All Hail the Queen!

Howdy folks. I’m excited to share today’s deck with you, as it’s a concept I’ve been trying to execute upon for a very long time, but only now, thanks in large part to the mechanics and cards in Conspiracy: Take the Crown, it is finally working more or less how I wanted it to.

Before we get to the deck list, let me tell you all the story of its origins, of my quest to make an idea work despite multiple failures.

The idea was born of a simple seed: Grand Melee + Ghostly Prison.

I’ll elaborate. Multiplayer games sometimes tend to get bogged down in board stalls. People build up armies but are afraid to leave themselves open, so they don’t attack. This leads to long, drawn out games. Boring games, even, some might say. So, I wanted to build a deck that encouraged (or even forced) attacking to happen more often and more aggressively. Cards like Grand Melee and Fumiko the Lowblood came to mind. But, past experience has showed me when you play cards that force your opponents to attack, they tend to prioritize attacking you! People tend not to like having the strategic choice of when and who to attack, and with which creatures, taken away from them. It’s one of those things that is considered “fair” in a casual setting, but is still likely to irk people and make you the target.

So, if you’re going to force your opponets into attacking, you need to be able to defend yourself, should they make you the focus of their ire. It’s best to use both the “carrot” and the “stick”, I have found out. Meaning, one strategy is to incentivize attacking someone else. Cards that attach a cost to attacking you, such as Ghostly Prison, King Darien, Propaganda, etc., would fit this category, as would cards that reward your opponents for attacking someone else, such as Edric, or Gahiji. So on one axis you have cards that say “It will cost you resources to attack me, or give me resources, but attacking Bob or Mary is free, so why not attack them?”, then on the other axis you have cards that say “Attacking me gains you nothing, but attacking Bob or Mary will draw you some cards or pump your team!” These types of cards are the carrot. They incentivize attacking elsewhere, but don’t do much if your opponent decides it’s worth it to pay whatever cost is associated and comes after you anyway.

The “stick” cards are more about punishing those who don’t cooperate with your more subtle forms of coercion. Again, there are two types of cards that fall into this category. On-board and surprise. On-board “sticks” are cards like No Mercy, Knight-Captain of Eos, or an Oblivion Stone with 5 mana open. Many enfranchised Magic players know these types of cards as “rattlesnakes”. Then there are the surprise effects – cards like Aetherize, Comeuppance, Rout, or even just a good ol’ Fog. The thing about these cards is they benefit most from being part of a regular group, or being known for having them. The first time someone walks right into your Angel of the Dire Hour can be a huge blow out, but later, the mere THREAT of an Angel coming down can drastically influence that player’s decision-making in future games.

So, it’s all about reward and punishment. Positive and negative reinforcement. You say “I will reward you, or at the very least withhold punishment, as long as you cooperate and attack only our mutual opponents.” But you need to be prepared to also say “If you scorn my offer of reward and choose to come after me anyway, I can assure you that you will regret doing so”. And, crucially, you need to be able to back up those assertions – if you threaten retaliation, you have to be capable of delivering on that threat, and if you offer reward or incentive for an opponent to cooperate with your schemes, you need to make good on that promise as well.

For instance, if you play out an Edric you are essentially saying “hey, attack anyone but me and you get some free cards!” but if one of your opponents plays along and attacks a mutual enemy instead of you, don’t Fog their attack or bounce Edric or some other nonsense in response. They took your offer, so you have to deliver on your end of the bargain. For this kind of political deck to work you have to have a reputation as an honest person. There’s always times where you can BLUFF, but outright lies and trickery will only backfire on you in the long run. And of course there will always be situations where allowing someone to cash in on whatever reward you offered will be a disaster... example: You control an Edric, but one of your opponents has out a Psychosis Crawler and an army of 1/1 tokens. If they go to attack a mutual opponent and get 20 or more triggers off Edric that might just spell doom for all of you! So if there is a very clear and immediate strategic reason to screw someone out of the very reward you set out to offer them, well, let’s just hope you’re a smooth-talker!

Anyway, I have really jumped ahead. I was supposed to be talking about the process of how I got to these conclusions, not the end results. Backing up, let me get back to the beginning. So my goal was two-fold: to build a deck that leaned heavily into the political aspect of multiplayer, and encouraged a faster-paced, more proactive style of gameplay, thereby reducing the length of games and alleviating some of the more durdly board-stalls that came up often in my group. My first attempt was a WBR deck led by Oros the Avenger (largely because he was the only option at the time, for those colors). This deck didn’t really work out for a variety of reasons, but in broad strokes, this is how I learned the aforementioned lesson about earning the table’s ire and being able to defend ones’ self. It also had the disadvantage of having a much shallower pool of cards to draw from as WoTC wasn’t really doing much “specifically for multiplayer” design back then. I wanted more cards like Ghostly Prison and No Mercy but had to rely on cards more like Lightmine Field, which ultimately worked at cross-purposes with my goal. You see I very much want to encourage attacking, in general, I just want to discourage those attacks from coming my way. Cards like Lightmine Field actually just halt creature combat altogether, which makes board stalls worse, not better.

I also had something of a punisher/group slug thing going on, with cards like Tainted Aether and Painful  Quandary just annoying people even more, and making them even more likely to come after me. Again, working directly against my goal of dissuading attacks in my direction!

So, I learned from those mistakes, but after tinkering with the deck some more, the real problem emerged. I just didn’t have the kind of cards I needed to make the idea work. There were a few but not enough. I gave up on the idea for a while.

