C'est la vie; Save me

I want to talk to you about American Steel. They're a band. A Bay Area punk band. You might know a few of those.

So yeah, American Steel is a capital bee Band. But there's an excellent chance that, even if you listen to punk that you may have inadvertently avoided them. I know I missed out on their greatness for years.

---

I felt endless alone in grad school. There was no one source of this despair: a college ex-girlfriend in the making, entrenched anti-Semitism, and being stuck in Buffalo, New York as proudly stubborn and stubbornly prideful Brooklynite who had failed to get his driver's license.

Twice.

Living in Buffalo taught me why America is a country of roads. I had been spoiled by my ability to just walk places. Instead I was thrust into a world where my feet did not matter and my knowledge of the intricate network of the MTA was worth less than Dime Night wings. Going out to find a community was hard, but I also didn't feel safe. It wasn't that Buffalo was dangerous - I just was not in a good place and venturing into the world was not something I was ready to do.
So I let my fingers take the place of my feet and the ethernet supplanted my MetroCard. I explored the world of punk on the Internet. I uncovered a world of people who felt Outside; I found a new home. 

See, I had gone "away" to college but it wasn't really that far from where I grew up. My best friend was a year ahead of me and I knew nearly two dozen people from my childhood who were attending the same school. There was the familiarity of a reboot. I was able to seamless become who I thought I myself to be without having to examine exactly what I was.

Graduate School was different. Buffalo had its own identity that existed in dissonance to not only how I perceived myself but also to the Alex that actually was; an Alex that was intransigent. I retreated to punk because I knew it but also because of the myth of Punk Rock. I loved the story of those outside grouping together because of collective rejection by society. My companion during the work day was an internet radio station that gave me respite from the city's immune response to my intrusion. 

One day I heard this song.

I hated it. Then I heard this song.

Okay, I liked that one. Over time "Dead and Gone" grew on me. I acquired the Destroy Their Future. I devoured it almost daily. 

American Steel sounded like no other band I had ever loved. I continued digging and found their catalog. I fell head over heels. They became my favorite source of nourishment for a month, forsaking everything else on the menu. The pleasantly rare Rogue's March drew me in more than than black-and-blue self titled album. 

Jagged Thoughts, though. Oh man Jagged Thoughts.

I have seen "Maria" described as a perfect song. I am hard pressed to disagree. It is soft and inviting before pulling you in for an amazing crescendo that spikes over and over. "Maria" is lovingly layered with each instrument walking their own path, tripping over each other only to roar in unison every chorus. It is an absolute delight.

Where "Maria" coasts, "Rainy Day" soars. The song lulls you in with soft tones before cutting your heart out with absolutely gut wrenching hurt. Every time I listen to the song I can see the tattered wound where a heart once was and it sings to me. 

I have a thing for musical moments. The backstroke distortion halfway through the chorus gets me every damn time. I can listen to this song on repeat for an hour easy and always find something new to appreciate. They wrote the hell out of it - the soft layers, the atmospheric guitars, the reverb on the ending chorus - everything that makes you Feel.

When thinking about American Steel I tried to remember what kept me away at the onset. It was the vocals. They're sour. In fact everything about the band is just a bit too tart. But over time everything about American Steel stopped being offensive to my palate. I had wanted a light pilsner but American Steel are a flat out Gose. 

American Steel's catalog did some heavy lifting for my soul during one of the lowest points in my life. I could sink into "Rainy Day" and wallow in someone else's misery to distract me from my own.

A few years later I was out of Buffalo and in a much better place in my life. American Steel released Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts. The energetic opposite of "Rainy Day." It became a new blanket for a different sort of comfort.

See American Steel had gotten me through a tough time. It got me to a place where the friends I made online became my friends in real life. The community I searched for became tangible. We partied and it was good. 

Thank You Magic Online

Last week we got our first look at Magic: The Gathering Arena. The new digital offering will be the latest way to play the world's best collectible card game on the internet. While Arena is not officially taking the place of Magic Online and the former program will continue to be supported, it may just be a matter of time (years and years) before the two become one. 

That is pure speculation, of course. For all we know Arena could flop and Magic Online will continue to succeed, the alligator of its age. These words are not about the potential future of digital Magic, nor will they be a critique of Magic Online's shortcomings (of which there are many). Rather I am going to be extolling Magic Online the entity (as opposed to the program). In my opinion, Magic Online has done more for the democratization of Magic content than just about any other innovation in the past 15 years.

