#french commander

[cardboard-crack]

[levy120]

I hurt.

I was testing yesterday how Sachi would be fairing with the new changes to the Duel Commander Format to find that she doesn’t stand a chance. I’ve only played her against one deck for multiple times so it might have just been a bad matchup – but it was the type of deck that with this change before long is going to be dominating the format.

I won’t tear her apart. For now I simply exchanged all the cards that made her illegal in Multiplayer for a couple easy picks that made her ‘legal’ again, but it still hurts.

I get when fellow players get frustrated about announcement of bans when they just finished netdecking their most recent Modern deck, but there is a difference in whether I buy a deck over the course of one or two months or homebrew. Sachi was… is (I keep needing to remind myself) my trademark commander at my LGS that I have established over 2 years. And somehow all this time and money spent feels for naught now. A couple of the more valuable cards she used to play I aquired only recently and don’t feel like I had enough chances to even test them poroperly.

I have 3 potential successors in mind (WU!Daxos, with an equpiment theme, G!Ezuri or GU!Kaseto), but I cannot quite decide and the more I look at them and try to garner their individual advantages the more frustrated I get.

The worst part is that I feel ridiculous and I know that it is ridiculous especially because it’s not like I can’t keep playing her in Multiplayer, but at the same time it bothers me to such an extent that I lose control. I broke down crying despite myself if even for a short while before the Release Draft yesterday that I only participated in to distract myself.

And now I don’t know what to do. I don’t feel like I can bring up the energy – at least now – to build on any new deck as the wound is still too fresh to the point where I contemplate to simply drop my favorite tournament format altogether. Our storeowner tried to beseech us yesterday to try Standard again, but if I do, it will merely be with a deck that is meant to be ‘legal for participation’ and not made for actually winning games as I don’t see Standard as a format worth sinking money into.

I thought I would do better today and looked into a couple of established builds for Ezuri today... but it’s not. 

[doctor-roman]

I didn't see anything about this yesterday, and if it made waves, I missed out. Looks like Ulrich now has a foothold. Note that this is just for duel commander, not the more common multiplayer.

[doctor-roman]

Overnight I worked on a new Ulrich list that followed a basic premise: throw out cheap haste enablers and evasion, cast Ulrich, and swing for game as early as possible. 

I then compared the new list to the old list (which can be found here). 

The problem is, I forgot about some cards from the old list that I really, really like and think I should run. So I threw in the cards I wanted to keep into the new list. This, of course, has the deck over limit. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what to remove. I currently have 75 non-land cards in the deck and need to trim out at LEAST 10 to 11.

So far, I have my eyes on Ashling’s Prerogative, Concordant Crossroads, Mass Hysteria, and Barrage of Boulders, but beyond that, I’ve got nothing. Everything sounds good on paper and I have no idea how much playtesting I would have to do to figure out an optimized list.

So I’m just going to post the list that I have so far *here*. If you have any suggestions for what to take out, I’d love to hear your reasoning. I’ll also be more than willing to explain certain card choices. You’ll also notice that I only have about 16 lands. Once I cut the number off non-land cards down to around 64 (I like to run 36 lands in my commander decks), I’ll add the appropriate number of Forests and Mountains to finish out the list.

But for now, I’m just completely burnt out and need to step away from this for a bit. Maybe some new eyes or my own after a break will be able to weed out the undesirables. 

[commandollar]

Duel Decklists: Lyzolda, the Blood Witch

I’m ACTUALLY excited to talk about this week. Why? Because it takes place in America in a place that used to be stomping grounds for me (no not the shockland). Coming out of Hamelton, NJ this week,

FFH Holiday Tournament Series 1st place:  Lyzolda, the Blood Witch - Brie Baggaley

What does it do? The deck is shoveled into the tag of Rakdos Control....Trust me, that surprised me too. Lyzolda is essentially your main engine and win by shocking/drawing cards with one of your recurring bodies Ad Nausium. Blow up what you don’t like find your next angle of attack. The creatures are huge bodies to clog the board and attack, while the planeswalkers are great backup to help you maintain control of the board state and close out if it goes long. It’s a very unique take from the typical agro builds.  Honestly, there’s quite a few cards that I can’t quite figure out why, BUT the win cons in this make me smile. They need really not any explaining if you’ve ever played against them. Pack Rat....Hatred....Mogis God of Slaughter... Pack Rat gets OUT OF CONTROL if unchecked. Nothing says - you misplayed bad, by getting beaned for 21 commander damage out of the blue by Hatred. And there’s no more painful reminder that you have 0 creatures than Mogis shocking you to death.

