Transcript
Zachary Jeblonski: Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Midlife's Crisis. I'm Zach. and I almost forgot my name, joined by Charles.
ciderspence: How's it going, Zach?
Zachary Jeblonski: it's going. Peachy. So school's back, at least for me. So, you know, we're going to it's going to be a little little we're going to be a little loopy for the next couple of months.
Zachary Jeblonski: But that's all right.
ciderspence: That's right. I hope you banked up your sleep.
Zachary Jeblonski: Huh?
ciderspence: over the summer. and uh are ready to Slowly whittle away it, you know. your reserves.
Zachary Jeblonski: I definitely did not build reserves. I definitely did not. act responsibly in the summer. so You know what? We're going to just... We're going to get through it. So, yeah, we're recording at a new time and we'll see.
Zachary Jeblonski: uh if this works out better for us so maybe it'll maybe it'll bring a little different zest to the to the recording because now it won't be in the morning we'll be in the evening
ciderspence: Yeah, it could be all I know is that this time is worse for my four -year -old so that's a win
Zachary Jeblonski: wow Okay. Well, if it's better for you, then that's Great for me. So yeah, I guess we can get right back getting right into it. I don't didn't have a really good cold call prepared unless you guys wanted to like have a lengthy discussion on a law topic. But I'm going to say I don't want to put our listeners to sleep.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I think we should get into it.
ciderspence: Yeah, let's do it.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. So let's get into our recaps. I had just the Tuesday games that you were part of part of part of those. Did you have games on top of the Tuesday's games that we played?
ciderspence: i did i had games and i had a story maybe this should have been the cold open night i guess i was kind of asleep at the wheel
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh my God.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah the I want to hear the story.
ciderspence: So last Tuesday. so not Not. Tuesday this week. but the Tuesday of last week. I was desperately trying to get in a game and failed miserably, so...
ciderspence: Typically on Tuesdays. I'll go to the store that. Zach goes to, but you were. Busy on Tuesday. Totally reasonable.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: where adults with lives happens. So I said, okay, I'm going to go to a store I don't usually go to, and I will also pick up some cards so that even if I don't get into a game... It won't be a total loss. i go that store is packed turns out they're having a hobbit event That is oversubscribed.
ciderspence: And there's a line out the door I had to park. three blocks away. Okay, no big deal. I wait in a long line. I pick up my cards. I'm like, okay, I'll go back to the shop that I usually go to with Zach. He won't be there, but at least I'll get a game in there.
ciderspence: And if I have to wait, I can put together a deck with these cards I just picked up. So I drive. It is. about it. a half hour of highway driving from one shop to the other not terrible but i get to the first shop you know, around seven.
ciderspence: get to the second shop after waiting in the line around 8. That game ends at 10. Probably still time to get into a game. Not a big deal. I get there and You know?
ciderspence: games are going no open tables totally cool i sit down Please tailor my deck. Realize I did not pick up all the cards. I had...
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: I'm really bad about when I order from a shop, I will put in a string of small orders because I... I always like. And in the middle of something, I send a few cards. I try to complete the cart so I don't forget about those. and then Five minutes later, I have another pocket of time. i like Oh, I want this, that, and the other thing. So a anyway, I'd picked up. Maybe not even. half the cards that I wanted.
ciderspence: And it wouldn't even have been so bad except that the deck I was trying to put together to play that night. needed the cards that I left at the store.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah that's always how it goes
ciderspence: So. pack up my stuff. At this point, I know I'm not going to play. I just, you know. drive the half hour back to the other shop. And unfortunately I got there. I knew I wasn't going to play, but I got there like. With an hour left to go in that like it wasn't even like the shop was closing the shop was just like in the middle of other people having fun playing commander so i got to hear the sounds as i picked up my order It was, it was.
Zachary Jeblonski: the sounds that you are not participating in.
ciderspence: That's right it was pretty tough. Uh, So I picked up the cards, went home, didn't have the heart to put the deck together knowing I wasn't going to play it. and you know went soundly to sleep. But.
ciderspence: After that. sadness. I was able to get in some. games. after that and had a good time so But yeah, that's my tale of woe.
Zachary Jeblonski: after So on that very night, after you went home, you got games in?
ciderspence: No. oh, no, no, no, no after after a good night's sleep. and
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, gotcha.
ciderspence: more determination to find some games.
Zachary Jeblonski: Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's hard to let you down on that Tuesday, but I was i was predisposed.
ciderspence: Not a problem.
Zachary Jeblonski: And i trust me, I would have loved to have been there. i'm definitely in the throes of magic fever especially since i keep rule zeroing all these mystery booster commanders in the games.
ciderspence: Yeah, why don't we hear about one or two of those?
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah well it's yeah two to be exact and i think i'm going to put together well when we get the decks on deck i got another one i'm going to put together from the mystery booster so Yeah, so let's...
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Get into it, I guess. mm -hmm So... I guess I'll talk real quick about a game that you weren't there for. which which came before the games we started playing together.
Zachary Jeblonski: There was a new player at the store always good to see new players real nice guy. He's a refugee from I shouldn't say refugee. that That might be... Anyway, he is a... fleeing member. of the yugioh community yugioh community I was looking for some card games that go past turn zero, and I said, you've come to the right place.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I actually showed up. We played a little Dan Dan, which was nice. It was a nice time kill until we had a third person show up. And then eventually we had a fourth person show up. And I got. to rule zero in grizzle gum from the mystery booster set which is not available not legal but they were kind enough to let me play them And. As a reminder, this guy's got a little bit of a paragraph on him, but...
Zachary Jeblonski: He is a... Grizzle gum horloon hero five red green legendary creature minotaur warrior So he's already starting off on a high flight for rain because he's a minotaur And he has Rule Breaker. A deck with this commander can have any land card.
Zachary Jeblonski: And whenever a grizzle gun attacks, I make a 1 -1 white soldier for each plains I control. Draw a card for each island I control. Each opponent loses one life for each swamp I control. Put a 1 -1 counter on Grizzlegon for each mountain I control. And I gain one life for each forest I control.
Zachary Jeblonski: So the idea of the deck is all 40 lands. I don't even have MDSCs in this deck. I made sure that all 40 lands. with the exception of one land. has a type on it and that one land is radiant as a reliquary tower because i can't stop putting reliquary tower in decks so every land is has a type on it and i didn't want to spend nine thousand dollars on it so i don't have like all the shocks or the surveils i just have some
Zachary Jeblonski: uh, you know, some snow lands from Kaldheim that are, you know, Oh yeah, you know, we do again here. But it worked out really well. It did end up winning.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's I don't have any trample enablers in the deck. So even though he gets huge he doesn't really tend to get through But I was able to just.
Zachary Jeblonski: There was just so much burn going on because of the swamp trigger. And. I did have some additional landfall trigger burns. creatures Like... Tunneling Geopede, which does a damage to everybody when a land comes in.