---

Content is a hungry beast and trying to keep every stripe of Magic player sated is a daunting task. Before there was an official websites there was the USENET, then the Dojo. Then came Sideboard.com and the Mothership as we know it today. StarCityGames and ChannelFireball are big names today, with TCGPlayer carrying on the legacy of BrainBurst.com. GatheringMagic is a relative newcomer (shout out to my home) but there are tons of sites: PureMTGO, MTGGoldfish, HipstersoftheCoast and on and on and on. And this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of independent YouTubers, Streamers, and Tumblrers. 

We are legion.

What Magic Online did, however, was give people spread far and wide access to Magic at an incredibly high level. In the time Before one would have to be part of a relatively elite group in order to provide high level content. Want to talk tournaments? You better live in a PTQ corridor or already be on the tour itself. Casual Magic more your speed? You need to have a well established playgroup that isn't growing up or moving away any time soon. Limited? I hope you had perfect recall.

---

See what Magic Online really did is that it brought every aspect of the game to everyone with a high speed internet connection and a disposable income. I mention this because ignoring it does a disservice to the very real requirements of playing Magic. Yet with access to these anyone could start playing more, and eventually play against improved competition. 

So you no longer had to move to a specific city to find a hotbed of Magic (as Mike Pustilnik did, potentially apocryphally) - you could just join a Daily Event of a single elimination tournament. And you could grind away and tweak your deck. Then you could share your experience. 

Or you could develop software that tracked your draft and helped you learn where you draft may have gone wrong. You could share these with the world and create an entire new style of article and help teach the world how to draft. An eternal wellspring, this would never grow old since every few months (give or take) a new draft environment would emerge. 

All of this was before streaming. With the advent of screen-capture technology actual games could be recorded and dissected. Not only could you practice but you could do it and share what you learned in real time with anyone who tuned in. In a happy twist on The Poltergeist you could suck your audience into your screen but teach them something instead of torment them. 

Magic Online worked for content creation but it also helped to create the current generation of stars. Luis Scott-Vargas, Brad Nelson, Reid Duke, Ondrej Strasky, Yuuki Ichikawa, and so many more cut their teeth on the cursor. The Pro Tour does not look like it does today without Magic Online.

---

Now it's time for my trademark hyperbole. I liken the program, as flawed as it is, to the printing press. It took something that was available to the concentrated few and made it easier for those of some means to have a shot access. Not only could more play the game but those who never knew they could create now how their shot.

I am, of course, biased. Without Magic Online there is a very good chance I drift away from the game. I never find my niche and I never started writing. And I wonder how true that is for many other people out there today.

This is not a eulogy. Just one guy's chance to show his appreciation. So thank you Magic Online - you gave a whole lot of us a shot. 

Entropy

I don't know what to say.

This is nothing new.  I never know what to say.

I could say I'm anxious, but I don't have capital a Anxiety (at least that I know of). So I don't say that because it's disingenuous. 

Things are changing; we're moving in a month. 

I hate change. Hate it. I want to fight entropy as long as I can and keep the kipple away.

As bad as I am, my wife is worse. So I bottle my fight against reality up and let it out at therapy. But that's doesn't always work. In between the Krakatoa's of those twice-monthly eruptions there are a few Mount St. Helens. 

I never know what to say so I use song lyrics no one knows. Check my history and you'll find a laundry list of four chord wonders you've probably never heard of. Here's one:

Here's another:

Really - who knows these bands?

I end up feeling isolated and cut of and my big idea to connect is to delve into the obscure?

I'm the Riddler's emo cousin.

But, despite all this, I never feel alone. 

And I am so f'n lucky to never feel alone.

Right now I live in a country that wants to make people feel alone. The thing is, I've always lived here and right now the people who detest their ominous other are and charge. It's not really my country anymore.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Except it is. Nothing has changed just because the ass hats have megaphones. I'm not absolved in this; I have to be louder.

If you are reading this you're not alone.

To my trans brethren, to the people like me with preexisting conditions, to my sisters,  to everyone regardless of who you love, to people that are black and brown and every shade, to the people out there that are white but aren't really (looking at you fellow Jews), to every Other, to every other person I forgot to mention. You are not alone.

We are not alone.

And there are way, way more of us. 

