Bramble On #7: Griselbanned

I was out at the bar with some friends last night getting a couple drinks and enjoying their company when I get a text message from my good friend, Carlos. He gives me the most dreaded news I'd ever want to hear. Griselbrand is banned in EDH/Commander. I was in disbelief and scrambled to find the evidence on my smart phone and finally found it; all while tears streamed down my face. Seriously? Why Griselbrand.. WHY?? I was building a deck around him already! WTF! They listed the reasons HERE, but the banning doesn't make the feelings hurt any less. The EDH Rules Committee tried to buffer the announcement by adding in Sundering Titan into the mix, but the wound still stings.

So, why did they change him from Griselbrand to Griselbanned? (cute term courtesy of Jav) Sheldon Menery explained that Griselbrand was extremely similar to Yawgmoth's Bargain (already banned in the format) and the card is notorious for being overpowered because you get the cards exactly when you want them, compared to Necropotence, where you only get the cards at the end of your turn. This subtle difference separates these two cards from the banhammer. Drawing cards at the end of your turn doesn't allow you to float mana and cast an infinite combo or give you enough time to lay down your Venser's Journal or Reliquary Tower, so you won't be able to keep any cards in excess of 7. If you go back to the Griselbrand Article I wrote in May, I mentioned that this creature does everything and buys you a bag of chips afterwards. If your opponents target your mana development, the card draw-ing power helps you find more Extraplanar Lens abilities to replace it. If your opponents try to destroy him, he can easily draw you into a reanimation spell to get him on the battlefield again. The biggest problem is Lifelink. He fuels himself and requires little to no work replenishing your life total other than swinging into the red zone. One of the major gripes I've heard about Griselbrand EDH was it's ability to win extremely fast. Mono-Black players would use mana rocks to quickly ramp into a turn 3-5 Griselbrand and draw out their entire deck to find whatever infinite combo they wanted to win with that game. Kinda degenerate. 

Unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure to play against a Griselbrand deck, so it's difficult to gauge exactly how powerful it was as a Commander or even in the list of 99. After playing him in my Teneb, the Harvester EDH deck and against him in my friends' EDH decks, I think he's an extremely strong creature, but I never felt he was too overpowered. I assume our playgroup didn't really try to break the card other than just playing him for fun and drawing the occasional 7 cards with him. At the end of the day, I'll live on. I understand why my favorite card in Avacyn Restored was banned, but it doesn't amend a broken heart. Farewell, Griselbrand; I hardly knew ye. 

Sundering Titan. The fuck? Where did banning this card come from? I mean, I'm not complaining at all. This card is all kinds of unfair. If the ability just triggered when it entered the battlefield, I could kind of get behind it, but leaving too? I can't even exile/bounce this thing to prevent the trigger? Yeah, this one had to go. I'm surprised the banning came so late on this guy. I figured they'd let it slip by like other offenders like Mind Twist and Contamination. Overall, Sundering Titan can make games completely unplayable for opponents, since he shoots 5 different lands when he enters and leaves the battlefield. Sundering Titan is also extremely degenerate in popular blink strategies that use Cloudshift and Momentary Blink to access multiple Sundering Titan triggers to one-sided Armageddon the board. With each concussive hit, Sundering Titan decreases your opponents' resources and effectively suppresses their ability to stop or interact with your board. I'm glad he's gone and the day I see this titan in another EDH match, it'll be a day too soon. 

After all the commotion over these bannings. Wizards earlier this morning announced their seasonal bannings. Nobody got the axe. The notorious bad guy in the room, Standard U/W Delver escaped without losing a hair and that has mixed feelings across the Standard environment, but ultimately I think it's a good reason. According to the magicthegathering.com Daily Articles (click HERE to see it!), they claim statistically, Delver wins a little under 51% of the time and they feel the format is diverse enough that Delver and non-Delver decks can live in harmony. Honestly, I think Delver is ruining the format, so much so that you have to print Cavern of Souls to help fight against Snapcaster Mage. Seriously? I think Snapcaster Mage is the true villain and it's almost unfathomable to ban it because they already screwed control magic for the next year with the Cavern, so what do they do now? It's also rather disappointing that may have to ban yet another Blue card. I don't know if we see a clear cut bias towards Blue, but this is getting a little old. 