Zachary Jeblonski: a sabu tender which does the same thing so i have some alternative win cons in there it's It's really fun. I like him so far. I like him more than I liked every other. landfall deck i've put together Because... There's a little bit more hoops to jump through with this guy because you have to have types,
Zachary Jeblonski: Play him and attack with them so it's not an atb or anything like that So, yeah, I'm liking them. I'm looking forward to playing them again. I destroyed my five color deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: To put him together because the my five color deck had all the triomes in it So that's just fine. I didn't. All right. i think I think I'm good on five color decks in general. I do. I think I like my colors to be more restrictive. so Not no big loss there, but.
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah. Uh, grizzle gum. I like them.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: And...
ciderspence: Yeah, just pick backing off what you said about five -color decks, I think I've...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Bye. I never really had a heyday with five color decks. I never played any of the popular five color commanders, and I wasn't especially interested in any of them. But I have lately decided that there are a couple of.
ciderspence: niche ideas that I want to put together with commanders who have a five color identity. I played one of them in The last game that... Zack. you and I played together on Tuesday.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: And...
Zachary Jeblonski: That was...
ciderspence: Yeah, I played one of the Tazri's. It is.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: I believe Tazri is Star Wars Survivor, I think. Oops. sorry Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, and then while you're...
ciderspence: tasry storage surviv Oh, go ahead.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, God.
ciderspence: No, go ahead.
Zachary Jeblonski: No, I was going to fill time while you were searching around.
ciderspence: Okay, yeah, I found her, sorry. Tazri, Star Wars survivor, two and a white, legendary creature, human warrior. Each creature you control has tap add one mana of any of this creature's colors. spend this mana only to activate an ability of a creature activate only if this creature has another activated ability.
ciderspence: So that's a pretty weird block of text. pretty specific.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, yeah
ciderspence: and She has another ability, Wooburg Tap. Mill 5 cards put all creature cards with activated abilities that aren't mana abilities from among the milled cards. into your hand and choose a 3 -3.
ciderspence: So... I... Saw her when I was just kind of looking through trying to. clear some cards off my desk. And I remembered a deck I'd wanted to build, Dynahair, Invoker Adept.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, i have my I had a Dinahare deck at one point.
ciderspence: That I just never... Yeah, I just never quite I think. So she's... to my mind, the slightly more interesting commander, and this made me...
ciderspence: Rethink maybe whether I want to build her below. I'll read her one and blue red white human wizard Haste for four you may activate abilities of other creatures you control as though those creatures had haste and Tap when you next activate an ability this turn by spending four or more mana to activate it copy that ability You may choose new targets for the copy.
ciderspence: So I think. For her, I was a little too caught up on the four mana or more. I'm sure there are enough. four mana plus abilities that are worth copying to fill a deck with them. Probably the best way to build her is to have a few of those effects that are worth copying and otherwise just really make advantage of the fact that you can activate abilities with haste of your creatures.
ciderspence: Bye. I don't know. When I tried to put her together, I couldn't. make a dex worth of reasonable choices. so I put. the choices i may bear and i look for other goofball creatures that had activated abilities that weren't mana abilities to put them in the Tazi deck. It was pretty fun to play.
ciderspence: I almost got to have a turn where... I used one of... the cards that I like but never get to play. Southern Paladin. too white. You can tap him and pay two white to destroy a red permanent.
ciderspence: Which is kind of hilarious.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's pretty good.
ciderspence: I almost got to flash him in and activate that. at Alright. flash speed so that would have been fun but Yeah, just kind of – but anyway, back to – the point i guess yeah i think that type of strategy is what i'm looking at with uh, Wooberg commanders these days.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah and and i guess to clarify my stance like i'm known for having some pretty hard line stances about like you know i don't run fast mana i don't tutor all that stuff I don't have a hard line stance on five color commanders. Like I don't.
Zachary Jeblonski: This is not a philosophical. There's part of a philosophical argument there. It's just like i just I find the restriction of... you know. two -collar, three -collar, one -collar.
Zachary Jeblonski: whatever i i like that restriction because it usually requires me to think outside the box to get some of the effects I'm looking for. But I think where five color does. you know, where I can give five color props.
Zachary Jeblonski: is i really like it when they really get creative with it we're like like I am a fan of like the Niv -Mizzet stuff where like It benefits from. cards of exactly two colors right or like you know stuff like that that's where i think five color to me finds its best niche And I know they've kind of relied on five color to backfill some of the.
Zachary Jeblonski: the kindreds like you know you get your turtle commander you get your avatar commander that's five colors you know, Tazri is a little bit like that before creatures with activated abilities.
Zachary Jeblonski: But. I think Tazuri is fine because like... Creatures with activated abilities are already in a tough spot. So. you kind of, they kind of need help. So Taz really kind of helps a little bit there.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I think, I don't know, I think Dinah here would actually be... might be more fun. for creatures with abilities personally. but
ciderspence: yeah like i said when i played the deck i found myself thinking oh i wish she was just the commander and i was just doing all this stuff at instant speed right but
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Uh... again that i did have a number of black and green. spells in there that wouldn't go in the deck and that's like i said that was my problem when i tried i i tried i built dinah here It was just terrible, and I didn't have enough.
ciderspence: spells that I felt good about. casting or seeing in my hand. Uh, to begin.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, like I just...
ciderspence: same rate.
Zachary Jeblonski: I just did a really quick Skyfall. If you go to Skyfall and Dine of Hair, sometimes Skyfall does this with some of the cards where they'll... preload a search so you can like see like all the cards that work with this commander and Just for the heck of it, I was like, yeah, let me take a look.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I sorted by release date because when I built, I built Dinah here. three or four years ago. And I remember when I built her, it was rough. Like there wasn't much good. going on there.
Zachary Jeblonski: but i think in the last couple of years they've really increased the level of like creatures and permanents and stuff that have an ability that she would be able to double. So I think it's worth another look. I'd be excited to see a Dynahair deck that... you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: has some of the more modern cards in it.
ciderspence: Yeah, maybe TBD.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, who knows?
ciderspence: we'll see
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so... Yeah, so I guess we can talk a little bit more about that game, actually, since the game that you played Tazri in.
Zachary Jeblonski: I was playing Itazora, which is the other Rule Zero Mystery Boxer Booster Commander. And I had played this commander. Like two weeks ago Been really enjoying this one.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know, for the reminder of the folks at home, it's two blue red. At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top three cards of your library. Each opponent secretly chooses a number between zero... or a number zero or greater. Then those numbers are revealed. Choose an opponent with the highest number. It is or deals that much damage to them. Then they may cast a spell from among those cards without paying its cost. I put a card from among them that wasn't cast its way into my hand.
Zachary Jeblonski: So you auction the top three cards of your library on upkeep, essentially. and your opponents bid with life. And then if they win, they take that much damage and cast a spell for free is the easiest way to describe that.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I built the deck intentionally without abilities to remove to bring the cards back. Cause if you go, if you go look on EDH rec free at the Zora. like the first like four or five cards are like brand.
Zachary Jeblonski: Homeward Path. basically all these different like cards and abilities that get your cards back. And I was like, no, because then like people aren't going to bid appropriately, right? you You're not going to bid high if you if you're wondering whether or not you're going to get that card back.
Zachary Jeblonski: Or if you're going to lose that permanent that you get the cash for free or whatever. So none of those abilities are in there. you Bid to your heart's content. and i think you know i think the most interesting thing about this deck is what people think cards are worth And we had some interesting things happen. We had a...