Low Profile and Little Edges

Blows dust off the deck boxes

Shuffles up 99 cards

[Expletive deleted]

Replaces a broken sleeve

It's been a little while since I've had a chance to play Commander. Over the past three weeks I've had two such opportunities with some old friends. This, combined with some chatting with Mel Li on Twitter encouraged me to put digital pen to paper again. I wanted to write about my Grenzo, Dungeon Warden deck again but I had not had a chance to play it in either of the sessions. An aside: the deck was presorted, meaning I had meant to write about it at some point and just failed to do so. The deck I had the most success with (in other words I won the game) was my untested Ephara, God of the Polis deck.

One of my earliest Commander decks was Bruna, Light of Alabaster. It was a White-Blue deck that had a heavy graveyard component and was one I would take out when I really wanted to win. The problem I had with Bruna is that every game played out the same - I attacked with a giant angel and won. There's nothing wrong with this but after many years I just grew tired of always attacking with Bruna wearing Eldrazi Conscription (total flavor win though) so I put it on the shelf.

Fast forward to the Kaladesh prerelease. In my rather stacked pool (Cataclysmic and Noxious Gearhulk?) I opened Smuggler's Copter. After I collect my prize packs I start to think about how I can put that Crew 1 to good use and I recall one of my favorite quarter bin finds - Order of Whiteclay. I had the kernel of an idea and knew I wanted to replace my Azorius deck. I started planning what this deck would look like and had its general texture in mind yet I lacked a general.

I looked up the potential Legendary Creatures and scoured the list a few times. It took me a few perusals to finally see the potential synergy with Ephara. Once I did though, the texture added detail and I started to layer different elements into the deck. First would be the small reanimator theme with cards like Order of Whiteclay and Sun Titan. Second would come a "blink" theme. Working with these I started to notice my desire to do things on my opponents turn and that added a small element of Flash. While I only had one Vehicle in the deck I still enjoyed the idea of tapping and untapping as a cost, which led me to Knacksaw Clique and Collective Effort and eventually to Intruder Alarm. 

The focus on smaller creatures led me to find some tribal synergies as well. Humans, Wizards, and Merfolk cards all make an appearance. The deck is a finicky machine that ends up drawing a ton of cards thanks to Ephara. The ability to reanimate on other turns with Order of Whiteclay or flicker Sun Titan with Deadeye Navigator (let's be real - how could I not run it?) makes it so I don't even miss Mulldrifter (which I for some reason forgot to include). One fun play I want to pull off with this deck is casting Rite of Replication with Kicker on Reflector Mage, because I'm not a nice person.

I played this in a three person game and never really fell behind. I was able to establish a board presence and the cards kept flowing thanks to Ephara. New Prahv Guildmage kept me alive long enough for Ephara to crack in for victory. I cast Collective Effort twice in the game and the card proved its worth. While this is not as hard a control deck as some other Ephara decks I've seen it served me well. 

Creatures
Archaeomancer
Azorius Guildmage
Azorius Justicar
Clever Impersonator
Custodi Soulcaller
Dakra Mystic
Deadeye Navigator
Deputy of Acquitals
Devoted Chaplain
Draining Whelk
Eldrazi Displacer
Felidar Guardian
Flickerwisp
Glimmerpoint Stag
Guiding Spirit
Karmic Guide
Kheru Spellsnacter
Knacksaw Clique
Lullmage Mentor
Mentor of the Meek
Mistmeadow Witch
Monk Realist
New Prahv Guildmage
Order of Whiteclay
Phantasmal Image
Puresight Merrow
Raven Familiar
Reflector Mage
Restoration Specialist
Reveillark
Sawtooth Loon
Sigil Tracer
Silumgar Sorcerer
Sky Hussar
Soulsworn Jury
Spell Queller
Stonecloaker
Sun Titan
Timely Hordemate
Tradewind Rider
Voidmage Husher
Voidmage Prodigy
Willbender
Solemn Simulacrum
Barrin, Master Wizard
Mangara of Corondor

Sorceries
Collective Effort
Return to the Ranks
Rite of Replication
Supreme Verdict

Instants
Ojutai's Command
Sphinx's Revelation

Enchantments
Attunement
Aura of Silence
Cloud Cover
Equilibrium
Intruder Alarm

Artifacts
Chromatic Lantern
Erratic Portal
Smuggler's Copter
Sol Ring
Talisman of Progress

