Commander 2015 Review - Green/Black & Green/Blue | The Command Zone 88

[@jacobgozdziak6233]

Hey guys just wanted to say I love the show. You guys are so knowledgeable on the format it has helped me step up my game in a lot of ways. Keep up the great work!

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Jacob Gozdziak That's awesome to hear Jacob. Thanks for letting us know and we hope you keep tuning in!

[@billable1861]

I love the dynamic between you two. I'm a long time edh player and I still find your opinion insightful on these decks.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Billable Thanks for letting us know and we're super glad you enjoy it!

[@DejaVooCity]

I played Meren in a launch party and I sac'd a 36/36 Bonehoard to Jarad. It was great.

[@gammie6062]

Before christmas (or "the holidays") would you guys do a podcast on good gifts for EDH players? He bought the C15 GB and I got C15 BU. Perfect video :D

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Gammie This is a good idea. We will definitely think on it.

[@SirNarax]

You guys should record commander gameplay, I would watch that :3

[@hurunahmed938]

Little do you know in the future

[@Butterworthy]

Nah, we're gonna fight about Vulturous Zombie. His ability says whenever a *card* is put into an opponent's graveyard from *anywhere* he gets a counter. They cast a spell? Counter. Someone mills them a few? Counter counter counter. He can get out of hand REAL QUICK and he's always a massive threat when I play him.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Butterworthy Meh. One big basically-vanilla (yes it has flying) creature is rarely enough to "get there" in Commander in my experience. Especially in a deck that's not really set up to maximize it. I said repeatedly on the show that it's not a bad card - I just don't think it's optimal in the deck.

[@Butterworthy]

+Josh Lee Kwai So I've literally spent the last 4 days thinking about this. No joke, it'll just pop in my head. Then I went to a local store I don't visit very often and haven't played commander at in a long time...and it's srs bsns to those guys there. There was a moment on like turn 5 I look over at the guy next to me and he just had $400-500 in land just hanging out, and that wasn't even uncommon. So yeah, you're right about the zombie, and it's gotta go.

[@rockearl99]

Today is a good day! Im off work, command zone episode comes out, then commander club tonight at my lgs! Cant wait to play my Mazirek deck :D

[@joshleekwai8895]

+rockearl99 Awesome! Let us know how it goes. I'm working on a Mazirek build myself.

[@piisnotthree]

Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song is at least one that exists.

[@rmhtexas5982]

I remember the Skullclamp + Goblins + Patriach's Bidding combo. So good.

[@Blackfeather6021]

I feel that Sidisi, Undead Vizier is an auto-include in a Meren deck since Exploit is an enter the battlefield trigger . Combining it with Meren could lead to a recurring tutor that is a way to sacrifice and grow experience counters.

[@kosmic2021]

My sister has been wanting a G/U deck for a while now. Been waiting for news on the upgrades.

[@mpapalionakis7816]

i was playing my ezuri deck against a friend of mine who was playing an hazezon tamar deck. he got like 14 tokens out from hazezon, then next turn i used ezuris predation. most satisfying moment of my life XD won next turn off of overrun

[@EVO1148]

To be fair, in the Ezuri deck, Noble quarry has been the card that's destroyed me almost any time it comes out when I don't have immediate spot removal available

[@Svstrauser]

Great video, thanks! I didn't know about Kagemaro. This guy is going straight to the deck. One note regarding From Beyond: you mentioned you don't want to remove cards from your graveyard, but that got me thinking that many people will want to exile your grave. I'm thinking about including an Elixir of Immortality just for this kind of occasion. It's best to loose some cards temporarily than forever. The Marauder and Executioner are some of my most useful cards in the deck, and Birthing Pod and the Simulacrum basically break it. Finally, no love for Sheoldred? She ROCKS the deck.

[@VinyJuliani]

there's a new blue snake card with myrad. I just don't know if giving unblockable to it will give to the tokens also, but u can win the game with the right swing

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Vinicius Juliani Yeah it's the one that draws you cards if you do combat damage with it.

