To be fair to Serge, most enchantresses care about you casting enchantment spells, so Urza's Saga wouldn't trigger them. It's the two constellation ones that are weird in this case.
Surprised no one mentioned that Porphyry Nodes only triggers on your upkeep, i.e. Surge's upkeep, so Wheeler would have been able to keep Hazel's Brewmaster for another turn, even funnier cause Surge read the card out loud.
This is, by a clear margin, my favourite magic content ever. Instant classic episode - even beats out balance / death cloud or stifle / stifle bird / that's a sorcery
No idea if it’s possible, but a top 8 “best canlander decks ever” in the style of cardmarket (or working with them?), playing each year’s year-end winning decklist would be very fun to watch
Old-school Canlander matches would be great to see: Maybe set a cutoff date for each episode, like "No cards after 2012", and then just let the players brew what they used to rock back in the day?
This is what I love about both this format and y’all as players. Some of the most heinous denial strategies in this game and Ben’s still out here pulling the wildest lines out of the ether and Serge is the only person I’ve ever seen get that excited about being strip mined and wastelanded
Kinda funny that it didn't come up, but there's actually a very strange rules interaction with Propaganda effects + most infinite mana combos (such as the devoted druid line in this vid) that just seems fun to share: 1. As you move from the beginning of combat step to the declare attackers step, you lose all floating mana due to ending a step/phase (unless of course you have something that lets you keep unspent mana, but that's not relevant for this game) 2. Then, before anyone gets priority, you need to declare your attackers and pay for any associated costs for them, such as from Propaganda. 3. Since nobody has priority, you can only activate existing mana abilities to pay for propaganda - you can tap your lands and the devoted food-id for mana, but you can't activate the untap ability until you gain priority again (which won't happen until after all attackers have been declared & paid for). This also applies to abilities like deathrite shaman, whose first ability doesn't actually count as a mana ability because it targets. 4. So, if Wheeler ever got the chance to attack while he had the devoted food-id, he would've still needed to pay for propaganda using his lands (cuz the food could only add 1 mana of the minimum required 2).
definitely saw this nearly happening and went to re-learn how this worked in hopes it would come up and then they just completely skipped past needing to care about it. He did however have multiple 100000/100000 creatures coz they were all lords so he wouldnt have even needed to push through with all of them and could have dodged the situation that way too, with the lands as you said
I'd love to see like a "History of Canlander" series where y'all go through the greatest hits from years past. Like, not necessarily each year, but like, each of you bring the deck you feel best represents Canlander in 20XX, and then next episode is a different year, etc.
Didn’t end up mattering but there’s a weird thing Wheeler could have done where you get Grist into the graveyard and exile it with the Cauldron, since it’s a creature when it’s not on the battlefield. You give all your creatures with counters “every turn you make a 1/1 and mill a card or maybe kill something” which is pretty neat.
i would LOVE to see some old school decks! im new to magic, and it's always so fascinating to see little cross sections from previous metas. especially in a format like this which i dont have much opportunity to play
Serge is the most wholesomely intimidating person to watch play magic. He always has some deep calculating look that knows how he could hand you your butt.
If I had a nickel for every time Surge cast balance with one land in hand and proceeding to immediately regretting not playing that land. I would have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
I actually called the Masked Vandal. I was thinking about 2 mana exile creatures and recalled that one. But then I was like “wait he doesn’t have a creature in bin.” Then he gets Druid and kills it. Absolutely genius play. The only reason I know that card is that I got into commander during Kaldhiem and played it a bunch myself.
This match made me remember I haven't played my Golgari elves in commander in a long while & I want people to suffer a little. so giving it a spin tonight.
Great game. It is games like these that one plays magic for. The satisfaction of solving the puzzle while the other side survives against all odds throwing logs under your legs. I would absolutely be all for some old school magic. The modern powercrept era where everything does everything and you snowball just from thinking funny is strong but it's not "powerful magic".
Just built my first Canadian Highlander deck last week. I built elves, looking forward to seeing if Wheeler has any spicy tech I left out or missed entirely.
Getting Devoted Druid just to immediately kill it is going to make sense when I continue watching, but I totally get why Serge had no clue what's going on right now.