Lands
7 Island
7 Plains
2 Wastes
Adarkar Wastes
Azorius Chancery
Azorius Guildgate
Blighted Cataract
Boreal Shelf
Calciform Pools
Coastal Tower
Command Tower
Celestial Colonnade
Flood Plain
Glacial Fortress
Hallowed Fountain
Meandering River
Nimbus Maze
Prairie Stream
Riptide Laboratory
Sejiri Refuge
Temple of Enlightenment
Temple of the False God
Tranquil Cove
Winding Canyons

I am a fan of playing decks full of cards with low individual threat profiles. A card like Restoration Specialist is hardly imposing but when combined with Attunement and Order of Whiteclay it has the ability to generate a massive amount of card advantage over the long game. The advantage of lowering the threat profile should be obvious - in a game of Commander the longer you survive the more likely you are to win. My Ephara deck only has a few obvious threats - Sun Titan, Deadeye Navigator, Draining Whelk - but the smaller creatures do a the heavy lifting. Now clearly sometimes this deck is going to be run over and that's okay! The goal, of course, is to have fun and sometimes you can do that by simply having a good game.

I have a number of decks that are built around trying to have a low threat profile. While Grenzo started that way I don't think that is the case anymore. When I acquired a copy of Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, I immediately thought about how I could cast it on turn two and start building value from flips. The focus on creatures with power less than two led me to include Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker as a way to get additional uses out of my smaller creatures. 

The conceit of the deck started with Goblin Welder. The ability to flip the Welder into play and then get Artifacts back from the bin. It also gave me the opportunity to run tons of weird cards like Tel-Jilad Style, Junktroller, and Soldevi Digger. The focus on Artifacts gave me the opening to run Smokestack, which works exceedingly well with Pawn of Ulamog and later Marionette Master and Sly Requisitioner. Perhaps my favorite find for this deck is Stingmoogie which, when combined with the cards that can put cards on the bottom of my library, provides a recurring source of Artifact removal and the ability to remove pesky lands. 

Creatures
Anathamancer
Big Game Hunter
Bone Shredder
Cadaver Imp
Carrion Feeder
Crypt Ghast
Goblin Welder
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Marionette Master
Noosegraf Mob
Pawn of Ulamog
Priest of the Blood Rite
Skirsdag High Priest
Sly Requisitioner
Stingmoogie
Swarm of Bloodflies
Thorn of the Black Rose
Thought Gorger
Viscera Seer
Arcbound Reclaimer
Burnished Hart
Canal Dredger
Combustible Gearhulk
Duplicant
Epitaph Golem
Hedron Crawler
Junk Diver
Junktroller
Mindless Automaton
Myr Retriever
Noxious Gearhulk
Pilgrim's Eye
Scarecrone
Scrap Trawler
Solemn Simulacrum
Workshop Assistant
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Pia Nalaar
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker

Planeswalkers
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
Daretti, Scrap Savant

Enchantments
Goblin Bombardment
Pia's Revolution
Shadows of the Past

Artifacts
Ashnod's Altar
Blasting Station
Crystal Ball
Heartstone
Illusionist's Bracers
Nevinyrral's Disk
Nihil Spellbomb
Oblivion Stone
Seer's Lantern
Skullclamp
Smokestack
Sol Ring
Soldevi Digger
Spine of Ish Sah
Teferi's Puzzle Box
Tel-Jilad Stylus
Trading Post
Universal Solvent
Unstable Obelisk

Lands
6 Swamp
5 Mountain
Akoum Refuge
Barren Moor
Blood Crypt
Bloodfell Caves
Bloodstained Mire
Buried Ruin
Command Tower
Dakmor Salvage
Darksteel Citadel
Forgotten Cave
Great Furnace
Mortuary Mire
Phyrexia's Core
Polluted Mire
Rakdos Carnarium
Rakdos Guildgate
Rocky Tar Pit
Sea Gate Wreckage
Smoldering Crater
Smoldering Marsh
Tainted Peak
Temple of Malice
Temple of the False God
Vault of Whispers
Inventors' Fair

Unlike Ephara, Grenzo has some serious eye-brow raising threats. A card like Smokestack

can absolutely take over a game and Anathamancer never fails to draw ire. Gray Merchant of Asphodel is the way this deck wins most often thanks to Grenzo's ability to get it back consistently once assembled with a sacrifice outlet and a Junktroller effect. Kaladesh and Aether Revolt provided a lot of fun options for this deck like Pia's revolution, Scrap Trawler, the Gearhulks, and the aforementioned Marionette Master and Sly Requisitioner. 

