Give 'em the Cane - Feldon of the Third Path EDH

(Golden People love Gold Jewelry Robots by epSos.de, licensed under Creative Commons)

Oh man, oh man, oh man...

New Commander 2014 spoilers! And boy if they aren't just awesome. Even with the few legendary creatures (as well as Commander-available planeswalkers) that have been revealed, I just know I'm going to end up buying one of each of the boxes. I mean, each box has a Medallion in it! How's that for value?

The two new lands that have been spoiled, Arcane Lighthouse and Myriad Landscape, are also awesome. A way to push through to annoying hexproof Commanders and a land-based ramp card? Sign me up. Freyalise and Ob Nixilis are both looking awesome in planeswalker form, and Reef Worm gets by creative juices flowing. But which of these awesome new Commanders am I going to be creating a deck for today?

That honor goes to Feldon of the Third Path. He might be a strange choice: there's no denying the artificer's power, but he seems a better fit as a normal card in a graveyard-based EDH deck for a multicolored Commander. Red's the worst EDH color, right? We're about to prove that wrong today. Besides, not every deck needs to center around power - especially when you're building budget decks, as we are here.

And I just love Feldon's story. If you can get your hands on the '99 short story about him, have yourself a good read. The idea of fashioning oneself a perfect, golden wife comes from Arctic Eurasian folklore, being a common myth in the area. The story is best laid out in Kalevala, the Finnish national epic - and since I'm a Finn myself, I'd be a traitor not to build a deck for ol' Ilmarinen!

What Feldon needs in his deck is a good number of powerful creatures that provide value both when entering and when leaving the battlefield, that is, the kind of creatures you'd put in an EDH deck anyway. Copying his ability is also a funny trick, especially since his ability doesn't remove the targeted card from your graveyard. Feel free to repeatedly copy your favorite creature - Molten Primordial is my budget choice - and make your foes feel the pain.

Give 'em the Cane - Feldon of the Third Path EDH

CREATURE (46)


• Anarchist
• Balefire Dragon
• Beetleback Chief
• Bogardan Hellkite
• Caldera Hellion
• Chancellor of the Forge
• Clone Shell
• Conquering Manticore
• Crater Hellion
• Dong Zhou, the Tyrant
• Duplicant
• Firemaw Kavu
• Flametongue Kavu
• Hammer Mage
• Hammerheim Deadeye
• Hellkite Charger
• Hoarding Dragon
• Imperial Recruiter
• Inferno Titan
• Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
• Keldon Vandals
• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• Magma Phoenix
• Manic Vandal
• Mindclaw Shaman
• Mogg War Marshal
• Molten Primordial
• Myr Battlesphere
• Pilgrim's Eye
• Precursor Golem
• Rage Thrower
• Rummaging Goblin
• Ryusei, the Falling Star
• Scuttling Doom Engine
• Siege-Gang Commander
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Spitebellows
• Steel Hellkite
• Stingscourger
• Summoner's Egg
• Thundermaw Hellkite
• Tuktuk the Explorer
• Tyrant of Discord
• Volcano Hellion
• Wurmcoil Engine
• Zealous Conscripts

ARTIFACT (712)


• Anvil of Bogardan
• Illusionist's Bracers
• Magewright's Stone
• Rings of Brighthearth
• Sol Ring
• Strionic Resonator
• Thousand-Year Elixir

INSTANT (3)


• Chaos Warp
• Firestorm
• Lightning Axe

SORCERY (5)


• Blasphemous Act
• Chain Reaction
• Gamble
• Tormenting Voice
• Wild Guess

LAND (37)


• Ancient Tomb
• Buried Ruin
• Forgotten Cave
• Haunted Fengraf
• High Market
• Homeward Path
• Keldon Necropolis
• Miren, the Moaning Well
• 22 Mountain
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• Opal Palace
• Rogue's Passage
• Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• Temple of the False God
• Thawing Glaciers
• Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• Winding Canyons

Any creature that has both an "enters the battlefield" and a "leaves the battlefield/dies" trigger is a godsend in Feldon's deck, thanks to his ability sacrificing the token it creates, instead of exiling it. This makes cards like Solemn Simulacrum and Wurmcoil Engine, both powerful on their own, incredibly strong in the deck. Feel free to tutor for either with Gamble - for once, you're hoping the random discard is the tutored card!

