T&T Bloom Scepter [cEDH Primer]

Commander / EDH jaymc1130

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Changes and Updates accounting for new cards —March 31, 2020

So there have been some new cards printed that have impacted the effectiveness of the Inception strategy in competitive play. The important cards in question are:

Thassa's Oracle - A new combo element in Flash Hulk or Consultation lines. Ultimately this card's existence does very little to help those types of strategies against Inception style strategies. Many meta decks simply added the Fish into their list and further reduced card slot efficiency, but did increase their deck's resiliency. This makes the Inception strategy a little less effective, though the concept was already designed to handle decks with more than one critical point of failure. Some meta decks simply cut a card like Laboratory Maniac and substituted the Oracle. This does nothing to prevent Inception strategies from dominating them game in and game out. The impact of Thassa's Oracle is negligible, but a slight improvement for opposing strategies.

Mystic Sanctuary - This land is amazing in cEDH. It will quickly become a meta staple given it's usefulness and T&T decks are primed to take advantage of it. Some interesting new engine possibilities now exist with the Bloom combo concept and the advantages of this concept's play patterns. It's effectiveness in the cEDH meta is being tested and it's already proving to be a powerhouse. Updates to include the Bloom combo and complimentary elements should occur for all T&T decks.

Veil of Summer - This card is a major problem for the Inception concept as it denies everything the strategy wants to do: disrupt and eliminate opposing win conditions quickly, put opponents in situations where every choice they make is beneficial to Inception decks, and efficiently win the battle of attrition, While it won't be the most common occurrence for an opposing deck to have Veil in it's opening hand, the instances where an opposing deck does have it in it's opener and is targeted by an Inception attack are massively detrimental to an Inception deck. Often times Veil acts as a 2 for none, trading Veil (which replaces itself, card nuetral) for a tutor and Extract or another targeted disruption piece at a mana investment advantage 2 to 1. In the instances where this happens an Inception strategy has woefully lost the battle of attrition very early in a game and recovery can be extremely difficult. As of this cards printing Inception piece packages should become a secondary option in Flex Slots rather than a primary option and used mostly when a pilot has knowledge of the meta they will be facing in advance of the match.

The primer is a bit out of date given the new additions to the meta, I'll get to work on updating it when I have a chance.

Demarge says... #1

Like this is why I don't like custom deck formatting, do you really need 2 different land sections? And how is the different formatting sections any better than just explaining card choices in your description?

August 15, 2019 8:21 p.m.

jaymc1130 says... #2

@ Demarge You do realize the lists are bugged right now right? This is showing every single card that has ever been included, every category ever created, and in a completely random ordering. The bug has been reported and it's been an issue all week long. Some of the things listed aren't even on the list any more, somehow the site is even remembering old cards that have since been removed and adding those into the mix.

As for why there are custom categories used, it's simple: not every likes to look at lists the way you do, or the way I do. Effort should be put into offering each potential viewer the viewing experience they desire.

August 15, 2019 9:46 p.m. Edited.

Demarge says... #3

did I even mention anything to do with the bugged lists (a bug mind you has existed for years, you may just notice it more frequently due to maybe making several deck changes lately, the key is to just keep remaking the changes until it sticks).

The custom formatting sure some people might like having groups that has only mana dorks or only fetch lands, but frankly it's like saying you prefer to write a book with page 1 in the middle then 2-11 goes left to right, 12-21 you flip back to page 1 and go right to left, page 22 is in the middle of page 33, and then the rest is upside down to prevent spoilers. Reading a deck list with default formatting is so universally the same it's either coverted mana cost all the way down then lands or card types split apart, sometimes just creature, non creature, and lands. It's also by the looks of it, a lot more resilient to not looking bad when tappedout eventually glitches (like how is Dramatic Reversal a utility instant and not in a combo section or how sure Muddle the Mixture is a counterspell, but it's put in the deck to tutor at sorcery speed). Also many cards serve multiple roles in a game, like Deathrite Shaman serves as both graveyard hate and mana ramp.

August 15, 2019 11:57 p.m.

jaymc1130 says... #4

@ Demarge The separation of particular groups in many of my custom categories is to allow for quick and easy identification of various aspects. When looking at a standard sorting an individual had to, for example, read through every single land with text that can be difficult on some people's eyes to identify what and how many fetch lands are in a deck list. Having all of them in one location makes it easy to identify how many there are and allows for less complicated deck absorption and thought processes.

Personally, I don't want to have to work through what aspects a deck has in it by being constantly forced to search for each individual piece to find out if a deck has enough interaction pieces, mana accelerants, etc. For the vast majority of people this makes the process of parsing through a decklist much more difficult and time consuming and I'm not going to assume that all viewers are willing to go to such lengths to absorb the information contained in a list.

As for why some specific cards are in specific categories it tends to be with this reasoning: each card belongs to the category of it's primary purpose. Dramatic Reversal, for example, is certainly a combo piece, but this deck runs triplicate redundancy on the ability to generate infinite mana and infinite draw. Often times in game a pilot might find themself casting it simply as a ritual effect for value, thus the card belongs to the utility category rather than strictly combo. Middle the Mixture belongs to utility interaction for similar reasons; it's an interaction spell that can serve multiple uses rather than strictly interaction or a tutor.

Whatever your personal opinion on how a deck is easiest to absorb I enable that potential viewing experience. For those who like standard sorting the list can be swapped over to standard, for those who like seeing succinct custom categories that option is also available, and those who like detailed descriptions about deck operation likewise have an option available to them.

August 16, 2019 12:41 a.m.