Fast forward a few years and now WotC is making sets like Conspiracy, Archenemy, Planechase and the Commander decks. All of which have a more multiplayer-oriented focus. Now we’re seeing more cards like Illusionist’s Gambit, Comeuppance, Edric and Gahiji, etc. Cards that are design with multiplayer politics in mind. I got especially excited when they printed Cyclonic Rift, Aetherize, Illusionist’s Gambit and Comeuppance in the space of a couple of years. I felt we’d finally hit a critical mass of both carrot and stick politics cards, and a good mix of both surprise and on-board tricks.

So I revisited the idea, going with RWU this time, running Ruhan mainly for the colors but also for his political angle and decent clock he represents. But, even though I went out of my way to avoid running cards like Lightmine Field that just grind the game to a halt, somehow the deck managed to still make games slower and grindier rather than the stated goal of speeding them up and making them more dynamic. The deck did have a much better track record of defending itself and making attacking ME very difficult, but ultimately it was difficult to close out games and the game would devolve to a state where I’m considered the main threat, and everyone else wants to team up to attack me… but my defenses are such that they can’t really manage to do this effectively, so rather than fight each other they call truce until such time as they are able to gang up on me. Meanwhile I’m digging for a threat to close out the game now that my defenses are well-established, but the deck was so defensive that it was hard for me to assemble a powerful offense, and my opponents were able to use their removal sparingly to shut me down when I did manage to present some threats.

Once again, I tinkered with the deck but just couldn’t find the right mix of defense and offence, of reward and punishment, or whatever was off, I just couldn’t get it right.

One of the big problem was momentum. Even though I was now in Blue, I couldn’t fit enough draw into the deck to make it work. If I cut defensive stuff for draw, I’d just get dogpiled, and I was already too light on game-ending threats to cut any of those. I did what I could to provide card advantage and value engines, but that just diluted the main themes of the deck too much. Not seeing a solution I gave up on the idea once again.

I’m pretty sure by this point I was actually up to about three or four attempts at making this concept work, but so far only Edric was even remotely successful at playing up the political manipulation angle, but that deck didn’t have access to the “everybody has to attack” cards that Red brings to the table, so even Edric did very little to actually speed up games and prevent board stalls.

Finally, Conspiracy 2 appears and brings us Queen Marchesa. I had been, for several months, trying to make an Alesha deck work, but was not having any luck with it. I kinda knew at least some of what I was doing wrong, but I was married to the idea I had come up with, and was stubbornly trying to make the deck work as envisioned, rather than changing up certain aspects of it. For instance, I was adamant that it be a Sunforger dcek. I had cut Sunforger from my Aurelia list and was determined to give it a new home in Mardu colors. I had my reasons, and it still makes sense to me why I did it… it just didn’t work out as I’d hoped. Not even close.

I’m okay having some of my decks be weaker than others. But there’s a threshold, and Alesha was falling well below that. I still had the list sleeved up, and was still holding out hope that I’d figure out how to fix the problems present in the list, but wasn’t putting much time or effort into it. When Recruiter of the Guard was spoiled I got a renewed sense of purpose and idly thought that perhaps adding in Recruiter and building a bit more around its ability might be at least a step in the right direction.

But, I got really intrigued by Queen Marchesa along the way, and while I spent quite a bit of time theorycrafting some big changes to Alesha, I was still thinking of it as an Alesha deck. As more and more Monarchy cards got spoiled though, I really thought that this new mechanic might be a big boon for these colors and I found myself wanting to include lots of “you become the monarch” cards. Many of which do not necessarily interact with Alesha – she can’t bring back 5/5 dragons after all.

I’m also a sucker for commanders who come with built-in card draw engines!

So somewhere along the way, as I was making theoretical changes to Alesha’s list, I just started to think of the list as a Marchesa deck. Once I realized that paradigm shift, I suddenly realized that this was my opportunity to finally make that old concept of “Everybody attack! Just don’t attack ME!” work. I started scrapping a lot of the aggressive aspects of the deck in favor of Ghostly Prisons and No Mercies and Comeuppances. I realized there was still a lot of value in having Recruiter in the deck, so I commited to keeping Alesha in the 99, and building around her as much as I could, while still allowing for the bigger creatures like Skyline Despot.

So now the new goal was to build around the Monarchy mechanic. Become the monarch, draw cards, defend the crown heavily. Secondary to that was, running lots of little evasive creatures that could sneak through and retake the crown, should I lose it. This tied into the Alesha and Recruiter angle nicely. Suddenly the deck was coming together nicely with a lot of different themes that had pleasantly overlapping synergies. The funny thing is that Alesha has done far more work in the 99 of this list than she did as commander, even though the deck was more focused on her then!

I cut quite a bit of my draw and removal spells, as well as scrapping the whole Stoneforge Mystic/Equipment package. I felt really nervous about those choices, as those were all sources of card advantage in some fashion. But since playing the deck, I find that the extra draw I get from the Monarch ability is pretty decent on its own, and having just a smattering of draw elsewhere as a hedge is plenty of draw power. Beyond that, I still have the Land Tax/Scroll Rack engine of value, as well as Kiki-Jiki/Recruiter of the Guard, or really Kiki-Jiki plus almost anything.  One game I got Alesha to recur a Solem Simulacrum enough times that I ran out of basics in my deck.

Simply put, Queen Marchesa rules.

