Just when I thought I had lost all passion for Magic, Tiny Leaders brings out everything I enjoy and condenses it into a week-long mental exercise, which is rewarded with 3 hours of evil on a Friday evening.

For those unaware, here’s the official link to the website, regarding rules, deck construction, etc.: http://tinyleaders.blogspot.co.uk/

For those too lazy to read that, basically Tiny Leaders is a cross between Commander/EDH and Legacy. You have 50 card decks that follow EDH construction rules (singleton, colour identity of the commander), and another limit of cards having a maximum CMC of 3 (X spells, go wild). It follows a banlist that is some sort of cross between Legacy and Commander, barring more onto the Legacy side to keep things fair.

I’m now going to tell you about my foray into this format, and what I’ve been up to.

The First Blade strikes the Strongest

So I’m obviously very excited about EDH. My thoughts about the format were “this sounds super cool, but kind of hard to get into.” After all, that’s what I thought about 1-v-1 Duel Commander – why would I tweak my already nuts EDH decks down to fit another banlist? But here, I had to start from scratch. After all, Kaalia, Kurkesh, Marchesa, and Azami all cost more than 3 mana, and Derevi is banned as a General (as he should!). So, I had to go back to the beginning and think.

It’s obvious that you can’t just approach the format like normal Commander. Normal commander you have all the time in the world and all the cards you could want to assemble board states that would make a Level 2 vomit. Here, the 50 card limit plus the 25 starting life means that you have to approach this format more from a Legacy point of view.

So I went into Gatherer and did a search for all Legendary Creatures with CMC <= 3. I then opened my folder and took a look at what I owned and what would be possible and simple to do.

This guy, right here.

Now, at this point, a lot of you are going “Ugh, what a degenerate person.”

And I can’t really argue, not when I have a foil Azami sleeved up always ready to go. But, I didn’t want to play something stupid and unbeatable. While there’s little-to-no interaction to be had with Geist, I decided to build in such a way that emphasized Geist’s strengths, while allowing myself almost no interaction with the opponent. My goal here is to basically act as a clock against my opponent; they can do whatever they please to try and win or stop me winning, they just can’t stop Geist from effectively giving them a 5 turn clock.

Geist of Saint Bogle

Of course, when you have a hexproof creature with an extremely high dps (6 per turn), you just want to maximise damage, because he effectively already protects himself. So, many of you will know the Bant Hexproof decks that are lingering around Modern, and used to plague standard. Yeah, I went and did that.

Sideboard

So the first things to note are what I’m missing. Currently Jeskai Runemark is in taking the place of Spectral Flight. Secondly, Cunning is taking the place of Daybreak Coronet. Finally, Tranquil Cove is taking the place of Skycloud Expanse.

Why does nobody have these? Please get in touch if you’re willing to trade me these.

So, as we can see, the deck is mainly just a bunch of auras and enchantments that turn the already-infuriating hexproof Geist into a monster of mass destruction. Steel of the Godhead is one of the best you can get, because it gives him unblockable, meaning he isn’t even vulnerable to even flying blockers (which is where Vow of Flight and Spectral Flight lose their worth).

I have effectively every legal piece of acceleration I can get my hands on, barring Lion’s Eye Diamond. This is to get Geist into play as soon as possible. The faster he hits, the less time your opponent has to draw a Drown in Sorrow or Pyroclasm, or make any 2 power blocker. The threat of a fast Geist means that your opponent has to lose tempo dealing with it immediately or risk letting you put an enchantment on it next turn and start killing. I wish I had more, but unfortunately, Wizards refuse to give blue any good mana acceleration.

The rest of the deck are just consistency cards or back-up options. Both True-Name Nemesis and Blighted Agent are actually faster clocks than Geist, but Geist is always in the command zone. However, if you can draw enough hate from him (i.e. they use their Edict getting rid of Geist), then one of these guys can come in smashing and shred people to pieces.

There was some debate over Remand versus Mana Leak, versus Counterspell. The final decision my friends and I came to was that Remand was a tempo-play, and in an aggro deck, that’s exactly what I wanted. In theory, I’m not fussed about them playing a card, because the card I draw from Remand might be something that makes Geist kill them faster. On average, as long as I have a creature in play, the threat level of the cards I can draw are usually better than the threat level of cards my opponent will draw. Mana Leak drops off early, which put that out of contention. I’ll talk about Counterspell a bit more later.

Finally, draw spells. Sphinx’s Revelation was consistently one the best cards in Standard when it was legal, and is still making appearances during Modern now. The card is just so much value for any value greater than 3. Sure, games are usually over before I can cast it for any relevant amount, but in the off chance where my opponent can put together enough of a defence, or set up some situation where they can consistently outrace me, then it becomes really good for stabilizing and clawing my way back into a game.

