Post #22: Casually Dark Ascension; Part 2

Hey guys. Another Casually 'insert new set' article? Well, by popular inquiry, I'll be talking about a few more cards from Dark Ascension. I know a lot of my articles have holes and sometimes might be missing information but my limiting factor is always time. I do my best to produce quality content geared towards a more casual/beginner audience, so I appologize to more advanced players if the articles feel monotonous or repeating. We were all beginners once and we all know that repitition and practice are the best ways to improve on deck building and actual strategy. I'm starting to write articles that are a little more advanced, starting with COMMANDER! Review: Part 7, featuring Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. I plan on writing more of these types of articles that break down gameplay and exemplify a card's practicality, so I hope these articles will be up to par with expectations. Let's get started!

Yes yes, I know. I forgot about this card. Vault of the Archangel. It's even worse considering I picked up a foil copy for my Teneb EDH deck. I really like this card. Well, I actually love this card. It's an incredibly powerful effect.. on a land! When I first saw this spoiler, I compared it most to Miren, the Moaning Well and thought about them side by side. Miren requires to you to sacrifice a creature, while Vault of the Archangel requires you to attack with 1 (or preferably more) creatures. Miren's ability is difficult to prevent (since your opponent cannot simply kill the creature you're sacrificing) and also triggers 'when this creature dies' abilities like Persist and Undying (Wurmcoil Engine's best friend). On the flip side, Vault allows you to keep your creature and gives lifelink to your whole team instead of just gaining equal to the toughness of one creature. Unfortunately, your opponent can respond to a Vault by killing your team off, so it's a little tricky to decide exactly when to use it and when to simply go to Mainphase 2 and cast some spells. For Commander, it's a really sick addition to B/W/x decks that spam tokens or lose a lot of life to Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence, Ambition's Cost, and other black pain spells. Personally, I tend to lose a lot of life in Teneb to Birthing Pod, Fetch/Shock Lands, Bloodgift Demon/Graveborn Muse, and just the normal 'people hate me' damage. So the ability to get some of that life back with High Market/Miren, the Moaning Well is pretty vital to my survival and Vault of the Archangel will be joining that arsenal. Taking a tangent off of sheer survival, the Vault can also fuel lifegain strategies that tend to need as many cards as they can get their hands on. Swinging your team in, then gaining a bunch of life to fuel Well of Lost Dreams, a Felidar Soveriegn/Test of Endurance win, or just trying to breach 9000+ life, the Vault will help you get there. Although Lifelink doesn't stack, adding Deathtouch to your presumably small guys helps them get through a crowded board and increases their survival rate. Even the 'threat' of activating the Vault is good enough to deter some advantageous blocks and would allow you to cast whatever your heart desires in mainphase 2.

In addition to hyping up the Vault so much, we can't let go of some of the downfalls slip through the cracks. The worst part about this card (other than generating colorless mana, am I asking too much?) is that the creatures swinging need to punch through. A timely Starstorm or Evacuation could seriously damper all the fun the Vault ensues. Furthermore, activating the Vault can set you up for some poor board states against certain archetypes. Decks that have a heavy amount of point removal or blink strategies will clean off your dudes with ease and that 5 mana investment will have been wasted. Although this is more of a midgame worry, it's still crucial considering the midgame in EDH/Commander is probably the most sensitive time.

The obvious counterexample to the downsides of the Vault is clearly 'I can now threaten to give all my creatures Lifelink and Deathtouch'. Even if your opponent is removing all your dudes, they have to remove all of them to avoid losing tempo and well, losing a ton of life by letting guys hit unblocked. I give this card my stamp of approval and am really anxious to play and dreading to play against it. I expect to see it in Ghave, Ghuru of Spores, Teysa, Orzhov Scion, Kaalia of the Vast, and other decks that can play it without hurting their mana base.

There was a bit of talk about this card in the land of Casual Net when everyone was giving their reviews on Nick's Glissa, the Traitor EDH deck. Unfortunately, Grim Backwoods experienced the animosity of being ignored and I had to make a small comment.