Zachary Jeblonski: Uh, we had a, a, a guy, uh, one of the, one of our opponents. uh fire off and i'm gonna i'm gonna not use augury for 10 life which i was like what That was probably the biggest surprise for me.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because... Me personally, I would probably bid like 20 plus for for an Amonathu's Augury.
ciderspence: Yeah, I was pretty far behind when that... card was bid for and I was kicking myself afterwards. Cause I would have gladly played more life than that, but. For some reason, I thought it would go much higher and I wasn't willing to. I thought. My bid would be non -competitive. I should have put something in.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, we... we both ended up losing to like an azorius good pile essentially but i think overall the game was was pretty interesting so i think this i think I don't want to speak out of turn. but I, I, is it has been a revolving door for me since I started playing commander. Like I've never been able to like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Commit to an is a commander. I think I is it might be the commander I've cycled the most trying to find like something that sticks This guy I think is gonna make the cut. I think I'm gonna keep him for a long time
ciderspence: I would almost say, though, that that kind of, that almost is is its whole thing, right? It's like... live fast die young right you you play a bunch of spells you try to win but you maybe lose and then you do that enough times and you're like well i don't really want to do this anymore It was fun and thrilling, but I've experienced it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: i i kind of feel like cycling through is it decks almost feels like the right thing to do
Zachary Jeblonski: Ha ha. I guess my might be my beef with Izzet. is And I feel this way more so than any other color combination, even though empirically, if I looked at the data, it's probably not true.
Zachary Jeblonski: is Every Izzet game seems to go the same way. It's like. You just get like some huge value engine going and then you fire off a. You know a crackle of power or something like that's it And and and is it has like 30 commanders that all kind of do the same thing in a different you know different ways. And I know he's like, well, I Googled about all the color combinations. Like, yeah, I know. I know. I know. look, it's my podcast or it's our podcast. And we can say things that maybe aren't backed up by empirical evidence. But.
Zachary Jeblonski: having said all this i've always really liked the idea of is it and i've always wanted to have an is it deck around because it's like hey It's red. So it's going to help close the game out. And it's blue. You get cards and together we draw cards and burn. Yay.
Zachary Jeblonski: and i think it is or i think it kind of scratches that itch for me where It puts this really interesting headspace in me where it's like. I have filled this deck up with, is it good stuff? Which is what I normally would do with the new, is it commander?
Zachary Jeblonski: And except now when I play it, I have to accept the fact that that good stuff is going to be a problem for me. And it's kind of cool. It just kind of adds an extra layer to it, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: At least for me, so.
ciderspence: Yeah. Yeah, that's that's an interesting perspective.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because, like, it's all it's all generically good stuff. Like, the stuff in this deck, anybody's going to want. Like, an Amunatu's Augury. you know, the, the, you know, improv improvisation capstone hit the mother load.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, even big creatures. I have Emrakul, the promise end in this deck, and I have yet to see it yet come out. That's the 13 mana steal an opponent's turn. So yeah, it's like.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know. They could steal my turn who knows I can't do anything about it, you know, so So I'm excited for more games with Itazora.
ciderspence: Yeah, I mean, that was that was a fun game and a fun effect. I enjoyed that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think. The two weeks ago when I played this for the first time. i didn't i didn't quite Think this far ahead, but I had like two or three cards in the deck that allowed that That it's a Zora trigger to happen to more than once.
Zachary Jeblonski: or you know they have a clone or like an unlegendary code and stuff like that And I did have like a term where we had to do it three times. And I was like, okay. That's not fun. So I all, so I took all that out. So it is, or will always only happen once a turn. And I think that's exactly where it needs to be. You know, just once a, once a turn cycle, we have a little side game thing happen.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then we go back to regular magic. so
ciderspence: Yeah, that I agree. That sounds like... Yeah, I could see that. Getting. Tough turn. deal with for the other players after, you know, more than one trigger turn, but once a turn seems about right.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah, you see how he...
ciderspence: It was definitely the case and we were looking forward to it. when it came around.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah, and that's what I like. i You know, it's like I want. You know, I want my opponents to have fun, too. You know, like I want everybody to walk away from a game having fun, you know, and and I think this is a.
Zachary Jeblonski: a good commander for that. Yeah, so just... like i think a pro tip for anybody who out there who wants to build this deck you go to eda track The top cards, I'm not looking at it right now, but the last time I looked, the top cards were all like effects that get your cards back, which you I don't think you should put in the deck. And then the other facts are like. additional upkeeps and like clone effects to have more it disorder triggers I wouldn't put that in there either
Zachary Jeblonski: Instead, fill your deck up with big... splashy stuff that people want to bid their life on and just lean into the mechanic and don't try and Good. Get cute with it.
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah. At least that's my opinion on how to do it. I guess I don't need to say that. well you are You are listening to a podcast about magic, about two guys playing it. So I don't think I need to keep reminding people that is my opinion.
ciderspence: it's It's never a bad disclaimer, but I agree.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: The listeners are probably aware.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Like you're just getting some stream of conscious guys. I'm sorry. I had a 12 hour day. So we're just, we're just in it.
ciderspence: that's That's what we do.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Alright. i can't remember i feel like i've played more than two games and i'm really struggling on You played.
ciderspence: but You also played your other Quintorius deck, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, right. I forgot all about that. Yes.
ciderspence: Yeah, I think.
Zachary Jeblonski: Thank you.
ciderspence: That was actually the game you played when I played, uh... Tazri ability friends. i Oh, I played Shredder in the first game, when I think, when you played the Zora.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes, because that he had a fairy artisan shredder and I had to deal with that.
ciderspence: Yes.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, yeah. So let me tell you my card of the week because that's how I dealt with it. Long story short, my opponent bid and won my fairy artisans, which allowed him to have a artifact token copy of your shredder commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you want to say that Shredder Commander or sure can't should I look it up real quick?
ciderspence: uh yes i do i will try to look it up real quicker that is shredder Oh, come on. at me shredder i don't care about that where are you shre shre too many shre shredder shadow master whenever shredder attacks a player for each other opponent create a token that's a copy of shredder tapped and attacking that player except it isn't legendary Sacrifice those tokens at end of combat.
Zachary Jeblonski: There's too many shredders.
ciderspence: Pretty chill. Whenever Shredder deals combat the damage to a player, that player loses half their life, rounded up. Bye -bye.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah. So. it's a great i like that commander it was fun it was i was i was sweating bullets on him Trying to kind of think of how to have blockers. but You know, our opponent had an artifact copy of it that he's going to lose anyway. He was going to attack. He was going to make these non -legendary myriad. type tokens. And the only blocker I had available was my commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I didn't want to give up my commander for that, for a a token that's going to go away anyway. and not that i Not that my commander, who was a 1 -5, can stop it. So I fired off my card of the week. which is a card I put in most of my blue decks. It is March of the swirling up march of Swirling Mist.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's an X and a blue instant. and As an additional cost to cast a spell, you may exile any number of blue cards from your hand. And this spell costs two less to cast for each card exiled this way.
