Old School EDH: Can it (and should it) be done

A few years back, I met a group of people that played M:tG, that would come play at my place regularly, and with that I met a woman, who we will call H.

Well, H loved a certain shop, and loved EDH. This shop did a weekly EDH tournament every Thursday, and while I was familar with the format, I rarely played it at the time, and thus only possessed one EDH deck.

Well we eventually got into a relationship, and with it, Thursday night became something of a date night for us, with as lame as it sounds, we'd go grab a bite to eat, then play EDH. So with this regularity, I needed multiple EDH decks, so I dismantled all my casual 60 cards, and went to the brew cards. Now, naturally since I'm designing this simple humble blog, you know I love old cards, not something that is by any means recent. So I decided to build a EDH deck utilizing only 'old cards'. This would include in my opinion all the cards of the 'classical' era. I decided to make it Alpha-Alliances, and who better then my first favorite MTG legend, Dakkon Blackblade.

The first thing Should it be done? Well in the context of Old School as a format, no. The game wasn't designed with EDH in mind, and EDH didn't exist, and in fact, I almost don't consider EDH the same game as MtG. EDH is to MTG, with Poker is to Old Maid. Sure they use the same pieces, but they aren't the same game. Now, build old school edh decks, but don't make this some odd ball restrictive format for the sake of being elitests, shunning the 'new cards', because playing EDH exclusively with old cards for the sake of old cards is well, stupid.

Now, on with the article.

Deck Construction:

As I switched between decks, I realized that certain staples would always stay, no matter what. I use to jokenly call these cards 'eternals'. The likes of Strip Mine, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Feldon's Cane (always good), Disc, and Fellwar Stone always got included, no matter what. Also, certain cards would be amazing in certain decks, and terrible in others, and were designed accordingly (as you will see below).

It should be noted these weren't against the decks of similar building restrictions, but instead against anything anyone showed up with. While I love jank, I felt there wasn't much room (there wasn't typically) for deliberately bad cards for the sake of nostalgia. Instead, these were utilized for as much efficency as possible my budget could afford. Anyone who knows me, knows the most powerful cards of the format allude me, but alas, I always make it work. 

This sadly meant though I needed to follow shop ban lists, as well as the universal ban list (no Fastbond for me).

Including Ice Age allowed for more variety of fixing, including the pain/depletion lands, but also the Homelands tri-lands (because while not amazing, sometimes you need a fix). 

Better then ever credited

 

Dakkon Blackblade (WUB)

"My power is as vast as the plains; my strength is that of mountains. Each wave that crashes upon the shore thunders like blood in my veins"--Dakkon 'Motherloving' Blackblade

 Utilizing my childhood favorite, Dakkon Blackblade was naturally my first choice. In three well balanced and powerful colors, and utilizing some of the best beaters of the era, it was something that sounds strange to type in this day and age of a strangled color pie, but an esper beater deck. This was enchanced with the likes of Flight, Invisibility, Fear, and Sewers of Estark.

The creatures that it included was naturally the clone effects, Such legendary beaters as Chromium, Mahamoti Djinn (and his Sibilant brother), Serendib Effreet, Clockwork Beast, and so forth. To protect these amazing creatures, I had cards like FoW, Counterspell, Memory Lapse, Power Sink.

Other control cards were more that, utilizing the likes of Merieke Ri Berit (remember her), mass land destruction (which is ironic considering my general, and I ran Equinox), Sea Singer, Ritual of the Machine, Control Magic, Steal Artifact, ect.

The deck was also chock full of removal, including some of the best removal in the game, including as mentioned disc, but also included WoG, Ashes to Ashes, Terror, Dark Banishing, Swords to Plowshares, Essence Vortex, Oubliette, Icy Prison, and well you get the idea. The deck also had Disenchant (and maybe divine offering) as well as Dust to Dust, and copious hand removal. 

Card advantage was also surprisingly well off, thanks to the use of Ice Age, included none other then Necropotence, but also had both Tomes, Oath of Lim-Dul, Brainstorm, Braingeyser, tutors like Demonic Consultation (sometimes resulted in instant loss), Demonic Tutor, and merchant scroll. 

Not Necro, but a close second!

The deck also had a reanimator sub-theme combined with the clone effects. It included the likes of Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead to steal opponents creatures (and Resurrection to get back yours).

It worked surprisingly well, though it didn't win consistently, it won more then I would have initially given it credit for, and felt there was room for improvement, which is how I built my next deck.

