There are times when I feel my EDH decks get a little cute.

This comes from me just adding cards to my decks thinking they might be fun/great ideas without thinking them through. Sometimes I pull a foil rare and I'm like "Yeah, it fits with the theme, might as well." It's only after I play the deck a few times and I'm not really doing anything that I have to decide that I need to edit it.

What do I mean by "cute," as it's a word Magic players really don't use if they're not talking about the ladies. Basically, the deck has turned into a parody of what it could be. There are cards that fit the theme, but they don't help with winning (Yes, winning's not an important part to some players, but it is to me). Sometimes they're over costed, or they're one card that fits with the general synergy of the deck, or even a place the deck could go thematically if I work it that way.

Cute cards are commonplace in EDH; it's one of the only formats where these types of cards can exist. I'm not saying they're bad by any means. For me (with my Spike/Johnny leanings), when you get a deck that's filled with too many of them and you aren't winning or at least having fun then it's time to reconsider your decklist. Too much cuteness can ruin a person.

Let's look at an example: In my Brion Stoutarm deck, the focus is gaining life and dealing damage (built around Brion). Since I've followed my first article's advice, and found way to win without having Brion on the table (and remember it's combat damage that counts as General damage, so his flinging of creatures aren't General damage), I need to make sure that my cards make sense. After lying my deck down, I try and find the central theme by grouping the cards together.

Cards that care about lifegain go in one pile; cards that Deal Damage in another; Sacrifice outlets in another, and so on and so forth. From there I can see what doesn't seem to fit together. This is something I can't currently do in MTGO which frustrates me. Yes, I can sort by converted mana cost which is great for a curve, but I can move the cards in the different piles which I would love to do.

After all of this time, I weed out several cards that are getting replaced with others that make more sense. But there are still a few cards that sit on the Balance. Are they too cute for their own good? And sometimes it's hard cutting those cute cards, because every once in a while thy have won you a game or two. They weren't your MVPs by any means, but they helped contribute to the win.

Here's what I had on the chopping board for being too cute.

Without showing my decklist, some of you would argue about different things about which should go. Would saying that I have Cradle of Vitality in the deck make a difference? Beacon of Immortality's a cute card, but it can save you (or another player if you want to play politics) and it makes for a great threat.

Attack with a creature. No blocks? Beacon myself, and activate Cradle putting 35 +1/+1 counters on it. Remember, Beacon's an instant. Then, if I waned to, Fling said creature at another player with Brion to win. And gain another 35+ life.

Sure, that's one instance of a single card, which if that's the only purpose (besides out right winning the game without the need of other cards), then I'd cut it for being cute. However, it does combo with other cards in the deck (such as Storm Herd, which some find to be cute as well).

If you've never played Well of Lost Dreams in a deck with constant life gain, I'd get on that pretty quickly. It's not cute, but helps refuel your hand. People will shrug their shoulders when they play it, but when you're gaining 2 life and drawing two cards a turn, it ‘s a problem that quickly needs to be an answered. Lightning Helix might not do enough damage all of the time, but it's on theme and Captain's Maneuver is reactionary.

Ajani's Pridemage is the too cute card here. You are the weakest link, goodbye.

In a deck full of life gain, why do I hate on a card that fits instantly with this theme? It does nothing but sit there, waiting for you to gain life. In a competitive format where you have 20 life and you're trying to win as quickly as possible it's a better fit there. In EDH, if you don't have lifegain to help you out, it's a 2/2 that does nothing. It falls under my "Tarmogoyf-is-a-pair-of-bad-idea-jeans/">Tarmogoyf is a Pair of Bad Idea Jeans" theory.

For those that don't want to click over or want the main point, basically if a card does nothing but get bigger, it's not really a good creature in EDH. I used examples such as Kird Ape, Wild Nactal and Tarmogoyf. Amazing threats in the first few turns of a game, but then they just get outclassed. Big creatures on the board that do nothing, do nothing. Ajani's Pridemage can fall into that same category. Sure, you can fling them with Brion, but then any creature can fit that description. Even the Beacon trick doesn't work since you'll only gain 1 life thanks to the restriction of what the Pridemage can grow.

If you look at Pridemage's sister Serra Ascendant, from the deck "Soul Sisters" from this summer's hot deck you notice why it's a much better fit into the EDH Arena:

Besides being an awesome first turn drop, it has that little line of text that makes it completely playable: Lifelink. Yes, it does trigger Ajani's Pridemage if you drop it turn two, but it can act as something more then just a beatstick. It also triggers Well of Lost Dreams, it acts as a "wall" if your opponent has a dragon in play when you have 30+ life. The Ascendant is constantly trying to get you back up above 30 making it do something other than just sit there waiting for you to get up to that life threshold. It can be a great combat trick if you're just under 30 life and somehow gain life (Beacon of Immortality) to get the +5/+5 ability. And suddenly it can change the game.