I really like this land. Aside from it's sweet flavor text, it's another sacrifice outlet on a land. Although not as powerful as Phyrexian Tower at getting rid of your dudes, trading your creatures for cards during late game stalemates is a pretty powerful thing. Picture this; a board devastated by Oblivion Stone, All is Dust, Planar Cleansing, and Nevinyrral's Disk and all everyone has left are lands, very few cards in hand, and some creatures scattered here and there. What generally happens here is someone plays their general and another player kills it. This aggravating cycle continues until someone can break the stalemate. I view this land like a 'clean up' card. Similar to Momentary Blink, it turns what would normally be a creature on its way to dying into a card. Although reserving 5 mana to 'save' a card is a pretty hefty price, it becomes almost negligible in the late game when you have excess mana leftover. When I was thinking how to review this land, I stumbled across an interesting idea. How the early, mid, and late games are very different in EDH/Casual than they are in Standard. The early game in Commander is generally setting up for the long haul. Most decks play cards to rush a strong mid-game board presence with mana rocks or little guys stuffed with card advantage. The real meat of Commander is in the mid-game. Although the mid-game for Standard is generally between turns 4-8, the Commander mid-game can last anywhere from turn 8-15. I'd like to categorize these turns as the hot zones, where many spells are being cast, creatures are swinging and dying, and players are either being killed or are trying their best to take out opponents. Most of the mid-game is dominated by players having 4-a full 7 cards in hand and are doing their best to maximize tempo and minimize card usage. The late game that follows afterwards can go in several different directions but are generally the same; one player emerges as the top predator of the mid-game and picks everyone off, no one has lands and are relying on top decks to re-establish board presence, or everyone is sitting on lands and everything is dying. The latter occurs most frequently and breaking that stalemate between several players is rather difficult. Going back to Grim Backwoods, this land has the ability to generate card advantage when you need it. I would put this land in the same category of Genesis, Volrath's Stronghold, and Academy Ruins with respect to how powerful they all are when no one has anything out and very few cards in hand. Although Grim Backwoods is definitely not an early game or mid-game engine, I think it's usefulness in late-game gives it a slot in the G/B/x decks that have space in their mana base.

The last card I'll talk about for this review (hopefully I'm not ignoring some really awesome card) is Havengul Lich. When I first saw this guy, I was blown away by how unique and cool it is. Although I really wish it were Legendary, so I could make a sweet EDH deck around him, I understand why he isn't. He would be too powerful as a commander and his ability doesn't stack with multiples, like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, so it makes sense. For Standard, Brendan did mention this sweet combo with Lich, Heartless Summoning and Perilous Myr. Cute. This card is very similar to Necrotic Ooze in the 'activated ability theft' way. I'm not entirely sure how many sweet creatures have activated abilities in B/U, Dralnu, Lich Lord, Geth, Lord of the Vault, Oona, Queen of the Fae to name a handful. I wonder if there's anything infinite/semi-infinite with Triskelion and the Lich. I always funny to see infinite combos with Triskelion (a funny $0.10 rare). Quick tangent, Triskelion with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed work really well together to end games quickly. Back to Havengul Lich; I think he'll be really good for the combo players that want more ways of getting their combo pieces back after losing them. Sharuum the Hegemon will play this to return Phyrexian Metamorph or Disciple of the Vault back on the field. I'm not really thrilled that this helps combo players, but I'm excited for the Lich's other applications. He revives dudes from your graveyard and 'casts' them like Karador, the Ghost Chieftan, so the Lich is a recurring effect in U, which is rather uncommon. The casting clause also helps with Artisan of Kozilek players that want to go overboard with recurring shenanigans. Unfortunately, I haven't really explored Havengul Lich in full yet since I don't have a B/U/x deck that I want to work him in, so I'll have to leave him alone for now, but this is definitely a card I want to build around and potentially break when I have the time and funds.

Hope you enjoyed this brief pt 2 of the Casually series. The 2 cards I wanted to talk about but just didn't have the time were Increasing Devotion and Moonveil Dragon. I really like these two cards as well and they do a lot more work than they appear to do on paper. Until Avacyn Restored!

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

-David J.

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