Transcript
Zachary Jeblonski: Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Midlife's Crisis. I'm Zach. I'm joined to again by Charles.
ciderspence: How's it going, Zach?
Zachary Jeblonski: Let's go. better we're going better you know if the listeners have stuck through me with the last couple weeks where we're We're there. I'm only coughing about 10 % of the time, so you're probably still going to hear a few. As we go through.
ciderspence: As long as it's heading in the right direction.
Zachary Jeblonski: The cough or the sickness?
ciderspence: Both, I think.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I finally, you know, I listeners who you know Okay, Gary, if you're sure at the ages that we're around... just It's time to go to the doctor where you get sick, you know, because...
Zachary Jeblonski: and not 20 -something just being able to shake off anything that happens to you anymore. And yeah, now that I've depressed the audience, how are you doing this week?
ciderspence: Uh. This has not been a great week. But I have gotten some games in. And I've enjoyed that. So yeah, I mean, you know.
ciderspence: Back to your point like You get to a point in life where it just you know stuff starts happening that you don't have to deal with earlier So that happens with your health Happens with all aspects of life. So you You young kids and whippersnappers, smoke them while you got them.
ciderspence: Have fun.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Enjoy. Uh, you know. Be appreciative. Uh, But yeah, you know, magic is magic is. And I. Up.
ciderspence: a positive. Uh... aspect of the last few weeks as it has been since I've been playing it, and I've appreciated that about it.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's good. That's good. yeah Yeah, I mean, did you know what? I will say this, I guess to kind of like, you know. not not uh
Zachary Jeblonski: belittle any kind of negative things that are going on on both sides of the microphone. You know. I do. find a lot of joy in the game we play and the game we talk about.
Zachary Jeblonski: so Why don't we talk about some of the games we played?
ciderspence: Yeah, let's do it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you want to start us off this week, Charles?
ciderspence: Sure. So I got in. a lot of games this past week. So I guess we talked. last Thursday. And I played Saturday, Sunday, and then again tonight.
ciderspence: So I think.
Zachary Jeblonski: Wow, okay.
ciderspence: All in all, I got in a total of six games. And three of them were Chun -Li games. i'm I'm back to being dedicated to the cause of getting a win.
Zachary Jeblonski: The Chun -Li.
ciderspence: with my With my queen.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Hasn't happened yet. But it was really interesting. Playing are at three different tables one of the players that I played against was at to the tables. So that was actually pretty fun. Very chill dude.
ciderspence: Bye. The first time I played her it was in a pod. of overpowered commanders running quote -unquote bracket two decks
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So. Uh... it It actually was good because I felt like I wasn't... I just kind of added some cards to Chun -Li since I had last played her. And I knew she was stronger, but I didn't know how much stronger.
ciderspence: So. I actually liked, so it was a pod where the other commanders were one of the Iron Mans.
Zachary Jeblonski: One of the Iron Mans.
ciderspence: one of the iron It was Flippy Iron Man, so Tony Stark. Iron Man who lets lets you tutor an artifact or something. He's... He's he's very good. once he gets on the board Storm.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: was one of them. The Marble Storm, so... you know, copy your instants and sorceries. After she deals calm or sorry your instance in court The first instant or sorcery you cast After Storm deals combat damage, has Storm.
Zachary Jeblonski: And this was bracket two.
ciderspence: well that so that was the thing we were were you know our we have our rule zero talk pregame And the guy. pulls out his deck he says oh it's it's bracket two and it and it's storm and i was like you have a bracket two storm deck He's like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: yeah yeah i think so i've i've played it a few times i have a and he's like i I didn't put in some of the stuff that makes a bus. I was like, okay, I mean. If that's what you say it is, I'm happy to play it. but you know.
ciderspence: I you know, I I was. I had a watchful eye Another guy had a Wise Mothman deck that he also said was bracket two. I was like, this is a bracket two deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, well, was this is Commander.
ciderspence: So I was like.
Zachary Jeblonski: You broke up there for just a sec.
ciderspence: Oh, sorry. Wise Mothman?
Zachary Jeblonski: Why is more of it? Okay.
ciderspence: So, I mean, that's another commander that I think the pre -con right out of the box is pretty good. So if it's upgraded, I think. It at least has the potential to be pretty strong.
ciderspence: So I was like, all right, look, I'm going to. Play my upgraded Chun -Li deck then. and you know, hopefully it'll. be right at home. It was pretty much at home. That was a very good game.
Zachary Jeblonski: come All right.
ciderspence: Storm did wind up winning. i think that the most majestic play was Early in the game they cast open the way with storm which was pretty good
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that seems pretty good.
ciderspence: Yep. so that you know. Three turns later, that game was over because... They just had so much mana. Ta -da.
ciderspence: They could cast lots of spells. I thought the build was...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, unless you unless you guys have run them out of cards, that's kind of it.
ciderspence: Yep. nope, we were not able to do so. But yeah, so that was that was a fun game. Chun -Li did kind of her thing that game but This version of the deck has a lot of spells with Kicker. And I was trying to focus.
ciderspence: i knew that there were I knew I was kind of pulled in a bunch of directions. i've talked about this many times about the stack But this one in particular was trying to cast spells with Kicker. I was also trying to get soldiers on the board. There were a few creature token -y things because I was really excited about playing The Eagles Are Coming as one of the kick spells.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So I got some tokens out. I was able to do some life gainy stuff i had guided souls in there so i was able to give her two one one counters and flying But... you know, didn't quite get there. And then game two.
ciderspence: We played another game. I don't remember who I played that game. Oh, I played Torwocky. I did finish a Torwocky deck, a Torwocky burn deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay okay
ciderspence: In a pod with some other burn. burn and drain and that was that was a fun pod dragon player wound up taking it down in the end so Although that was a fun day.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: So that was last Saturday.
ciderspence: Yeah. What about some games you got?
Zachary Jeblonski: nice So I got out, I just went to, I got out Tuesday. Yes. All right, well. i guess i'll save for some of the more meta analysis till the end there but i started with uh the new deck i have which is The Boros Tomeo from RealityFracture.
ciderspence: Yep, I remember you talking about her.
Zachary Jeblonski: And the detective. Yeah, that did okay. i'm Just a reminder, it's for red, white, flying double strike haste. Once you enter, you become the monarch, and whenever one or more creatures deal common damage to you while you're the monarch, tap those creatures.
Zachary Jeblonski: Put a stun counter on each of them. it was it was i think that was okay and i probably should try it again But I did run into a lot of interaction.
Zachary Jeblonski: And Tommy was a six -mana commander. and I didn't have any hex proof. i didn't i just didn't draw on it like i didn't have any real ways to protect her so she got murked Are you good? Take it out. Bye.
