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Elder Dragon Highlander or Commander as it is now known is gaining popularity and there are many groups playing EDH in pubs or other places for fun. There are also EDH tournaments 1-on-1 using the French rules that can be found at duelcommander.com. After quite some problems finding people with whom I could actually play I decided to participate in some of these tournaments. I build The Mimeoplasm that wins via Necrotic Ooze, Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion combo. So far it works pretty well. Also by some coincidence (already mentioned in this blog somewhere) I learned about the existence of one awesome group playing EDH. I wanted to go there and have some fun and for that I needed a deck. I couldn't just show up with my t3 kill deck. So I tried thinking about generals I could try that AREN'T blue because I knew that playing blue in my case would mean anyone would hate me rather soon^_^. The first non-blue general that came to my mind was Prossh. I always wanted to try some Jund deck that can sacrifice creatures and do something...(ideally win) but Kresh did not really appeal to me since it is just BIG. Prossh on the other hand...creates many tokens no matter if the card resolves or not and can also deal 21 damage in one swing. The next general coming to my mind was Marath, Will of the Wild because that is also a card that can do various things (the counter moving ability did not really catch my eye but the other two seem rather overpowered). I grabbed my cube (following the Holiday Cube Magic Online list) and put some cards together. I added few cards that weren't in the cube like Horizon Canopy, Kiki-Jiki etc... and a deck was born - Marath Pod. I did not build Prossh at that moment because I would have to search cards outside of the 720 card pool and I was too lazy for that. It would also mean that I would have to (double) sleeve the deck which I wasn't really looking forward to much/
Building anything out of cube usually ends up being a good deck though as it contains mostly good cards and this one proved to be a much better deck than I expected. My general idea of the deck was a...Birthing Pod deck but I guess I forgot why this card was banned in some formats. I've seen some Marath decks before but none of them was a combo deck except one Enchantress deck. I've seen some aggro decks from this general that really needed to kill via combat and there wasn't much synergy. This is not what I'd like to do with creatures if I'm forced to play some. I wanted to play creatures that can actually do something and then Pod into/Tutor some combo pieces if something would go wrong (the combo kill wasn't suppose to be the win con).
Combos are my thing in EDH because I'm not really good at attacking and I don't even see how such a deck could deal 30 or 40 damage. In this case I have Kiki-Jiki that can be paired up with Restoration Angel or Zealous Conscripts for example. I also really like Purphoros, not that I would want to animate him but his ability is just seriously annoying and it is a win con as well. That's why I tried adding creatures like Deranged Hermit or other token creating cards (Huntmaster of the Fells, Master of the Wild Hunt, Xenagos, Garruks etc). There is also Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune combo. This can be easily tutored so I can have endlessly big creatures and infinite life. And if this wouldn't be enough I can just have some fun with Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Mirror Entity and some creature...let's say Acidic Slime.
Otherwise this deck actually plays hell a LOT of creatures which is not really my thing. I usually forget to attack with them when I can, but anyway it's mostly utility creatures with few exceptions that are good at attacking and that's about it (Brimaz - I just needed another CMC3 creature that would be good and couldn't come up with a better one). There are some cards I wouldn't normally play but as they actually do something with the general I decided to include them in the deck - Mentor of the Meek and Basilisk Collar. These work quite nicely with Marath's abilities. Killing anything spending one mana is actually good (plus playing Collar and equiping it) and drawing cards of the little tokens is nice as well (it's not Skullclamp but works as well). I have to say that I mostly use it with other creatures and the card is not that bad as I expected.
This deck has some insane starts and can kill in an agressive way or it just kills with combo. I killed the whole table several times with this, it was rather fun but seemed far too efficient for this play group. I'm not really certain about efficiency and consistency of this deck but I wanted to build something weaker. I did not managed that...and that is why I decided to try something else. Here is the Marath's decklist.
Marath, Will of the WildCreature [44]
1 Karmic Guide
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Sun Titan
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Thragtusk
1 Spike Feeder
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Reveillark
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Mirror Entity
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Arbor Elf
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Restoration Angel
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Blade Splicer
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Academy Rector
1 Genesis
1 Eternal Witness
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Acidic Slime
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Courser of Kruphix
Instant [6]
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Beast Within
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
Sorcery [2]
1 Wrath of God
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Artifact [3]
1 Birthing Pod
1 Skullclamp
1 Basilisk Collar
Enchantment [3]
1 Aura Shards
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Oblivion Ring
Land [38]
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Taiga
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Plateau
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Windswept Heath
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Brushland
1 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Gavony Township
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Stomping Ground
1 Wasteland
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Marsh Flats
1 Flooded Strand
1 Mountain
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Raging Ravine
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Misty Rainforest
Planeswalker [3]
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Some time later I went to local game store and was asked by a couple if we wouldn't want to play a game of four of EDH or two headed giant. We agreed but I told the players that my decks are not really fair. After two games in which we totally crushed them even though we were caught off guard by some cards like Crypt Incursion or a card that prevents one damage from a source we decided to go our ways. I hope they will continue playing EDH after this experience. For occasions like this I wanted to build something really bad but couldn't come up with anything so I decided to build some of the WotC PCDs. The first Commander decks were actually nice so I wanted to see how the new ones ended up - I build Marath and Prossh.
