COMMANDER! Review: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

So I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but just noticed this very recently. Erayo, Soratami Ascendant is banned as an EDH/Commander general. I just wanted to say, Erayo, you've been great and all, but I really hope the door hits you on the way out.

As a fan and huge follower of the format, I know there are still loop holes for Commander decks to be incredibly overpowered. Erayo, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, and Braids, Cabal Minion are generals that have plagued the EDH/Commander community for as long as the decks have existed and it's a blessing to see them go. Notice anything about all 3 of these broken generals? Their mana costs are all very low and they have extremely powerful effects that can completely warp a game to be nearly unplayable for anyone else sitting at the table. Another common theme between these generals is their ability to become oppressive very quickly and punish players who don't pack 1-2 mana creature removal. Braids decks originally played a stax strategy using Smokestack and other 'punish all players' cards to prevent opponents from maintaining resources. Similarly, the Erayo deck would cast very cheap spells to flip Erayo into an enchantment and hold the game down with counter magic and Arcane Laboratory. Finally, Rofellos would generate an absurd amount of mana just by laying forests on the table that you'd have a Genesis Wave for 10 before your opponent can even lay down a Sol Ring (a bit exaggerating, but you get the point). Ironically, that Genesis Wave would feed Rofellos even more. Good game?

So, why am I talking about the past in a column focused on new EDH/Commander cards? Well, the past might repeat itself. Let's take a look at Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

Looks familiar? A Thorn of Amythest on a creature. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this card, but it looks very strong and heading into some dangerous territory. Some say that Thalia will replace Isamura, Hound of Konda in aggressive mono White EDH and I have to agree. Thalia has the 2 power and has First Strike to boot. She's (I think it's a she) very powerful and fights very well in combat compared to Ethersworn Canonist or Gaddock Teeg, so she can dish out an unexpected amount of damage by herself. She also plays very nicely with the 'all in creature' strategy. Although she stalls out your own Crusade and Glorious Anthem effects, she still packs in quite the punch by even forcing your opponents into 5 mana Damnation or 7 mana Austere Command if they're already struggling to survive. Fun times.

If we're talking about speed, Thalia can reliably be cast on turn 1 with Mox Diamond or Chrome Mox and delays each of your opponent's turn 1 plays, whether they are attempting to lay down a Sensei's Divining Top or a Sol Ring, you're already several turns ahead. But how?

We'll take the example of Sol Ring and Sensei's Divining Top. Ideally, casting Sol Ring on turn 1 and using the 2 colorless mana to both cast Sensei's Divining Top and use it's activated ability to look at the top 3 cards and rearange at your leisure is a very strong play. If you cast Thalia out on turn 1, the order for your opponent now becomes a turn 2 Sol Ring using the mana to cast a Sensei's Diving Top, followed up with a turn 3 look at the top 3 cards of your library. See what happened? In this example, not only did Thalia deny your opponent tempo (the rate at which you cast your noncreature spells), but denied them information for 2 entire turns (disregarding any other spells the Thalia player has played already). Information can be crucial, especially when you're trying to assemble pieces to a combo, find lands from poor mulligans, and improve consistency. Not only does Thalia push them back at least a turn, the amount of tempo they lose compounds with the amount of noncreature spells they play and disrupts their mana curve quite heavily in most cases.

In addition, Thalia stalls out mana rocks, Lightning Greaves, tutors, and other commonly played noncreature spells in the early game that's primarily used for development. In a strange way, Thalia on the board changes the rules of the game. She dominates the entire board and has a very aggressive mana cost which allows her to be useful and reasonably cast after dying once or twice. Although Thalia does a lot of work for a 2 mana creature and is a very consistent Thorn of Amythest that can attack, will she break the format?

