Reconstruct History — Insurrection

Commander Showdown - Hallar vs Verazol

Rolebuilding - Drizzt Do'Urden

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Right now, I gotta keep a tunnel vision</h2>
Welcome to Superior Numbers, where I conduct numerical analysis on cards and deckbuilding trends using just a little bit more math and a little bit less snark.
A person in my LGS recently asked me to look over his deck and and make some suggestions. As readers know I usually don't like looking at Magic cards and offering opinions about their power and place in a particular deck, but on this day I was feeling charitable so I decided to offer my suggestions. I noticed that he was running <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Austere Command" href="#" target="_blank">Austere Command</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cleansing Nova" href="#" target="_blank">Cleansing Nova</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Day of Judgment" href="#" target="_blank">Day of Judgment</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wrath of God" href="#" target="_blank">Wrath of God</a>.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Austere Command"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cleansing Nova"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wrath of God"></div></div>
When I asked about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blasphemous Act" href="#" target="_blank">Blasphemous Act</a>, he responded that he hadn't even thought about red board wipes because he had access to white.
That's an easy mistake to make; I've made it before, where you just default to assuming the color "generally" considered to be best at a certain thing contains the best cards at doing that particular thing. It's simple to tunnel vision on an assumed piece of common knowledge and not think about other options outside that box. So let's look outside the box.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">I can't stop those flashing reds</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Blasphemous Act"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Chandra&#039;s Ignition"></div></div>
Red has comparable creature wipes to white, and in some circumstances they're flat out better. Red has always had board wipes, of course, starting way back with pseudo-wipes like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Earthquake" href="#" target="_blank">Earthquake</a> in Alpha and full destroy-all-the-things wipes like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jokulhaups" href="#" target="_blank">Jokulhaups</a> in Ice Age. Still, among plenty of people the perception remains that red's suite of wipes are second to the ones in white, and that's not without cause. Almost each year sees an expansion add another useful mass destruction spell in the color. For example <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cleansing Nova" href="#" target="_blank">Cleansing Nova</a> from 2018 is in 7,862 decks, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Urza&#039;s Ruinous Blast" href="#" target="_blank">Urza&#039;s Ruinous Blast</a> from the same year shows up in another 4,624. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fumigate" href="#" target="_blank">Fumigate</a> from 2016 is in 13,771 decks, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tragic Arrogance" href="#" target="_blank">Tragic Arrogance</a> from the same set is in another 3,518. It's easy to understand why someone looking for creature sweepers would automatically just assume if they wanted to build a deck that even though red has wipes the white options might be better.
They're not.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blasphemous Act" href="#" target="_blank">Blasphemous Act</a> may be the best board wipe in EDH, full stop, and its only competition for that title isn't even in white (<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Toxic Deluge" href="#" target="_blank">Toxic Deluge</a>). How many times is it a full clear for a single lone R? 90%? More? Probably more. Yes, on occasion it doesn't hit that ginormous suited-up <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Uril the Miststalker" href="#" target="_blank">Uril the Miststalker</a>, or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lavinia of the Tenth" href="#" target="_blank">Lavinia of the Tenth</a> shrugs it off, and it doesn't do anything with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Wanderer" href="#" target="_blank">The Wanderer</a> in play, but the vast majority of times it's simply the most efficient creature sweeper ever printed.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandra&#039;s Ignition" href="#" target="_blank">Chandra&#039;s Ignition</a> isn't just a great board wipe, it's a legit win condition in plenty of decks. I have a Kresh <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fling" href="#" target="_blank">Fling</a>-based deck that routinely sees creatures with power in excess of 20. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandra&#039;s Ignition" href="#" target="_blank">Chandra&#039;s Ignition</a> often just ends the game, full stop. I wouldn't recommend it everywhere, but the decks where it works well it's an absolute monster. Rightfully so, it's finally being recognized as the haymaker it is, showing up in 6,962 decks in our database, but it's a card that was slept on for many years and should be the kind of thing people consider for a sweeper if they can avoid getting tunnel visioned onto white wraths.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">And you made me feel so blue</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Pongify"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rapid Hybridization"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Reality Shift"></div></div>
