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By: Leviathan, Mike Morales
Feb 28 2014 1:00pm
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Welcome back!  Today we're going to be looking at the last of the Commander 2013 preconstructed decks:  Evasive Maneuvers!  I've heard some complaints about the fact that I take these decks through their paces.  Some people say they already know what's in the decks, others say they want original brews.  However, I get a lot of questions from new players asking about the precons and what they can do to get involved in the format.  These are nice, simple ways to show exactly what you get and how the decks run without having to purchase the decks.  Then, people can decide whether the deck is worth their money.  So I believe these are helpful to people out there.

Anyways, Evasive Maneuvers doesn't have a huge money card like True-Name Nemesis, but it does come with some interesting stuff that you're going to like using in your Commander decks:

  

On top of those cards you get Derevi, who's pretty perfect for a Bant Goodstuff deck as well as other goofiness.  Let's just take a look at what we get with this deck. 

Evasive Maneuvers
A Preconstructed Commander Deck
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Aerie Mystics
1 Angel of Finality          
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Bane of Progress           
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Diviner Spirit           
1 Djinn of Infinite Deceits
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Flickerwisp
1 Hada Spy Patrol
1 Karmic Guide
1 Kazandu Tuskcaller
1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
1 Mirror Entity
1 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Murkfiend Liege
1 Phantom Nantuko
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Roon of the Hidden Realm           
1 Rubinia Soulsinger
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Skyward Eye Prophets
1 Stonecloaker
1 Thornwind Faeries
1 Winged Coatl
1 Wonder
29 cards

Other Spells
[Artifacts]
1 Azorius Keyrune
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Leonin Bladetrap
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Surveyor's Scope
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of the Paruns
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Thunderstaff
[Enchantments]           
1 Control Magic
1 Curse of Inertia
1 Curse of Predation
1 Curse of the Forsaken
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Flickerform
1 Leafdrake Roost            
1 Presence of Gond
[Instants]           
1 Aethermage's Touch
1 Arcane Denial
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Krosan Grip
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Unexpectedly Absent           
[Sorceries]           
1 Borrowing 100,000 Arrows
1 Kirtar's Wrath
1 Restore
1 Tempt with Glory
1 Wash Out
32 cards
 
Lands
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Bant Panorama
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Faerie Conclave
6 Forest
7 Island
1 Opal Palace           
7 Plains
1 Rupture Spire
1 Saltcrusted Steppe
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Transguild Promenade
38 cards

Sideboard
1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
1 cards
 
derevi empyrial tactician

 

Deck Tech

Unfortunately this deck has a little bit of the same syndrome that the Mind Seize deck has:  It's trying to be 2 different decks at once.  On the one hand, it has a bunch of dudes that tap to do things, along with a slight Wizard theme.  All these obviously work well with Derevi.  On the other hand we have a suite of blink creatures that are obviously meant to be used with Roon.  The good thing about the deck is that this 2 halves aren't as completely unrelated as those in the Mind Seize deck, and as such I managed to pull off a couple of wins with it. 

Really you could turn this into 2 different decks fairly easily.  Just take all the "enters the battlefield" dudes such as Acidic Slime, Flickerwisp, Dungeon Geists and Angel of Finality and put them into a Roon deck.  You could fill it out with cheap stuff like Coiling Oracle, or big back breaking stuff like Avenger of Zendikar.  Some of the other spells, like Conjurer's Closet, Aethermage's Touch, and Flickerform would go into this deck as well.

The Derevi side would have every creature with a tap symbol on it.  Kazandu Tuskcaller, Azami, Phantom Nantuko would all go in this pile.  Enablers like Murkfiend Liege, Curse of Inertia, Thousand-Year Elixir and Leafdrake Roost would all be helpful.  Cards to add would be Arcanis, Seedborn Muse, Fallowsage and Sigil Tracer.

But like I said, the deck did ok, even if it felt a little like I was just durdling sometimes.  I think that if you focused on one or the other of the themes you would have a much better play experience.

Game 1

Here we have another Derevi deck, which sort of looks like a modified version of the one I'm playing.  Unfortunately he misses a few land drops and doesn't get into the early action.  I don't do much this game, as I get stuck with useless Curses.  Damia gets Thada Adel into play.  Unfortunately the Hazezon Tamar player ramps into Mirari's Wake, follows that up with Minion Reflector, which is really tech with Hazezon, and then plays Purphoros.  Plus Aura Shards for good measure.  He then plays Hazezon, making a copy with the Reflector and killing one of them off.

We can't stop Hazezon, and he kills us the following turn with Purphoros triggers from Hazezon's sand warrior tokens and Martial Coup

Game 2

Here Avacyn is angel tribal, but is sort of mana hosed early.  Nekusar is a zombie tribal deck who drops an early Erebos and starts aggressively digging.  I get a few creatures out but Nekusar spoils my fun with Decree of Pain.  Luckily I have Karmic Guide and use her to get Rubinia back into play.  That's when Nekusar drops Dream Halls.

dream halls
Holy crap!