Well, yes and no. As much as Thalia does a lot of degenerate things, she also does a lot of good. If we look at competitive EDH decks that use fast combos to win or use non-interactive strategies to win the game (Zur the Enchanter, Jhoira of the Gitu, Sharuum the Hegemon, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Teysa, Orzhov Scion etc.), their turn 1-4 plays are very crucial to locking down the game. Thalia is similar to a scalpel and helps slow these decks down in multiplayer games and allow the non-spike players a chance to interact with whatever degeneracy is going on. The problem Thalia faces are with those players who are trying to break the deck. Using cards from the Braids deck like Smokestack, Tangle Wire, and other stax cards will ultimately give Thalia a bad name. If Thalia does become oppressive, the format won't evolve into main decking Dismember and Geistflame, so Thalia could slip into an unchecked territory where decks are just not prepared for the match up. Obviously players will try to abuse this card and that's natural for some people to strive to break the format. Honestly, it's healthy so the community can see the holes in strategies and work to ameliorate those holes. Thalia should be watched closely and hopefully doesn't share the same fate as Erayo. Until next time, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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In the Deck Box #3: Build a Deck Challenge Winner!

After receiving a handful of entries and some pretty awesome decklists, a winner has finally been chosen. The decks were graded on a few subjective criteria including theme, originality, and overall flare. For those of you who are just tuning in, the Build a Deck Challenge was a mini contest intended to get members of Casual Net involved in EDH/Commander and build a deck that would show off their creativity. The winner of our first MTG Casual Net Challenge is..... drum roll*.... Michael Hood-Julien! Congratulations! You've won this entire spread on the MTG Casual Net Blog, an interview Q&A, and 10 packs of Dark Ascension. I'll be sending these out to you once the set is released. Again, a big thanks to Debbie Barbour Freeland for providing this prize package.

The general of this master piece is none other than Oros, the Avenger. Here's the decklist; check it out! The deck features a ton of huge creatures that have a huge impact on the board and has a ton of proactive spells that help keep up the beats and defeat opponents quickly. Enough hearing about the deck from me, let's see what our designer has to say about it.

'When I started this challenge, I knew automatically that I wanted to play White. It is one of the more versatile colors in the game, as it imposes strong late-game threats and efficient removal. I wanted to try the popular Voltron-build, using good equipment to attach to my commander to get in for general damage. Red and Black became easy accessories to this build. Red assists White to deal more general damage quickly and complementing the Voltron style of play. Red generates a very aggressive-style of play, and I thought it would be fun to play a combatant feeling deck. Black allowed not only to help control the board, but more so to develop a reanimation sub-theme.

Of the three commanders to build from, Kaalia of the Vast seemed to me the least formidable general and restricted the user to playing angels, dragons, and demons to be more useful. I didn't want to restrict myself creatively like that. Tariel, Reckoner of Souls is a good general, but when I compared Tariel  to Oros, it seemed obvious to me which would be better to build with. Not only did Oros have better power and toughness, but it had a triggered ability that could easily wipe my opponents' board, making it a great choice for an aggressive Voltron-Reanimation deck.'

The most notable interactions Michael includes are:
-Oros, the Avenger + Sword of Kaldra = Exile all Nonwhite creatures from the Battlefield
-Double-Strike (from True Conviction/Mirran Crusader/Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion) + any Combat Damage Trigger (Protection Swords/Oros's ability) = extra Triggers
-Karmic Guide/Reveillark Combo
-Sun Titan/Animate Dead synergy
-Vicious Shadows + Wrath effects = lots of dead players

Again, congratulations to Michael and we'll have a follow up article very soon. Until the next Casual Net Challenge!

First Casual Net Hall of Famer: Michael Hood-Julien

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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Standard Corner #7: Gearing Up for the Grand Prix

In just a short few days, Magic players will be swarming Disney and Universal Studios for Grand Prix Orlando 2012 hosted by the wonderful Phoenix Games. I hope everyone attending from Casual Net does a great job and brings home awesome stories and coverage. The buy-in is a steep $40, but you do get a cool Goblin Guide promo card if you attend any of the Grand Prix this season. I'm disappointed that the promo card doesn't really support more formats. Although I understand the inclusion and promotion of Modern, a few of the most recent promos given away, including Maelstrom Pulse, Ajani Goldmane, Treva, the Renewer, have a bit more use outside of the competitive formats.

Unfortunately, as much as I really want to be at the Grand Prix (and nab SO many Planeswalker Points), I won't be attending this weekend. I have a handful of personal matters to attend to, including starting up college. I was accepted to the University of Central Florida recently and I'm still getting everything in order. This brings me to another semi-off topic discussion. Since I'll be starting school soon, posts on the blog will become more scarce. I'll still be around, but you probably won't see me grinding trades and writing a ton of articles as much as I used to. It was a great 9 months of discussing strategy and really developing this group and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to engage with the Magic community in this way.