Black has a long history of being THE color for creature removal. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Terror" href="#" target="_blank">Terror</a> is right there in Alpha, and just like white with wraths, black seems to get a new option every year. Blue, on the other hand, does NOT have a long history of being great at targeted creature removal like red does with sweeping creatures. Yes, historically it's been great at everything else, but not targeted creature removal. Blue handled that with spells like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Unsummon" href="#" target="_blank">Unsummon</a>. Enter the Time Spiral block, a strange little period where all the rules of Magic were turned on their head, including the notion that there should maybe be one thing blue can't do better than every other color.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pongify" href="#" target="_blank">Pongify</a> is the card where it was decided that yeah, blue should, in fact, be able to do all the things. In the context of Standard at the time it makes some sense; a 3/3 token isn't nothing in that environment. It hits for 1/7 of your health pool and can effectively block a whole lot of bodies. We are, however, not playing Standard in 2006; a 3/3 body in a 40-life total format where you have three opponents is a whole different thing, and that 3/3 body winds up being way, way less impactful in the game we play when you give it to your opponent in exchange for that <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite" href="#" target="_blank">Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite</a>. It works on turn 1 or after someone drops a Leyline of Anticipation, situations when <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Murderous Cut" href="#" target="_blank">Murderous Cut</a> is dead in your hand, and in the vast majority of situations the token your opponent gets is irrelevant to the game state. It's just a fantastic card.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rapid Hybridization" href="#" target="_blank">Rapid Hybridization</a> is just a functional reprint of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pongify" href="#" target="_blank">Pongify</a> making your opponent a green Frog Lizard instead of an Ape, because what's better than having one 1-drop instant that's better than anything black has at the same cost? Having two of them.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reality Shift" href="#" target="_blank">Reality Shift</a> costs one more colorless to cast, but it exiles and makes a Manifest creature out of the top card of your opponent's library. They can flip over that card for its casting cost if it was a creature, but the odds are so low for that happen that it's almost always worth the one extra mana to be able to exile your target. Plus it makes for a nice way to mess with the person who just cast a top-of-the-library search spell like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vampiric Tutor" href="#" target="_blank">Vampiric Tutor</a>.
The three cards above are a perfect example of a situation where I got caught up in the tunnel vision around black removal. I was brewing a Dimir deck, and when it came time to add a couple of targeted creature removal spells I immediately slotted in <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Go for the Throat" href="#" target="_blank">Go for the Throat</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Murderous Cut" href="#" target="_blank">Murderous Cut</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Malicious Affliction" href="#" target="_blank">Malicious Affliction</a>. It was months before someone made an offhand comment in another game about how great <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pongify" href="#" target="_blank">Pongify</a> was, and I agreed, literally commenting that, "It's probably better than anything black has to offer." I knew that enough to comment on it but STILL had built my Dimir deck with three spells that I generally find less useful than the three blue options above.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">All they thought they knew were lies, lies in black</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Night&#039;s Whisper"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Read the Bones"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sign in Blood"></div></div>
Black has better unconditional cheap raw draw than blue. It just does. Sorry <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brainstorm" href="#" target="_blank">Brainstorm</a> stans. Yes, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brainstorm" href="#" target="_blank">Brainstorm</a> a near-busted card in eternal formats where the ability to hide cards from hand hate is strong and where fetches provide a chance, at will, to shuffle away the two cards you put on top. It's also great in a format like cEDH where you're digging down for a piece that just wins the game. I won't argue against any of those things. We're not playing Legacy, though, and this isn't an article about cEDH. We're talking typical standard Commander, and in typical Commander where folks aren't ducking <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thoughtseize" href="#" target="_blank">Thoughtseize</a> or trying to filter down to a fast combo win as efficiently as possible, or where almost nobody is running every possible fetch just to give a free shuffle, just putting raw cards into hand is often what you want more than anything else. And black does that better than blue in the slots at three CMC or less.