[@MsNosis]

thanks for the indepth review. next time though, also discuss the main weaknesses of the deck, like what strategies are dangerous, and if there are any answers in the deck. (for example, how does graveyard hate affect the green/black deck?)

[@vagamorth]

been waiting for this all day :D

[@commandcast]

+Katia McCarthy us too! :)

[@wandererofwastes4221]

For the Golgari deck I would be tempted to add in a bunch of really high powered demons that make you sac stuff, and then get that stuff back to sac it again, such as xathrid demon. I would also put in reaper of the abyss because being able to point at something every turn and remove it is insane, particularly against decks which revolve around their commander as they need to play it and protect it on the same turn. Also as a side note where do you get your cards from? I live in New Zealand and card availability is really low here, especially for the older cards. Thanks in advance.

[@neojetangel]

I actually got the G/U deck to disassemble for parts for my Vorel deck and my Roon deck. I've been running Ezuri in place of Vorel for now to see how it goes and it's very powerful (yes I run Sage of Hours, with proliferate and lots of tutors), but is less synergistic with the deck overall, so will probably end up as one of the 99. I'm surprised you didn't speak about Great Oak Guardian, it's basically a big green Deceiver Exarch that pumps your team. I've already found a few ways to go infinite with it in Roon, even without Kiki or Twin (Deadeye + Kiora's Follower/Voyaging Satyr + Karoo Land = Infinite power and toughness is just one).

[@hollystardust]

My friend at one point popped open his Chasm Skulker with 6 counters on it with Ezuri out, instantly got 7 experience counters, and then played Sage of Hours to win.Needless to say, no one was happy.

[@spenceralexander235]

Making a pox style deck for Mazirek I'm so excited

[@Kestral287]

From Beyond being mentioned got me thinking that It That Betrays could get absolutely stupid in the Black/Green deck. With Meren getting it into play isn't too hard; even if you can't dump it to grave looping Sakura or Yavimaya Elder is excellent ramp. Once it's in play, its synergy with stuff like Butcher/Dictate of Erebos is ridiculous. Sacrifice an Eldrazi Spawn/Scion? Everybody has to hand you a creature. And then it's also a huge body with Annihilator 2. Won't make you any friends, but that'd be a really interesting tech piece.

[@ploga159]

Alice's Restaurant is kind of a Thanksgiving song. At least thats the day it get played on radio.

[@danielhannum2812]

Admittedly I don't have Ezuri, so what do I know, but I'm thinking like this: Maybe 10 efficient token generators to put a zillion counters on it, then sit back behind hexproof, counterspells, defense, fogs and simply send huge evasion damage at one player at a time. If they kill your creature, that's ok, you can put 10 +1/+1 counters on somebody else next turn.

[@Imrith]

I'm surprised nobody seemed to notice how good Sakashima is with the new experience counter mechanic. I've had a few games with an improved version of Ezuri (UG goodstuff, without focusing on proliferate which I think is a bad strategy), and even with only 35 lands with a lot of ramp-creatures or mana producing creatures I've always had more than enough mana to either copy ezuri himself and then play a cheap creature to get 2 exp counters on the same turn (plus two ezuri activation!!), or, worst case scenario, copy someone else's legend (angels, ulamog and company) and still have mana open for a counterspell. Try Sakashima!

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Imrith Oh damn. Hadn't thought of this but yeah - Sakashima is pretty awesome. Seems broken in Mizzix potentially as well.