(sorry not sorry)

Well that about does it for the origin story. Sorry for the long-windedness. Let me can the chatter for a moment and get to the deck list!

Creatures

Queen Marchesa

Mother of Runes
Selfless Spirit
Recruiter of the Guard
Soltari Champion
Bastion Protector
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
Academy Rector
Windborn Muse
Archangel of Tithes
Knight-Captain of Eos
Reveillark
Karmic Guide
Protector of the Crown
Darien, King of Kjeldor
Angel of the Dire Hour

Vampire Nighthawk
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Custodi Lich
Dread

Goblin Diplomats
Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Fumiko the Lowblood
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Warmonger Hellkite
Skyline Despot

Knights of the Black Rose
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

Burnished Hart
Solemn Simulacrum
Duplicant

Spells

Swords to Plowshares
Land Tax
Ghostly Prison
Always Watching
Godsend
Comeuppance
Return to Dust
Rout
Cathar's Crusade
Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Read the Bones
Behind the Scenes
Phyrexian Arena
Marchesa's Decree
No Mercy

Mizzium Mortars
Wheel of Fortune
Blasphemous Act

Boros Charm
Deflecting Palm
Anguished Unmaking
Utter End
Assemble the Legion

Skullclamp
Rakdos Signet
Orzhov Signet
Boros Signet
Scroll Rack
Crown of Doom
Hedron Archive

Lands

Badlands
Scrubland
Plateau
Blood Crypt
Godless Shrine
Sacred Foundry
Bloodstained Mire
Marsh Flats
Dragonskull Summit
Isolated Chapel
Clifftop Retreat
Temple of Malice
Temple of Silence
Temple of Triumph
Rakdos Carnarium
Orzhov Basilica
Boros Garrison
Nomad Outpost
Command Tower
New Benalia
Secluded Steppe
Bojuka Bog
Barren Moor
Forgotten Cave
Kher Keep
Slayer's Stronghold
Throne of the High City
Terramorphic Expanse
3x Plains
3x Swamp
3x Mountain

As you can see, it shares some DNA with the previous Alesha build, but it does play out drastically differently. For one thing it’s actually good. It’s not GREAT, not yet, as there is still some fine-tuning to be done. Even then I believe this is probably the type of deck that really only does well in a friendly, casual setting where you know your opponents and they know you. It’s also not fantastic against decks that aren’t overly reliant on creatures and attacking. For instance, we don’t match up super well against a U/R Spells Tribal deck. Also can have some trouble with one-shot commanders like Prossh that can sometimes just swing one time with one creature and win out of nowhere. It’s not TERRIBLE in those matches… they just aren’t our ideal matchups.

One cool thing abou the deck is how it is primarily designed to be defensive, but keeping the creature base small and in Alesha/Recruiter range gives the deck the versatility to be quite fast and aggressive at times. It depends on your draws and what your opponents are on, but there are times when it is clearly correct to just go on the beatdown plan ASAP. A primary goal of mine with this deck is to slowly and carefully amp the aggro side back up just a bit. I’d love to see Iroas and Gisela in here, along with just a smidge more cheap, quick attackers. Maybe some Doublestrike?

But despite the potential for aggression, this is clearly a defensive deck first and foremost. Getting that Monarch draw AND KEEPING IT TO YOURSELF are paramount to the deck’s success. It’s fine to lose the monarchy once in a while, briefly, as there are things like Custodi Lich that require the crown to be passed back and forth to work, but to lose the crown for an extended period of time can spell disaster. You want to make damn sure you can either attack to get it back or play something that automatically makes you the monarch. So far I’ve identified two cards that aren’t exceptionally good, but are staying in for the time being based on theme/flavor. Marchesa’s Decree and Knights of the Black Rose. Neither card is terrible, but they also haven’t been all that great. Eventually I’m sure I’ll cut them to make room for more results-oriented cards, but the flavor alone is enough to keep ‘em around a bit longer.

In terms of utility there are some clear gaps. I have no frickin’ clue how I managed to build this deck without Sol Ring, but even the Alesha list I had posted before did not include it. I guess it’s not strictly necessary as I have a low-ish curve and have not had (significant) mana problems as of yet. But still, Sol Ring should absolutely be in this deck, period. I’d also LOVE to squeeze in a Vandalblast, Path to Exile and one cheap sweeper like Toxic Deluge or Wrath of God.

I’ve already mentioned Iroas as something I’d like to include to beef up my offense just a bit (and provide evasion to make it easier to steal back the crown!), but I also have my eye on Gisela, Brutal Hordechief  and Urabrask as potential ways to beef up my end game. Gisela and Urabrask have the added bonus of also providing some defensive measures alongside their offensive value. Getting hit by a Haste creature has actually been an issue more than once already, so Urabrask, Thalia 2.0 and Blind Obedience are all under consideration as a hedge against the surprise haste attack, but of those I think I like Urabrask the most.

Boros Reckoner is probably another one that deserves a slot, but I haven’t been able to find room for him. He’s a pretty good rattlesnake against attackers, and has cool synergy with Blasphemous Act. Blazing Archon was actually in the deck at one point but got cut due to his high CMC and fragility. He’s a huge removal magnet, and costs a fortune to cast. Still, he’d be nice to have, if I can find room, but he’s not the highest priority on my list.