A large part of that is because black's draw almost always has a downside requiring you to pay life as part of the cost, and the amount of life you pay for these effects has traditionally been scaled for a 20-life format. Everywhere else <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Night&#039;s Whisper" href="#" target="_blank">Night&#039;s Whisper</a> dings you for 1/10 of your starting life total. In EDH, however, that's only 1/20 of your starting life, a much more palatable exchange. Regardless of why black's small draw spells are so efficient in our format, the fact remains that they are, and these three are the best choices.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Night&#039;s Whisper" href="#" target="_blank">Night&#039;s Whisper</a> is maybe my favorite card in Commander. It's castable at almost any point in the game, and it just gets you cards ahead with no preconditions or extra factors to worry about. Pay two, lose two, draw two. Clean, simple, and perfect. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Winged Words" href="#" target="_blank">Winged Words</a> is pretty fantastic in blue, but it's reliant on having bodies in play, and can't be cast nearly as reliably on turn two in your average deck, same with the also fantastic <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chart a Course" href="#" target="_blank">Chart a Course</a>. Black does it better, more consistently.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Read the Bones" href="#" target="_blank">Read the Bones</a> costs one more, but it lets you scry down two before the draw. That's better than anything blue is going to do at three mana short of Delving a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dig Through Time" href="#" target="_blank">Dig Through Time</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Treasure Cruise" href="#" target="_blank">Treasure Cruise</a>, something almost impossible to do early, and sometimes impossible to do at all depending on how much grave hate your meta runs.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sign in Blood" href="#" target="_blank">Sign in Blood</a> is a slightly-harder-to-cast <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Night&#039;s Whisper" href="#" target="_blank">Night&#039;s Whisper</a> with an added bonus of allowing you to choose target player instead of only using it on yourself, and friend, let me assure you that you haven't seen Shakespeare the way it's meant to be done unless you've killed someone with a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sign in Blood" href="#" target="_blank">Sign in Blood</a>.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Be colorblind, don't be so shallow</h2>
These are just the first three examples where being overly fixated on a color's known strengths might make you miss out on the fact that other colors, in fact, do those things better. Have any specific examples of your own? Sound off in the comments below and let me know. I'm always looking to challenge my own assumptions about what things do what better.
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Vela the Night-Clad: Intimidating Machinery" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Vela the Night-Clad
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Arcbound Ravager
*1 Crashing Drawbridge
*1 Foundry Inspector
*1 Hangarback Walker
*1 Hex Parasite
*1 Jhoira&#039;s Familiar
*1 Karn, Silver Golem
*1 Metalwork Colossus
*1 Metalworker
*1 Mishra&#039;s Self-Replicator
*1 Myr Battlesphere
*1 Scarecrone
*1 Scrapyard Recombiner
*1 Shambling Suit
*1 Shimmer Myr
*1 Soul of New Phyrexia
*1 Spellskite
*1 Steel Hellkite
*1 Steel Overseer
*1 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
*1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Enchantments]
*1 Efficient Construction
*1 Imprisoned in the Moon
*1 Mirrodin Besieged
*1 Revel in Riches
*1 The Antiquities War
[/Enchantments]
[Lands]
*1 Academy Ruins
*1 Ancient Tomb
*1 Bojuka Bog
*1 Buried Ruin
*1 Command Tower
*1 Darksteel Citadel
*1 Drowned Catacomb
*1 Fetid Pools
*1 Inventors&#039; Fair
*6 Island
*1 Morphic Pool
*1 Phyrexian Tower
*1 Polluted Delta
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Scavenger Grounds
*1 Seat of the Synod
*1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
*1 Strip Mine
*1 Sunken Hollow
*5 Swamp
*1 Tainted Isle
*1 Underground River
*1 Underground Sea
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
*1 Vault of Whispers
*1 Wasteland
*1 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Ashnod&#039;s Altar
*1 Cloud Key
*1 Dimir Signet
*1 Fellwar Stone
*1 Grim Monolith
*1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Mox Opal
*1 Mystic Forge
*1 Nihil Spellbomb
*1 Skullclamp
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Spawning Pit
*1 Talisman of Dominance
*1 Thought Vessel
*1 Unwinding Clock
[/Artifacts]
[Sorceries]
*1 All Is Dust
*1 Demonic Tutor
*1 Night&#039;s Whisper
*1 Notion Rain
*1 One with the Machine
*1 Read the Bones
*1 Sign in Blood
*1 The Elderspell
*1 Thoughtcast
*1 Toxic Deluge
[/Sorceries]
[Instants]
*1 Cyclonic Rift
*1 Fact or Fiction
*1 Masterful Replication
*1 Pongify
*1 Rapid Hybridization
*1 Reality Shift
[/Instants]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Tezzeret the Seeker
*1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
*1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
*1 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
[/Planeswalkers]"></div>