[@UBDOOMBOT]

For the red White deck add the following for a burn comb mixed with Aggro: (Note: have Gisela as your comander) Warstorm Surge. Flameshadow Conjuring. Captain of the watch. Dictate of the Heliod. Foudry Champion. Spear of Heliod. Hammer or Purphoros. Volcanic Vision. Victory's Herald. Plea for Guidance. Dawnbreak Reclaimer. Berserker's Onslaught. Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Vedalken Orrery.(Because combos) Irosa, god of Victory Brave the sands Now you are going to take out all of the giant cards except two: Sun titan and Kalenlmne(She will not be your commander) replace the other Giants with soldiers with bolster, double strike, Outlast, Renown(Ex: Abzan Falconer) and clerics that remove shit from play or have lifelink(Abzan battle priest) Card combos: play Warstorm 1st after you play Gisela to deal 10dmg on summon(this is not commander Dmg) then after a turn(as long if you have 4 or more Creatures on the board) play Flameshadow Conjuring and if you have 7 mana with the 7th being red tap 6 for Foundry Champion once it successfully resolved his ability will activate tap one red for Flameshadow to clone Foundry to burn for well over 30+dmg If you want to have fun with this combo Use "sun Titan" and clone it to get two creature permanent that are 3 or less this combo alone will deal 24 Points of burn damage you can also do this with Dawnbreak Reclaimer with Vedalken Orrery to get any creature back from the graveyard times two(if you keep one red mana open for Flameshadow) My Build is kinda enchantment heavy at 15 of them Also I run 29 creatures with a mix of angels, soldiers, and clerics and one shapeshifter which only gains 1+/1+ counter for each spell your opponent plays. Also I need a ruling for Gisela effect mixed with Double Strike and Lifelink 1st Effect: If a source you control would deal DMG(Damage) to a opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, that source deals Double that DMG to that player or permanent instead. So lets say this scenario: If Borros Swiftblade attacks while Equipped with Loxodon Warhammer to my opponents life and it successfully goes through while Gisela on the board the swiftblade is dealing 8+8=16 now do I gain the 16 or just the 8?

[@jacobdachauer4377]

I played Ezuri out of the box and I was so disappointed. Then I reworked the deck and I love it!!!! I loved experiment one in that deck because I have lots of trample in the deck with anything with a counter or unblockable. The evolve I couldn't care less about, but the regeneration is great. In Meren, if you are looking for an epic eldrazi, how about It That Betrays?? You are already making them sac stuff enough. Why not take control of it? No worries about shuffling your graveyard back in. I know that you were looking Kaseto a lot. I know it is a little expensive, but there isn't a ton of spot removal. What about using Dismiss into Dream? If you get that out, it costs a green and blue to remove any creature on the board that is targetable!

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Jacob Dachauer Oh, Dismiss into Dream is a really good call in a Kaseto deck! Spicy. Good suggestion.

[@jacobdachauer4377]

+Josh Lee Kwai Thank you!

[@magnusthegreat21]

funny looking back, now Centaur Vinecrasher is MVP of the gitrog monster deck

[@robdpoplin]

One card that i would really recomend for meren is strionic resonator. Primarily for getting 2 creatures instead of 1, but copying etb or die triggers is also be extremely strong. Also can be used as a psuedo proliferate in a pinch copying the exp counter trigger.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+robdpoplin Nice! Great suggestion!

[@HavocTheWendigo]

If only it was on a creature so it can be brought back lol I guess that'll be too powerful

[@EVO1148]

Played an Omnath deck. Sylvan offering, pumped like 15 mana into it then immediately played Ezuri's predation so I had like 23 4/4s killed all the 1/1 elves my opponents got and was sitting there pretty high and dandy with myself :P

[@coltinyancey3671]

No mention of living death for the meren deck?

[@VVhirl]

I really think Mazirek has so much potential, and the recent addition of Evolutionary Leap makes me so excited to play him. Evolutionary Leap is easily my favorite card in terms of feel, and fits perfectly into Mazirek.

[@Butterworthy]

One of my favorite sac outlets is Claws of Gix. People are like "Oh what? A zero drop artifact that allows you to sacrifice a permanent to gain 1 life? Pfft, who cares?" **two turns later** "OMG KILL THE CLAWS! THEY HAVE TO DIE!"

[@CoiledMemes]

in the keseto deck, would you also recomend the the land walk snakes too? what about endless swarm as a card? and finaly, I'd the shisato, whispering hunter good in this deck?

[@youandyourhorrormovies6630]

for the G/B deck would running Witchbane Orb as one of the 99 to at least protect from GY hate?