Zachary Jeblonski: twice. But that's all. I guess I'm kind of putting the carpet for the horse because that's after. I had a pretty, like, not fast start. as far I don't think I even ramped much.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I got her out on my turn five. Maybe I ramped once. And I had a Black Blade for Forge on the battlefield. And I... i had one shot somebody on the next turn right because it's it she has flying double striking haste
ciderspence: Ooh, yeah, that's pretty good.
Zachary Jeblonski: and just three 3 -5, throw Blackblade Reforge on him, pop. the guy directly across from me. And to be fair, I did it specifically. because there was another plot about the fire.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I know his friends were in there. And I was like, hey, man, well you want to go play in that pod? And he's he's one of those guys that like never wants to admit. that he wants to die. You know, because he wants to keep the integrity of the game, so to speak, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: like He doesn't want to be like...
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I know like, you know, I'm kind of like reading between the lines. I'm like, all right, here you go. and Now, you know, hit it for like 26 commander damage. So he hopped over to the other game, and I'm glad he got going on the other one. And then.
Zachary Jeblonski: This is when I went into the meta problem, which is I always have a Voltron dex. is kind of why i one of the reasons i kind of avoid alternate is of course the other two players just went ham on me because i popped somebody right fair enough right
ciderspence: Yep. Yep. yep
Zachary Jeblonski: And. and i died shortly thereafter right like and it was like and then i had just sit there for like 45 minutes with the last two players kind of went back and forth and i was like yep I remember this about Voltron X.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, as the deck's not full of Ultron, it's very much an amalgamation of... different things. it'ss it's most It's Monarch Matters and Voltron. i just happened to draw all my voltron pieces that came like i draw like much monarch matter stuff
ciderspence: gotcha
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah, i'm not the the jury's out on this deck. I'll have to have to try it again to see how I feel about it. We'll stay. The jury's out. But yeah, that was that game. Do you want to hit me up with another one of yours?
ciderspence: Sure. yeah i'll jump into my sunday games so sunday was Uh, So all these days were the same. There was one Chun -Li game. one non -chun li game So...
ciderspence: The f - First... Did I play Chun -Li first?
ciderspence: No, I guess I played... Ryu first? So... i'm still I'm still basking in the glow of the Street Fighter movie. So I brought the Ryu deck I built a while ago.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I took it to Vegas Magic Con. I haven't played it a lot since then, but I Remember enjoying how it went. So I played that. in the first game and it did pretty well there was a We had another player.
ciderspence: So this is a four pod. And one of the guys. Kind of one shot at the guy across from him who he knew. We... The. The other two players didn't know them very well. But those two knew each other. and so that The guy who got one -shotted was pretty mad.
ciderspence: And, you know, they kind of had some banter about, well, I knew you were the threat and you were going to take me out next time.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: It's like, yeah, no, whatever. I got now I got to wait an hour. So he walked outside, did some stuff outside, came back in. He was kind of pacing a bit. It did take about an hour to finish the game. But then...
ciderspence: I was able to... Oh, he was playing... Who's the... Jet mirror. He was playing Jet Mirror. So he had lots of little stuff out.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh I just have it. I used to have a Jemir deck a long time ago.
ciderspence: Yeah, it definitely was pretty good. See? got stuff out of yet jenny faye out so he's making like big vigilant things that got huge
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: I and the other player, who wasn't eliminated, were able to work together and take care of some of the pieces. so i like i I like... What's the...
ciderspence: What's the... the classic word for like when you tuck up. A piece under an enchantment.
Zachary Jeblonski: exile?
ciderspence: No, it's not like we are like exile when it like an enchantment says when this enchantment enters Exile target non land permanent until it leaves the battlefield or something.
Zachary Jeblonski: Is there a word for that?
ciderspence: I had one of those effects So I got jet mirror under one of those to get Jet Mirror off the board. And then later I was able to get rid of.
Zachary Jeblonski: You didn't put anything in there, did you?
ciderspence: He did put him in the command zone. Later, i I was able to get rid of jeny Jenny Faye or something.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: and then the other player was able to do something to him. But they got to a point where. His ward was... pretty low. Life totals were also draining, but Uh...
ciderspence: He was at like... I don't know. 20 or 30 life or something. But we've been knocked pretty low by Vegemere nonsense before. Then I finally got to a point where I had a good turn with. with Ryu.
ciderspence: So I had enough mana to... Cast. with. Cast Amy. Who gives you... She lets you steal them. an equipment the equip herself she's got haste and when she attacks she gives target Other creature plus X plus O where X is her power.
ciderspence: So I was able to pump Ryu up to like 10 power. And then dome. the jet mirror player for 10. That, of course, makes me a threat.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice.
ciderspence: And now that the JetMirror player is no longer a threat. the other two players kind of work together to say hey we got to get this guy out of here which they did on the next... Jetmir took me out on his turn. But then I help the other player who's playing, I forget the name of this commander, but a commander who... amplifies burn damage that you do.
ciderspence: when you tap him. But he had like the red overlord on board. and he had like a lot of mana and i was like i think if you just attack with the overlord and then amplify the damage with your commander you win Because the...
ciderspence: the demo player had. He started. the previous rotation with like 20 something life but i domed him for 10. And then. i think he was a he was a within one shot range of the of the burn player so burn player won that okay so that guy wasn't happy
Zachary Jeblonski: gotcha
ciderspence: Firm Player felt pretty good. The guy who was made to wait wasn't happy. So now game two, this is when I play Chun -Li.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: and i made so i made some changes i put in some stronger cards took out some of the worst kicker cards still running a fair amount of kicker stuff but i was like all right next game i'm going to be a little more serious Still no. game changers or anything, but...
ciderspence: i put but I remember one of the cards I put in was Cryptic Command.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: I was like, this is this is a good effect. Alright, so... the The mad guy was playing Weta. the one of the decks I recently built.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I feel like I'm seeing a lot more Weta lately. Weta actually showed up. I didn't play against it, but I heard another player playing it in a pod next to me. i was like wow what out of nowhere like wait i was just kind of coming back
ciderspence: She's pretty good. But I... So. I learned a lot from that game. The thing I learned was. Playing this Chun -Li deck is gonna be a lot more like playing chess.
ciderspence: that I'm used to in Commander. So. The way to player got out. I think the other decks were. An Eluge deck. And a... Denver Show deck.
ciderspence: and thembershow basically wraps the board when he gets cast for the number mountains you have. So that was like a looming threat. That guy was like, whenever the board gets to.
ciderspence: too tough i'm gonna wrath the board and cast my commander we're like all right Probably know your game plan. The Wait -Till Player gets out Silverclad Ferocedons. And has way to out. So Silverclap for Asadan says...
ciderspence: Whenever it's dealt damage, each opponent sacrifices a permanent. Or it sacrifices it. It's either permanent or non -land permanent or whatever.
