We've all had the events we enter and we get a random pack as a participation award for playing in the event right? And what do you do with a random pack? If you play constructed, who cares about a random fourteen cards right? Is it even tradeable? Probably not, most the EV seems concentrated in Collector's Boosters these days. So the question becomes, what can you do with uncracked packs beyond just cracking them as a lottery ticket?
Hi all, 3drinks here. Partially inspired by the Play-to-Pay idea I've been on and partially inspired by @materpillar's Stocking Tiger idea. In Play-to-Pay, there comes a point where you have enough "cash in the till" so to speak that the deck is less about grinding out its next new card and more about acquiring capital. While in the 'Tiger thread we saw a need to acquire a lot of packs to feed the kitty. What if I told you we could combine both elements to create something more constrained and with less overhead?
That's where the Commander-No-Buy Project™ comes in. (Relative) no-buy, because we need a small starting selection. You pick a legendary creature and a selection of basic lands since that's the bare minimum infrastructure to cast spells. In my case, I chose 45 basics divided evenly across the colours and six in-universe regularly priced MSRP Play Booster packs and that is where our deck starts. I opted to use Garth One-Eye so I could minimize the blanks from my packs and Garth offers something akin to a capstone inevitability to utilize (extra cards, interaction, or a threat). Then you make a deck from the equivalent of a sealed pool.
The No-Buy-Project™ only acquires cards from packs given as event entry, prizing payout, or genuine gifts (loose cards or sealed packs) from others. The key is you cannot control what you get — you simply make the most of the tools you receive. You can't buy the exact singles you want for your deck and the only way to acquire more cards…is to attend more events. Yes this will be a slow grind, that's the point. You won't compleat a deck by clicking purchase on Manapool and in the interim it makes you a stronger player by asking you to stretch the usability from all of your cards instead of looking to the next Mythic Rare to solve your problems. And unlike other variants that reward you for achieving milestones, you can't actually do that here; it's a soft ceiling rather than presenting an opportunity to gamify the acquisition method. What it does accomplish, is give you some excitement or reason to open that random Aetherdrift pack on your desk because it might add a role to your current pile-in-progress. If you enjoy limited, I suspect you'll enjoy this premise!
Packs must be in-print and priced at normal MSRP — so Mystery Booster and premium packs need not apply. For myself, I'm also only allowing in-universe packs because Garth is the protagonist from the first novel Arena, he summons creatures and throws fireballs, he does not contact the USS Enterprise because he is not a graduate of Starfleet Academy! (Universes Within are valid however).
Addendum: in the event I arrive to draft and the venue decides it's doing UB, instead I can take what I'd have spent on a draft on requisite packs as though I'd have drafted anyway )simulating a 0-2 showing with a last round bye for 3 + 1 packs). Sometimes these packs may creep above MSRP pending age and availability of the LGS inventory. Pre play booster these packs must be draft packs as set packs are considered premium inventory.
You cannot buy targeted singles.
You cannot grind some arbitrary in-game achievement.
You are not slow-rolling a booster box bought specifically for the project.
You are giving an actual purpose to the lonely participation pack that otherwise lives unopened on the desk for six months.
The progression rate is tied to real participation. Attend another event, receive another pack. Doesn't have to be an event entered with this sealed deck abomination, we're only interested in playing Magic in general. Enter Legacy and place in the top four, cool more packs for the pool. Don't have a B1 table for this project so you play your higher bracket deck, cool another pack for the project (if your event awarded packs).
Here's our humble beginnings you can follow along with the progress here.
The Commander-No-Buy Project™
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Last edited by 3drinks 3 weeks ago, edited 3 times in total.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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the caterpillar
Get this personal binder rule right on outta here.3drinks wrote: ↑1 month agoIn the event I open duplicates or cards that don't have a true commander function (Cranial Extraction or Kindle et al) I am permitted to trade it one for one with a card from my personal binder of equal rarity. Progression is slow, no reason to slow it further with non-functional cards.
My wins are unconditional
Lol yeah, that seems like an obvious loophole. Motivates acquiring duplicates and bad-in-commander cards to justify getting a good selection from your collection. Kinda defeats the point imo, though ofc it's your project.
Besides, cranial extraction and kindle both work to some extent in commander, they're not Burning Wish. They're just bad (and kindle isn't THAT bad, I mean, I'd still consider playing it in modern limited at least).
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Phelddagrif - Ellie2 - Kaervek - Golos - Wayta - Zirilan
For my several hundred other decks, please see my expanded signature.
Phelddagrif - Ellie2 - Kaervek - Golos - Wayta - Zirilan
For my several hundred other decks, please see my expanded signature.
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I'm not moving in power. We're talking...*checks notes* wayfarer's bauble, prophetic prism, stormshriek feral level cards. Versus actual duplicates that do nothing. Playing 5c. With a constrained acquisition method of maybe 1 pack/week. It's not the Tiger that can dump multiple packs in.materpillar wrote: ↑1 month agoGet this personal binder rule right on outta here.3drinks wrote: ↑1 month agoIn the event I open duplicates or cards that don't have a true commander function (Cranial Extraction or Kindle et al) I am permitted to trade it one for one with a card from my personal binder of equal rarity. Progression is slow, no reason to slow it further with non-functional cards.
We're not acquiring duplicates intentionally. Can't control what the printsheet coughs up and you've got slots to fill. You can squint and stretch so far, but at some point there's no justification when you see Zephyr Spirit chaff. Obviously make good judgments and don't abuse things because you don't like something. I don't have a fully loaded binder or anything...just some grease style commander cards a la Blood Pact or Cathartic Pyre.DirkGently wrote: ↑1 month agoLol yeah, that seems like an obvious loophole. Motivates acquiring duplicates and bad-in-commander cards to justify getting a good selection from your collection. Kinda defeats the point imo, though ofc it's your project.
Besides, cranial extraction and kindle both work to some extent in commander, they're not Burning Wish. They're just bad (and kindle isn't THAT bad, I mean, I'd still consider playing it in modern limited at least).
