Plagon, Lord of the BeachPlagon, Lord of the Beach | Art by GOSSAN
Hello, and welcome to Am I the Bolas? This week: How do you represent your deck?
This column is for all of you out there who have ever played some Magic and wondered if you were the bad guy. I'm here to take in your story with all of its nuances so I can bring some clarity to all those asking, "Am I the Bolas?"
I'm ready to hear you out and offer advice. All you have to do is email [email protected] with your story, a pseudonym you want to use, and of course, only include details you don't mind in the column! You might see your story below one day. You might even hear it on the podcast. Which podcast?
I'm Mike Carrozza and I think it's TOO EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS COMMERCIALS!
In this house, it's still his time!
(Post edited for brevity, clarity, and then some.)
SUBMISSION
Hello!
I was in a Spelltable lobby called "Chill Bracket 2-3" and played a new deck helmed by Plagon, Lord of the BeachPlagon, Lord of the Beach (deck list for reference). I announced at the beginning that I had just built the deck recently and wasn't sure where it sat in the 2-3 range. The other decks were Marchesa, the Black RoseMarchesa, the Black Rose, Hakbal of the Surging SoulHakbal of the Surging Soul, and a deck that did foretell stuff, but I can't remember the commander.
The Marchesa deck was quite potent and had a pretty nasty engine for recurring creatures, including a Glen Elendra ArchmageGlen Elendra Archmage and a creature that bounced another permanent on ETB. Pretty early in the game one player got unhappy about Marchesa's very tough board state.
Meanwhile, I was playing lots of cheap value creatures that drew cards and gained life and blinking Plagon to draw cards. I was also playing two lands per turn using PuPu UFOPuPu UFO. I took a little more than ten commander damage from Hakbal and Marchesa. No one interacted with my casts or board, despite things being countered and bounced on other people's boards once or twice each rotation. I was drawing five-to-seven extra cards per turn for most of the game.
Things went off the rails when I played Venser's JournalVenser's Journal on turn eight. A player could have countered it, but did not. On turn nine, I gained 22 life from all of the cards I had been socking away. No one asked me once how many cards I had in hand. Then, I played a Kykar, Zephyr AwakenerKykar, Zephyr Awakener and a Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler and cast a CloudshiftCloudshift targeting Plagon. On cast, I drew ten cards from Kykar, dealing ten damage from the Crawler, and someone countered Cloudshift.
On my end step, SoulherderSoulherder bounced Plagon again for another ten damage. This wouldn't have ended the game, but if left uninteracted with, I would have won on my next turn. The same player who was mad at Marchesa said that I misrepresented my deck and that I should have never been in that game and then nuked the lobby.
Am I the Bolas?
Thanks,
Stretch
VERDICT
Thank you for writing and asking me to weigh in on your story. As I mention every week, if folks don't write to me, there's no column, so if you, the reader, want to send me a story, whether it's your own or one from Reddit or a friend's, please send it to [email protected] and I'll get to it here.
There're a few things to unpack here. I have to begin with something that I'm sure the rules aficionados are rushing to the comments section to correct. The play pattern you describe in your story does not work. More nitpicky - Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler doesn't deal damage, it causes life loss, but that's not as important. I'll explain what went wrong and we can discuss the question at hand after.
If you target Plagon, Lord of the BeachPlagon, Lord of the Beach with CloudshiftCloudshift, this triggers Kykar, Zephyr AwakenerKykar, Zephyr Awakener whose most relevant ability exiles another target creature you control and returns that card to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step. If you target Plagon with Kykar's ability, the CloudshiftCloudshift fizzles and therefore was countered for no real reason.
Finally, by the time Plagon returns to play from Kykar's ability, SoulherderSoulherder would've had to have declared a target already and therefore could not target Plagon.
This kind of stuff happens. Magic is a complicated game. You're brewing a deck with cards that blink and have different timings and triggered abilities and targeting - it's not easy! Plagon is really strong and blinking can get out of hand. You'd just built the deck and there's a level of forgiveness here that's due given that you've got less experience with it than you're used to.
I don't think you misrepresented the deck given the tools you have. The Brackets aren't an exact science. Game Changers make it easier to delineate between Brackets 2 and 3. I would add that anything that can reliably set up a solid four-or-more-piece engine that combos should probably be considered a Bracket 3 deck. That said, you announced to the table that you'd just built the deck and people agreed to move forward. This is an easy Not the Bolas verdict here.
However, I cannot recommend goldfishing your decks highly enough. Whether you use Archidekt or another site, there are playtesting tools! Put the deck together online and run it so you know the cards well and how they interact. Really read and play through the timing of it all.
Of course, this applies to doing so physically if you have the deck put together already. I recommend next time you sleeve up a new deck, you should spend 20 or so minutes goldfishing the deck a few times in addition to doing this in your online playtester. It's going to make a huge difference for your confidence in playing the deck but will also give you a more accurate read on what Bracket your deck belongs to.
That said, it's not a friggin' crime to get it wrong sometimes, especially when it's a new deck. I've said it once, I'll say it again: Not the Bolas.
Read More:
Mike Carrozza
Mike Carrozza is a stand-up comedian from Montreal who’s done a lot of cool things like put out an album called Cherubic and worked with Tig Notaro, Kyle Kinane, and more people to brag about. He’s also been an avid EDH player who loves making silly stuff happen. @mikecarrozza on platforms.
Your opinions are welcome. We love hearing what you think about Magic! We ask that you are always respectful when commenting. Please keep in mind how your comments could be interpreted by others. Personal attacks on our writers or other commenters will not be tolerated. Your comments may be removed if your language could be interpreted as aggressive or disrespectful. You may also be banned from writing further comments.