Episode 2 | Lord of the Lord of the Rings | Historic Brawl Merry & Gollum | MTG Arena

[@christophwhiteyz9787]

Alternative name for the series. 85 fun meme decks try to beat etali and atraxa.

[@Darkeep12]

I've even got matched with those as Bill the Pony. We need some new members in the hell queue.

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

@onlythesith777 I agree, it sucks when I'm playing Golos and no-one wants to play against me, they should be forced to.

[@ghostcula]

​@onlythesith777 "I want to pubstomp with my OP commander and I don't want to get paired against equally strong decks"

[@goldenpony822]

​​​@@ghostculatbf the shuffler often pairs my jank against various janks and my OP stuff against differently OP stuff.

[@PurpleBen.]

I am SO excited for this series! My favorite format is by far commander/brawl, especially the historic version!

[@patrickwoodlands4086]

I just now noticed that they made it so Gollum, Scheming Guide is mono black because its the evil side of Gollum and they made Smeagol, Helpful Guide as Golgari because its the nicer side of Gollum. Such a flavour win.

[@travisphillips2733]

I like it when you do more than one commander in a video. Keeps it fresh.

[@mzimmer01]

That face when he drew the Embercleave.

[@Wolfeson28]

Probably the happiest he's ever been to see that card. :)

[@aliasbillsmith7200]

CGB is so good at MTG, he creates 100 card decks with a Commanders he doesn’t even understand.

[@TheStanishStudios]

This card is such a flavor win, even if it’s not the most competitive. Very “what have I got in my pocket?”

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

I call this one “Riddles in the dark” for that reason. We got Plotter, Riddles and Commander (since the last one is the commander set one)

[@rapskallion7770]

I like this one for flavour. This is literally the "What have I got in my pockets?" game for Gollum, which is a nice way to fit that little anecdote in. Also would have been interesting if Wizards had decided to print this effect on a mono blue Bilbo, which would have been equally flavourful.

[@jjjj8644]

35:31 that's why you have to do some maths during combat. Opponent just missed lethal

[@impractically728]

math is for blockers

[@LesterMiserable]

the gollum deck was one of the most fun decks I've seen CGB play.

[@Legalmind2]

I'm loving this approach of using these powerful early game commanders that lead into a stronger lategame instead of trying to rush the enemy out. You know you're gonna have it so you can kinda supplant putting in other early game cards and play more greeeeed as you'll no matter what have a 2 drop that needs to be dealt with by the enemy

[@Darkeep12]

Those Gollum riddles are some of your best moments in a while.

[@RiKSh4w]

So if your opponent attacks with Gollum, I believe you're always supposed to answer as if you believe a land is atop their library, because then them drawing it is fine. Which means you just always say non-land? Either it is a non-land and they can't draw it, or they draw a land. Let's say you become 100% predictable in this endeavour. This changes Gollum to say, "If there's a land in the top 2 cards of your library, draw it, reveal it, and Gollum is unblockable", which really isn't that strong.

[@randomness5435]

Yeah this card is a little awkward to play, lots of steps for an awkward payout.

[@theoneandonlyflexo]

@@randomness5435 Yeah there is literally no reason for the person attacking with Gollum to have to pick land or nonland and then have the opponent think if you lie. That's just the opponent guessing the top card with extra steps. I suppose for clients like Arena with no chatting or face to face talk, it adds some amount of bluffing potential, but it is very oddly worded.

[@fluffyfang4213]

Don't forget that if you don't have a land in the top two cards, Gollum instead does not attack... which I guess still can't be blocked :P But I do have to say that the 100% predictable scenario sounds pretty good. With some luck, it's like a Phyrexian Arena that hits your opponent instead of you and you'll always know what you're drawing next turn.

[@BridgeBum]

Isn't what you say just irrelevant? It's all about if the opp gets it right, not what you said. In that case might as well say the same thing every time.

[@fluffyfang4213]

@@BridgeBum On Arena, yes. In person, I knew a few people who are terrible at (or refuse to) lie. So that part makes the card unplayable for them.

[@homm3bonedragon242]

"You did enough. You drew one card and now you're just making me look stupid." This is why I always concede after my first draw step

[@gillgillgillgillgill]

goddamn what a fun series...i was cackling at that embercleave draw

[@Tiax776]

I see he is rocking the "Something about Mary" - hairstyle.

[@josephlck]

Wizards: you can draw cards or gain first strike CGB: hummmmmm......

[@taylorfiksdal2895]

This is a great series! I'm excited to keep seeing more fun commanders like gollum that you don't get to see super often

[@AzafTazarden]

Embercleave is arguably the most epic equipment in boros, it's nice to see it in action

[@Hobbes2718]

What ive noticed from the black commanders is that it's less the commander and more that black is amazing and has ridiculous powerhouses.

[@Arcticsharpshooter]

Nice series, thank you for entertaining us with it, CGB!

[@yoshu4221]

11:04 nice shame scoop

[@haggleboggle]

Hahaha I feel you about the shame scoop xD

[@jellysandjamz250]

My favorite part about this whole series was how many times you had to what Gollum did

[@callmeinfidel8370]

isn't it so nice embercleave rotated out of standard

[@albino_penguin2268]

I remember when embercleave ruled, and I miss it sooo much. Was the first mythic I opened in Arena.

[@madprops4615]

I remember constant turn 3 Anax, turn 4 embercleave death. They always had it. That combo made me despise mono red

[@kadorigami]

Petition for Embercleave reprint in Wilds of Eldraine. 😅

[@jantheflyingdutchman]

Embercleave on a Questing Beast was a thing of beauty though.