Standard will be the battleground this weekend, so what should you do to prepare? Outside of my general advice of bringing food, plenty of fluids, and a good sportsman-like attitude I talked about in Draft Table #2: Innistrad Sealed, I'll try and give a crash course of Standard to give you a starting point looking at this weekend.

The first thing pro Magic players do is study the format. Knowing what your opponents will be playing could be a huge advantage in Game 1 and deciding your sideboard options for the entire tournament. This Spring 2012 Standard environment is a little different from Standard environments in the past. WotC has done a great job of not making a set of interactions too difficult to fight against (at least, we haven't found it yet). Compared to the 08-09 season dominated by Faeries, then 5-Color Control in 2009, Jund in 2010, and Caw -Blade in 2011, it's foreign for players nowadays to adjust to a format filled with possibilities.

The major archetypes in this season include Kessig Wolf Ramp, G/W Tokens, G/W Humans, U/W Illusions, U/W Blade, Mono Red, Mono Black Infect, and a variety of Grixis, U/B and U/W Control decks. Other noteworthy decks or cards that create an archetype include Tempered Steel, Birthing Pod, and Snapcaster Mage. The most difficult part of Standard right now is building the sideboards. It's difficult to board against particular matchups when the format has several particular versions of a certain deck. My recommendations are to look at the core cards of certain strategies and prepare against those cards as best you can. Very reminiscent of the Standard Corner #4: Grind is Key, the format still has a variety of threats that range from different permanent types and require removal that is versatile. With emphasis on 'permanent,' this current format is very pro-active and different from the Zendikar-Scars of Mirrodin block Standard format. With most of the field having decks with very aggressive and efficient tempo, your deck must be able to put threats on the table.

The inability for most control decks to do this in the early game has lead to their downfall these past few months. Countermagic, although necessary, is weaker when your opponent curves out well and is able to apply adequate pressure on you through the early and late game. With cards like Reckless Waif in the format, countermagic becomes obsolete in trying to prevent the 1/1 from transforming into a 3/2 and apply a significant amount of early game pressure. The counterexample is when you have a hand full of lands and counterspells, but banking on an extremely defensive hand like this is unreliable and inefficient. Control decks now look to cards like Gut Shot that can slow down an opponent's tempo without using mana (similar to Mental Misstep in Legacy). The control archetype also looks at Olivia Voldaren and Hero of Bladehold, two 4 mana creatures that have the ability to apply a lot of pressure and can serve as win conditions in a variety of different situations.

For aggro decks, the plan is simple; win before your opponent stabilizes. In this format, the most difficult matchup will be in the mirror. Aggro on aggro matches will be strictly computational as you calculate how much damage you can afford to lose versus how much you're able to deal to your opponent. My advice for the aggro decks, do your math and do it well. Another key piece of advice is to pay close attention to your opponents' resource management. How they leave lands untapped could clue you in to what cards they have in hand. A key strategy for the aggro deck is either having the last bit of reach you need to win or hoping your opponent doesn't have any outs. This can be difficult, especially if you need to take several mulligans.

A few misnomers of the format include the following:

Solar Flare is not a force to be reckoned with. Although the deck received a great deal of hype in the past, it's inability to effectively manage the board state and lack of early proactive plays leaves it collecting dust.

Dismember is a very dangerous card. Although the card is very strong for the aggro decks to clear the way of their attackers, Dismember is a card you do not want to play if you're playing a more midrange or control deck.

Tempered Steel is still very much alive. With the fall of Kessig Wolf Ramp over the past couple months and the lack of artifact hate in most sideboards, Tempered Steel is still primed to do very well. Etched Champion and Glint Hawk Idol are both still very hard to kill and will push the deck over the top.

As much as card advantage is a huge principle in the eternal formats, this format is all about tempo. Being able to outrace your opponent is the key to winning. Most of the common strategies run out of steam quickly; however, play a ton of threats that generally can carry them to a win or stall long enough to draw into more gas. Resource management plays a huge role and getting the maximum value out of each of your turns is paramount.

That's all for now. Remember to bring snacks and get enough rest for the weekend. Good luck to everyone attending and hope you guys have a great time. Until the next Grand Prix, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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