#commandertheory

I’d like to give a big thank you to the wonderful and enterprising minds over at Commander Theory for having me on the latest episode of their podcast! It was a privilege to hear Nick and Zak apply their expertise to a theoretical shake-up to the format.

Welcome back to Feature Friday! Long-time followers will know this is the series in which I highlight a certain Magic blog here on Tumblr and explore in-depth some of the original content that blog puts out every so often. Sometimes, I’ll even do an interview, like I did for @flavoracle and @magicjudge. This week, since I didn’t get a chance to ask anyone in particular, I’m gonna be highlighting another five Magic: The Gathering blogs you should (already) be following.

1. @commandertheory

Rings of Brighthearth | Art by Howard Lyon

“A blog dedicated to improving the quality of thought surrounding the Commander format,” @commandertheory is indeed the most legitimate place to get your Spike on for EDH. Packed with tons of decklists, articles, and advice, this blog explores many of the popular commanders and color-combinations to crank out highly competitive decks which often eschew budget and being “nice” to people. If you are looking to win more at Commander, there is no doubt you should already be following this blog.

2. @isharton

I am so excited for tomorrow!!!  #protourMTGSOI | Art by @isharton

A.Lundell is a non-gender comic artist who uploads adorable doodles to Tumblr from time to time. They’ve created a few fanwalkers and drawn a good number of comic strips that have garnered a lot of attention over the past couple of months. You should definitely check out their drawing stream when they go live, because they’ll take requests for Magic-related doodles. Furthermore, be sure to visit their Patreon to “support more MTG related stuff!”

3. @imakethecard

Feedback Bolt | Art by Ron Spencer

@john-cena-boros-bruiser actually suggested this blog to me last night. Basically, if you make custom Magic cards here on Tumblr, there’s a likely chance that @imakethecard already follows you (funny how I say that in an article about blogs you should follow). What they do is collect custom Magic designs from all around Tumblr and give commentary on some of those designs. Just tag your posts with “Custom Magic Card”, and @imakethecard will come bolting around the corner to give you feedback!

4. @zeecommanders

Zee Commanders is a comic strip drawn by Vincent Bernhardt that takes on the current events and lifestyles of Magic with humor and straight lines. Even though there are currently only eleven installments of this comic strip, reading through them will no doubt give you at least a chuckle and at most a howl. If we get more people to follow him, maybe we can encourage Bernhardt to make more!

Click here to reblog the above comic strip to show Emrakul some love!

5. @tnielsenproject

Descendants’ Path | Art by Terese Nielsen

Terese Nielsen’s geometric lines and soft lighting style is among the most highly recognized throughout Magic history, and this blog has taken up the task to collect her artwork and bring them to Tumblr for all to enjoy. I also just remembered that @tnielsenproject was the first person to reblog my very first post here on The Burnished Hart with a comment, so it was about time I gave back to them with a little attention.

Recently, I asked commandertheory to give me a challenge, and they graciously provided a few. The one I’ve done for today is to create a deck representing The Black Plague.

General:

Plague. Disease. Affliction. I think the choice here should be obvious. Pharika, the God of Affliction is a general that I don’t think enough people really give credit to. I very much like her, however, and I’ve gone ahead and used her here.

+Pharika, God of Affliction

For reference, here’s the original Nekusar article and the follow-up articles.

Unlike Curiosity, Rogue’s Gloves only triggers on combat damage. It’s comparable to Mask of Memory. Nekusar doesn’t particularly like attacking, so I wouldn’t recommend running Rogue’s Gloves. If you are looking for more effects like Curiosity, check out Helm of the Ghastlord and Ophidian Eye.

Thanks for the question and good luck on your deck!

Gisela prevents all damage from sources that only deal 1 damage. There’s nothing in the card text that would cause it to round down if the source only deals 1 damage.