One last card, which is pretty high on the list of things I’d like to include is Sun Titan.  He seems like he’d play well with the likes of Alesha, Recruiter and all the other low-cost spells in the list. I actually only left Sun Titan out initially because I didn’t have any more copies not already in decks. Luckily I found a copy on the cheap at a local store so I now have one; my problem remains one of finding room  for it.

EDIT: After writing this I suddenly remembered the card Angel’s Trumpet and have now added that to my list of potential inclusions.

As for cards that got excluded intentionally, there are a few I must address. The first is Grand Melee, one of the cards that originally led to this concept in the first place. The problem with Grand Melee is that, in some cases, it can backfire pretty badly, mainly due to the “all creatures must block if able” part of the card. As I mentioned before, this deck CAN go aggro when the opportunity is there, but most of the time it is much more defensive. Being forced to run Marchesa into a blocker is  much worse for us than being able to leave her back as a blocker. Instead I opted for cards like Fumiko and Goblin Diplomats as they don’t force ME to make bad attacks.

Another one is Assault Suit. It’s on theme and I really like the effect it would have, but it’s got two things going against it. First, it’s just really expensive to cast and equip. I was worried it would just be too clunky. But I have had less issues with mana than I anticipated, so the cost might not be as prohibitive as I originally estimated. It is still a factor of concern. The second issue is, to get the ball rolling, you have to equip it to one of your own creatures. So far, this hasn’t struck me as a deck that has a lot of spare creatures to give away. Sure, once in a while I might be able to slap the Suit on one of Marchesa’s Assasin tokens, but that doesn’t thrill me.

Ophiomancer would be a cool source of tokens to give away, but I don’t want to run it just for the Assault Suit interaction, and I’m not sure it’s good enough on its own. Deathtouch blockers are nice to have… but I’ve run Ophiomancer in a few other decks and it’s always been pretty “meh”.

That’s about all I have at the moment. This is still a very new deck and I’m still trying to fine-tune it and getting used to playing it. But so far the deck has been quite fun to play, and ran much more smoothly than any version of this deck I’ve made in the past. Very happy with how it’s turning out already.

Let me know if there’s any sweet tech I missed!

EDH Set Review: Conspiracy 2 - Electric Boogaloo

Alright, folks, so we’ve already gone over the Legends of the set, now it’s time to talk about the new cards hoping to earn one of the 99 slots in our main decks. I’m not going to be doing a Top 10 format this time, because this set is just unusually well-stocked with EDH playables. And for this article, I’m only talking about new cards. CS2 is filled with reprints, some amazing, some terrible, many decent-to-okay-ish. But for now, let’s just stick to the new goodies.

White

Protector of the Crown

                This one is definitely on the margins of playability. I think if you’re running a highly political, monarch-themed deck (like Queen Marchesa), you’d grudgingly run this and occasionally be pleasantly surprised. A lot of the time, though, it’s probably just going to be a one-shot effect, as getting through for 5 isn’t exactly a tall order in EDH. Combining this with other effects, like say, Darksteel Plate and/or a bunch of Ghostly Prison-type effects makes it somewhat more palatable. So, basically, niche-playable, but not exciting.

Recruiter of the Guard

                On the other hand, we have this guy. A pseudo-reprint of Imperial Recruiter, color-shifted to White. This has instant staple written all over it, despite EDH being known as the format for huge creatures, there are still a vast array of utility creatures that this can tutor out for us. Some of my favorite targets for Recruiter so far include: Academy Rector, Stoneforge Mystic, Ranger of Eos, Eternal Witness, Spitebellows, Kiki-Jiki… the list goes on. Absolutely a fantastic card for our format. Love it!

Sanctum Prelate

                This one is a bit mean, but for those of you who like to play a little dirty, this should be a treat. I’m definitely looking to acquire one for my GAAIV deck, as it’s one of my meaner decks already. I can also see running this in mono-White just as protection against Wrath/Damnation effects. But lately, sweepers have gotten more diverse in the CMCs, so it’s always going to be a challenge as to whether you should choose 4, 5 or 6. I’m also sort of in love with the idea of targeting this with a kicked Rite of Replication… anyway, certain to see some play in EDH, but mostly among the more cutthroat groups (hopefully).

Custodi Soulcaller

                I can see this getting a bit of play in Alesha decks, and White Weenie decks, but overall I don’t think it’s going to be that good. Too many factors have to go right for this to do its thing and live to do it again.

Palace Jailer

                I’m pretty certain this card is just terrible and you should be running, if anything, Oblivion Ring or Journey to Nowhere over this. Or Fiend Hunter. They don’t even have to kill this guy to get their guy back. Just hit you and take the crown from you. In fact, ANYONE can attack you and that person gets their guy back. Now, this does create some interesting political situations, in theory at least: you have the Monarchy, and have used the Jailer to take someone’s Very Scary Threat. Obviously the person who controlled that threat wants to hit you, as they would both get the Monarchy and get their guy back… but if the other two opponents are equally afraid of that Very Scary Threat, they might be dissuaded from attacking you, lest they give your mutual enemy that threat back. They might even pitch in some removal to stop the threat’s controller from attacking you! That’s a very cool scenario, and if I thought the Jailer would actually play out like that very often, I’d like it. But usually it’s just going to do close to nothing, I believe.

Spectral Grasp

                Cool variant on Pacifism for multiplayer. I like it, but don’t see it getting a ton of play.