Zachary Jeblonski: Sacrifices are permanent.
ciderspence: So... I see this and I'm like, hey. Do you guys see this horrible thing that he just cast? No one else reacts to it. And I'm like,
Zachary Jeblonski: Heh.
ciderspence: Maybe no one else sees this, but I'm... I had kind of taken out some of the token producing stuff, so I was not in a position to sacrifice anything on my board. like I got some cost reducers. Uh... I don't even remember if I had Chun -Li out yet, but I was like, I need all this stuff to try to...
ciderspence: get into this game. Uh...
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: So... I dealt with it. And. I think I dealt with it too hard. And I also wasn't paying attention to the board carefully enough. So before. That player's turn.
ciderspence: the the player in turn order before him. Uh, The Thumbershowed player. Cast. Oh what's the... Descent into Avernus.
ciderspence: Uh...
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: Okay, Descent to Avernus, you put... counters on it and each player makes uh two treasures and takes two damage or makes treasures and takes damage equal to the number two times the number of counters on it or something This happens on upkeep. So it hadn't happened when I cast it.
ciderspence: But this should have changed the way that I thought about. Silver -clad Ferocedons. it should have occurred to me that if I could just get one disposable thing out, or maybe a few disposable things out, I would...
ciderspence: subsequently have lots of disposable things because I was just going to be making treasure tokens. Everybody was with Descend to Avernus.
Zachary Jeblonski: bri
ciderspence: But I didn't pay attention to that. So it gets to... Silverclad Frostodon. player's turn And he attempts to cast his commander. And I equipped a command, and I chose both modes to target him. I bounced.
ciderspence: Silverclad Ferocitons, and I countered his commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice.
ciderspence: And he went from being pissed at having to wait an hour. at the guy who knocked him out last time. to wanting to murder me. And I was like, I kind of get it. I probably should have just drawn a card and bounced it or something.
Zachary Jeblonski: but
ciderspence: I maybe reacted too hard. And then once the treasures were flowing left and right, I was like, oh, that didn't even matter. Uh,
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, but you didn't know that sign.
ciderspence: But yeah. And then the worst part was then I was like public enemy number one because I dared cast a counterspell, which. I I understand but he's like you're probably running a bunch of counter spells in that deck and I was like well I do have a lot of modal counter spells pert per our conversation on the pod last week.
ciderspence: Uh, So yeah, everybody kind of... September showed we're at the board after I got some Lee out. And then. The, uh... Way top player, got out brash taunter.
ciderspence: and knock me out with brash taunter damage and i was like all right man i get it I... I... Hopefully I will learn from this experience. But the thing I learned, funny enough, is... I need to make Chun -Li more of a Voltron deck.
ciderspence: So...
Zachary Jeblonski: I mean...
ciderspence: I think what happened...
Zachary Jeblonski: i i think you have i think you have carpool because you you haven't gotten a victory right
ciderspence: Not yet. Nope.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think you have carte blanche to do whatever you need to do just probably right like
ciderspence: Yeah, i I think what happened in that game was I had a brief window. I had a lot of... treasures at one point from the Descend into Avernus before I got knocked out with the...
ciderspence: with the Brass Tarner damage. I had to only out. I had some spells exiled. But... The spells I had exiled were value spells. And I realized, I think what I need to do is find value spells that pump.
ciderspence: Even if they just pump a little. And I need to play everything in Azorius Colors that pumps when you cast an Incinerate Sorcery. because I need to just be able to make her even a two hits kills somebody type threat.
ciderspence: And then maybe I draw a haymaker. late game and I can take out somebody else. I just i need to be able to do something if I get her to stick. So anyway, that was... That was round two. That was a sad one because... I felt like I i earned somebody's wrath and then got targeted out, which is which happens in magic sometimes, so it's not that big a deal. but It wasn't as satisfying as the Saturday games.
ciderspence: All right.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's exactly kind of how the Tamiyo game went.
ciderspence: Yeah. What's your next game?
Zachary Jeblonski: next so Next game is... My budget. Hmm. Nisedek. I had made some tweaks to it since the last time I played it. just to just like I swapped out about six cards because I kind of learned some lessons from the last time.
Zachary Jeblonski: And this game went okay. I didn't find a lot of ramp pieces, so it was really like a... Like I didn't play in this until like turn six, you know, like it was like, it wasn't like a fast get her out kind of thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: But... It was a little back and forth. There were some board wipes that I... I did. I do. i do Oh yeah, this is... So this is the game where I boom piled.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'll turn four.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: And it worked. I boomed out and flipped and and won the flip and boomed out. and and People were pretty salty about it for a while. and i was like it's dude it's like it was like turn four or five come on let's be chill and you know All right, so.
Zachary Jeblonski: I was playing against... This game was... I think I want to say it was a Mirko, which is a Dimir guy. And I'm playing Hearth Hall against Hearth Hall.
ciderspence: Harthal's tough, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: And. Yeah. And.
Zachary Jeblonski: for And I think it was just the three of us, I think. And so this is the second game in a row I'm running against a Hearthhole. The guy who played Hearthhole played him against my Tomeo. And he won that game as well.
Zachary Jeblonski: not that. Give away the ending of this game too. And I'm like... I'm in the camp now where I'm like starting to hate landfall. I really am. like I think Wizards has gone too far with Lampaw.
ciderspence: I feel like if you're now starting to hate landfall, you've been very patient and understanding.
Zachary Jeblonski: I have been patient. I think and I'm just I am. I'm now at the point where like, do I have to take, on principle, should I take apart Nissa? Because it's technically a Landfall deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: but i would say no because there's no greens i don't really have any real landfall to do.
ciderspence: Yeah, I think if your landfall doesn't involve green, you're...
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah, so...
ciderspence: you're okay.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes. Yeah. i So, all right. So yeah, the game went well. I got to feature a bunch of the modal counter spells. uh they were somewhat impactful a lot of times i was firing them off for the non -counterspell part because I kind of had trouble drawing lands for a lot of the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: Some other highlights is Hurthall Player Played. I don't know if it was Star of Extinction. It was some spell that... I made it so that. Every player had to get rid of all the six lands.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I just so happened to have three bounces out. So I kept three bounces and three other lands. I still had nine mana available to me after he did that.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: And everyone else was pretty, pretty hardened. But i get i let me get to the frustrating part, which is on this on my last term. I have in my hand Ruinous Ultimatum. This game's been going on for about...