Since Serge asked: Finale for 2 instead of 3 had me thinking Masked Vandal (instead of rec sage). When Wheeler got Devoted Druid i was briefly confused until he immediately had it kill itself and then i realized he must have had the Vandal in hand.
On turn 3 Serge missed a damage from his Fastbond. He starts the turn at 19 with 2 lands in play. First he plays Scalding Tarn, then Temple Garden untapped (should be -3 life because shock and fastbond) then fetches a Tropical Island with Salding Tarn (-1) sacs the surveil land to Zuran Orb (+2), gets back the lands and replays the surveil land (-1). He should end the turn at 16 because he played 2 additional lands (even though it doesn't look like it) despite the fact that he ended the turn with 4 lands in play.
Very unimportant point, but wheeler could have tapped the creatures with counters as drs to exile lands to create the mana he needed to use the drain effect from drs in the last game rather than casting and saccing the birds. 1:15:54
In game two, why did Porphyry Nodes activate in Wheeler's upkeep? I thought it was only the controller's upkeep. Am I missing something about it? This was a pretty fun episode, even so!
Elves is my favourite archetype in almost every format up in which it shows. Something just delightful in how it showcases the classic fantasy roots of the game. Seeing this, I might finally have a gateway into Canlander
Did Serge get an extra free land drop in that first game? He plays Scalding Tarn as his land drop, then plays the Temple Garden as his "land for turn" and when he says the surveil land is his second it's actually his third. Right?
He had fastbond in play. Fastbond lets you play additional lands for the cost of 1 life. He played tarn for turn, then played temple garden using fastbond.
Without knowing what was in Ben's hand, I don't think finding Tabernacle off of the Sylvan Scrying would be a bad idea. Face up, all he had as far as explosive mana production was the Cradle, so keeping it tapped down to pay for the board seemed like a good idea. Of course, in hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered, but I don't think there was an objectively wrong decision with your choice.
I'm a bit confused, in the second game (approx timestamp 59:05 ): Why didn't Wheeler thin his library out of most (or all) lands with the food-reclaimer? Of course the excess lands would go into the graveyard but I doubt he wanted to draw the rest of his lands in the late game. Was it just not a good option given he might need more lands later, or was it somehow impossible as a play? Or maybe he just missed it, if that's possible heh. I haven't watched till the end yet so it might get addressed by them.
I am also curious as to this, he got all the fetches, when he could have just gotten the land he wanted, and binned the fetches along the way if he wanted them in the bin. He also at some point could have put a lot of creatures in the bin with survival, I doubt he wants to be drawing Birds or Llanowar Elves at this stage of the game, so might as well activate Survial a bunch of times. It went to a topdeck war, and I think he could have set his deck up to just be gas.
With the infinite Elvish Reclaimer combo, there was no reason to get 3 fetchlands, he could have put every land in his deck in the graveyard at that point, but getting 3 fetchlands and then using them to get 3 dual lands is just worse than using the Elvish Reclaimer again, paying 3 life for no reason.
G1 Serge plays Scalding Tarn, then Fastbond then 2 more land drops but only takes 1 damage which could have messed up his landbase later on when he was on 1
Serge missing the Setessan Champion constellation draw trigger from Urza's saga is classic Serge.
He continues to display a lack of understanding about some aspect of Urza's Saga almost every episode and It's always so funny
NO HE MISSED IT BOTH TIMES, Serge please 😭
Found it funnyer that wheeler did not tutor rec sage with natural order to just win the game
There are worse things in the world than missed triggers, thanks for always coming out and doing your best Serge 🫡
To be fair to Serge, most enchantresses care about you casting enchantment spells, so Urza's Saga wouldn't trigger them. It's the two constellation ones that are weird in this case.
Old school canlander sounds like it would be awesome to watch
Surprised no one mentioned that Porphyry Nodes only triggers on your upkeep, i.e. Surge's upkeep, so Wheeler would have been able to keep Hazel's Brewmaster for another turn, even funnier cause Surge read the card out loud.