The battle plan is to get value creatures into your 'yard, cast your Commander, activate his ability a thousand times and pummel foes with massed creatures and effects. Pretty much every creature in your respectable arsenal has some effect or other. As the game goes on, you'll amass a hefty collection of possible creatures to copy with Feldon. Just be careful not to overextend: timely graveyard exiling ruins your day just as much as it ruins a reanimator deck's.

The discard and loot effects in the deck are there to allow you to get your creatures into the 'yard. Firestorm is by far the best of these: wipe the board clean and start copying things. The rest is creature-based removal of various kinds of permanents.

Being monored, the deck doesn't pack that many expensive cards, meaning making a budget version ought to be a piece of cake. However, you have to be careful not to change too much, or the deck gets inefficient and unpleasant to play. To get the deck from $200 to $50, try the following...

She Returns in Steel - Feldon of the Third Path EDH

CREATURE (51)


• Arc Mage
• Bloodpyre Elemental
• Burnished Hart
• Caldera Hellion
• Chancellor of the Forge
• Chartooth Cougar
• Cinder Elemental
• Clone Shell
• Conquering Manticore
• Crater Hellion
• Firemaw Kavu
• Flamekin Harbinger
• Flametongue Kavu
• Ghost-Lit Raider
• Giant Harbinger
• Goblin Marshal
• Goblin Matron
• Hammer Mage
• Hammerheim Deadeye
• Hellkite Charger
• Hoarding Dragon
• Inferno Titan
• Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
• Keldon Vandals
• Mad Prophet
• Magma Phoenix
• Manic Vandal
• Martyr of Ashes
• Mindclaw Shaman
• Mogg War Marshal
• Molten Primordial
• Myr Battlesphere
• Ogre Battledriver
• Oxidda Scrapmelter
• Pilgrim's Eye
• Precursor Golem
• Rage Thrower
• Rummaging Goblin
• Ryusei, the Falling Star
• Siege-Gang Commander
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Spitebellows
• Steel Hellkite
• Stingscourger
• Summoner's Egg
• Tuktuk the Explorer
• Tyrant of Discord
• Viashino Racketeer
• Volcano Hellion
• Wrecking Ogre
• Zealous Conscripts

ARTIFACT (4)


• Illusionist's Bracers
• Magewright's Stone
• Sol Ring
• Strionic Resonator

INSTANT (2)


• Lightning Axe
• Starstorm

SORCERY (10)


• Blasphemous Act
• Chain Reaction
• Tormenting Voice
• Wild Guess

LAND (38)


• Buried Ruin
• Forgotten Cave
• Haunted Fengraf
• Keldon Necropolis
• 28 Mountain
• Opal Palace
• Rogue's Passage
• Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• Smoldering Crater
• Temple of the False God
• Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

The core idea of the deck remains the same, but they way to reach that goal changes. The deck is now even more creature-based, with many new additions to the Feldon-copy suite. Since expensive enabler cards had to be cut, cheaper alternatives (cards with cycling, bloodrush etc.) were added in their stead.

You have to be extremely careful when playing with a deck like this. It's easy to draw hatred when playing with a creature deck, so keep your creatures untapped and on the defense instead of pecking at your foes 1 life at a time. All that's going to do is bite you in the ass when they go off.

Instead, stay your hand and carefully fill your 'yard, gaining advantage from copying things like Solemn Simulacrum and Pilgrim's Eye. Your game-enders can wait for the perfect moment - why not you?

That was a blast! I absolutely adore the new Commander 2014 products, and the fact that there's more to come keeps me on the edge of my seat. Seriously: five new decks, each with EDH gold and Commanders! What if there's going to be more reprints like the Medallions?

Oh man, oh man, oh man...

Break the Blessed Sleep - Ghoulcaller Gisa EDH

(Zombie Sarge by The Gurch, licensed under Creative Commons)

Commander season approaches us again! Commander 2014, an EDH-centric release built around five monocolored decks, will be released on November 7, and I for one can hardly wait. Wizards has been quite hushed about the release and the contents of the decks, but what we know is this: 1) all five decks will be monocolored; 2) each deck contains a Planeswalker that you can use as your Commander (so far, the blue Teferi has been spoiled); and 3) it's gonna be awesome. Call me a hype-addicted EDH weirdo, but right now even mentioning the sets gets me all giddy.