Zachary Jeblonski: a while.
ciderspence: Very good card.
Zachary Jeblonski: And... I don't see an immediate like I'm going to die threat on the board. I think I can make another turn cycle. So I'm like, all right, let me just not fire this off and let's see how the what happens with the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: all right Hearthhole player is at two life at this point, by the way. And. I get, in Hearthstone players, the... the player in turn order just before me.
Zachary Jeblonski: So. We go to the next player. He takes out the guy to his left, not the hurtful guy. but couldn't spare two damage for the hurtful guy. Then it gets to Hearth Hall.
Zachary Jeblonski: And he literally plays Morag, the minotaur that gives extra combats. And.
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: Please respond to my reclamation. And just kills us all.
ciderspence: oh
Zachary Jeblonski: And. Yeah, because he gets like 12 combats. And I'm just like...
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: And this is the second time out I've lost to this deck in a row. and I'm just like, I... I got salty. I'm just going to admit it. I got salty and left. like yeah The game ended.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I said, hey, night good night, everybody. But I'm i done. And the guy's like, I'll play a different day. I was like, I'm good. I'm out. Like. Like I know when I've hit my limit. on the salt meter.
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah, it's like, you know, it's like one of those things where like if any single person had ever exiled his graveyard, it wouldn't have happened. but the But the man got boardwiped like three times and it just never seemed to matter. Like, that's the thing I hate about Landfall, I think, is like...
Zachary Jeblonski: unless you have that key graveyard piece. Or you have. you know some other obscure piece like an ellish norn that turns off etps or something It's just so hard to keep them down. It's just so hard. like You wipe their board. They have more lands than everybody else so they can rebuild faster.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, like, it's... i don't know it's it's maybe one of those things where i'm like You know what? wizards Maybe we should be rewarding people for taking basic game actions. you know.
ciderspence: This is an interesting...
ciderspence: Kind of aspect of this kind of story or painting. is I feel like... It isn't. as often discussed as maybe it could be.
ciderspence: How to. combat the strengths of a given color or color pair. by exploiting its weaknesses. You're right, the landfall player has more lands than you.
ciderspence: So it seems like. the way you need to attack them. is to... heavily harm their other permanents and or strip their hand. Because that's really kind of your only shot, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: And. Yeah.
ciderspence: Like they're going to be able to recast their commander as much as they want. So if they are allowed to keep other value pieces. that synergize with their commander. There. probably literally isn't anything that can stop them.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, there
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: There's a multi -level problem here. And Herzl... contributes to this as opposed to some other landfall commander. Actually, most of the most popular landfall commanders have the same thing as hurtful as card advantage. So it's like.
Zachary Jeblonski: You strip his hand, he replays Hearth Hall. and start stacking lands to draw cards again, right? So like... It's a little hard to strip. But I think it's like a meta thing. And and I'm going to borrow some arguments from Krim, who's on the MTG Coalfish podcast, which is.
Zachary Jeblonski: landfall is a strategy in which wizards have decided that like we're not going to Print cards to deal with it. Like it's really hard. to interact with landfall on the landfall merit you can get rid like you said you can get rid of there permanents that are getting bonuses from the landfall.
Zachary Jeblonski: but the you can't like it's really hard to to deal with the fact that they're playing more lands than you And... And a lot of the archetypes that I could theoretically handle landfall better?
Zachary Jeblonski: are the archetypes that are specifically kind of like shunned, right? like like a stack stack that turns off ATVs, people get mad. a discard deck that strips the landfall player of cards so even though they have 20 lands they have nothing to do people don't like discard decks right like it's like It's hard to beat landfall within the confines of what we want casual commander to be.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I guess my last little point on this is. Yeah, but Zach, like, if you just had graveyard hate, it's not a problem. I agree with that. And I you know i should have more graveyard hate.
Zachary Jeblonski: But the problem is right now with the way the card pool is. They don't. They haven't stitched onto Graveyard Haid. a lot of value that you can justify putting in your deck A good example of this is Dauntless Scrapbot.
Zachary Jeblonski: which is a ramp spell.
ciderspence: Dauntless Scrapbot, yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: And it and it so that's a good example. But we need more of that. Like I need. you know give me a board why that destroys all creatures, exile all lands and graveyards.
Zachary Jeblonski: right or something like that right like Stitch some effects onto other cards, is I think is what's what's going to happen.
ciderspence: I feel like there probably is And I don't know this for a fact, I might be wrong, but there's got to be some blue card that makes everybody shuffle their graveyard back into their library. All right.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, yeah, wheels. Yeah, yeah you could do that with wheels, yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah, so I mean, I think... I think every color probably. Maybe not red. I don't know what...
Zachary Jeblonski: Right, yeah.
ciderspence: well i guess red I guess Red does wheels. But...
Zachary Jeblonski: Red does wheels, blue does wheels, probably wheels of course is...
ciderspence: Yeah, I guess red and blue wheels. White has graveyard.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: White and black have direct graveyard interaction. Green I'm not sure. Uh...
Zachary Jeblonski: Green is, like, green I think is just a race. Like, you're just racing.
ciderspence: Yeah. But yeah, I mean.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I think.
ciderspence: Yeah, I wanted to oh Go ahead.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, one last thing. There's a car. And I've tried running it a couple of times and people got mad. So I don't run it. But I think this was like them dipping their toes and into how to handle like.
Zachary Jeblonski: lands. like Atlanta, the strategy. But they I don't I think they got. timid off of it you ever heard of Confounding conundrum.
ciderspence: No.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, so it's one in a blue enchantment from Zendikar. So I think this is about 10 years old. when it enters the battlefield, draw a card. So it already replaces itself. So we're that's a good start. And whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, if that player had another land enter the battlefield under their controller's turn,
Zachary Jeblonski: They return to land the control to their owner's hand. I think like... This to me is like a good start. of like how we address this kind of thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: But, you know, the few times I've tried to play it, it's just that people view it as like land denial, right? So it's like, it's hard because it's like... Well, if I play a fetch lane, you're punishing me. I'm like... You're right. It's jam and paper. punishes my opponent for playing a fetchland.
Zachary Jeblonski: So they do, there needs to be some nuance of like. If a player plays a land... I don't know how to do the wording, but like. they're not it's not quite there
ciderspence: Yeah, i I feel like... The wording matters. like I guess I'll push back on. I think you were. You were painting a picture that like. some strategies that would deal well with landfall players like discard.
ciderspence: obviously land destruction. people don't like or are salty about. Well, I mean... I think. people aren't salty about targeting those effects at length. fall players but they are salty about blanket.
ciderspence: application of those effects because they suck for everyone else, especially those who aren't up resources from landfall. I feel like the types of spells that... I think a lot of people would enjoy.
ciderspence: are ones that Again, they would have to be... carefully crafted but something like imagine a card that said whenever a player with the most most lands.
ciderspence: in play. plays a land they have to return a land something like that or like anyone who has the most lands or is tied for the most lands Like, you know, that bounce They'll bounce your land spell, but only for the player with the most lands in play.
