Monday MtG: Game Day!

It's been some time since I have actually gotten to play Magic with the Citronelle crew; it's been longer since I have played any games beyond mismatched duels using Commander decks.   Mismatched because some Commander decks are better for one-on-one games, and others for multiplayer games.

To be frank, in a Commander duel, whichever player has the strongest start tends to win.  Land into Sol Ring into Arcane Signet is a sweet opening in a 4-player game, but overwhelming opening against one player.  

For today's games, I brought nine Commander decks.  Time allowed for only three games, but I took notes.

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Game one: Obosh, the Preypiercer vs Imotekh the Stormlord vs Marchesa the Black Rose

A slow start for all, but Imotehk does its thing and fills the board with artifacts.  Obosh overloads a Vandalblast and buys less than a turn, as Imotehk Reanimates Technomancer and it begins again.  He then tries for an 8-point Torment of Hailfire, but Marchesa counters it, thankfully.

Obosh comes and goes twice, but at one point gets to do its 'odd cmc' thing, and Underworld Cerberus hits Imotekh for 12.  This is the last time I am able to have creatures in play for more than one turn.  Enchantments, on the other hand, stick around all game, as I am able to land (and activate) Bloodchief Ascension and Caverns of Despair.  

It is the Caverns that keep both Marchesa and Imotekh from swarming either me or each other, so it is logical I need to go first.  

The entire time, Marchesa is doing her thing, mostly through cycling Reef Worm and Iron Apprentice through the graveyard to activate Bloodflow Connoisseur.  Still, all this cycling through the graveyard results in Bloodchief Ascension doing its thing, knocking Marchesa to one life and forcing her to sacrifice some of those tokens to stay alive.  

By this point, Imotekh lands a Darksteel Forge, Conjurer's Closet, and Whip of Erebos, and whips up some trouble for Marchesa, forgetting about the Propaganda she has out, so his creatures are for nought (all the mana gone for a big turn).  He could attack me, but needs the Caverns to stay in play to not die.

None of the half-dozen draw spells in my deck come into play, and all I can top-deck is land.   At an impasse, Marchesa takes me out of game, survives Imotekh's attack, and eventually wins, despite the Whip netting Imotekh more life than he loses for the first few exchanges.

 

Observations:  top-decking - especially lands - sucks.  I was worried about the mana-curve of the deck (too many fun 5 cmc cards in here), but it was the lack of anything to play that got me.  That Imotekh deck is built around the graveyard more than anything else.

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Game two: Torbran, Thane of Red Fell vs Vial Smasher the Fierce/Sakashima of a Thousand Faces vs Daretti, Scrap Savant

It didn't take long for VS/S1K to have four copies of Vial Smasher in play - it was ugly, but awesome to see.  Torbran tried for a sweeper via Chainwhirler with Torbran in play, but Vial Smasher responded with Go for the Throat on T, so all I got out of it was 1 damage on Daretti.  Two turns later, Daretti played Blasphemous Act and popped all four of them - and my second and last casting of Torbran, as well.  

Daretti is building a board of artifacts, and I am swinging with a Thundermaw Hellkite sporting a Basilisk Collar, while Vial Smasher tries to recover.  Being aggressive keeps me from playing the Stranglehold in my hand - something I'll regret later.

I play Structural Assault to clear the field, and Daretti miracles into Reforge the Soul on his turn, sending the Stranglehold in my hand to the bin.  Reforge does give me Brash Taunter, who in turn lets me get Daretti to 6 life, but Daretti recovers from the artifact sweeping with a Kuldotha Forgemaster, which spells my doom, as on successive turns he drops Darksteel Forge and Platinum Angel.  

The best I have is Price of Progess, which puts Vial Smasher out of the game (not a basic land in sight).  I then scoop because I think Into the Core is not in my deck. It turns out it was, but a good 30+ cards deep, so it might as well have not been.