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
the caterpillar
Garth One-Eye is strong enough you'll have a very functionally bracket 2 deck with like 34 nonlands and 65 lands. You're already going to have a fairly playable deck 6 packs in. Especially cracking EoE packs. Modern day commons are wack.3drinks wrote: ↑1 month agoI'm not moving in power. We're talking...*checks notes* wayfarer's bauble, prophetic prism, stormshriek feral level cards. Versus actual duplicates that do nothing. Playing 5c. With a constrained acquisition method of maybe 1 pack/week. It's not the Tiger that can dump multiple packs in.materpillar wrote: ↑1 month agoGet this personal binder rule right on outta here.3drinks wrote: ↑1 month agoIn the event I open duplicates or cards that don't have a true commander function (Cranial Extraction or Kindle et al) I am permitted to trade it one for one with a card from my personal binder of equal rarity. Progression is slow, no reason to slow it further with non-functional cards.
This substitution rule is wildly unnecessary. Plus which part of the fun of gambling is when you whiff horribly. Cracking packs is so much more fun when you can get stuck with Cranial Extraction, makes slamming that Spider Spawning so much sweeter.
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Upon further reflection while I don't believe the rule is dangerous because I'm suddenly playing a cDH deck, it however could be perceived it violates the theorem as a whole.
A duplicate common becoming any common from my binder is effectively a common wildcard. And the five swaps I made happened to patch exactly what a five-color sealed deck wants: Bauble, Prism, Landseeker, flexible removal/ramp. Those were sensible choices—but that is precisely why the rule becomes authored deckbuilding again.
The issue grows over time. Duplicate rares will remain scarce, but duplicate commons and uncommons will become routine. Every duplicate then lets me deliberately install another role-player. Eventually the sealed packs determine the rarity distribution, while my binder determines much of the functional deck. That's softer than the premise I finally landed on: the whole package has to be born from sealed.
And with six packs producing 81 unique options for roughly 54 nonland slots, I didn't need the safety valve at character creation. I already had almost thirty cards of overage. A duplicate or weak singleton card did not force me to sleeve it; it merely reduced the choice pool slightly.
So in that light, I didn't need the safety valve, it was an initial reaction to my hatred of strong variance denying me agency. The initial list has been hyperlinked to the OP.
A duplicate common becoming any common from my binder is effectively a common wildcard. And the five swaps I made happened to patch exactly what a five-color sealed deck wants: Bauble, Prism, Landseeker, flexible removal/ramp. Those were sensible choices—but that is precisely why the rule becomes authored deckbuilding again.
The issue grows over time. Duplicate rares will remain scarce, but duplicate commons and uncommons will become routine. Every duplicate then lets me deliberately install another role-player. Eventually the sealed packs determine the rarity distribution, while my binder determines much of the functional deck. That's softer than the premise I finally landed on: the whole package has to be born from sealed.
And with six packs producing 81 unique options for roughly 54 nonland slots, I didn't need the safety valve at character creation. I already had almost thirty cards of overage. A duplicate or weak singleton card did not force me to sleeve it; it merely reduced the choice pool slightly.
So in that light, I didn't need the safety valve, it was an initial reaction to my hatred of strong variance denying me agency. The initial list has been hyperlinked to the OP.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
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Going back over everything, I seem to have a mild incidental lifegain theme and enablers for it. That makes Blech, Loafing Pest and one tutour to help find it. It also means, because Blech is so wide, given everything is comparable limited bodies, I should lean towards insects, pests etc more than, say, a generic Kavu. Obviously we're not ignoring all-star Kavus in the name of terrible pests like we're worshipping at the altar of creature types. But all things relatively flat, there's a slight bias in that direction.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
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In the event I join a sealed or draft, after the event those randomized cards can be added to the project too. Why? Because what else do you do with a draft deck after the event, there's no money in it what with EV concentrating in collector's packs and the obligatory chase mythic. (I don't rare draft)
I don't actually draft much, and the point of this is to 'reward' me and my progress for events played. I'm still not hand selecting Garth's choices like I would pizza toppings so this feels very in line with the spirit of the project.
I don't actually draft much, and the point of this is to 'reward' me and my progress for events played. I'm still not hand selecting Garth's choices like I would pizza toppings so this feels very in line with the spirit of the project.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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So I went to my LGS tonight for a draft. $20 buy-in, In-Universe would be Secrets of Strixhaven. Cool, great – but they didn't have a draft because of prerelease and someone failed to remove it from the calendar. Since I was down there anyway and I didn't want to make it a wasted trip, I scanned the packs they had on the shelf; Aetherdrift x2, Streets of New Capenna draft pack x2, both of which are $5 which is under MSRP and matches what I'd have spent to draft exactly. They also had some set boosters of Neon Dynasty but wanted...either $9 or $12 and that's just too much of a markup for me. Four packs sounds like a draft entry + one pack which sounds like an 0-2 appearance with a third round bye so these packs are doing well to reasonably simulate a bad draft night. So let's see what comes up (low key I like Aetherdrift a lot, and Streets should have some good mana fixing for Garth which is exciting). I have not opened these yet, so this is a live react, let's see what comes out.
Oh man where do I start. First of all, only one repeat, and it's from the same night of packs. We got two duals, a vehicle that has a Rampant Growth|mir attached, a pure draw spell and an assortment of removal. Think I'm most hyped for Kickoff Celebrations though!
I was going to remark on how the Capenna packs are a bit more boring than the Aetherdrift packs, like I can feel the difference between draft packs and play packs, but then I found two triomes in two packs among other colour fixing. Outside of lands, I'm hyped for Stimulus Package and A Little Chat the most. Those low casualty cards are really nice for accruing the value needed to stay in the game. Oh, Masked Bandits is an interesting type of colour fixing, that's really neat.
The creatures in Capenna are really less exciting by comparison to more modern sets, but there's a couple of nice roleplayers here.
Aetherdrift 1
Commons
Oh man where do I start. First of all, only one repeat, and it's from the same night of packs. We got two duals, a vehicle that has a Rampant Growth|mir attached, a pure draw spell and an assortment of removal. Think I'm most hyped for Kickoff Celebrations though!
Streets of New Capenna 1
Common
Rare
Streets of New Capenna 2
Common
Rare
I was going to remark on how the Capenna packs are a bit more boring than the Aetherdrift packs, like I can feel the difference between draft packs and play packs, but then I found two triomes in two packs among other colour fixing. Outside of lands, I'm hyped for Stimulus Package and A Little Chat the most. Those low casualty cards are really nice for accruing the value needed to stay in the game. Oh, Masked Bandits is an interesting type of colour fixing, that's really neat.
