Charles is easily my favorite player on this channel. He's such a solid player and brings the goofiest stuff you would never see in a cEDH pod. 10 out of 10 content here boys.
Some notes about the episode broken to sections so you don't have to read everything if you don't want to: The MVP card: The MVP card was definitely Mystic Remora here, not Emrakul. As others may have noted (and Drake has noted in the raw footage), I could have attempted a win much earlier in the game and possibly been okay with it. I played *very* conservatively with my interactions here, so I made it look like I had all the answers all the time (when I was really hitting only 1 counterspell for most turn cycles). Keeping Remora in play for 5 turns can be unheard of/back breaking, which allowed me to draw so many cards. The dorks were essential to the sustainability of Remora. In my opening hand, I had only Otawara and a Tropical Island. If I opened up with Tropical Island to play Remora, I would not have drawn another green source next turn to play my mana dork and either lose my Remora or be at a significant down tempo. I think players need to notice that more when they look at these games how plays from a previous turn profoundly affect plays into the next turn. The continual pouring of dorks allowed me to sustain Remora past its usual life span and also allowed me to keep up interaction. Also, I had a way to remove Drannith much earlier in the game but sandbagged it. I had the resources I needed and didn't need to feel greedy to windmill slam anything until I was ready. The turn I played Silence, I played it to bait out interaction and responses because I was planning on playing Seedborn and knew it would get interacted with. The next turn I played Seedborn, I had burned my last Counterspell, which was Swan Song and only had (I think) 3 cards left in hand, one of which was a Cyc Rift that would overload in that turn cycle (which would get me back my Gilded Drake). In the video, I make this look punishing and effortless, but I was really wide opened there at that point. I just found a good opening to make my plays along with good reads, and that is really the key here to playing with *any* powerful card in Magic. The deck: This TnT list is really just a proof-of-concept shell for Emrakul. The theory behind running Emrakul is that you can essentially play two players at once to either use their win lines (think infinite Walking Ballista or Brain Freeze while controlling your opponents) to win the game while you defend that with interaction (you remove Stax pieces in play and counter other interactions), or you attempt a win on their turn while using their interaction against everyone else. Since recording this episode back in December, I've been toying the deck with ComedIanMTG (go check his channel out!) and have considered using a different, 5-color shell (I liked the idea of Garth One-Eye, but Kenrith seems like the best bet since he can reanimate your opponents' cards and give their dorks haste). In an Emrakul state, you're reducing the difficulty of the game from being a 1v1v1v1 to a 2v1v1. Your opponents will also need to target their heat towards the player you're taking control of instead of you because it will be *them* who will be attempting the win with their spells on their turn, not you, which can free you up a lot on your turn. This being said, this strategy is *not* easy to pilot. You may have noticed I held priority to bounce my own Notion Thief in response to Sensei's Top and, while controlling him, had Drake noxious revival my Otawara before sacking his last land to bounce my Wishclaw. Those were not clean or perfect plays at all, and clearly highlights that I was running my gears as I was going through the motions. Playing Emrakul requires you not only know what your opponent's deck does, how to combine the collective card pool of your opponents' and yourself to a devastating outcome, but also to exit cleanly when you *don't* kill the table (or your opponent) and they take their extra turn (otherwise you just kingmade them). This is why Wishclaw is a harbinger for Emrakul--you find what you need with it, give it to the player whose turn you will control, and on their turn, use it to look at their deck and find the winning piece you want to either dismantle them or to dismantle the whole board (in this game, I used Wishclaw to find Chain of Vapor to take apart Drake's board and to find a Mana Crypt so I could cast Thoughtlash and unmake Chad's entire library). The Takeaway: There is so much more to Magic and cEDH than decklists, cards, and "best colors/color pairs." It's about how you play them. I hope that by demonstrating how you play interaction very tightly, being very patient/cautious with your plays (I didn't *need* to interact with Drannith when it came out, I *let* Damia and Recycle resolve, etc.), you can stretch the power level of a deck to a higher stratification. When I'm playing Mono-White, I'm using this knowledge against my opponents, so it's not that White is good or TnT is good. TnT has a higher floor than White when it comes to performance, but in the right hands, it almost doesn't matter what deck is playing against you--you're now looking at the player instead. To top it off, this was a very demonstrative performance of this Emrakul proof-of-concept in a pod where everyone was play their own proof-of-concept decks (aside from Chad who is honestly playing a very real deck). There will be a follow-up episode where this deck *doesn't* necessarily perform as well as this. It may be too short for viewing but will definitely be available on Playing With Power's Patreon.
This is an extremely impressive write-up and a very interesting strategy. I have to wonder, though: does the deck rely on hard-casting Emrakul most of the time? At 13 mana, it's one of the most expensive wincons around, and it's not even an instant wincon.
