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La Campina Romana by Claude Lorrain (1639). Maximize Velocity by Svetlin Velinov.
Now is the time to start thinking about lining up those special gifts for the Commander player in your life. The holiday season is approaching and whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Jace-mas or a day honoring Magic's one and only gift-giving Commander, Zedruu the Greathearted, it's time to start thinking about gifts.
How do you find just the right present for that special Commander player in your life?
I've got five great suggestions for you in today's Commanderruminations column.
The Shirt off My Back
Well, not actually the shirt off my back, but I do have a Magic: The Gathering t-shirt that pretty much gets a compliment every time I wear it.
You can find it on Amazon by searching for "Magic The Gathering Stained Glass T-Shirt". If there is a best Magic T-Shirt ever made, I think this is it.
If an amazing, gorgeous T-Shirt like that isn't your style, you can search on Amazon or Etsy for "Magic The Gathering T-Shirt" and find all kinds of great products. There are shirts for pretty much any color or color combination, any playstyle, and loads of different Commanders. I've got a Narset, Enlightened Master t-shirt that I adore, even though I pulled apart the deck.
My point isn't that you should get the shirt shown above, but that there's an incredible variety of custom Magic t-shirts out there. Some are beautiful. Some are hilarious. If you know a Commander player who wears t-shirts and you want to buy them a gift this holiday season, it's worth spending a little time on Amazon or Etsy to see if one jumps out at you.
Papa Got a Brand New Bag
Many of us use dice to keep track of our life totals, show how many counters are on our creatures and how many tokens we've been able to amass on our board. Those dice have to be stored somewhere, and lots of us use dice bags.
While a dice bag might not seem like a novel and exciting gift for a Commander player, it's possible just the right gift is to going to wind up being just the right dice bag.
If your friend is of drinking age, the right dice bag might come with something special inside of it. Your local liquor store can probably hook you up with a bottle of Crown Royal whisky that comes with their distinctive purple drawstring pouch, and if that's not the right color there are some other varieties that come with different colored bags.
If that isn't your style, you can find an incredible variety of custom dice bags over on Etsy. A leather or chain mail dice bag might be more fitting for your friend than a purple felt drawstring bag, especially if those Crown Royal pouches are really common where you happen to play Commander.
If you're a do-it-yourself kind of person and have a sewing machine available, a set of drawstring dice bags is the kind of project you could knock out in an evening. You might be surprised by the variety of fabric patterns you can find at your local craft store.
If you do decide you're going to get a dice bag for one of the players in your group, don't give it to them empty. If it's not going to come with a bottle of something yummy, it should be easy enough to pick up some dice to make the gift complete.
Do they normally use two d20 for their life but like to shoot their life total up over 99, or even over 999?
Get them a set of three or four fancy and distinctive 10-sided dice so they can "go digital" and do it in style.
Do they like to play with infect and slowly proliferate their opponents to death?
Get them a set of four or five evil-looking 10-sided dice to use to keep track of those pesky poison counters.
Do they play a commander or play style that likes to put out -1/-1 counters?
Get them a set of smaller six-sided dice to use for their -1/-1 counters so they won't ever get confused with the "normal" sized six-sided dice most players use for +1/+1 counters.
Even if you just pick up some relatively generic six-sided dice and a random d20 for determining who goes first, dice and a dice bag might be just the right pick for the person you're trying to find a gift for.
From My Vault: Staples!
If you're not familiar with the From the Vault products, they are assortments of foil cards that are all centered around a specific theme. If you're able to get your hands on one of the From the Vault sets, they make for fantastic gifts but you can also just make your own.
You can't very well print new foils with new art, but you can assemble a customized set of Magic cards from your collection to give to a player in your group to help them shore up some of the weaker parts of their game. Even if you can't draw from your personal collection, you probably still have time to order what you'd need for this thoughtful and personalized gift.
From the Vault: Run Some Freakin' Answers!
Do you have a friend you play with who doesn't win very often because they simply don't run enough removal? Are they constantly losing to combos that are easily disruptible if only they ran more interaction?
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With a little effort you could assemble a set of 10-12 removal staples that you think would help them to play at a more competitive level. You've probably already shown them how important it is to run answers, but sometimes it's worth taking that next step and putting those cards directly into their hands. You can't force them to add more answers to their decks, but if done in the right spirit this could wind up being an incredibly thoughtful gift that will help them play at a higher level and will make your game nights be more fun and competitive.
From the Vault: My Kingdom for a Boardwipe!
Boardwipes, also known as "sweepers", are almost as essential as single-target removal, and might be another theme you could use to throw together a gift for a friend who isn't keeping up with the rest of the playgroup.
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Truly fast metas might find that sweepers are often too slow to deal with a game-winning play, but in most playgroups they are an essential part of the struggle to try to win. If you've got a friend who never seems to have an answer to decks that go wide and is growing tired of always getting overrun, maybe this is the gift to assemble for them.
It's worth noting that any time you give a friend a set of really good cards, you'll probably have moments later on where they're used against you. While you shouldn't let that stop you, there's also no reason you can't build a "From My Vault" set that is less designed to help them kick your butt. You could go with a tribal theme, a funny theme, or some other crazy subject that helps them build an interesting next deck and be a gift they will long remember.
If you can find a official "From the Vault" product for sale that meets your needs and is within your gift budget, you can save yourself the effort of building your own. CoolStuffinc.com has a number of these sets still available. They're slick, glossy, and the cards look fantastic.