The creatures in Capenna are really less exciting by comparison to more modern sets, but there's a couple of nice roleplayers here.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
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Made some changes with last Friday's "draft" as it were. We went from "well I guess Chrome Companion has a role as conditional grave hate since we have incidental lifegain involved" (Blech, mostly, but the infusion mechanic from witherbloom too) to finding more efficient incidental lifegain. Aetherdrift brought in some more removal that has pushed some of the less efficient removal out. We're still not box deck level but the improvements are real and that's kinda fascinating to watch unfold.
I kinda want to find a Swarmyard (EOE bonus sheet) since these packs have kinda put me into insects matter. That's entertaining. Hmm, I think I should make a separate entry on the blog for this project. That'd be useful to collect my thoughts beyond a forum post.
You can check the current status here: https://moxfield.com/decks/hK-d5KUnY0ue1R6-dehniA
I kinda want to find a Swarmyard (EOE bonus sheet) since these packs have kinda put me into insects matter. That's entertaining. Hmm, I think I should make a separate entry on the blog for this project. That'd be useful to collect my thoughts beyond a forum post.
You can check the current status here: https://moxfield.com/decks/hK-d5KUnY0ue1R6-dehniA
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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So I actually won a game of commander tonight with a Shivan Dragon|4ed. What a sentence.
A triple threat with Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed. There was a Pterafractyl for x=6 involved that ate a chaos warp, and Garth's first order of business was to conjure Shivan Dragon, which went the distance. Y'shtola was getting a horde of wizard tokens and birds and stuck a bastion of remembrance to which valgavoth that was dead on board (they had been missing land drops all night and I shot their arcane signet with Radiant Strike (you brought Valgavoth, I don't feel any remorse for keeping you off that card), threw toxic deluge for 1 to wipe, die, give y'shtola fifteen life and I took 15 to 1. Zealous Lorecaster gave me what would be the fourth time I cast radiant strike that hit a mana rock but critically gave me 3 life back. That let me remove the one body toxic didn't hit without dying to bastion triggers. Then I sent Shivan, Garth, and my Poisoner's Apprentice into the red zone and passed, ensuring I held up both broadside barrage and spectral interference, which was great because they tried to stick a summon that would generate two moogle tokens with lifelink that absolutely had to get countered. They passed and I sent the team in (minus Garth), this time also with zealous lorecaster in the mix to take them to 13. I even pumped Shivan Dragon once then post combat, used Garth to conjure a black lotus, resolved Zaffai and the Tempests, and a gilded pinions to make the treasure and still represent broadside barrage. They played their commander for 6 and passed without a followup play and my plan was to attack, then pitch Garth to Embrace Oblivion to reset the spellbook but that attack was lethal.
3drinks' Thoughts: Planar Engineering is a welcome sight. Guaranteed domain. Quick Study for no-frills cards, you love to see it. Shattered Acolyte is probably the most exciting card here, and I suspect fractal mascot has more juice than it appears. Prismari Charm is pretty reasonable, but it's no Izzet Charm. Another nonbasic is always welcome. Only one repeat is what I like to see, a shame it ate my showcase spot.
A triple threat with Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls and Y'shtola, Night's Blessed. There was a Pterafractyl for x=6 involved that ate a chaos warp, and Garth's first order of business was to conjure Shivan Dragon, which went the distance. Y'shtola was getting a horde of wizard tokens and birds and stuck a bastion of remembrance to which valgavoth that was dead on board (they had been missing land drops all night and I shot their arcane signet with Radiant Strike (you brought Valgavoth, I don't feel any remorse for keeping you off that card), threw toxic deluge for 1 to wipe, die, give y'shtola fifteen life and I took 15 to 1. Zealous Lorecaster gave me what would be the fourth time I cast radiant strike that hit a mana rock but critically gave me 3 life back. That let me remove the one body toxic didn't hit without dying to bastion triggers. Then I sent Shivan, Garth, and my Poisoner's Apprentice into the red zone and passed, ensuring I held up both broadside barrage and spectral interference, which was great because they tried to stick a summon that would generate two moogle tokens with lifelink that absolutely had to get countered. They passed and I sent the team in (minus Garth), this time also with zealous lorecaster in the mix to take them to 13. I even pumped Shivan Dragon once then post combat, used Garth to conjure a black lotus, resolved Zaffai and the Tempests, and a gilded pinions to make the treasure and still represent broadside barrage. They played their commander for 6 and passed without a followup play and my plan was to attack, then pitch Garth to Embrace Oblivion to reset the spellbook but that attack was lethal.
3drinks' Thoughts: Planar Engineering is a welcome sight. Guaranteed domain. Quick Study for no-frills cards, you love to see it. Shattered Acolyte is probably the most exciting card here, and I suspect fractal mascot has more juice than it appears. Prismari Charm is pretty reasonable, but it's no Izzet Charm. Another nonbasic is always welcome. Only one repeat is what I like to see, a shame it ate my showcase spot.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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So I went to draft last night. But the table elected for The Hobbit because new, so I opted out and took my $20 entry and purchased the equivalent of a draft; Aetherdrift x3, Streets of New Capenna draft pack x1. That once again at $5 each simulates three packs for entry and a baseline performance of 0-2 into a third round bye, thus one pack by Swiss payout.
Capenna has historically underperformed, notably because well draft packs are not play boosters. But I did get triomes in 2/2 packs and the mana fixing is good so why not. Aetherdrift historically has been strong, and I like the set, I mean you're having a race across the multiverse how awesome is that?! And it'd be cool if I ripped The Aetherspark (but I did not).
So these were pretty strong, even got some more efficient interaction, more mana, a semblance of a real curve (time to adjust the deck for sure; we're not just desperate for warm bodies anymore). Lotta duplication in Aetherdrift, which is to be expected all things considered. There's some actual synergies cropping up now, and I even got my first sweeper, albeit conditional as it is.
Now the fun can begin.
Capenna has historically underperformed, notably because well draft packs are not play boosters. But I did get triomes in 2/2 packs and the mana fixing is good so why not. Aetherdrift historically has been strong, and I like the set, I mean you're having a race across the multiverse how awesome is that?! And it'd be cool if I ripped The Aetherspark (but I did not).