Not every game of Commander is won with the flashy play. Sometimes, you just need to build up a small advantage every turn. And leave your opponents helpless.

I'm Sick

I haven't gone into detail about my condition because that's the thing - it is My Condition. It is personal. It is preexisting. 

Since Congress just decided that my condition makes me less than, I am going to share it with you. Maybe you can share my story with your Representative - I already shared it with mine.

Over two years ago I went to get fitted for a suit for my wedding. At 30 years old I weighed 104 pounds - about 15 pounds lighter than I had weighed at 25. I exercise and eat fairly well I losing some weight was not a shock but that much was...scary. Doctor's appointments and tests were done. Diagnoses were considered but it was not until last year, after a third round of tests, that I got a clear diagnosis: Crohn's Disease.

In the simplest terms Crohn's is an inflammation of my intestines. As my specialist told me, sometime in my past I aggravated the lining of my guts and my body never stopped trying to fight the intruder. The results were not good. 

Before treatment I had trouble putting on weight. I would occasionally, seemingly without cause (hint: there was one), have these intense cramps. For about eight hours I would be in almost constant pain. When I wasn't in pain I was counting down the seconds until the next attack. I would sweat, shit, vomit. I couldn't keep water down. 

So a year ago I started treatment. Humira - you've seen the commercials I'm sure. Good news is the side effects haven't hit me (besides fatigue). I'm gaining weight (up to 118 pounds) and in two weeks will be running my first half marathon. I now know what sets off the Flares and haven't had a major episode since November.

Why am I writing this?

I have a job and insurance. But what if I didn't?

All those tests? Tens of thousands of dollars.

My medicine? One year's worth is more than my annual paycheck.

I have been steadily employed for almost 10 years. I have a Master's Degree in my field. I did nothing to deserve Crohn's. I never smoked a cigarette and drink in moderation. I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

But I have a preexisting condition, so somehow one party perceives me as Less Than.

So to the members of Congress who are did this I want you to know you're cowards. You couldn't do what I do. People like me may be sick but that does not make us less than. Our treatments may tire us out and have side effects but they also make us stronger. 

Stronger than you.

Five years ago I never would have thought that every two weeks I'd be giving myself an injection. But I do that every two weeks just to live a life.

What do you do? 

We are sick and we are still getting treatment and we are going to make your life miserable.

Modern Love: Part 2

Good news, everyone: The team worked hard to get in a fix for Pauper and got there! The new commons will in fact be legal today! #MTGO

— Magic Online (@MagicOnline) March 22, 2017

Well that was unexpected. 

There's a good chance you read my blog post from yesterday where I shared my opinion about the issues I felt where facing the folks who make Magic. I believe those issues still exist. However I wanted to take some time and thank Wizards of the Coast.

It would have been really easy for the team to sit back and go with yesterday's announcement. They could have bided their time and made sure everything was rock solid before the new April 19th date.

Instead this happened:

@nerdtothecore @MagicOnline Credit for sure goes to our awesome Card Set team, I'm glad they were able to make it happen. :) #WotCStaff

— Lee Sharpe (@mtg_lee) March 22, 2017

The team found a fix and we get what we were initially promised. 

Now I won't sit here and say that this is ideal. In a perfect world this post and the other one would not have been needed as there would not have been a problem. But the world isn't perfect and, pardon my language, shit happens.

Credit where credit is due so thank you to the people on the Card Set Team. You made my day.

Thank you to Lee for being open and honest about this.

And thank you all for playing, and more importantly, caring about Pauper.

Now, let's join a league and get our teeth kicked in by Burning-Tree Emissary!

Modern Love

Due to an issue, #MTGMM3 commons will not be Pauper legal on #MTGO tomorrow. They will instead be legal effective April 19. #MTGO

— Magic Online (@MagicOnline) March 21, 2017

I'm not going to try and paint a rosy picture about this development. Yesterday the Magic community was  told that tomorrow the commons from Modern Masters 2017 would be legal to play in Pauper. Today we found out that was no longer the case and they would be delayed a month.

The announcement has left me frustrated.

I am not going to try and put a shine on this - it sucks. Wizards had a deadline and they missed it. They came out and told us but that does not change the fact that they are not delivering on expectations. 

