Welcome back to the wonderful world of Commander multiplayer, as told by SUNCOM, the PRE I run every Sunday at 16:00 GMT (more info about it here). You can read about the Origin of It All in the first article of this series.
TODAY'S COMMANDERS (click to go directly to the decklists): Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Adun Oakenshield, Kaalia of the Vast, Damia, Sage of Stone
COMMANDING NEWS
It's almost Christmas, and you know what that means, right? It means we're close to finally getting the Commander 2013 decks online, too!
They took their time porting it!
I had already commented on the new Curse Cycle (insert jokes about angry bikes or swearing guys with OCD), so this time let's have a preemptive look at the 10 new legendary dudes we're going to play soon enough. A good occasion to remind you of this list I made with all the existing commanders (517 available, plus 6 officially banned) complete with their creature types – and ordered by type in the other tab.
So, we're going with Shard-aligned commanders this time. Most of them are strong enough – Jeleva in particular seems bound to become a favorite. But I particularly like the new design space provided by the Command Zone, and exploited by Oloro's constant lifegaining, Derevi's ability to bypass the rule that increases the casting cost at each new iteration, and Marath's ability to turn that rule to his advantage.
Speaking of Marath, he and the (far less exciting) Gahiji bring the count for Beast generals to 3, joining the classic Uril, the Miststalker in the same Naya colors. And what about Roon of the Hidden Realm? That's right, it's the first Rhino legend ever! And not even bad at that: ETB galore! (And anti-stealing, to boot). We'll see this guy played, that's for sure.
SUNCOM 51
I did it! I mean, Kamahl did it! I finally rebuilt my favorite mono-green deck, and immediately stormed an event thanks to its signature combination of extreme ramping and Overrun capability. And I thusly provided 5 tix to the ongoing Jackpot's Challenge (which currently reached a whopping 20 tix). You can see both the tables I won and some comments about the list in the replay section below. And for the list itself, there it is.
In the final table with me I found: raf.azevedo with his latest attempt to clear the Elder Dragons challenge, this time by running Arcades Sabboth within a heavy countermagic build; Smaug, relying on Animar doing his trick (spoiler: Animar will end up disappointing him); and this interesting self-mill reanimator build by Zarcron, with the timeless classic Adun Oakenshield at the helm:
Adun is one of the best Legends legends (which isn't saying much, but still), yet as you'll see Zarcron didn't have much luck on his side during the game. Kamahl took all of that as well.
Update on the challenge: raf has now cleared 4 out of 5 Elder Dragons (only missing Vaevictis Asmadi), while Edison_88luckyplayer follows with 3. In virtue of a rule that I just made up, the two surviving challengers will be paired up at the same table next week, so that Edison can make a last, desperate stand to prevent raf to run away with the entire booty (remember they need to keep the Dragon on the battlefield for a full turn).
SUNCOM 52
Last week there were some impromptu complaints in the SUNCOM event room about the supposed dominance of infinite combo decks. Which is a little strange in hindsight, if you look at the list of the recent winners (and their lists), none of which relied on an infinite endgame. And that's especially true for these two past weeks, where right after Kamahl smashing faces, we got Kaalia doing the very same. Only, you know, more gracefully, because she's a posh lady. With wings, for some reason.
It's the list that finally qualified Beaubafett for the next Table of Champions (now the best candidates are Ayanam1, Silvos der Benny and Zarcron, all with two victories still to "spend" to earn themselves a place in that table come next May). Against the winged fury and her cheated-into-play minions we had doncogollo with his successful Sliver Queen build (which indeed has some Deadeye Navigator/Peregrine Drake action, and also Wirewood Channeler/Freed from the Real – there aren't that many Elves in the deck, though, how does that play out infinitely? I'm probably missing something). The third contender should've been elderurza85 with Damia, but he had to go, so SekKuar Deathkeeper replaced him (chosen at random, as per rules) with his poison-themed Vaevictis Asmadi prepared for the Elder challenge. I still want to feature elderurza's deck, because I like Damia.