Aetherdrift p1
Rare
Aetherdrift p2
Aetherdrift p3
Common
Uncommon
So these were pretty strong, even got some more efficient interaction, more mana, a semblance of a real curve (time to adjust the deck for sure; we're not just desperate for warm bodies anymore). Lotta duplication in Aetherdrift, which is to be expected all things considered. There's some actual synergies cropping up now, and I even got my first sweeper, albeit conditional as it is.
Now the fun can begin.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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Went to draft last night, learned the LGS only drafts most recent set unless the drafters unanimously agree on something else. Since the typical player has new set bias, that means I'll never get to draft Secrets of Strixhaven. Next in-universe set is Reality Fracture in November or so, and that means no draft adds to this project until then, beyond the single pack given out for attending a commander night.
That also brings me to another amendment, based on availability. I need to redefine "regularly priced Play Booster pack" to better clarify "non-premium product", (including set boosters). Like, if I get DMU packs at $5.50 instead of $4.99 am I buying a premium product or just liquidating the LGS of aging inventory. If OTJ packs are $7, did that stop being a Play Booster pack, no right, it's just the cost of sourcing out-of-print product. That's typically a bad deal for me, but when I'm topped out on Aetherdrift (Seriously, I hit 10/14 repeats last night, including rare slot duplication) and the only options are out-of-print draft packs a couple years old, that at least is progress towards the project instead of just nothing at all. So the true rule is there to prevent juicing with the most powerful product you can buy (Masters, Collector packs, Horizons slop), not to prevent buying some $9 Neon Dynasty draft pack (set packs would be considered premium product). That reads coherent instead of bricking the deck when overpriced UB draft is the flavour of the month.
This is why the amendment to the definitions happened, but it's not a total miss. Sab-Sunen is kinda a bomb, we got some orzhov fixing, and Slick Imitator is a sleeper I think. Air Response Unit is an efficient vehicle. All these artifacts are kinda nice to see given last week I came across Repurposing Bay + Pactdoll Terror. I got the ultra rare rare + mythic pack and that could have hit The Aetherspark ...but nope not only did I not hit the chase card, it ate my rare slot with a dupe.
Our first planeswalker. At 33¢. Broken Wings is a welcome piece of interaction and the third unique exile-fixing is appreciated. There's not a ton to say about this pack otherwise.
Two duplicates but it reminds me that Civic Gardener is playable as a Garth untapper but the real gem is Fake Your Own Death as a true reset. Security Bypass is a sleeper pick too. Brass Knucks will turn any above-rate fattie body into a closer. No real monetary value here but the fundamentals are there.
So, these two DMU packs did a ton, a lot of fixing, it opened up domain payoffs, there's a couple of draw spells and some temporary removal. More cantrip-style interaction and Bite Down is pretty strong. Silverback Elder is a helluva hit if I can reliably hit which I think I can hit. Two more protection spells and a second False Summoning effect is welcome though I'd really like to see a Negate. Some bodies that replace themselves and those Spirited Companion style bodies are always welcome. Oh, and Temporary Lockdown is our second sweeper. That's exciting.
That also brings me to another amendment, based on availability. I need to redefine "regularly priced Play Booster pack" to better clarify "non-premium product", (including set boosters). Like, if I get DMU packs at $5.50 instead of $4.99 am I buying a premium product or just liquidating the LGS of aging inventory. If OTJ packs are $7, did that stop being a Play Booster pack, no right, it's just the cost of sourcing out-of-print product. That's typically a bad deal for me, but when I'm topped out on Aetherdrift (Seriously, I hit 10/14 repeats last night, including rare slot duplication) and the only options are out-of-print draft packs a couple years old, that at least is progress towards the project instead of just nothing at all. So the true rule is there to prevent juicing with the most powerful product you can buy (Masters, Collector packs, Horizons slop), not to prevent buying some $9 Neon Dynasty draft pack (set packs would be considered premium product). That reads coherent instead of bricking the deck when overpriced UB draft is the flavour of the month.
Aetherdrift Pack 1
Common
This is why the amendment to the definitions happened, but it's not a total miss. Sab-Sunen is kinda a bomb, we got some orzhov fixing, and Slick Imitator is a sleeper I think. Air Response Unit is an efficient vehicle. All these artifacts are kinda nice to see given last week I came across Repurposing Bay + Pactdoll Terror. I got the ultra rare rare + mythic pack and that could have hit The Aetherspark ...but nope not only did I not hit the chase card, it ate my rare slot with a dupe.
Streets of New Capenna Pack 1
Common
Rare
Our first planeswalker. At 33¢. Broken Wings is a welcome piece of interaction and the third unique exile-fixing is appreciated. There's not a ton to say about this pack otherwise.
Streets of New Capenna Pack 2
Common
Rare
Two duplicates but it reminds me that Civic Gardener is playable as a Garth untapper but the real gem is Fake Your Own Death as a true reset. Security Bypass is a sleeper pick too. Brass Knucks will turn any above-rate fattie body into a closer. No real monetary value here but the fundamentals are there.
Dominaria United Pack 1
Common
Uncommon
Rare
Dominaria United Pack 2
Common
Uncommon
Rare
So, these two DMU packs did a ton, a lot of fixing, it opened up domain payoffs, there's a couple of draw spells and some temporary removal. More cantrip-style interaction and Bite Down is pretty strong. Silverback Elder is a helluva hit if I can reliably hit which I think I can hit. Two more protection spells and a second False Summoning effect is welcome though I'd really like to see a Negate. Some bodies that replace themselves and those Spirited Companion style bodies are always welcome. Oh, and Temporary Lockdown is our second sweeper. That's exciting.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
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- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
I finally reorganized the somewhat small library to formulate the budding of a reasonable deck with rudimentary fundamentals. I used a basic 15 draw/12ramp/15 interaction shell as my guide, and so far my weakest point is my creature suite being more straightforward (we're still running Elfhame Wurm and Migrating Ketradon now after all) and the ramp suite includes fixing as I don't yet have 12 actual ramp cards. As I said it's just now a budding deck, it's just so cool watching us go from "these are technically non-duplicate english cards with Magic: the Gathering text on them" to "hey, we can see the remnants of actual deck philosophy here".
I'd love more valuable one drops, but for now the "best" play on one is one of the many taplands.