Whether you're giving them a set of answers, boardwipes, protection, Elves, Goblins, cards that Proliferate or all eleven of the Ouphes that Wizards ever printed (From The Vault: Oouphe, There It Is!), you can make this a thoughtful and memorable gift that could help determine the next deck they build.
You can even take this idea to the next level. If you want to give someone a set of Boros (
) token generators along with a Cathars' Crusade and a few other key cards for strategies that "go wide", you could empty out a tin can, make a custom label, and give them a real, genuine "Army in a Can". Heck - you could even set up an Advent Calendar if that's your style, you act quickly enough and can think of and get your hands on 24 cards you'd like to give to someone.
Do You Like My Matt?
If you think the peak of creative gift giving is assembling a custom staples collection or picking up a special set of dice or a chainmail dice bag, you have no idea how clever you can really be.
Most Commander players use playmats when they play, but the majority use off-the-shelf mats.
CoolStuffInc has a wide variety of playmats available. Definitely check here first, as they may have just the right one for you. They look great and definitely help your game play experience.
If you're up for a little extra work and want to make sure your gift is extra special, you should consider ordering a custom playmat from InkedGaming.com.
Squee, Goblin Nabob by Greg Staples.
I'm currently playing on a Squee, Goblin Nabob playmat that I ordered through InkedGaming, and I love it. Any time a game isn't going well I can look down and Squee is smiling up at me.
Your first step is to find or create artwork in the correct dimensions and at a high enough resolution. They recommend 3675 x 2175 pixels for their standard 24.5 x 14.5 playmat. I had a mat made with Commanderruminations header artwork that was at a resolution of 1200 x 700 and I was pretty happy with the results. I won't try to walk you through the process in this article, but I will assure you that it's easy and the results are good - or as good as your artwork is.
Venice: the Grand Canal from the Rialto to the Palazzo Foscari by Giovanni Antonio Canal (1730). Emrakul by Mark Tedin
If you've enjoyed the artwork I've been posting at the head of each of my columns, you might want to look through the Commanderruminations headers I've assembled over on imgur.com.
If you're looking for art from my columns on this site, be aware that the images used on each post have been downsized, so definitely don't use anything under 1200 x 700 in size or the results won't look good. Check out the imgur.com albums listed above for the highest resolution art I've created.
Classic paintings - even with Magic card art photoshopped into them - might not be your style, but with the world of the internet at your fingertips there's really no reason not to make whatever you like. You can use Photoshop or the online image editor at pixlr.com (http://www.pixlr.com/editor) to add text or made modifications to artwork.
Matt Leblanc as Joey in Friends (Warner Brothers).
That means your dream of giving your matless friend a playmat with a giant picture of Joey from Friends with "Do You Like My Matt?" emblazoned across the bottom can be made a reality.
You know your friends and you know their sense of humor.
Make something hilarious and it'll be the best twenty-five bucks you'll spend this holiday season!.
Some Alteration Required
If you act fast, there's the chance you could get an even more personalized gift set up for a Commander player who already has t-shirts, dice, a playmat and more cards than they can find a use for by commissioning an alter for them.
I've been really happy with the alters I've ordered through Commander Cookout podcaster Ryan Peneff, and there are lots of talented artists out there happy to take your money and deliver a custom-painted card with whatever art you want to see on it.
If you're not feeling creative, just having the art on a card extended over the border can make for a fantastic end result. If your friend has a favorite commander, why not give them a full art version of it that will give them an extra feeling of pride every time they whip out the deck?
If you do feel like getting creative there's no limit to the fun you can have on a two-and-a-half inch by three-and-a-half inch canvas.
You'll need to jump on this soon though, because you'll first need to line up the artist you want to do the work. Next you'll need to get the card and get the card to them. They'll need some time to do the work and they'll probably have other holiday orders they're working through. Then they will need time to mail it back to you, and I'm guessing you don't want to pay extra for expedited shipping if you can avoid it.
It's worth noting that you really need to negotiate the price ahead of time. Alters can be found on the cheap, but you can wind up paying 50-100 USD or more for a card so make sure you're up front with your artist and don't get an unpleasant surprise when the bill comes due. Their time and effort is valuable, but if you can't afford what they want to charge please don't try to squeeze them out of what they feel is fair payment.
Whether you're giving someone a customized Baral who is flipping someone the bird and has a comic-book style word bubble reading "NOPE!", or you've got something even crazier in mind, an alter is the kind of gift that will probably stay in a player's collection for as long as they play the game. It can be a thoughtful and even hilarious addition to someone's game, but you'll want to act now so you have time to ship them the card and have it done and shipped back.
You might be able to find just the right alter already made, and that would save you the time of sending out the card you want to have worked on, but you'll likely miss out on the chance to get truly creative with your gift.
Final Thoughts
I hope I've given you some ideas for gifts this holiday season that will be just the right things for just the right people. A well-thought-out gift can be the sort of thing that is kept for years and will always remind them of you.
If all this talk of customized, well thought out gifts is a bit much, there are lots of other options for the Magic player in your life. This website has a great assortment of cards and products from preconstructed Commander decks to obscure, weird old cards, judge foils and everything in between.
That's all I've got for you today. I hope you have a fabulous holiday season. May you give and receive the most amazing gifts as you honor the great and glorious Zedruu or practice whatever obscure holiday rituals non-Zedruu worshippers happen to engage in.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!
