At what point do you feel a strategy or synergy in a deck is "magical Christmas land?"
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 12, 2023, 8:20 a.m. by DrukenReaps
...This might have been a better topic closer to Christams now that I think about it... lol
Anyways, I hear "magical Christmas land" maybe overused but used to describe a synergy or strategy that takes a significant number of cards or specific cards to actually pull it together and see work. It's also meant to mean that the synergy will only happen rarely, maybe once in a dozen games.
At what point do you decide that a synergy or strategy fits this description? Or do you have a different definition of "Magical Christmas land" in mind?
As a more specific example. I'm building Ashnod the Uncaring who has a neat interaction with Liquimetal Coating and a sac land. Say Evolving Wilds. Since I'm not running many tutors and the Coating is such a specific card I'm considering this to be a synergy that maybe isn't going to come up very much. So I'm limiting it to just a handful of things that are fine without seeing Coating in play.
I think that having the interaction in the deck is fine but leaning on it as a main strategy would be a mistake. There are other synergies for ashnod like blood, clue and food tokens that are more plentiful. Still though leaving the other synergy for happen stance can work provided you can find redundancy and permanents you can abuse with it (lads that can sacrifice them selves for value seem obvious).
January 12, 2023 10:55 a.m.
I usually refer to Magical Christmas Land when The Thing I Want To Do meets these requirements:
- Relies on my opponents having zero interaction. Zero counterspells, zero removal, zero ways to shut me down.
- Requires so much mana that I will have to do TTIWTD across 3+ turns. If I need to cast a 7MV into a 8MV into another 7MV, this needs multiple turns, unless I have infinite mana. If I have infinite mana, then I'm in Regular Christmas Land and should be winning anyway.
- Needs more than one card to survive a whole turn cycle. If TTIWTD is in play, and I can't do it yet, my opponent's are just going to try and kill some part of it. This may be a sub-requirement of the first requirement.
- Is 4+ cards in a deck with little to no card advantage or tutors. If I need to naturally draw that many pieces, they better be able to do things other than TTIWTD.
As an example of a combo, in my Glissa, the Traitor deck I run a 2.5 card combo. Glissa herself (I consider this a .5 since it is always available) + Thornbite Staff + Viridian Longbow.
I don't care if my opponents have most interaction (exile stuff I do care about), since Glissa can recur the pieces. The deck is based on making my opponents sac creatures, so Glissa is triggering all the time.
It does require 10 mana (not including Glissa, who should already be in play). This is not really something I can expect to do in a single turn, unless the game goes long. I can usually expect to have the 7 mana required to equip both though.
Nothing really needs to survive. Glissa, being my commander, can be recast. The two equipment can be recurred with Glissa.
The combo is only three cards, and I run a lot of card advantage and a few tutors in the deck. Besides that, the two equipment are generally good with just Glissa.
Looking at all that, The Thing I Want To Do is not a Magical Christmas Land thing. It is resilient, I can expect to get it off most games, and the pieces are good when I don't have it all.
January 12, 2023 12:15 p.m.
Magical Christmas Land is about doing stupid combos with a perfect draw, usually infinite, as fast as possible. Usually turn 1 or 2. That's how I think about it at least. Like if you could make a deck for any format and sculpt your opening hand, that's Magical Christmas Land
January 12, 2023 6:01 p.m. Edited.
IHATENAMES says... #6
I would define magical Christmas land as relying on 3 or more single cards without 2ce the number of ways to find them. Especially if it lacks multiple replacements for the *combo pieces.
In edh it comes up the most due to the singleton nature of the format. If you have enough synergy like your example maybe it could fit. Fetchlands as mentioned is a big one. Or have more reasons to run cards that benefit from multiple artifact on your side or opponents. Dack Fayden steals any perm. Karn, the Great Creator kills 0 cmc permanents. Tldr With enough synergy it can work.
Valduk, Keeper of the Treasury For instance I have a mono red equipment vultron deck based around making a ton of treasures. I run Bludgeon Brawl as a 3 mana do nothing most of the time. This is because there is alot that needs to go right with only some artifact tutors in the deck. Valduk, Keeper of the Flame or one of the 2 other payoffs for having many equipment that do nothing on a creature, multiple treasures to equipt and the least important the Bludgeon Brawl which I have no tutors for. I can guarantee that this has worked out and swung a game before but it's so unlikely that the scenario of it happening and if it does that it actually finishes a game it is magical chrismas land.
January 12, 2023 10 p.m.
Example in my main cedh deck I can technically get a turn one win very hard but very possible I can flub but the magical Christmas land. Land that produces red Mana Crypt + Jeska's Will + Underworld Breach + Grinding Station but it has a chance to get me there yes I would keep that hand
TypicalTimmy says... #2
Well it could just be pure math. If your synergy / combo requires more and more cards, it'll become harder and harder to achieve. So it boils down to statistics, which I won't even pretend to be versed in.
Then again, it is a thing of beauty when the magical Christmas land actually does happen IRL. Those frictionless gameplays are what we live for.
We all joke about a T1 Mana Crypt into a Sol Ring into an Arcane Signet into a Mind Stone. Plus your land. So you hit 7 mana T1 and still have cards in hand. But, it's happened to me.
Once.
And I won on T5 because of it, after taking someone out on T4 first.
January 12, 2023 8:25 a.m.