Lands The sweet super tech in this is Kher Keep. While it doesn’t seem like much it’s an easy way to make guys to sac or keep the board clogged. I give up, I don’t understand the snow lands. I guess that's just personal touch. Everything else is pretty standard for a French list (Your lands also make up more than 1/2 the decks cost for this). Big shout out to the new BFZ - Blighted Fen. For Multiplayer - Keep your basics, you’re going to look like an agro deck so keep your few non-basics for utility hate.

Creatures My favorite part of the creatures in this deck may be just how many different angles there are. There are a few that do recursion - mostly for Lyzolda, but everything else is just value. Like TONS of VALUE. Most of these creatures are just a list of everything that was awful to deal with in standard over the last few years. Stormbreath, Olivia, Grave Titan, Pack Rat, Rabblemaster, the list goes on and they are all viable threats.  Everything that’s not a threat, attempts to pick apart the opposing hand/field. For Multiplayer -  Try and stick to the value dudes plan or focus in the recursion guys. Undying does great here until you can get your pieces together.

Instants & Sorceries Discard it or Kill it. Either way you aren’t allowed to have it. This takes all of the good things that these colors can do and jams them together. Your oddballs are Your tutors (find things) Hatred (win con), and Unearth (reanimate). Each can do its own thing for its own reasons. IMO, I don’t see the singleton reanimate as a really needed spell in this deck, I’d have rather had another bolt or a big red board wipe. But I don’t win big events, so what do I know. For Multiplayer - Most of these are great in Multiplayer. For the 4 you really don’t need, consider leaving spots for a combo or some means of mass player removal.

Other Spells Once again with 8 Planeswalkers - Do I REALLY have to talk about why they’re good? Let’s focus elsewhere. The other permanents read to me like a greatest hits of cards you should include because you’d be silly not to. Bitterblossom, Jitte and Skullclamp are all just phenomenal cards. Sulfuric Vortex puts a great clock on your opponent, but it can land you in trouble - but you’re playing Rakdos so you love trouble already anyway. Shrine seems like a strange include. You’re not going to get enough counters to blow out anyone out, but you might get enough to take out any big creatures that land or give the finishing blow. For Multiplayer - If you don’t have the planeswalkers or don’t like that plan, consider going Lyzolda infect ping or including big mana ritual spells.  

There are A LOT of small nuances that this deck can abuse for just ~$300 and although there’s a few things I have knit picked on - I don’t hate this deck at all. This quick look at it REALLY doesn’t do it justice at how many angles this deck can really play on and how good it can be. This is also a great example of a deck that blurs the line between Competitive and Multiplayer ready. Happy Holidays everyone! I thank you all from the bottom of my soul for each of you that even skims our articles and wish you all the best of whatever you celebrate and believe. If you are traveling anywhere make it safe and hopefully, you get to play a game or two of MTG while you have the time. I’ll see you after the holidays!

- Mr. X

[commandollar]

Duel Decklist: Sidisi, Undead Vizer

A new week is upon us and a new tournament on MTGTop8! This week the tournament is: And this week our winning deck is! Tasigur, crap But the 2nd place deck was! Tasigur again, double crap.

HOWEVER! the 3rd and 4th places are decks piloted by the same Commander and since there’s nothing to see here in 1st place, let’s look at quite possibly my new favorite French Commander.

