I love the process of building an EDH deck. I rarely get time to play the format, but that doesn't stop me from always turning my lists over in my head, and coming up with new cards that could serve a nice role in them. Part of the appeal of the format for me is that a deck is NEVER ‘finished'. Even aside from every set adding some cards to the deck, there is no such thing as a ‘perfect 100', and I almost always have a running list of cards waiting to be tried out in my decks.

At FNM last week, I lost to a Momir Vig deck, in the same way one always would lose to a Momir Vig deck. It was 1 on 1, and my only chance to play EDH that day. After the game, my opponent made a comment about ‘the guy who made the deck'. Alarms went off in my head. The realization that people actually don't make their own EDH decks was jarring to me. Most of the fun of it all comes in constructing them!

Maybe it isn't so much something to chide people on, because it seems that the act of constructing an EDH deck is not a subject oft-written about. In my experience, the process is much more important than the final product, but for reference to this article, I will post some of my lists. But before I do that, I will share an eye-opening match that caused me to see my lists in a different light.

Erasing construction bias

Last week, my playgroup was up for any format, so I suggested we play EDH. No one wanted to go to their car to get their decks, so I offered up my own. We played a 4 man match, each person helming one of my decks. I was left to use the one no one wanted. Interestingly enough, I had the deck that I felt was most 'complete' and the one I expected to be most powerful, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf.

The player with Adun Oakenshield kept a hand without any green mana. I never do that with the deck, as ALL of its acceleration is green, and I have recently removed ALL duals to enable Hermit Druid (still experimental). He proceeded to be mana screwed for a large portion of the game, until he got a Krosan Tusker engine going later on. This taught me that I needed to include signets in the deck, but also that the deck could survive on basics if you have green mana.

The player with Brion Stoutarm (and equipment) was complaining about Proclamation of Rebirth sitting in his hand useless. That was my fault for adding it to the deck before putting more one drops in. I have since added Figure of Destiny and a couple other one drops, to see if that helps things.

The player running my Skeleton Ship deck—well, that deck was super slow. I need to change that deck to make it legitimate, not sure how I am going to go about that change at this moment. He did sneak in some combat math tricks with the general's counters, and do some things that I enjoyed seeing the deck do, so there is promise.

I was finding my Nath deck to be frustratingly toothless. I always found it to be disgusting in matches, but I had trouble doing much. I found out when looking at the deck later that I hadn't shuffled well enough. Earlier I had put all my card draw together to see how much I had in the deck when adding/removing cards, and after shuffling all the card draw was still in a clump at the middle of the deck. I had taken almost out all tutor effects (Worldly Tutor, Defense of the Heart) in my Nath deck because I wanted it to be 'more random', but I didn't enjoy the outcome of that very much.

In the late game, Adun Oakenshield was returning two creatures from his graveyard to his hand FOR FREE on his upkeep, Brion kept complaining that we were blowing up all his equipment and he didn't have many left. We had, in fact, killed almost 10 of them—my decks are rife with artifact hate. Meanwhile, I struggled to preserve my board, trying to do anything at all relevant with Master of the Wild Hunt.

Brion won end the end, due to the strong reanimation in his deck...which felt stronger than the reanimation in my black deck that runs all the good reanimation spells. It turns out that Vulshok Battlemaster is the literal stoneblade.

The match was full of 'What does this card do?', and excited laughter when people saw the cards they drew. I really enjoyed myself, and learned quite a bit about my decks that I would have been unable to learn otherwise. Everyone complimented me on my decks, which was nice, but I had new problems with the lists that now needed fixing.

[caption id="attachment_12184" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Yeah this art is crazy"][/caption]

In general (or is it commander?), my decks are light on graveyard hate. I see the graveyard as a resource in EDH, and seek to never have a spell be 'useless forever'. My Adun deck seeks to 'draw' cards from the graveyard. My Brion deck likes to bring back dead equips and creatures. My Skeleton Ship deck wants to use shuffle effects to reuse the graveyard. Nath is just old-school reanimation. This lack of ways to stop reanimation caused some issues when Brion was using plenty of powerful reanimation effects (Marshall's Anthem, Reveillark) that Nath's deck couldn't have taken advantage of first.

My decks also felt lacking in card draw. Yes, a player got to Krosan Tusker once a turn, and Nath just had its card draw clumped, but I added more card draw to my decks after this match. We all hit a slow topdecking point midway in the match, and that is never really fun.

Some of my decks also felt ineffective in the lategame.

Skeleton Ship did what I expected, but could probably use some more finishers. Brion excels in the late game because you make an equipment Frankenstein and then throw it at the opponent for good measure. Nath was struggling to find some relevant fatty and get a good board presence. Adun has been trying to find finishers for the entire time the deck has been around. I added Eldrazi Monument to try to help with the deck (Monument + Oversold Cemetery = cash).

With the above 'report' in mind, I have posted two very different lists below. Skeleton Ship was made very recently and tested very little, and Nath was my 2^nd EDH deck ever, and played many many times. I feel they both could use some changes, despite how pleased I am with playing the decks. I will also point out one specific card choice in each deck that I feel deserves special attention.

Feel free to comment on the lists. I am very open to changing them. Please keep in mind that I am not out to play these in anything but multiplayer (4+ players) matches, and am not trying to make 'EDH DB' decks.