Someday we're going to freecast Wisdom of Ages with Zaffai and the Tempests. Wouldn't that be something ah ha.
I'd love more valuable one drops, but for now the "best" play on one is one of the many taplands.
Commander No-Buy Project™
Someday we're going to freecast Wisdom of Ages with Zaffai and the Tempests. Wouldn't that be something ah ha.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Sooooo we played a table last night. I chose to only bring this deck to commit to "what happens if we play boring accountant Magic and competently perform mundane game actions without looking embarrassing". My pod was against;
Jalira, Master Polymorphist, Kilo, Apogee Mind, and Kaalia of the Vast|98143
So...kinda thrown into into the fire, right? The Jalira by their admission was ~$30 all-in, but it's still mono- and cheating lots of fat out, and with synergy like Jalira + Reef Worm which I thought was cute. Kilo was a proliferate deck with a lot of artifacts that tap, untap, and animate, and Kaalia...well, I've got fifteen years around that so I'm both ready and terrified as I look at my opening hand; bant triome, golgari verge, night market, basic land, Studious First-Year // Rampant Growth, Workshop Warchief, and Marshals' Pathcruiser. I snap keep, all those lands I opened in the weeks prior paying off I see.
My opening turns are fairly pedestrian; play the triome, play the night market (red), play my basic and pathcruiser to fetch a forest to hand and next turn play the first-year and it's prepared spell. Kilo entered the battlefield, Kaalia played some three drop that reduces Angels cast by 2 and Jalira played Reef Worm. Next I played a swamp and passed, Kilo threw Tezzeret, Cruel Captain into an artifact land and used the 0 to put a counter on Kilo, attacks and puts another counter on Kilo with its own trigger, which I block with first-year and they pass. Kaalia resolves Olivia, Mobilized for War which I assume was a haste outlet though it was never used and passes. Jalira enters the board and on their end step I resolve Shadow Prophecy for domain = 4 keeping Proctor's Gaze and Temporary Lockdown, (thinking I'd want some way to stunt Kilo's board probably) while binning Spara's Adjudicators and Blossoming Sands. I drew Silverback Elder and tried working out how I'd play this and cast a creature for value but is hard it turns out. So instead I played a land and passed turn, holding up proctor's.
Kilo does a Vision Quest for x = 0 to find Walking Ballista for a loyalty on Tezz, and creates the Tezz emblem, combat, Kilo trigger on ballista, attacks into Jalira (who naturally became a bit of a punching bag as you do with a polymorph deck), Kaalia came down this turn no haste and Jalira morphed its worm into whale + Colossal Whale, noting that I'm the only one with an island. I blitz'd my Workshop Warchief into Tezz, despite already having the emblem I was not about to see Tezz stick around with a ballista on board and that finished off the Tezz. Post combat I played Amonkhet Raceway to start the speed counter. End step I sacked my blitz'd rhino for a card + a 4/4 which felt a pretty good trade all things considered. Next ballista got bigger and idk why it never shot Kaalia out of the sky (claimed they were not hostile, seems dubious but don't look at me to figure out politics) but it shot the whale down and Kaalia untapped and attacked, playing Sephara, Sky's Blade and attacking Jalira. Jalira plays a Proteus Staff and grows the reef worm into the next stage for Artisan of Kozilek. My turn I resolved Pull from the Grave for my warchief + first-year, attacked with my rhino token to tick up speed, cast its prepared spell and passed. Kilo ended up coming at me and first-year happily chumped for me and Kaalia attacked Jalira to activate the Spinerock Knoll and cast Vindicate under the land, targeting proteus staff. Then it played Windbrisk Heights and passed. Jalira never got to attack with artisan as ballista nearly drained itself to kill it.
I attacked again with my rhino to tick up speed, then sacked it to A Little Chat for two looks at the top four, then ran out Temporary Lockdown to remove the reef worm chain, almost all of Kilo's board, then cast Garth with Fake Your Own Death and Proctor's Gaze up. Kilo wanted to attack me but I warned them it would not get through and they pointed it elsewhere. Kaalia attacked Jalira with some angel that gives your board indestructible when it attacked and me with Sephara, which I used Proctor's Gaze to bounce and get a land. The turning point came on my next turn;
Untap with Garth, conjure a Black Lotus use that for Wisdom of Ages to redraw five spells from the bin, I passed with mana up and a full grip and we had a discussion about the Kaalia board that was snowballing. Well that got worse when Avacyn joined the fray, which I let the trigger happen to scout its hand, Kaalia just wanted to cast the Austere Command (creatures 4+ and artifacts. which junk punched Kilo to irrelevancy) that was under the windbrisk heights. I cast Fake Your Own Death to save Garth and generate a treasure. This looks bad, and Garth doesn't really have much in the way of Avacyn tools specifically. We as the table discuss the dire board and then I see the out. I tell them "Look, I have a partial out if either of you have some sort of sweeper". Jalira's end step I tapped four and used my treasure for the fifth to exhaust my pathcruiser into a permanent 8/7 body because no one is ever going to crew that for five). Play land, attack with pathcruiser into Kilo for a speed tick to 3, cast silverback elder and passed with lots of mana up. Kilo goes all in for an Everflowing Chalice for and the tezz emblem animates a Manifold Key. Kaalia untaps with the monster board and here's the play, on beginning of combat I proctor's gaze the avacyn, then Broadside Barrage Kaalia, eat the other 11 to the face from that angel and emeria angel and Jalira on end of combat resolves Aetherspouts to bottom or topdeck Kaalia's board which is brutal. This is where Kaalia scooped to get food. This left me in a position to win.
Jalira's end step I let Garth conjure a Disenchant|PARL targeting the animated rock, then resolved my Shadow Prophecy again, this time with full domain to find Essence Scatter and Take Up the Shield, binning Elfhame Wurm, land, and Veteran Beastrider. Untap, pathcruiser finishes Kilo for exactly 8 and gives me max speed. Jalira has a bit of a rally but I've got a strong resource advantage at this point, including a Bite Down for a threat and a Brass Knuckles to make my pathcruiser even larger. Garth conjured a Terror|3ed to deal with a nasty 8/8 and Essence Scatter traded with their Arcane Denial to which I used Garth to conjure a Regrowth|3ed to bring scatter back next turn. Bite Down took out their common 8/9 eldrazi trampler and by this point I had more than enough power to actually finish.
