Wheat Fields by Jacob Van Ruisdael (1670). Giant Warrior by Svetlin Velinov.



In the past few years I've played a lot of Commander and I've lost a lot of games, but I've also had my share of wins and some great moments along the way. Playing a wide variety of decks means that I've had the chance to do a lot of goofy stuff, and therefore, check off a lot of "bucket list" items.

Any attempt to write out a "bucket list" or list of things I'd like to do in an EDH game before I kick the proverbial bucket would be based upon the decks I run and the cards and combos I'm aware of.





Already checked off the list

Spell Crumple / Tunnel Vision Combo



My first EDH deck was Mirko Vosk and it was a mill deck. Mill isn't great in EDH but it can be fun to pull off the occasional mill combo. I once was able to use Spell Crumple, or it might have been Hinder, to counter a spell an opponent cast and then on my turn I used Tunnel Vision to force them to mill themselves down to that card.

The look on my friend's face was amazing. He was just aghast at what I had just done. Yes, we're still friends, but it was a moment I'll always remember. I am also pretty sure he runs Eldrazi or stuff that will prevent him from getting milled out by these kinds of goofy shenanigans now.



Win a Counter Battle in Red



Counter battles are exciting. One player wants to do something broken and possibly win the game, someone else tries to stop them, and the next thing you know everybody is throwing cards onto the stack to either stop or allow the initial spell's resolution. Especially when the whole table gets involved, you can have players on their feet, exchanging high-fives and just having a blast. When you're doing it and you're not even playing blue, that is just the best feeling.

You can cast Red Elemental Blast and when it gets countered, you fork the counter. Another counter comes in and you reiterate it to stop that counter... it's super fun and nobody expects it, especially if you're in mono-red. I've lived that dream and it was amazing.



Get a Zedruu "Bad Gift" Win



My Zedruu deck isn't bad, but it sure isn't good. It's not a deck I play to win, and for the longest time it never managed to notch a single win. That all changed last year when I was able to win a 4 person table by gifting a friend of mine the wonderful card "Transcendence".

I've given lots of bad gifts with Zedruu but it took that horrible little piece of cardboard for that deck to gain its first (and only) win.

Darksteel Reactor Vorel Win



I tend to build decks with wincons that are hard to get to. My Vorel deck is no exception, and when I threw Darksteel Reactor into the mix, I wasn't optimistic that I'd ever actually get a win from it. Then I had a game where if the player before me hadn't won on their turn, I would have been able to double, then double, and then double again the number of couters on it. I rotate through my decks a lot, so it was months later when I again had Vorel out and was looking at Darksteel Reactor in my hand.

I played it, and over a few turns I got counters on it all the while resisting the urge to start doubling them. I didn't want to get close but then see it get exiled. At the third upkeep I was ready. I was able to double, untap, double, untap and double again. I had Kiora's Follower and something else out to allow me to get that extra untap and Darksteel Reactor was going to go over 20. Of course, my opponents always seem to have answers. If the stack resolved I would win, but someone threw a monkey wrench into the mix I don't remember what it was, but it didn't have split second and for once, I had a counter! Then someone countered my counter, but I had another counterspell in hand and was finally able to net a win with Vorel and Darksteel Reactor! Super sweet moment, and it was definitely a bucket list item to check off.



Craterhoof Win



Early in my introduction to EDH I lost two straight games one day to Craterhoof, one of which was a game where I had been playing Vorel but was "being nice" and not eliminating opponents when I could have. It was super annoying. When I built up my Yisan deck I wanted it to be able to compete with "good decks" so after doing some research I put Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth into the mix. It's a fantastic combo and winning a game off of Craterhoof was a bucket list item for me until just last month when I was able to pull it off. It felt good and I can see what folks get a little salty.

Have a deck that wins half its games



This last item is another thing I've always wanted to do - build a deck so effective that it wins about half the time, if not more. I might have guessed it would be my Narset deck but folks know what to do with her. I could have envisioned building Marath, Animar or Maelstrom Wanderer and having that level of success, but I'm considering this one fulfilled by my Tana & Sidar deck. The thing is just filthy and relentless and only really folds hard to Elesh Norn. It doesn't win all of its games, but I think it's somewhere around or just over 50% and for me, that is amazing. I would play it more, but I do love variety. When I circle back to it, I either win or have my opponents having to work really hard to deal with it.





Future Bucket List Items

So this post isn't meant to be a bragfest. I've got lots of things I'm hoping to do in EDH and the real purpose of this week's post is to share some of them, hopefully in a nicer format than your average facebook or reddit post. So without further ado - here are the things I haven't yet done but hope someday to pull of in a game of EDH.

Ezuri / Sage of Hours Combo



I've got an Ezuri, Claw of Progress deck that I struggled with for a while. It always seemed like it should have been better than it was. Over time I kept working on it and I can say that it's finally what I would consider a strong deck. It does require time to build up, but it can get really out of hand now if Ezuri sees much time on the battlefield.

The one thing I haven't done yet with this deck is hit the Ezuri / Sage of Hours combo to get infinite turns. I'd definitely like to do that someday.



Zurgo Worldslayer Win



I've written about playing Zurgo, swinging with Worldslayer, and still somehow managing to lose the game. It was my son, who was playing Alesha and was able to top-deck swords to plowshares, play a plains and send my angry Orc Warrior back to the command zone. It was a beautiful reminder of why you never scoop unless you're 1000% sure you've got no answers.

