Completed:
Child of Alara (lands, ho!)
The Mimeoplasm (err... a Mimeoplasm deck?)
Horobi, Death's Wail (AWESOME sauce)
Vorosh, the Hunter (BUG poison)
Hanna, Ship's Navigator (arti/enchantment recursion)
Heidar, Rimewind Master ("snow is annoying")
Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse (discard / spirits)
Sidar Jabari (Flanking / Knights)
Edric, Spymaster of Trest (mono-fast Edric deck)
Karador, Ghost Chieftan (Hermit druid / recursion)

All through Edric were completed by the morning of December 31st. Mini-goal met: 100 decks by the New Year! Woo!

Family in town the last few weeks have slowed things down. Masters degree classes starting this week will keep things slow. Ugh. Hopefully I'll get a jolt of energy to get back in gear. I'm sure the Dark Ascension previews will start my brain juices flowing for building. New sets always do.

For their generous donations, I'd like to thank Allison (whose stack of random Mirrodin stuff included a Mind's Eye and several choice uncommons) and Mark (whose huge bundle of commons and uncommons has given me lots of copies of some good second-tier cards [including personal favorite Coumbajj Witches]).

Longer updates when I have time for them. ;-]

Hello! No, I have not given up. In fact, I have created a slew of decks since my last post. I just haven't found the time to post until recently. Let me start with the updates:

Completed:
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails (pro-white / turn everything white)
Sygg, River Cutthroat (Rogue tribal)
Sedris, the Traitor King (self-mill / Unearth-Sundial combo)
Kresh the Bloodbraided (sacrifice / kill theme)
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Grim Monolith / Power Artifact combo with flashback)
Adun Oakenshield (CITB creature recursion)
Skyfire Kirin (stealy Spirits / Arcane)
Kasimir the Lone Wolf (Exalted Voltron... because, you know... Lone Wolf)
Baru, Fist of Krosa (Mono-green Landfall)
Ayumi, the Last Visitor (Power 5+ / slight voltrony)
Gwendlyn Di Corci (Discards and Draw 7s with Megrim and Underworld Dream effects)
Starke of Rath (Mono-R threaten effects: steal and sacrifice!)
Glissa, the Traitor (B/G artifact recursion)

Started:
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
Heidar, Rimewind Master

There are a couple other piles of cards with interesting interactions that I am still looking for good generals to take advantage of, too. My completed decks now stand at 91, and I am hoping to hit at least one hundred by the new year.

Inventories of important cards are starting to run down. Some of my more recent decklists have certainly been lacking in certain cards that could make them better. The decision on whether or not to switch cards out from older decks to put them to better use in later ones is a tough one, and I have done it on a few occasions. This has had the effect of averaging the power level of my decks somewhat. I think at some point down the line I may have to do a comparison; it would be an interesting thing to look at.

Here's a decklist that I typed up for something else. It's Asmira, Holy Avenger, who was deck #55, back when I still had Eternal Witnesses and such to use.
Asmira, Holy Avenger

Land
27 Forest
10 Plains
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Selesnya Sanctuary

Creatures
Birds of Paradise
Spore Frog
Fauna Shaman
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Lotus Cobra
Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Viridian Emissary
Qasali Pridemage
Wood Elves
Spike Feeder
Yavimaya Elder
Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks
Dauntless Escort
Lumberknot
Stonehorn Dignitary
Ravenous Baloth
Heartmender
Radiant's Dragoons
Juniper Order Ranger
Archon of Justice
Woodripper
Kithkin Spellduster
Aerie Ouphes
Acidic Slime
Mitotic Slime
Nacatl War-Pride
Duplicant
Wurmcoil Engine
Twilight Shepherd
Krosan Tusker
Woodfall Primus

Instants
Fracturing Gust
Momentous Fall
Beast Within
Fresh Meat
Krosan Grip
Swords to Plowshares


Sorceries
Green Sun's Zenith
Make a Wish
Genesis Wave

Enchantments
Night Soil
Greater Good
Ooze Garden
Gutter Grime
Sylvan Library
Fecundity
Cream of the Crop
Abundance

Artifacts
Marble Diamond
Birthing Pod
Whispersilk Cloak
Talisman of Unity
Cauldron of Souls
Culling Dais
Dreamstone Hedron
Mind Stone
Darksteel Ingot
Skullclamp

Planswalkers
Garruk Wildspeaker


That's all for now. Maybe another decklist (probably Starke) later on.