This is, by a clear margin, my favourite magic content ever. Instant classic episode - even beats out balance / death cloud or stifle / stifle bird / that's a sorcery
I would love a n100 showdown mini series with iconic decks from specific years battling it out. Pretty sure Nelson would have a blast with that.
just rehashing top 8 decks from YJ's end of year tourney, for different years; or other similar flashbacks would be a delightful time capsule.
No idea if it’s possible, but a top 8 “best canlander decks ever” in the style of cardmarket (or working with them?), playing each year’s year-end winning decklist would be very fun to watch
Old-school Canlander matches would be great to see: Maybe set a cutoff date for each episode, like "No cards after 2012", and then just let the players brew what they used to rock back in the day?
This is what I love about both this format and y’all as players. Some of the most heinous denial strategies in this game and Ben’s still out here pulling the wildest lines out of the ether and Serge is the only person I’ve ever seen get that excited about being strip mined and wastelanded
Every intro just gets better and better
Absolute banger of an episode. This is my favorite Magic show on the internet, and this has imo been one of the best episodes of it.
Kinda funny that it didn't come up, but there's actually a very strange rules interaction with Propaganda effects + most infinite mana combos (such as the devoted druid line in this vid) that just seems fun to share:
1. As you move from the beginning of combat step to the declare attackers step, you lose all floating mana due to ending a step/phase (unless of course you have something that lets you keep unspent mana, but that's not relevant for this game)
2. Then, before anyone gets priority, you need to declare your attackers and pay for any associated costs for them, such as from Propaganda.
3. Since nobody has priority, you can only activate existing mana abilities to pay for propaganda - you can tap your lands and the devoted food-id for mana, but you can't activate the untap ability until you gain priority again (which won't happen until after all attackers have been declared & paid for). This also applies to abilities like deathrite shaman, whose first ability doesn't actually count as a mana ability because it targets.
4. So, if Wheeler ever got the chance to attack while he had the devoted food-id, he would've still needed to pay for propaganda using his lands (cuz the food could only add 1 mana of the minimum required 2).
definitely saw this nearly happening and went to re-learn how this worked in hopes it would come up and then they just completely skipped past needing to care about it.
He did however have multiple 100000/100000 creatures coz they were all lords so he wouldnt have even needed to push through with all of them and could have dodged the situation that way too, with the lands as you said
I'd love to see like a "History of Canlander" series where y'all go through the greatest hits from years past. Like, not necessarily each year, but like, each of you bring the deck you feel best represents Canlander in 20XX, and then next episode is a different year, etc.
Serge's look to camera followed by masked vandal, Bravo gentleman. If I wasn't already subbed, I would
jeeeeez that line at around 15 mins was amazing
Came here to say this. Absolutely wild
This is me in the comments asking very politely for old school canlander, please and thank you.
i needed my north 100 fix.
I look forward to this every day.
i look forward to this every upload day
I was at YJ in 2012 and deeply regret not being more into the start of the format. Wild to see how far its come.
This was an awesome game. I loved every second of it
The best magic content on youtube
Would love to see old-school canlander. I wanna see those halcyon days you always reminisce about!
surge missing setessan champion with urza's saga at 22:22 , he had it sooooo won
And then again at 31:40 woof
Didn’t end up mattering but there’s a weird thing Wheeler could have done where you get Grist into the graveyard and exile it with the Cauldron, since it’s a creature when it’s not on the battlefield. You give all your creatures with counters “every turn you make a 1/1 and mill a card or maybe kill something” which is pretty neat.
Yes, would legitimately be interested in seeing old school canlander from time to time.
Not only do I want to see a Canlander Gimmick episode, I would LOVE to see one!
Also Wheeler looking slim today, whatever you're doing keep it up
Damn, that devoted druid play was impressive.
At about 1:02:00 , Nodes only triggers on Serge's Upkeep, not on every upkeep, so the Hazel's Brewmaster should not have died.
i would LOVE to see some old school decks!
im new to magic, and it's always so fascinating to see little cross sections from previous metas. especially in a format like this which i dont have much opportunity to play
Serge is the most wholesomely intimidating person to watch play magic. He always has some deep calculating look that knows how he could hand you your butt.
god that devoted druid masked vandal play was so fuckin sexy
Loved this match, best episode yet
If I had a nickel for every time Surge cast balance with one land in hand and proceeding to immediately regretting not playing that land. I would have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
Old school canlander sounds like a vibe
Love your guys highlander content wish you guys had a decklist library that we could look up even outside what’s played on the channel
canladner from 2014-2016 would be amazing to watch :D
Excellent, as always. Thank you!