[@dabloodynine]

I'm LOVING this new series!

[@jasonavina8135]

The golem games looked so fun and right for the lore!

[@jacobmeagher]

Gollum definitely uses Sensei divining top just to screw around with the opponent

[@yomommashaus]

embercleave, the card with the most victories in all mtg history

[@mRboylls]

Every cool stuff inc add I hold my breath worried that I won’t be able to hear it, the sound of your voice lets me know I’m still cool.

[@ella6547]

The way Arena has done it, what you pick (land or nonland) is irrelevent. The way it's worded is also silly as there's not really enough fun to justify it when in reality it's just your opponent guessing land or nonland.

[@ishtari_]

Best series on youtube! ^^

[@llllspectrellll]

What you are doing here is....cool

[@jaybennett679]

Fun looking decks!

[@brendanmoore7480]

This could be some fun jank with vorpal sword

[@williamwalton9154]

Eagerly anticipating Golgari Gollum.

[@brianarsuaga5008]

So strange that there's a choice in Gollum's text that has no mechanical result.

[@jordanthayer5160]

Exactly. It doesn't matter what you click at all as the controller of Gollum. The only decision that matters is what card you put on top. The rest is statistics (although the nature of in person play could change this) and it's geared toward your opponent. For most decks, you will be right more often guessing nonland at the beginning of the game. From there, pay attention to play. Each card drawn reduces the chance it's nonland by a smidge unless they're land ramping somehow in mono black, and I'd be curious how many cards, on average, need to be drawn before land and nonland are equally viable for the opponent to guess.

[@fluffyfang4213]

@@jordanthayer5160 Why would each card drawn change the ratio? Assuming you don't know what card they drew. The way I see it, on average, the bottom half of their deck (or even their last two cards) should have the same ratio as the entire deck unless they fetch specific card types (such as land ramping as you've noted).

[@singerbradley]

Is Davriel's {B} discount bugged? Why did a all generic mana cost card like Nyx Lotus get a discount?

[@calvinmobley9628]

Rather fitting for gollum beating sauron in the first game.

[@CompanionPacks]

Don't know if there's any FIFA players here but Gollum reminds me of a spot kick

[@roshandala]

I love this series

[@empirate100]

Felt bad for you during the intro, your voice sounded as if it had been doing far too much work today. Take care, man, don't overdo it!

[@itwasme_ari]

When lotr release, I was also planning to make random HB deck on arena using uncommon or lower to reduce wildcard spending My head cant understand why my Bree deck faced Atraxa too

[@TGDeadman]

Shoutout to Embercleave. GG!

[@truebornjester8703]

Be great if you could do a new account with tips in building a deck with not much and how to build up a collection

[@pokeyclawz8727]

Why do you have to pick land or nonland? All that matters is what the opponent picks right? I’m kinda confused on the purpose of the controller choosing

[@volkfidde4269]

1 game to a win- probably observer bias but arena seems to be very kind to new commanders.

[@bryantkapono420]

Probably be about 169,420 games

[@giovannishepard653]

Am I crazy or has CGB increased the default playback speed by like 10%? Everything seems just a little too fast. I'm not necessarily against it but I just want to know if I'm losing it.

[@Grimxonic]

I noticed that too, I think he is outputting a higher framerate on his videos by accident (or purpose?)

[@giovannishepard653]

@@Grimxonic I'm guessing on purpose, maybe to try and bring the runtime down or to squeeze in more of these LotR commanders per video.

[@chrissirensong6816]

He didn't rate them out of 10 this time though. Is Merry actually good?

[@FiddyStump-tn6kk]

I thought gollum was broken for a second, haha.

[@brianarsuaga5008]

I'd love to see some Davriel, Soul Broker brawl. Very chaotic and entertaining to see

[@l33tminion]

Embercleve sure is a card.

[@AzafTazarden]

Monoblack Sauron coming next?

[@gregorym7588]

Probably one game due to an early scoop? And then maybe you shame scoop? :P

[@Kaarataka]

punt....nope nope nope

[@solarupdraft]

watching CGB win with these new commanders, you'd think he's good at the game or smth

[@renierroach4525]

Last video don't count, never cast your commander :0

[@apremtolaria7749]

I don't get the rules. Didn't the first win with Gollum meet the condition to move on to the next commander? 😅

[@spiceytortilla21]

Yeah he just wanted to play more

[@bassburglar4053]

Rat Deck, Rat Deck, Rat Deck 🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀

[@vermora356]

If you believe tour opponent believes that you would lie, doesn't that mean you should be truthful?

[@AydenValir]

You should keep putting on the thumbnail, “it begins” “it continues” then, “still going” “ and going” “and going” “almost done” “nope, still more” “and more” etc.

[@MasterOfMonoBlack]

first?!

[@covertgoblue]

nerd

[@mcbescheiden725]

Fifth!

[@MasterOfMonoBlack]

@@covertgoblue and proud of it!

[@johnnyreid7931]

Please have some algorithm juice in support of your self abuse 😊

[@jamesboice2763]

I don't have the resources to play rich man's magic, so anything other than standard content alienates me. especially fake magic like lord of the rings or d&d sets

[@LordZurkov]

I'm not sure I follow. Standard is frequently much more expensive than commander?

[@jamesboice2763]

​@LordZurkov not digitally. I quit magic for decades. just started arena this year