Blue

Expropriate

                Holy crap! I’m usually not a huge fan of these types of cards (I’m much cooler on Blatant Thievery than most, and I detest most extra turns spells). But this is just a fantastic design. It seems pretty likely to win the game if it resolves, or at least put the caster VERY far ahead. The best thing about it is, unlike most Time Warp effects, this one is all but guaranteed to give the caster something meaningful to do, eliminating the whole desperation Time Warp where one player spends like half an hour taking two or more turns, but at the end of it all, nothing much actually gets done. In short, extra turns usually lead to boring games, rather than just ending them… this one, however, is unlikely to be boring, and quite likely to end games, or at least move things toward an outcome very quickly. I also like that it exiles itself, as many extra turn spells do these days. Keeps abuse to a minimum. Props to the designer of this card for making me love a card I’d usually hate.

Keeper of the Keys

                This is probably slightly better than its White counterpart, Protector of the Throne. It certainly seems very fitting for, say, and Edric deck, which both stands to capitalize on the unblockable aspect, and likely has the tools to protect itself from losing the monarch effect. But, like Protector, it’s still pretty niche. Gets a lot better if you can Flash it in EOT to sneakily steal someone’s Monarch trigger, and guarantee you get that unblockable bonus.

Stunt Double

                It’s amazing how much WotC loves to rub Clone’s nose in its own obsolescence. It’s also amazing how such a minor thing like just adding “Flash” to a Clone improve it. This is still a far cry from the likes of Rite of Replication, Phyrexian Metamorph and Clever Impersonator, but it’s still one of the best Clone variants they’ve printed in a while. I don’t expect to see it reach the universal ubiquity of those previously mentioned cards, but it’s a fantastic card to have access to nonetheless. Again, a sure-thing for many Edric decks at the very least.

Coveted Peacock

                Neat card, but I don’t think it’s quite up to par with most EDH playables. That said, I’m giving it a try in my Edric deck, as Goad seems like a mechanic that deck wants to experiment with.

Black

Custodi Lich

                I really want to like this card but in any deck besides a Monarchy-themed one, I feel like I’d just rather have Fleshbag Marauder, Barter in Blood or one of the many variations thereof 90% of the time. That said, it’s second line of text makes it really hard to evaluate, because Monarchy is too new of a mechanic to really judge how often the crown will be changing hands in the average game. In games where you are losing and retaking the crown quite frequently, this guy might actually be a real powerhouse.

Capital Punishment

                I really feel like whoever designed this card was making some sort of commentary on the state of the 2016 election, but whatever. This feels like it might be a bit underwhelming for a six-mana spell, but I think it warrants trying out at least. Could be better than expected. Overall it feels a bit too situational to really be good, and discard isn’t usually all that good in EDH, but I have had Unnerve and Syphon Mind pan out alright for me. I’ll probably squeeze this into a deck or two just to test drive it, but I really don’t feel comfortable giving a concrete appraisal of this one until I’ve actually seen it in action.

Deadly Designs

                Anybody remember Soul Snare, from the 2011 Commander decks? No? That’s because it was a huge dud. It seemed like it should be a good card for multiplayer, a more political version of Swords to Plowshares. But in practice, it was just a bad card. Deadly Designs seems like an even worse version of Soul Snare. I see what it’s trying to do, I just don’t think it’s going to work out that way.

Marchesa’s Decree

                Not nearly as good as, say, Ghostly Prison or No Mercy at discouraging your opponents from swinging at you. But when you combine it will multiple such effects, it gets a little better. Again, I don’t see this getting a ton of play outside of dedicated Monarchy decks, but it’s possible any Pillow Fort style deck that’s in Black will pick this up.

Red

Skyline Despot

                A lot of EDH players seem to be relatively unimpressed by this Dragon, but I’m a pretty big fan. I don’t see it being a huge staple or anything, but it still seems really solid to me. It’s a dragon, and it occasionally makes more dragons and/or draws you cards. Nothing mind-blowing but seems all upside to me. For sure going into my Maelstrom Wanderer (dragon tribal) deck, and my work-in-progress Queen Marchesa deck. Beyond that I’d consider it for Feldon (seems like a slightly better option than the currently-underperforming Sandstone Oracle), maybe Marath (fits the theme of making and then populating large tokens, has great synergy with Kiki-Jiki), but it’s not a lock for either of those.

Subterranean Tremors

                I still haven’t figured out which, if any, of my decks wants to run this, but I absolutely have to find at least one deck to slot it into. I absolutely love this card. It’s not really a GREAT card, but it’s hilarious, has great flavor, and occasionally can be a legit bomb. There are a couple of white weenie/equipment decks in my meta that I can’t wait to blow out with this.

Besmirch

                One-shot Threaten effects usually aren’t all that great in EDH, but the Goad ability might just elevate this to playable status. It certainly seems amusing and fun to play, at the very least. Very cool attempts at designing a Threaten for multiplayer, and I imagine it’ll see some play, but not sure how much it’ll take off in EDH… 20-life multiplayer formats will probably like it more.

Grenzo’s Ruffians

                I really like the Melee mechanic, the problem with its execution is that it was balanced for games where everyone’s life total is 20. Therefore, the small handful of melee cards we got mostly don’t scale well for EDH’s 40-life rule. Ruffians is a cool card, and I believe it’s the first time we’ve seen that ability since Hydra Omnivore. I think it’ll get played more on coolness factor or tribal synergies than raw power level, but that’s still getting played.