Zachary Jeblonski: or
ciderspence: Discard a card only if you're... You have. you know, more permanence in play only. what What if it's something like... if you have the city's blessing. then you have to do something. something that keeps you from having to pay the penalty.
ciderspence: if you're already behind because I think that's what people don't like is like I'm behind and now the player who's trying to win by... pulling everybody else back. is pulling me further back. So I don't feel good about the fact that they're trying to restrain the person in in a better position than me. I feel mad because now I don't i have less of a chance than I had before.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, and I think... Yeah, you're definitely heading on. the problems with this this example card and the problems with like a lot of my suggestions. too because it's like And the other thing about confounding conundrum that I don't know if I ran into it directly or if I heard somebody else was like, yeah, I don't run this because of this.
Zachary Jeblonski: is if you're running a certain type of landfall deck, this card actually works to your advantage. Because, like... If I'm having I'm out of lands in my hand, but I have six land drops tank.
ciderspence: It's true.
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm fine bouncing a land so I can play another one and then bounce another one. and play another one, right?
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: like
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: So it's like, it's, it, I think. to kind of touch on to what you were hitting at. is they can almost take it it in a positive way which is like imagine a wheel but for lands Where like...
Zachary Jeblonski: it's let you know i i think it should be catch up ramp is like white so let's say it's like Four white white. Castus.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know target a target player. Each other player. fetches that many lands. Basically, makes it makes sense, like, to everybody in the same outline.
Zachary Jeblonski: like you know kind of thing You target the player with the most lands and every other player gets to fetch that many lands. or something like that.
ciderspence: So there is a white card that does that. I drew it in a game.
Zachary Jeblonski: ro
ciderspence: and one of my games on Saturday. And I didn't cast it. because I... It would have been good for me, but I didn't need the rest of the table to also have as many lands as the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's the that's the problem with that, yeah.
ciderspence: the highest landfall player. What about... a targeted land destruction spell that says Uh... Well, there are a few cards already that say...
ciderspence: everybody sacrifices lands until they have lands equal to the number held by the player with the fewest lands.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: That's tough. But.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah it's tough.
ciderspence: Maybe something like... That, but for the... the player with the most lands, and the player with the next most lands. Like the player with the most lands sacrifices lands until...
ciderspence: They're no longer singularly. the most they no longer have the singular and most number of lands something like that again the wording's tricky you don't want the cards to be books i get it but i think there are ways to address it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. yeah' it
Zachary Jeblonski: It's a it's a tough. Yeah, it's a tough problem to solve for sure. I'm not' certainly they're not accusing anybody of Wizards for being lazier. or whatever. i think if i if I think if I had my magic ball, if I could...
Zachary Jeblonski: You know. and Go back in time. I'm like. i think i think if you I think the ramping is not the problem. It's the reward for ramping. Hawaii. Where, like...
Zachary Jeblonski: Landfall as a mechanic, I think, is like actually the root of the problem. i was you know i i've certainly played against green decks that have ramped a lot but because they're in green And let's say they're not doing landfall. They're just doing ramp and big.
Zachary Jeblonski: big creatures or whatever. you know. that there's inherent weaknesses to that strategy that are pretty easily addressable and yada yada Oh, yeah. Closing thoughts are...
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm just gonna start. taking out hearth hole players first every time like so that's where i'm at now with that commander
ciderspence: i I think you're saying that saltily, but I i kind of just think that's right. like Like I said in that game where I was playing the Storm player who said their deck was bracket two, I was like, okay. That's fine. I'm happy to play in this pod. I'm good with us all playing bracket two decks.
ciderspence: But I'm going to target you. And I did target him and he still won.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Bye. He won through me targeting him. and i feel like that was fine i mean i do feel like some of these commanders Once you've seen what they do a few times, it's like...
ciderspence: I think it's largely the case that in... brackets two and three If a player really gets focused on it's pretty tough for them to win
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And sometimes you just kind of have to do that. and you know it also it allows for these scenarios where you know the player who's In best position like if you spend the most resources if everybody's doing something but you do the most you probably also are not going to win I mean, you know. Sometimes you just kind of have to walk that line.
ciderspence: especially if... You. think there's a foreseeable outcome of the the hearth hole player winning and that frustrates you right like it's like imagine your choices are I probably lose, but the hearth hole player doesn't.
ciderspence: probably doesn't win. or I try to win, but the hearth hole player. probably wins. Like, which of those do you feel worse about? It's like you kind of get to choose that. And if enough people at the table.
ciderspence: feel like they also want the hearth hole player to lose then maybe you do share your resources more evenly and then you do equally have a chance to win after they're gone i don't know But yeah, like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. yeah
ciderspence: I've heard the way that you talk about like Italian. And you know the table has to make a collective decision.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: We just can't let it resolve like even a single time.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: you know i think hearth hole is kind of like that i think the flip the not flip the Does it moan? Who lets you flip creatures that you... What's that manifest red? that's that that commander's like that like there are a couple of commanders that just like an especially if they involve landfall.
ciderspence: Because to your point, it is kind of hard to interact with. But yeah, if you just let them. If you let them... play without being interacted with a few turns, it's probably just going to be over.
ciderspence: And it's like. You know, it's like that everybody playing paying the risk, right? It's like... If the table... agrees we're not going to let this just happen. then it probably won't happen.
ciderspence: But. You know, everybody's got to be okay with that. And. everybody's got to be okay with the fact that somebody might say they're okay with that but might hold back and put themselves in a better position to win the rest of you you know That's all.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: I don't know. That's all just part of it. so
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's
ciderspence: Yeah, I hear you.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's interesting, like they... Not to keep referencing another podcast, but. You know. yeah uh the on the mtg goldfish talks about how like oh this this card is bad because if you play it's gonna draw so much attention that you're gonna either get killed or it's gonna get removed.
ciderspence: So good it's bad.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so good is bad. And like you can put hearth hole in that camp. But just to kind of put. and context a little bit. In the first game, when I played Tamiyo...
Zachary Jeblonski: The player I knocked out first was playing the monoblock Avacyn. that I had gotten obliterated by last week. So it's like one of those things where like... you know it's like one of those things where like you can Commander's gotten to the point now where it's like... Wow, I really am between a rock and a hard place. I can't let the Davison player...
