Comments on: Land Destruction in Commander

By: Trix

Trix — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:00:17 +0000

Some of you in comments seem to assume that after LD, nobody has taken any damage before that point. This isn’t usually the case, and mass LD can be a great way to finish a stalling game quick if you have all the pieces in place and you’ve gathered enough information of opponents remaining resources so they can’t answer to it.
Blowing all the lands just to slow the game while you do nothing yourself sure is a bad play, but if someone ‘geddons and wins the game, in my opinion other players were not prepared for it, and he/she deserved the win 100%.

It’s all about what you want from the game really, but don’t be a hypocrite with your silly ramp-combo decks(not talking to anyone particular here anymore) hating the one good way to counter such decks. We build our decks on the basis of what we expect. If you expect mass LD, you craft your deck that in mind, but if you see it as a taboo, of course your decks don’t have so much answers for it and you frown against it.

Good article imo, I’ve always had a bit trouble with the double standards with this issue, people not realizing the absurdity of fast ramp that shouldn’t be counterable for some reason.. Maybe as to ban Mind Twist next cause hey, resolving Blue Sun’s Zenith for x=20 is totally ok.

By: pi

pi — Fri, 13 May 2011 07:04:49 +0000

We actually play with 30 life, your mass LD is still not going to keep you save from the wrath of 4 players as you try tot take 120 life from them.

I don't see much combo, if anything a dedicated combo deck would probably frowned upon more than a dedicated LD deck in my group.

By: Simplistic_1

Simplistic_1 — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:53:26 +0000

Red without mass land destruction isn’t even really viable in a meta with combo. I used to run a mass LD package in my monored and R/B edh decks that I cut due to excessive whining, but despite about 8 rebuilds of the monored it loses about three times as often as it used to. The R/B was never the same either though much better off for having black available.

Impending Disaster is probably my favorite mass ld spell. Oh, the memories…:)

By: Mick

Mick — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:16:42 +0000

The problem is unless the life total changes (30 instead of 40) even if LD were viable, i.e. no one whined about it, it still wouldn't be good enough. Aggro decks are different in EDH. In fact, the true aggro decks of this format are those that attack everyone's life totals quickly. In other words, the pressure decks (usually B/R or R or sometimes W/R) are they way to go aggro. These decks still play LD, but it's more in the form of say Ruination or Boil.

By: pi

pi — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:14:53 +0000

I will get a little annoyed at tragetted LD that heads my way if there seem to be better targets, but I can live with that. I understand you have to kill that stronghold or academy, in fact I often wonder why it hasn't been killed yet. My EDH decks actually have a reasonable curve. Yes they're top heavy, but even my Mayael deck has plenty to do in the early turns, even if that's mostly fixing my mana and draws.

(It wouldn't fit in 1 comment).

By: pi

pi — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:14:25 +0000

I might be a little tainted in my perception, but I have never seen anybody resolve a mass land destruction spell and win that multiplayer game. I have also actually seen quite a few board wipes like that as some players I know just love their mass LD. The challenge is still dealing with all the life your opponents have, let's say there are 4 of them, in regular multiplayer you'd need 8 attacks in your sample of 10 power to deal the 80 damage required and it gets worse in EDH. Somewhere during that time your creatures will be dealt with and now everybody knows your plan and because they don't want to loose lands again they will be going after you full force. I just can't see mass LD working and I'm highly annoyed if you play it as you have just made the game rather random and much longer.