Superior Numbers - Brewing Around Tunnel Vision

Underdog's Corner - Hallar, the Firefletcher

Unstable introduced some really interesting concepts to the game of Magic: the Gathering, some of which are probably straight busted when built around properly. I'm specifically thinking of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rules Lawyer" href="#" target="_blank">Rules Lawyer</a>. The only problem is that the people who would want to build a deck around <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rules Lawyer" href="#" target="_blank">Rules Lawyer</a> are people who already know how he works and why it is busted. That is not true for other cards though, like our subject this time around, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Infinity Elemental" href="#" target="_blank">Infinity Elemental</a>.
<h3>The Combo:</h3>
The first thing we can talk about is the most obvious, turning sideways and taking out an opponent. Giving <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Infinity Elemental" href="#" target="_blank">Infinity Elemental</a> trample or unblockable is the best thing to do, but which are the best this situation? Afterall, giving our infinitely high powered creature skulk with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skeleton Key" href="#" target="_blank">Skeleton Key</a> is going to do anything useful.
<div>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Keyword</th>
<th>Comment</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Menace</td>
<td>Not the best form evation, but at the same time <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Infinity Elemental" href="#" target="_blank">Infinity Elemental</a> will trade with two creatures</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Flying</td>
<td>Flying is always under appreaciated, even though everyone seems to think it is under appreciated</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Trample</td>
<td>Probably one of the best forms of "evasion" this creature can have. It will always be lethal once combat damage happens.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shadow</td>
<td>There are only a handful of ways to grant shadow to creatures, but they might be worth running in any deck with big stompers.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Horsemanship</td>
<td>Same reasoning as shadow only somehow, more rare than shadow. No one expects horsemenship.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fear/Intimidate</td>
<td>On a mono-colored creature, Intimidate is pretty at making almost 4/5ths of creatures unable to block.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Protection</td>
<td>Protection from creatures, from colors or from asapargus. Get it on a creature and go to town.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Landwalk</td>
<td>This is here mostly for completion sake, the best version of this sees decent amount of play already with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Trailblazer&#039;s Boots" href="#" target="_blank">Trailblazer&#039;s Boots</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Skulk</td>
<td>One of the worst forms of evasion that has come out coupled with one of the worst ways to combine it with. You know what is smaller than infinity? Everything.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
Give our vanilla elemental just about any evasion and we get a free kill on any opponent, equip <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blade of Selves" href="#" target="_blank">Blade of Selves</a> and we kill the table. Simple, quick and fun, if we listen to any Timmy player out there. There is more we can do with infinite power though.
The first of which is draw an infinite amount of cards. This would usually mean we lose but as most Commander players know that can turn into a simple win with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Laboratory Maniac" href="#" target="_blank">Laboratory Maniac</a>.
Here are a few of the more popular draw effects we can choose from:
<ul>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Disciple of Bolas" href="#" target="_blank">Disciple of Bolas</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Life&#039;s Legacy" href="#" target="_blank">Life&#039;s Legacy</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soul&#039;s Majesty" href="#" target="_blank">Soul&#039;s Majesty</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Momentous Fall" href="#" target="_blank">Momentous Fall</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rishkar&#039;s Expertise" href="#" target="_blank">Rishkar&#039;s Expertise</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Garruk, Primal Hunter" href="#" target="_blank">Garruk, Primal Hunter</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Greater Good" href="#" target="_blank">Greater Good</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath" href="#" target="_blank">Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Twisted Justice" href="#" target="_blank">Twisted Justice</a></li>