I call this deck: "Skeleton Ship has awesome art, and likes to proliferate"

"Commander - Skeleton Ship"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Skeleton Ship

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Thrummingbird
• 1 Djinn of Wishes
• 1 Kukemssa Pirates
• 1 Skinrender
• 1 Magus of the Unseen
• 1 Soulsnuffers
• 1 Coffin Queen
• 1 Dusk Urchins
• 1 Vedalken Plotter
• 1 Sower of Temptation
• 1 Puppeteer Clique
• 1 Phyrexian Infiltrator
• 1 Knacksaw Clique
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Dimir Doppelganger
• 1 Quicksilver Gargantuan
• 1 Aura Thief
• 1 Riptide Entrancer
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Midnight Banshee
• 1 Necroskitter
• 1 Carnifex Demon
• 1 Echo Mage
• 1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
• 1 Mindleech Mass

• Spells (21)
• 1 Memory Plunder
• 1 Inexorable Tide
• 1 Bribery
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Crumbling Ashes
• 1 Recurring Insight
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Murderous Spoils
• 1 Take Possession
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Ritual of the Machine
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Gather Specimens
• 1 Legacy's Allure
• 1 Mutilate
• 1 Time Spiral
• 1 Volition Reins
• 1 Planeswalker's Mischief
• 1 Knowledge Exploitation
• 1 Enslave
• 1 All is Dust

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Lux Cannon
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Helm of Possession
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Serrated Arrows
• 1 Journeyer's Kite
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Chimeric Mass
• 1 Tangle Wire
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top

• Lands (36)
• 1 Creeping Tar Pit
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 City of Shadows
• 1 Dreadship Reef
• 1 Coral Atoll
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Bad River
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Winding Canyons
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Saprazzan Skerry
• 1 Tolaria West
• 10 Swamp
• 12 Island

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Single card aside

City of Shadow, you seem like a bad card, don't you? You are from the Dark, after all. I decided that there must be some use for this unique card. I realized that the heavy 'steal stuff' theme of Skeleton Ship's deck would go hand in hand with this card. The nature of those effects in the format is that it's only a matter of time before the opponent gets the card back, or kills it and does something with it later. City of Shadow aims to turn that concept on its head.

Exiling a creature you control, at instant speed, as a cost, is not something that appears on…any other card. (Food Chain is such a waste of a slot in EDH, lets Forget it exists) The effect is also just ridiculous in any deck with Threaten effects. In my experience, the graveyard is not ‘dead enough' in EDH. Stealing a creature and then sacrificing it is nice, but stealing it and then exiling it just feels better. Oh, did I mention how out of hand this land gets when it starts tapping for 4 or 5 mana?

And this deck is called: "Nath, the Rock, and his millions of fans"

"Commander - Nath"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Oracle of Mul-Daya
• 1 Pawn of Ulamog
• 1 Doomgape
• 1 Deranged Hermit
• 1 Creakwood Liege
• 1 Mitotic Slime
• 1 Xathrid Demon
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Yavimaya Elder
• 1 Pelakka Wurm
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Mycoloth
• 1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Indrik Stomphowler
• 1 Krosan Tusker
• 1 Magus of the Abyss
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Hag Hedge-Mage
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Hell's Caretaker
• 1 Master of the Wild Hunt
• 1 Regal Force
• 1 Viscera Seer
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Woodfall Primus
• 1 Reassembling Skeleton
• 1 Nezumi Graverobber
• 1 Symbiotic Wurm
• 1 Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1 Wall of Blossoms
• 1 Acidic Slime

• Spells (22)
• 1 Barter in Blood
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Mutilate
• 1 Rise From the Grave
• 1 Pattern of Rebirth
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Plague Wind
• 1 Necromancy
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Defense of the Heart
• 1 Smallpox
• 1 Corpse Dance
• 1 Attrition

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Journeyer's Kite
• 1 Plague Boiler
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Anvil of Bogardan
• 1 Helm of Possession
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk

• Lands (36)
• 1 Pendelhaven
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 High Market
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Yavimaya Hollow
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Treetop Village
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 7 Forest
• 14 Swamp

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Single card aside

Helm of Possession, some say you are the poor man's Vedalken Shackles. But you came first, didn't you? From my EDH experiences, unless you are Mono-U, this card is just plain better. When you can build the deck so the Sacrifice cost is all (or mostly all) upside, this card can quickly turn from 'what does that do?' to 'someone kill that thing QUICK!'.

When you Sacrifice a token or abuse a graveyard trigger, this just feels ridiculous. Combined with the ample ways to Sacrifice creatures (usually for even more value) in the Nath list, you can be sure your opponent won't get their creature back alive.

I like the card so much that I added it to the Skeleton Ship deck as well. There, it will usually be sacrificing opponent's creatures as 'insurance', but still has plenty of positive functionality in that list.

[caption id="attachment_12185" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Fun > Superspike"][/caption]

The MtGO initiative

I have had Commander decks built on MtGO for quite some time, but always ran into extremely unfun matches whenever I tried to play.

The recent announcement that paper and digital Commander will soon share the same ruleset really reignited my interest in the format.

Soon, you can't run Dimir Aquaduct in a Vendilion Clique deck, put Bringer of the Green Dawn in a Momir Vig deck, and Clone will finally kill commanders.

Some of these rule changes are based around what the client recognizes as a legal Commander deck. Those rules can start to be casually enforced immediately.

If you are interested in treating digital Commander like the paper counterpart, with the 'social contract' and community of the paper format intact, please post in the Mananation forums. I am brainstorming ideas and ways we can organize matches where people don't 'rage dc', act like jerks, or play 'unfun' decks.

Commander online is in some ways better than paper, as you can easily play with cards that are really hard to find/afford in physical magic, and you only need one copy of every card for your decks. The social aspect is the only part that is currently lacking. I think we can change that.

Come join us in making online multiplayer a big deal. Let the developers of Mtgo take notice, and maybe we can even cause them to ramp up improvements to the entire multiplayer interface!