DreadKhan
Absurdist -
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Said on
Is Anyone Else …...
#2
I had a giggle when I saw the cards that were bothering you, none of them seem particularly problematic, but your feelings are valid anyways! I have more issues with bad design choices that I am very confident are deliberate. Nobody at WotC was even slightly surprised that Nadu needed to be banned, or that it had to be done quickly, they are printing cards to be banned. It's the same with Vivi, they knew what they were doing as they did it. They are doing it so often because they know that whenever they print cards that need to be banned they make extra money; every 'must ban' thing more or less rotates their given format. Each time you need to adapt to the new meta or you'll just lose, no matter how dominant your deck used to be. Then, to top it all off, when they finally DO ban the thing, that format rotates AGAIN. It's a nightmare and anyone still serious about 1v1 should look a new hobby, or play with a restricted card pool that excludes new trash. I think we're going back to the days of signs at LGS (haha remember when LGSs existed?) saying 'No Necropotence, No Ivory Tower', and I'm not thrilled.
August 13, 2025 8:49 a.m.
Said on
Is it Acceptable …...
#3
It's a weird question because the correct answer is often wrong; you never want to make random choices in this game, but if people get salty you might get ganged up on, either that game or the next one. IMHO there is always a deck that is more likely to be an issue later, even if everyone is at the same state early on. The problem is some players take the casual aspect of this game very seriously, and those players can get offended if they feel 'singled out' by you 'choosing' to attack them, in such a group the 'right' answer is the 'wrong' answer to the question, and you should just roll the dice until it's overwhelmingly obvious who is the most threatening. Note, doing this will likely cost you at least some games you could have won with better threat assessment.
Obviously if you find one of those anti-dice groups then you should just make the most optimal choices, but I've never heard of whole groups like that, just individuals with grudges because a die pushed them into a puddle when they were little.
I second the whole 'if someone complains when you can reasonably defend targeting them they're probably not fun to play with' thing. If someone actually complains that the dice is being mean to them (and you're not using weighted dice) then you can be confident they are a turd and avoid them in the future.
August 9, 2025 12:28 p.m.
If you find you get wiped a lot, the first things you'd want are lots of land and ramp, so you can keep recasting your Commander. You've already got 40 lands, so that's probably fine. The next thing that helps vs wipes is card draw, wipes are really bad if the opponent can just play more creatures on their next turn. Maybe Hedron Archive and Dreamstone Hedron could do some work? You mostly want them for the ramp, but the ability to just draw some cards later on can be pretty clutch (I wouldn't use them in a deck with colours at this point, but in colourless I feel less absurd recommending them).
I don't have a dedicated colourless deck (even my Eldrazi are in a Gruul deck), but if you want to sneak more card draw in here, I know of Tome of Legends (very good as you both need to get your Commander out while also needing to swing), Hylda's Crown of Winter (probably the best thing I'm going to mention), Mind's Eye (a famously 'meh' card in any deck with colours, maybe better in here), Fountainport (draw or make a token seems fine?), Skullclamp (this is mostly for when you don't have your Commander and need to dig for cards, but if you do you can throw it on your Commander and as long as they actually kill Graaz you get 2 cards out of it), Marketback Walker (the idea is you play it for a bunch of mana, Graaz gives it +5/+3 (even if you cast if for 0 mana), and when it dies it refills your hand), All-Fates Scroll (I'm not sure if this is too weird, but you're already on Field of the Dead), The Deck of Many Things (it's a lot less risky if you aren't good at drawing extra cards), and finally Ugin, the Ineffable (not a great card, but it makes blockers that give you a card when they die, and it can kill something when it comes out. If you can keep Ugin alive you'd be able to play Graaz the next turn). Some of those wouldn't be good in a deck with access to colours, some I find I play in one or two colour decks.
If you like using Flash, there is Emergence Zone, which can be much sneakier than something that sits there working like Vedalken Orrery. It's one and done, not sure if that works for you.
Oh yeah, just thought of them, but you could protect your Commander from certain wipes with stuff like Mithril Coat, Darksteel Plate, and Tyrite Sanctum, the best is Coat, by a country mile. If people know Graaz isn't going to die maybe they don't wipe? Oh, just thought of it but Darksteel Myr might actually work in here, it's a 5/3 Indestructible when your Commander is out, and it's a blocker when he's not I guess? Sucks if everyone has Trample, or if everyone runs Farewell in your area!
August 3, 2025 9:09 a.m.
Apologies in advance if these cards are all terrible, I have a fondness for questionable cards!
Not sure if it's truly better than a Waste very often, but Spawning Bed is pretty much a free roll, right? If you draw it late game you can make 15 power for 7 mana via a land (and your Commander). There is also Springjack Pasture, which can repeatedly make a 5/3 for you for 5 mana, not bad if you're low on cards IMHO.
Even weirder, if Graaz is out Inkmoth Nexus is 5 power and still have flying, so it's a 2 shot kill, and a one-shot if you can give it Doublestrike.
Maybe Deserted Temple? It's great with your Mishra's Workshop, or something like Scorched Ruins if you want backup targets.
I'm not sure if it's too slow, but Urza's Cave exists and seems decent to find Factory.
If you ever want a colourless creature removal option maybe Transmogrifying Wand? 2 power is REALLY bad vs your deck, not quite enough to kill a Juggernaut, let alone your Commander, and you do get 3 uses before it's empty.
Thanks for posting this, Graaz is such a crazy Commander!
August 1, 2025 4:44 p.m.
Said on
Mark Rosewater States …...
#6
I actually owe a bit of sanity to those comments, when I was recovering from brutal stress overload and I couldn't handle too much stimulation, I needed the mildest entertainment imaginable. For fun I'd often go on Gatherer for a bit and click on Random. I'd stopped interacting with new stuff around Onslaught, so it was crazy seeing how things had changed over the years. Even if the comments were already disabled I could still find interesting ones, mostly on the older cards, and tbh I learned a decent amount about how the game works by reading these, mostly card evaluation, but also insight into certain rules minutia. It was far from perfect, but ultimately it was the thing that brought me back into the game. If it hadn't been for those gatherer comments I would be a bit wealthier I suppose, but it's not like I don't enjoy the game! I am confident that just clicking on random card, without any access to comments, would not be the same experience, and would have failed to draw me back into the game.
I agree that the system had very suddenly devolved into a poop cyclone, but I think the solution was to have some moderation. Suits look at that and only see the cost of those few employees, they can't observe the increase in interest the platform could have generated if they'd frozen the old platform before designing and launching a better one, so they value it at nothing. I'm sure it was nothing but cost cutting to disable comments, but taking them down feels mean spirited. I am VERY confident those comments are being used to try to build AI somewhere, I for one am glad I got there after the opportunity was gone, but not before they realized they could sell them and did so.
July 31, 2025 9:03 a.m.
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Said on Squirrely Wrath!...
#1I saw your update and wonder if you've thought about using some of Green's anti-air effects? Off the top of my head I can remember Squallmonger, Katabatic Winds, and Silklash Spider? There is also Sandwurm Convergence and good old Hurricane that could be helpful? The idea would be to replace removal. Red has Gravity Sphere and Chaosphere, neither is super budget because Red isn't as good at this.
Hope one of these helps, it's very annoying when you get a run of bad luck!
August 15, 2025 11:54 a.m.