Busy busy! Thanksgiving here in the USA, so just a quick updating post. I have a longer post on aggressive strategies that I'm working on, but it needs tweaking still. Here are my current additions:

Completed:
Joven (blowing up artifacts and turning things into artifacts)
Sharuum the Hegemon (fairly typical Sharuum deck, though no infi-combos)
Zur the Enchanter (fairly typical Zur deck, with a few more auras)
Ertai, the Corrupted (Esper tokens)
Chorus of the Conclave (1CC Proclamation of Rebirth)
Kodama of the South Tree (spirit beatdown)

Update!

Just a quick update today, bringing us to 72 completed decks:

Completed:
Phage the Untouchable (survive casting Phage)
Silvos, Rogue Elemental (Voltron / big green)
Zirilan of the Claw (dragon search and re-use)
Seton, Krosan Protector (tribal druids)
Malfegor (flashback / madness)
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Light from Within / White beatdown)
Celestial Kirin (spirit destruction / CMC 4 deck (no spirits at 4 save the general, all non-spirit stuff at 4 so it survives))

Started:
Blind Seer (Vorthos mono-U Urza deck)
5-Color Allies (general to be determined)
Glissa the Traitor (cheap artifacts and creature kill)
Adun Oakenshield (just good Jund creatures plus good sac outlets)

Midterms are due tomorrow so I can't go into too much detail today. Suffice it to say that I have more time coming up, so I hope to post a decklist or two soon, as well as some deckbuilding thoughts. I have a bunch of notes on themes that I want to organize into a longer post. I'm also setting a little mini-goal: I want to have my first 100 decks done by the new year. I think it's totally do-able at this point, since that would 6.5 weeks, needing an average of just under 5 decks a week to reach, and two of those weeks are vacation weeks for me.

More musings and a few decklists later this week, I promise! Let me know if there's a general on my list you want me to go into detail on, because I can totally do requests!

Weekly Update

Another slow week, since we are still moving stuff around the house and I don't really have a deck workspace at the moment. Still, progress is being made:

Recently Completed:
Darien, King of Kjeldor (Soldiers)
Mistform Ultimus (Blue Lords)
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born (umm... Zombies)
Garza Zol, Plague Queen (Grixis Vampires)

Begun:
Chorus of the Conclave (1CC / Proclamation of Rebirth deck)
Seton, Krosan Protector (Druids)

Work, work, work... I haven't run out my binders of decent stuff yet, so I still have plenty of good stuff going in these decks. Decent mana bases have been tougher to do, but so far they are still workable (though I swear it seems that everything that wanted to go into Garza had to have at least two colored mana in its cost *grumble*). I'm running pretty low on a couple of really nice cheap staples: Bojuka Bog and Crib Swap. Crib Swap has fit into a lot more themes than I had originally thought it would, thanks to that very nice, searchable tribal spelltype. I'm out of sleeves for decks that need them, too.

I'll post some actual thoughts on some things later this week. Just wanted to show that I'm still going!

Late Update

This week has been rather busy with life stuff. We've been rearranging the house, so I've been needed for furniture moving and such. In addition, last week was the first week back from break, as well as a major project week for my students. Oh yeah, and there was Halloween to get ready for and celebrate.

So following are this past week's updates, as well as the basic route I took in building them.

Completed:
Verdeloth, the Ancient (tokens)
Volrath the Fallen (Voltron / reanimation)
Horde of Notions (5C Elementals, duh)
Sivitri Scarzam (oddball theme: U/B Ladies)

And since I haven't gotten as much done to talk about, here's my first decklist posted here! In the spirit of Halloween, I've chosen my Rashka the Slayer Buffy-themed deck!

