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5cs4 · 1 year

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i won

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5cs4 · 2 years

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Currently 0-2 out of 6 rounds. I'm going to continue to play.

Round 1: Boros Burn

Game 1 I missed my window to kill a swiftspear and I tried to cut down and he just played another spell.

Game 2 sheoldred didn't get me there.

Round 2: Rakdos Midrange

Game 1 thoughtseized my waste not and it went down from there.

Game 2 was close but I didn't draw a closer

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5cs4 · 2 years

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Underworld Breach was and is very good.

still losing my mind a little bit that they printed literal yawgmoth's will into standard like it was nbd

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5cs4 · 4 years

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They are trying to get companion banned in standard...now.

I wonder if wotc is going errata infect when double masters drop.

It's pretty disappointing that because of the reactions design space is going to become narrow again.

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5cs4 · 4 years

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Nevermind, after searching for the song, a list for a mizzix combo and came up and yeah, I stand corrected.

still losing my mind a little bit that they printed literal yawgmoth's will into standard like it was nbd

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5cs4 · 4 years

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It’s only good with (LED AND BRAINFREEZE) [granted it was very good] but it’s only good in that shell.

still losing my mind a little bit that they printed literal yawgmoth's will into standard like it was nbd

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5cs4 · 4 years

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A commission for @timemagetim of a saproling token!

As a big magic player this was a lovely commission to do and id happy do more if people want custom tokens :>

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5cs4 · 4 years

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A Personal Message to the cEDH Community

Bona fides: I’m a Level 3 Magic judge and have been judging since 2009. I’ve judged tournaments of all formats and all levels from FNM to the Pro Tour. I understand how decks, formats, and metagames work and can absorb such information quickly. I’ve also been playing EDH since before it was called Commander and have been a member of the Commander Advisory Group since its inception last year.

So, let’s talk about cEDH and Flash in particular. While there have been calls to ban this card due to its cEDH implications since Protean Hulk’s unbanning in 2017, the furore has reached something of a desperate and fevered pitch in the weeks since Thassa’s Oracle was revealed. This anger redoubled this past monday when the Commander Rules Committee announced no changes to the Commander banlist in its quarterly update.

I understand the effect that Thassa’s Orcale will have on cEDH’s metagame when combined with Flash/Hulk combos. From everything I’ve heard, it puts the format in something of a solved state and reduces viable deck diversity down to a single combo that is virtually immune to interaction outside of Stifle and its ilk. It seems to me that the only matter that isn’t yet settled is if it’s better to use it with a Consultation package or a Cephalid Breakfast package. The correct answer is probably just to run both to ensure maximum flexibility.

At any rate, these FishHulk decks are going to make the format stale and no fun whatsoever. In any other format, this is beyond the pale of what would lead to a banning for competitive balance. However, Commander isn’t like other formats in that its banlist exists for a completely separate reason to that of competitive balance. Rather, the Commander banlist exists to attempt to set a baseline expectation of what is and isn’t acceptable in the format and to remove elements from the format that players at an average power level would be able to abuse to the detriment of those they play with.

Many RC and CAG members, myself included, sympathize with the concerns of the cEDH community in regards to Flash, Oracle, and its metagame issues in general. We have heard your concerns and have been in conversation with luminaries of the cEDH community almost continuously in the past few months. We understand the nature of the problem, but we have our own concerns about how making a ban solely for the benefit of cEDH players would be perceived by the broader community and if it would actually serve to “fix” that end of the format. We worry that it would just be a bandaid over a deeper wound and that we would all end up in the same position again in six months or a year.

Additionally, while Flash may not see much casual play, there is nothing to say that recent printing of cards such as Arena Rector or Nyxbloom Ancient won’t lead to it seeing wider adoption in the community. While I’m personally of the opinion that Flash should be banned, that opinion isn’t universal among the RC and CAG, and many wish to be more cautious about making such a change. What if the next card to break cEDH is something like Sol Ring or Cyclonic Rift? Should such broadly played cards be banned for the sake of the competitive edge of the format? These are the questions we have been considering.

The one thing that is absolutely set in stone for the RC is that the banlist will never serve the purpose of attempting to regulate the format for tournament play. That isn’t what the format is meant to do and is antithetical to its goals. Magic is full of lots of other formats that revolve around tournaments and Commander is meant to be a haven away from the unfriendly elements of those events. (While many players enjoy these elements of the game, many others don’t and come to commander to get a break from them.) In light of this, a ban for competitive balance isn’t likely to be allowed. Even if such bans did happen, they would reshape commander into a format unrecognizable to those who love it for the strange quasi-broken mess that it is right now.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s no clear answer to the problems that exist in cEDH right now. While a Flash ban would make this better for now, I feel like some other best strategy would emerge and lead to similar problems soon enough. I also don’t think that cEDH should split off from the rest of the Commander community to become its own format, as that isn’t something that the cEDH community wants.

