I'm building an EDH deck.

Wizards of the Coast, in their vast wisdom, realized a while ago that there were all these people who weren't playing Magic: The Gathering by the official rules. They were doing this crazy format that involved having a general, and playing with a deck that had almost twice as many cards, but you couldn't have any doubles. More over, the format they were using had a strong multiplayer bent to it.

So, being a good business, they decided to capitalize on it.

EDH, or Elder Dragon Highlander, was the old name of the now-officially sanctioned Commander format. It's got a few rules, which you can read about HERE. Next weekend, the new official Commander preconstructed decks are being released, and I've been following the spoiler season pretty aggressively.

For those of you who don't know, I go down to Pennsylvania once a month for a Magic: The Gathering weeked. We chill and play cards, and DnD, and occasionally catch a movie and get drunk, and have singalongs, and it's generally a great time. My group of friends is planning, among other things for next weekend, to pick up the Commander preconstructed decks (2 of each, for the ~10 of us, depending on who can get off work and everything.) In addition, a bunch of us are working on building actual EDH decks of our own.

My first idea was a BW build involving Teysa, Orzov Scion. Unfortunately, one of my other friends informed me that not only had he already had the idea, he'd already built it.

What a loser. Stealing my ideas before I have them...

So I went to my general (pun intended!) fallback option. Knights.

I've always loved knights as a tribe. Ever since I saw Knight Exemplar and realized “This is the coolest Lord since...well...Vampire Nocturnus.” (That card only became cool when people around me started flipping their top card and going “It's night time.”) I've got Standard Knights. I've got a list made up for extended knights. I'm planning on building Knights again after Zendikar rotates, and I can stick a creature without it being bounced and taunted endlessly by some people. (but yes, I will miss you, Student of Warfare.)

So, step 1 of building an EDH deck – get a concept. Cool. Got that. Next step is a general. I headed over to Gatherer, typed in the relevant information. (Subtype: Knight. Legendary. Creature. Contains White.)

Rafiq of the Many.

Well, that was easy. And he's pretty damn cool to boot. I like Bant Colors, ideologically. It's actually my favorite shard on Alara, so it was a pretty easy sell for me to pick that general as soon as I saw it. I've started writing a couple of things down in a notebook, as general guidelines and principles to help me build this deck. I've never done the EDH thing, so this is pretty much a collection of knowledge based on what I know of my multiplayer games, and how they would change if the decks were twice as big, less consistant, and all had big splashy generals, but twice as much health.

Well this should be fun.

Observation 1: We've got a lot more health.

Life Totals only matter at the start of games, in my experience. After a little while, the things being thrown around with a dozen mana on the table start to get stupid. Three Coat of Arms plus a Strata Scythe in a game where 5 people are playing white generally makes sure that no matter how much life you have, getting hit WILL kill you. That said, it takes the game a long time to ramp to those levels, and it's very very possible to be burst down early if you don't have any board presence (Especially if those who do have board presence think you've got a Wrath effect in hand.)

As a result of this, I'm thinking that early game should be focused primarily on establishing a solid position for the late game, either with recurring creatures, indestructible creatures, or enchantments and artifacts that will bolster your later creatures significantly. Actually trying to go for the kill early probably isn't a winning strategy, especially in the 4+ player games we're going to be doing. No aggro deck is going to be able to burst down 160+ life points before it runs out of steam.

Observation 2: That's a lot of people who don't want me to win.

It's a rule of multiplayer that there are generally more options being played with. There's a card drawn (or more than one) for each player, each turn. Single player, you get one draw, they get one draw. In multiplayer, you get one draw, and they get N, where N is the number of people who eventually want you dead. If you drop a 9/9 murderwyrm on the field (no, that's not a real card, relax.) and start pointing it at people, chances are that someone is going to object, and of those objecting parties, someone will have an answer to it.

As a result of this, I'm going to have to do some work to assure that my big guys stick on the field, or can try again if they don't stick the first time. Counter-counterspells are an option, since I'm in blue. (and there are some delicious GU and UW options for those) Green and white have a fair amount of graveyard play involved in them, so I'll probably play with those. Also, I'll probably throw in a healthy dose of card draw that will be a major advantage late in the game when I'm in need of more gas.