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

A bunch of the mass GY hate targets the grave, not the player.

[@bl00dofblackrose63]

Kozilek and ulamog only shuffle themselves. I think im going to put one of these in so I can grab something with from beyond if it ever mattered. Another rad video guys great help!! keep pumping this awesome content out!!

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Kokusho Soulslayer Kozilek and the original Ulamog (not NEW-lamog) both say "When Kozilek (Ulamog) is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library." So be careful because you would definitely have to shuffle your entire graveyard into your deck.

[@bl00dofblackrose63]

+Josh Lee Kwai oh wow you're right, I've always read it the other way, you have my apologies Josh and Jimmy!! well I feel sheepish haha xD

[@bl00dofblackrose63]

+Josh Lee Kwai ya that's way worse get that thing the hell outta here, thank you for showing me the error of my ways hahaha xD

[@joshleekwai8895]

Kokusho Soulslayer It's no biggie. I screw up rules interactions all the time :-P

[@bl00dofblackrose63]

+Josh Lee Kwai well thanks again, and have a happy holiday season!

[@ODDnanref]

Thanksgiving was last month bro. love from Canada

[@SecretShotgun]

How about combining these two into a sidisi, brood tyrant sacrifice commander deck?

[@kevinscott8437]

So I will be buying the sonic deck in the near future, but I was planning on using ezuri. Now I may use Koseto because he/she looks pretty fun

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Kevin Scott I think Ezuri is better to build an entirely new deck around but Kaseto is better to lead the deck right out of the box.

[@kevinscott8437]

Josh Lee Kwai which new commander do you believe will be the best to build a deck around?

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Kevin Scott Depends on what you mean by "best". Do you mean potentially most powerful? I would say Ezuri or Mizzix.

[@TheOmegaSkater]

+Kevin Scott Gotta go fast Kappa

[@TheOmegaSkater]

+Kevin Scott Gotta go fast Kappa

[@aylipaolucci9412]

I personally am going fo the Ezuri deck and going to run him as the commander. Not only is Sage of Hours incredibly funny, but one thing that makes +1/+1 counter strategies great is that a lot of the cards that make them good are cheap because WoTC knows people like "miracle grow" strategies and they get reprinted a lot. Hardened Scales, the Outlast creatures (even thoigh you lose 2/3's of them based on colors), and other great cards that go into this deck can be had on the cheap. I think $20 on TCGPlayer can get you a lot of sweet pieces for this deck. Heck, you even get Lumbering Falls because it's below $2! Plus, Ezuri is going to be really fun with Awakening Zone effects. I'm entering magical Christmas land and dreaming if saying "I attack with the 11/12 Eldrazi Spawn."

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Camden Paolucci I don't think that's magical Xmas land at all. Seems totally doable! Let us know how the deck turns out!

[@aylipaolucci9412]

+Josh Lee Kwai So, after some upgrades, the deck is most certainly NOT unfocused, even out of the box. It looks unfocused, but it gets pretty sweet in the early game. I added Avenger of Zendikar Zameck Guildmage Sage of Hours Gyre Sage Fertilid Fathom Mage Plaxcaster Frogling Spike Weaver Mycoloth I thus removed Wistful Selkie Elvish Visionary Caller of the Claw Chameleon Colossus Caller of the Pack Desert Twister Noble Quarry Experiment One One Forest One Island It's worked great so far, and is an absolute power house. I may add Chasm Skulker and Master Biomancer because they look insane with Ezuri. Also, Biomancer + Orochi Hatchery = The entire table vomits.

[@EJsGameplay]

I'm sad you guys didn't mention Pathbreaker Ibex.

[@kosmic2021]

Thanks guys great show!

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Brian McIver Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jordangarner87]

Sweet they gonna talk about the deck I bought. I planned snake tribal.

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

I went Ezuri as he's more my play style as a Combo-themed Commander, though I am making a casual Snake Tribal deck with Kasito.

