From the Brim to the Trim - Confusing Opponents with Keywords and Narrow Budgets
(Odric, Lunarch Marshal | Art by Chase Stone )
Flyyyyy me to the moooon...
Greetings and salutations from a place where barbecues are slowly but surely being replaced with raclettes and tartiflettes. I'm Arnaud and I'm delighted to take you on a journey of beautiful keywords, plentiful keywords and then some nasty keywords.
But first, let's have a look at how our contenders fared. Two weeks ago, I left you with a trio of Humans to choose from. It seems these did not excite you very much altogether, it's been a while since I last saw so little votes.
Last came Ghoulcaller Gisa, with a measly 33 votes (22%). I get it, if Zombies ever get back on the field, it won't be with Lil Miss Ghoulish. Second place went to Winota, Joiner of Forces, who earned 53 votes (35%).
May it be that some of you had some bad experiences with her? I can't fault you there. With 67 votes (44%), Odric, Lunarch Marshal takes the lead.
It's actually funny, since almost a year ago, I tinkered with Akroma, Vision of Ixidor and Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh.
Something tells me these will end up being quite similar brews. Let's see if the past 11 months have yielded any of the good stuff.
So then. Stats-wise, our Commander is not really impressive. Four mana for a puny 3/3 is right into Hill Giant territory. The ability however is where it really shines, spreading most of the evergreen keywords to the entirety of your population. Double strike your way to death I say!
Let's combine both the general and cheap cards from Odric's page. 325 cards. I can't wait to explore these goodies!
First Trim – The Cardboard Chainsaw Massacre
Week after week, I keep wondering if there are new readers anymore, or if it's only the core crew who remained faithful to this series. Anyway, for the sake of uncertainty, let's do the quick reminder:
In this house, it's all about brewing a deck with no cards worth more than $1.
Technically, we push the limit up to $1.10 to account for price variance and differences between sites, but the core idea stays.
After trimming down anything above $2, we're left with 245 cards. Before giving the axe to them, let's take a look at some noteworthy spells and/or lands therein.
- Angel of Invention: Even without the Fabricate and the anthem effect, giving flying, vigilance and lifelink to your whole team is no joke. Currently standing at $1.15, all we need is a reprint in a precon for it to drop to acceptable levels.
- Felidar Retreat: So much versatility. We're not a landfall deck, but it doesn't matter. It produces chump blockers, and/or can become a steady source of boost for all our team.
- Mass Calcify: At 7 mana, it's often hard to justify such a board wipe. But it's as unilateral as it gets in mono-white.
- Court of Grace: I love Courts, and this is no exception. Don't count on the Angel too much, see this instead as steady card draw with a bonus.
- Dawn Charm: Another Swiss Army Knife I'm surprised not seeing more often. Fog a combat, save your most relevant critter, or thwart nefarious plans directed at you. Plus, counterspelling in white is worth its weight in gold!
- Reprieve: Remand is one of my favourite counterspells, and this, well... it's the same in white. Note that you can also use it to save your own spell from a counterspell.
- War Room: The only land in this list, and an auto-include in any mono-colored decks if you ask me.
- Basri Ket: I'm usually not a fan of the guy, but I have to admit it looks damn sexy here. A neat way to give indestructible to your team with your commander out.
- The Eternal Wanderer: Six mana is getting a tad expensive, but the 0 ability makes up for it. Getting a 2/2 double-strike for free every turn is bound to generate some sparks.
- Baneslayer Angel: One of my favourite angels of all time. The art is gorgeous. And the three keywords are all relevant. All in a neat 5/5 package.
A lot of great cards we must bid adieu to. Which leaves us with those between $1 and $1.10.
There's a surprising high number of those. Let's review them quickly.
- Oketra the True: The Amonkhet Goddess has two of the most relevant keywords we're looking for. All for a measly 4 mana. Welcome to the team, My Lady.
- Gideon Blackblade: Although Gideon will likely become a prime target in no time, I like the fact that it can give your team indestructible and either vigilance or lifelink.
- Sol Ring: Need I even say anything?
- Always Watching: A strict upgrade from Glorious Anthem. I'm not 100% convinced the three mana it asks is still worth it. But let's keep it for now.
- Angelic Overseer: Gets indestructible and hexproof as long as you control a Human. Which, conveniently, is one of Odric's types.
- Swords to Plowshares: Simply the best removal spell in white.
