What’s up, everyone? My name is Dave Lee, and I’m a Magic player and collector in the Toronto area. I’m not the best player out there, but my redeeming quality is that I’m a big collecting and casual junkie, and so I possess reams of negligible information about Magic, such as the price of a foil [card]Azami, Lady of Scrolls[/card] (a lot!), or what cards are good in Commander (the 8+ CMC ones!). I also pen Durdling Around on this very website, and I do card alter commissions on the side. I go by the online handle of Derfington, hence the name of my column!
I have written about Commander on a number of other sites, but Mana Deprived is now where I call home. Those precious few who have followed my writing from the very beginning (shout-outs to MTGColorPie**!) know that I have a great fondness for the card [card]Questing Phelddagrif[/card]. In a tack faithful to the spirit of the great purple hippo, I hope to put a casual yet informative spin on whatever Commander or collecting-related topics cross my mind at the time my fingers are tapping away on my keyboard. Whether you’re a competitive grinder who can’t fathom the notion of playing a 100-card deck, or are already a veteran of casual formats, I hope to drop some K-bombs on ya (that’s K for Knowledge) from both gameplay and collecting perspectives, and hopefully you’ll get a few jollies out of my writing. Who knows, maybe I’ll cross some boundaries and KYT might start censoring my articles! As Andy from CommanderCast would say, “Let’s get it!”
Women parts
So, about Commander. How about that recent Commander preview card, Nin, the Pain Artist? And how about that rack? I mean, I’m all for eye candy on my fantasy playing cards (and I say that in the least misogynistic way possible), but there is such thing as too much of a good thing. Contrary to what fantasy artists show us, most women in real life do not possess such endowed physical traits. And I don’t know about you, but I have not noticed such a surge in fan-service Magic art until fairly recently – perhaps as recently as Scars of Mirrodin. Nin seems like she would be very compelling as a twisted, Braids-ish character, but then I keep getting distracted by her enormous chest. To risk sounding like a sexless nerd, it kind of takes away from the personality of her character. It ruins the immersion. Compare this character with [card]Liliana Vess[/card], who is as sultry as they come. She doesn’t need DDs to come across as a very seductive character.
Take Archangel of Strife, the other Commander preview, on the other hand. It’s not hard to imagine Archangel of Strife as essentially a sexed-up version of [card]Baneslayer Angel[/card]. This theory is loosely corroborated by the fact that both art pieces were done by Greg Staples. The poses of both Angels are very similar, as are their attire, except while Baneslayer assumes an expression of poise and grace, the Archangel stares out at you with her exposed buttocks and smouldering “come-hither” gaze. While objectification of women is something I’d like society to veer away from in general, it still exists and it still sells, and in all honesty it’s a little more suitable here than with Nin. When you incorporate a butt-shot into an illustration of a fantasy-style angel, people are like, “Yeah, we kind of expected that.” But when you put huge cleavage on a stone-faced, Vedalken torture-scientist, it’s kind of reaching. You can’t give a boob job to every female depicted in a fantasy illustration. Doesn’t work that way, guys! Then again, some people are all about the freaky-deaky stuff, so who am I to judge?
Magical parts
Let’s get this train back on track; we’re talking about Commander cards here! Nin is a very political Commander choice, and considering UR only has choices between a ridiculously powerful Legend ([card]Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind[/card]) or a ridiculously pillow-fisted one ([card]Tibor and Lumia[/card]), I’d say you UR players should be happy you got such an interesting option at all. She seems good with [card]Charisma[/card] and all the other usual suspects befitting a “sniper-ish” card, or just as a repeatable [card]Braingeyser[/card] when you shoot your own creatures. If she or another of your creatures is about to die or get stolen, you can shoot it to get some sweet value! If you have both Niv-Mizzet and Nin in play, you can shoot one of your creatures, draw a bunch of cards off Nin and turn it back into damage from Niv-Mizzet to hit another creature or player! Sick. Nin’s cheap mana cost is also very appealing, and that trait is something I always look for in a good Commander. There are plenty of other card interactions out there, and she is quite flexible in what she can do and how she can fit into your deck’s theme. All in all, I think Nin and her impressive rack will be a reasonably popular Commander choice come release time.
What happens when you kick a [card]Rite of Replication[/card] on an Archangel of Strife? The answer, I assume, would be an orgiastic explosion of stack shenanigans. Regardless, the Archangel is a very interesting creature. She will come in as a 9/6 or a 6/9, but I’m guessing most people would choose the 9/6 flying beatstick option. While she offers an equal buff to all players, like many effects in Magic it is just a matter of tailoring your strategy to gain more of a bonus from that effect than the other players. One simple option is to play with a token theme so you can gain more value out of your army of critters that players struggle to block. The “war/peace” mechanic is very flavourful, and I hope Wizards features more of that in their Commander product than giant boobs in every card art. Although if the opposite is true, I won’t be complaining too much. I am a hypocrite, after all.
Parting Shots
As a fledgling hardcore collector (I’m one of those people who go ga-ga over specific foreign-language cards and foils from obscure sets), I am very interested to see how the upcoming Commander product plays out in the secondary market. Depending on the cards we see, and their demand for them, it could be a very healthy thing that brings a lot more players into the Commander community, or it could be a dogpile of a supply/demand fiasco. The optimist in me is hoping for the latter. More to come in a future article!
Until next time, don’t be afraid to show a little skin.
*Count the number of double-entendres in this week’s column!
**Count the number of name-drops in this week’s column!
Dave Lee
@derfington on Twitter
Dave is the author of Durdling Around, a weekly Magic: the Gathering webcomic.