The choice of Serum Visions over Brainstorm is one people might think is incorrect, but as said above, the average threat level of the next card in my deck is much higher than anyone else’s. Every non-land card I draw can in some way help Geist kill my opponent. Thus, Serum Visions digs less deep, but it gives me a card immediately, and I can prep for the next turn if I see lands or whatnot. The issue with Brainstorm is that I don’t have nearly enough shuffle effects to abuse its hand-filtering qualities, and even then, when every card I draw is an Aura that makes Geist scary, it becomes a question of keeping the best ones, at which point I don’t really need the rest.

The manabase is super-fragile against Blood Moon and other non-basic land hate, which is my own demon in that I can’t resist perfect color-correction. The deck is not very color intensive at all, with the most difficult card to cast being Sphinx’s Revelation. I was never having problems with mana, even when starting with a Turn 1 Cathedral of War (exalted rocks, by the way. I’m even considering an Ardent Plea). So maybe I can tweak it back down to be more resilient to Magus of the Blood Moon. Originally, Celestial Colonnade was in this list, but I deemed it too slow, and honestly, Geist does a much better job.

The sideboard is full of strategy-specific hate or anti-hate. Burrenton Forge-Tender, Hydroblast, and Tidebinder Mage are there to keep red aggressive decks in check, protecting me from cards such as Pyroclasm, Anger of the Gods, Rolling Temblor, and in Tidebinder’s case, the extremely popular Alesha.

I hate these cards so much.

Hubris is another way of dealing with board sweepers such as above, as well as sacrifice effects (which I kind of lose to). Council’s Judgment, Revoker, and Stifle are all just “get out of jail free” cards, because they do a lot. Watch for the comment about Revoker below, however. I also like Ghostly Prison and Mutation as answers to aggressive decks, mainly because they’re the only ones that are anywhere near able to out-race me, and these cards buy me a turn or two of suiting Geist up a bit further.

Friday Night Showdown

This is one of the reasons I love my store. Tiny Leaders FNM. A chance to win packs while playing degenerate cards. What more could you ask for?

We had a total of 14 players, which is a lot, and I’m really glad that so many people came down to play. We even had a really cool variety of decks. While we didn’t achieve 14 unique leaders, sadly, there was still an interesting spread.

The player count was:

Geist of Saint Traft (myself, Boglepants)

Geist of Saint Traft (Boglepants)

Yasova Dragonclaw (Legacy Lands)

Merieke Ri Berit (Control)

Shu Yun, The Silent Tempest (Voltron Prowess)

Shu Yun, The Silent Tempest (Jeskai Goodstuff)

Eladamri, Lord of Leaves (Elf Tribal Aggro/Combo)

Athreos, God of Passage (Drain Control)

Zo-zu, The Punisher (Burn)

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Mardu goodstuff)

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Aggro)

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Burn)

Kemba, Kha Regent (Aggro)

Maga, Traitor to Mortals (Midrange)

I can’t recall the exact standings, but I can say that I finished with a 3-1 record, winning myself some nice packs and a Disdainful Stroke. Great. So, let’s dive into the matches.

Round 1 vs Kemba

Ant is a good friend of mine. He’s been playing Magic for donkey’s years, and is always one of the most well-equipped EDH players at the store. Ant is also a great deckbuilder, often coming up with unique and interesting solutions to problems that I would otherwise have just said “just Mana Drain or Vindicate that.” He managed to assemble THREE full decks in time for FNM, but decided to go with the one he had spent the most work on. It was a very aggressive deck, and where I was expected just Kemba voltron equipment smash, it had a load of good creatures in it, all capable of a flexible battle plan.

Game 1 was over in a hurry, I was able to slam down a T2 Geist thanks to Lotus Petal, and after attaching a flying aura, there was no way he could outrace me. Game 2 was very back and forth. An early blocker in Warrior en-Kor meant that it was not safe for me to go in. I failed to draw enough powerful Auras, and he made quick work of me with Mirran Crusader. Game 3 was as fast as Game 1, as he was stuck on 2 mana. By the time he was able to play relevant cards again, I had already searched up and attached Steel of the Godhead.