Zachary Jeblonski: and up to X target creatures phase out. so you So in this case, what I did was... I... Phased out the token that was attacking me and let the other tokens go I had the idea.
Zachary Jeblonski: I actually don't know the ruling. But I was thinking about phasing out. The shredder before he attacked so he didn't get the myriad copy tokens But my concern was. is that if I phased it out, And then another creature who came into play before it phases back in.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think he would be able to permanently keep it. Because... the trigger that would would force it to be exiled. Actually, I don't know.
ciderspence: woman
Zachary Jeblonski: i See, these are the questions I don't know.
ciderspence: Yeah that's interesting.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I was in the middle when I was I was remember in the game being like. That could be really bad if he has a permanent copy of your commander.
ciderspence: That could have been pretty bad, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. So I chose to phase it phase out only the thing that was attacking me so that there would be no doubt that he wouldn't get to keep it. But yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: There's my car of the week.
ciderspence: Yeah, gaming pretty good for you. i I lost a pretty valuable piece. uh having to block my token copy uh with not my commander and then From that point on I actually was so far behind that I was just trying to wipe the board. basically every turn like i even wiped my own shredder the next turn because the board had gotten out of hand
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I appreciated that, though. I was also trying to find a way to wipe the board.
ciderspence: Yeah, one of these days we'll talk about... uh Whether we prefer playing tearouts or... you know. playing I don't know, smart or strategic or having some other game mode for like when things are going against you i i didn't feel good about it but i also felt like waiting and hoping that it came back around to me was a mistake maybe it would maybe it wouldn't have been i actually had some pretty good stuff in hand if shredder had been on the board But there were I also like one of our...
ciderspence: opponents was playing. Was he playing Rocko that game? No, he played Rocko the other game.
Zachary Jeblonski: He was playing...
ciderspence: No, he was playing something that let him...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, was it Zuko?
ciderspence: Oh, he was playing Prosper? Yeah, he was playing Zuko when he had a Prosper on the board.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, to prosper out.
ciderspence: Anyway, he like always had a card exiled.
Zachary Jeblonski: in him
ciderspence: uh that we saw that he could play until an next turn and he but every every time he exiled a card it was an answer to something i could have played that was a threat like I...
Zachary Jeblonski: Wow.
ciderspence: While I head Shredder up. I had... key to the city. Up. but he also had untimely malfunction up. So. i Guess the timing work that I could have made him unblockable before he destroyed it with that But I just felt like.
ciderspence: Everything I... Every line I saw, I saw literally on the battle, like in his exile pile, a way to deal with it. So I was like, I i don't know, let me just try to clean some of this stuff up. Uh, So yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, i I just I dug for an answer, but I just never never found one because I was happy with the board. And I was like, yeah, keep trying. But he. He had... he had just assembled so many cards and everything he just had answers for everything we were trying to do
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, because i that's when I... I brainstormed and then he did something in response to the brainstorm. and then i And then I brain surge, which is...
ciderspence: Yeah, he phased out.
Zachary Jeblonski: a worser
ciderspence: So that opponent won with...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Uh, the... the Triska Decker file. So... He represented 14 cards in hand or something. at at one point. And when it was Zach's turn.
ciderspence: Zach brainstormed and in response he... Uh... Whoever. phases out your board. He did that to phase out his whole board. So yeah, that's when you responded with another dig spell.
ciderspence: but but couldn't come up with anything and it was a smart thing to do because on my turn i had another
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't come up with anything.
ciderspence: uh minus three minus three that would have killed the Triskaidek file. but It did nothing, and we lost.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Yeah, so... Uh... Then we played a game another game Hmm. That would be the Tazri one, I think, when I was playing Quintorius.
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then the other players were playing. Uh... The one guy was playing Rocco.
ciderspence: Yep, it was Rocco.
Zachary Jeblonski: And... indeed Was that the Zorius? That was the Gonti game, I think.
ciderspence: That was a Gonti game, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah, so The Gonti player ended up winning, right? If I remember correctly.
ciderspence: Wow, that was the one that kind of...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh we had to stop.
ciderspence: We stopped for time, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: We're going to stop, yeah.
ciderspence: But I think it was clear that the Gonti player was... probably in the strongest position, although... the Rocco player was...
Zachary Jeblonski: down.
ciderspence: Thought he was swinging for lethal.
Zachary Jeblonski: I was in the strongest position at the end.
ciderspence: Oh, no, no, you definitely were. Sorry, sorry, sorry. The Rocco.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: The Rocco player thought, that they were gonna When? and had lethal... on... Zach and one of the opponents he didn't have lethal on me but I think his board was such that he felt pretty confident about the heads up I actually had a couple of tricks I don't think I would have pulled it out but I felt like I had a fighting chance But once he demonstrated that he was going to try to also take out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Right.
ciderspence: the... Gonti player. The Gonti player aetherized. which meant that...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah.
ciderspence: Nobody died and then Zach was gonna win
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But...
Zachary Jeblonski: So like, yeah, we.
ciderspence: So I closed.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, we had to pack up. So... But i at the end, I showed that I had a chroma's wheel in my hand. And I had enough power on the board to take two people out. I couldn't, I wasn't going to be able to take you out. I was going to kill those two.
Zachary Jeblonski: and then And then whatever happened after that, whatever happened. but Yeah. They, I was like, I, I, that was like, Trying to like move them along. I was like, guys, come on.
Zachary Jeblonski: You got to get through your turn. We're running out of time. But, you know.
ciderspence: Yeah, Zach definitely got salty about slow play, which it which I hadn't seen in person in a while.
Zachary Jeblonski: they
ciderspence: which was...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: you know amusing but you know he was he was actually not happy so i wasn't it wasn't funny funny but you know i chuckled
Zachary Jeblonski: I will.
Zachary Jeblonski: I was more, look, in the interest of full disclosure, I got dumb salty tilted over the Azorius. Good. I got i got more way more tilted. Around the Azorius pile that just had an answer for everything that I did the slow play but i did get a little bit tilted around the slow play because that was specifically because like i'm like watching the clock and i'm like if we want to have any chance of finishing this game you guys you gotta we gotta move it along here
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: And we didn't. So that's fine. But it was still a good game anyway.
ciderspence: a It was a good game anyway.
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah, my my little thing is I did, and I mentioned this. I... You know, I had concerns about Quintorius because I have won with this deck two or three times and every single time is because of cool but rude Which was one of my card of the weeks And my opening hand of this game. After my deck was cut, by the way, so I don't want to hear any accusations of impropriety.