For my participation, I took a Lorwyn Eclipsed pack as something fresh. This was a mistake as the commons are all signpost cards and Garth needs his workhorses to be generalists, but there were a few gems that would be useful.
Run Away Together, Thirst for Identity, and Personify are the standout targets, and Mutable Explorer is genuine ramp, which is great for a deck that doesn't have enough ramp and has labeled fixing cards as ramp. Notably explorer doesn't fix, but it's still a mutavault which is useful. Still, I think Secrets of Strixhaven gives me more generalist playables, especially if I find the black paradigm spell.
I also want to talk about gifts. Back on May 18th, our own @TheAmericanSpirit sent me a box of cards. Obviously I had no idea, no control over what would be in the box (though I know what's in the box now, obviously. I didn't know what I'd do with it but it seems a waste to not use them since I think that's what TAS would want, to see them in play. But there's like 31 after filtering the UB out and that would do a sizable influx of power if I dump them in now. So, in the spirit of the No-Buy theorem, and to honour the incredibly generous gift I won't hand-select anything. Instead, anytime I gain sealed product for the project, I will roll 1d4 -1 (yes, I can roll a 0, just like finding a Ring of Three Wishes in a d&d v3.5 loot table) for number of hits I get from this list. I'll randomize the list and select that many non-repeating integers from a random number generator and those will be the inputs added. This continues until I've exhausted the gift package.
1d4 = 3 -1 is two results. RNG fetches me #30 and #16.
30. Ripples of Undeath
16. Engineered Explosives
I'll randomize the list again next time I acquire packs. That was a hellua grab.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist, Kilo, Apogee Mind, and Kaalia of the Vast|98143
So...kinda thrown into into the fire, right? The Jalira by their admission was ~$30 all-in, but it's still mono- and cheating lots of fat out, and with synergy like Jalira + Reef Worm which I thought was cute. Kilo was a proliferate deck with a lot of artifacts that tap, untap, and animate, and Kaalia...well, I've got fifteen years around that so I'm both ready and terrified as I look at my opening hand; bant triome, golgari verge, night market, basic land, Studious First-Year // Rampant Growth, Workshop Warchief, and Marshals' Pathcruiser. I snap keep, all those lands I opened in the weeks prior paying off I see.
My opening turns are fairly pedestrian; play the triome, play the night market (red), play my basic and pathcruiser to fetch a forest to hand and next turn play the first-year and it's prepared spell. Kilo entered the battlefield, Kaalia played some three drop that reduces Angels cast by 2 and Jalira played Reef Worm. Next I played a swamp and passed, Kilo threw Tezzeret, Cruel Captain into an artifact land and used the 0 to put a counter on Kilo, attacks and puts another counter on Kilo with its own trigger, which I block with first-year and they pass. Kaalia resolves Olivia, Mobilized for War which I assume was a haste outlet though it was never used and passes. Jalira enters the board and on their end step I resolve Shadow Prophecy for domain = 4 keeping Proctor's Gaze and Temporary Lockdown, (thinking I'd want some way to stunt Kilo's board probably) while binning Spara's Adjudicators and Blossoming Sands. I drew Silverback Elder and tried working out how I'd play this and cast a creature for value but is hard it turns out. So instead I played a land and passed turn, holding up proctor's.
Kilo does a Vision Quest for x = 0 to find Walking Ballista for a loyalty on Tezz, and creates the Tezz emblem, combat, Kilo trigger on ballista, attacks into Jalira (who naturally became a bit of a punching bag as you do with a polymorph deck), Kaalia came down this turn no haste and Jalira morphed its worm into whale + Colossal Whale, noting that I'm the only one with an island. I blitz'd my Workshop Warchief into Tezz, despite already having the emblem I was not about to see Tezz stick around with a ballista on board and that finished off the Tezz. Post combat I played Amonkhet Raceway to start the speed counter. End step I sacked my blitz'd rhino for a card + a 4/4 which felt a pretty good trade all things considered. Next ballista got bigger and idk why it never shot Kaalia out of the sky (claimed they were not hostile, seems dubious but don't look at me to figure out politics) but it shot the whale down and Kaalia untapped and attacked, playing Sephara, Sky's Blade and attacking Jalira. Jalira plays a Proteus Staff and grows the reef worm into the next stage for Artisan of Kozilek. My turn I resolved Pull from the Grave for my warchief + first-year, attacked with my rhino token to tick up speed, cast its prepared spell and passed. Kilo ended up coming at me and first-year happily chumped for me and Kaalia attacked Jalira to activate the Spinerock Knoll and cast Vindicate under the land, targeting proteus staff. Then it played Windbrisk Heights and passed. Jalira never got to attack with artisan as ballista nearly drained itself to kill it.
I attacked again with my rhino to tick up speed, then sacked it to A Little Chat for two looks at the top four, then ran out Temporary Lockdown to remove the reef worm chain, almost all of Kilo's board, then cast Garth with Fake Your Own Death and Proctor's Gaze up. Kilo wanted to attack me but I warned them it would not get through and they pointed it elsewhere. Kaalia attacked Jalira with some angel that gives your board indestructible when it attacked and me with Sephara, which I used Proctor's Gaze to bounce and get a land. The turning point came on my next turn;
Untap with Garth, conjure a Black Lotus use that for Wisdom of Ages to redraw five spells from the bin, I passed with mana up and a full grip and we had a discussion about the Kaalia board that was snowballing. Well that got worse when Avacyn joined the fray, which I let the trigger happen to scout its hand, Kaalia just wanted to cast the Austere Command (creatures 4+ and artifacts. which junk punched Kilo to irrelevancy) that was under the windbrisk heights. I cast Fake Your Own Death to save Garth and generate a treasure. This looks bad, and Garth doesn't really have much in the way of Avacyn tools specifically. We as the table discuss the dire board and then I see the out. I tell them "Look, I have a partial out if either of you have some sort of sweeper". Jalira's end step I tapped four and used my treasure for the fifth to exhaust my pathcruiser into a permanent 8/7 body because no one is ever going to crew that for five). Play land, attack with pathcruiser into Kilo for a speed tick to 3, cast silverback elder and passed with lots of mana up. Kilo goes all in for an Everflowing Chalice for and the tezz emblem animates a Manifold Key. Kaalia untaps with the monster board and here's the play, on beginning of combat I proctor's gaze the avacyn, then Broadside Barrage Kaalia, eat the other 11 to the face from that angel and emeria angel and Jalira on end of combat resolves Aetherspouts to bottom or topdeck Kaalia's board which is brutal. This is where Kaalia scooped to get food. This left me in a position to win.