1-0

Round 2 vs Yasova Lands

This was by far one of the scariest matchups. Tom was effectively playing the straight Legacy build, but cutting a few 2/3/4-ofs. Yasova never hit play. It never needed to. Playing against this deck effectively reconfirmed my belief that you need to approach this format as “Legacy with stipulations” rather than “a more powerful EDH”. From early Maze of Iths, to Glacial Chasm, to Intuition, all the way to Manabond, he was never afraid of my attacks, and eventually pulled out Dark Depths + Thespian’s Stage before I could even think about fighting back.

Game 1 was extremely tough. T2 Courser of Kruphix let him hit an early Treetop Village, which gave him enough of a lead such that by the time I was ready to fight back, there was already a Chasm in play. There’s no way I can fight that. Game 2 was a lot easier. An early Manabond into a ripped Intuition put me in a really tight spot. No matter what I did or what he did, he was just oozing value from his cards. Engineered Explosives was such a difficult card to play against, but in the end I managed to keep him down on cards by Remanding and Spell Snaring the Life from the Loam, buying me that one extra turn I needed. Game 3 isn’t worth mentioning. He slams a T1 Manabond, discards Life from the Loam, there’s not much else to say.

This match is where I realize that Revoker is bad. Sure, he’s another creature I can put Auras on and swing with, but I really needed to stop Thespian’s Stage from turning into Dark Depths. It was just too much. Even siding in Path to Exile and Stifle, there was nothing I had to really put me ahead. I just had cards that stopped him from winning long enough for me to tear through him. Unfortunately, Glacial Chasm is good. Really good.

1-1

Round 3 vs Athreos Control

Huw is someone who really gets Magic, but doesn’t have the capability of investing in the game as much as anyone else I know. So oftentimes, his decks are slightly sub-par in terms of raw power, and he has to settle for some alternative card choices. So while I don’t immediately dismiss him, I definitely didn’t expect this round to be as difficult as it was.

Game 1, he sets up an incredible defence, consisting of Bitterblossom and Matyr’s Cause. He can block my Angel token with Bitterblossom, and then sacrifice it to Martyr’s Cause to prevent Geist from hitting. Cards like Heliod’s Pilgrim and Vendilion Clique allowed me to start pressuring, but when Cartel Aristocrat and Blood Artist hit the table, there was really no way I was going to outgrind him.

Game 2, I sided in a lot of hate. I should have brought the Relic in, in hindsight, but I didn’t have enough flex space. Council’s Judgment, Stifle, Revoker, and Darksteel Mutation were all important in keeping his interactions and power down. Fortunately for me, he doesn’t set up as scary a combo as Game 1, and so I can trade a bit. He decides to start committing hard and slams a Bloodthrone Vampire alongside a Blood Artist, and goes for an alpha strike, but I was able to block Athreos with a rather large Geist (Steel of the Godhead and a popped Ordeal of Thassa), whch gave me a nice 7 life swing, which put him off his calculations. Fortunately for me, he committed hard enough and I was able to just throw everything for exactly enough damage.

Game 3 was very one-sided. He got mana-screwed, and then proceeded to not draw a threat. While he was able to respond to my T2 Geist with a T3 Toxic Deluge, I then just Ponder’d into a True-Name Nemesis, and he had no way of answering it. Cunning, Auramancer Cunning, and a Sword was all I needed to keep him out.

Afterwards we talked a bit, and he was surprised when I began complimenting his deck. There were a lot of powerful synergies that you wouldn’t normally expect to come out of a simple WB deck. A strong tokens subtheme, a very powerful board control system, and lots of ways of ending the game (Skirsdag High Priest, Athreos Beatdown, etc.). I like the idea of the deck, mainly because this was the exception to the statement I was looking for. He took an EDH deck style, and just cut it down to fit the format requirements. I think in his entire deck, only two or three cards actually see play in Modern or Legacy, which was kind of cool.

Of course, his being a primarily EDH player as opposed to Constructed very much shone through here. There was at one point in Game 2, where he casts Cabal Therapy targetting me, naming Counterspell. Now, I’m not playing Counterspell, so that’s a wasted card for him. In this particular instance, I was happy not to have it, but in the rest of the match, the fact that I wasn’t able to permanently stop Immortal Servitude was a real concern. I think that a heavy control deck that can constantly maintain pressure is a reason to not play Remand, but I need to maintain my own tempo so much more. It was a still a great learning experience, to see what other decks and styles can be done.

2-1

Round 4 vs Zo-zu Burn

So due to some technical difficulties, my previous rounds had all been reported as my losses, so on the system, I’m listed as 0-3, which is not correct. Kuo is my testing partner and basically my source of cards. We’re more or less Magic brothers, so I know his deck inside and out, and he knows mine. Which is exactly why he complained immediately upon being matched with me. No way am I complaining though, not when I have all the anti-burn hate. The TO decides that it’s too much effort to go back and redo pairings, especially when he has to fix 3 rounds of matches worth of results, so we just play it out and I get 6 points tacked on at the end of the night.