I'm also glad to note that both these events had 12 players, which is great for a Commander multiplayer event. Keep coming, folks!
WHAT ABOUT SOME ACTION NOW?
KAMAHL SMASH!!!
I have already done a deck tech for this list in one of my early SUNCOM articles, then also analyzed most of these card choices in my treatise about green in Commander. I'd just like to point out the four big mana engines this deck aims to get online:
And the moment you hit two of them at once is when the fun, well, doubles
The deck has a 20-card ramp system embedded within its curve, most of which is land-fetching, so not easily disrupted. And also a good share of creature tutors to get to the Patron or the Praetor (or both). At that point, Kamahl just wins on his own, by using what he has at hand, or animating some lands then going Overrun on everyone's ass. Which is exactly what happens in these replays.
Here's the preliminary table the angry Druid won against SekKuar Deathkeeper with Nicol Bolas (a list called "Great Bolas of Fire") and my fellow countryman StGrevi with Teneb, the Harvester. Crazy ramp count: 32 mana by turn 7 thanks to Caged Sun and the Patron (the latter is a really underrated card).
The final has a lot of twists and turns, and mostly raf.azevedo in the role of the guy who tries to stop Kamahl from taking over. He did a few times, with help from Zarcron and Smaug, and mostly his many, many counterspells and stealing effects (at some point Kamahl even baffingly finds himself fighting on the opposite side of the battlefield, along with his own Wurmcoil Engine, against the two Gilded Drakes that did the stealings). Too bad the last couple of turns was cut off in the replay (WotC! When will you fix them? They're filled with bugs now!), right after raf managed to cast a kicked Rite of Replication on my Woodfall Primus survived from his previous Wrath of God, this way sending all my mana rampers to the graveyard. With low life totals, Zarcron gone and Smaug stuck with an undeveloped board, the situation was essentially a Mexican standoff between raf's 5 Treefolk tokens and my original Primus backed up by 3 Wurm tokens from a deceased Worldspine Wurm. In the end, Kamahl will be crucial, even with a non-crazy quantity of mana (plus I believe I did something to reduce raf's board presence, but I can't recall what that was). Anyway, here's the (almost) full video for you to enjoy.
As you can see me write in one of the replays, I decided to cut Masked Admirers in favor of Yeva, Nature's Herald, to better exploit the case in which I have Seedborn Muse and a ton of mana, with only Ant Queen in the whole deck to dump it into. Other changes I made:
- +1 Hurricane: can win games on its own, plus hating flyers is always important in a green build;
- +1 Swiftfoot Boots, +1 Akroma's Memorial: haste is important when I drop something the turn I'm ready for an alpha strike;
- +1 Wickerbough Elder, -1 Indrik Stomphowler: the Treefolk is just better, as I can choose if and when activate the ability, and it comes earlier;
- -1 Nylea, God of the Hunt: Kamahl already gives trample, and has definitely a better activated ability;
- -1 Harmonize: sad to see the spell that qualifies green as the second best card-drawing color go, but I feel like I don't need that much non-massive, non-targeted drawing)
- -1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: I feel more honest going Eldrazi-free, and Worldspine Wurm still remains more relevant in the deck.
Additions I'm building towards: Natural Order (of course, waiting for the Modern-frame promo); Gaea's Cradle (of course, waiting for its price to leave the insanity zone); Grim Monolith (causes infinite mana with Mana Reflection!); Dust Bowl (clearly better than Tectonic Edge, and I refuse to put up with Wasteland's price); and Winding Canyons (same reason I put Yeva in there). I already have all these replacements mapped out, but I need to find a way to work Awakening Zone in there, because it's just the perfect embodiment of everything Kamahl likes: mana + a lot of creatures ready to be pumped up (plus, it combos with both Skullclamp and Pattern of Rebirth).
Why isn't it in there already? Unknown.
And that's it. See you in the SUNCOM room next Sunday at 16:00 GMT, and with the Chronicles here on PureMTGO in two weeks! Commander ho!