After I put the Prossh deck together I realized that I've already seen that somewhere (same goes to Marath). Two of the players at the EDH group I started to play with have those and play with them. I wasn't aware though that the decks are preconstructed. I took both decks with me to the LGS and played some games with a friend of mine. After figuring out what some cards do (I had to proxy the new commander cards) we finally could play. The games unfortunately ended up in Prossh's favor. The Marath deck just couldn't do anything except an occasional Fireball killing the general etc. I thought that the decks would be balanced in some way but certainly not these two...Actually the general was more of a problem not the remainder of the deck. I have to say that the Jund deck is really nice, there are nice interactions and cards I really like but it's kinda overpowered. Marath's deck is rather slow and at 6 mana all it can do is play some beasts that don't usually do anything. Prossh on the otherhand comes with Kobolds that he alone can eat and make himself bigger...and as there is something like general damage....you get my point.
The very same day I promised my flatmate that we would play some Magic and that we would try these decks out. When I found out about how these two decks play against each other I told him on my return that I would put together some better Prossh deck and we would try it against Marath Pod (the one above). I put together some pretty random list but I was sure that it would actually work. I opened my binders and went through black, red and green cards. The cards of interest were Purphoros and Blood Artist. That meant inclusion of Food Chain that combos with the general and Goblin Bombardment. As that means sacrificing your own creatures, Grave Pact seemed a good idea as well. So what I wanted is to ramp into the general but not really by running mana rocks as I don't like those. They die to Pernicious Deed and cannot be sac'ed into Altars, Food Chain, Goblin Bombardment or Prossh etc. So I picked some mana dorks and some more expensive creatures fetching lands like Wood Elves and Solemn Simulacrum. This deck wants to play Prossh fast and if the general dies it wants to play it the next turn if possible and not wait two turns. I put in cards that work with the Kobolds like Ogre Battledriver, Hellrider and Craterhoof Behemoth. Well...Beastmaster Ascension works the best with it I guess but I simply don't have it or did not see it in my binder (it's not a card I would play anywhere, I don't like effects like this in general). After that I added some removal - both spot removal and global removal. As this is also relatively comboish deck it needs tutors and card draw engine. I even included Tooth and Nail as that seemed as a good idea in theory^_^. That usually kills immediately as well. I threw in some 38 lands that were laying around and the deck was ready for a game.
There are cards I would cut or not play (Nightsoil, Profane Command) at all but I did not have the time to think about it a bit more. I just grabbed the 100 cards and went to try it against Marath (whose deckbuilding time was about the same). My flatmate played Marath and he wasn't really aware of the cards inside the deck (not mine nor his) and that is why I won several games even though I should have lost. But no matter what it seemed that my Marath deck was too slow for this BEAST (what an irony...Marath is a beast but hardly can compare with Prossh's power level). When Prossh hit the table and stayed there for a turn it was usually game over. This deck can play Prossh on turn 4 and kill on turn 5. Marath can hardly do that even though Marath's deck can attack quite well sometimes. But still this flying creature is simply too much for Marath.
After these games I also tried playing with Prossh against The Mimeoplasm combo and vice versa. In this matchup it was Prossh losing most of the time. The deck was capable of winning when some of the banned cards from French EDH showed up on the table otherwise it died terribly. But when it won it was spectacular. I'm taking Prossh with me tomorrow (erm today) to the local playgroup and we will see how it will fare in that environment, hopefully it won't kill everyone too fast or too often (but from what I've seen so far it most probably will...the general is really insane and I thought that Derevi was overpowered, haha...).
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Creature [20]1 Acidic Slime
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wood Elves
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Inferno Titan
1 Hellrider
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Eternal Witness
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Sprouting Thrinax
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Blood Artist
1 Skullmulcher
Instant [7]
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Terminate
1 Jund Charm
1 Krosan Grip
1 Putrefy
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
Sorcery [12]
1 Dreadbore
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Seize the Day
1 Restore
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Nature's Lore
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Profane Command
Artifact [7]
1 Coalition Relic
1 Skullclamp
1 Carnage Altar
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Ashnod's Altar
Enchantment [11]
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Fecundity
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Food Chain
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Grave Pact
1 Sylvan Library
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Tooth and Claw
1 Awakening Zone
1 Night Soil
Land [38]
3 Forest
1 Wasteland
1 Blood Crypt
2 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Command Tower
3 Swamp
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Badlands
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Taiga
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Polluted Delta
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Windswept Heath
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Malady
1 Graven Cairns
1 Wooded Foothills
1 City of Brass
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Arid Mesa
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
Planeswalker [4]
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Garruk Relentless
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