EDH fills the void

Most of us have been focused on prayers and other religious matter in the month of Ramadhan. So gaming is out for us for this month, not because we don’t want to, but time is rather limited.

Gaming side is quiet, TSE, while a good expansion, is a direct to player set, so at the local gaming store, there has been no new stock for the past couple of months, so there’s a void that needs to be filled.

Enter EDH. Yes, I know most of us have quit magic. It’s been years since we bought into standard environment. But there’s just something about EDH that pulls some us mainly due to replay ability of old cards and the fact that unplayable rares/mythic in most expansions due to the power level/mana cost etc… is very much playable in EDH due to its slower start and needs a decent buildup.

I retweak my old deck, using a pure white as commander colour.

Commander- Jareth, Leonine Titan

Lands (34)
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
28 Plains
1 Terrain Generator
1 Temple of the False God
1 Kor Haven
1 Strip Mine
1 Cavern of Souls

Planeswalker (3)
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Artifact (14)
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Caged Sun
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Batterskull
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Sol Ring
1 Journeyer’s Kite
1 Marble Diamond
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Pearl Medallion
1 Thran Dynamo

Enchantment (6)
1 Marshal’s Anthem
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Land Tax
1 Mobilization
1 Sacred Ground
1 Angelic Renewal

Instant (6)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tithe
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mana Tithe
1 Oblation
1 Path to Exile

Sorcery (10)
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Austere Command
1 Gift of Estates
1 Wrath of God
1 Rout
1 Resurrection
1 Martial Coup
1 False Defeat
1 Catastrophe
1 Breath of Life

Creatures (26)
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Blinding Angel
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Archon of Justice
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Reya Dawnbringer
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Mageta the Lion
1 Angel of Jubilation
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Aegis Angel
1 Radiant, Archangel
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Serra Avatar
1 Magus of the Moat
1 Sun Titan
1 Karmic Guide
1 Pristine Angel
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Victory’s Herald

It’s fairly stable, not much of a vicious combo victory, but it usually manages to hold out against most decks out there.

With the exception of a few, the creatures are mostly fat and disruptive to opponent’s strategy. The choice of Jareth is mainly since he’s a fat 4/7 on offensive and 11/14 on defence. The ability to pro-colour on the fly with a single white mana is what makes him gold in the deck. Although, the deck can swap commander with avacyn, Linvala, Akroma or Iona, so there’s flexibility when needed.

Since Seeds of Decay is still a month away to arrive… I’m very tempted to move on to the next commander project… maybe pure green?

Colourless Ulamog EDH

While we have a pod of 4 players for constant EDH, gangbang politics is one of the few things we found annoying. Some people just love to hit someone else and once somebody gets attacked, the rest will follow up for more damage. So the bully factor was in. To counter that, we implemented a house rule of sort. If you’re attacking, or dealing direct burn damage to player, you have to roll a d10. 1-3 the player to your left, 4-6 the player directly against you, 7-9 the player to your right and a 10, you can choose who you want, although most now opt a 10 for a roll again.

It makes the game more interesting as it’s random on who gets attacked and once you declare attack and because dice roll now determines the defender, the attacker once declaring attack must committ at least one creature to attack.

Having dealt with that issue, the game is more exciting now, since people keep their good cards in hand since the attacker might actually attack someone else.

I was a bit bored with my white runetail deck and the vampire isn’t doing too well once it meet Iona. Colour hosing is very annoying. So I tweaked around and search around internet for any random EDH decks that I may find. Having scoured the net, and checking my cardpool, I tweaked this deck out of the oven.

It’s play style is rather simple. Drop creatures with annihilator and just attack. The sheer power of Eldrazi annihilator is just too good to pass up. In most cases, it will take down opponent by forcing them to sacrifice.

Commander : 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Land
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cloudpost
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert
1 Deserted Temple
1 Dread Statuary
1 Dust Bowl
1 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Gargoyle Castle
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glimmerpost
1 Gods’ Eye, Gate to the Reikai
1 Henge of Ramos
1 Homeward Path
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Mishra’s Factory
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Petrified Field
1 Quicksand
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scorched Ruins
1 Sheltered Valley
1 Springjack Pasture
1 Stalking Stones
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of the False God
1 Urza’s Factory
1 Urza’s Mine
1 Urza’s Power Plant
1 Urza’s Tower

Creatures
1 Arcbound Worker
1 Arcbound Slith
1 Arcbound Stinger
1 Jhoira’s Toolbox
1 Myr Retriever
1 Myr Sire
1 Plague Myr
1 Steel Overseer
1 Etched Champion
1 One-Eyed Scarecrow
1 Palladium Myr
1 Arcbound Crusher
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Rackling
1 Darksteel Juggernaut
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Beast of Burden
1 Phyrexian Juggernaut
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Platinum Angel
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Ulamog’s Crusher
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Hand of Emrakul
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Mycosynth Golem
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 It That Betrays

Others
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Flayer Husk
1 Sol Ring
1 Mind Stone
1 Scythe of the Wretched
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Crawlspace
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Kusari-Gama
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Bonehoard
1 Darksteel Reactor
1 Hedron Matrix
1 Prototype Portal
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Sisay’s Ring
1 Tower of Fortunes
1 Batterskull
1 Blinkmoth Urn
1 Farsight Mask
1 Mirrorworks
1 Planar Gate
1 All Is Dust
1 Not of This World
1 Skittering Invasion
1 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Darksteel Forge

It seems fun, although collecting almost all non-basic land was a pain and i have to make do with a lot of cards… luckily most of the cards are not that expensive, but it was time consuming to hunt for it.

MTG EDH. It’s a social game.

I was heavily playing MTG EDH decks over the last few weeks, although more heavily on the preconstructed decks by Wotc. Mine was Heavenly Inferno, using heavily on Kaalia of the West.

Of the 5 decks, Political Puppets is the least favoured one since it’s more control, and you need to have a certain controllish mentality to play that deck. We haven’t gone to test beyond 4 players EDH, sticking to mostly 1-on-1 or 3 player free for all. Again, the 5 precon decks that I have mentioned in the previous post, is rock solid against each other as is. And they do have some power rares in there as well. So for new people jumping in into EDH format, those 5 packs are a good play, or worth scavenging the boxes for what you need.

Self-construct EDH however, is a different ball game. When testing out of my own self-construct EDH, I found out the deck, while powerful, is damn annoying to play against. Which brings about another important factor when you play EDH.

“Avoid buildings decks that denies board and annoying moves against the other players. Lockdown and massive land removal is negative play experience in EDH and they might just ban the deck and everyone refuses to play with the deck and by extension, you, later.”

I tried my White Rune-Tail commander EDH, and the way it was constructed, opponent have a hard time trying to win it. I can feel their frustration as well; the deck is definitely one of those negative play experience decks (NPE). After a few games with that deck, I’ve already decided to move on… Looking for a more fun deck to play with that will interact with people more. Anyway, if you want to see, check out the deck at this link. It’s not my own deck incarnation, I pick it up online looking for inspiration and ended up building the entire deck. Rune-Tail EDH.

So I already moved on to a different project, probably among this three, vampire EDH, werewolf EDH or Merfolk EDH. Probably werewolf is the easiest with the card pool readily available in the Innistrad, since there are little cards for werewolf in the vintage format overall. Some goes for vampire, but vampires have a few cards in the last few expansions that I may need to dig for, such as M10 mythic rare, Vampiric Nocturnus.

Hopefully the deck this time around wont be so NPE, but only time will tell.

So for everyone out there, how did you build your EDH deck? And how did your group like it?