Zachary Jeblonski: resolve a single so sack outlet. and I can't let the hearth hole player cycle through lands like he is. You know? but that's good i mean that's commanded right like you're always between a rock and a hard place But yeah, if you're in a... odd situation where it's hearth hole.
Zachary Jeblonski: and three You know, whatever, Commanders. like I mean, a hurdle's got to be top priority.
ciderspence: this is This is why... we We talk about this from time to time. But I think more and more it's the case. That having, we talked about. having graveyard hate on pieces that otherwise have value.
ciderspence: I think a little bit of life gain. on pieces that otherwise have value has never been more
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's it that's a good one.
ciderspence: useful in Commander. Because you don't... You just have to live long enough to be able to do something with what you have with whatever's left.
ciderspence: you know like The player who's the biggest threat to you If they can just be a little bit bigger threat to everybody else... while you build the resources to try to snipe them at the end, you can win some of those games. I've i've definitely had that happen a few times. I've seen other players do that before.
ciderspence: You know, this is like a classic. red bird thing right it's like you use all your mana to bring everybody down including yourself and your like. You keep all the crabs in the barrel, but then the barrel's low enough that somebody can one -shot you with the hasty commander.
ciderspence: Yeah, that's...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: but But yeah, life gain. just gaining a little bit of life here, a little bit of life there. And i I'm... I'm more into bursty life game than soul sisters because I think soul sisters also kind of give you a target. But.
ciderspence: The target is... pretty... I don't know. I don't know what the analogy is here.
Zachary Jeblonski: I see it. I actually...
ciderspence: but like
Zachary Jeblonski: I actually feel the opposite of that
ciderspence: they make it They make it a much higher kill to climb. Oh, go ahead.
Zachary Jeblonski: I feel the opposite of that, because I think... i think i think i mean i think magic's a lot like frog in the pot right with the water that's slowly rising And. i've noticed that people don't seem to pay attention this whole sister man of life game Well, if you play, like, Gain 20 Life.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like, people are like, oh. you know And that is the same thing with Cargill, right? like I feel like nobody, i I can't remember. the last time somebody fired off a removal on a Phyrexian arena.
Zachary Jeblonski: But if somebody draws like nine cards, people are like. Hey, what's going on over there? you know So you could draw nine cards over the Phyrexian arena or nine cards all at once. And I feel like you get two different threat reactions, at least in my experience.
ciderspence: That's interesting. Maybe I just think of it differently, but I guess the scenario that I preferred. to play when i can and i think this is something other that some people don't like, but is the scenario where you build the resources to on a turn draw nine cards and hopefully be in a position to do something with those cards.
ciderspence: And that'll come into play as I talk about my next games. But like... I would rather do that than... have out the Phyrexian arena and have one of my opponents who's shrewd and a good politicker.
ciderspence: Say, hey, Charles, how many cards you got in hand again? Like, uh, seven? Okay. like I feel like that's the thing that happens when you have... Steady card draw on the board. is Peace.
ciderspence: if people recognize that your hand is full when other people's hands are getting lower. that makes you a target versus Yes, it does make you a target to draw seven cards, but if you're in a position to deploy the cards...
ciderspence: when you when you draw them. That. is maybe as good, maybe better than. you know slowly accumulating resources over the course of the game and being a threat even if a lesser one like i i feel it's better to be a bigger threat when you can do something as the threat.
ciderspence: than to be Eight. A threat, but a smaller threat. but for the duration of the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: So I don't know.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I can see that point. For sure. Yeah, so why don't you want you head us up another one of your games?
ciderspence: Yeah, so tonight... same Same formula. Other deck, Chun Li. Today's other deck. I finally finished putting together the Megatron. And I... brought it out to play tonight.
ciderspence: And it was it was pretty fun. It gave me my card of the week. which is coveted jewel, which I think we've. I don't know if we've talked about his card the week before. Hopefully not, because we're not supposed to be repeating it.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: But I'll read it.
Zachary Jeblonski: But we're gonna talk about it.
ciderspence: it's It's six mana. When this artifact enters, draw three cards. Tap it to add three mana of any one color. Whenever one or more creatures and opponent controls attack you and aren't blocked, that player draws three cards and gains control of this artifact. Untap it.
ciderspence: So this is an undoubtedly fun card that... It's fun every time it hits a table. But it's not. good. It's like. It gives you the benefit, but it's kind of like the monarch but like on steroids because it really makes people want to hit you and take it.
ciderspence: And when they do hit you and take it, they get for free the thing you spent six man on. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: it's It's kind of hard to just, like... unless the goal is a good time, which it should be sometimes, but unless the goal is a good time, it's hard to justify.
Zachary Jeblonski: interesting
ciderspence: putting a six mana card that does this in your deck. Except for this deck. which has the following text. Megatron, Tyrant. I'm going to read from the backside now. Whenever Megatron attacks, you may sacrifice another artifact. When you do, Megatron deals damage equal to the sacrificed artifact's mana value to target creature. If excess damage would be dealt to that creature this way, instead that damage is dealt to that creature's controller and you convert Megatron.
ciderspence: And on the back, you make... colorless mana for each one life your opponent's lost this turn at the beginning of your post -combat main phase once you flip him. So this is the perfect place to play coveted jewel especially if you can cheat it in which i was able to do when i cast it because i had tanuk on board So I was able to warp it in.
ciderspence: So two in a red. Play Coveted Jewel, I get my mana right back, I draw three cards, and then I sacrifice it to the Megatron trigger. Chef's kiss.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice.
ciderspence: Yeah, I was able to get a few big mana pieces out. in this game. And then once Tenet came down... I was playing against a Rocco. It was a three pod.
ciderspence: With a Rocco. a Hidden Commander Norrin the Wary deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, Norn the Wary, okay. yeah
ciderspence: Yeah. And the same, this was the game I played with. a with a guy I played at. from the Sunday store. He was playing the same commander that lets you amplify burn. it's Red and white, maybe?
ciderspence: Yeah, red and white. i I forget who it is, but... So it was the same deck that he had won with the last time we played. But yeah, I was just able to get a lot of mana out. I had obsessive pursuit, so I was making a clue token each turn.
ciderspence: I got out the car in that. at the beginning of your... pre -combat main phase makes you colorless mana for each artifact you control Oh, and I got out.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: the... indestructible smog All right. lets you make a treasure token whenever it's dealt damage. So Coveted Jewel was... probably the card of the week, but my sickest play was...
ciderspence: There were a few threats on the board. We each had a couple of creatures, but not a lot going on. And there was one turn when I had a shatter skull smashing in hand. But I was like, oh, no, I got to do something else first.
ciderspence: So I cast a smog.
