Mono-Colour and Allied PairsThe Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an old, old personality test, which has become one of the most famous tests of its type around. It was first published in the 1920s, and was the work of two people (Briggs and Myers, mother and daughter) with no formal training in psychology, based on the ideas of Freud-era psychologist Carl Jung. It was originally concepted as a tool for behaviour prediction, but unfortunately hasn't shown any predictive power in the century since.
Still, looking at personalities can be pretty interesting, and even if the MBTI can't tell you which archetypes you should fall in love with or what your psychometry says about your career goals, it's still not bad at describing things as they are. This article is about how the concept of “qualia” applies to Commander. If you're unfamiliar with this concept, you gotta read the previous article (find that here).
“EDH is a flavour-driven format.” That's something you're likely to hear in a conversation about Commander. It definitely feels true, it feels different to play a game of EDH than Standard, even when the stakes are the same. What does that mean, though? What makes EDH a “flavour-driven format”? We're using all the same cards. The stories don't change when you switch formats. We're all still playing random hodge-podges of fluff, taken from separate storylines and settings. The Commander playerbase isn't any more reluctant to strap three swords and a battering ram to a single creature (which might not even have arms) than a Standard player is. Of course, there are the absurd tribal decks and the setting-based theme decks, built on concept and story over mechanical logic, and those decks are fun and awesome, but the same types of decks can be found in any 60 card format played at kitchen tables. So what gives? Hive Mind Is Our General Originally published July 20th, 2009
Forum thread There are so many insane things that can happen when Hive Mind is in play, it's a shame that it's only one card out of one hundr- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Forum thread
Numot, the Devastator. A land destruction commander shamefully chosen for its colour identity alone. I've had this deck for quite some time, long before the Commander precons were released, and I definitely considered a Zedruu redesign when it became available. Despite the fact that the deck is not at all built around Numot and I rarely find the Stone Rain trigger very handy, I decided not to make the switch. Commander damage is such a good win condition, and I couldn't give up the dragon. Don't get the wrong idea, though. This deck may be lead by a glorified vanilla 6-drop, but it is a synergy monster. Numot has been one of my favourite and most played decks ever since it was built, and that's the reason why. The concept is to use and recycle the deck's many 1 mana artifacts with Salvaging Station and Auriok Salvagers, paired with an enters-the-battlefield heavy creature base and a blink theme. On top of that are a handful of related subthemes, linking the two main ones and making sure that every card in the deck interacts positively with a large number of other cards I could draw. Here's the current list: You're Making Him Angry! I didn't go as all-in on the Aggro Loam plan as I could have, because I still like the Stonebrow stompy gameplay and I didn't want to change it completely. It's definitely a lot more rampy than it used to be, but the basic game plan is still to just play strong guys and push damage through, now with Borb as an awesome game-sealer. Nevertheless, there are a few more Borborygmos cards that I'm looking for, or considering for inclusion.
Need these: Avenger of Zendikar, Horn of Greed, Lodestone Bauble, Nantuko Cultivator, Scapeshift Thinking about it: Countryside Crusher, Crop Rotation, Devastating Dreams Fa'adiyah Seer, Firestorm, Goblin Lore, Goblin Razerunners, Magus of the Moon,Manabond, Sprouting Vines, Sylvan Safekeeper Originally published Jan 13th, 2011 - Forum thread
I am committing these notes to paper for fear that I will never have the opportunity to relay what I have seen to another caring soul. Or, if I do manage to escape alive, I may have been rendered too incompetent to reliably describe these events by that time. I can already feel my sanity slipping from me. The thought that these pages might be found by the outside world in time is doubtlessly futile, but it provides me hope. First post. BKM Ark is opening as a place to keep my Commander, M:tG and general gaming stuff. New content will appear sporadically, so for now y'all can check out my guest columns at starcitygames and commandercast, my appearances on the commandercast podcast (1, 2, 3, 4), the Sentry Box Commander League, or head over to the official Commander site and forums. Enjoy.
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AuthorAlex Kenny, aka Ban Ki-moon, Commander Rules Committee member and all-around amateur. Archives
November 2013
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