I'm not happy about the situation. I reached out to Lee Sharpe for a statement and he sent me this (which I am sharing with his permission):

Unfortunately, an issue has resulted in the cards that are newly common in Modern Masters 2017 not legal in Pauper. This also applies to the commons that will be added to Magic Online Treasure Chests starting March 22.
This issue will be addressed with the April 19 build.  Until that date, these new commons will not be legal in the Pauper format.  Players will be able to play them in Pauper beginning April 19.
This wasn’t the experience we wanted to create for Pauper players with this release, and our apologies to those of you who were excited to begin brewing with the new cards right away.

I did not expect to get a reason - I've dealt with Wizards enough to know better. 

So what does this mean for Pauper?

First I cannot in good conscience call for a boycott. For me, Magic and Pauper provides a much needed release and escape. In my case it's from a chronic illness and taking away the opportunity for me to find respite in an attempt to prove a point would be doing myself more harm than good. And if this is true for me it is possible it is the case for other Pauper players as well.

At the same time I cannot tell people that they should continue to hand over money to play in Pauper leagues. If you choose to stop playing please be sure to make sure your reason for doing so is known. 

Pauper, in all likelihood, will chug along as normal. Which is a shame.

Modern Masters 2017 presented the opportunity to reshape the format. Burning-Tree Emissary looks to be a card that can transform the metagame. Delver, the Blue aggro-tempo deck, has been at the apex of Pauper for years (excluding when Peregrine Drake was legal). Burning-Tree Emissary was poised to make a run up the standings. And that says nothing about the other extremely powerful cards coming to common like Augur of Bolas, Falkenrath Noble, and Thunderous Wrath.

Modern Masters 2017 was supposed to change everything. It may still do that, but we'll just have to wait a month.

What upsets me most about this is that it seems to be happening more often across all of Magic. From issues with the power level of Standard to the inability of Magic Online to host special events to the size and prize payouts at Grand Prix the quality assurance of the product has taken a dip. 

To be clear it's still great, but it definitely is not where it has been or should be.

I have one major thought on this phenomena: Magic has outgrown its current structure. 

The move from two year rotation to 18 month rotation (and back to two years) would have logically put pressure on Design and Development. Crafting the game for one system, then the other, then back, can create the kind of undue stress on the process that may have fostered the current state of Standard. The number of people playing Magic, both digital and analog, as well as the rate of new things, could make it harder to keep the program up to date. Grand Prix are massive events that ten times the size of their original incarnation.

In my opinion Magic needs more people working on the product. Lessen the burden of those making the cards and let them adjust to the new structure and hopefully mistakes decline. Give Magic Online more staff so that deadlines are hit as expected. Figure out how to make Grand Prix serve as a pro event and a mini-festival. 

We love Magic. The people who make Magic love Magic. We put our money into the game and I think it's fair to ask Wizards to put a little more of theirs into the pot to make sure this perceived quality dip is just a blip. 

Some Enchanted Board State

Let me tell you why I love Enchantments in Commander: they’re underappreciated. Because of this they tend to be undervalued and under targeted and as a consequence it gives me an edge.

How did I get here? For as long as I can remember I have had a preoccupation with using the Graveyard as a resource. My flagship Golgari deck, no matter who is at the helm (currently Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest) has a strong graveyard theme, usually based around sacrificing for profit. I love Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble and any chance I have to turn them into machine guns is a chance I’ll take. This usually involves a healthy dose of Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton to make sure the hordes keep flowing. So when I sit down to play with one of my regular playgroups early copies of Bojuka Bog and Agent of Erebos will often get pointed at me.

Rightfully so.

In these I situations I would often find myself unable to claw back into the game. As regular Rob says, “No on runs enough graveyard removal.” Because of this our playgroup runs an overabundance of hate which makes my straight-graveyard decks start behind the 8 ball. When Conspiracy was printed and I was gifted Deathreap Ritual. Now I could draw cards while not taking time off from my regular game plan.

My exploration of Deathreap Ritual led me to have a greater appreciation of Enchantments. Sure, I had been running Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos for as long as I could remember but they would draw heat. Deathreap Ritual would just sit there and draw me cards. As I built more and more Commander decks I made an effort to use these permanents where I could. I found that Enchantments would often go unmolested and allow me to accrue incremental advantages. I’ve followed in Rob’s footsteps and often say now that people don’t run enough Enchantment removal.