Merieke Ri Berit (WUB)

 

"La Belle Dame sans Merci"

Merieke Ri Berit was an interesting build. Anyone familiar with the format for a long period of time is aware of how devastatingly potent the deck can be. Ironically, due to a lack of oversight, I didn't include a way to untap her in the Blackblade deck, and felt it could make for an interesting build. I wasn't wrong.

First the deck ramped up the control elements a 100%, gone were the beaters that made the old deck memorable, and instead, I made the deck all about abusing her, keeping her alive/ or disrupting the opponents. This deck included the likes of Kismet, Winter Orb, Icy Manipulator. Things like Norrit, Sorceress Queen, Nettling Imp, and Royal Assassin could keep creatures in check. Norritt also could untap my general, but it wasn't the only thing.

"This thing untaps blue creatures?"--my older brother

The deck utilizied such utility to untap as twiddle, Energy Arc, Saddlebags, and that one blue creature that could untap your stuff. Chain Stasis and the Talismens from Ice Age were odd mvp's among the deck, and ended up being more impressive then I'd ever admit. 

There, someone played with them.

Naturally with so much untap effects, I needed more creatures that tapped, so Archmage of the Unseen, Graverobbers, Demonic Hordes (despite three colors in the deck), Musician, Vodaline Mage all found homes in the deck, much to amazing effect. It even included War Barge/Merfolk Assassin (I could also sac my own War Barge to Sage of Lat-Nam to destroy a number of opponents creatures).

The deck also included the Power Artifact combo as a means to win if needed, either through Geyser, or Rocket Launcher. The deck also upped the card advantage, including Ivory Tower (which somehow didn't make it into Blackblade), and Island Sanctuary. 

All and all this was my favorite deck to play, and other players favorite deck to play against, and I received numerous compliments for it in its three month period of running it.  

I'd go a completely different route for my next deck.

Bartel Runeaxe (BRG)

Fun Fact: the first black bordered Legends Legend I ever owned.

 This was actually a bleed deck. Utilizing the likes of Underworld Dreams, Primal Order, Ankh of Mishra, Copper Tablet, Mana Barbs Cyclone, as well as burn centric sweepers like Earthquake and Inferno. It actually had a short life, due to despite my best efforts, I couldn't gain life quick enough, and even with all the removal in the world, it quickly became the 'target deck' anytime I sat down with it. 

 

Underappreciated

Still was interesting, and the fact it made such an impact that it became a target always made me proud.

Jack the Green (Jacques Le Vert)

"Yes yes, I mean oi oi"

The card I infamously don't actually own. Jacques le Vert was designed under a simple process, I wanted to make another beater deck. This time, utilizing (by rule) green creatures exclusively. This actually proved to be more potent then I'd initially think. The amount of decent sized green creatures was impressive, and with most green effects being asymmetrical (I'll write an article about that one day) I wasn't at the same disadvantage that I was at with other color.

This included such amazing creatures as Erhnam, Craw Wurm and Giant, Strider, Force of Nature, Palladia Mors, Hazezon Tamar, as well as midrangers like Gorilla Chieftain, Thicket Basilisk, Cockatrice and of coarse, Elven Bard.

Rampers included Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, Fyndhorn Elves and Elder, and so forth. Naturally it included mana rocks (like all decks), but also had Untamed Wilds and Nature's Lore for that ramp goodness.  

 Lure, Aspect of the Wolf, and combat tricks were in the deck galore, but included the much needed likes of Raging River, Crossroads, Arboria (both of which also helped destroy more powerful enchant worlds), Kaysa and Thelonite Druid (and monk, and chant), Stampede, Regeneration, and naturally Carapace. 

The hardest thing was removal. In a deck with no blue/black, removal was actually difficult. However, it included Roots, Disc, Fissure, and naturally Swords. Sweeps also were fairly prevelant in the deck as well, with Earthquake, Jokulhaups, and Wrath of God all being necessary. I actually had a good amount of recursion as well, regrowth and Forgotten Lore was naturally in the deck, but it also had reanimator spells in the form of Reincarnation, Resurrection, and  Hymn of Rebirth. 

Throw in every fog effect available, and you have a good, albiet somewhat under powered deck.  This was the last multi-colored deck I designed, before moving to a more mono-colored eccentric decks (one of each!) Since I'm tired, and the staff at Mc D's is looking at me slightly annoyed, I'll post this tomorrow (more likely the next day).

Until then, good luck top decking!