Jalira's end step I let Garth conjure a Disenchant|PARL targeting the animated rock, then resolved my Shadow Prophecy again, this time with full domain to find Essence Scatter and Take Up the Shield, binning Elfhame Wurm, land, and Veteran Beastrider. Untap, pathcruiser finishes Kilo for exactly 8 and gives me max speed. Jalira has a bit of a rally but I've got a strong resource advantage at this point, including a Bite Down for a threat and a Brass Knuckles to make my pathcruiser even larger. Garth conjured a Terror|3ed to deal with a nasty 8/8 and Essence Scatter traded with their Arcane Denial to which I used Garth to conjure a Regrowth|3ed to bring scatter back next turn. Bite Down took out their common 8/9 eldrazi trampler and by this point I had more than enough power to actually finish.
For my participation, I took a Lorwyn Eclipsed pack as something fresh. This was a mistake as the commons are all signpost cards and Garth needs his workhorses to be generalists, but there were a few gems that would be useful.
Run Away Together, Thirst for Identity, and Personify are the standout targets, and Mutable Explorer is genuine ramp, which is great for a deck that doesn't have enough ramp and has labeled fixing cards as ramp. Notably explorer doesn't fix, but it's still a mutavault which is useful. Still, I think Secrets of Strixhaven gives me more generalist playables, especially if I find the black paradigm spell.
I also want to talk about gifts. Back on May 18th, our own @TheAmericanSpirit sent me a box of cards. Obviously I had no idea, no control over what would be in the box (though I know what's in the box now, obviously. I didn't know what I'd do with it but it seems a waste to not use them since I think that's what TAS would want, to see them in play. But there's like 31 after filtering the UB out and that would do a sizable influx of power if I dump them in now. So, in the spirit of the No-Buy theorem, and to honour the incredibly generous gift I won't hand-select anything. Instead, anytime I gain sealed product for the project, I will roll 1d4 -1 (yes, I can roll a 0, just like finding a Ring of Three Wishes in a d&d v3.5 loot table) for number of hits I get from this list. I'll randomize the list and select that many non-repeating integers from a random number generator and those will be the inputs added. This continues until I've exhausted the gift package.
gift roll
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30. Ripples of Undeath
16. Engineered Explosives
Last edited by 3drinks 3 weeks ago, edited 1 time in total.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Lord of the Scum
Glad to see the cards I sent get used! Good luck!
There's no biscuits and gravy in New Zealand.
(Except when DirkGently makes them!)
(Except when DirkGently makes them!)
Now I'm debating doing this. Seems like a fun experiment.
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
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Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
I love it. If you enjoy limited, you'll enjoy this. It can be skill intensive though since your cards naturally won't be as overt as typical commander cards keep in mind.
I find it's mostly an indictment how far power creep has come that the floor has been brought up to serviceable cardboard status, and chase cards exist as just a matter of degrees from the baseline versions.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
- Posts: 7708
- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
There's the changes after Tuesday's game.
Cuts
Thrill of possibility
Codecracker hound
Floriferous vinewall
Brass knuckles
Risen necroregent
Chitin gravestalker
Adds
Mutable explorer
Thirst for identity
Run away together
Engineered explosives
Ripples of undeath
Personify
Remove the mulch wall for actual ramp body, then the worst of dumb fat (gravestalker, brass knucks) for another protection spell and a card engine. Thrill into thirst is pretty fine, maybe even the cleanest swap. Necroregent is a speed payoff and it's pretty okay but I think I do more with EE.
Last one is the one interesting change, codecracker hound into run away together. Hound shows the best of my top two twice, albeit for all in. It's a pretty decent Sea Gate Oracle. Run Away Together isn't finding more cards but that is quite a strong bounce that can act as protection too. I can go back and forth on this one.
Cuts
Thrill of possibility
Codecracker hound
Floriferous vinewall
Brass knuckles
Risen necroregent
Chitin gravestalker
Adds
Mutable explorer
Thirst for identity
Run away together
Engineered explosives
Ripples of undeath
Personify
Remove the mulch wall for actual ramp body, then the worst of dumb fat (gravestalker, brass knucks) for another protection spell and a card engine. Thrill into thirst is pretty fine, maybe even the cleanest swap. Necroregent is a speed payoff and it's pretty okay but I think I do more with EE.
Last one is the one interesting change, codecracker hound into run away together. Hound shows the best of my top two twice, albeit for all in. It's a pretty decent Sea Gate Oracle. Run Away Together isn't finding more cards but that is quite a strong bounce that can act as protection too. I can go back and forth on this one.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
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- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
- Posts: 7708
- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
- Taborax, Hope's Demise shadowborn apostles
- Vorel of the Hull Clade secret millennium clock deck
- Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal enchantress
I got to activate Garth to conjure a Lotus (I never get tired of saying that), which again I used for the to cast Wisdom of Ages for three cards. I got to cast Proctor's Gaze twice, double dipped on Sunstar Expansionist, and triple dipped on Studious First-Year // Rampant Growth like it was perma attached at the hip. Tonight I learned Daydream is in fact not an instant and thus is not a protection spell. Good way to reset Garth's spellbook though, but may eventually be cuttable. Proctor's Gaze continues to impress, who would have thought combining disperse and rampant growth|mir into one card would be a sleeper but here we are.
I actually hardcast a Migrating Ketradon unironically. It did what it's supposed to do, gained some life, discouraged some attacks and even acts as an intimidating skyscraper to flying pressure. It's not even dead early because you can cycle it away. Obviously, it's not a final piece, but it's relevant enough that I'm okay with it for the foreseeable future. Odd as that may be to say aloud.