Observation 3: Some of the people I play with are assholes.

I don't mean this as a judgment, but it's true. At times, there are people who follow simple logic and play the game in as close to an ideal sense as possible. That said, there are also vindictive sons-of-bitches who play decks that maindeck 45 counterspells, or run 4 knowledge pools with the express purpose of making everyone want to kill themselves, not him. There are people who roll dice to decide attacks, and people who metagame our friendly gatherings into 8v1's that they intend to win via more table wiping than is found in even the most sanitary of places.

As a result, this deck is going to need to be fun to play, regardless of the nonsense happening elsewhere. Making sure I always have plays is an important part of that, and making my board as resistant as possible to “Oops, a bad thing just happened” is a significant step towards that. Counterspells and card draw are again, solid options here. Making sure that every creature I play is a threat also strikes me as important. No vanilla creatures here. They should all be worth something more to my overall board position.

Observation 4: That's a big card pool...

I don't play Legacy. I've only seriously played 5-6 sets. I do not have most of the cards that I am planning on using. As a result, crowd sourcing is going to be a good part of this deck building process. I've looked at some Rafiq builds, and I'm looking at more. EDH Knights decks, tribal decks in general, gatherer, EDH websites for deck building guidelines. Things like that. It's helping. I've got a 40-card list so far, and it's expanding rapidly.

But that's beyond the pall of this article. This was more of an intro. Next time, we're going to get into the nitty-gritty of the actual deck itself.

Suggestions for cards? Want to talk about your awesome deck? Interested about EDH? Drop em in the comments below! I'd be happy to hear from you all.

~AR

DC Comics Reboot - What does it mean for YOU?

Alright everyone, sit on down. I got's some talkin' to do. A couple of weeks ago, there was some talk from the Comics industry, specifically, one side of the aisle – the DC side, that is. In what I'm sure is a pretty unprecedented announcement, the entire DC universe is basically starting over at once.

Come September, 52 series will be relaunched at #1, and the old series will all phase out. In addition, all of DC's comics will be available in a direct-digital format, in addition to the old print format. This is a huge change, and when I sat down to think about it for a while, it became pretty obvious why DC is doing it.

In short, comics are a broken medium.

Some more about that, because I'm fairly certain you're not all 100% on board with that. Comics books aren't the most mainstream thing in the world. Sure, most people can recognize Superman, or Batman, but how many could pick Power Girl out of a lineup? Or Ravager? Or hell, how about Grifter? I used to follow comics, and I didn't even know who he was. The big issue is this. Action Comics (the series that introduced Superman, for those who aren't 'in the know') began it's first run in 1938. That was before most of us were born. Hell, that was before most of our parents were born.

Pause that thought. Think about television. You're reading this blog, so you probably watch some kind of serialized television. House, maybe? NCIS? Maybe you watched LOST? (Yea, you probably watched LOST, didn't you?) If you're of the age-impaired persuasion, maybe JAG or M*A*S*H? Well, if you've watched anything like that for an extended period of time, you probably noticed that there was a story, and eventually, that story became more and more dependant on what had come before. Plots move and evolve. Characters relate, get in relationships, and the plot continues. Three or four seasons later, someone comes back, and that's huge news for you, as a fan of the series.

Except that I, who wasn't watching that series, don't care. This character has no resonance for me. To suddenly reintroduce the main character's long-lost-love-interest does nothing for me, because I don't remember the first time. This provides a hurdle to cross if you want to get into any long running television show.

Back to comics now, because that's one of the issues they're having. It's an issue that they've been having for years and years. Crisis after crisis, reboot after reboot, they're fighting against the fact that they can not attract new readers who don't care about what happened five, ten, or twenty years ago. Forty years ago? Seventy?

That's a lot of back story to catch up on. Because of this, there's only a small portion of people who are interested in the genre, which of course means that it's a less-good business model than say, a summer blockbuster movie. (I'm looking at you, The Dark Knight.) Anyone can sit down in the theater this weekend and see Green Lantern. You don't need to know about 20 years of continuity to get that movie. It's marketed for people to be able to get it. That's the idea.

And that is the idea here too.

This whole reboot, renumbering, relaunch, rebrand thing. That's the idea. They're taking what they had, and transforming it into a slightly different thing, but packaging it in a really nifty way so that people on the outside (The Darkseid?) can get in on it.

