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So I was going to use this as a Khans set review but as the set’s been released for a little over a week now, I’m pretty sure all of you know just how awesome our Fall set is. There’s a little something for everyone and the reprinting of the Onslaught Fetch lands is a huge boon to a variety of formats. Rather than go over the set card by card, I’d rather look at some options for my new favorite legend . The Jeskai Khan supports several different strategies with a voltron theme being probably the most obvious. Since Narset starts out with a relatively low power and I have to fight through 3 separate opponent’s life totals, I’m more concerned with being able to finish the game in a turn or two. To that end, I want to play all of the spells that will grant me either extra turns or extra attack steps.

Land (36)

5x

5x

5x

Planeswalkers (10)

Artifacts (17)

Instants/Sorceries (27)

Enchantment (9)

The Good: If Narset can stick on the board and attack a few times, I should be far enough ahead to clinch the game. Since I’m not spending mana to play all of these big spells, I can keep countermagic mana up even if it’s just a bluff.

The Bad: the deck is weak to Edict effects, especially at instant speed. If Narset gets removed a few times she might be prohibitively expensive to cast in the later stages of the game. Without a creature on the board, the deck has trouble going off.

Key Cards: Proteus Staff is probably the best card in the deck, allowing you to polymorph Narset and stack your deck however you want. Since there’s no […]

Recently I have seen a rise in popularity of “French” EDH in my local meta. French, or Duel commander, is a variant of EDH meant to be played exclusively in 1v1 matches. Games are best two out of three, life totals begin at 30 and the ban list is slightly different than normal Commander. Oppressive cards like are banned, as well as some of the top tier commanders such as . Oddly enough, other cards which are banned in multiplayer EDH are perfectly legal in French. Which cards you ask? Well, cards like . I’ve had a pristine, pack-pulled copy of Gris since Avacyn Restored was still Standard legal and it has sat in my “not for trade” binder since I pulled it. Finally ol’ Griseldaddy has a home and I couldn’t be happier with the deck. While I have featured a Mono Black deck in a previous article, I have never built one myself. Because the deck is aimed at dueling a single opponent, Black’s spot removal and discard becomes much more powerful. So powerful in fact that it’s pretty much all I included in the list.

Planeswalkers: 3

Creatures: 19

Instants: Sorceries: 36

Enchantments: 5

Artifacts: 1

Lands: 35

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The Good: The deck gives us all the tools we need to control the board in the early game. Hand disruption plus cheap removal means our opponent has a hard time playing anything and getting it to stick. Once we hit 8 mana and can cast Griselbrand, we get a brand new hand and can keep applying pressure.

The Bad: So far I have had issues closing the game. Even though the deck can troll someone turn after turn, Griselbrand is our main win-con and if he gets hit […]

Since my last article, we have seen the release of M15 and while there are some interesting cards in the set, this article is aimed at the future state of Magic. This past weekend was the San Diego Comic Con, during which we got some juicy new spoilers for the upcoming fall set as well as some news about the next Commander product. One of the most interesting things about the announcement was the printing of as a Planeswalker card and apparently one that can be used as a commander in a game of EDH. Since then I have seen people speak very vehemently for and against planeswalkers being used as commanders. While I find the idea a little gimmicky, I don’t think it’s doing anything that really threatens to break the format.

What I found most interesting about all of the spoilers from SDCC was the announcement that Khans of Tarkir, the fall set, will focus on the “wedge” or “enemy” color combinations. I am pretty excited about this since my favorite 3 color combinations seem to be the enemy wedge colors. Dega, or I guess now it’s called Mardu, is the Red/White/Black wedge and easily my favorite of the five. The problem for me has simply been the lack of commanders in that wedge. Kaalia is probably my favorite general but demands a specific build to function well. is my second favorite in the wedge and while I’ve never built the deck, “I kill all of your stuff and then take it” is definitely a strategy I can get behind. is never something I’ve been excited to try out however.