Zachary Jeblonski: Colbert Rue was in my hand. But I had Valakut Awakening in my hand as well, and I determined that I was going to put it on the bottom. And we were going to find another way to win. and i think i almost got there even without cool but rude so i actually feel better about the deck knowing that like the deck can still work without cool but rude so that's nice
ciderspence: nice Yeah, Cobra Root is good.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's... Really good. All right, so I don't think I have any more games to talk about. So if there's any more games you want to touch on, yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah, I got a couple. Yeah, I played a couple of games on last Friday. at a shop that I've only been to once, had a good time. It's a shop where I buy cards a lot, but the game starts earlier than I'm usually free.
ciderspence: uh but I... Again, gambled. I... put it in some order. So I said, You know? I said to myself, self, even if you get there and you can't play, at least you can pick up cards. Maybe you'll sit at a table, put a deck together and feel okay about that. But when I got there, there was an open table.
ciderspence: So I played two games. One three player game, one four player game. The three player game I played. The Notary Hobbits.
ciderspence: So this is...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh.
ciderspence: A mono green.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm interested in these guys.
ciderspence: Yeah, it's fun So the Notary Hobbits, three green green legendary creature halfling advisor. When it enters... If it's not a token, create two tokens that are copies of it, except the tokens aren't legendary.
ciderspence: And it taps to add color lists for each halfling you control. It's a legendary creature halfling advisor. It's a 1 -1. So this is just a big mana deck. And I loaded it up with...
ciderspence: asymmetric token doublers.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: effects i have no primal vigor but i did have doubling season i did have parallel lives. So I was hoping to make token and I had a couple of. effects that let me sacrifice a creature for some gain and my my hope was I can make.
ciderspence: You know, I cast it, make them make the copies, and then get into an advantageous position to cast it again. and make more copies so that I had, you know. somewhere between four and ten copies of it on the field at once but i didn't have nearly enough payoffs because i got to a point where i had a lot of mana but I couldn't really do a whole lot with it.
ciderspence: But i had I had fun. I think my takeaway from it was... I just want to put in more closers. things that you know outlets for this mana so i can turn
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: you know having 20 mana on turn Five. into a win rather than... searching for something. but had a really good time with it. And then the second game.
ciderspence: I played the other... while one of two other Hobbit. decks i put together i did put together the queen of gale
Zachary Jeblonski: oh My Queen of Dale just came in the mail today.
ciderspence: And... Yeah. So she's one in a while. I think we've probably read her before. but the queen of dale one and a white legendary creature human noble whenever an opponent casts their first non -creature spell each turn and you recruit She's a 2 -1, and recruiting is draw a card then discard a card.
ciderspence: If you discarded the Moundland card, create a 1 -1 white human soldier creature token. So my thoughts. And this deck was... token synergies, so I was playing...
ciderspence: uh ojer talk i think the white one that doubles your tokens
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep, that's O 'Hare Talk.
ciderspence: I was playing Anointed Procession to double tokens. I played a few effects to pump tokens. And that is... Mainly the direction I went a lot of land cyclers in there to increase my non -land count for things I can discard that also play like lands.
ciderspence: But one other card that did a lot of work for me... That will be my card of the week. with Sky Knight Squire. A card that... when i was trying to fit in some cards right before we started the game i strongly considered cutting because it It's an advantage. Engine's too strong, but it's a card that takes advantage of the deck but doesn't directly work with my anticipated win con. But Sky Knight Squire, one and a white. creature cat scout whenever another creature you control enters put a 1 -1 counter on this creature
ciderspence: As long as this creature has three or more 1 -1 counters on it, it has flying and is a knight in addition to its other types, and it's a 1 -1. This is just a cheap little guy that...
ciderspence: Once he comes down, if your commander's out, can get. pretty big, pretty fast. And. Actually, it was pretty instrumental too. I did wind up winning this game. he was pretty instrumental to it because there was an opponent who had a big flying commander.
ciderspence: But this guy got big enough. and also had flying that I was no longer a good target.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And so taking myself out of the strike zone from that player. kept me alive long enough to amass enough tokens well amass is a bad choice of word they're not those tokens uh but to acquire enough tokens and enough pump effects. uh to be able to overrun uh the remaining two players by the time i was ready so Yeah, Queen of Dale was really fun to play. Skynet Squire put in work. Glad I didn't cut it.
ciderspence: yeah it was just Yeah, she's pretty good.
Zachary Jeblonski: Fill time, please.
ciderspence: Yeah, I mean I So I also played another one of the uh hobbit commanders Well, I'd played another Hobbit -themed deck. It was not a Hobbit Commander because I didn't see one of the dwarves that I liked enough. But I think I talked last episode about...
ciderspence: putting together a Cole Forgemaster list. So Coal Forge Master. red white Legendary creature Dwarf Warrior. Whenever another non token creature you control dies if it was enchanted or equipped return it to its owner's hand Creature tokens you control that are enchanted or equipped get plus one plus one.
ciderspence: So this was the deck I was trying to put together that fateful Tuesday when I couldn't get a game in. I did. wind up acquiring Finally, all of the. 13, I think, dwarves from The Hobbit.
ciderspence: So I put them all into this deck. And I played that. in a game on last Wednesday. Didn't win that game. The circumstances were kind of funny. But...
ciderspence: it it was a pretty It was a pretty good hang for a deck, I think. uh I was able to get.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Many of the dwarves out I saw a lot of the cards from the new set I got to play Orcrist, the Goblin Cleaver. I think we might have talked about this one. So Orcrist, Goblin Cleaver, three colorless legendary artifact equipment. Equipped creature gets plus two plus two and has trample, and whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, choose a creature type. Create a treasure token for each creature you control of that type.
ciderspence: Equips for three. So. I think there was... I remember listening to MTT Goldfish talk about this card. There was some disagreement about whether this was busted or unplayable trash I would say it's certainly somewhere in the middle. I could see it performing either direction depending on circumstances, but I was able to get some pretty good value out of it.
ciderspence: And, you know, it's a it's a dwarf -themed deck. It's an equipment -themed deck. so it was It was exactly what I needed. And. Made me a bunch of treasures. It was pretty flashy.
ciderspence: So yeah, that deck was a lot of fun to play. I wanna tweak it a little bit. There's some stuff I wanna add. Not much that I want to cut, so I'm not sure how that math will work out, but I'm excited to play it again in its future incarnation.
Zachary Jeblonski: Well, I'm glad it's somewhere between Boston and... complete or busted or complete dress.
ciderspence: Yeah, I'm proud to report it is not the best magic card of all time. nor is it. completely unplayable.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, sorry about that earlier. I tried to drink seltzer in in a quiet way. And I went right down the wrong tube.
ciderspence: Yeah, I am. Happens.
Zachary Jeblonski: It happens. All right, cool. All right, do we want to get to Dex on Deck?
ciderspence: Yeah, let's do it.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Dex on deck. So I think the next. deck on deck which is not too much to talk about for me but it's probably the next project. as.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'll take a momentary break from these Mitsubishi Commanders. And I think I'm going to put together. Uh, Marin all creatures. So I had i had a Marin deck before.
Zachary Jeblonski: And that focused more on legendary creatures. This time I'm going to do... just Creatures straight up. And Umori, the collector, will be the companion because I'll have matched that type.
Zachary Jeblonski: and since I'm not limiting myself to mostly legendaries, I'll have access to a lot more of the Marin staples, so to speak. But there's just... She at this. At this stage, you know she's not as powerful as she once was back in the day. I know she was like...
Zachary Jeblonski: uh from what i understand when she came out she was like a major like You know, it's like sitting down next to a Jota player and you're like, oh boy. Nowadays, I think she's just much more of a mid -range kind of Golgari.