[@charmingfox2603]

whats that card art at 2:11 seems familiar but i cant recall

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Ravinder Dhillon Illusory Angel

[@unfazedfocus3533]

Can someone explain how sacrificing works? Can I do it at anytime? Do I need a card with a sacrificing ability?

[@deskgo]

No mention of Prophet of Kruphix? She needs to go in this.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+ryan rose Haha! You're right of course. We just talk about Prophet too much so we dialed it down a notch.

[@amphetamean66X]

Kaseto makes a great Tiny Leader!!! Infect!!! Also your show is great! I look forward to it every week. Thanks for existing guys also Jimmy your funny as hell I would love to play Commander with you one day. I took apart my Edric deck and made it my Ezuri deck and it seems really fun lots of crazy combos. I like Kaseto but she's almost just good in the deck, edric is in the deck too and their are so many fun combos plus Ezuri plays very diverse it's fun!

[@Agrus_Kadeen]

I played Meren out the box and i drew into Mazirek, the counters got out of hand.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Stuart Brown (SilverSwag) I'm really excited to build a Mazirek deck myself.

[@Agrus_Kadeen]

+Josh Lee Kwai Meren, Mazirek and other related cards are going into my Kresh deck.

[@austinrichardson5625]

Does cyclonic rift target when it is played for overload? They said "it changes from target to 'each target'". I'm not sure that's correct. I think it just changes to "each" which would get around hexproof.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Austin Richardson It changes the word "target" into the word "each" so it does get around hexproof because it no longer has the word "target". It now reads "Return each nonland permanent you don't control to it's owner's hand."

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

Just going to say my part about the Thanksgiving Money Grab, American Corporations can't capitalize on it because you have it before Christmas. Canada has it before Halloween.

[@Ignant1986]

Killing Wave would be a good boardwipe for this deck.

[@lightspeedasH]

Canada had their thanksgiving a month ago XD

[@joshleekwai8895]

+lightspeedasH Well...I mean I knew they had one at least!

[@norich111]

why did you buy 3 of each deck?

[@loadingerror2975]

Would the centaur vinecrasher be good in a Borborygmos Enraged deck?

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Josh Hagen Maybe? I'm not sure. I think that deck has other ways to win.

[@loadingerror2975]

+Josh Lee Kwai My Borborygmos Enraged deck is still a WIP and I'm wondering if you guys have seen it yet. I sent an email a while ago for Deck Doctors and I can guess you are bogged down right now with a lot of emails since you gained so much popularity.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Josh Hagen We have received thousands of submission for the deck doctors series. We have read through many but certainly not all of them. Honestly it's hard for me to say if we've checked out any one in particular but if/when we come across a submission that we think would make a good show (and we don't already have a topic for that week) that's when we do a Deck Doctors episode. Definitely we plan to do a new Deck Docs as soon as the excitement from the new CMDR2015 stuff has died down because a lot of people have been asking for it. Unfortunately we just don't have the bandwidth to reply to each and every one one but we do check them out.

[@loadingerror2975]

+Josh Lee Kwai Cool. Just want to thank you for all the hard work you put into the show. I know how much time that must take. Keep up the good work and jokes!

[@YoannGosselin]

I'm sad that they didn't talk about the Ezuri deck, but talked about Kaseto instead...

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Yoann Gosselin As we stated, we think Ezuri is the more powerful card but Kaseto is better to lead the deck straight out of the box. We will be doing a spotlight on Ezuri in a future episode.

[@YoannGosselin]

I'm glad to hear that! I think Kaseto is great (and who doesn't like a snake tribal tbh), but Ezuri looks more fun. Keep up the great work!

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

Mazirek in Prossh. 😍

[@greedfires9694]

The golgari one was my favorite, Mycoloth is so fucking busted with some of the other +1/+1 counter cards, and the other devour cards

[@lymn2002]

swell the host video?