Now this is somewhat misleading. Cards like Reclamation Sage and Acidic Slime see heavy play while Austere Command and Merciless Eviction are common sights. Enchantress decks - entire strategies built around Enchantments - exist and are powerhouses. So how can Enchantments be underappreciated if there is an entire strategy based around them? How can they fly under the radar if their answers are everywhere?

The goal with leveraging Enchantments is not to have them be the threats but rather have them enhance your game plan. In an Enchantress deck these permanents are usually everything - threats, answers, card advantage, combo pieces - and as such they can place a firm target on their ephemeral bodies making powerful cards like Replenish, Starfield of Nyx,and Bruna, Light of Alabaster a must. The way I use Enchantments is different and as such I often do not mind if one gets removed.

Now a deck like Mazirek, which makes heavy use of Grave Pact effects, does not enjoy when someone tampers with its engines. But that isn’t a deck I am going to talk about today. Instead I want to highlight two decks I feel that use the forgotten card type as force multipliers.

Creatures

Avatar of Slaughter

Bogardan Hellkite

Conquering Manticore

Crater Hellion

Crimson Hellkite

Hellkite Charger

Hellkite Tyrant

Hoard-Smelter Dragon

Hoarding Dragon

Humble Defector

Ire Shaman

Mindclaw Shaman

Molten Primordial
Scourge of the Throne

Skyline Despot

Utvara Hellkite

Warmonger Hellkite

Zealous Conscripts

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs

Burnished Hart

Pilgrim’s Eye

Solemn Simulacrum

Steel Hellkite

Planeswalkers

Chandra, Pyromaster

Koth of the Hammer

Instants

Comet Storm

Into the Core

Reiterate

Sorceries

Blasphemous Act

Earthquake

Jaws of Stone

Slice and Dice

Volcanic Vision

Enchantments

Barrage of Expendables

Bedlam

Dictate of the Twin Gods

Dragon Tempest

Flameshadow Conjuring

Goblin Bombardment

Outpost Siege

Pyrohemia

Shivan Harvest

Vicious Shadows

Warstorm Surge

Artifacts

Altar of Dementia

Angel’s Trumpet

Armillary Sphere

Carnage Altar

Conjurer’s Closet

Fire Diamond

Hedron Archive

Magewight’s Stone

Magnifying Glass

Mimic Vat

Nevinyrral’s Disk

Sol Ring

Sundial of the Infinite

Thousand-Year Elixir

Wayfarer’s Bauble

Illusionist’s Bracers

Lightning Greaves

Skullclamp

Swiftfoot Boots

Lands

20 Mountain

Blasted Landscape

Dormant Volcano

Evolving Wilds

Flamekin Village

Forgotten Cave

Ghitu Encampment

High Market

Keldon Necropolis

Myriad Landscape

Mystifying Maze

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Opal Palace

Shivan Gorge

Smoldering Crater

Temple of the False God

Terramorphic Expanse

Zirilan is my Mono-Red Commander deck. It wants to cheat giant dragons into play with Zirilan of the Claw and make sure they stick around past the exile trigger with things like Conjurer’s Closet and Sundial of the Infinite. If that does not work, I want to keep the Dragons around in my graveyard (for when I finally up and get another copy of Feldon of the Third Path for this deck). Zirilan wins via damage, the kind dealt by a scaly sky force. As a Red deck it can sometimes have trouble keeping up with the card advantage other decks bring to the table so it needs to get creative. Eleven Enchantments aide Zirilan without being core to actually winning the game.

Barrage of Expendables, Goblin Bombardment, and Shivan Harvest all help keep my Dragons out of exile. The single point of damage or destruction of a Non-Basic Land, while nice, are hardly integral to the plan. These cards are also replicated in High Market, Keldon Necropolis, and Altar of Dementia. Those cards, however, are far more vulnerable than the trio of Enchantments so they stick around.

Bedlam and Dictate of the Twin Gods play into Zirilan’s subtheme of setting the rules of combat. If I am going to be winning via damage then I need to do a whole bunch of attacking. These cards are dangerous and tend to be deployed to help accelerate games to an end state.

Dragon Tempest, Vicious Shadows, and Warstorm Surge don’t set combat but they play along the same axis of damage. To that end so does Pyrohemia which has the added advantage of containing token armies.