I would still like to swing Zurgo with Worldslayer equipped someday but next time I'd very much like to win the game.

Tana Breath of Fire Combo



My aforementioned Tana & Sidar deck is wonderful but I haven't yet pulled off one combo that I built into the deck. There's this wonderful aura called Breath of Fury that attaches to a creature and after combat you sacrifice it, attach it to another creature and get another combat phase.

Tana makes saprolings when she attacks, but it doesn't combo unless you have a haste enabler for your team. I've got one, but haven't yet managed to line up those pieces just right to get infinite combat steps. Someday I will and it will be awesome.



Myr Landshaper / Splinter Combo



I've run Tanglewalker and Myr Landshaper in my Yisan deck for a while and it's a neat way to make your army unblockable.

When I found Splinter, I realized it would be incredibly mean to use the combo to exile a monocolored player's land and all lands with the same name in their deck. I'm obviously not the first to discover this combo but I found it on my own and had to put it on my list.

You don't get much filthier than removing all of one type of basic land from an opponent's library, graveyard and hand, so it's on my list of horrible things I'd like to do to someone someday... hopefully to a mono-blue deck.



Fork a Rift



As you know, I'm a huge fan of using red to screw with blue players. I've countered counters, but I've not yet had the chance to hit the jackpot. I have yet to Fork or otherwise copy an overloaded Cyclonic Rift against a blue player with a huge boardstate who is looking to Rift his way to a win.





Narset Eldrazi Conscription



I have Narset deck that I don't play as often as I'd like. It's won its share of games over the years but I have yet to win a game off of Eldrazi Conscription. It's a fantastic card and I love how good it is with Narset, but as far as I can remember I have yet to nail that particular win.

She's won in other ways plenty of times but never with Eldrazi Conscription attached.



Fire Servant Kill with Grapeshot



I've been struggling with a Niv-Mizzet deck lately. It's my newest experiment and while one of the goals is to paradox engine / isochron scepter / burn combo a table to death, it also has a secret goal. Fire servant will double the damage any instant or sorcery burn spell does.

If I overload a rite of replication I can have 6 of the little guys. With 6 damage doublers out, a 1 damage grapeshot will do 64 damage to a single opponent.

It's a silly goal but one I hope to do someday with this deck if I can ever get it working. So far results haven't been great but I think I'll get there eventually. The deck did finally get its first win with Niv-Mizzet & Tandem Lookout, so if I keep at it, I think I'll eventually get some ridiculous Rite of Replication shenanigans accomplished.





Azor's Elocutors



I run Azor's Elocutors in my Zedruu deck. It's a goofy spell that lets you win in 5 turns if nobody does damage to you or kills it before then. I can't imagine I'll ever win with it, but I'm starting to consider putting it in my Esper flyers deck and throwing in a Thrummingbird to see if maybe I can sneak in a win with it someday.

It's not an amazing plan but that deck has proven to be able to pillowfort fairly well so far. At any rate, someday I'd like to net a win with this card.





Spike Feeder / Sunbond Combo



I'm considering playing my Ghave deck next month for our EDH League and there's a combo in there I recently discovered. Apparently if you enchant Spike Feeder with Sunbond, it goes infinite.

Ghave is all about +1/+1 counters and combos, so this pair goes nicely in the deck. The only issue is that neither card will see a ton of use with any other cards. I don't have a lot of ways to gain life in the deck outside of Abzan Battle Priest's ability to give my guys lifelink if they have +1 counters on them. Still, infinite life and an infinitely large creature isn't bad, even if he can be chump blocked by a squirrel. This definitely has a place on my list.





Mortal Combat



I haven't talked about or played my The Mimeoplasm deck in a while. It's got the same problems Narset has - it doesn't usually establish much of a boardstate and it's able to kill folks out of nowhere. The deck is full of creatures and I run hermit druid and only 6 basic lands so that I can fill up my graveyard pretty quickly. With all those creatures buried, someday I should be able to win via Mortal Combat.

The only question is whether or not I'll have the Mortal Combat theme music queued up on my iPhone so I can play it when I win and really annoy everybody...





Enchanted Evening / Aura Thief



The deck I'm running in our EDH league right now is my new Esper Flyers deck.

It is led by Ishai and Ravos and so far it's proven to be fairly strong, resilient and able to play very much like a voltron deck. The deck has a few tricks up its sleeve, including Enchanted Evening, which turns all permanents into enchantments. I also run Sphere of Safety, so if both are out you'll have a hard time paying to be able to attack me.

The real bucket list item though is Aura Thief.

If I can get both of those cards out and kill Aura Thief, I will gain control of all permanents. Yes, that includes lands.

Super sweet, super obnoxious, and I'll be lucky if I can get it done this month but I'm sure going to try.

A few players in our league read this (hi guys!) so now they know what to look out for if they're lucky enough to sit at a table with me this month.

Final Thoughts

If you've played EDH long enough you probably have your own bucket list. I know mine is constantly getting new things added to it as I play and I didn't even bother to include EDH League stuff, like "Start an EDH League", "Win a Month", "Win both rounds in a weekend" and "Win the Year's point total" because... well, I've already done those! No, I'm not the best player ever, but I can hold my own, and as the guy running the league I'm there every week so that helps a lot with maintaining a respectable point total. Slow and steady wins lots of races, after all.

Thanks for reading!

I hope if you have a list of crazy stuff you'd like to do someday in your EDH games, maybe I've given you something to add to it.