<li><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vanish into Memory" href="#" target="_blank">Vanish into Memory</a></li>
</ul>
We can even make a million-billion* mana with cards like, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Selvala, Heart of the Wild" href="#" target="_blank">Selvala, Heart of the Wild</a>. Next, let us talk about making an infinite number of tokens, with a repeated process at that. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Carrion" href="#" target="_blank">Carrion</a> does just that for us, just a board filled with 0/1 maggots to do something nefarious with. Sacrificing a creature, not your style? Try <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fungal Sprouting" href="#" target="_blank">Fungal Sprouting</a>. Not instant speed, but 1/1 saprolings are better than 0/1's, especially if someone is trying to chump block you forever. We can't have that, can we? 
There is even an option to gain an infinite amount of energy. You know, the mechanic from Kaladesh, with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Peema Aether Seer" href="#" target="_blank">Peema Aether Seer</a>. What you do with that energy is mostly up to you, as you have stumbled upon an actual perpetual motion engine of some sort. At that point, you should set up a KickStarter and get people to pay you for your free energy machine. That or dump a named arbitrally large amount into <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aetherwind Basker" href="#" target="_blank">Aetherwind Basker</a>. I won’t judge. 
*This could also be google-trillion. Or to be specific, infinite mana.
<hr />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14275" src="http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/414JXftvwhL.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="418" />
<h3>The Interactions:</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Throw it All Away" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Brion Stoutarm
[/Commander]
[Lands]
*1 Arid Mesa
*1 Boros Garrison
*1 Evolving Wilds
*1 Flamekin Village
*1 Hanweir Battlements
*16 Mountain
*13 Plains
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Rogue&#039;s Passage
*1 Sacred Foundry
*1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
*1 Terramorphic Expanse
[/Lands]
[Artifacts]
*1 Basilisk Collar
*1 Boros Cluestone
*1 Boros Keyrune
*1 Boros Signet
*1 Dreamstone Hedron
*1 Grafted Exoskeleton
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Mind&#039;s Eye
*1 Nim Deathmantle
*1 Paradox Engine
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Staff of Domination
*1 Staff of Nin
*1 Swiftfoot Boots
*1 Tamiyo&#039;s Journal
*1 Trailblazer&#039;s Boots
[/Artifacts]
[Enchantments]
*1 Land Tax
*1 Assemble the Legion
*1 Aura of Silence
*1 Burning Anger
*1 Darksteel Mutation
*1 Flameshadow Conjuring
*1 Gift of Immortality
[/Enchantments]
[Instants]
*1 Boros Charm
*1 Chaos Warp
*1 Eerie Interlude
*1 Fling
*1 Return to Dust
*1 Swords to Plowshares
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Austere Command
*1 Blasphemous Act
*1 Chandra&#039;s Ignition
*1 Disrupt Decorum
*1 Fury of the Horde
*1 Hour of Revelation
*1 Relentless Assault
*1 Wheel of Fate
[/Sorceries]
[Creatures]
*1 Anger
*1 Artisan of Kozilek
*1 Boros Battleshaper
*1 Boros Reckoner
*1 Burnished Hart
*1 Combustible Gearhulk
*1 Emeria Shepherd
*1 Feldon of the Third Path
*1 Flickerwisp
*1 Hamletback Goliath
*1 Infinity Elemental
*1 Iroas, God of Victory
*1 Karmic Guide
*1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
*1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
*1 Reya Dawnbringer
*1 Solemn Simulacrum
*1 Stalking Vengeance
*1 Stoneforge Mystic
*1 Stuffy Doll
*1 Sun Titan
*1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]"></div>
The deck is a pretty normal <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brion Stoutarm" href="#" target="_blank">Brion Stoutarm</a> deck all in all, but frankly, it doesn't need to be anything special when we have phenomenal cosmic power in our hands that will end the game at any moment. We just need to ramp and draw the right cards to finish out the game. The key cards are anything that puts all damage ever created into the face of someone else. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandra&#039;s Ignition" href="#" target="_blank">Chandra&#039;s Ignition</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fling" href="#" target="_blank">Fling</a> and Brion himself are the MVP's to the game plan.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14276" src="http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/giphy.gif" alt="" width="540" height="303" /> 
