Post by Sigarda on Jan 16, 2015 0:41:36 GMT
So here is the thing, I'm making a R/G commander deck. I thought I'd just post my thoughts on who I wanted to head up the charging hordes.
So I just want a big creature right? No, not really - I want to have a trick or two in the deck. Whilst I do want to throw massive creatures at people I also want to be able to do things unexpected... OR do things that are expected but just... nasty.
So with that rather ambiguous brief - who do I want to build a deck around? Who can give me either the flexibility to do something unexpected with a Gruul deck (which is basically 99 cards that say "I want to hurt you" - yes even the lands - and a single copy of Rancor) - as you can imagine this is a bit of a tall order - OR who can make it so that I can do the stompy thing VERY well indeed.
First up,
I love her so much - the poster child for strong independent women long before Destinies Child got there. However she starts to look a little bit.. well.. small in EDH and her ability is great for combat tricks but when you've run out of cards (and you will - you are playing R/G - you WILL run out of cards) it ceases to be anything major. One day I will build a TL deck with her where I can use her ability just a little more consistently.
It's big and nasty - perfect right? Well not really... If I didn't already have plans for a token based build (Trostani in case you were wondering) I'd go for this. Hit the tokens really hard then sacrifice an obscene amount to Devour. Now this is actually a tried and tested method - as Avacyn will remember from a game of planechase where I devoured a small army of zombie tokens to create something truly... huge - but as I already have a token build in the works I'm not going to double up and do the same thing twice.
Ok, now we're getting warmer. This is one of the 'Does it very well' type of commanders. There really aren't any tricks with him - just lay the big guys out and Schwiiing.... Oh and play Nylea first. However this is one of those famous occasions when I don't actually like the art on the card so I won't play it. Fickle aren't I?
Big friendly ogre. Now here is a commander I could build around. He's a 6/6 who can attack and block each turn and also worries flyers. That's good. For 6 mana it's fair and potentially you could equip him with all manner of equipment to make him all that more scary - or even better just stick Whispersilk Cloak on him and be hated for the rest of the evening.
So yeah, if that were all then he'd be ok and perhaps the best of the bunch to work with. However he's got some more text sitting there. I'm not going to retype it but perhaps let me paraphrase for you. "If a player is inconsiderate enough to be playing blue then they will get well and truly b***h-slapped".
Of the above text please note the exact words (and I will copy this) "
...nice.
This is not necessarily a good thing for anyone playing any form of combo / control or basically any normal EDH deck.
So Ruric Thar is a really strong contender. You could happily build around making ways to get him out, keep him out and keep him alive and then just let your opponents kill themselves slowly as they try to adjust their gameplans around all the spells in their hands that they can't now cast.
But wait... Theros gave us something else. Something... divine.
Now this is something interesting. He's hard to remove as long as you manage your devotion wisely and he makes any large creature in your hand an immediate threat the turn it comes out. He's also potentially massive in terms of janky combos (something I've been known to go for on the odd occasion) such as using Yeva to flash in a nice big primordial hydra at the end of your opponents turn - let it double in size on your upkeep and then target it with Xenagos's ability to make it very large.
Oh yes... whilst primordial hydra is big I do vaguely recall that there is a hydra out there that can share damage with everyone when it hits
Yeah... so that's in.
But who should I go do - Big god thing that makes all my creatures potentially devastating (go team gruul) or big creature that paints a massive target on my head and will immediately become the target of every single player at the table...?
Yeah.. I was swayed by the god for a while but when you put it like that I just have to go with the 'creates hate wherever he goes' type creature. Ruric Thar will be my new commander.
Watch this space...
So I just want a big creature right? No, not really - I want to have a trick or two in the deck. Whilst I do want to throw massive creatures at people I also want to be able to do things unexpected... OR do things that are expected but just... nasty.
So with that rather ambiguous brief - who do I want to build a deck around? Who can give me either the flexibility to do something unexpected with a Gruul deck (which is basically 99 cards that say "I want to hurt you" - yes even the lands - and a single copy of Rancor) - as you can imagine this is a bit of a tall order - OR who can make it so that I can do the stompy thing VERY well indeed.
First up,
I love her so much - the poster child for strong independent women long before Destinies Child got there. However she starts to look a little bit.. well.. small in EDH and her ability is great for combat tricks but when you've run out of cards (and you will - you are playing R/G - you WILL run out of cards) it ceases to be anything major. One day I will build a TL deck with her where I can use her ability just a little more consistently.
It's big and nasty - perfect right? Well not really... If I didn't already have plans for a token based build (Trostani in case you were wondering) I'd go for this. Hit the tokens really hard then sacrifice an obscene amount to Devour. Now this is actually a tried and tested method - as Avacyn will remember from a game of planechase where I devoured a small army of zombie tokens to create something truly... huge - but as I already have a token build in the works I'm not going to double up and do the same thing twice.
Ok, now we're getting warmer. This is one of the 'Does it very well' type of commanders. There really aren't any tricks with him - just lay the big guys out and Schwiiing.... Oh and play Nylea first. However this is one of those famous occasions when I don't actually like the art on the card so I won't play it. Fickle aren't I?
Big friendly ogre. Now here is a commander I could build around. He's a 6/6 who can attack and block each turn and also worries flyers. That's good. For 6 mana it's fair and potentially you could equip him with all manner of equipment to make him all that more scary - or even better just stick Whispersilk Cloak on him and be hated for the rest of the evening.
So yeah, if that were all then he'd be ok and perhaps the best of the bunch to work with. However he's got some more text sitting there. I'm not going to retype it but perhaps let me paraphrase for you. "If a player is inconsiderate enough to be playing blue then they will get well and truly b***h-slapped".
Of the above text please note the exact words (and I will copy this) "
RURIC THAR deals 6 damage to that player"
Now say that again in your mind... If my opponent casts anything except a creature when RT is out he gets almost a third of the commander damage required to kill him done immediately unto him as a result....nice.
This is not necessarily a good thing for anyone playing any form of combo / control or basically any normal EDH deck.
So Ruric Thar is a really strong contender. You could happily build around making ways to get him out, keep him out and keep him alive and then just let your opponents kill themselves slowly as they try to adjust their gameplans around all the spells in their hands that they can't now cast.
But wait... Theros gave us something else. Something... divine.
Now this is something interesting. He's hard to remove as long as you manage your devotion wisely and he makes any large creature in your hand an immediate threat the turn it comes out. He's also potentially massive in terms of janky combos (something I've been known to go for on the odd occasion) such as using Yeva to flash in a nice big primordial hydra at the end of your opponents turn - let it double in size on your upkeep and then target it with Xenagos's ability to make it very large.
Oh yes... whilst primordial hydra is big I do vaguely recall that there is a hydra out there that can share damage with everyone when it hits
Yeah... so that's in.
But who should I go do - Big god thing that makes all my creatures potentially devastating (go team gruul) or big creature that paints a massive target on my head and will immediately become the target of every single player at the table...?
Yeah.. I was swayed by the god for a while but when you put it like that I just have to go with the 'creates hate wherever he goes' type creature. Ruric Thar will be my new commander.
Watch this space...