Green

Regal Behemoth

                Probably the most playable member of its cycle, the ability double your mana is great. On the other hand, this might provide your opponents with a  VERY compelling reason to rob you of the monarch status as quickly as possible. But, then again, having a 6/6 Trampler might enable you to get it back fairly easily. All in all, I’m a fan and I think many people will play this, but in some decks it might not pan out as well as in others.

Selvala’s Stampede

                Tooth and Nail hooked up with See the Unwritten, they had a baby, and it grew up into this. I’m already running several copies of T&N and StU in my decks, this is probably going to be nearly as popular. Best thing is, it’s a good budget alternative for folks that don’t have Tooth and Nails lying around. It’s not as consistent as Tooth, but that’s a good thing. It’s still absurdly powerful, but a bit more random and conditional. Still the decks that want this aren’t going to have a lot of trouble setting up the necessary conditions. I’m going to need a few more copies of this, for sure.

Splitting Slime

                Cool card, fun design, but not super powerful. But I don’t think many players will find this all that impressive. You kind of need Gaea’s Cradle-levels of mana for this to really be good, but if you have that kind of mana, there are probably better things to do with it. Still, adding Doubling Season to the mix and it can get really out of hand quickly. Could potentially fuel a big Shamanic Revelantion as well. Yeah, I might try to find a slot for this in my Marath deck, actually. Not sure it’ll wind up being an all-star, but it has potential. Honestly I’m pretty sure the vast majority of EDH players will find this to be too janky, but I’ll be quite happy if it finds one or two decks in which it can shine.

Domesticated Hydra

                Cute, but probably not very good. Basically doesn’t do anything besides get big and swing.

Fang of the Pack

                I really like this card, I’m just not at all convinced I should… It’s just way too weak for a six-drop, but I’d love to be proven wrong. Probably gets played in werewolf/wolf decks, but not much else. Should have been a 4/4 for five or something like that.

Multicolor

Kaya, Ghost Assasin

                I’m not really over the moon for this ‘walker, but she’s certainly cool enough. Of course any deck like Karlov or Oloro that cares about life gain and life loss has to at least consider her. She’s already slotted into my Karlvo list, and I’m sure she’ll peform well there. But I have a number of other decks that could run her, but just don’t want to. Thus, I’m not a big fan, despite having her in one deck already, and I expect her to see a lot of play in the format regardless.

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast

                Very strange to see a Rakdos-colored ‘walker that so closely ties into artifacts, but I’m guessing this might be a foreshadowing of how Black will work with artifacts in Kaladesh. Also there is a lot of speculation that the non-Green, 4-color commander in this year’s upcoming Commander decks might have an artifact theme. I can see either/both of these being true, which might retroactively make Daretti make more sense, but for now he’s just kind of an oddball. Very good abilities, and I’d love to play him, but none of my decks in these colors really want him. I expect a fair number of EDH players will be the same boat.

Knights of the Black Rose

                Surprisingly decent for what it is, yet I still can’t justify running it in Karlov, which of all my decks, seems the most likely home for them. Still a 4/4 for five with a couple of minor upsides is pretty aggressive for a W/B card. Should see a smattering of player here and there.

Artifacts/Lands

Throne of the High City

                I have trouble imagining this getting much play outside of dedicated Monarcy decks, but then again, maybe some mono-White or mono-Red decks will be just desperate enough for a low-opportunity-cost way to draw cards, they’ll give this a shot. If this were a City of Brass with that sac ability tacked on, it’d be a different story. I’d play it in just about anything if that were the case. But, as printed, you either have to highly value the monarch effect, or have a mana base that just doesn’t mind having one more colorless-producing land.

Spy Kit

                LOL WUT? Makes Maelstrom Pulse a bit better? Biovisionary wins just got a little more viable? Dunno, but I don’t plan on using this for anything.

Commons

By my estimation there aren’t any new commons that are particularly noteworthy, but there are a couple that I have my eye on as potentially playable. One of those is Borderland Explorer; as a 3/1 for 2 he’s a bit beefier that most land-fetching dorks we see, but is also still Skullclamp-able. Not sure where exactly he might belong but I have a feeling he has some fringe playability. Thorn of the Black Rose might be an okay role-player in that hypothetical Monarchy deck I keep mentioning. Otherwise, the new commons are pretty lackluster, or in some cases, don’t actually do anything outside of a draft format.

Still, when you combine the above cards, most of which are at least niche playable, with the amazing reprints such as Beserk, Show and Tell, Burgeoning and Phyrexian Arena, this set really does look like a treasure trove of EDH goodness. On the downside, there are quite a few janky, low-value reprints clogging up the rare slots, and even a couple of dud Mythic reprints (the Angel at least makes sense, but Avatar of Woe? Really?! C’mon…). Overall, though, I’d say the set should have something of value for just about anyone, but is particularly well-suited to the EDH fan.

Conspiracy Commanders

I’m a bit late to the party here, but in case you haven’t noticed, Conspiracy: Take the Crown is out now, and it is a veritable treasure trove of EDH goodies. I’m working on a set review, but to kick things off I want to focus specifically on the new Legends this set is bringing us. New options for commanders are often the big highlight of any new set, so let’s take a look!