With the Pridemage, you'd only get a +1/+1 counter.

While the above situation can be considered "cute," it's still an effect way to operate your EDH deck. Synergy is a powerful, and might be the most powerful, way ton construct your deck. It's those moments that you remember later then adding the +1/+1 counter to kill someone's wall.

Being cute and just throwing those types of cards in your deck can be a fine way to play, but that's not how I roll. I want my deck to have a purpose, a focus, and some fun.

And with that transition I bring you to today's meta part of the article. This is my fourth week writing here on ManaNation and I'm loving it. But, for the first 3 weeks I've been being cute while I've been writing (though for those who've read my material before, you know that's how I write). I was brought on board ManaNation to write about EDH. Now, there's so many ways that you can go with this topic that I didn't want to start at the beginning. I could've, but didn't.

Maybe I was being cute.

But why I've been writing about EDH for a while is for you, the reader. You can blame this all on Adam Styborski's post on Dailymtg.com (in fact, you can blame anything you want that I do wrong on Adam, he's accepted to take all the blame). I love to get Feedback as well, and I've been reading over the comments left on my posts as well as on twitter (@mtgcolorpie). I've been trying to let them grow organically without my thoughts, but I've been paying attention to what you've been saying.

As I take a look at the weeks ahead, I've got ideas about what I want to cover. But is that what you, as the reader, what? I don't want to have this be a column about that I believe EDH should be with some self-righteous belief. What I write here are my opinions and my beliefs; you're free to disagree and argue with me about whatever you want about what I write. We all don't have the same definition about what fun is, or what makes for a jerk move in EDH. While that's some of the problem with the format as it's still growing and finding it's legs, that's also one of the benefits as well.

When I was writing about what make EDH great a few weeks ago, some people asked in the comments what EDH was. While I'm happy that my post leads to someone learning about the format, I'm sure that they weren't the only ones asking about it.

Is there something that you'd wish I'd cover? This is not a cry for help that after four posts I've got nothing after that. If you don't like what I'm covering, it just wastes everyone's time. There are things that I feel I would like to cover, and believe it's important, but I want to know what you would like to read. If all you want are decklists, then that's all you want. Hopefully you've noticed that I haven't even come close to a decklist yet, as I personally want to talk about other things than just 99 cards. But, I understand the position that if you're just starting out then jumping into the water without swimming might be a bad thing. And I don't want you to feel that way.

Currently there are plenty of other people who do write about EDH as well (Bennie Smith and Sheldon Menery on SCG, and Ben McDole here on ManaNation.com as well when I update on 99EDHProblems.com) as well as the podcast MTGRadio. Each one of us will gladly give you our opinion on EDH; some of them are varied, some are the same. Each one of us is looking to accomplish the same goal: to make EDH fun and accessible to everyone.

How can I do that for you? Tell me what you're interested in reading about EDH. Would you like me to write a primer for EDH? I know that those of you wouldn't want to read another one of those so I'd try and make it entertaining. Do you want introductions on how to build decks, what you should look for, where to start? How about multiplayer strategy? You want me to go over the old Anthony Alongi types of cards? How to get friends into EDH? Multiplayer against 1v1 banned lists? Planechase/Archenemy? Long forgotten Generals? Taking care of your EDH decks and what you should store them in?

That's only off the top of my head.

While I'm not letting you readers pick every one of my articles, but where you want to see this column headed. If there's a Wave of Indifference, I'll do what I see fit.

But I want to hear your opinions, your feedback. Tell me what you're thinking. If you don't think a single comment will make a difference, you're wrong. If you have a question or an idea, most likely other people do too, they just haven't said anything. As I said before, I want you to read because you find my writings enjoyable, or you learn something; it'd be great if it'd be both, but that's just me being egotistical.

So write down what you'd like to see in the comments. If you agree, add on to it and tell me. The more people behind a topic idea, the quicker I'll get to it. You can also e-mail me (mtgcolorpie AT gmail DOT com) or twitter (@mtgcolorpie). I read everything I get, though I'm sure it's not as much as Mark Rosewater recieves.

Next week I'll be talking about that December 2nd announcement that WotC is making about EDH (as broken here by ManaNation). I don't know what it is, so I'm in the Darkness with you guys as well. After that? Well, why don't you tell me.

Because I can continue to be cute, or I can get down to business.