Competitive

Do you like big creatures? Powerful artifacts? Midrange, Aggro, and control? Do you like to beat face but also win with ridiculous combos that will make your opponents’ jaws drop to the ground? If you answered yes to any or all of those questions, then I sure have the […]

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard EDH Primer

20 Jun, 2019 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Deck Tech / EDH / Green / Stompy by zebotc

So, you say you want to draw cards, eh? You say you want to draw lots of cards? Good cards? Game winning cards, perhaps? Well, today, I present to you Magic’s latest and greatest in card drawing technology. That of course is, Azami Lady of Scrolls! Drawing cards in Magic […]

EDH: Azami Lady of Scrolls

31 Jan, 2018 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Blue / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Deck Tech / EDH / Guides by zebotc

Ever since I started playing Magic years ago, I have always wanted vampires to be a deck. When I first started playing, I fell in love with all of the vampire cards, their arts, their abilities, the flavor of them (I’ve always been a fan of victorian era things). But, […]

Mardu Vampires in Modern? Rivals of Ixalan Spoilers!

8 Jan, 2018 in Articles / Formats / Modern tagged Black / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Guides / Modern / Red / White by zebotc

Magic can be an incredibly intricate and complex game to learn and play. While its basic rules are not too hard to understand, there are a lot of underlying strategies that are not always outwardly apparent to everyone. I know for myself, I definitely didn’t understand a lot of the […]

Advanced Magic: The Gathering Strategy – How to Be a ...

13 Dec, 2017 in Articles / Getting Started / MTG Guides / The Game tagged Advice / Competitive / Discussion / Guides / The Game by zebotc

Being able to add cards to your hand is almost always a useful ability, especially in games where you end up using all of your resources in one fell swoop. Having a large amount of cards in your hand can completely change the tide of a game. So cards that […]

Best Draw Cards in MTG

6 Dec, 2017 in Articles / Explanations / Getting Started / MTG Guides tagged Advice / Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / Guides / The Game / Tips by

Dredge is a strategy that many players turn their noses up at. It has quite the reputation for being a degenerate, undervalued deck. However, in spite of popular belief, it can actually be a very fun, competitive, and complex deck to play. It is the ultimate graveyard deck in Magic. […]

Vintage Dredge

22 Nov, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Vintage tagged Black / Blue / Competitive / Deck Tech / Green / Red / White by zebotc

Today we will be returning to the wonderful format of Pauper with a deck the has been a major contender for best deck in the format for years: Delver. If you play Pauper regularly, you will inevitably face some version of this deck, and you must be prepared. Due to […]

Pauper: Mono Blue Delver Breakdown

8 Nov, 2017 in Uncategorized tagged Aggro / Blue / Competitive / Deck Tech / Pauper by Shakunjin

Today we will be taking a closer look at one of my favorite formats in Magic: Vintage. For this special occasion, I will be going over the deck I play the most, Tezzerator. Tezzerator is an artifact focused combo deck, but don’t confuse it with the one trick pony combo […]

Vintage Tezzerator Breakdown

18 Oct, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Vintage tagged Black / Blue / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Guides / Red / Vintage by Shakunjin

It was my first tournament and I had just started getting my feet wet in the Legacy format. I was so excited to finally be playing a match with my pet deck: Death and Taxes. This was back in the CB-Top days, and of course my opponent was playing a classic […]

Containment Priest Does Not Stop Tokens… and Other MTG Misconceptions

29 Sep, 2017 in Articles / MTG Guides / The Game tagged Casual / Competitive / Discussion / Getting Started / Guides / Tips by zebotc

Today we are going to take a look at the various Narset lists that can be run in EDH. Narset has been a pet deck of mine for a while, and after playing it for quite some time I’ve found a whole bunch of really fun strategies that can be […]

EDH Narset Deck

1 Sep, 2017 in Articles / Decks / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Deck Tech / EDH by zebotc

Something often discussed in EDH is the notion of playing competitively VS casually. While that does play a roll into adapting your deck for a play group, we are not going to extensively discuss that idea in this article, if you want to read more about that, please check out […]

Let’s Discuss EDH: Adapting Your Deck For Your Playgroup

11 Aug, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / MTG Guides / The Game tagged Advice / Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / EDH by zebotc

The recent release of Hour of Devastation is changing formats across the board. One of my favorite formats to consider when a new set comes out is Commander. In this article I will be going over the top ten cards in Hour of Devastation that I think are going to […]

Top 10 EDH Cards: Hour of Devastation

2 Aug, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / EDH by Shakunjin

Modern is a format that is always fluctuating. Throughout its short history, the number of decks that have called themselves number one have been numerous. Such decks have included: Jund, Splintertwin, Delver, and now Death Shadow’s Aggro. While the very top decks in Modern fluctuate often, there are a few decks […]

Modern Death and Taxes

28 Jul, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Modern tagged Competitive / Deck Tech / Modern / White by zebotc

