Click, Click.... Boom.

You'd be amazed how many combos you can fit into a tribal deck built around this guy:

Well, not for a while yet - I've yet to build him. Maybe another couple of months before I have that deck up and running.

On the subject of 'pulling the trigger' I've just built a the Trostani, Selesnya's Voice deck I'd been threatening to build for some time. The presence of Archangel of Thune in a deck that has a LOT of lifegain triggers surely isn't a coincidence. Watch this space as I'll keep trying to find the most obscene thing I can do with this deck.

(At the moment my record with Trostani is ultimating Ajani, Caller of the Pride when I was on about 32 life and gaining 32 2/2 cats and gaining 64 life. Oh Archangel of Thune - where were you then?)

You'll like this.

All of the cats enter the battlefield at once but Trostani sees each of them seperately and so stacks 32 lifegain triggers one on top of the other. The important thing here is that the lifegain is for the size of the creature when the trigger resolves (although it can't be below 0)

Now bear that in mind. If Archangel of Thune is out then each time you gain life you generate a trigger to put +1/+1 counters on each of your creatures. This trigger goes on top of the stack and so resolves before the next one below it.

Soooo....

1. First lifegain trigger resolves - Archangel of Thune Triggers.
2. Archangel of Thune's trigger resolves - all cats get a +1/+1 counter.
3. 2nd lifegain trigger resolves - cat is currently 3/3 - gain 3 life - Archangel of Thune triggers.
4. Archangel of Thune's trigger resolves - all cats get a +1/+1 counter.
5. 3rd lifegain trigger resolves - cat is currently a 4/4 - gain 4 life - Archangel of Thune triggers.
6. Archangel of Thune's trigger resolves - all cats get a +1/+1 counter.
7. 4th lifegain trigger resolves - cat is currently a 5/5 - gain 5 life - Archangel of thune triggers.

I think you can see where this is going...

If I've done the quick maths right you will have 32 x 34/34 cats and you will have gained around 600 life. Oh and your archangel will be rather massive - as will Trostani herself and in fact anything that you already had out. So a 1/1 Squirrel token from the previous turn could now be a 33/33 attacker this turn.

Tokens?

Well thank you Bennie Smith from SCG for the idea but I actually pulled it off today - casting Primal Surge in a deck with no other non-creature / planeswalker spells in it.

It's a really good feeling when your opponent asks you what the card does and you get to hold up the 70 or so cards left in your library and say "Basically what that means is that I'll choose to have all but one of these enter the battlefield and then I'll kill you" - Haste is a good thing 

To be fair between the three decks I was testing yesterday the cards I cast were like a 'who's who' of powerful commander cards:

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Aurelia the Warleader, Luminarch's Ascention, Akroma, Angel of Fury, Akroma Angel of Wrath, Genesis Wave, Primal Surge, Red / White / Green Sun's Zenith(s, Darksteel Plate, Land Tax........

You'll even be pleased to know that a 'Pilgrims Eye' with Darksteel Plate on it can hold of Zurgo Helmsmasher with a Herald of Torment bestowed onto him - where else would you get that?

Played some more commander earlier today. I managed to Imprint Serra Avatar onto Mimic Vat in order to create a rather large token each turn. Oh yes - I was playing Selesnya so populate became a bit of a thing - the populated copies stay around as well

How did I do it - by manipulating the triggers on the stack so that Imprint resolved before the angels own trigger to shuffle it back into my library.

I did it, I did it... I finally got off the combo that I've always wanted to do. I was down to 8 life and had played Sanguine bond early in the game. I drew for the turn and found Exquisite Blood. Well sometimes you just can't help smiling.

Lol - look at it another way, it's a great place to throw in all the silliness you wanted to achieve in Standard but never got a chance to.

Did you ever look at 'Rise of the Dark Realms' and think "I wish I could reanimate an entire army with that and smash my opponent senseless" - well now you can.

Or did you ever think "I really want mono-white devotion to work" but continuously got mana screwed / flooded or had your army wiped from the face of the earth before it got going? EDH lets you try again but with all the slightly broken cards that modern can give you in white to protect your creatures whilst you go nuts.

Look at this as an advert for being able to use almost any card that you can pick out of your collection and pause with an "oooooh" type noise as you think "What could I do with this..?" - EDH is the place to find out.

Want to Rakdos Charm the guy with the massive token army so his own creatures hit him for around 80 damage? You can  (Ok yours hit you as well but it's worth it to see token guy's face when his own army kills him)

Yes... but I'm good at it.


...and where do you think I polished that skillset? Not in standard or modern for sure.

Lol - make a commander deck sometime in the next 6 months... you know you want to.

Ok, today's perfect example of a janky win came courtesy of a fairly simple board state.

My opponent had me down to one life with their last attack. They have 6 creatures on the board - 3 of whom are now tapped whilst the others are either vigilant or defenders.

I have 4 creatures - Masako the humourless, Wayfairing Temple (currently a 4/4) Nacatl war pride and Jazal Goldmane. My opponent is on 38 life as they have survived the melee that has led to it being just us two left. 

When I was declaring blockers on the previous turn I had let damage through that I could have blocked whilst retaining my creatures - my opponent was surprised and wondered why. This is what I did.

At the start of my turn I untapped and drew (nothing of interest) and then declared everyone as attackers. Nacatl War prides ability goes on the stack and resolves - I now have 6 additional 3/3 attackers coming in and my wayfairing temple is now a 10/10.

Then I activate Jazal Goldmane's ability - I have 10 attacking creatures so it's a +10/+10 boost. Suddenly I have:

1 x 12/12 Masako
1 x 20/20 Wayfairing Temple
1 x 14/14 Jezal
7 x 13/13 Nacatl War Pride.

Even making the best blocks he could my opponent was facing (6x13) + (1x12) damage, a total of 90 damage in one turn, from nowhere. 

Woot, lets hear it for janky deck building.