So, for all you avid comic book readers? You get to be in on the ground floor. You get to look around the new house and go 'Hey, you changed the shades.' And for all of you, I ask you this: Do that. Talk about it. Tell your friends about how they changed things, and how everyone's on the same page. Give them the first issue, show them this cool new thing that they could start reading.

If you read comics once, like me, and you decided to stop for one reason or another. (Continuity, favorite series got canceled, money, whatever.) This is a perfect time for you. We're getting rid of all the baggage. If you lost track of comics, they've got a ready-made handhold for you to jump back in on. They've brought back a ton of the old things you might have loved. (Is that Batgirl? A red-haired Batgirl?)

If you've never read them? Just like those lapsed readers, this is the perfect time for you. You can jump in on things and start following the characters at the same time as everyone else. No need to worry about past continuity, or missing things, or any of the other problems with jumping on. Just head on down in September, to your friendly local comic shop, and pick up an issue that looks interesting.

Or you could check IGN's nifty list over here – DC Comics Relaunch Round-Up

If you're interested in more information, IGN is also keeping a very very handy list of relevant news articles as they come out, all in one place. Collecting All The News About DC's Upcoming Revamp

What do you guys think about the reboot? Which are you looking forward to reading most? If you don't read comics, is this going to make you pick one up? Talk to me about it down in the comments.

Theorycrafting Infect [Part 1]

With the war for Mirrodin in full swing and the prerelease only a week and a half away, people are starting to play around with the new cards in the format and trying to see what optimal cards and combos are going to be. Today, I'm going to be delving into infect specifically – since it's a playstyle I really enjoy. I think that the MBS cards are going to give infect a new option, but probably won't dramatically alter the strength of the deck.

This time, I'm going to go through the various colors and see what they could add to a possible infect deck, see if they'll work out. I'm only going to note creatures that I actually consider to be constructed worthy – sorry Contagious Nim. You don't make the cut. You're just not good outside of limited.

Black:

Unsurprisingly to many who had heard of the Phyrexians before, Black is a nearly-critical infect color. We've got a lot of the best infect creatures in here, as well as a boatload of support cards that interplay very well. To start out our creature base, Scars brought us the Plague Stinger, Ichor Rats and Hand of the Praetor. All of those see plenty of play in current era infect, and I anticipate they'll all remain staples in the future. Though he's not seen much at the moment (since infect is so fast) is Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. At five mana, it breaks the curve a little bit, especially if you're planning on playing him turn 6, for the benefit of haste. But we'll see.

Obviously, on the utility end of things, you get Doom Blade, Inquisition of Kosilek, Duress, and all the usual black staples.

Mirrodin Beseiged adds in Septic Rats, which would fill a good creature spot, as well as a strong creature in the Phyrexian Crusader. With protection from Red, White, and most black removal, as well as first strike, the Phyrexian Crusader is just about the deadliest thing this side of the Mephidross. The Phyrexian Vatmother is a huge body that comes with a negligible downside, and at 4 mana, it could be playable. Thusfar though, black doesn't leap much ahead of where it is.

Blue:

Blue seems a strange place to go next, but this is actually my preferred second color for infect. While proliferate isn't spectacular (too slow unless you're playing full-blown control), Blue still provides the best utility package of any color. First, you get access to potent counter magic, add in some gems like preordain for card advantage and distortion strike to make sure your bodies connect, and you'll have a pretty nice low-mana-cost splash. Jace could theoretically see play in variants here, but come on, we don't really *need* a $100 card to assimilate everything, do we? I didn't think so.

However, it is worth mentioning that Tezerret 2.0 can do fun things with the artifact infect creatures. Amusing, yes. Viable? Eh. Other than him, Blue isn't currently rocking any ground breaking news for infectors. Barring an incredible source of proliferation, or a new great utility spell, blue doesn't gain much from the new set.

Green:

Bringing in the Blight Mambas and, of course, Putrefax, Green helps out with the creature base, but holding mana for regenerate hurts infects tempo a lot. Putrefax is a good finisher, but in my opinion, probably not as good as Hand of the Praetor. Green's real advantage is in power-amplification. Vines of Vastwood protects your creatures while getting them up to two-shot range. Giant growth is always beneficial, and Prey's Vengeance gives you some great bang-for-your-buck.