- Speaker of the Heavens: Not only does it give a couple of keywords for a puny , but it can also pop Angels as a bonus. Lovely.
With those healthy cuts, we're down to 226 cards. Time for homework.
Second Trim – Cardward Scissorhands
Let me you in on a little behind-the-scenes secret. When I produce these articles, I go with the flow, trimming down cards while writing about my various decisions as it goes.
biggest fear is forgetting to clone lists as I go from one trim to the next. Needless to say, this wreaks havoc in the previous paragraphs, and I have to lose considerable time putting things in order.
You might think this would only happens occasionally, no big deal. Except I'm a mess, and I tend to lose myself way too much in the brewing process, so it does, in fact, happen quite often.
But enough self-butt-kicking and commiseration, let's get on with our list.
As we stand, this is what we have to work with.
This must be the highest number of board wipes I've see in a very long time. As usual, I'll try sticking with 12-14 draw spells, to keep our hand packed with action.
Ramp will be in the 11-13 range as, at a glance, the curve seems to be quite low to begin with (2.76 before any additional cuts).
I guess that with all the indestructibility we could go wide with the wipes, but let's be real, no one likes to play against Heavy-removal-what-are-you-going-to-do.dec. Let's try keeping 3-4.
Let's do this.
| Draw | Ramp | Removal | Wipes |
There are a few things I'd like to address here, before we go further.
I know I kept the removal count fairly high. The main reason is that these spells are spread between direct and keyword removal, which will eventually benefit our team.
There's also a surprising amount of cards I simply did not want to cut. Which brings me to the second point.
Can you say triple Huzzah for the budget? This list alone proves the effectiveness of precon reprints to mow down prices. Basilisk Collar, Keeper of the Accord, Welcoming Vampire, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, just to mention a few... There's really a lot of "stapley" cards that I've longed to include in these brews, and the day has come! Now to see, one year from now, how things go.
At any rate, after trimming the land base (yes, 33 lands, but don't forget MDFCs!), we're down to... oh my, still 185 cards to go. We have a lot of work ahead of ourselves.
Third Trim - Cutting Off the Rough Edges
Let's talk strategy, shall we?
The core idea is, in essence, quite simple. Cast creatures, give creatures keywords salad, swing with creatures, kill with creatures. There are however a few caveats.
First, sheer power. You may well a mighty hoard of various abilities, but if these are strapped to puny 1/1s, it's not going to impress much.
Sure, there are some ways to go really wide, but you need to have some decent power if you want to be a force to be reckoned with. Which implies a few anthems. Oh how I wish that Akroma, Vision of Ixidor was in our price range...
Second, keywords. Not all are born equal, and there are a few that are much more useful than others.
Double-strike is our MVP, since it effectively doubles all power on the field. Coupled with decent evasion, such as flying or menace, this will make sure your creatures strike true. And potentially double a couple of triggers along the way (Mask of Memory, I see you).
Indestructible is another one, as it will in essence allow you to swing almost absent-mindedly. Couple that with vigilance, and you can go as wide as you want with little fear of consequences.
Therefore, I'll lean towards spells which offer at least a couple or more relevant keywords, making an exception for double-strike and indestructible.
Also bear in mind that Odric only triggers at the beginning of our combat and lasts until end of turn. This leaves your opponents great leisure to deal with your board during their own turns, or simply during your upkeep, draw and pre-combat main phases. Hence the need for some protection.
As you can see, this leaves us technically with somewhat limited room for the meat of the deck, the actual creatures. And since we need to have a decent amount of them for the deck to be consistent, this will be a difficult equation to solve.
I'm aiming at keeping at least 30 creatures and/or creature-makers or so. I'm not a huge fan of Auras here, as a well-timed removal can simply be catastrophic for us.
I might keep a couple if they can really make a difference. There are also a handful of token-makers, we'll probably have to cut in there as well.
At the moment, this is what the list has to offer:
Before we get to the table of mighty cuts, I'll also get a couple of other spells out of the way. Congregate and Rustler Rampage, sorry, you're nice, but we simply don't have the room.
| Keywords | Protection | Anthems | Recursion | Tokens |
So here's the thing. I got to around 125 cards before I got a case of the stuckies. A real bad one. Couldn't resolve myself to get rid of... well, basically anything. So for the time being, I'm stopping here.
