Trees for the forest though - my point is, if you don't want to play against certain archetypes that you view as too competitive, don't sit down at those tables and then get upset that that's what they play. That much, hopefully, you agree with.
There's kind of a convenient cycle that toxic EDH players get to spin through when it comes to stuff like this, and I actually just finished discussing it last night. If they get a quick, easy win then they're all "tch, nothin personnel kid.." but if they get blown out, they ride the high road of "you're such a tryhard!! EDH is meant to just be fun!" and thusly they get to dodge actually learning and developing as a player because they've got a 1-2 combo of "you're the problem here"
Any cards that aren't on the banlist are legal for a reason - if they've got Armageddon or Winter Orb then you should have ample access to counters and removal to keep yourself in the game. Some games you won't draw into an answer and that's fine, but if a trend of losses establishes itself then it can't be blamed on luck, tryhards, cheese cards, RNGesus or the day of the week anymore - it's time to either get better or play tables that are of a similar skill level.
Just as it would be toxic to bring Legacy Miracles down to a learn-to-play night and mop up kids, it's also toxic to take a casual deck and skillset, sit at a table with people who play competitively, and expect them to all slow down so you get to keep up. This guy bought the cards, studied the strats, wrote the list, practiced and earned every bit of the wins he's getting, but he's supposed to, what, keep Orb in his hand and take hits because you don't like losing?
I know it's not a nice opinion but it's, in my opinion, a fair one.
It's an opinion I express often here, but - if you're worried your friends will weep and moan about your plays, you have toxic friends. They think they're the same speed as you, hence why they play cards with you, but they want you to ease off the throttle so they can pull ahead? Something ain't right.
Play your cards - never, ever turn down a line of play because it's "too much". You earned it, it's there, they weren't ready, it's the rules of nature!
This is another thread where the definitive answer is "ask your friends" because every playgroup is different, and it's really them and not us you should be OKing your strats with.
That said, you've kind of found the paradox of convenience that toxic EDH players bring to the table. If they blow you out early with a Krenko machine gun or something they're all "nothin personnel kid.." but if you lay the hurt down on them, the tune changes to "hey! EDH is just for fun, you're a douchey tryhard!" - if you notice a person behaving like that, take your game time elsewhere.
In my personal opinion? If you get torn up T3 then you were set up poorly or your deck sucks, I'll call it a lucky play if it's a rare occasion, but if it keeps happening then it's your fault for bringing a deck that can't compete and not my fault for playing what I draw. In fact, it's a waste of my time to sit in front of games like that all night long and a waste of your time to bring an unprepared list to play against someone who you know isn't going to hold your hand.
To a lot of people, that probably sounded really rude and terrible and how-dare-I, but being competitive is not being toxic. We all paid the ticket so we all get to take the ride, right? The important thing is being up-front about what type of person you are. I'm a very competitive person - my girlfriend asked me to teach her the game and I crushed her for six straight months until she started taking wins. Now she's probably better than me! I've got friends who just wanna try to make Monk tribal work, and I just don't play with those friends.
What's truly toxic, as in, a threat to the integrity of the game, is to pick your pace and expect everybody else to dance along. If you've got Sneak Attack + Blightsteel Colossus and you pull up a chair with Monk guy and you're there to make grass, you're being toxic. And if you bring your cheesy precon-with-two-extra-rares-out-of-the-freebie-bin deck to a table full of tournament grinders and then whine when you get taken to church, well, unpopular opinion, you're being toxic there too.
It boils down to knowing what kind of player you are and playing with likeminded people. If you get murdered, pull your pants up and earn your place at the table or find a new table. I'll chat Magic with anyone who knows what a "mana" is because I love everyone out there who plays, but I always let people know what kind of game I play when they offer a match. If I draw a quick win, guess what, I'm winning quick! And you'd better do the same. You will never catch me with cards and mana ready to go, taking hits I don't need to, because the other guys need me to bend down to catch me on the chin. It would be a disrespect to the game.
tl;dr - if they can't take the heat they need to go to an ice cream parlour instead
How big of a deal is recursion here? Obviously Elk wins on that end because he's cheaper to feed back in. Otherwise I kinda prefer Farmhand to establish a blocker earlier but smarter people than me have done the mana math and claim it favours Elk, so there's that too
In EDH, typically I'll add Ritual effects if they directly correlate to getting my general out early, for example, I'd run Dark Ritual in a Liliana, Heretical Healer EDH because then having Dark Rit and a land in my opener means I can T1 Liliana.