Flameshadow Conjuring and Outpost Siege are both attempts at card advantage. Conjuring can put out additional token copies of a summoned Dragon which can be saved with Sundial of the Infinite. Outpost Siege can use its Khans mode to keep the cards flowing. Again, neither of these are integral to the victory - there are Dragons to worry about - but they help to support the deck.

I built Zirilan without Enchantments in mind. I knew I wanted some permanent way to keep up with decks that had more traditional forms of card advantage and these cards made sense. A few weeks ago I rebuilt my Red-Green deck from the ground up and decided to lean a bit harder on Enchantments. Before the rebuild the deck revolved around Killer Instinct and Impromptu Raid. In order to keep these key components around I included Dowsing Shaman. Moving from “living off the top” to a Tokens build, I decided to see exactly how much mileage I could get out of the Shaman.

Creatures

Acidic Slime

Avenger of Zendikar

Bloodspore Thrinax

Centaur Rootcaster

Dragon Broodmother

Dowsing Shaman

Emrakul’s Evangel

Eternal Witness

Fertilid

Furystoke Giant

Genesis Hydra

Goblin Dark-Dwellers

Hellkite Charger

Hornet Queen

Kessig Cagebreakers

Ogre Battledriver

Oracle of Mul Daya

Orochi Eggwatcher

Paleoloth

Rage Thrower

Savageborn Hydra

Skarrg Guildmage

Sporeback Troll

Terastodon

Thunderfoot Baloth

Ulvenwald Hydra

Wood Elves

Woodland Bellower

Courser of Kruphix

Eidolon of Blossoms

Pentavus

Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter

Dragonlord Atarka

Mina and Denn, Wildborn

Purphoros, God of the Forge

Xenagos, God of Revels

Planeswalkers

Domri Rade

Xenagos, the Reveler

Sorceries

Cultivate

Growth Spasm

Journey of Discovery

Kodama’s Reach

Nissa’s Expedition

Reviving Melody

Shamanic Revelation

Volcanic Wind

Enchantments

Beastmaster Ascension

Doubling Season

Druids’ Repository

Fires of Yavimaya

Goblin Bombardment

Hardened Scales

Outpost Siege

Saproling Burst

Seal of Primordium

Vicious Shadows

Bear Umbra

Squirrel Nest

Artifacts

Fireshrieker

Lightning Greaves

Mage Slayer

Swiftfoot Boots

Lands

8 Forest

8 Mountain

Cinder Glade

Command Tower

Forgotten Cave

Fungal Reaches

Gruul Guildgate

Gruul Turf

Kazandu Refuge

Mountain Valley

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

Raging Ravine

Rogue’s Passage

Rootbound Crag

Rugged Highlands

Shivan Oasis

Slippery Karst

Smoldering Crater

Stomping Ground

Temple of Abandon

Temple of the False God

Timber Gorge

Tranquil Thicket

Borborygmos is an intensely personal deck these days. One of the side effects of my treatment for Crohn’s are some very loud stomach growls aka borborygmi. Good news is the treatment is working. The bad news is it’s costing us some sleep.

Borborygmos is a go-wide deck that wants to leverage the Commander’s ability to add counters to make the token army that much more impressive. Beastmaster Ascension, Doubling Season, Hardened Scales help to act as true force multipliers while Goblin Bombardment is an outlet for once the board is jam packed. But a key to this deck is Eidolon of Blossoms.

This deck is not jam packed with Enchantments. Counting the creatures it only has 16 of the type which is enough to draw a card off of the Eidolon a few times a game. That is, unless, Dowsing Shaman is on the table. Now Seal of Primordium and Fires of Yavimaya are recurring sources of velocity. Reviving Melody can “draw” quite a few cards out of the graveyard (old habits die hard) and with Eidolon on the table it looks closer to a Divination than a Restock.

Enchantments play a more prominent role in Borborygmos than they do it Zirilan. That being said the same principle applies - you can only focus on so many threats at once. The fact is it won’t be the Hardened Scales that kills you so dealing with the Tokens from Avenger of Zendikar is the right call. Fires of Yavimaya is scary but is it going to deal the final points of damage or will that be the horde of Wolves from Kessig Cagebreakers?

Enchantments are great in Commander. They do a ton of heavy lifting without being the biggest threat on the field. Part of the reason they are attractive is because removal that can hit them often can hit other threats as well, which can lower their threat profile. Figuring out how to walk that fine line is one reason I love building Commander decks and pitting them against my friends’ creations.

Just don’t pack Tranquility, kay?