I actually called the Masked Vandal. I was thinking about 2 mana exile creatures and recalled that one. But then I was like “wait he doesn’t have a creature in bin.” Then he gets Druid and kills it. Absolutely genius play. The only reason I know that card is that I got into commander during Kaldhiem and played it a bunch myself.
As soon as Wheeler said 2 on Finale I got excited to see how he was gonna hit a Masked Vandal for the Exile.
Hell yeah.
Did they both miss the setessan trigger on urza saga etb around 22:20 or did I miss it
No they missed it and the other one latter.
Dammit I was too slow, was just about to comment 😅
Also Serge not sacrificing one of his lands to his balance cast to equalize his lands with wheelers
insane production level on these intros!
This match made me remember I haven't played my Golgari elves in commander in a long while & I want people to suffer a little. so giving it a spin tonight.
Throwback Canlander would be sweet and I'm certain Nelson would bring some delightful MonoBlack concoction
Omg yes please to old school Canlander episode(s).
great games, as always. and very creative plays that made me rewatch in doubt anyone could come up with this xD
wow that was a battle and a half
serge gets love from me for being very happy to get strip mined, its adorable
Seeing Wheeler groan and Serge jump up and down in the chair - Simple pleasures.
No idea, Serge; was pleasantly surprised!
*Edit: I've known this, but Wheeler is a lot better than me. Wow.
Great game. It is games like these that one plays magic for. The satisfaction of solving the puzzle while the other side survives against all odds throwing logs under your legs. I would absolutely be all for some old school magic. The modern powercrept era where everything does everything and you snowball just from thinking funny is strong but it's not "powerful magic".
Throwback canlander from early 2010s would be awesome!
Agatha’s Cauldron also gave all the creatures Deathrite’s Mana Ability, so they could already generate any color
More relevant, Agatha's let's you activate abilities with mana as though they were any color
Just built my first Canadian Highlander deck last week. I built elves, looking forward to seeing if Wheeler has any spicy tech I left out or missed entirely.
I am interested in seeing old school Canlander. A UW control or a The Rock deck would be very intreseting to see in action.
I would LOVE to see some canlander decks from 15 years ago
I'd love to see some classic Highlander decks!
9:15 Serge plays 3 lands and only pays 1 life for fastbond, doesn't really matter still a great game, love you guys!
Cardmarket does a best deck ever series, seeing something similar for old timey canlander would be real cool
I saw the masked vandal in hand so I knew what the line was gonna be when Bwheeler found druid but its still very clever
Serge playing Enchantress Lands that is (not so) secretly a prison deck? yeah that tracks
Glad I could figure out wheelers line it’s very cool and my time playing draft during kaldehim paid off
There are 4 elves in Duskmourn. One of them might be worth a slot (Tyvar)
It's was really fun match
Make more like this!
I want to experience the full night ruin your evening event so badly
throwdown! id love to see some oldschool canlander
There were elves on Duskmourn, the plane, and also in Duskmourn, the magic set. I don’t think they really helped the archetype much though.
Wow I'd love to see old-school canlander
Getting Devoted Druid just to immediately kill it is going to make sense when I continue watching, but I totally get why Serge had no clue what's going on right now.
Please do old-school canlander! It would be so sweet to see
Oldschool oldschool oldschool!
I would kill for an old school match with your favorite classic decks or what you started with
Would be interested in a Retro-Canlander episode or three
what a great match!
Since Serge asked:
Finale for 2 instead of 3 had me thinking Masked Vandal (instead of rec sage). When Wheeler got Devoted Druid i was briefly confused until he immediately had it kill itself and then i realized he must have had the Vandal in hand.
I knew what Wheeler was doing @14:56 but only because I play elves in pauper and masked vandal is actually pretty good in the format
Knew what Wheeler was up to immediately with the finale but only because I could see his hand
It was nice to see Paulllll for a change.