Protagonists:
Rashka the Slayer (Our Heroine)
Aysen Bureaucrats (Xander Harris, the Zeppo)
Amrou Kithkin (Willow, High School Geek)
Doubtless One (Willow, Empowered Wicca)
Trap Runner (Faith, Rogue Slayer)
Kazandu Blademaster (Spike, Demon-killer)
Martyr of Sands (Tara, also there)
Veteran Armorer (Rupert Giles)
D'Avenant Archer (Cordelia Chase)
Squire (Andrew, Tucker's brother)
Revered Elder (Joyce Summers)
Benalish Trapper (Primal/First Slayer)
Crowd Favorites

Bystanders:
Monk Realist (Principal Snyder)
Unruly Mob
Angry Mob
Doomed Traveler
Icatian Crier
Intrepid Hero
Glory Seeker
Expendable Troops
Mausoleum Guard
Ication Town

Baddies:
Hand of Emrakul
Pathrazer of Ulamog
Ulamog's Crusher
Skittering Invasion

Weapons and Accessories:
Wooden Stake
Sharpened Pitchfork
Blazing Torch
Adventuring Gear
Trailblazer's Boots
Demon's Horn
Ogre's Cleaver
Butcher's Cleaver

The Chosen One:
Repel the Darkness
Martyr's Cause
Vow of Duty
Hope Charm
Armageddon
Righteous Cause
Dawn Charm
Circle of Protection: Black
Quest for the Holy Relic
Spare from Evil

Moves / Spells:
Narrow Escape
Devouring Light
Mighty Leap
Temper
Diversionary Tactics
Moment of Heroism
To Arms!
Gallantry
Reinforcements
Timely Reinforcements
Off Balance

Other:
Afterlife
Guardian Angel ("Is he even still on this show?")
Renewed Faith
Bonds of Faith
Righteousness
Humble
Sunlance
Aura of Silence ("Hush")

Lands:
Buncha Plains


This is quite a poor deck, actually. There are likely far better choices for this deck, but many cards were chosen for their art or their name, and all were chosen to be cheap. Many also have quotes or lines in Sharpie written on them. Hope you like it!

This week's updates

The following had been added to the list at right, but I hadn't actually pointed them out as completed yet. So here are the decks that have been finished in the last week:

Completed:
Rhys the Redeemed
Sisters of Stone Death
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
Hakim, Loreweaver
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Patron of the Moon
Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper
Uril the Miststalker
Doran the Siege Tower
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Asmira, Holy Avenger
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Homura, Human Ascendant

Newly Started:
Joven
Zirilan of the Claw
Verdeloth the Ancient
Maralen of the Mornsong
Child of Alara

Fifty-seven down! I'm at less than 400 to go! :-]

Quick update: I passed the 50 commanders completed mark yesterday (now at 52). The fiftieth one I completed was Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper. About 1/9th done! Woo!

I've actually slowed down this week not from lack of ideas, but from spending time doing other tasks required for this quest. I spent one whole afternoon going through old boxes at my LGS looking for Darksteel Ingots and Wayfarer's Baubles, and buying them in large quantities, as well as numerous other things. They're being pretty supportive of me doing this, and so let me buy a bunch of stuff at bulk price, since a bunch of it was stuff they couldn't see really selling. So now I have a bunch of mana artifacts of varying kinds, as well as Mirage fetches, Whispersilk Cloaks, and various other cheap staples, which should last me for a little while. Not all the way to the end, of course, but for a few good legs of the journey at least. So thanks to The Game Preserve (Greenwood) for participating!

They of course also run the EDH games I participate in on Tuesdays. This time I ran Eron the Relentless, Lord of Tresserhorn, Sisters of Stone Death, Jor Kadeen, Azusa, Atalya, and Morinfen. Lord of Tresserhorn and Jor Kadeen, being some of my pre-quest decks that are very strongly built, performed excellently, though their kin Azusa did not (seriously, stuck on 2 land and a crapton of 3 mana accelerants in a 48 land deck? grr...). Morinfen and Atalya were also surprisingly excellent, with Atalya nearly pulling out a ridiculous win in a match against Jhoira, Rafiq, Progenitus, and Scion of the Ur-Dragon. The others were average, but not horrible at least.

Second post of my Voltron discussion should be up before the end of the weekend. Until then, back to deckbuilding!

Forming the Head (Voltron generals part 1)

One of the more common archetypes found in EDH/Commander is the “Voltron” style deck, where the deck attempts to play its general and then use equipment and/or auras to focus on doing 21 general damage to each of its opponents. There are a lot of popular Voltron generals out there, with the most frequent I’ve seen being Rafiq of the Many, Uril the Miststalker, Jenara, and more recently Ruhan of the Fomori and Skithryx the Blight Dragon. These are, however, far from the only legends that work well as Voltron generals. My first Voltron-style deck was a fun take on Lord of Tresserhorn, who with his ten power can pack a real punch, if you can avoid dying to his drawbacks. I’ve also built my own Rafiq deck, and since this little quest began I’ve built Konda, Morinfen, and Autumn Willow as all having significant Voltron aspects.