Green gains some creatures in Beseiged, notably the Rot Wolf and Viridian Corruptor (2/2 infects that destroy artifacts are just the answer to those damned Monuments and Wyrmcoil engines.) Phyrexian Hydra's made some splashes – if only for the 7/7 body – but I think that the self-infect drawback ruins it.

Red/White:

I've seen some experimental builds using RDW beatdown plus tainted strike. Sending a gigantic Kiln fiend in and then hitting it with a tainted strike can get you an easy win, but it seems inconsistant and not terribly beneficial over the B/G/U variants. I'm not going to pay much attention to it. On the white end of things, the situation looks even more bleak. Maybe in New Phyrexia, guys.

Artifact:

Infect does get a lot of help in the artifacts – as one would expect from a Mirrodin themed set. Necropede and Ichorclaw Myr are solid artifact creatures that fit into a deck regardless of color identity. Corpse Cur sits a little higher on the mana curve, but still seems decent. Any power increasing equipment (like Darksteel Axe) is solid. Livewire Lash, in my opinion, is the real lynchpin of any good infect deck – and lets you strike creatures and players alike for infect damage with impuny.

Mirrodin Beseiged brings more to the table with Plague Myr, whom I have mixed feelings about. The lower mana numbers are fairly tightly packed. In addition, there's also the giant 11/11 trample infect indestructible Blightsteel Colossus. Admittedly, 12 mana makes him all but unreachable for a deck that isn't designed to tutor him out somehow.

There's a good chance that we'll see some more infect-benefiting cards in MBS before release. At time of writing, we only have 46 spoilers so far, so there's plenty more to go. I'll post my current infect list in a few days, and trying to explain the current strategy against various decks.

What do you guys think about infect as a mechanic? Do you hate how insular it is? Love it? Who do you want to win? Mirran or Phyrexian? Who do you think is going to win? Post em down in the comments.

Making Knights Awesome In Standard

Today, we're going to be previewing my preliminary decklist for the standard rotation once Mirrodin Beseiged comes into play. The spoiler season is just about done with, and I can't see much else managing to find a spot in here. The deck in question is Mono-white knights, which I've lovingly taken to calling Judgment. I posted a similar list a few months ago, but since then, I've streamlined it quite a bit, and the next set should bring it up to par with the best of the field out there. Barring another sexy one-or-two drop that somehow beats Student of Warfare or White Knight, this should be a final list. The deck feels pretty jam-packed with power for it's size. Here's the breakdown.

-23 Creatures
4 Student of Warfare
4 Leonin Skyhunter

3 White Knight
4 Knight Exemplar
4 Mirran Crusader
4 Hero of Bladehold

Twenty three creatures might seem a little light for an aggressive deck. I know a few friends recommended twenty five, but most of these creatures have abilities to help them survive – and with all the sources of indestructible in the deck, they should have some solid survival. Elspeth can help out later as well. All of the picks here seem pretty obvious to me. Student for the 1 drop spot makes any hand with itself and a land into a playable hand. The skyhunters are bears that fly, which is absurdly solid and serves to put any deck without an answer to flying on a clock. With the power buffing that gets thrown around in this deck, even one unblocked threat can win on it's own. White knights were a controversial inclusion. Some wanted the Accorder Paladin (3/1 for 2 mana, battle cry) First strike ended pushing the White Knight over the edge. Losing an accorder paladin to a chump block hurts the early aggression. If he was a 1/3, he'd be a no-brainer, but as is, White Knight serves as the weakest creature on the list (and that's saying something).

As we move up the curve, we see Knight Exemplar, which is an obvious inclusion for the lord-effects, as well as just being a White Knight on his own. Mirran Crusader swings for a truckload and dodges black destruction (except Lightning Bolt, but hey, who's perfect...other than Thrun). Finally, the Hero of Bladehold gives you a heap of tokens, avoids Lightning Bolt, buffs the rest of your plays on the attack, and overall just acts as a turn 4 siege breaker.

One of the things I like here is how easily it curves without any acceleration. Student into Skyhunter or White Knight, into Exemplar, into Hero. Drop (pick a 5 mana card, or a 4 mana card and Brave the Elements, or Exemplar + Journey/Honor) and win.