Obviously I'm being kinda vague by just saying "if extra mana lets me play my general early I do it" but it's kind of a personal opinion thing. Is it worth running Bubbling Muck in order to T3/T4 your Sheoldred, Whispering One general? I'd say by T4 there's enough moving parts that it won't matter anymore, but others would disagree. On the case of Muck specifically, I do run High Tide in my Talrand, Sky Summoner so I can either Isochron Scepter it or tutor it out when I'm trying to crank up a good Mind's Desire. Obviously that's a blue example, but Sceptre, Muck and Tendrils of Agony are all legal in EDH and would set up a similar, although less effective shell
Going from the art I would've expected this to be Gitaxian Probe - I wonder if there was a point in development where this art was meant to be on Probe but got shuffled over to this
You're missing out without Venser, the Sojourner even if he is a bit pricey - other than that you need a couple more lands to be properly consistent and Sun Titan would be great for the top end. As has been said before, Panharmonicon is crazy important, and you might get use out of Felidar Guardian
Unfortunately with the amount of support Ishkanah has received so far (not a ton really) full Spider tribal EDHs are pretty one and the same with the only real variance being whether "cheat" cards like Obelisk of Urd, Adaptive Automaton or Metallic Mimic make the list or not. I'm not huge on playing a general that's been "solved" like that so that would be my reasoning for skipping that option
As for Doran, when I did mine I didn't want to set up the same Treefolk deck that most people have so I just went for Tasseled Dromedary type dudes that would provide big value, and so far it's worked out surprisingly well
Room for Crucible of Worlds but considering they probably developed Kaladesh and MM17 before Masterpieces were in the wild they might have opted to hold off and see what happens
Between this, the original print, the promo, and two Commander printing, I'm pretty sure we've finally buried Scavenging Ooze and he's bulk for life now
In general though yeah it's a tried-and-true setup for mid-tier decks, for sure
Any cards that aren't on the banlist are legal for a reason - if they've got Armageddon or Winter Orb then you should have ample access to counters and removal to keep yourself in the game. Some games you won't draw into an answer and that's fine, but if a trend of losses establishes itself then it can't be blamed on luck, tryhards, cheese cards, RNGesus or the day of the week anymore - it's time to either get better or play tables that are of a similar skill level.
Just as it would be toxic to bring Legacy Miracles down to a learn-to-play night and mop up kids, it's also toxic to take a casual deck and skillset, sit at a table with people who play competitively, and expect them to all slow down so you get to keep up. This guy bought the cards, studied the strats, wrote the list, practiced and earned every bit of the wins he's getting, but he's supposed to, what, keep Orb in his hand and take hits because you don't like losing?
I know it's not a nice opinion but it's, in my opinion, a fair one.
Play your cards - never, ever turn down a line of play because it's "too much". You earned it, it's there, they weren't ready, it's the rules of nature!
That said, you've kind of found the paradox of convenience that toxic EDH players bring to the table. If they blow you out early with a Krenko machine gun or something they're all "nothin personnel kid.." but if you lay the hurt down on them, the tune changes to "hey! EDH is just for fun, you're a douchey tryhard!" - if you notice a person behaving like that, take your game time elsewhere.
In my personal opinion? If you get torn up T3 then you were set up poorly or your deck sucks, I'll call it a lucky play if it's a rare occasion, but if it keeps happening then it's your fault for bringing a deck that can't compete and not my fault for playing what I draw. In fact, it's a waste of my time to sit in front of games like that all night long and a waste of your time to bring an unprepared list to play against someone who you know isn't going to hold your hand.
To a lot of people, that probably sounded really rude and terrible and how-dare-I, but being competitive is not being toxic. We all paid the ticket so we all get to take the ride, right? The important thing is being up-front about what type of person you are. I'm a very competitive person - my girlfriend asked me to teach her the game and I crushed her for six straight months until she started taking wins. Now she's probably better than me! I've got friends who just wanna try to make Monk tribal work, and I just don't play with those friends.
What's truly toxic, as in, a threat to the integrity of the game, is to pick your pace and expect everybody else to dance along. If you've got Sneak Attack + Blightsteel Colossus and you pull up a chair with Monk guy and you're there to make grass, you're being toxic. And if you bring your cheesy precon-with-two-extra-rares-out-of-the-freebie-bin deck to a table full of tournament grinders and then whine when you get taken to church, well, unpopular opinion, you're being toxic there too.
It boils down to knowing what kind of player you are and playing with likeminded people. If you get murdered, pull your pants up and earn your place at the table or find a new table. I'll chat Magic with anyone who knows what a "mana" is because I love everyone out there who plays, but I always let people know what kind of game I play when they offer a match. If I draw a quick win, guess what, I'm winning quick! And you'd better do the same. You will never catch me with cards and mana ready to go, taking hits I don't need to, because the other guys need me to bend down to catch me on the chin. It would be a disrespect to the game.
tl;dr - if they can't take the heat they need to go to an ice cream parlour instead
Obviously I'm being kinda vague by just saying "if extra mana lets me play my general early I do it" but it's kind of a personal opinion thing. Is it worth running Bubbling Muck in order to T3/T4 your Sheoldred, Whispering One general? I'd say by T4 there's enough moving parts that it won't matter anymore, but others would disagree. On the case of Muck specifically, I do run High Tide in my Talrand, Sky Summoner so I can either Isochron Scepter it or tutor it out when I'm trying to crank up a good Mind's Desire. Obviously that's a blue example, but Sceptre, Muck and Tendrils of Agony are all legal in EDH and would set up a similar, although less effective shell
As for Doran, when I did mine I didn't want to set up the same Treefolk deck that most people have so I just went for Tasseled Dromedary type dudes that would provide big value, and so far it's worked out surprisingly well
Yes
Happy to see that honestly
There's no keywords in Harmonize's text for it to remind you about after all