As I’ve been working on Uril lately, I’ve had some thoughts on Voltron generals that I decided to write down, and so I figured I’d write them down. There are a few aspects that make generals better at being battle leaders and swinging for 21 than other generals. These aren’t hard and fast rules, but they are a good starting point, I believe:

1. High power: The bigger the power, the faster 21 damage can be dealt. Certainly any general with at least 7 power should be considered a fairly good prospect to become a Voltron general. Three swings is a lot easier than four in most circumstances, and a quick jump from equipment can bring that down to two in many cases. Here are a list of (legal) legends with at least that much power:
Kozilek (12)
Ulamog (10)
Progenitus (10)
Lord of Tresserhorn (10)
Kuro, Pitlord (9)
Zhou Yu, Chief Commander (8)
Silvos, Rogue Elemental (8)
Myojin of Life’s Web (8)
Lorthos, the Tidemaker (8)
Iname as One (8)
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger (7)
Vaevictis Asmadi (7)
Tsabo Tavoc (7)
Taniwha (7)
Sliver Queen (7)
Sliver Overlord (7)
Sliver Legion (7)
Sisters of Stone Death (7)
Ruhan of the Fomori (7)
Rakdos the Defiler (7)
Patron of the Orochi (7)
Palladia-Mors (7)
Nicol Bolas (7)
Myojin of Infinite Rage (7)
Lady Orca (7)
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (7)
Iona, Shield of Emeria (7)
Commander Greven il-Vec (7)
Chromium (7)
Ayumi, the Last Visitor (7)
Arcades Sabboth (7)

Long list, right? Now, you may have noticed that not all of those would really make a good general. Who wants to swing with a Myojin, which as a general won’t even have the best, indestructible part of itself? This leads me to the second of my criteria:

2. Resiliency: Many of the best generals have ways of protecting themselves once on the field. These could be as simple as a cheap regeneration cost (Lord of Tresserhorn, Silvos, Korlash, Thrun), or as mind-blowingly good as indestructible (Konda, Ulamog, Sapling of Colfenor) or even shroud / hexproof (Autumn Willow, Multani, Uril, Thrun again). All of these help a creature stay on the field once it has arrived there, and that leaves one less thing to worry about as you proceed. Even better, they can make the “Voltron” aspect that much better, because of the next of my criteria:

3. Synergy with auras/ equipment: While you can build a deck to play aggressively with its general without using outside boosters, it really doesn’t feel all that Voltron-y if you’re not putting multiple pieces together to create a monstrosity that opponents will fear. The aforementioned “resilient” creatures are good at this, save the shroud folks, because they are less likely to be killed in response to whatever you are pumping them with, so you’re not wasting as many spells nor as much mana when you boost them. There are some creatures that are even better, however. Uril the Miststalker probably stands out as the best example in this category, as he was built in the veins of the old Rabid Wombat, a creature that gets bigger the more auras you enchant it with. The Hakim, Loreweaver deck I recently finished has aspects of this as well; though mine isn’t truly meant to be a Voltron deck, it could be built to be such. Other types of creatures that go well with these boosts are ones with double strike. The most obvious of these is Rafiq of the Many, but I’ve seen a pretty effective Rashka, Golden Cub deck as well. Rafiq and Uril also help tie into the next section as well, though they require a bit of help

4. Easy Gigantification: Okay, so I may have made up that word, but some creatures can get pretty large all on their lonesome. Omnath, Locus of Mana is the big example here, and he makes for a very quick, very threatening opponent. The Blackblade clan brings us Korlash and Dakkon, both of whom can have fairly large strength with which to beat with. There is a large group of legends who base their P/T off of cards in hand, be they your opponents’ or your own, or all of the above. Multani, Soramaro, Adamaro, Masumaro, Kiyomaro, Kagemaro, and Maromaro (may not exist) all look to there in order to get large, and with all the card draw in EDH and the relative depowering of discard spells, they can all manage to be rather effective when it comes time to beat. And once these guys get super-large, it’s time to look into hitting faces with them, which leads to the final, and most classic, piece of criteria for face-beating.

