100 Cards of Fantastic

      Hello again! Brennan here switching gears from the last article I wrote for Standard to a much more casual format, EDH! It’s the format of broken combo’s, insane million mana spells and the source of the biggest bad beat stories as well as the best Warp Worlds of all time. Before proceeding lets thank the Godfather of EDH, Mr. Sheldon Menery. He is renowned as the architect of the format and its strongest supporter. Enough with the niceties, lets get the ball rolling.

     EDH stands for Elder Dragon Highlander a 99 card Singleton (only one copy of each card aside from basic lands) format where people have a General, essentially the 100th card and commander of the deck itself. Your general may only be a Legendary Creature (sorry Genju of the Realm) and your deck may only have cards that share colors of the general. Also the cards in your deck may not have any mana symbols of colors not in your generals mana cost anywhere on the card (hybrid included!). The other few obscurities are that you begin the game at Forty Life, you get one “Free Mulligan” (where you mulligan but still draw seven), if you are dealt Twenty One damage from a single general, you lose the game regardless of what your current life total is. The final quirk about the format is the Command Zone. It’s where your general begins to put it in simple terms. You may play your general by paying its mana cost if it’s in the command zone as though it was in your hand (normal timing rules apply). Once in play if your general were to be Exiled or Destroyed you may move it back to the Command Zone if you choose (note “when this creature goes to the graveyard” effects don’t trigger if sent to the Command Zone instead). Also, each time your general goes from anywhere back to the Command Zone it gains a “Command Counter” which means the next time you would want to cast it from the Command Zone, it costs two additional colorless mana to cast. Command Counters are cumulative so be sure to find a way to keep track.

     There are many possible generals in EDH but some are more popular then others because of how powerful they are on their own and how you can just build your deck entirely around your general. Notable generals of that nature include the following.

Azami Lady of the Scrolls

Gaddock Teeg

Rafiq of the Many

Doran the Siege Tower

Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

Jhoira of the Ghitu

Maga, Traitor to Mortals

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

Scion of the Ur-Dragon

Sharuum the Hegemon

Teneb the Harvester

Zo-Zu the Punisher

Zur the Enchanter

  As well the great moderators of the EDH format decided to ban possibly the most unfun general of all time, Braids, Cabal Minion. If you want to see more possible generals simply go to gatherer.wizards.com, search Legendary Creature and it will bring up every card that can be used as your general.

   So lets put out an example of an EDH deck. This is the deck I’ve been battling with recently and am just a few cards away from being what I want it to be.

 General: Azami, Lady of Scrolls

 Lands:

28 Snow-Covered Island

1 Academy Ruins

1 Stalking Stones

1 Strip Mine

1 Temple of the False God

1 Riptide Laboratory

1 Mouth of Ronom

1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Lonely Sandbar

1 Tolaria West

Artifacts:

1 Sol Ring

1 Guardian Idol

1 Manavault

1 Mind Stone

1 Coalition Relic

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Pithing Needle

1 Epochrasite

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Sensei’s Divining Top

1 Vedalken Shackles

1 Crystal Shard

1 Mindslaver

1 Oblivion Stone

Planeswalkers:

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Sorcery:

1 Deep Analysis

1 Compulsive Research

1 Rite of Replication

Enchantments:

1 Decree of Silence

1 Confiscate

1 Take Possession

1 Dream Halls

1 Mind Over Matter

1 Annex

1 Future Sight

Instant:

1 Impulse

1 Opportunity

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Capsize

1 Boomerang

1 Repeal

1 Spin into Myth

1 Time Stop

1 Remand

1 Hinder

1 Cryptic Command

1 Dismiss

1 Condescend

1 Counter Spell

1 Spell Jack

Creature:

1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter

1 Body Double

1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror (of Victory!)

1 Arcanis the Omnipotent

1 Myojin of Seeing Winds

1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

1 Wake Thrasher

1 Tidespout Tyrant

1 Sakashima the Impostor

1 Palinchron

1 Uyo, Silent Prophet

1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

1 Aeon Chronicler

1 Mulldrifter

1 Brine Elemental

1 Willbender

1 Draining Whelk

1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

1 Trinket Mage

1 Venser, Shaper Savant

  One of the main reasons I think that this deck is a good example of an EDH deck is that it shows you that you don’t have to spend a million dollars on all the fetch lands and shock lands and old dual lands if you don’t want to. Mono colored decks are quite good and have a lot of benefits if you want to play cards with 4 colored mana symbols consistently on the turn they should come down on like Mind Over Matter and Azami herself!

  People play this format for any number of reasons but I play it because it’s a format where I get to play all of my favorite cards and have them do the kinds of things that I want them to do without having to worry about a Metagame of any such nonsense. Such things include using Tezzeret to get Epochrasite and having him as an immediate 4/4 because I didn’t play him from my hand. Or using Mind Over Matter and Azami to cycle almost my entire deck just to pump and unblocked Wake Thrasher to lethal!

  It’s an amazing format that gets even more fun as you add your own special quirks to it like some ground rules.

  1. If someone has a Bounce Land from Ravnica (the Lands that tap for 2 but you had to return a land when they came down) and you have the option to bounce or destroy it you do just that.

  2. If you steal something from an opponent with a Control Magic of Bribery effect, you’re obligated to attack only that person with it.

  3. And the Number one Rule of them all. If you can attack, YOU ATTACK!. (aka Live in the Red Zone.)

   The Armada Games EDH League starts back up again January 21st so be ready to Embrace the Chaos.

   As always I’m Brennan DeCandio saying see you next time.

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