Don't worry, you'll still get your awaited 100, but I feel like this is a good spot to give you an idea of what we have to tinker with. I want to take some extra time getting rid of the last spells, and I feel like the only way to do that is to dig, at least partly, into some of the veggies.
Onwards to our last section then.
Final Trim - Absolutely Horrifying and Shattering Heart-Wrenching Choices (of Doom)
So then. I wonder if it's because I've been writing these articles for too long now. But I find those final cuts are excruciatingly difficult.
This is what I would go for, but as always in this last section, there are no "bad choices" per se.
- Removal: Fateful Absence, Gorgon's Head, Stroke of Midnight and Parting Gust, say goodbye. None of you deserved to go, but I need the room, and there are a lot of spells in this section. Too many.
- Board wipes: Let's get rid of Martial Coup. I love making tokens, but 7 mana to wipe the field and get 5 1/1s feels a tad expensive. Austere Command will sadly leave the fray, for lack of better choice.
- Card Draw: Sky Crier demands just too much mana to get a puny card (and giving one elsewhere), despite its keywords. Arm-Mounted Anchor Gives a nice buff and menace, but will often be a two for two, not granting proper card advantage.
- Ramp : Goodbye Kor Cartographer. Alas, your stats are slightly underwhelming for four mana, despite the ramp.
- Recursion : Jackdaw Savior. Looks really good on paper, but I wonder how many cards it will actually yield eventually. Marshal's Anthem gets the axe as well. The +1/+1 is nice but way too expensive to play it for , and you'd need a staggering 8 to bring back two creatures as well. Not good enough.
- Protection: Good-bye Loyal Unicorn. You are a great proxy for indestructible and give our team vigilance, but you also cost 4 mana, therefore being the most expensive of the bunch, and require Odric to be around. Not versatile enough.
- Tokens: Goodbye Elspeth, Sun's Champion. I absolutely love the multiple assets you bring to the table. But it's also more than likely you'll die under the combined blows of our opponents before a whole rotation ends. And paying 6 mana for a partial board wipe or three 1/1 tokens is simply too expensive.
With these further trims and 10 cards to go, we have no choice left. We have to remove some more keywords.
- Equipment: I'm removing Sword of Vengeance, too mana-intensive, Chariot of Victory andHaunted Cloak, which almost do the same thing, because I want to minimize creature casualties.
Which sadly only leaves creatures:
- Illuminator Virtuoso: We already have plenty of double-strike.
- Zetalpa, Primal Dawn: I really wanted to keep you in the final list because of the 5 keywords and massive damage, but man, is really a lot of mana...
- Swooping Lookout: Segovian Angel with a slightly better toughness, but also vulnerable to artifact removal.
- Segovian Angel: Miner's Guidewing is doing a better job.
- Reverent Hoplite: Puny stats, and I have the gut feeling it won't yield as many tokens as you'd wish for that mana cost.
- Aegis Angel: It's a more than decent beater, but at this point I feel like lowering the curve is all I have left to do.
And for my last trick, I'll cut... a plains. Yes, this will leave us at 34 lands. But our curve is at 2.71 and centred on 3 mana, I think it's acceptable.
Finally. FINALLY. FI-NA-LLYYYY!!!
Additional Trim – A Look Into the Past
For our final section, let's have look at good old Volo, Guide to Monsters.
As it stands, there are 4 cards standing above our threshold:
- Simic Charm: $1.14
- Counterspell: $1.24
- Swiftfoot Boots: $1.57
- Full Flowering: $1.59
Not a bad test of time, not bad at all. I would replace these with:
- Blinding Fog to prevent both combat damage and targeted removal
- Long River's Pull will do almost just as well, and can be used as a political tool to boot.
- Gaea's Gift for both offense and defence.
- Echo Storm to make two copies for the price of one.
As usual, you can find the updated list here.
Conclusion
I'm beat. My brain has become a plate of spaghetti, I feel like a butterfly dreaming it's a bowl of sashimi.
So now it's your turn. Do you disagree on any of the decisions? Do you feel anything is missing? Would you like to give me a hug for my endeavours?
Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you in two weeks!
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Arnaud Gompertz
Arnaud Gompertz has been playing Magic since 4th Edition, back in 1995. He's been an assiduous EDH enthusiast since 2012, with a soft spot for unusual and casual Commanders. He'll always favour spectacular plays against a boring path to victory. Aside from mistreating cardboard, he's a dedicated board games player, loves a challenging video game and occasionally tries to sing with his choir.
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