Taborax actually hit the Thrumming Stone combo and managed to churn through the deck for all 24 of the apostles There's a Liliana's Contract on board so the danger is in Taborax getting one more upkeep to close it out, while they cashed in the apostles to find Vilis, Broker of Blood, Archfiend of Despair, and Valgavoth, Terror Eater (Razaketh is in their hand). Well with all those cleric sacs Taborax is grown huge, gets greaves + Shadowspear and targets Victor first since they were doing the most towards the value engine win. Vorel and I need to use this turn to either win or stop the win, which vorel does with a Trinket Mage for Stonecoil Serpent and with an irresponsibly large Astral Cornucopia makes an even more irresponsibly large serpent to crash into Taborax' board and eat all of the demons (this thing was a 42/42). At this point I'm pretty content to watch them beat down each other, but getting to untap with Garth I used his disenchant|PARL to get rid of the greaves. Then my shiny new Perilous Snare shows up to take away the spear (because I wanted to leverage their attack). I looked at their library and asked for a count, thinking I could Braingeyser them, but it still had ~15 cards more than totally-blue-fireball could hit for. They cast a Patriarch's Bidding for demons, I named humans and got back my Sunstar (totally a fair trade
) and they went into combat. I'd have let them go but I didn't realize Taborax got lifelink when it got huge so I pointed the Proctor's Gaze my Wisdom of Ages gave me back at the demon and he'd die to the serpent w/ swiftfoot boots.So my line is deal with a hexproof artifact. I have exactly two outs, the Engineered Explosives the gift stack produced for me last week, or the Temporary Lockdown I've been sitting on for ages. Lockdown would have actually given me the game as it knocks out almost everything Vorel has and at that point Garth can conjure a Shivan Dragon|3ed and commence the beatdown phase. But instead through Stock Up → Thirst for Identity → Risky Shortcut I in fact did not find the out and eventually succumbed to the ridiculously juiced serpent. We started at 6:30 tonight and that went till...yeah, about 8:45. The deck continues to receive praise for the concept, and the player on Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal even gifted me a stack of cards that's how much they liked the project and wanted to contribute, I think. So that's a stack of cards (including a Retreat to Coralhelm which is super synergistic for Garth) being added to the gift stack The American Spirit started, and I'll draw those out at the same rate I've established.
For tonight's pack, I took a Secrets of Strixhaven, since Lorwyn Eclipsed is a bit too synergy-heavy for my needs. We got a bit of overlap here, and in Capenna, and in Aetherdrift and I'm starting to run out of fresh packs before my common workhorses begin tripping over each other. I really need an outlet to do something with the duplicate bulk that doesn't involve hand selecting the new targets but I can't think of anything. Cashing in bulk at the LGS is, what, $1/1000 cards or something ridiculous?
Secrets of Strixhaven 1
Common
1 Quick study (dupe)
1 Goblin glasswright (dupe)
1 Shopkeeper's bane (dupe)
1 Pull from the grave (dupe)
There's some meat on the bones here, Imperious Inkmage is a fine roleplayer that removes unwanted cards while playing offense and defense. Visionary's Dance is a bit like Ketradon in that it's an late game hit while not being dead in your opening hand. I don't have much of a value in a pair of 3/3s but I can appreciate what it's doing. Hop to It is probably better at the job though. The biggest hit is Together as One, which looks like the satisfying feeling of resolving Cruel Ultimatum during it's run in Standard. I can't wait to cast that, it's gonna be so fun!
Then lastly, let's look at the gift pulls. We're up to 51 cards all inclusive and adding 0-3 random pulls to the project so this will certainly take awhile.
random rolls
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34. Rough // Tumble
12. Char
So that's great. Love me some K-Comm and Rough // Tumble is some manner of sweeper, that'll be great even if it's not really capable of being a Blasphemous Act. Char is an easily splashable removal spell which is very important in a deck like that that doesn't have perfect mana or tools. Happy to see it.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
- Posts: 7708
- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
I should be posting these recaps to the blog and linking that article to the board. I was tired, forgive me. Anyway here's much of the same above but with a little more clarity on the gift pulls and my musings over some gameplay.
https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/no ... mmander-e2
https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/no ... mmander-e2
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
- Posts: 7708
- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Here's ep3 of No-Buy Commander. There's actually an ep4 coming imminently but I don't want to overload y'all so enjoy!
https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/no ... mander-ep3
https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/no ... mander-ep3
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
- Posts: 7708
- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
And here's pt2 of yesterday's blog, for your reading pleasure.
https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/no ... mander-ep4
https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/no ... mander-ep4
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria
- Posts: 7708
- Joined: 7 years ago
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
So I went to a different LGS this evening. It was a little less structured and had no buy-in, so I bought a Play Booster as patronage for using their space. Same basic math as the other store: there I pay to play and get a participation pack; here I bought the pack directly. Either way, Garth gained one Play Booster from showing up.
I chose Edge of Eternities because, somehow, this store actually had the set in stock. The pack itself was pretty bad, though Emergency Eject was the highlight and I'm genuinely excited about that one. The bigger news happened while I was waiting for a game that never actually got started before the store closed. A player I was talking to got interested in the project and dropped a stack of mostly bulk on me.
There were some real gems in there too: Invoke the Firemind, some deeply respectable accountant Magic like Electrolyze...and then, sitting in the middle of the stack, a damn Tarmogoyf|TSR.
72 cards total.
So into the gift stack this generosity goes, to be slowly drip-fed back into the project through the usual RNG process. I'll get into the actual pulls, what made the roster conversation, and what this does to the deck in the next blog.
I chose Edge of Eternities because, somehow, this store actually had the set in stock. The pack itself was pretty bad, though Emergency Eject was the highlight and I'm genuinely excited about that one. The bigger news happened while I was waiting for a game that never actually got started before the store closed. A player I was talking to got interested in the project and dropped a stack of mostly bulk on me.
There were some real gems in there too: Invoke the Firemind, some deeply respectable accountant Magic like Electrolyze...and then, sitting in the middle of the stack, a damn Tarmogoyf|TSR.
72 cards total.
So into the gift stack this generosity goes, to be slowly drip-fed back into the project through the usual RNG process. I'll get into the actual pulls, what made the roster conversation, and what this does to the deck in the next blog.
(@mtgnexus Shut Up and Play Event ) — Bartolomé Del Presidio|88789, Tanazir Quandrix, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke|66055
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
Kaalia of the Vast — Legacy Burn — Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Sliver Typal) — Hans' Wilderness Survival Expedition (B1)
The Commander No-Buy Project™