Game 1, he gets off to a good start. Almost. Mountain, pass. Seachrome Coast, pass. Mountain, Isochron Scepter, Spell Snare. He had a Lava Axe in hand, and I’m pretty sure I would not have won. Geist follow up, attach Ethereal Armor and Ordeal of Thassa, and he ends up not having enough to out-burn me.

Game 2, Goblin Rabblemaster gets hit by Tidebinder Mage, so there’s one burn spell wasted. Anger of the Gods gets hit by Hydroblast, so at this point I’m winning. Sphinx’s Revelation for 4 draws me Steel of the Godhead, and then he just scoops.

We joke about how he’s a bad player with a bad deck (recurring joke between us, as I’m always the one building decks for us to play while he just sources cards and plays the decks at events), and he decides he needs something else. While I work out some trades, he comes back gives me a Disdainful Stroke from the Draft FNM that had already wrapped up. Uh, cool I guess? I end up winning the promo from our own Tiny Leaders pod anyway, so that was another point in my arsenal against him.

3-1, final record.

Two packs of prizes, out comes a Kolaghan, Warden of the First Tree, and a foil Yasova Dragonclaw. Seems super. I trade Tom the Yasova, and we all go home at midnight, relatively tired, but content.

But what about the format?

Oh yeah, I should probably talk about that.

I like Tiny Leaders. Almost as much as I like EDH. But for different reasons. EDH is the place where you can go to let your hair down, and do really spiteful bullshit like Turn 1, land, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Isochron Scepter imprinting Mana Drain with the Sol Ring open to activate Scepter. Tiny Leaders I feel is where you go when you’re tired of seeing the same 6 cards in Legacy all the time and just want to play some high-quality cards against other high-quality cards, all the while figuring out what’s left in your singleton deck that can get you of this mess.

That said, I feel that there’s very little player interaction in the format. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play against Andy’s Esper Control list, but seeing three Alesha mirror matches and the Shu Yun (aka Chow Yun Fat) mirror, it really feels that because of how restrictive your deck spaces are, you need to dedicate so much to getting your strategy going. 50 cards, and 25 life is a very hard ratio to meet, making things like creature removal and burn spells a lot more valuable than normal.

It may also be my deck choice talking, in that whenever I slammed Geist, the opponent basically has to stop what they’re doing and try to not lose. But even then, the Shu Yun players both agree with me in that there’s not a whole lot of skill. You either hit that card you need that works in that situation, or your opponent hits the card they need. It’s not like Legacy at all in that you’re constantly mindgaming each other “does he have the third Force of Will?” or “can he immediately go off next turn?” because the answer to those questions are already a definite no. That may be more the singleton restriction more than anything, but already I feel that deck choice determines a lot before the game even starts. Not as much as say, Modern, but for example, had I played against the Elves player, it might have been better for us just to goldfish. He has no way of interacting with me mainboard, I have no (reliable) way of stopping him mainboard. It’s just that simple. That’s the one part I don’t enjoy. When I play Boglepants in Modern, I have to tiptoe so much around the one or two cards that my deck will just lose to. Here, I can afford to be as aggressive and oppressive as I want, because the chance that my opponent has the tool to deal with me is smaller. This is a statement I think can be applied to any deck, even Shu Yun or Alesha. It’s just not good EV to try and out-value your opponent unless you have the capability to do it in such a way that you can’t be stopped (i.e. Yasova Lands, or Esper Combo with Thopter+Sword of the Meek).

That said, I see good things in the future of this format. I feel that the banlist needs a bit more tweaking, and that the best decks haven’t been properly settled yet, but the fact that you have a similar power level to Legacy, while maintaining the childish “do whatever you want” nature of EDH means that for Spikes like me who really want to have to work for their victories, there’s definitely something you can try and do.

What’s Next?

Well, I hope more Tiny Leaders FNMs. I think the format can get quite stale depending on the deck choices. After all, even the three Alesha players were bored of the mirror by the end of the night. Of course, the fact that they were all playing different builds really lends a lot of the variety of the format. I’m not sure if there will be some sort of divide between the Legacy players playing neutered decks versus the EDH players getting to play a more consistently powerful format, but the fact that these two camps are allowed to exist can only mean a good thing, right?

In the meantime, I’m going to keep doing what I love: brewing ways of torment people and seeing how to shove more broken combos into 50 cards.

Expect to see more Tiny Leaders content!

~ Zystra