With the release of the Amonkhet block, a lot of cards were added to Magic the Gathering. Most of the cards from Amonkhet look gorgeous, whether they are new cards or reprints of old cards. You can tell that the artists put their hearts into designing this set. The creators even came up […]

The Monuments of Amonkhet

24 Jul, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion by

The Amonkhet block has brought with it a lot of very unique creatures and mechanics. Not only have there been powerful Modern cards in the forms of and , but there have also been some very powerful Legendary creatures released. While some of these creatures may never see play in […]

Top Commanders from the Amonkhet Block

14 Jul, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / EDH by zebotc

Mana is the core component of Magic, as it allows players to cast spells and basically play the game. Sometimes, players have difficulties rounding up enough mana to play spells with high mana costs; such as and . But infinite mana combos can be an easy solution to casting these high […]

Infinite Mana Combos

10 Jul, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / The Game tagged Casual / Competitive / Discussion by

With the recent banning of in Legacy, many players were troubled that there would be no more hard control decks in the format. Some even gave up hope entirely that Legacy would fix itself. However there is now a new deck on the forefront of Legacy’s new meta game that is […]

Legacy UW(x) Control Deck Spotlight

5 Jun, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Legacy / News tagged Blue / Casual / cEDH / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Discussion / Legacy / Red / Speculation / White by zebotc

Throughout my time deck building and brewing for commander I’ve found one specific aspect of building decks for the format to be incredibly important. And thus I present my concept of: Consistency within Inconsistency Now this phrase alone probably doesn’t mean much to you. You’re probably wondering, “What in the […]

EDH: Consistency Within Inconsistency

29 May, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / The Game tagged Advice / Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / EDH by zebotc

Elves have been a strategy in Magic for almost as long as the game has existed. They have been supported heavily throughout all of Magic’s history, so it is no surprise that it is entirely possible to make an EDH deck that revolves around them. While there are many commanders […]

EDH: Ezuri Elves Tribal

22 May, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / EDH / Green by zebotc

Today, we take another look at my favorite format, Pauper. Due to its vast card pool and affordability Pauper is a great deck for brewers, and while that is a great thing for most people, others enjoy playing the top decks, or maybe they just need a place to get […]

Pauper Stompy

10 May, 2017 in Decks / Pauper / Uncategorized tagged Aggro / Brews / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Green / MTG / MTGO / Pauper / Peasant / Stompy / Wizards of The Coast by Shakunjin

Every format has its share of top decks – Legacy had Miracles, Modern had Jund (and currently Death’s Shadow Aggro), and for the moment Standard has Mardu Vehicles. But are these top decks truly the best and most optimized decks that could be played in said format? Just because public […]

Are “Top Tier” Decks Truly The Best?

8 May, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Legacy / Modern / Standard / The Game tagged Advice / Competitive / Discussion / Formats / Legacy / Modern / Standard / The Game by zebotc

EDH is a format full of variation and personalization. Just think of all the choices you have to make when you’re creating a deck. What strategy do you want to play? What colors do you want to be in? And the most infamous of all: what commander should you use? For many […]

“And I’ll Form the Head!”: An Overview of Voltron

3 May, 2017 in EDH/Commander / Explanations / Uncategorized tagged Advice / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Decks / Discussion / EDH / Getting Started / The Game / Tiny Leaders / Wizards / Wizards of The Coast by Shakunjin

Originally I was going to write an article about how the Legacy meta game might turn out in light of the recent banning of Top. However because everyone else has already discussed that to the point of redundancy, I’ve decided to write specifically about Miracles and what happens to the […]

Legacy: So What Now for Miracles Decks?

1 May, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Legacy / News / The Game tagged Blue / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Discussion / Formats / Legacy / Red / Rumors / Speculation / The Game by zebotc

While it is too early to tell for certain which cards from Magic’s newest set, Amonkhet, will be seeing play in eternal formats, there are definitely some very powerful contenders. Some of which have a very high potential to make entirely new strategies in various formats possibly altering entire meta […]

Amonkhet’s Impact on Eternal Formats

24 Apr, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / Legacy / Modern / News / Pauper / The Game tagged Advice / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Decks / Discussion / EDH / Formats / Legacy / Modern / Speculation / Spoilers by zebotc

Recently, I’ve started experimenting with different EDH decks. At first, I had a , Elf-based combo deck, but this deck quickly became boring, and felt underpowered to the group I was playing with. So I began searching for a new deck to play. After trying several different brews, I came up with the idea […]

EDH: Best Equipment to Run

5 Apr, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / The Game tagged Advice / Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / Formats / Guides by LooseWire

Countless strategies exist for Magic’s popular Commander format. While many players start out with the preconstructed decks or the most popularly-used generals, there are so many other strategies out there, just waiting to be discovered. So today, we are going to be exploring some underrated generals that are all solid […]

Underrated EDH Generals

27 Feb, 2017 in Articles / Decks / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Black / Blue / Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Decks / Discussion / EDH / Green / Red / White by zebotc