Now, we move onto some of the really weird things that can happen when infinity is introduced to our game. This isn't normal infinite where we pick a really big number and it stops mattering what that number is because the number can be adjusted to fit whatever size it needs to be. We are talking about the literal infinite, an uncountable number that is bigger than the biggest number.
The weird thing about having the mathematical infinity in Magic is that in every other representation of infinity we have in the game we actually have to choose a legal number to represent our infinity. Meaning if we gain an infinite amount of life with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kitchen Finks" href="#" target="_blank">Kitchen Finks</a>, our life total will have to be our current life plus a multiple of two. The number has to be chosen in order for the game to progress. This also happens because there are game actions that take place so we have to tell the game “I am going to do this loop a trillion times.”
However, if we have <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brion Stoutarm" href="#" target="_blank">Brion Stoutarm</a> and throw our infinite powered buddy at something to gain an impossible to represent on dice amount of life. We get into a pretty good position to be in all told. The reason is, of course, an infinity minus any number is still, infinite. So go ahead and pay all the life you want to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hatred" href="#" target="_blank">Hatred</a> or let everyone hit you with their creatures, it isn’t going to do anything to that life total of yours. Even further, we can lose half our life with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Heartless Hidetsugu" href="#" target="_blank">Heartless Hidetsugu</a> or a third with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dire Fleet Ravager" href="#" target="_blank">Dire Fleet Ravager</a>, our life isn’t going to change from infinity.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14278" src="http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/infinity.png" alt="" width="498" height="230" />
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<h2>The Counters:</h2>
First of all, just normal removal gets rid of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Infinity Elemental" href="#" target="_blank">Infinity Elemental</a>. So does chump blocking, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Darksteel Mutation" href="#" target="_blank">Darksteel Mutation</a>. This is a vanilla creature we’re trying to build around so it is going to be weak to a lot of things and sometimes you just commit to a strategy and hope it pans out. 
Another thing to watch out for is if we go the infinite life route there are a couple of pitfalls we can run into. The first of which is everyone’s favorite mechanic in commander, infect! Having infinite life means nothing to poison counters. Secondly, anything that sets our life total, such as <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sorin Markov" href="#" target="_blank">Sorin Markov</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magister Sphinx" href="#" target="_blank">Magister Sphinx</a> or even worse someone stealing our hard work with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Axis of Mortality" href="#" target="_blank">Axis of Mortality</a>. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Worldfire" href="#" target="_blank">Worldfire</a> might actually be the worst thing ever to happen to us too.
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<h2>The Conclusion:</h2>
In a lot of ways, having an infinite amount of life or creatures makes things easier for us as players. Not having to do the math each time a life total changes or a resource change happens really frees up processing power for making critical decisions that could actually win you the game. There is a type a magic you can play that deals with infinite mana and life, it’s called Judge’s Tower. It is not for the faint of heart or those with a poor grasp of the rules but if this kind of thing is interesting to you then it might be up your alley.

chandras ignition

Reconstruct History — Insurrection

Commander Showdown - Hallar vs Verazol

Rolebuilding - Drizzt Do'Urden

Superior Numbers - Brewing Around Tunnel Vision

Underdog's Corner - Hallar, the Firefletcher

Combo Corner — Infinity Golem