-14 Spells

4 Journey to Nowhere
3 Brave the Elements
3 Honor of the Pure
2 Day of Judgment
2 Eldrazi Monument

Shouldn't be many surprises here at first. Journey is the best removal in the format at the moment, answering Titans and BSA's and Wyrmcoils all day long. Brave the Elements does double duty as creature protection and allowing the unblockable alpha strike against most decks. Honor of the Pure is a no-brainer in a mono-white creature deck, especially at such a low mana cost, and double especially when more than half of the creature base has first or double strike.

Day of Judgment might seem like a strange play, but with 8 sources of global indestructible, it can be a 4-mana one-sided board wipe. Monuments more than proved themselves in Elves recently, and with the Hero of Bladehold and Elspeth to provide tokens for the sacrifice, there's no reason not to run a pair of them. It practically turns the team into Baneslayer angels. An army of indestructible, flying, first strike, 4/4 or 5/5 monstrosities on turn 5 is just dangerous.

-2 Planeswalkers

2 Elspeth Triel

I'm of two minds on planeswalkers, in general, but in this case, it's a no-brainer. I'll have the board presence to defend her, so we can rate her on her own merits. Elspeth either makes a small army of soldiers on her own (which can be buffed by monument and honor), or she gains me a truckload of life and wipes the board.

-21 Lands

18 Plains
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin

21 lands is more than enough. I was running 22 a while back, but ended up with just a hint too much. Three Emeria gives the deck some late-game pressure. Recurring Exemplars onto the board isn't something that most decks can effectively handle without killing the land off. It also makes a late-game Eldrazi Monument into a pure advantage.

Side Board:
2 Day of Judgment
4 Kor Firewalker

3 Leyline of Sanctity

2 Revoke Existance

1 White Knight
1 Brave the Elements

2 Luminarch Ascension

More day for the aggro matchup. Kor Firewalker for anti-red hate. Leyline against U/B control and red aggro. Revoke Existance to stop Wyrmcoil engines and monuments and all the other nasty artifacts that are getting thrown around nowadays. The fourth white knight against black decks – because being protection-from-your-deck is fun. The final brave the elements helps against removal-heavy decks. Luminarch, as always, is a staple of “Oh, you're playing control? Great. Next game?”

Overall:

For those of us who have wanted a good mid-range aggro deck but don't think that Quest > Argentum Armor and Squadron Hawks are the best thing ever, this deck should provide a good alternative. It runs a lot of power and control for what it is, and it can board wipe with the best out there. Give it a shot in Workstation, or Apprentice, or whatever it is that you all use now. I think it's got potential at FNM's at the very least – which is where I plan on testing it out.

So throw some comments in the box below. Love the deck? Think I've forgotten something? Missed a card that just HAS to be on the list? Well, let me know below.   

Mastering The Game: Re-tooling a Character

Announcement: First off, back from hiatus. Back to posting daily (or as close to it as possible). Will give a state-of-the-blog sometime in the next week or so. Now to the post.

When it really comes down to it, the most important thing at a game table isn't the dice, or the map. Hell, I've been in games where we rarely, if ever, used either of them. It's not really even the Dungeon Master – contrary to popular belief. They may run the game, but they aren't the reason for it. He may be king of his castle, but the king must serve his serfs.

That is who this article is geared towards – the players. Specifically, the players and the process of creating their characters. This is going to be a multiple part article that is half to help people, and half to prep this character for a campaign being run by my friend Dan. 

First off, I'd like to throw a disclaimer out to begin with. Character creation does NOT end when the campaign starts. The number of times I've created an awesome character, only to realize he needed some tweaks after the start of the campaign, is countless. You not only should permit – but EXPECT – that characters change drastically over the first session or two as you get used to them.

The running example I'm going to use is a character I made for a campaign that just started. His name is Cedric Skavis. He is a white court vampire from the Dresden Files (the system we're using. I've talked about it before. >Link< ) Cedric is a white court vampire – which means he feeds off of an emotion instead of blood.

After thinking for a bit, and knowing that the White Court is known for it's subtlety, I decide that I want to choose rage as my emotion. This leads me quickly to begin identifying Cedric as set apart from his 'family.' He doesn't do things the way they do. He would rather solve a problem with his fists than by employing catspaws and plotting.