The two spoiled soon-to-be-Commanders are Gisa and Geralf, those two wacky necromancer siblings from Innistrad. I absolutely love the lore behind Geralf: his Dr. Frankenstein-esque skaab designs, his grandiose plans, his lack of knowledge on human anatomy - pretty much everything about him. That's why I was rather disappointed with the card itself. It's fairly lacking in power, and even though he's very flavorful, I would have liked a more streamlined, pushed design. As is, I can't see myself designing a deck for him. Sorry, stitchers!

Gisa, on the other hand, is one foxy lady, and a powerful Commander to boot. When you combine her ability (which is quite powerful even in vacuum) with untap shenanigans and cheap, high-power monsters, you can get to absurd levels of power with her. That, and I love sacrifice decks. Sure, boardwipe the table: here's a little something for every creature hitting the graveyard. Lovely.

That's why we're building a deck for Gisa the Mad today. There's two basic routes you can take with her: Zombie tribal and combo. While I do love me some Zombies, the fact of the matters is that many tribal enablers, such as Patriarch's Bidding and Urza's Incubator, as well as the many Zombie lords, are heavy on the wallet. Thus, we'll take the other route. Untap shenanigans, here we come!

Break the Blessed Sleep - Ghoulcaller Gisa EDH

ARTIFACT (12)


• Coalition Relic
• Lightning Greaves
• Loxodon Warhammer
• Magewright's Stone
• Mimic Vat
• Obelisk of Urd
• Puppet Strings
• Ratchet Bomb
• Sol Ring
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Thornbite Staff
• Thousand-Year Elixir

CREATURE (34)


• Abyssal Gatekeeper
• Artisan of Kozilek
• Blood Artist
• Bloodghast
• Butcher of Malakir
• Cemetery Reaper
• Coffin Queen
• Corpse Connoisseur
• Death Baron
• Deathgreeter
• Demon of Death's Gate
• Desecration Elemental
• Driver of the Dead
• Falkenrath Noble
• Grave Titan
• Gravecrawler
• Harvester of Souls
• Liege of the Pit
• Lord of the Undead
• Noxious Ghoul
• Ogre Slumlord
• Phyrexian Dreadnought
• Phyrexian Soulgorger
• Reassembling Skeleton
• Scuttling Doom Engine
• Sheoldred, Whispering One
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Tenacious Dead
• Undead Warchief
• Vengeful Dead
• Viscera Dragger
• Waning Wurm
• Wurmcoil Engine
• Zombie Master

ENCHANTMENT (4)


• Black Market
• Dictate of Erebos
• Grave Pact
• Phyrexian Arena

INSTANT (2)


• Go for the Throat
• Hero's Downfall

SORCERY (10)


• Beacon of Unrest
• Damnation
• Demonic Tutor
• Gild
• Life's Finale
• Mutilate
• Sever the Bloodline
• Syphon Flesh
• Syphon Mind
• Toxic Deluge

LAND (37)


• Barren Moor
• Bojuka Bog
• Cabal Coffers
• Crypt of Agadeem
• Dust Bowl
• High Market
• Homeward Path
• Lake of the Dead
• Miren, the Moaning Well
• Mutavault
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• Opal Palace
• Phyrexian Tower
• Polluted Mire
• 19 Swamp
• Temple of the False God
• Thawing Glaciers
• Wasteland
• Winding Canyons

When building an EDH deck, always keep your goal in mind. In this deck, it's simple: cast Gisa, activate her ability a thousand times, attack with your horde of Zombies, laugh as people start crying, repeat. It's not what I'd call an "unfair" design (you can - and will - be stopped by boardwipes, targeted removal, Propaganda-type effects etc.) but it sure is a relentless one. It can bounce back from a lot of bad situations, and as an added bonus can deal with most threats using its toolbox of nasty removal.

The deck has a lot of cards like Phyrexian brothers Dreadnought and Soulgorger, Demon of Death's Gate, Desecration Elemental and Liege of the Pit; cheap, powerful creatures with drawbacks that don't matter with Gisa. Just make sure you have that one black mana available and remember to activate our foxy Commander before the relevant triggers give you a headache. Untap effects (Magewright's Stone, Thousand-Year Elixir etc.) make your combo flow, recur creatures (Bloodghast, Gravecrawler etc.) mean you always have sac targets, and removal takes care of the rest. Thornbite Staff is especially nasty: with it, you can activate Gisa's ability as many times as you have black mana available (target your own Zombies when you run out of targets).