Along with the spoilers for the commander 2014 product, we also […]

The 99: Conspiracy Blues

 
Ok, very little preamble this time. Conspiracy has been out for over a month now and I’m excited to discuss its impact on the EDH format. I bought a box of Conspiracy just to open and I was not disappointed. While many sets have chase Rares or Mythics that carry the value of the set, I believe Conspiracy is valuable just on the merit of its commons and uncommons alone. Sure there is but when you have the opportunity to crack open packs with a slew of $1-2 uncommons and many cards which are staples of the format, Conspiracy feels like a very solid investment. Added to this, Conspiracy is one of the most entertaining draft formats I have ever played. Conspiracy also brings us several legends to build around. Some are reprints so I won’t mention them here except to say that I predict a slew of decks to hit your local meta in the near future. As far as the new legends go, we have some interesting options.

is probably the most popular of the new legends. Some people want to build around the Dethrone mechanic while others have expressed their excitement about her synergy with . I tried my hand at building a Marchesa deck, ransacking my Nekusar deck for spare parts but the end result wasn’t something I really enjoyed. Perhaps I just didn’t sink enough time into building the deck but my Marchesa deck fared rather poorly in casual matches. Besides the Unleash creatures like , I found it tedious to play a creature and then try to get a counter on them before someone killed them or took out Marchesa. is the […]

The 99: The King is Dead

Maybe it’s just me but lately I have noticed a huge surge in popularity of . It seems as though the last few times I have gone out to play a game of Commander I have either faced a Nekusar deck or encountered someone in the process of building one. Having snapped up all 5 of the Commander 2013 decks as soon as they hit shelves, I have also been working on my own take on Nekusar. What makes the zombie king so popular? For one, he is a rather open ended general to build around. While the most obvious implication is to stack draw triggers like and make your opponents draw themselves to death, I believe that you could make a very strong deck on the simple merit of drawing 2 cards a turn. Less obvious is the Zombie and/or Wizard tribal theme which I have yet to encounter but the possibility remains. The comment I’ve heard the most about Nekusar and the reason I think he is so highly played is that the deck is just incredibly fun to pilot, particularly for Control oriented players.

In my experience, the key to a successful Nekusar build is to balance your selection of draw effects and control elements. Leaning too much on the symmetrical draw effects gives your opponent a rather hefty advantage if they can manage to keep Nekusar off the field and not get pinged for every card they draw. Given a proper board state however, Nekusar can finish a whole table of opponents with a . So how do we negate all the card advantage we’re giving our opponent? The route I’ve chosen for my Nekusar […]

Well it’s been a month and I’ve had the opportunity to play a few more games with my Oloro Esper Control deck. Also, it’s time for us to Journey into Nyx and I wanted to make a few remarks about some of the cards that we’ll be seeing soon. While this will be far from a complete set review, i couldn’t help but take a moment to discuss some of the new card that will have the greatest impact on EDH.

So what are we getting from Nyx? First, and possibly most important are the remaining Theros Temples or Scry lands. Fans of Golgari (Green/Black) or Izzet (Blue/Red) colors finally get their Scry lands to play with and beyond that, we have another land to add to the short list of lands which produce any color. is a very powerful card and like its predecessor , I think it will end up being rather valuable. I would try to scoop up a few of these while they are in Standard and plentiful. The same can be said for the Scry lands which, if nothing else, are an obvious upgrade to Return to Ravnica’s Guildgates.

Beyond the lands, Journey into Nyx also gives us a new but familiar planeswalker in . While some tournament players have scoffed at this 5-drop, I definitely think he has a home in several EDH decks. His first ability has strong synergy with Commanders like , and and his second ability is raw card advantage for decks like Karametra and Trostani which have a high number of creatures. He can also help you dig for creatures in a Control deck when all you want is to cast a big […]

Hello and welcome back! Before we delve too deeply, I would like to mention that The 99 is switching from a bi-weekly article to a monthly one. Feel free to commiserate in the comments below. To try and make it up to all of you, I thought it would be fun to look at a deck being built from the ground up rather than something that is already complete. I will be justifying my card choices as we go and hopefully this will help newer players get the hang of constructing their own Commander deck.

First, color choices. For me this is an easy one. Upon further inspection of my collection I was reminded that I currently have no Esper (Blue/Black/White) deck sleeved up and ready to go. The most important part of deck construction is having a clear idea in mind. How is the deck going to win? What cards in these colors will allow me to get there? Is there some theme I want to explore along the way? For this Esper deck, I want to focus on a Control archetype and grind out a victory by denying everything my opponents do. I also have a copy of just sitting in my trade binder and life gain is a theme I have never really tried in EDH.