Adriana, Captain of the Guard

The most common response to Adriana has been some variation on “Oh, look, another boring Boros commander that doesn’t do anything but attack”. I certainly understand that sentiment. Kalemne, from the 2015 Commander decks, also received a very similar response. The thing is, while such complaints are accurate in that Adriana, like Kalemne and so many other Boros legends, is playing to a very tired and well-worn theme, many of these commander options actually have subtle variations on that theme that I think the vocal masses largely downplay. So, yeah, basically every Boros deck comes down to swinging into the red zone in some fashion, but an Adriana deck is still going to be built differently and play differently from a deck built around Kalemne, which in turn is going to be different in many respects from a Jor Kadeen deck, etc. Sure they all have some very common themes, in the broadest sense, but they are still different flavors of those themes.

I fully agree that we need more Boros legends that open up new themes, and I hope we start to see some more interesting designs soon… but until then I can’t really be too dismissive of cards like Adriana and Kalemne, as those subtle differences really do matter a good deal more than the player base seems to give them credit for. Adriana, in particular, seems fairly interesting to me, primarily because of the Melee mechanic. Many aggressive strategies in EDH tend to want to hammer one player relentlessly until that player is dead, then turn their attention to the next one. “Spreading the love” as it’s often referred to, is commonly seen as a strategic mistake for an Aggro deck to make in most multiplayer EDH games. I disagree with that assessment in general, but that’s a whole other discussion. Point being, the text on Adriana’s card makes it quite clear that you need to spread the love to take full advantage of her. So regardless of your usual approach to aggro decks, if you’re playing Adriana, you are going to be compelled to attack everyone, rather than focusing on one person at a time.

That said, I prefer Boros decks and commanders that don’t require you to overextend and risk getting blown out. Adriana does not line up with this philosophy so I’m not too thrilled with her at the end of the day, but I think she’s more interesting than people realize… but at the end of the day she IS just another flavor of the standard Boros Beatdown commander.

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

Grenzo seems like a unique and groundbreaking new commander in exactly the way Adriana isn’t. This little goblin is pretty interesting and definitely a very different design for Red. WotC seems very willing to explore new design space in Red, largely by riffing on mechanics traditionally seen in other colors. Feldon, for instance, made mono-Red reanimator into an actual, viable archetype, but in a way that felt appropriate to Red and wasn’t an egregious breach of the color pie.

In a similar fashion, Grenzo is a kind of a riff on Edric, mixed with a Nightveil Specter. Neither of which is a Red card, but the way Grenzo is put together, he somehow manages to feel appropriately Red, despite doing some very un-Red things. Brilliant design, and hopefully will spawn some original, unique decks. He’s also likely to be a pretty good card to just run in the 99.

Unfortunately, as cool and unique as Grenzo is, I’m still too in love with Feldon to have spent much time or thought on Grenzo – plus, I’m distracted by other, sexier legends out of this set. So as much as I like Grenzo’s design, I just haven’t spent enough time thinking critically about what a deck built around him might look like, how it might play, etc. Thus, I don’t really have a lot to say about the little guy, other than I hope to see him do cool things one day, and I hope I eventually get around to figuring him out.

Queen Marchesa

So far the internet response to Queen Marchesa has been a little muted. Unenthusiastic, even. Sure she’s no powerhouse like Kaalia and isn’t as uniquely build-around as Alesha, but I think she’s actually pretty solid and can be built around in a number of ways. Personally, I have been trying to make a certain deck for years – a deck that wants to promote attacking, but discourage attacking ME. I’ve actually tried it in Mardu colors before, as well as Jeskai. While I’d sorta like it if Marchsa had access to Blue instead of Black, for cards like Aetherize, Propaganda, and Illusionist’s Gambit, Black does offer some good choices as well – No Mercy, Dread, etc.

So basically the idea is to get the Monarch token (not really a token, but you know what I mean), defend it, and try to ride that card advantage train to victory. I haven’t really figured out how the deck wants to win, but whatever. Step 1 is getting the right mix of cards that force my opponents to get into the Red Zone, but also prevent or at least discourage them from sending their armies my way. I think Marchesa might just be the best commander printed to date to make this hypothetical deck idea actually work semi-well. I don’t harbor any illusions that it’ll become one of my most dominant and powerful decks, but I think it’ll work.

But I think she is open-ended enough that there are probably a small handful of various archetypes that would work with her. Stax is already somewhat popular among Alesha decks, but I’m thinking Marchesa might be even better. Could be wrong, as I’m not really a stax player (a bit too mean for my group), and when I do play anything that has any resemblance to stax, it’s usually involves the Golgari… but keeping your opponents from ever being able to mount a reasonable offense is a hallmark of the stax strategy, and I think that coincides nicely with the aim of getting the Monarch token and hogging it all to yourself. Getting a free Phyrexian Arena that can’t be disenchanted, and doesn’t ever cost you life seems REALLY strong to me, so I guess I just don’t understand why people are sleeping on this right now.

But don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here getting all kinds of free card draw off that Monarch ability, then blowing you out with an Angel of the Dire Hour when you try to take it from me!

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

I can’t tell if this is a Spike card with Timmy appeal, or a Timmy card that Spike will also enjoy, but either way she seems sure to appeal to just about anyone except Johnny. Having already played a game with Selvala (at the helm of my Yisan deck), I don’t think she’s quite as competitive as Yisan, and I think he will continue to be favored by the hardcore players, but if you’re like me and your attempt at building a more casual version of Yisan is still producing results that seem just a little overpowered for your group, I think Selvala is much more reasonable. She’s very powerful, but a lot easier to modulate at the deckbuilding level. With Yisan, it doesn’t really matter what else is in your list, the minute you include Seedborn Muse, the deck just becomes a monster. Seendborn muse is pretty good with Selvala, too, but since you don’t have guaranteed access to a consistent way to tutor the Muse out every single game… well, it just feels a LOT more fair when you have to draw into her.