[@HavocTheWendigo]

Lol I played meren with only one card swapped out against a pimped out ghave deck I smacked the for nearly 300 damage

[@King-fo3kj]

ezuri plays similar to edric imo, except with some more big dudes splashed and he works better in multi player

[@richardsuplee8137]

Canada's Thanksgiving is in October.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Richard Suplee I was close :-P

[@richardsuplee8137]

Josh Lee Kwai Meh, I only know it because of How I Met Your Mother. Every Slapsgiving episode pointed it out due with Robin calling it real thanksgiving.

[@CoiledMemes]

we have thanks giving earlyer

[@asura2545]

sidisi isnt bad in g/b

[@PuncherOfSharks]

Been waiting for this video, to get some help on how to improve ezuri... And you talk about kaseto... Disappointed.

[@commandcast]

+Andrew MacLeod Don't worry - we'll be doing a full deck tech on Ezuri soon since both Josh and I think it's very powerful. We wanted to address what commander is best out of the box since a lot of new players will be just buying these Precons and getting started with Commander. - jimmy

[@samholden5758]

+Andrew MacLeod magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Ainfect+f%3Acommander+ci%3Aug&s=cname&v=card&p=1Plus of course Sage of Hours.

[@PuncherOfSharks]

+The Command Zone don't get me wrong still loved the video, I'm just being impatient, want to get my ezuri deck going but I'm piss poor at deck building so I rely on you and other magic experts advice. Keep up the good work.

[@PuncherOfSharks]

+Kerry Teague (Amneoss) great stuff, I agree that I see this being a really, really powerful deck.

[@markfrancone406]

+Andrew MacLeod Mycoloth should be really good with ezuri. I don't know why they put it in Meren, i mean it';s still really good with Meren, since you can sac creatures, but in ezuri it's crazy. You don't even have to devour, just play him, let ezuri put counters on him, you get that many tokens, and thus that many more counters, and it just grows your counters and your tokens exponentially.

[@penderrin1637]

We Canadians eh have Thanksgiving eh in october eh instead of eh November eh. WE RARELY SAY EH EVERY IN SPEACH!!! 😠

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Bailey Holmes Hahaha - I know I know. Was just poking a little bit of fun :-)

[@penderrin1637]

+Josh Lee Kwai I know also great episode

[@Starfury117]

I think Centaur Vincrasher is suppose to synergize with Jarad's sacrifice land trigger. But otherwise yes, I dont think many players sacrifice their own lands. Or land destruction.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Starfury117 Yeah I think you're correct. But since you aren't going to be running Jarad as your general and he's only one single card in the entire deck...

[@LoftySkinner]

Doubling Season... Seriously dropping the ball on the most obvious

[@veggie88]

"When I listen to The Command Zone, I tend to find myself disagreeing with many of the things they say. The guys tend to be a little more win-driven with Commander than I prefer. They espouse deck styles and plays that I prefer to avoid. This is the sort of thing that generally drives listeners away." Bruce Richard, Wizards of the Coast.

[@joshleekwai8895]

+Automaton I mean, if you're going to quote the article at least be fair about it. Here are the next two paragraphs Bruce wrote: "Yet, I continue to listen! Jimmy Wong and Josh Lee Kwai love the format, and that comes through in every podcast. Their Commander knowledge is expansive, and I learn something every time I listen. Their topics have inspired a handful of my articles. I continue to listen because these guys are just that good. More than anything, these guys are professionals. They sound good. The podcast is easy to follow. They move easily from one topic to the next. The editing is excellent. Many Magic podcasts aren't particularly careful about editing, but The Command Zone compares favorably to most professional podcasts. They post new episodes weekly, and are a joy to follow." Link to the entire article: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/serious-fun/magic-audio-style-2015-11-24

[@veggie88]

Josh Lee Kwai could you not of let people get upset about it first?

[@joshleekwai8895]

Lol - There's no need to throw shade at Bruce. He's a nice guy who gave us some good press.

[@HavocTheWendigo]

+Josh Lee Kwai so I can put my pitchfork and torch away :( lol

[@88Hyo]

Unpopular opinion: I dislike Boardwipes. I have one in my Meren deck (two if you count Hytonia), and that's Balck sun zenith.