Zachary Jeblonski: or mid -power, I should say, Golgari commander. But I've just always liked her ability. but... There's just so many options you can put in her deck. There's so many. There's been so much Golgari support as there has been with all the color combination support in the last.
Zachary Jeblonski: Five years or so. Hmm. So I'm interested in building her and that's probably going to be my next thing. and i don't i'm looking through the list and i'm trying to see if there's anything that's like absolutely like oh my gosh i guess the one little like weird tech that i have in there is
Zachary Jeblonski: You have a Maya Granger. I'm putting the deck It is a creature I found when I was... building a different like a different deck like three decks ago or something like that, or three Golgari decks or three. I forget if it was Lesney or whatever, but anyway,
Zachary Jeblonski: You have Maya Granger as a two green. uh elf with echo and echo means during your next upkeep after this permanent comes in the under your control. Pay its casting costs or sacrifice it.
Zachary Jeblonski: And when Yavimaya Granger comes into play, you search for a library for a basic land and put on the battlefield, tap to shuffle your library afterwards.
ciderspence: That's pretty nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so she does a lot of this car does a lot of things for Marin It's not as good as a Sakura tribe elder, but you can only have one of those Sakura tribe elders. So this basically does the same thing as secure a triad elder.
Zachary Jeblonski: except that it costs one extra mana. And I have to wait till my next upkeep for it to die. But I just thought it was a nice little... little ancient card you know that uh Kind of works with it. so Yeah, so I'm going to put that together and see how that goes. In the in the year 2026, can Marin still kind of hold it down?
Zachary Jeblonski: Uh, with a creature only deck.
ciderspence: Nice. Yeah, I mean, I've i've definitely seen... Marin as a scary commander most of the times I've seen it across the table even though I i was not around I wasn't playing magic during its heyday It just...
ciderspence: It kind of reads... Scary. And it is scary. I think to your point, there are now. much scarier things so I'm not as animated when I see this as I would be when I see.
ciderspence: uh, like, you know, to ball or something. But like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: it's It's a powerful commander that can do powerful things, and I think if you tune it... To be. ultra competitive, you could do that. But it definitely. has aspects that. can be played casual too.
ciderspence: So yeah, that's that's a fun one.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think two fun facts about Marin is one. Hmm One, i've and I specifically included... I did not include a Marin staple on this deck because...
Zachary Jeblonski: When I was very early playing commander when my earliest members get memories getting really salty at the game was playing against a highly tuned a Marin deck. And the card that drove me in crazy.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I don't think I would quite feel this way now because I have a better understanding of how to deal with it. was Spore Frog. Are you familiar with SporeFrog?
ciderspence: Oh yes.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so Spore Frog. as It's an olden card. It's a one and it's a one green frog creature. One, one. Sacrifice for frog. Prevent all the common damage we've done this turn. So in a Marin deck, it's really good, right? Because you get a sacrifice trigger, you get your experience counter.
Zachary Jeblonski: You can keep bringing it back. as long as you if you spend your one marin trigger on that then you keep getting it back that saves you one combat every turn cycle. And the thing that drove me nuts is a younger, fresher.
Zachary Jeblonski: naive magic player. was i just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that his ability requires him to sacrifice. So it's a cost. which means it cannot be responded to. So you can't path. the spore frog to prevent this from happening.
Zachary Jeblonski: because you can just sacrifice it in response. And that's a cost. so like and and And if he sacrifices it to protect himself, once again, that's a cost. You cannot respond to that with a sword or anything.
Zachary Jeblonski: So the only way to stop the spore frog. completely is to exile it out of the graveyard, right?
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: And so I did not include that into this. deck because like i remember how it made me feel and i don't want to do that to somebody else but to your point charles yes marin it can still be a a scary commander i mean it was the first time it was I shouldn't say it's the first time, but it was one of the first times.
Zachary Jeblonski: I remember realizing that like, oh, some not all commanders are created equally. And Marin isn't is not like a. You know a bad Golgari commander. She is a I, I would put her mid -level Golgari commander. There are other Golgari commanders now that if people sit down next to me with them, I'm much more nervous about than, than Marin.
ciderspence: Yeah. I think. Not having Spore Frog is telling about the deck like Spore Frog. is a card in a mirror deck that... allows you to basically prolong the game until you can win.
ciderspence: And I feel like that kind of speaks to a gameplay pattern that I think neither one of us is especially.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: into I mean, you've built a bracket four deck. I have a magic deck that I would play at any table and be prepared for anything. But in general, I'm not excited about. the player who's willing to stalemate until they find a win con versus the player who is you know trying to build towards a win con you know expecting to get it because there's some redundancy or... it's just damage and they just want to play enough creatures or something. I don't know. I'd rather play that type of game or even the player who's trying to.
ciderspence: put together combo pieces or something. versus the player who has who knows they have an out and will stop you from playing magic until they find it. Like that's not.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Sport, Frog, and Marriage is a weird thing because it's like... If you sit down in a pod and there's a Maron player and you're the only majorly combat -focused deck at the pod,
Zachary Jeblonski: Like say you're playing a Voltron Commander or something like that. Uh, You just will never be able to do. You'll never be able to deal with that guy because he will just always make sure he has a spore frog on the ready. whereas the other players are free to enact whatever game plans they want and they could still win off of like combo burn or whatever it's just kind of like it feels bad i don't know like and I'm sure like some avid Marin players are out there like you know, it only stops one combat per turn cycle. Like we can't get, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: If everybody swings at us, we only stop you know we can only stop one turn, right? you know I was like, yeah, yeah I get that. but I don't know. Here's what here's my thing. is like I'd rather be reanimating Bye. something other than a one drop frog. Like I'd rather be reanimating the the, the, I'll go off terror eater. I put in the deck, you know, or something like that. Right.
ciderspence: yeah i think it's about what you think is fun right like if you think it's fun to
Zachary Jeblonski: No.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: keep other people from doing stuff until you can figure out how to win. I get that. There's there's something to that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, I thought you were about to say then you might be a bad person. but
ciderspence: uh maybe i mean yeah yeah who who among us might not be a bad person right like it's It's in, it's in the you know, the two wolves and whatnot.
ciderspence: but yeah like i
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I just... i don't I think that's not my preferred. experience in casual magic right like i think i would much rather get in two games than get in one. game.
ciderspence: That is long because someone was actively keeping the game from progressing. Like, you know, if it's a one long game where everybody's taking turns being scary and getting dealt with and the board has to get wiped a bunch of times because everybody feared for their lives, that's, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: Right.
ciderspence: That can be fun, but like... I don't know
Zachary Jeblonski: We'll say, I mean... We'll see how this deck is perceived, because I did... I did include things. i i in that I didn't and po put in the other Marin deck. that I think are necessary for a Marindec to work, and which is I do have all three of the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Everybody sacks a creature creature Uh, like Flashbag Marauder.
ciderspence: Yep. Accursed Marauder.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah. I have all three of them, you know, and like And it's like one of those things where I'm like, I. I think she does have to have these kind of effects. to, you know, to to...
Zachary Jeblonski: like deal with the beats because like, since you're
ciderspence: Are you running the when one of my creatures dies, you sacrifice something creature?