And all this for around 450 dollars! Oh wait, that's hardly budget-friendly. Luckily, a lot of the cards in the deck are replaceable with slightly less in-your-face, toned-down versions with similar results. One of the benefits of playing a budget deck is that you're rarely the target. When you lay down a Thousand-Year Elixir and a Wurmcoil Engine, your opponents will know something's up. Much less so when you cast an innocent-looking Crumbling Colossus... and follow it up with Thornbite Staff and several activations of Gisa's ability.

So the expensive cards have got to go. When building a budget deck, I operate on the idea that no single card except the Commander should cost much over a dollar, and the whole deck shouldn't go much past 50 dollars. The exception to this rule is when I happen to already own an expensive card (from a booster or a good trade), which I will happily cram into any deck that will take it, as well as a few select cards I believe you should splurge on (more about this in my next Sunday post).

Goodbye, Coalition Relic and Mimic Vat! Arrivederci, Lightning Greaves and Scuttling Doom Engine! Au revoir, Zombie Master and Black Market! In their stead, we'll use an assortment of similar cards which, while not as ridiculous in raw power, will do the job. Here's the revised, more wallet-friendly list:

Budget Necromancy - Ghoulcaller Gisa EDH

ARTIFACT (13)


• Ashnod's Altar
• Bonesplitter
• Darksteel Axe
• Loxodon Warhammer
• Magewright's Stone
• Obelisk of Urd
• Puppet Strings
• Ratchet Bomb
• Ring of Xathrid
• Sol Ring
• Strata Scythe
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Thornbite Staff

CREATURE (33)


• Abyssal Gatekeeper
• Blood Artist
• Brood of Cockroaches
• Butcher of Malakir
• Corpse Connoisseur
• Corrosive Mentor
• Crumbling Colossus
• Deathgreeter
• Delraich
• Demonlord of Ashmouth
• Desecration Elemental
• Dregscape Zombie
• Driver of the Dead
• Evernight Shade
• Falkenrath Noble
• Grixis Slavedriver
• Harvester of Souls
• Hunted Horror
• Liege of the Pit
• Noxious Ghoul
• Ogre Slumlord
• Pawn of Ulamog
• Phyrexian Soulgorger
• Reassembling Skeleton
• Rotting Rats
• Sadistic Hypnotist
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Tenacious Dead
• Veilborn Ghoul
• Vengeful Dead
• Viscera Dragger
• Volrath the Fallen
• Waning Wurm

ENCHANTMENT (3)


• Cover of Darkness
• Dictate of Erebos
• Mind Slash

INSTANT (2)


• Altar's Reap
• Rescue from the Underworld

SORCERY (10)


• Bone Splinters
• Dregs of Sorrow
• Gild
• Life's Finale
• Mutilate
• Rise from the Grave
• Sever the Bloodline
• Skulltap
• Syphon Flesh
• Syphon Mind

LAND (38)


• Barren Moor
• Blasted Landscape
• Bojuka Bog
• Crypt of Agadeem
• Opal Palace
• Polluted Mire
• 31 Swamp
• Temple of the False God

You should be able to get this budget version of Gisa together for just under 50 dollars. If the previous deck was foie gras of EDH deckbuilding, then this version is the hot dog: cheap, readily available and delicious. Assuming the average fairground hot dog costs 50 cents each, you can choose between purchasing the hundred cards in this deck or as many hot dogs (what a weird comparison).

Power-increasing equipment has largely taken over the role of the expensive creatures of the previous deck. Voltron up a creature at will and then sac it, receiving a big bunch of Zombies. Even a measly Darksteel Axe pumps out two extra Zombies, and with an equip cost of just two mana, it'll be moving around a lot. A few extra sac sources (Ashnod's Altar, Sadistic Hypnotist, Altar's Reap, Skulltap etc.) take up the role of the expensive sac lands that were cut out. I also added a land to the deck, what with the less degenerate pool to choose from.

That's all for today, folks! Keep on waiting for new Commander 2014 spoilers - I know I will. Come back on Thursday, when we'll revisit a certain lovable scamp from a ecumenopolis we've all come to love.