As charactrer creation went on, that aspect of his character expanded and eventually took over. “Punch it in the face” became the guiding principle, and I was excited about it. He took some enhanced toughness and recovery options to help him survive the bullshit he got himself into. I picked up methods for him to inspire rage for him to feed on.

And then we started the campaign, and it didn't feel natural.

Sure, he was a raging berserker vampire with a meth habit. It was an interesting character, but the reasonable answers to situations he was in (Charge, Maim, Kill) weren't going to fly in a campaign that was going to rely – at least partially – on diplomacy. We're going to be dealing with Faeries a lot, and Vampires the rest of the time. If all I do is go around punching things, this is going to be a very very short campaign for me, at least. Plus, it's gonna get old and annoying eventually. I decide to make some modifications to the character.

Here's the old skill list:

Great (+4): Intimidate, Fists

Good: (+3): Endurance, Athletics

Fair (+2): Presence, Discipline, Lore

Average (+1): Rapport, Empathy, Contacts, Conviction, Deceit

We're gonna shave off some of that hate and make a slightly more well adjusted being – socially, at least. Just looking at the list, I like his +3's. Endurance and Athletics both benefit his defenses in huge ways, and I see the character as being accustomed to taking hits very well. Fists I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with, but intimidate seems fine. We'll note that Fists is getting moved and take a look at the rest. Moving down, having a two in discipline is necessary from a mechanical standpoint. Any lower and I'll be running around without power most of the time, but any higher and I'd be straining to justify it. Presence I'm likewise unhappy with. The character has a strong drive to prove himself, but exists on the fringes of things. Bumping this one down too, possibly removing it altogether. Lore seems correct where it is, given his supernatural experience.

Rapport is going to be the first thing I pump up. He may not be the go-to guy, but he should know what he's talking about and be able to talk about it. I could see bumping that up to a three or so. Empathy also seems a little bit low. Possibly to be increased to a 2. Contacts will remain a 1, because although he's becoming more diplomatic, his family still thinks that feeding off rage is weird, so he doesn't have the full force of his potential contacts behind him. This might be a good one to pump up with levels. Conviction seems solid where he is. He fixates on things, but he's spastic enough for it to not be an especially good stat. Deceit likewise shouldn't be high, but should be present. Lying comes naturally to White Court vampires, but he's not good at it.

So, overall, we want to do something like this.

Lower Fists

Lower Presence

Raise Rapport

Raise Empathy

If we drop Fists by 2, and Presence by 1, we have 3 points to work with. Jumping Rapport up by two and Empathy by one gives us a final chart looking something like this.

Great (+4): Intimidate

Good: (+3): Endurance, Athletics, Rapport

Fair (+2):, Discipline, Lore, Empathy, Fists

Average (+1): Presence, Contacts, Conviction, Deceit.

With his skills neatly packed away with a solid array of diplomatic skills – and an answer to conflicts other than punching things – we need to meddle with one other thing to finish re-polishing the character. Aspects are quick lines that fully describe your character. The first is a High Concept – the core of the character. Then is the Trouble – that which is the constant thorn in your character's side. Following that are 5 (6 in our campaign, since the DM gave us an extra one) that act as supplemental information.

Cedric's old list looked like this:

High Concept: Right now, I'm thinking Wrath

Trouble: Family Pariah

Other Aspects: Talk once, Punch Twice

Attention Whore

Sleezeball

Battered and Bruised

I Started It

Meth Head.

I'll be honest. I'm not terribly happy with most of these. Two or three of them basically refer to the same thing, and few of them really give deep information about him as a character. The ones I do like are “I Started It” (because chances are, he did, and he's blunt enough to say so.) and “Meth Head” (because his drug addiction is going to be a recurring problem for him).

That gives us a lot of room to play around with. We're gonna revisit both the High Concept and Trouble, plus four other aspects, to see if we can't nail that down.

That, however, is going to be in tomorrow's article. Comments today? Try and come up with the High Concept, Trouble, and 5 aspects that describe a character. Doesn't have to be hugely in depth, but think about them for a minute and see what pops up. I'll be interested to see what you guys come up with.