@@therealax6 Emrakul’s cost is reduced by each card type in the graveyard, which was why I chose a multicolored deck like Midrange TnT as the shell since it’s easy to dump different cards types like Remora (an enchantment), Esper Sentinel (an artifact and a creature), and fetches into the bin. I stole Chad’s Ledger Shredder just so I could dig deeper *and* fill my graveyard with different card types. Even without delirium, Gaea’s Cradle itself allows me to cast Emrakul well already, and I upped the land count to 32 lands so I hit my land drops consistently every turn to make development and action (playing threats/interaction) happen more hand in hand.
Appreciate the insights and break down. Interesting to see the few plays where game was really made or broken. Love seeing casual cards being used for great effect.
@@chifii This is the thing about controlling turns: the outcome will always depend of what their board and hand is during that turn. With Chain of Vapor, however, you don't need to rely on their hand, since you can cast your own and get the same results.
Charles went Nicol Bolas archenemy on this one. All should fear the mono white player who finally decides to play a multicolor deck. Plus flipping the BIRD when casting SWAN song at 10:25 was poetic. I started giggling uncontrollably when he hard casted an Emrakul and then proceeded to make Drale bounce his entire board and sac most of his lands through chain of vapor, that was just brutal.
This is a hilarious and grim demonstration that Charles is partially playing mono-white to keep things interesting for himself. This was an absolute demolition
There’s more to this game than just the cards/decks, and hopefully I’m showing that even with the same deck, the power level/performance can spike under different hands. Me playing White wasn’t to promote White as a color, but to highlight how we’re only scratching the surface of strategic thinking/gameplay in a 4-player game.
Watching Charles cast my favorite card of all time, (and my favorite commander of all time) Emrakul, I couldnt be happier and more pleased with this game
Omg Charles that was just dirty!!! Holy cow! Very cool seeing him pilot a non mono white deck and man it was spicy! He had all the right draws and the right answers at the right time. Great game.
@@douglatins absolutely right. I think the biggest issue was that I was able to pay for fish at 4 cumulative upkeep. My opponents could only hold out for so long before they had to cast spells.
Wow did not see that game going like that. Honestly it shows to me at least that cedh is more about the synergy in the deck than anything. Never thought domia would be at a cedh table.
Great game but quick question I’ve always been curious about. How do you determine which version of the card you show in the middle when resolving cards
Ryan showed a lot of restraint on his plays, especially after Drannith came down (as he figured he didn’t need to overextend at that point). I think there was some expectation that either I was policing the table (which I was), or that Drake would also police me. One of the caveats was that Drake did not expect me to hold out Remora for so long past t3 and t4. At that point people had to develop their boards because I was so far ahead into it. And I think there was some presumption that at that point, I did have the removal/interaction to kill Drannith and pivot to a TnT gameplan, or go directly into a Thoracle finish. My opponents at that point needed to either present their win/go for it (like Chad’s Hermit Druid line), or set themselves up to interact and be ready to win themselves. The longer I’m not being interacted with by combat or removal, the more my board snowballed. And you are very correct to mention how I leaned on Remora there. For some behind the scenes: I was hoping for Remora to mitigate a bit of my opening hand as I could cast into Thrasios and start accruing value into a midgame plan. I did not expect that I could hold the board hostage with Remora later on until after my first couple of draws, where then I changed my gameplan. Making a land drop every turn masked my reliance on mana dorks. A board wipe or 1 damage to all creatures in Mizzix would have drastically changed the texture of the game imo. Hope that clarifies/adds on to what you’ve said!
Even with that, it's need skill and knowledge to let some spells resolves.. Recycle or Drannith for example, if it's was me, I would tried to counter this aha
Holy crap, this is what happens when Charles gains access to other colors.
He won games with only one color, imagine what adding three would do to the table lol
Charles said "I haven't even used half my power yet" and did some fucked up shit XD
Next time he'll say "THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM" and play Kenrith or another top 5c commander.
@@DarkEinherjar hahahah I was thinking he would play a Mono Red like Godo, but yours is an even better alternative
He play mono white to make it a fair game most of the time
Charles is easily my favorite player on this channel. He's such a solid player and brings the goofiest stuff you would never see in a cEDH pod. 10 out of 10 content here boys.
This was just bullying.
If he’s already good with 1 color, imagine what he could do with 4 colors lmao.
@@Ilvaldi This was obviously Greg masquerading as Charles this game. Change my mind.
Straight up bullying
Whoa. Yeah that’s the word for it
I saw this comment before I watched the video, and thought "Ehh. How bad could it be?" and now... This was bullying. My lord, Charles is brutal
Charles really had the whole counterspell portfolio in hand
Remora when no one pay It.