On turn 3 Serge missed a damage from his Fastbond. He starts the turn at 19 with 2 lands in play. First he plays Scalding Tarn, then Temple Garden untapped (should be -3 life because shock and fastbond) then fetches a Tropical Island with Salding Tarn (-1) sacs the surveil land to Zuran Orb (+2), gets back the lands and replays the surveil land (-1). He should end the turn at 16 because he played 2 additional lands (even though it doesn't look like it) despite the fact that he ended the turn with 4 lands in play.
Very unimportant point, but wheeler could have tapped the creatures with counters as drs to exile lands to create the mana he needed to use the drain effect from drs in the last game rather than casting and saccing the birds. 1:15:54
I would love to see an old school canlander.
In game two, why did Porphyry Nodes activate in Wheeler's upkeep? I thought it was only the controller's upkeep. Am I missing something about it?
This was a pretty fun episode, even so!
Elves is my favourite archetype in almost every format up in which it shows. Something just delightful in how it showcases the classic fantasy roots of the game. Seeing this, I might finally have a gateway into Canlander
That opening. I thought you were going wipeout parady: hahahaa...throwdown
Did Serge get an extra free land drop in that first game? He plays Scalding Tarn as his land drop, then plays the Temple Garden as his "land for turn" and when he says the surveil land is his second it's actually his third. Right?
He had fastbond in play. Fastbond lets you play additional lands for the cost of 1 life. He played tarn for turn, then played temple garden using fastbond.
Yeah, missed that first land drop and then was up 1 more life than he should've been.
Didnt need to kill BOP at the end, death rite's mana ability exiling serge's lands wouldve made black mana too
Balance! Now we are playing my kind of Magic.
Without knowing what was in Ben's hand, I don't think finding Tabernacle off of the Sylvan Scrying would be a bad idea. Face up, all he had as far as explosive mana production was the Cradle, so keeping it tapped down to pay for the board seemed like a good idea. Of course, in hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered, but I don't think there was an objectively wrong decision with your choice.
100% called masked vandal when Serge asked in game 1
15:25 haven't seen the conclusion but this smells of agatha's soul cauldron hijinks.
edit: hahahahahaha
I'm a bit confused, in the second game (approx timestamp 59:05 ): Why didn't Wheeler thin his library out of most (or all) lands with the food-reclaimer? Of course the excess lands would go into the graveyard but I doubt he wanted to draw the rest of his lands in the late game. Was it just not a good option given he might need more lands later, or was it somehow impossible as a play? Or maybe he just missed it, if that's possible heh. I haven't watched till the end yet so it might get addressed by them.
I am also curious as to this, he got all the fetches, when he could have just gotten the land he wanted, and binned the fetches along the way if he wanted them in the bin. He also at some point could have put a lot of creatures in the bin with survival, I doubt he wants to be drawing Birds or Llanowar Elves at this stage of the game, so might as well activate Survial a bunch of times. It went to a topdeck war, and I think he could have set his deck up to just be gas.
Tyvar is on Duskmourn, can't believe wheeler doesn't know his magic cards
I saw the masked vandal play coming when Serge said something 😀
actually calling masked vandal made my week
Old school canlander would be sweet!
With the infinite Elvish Reclaimer combo, there was no reason to get 3 fetchlands, he could have put every land in his deck in the graveyard at that point, but getting 3 fetchlands and then using them to get 3 dual lands is just worse than using the Elvish Reclaimer again, paying 3 life for no reason.
Does Serge play new enchantment room from Duskmourn, which plays same as crucible? Sounds like a good one
I'd watch the north 100 prison mirror
I love how wheeler is playing half beat down elves and half combo elves and worse in both ways lol.
I have no idea what Wheeler’s plan is with the Devoted Druid, Serge.
Erm actually wheeler, Tyvar the Pummeler is from Duskmourn.
Wheeler misses lethal by finding strip mine and not boseiju. Which is a surprise sinde he found the crazy devoted druid line 🤯
Nevermind. Zuran orb 😅
G1 Serge plays Scalding Tarn, then Fastbond then 2 more land drops but only takes 1 damage which could have messed up his landbase later on when he was on 1