Philippines Super Series 2015 - Finals (Espana, Philippines) -#3 Sidisi, Reanimator Vizer 

What does it do? The deck lists itself as reanimator, but its so much more than just cheating Griselbrand into play. It’s actually a combo deck under the disguise of Reanimator. Looking at the list provides a list of some of the coolest and most bizarre mana accelerants black and colorless has to offer. Using Sidisi as a tutor among the other tutors to find the pieces you need and bring them into the graveyard. The rest is just control, discard and tutors to reanimate your win con. BUT the part I love about it, it also runs one of the coolest end game combos  that's also REALLY inexpensive. Coming in at just $5 and available in any B [/X(/X)] deck:  Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskellion = Remove the top card of your deck from the game, win the game.

Lands Generating the extra mana from Cabal Coffers is part of the big mana accelerant plan. The Volrath’s stronghold is just an extra piece of insurance for creature recycling. As for the few lands that just help push through like Boseiju and Cavern that you may not have, just consider keeping to the Swamps as the do the job quite fine for most jobs. Even the wasteland is just for getting rid of problem lands. The common folk can stick to swamps and variation on a swamp.

Creatures Beware of thinking your goal is just to reanimate quick and punch, while its probably Plan A for a deck like this, sometimes getting through to your infinite is just better. Ooze, Devourer and Triskel are all Auto includes since they are part of the win condition. Those cards won’t jump in price anytime soon and most people probably have 2 of 3 in their binder now. Corpse Connoisseur is a nice addition to the find combo piece puzzle and a GREAT target for Sidisi. Griselbrand and Confidant can easily go for better multiplayer reanimate targets such as a Primordial, Grave titan, Eldrazi or big thing of choice.

Instants and Sorceries Many of your favorite reanimate spells are here and the plan is ultimately simple. Stick thing of choice (A) into graveyard (B) and then get it back to field (C). When you look, a lot of them vanish at EOT so the importance isn’t on making it stick but rather making the combo happen. Many of the discard spells are there as proactive control to prevent your combo from being assembled (seriously, props for Mire’s Toll as a really underutilized discard spell). Plenty of kill spells and tutors round out the rest of the card slots with some extra draw card spells to help keep the juices flowing. While Yawgmoth’s Will can be a great combo chain piece, it doesn’t need a home in many cheaper versions. Inquisition of Koz and Goryo’s Vengeance can be taken down to cheaper versions of the same effects. Just keep your costs low and your reanimate spells reasonable and they will never see it coming.

Other Spells The remainder of the slots go into making everything cheaper or ramping as fast as possible, plus a few other failsafes. Props for making use of some of the most casual of mana rocks like Charcoal Diamond, Coldsteel Heart and just because why not - FRACTURED POWERSTONE (talk about digging deep). Heartless Summoning returns as the most efficient accelerant people forgot they had. Plus more reanimate staples in Necromancy, Animate dead and Dance of the Dead. Ignore Lily and Ugin, in here they’re great extra plans and pieces of control for this deck. Slots for those two, Phyrexian Arena and some of the more expensive mana rocks can be traded down for other mana rocks, or more control/discard.

Sidisi may appear as a sidenote in this deck, but having a tutor as a commander can make your deck very viable. Even though it might look expensive, many of these pieces can be gathered or traded easily - this deck is a great place for anyone who’s looking to dip their toes into the Duel Commander universe, or anyone looking to expand their color base. Until next week happy people!

- Mr. X

[levy120]

I just tore up my Daxos Commander, because people kept suggesting to swap the Commander-Card, and after getting some inspiration in today’s tournament (and people having a far too easy time to cockblock his second ability) I finally followed that suggestion after trying not to for quite a while. 

[newsdock]

By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The small military force the European Union plans to send to violence-torn Central African Republic will focus on swiftly creating a safe haven in part of the capital Bangui, its French commander said on Thursday. The 500-strong force will have just six months from when it becomes fully operational to help improve security and so "must attain visible results very quickly," Major-General Philippe Ponties told a news conference. "The aim is to establish in our area of operations a kind of safe haven (in a limited area of Bangui) where people could feel secure," he said. Seleka leader Michel Djotodia gave up power last month as Christian militias stepped up their attacks on Muslims. Source: Reuters