Lands

A mana base is something that can constantly be improved upon. You can comprise your mana base solely from basic lands or get really deep and sleeve up something as awesome as . It all depends on how efficient you want your mana base to be and how much your budget can allow. In a 3 color deck, I recommend at least running the Guildgates from […]

We’re back again and this time around I have a spicy list from Nu Games’ own Joel Herrick! While I have thus far featured tri-color decks, this time around we plunder the depths of the darkest color for a look at the rewards and pitfalls of playing mono Black. Before we get to the deck list however I’d like to offer my two cents about playing a single color in EDH.

If you are new to the game or trying to build a new deck on a budget, mono colored decks can be a very good option simply because you don’t have to spring for an expensive mana base. Suddenly cards like and are not as scary when you run mostly basic lands and never having to play lands which enter the battlefield tapped just for the sake of mana fixing lets your plays go a little easier. Because you’re not trying to make room for the best of each color as you might try to do in multicolored builds, you can dig deep in your chosen color and really explore all that it has to offer you. By the same token, you will have to work harder to cover all of your bases. You can play to the strengths of your chosen color but you also have to take into account what limitations you will have by sticking to a single color. Often times, Artifacts are your new best friend as they can help fill some of the gaps your color has. Alright enough primer, let’s get down to business.

Commander:

Creatures (27):

Planeswalkers (2):

Instants (3):

Sorceries (12):

Enchantments (6):

Artifacts (12):

Lands (37):

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The Good: Xiahou is a monster of recursion. The graveyard quickly becomes a second […]

This week I get to give someone else a moment in the spotlight. Fellow Nu Gamer Isaac Dietz was kind enough to share his list with me and explain some of the finer points of Cascading for more value than you can shake an Isochron Scepter at.

Creatures: 24

Instants/Sorceries: 23

 
Artifacts: 9
 

Enchantments: 5
 

Lands: 38

x6

x5

x3

The Good: This deck is chock full of value and Cascading off an 8 drop (twice) with Wanderer means the deck can quickly flood the board with powerful permanents. Isaac also includes a suite of cards like and to play everyone else’s good stuff against them. The icing on the cake is the element of chaos the deck brings with cards like which is not only flavorful, it also disrupts an opponent’s attempt at playing counter-magic or removal. The Wanderer also gives all its buddies Haste which means the beat-down can come out of nowhere and be quite devastating.

The Bad: The deck is somewhat dependent on Wanderer and can have a difficult time if he gets sent to the bottom of the library. Because the deck is so dependent on a high casting cost creature, much of the early game is dedicated to ramping. If an opponent casts an early and takes out all of the Wanderer’s mana rocks, it will be much harder to get the ball rolling.

Key Cards: This list includes a wide variety of interesting synergies which abuse both the Cascade ability and the Stack. ing Wanderer while he is still on the Stack and recasting him off of Spelljack lets you net more Cascade triggers at instant speed. is another sweet piece of tech. Since casting the commander from our […]

One on one duels of Magic have very little use for politics. All that matters is our opponent’s life total and choosing the correct line of play to bring that number to zero as fast as possible. In a multiplayer setting however we have both the time and inclination to forge alliances, make deals or simply wait for an opportune moment to stab one another in the back. Not only is Commander more fun with more people, we are given specific cards which lend themselves more readily to the multiplayer experience. We can play the political game both with the cards we chose to use and the way we interact with our opponents during the course of the game. Let’s first take a look at what politics in EDH are all about.

Don’t Rock the Boat: perhaps the easiest way to assure your own doom in a multiplayer game is to be overly antagonistic early in the game. Attacking the player with the least-developed board state is usually the quickest way to make enemies at the table. Just like when you evaluate who to attack, you should also put some amount of consideration into who and what you target with your removal or counter-magic. Trying to counter or kill everything that your opponents play will quickly brand you as the player worth taking out first, particularly if the spell you countered or creature you killed was relatively harmless. On top of that, you will run out of resources more quickly and be missing that quite a bit when someone drops a (you just had to murder that poor on turn 2, didn’t you?).

Sandbagging: Often the last person to pull the trigger is […]