Quote from Drain Life »
Thanks for the reply, and I would like to respond to a few key points:
First of all, the list you linked to is quite unimpressive to me. I do not know how you figure that it is the most competitive build of Edgar Markov. Combo does not mean more competitive. From reading the primer, I looks like it is trying to do what other decks do better, and by that I mean with fewer cards, fewer points of failure, costing less mana to pull off, and often with control elements to protect their combo which Edgar lacks. I would much rather play Kess, Zur, or Breya versions of Doomsday than Edgar Markov. Moreover, it feels like a waste of the Commander itself. Outside of Razaketh, the Foulblooded, there is no reason to use Edgar over the other options. If people enjoy it, then great, but if I want to play combo competitively, which I do, then I have better options. I play Edgar Markov as the most competitive agro deck I have ever seen. It can straight beat decks down in no time.
Second, concerning Scapegoat, it still resets your board. The point of a wrath is to clear the board, and without any haste enablers (which this deck does not have), you still have to recast your hand of Vampires and want for another round at the table and more potential Wrath effects to resolve without Scapegoat in your hand any longer. How is that better than something like Boros Charm? I know that the difference between one and two mana is a big deal in competitive magic, but I would think that the difference between surviving a Wrath while the rest of the table lost their board and having to recast my hand and wasting a full round at the table is a larger setback. Maybe I am wrong.
Let’s just agree to disagree about the deck i posted. Nobody on this thread would want to read our discussion about combo or cEDH, so I should not have linked it in the first place.
You’re right that scapegoat is not ideal because: it takes up all your mana the next turn, you cannot attack next turn, and a second wrath may be played. However IF you feel you need a direct answer to wraths it is in my opinion the best option in mardu colors for the following reasons:
1. It works against everything
2. It is the lowest mana investment for a half-decent answer to wraths(unless of course you use it), which is extremely important when racing is the priority
3. There is always a turn in the early/midgame where you’ve loaded up the board to the point that someone may cast a wrath. If you have something like eldrazi monument or teferi’s protection in hand, you have to wait until the following turn to use it, at which point someone may have already wrathed. However with scapegoat you can hold up one mana and have insurance on that critical turn.
4. It has additional utility outside of wraths if need be.
Again like you said when used scapegoat is not ideal but it still puts you in an excellent position compared to the other players.
boros charm is not a terrible answer either, and it can really be a blowout when it works. Only issues are that it doesn’t work against everything and you cannot always reasonably hold up the mana for it during that critical turn I mentioned. Holding up the mana each turn after that is not nearly as taxing as you might think.
In a recent game of mine, someone used aetherspouts of all things, and I had boros charm mana held up. That was extremely frustrating. If I had had scapegoat, I probably would have won.
I am not saying to run scapegoat or any cards devoted to wraths. You need to consider how many wraths you see in your meta. If that number is low, anti-wraths cost you a card and mana to do nothing. If you see a lot of wraths, I tell you from experience that they will really up your win percentage.
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