I always start by emphasizing the social aspect of EDH and how it's a format that's more concerned with politics than power level making it more budget and new-player friendly. Then I like to point out that EDH can easily be the cheapest format to play long term because of the singleton nature of the cards and it being an eternal format. Finally, I'll explain how these factors combine to create an environment of fun over competitiveness.
Be sure to actually read your CWP laws before you go out and spend a bunch of money getting a license for something like a sword cane (which is completely impractical unless you're a droog) because, while I'm not an expert on every CWP law everywhere, I am familiar enough with my local ones to know that they cover firearms <12" in total length and that's it.
I don't know how I feel about Planeswalkers as Commanders in multiplayer EDH - every time I see a powerful walker dropped it tends to get off one ability and then proceed to be gang-banged off the table.
I will mod Water Cooler and I will carry on the hallowed tradition of carding anything that even slightly deviates from my personal belief system regardless of whether it violates an actual rule or not while I simultaneously ignore and/or defend posts that blatantly violate those rules as long as I agree the content of the posts.
Dasher should be decent to play post board wipe if you're expecting Anger/Drown. It's pretty important to not lose an entire attack phase if you can help it, though Hammerhand and Mantle do a decent job of mitigating the damage from board wipes already if you play them right.
Alltho, in my testing I find Dragon Mantle being one of the weakest cards, so I might try testing without it soon.
D'wut? Dragon Mantle is probably tied with Hammerhand for the best Heroic/Prowless enabler in the deck.
Also, I haven't been keeping up with the deck like I should have, but don't most lists that have success not bother with Rabblemaster anymore? Especially in addition to Outburst... and especially on 17 lands.
I find it amazing how the deck looks like absolute garbage on paper compared to how well it performs.
The problem with the deck is the combination of an explosive start with late-game inevitability. Most Aggro decks start strong, but the longer the game progresses the less likely they are to pull out a win with their lower impact spells - that's just the nature of running a deck with low cc spells - when you're top decking one-drops on turns 8+, you're probably not doing so hot. Because of Ascendancy, though, the deck actually has more inevitability than current Midrange decks, so not only is its early game superior, but it has a better late game too.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Normally you want to beat a deck by either:
1. Getting lethal damage in before the other deck can stabilize, or
2. Grinding the game out by gaining incremental advantages until you win.
But this deck defends against both of those strategies really really well.
Perhaps the answer is a pure Control deck? Assuming a pure Control deck in this Standard has the tools to reliably stop/slow the initial Aggro rush, of course.
Then I play them with STAX.
No big-ass knives. No swords. No umbrella guns.
It's going to be a bad one this year...
Instagram.
After testing, it turns out it really doesn't like other fast Aggro decks, though.
I will mod Water Cooler and I will carry on the hallowed tradition of carding anything that even slightly deviates from my personal belief system regardless of whether it violates an actual rule or not while I simultaneously ignore and/or defend posts that blatantly violate those rules as long as I agree the content of the posts.
You're welcome.
D'wut? Dragon Mantle is probably tied with Hammerhand for the best Heroic/Prowless enabler in the deck.
Also, I haven't been keeping up with the deck like I should have, but don't most lists that have success not bother with Rabblemaster anymore? Especially in addition to Outburst... and especially on 17 lands.
The problem with the deck is the combination of an explosive start with late-game inevitability. Most Aggro decks start strong, but the longer the game progresses the less likely they are to pull out a win with their lower impact spells - that's just the nature of running a deck with low cc spells - when you're top decking one-drops on turns 8+, you're probably not doing so hot. Because of Ascendancy, though, the deck actually has more inevitability than current Midrange decks, so not only is its early game superior, but it has a better late game too.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Normally you want to beat a deck by either:
1. Getting lethal damage in before the other deck can stabilize, or
2. Grinding the game out by gaining incremental advantages until you win.
But this deck defends against both of those strategies really really well.
Perhaps the answer is a pure Control deck? Assuming a pure Control deck in this Standard has the tools to reliably stop/slow the initial Aggro rush, of course.