The craziest thing we see after today is the unbanning of Land Tax in Legacy. 

With Legacy becoming an increasingly more difficult format to get into because of the cost of pricey engines like Show and Tell, Natural Order, Candelabra of Tawnos, and the dual lands, Legacy as a format is in limbo of not having enough cards to support the format. Interestingly enough, WotC looked to Land Tax as a potential player on the Legacy scene. A card that's been banned since 2004, Land Tax focuses primarily on basic lands and interacts with relatively well-priced cards like Seismic Assault, Life from the Loam, Knight of the Reliquary, and Mox Diamond (although somewhat pricey). Currently, Land Tax doesn't do anything for the more popular decks like RUG Delver, Maverick, Dredge, etc, so it's perfectly poised to be a Tier 2 archetype, potentially Tier 1 if someone manages to break the card. This enchantment is an extremely powerful effect, potentially drawing you 4 cards/turn under ideal circumstances, so it's likely some deck builder will find the right cohesion of engines and lands to make Land Tax an automatic 4x of in a Legacy archetype. We've already seen the power of cheap/powerful enchantments in Legacy with Survival of the Fittest, so Land Tax might be well positioned to take the format by storm. 

My biggest gripe with the unbanning is the price. Before the banning, Land Tax was a stable 8-10 dollars for a white-bordered copy and about 15-20 for a Legends copy. After the unbanning, copies were sold out everywhere and you couldn't find a copy for any less than $40. As I'm writing this, the card is around 25 on the low. As a huge Commander staple and a vital piece to non-Green decks for getting mana fixing and lands in hand, this card is a linchpin in White decks for achieving some consistency. The price jump will make it more difficult to obtain for EDH players, so I'm hoping the price stabilizes around 15-20, so players can pick up a copy if they need it. 

Seems like we covered everything, right? Well, there was a small piece of information that Sheldon Menery mentioned in his post on the Commander bannings. 'remember that there is ongoing Kokusho testing, so no decision will be made on it until the September update' -Sheldon. Did he just say.. Kokusho?? One of my favorite dragons of all time might be legal in Commander? Hooray!! I'm really excited if they bring this drain everyone for 5, gain a billion life dragon back into Commander and let me sleeve up my own copy. I think this card is extremely dangerous in multiples, but we're playing in a format where you can only play 1 copy. Furthermore, we already have Exsanguinate, which is arguably more difficult to fight against with the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers interaction. Since there are more Clone effects in the format with new additions, Phyrexian Metamorph, Evil Twin, and Sakashima's Student, the EDH Rules Committee may feel there are enough answers for opponents to kill Kokusho. Hopefully their testing is in favor of rising the Evening Star from exile. 

Overall, this is how I feel: 

+0 Griselbrand Ban in EDH/Commander

+1 Sundering Titan Ban in EDH/Commander

+0 No Standard Bans

-1 Land Tax Unbanning in Legacy

+1 Kokusho, the Evening Star Potential of Unbanning from EDH/Commander

I can't say I'm thrilled, but the new format changes will have to do for now. We'll see what the next round of bans has in store for us come September and the results from Standard tournaments to determine the fate of U/W Delver. Until the next bramble, Magic players!

Can't get enough brambling content? Check out the Bramble On Series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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COMMANDER! Review: Krond the Dawn-Clad

Hey guys! Planechase 2012 is here! It's very exciting because we get a handful of new cards, phenomena, new planes, and 3 new legendary creatures to talk about. Today, we look at Krond the Dawn-Clad and the Planechase 2012 Deck, 'Savage Auras'.

