After a fun weekend of Gatecrashing the hell out of Ravnica, lets turn some of the focus over to the EDH standouts from Gatecrash. This set had a ton of interesting cards and mechanics to bring to the table and for EDH it does not disappoint. Today I will cover the new generals presented by Gatecrash. So lets get to it!
Aurelia, the Warleader
Aurelia is nothing really new for Boros EDH. She and her team like to take a double dip in the red zone. Her ability is pretty crazy, getting to take an extra combat step for free once per turn. However, it really is nothing new for Boros. Sure a 3/4 flyer with haste and vigilance is a nice touch, but it still the same stuff we would have expected from Boros.
That being said, Aurelia will find a home in many Boros EDH lists. She is strong on her own and gets dumber with the number of creatures you have attacking with her. Add to the fact that she is an Angel (Hello Kaalia) and she is a strong contender for any R/W/x list. As a general, she seems OK at best. Her big sister still seems like a much better choice for damaging general, but Aurelia seems like a great substitute or build around general involving multiple combat steps.
Borborygmos Enraged
Borborygmos is an interesting take on a Gruul general. Most Gruul generals tend to have effects that involve getting in people's faces. This guy can potenitally sit there, rip up his own lawn, turn it into a giant bowling ball and throw it like a fast ball at someone's face. Stapling on Seismeic Assult to a 7/6 with trample and the ability to get more land with attacking is one of the most interesting interactions out of a Gruul general I have seen in a while
Borborygmos is one of the few generals that needs to be built around. He can be chucked into a R/G/x deck and do some cool things. However, the maximum effect for this guy comes from building your deck around his ability to chuck lands like fastballs at people's faces. Abusing effects that put land into your hand like Borderland Ranger or Sylvan Scrying seems like the most effective way to make this general purr.
Obzedat, Ghost Council
Obzedat feel like both an upgrade and downgrade from his original iteration. On the upside this ghostly commander deals 2 and gives back 2, while dodging all sorcery speed removal from your opponents Hell, giving him haste on his return from exile was a brilliant move to keep Obzedat as a power player. On the downside, this ghost council is not nearly as interactive as his predecessor. Obzedat is very vulnerable to instant speed removal and that can lead to some awkward situations.
Obzedat feels like a fine Orzhov general. He seems like the kind of general you can throw into any Orzhov deck and be happy with. As a 5 power commander, he only needs to connect 5 times, barring pumps, to win the game on his own. This could be the start of a voltron general in Orzhov, since he does dodge all the mass removal of the format. Just make sure not to rely on enchantments to have Obzedat cruise to victory.
Prime Speaker Zegana
Zegana screams sexy not just in constructed. Being able to draw a metric ton of cards plus having a huge body is nothing to scoff at in EDH. She happens to be in the colors that draw a bunch of cards and give evasion to fat creatures. These facts help cement Zegana as a new popular general for players. Zegana can come down early, thanks to ramp spells, draw a few cards, then get reset by blue's myriad of ways of blinking a creature out to reload your hand.
Zegana not only seems like a general you can throw out to lead your army, but she has the easiest potential to be built around. Playing various blink effects like Deadeye Navigator, Venser, etc and she can be reset multiple time to ensure you always have cards for any situatuon. Combine that with the fact you want to play giant creatures, usually green, to get the maximum effect for Zegana and you have the recipe for a spicy EDH list.
This concludes Part 1 of the Gatecrash EDH review. Stay tuned later this week for Part 2.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Rith the Awakener
Welcome, fellow Magic players to the first article of
Alluring Treasure's EDH Deck techs. These articles are all about the local AT
players and their EDH lists. We will take a look at their lists, talk to their
designers, and see overall if their lists are something you might consider for
EDH play.
First off quick introduction, My name is Brandon Agenbroad,
a casual regular to Alluring Treasures. I was one of the few people to get the
EDH league at AT off the ground and into play for a 4 month season. Overall,
the league left some bad tastes in people's mouths, but it did encourage quite
a bit of EDH play. These articles are meant to do much of the same. Hopefully,
seeing weekly content about EDH players locally will inspire more people to
take up EDH here in our area.
Our first submission comes from Matt Woods, store regular,
resident lumberjack, 1st AT EDH League champion and overall nice gent. Matt
brings us a take on one of the classic themes in EDH: tokens.
Lands Artifacts
Sunpetal
Grove Enchantments
Instants Gaea's
Anthem
Swords
to Plowshares Sorceries
Planeswalkers Overrun
Creatures
This list is pretty simple in what it does. It wants to make
millions of creature, place some pump effects behind them and swarm the board
to victory. Zerg Rush anyone? Do not take my word for it. I sat down and
discussed some of the finer workings of this list with the creator, Matt Woods
Matt: This deck can do some unfair things. Landing Luminarch
Ascension turn 2 against your opponents is often backbreaking and
overpowered. This deck is mana hungry, always wanting to tap out to make more
dudes or increase your board size. The only time you ever leave mana up is to
abuse Rhys'
second ability and double the board size. Outside of Rhys,
my favorite card in this list is Wild
Ricochet. This little card can create huge blowouts. My favorite play with
this card: Wild
Ricocheting an opponent's Fling
which had flung a huge Lord
of Extinction, killing that opponent and taking someone else out at the
same time. At the same time, I have debated taking out Reliquary
Tower and Overrun
simply because they just do not do enough to warrant a main deck slot.
Matt: While the ideal plan for this deck is to play token
generators and anthems, sometimes you just can land them. That is why this deck
packs a few good creatures and spells that are inherently good on their own.
That way, if the board does not favor token generation, you still have a game
plan to get in the game. This deck does not like to see people who continuously
use land destruction or disruption, since this deck wants man every day till
Sunday.
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