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Norin & Friends

Commander / EDH MULRAH

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Revisions & Etali Integration —Aug. 18, 2020

Etali's recent reprint made it an appealing addition for this deck, and the retirement of my more expensive Etali deck meant I wanted to find a new home for this fun card. Meanwhile, I had a whole suite of obnoxious "punisher" effects in here. Sure, my players don't like Etali stealing their stuff, but they like the crushing effects of Manabarbs etc. even less. I figure an occasional Etali isn't so bad, so I swapped out the punisher suite for some support that helps Etali hit the battlefield and get some value as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, I made a few budget cuts and swaps based on cards that found their way into my cube. I subsequently did a few goldfish playtests with the following results:

  1. The first game was pretty vanilla. Norin's ability was subtly powerful, allowing an extra card draw every turn off an early Tome of Legends. Ogre Battledriver and In the Web of War powered a massive hit for 35 life when I flipped over a Warbreak Trumpeter, and I considered the game over on the next turn (ten).
  2. Norin again proved more subtle in this playtest than previous ones, quietly generating value by constantly triggering In the Web of War and Electropotence for a steady stream of 4 damage, as long as I could pay 3 mana. The rest of the game was basically a steady stream of tokens and a constantly recurring Grinning Ignus.
  3. The games continued to be pretty straightforward. For the third time in a row, Grinning Ignus and In the Web of War made an appearance, resulting in repetitive gameplay. Norin once again was subtle rather than splashy, this time allowing an undercosted Soultether Golem to stick around forever.

None of the saucy rockstars--Confusion in the Ranks, Molten Echoes, Etali--showed up in any of the playtests, making the games feel surprisingly dull. This deck has a bit more interaction than other decks I've tested recently, and these cards are basically dead in your hand when you're goldfishing.

The main lesson I'm taking from these playtests is that the haste enablers are perhaps a bit too prevalent. They're there mostly for Etali, which is unlikely to show up. Haste anthems are very useful, but the ones that target are probably not as necessary. I could swap them out for a little more variety of splashy effects.