Zachary Jeblonski: No, i'm not I did not include... Like Butcher or Malachy or anything like that. i I just included those specific creatures because I want it to be like...
ciderspence: Gotcha.
Zachary Jeblonski: I want it to be more of a thoughtful thing of like. Okay. You have a huge Voltron threat and I cannot. Like I cannot survive the beats because I'm playing these Golgari weenies that like I'm sacrificing anyway, and you know, yada yada, so it's it's so like i said i'm trying to draw that balance of like of having a competent Marin deck without being like,
Zachary Jeblonski: Annoying or more annoying than necessary
ciderspence: yeah i mean going back to what we were saying about wooberg i i think that this is the fun this this to me is one of the more fun this is what kind of keeps me coming back To playing magic. Building decks. I like the idea of working within.
ciderspence: a self -imposed restriction. So yeah, trying to make a merendek that...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: is competent without spore frog and with only creatures. You know, your card pool is more limited than it would otherwise be. and trying to use that canvas. to come up with something that's fun to play and not miserable to play against.
ciderspence: is, you know, there's there's a lot of fun in that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. So that's probably the the next project. what's What's one of your upcoming projects?
ciderspence: i'm I'm going to talk about something. very... goofy.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: But I think it is going to be the next deck I put together. I also identified a couple of mystery booster commanders I'm excited about. since we last talked.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: More on that later. Right now I want to talk about this new hotness that I devised while I was making a A terrible joke to my son in the car. Alright. For context, there is a manga show called Captain Tsubasa It's about a kid who plays soccer.
ciderspence: and he's really good at it. I watched the first episode of it with my son. And twice during the episode. subasa this character he's like going to a new school or something but he like stops and looks at the camera and introduces himself to another character by saying, by the way.
ciderspence: My name... is Tsubasa. Okay, look. I think it happened. Two times in the show. But I was convinced that this was going to happen. two times every episode and maybe more times that episode. To my knowledge, it hasn't happened since. I haven't watched any more episodes of the show.
ciderspence: But I was fascinated by the notion. of this guy looking at the camera and saying by the way My name is Tsubasa. What does this have to do with magic, one might ask?
ciderspence: I was. looking through those cards that i mentioned i was cleaning up some space and i saw Tuvasa the Sunlit.
Zachary Jeblonski: I know too much stuff.
ciderspence: I want to build a deck. Built around Tuvasa. Now Tuvasa let me read legendary creature merfolk shaman for green white blue Tuvasa the Sunlight gets plus one plus one for each enchantment you control.
ciderspence: Whenever you cast your first enchantment spell each turn draw a card. It's a 1 -1. That's not bad. like You could certainly see a good commander deck being built from that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: But the deck I want to build from that... is a mutate deck. Why would I want to build a mutate deck? So when you mutate, onto a creature. you can put the new incoming mutated creature on top.
ciderspence: or below. a creature that's already on the board and it has to be a non -human or some other
Zachary Jeblonski: ye
ciderspence: steps to go through, but okay. Dubas said not a human, so it could work. But why do I think this is funny? Because I want to play a game with my son. where I'm playing Tuvasa the Sunlit and a bunch of Mutate creatures.
ciderspence: and I want to continually mutate onto Tuvasa. And I want to look at my son every time. and say, by the way. Its name? is Tuvasa. by mutating under it.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know... This I this I I really like the preamble I really i Yes, I'm with this. Yeah, I like this. This is like...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. this is i like This is a very unique angle, and I like it.
ciderspence: Yeah, i I I will probably wind up playing it against strangers and not even making the joke and having them think Why did you build this deck this way? And I probably won't feel like explaining it to them because I don't, you know.
ciderspence: Uh... That's not my flavor of being social at the table. But when I play it against my son. And I will. And he doesn't even like magic that much. Hopefully I'll get at least one laugh out of him and it will have been worth it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that sounds like it's worth it to me. And just just for the heck of it, I was like, you know what? I'm going to search up mutate. and see if there's any mutate creatures. that are also enchantments.
Zachary Jeblonski: There are not.
ciderspence: Yeah, they're... they're Near, uh... disparate themes. I actually ran into this before because I built a... Tatsunari Toad Rider deck.
ciderspence: that also cares about Enchantments. And. I also tried mutate there because he created a token that was legendary. but if you mutate onto the token you can make copies of it in the token ping your opponents for casting enchantments.
ciderspence: So I was actually aware that these were oblique themes. So. Yep. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I I have actually spent a lot of time on Mutate.
ciderspence: Such is life.
Zachary Jeblonski: I've never had a Mutate deck. But. When I was playing... in Atlanta of the store I was at there there was a player I liked to playing with a lot And he.
Zachary Jeblonski: He just... He had to mutate that. He believed to mutate. I've never saw him win with it, but I played it against that mutate that quite a bit.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I feel for people who really like Mutate. I think it is. A neat. You know, it is a very inventive, unique. neat mechanic.
Zachary Jeblonski: But i I predict that it will never come back because it is just a rules nightmare for newer players. But I think it's a real, i really I hope they continue to try crazy things like mutate in the future.
ciderspence: I actually think Mutate is fine. i like we were We were joking about the initiative before we started the podcast. I'm okay with most of these mechanics that I also am okay never seeing.
ciderspence: But I like that they exist, and I'm okay with the decks that... make a lot of use for them but also support that use. But yeah, i I was able to get a win out of that Tatsunari deck by doing exactly what I was trying to do which was...
ciderspence: uh make several mutated copies of that song. I'll just read Tatunai just because it's... It's a little relevant now. Tatsunari. Toad.
ciderspence: rider Two in the black, legendary creature, human ninja. Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, if you don't control a creature named Kami... Create Kami, a legendary 3 -3 black and green frog creature token with Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, each opponent loses one life and you gain one life.
ciderspence: One green blue Tatsunari and target frog you control can't be blocked this turn except by creatures with flying and reach. It's a 3 -3. So yeah, the goal of the deck was... It's filled with... Enchantment is interaction.
ciderspence: and ramp and card draw and all that stuff and then the rest of it is just mutate creatures so that You cast an enchantment, you make Kami, you mutate onto Kami, you cast another enchantment, you ping with the first Kami, make another Kami.
ciderspence: uh you cast another enchantment now you're pinging with two kameys and you're making another kamey if you've already mutated on the second one and so on and so forth and that did pay off once and it was fun
Zachary Jeblonski: That's cool. No, like I said, I appreciate the mechanic.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: and I... It's kind of one of my predictions that it's never coming back. But, hey, I'd be happy if they did. They'd be bringing it back.
ciderspence: yeah
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay. And when I say bring it back, I don't mean like a random like secret lair card or something like that. I mean like... you know. I don't want to have some listener holding me to account. And be like, Zach.
Zachary Jeblonski: They brought him back and they put it on one card.
ciderspence: I feel like there was an opportunity for them to maybe make a cool. Mutate based. mystery booster commander and maybe maybe that'll be a boost mystery booster too
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, that Yeah, that that would be cool.
ciderspence: Like... Something that gives some creature type or gives the first creature you cast of a... of a creature type like like the Volo thing where it checks to see if the creature has the same type as any creatures you've already had in play, but maybe gives that first creature mutate or something.
ciderspence: That'd be cool.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, like giving your creatures mutate.
ciderspence: I think there's something cool to do with it.
