Taking Command

Oh man I want to talk about so many great things but I already promised a blog on EDH so I guess I had better do that first!

One of the most popular blogs I have done is the one here about EDH/Commander. It was unplanned at the time and followed on from Mike Boon's post about his Azami EDH deck.  He is not playing the deck anymore as people objected to the point of refusing to play with him or just beating him to death before he could combo out.

Not a combo card, just plain good!

Since then I have been wanting to take a look at EDH/Commander again and now seemed like the right time with Return to Ravnica pre-release a week away and 5 new EDH generals to play with.

Coming to make the Eldrazi even more broken in EDH soon...

However, I did not know exactly how to approach the subject in order to be effective.  Doing a blog that looked at positive cards to play in EDH seemed a bit lame, and another top 10 list felt too much like a rinse and repeat approach as well.  A straight "here is a 100 card deck list" didn't fill me with joy either so I thought I would just tell you a story and see how that goes.

Thrun as the general, 98 Forests, and Lost in the Woods - not the best article or deck ever.

When Dark Ascension came out I was particularly impressed with lingering souls (who wasn't).  I did not look to use it to maximum effect in Standard but rather wanted to play it with my recently acquired Doubling Season because 8 1/1 flyers for 5 mana seems really good.

Who you gonna call?  I'm not sure the Ghostbusters will be up to the task.

Having decided that I wanted to use these 2 cards in tandem meant for EDH purposes I was working in GWB or Black "wedge" colours. I looked to doubling season as being the best card in the deck and decided to find cards in my collection which allowed me to abuse it's ability.  

Love this card - sad that they didn't reprint it in Return to Ravnica.

As it doubles the loyalty tokens on a Planeswalker as it comes into play this seemed very strong and something I could abuse happily.  This led me to Elspeth Tirel (she makes tokens and blows up the non-token world), Ajani (the original one) & Gideon (he's so good).  Garruk, Primal hunter was a no brainer especially with his ultimate making loads of 6/6 wurms.

Garruk wanted to show he had been putting in the hours at the gym...

So I then went through my collection adding cards which could make the best use of doubling season of which there were quite a few in standard including Midnight Haunting, parallel lives, Mayor of Avabruk, Increasing Devotion, Gather the Townsfolk and Mentor of the Meek.

This guy is nuts in this deck with 2/2 tokens everywhere!

At this point I thought it might be a good idea to find a general and went to the gold section of my folder to find one that would fit.  I found one that was perfect from the Commander decks WotC produced last year - Ghave, Guru of Spores.  

Is it me or does he look a bit General Grievous?

I also realised when Avacyn Returns came out  that I could break Cathar's Crusade - for 1 mana I make a 1/1 saproling which triggers Cathar's Crusade and puts a +1/+1 token on each creature including Ghave, replacing the counter I just took off!  

Steady men!  Wait for those triggers to resolve, steady, steady...

As usual the list has matured since I first made it and now looks like this;

1 Ghave, Guru of Spores
1 Commander

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Gavony Township
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Marsh Flats
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Treetop Village
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Woodland Cemetery
8 Forest
8 Plains
6 Swamps
38 Lands

1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Blade Splicer
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Emeria Angel
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Geist - Honoured Monk
1 Grave Titan
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Kessig Cagebreakers
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Mayor of Avabruck
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
1 Protean Hydra
1 Primordial Hydra
1 Quirion Dryad
1 Rampaging Baloth
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1 Thraben Doomsayer
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
23 Creatures

1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Awakening Zone
1 Beast Within
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Dismember
1 Doubling Season
1 Druidic Satchel
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Explore
1 Gather the Townsfolk
1 Go for the Throat
1 Golgari Signet
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Increasing Devotion
1 Intangible Virtue
1 Lingering Souls
1 Khalni Heart Expedition
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Moonsilver Spear
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Parallel Lives
1 Rampant Growth
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Shrine of Loyal Legions
1 Sol Ring
1 True Conviction
1 White Sun's Zenith
31 Spells

1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Gideon Jura
1 Sorin Lord of Innistrad
7 Planeswalkers

When Return to Ravnica comes out and I finally get my hands on more than 1 shock land I will be making more changes to the deck.  EDH decks should be like cubes where the cards change as new and exciting things come out.  Speaking of new and exciting things coming out it is only a week till the pre-release for Return to Ravnica!  I hope you have pre-booked on the patriot website (there is a link at the bottom of this page).

I also have to tell you that we are all go for the inaugural Patriot Games Sheffield Magic Invitational.  If you are like me you have watched pro tour and the SCG live feed, well we decided it was about time we had that over here in the UK - 2 days, 40 players, 15 rounds, 4 formats, all to decide the best of the best and "Team Patriot" for the next 12 months!  I will be back with full details on Monday with my Legacy deck list for next Friday, oh yeah don't forget Legacy next Friday, and pre-release - another epic weekend of Magic in Sheffield.  See you there...