I played a game of Commander with my nephews yesterday, it was the older one’s birthday and I’d given him some upgrades for his precon so they were all pumped to play. Unfortunately I didn’t have a ton of time, so I showed them my Rakdos “Watch the World Burn” deck. They are now familiar with the joys of slamming down hulking monstrosities, mostly with flying and trample, on the cheap.
Or are at least familiar with seeing those joys second-hand. I think they had fun, but they also got an education in timing, priority, zero toughness, exile, blink, tokens, attack triggers, and most of all indiscriminate burn. Here’s a sampling of the shenanigans I pulled on them.
Torment of Hailfire at X=8 was a little bit brutal, but I think Kokusho made quite the impression as well. Partly because he made a couple of appearances.
One of them flashed in an Imposter Mech for {u} as a +1/+1 artifact blocker to copy AND kill my attacking Demonlord Belzenlock, which was pretty sweet. Unfortunately (for him) I was set to wipe all their stuff in my second main with Orcus, so he learned about marked damage + toughness reduction. The other one exiled Bane of Bala Ged with Swords to Plowshares, but not till after its attack trigger was on the stack.
But fun was had by all and hopefully the new upgrades will be even more appreciated after getting wiped. We identified several cards that might be better off cut for being off-theme. So I’ll be interested to see the evolution. I even added some MDFC lands and explained that they’re a little worse than an untapped land, or a little worse than a usual spell, but WAY better than drawing land while flooded or spells while mana-screwed.
Exciting times in Magic land.