Bringing a Gun to a Gun Fight
Alright, #EDH. I tried to be a gentleman. I bought in to the social contract. I really tried. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
This One Time, At Casual Night
I’ve never met this guy before. He asks if I have an EDH deck. I say, yeah, let’s do this. My deck isn’t designed for 1v1, but that’s okay. He then asks “do you play competitive EDH?”
What was that sound? Was that Sheldon Menery killing a kitten?
So he whips out a Glissa, the Traitor deck consisting of 40% land, 30% tutors and 30% combos. And the game is about as much fun as playing an unmodified Event Deck against pre-banning Caw Blade.
And I get a little peeved. And then his friend shows up with Sen Triplets and equips *five* Swords of [X and Y] to a Batterskull. And I get more peeved. And then last night, I play against them again. And then I realize…
I did this to myself.
Primeval Titan
Game #2 that caused me to re-consider my stance, went something like this:
- Player A: Primeval Titan
- Player B: Roil Elemental
- Player A: Roil Elemental
- Player B: Phyrexian Metamorph
- Player A: Mimic Vat, imprint Metamorph
So everyone has basically infinite land. I have 5. Jace comes out, so I can’t use my general. Life sucks. Player A starts to pull ahead. I’m doing nothing. Eventually, when the game looks over, Player B just takes infinite turns, we scoop and I go home.
No more knives. This is not enjoyable for me. Note: I am not saying it’s the wrong way to play EDH. It’s fine. I’m just saying that if it’s my meta, then I’m bringing guns too. I don’t enjoy not being relevant in the game.
I did this to myself.
But I’m Still Me, Same Old G
I like theme decks. EDH is a great place for them. So I’m going back to my mono-blue roots and having a theme. If you recall, I used to play Teferi and my deck was quite powerful. It featured things like Academy Ruins + Mindslaver. Fun! I ended up taking it apart and moving in a different direction when people just auto-killed me before playing the rest of the game.
My last deck, which I am shelving for now but not taking apart or trading off, is a strictly tribal zombie Grimgrin deck. This follows my strictly tribal merfolk deck. My theory was that I would play a non-threatening, non-bomb tribal deck and win the long game on synergy after my opponents fought it out. Here were my rules:
- All creatures must be of the tribe or have the tribe in the rule’s text (e.g. Seahunter). No Phyrexian Metamorph.
- No sweepers, such as Damnation. Living Death is okay, but no straight sweepers. One Oblivion Stone is the max, primarily for Planeswalkers.
- No Planeswalkers. People hate them.
- No infinite combos.
I felt like this would max out everyone’s fun. Unfortunately, it didn’t max out mine. So, I’m putting together mono-blue Wizards again, but I’m going to do a few key things differently:
- Rayne instead of Teferi. It’s a disincentive to mess with me, she’s not very threatening, costs less and draws cards. She will Rayne on your parade.
- I am going to play mostly Wizards and tribal-esque, but I’m also playing Consecrated Sphinx, Metamorph, Sad Robot and other cards that I feel like I need to play with the big boys.
- I am running infinite combos. If everyone is taking infinite turns or blowing up everyone else’s land or making infinite Primeval Titans, then damn it, I’m drawing as many cards as I damn well want.
- I will be countering things.
But there are some things I won’t do:
- Play Knowledge Pool.
- Play Mindslaver.
- Play Mimic Vat.
- Take infinite turns or play an infinite combo which directly ends the game w/o possibility of interaction.
At least, for starters.
Spike is back.