Zachary Jeblonski: Good.
ciderspence: And then the next turn I casted Shatterskull Smashing when I had enough mana to double the damage. And I was able to deal three damage knocking out. One of my opponents commanders and then nine damage to smog just to make nine treasure tokens.
ciderspence: So it's just pretty good
Zachary Jeblonski: Nice.
ciderspence: And then like the turn after that, I cracked the button. That was the turn after that. I cracked six clues to draw six cards. Right. So this is kind of the thing I was talking about. i just had a bunch of artifacts to get into play and those you know was able to basically win from there but yeah so that was a good game
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: Megatron showed very well. And then I brought out Chun -Li. I had made her a little more Voltron -y. and still didn't get there. Bye. uh It was closer.
ciderspence: Uh, It just... it's just a deck that needs
Zachary Jeblonski: but
ciderspence: the right mix, you know, and I I just don't know if I have it in me to really scour. my heart and the deck. and and online to find the appropriate mix i want the mix to be at least a little fun.
ciderspence: At least at this point, I'm committed to having two Chun -Li decks. And I don't know if that means one of them is just spikier. like High bracket three, I'm just putting in. More. more better, like maybe it just has higher card quality.
ciderspence: like does that also mean i have to just like Miami Internet for what's the optimal version of the deck. That doesn't sound like fun, but it also doesn't sound like fun to lose 30 games with this deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like I said, I think i think in order for Chun -Li to win...
Zachary Jeblonski: you know, in a real game, like not like your opponent's. You know. throw it or whatever. I think you have to yoke her out. like I think you need to put in like...
Zachary Jeblonski: you know, the best stuff like, you know, your snaps, your frantic searches. like free counter spells and like all that stuff i think i think it's got to be you
ciderspence: Yeah, we'll see. I'm going to bring her to Atlanta. And I'm going to try to bring. i think 12 decks but i'm also going to try to play chun li like eight times Uh,
ciderspence: and see see what it's like but i think at that point she will be fully voltron so We'll see.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: that the The battle continues. Do you need any other games in?
Zachary Jeblonski: No, but I will quick. I forgot to mention my card of the week, which is in my Nista deck. It's a card I bought a long time ago because I'm like. That seems neat. It's a color pie break.
Zachary Jeblonski: I just never had a place for it until now. on thats And it's a patron of the moon. four or five blue blue seven mana It's got moon folk offering, which means you can play it as an instant if I sacrifice a moon folk.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: And the 5 -4 flyer. And then it has. Pay one generic, put two lands from your... and all those into play tapped which is just you know something you really don't see in blue I'm not going to call it a ramp spell because it is seven mana, so it's let's a late game spell.
Zachary Jeblonski: But it works particularly well in Nyssa, who is a landfall trigger. and I don't have access to green. So I did get it on the battlefield. And I was able to do it. twice which was fun because basically it's like Land my turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: Next bonus turn, I activate him, put a land down. and the next turn i activate and put a land down right But I think he, I think outside Anissa, he might.
Zachary Jeblonski: i don't know where i don't know where else you put them Well, once you have a stick, and if you have... ample amounts of card draw, he can. ramp you. Like, you can just dump lands from your hand on the battlefield.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's a neat card. It's a really neat card.
ciderspence: There's another card I found today while I was looking. burp Chun -Li cards. This card seems perfect in the deck. I put it in, didn't draw it, but I'm excited about it. Hracevelgr of the First Brood.
ciderspence: It's from Final Fantasy Commander. It's four and a blue for a legendary creature elder dragon with flying vigilance and ward two. Doesn't sound great so far. But listen to this, Shiva's aid. When it enters and whenever you cast a non -creature spell, target creature gets plus 1 plus 0 until end of turn and can't be blocked this turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: and
ciderspence: So... Yeah, it's 5 mana, which is tough. But. If I get to attack with Chun -Li on a turn when I have this down... It's doing two of the things for me?
ciderspence: So this is like... Basically, the plan now is in her Voltron state is get a double strike. pumper. pumper with spells and hopefully something that helps pump her while I'm casting spells.
ciderspence: I've got a few of them in the deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: This is now one of maybe three or four. effects like that but this is this is like unblockable plus plus one plus oh plus one plus oh by itself isn't going to get the job done But plus one plus zero combined with like...
ciderspence: double strike, and a couple of plus two plus twos. I think. might get the job done, so we'll see.
Zachary Jeblonski: Well, that's Yeah, it's pretty good. it's It's almost like... maybe worth considering for my Lice hack stack. as like an alternate commander in case lycex gets like controlled.
Zachary Jeblonski: because it's like pseudo prowess and un unblockable.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: so Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah. And Ward 2 is nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, War 2 is nice.
ciderspence: Yeah, I feel... I feel better about the Chun -Li deck also after putting Lyce Hexed in for the same reason. Like Lycex is an excellent backup commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, life taxes. good
ciderspence: For like if I can, you know, if I have my haste big pieces out, but they've made Chun Li basically uncastable than if I've got a hand. Then.
ciderspence: It'll be full of non -creature spells, so maybe I can just... power lice hexed out and still give her evasion in some some way. and get there.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Any other games you want to touch on?
ciderspence: That was it. Those were all the games I got in.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's a lot. That's good. All right, ready to go to Decks on Deck?
ciderspence: Yeah, let's do it
Zachary Jeblonski: So I. I've been prototyping the Vraska quite a bit. And it started off with like, oh, I'll just make Vraska artifacts and put...
Zachary Jeblonski: these chunky artifacts and Then I was like, well, wait a minute. Why don't I just do because I no longer have my. self -discard deck like the boros discard deck Why don't I just make her the discard? deck and you know just add some blue cards in I did that.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then I kind of realized that Nebraska's got a problem. Raska, and this is the Jeskai Raska, so that's Raska, Soul of Stun, Blue, Red, White. artifact creatures you can control have vigilance. Whenever you cast a non -creature spell, you make a 1 -1 color sculpture, treasure, artifact, creature token.
Zachary Jeblonski: put sacrifice this token and add one matter of any color He just combos like crazy. And like I built the deck with a lot of the same pieces that was in my Quintorias.
Zachary Jeblonski: A little bit of blue in there. but basically if you get one or two cost reductions and a one or two or a single token doubler of any kind, which you can have plenty in white.
Zachary Jeblonski: She just goes infinite. like pretty much pretty quickly. As long as you have a win.
ciderspence: You need to give the things haste, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah you gotta have the yeah it's a good setup right you gotta to have the things have haste and you have to have some way to keep drawing cards. But it's really not that hard. and So I was like, all right, well.