Basically, commanders that double as repeatable tutors tend to be problematic, as Zur has already taught us.

Leovold, Emissary of Trest

And, finally, we come to the big, bad Elf. This is probably the card that has the most chatter and buzz surrounding it, and for good reason. At first glance, Leo seems innocuous enough. Like any good politician he aims to convince you that his policies are just as good for you as they are for him, but really he stands to benefit far, far more from the deal he’s offering. Let’s break it down – He’s a 3/3 for three mana, and gives us access to, arguably, the best three-color combination in the format. Good start so far, but nothing special.

Then we get to the text box, which has a couple of different things to analyze. I’m going to start with the second ability, which reads “Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may draw a card.” Okay, that’s straightforward enough. Being an emissary an all, he probably has diplomatic immunity. Target me or my stuff, I get to draw a card. Seems fair, and very hard to abuse. Just a small effect to help dissuade people from targeting your stuff with their removal.

Moving on, we get to the real showstopper: “Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.” This is where that sneaky, back-channeling politician flavor comes in. Again, at a glance, this just seems like a playing-field leveler. It seems to say “I’m not up to anything broken, I’m just trying to hose everyone’s broken card drawers. Your Edrics, your Consecrated Sphinxes, your Strokes of Genius… are now way more fair!” Note that he doesn’t even completely hose Consecrated Sphinx, he just keeps it in check somewhat. Oh, but there’s that little problem where the ability has the word “opponent” instead of “player”. So he hoses everyone else’s broken draw engines, or at least slows them down to fair levels. But you’re still getting full value out of your own Consecrated Sphinxes, Shamanic Insights, etc. So the deal is already a hell of a lot less “fair” than it seems on the surface.

Oh, but it gets worse. See, Leovold tries to convice you that all he’s doing is making card draw more fair. Class equality. No one should be too rich, right? No elite 1% controlling 90% of the card wealth. Great pitch, but Leovold has made a Dark Deal to ensure that everyone else’s inevitable misfortune is his Windfall. See also Time Spiral, Jace’s Archivist, etc. Yeah, that’s right. The minute you think “Oh, okay, this Leovold guys is just enforcing some fair play rules. That’s fine, I guess.”, that’s when you get hit with a Timetwister-like effect, and Leo over there gets to refill his hand back up to 7, while you and the rest of the middle class get immediately demoted right into the lower class. And, good luck getting welfare, ‘cause you’re White, and therefore too “privileged” to qualify… okay that analogy might have gone off the rails, sorry.

Anyway, also like a real politician, you probably saw that Windfall trick coming, but he still got you to walk right into it somehow.

As you might have guessed I am deeply enamored of this guy, as he’s exactly the type of card I would LOVE to play, where I not aware of this thing called the “social contract”. So, I’m just enough of an asshole that I really, really want to play a Leovold deck, but not quite enough of one to actually do it. Or am I? I don’t know yet. I definitely think that having all of my opponents in topdeck mode by turn 4 is a strong game plan, but it’s also probably not going to be even remotely fun. Me: “Untap. Draw. Dark Deal?” Everyone else: “Anyone have a Swords to Plowshares? No? Scoop.” Yeah that doesn’t sound fun at all. Or does it? I don’t know yet.

So what if we don’t go full-douchebag? What if we don’t run any cards that say “Discard your hand, draw X…”? No putting people down to one-card hands by T4, so we should be safe right? Well maybe… but you can still run things like Kami of the Crescent Moon, Howling Mine or even better (worse): Anvil of Bogardan. Ooh, or even Edric! He hoses opposing Edrics, but stops people from getting advantage off of your Edric. You’re the only one getting value out of Howling Mine, and Anvil of Bogardan will slowly just strip everyone else’s hands as they cast stuff, but never actually go up in cards in hand.

Hmm, that’s not quite as bad as the Windfall synergy, but still seems a little mean. Basically if you run anything at all to synergize with or capitalize on Leo’s ability, you’re probably going to wind up making someone miserable. The thing I like least about Leovold, though, is that he’s a lot like Nekusar in that almost every Leo deck will be running exactly the cards you think it will – Every “wheel of fortune” it can get its hands on. It’s sure to be a good deck, and again, it’s exactly the type of deck I enjoy playing, at least when I’m only taking my own enjoyment into consideration. But it’s a very obvious deck, and not very creative. The thing is, if you aren’t building to exploit the anti-symmetry of his ability, there’s virtually no reason to run him, specifically. At that point, he’s basically a “for the colors” good stuff commander. So if you cut the windfalls, what do you replace them with that makes Leovold the right commander for the deck, but also doesn’t make people flip tables or burn bridges?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I hope I figure it out, because I’m pretty sure at some point my evil side will get the better of me and I’m likely to build an Leo deck at some point. Fortunately for my friends, I’m really digging my newly revamped Sidisi deck, so I don’t have room in my stables for another Sultai deck at the moment.

Well, that wraps up our look at the new commanders of Conspiracy 2. There’s a good mix of stuff for all types of players, from casual to competitive. It’s hard to imagine a player not liking at least one of these new options, but there’s always a Negative Nancy poopooing on everything. Sometimes that’s me, actually, but this definitely isn’t one of those times. I’m definitely loving this set so far. Stay tuned and I’ll try to have the rest of the set review up without too much more delay. Enjoy!