Sets [C14] Commander 2014 Spoilers
- Thread starter anotak
- Start date
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I was just looking for a new black sac outlet. She's awesome, but 5 mana with a tap symbol is probably not getting any work done unless I slow down my cube.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
I doubt any of the Commanders will be Cubeable, it's the cheap Legacy playables with crossover value we're waiting for/
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Gisa seems reasonable just because she is both a human and a sac. outet. in black and thus is great with xathrid necromancer and champion of the parish. The CC might be an issue though.
I hope they print another game-breaking eternal card.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
As long as it's not as stupidly obnoxious as True-Name Nemesis, I hope so too. I got several cards in my cube that were originally printed in a Commander precon, and they're all fun to play (though not necessarily fun to play against 
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Chris Taylor
Contributor
Karador? Really?
Never tried him, seems a bit slow to me
Never tried him, seems a bit slow to me
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Karador doesn't come together often, but when it does... Looping Shriekmaw, Blade Splicer (of which I play two), Acidic Slime, and others is just so brutal!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
oh god shriekmaw.
I'm on the verge of cutting volrath's stronghold for doing that too often. This is probably a more fair way of doing it, but I'm not sure I want it to anyway
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
That expansion symbol is really ugly by the way. I'ld have to see the cards in person, but it's almost (almost) ugly enough to not want to put the new commander cards in my cube.
The top line looks real messed up, but I imagine it's much smoother on the actual cards.
Really wondering wtf they're going to do with the mono red pw / legend, since mono red is largely suck in multiplayer. Hopefully something more exciting than tibalt 2.0 (real cheap "value" walker) orChandra Jaya Ballard being a generic red walker.
Really wondering wtf they're going to do with the mono red pw / legend, since mono red is largely suck in multiplayer. Hopefully something more exciting than tibalt 2.0 (real cheap "value" walker) or
I once proxied the following deck for when people asked me to play Commander:
It was a performance art piece. You keep it tucked away in your bag. Then, when that annoying local pesters you to play an EDH game for the nth time, you pull this thing out.
"Sure, that sounds great, I've got a new deck I've been meaning to try."
Lose the roll. Then you patiently mulligan into one of your combo pieces and begin the game. Ideally you lose the game on your first upkeep, and quietly pack up and go back to whatever you were doing.
They stop asking pretty quickly.
| Commander (1) 1 Child of Alara Spells (9) 1 Last Chance 1 Final Fortune 1 Warrior's Oath 1 Pact of Negation 1 Pact of the Titan 1 Slaughter Pact 1 Intervention Pact 1 Summoner's Pact 1 Spoils of the Vault | Lands (90) 70 Mountain 20 Swamp |
It was a performance art piece. You keep it tucked away in your bag. Then, when that annoying local pesters you to play an EDH game for the nth time, you pull this thing out.
"Sure, that sounds great, I've got a new deck I've been meaning to try."
Lose the roll. Then you patiently mulligan into one of your combo pieces and begin the game. Ideally you lose the game on your first upkeep, and quietly pack up and go back to whatever you were doing.
They stop asking pretty quickly.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
What a pretty, emo deck
I don't understand where all the resentment for commander comes from though. Not liking the format I can understand, depending on the playgroup it can have some pretty massive flaws, but people here actively have a dismissive attitude towards it, and that I don't understand.
I don't understand where all the resentment for commander comes from though. Not liking the format I can understand, depending on the playgroup it can have some pretty massive flaws, but people here actively have a dismissive attitude towards it, and that I don't understand.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Commander is geared towards casual timmy/johnny magic, and if you arn't of that mindset, the format seems incomprehensibly bad.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
With some fine tuning I think you could get that thing to lose you the game by turn 2 well over 99% of the time.
But, you know, that would require thinking about it more which ruins the point.
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Board game nerds often resent Monopoly/Catan/Ticket to Ride/Munchkin etc because when other people hear they like board games these are the games they bring up. They're popular, but not particularly great and likely not what a board game geek wants to be the poster image of their hobby. Nor is it what they want to talk about in depth or play, but with many of players that's what you get.What a pretty, emo deck
I don't understand where all the resentment for commander comes from though. Not liking the format I can understand, depending on the playgroup it can have some pretty massive flaws, but people here actively have a dismissive attitude towards it, and that I don't understand.
I think the parallel here is obvious.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Haha, fair enough. I still think commander has a lot more to offer than Monopoly/Catan/Munchkin though, it's still Magic after all. I can understand how highlander free for all might not be everyone's cup of tea, but each commander shapes its deck in unique ways, so you often have different playstyles at the table. As long as people aren't being complete dicks and go around mana denialing everyone so that everyone can actually play a game of Magic, I enjoy the battlecruiser Magic games that ensue. Besides, I have the most fun not when I'm playing a deck with X tutors and the best cards in a color, but when I find a fair commander that I can latch on to to craft an interesting deck. Hence snake tribal for example, there are so many cool snake cards that you never get to play in cube or regular higher powered constructed formats.
Ticket to Ride is a good game actually, and certainly doesn't belong with your other examples. The Catan base game turns from a lopsided borefest into a fun game when you add Cities & Knights and Explorers & Pirates.