Zachary Jeblonski: I can't build this version of her. Like I can't because like. Literally every time I've goldfished it. I turned seven or eight or nine. i am effectively infinite if i'm not like actually infinite then i'm gonna have like a 20 minute turn Like.
Zachary Jeblonski: And you know that's just not fun. That's just not what I want to bring to a pod. So I'm kind of back to the drawing board with her a little bit. I think. i was thinking i was like She makes artifact creatures.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I think I might do a version of what I used to do. so what It's interesting when you brought up Jet Mirror. So I used to have a Jemir deck who is... Red, white, green. And I built him.
Zachary Jeblonski: in this funny way. where I made sure there was like. no creatures in the deck, there were only enchantments. and order for me to And I had to get all my creatures from enchantments that generated creatures, basically.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I...
ciderspence: Nice. I like it.
Zachary Jeblonski: It was a pretty successful deck in a way, because basically it's an enchantress deck. and eventually the enchantments just start pooping out tokens and then and then i play toke and then i play jemmy when i'm ready to just kind of alpha strike somebody It was good for a while. You know, I liked it for a while.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I might do that with Frasca where it's just like. I'm just going to make an Enchanter stack out of it. And all the enchantments are not creature spells, I'll make artifact creatures off of it. And then those enchantments will have.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know anthems on top of anthems inside of pumps and stuff So these things will get big. and it'll hopefully will avoid these stormy turns and all that like i won't go like semi -infinite you know So that's going to be kind of the next project is to kind of try to create that.
ciderspence: Yeah, nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, what do you got what you got on deck?
ciderspence: Yeah, I'm starting to think more about the decks I want to take to Atlanta.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: and there's But there's one deck I still want to build from Reality Fracture. One of my factions, I don't have a representative. Of. from the set. And so I think I'm trying to build the mono blue uh,
ciderspence: What's the mean ninja's name?
Zachary Jeblonski: I know.
ciderspence: No, the The Notorious One.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, Tetsuo. Umazawa?
ciderspence: Uh... Why my mouth sounds like that?
Zachary Jeblonski: mean ninjans one Oh, oh, oh, Yuriko.
ciderspence: Yuriko, yeah, yeah, yeah. The mono blue Yuriko. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: She's bad, but I think... a debt can be made out of her. So she is your... Co.
Zachary Jeblonski: Hope from the shadows.
ciderspence: Hope from the shadows. She's a single blue for a human ninja with Flash. When she enters, choose one, target creature gets minus X minus O until... End of turn where X is the number of cards in your graveyard.
ciderspence: So I'll be good with that. card that wants to be negative power. But. I don't think that card is out yet
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh yeah, loot. Yeah.
ciderspence: But yeah. And then. or Surveil 2. And she's a 1 -1. So I basically want to build this as a surveil deck. where I'm trying to Bounce your eco.
ciderspence: and surveil stuff into the graveyard. Maybe get some stuff that I can play from the graveyard. I want to have like... some of the colorless play lands from your graveyard stuff. But I.
ciderspence: I think. Like I wonder if it would be too salt -inducing to make the other WinCon just be... Lab man?
ciderspence: And the goal being to like surveil my whole deck into the graveyard. and then hopefully be able to draw from an empty library. I don't know. and People kind of hate that. so I probably won't do that, but I need to come up with another win con.
ciderspence: that involves surveilling or getting your library to an empty point and in in blue no less without access to black where I think some of those other win cons reside.
ciderspence: But that's the...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: That's the other thing I'm working on. That's that's mainly like I finished I kind of finished the other dex i was trying to put together like i've i've got the Torwalkie Dax. Torwalkie B. Unger is basically finished.
ciderspence: I'm just kind of trying to make it better with some good MDFCs. Like I said, the Megatron deck is fine. Tom Lee will... be a work in progress forever.
ciderspence: So yeah, I just... I want to finish this. complete the set for reality fracture before Atlanta. I don't even know if I'm going to bring that deck. but i just I like the other decks.
ciderspence: Some of the other decks I really like and so I want to at least give Yuriko a chance, so I gotta finish putting her together.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, never. Never underestimate a one mana commander. I mean, the ability to to always have to always be able to surveil two on your turn one. That can be pretty powerful, you know.
ciderspence: Well, I mean, one... one Mana plus flash. What I love about that is like if I can bounce her I get that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Castor. Perfect. at flash speed whenever I want, which is kind of ridiculous.
Zachary Jeblonski: You can bounce her. with the brand new mechanic, Beam Me Up Scotty.
ciderspence: You could.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm sorry, I was trying to make like, I don't know. But yes, yes. Yeah. If you have any kind of effects that are like. You know that require you to return a creature to your hand or something like that Yeah, you know you know, I should build a one -mana commander at some point. One -mana commanders are kind of neat. You can do some really cool stuff with them.
ciderspence: Yeah. i I did build one one -mana commander, the Basri from Aether Drift. Uh, one white and you can pay white and tap and exert him to make a one one white life linking cat token
ciderspence: I thought that was fun. it's It's a little underpowered, but it's very playable.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: and And like the right.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: bracket two table
Zachary Jeblonski: I see that, yeah.
ciderspence: Because life, I mean, all the Any archetype that you can. well represent. like if you if you say the name of the archetype and you can kind of think of the pieces It's going to be pretty good. So I commander that. taps directly into that, like landfall.
ciderspence: Enchantress. life gain. Like they're not all the same. They're not all the same strength, but they're all well -supported counters. right like these are These are archetypes that like if you're in if you're not in the...
ciderspence: knowingly wrong color combination for them. It's just going to be a fine playable deck because there's so many support pieces.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah
ciderspence: So yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: How about you? Oh man, I wonder if Norn the Wyr is the best one mana commander. i just I just searched it up real quick. He might be the best one.
ciderspence: It's probably the one I see the most often.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, if he's built correctly, he's he can be really good. The Tamio is really good, too. Because if you don't if you don't have a way of kind of like stopping what she's doing.
ciderspence: Oh the flip.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's the one, yeah.
ciderspence: Planeswalker Tameo? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that that one's really good too. That can be a little scary. I've played against that deck before. And just like, and it's the impending doom of like. Oh, no one's been able to answer her and she's flipped and all God.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, cool. Yeah, is there anything else you wanted to touch on before we kind of wrap it up?
ciderspence: Nah, I'm good there.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I'm good as well. Thanks for joining me for another episode, Charles.
ciderspence: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Zachary Jeblonski: You guys have a good week out there and we'll talk again soon.
ciderspence: Take it easy everybody. good Be good to each other please.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'll play Hurtle.