If that isn't an epic archon, I don't know what is. Very reminiscent of Blazing Archon from Ravnica and Archon of Justice from Eventide, we get this new one that is White AND Green. Similar to the Sigarda article I tackled last month, it's very rare that we get Green fliers and Krond joins the ranks of unusual green creatures. Krond is a GGGWWW 6/6 with Flying, Vigilance, and a really interesting Vindicate/Beast Within ability to snipe a permanent whenever he attacks and is enchanted. Similar to Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Krond requires a full suite of Aura enchantments to support him. Click HERE if you'd like to see the possible list of Auras to use with Krond in Green and White. Also, take a look at all the deck lists for the Planechase 2012 product by clicking HERE!

Cards you'll play: Ancestral Mask, Angelic Destiny, Indrik Umbra, Pollenbright Wings, Felidar Umbra, Rancor, Armadillo Cloak, Battle Mastery, Eldrazi Conscription, Bear Umbra, Daybreak Coronet, Empyrial Armor, Shield of the Oversoul, Indestructibility, Spirit Loop, and Moldervine Cloak.

Cards you might play: Blanchwood Armor, Armored Ascension, Dragon Fangs, Dragon Scales, Druid's Call, Epic Proportions, Keen Sense, Pentarch Ward, Verdant Embrace, Wurmweaver Coil, Spirit Mantle, and Mythic Proportions.

Krond is a really interesting card to talk about. He has no colorless mana in his mana cost, which is extremely unusual, so you can expect him to be a really pushed 6 mana creature. His mana cost forces you to have really strong fixing from your lands to avoid situations like 4 Plains and 2 Forests being your available mana and unable to cast Krond on turn 6. Luckily, Krond is in Green which is a heavy fixing color, so finding the right colors and getting to 6 lands should be fairly easy. Coincidentally, Green is also a color notorious for Auras that attach to lands to fix your mana or add more mana with cards like Utopia Sprawl, Wild Growth, and even Abundant Growth from Avacyn Restored. Along with enchantment favorites like Mesa Enchantress, throwing down these Auras late game can also cycle for more cards, helping you dig through your library for cards you need to answer your opponents' threats. His 'exile a permanent' ability is extremely powerful and isn't something to overlook. Very similar to Spine of Ish Sah or Karn Liberated's -3 ability, Krond can create some serious board control. Staring down a very problematic permanent like that you can't deal with? Just exile it. This ability is extremely powerful in casual and Commander because most decks play an element of recursion, even if it's a small one. By exiling a permanent instead of destroying it, you almost completely remove it from the equation and your opponents can't bring it back with a Regrowth or a Reanimate ability. The longer Krond stays on the field and attacking, the weaker your opponents' recursion cards become and the more dead draws they're more likely to draw.

In constructed play, Krond is only legal in Vintage, Legacy, and Commander. Unfortunately, too many things would have to happen to Vintage or Legacy for this card to see any play in those formats. However, if you're thinking about building a Krond the Dawn-Clad commander deck, you can take a ton of notes from a Legacy classic, G/W Enchantress (click HERE to see an example!). Enchantress is notorious in Legacy as a soft-lock control strategy that spams Enchantments and Auras to draw tons of cards off of Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence while pumping out tons of 4/4 Angel tokens from Sigil of the Empty Throne. If you're more of a Spike player looking to build a a soft-lock control strategy around Krond, favorites like Runed Halo, Solitary Confinement, Karmic Justice, and Sterling Grove are great support for Krond as you prevent your opponents from targeting you or your permanents while using Krond to swing in for lethal, general damage to your opponents.