To everyone in the cEDH community who is upset with the RC and CAG for seemingly not addressing these issues, I feel your pain and understand your anger. You fear the loss of something that you love and there seems to be nothing you can do about it. I would ask that you give us a modicum of your trust and understanding, however. Your voices aren’t being ignored and we have been doing nothing but considering these problems since before the announcement on Monday. The RC moves slowly, perhaps slower than it should, but achieving workable change takes time. I can promise you that I personally will do my utmost to continue listening to the cEDH community and sharing those concerns with the rest of the CAG and RC. I want to find a solution to this issue that will work for all of the EDH community, both casual and competitive.

If anyone wants to talk to me about this issues, you can reach me here on tumblr, on twitter (@jqlgirl) or on discord (JqlGirl#9431). Thank you for your time.

– Charlotte Sable

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5cs4 · 4 years

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Sure you can copy my homework just change it a bit.

I learned about chronicals and why the reserved list came to be.

Also learned about the mystery packs.

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5cs4 · 5 years

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This format is gonna be a wreck but easy GP wins i guess.

Pioneer really is just a shit show, huh?

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5cs4 · 5 years

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Magic: the Gathering - Modern Decks Explained Badly

Perhaps the funniest 1 minute / 50 second video I have ever watched.

From the creative genius of http://twitch.tv/syvantir // @syvantir

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5cs4 · 5 years

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Time for a Url change

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5cs4 · 5 years

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This was an incredible read and as a Ergon/ Kyte and Death and Taxes player I enjoyed this.

An Offer Your Opponent Can’t Refuse

By: Erin Jade Hess (She/Her)

This is an opinion piece.

What does it take for your opponent to scoop up the game by merely revealing private information? How does one end a game by giving away their intricate strategy? How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

Like a Bond villain, Counterbalance players in Magic: The Gathering win the game by telling their opponent their evil plot before firing their death ray. A combination of Sensei’s Diving Top and Counterbalance, the deck’s pilot rearranges the first dew of their deck, reveals the top card, and can use it to counter any spell thrown against them, providing the mana costs match.

Today I’d like to discuss a similar tactic within Argent Saga and one of the players that took game psychology to the next level.

Meet Gillian, The Witch Queen, Water champion extraordinaire. While she doesn’t offer the same hard-counter that Counter/Top features, she does offer extremely powerful card draw, especially in a Water or Water/Light spell heavy deck. The strategy is to win the game by having more answers than your opponents questions.

What does this mean? Your opponent plays the Ergon combo, you have a bounce in response. Your opponent is swinging in at your Towers, you have a debuff or destruction in hand. You get the idea.

Much like Chess, TCGs are games of questions and answers. This is where control players (like me) find their niche, answering so many of their opponents questions effectively that they start to ask their own (putting threats on the board and winning). Games with us are long, painful, and often times only fun for one player, but it works.

Gillian thrives in this setup because your deck is already full of spells she can use as fuel, often times allowing you two draws per turn if chance is on your side. Not only will you control your opponent through your cards, you’ll also control the game through psychology.

Nobody will play their best unit knowing what horrors lurk in your hand, why waste their Twilight Knight to a bounce or removal and lose a turn of tempo? Revealing your cards with Gillian not only draws you another spell, it serves as a threat to your opponent; an offer they can’t refuse. “Hey, you don’t play that unit and I won’t send it to oblivion, capeesh?”

This is the essence of a control player, pulling the strings of every aspect of the game, the cards on the board, and your opponent can be yours to use to your advantage in the match.

Any aspiring competitive player deserves to read Johnny Magic and the Card Shark Kids, the tale of John Finkel, one of Magic’s greatest players and original superstar. It’s a fantastic book and can be found for next to nothing on Amazon (I promise this isn’t sponsored, I just really love the book. No affiliate link here.)

There is a chapter where David Kushner describes the strategy Jon took to an official, prominent 90′s tournament. Jon would simply stare past your eyes, into your soul, and straight through you, not even at the board most of the time. Unblinking, unrelenting, unapologetic. Between this mind game and his skill at the game, he took home a handsome amount of prize money.

Curious, I tried this out during my competitive Magic days of yore. I went to a game store a little outside the draw range of my LGS, shuffled up, barely said anything past “this table?”, “good luck”, and “offer cut”. Without hesitation, I played a deck heavy with revealing information on my deck (UR Delver, sideboarded with the Splinter Twin core to keep things interesting) and fired my eye beams. A clean, perfect win. It was only after the broke down the game I would drop the act and actually introduce myself, explaining the strategy, sharing a laugh about the awkward moment we shared.

Here’s how it went down: I would constantly reveal my top card using the effect of Delver of Secrets, letting my opponent know exactly what I was holding onto. Between the threat of multiple counterspells in hand and the Finkel strategy, it closed out games handily.

Now, just as a disclaimer; DON’T DO THIS. It’s incredibly creepy and I did this for science and to write this silly article. Seriously. Please don’t. To prove my hypothesis, I played a few more games without presenting myself as an unholy cryptid, nothing having too much trouble (except for the Death and Taxes matchup).

Back to Gillian. Information reveal every turn, extra draw power, a deck full of answers; she’s everything I could have ever hoped for in a champion! I fully plan on building around her and having some fun test games, see how she works.

Sometimes doing something unconventional is the right way to win a game. No one expects you to effectively play with your hand revealed, and that holds the potential for a tilt. Or shall I say… counter the balance?

Stay caffeinated,

Erin Jade Hess (She/Her)