Why do I play Oros?

"What does he do?"

I love that question. I'd have to love the question to want to play with a deck like this because that's all I ever hear, but I especially love it when people point at Oros and ask it. "Not a lot," I'll usually respond, "He can Sunlance everything for 2W when he deals combat damage to a player."

"Seems pretty bad."

Actually, Oros is far and away the best commander for this deck. I say that with full knowledge that Kaalia of the Vast and Tariel, Reckoner of Souls are, in fact, options for playing WBR. Oros is not the most powerful commander - he's not even powerful at all. He doesn't have any special abilities outside of Flying, you have to pay for his ability when he actually connects (and lack of Trample hurts those odds), and when you pull the effect off, you can't even hurt white creatures or kill things with toughness 4 or more. Everyone who has said he's bad is pretty much spot on. Oros is a bad creature, which is actually why I say he is the best commander for the deck - being a bad commander and a good creature are, in fact, two different things!

Didn't Make The Cut #1

Since its implementation, Wizards's new policy of "print cards for Commander" has made tweaking a deck like this one harder than ever. With every new set, there's a number of cards that can make it in, so deck space is at a premium. I'm constantly trying to juggle playing the most powerful cards, the most fun cards, and giving some love to each color (*cough* RED *cough*). Unfortunately, that means not every card that is playable or powerful actually can make it in the deck. As I always try to tell people at the shop, a Commander deck is a personal thing and should represent how you like to play Magic and with which cards. Below are some recent, solid cards that many people would play, but for one reason or another, aren't yet in my deck list. This is the first part in what I hope is a continuing series of posts that will provide some insight into my thought processes when adding and cutting cards. Hope you can get something out of it!

Olivia Voldaren

Olivia is a creature that I desperately want to play. Finding a spot for her is very difficult, though. She was on the list for attempted inclusion in the Gatecrash update, but still hasn't found a place yet. She should, though - she's a creature (!), she's cheap, she's Red (I try to push to fit more Red in the deck as it is so criminally underrepresented) - but the creatures making it in are so much more abusable in this format. Because of her ability to kill things, steal things, and grow herself, she will remain on the list for inclusion for a while, I'm sure, but she didn't quite make it in this round simply because the Gatecrash update is too large.

Innistrad Block Swaps

Over a year is a new record for lack of updating. Magic is no longer my primary hobby, as I spend nearly every tournament working the front counter at the card shop or judging the event. I've since found other ways to entertain myself - I play a lot of Warhammer 40k, board games, comics, and spend time with my fiancé. 

But that makes it sound so much sadder than it is! I still love Magic even though I don't play very much, and I think there are a lot more people out there like that. I still play in every prerelease and I get in Commander games when I can, but without the weekly 5-round to play in, it's hard to obsess. Still, Oros is always close to my heart, and even in the break I've made some more tweaks. Gatecrash has gotten me very excited with some awesome new cards for Boros and Orzhov, and we are going to see the largest card swap in the deck in years! So here I am again, giving you an update on the deck. Hope you enjoy the read and pick up a bit of my own experience in the format - I'm by no means an expert, but I do think everyone's got something to add to your own worldview, no matter their experience level. So enough philosophy - let's find out what's shaking up Oros these days!