5. Evasion: What good is a 10/4 (good buddy) regenerating creature if you keep running into freaking saprolings? Having some way around all those little ground-pounders at some point will become a necessity. Many Voltron decks just let the auras and equipment do this work for them, but I find that generals that have this built in will tend to be just a little bit more flexible when it comes to smash options. This last point is one reason why many people love Portal: Three Kingdoms generals. It’s more than just the pimpness of having hard-to-find guys in command; it’s the inability to be blocked except by horsemanship that can make for some killer beats. Now, you don’t have to saddle up to be evasive in EDH; there are still the fallbacks of flying, trample, and unblockability that can each get the job done. To list all of the flying and trampling generals would probably just insult your intelligence, so I’ll just proceed on now.

Now, of course I’m not saying that a good Voltron general must have all of these aspects. I’m not even saying that it needs to have three, or two, or even one of them. Heck, I’ve seen some pretty killer Isamaru, Hound of of Konda lists, who fits none of those (I don’t think there are enough low cost guys that are good to make another full point). I’m just saying is that when I look at a general and it does meet one or more of these criteria, I think about the Voltron route.

In my next post, I'll go through some of the less commonly used pieces that can work in a Voltron deck for those working on the cheap like me.

Update!

Too bouncy to sit and play FNM for a few hours, so I stayed home and finished up work on a couple of decks.

Just completed:
Atalya, Samite Master
Morinfen
Oyobi, Who Split The Heavens
Soramaro, First to Dream

Nearly finished:
Hakim, Loreweaver (50%)
Sisters of Stone Death (50%)

Begun construction:
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
Rhys, the Redeemed
Uril, the Miststalker

Yeah, I'm going for a couple easier ones to work on at the moment. I've managed to get some really bad generals out of the way (Jasmine Boreal, Oyobi, Autumn Willow, Atalya), and some of those turned out to be pretty fun decks. Jasmine Boreal is a G/W "vanilla" deck, with power/toughness boosting auras and equipment and Muraganda Petroglyphs to round it out. Autumn Willow is a strange green Voltron with lots of pump spells and graveyard recursion. I just finished Atalya and Oyobi, so I haven't tested them yet, but Atalya looks fun to play (or at least frustrating to play against) with all her damage prevention/life gain (topped off with Felidar Sovereign of course). Oyobi, well, just looks bad, frankly. Not one of my stronger efforts. There are quite a number of good spirits in mono-W out there, but most of them that I own are in other decks, and I don't want to break my quest rules. I think I'll run her out on EDH night next week and see how she plays. I don't have high hopes.

I would have been much further along this week, but I spent some time doing two other things for the quest beyond deckbuilding: One, I searched out all my sleeves that I still have and sorted them so that I knew what I was going to need; and Two, I've actually been pre-planning a bunch more decks. I've got preliminary decklists ready for another dozen decks beyond what I'm working on now. Some of them are way too big, others far too small, but they are good starts. Generals with these decklists right now include Garza Zol, Tobias Andrion, Ob-Nixilis, Endrek Sahr, Mistform Ultimus, Experiment Kraj, Adamaro, and Glissa the Traitor, among others just begun. I don't plan to build all of those soon, but as I pull together cards for other decks, I'll set aside cards that I know I've put on those lists so that I can start prepping them.

Game Night and Update!

Update for today:

Tibor and Lumia now completed
Oyobi at about 50% done
Soramaro at about 33%

Started work on:
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
Atalya, Samite Master
hakim, Loreweaver

Didn't spend much time tonight on any decks, as it was EDH night at my local shop. Sent Eron for a test run, and he can come out to a quick start, but needs some card advantage badly. Bedlam is killer, though.

After that I went back to playing some old faves (almost pulled crazy come-from-behind victories in 4-ways with both Tsabo and Karn). Won a 2HG with Jor Kadeen by Into the Vaults-ing my other head's Akroma's Memorial so he could swing through with Omnath. Played my first game of the "Horde" EDH variant, and we destroyed it with someone else's Kaalia, Konda, and my Karona wall deck. Got a FTV Memory Jar for my troubles, which will definitely be put to use. Picked up a couple of Isochron Scepters while I was there too, and arranged to buy a stack of usable commons off the store for a decent price if I sort them myself.