Decks in Legacy always have a specific goal. Some want to chain together spells, others want to bring back gigantic demons from the dead, while others want to make sure that their opponents can’t have fun. This deck fits into several categories. It disrupts the playstyle of our opponent, aggressively attacks, creates […]

Legacy: Sylvan Stompy

17 Feb, 2017 in Articles / Decks / Formats / Legacy tagged Aggro / Brews / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Green / Legacy / MTG / Stompy by LooseWire

Pro Tour Dublin has recently come to a close and one deck really seems to have shined, Mardu Vehicles. The prevalence of this deck in the Pro Tour has caused a lot of stir in the Standard community. Although it is by no means unbeatable (having many unfavorable matchups) that […]

Standard Mardu Vehicles

15 Feb, 2017 in Articles / Decks / Formats / News / Standard / Uncategorized tagged Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Standard by Shakunjin

With the recent full release of the Kaladesh block many aspects of various Standard decks have been significantly affected, and even some new increasingly powerful strategies have cropped up, such as Saheeli Combo. But how has this block begun to alter the eternal scene? What cards in it can we […]

Kaladesh Block Charging Into Eternal Formats

10 Feb, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / Legacy / Modern / The Game tagged Advice / Casual / Competitive / Discussion / Frontier / Legacy / Modern / News / Speculation by zebotc

With the release of Modern Masters 2017 on the horizon, there is much speculation about what should be in the set. With card prices rising, and a slim chance of many of these cards being reprinted in a legal Standard set, Modern Masters may be our only hope to help the affordability […]

Top Eight Cards for Modern Masters 2017

8 Feb, 2017 in Articles / Formats / Modern / The Game tagged Casual / Competitive / Discussion / Formats / Modern / Rumors / Speculation / The Game / Wizards / Wizards of The Coast by Shakunjin

1/1’s: the little guys – the cards in every Magic set that are often overshadowed by their physically superior, more robust kin. Today, we’re going to pay tribute to the many incredibly influential 1/1’s that help keep strategies alive. While many of these creatures aren’t very useful in combat, have lackluster […]

The Power of 1/1’s

6 Feb, 2017 in Articles / Explanations / MTG Guides / The Game tagged Advice / Casual / Competitive / Discussion / Guides / Tips by zebotc

Eldrazi Stompy – much like the events of Zendikar – ravaged through almost every format during the early 2016 season. Much like their story-driven counterparts, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, EDH, and even Standard saw an insurgence in Eldrazi-based decks. With the EDH and Standard decks fairly balanced, all seemed to be going […]

Legacy: Eldrazi Aggro Losing Popularity?

28 Jan, 2017 in Articles / Decks / Formats / Legacy / News tagged Aggro / Competitive / Discussion / Formats / Legacy / News / Speculation by zebotc

EDH decks are a work of art; is it okay to use a list that’s not your own? There’s a lot of animosity around netdecking in EDH: many players say, yes, it’s alright, while many more cry blasphemy at the very notion. So today (regardless of whether you play competitively or casually), we’re going […]

Let’s Discuss EDH: Netdecking

28 Jan, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats tagged Advice / Casual / cEDH / Commander / Competitive / Discussion / EDH by zebotc

Throughout the history of Magic, some colors have been better than others at getting rid of things. In the Modern format, it can be tricky to think of all of the removal out there. We’re going to list all of the removal that we’ve seen played, just to get an idea of […]

Modern Removal

28 Jan, 2017 in Articles / Explanations / Formats / Modern / MTG Guides tagged Competitive / Discussion / Formats / Getting Started / Guides / Modern / MTG / Tips by LooseWire

With FNM attendance in an alarming downswing, Wizards has responded. Standard as a format rarely, if ever, sees bans, since sets are usually carefully designed to work together. Wizards of the Coast’s recent choice to ban not only , but and , as well, was incredibly controversial. A lot of people would agree […]

Post-Aether Revolt/Bannings: State of Standard

27 Jan, 2017 in Articles / Formats / News / Standard / Uncategorized tagged Competitive / Decks / Discussion / Formats / Speculation / Standard / The Game / Wizards of The Coast by zebotc

In the world of EDH there is much controversy regarding casual vs competitive playing. So today we are going to take a look at the merits of both sides of the discussion.

Let’s Discuss EDH: Competitive vs. Casual

26 Jan, 2017 in Articles / EDH/Commander / Formats / MTG Guides / The Game tagged Advice / Casual / cEDH / Competitive / Discussion / EDH / Guides by zebotc

The Legacy meta game is ever-changing; it continues to grow and develop in spite of its high power levels, while staying solidly rooted to its foundations. New cards and strategies do crop up (usually only in fringe decks), but in many cases, they don’t heavily alter the format. Every once in a […]

Legacy: Leovold, the New Kid on the Block?

25 Jan, 2017 in Articles / Decks / Formats / Legacy / News tagged Brews / Competitive / Deck Tech / Decks / Legacy / Speculation by zebotc