I wouldn't put settlers in with monopoly, since after introducing someone to settlers, they might actually want to play another game. I'd have to say that the poster images of the board game hobby should be things like carcassonne and catan, since, well, they are inclusive, and will not lead to you and your friends sitting alone in a basement growing neckbeards and complaining about casuals.
(you in the general sense, not directed about anyone special)
(you in the general sense, not directed about anyone special)
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I put those games together because they are all games that I've seen get an eyeroll of utter disdain, so in that way they belong together. Its not necessarily a comment on their absolute quality, but rather their level popularity when compared to their relative quality.
To out myself as an emo-board game dude I will tell a story. I was at a board game club and was playing some game with a few people. A new person came that day. She brought Boggle with her. Everyone looked at her funny and tried to explain what modern board games were about. She asked if anyone wanted to play Boggle with her, but no one did. They kinda laughed at her. They invited her into a game of Stone Age, which she politely sat through, but was completely board and confused. She left and didn't come back.
If I had walked into said club and they were playing TTR and Catan, that would have been me, with a copy of Stephson's Rocket or whatever was gushing over a the time.
I should have played Boggle with her, but I was already in a game so I didn't. I would have hoped someone would play my stupid game with me instead of laughing at me.
Now I feel bad and want to play Boggle.
To out myself as an emo-board game dude I will tell a story. I was at a board game club and was playing some game with a few people. A new person came that day. She brought Boggle with her. Everyone looked at her funny and tried to explain what modern board games were about. She asked if anyone wanted to play Boggle with her, but no one did. They kinda laughed at her. They invited her into a game of Stone Age, which she politely sat through, but was completely board and confused. She left and didn't come back.
If I had walked into said club and they were playing TTR and Catan, that would have been me, with a copy of Stephson's Rocket or whatever was gushing over a the time.
I should have played Boggle with her, but I was already in a game so I didn't. I would have hoped someone would play my stupid game with me instead of laughing at me.
Now I feel bad and want to play Boggle.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Incidentally, Boggle is one of my favorite games. For real. Somehow I ended up with four different copies of the game. That is, until we moved and I kept only one of them.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I think the important thing is to remember that not everyone may enjoy the same things, and to try to be empathetic about different tastes. Its better to try to find some middle ground, than to make them feel bad. Once they leave the store you never get another chance to try to bridge that gap.
CML
Contributor
now this is true but on the other hand i like to read a lot and i don't want to bring up my thing for english literature and get some neckbeard talking about lord of the rings. on the other other hand, i also hate most people who use their interests' status as an excuse to be a prick about it (witless english professors, e.g., or steve jobs pretentiously ranting about acid and missing the point), but on the other other other hand bad taste is inexcusable and every time i've ignored this kind of dealbreaker i have regretted it.
i was going to say "if i were in the business of commercializing these things, i'd have to pretend it was cool that mongo X wanted to buy monopoly" but then i realized i am and when someone is paying me, the bilious loathing i have of pachelbel's canon and fur elise completely dissipates, AT LEAST FOR NOW
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
That made me chuckle out loud
Bad taste is totally excusable though, as long as it doesn't harm good taste. The economy thrives on bad taste. One could argue bad taste does harm good taste, as in: every penny spent on another Monopoly clone could have been spent on developing a good game instead, but I don't really think that's how it works. Rather, because of the success of bad games like Monopoly, game designers got the chance to create new and better games as publishers discovered a new niche audience with money to spare. So, given time, bad taste will create breathing room for good taste!
Bad taste is totally excusable though, as long as it doesn't harm good taste. The economy thrives on bad taste. One could argue bad taste does harm good taste, as in: every penny spent on another Monopoly clone could have been spent on developing a good game instead, but I don't really think that's how it works. Rather, because of the success of bad games like Monopoly, game designers got the chance to create new and better games as publishers discovered a new niche audience with money to spare. So, given time, bad taste will create breathing room for good taste!
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
As designers, I don't think it’s healthy to put one gamer demographic on a pedestal over the other, unless you know that your playgroup is made up only of that gamer demographic. And while Commander, yes, is guilty of this, casual magic formats exist for a reason: to cater to certain non-competitive tastes and experiences for which there is real demand. I think this is something that spike players get confused about. They tend to look at these players and try to "cure" them, when the reality is that most of them are refugees from a spike dominated constructed scene.
I have a player I would describe as a Timmy in my playgroup, and after a year of torturing my old cube (for the worse) to try to get him to play magic a certain way, I've come to the conclusion that this is just who he is and this is what he enjoys about the game. Now, I’m not going to pretend his taste isn't terrible (and if left unchecked it would ruin the new cube), but I have to extend to him a certain legitimacy: that his focus on fun over winning makes the game night, over-all, more enjoyable; and to remember that we are just a bunch of old friends playing a card game on a kitchen table.
I have a player I would describe as a Timmy in my playgroup, and after a year of torturing my old cube (for the worse) to try to get him to play magic a certain way, I've come to the conclusion that this is just who he is and this is what he enjoys about the game. Now, I’m not going to pretend his taste isn't terrible (and if left unchecked it would ruin the new cube), but I have to extend to him a certain legitimacy: that his focus on fun over winning makes the game night, over-all, more enjoyable; and to remember that we are just a bunch of old friends playing a card game on a kitchen table.