicking off a new series: Your MtG: Commander Nemesis, this week starring Sharuum!
• SwordsToPlow on RedSiteWins has a one-two punch OF WISDOM for you this week; Forums of Doom (great article, even if I did was to add a bunch of 'o's to the 'Doom') and Land Base.

Not an affiliate per se, but I also wanted to point people towards my man Chris Lansdell's article "Speculate to Accumulate". I don't read many Magic articles, but my friend sent me this link. I really enjoyed it, even if I don't agree with everything he says, and I think it is an important discuss to be had

CMDRDecks is putting out a mono-green deck to compliment our mono-green podcast! THIS IS HOW WE NETWORK HOMIES, MAKE MONEY TAKE MONEY (we don't make any money)

Finally, put on your hazmat suits for this stank and leave good taste at the door. I've got another 'article' that I 'wrote' here. League rules? I got 'em for you. Check it one time:

The Social Contractor 03 - LOLEagues
By ANDY
Ahhh... league systems! Who doesn't love adding external awards to a game to promote certain types of behaviour? Commander, as a format, is perhaps the greatest fit for this type of system you can find in Magic. After all, when the best way to win a game is often frowned upon, your game could probably use some beefing up. A little more substance without the abuse part. For many people, Leagues do just that, as well as having the added bonus of providing a subtle way to steer the behaviour of participants with a nice, passive-aggressive tone. This also lets you avoid the kind of uncomfortable confrontation so many MtG players fear.

In a way, many league structures represent the vision of Commander the Rules Committee and much of the more 'casual' (aka scrub-laden) player base chooses to promote and play. We see rewards for unique and funny plays, even if they aren't that efficient. We see points distributed for meeting arbitrary, non-gamestate related requirements. It lets people play around and have fun, without necessarily trying to win the actual game. In theory, these Utopian, sunshine-and-lollies setups create a perfect world where even the guy playing Horned Troll as his win condition should be enjoying himself while playing.

But this isn't your typical bullshit League. While many run penalties to deter things that 'ruin games' like infinite combos, fast kills, or mass land destruction, this system promotes the 'play to win' philosophy. Instead of trying to make sure everyone has a fighting chance, we're here making sure we see the survival of the fittest. There's no room for hand-holding and appreciating your delicate little unique snowflake of a deck, and nobody gives a shit about your 'funny' play. There's nothing funny about Commander, son. This is serial bidness.

If most league setups are paradisaical (oh snap this is a real word, I totally thought I was making it up!) visions of Commander with sunshine and rainbows, this is the Mad Max of Commander; a barren, loveless wasteland only the hard-hearted can survive. It's the kind of point system Cormac McCarthy would endorse. A sort of post-apocalyptic bizarro world of Commander. Gone is the pretense of social play, the veneer of civility; with these kind of points, we've stripped the game down to it's most primal (and 'important') elements, the kind of things Professional Commander Players on message boards everywhere should be trying to integrate into their game.

So, without further adieu, I present to you the Internet TryHard Commander League Scoring System.

Pregame

This Deck Sucks (-1 to -4)
If your deck doesn't have a Sol Ring, lose one point. If your deck has less than three copies of Sensei's Divining Top in it, you lose 3-X points, where X is the number of SDTs in your deck.

Don't Waste People's Time (-1)
When you reveal your Commanders, if your deck doesn't have blue in its colour identity, you lose a point.

Social Format (+1)
Whenever you refuse to play with another player, everyone gets a point pre-game (except for the asshole you refused to play with, nyah!).

Gotta Love Leagues (+1)
Before the game starts, everyone gets a point, because you're going to forget to award some later on. Trust me.

I Read It Online (+1)
If you can bring a printout of your deck from somewhere on the webternets and you didn't post it, gain a point.

Gatherer of Misery (+1)
Discreetly sideboard in color-hosers. When confronted about running Lifeforce, insist that you’ve always mainboarded that card. (Matt)

In-Game

We don't play THAT kind of game here (-1)
Lose 1 point whenever a creature comes into play under your control. (Carlos)

Swimming Upstream to Victory (+1)
If you make an opponent cry, you get a point.

False Kill (+1)
Eliminate another player with a proxied card for a point. (IGottaBigDeck)

Online MtG Writer (+1)
If you call somebody else bad at Magic, gain a point.

No. (+1)
Gain 1 point whenever you counter a spell. (Carlos)

Andy's Commandercast Special (+1)
Whenever you destroy a land, gain 1 point. You may destroy another land. (Carlos)

Cunning Linguist (+1, -1 friend)
Eliminate another player with a foreign card doing something other than what you 'translated' it to do. (IGottaBigDeck)

Double Scoop (+2)
Counter an opponent's spell by scooping for two points. (Obsidiandice)

I Don't Know that Jackass, I Swear (+2)
Give your friend a 5-0 split on a Fact or Fiction in an EDH 'tournament' for two points (split the prizes later!).

The Loneliest Game (+3)
Mindslaver lock the table, but demand to play the game to its bitter end. +1 additional point or each player at the table beyond four. (ElTacotheRogue)

REAL SKILZ (+3)
Whenever the term 'skill' is seriously referenced in an EDH context by a player, if you pass that player a pamphlet from a local trade school, college, or university, you get three points.

Nice Kodama's Reach (+3)
Gain 3 points for each player you kill before turn 5. (Carlos)

Inception (+Variable)
Create a sub-game using Shahrazad, then use a Wish to retrieve it and cast it again. Get a point for each sub-game created, and a point for each opponent who scoops in frustration. (Silvermannen)

Playing with Yourself (+Variable)
Whenever you take another turn, gain 1 point for each successive turn you have taken. (1 point for 1 extra turn. 2 points for the next, etc). (Carlos)

But Kokusho is Broken! (+Variable)
Whenever a Kokusho, the Evening Star goes to your graveyard from the battlefield, each opponent loses 5 points. You gain points equal to the points lost this way. (Carlos)

After School Special (+Variable)
Gain a point for each consecutive tutor you cast beyond the first. Gain no points instead if none of those cards are part of an infinite combo. (Matt)

Post-Game

Losing is for Losers (-1)
Whenever you lose a game, you lose a point. Give the guy you took you out of the game your pants.

The Real Winner (+2)
After losing the game, reveal the top 5 cards of your library. If one of those cards would have “won me the game if only you hadn’t gotten so lucky,” you win two points. (Matt)

Hundred Card Singleton (+5)
At the end of the game, gain 5 points if you didn't play your commander. (Carlos)

Lost And Gone (Variable)
At the end of the game, you get a point for each Commander you placed into either a non-visible zone (like a library) or caused a player to exile permanently.

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I would like to thank everyone who was kind enough to contribute to this exercise in awesomeness. I’m not creative to come up with a full list of these things. If you are curious about where or whom each achievement came from, you can find it attributed to the creator in parenthesis after the achievement itself.