Make the 6th Color!
- Poison is one of the major elements of the block; it was planned from the start to be about poison and it's extremely important to the whole block design.
- Poison features in a variety of other ways in the block besides just Infect creatures.
- Infect doesn't just cover combat damage and there will be cards that take advantage of that distinction.
- Infect was designed because Poisonous wasn't a good keyword and part of the goal was to fix the "poison/damage problem" where you kill people too fast with damage to make poison relevant.
- They actually did originally have a poison mechanic and Wither on each creature, then decided that was stupid and combined them into one word.
- SoM's design goes out of its way to ensure that poison "isn't just another life total."
- There probably won't be cards that remove poison counters; Rosewater despises the card Leeches and hints that you don't need cards that remove poison to balance poison.
Hello, This is Jareth here to talk about Elder Dragon Highlander.
Introduction to EDH
You know those crazy nerds that always seem to stay way after the tournaments end for FNM? And they are always playing with those really big decks? Perhaps you have friends who have mentioned EDH but you didn't know how to get started? Well here are a few things to know about EDH and a bit of a primer into the casual side of Magic, where you can find really cool cards that don't exist in tournament play. I'll start things off with a brief explanation, in EDH everyone plays with a 100 card deck, however out of those 100 cards one of them must be a Legendary Creature (There are plenty out there, to find yourself a good general click here.) The next part of your deck composition is that you can only have 1 of a card instead of 4 (minus basic lands / snow covered lands) Your deck must also run only the mana symbols located on your general, for example: Jenara gives you access to green, white, and blue. You will then keep your general separate from the deck, and your general is considered in your hand for the purposes of being able to be cast, however the difference your general makes is that when it attacks your opponent and successfully deals damage when your opponent reaches 21 damage from a single general they lose. Also when it is sent to exile or graveyard, you may instead return it to your "command zone" which is where your general will be when you start the game. However there is a catch, every time your general dies you have pay 2 colorless more to summon him/her the next time. The full rules can be read here.So to just sum up all the basics of EDH:
- You need a Legendary General.
- You need to have 100 cards in total (including your general)
- Your general starts in the command zone, can be cast as if from your hand, and can be returned to the command zone when it is exiled or sent to graveyard, when it does return to the command zone it costs 2 colorless mana more to play the next time. Also you need to do 21 general damage to a opponent to kill them.
- This is a casual format, although broken decks can be made for EDH, it is more advisable to create a deck that you consider fun and that others around you will enjoy playing.
So now that you know the idea behind EDH, it might seem like a big task, after all 100 cards is a pretty big number compared to a 60 card deck, especially when every card has to be unique (except the basic lands) So lets keep it simple to start it off, you need to have a legendary creature, and the more colors your creature is the easier it is to make your first EDH deck (the more colors you have access to, the wider range of cards you will have to put into the deck) I would say a 3 color general makes a decent EDH general, it gives you access to 3/5 colors, but without requiring all dual lands to build. A mono colored deck doesn't have to worry about mana fixing or their mana base as much, but as a result has a much smaller pool of cards to choose from for deck construction.
A few EDH staples
Depending on what your running, there are a few "staples" of the format. The biggest of which is Lightning Greaves. This is basically the only card I would say every EDH deck must run, it is extremely powerful protection for any creature, and makes your general 100 times harder to deal with, it also gives a creature haste for 0 mana which is good at rushing your general out and swinging the turn you can summon your general. A few other really good cards would include Skullclamp which gives you great card advantage, and helps to lift a bit of the stress off your shoulders when your opponent wraths the field, because you will at least get 2 cards out of a potentially bad situation. Krosan Grip is another great card for EDH, however this one requires a color commitment, the reason I use this card for EDH and think it has quite a bit of power in EDH is that EDH tends to have more artifact / enchantments than standard since it is a much more casual format, so this really goes for any enchantment / artifact breakers not just the Grip, because having things that break them can really balance out a possibly uneven game. Also Tutors have quite a bit of power in a EDH match since they allow you to tutor up cards that might take you 30-40 more turns to draw through drawing.
A few examples of decks I have encountered.
Jenara, Asura of War
This is the deck I am currently running, it features very few creatures, using Jenara as the main creature with a few exalted buffers like Rafiq and Sovereigns to turn Jenara into a wrecking ball, while using the majority of my deck space as artifact / enchantment breakers and wrath effects. (Key cards: single creature attack buffs and protection for general)
Merieke Ri Berit
This deck is a blue heavy stealing deck, it really doesn't have any win conditions in the deck itself, and uses your creatures and spells to beat you. (Key cards: clone effects and stealing cards)
Thraximundar
This deck consists of mainly removal cards to keep himself stable until casting his general (which works well against decks with less creatures, like the Jenara deck) to hopefully swing in for 7 general damage while severely hurting your opponents line. (Key cards: removal cards and good general protection) A card of note I would like to add from this deck is Endless Whispers which although not exactly a game ender or a potentially good card for the Thraximundar player is just the kind of card that makes EDH a great game, it offers a whole new portion of strategy to the game, when your sitting on 3-4 creatures, this is on the field and someone wraths . . . who do you give your creatures to?
Scion of the Ur Dragon
This deck can be kind of fun, it tries to get the mana base for Scion as fast as possible and then uses the Scion to swing in, maybe kill a few people but then using the dragons discarded from Scion you cast a spell like Patriarch's Bidding and go nuts. Karrthus makes Bidding sweet for this deck.
Omnath, Locus of Mana
This deck uses alot of mana tools like Extraplanar lens, Gauntlet of Power (really a mono color only tool) to generate lots of mana and tools like Shield of Kaldra and Whispersilk Cloak to keep Omnath evasive and ready to kill.
That's all for this week. If you have any comments or questions feel free to post in the forums and I will reply when I see your message.
"Venser, the Sojourner"