Observations: I should ALWAYS play Stranglehold and other enchantments as soon as possible against decks that are unlikely to have answers.  This is two games in a row where enchantments were king.  Also, Torbran has some cards that are stinkers if he isn't in play - Magic Missile, Pyrotechnics, and Chainwhirler - although the last feeds devotion well.  Structural Assault is a great card, though, and it's always a thrill to see decks do their thing, which both of my opponents' decks did.

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Game three: Xyris, the Writhing Storm vs Empress Galina vs Borborgymos Enraged vs the Swarmlord

The game kicks off with everyone ramping - especially 'Bobby' and Swarmlord - but me.  Atalan Jackal in particular does work for many turns.  What a great card! A crying shame it's got too much sci-fi for my fantasy game tastes, but whatever.  So does the recent Kamigawa set.  

My one-land-per-turn finally allows a 6-point Prosperity, with Xyris in play, netting me 18 snake tokens.  The Swarmlord follows me and sweeps the field of 1/1s.  Bye snakes!

Empress Galina uses Telemin Performance on 'Bobby' to mill 17 cards and score a Birds of Paradise. We laughed at Empress.  Empress followed up with Cyclonic Rift, then laughed at us.

Xyris lands a Pandemonium in preparation for more snake tokens, which goes around the table once before getting zapped when 'Bobby' activates his Nev's Disk, and follows up with Kozilek the Great Distortion.  Koz is promptly stolen by Empress with a Corrupted Conscience.  Xyris can only play a Teferi's Puzzle Box and hope I'm not killed first, but Swarmlord saves us with a Blasphemous Act!

'Bobby' pulls his Disk from the grave and prepares to sweep the board - again - but Empress steals it. Puzzle Box is doing its disruptive thing - it is such a wonderful card for this reason - and gives me Wheel and Deal and Windfall, and I cast both and pass turn.  Swarmlord exiles 'Bobby's' graveyard with a Bojuka Bog, and 'Bobby' scoops, with his Commander never seeing play.  

Xyris lands and is able to equip Lightning Greaves.  Note that Puzzle Box is still in play.  We go around the table and Puzzle Box gives me Cyclonic Rift, which ends up netting me LOTS of snake tokens.

Swarmlord digs up and tries to recast Blasphemous Act, but I have a Voidslime ready. In response, he says 'screw it' and plays Primal Vigor and Doubling Season.  Empress plays something and passes to me.

Puzzle Box gives me Mana Echoes and a Wheel of Fortune, which gives me another wheel which provides Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Forced Fruition; I cast them all via Mana Echoes.  We all agree I win with my snake tokens.

Observations: I'd like to think that Xyris would have won, but Primal Vigor ensured it.  Winning or not, it was nice seeing my deck do its thing. I'd forgotten how fun chaining Wheels can be, because I get to at least see much of my deck.  'Bobby' is a well-tuned deck that normally fares better.  Between Puzzle Box and Telemin Performance, he never got to keep his key cards.

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Those two Warhammer decks I played against are strong out of box.  My buddy admittedly made some changes, but not many.  He did say the two I didn't face were not nearly as solid, though.

Overall, I realize that I made the terrible mistake of building my decks around the commander.  All three of today's decks - Obosh, Torbran, and Xyris - are jammed full of low-value/unusable cards if the Commander isn't in play.   Which was the case for these games, and honestly, should be the expectation for all games - the Commander staying in the Command Zone shouldn't impact the rest of the deck.

I partially blame the lack of the tuck rule - without that as a threat, a deckbuilder may forget that a deck's Commander may be kept out of play if their table runs a decent amount of removal - which it should.  The rest of the blame falls squarely on my shoulders - I got caught up in the 'cool card' mindset that doesn't take into account likely opponent actions.

Another mistake is that my graveyard-exiling is minimal in these decks.  I'd forgotten how much the Citronelle crew likes to treat graveyards like second decks.  

The endstate is that now I have no qualms breaking Xryis back into parts (many ear-marked for Nekusar), turning Torbran into another monored deck (perhaps with Torbran in the 99), and putting Mogis back in the Command Zone and Obosh back in the 99, where it belongs.