He uses the Halls to discard a bunch of stuff and control the board.  However, this allows the Avacyn player to drop her commander and Reya Dawnbringer.  Unfortunately Halls doesn't help me at all.   However it quickly becomes apparent what Nekusar's plan is when he tries to Living Death.  I have Arcane Denial for him though.  Unfortunately, I don't have another counter when he digs more and finds Zombie Apocalypse, bringing a bunch of zombies back along with Gray Merchant of Asphodel to win the game. 

Game 3

Here The Mimeoplasm has to mulligan down to 4 but sticks around because Nekusar is in the game.  Jhoira has a lot of steal effects like Seasinger to go along with Bazaar Trader, which is interesting.  I have Presence of Gond on my Mistmeadow Witch and don't do much.  However, Mimeo shows his true colors by playing Hand of the Praetors, which I'm able to steal using Control Magic.  I try to beat up on the Mimeo player, but Nekusar plays his Commander and Forced Fruition.  Luckily I can use the Mistmeadow Witch to blink Nekusar out before I play spells, although this slows me down a bit.  Things get even more interesting when Jhoira Clones Nekusar.  The Nekusar player has proven dangerous, and gets taken out after his overloaded Cyclonic Rift gets Hindered by the Mimeo.

The Mimeoplasm has a Propaganda in play but is open, so Jhoira and I start beating on him until he clears the board with Black Sun's Zenith.  I manage to take out Mimeo's graveyard with Angel of Finality right before he casts Rise of the Dark Realms, which he brings back to his hand with Anarchist.  Still we are able to beat down on him with fliers and slow him down when I cast Wash Out.  When he tries to Life's Finale to wipe the board, I use Mistmeadow Witch to blink out my Selesnya Guildmage and Rubinia.  I then take out both my opponents.

This deck isn't horrible, I managed to win a couple games with it.  However it just doesn't feel very cohesive.  Like I said, if you focus on the tappers or the blinking, I'm sure it will play much more smoothly.

I hope you guys enjoyed my look over all the new precons.  I might not get an article in next week because I'm going on a long weekend trip, but I promise to be back the following week for sure.  Until then!

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com
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CONQUEROR & COMMANDER ARCHIVE

5 Comments

I sent this over to a buddy by Doctor Anime at Sat, 03/01/2014 - 13:11
Doctor Anime's picture
5

I sent this over to a buddy of mine looking to get into Commander but not sure which precon he'd like to start with. Great stuff as usual! Also special mention to angel tribal, I love it, I remember back when I started playing that was one of the first things I attempted so it holds a special spot in my heart.

Loving the content by PolarBearSoup at Mon, 03/03/2014 - 04:57
PolarBearSoup's picture

I've been watching a lot of your gameplay videos recently, and really wanted to compliment you on putting it out there and getting a good variation of commander food for thought. The fact that you run through replays is actually very appealing as it condenses games into much shorter spells and allows us to take in more of the highlights, I appreciate this is usually going to be extra time on your part.

That said, one thing that I would love to have seen in the pre-con reviews is more of your thoughts on the deck after each game, rather than a synopsis of the video. I appreciate we can see some of this within the video, but reading your perspective is always nice confirmation, and allows for a bit more understanding on the card interaction.

Thanks and keep up the great content.

Thanks for the suggestions, by Leviathan at Mon, 03/03/2014 - 14:32
Leviathan's picture

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can do in the future. As for replays vs. Live games, I get a lot of people liking both sides, but this is usually the only way I can do them. Glad you like it tho.

Conquerer & Commander vids by fragmento at Tue, 03/04/2014 - 23:50
fragmento's picture
5

This is my first puremtgo.com post. I think I've watched just about every one of your vids in the past week and have (obviously) found them to be awesome to watch. I'm not an MTGO player, but love playing commander @ the kitchen table w/ buds whenever we can find the time. I have to say, the game play and deck construction on MTGO as well as the actual game play is really dynamic and really appreciate how MTGO 'knows' the rules and applies (or at least gives you the option to apply) the triggers per the rules. One thing that I find really annoying is how players will just drop out in the middle (or end) of a game (Derevi Game 2). Again - really appreciate the vids (esp the live ones) and look forward to more.

The disconnecting is just by Leviathan at Wed, 03/05/2014 - 13:53
Leviathan's picture

The disconnecting is just part of the game, especially since people have real lives when they're at home. It's annoying, but you learn to deal with it.

The rules manager on MTGO is practically the best thing about it. I know I would have a hard time remembering every trigger that can happen in a Commander game.

Glad you like the vids man!