How good is Krond in Commander? Although his Triggered ability is the biggest piece of flavor behind the card, it's also the biggest limiting factor to his potential. The conditions to fulfill his Triggered ability are 1. He must be enchanted and 2. He must attack. Although harmless independently, fulfilling both conditions can be somewhat daunting, since Krond lacks Hexproof compared to Uril, the Mistalker, Thrun, the Last Troll, Geist of Saint Traft, or Sigarda, Host of Herons; all of whom are great at holding Auras because they evade death by card advantage. The downside to heavy Aura strategies are the lack of creatures. In order for most Aura cards to work, they need a legal target to enchant, which makes them extremely vulnerable. If you attempt to enchant one of your creatures and your opponent has the timely removal spell for your desired target, they not only destroyed your creature, but the Aura doesn't resolve because it no longer has a legal target and also hits the graveyard. It's extremely easy for opponents to 2 for 1 you with removal spells on your creatures. Furthermore, finding the balance between Auras and creatures is very difficult. Most of the creatures in the Aura strategy are very frail without any Auras to hold, so having a bunch of creatures in hand sucks. On the flip side, having a bunch of Auras and very few creatures can be very dangerous, since your opponent can easily snipe your creature and put you in a bad spot with a hand full of Auras and no legal targets.

How can I overcome these problems? One way to approach this problem is playing Auras that return back to your hand after the enchanted creature dies (Angelic Destiny, Rancor, and Spirit Loop), which allows you to enchant your weaker creatures and generate tempo while you bide your time to cast larger impact creatures to enchant. Recursion, or bringing back cards from your graveyard, is really useful for generating card advantage, which is extremely vital to the Aura strategy in Commander. For Krond, he's perfectly positioned as a 6/6 creature, so Dragon Fangs and Dragon Scales are perfect for keeping Krond enchanted when you recast him after several untimely deaths. If you want to push the Krond recursion strategy further, you could play Moldervine Cloak and use the Dredge ability to re-buy the enchantment and mill yourself a few cards; along with Sun Titan, Miraculous Recovery, Breath of Life, Saffi Eriksdotter, Monk Idealist, and Hymn of Rebirth to grab creatures and enchantments back to reuse. Heck, you can even go big and cast Open the Vaults to grab a ton of auras to enchant any number of creatures you have sitting on the board. Another way to protect Krond and all of his enchantments is to play cards that protect your permanents with Indestructibility or Hexproof like Asceticism, Priveleged Position, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope. If your opponents can't target or destroy your permanents, you can safely enchant your creatures with auras and swing them in the red zone without fear. Finally, you could always use Krond in a simple macro strategy with ramp and tutors like Congregation at Dawn, Eldrami's Call, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, and Academy Rector to grab your Argothian or Mesa Enchantress and draw tons of cards off of your enchantments to bury your opponents in card advantage and tempo. Although Krond's triggered ability is pretty aura-dependent, Krond simply needs to hold one enchantment to become absolutely devastating, so that opens some flexibility in how you can build the deck.

Now, let's take a look at Savage Auras from the Planechase 2012 Summer expansion! Some really sweet utility cards that come straight out of the Planechase deck are Sigil of the Empty Throne, Three Dreams, Celestial Ancient, Kor Spiritdancer, and Auratouched Mage are some of the power cards you'll be relying on when you're playing the deck against your friends. I also really like the new rares they printed just for the Savage Auras deck, Indrik Umbra and Elderwood Scion. The Scion has a really cool ability and works really well with the auras you'll be playing in the deck. He's a nice win condition that you can use to distract your opponents, while you wait to cast the mighty Krond. I really like how the precon is a great start to keep it as a casual deck or head straight into converting it into an EDH deck, including a lot of great tools you can use straight out of the box. Although this particular deck doesn't have a lot of money cards in it, the set has a relatively simple and unique play style that's perfect for beginners and interesting enough for veteran players alike.

Overall, I like the Aura theme they pushed on Krond and his 'exile a permanent' ability will catch a lot of players' eyes as players look for a semi-aura-dependent general that can play both offensively and defensively. Hopefully you'll take to the skies and start enchanting Krond the Dawn-Clad yourself. Until the next Planechase Legend!

Can't get enough Commander/EDH content? Check out the Commander Series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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