Zachary Jeblonski: that that I think that would be an excellent mystery booster, Commander. Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe some from Wizards will listen to this and find out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think the next... Thing up for me as I think I mentioned this a while ago, but I I've pretty much solidified the next mystery booster I'm going to do, which is... Chyra all in.
Zachary Jeblonski: And this is the random commander. It's the mono red one, three in red. Whenever you discard one or more cards at random, select one or more targets at random, choose one or more modes at random, flip one or more coins.
Zachary Jeblonski: Roll more one or more dice. or Put a 1 -1 counter on Chyra. and create a tap treasure token. And it's literally just like red. Every red card that satisfies her condition.
Zachary Jeblonski: that is somewhat playable because not all these are Very good. is in the deck. And. win con is a little up in the air on this deck but we're just gonna put it together and see how the games go goldfishing it. It seems really dumb and fun. So I'm hoping.
Zachary Jeblonski: He goes, all right, but that's probably going to be after Marin. It's going to require a fair amount of card purchases because there are some really like... Obscure cards that I've never seen anybody play
Zachary Jeblonski: A good example of this is... You know. control of the court. One in a red. Sorcery draw four cards and discard three cards of random you know, no one's ever played. I've never seen that played.
Zachary Jeblonski: But it does something random, so it triggers Chyra. So that's probably the next up. And then I think I alluded to this problem maybe several weeks ago when I was building this deck, but...
Zachary Jeblonski: Man, it's hard to not run out of cards with this deck because... you know, the charge token she's making. And the the general low cost of random cards and magic in general. cards that involve randomness.
Zachary Jeblonski: get like a cost reduction. because they view it as a downside which is good for chira but it does mean that like i'm always out of cards for this deck so i keep putting more card advantage engines in there And it doesn't seem to be enough. so
Zachary Jeblonski: and we'll see this might be a deck where i put the end stone in like i have a copy of that And.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like I might need to put it in there just to keep up.
ciderspence: If the rest of the deck is cheap enough, this might be a spot for the Ten Rings also.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's the other one. i I don't really want to spend $12 on it, so I'm going to keep an eye on it. But if it gets low enough, I might might pick it up.
ciderspence: Bonor Dracosaur does a lot of work if it's not already in there, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's a mess. Yep. Yep.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: I have. I have Bone Horde Drakazor, Visions of Phyrexia, Wild Wasteland, Valakut Exploration, Outpost Siege. like All the major like impulse draw is in there.
ciderspence: Count on luck is in there.
Zachary Jeblonski: Which one?
ciderspence: Count on luck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, i Count on Luck's in there, yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: So.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: like I think I was goldfishing a little bit today and I had a i had it where I was. exiling five cards at the start of my turn you know because of all the effects I had. And I was still like burning through all those cards. Like, I'm like, all right, I'll cast all these, you know.
ciderspence: Do you run enough burn to run any of the... card draw for the exile the impulse draw for burn stuff so there's a thor from the marvel set that does it One of the courts does it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And if it's instant and sorcery based, uh...
Zachary Jeblonski: Hi.
ciderspence: The... Good night. does it. Sir Cara.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, no, I thought about it. I don't because... I think the the main way I'm going to win with this deck is... is Creature Beats And even that, the creatures are a little, you know, yeah we got a chaos dragon. It's a 4 -4 flyer. Watch out. you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: we have an ancient copper, you know, that's kind of a thing, you know? So like this very much is like, well, how does the deck win Zach? And I'm like, Yeah. That's...
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, I could put the standard red closes in there. You know, I could do a crackle of power or something like that. But I'm going to see if I can get over the finish line with just really leaning into the random stuff. Let's see if I can make it there. so
ciderspence: Sounds good. Speaking of how's it going to win, I'll just briefly talk about the other mystery booster commander I saw that I think I'm going to build. Zagorka, mother of sanctum. One green, blue, red. Legendary creature human peasant Vigilance trample 4 -2 at the beginning of your end step. Each player may create a tapped land named Sanctum.
ciderspence: with Tap. Add one man of any color. each opponent who does can't attack you during their next turn. I heard one of the shows talking about this card saying it's interesting, but...
ciderspence: it's a pretty big downside to just Continually give your opponents mana until turn the turn where they say no. Thanks. I'm ready to kill you I think it might be fun to build.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think so too.
ciderspence: That's obviously a concern. But yeah. I think I'm... I'm interested in trying to make that work.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah now if you're interested in ideas edh rec literally just put out a guide on this one like a day ago. Because I also looked at this commander and was like man, how do you what do you do with this downside?
Zachary Jeblonski: And yeah, so I'm glad you're building it because if you weren't going to build it, I was going to maybe take a shot at it. So I'm really excited to see. you know, how it comes out because I think there are ways.
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't want to. you know, like You can do like price of progress effects and stuff like that. Where you can ultimately turn the fact that you've given your opponents a bunch of non -basic lands like you can turn that against them
ciderspence: Oh, that's interesting.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I... Yeah, I don't think... you know it's always gonna be a downside right like there's no way around that but i don't necessarily think that means the commander's not gonna be fun you know because sometimes Just like with Itazora. I find it fun where I'm like, all right, well, you you got my best card out of my deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know hopefully you paid a lot of light for it but you got it and in this case it's like well congratulations got a land but now you can't attack me you know so Yeah, I'd be excited to play against it for sure.
ciderspence: It seems like it has some obviously bad matchups like you don't want to play this deck against the token doubler Because then... You're actively losing. and you can't really do anything about it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah.
ciderspence: And, you you know. seldom do you get to just choose what decks you play against. so
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, i remember I remember when I had...
ciderspence: That could be a real problem.
Zachary Jeblonski: wren mall the uh the green black guy that gives everybody go to birds
ciderspence: Yes. Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: So a big reason why I stopped playing that commander is I kept running into people with like doubling seasons And like. They were just... getting so much advantage off of my card. And I'm like, okay.
Zachary Jeblonski: i Think that's less of a concern with a land actually than it is with the creatures because it's not like unless they're animating Lance They're not gonna be hitting you with those lands
ciderspence: yeah but it helps all of them before it helps you so even the token doubler player like
Zachary Jeblonski: So I...
Zachary Jeblonski: It does.
ciderspence: Wherever they are, they they get a lot of advantage that you can't actively deal with as well. So I don't know. I mean, I'm gonna do it, so I know I'll figure it out. or you know figure out the best I can.
Zachary Jeblonski: i think I think you'll figure it out. I think... Yeah, I mean... I... i think I think it's good. though I think it's going to be interesting.
ciderspence: I agree I think it should be interesting.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. All right. Anything else you want to touch on before we wrap it up for this week?
ciderspence: Nope, I'm good there.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, cool. Well, thanks for joining me on this new date and time, Charles.
ciderspence: My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Zach.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. You guys out there have a good rest of the week. And we will talk again next week.
ciderspence: Take it easy everybody.
Zachary Jeblonski: See ya.