Tomorrow I should be able to finish up a couple, since I'm on fall break (which for me, means only working until 1:00). I've began putting together a quick-grab "staple" box for filling out decks that are a few cards short after their themes come together, things like Relic Crush, Into the Core, and extra mana fixing. Man, I'm going to need a lot of Dreamstone Hedrons...

The Journey Begins...

My friends think I'm insane, though in a good way.

I play Magic: The Gathering quite a bit. At the time when Magic made its first push nationwide, my mom worked with an afterschool program for kids. She picked up a couple of starter decks (of Unlimited), but when she got to the rules about ante, she decided the program shouldn't have it. Instead, she tossed them to me (aged 11) and told me to "learn how to play this and teach me later".

I've always been an avid gamer. My parents both played Dungeons and Dragons in college and after, and they started me early with the "First Quest" boxed set when I was in second grade. So I eagerly got into this new game, and it was a match for me from the very first. I played it (and other CCGs) avidly throughout middle school and high school. I sat out during most of college, but towards the end some of my roleplaying friends got me back in and dragged me to the Guildpact pre-release, and I've been back ever since.

Fast forward several years, and the format of EDH (now Commander) comes along, and it's like a whole new ball game of interesting interactions and decks to discover. In Magic, I've always been a builder. I never had the cash as a kid to build competitive decks, so I went for interesting themes and crazy ideas. This format was perfect for me. I can't seem to stop coming up with ideas and building new decks. Over the past two years I've gone crazy over it. Perhaps maybe my friends were right about my insanity, because I've decided to do something that definitely sounds pretty nuts.

With a deadline of two years from now-ish, I am attempting to acquire and then build an EDH/Commander deck for every commander in Magic.

Here's how it's going to work:

• The first and most important rule of this quest is that every deck must be built in actuality with real cards, including no proxies and nothing that requires swapping cards between decks. Yeah, that last one may be the one that kills me.
• Not all of these decks will be optimized! I am going to need more than 45000 cards for this quest. Making about 40% of that basic land may be the only thing that keeps this from breaking the bank. I am going to be doing the best I can with what I have, and when I run out of cards, I will use whatever I can get my grubby little hands on. I will, of course, be attempting themes and synergy wherever possible and will not be just throwing sixty-odd cards in a deck with forty lands or so.
  
• I am separating this quest out into two year-long sections. Year one I will attempt to get all non-Portal: Three Kingdoms commanders, with the second year focusing solely on that set.
  
• If I have counted correctly, there are 453 legends not in silver borders, plus 5 from Unglued / Unhinged. Since 5 more decks is nothing compared to the monumental task still in front of me, I might as well throw those in. Besides, I've already got a half-built Richard Garfield deck.
• I am, of course, not including flip cards that become legends, as these are not legal generals.
• I am including currently banned generals in the binder in case they become unbanned during this time, but will not be building decks for them until such a thing actually occurs.
• I will be keeping up with current Magic releases and building decks for legends found in those sets. Here's hoping next year isn't a return to Kamigawa/other legendary block.
  
• I will not be attempting to acquire and build a deck for the 1996 World Champion card. Obviously.

So it seems like this includes over 450 different decks I will have to build to complete this quest. Due to my rabid EDH obsession, 36 of these are already complete (with several more in progress). I have organized a binder with space for each legend to help mark my progress. You can see a list of all the commanders I currently have a deck completed for at the right.

So, you may be asking, what is this blog for? Glad you asked! This is where I will be keeping interested parties updated with my progress in the quest, hopefully at least a couple of times per week. I may, if requested, also post decklists that people want highlighted, though only with the promise that any such decklists will be critiqued with my limitations in mind.

Before I end, I want to put out a few words of thanks. First, to Ben, who made a significant donation of signets, talismans, and generals to help me in this quest, and who I promised to give thanks to first. Second, to my other Magic playing buddies for their support and derision. Third, to the valiant workers at my local gaming store for their support, and for setting up an EDH night where I can test my abominations. Fourth, to my parents, who I really ought to push into getting them playing again (I did eventually teach them and they played for several years). And finally and most importantly, thanks should be given to my wife Susan, who lets me play with little pieces of cardboard and never calls me silly for it.

And with that, I say so long for now. The quest is ON!