Monday MtG: Jenara, Asura of War

It proved a productive weekend for me, MtG-wise.  I did zero yard chores and minimal house chores, but I got in some deck maintenance (especially with my Torbran deck), some collection maintenance, properly sorted my to-buy list by color, broke down some decks, and built a new one from the remnants.

Jenara, Asura of War.  I had her built several years ago, and am happy to build her again, with a plan this time of using her mostly in duels, with lots of low-cmc answers and a few key cards.  Best of all is that the entire deck was built from my EDH boxes.  Yes, there are cards I can buy to improve the deck, but they aren't necessary.

Decklist (currently incomplete).

Not needing to buy cards feels good; after all, this is why I took the EDH box route so long ago - to build new decks without needing to purchase more cards. 

That said, several of the cards I am eyeing are no doubt found in the New Capenna Commander deck that reprinted Jenara: Bedecked Brokers (link goes to all five New Capenna decklists, with this one last).  There was a time when I would buy Commander decks for parts, but they cost too much for my wallet now, and are reportedly increasing in price.

Regardless, among the cards I found that seemed most thematically useful was this: Stealth Mission.

Stealth Mission plays too nicely with all the other +1/+1 counter stuff that Green provides to not run, as well as enabling that sweet Commander-damage kill.  In theory, at least, that is the whole point of this deck - winning via Commander damage.

Yes, the usual suspects to make a Commander unblockable are also in the deck: Whispersilk Cloak, Shadow Rift, Rogue's Passage, Aqueous Form, and even Herald of Secret Streams. Spirit Mantle is absent because I cannot find it among my cards; I'll do another dedicated search tonight, but failing that will need to add it to the to-buy list.  

Which I'll do in irritation, because it is one of my cards I should have kept during the last purge, but might not have, because rather than go through the last box, I said 'screw it' and let it go unsearched.  It seems many Black cards and a mix of other goodies were in there.  Xin loi.

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Production costs and the high rate of new releases is pricing Magic out of casual gaming range, which is a shame, because it IS a fun game to play.  Maybe the 6th edition of DnD will force both franchises to work together, rather than merely reference one another.  After all, Hasbro owns both properties and it makes solid business sense.