@@antonio2708 thing is he had every counterspell and still hadn't drawn half his library
Some notes about the episode broken to sections so you don't have to read everything if you don't want to:
The MVP card:
The MVP card was definitely Mystic Remora here, not Emrakul. As others may have noted (and Drake has noted in the raw footage), I could have attempted a win much earlier in the game and possibly been okay with it. I played *very* conservatively with my interactions here, so I made it look like I had all the answers all the time (when I was really hitting only 1 counterspell for most turn cycles). Keeping Remora in play for 5 turns can be unheard of/back breaking, which allowed me to draw so many cards. The dorks were essential to the sustainability of Remora. In my opening hand, I had only Otawara and a Tropical Island. If I opened up with Tropical Island to play Remora, I would not have drawn another green source next turn to play my mana dork and either lose my Remora or be at a significant down tempo. I think players need to notice that more when they look at these games how plays from a previous turn profoundly affect plays into the next turn. The continual pouring of dorks allowed me to sustain Remora past its usual life span and also allowed me to keep up interaction. Also, I had a way to remove Drannith much earlier in the game but sandbagged it. I had the resources I needed and didn't need to feel greedy to windmill slam anything until I was ready. The turn I played Silence, I played it to bait out interaction and responses because I was planning on playing Seedborn and knew it would get interacted with. The next turn I played Seedborn, I had burned my last Counterspell, which was Swan Song and only had (I think) 3 cards left in hand, one of which was a Cyc Rift that would overload in that turn cycle (which would get me back my Gilded Drake). In the video, I make this look punishing and effortless, but I was really wide opened there at that point. I just found a good opening to make my plays along with good reads, and that is really the key here to playing with *any* powerful card in Magic.
The deck:
This TnT list is really just a proof-of-concept shell for Emrakul. The theory behind running Emrakul is that you can essentially play two players at once to either use their win lines (think infinite Walking Ballista or Brain Freeze while controlling your opponents) to win the game while you defend that with interaction (you remove Stax pieces in play and counter other interactions), or you attempt a win on their turn while using their interaction against everyone else. Since recording this episode back in December, I've been toying the deck with ComedIanMTG (go check his channel out!) and have considered using a different, 5-color shell (I liked the idea of Garth One-Eye, but Kenrith seems like the best bet since he can reanimate your opponents' cards and give their dorks haste). In an Emrakul state, you're reducing the difficulty of the game from being a 1v1v1v1 to a 2v1v1. Your opponents will also need to target their heat towards the player you're taking control of instead of you because it will be *them* who will be attempting the win with their spells on their turn, not you, which can free you up a lot on your turn. This being said, this strategy is *not* easy to pilot. You may have noticed I held priority to bounce my own Notion Thief in response to Sensei's Top and, while controlling him, had Drake noxious revival my Otawara before sacking his last land to bounce my Wishclaw. Those were not clean or perfect plays at all, and clearly highlights that I was running my gears as I was going through the motions. Playing Emrakul requires you not only know what your opponent's deck does, how to combine the collective card pool of your opponents' and yourself to a devastating outcome, but also to exit cleanly when you *don't* kill the table (or your opponent) and they take their extra turn (otherwise you just kingmade them). This is why Wishclaw is a harbinger for Emrakul--you find what you need with it, give it to the player whose turn you will control, and on their turn, use it to look at their deck and find the winning piece you want to either dismantle them or to dismantle the whole board (in this game, I used Wishclaw to find Chain of Vapor to take apart Drake's board and to find a Mana Crypt so I could cast Thoughtlash and unmake Chad's entire library).
The Takeaway:
There is so much more to Magic and cEDH than decklists, cards, and "best colors/color pairs." It's about how you play them. I hope that by demonstrating how you play interaction very tightly, being very patient/cautious with your plays (I didn't *need* to interact with Drannith when it came out, I *let* Damia and Recycle resolve, etc.), you can stretch the power level of a deck to a higher stratification. When I'm playing Mono-White, I'm using this knowledge against my opponents, so it's not that White is good or TnT is good. TnT has a higher floor than White when it comes to performance, but in the right hands, it almost doesn't matter what deck is playing against you--you're now looking at the player instead. To top it off, this was a very demonstrative performance of this Emrakul proof-of-concept in a pod where everyone was play their own proof-of-concept decks (aside from Chad who is honestly playing a very real deck). There will be a follow-up episode where this deck *doesn't* necessarily perform as well as this. It may be too short for viewing but will definitely be available on Playing With Power's Patreon.
Fantastic write up!
This is an extremely impressive write-up and a very interesting strategy.
I have to wonder, though: does the deck rely on hard-casting Emrakul most of the time? At 13 mana, it's one of the most expensive wincons around, and it's not even an instant wincon.
@@therealax6 Emrakul’s cost is reduced by each card type in the graveyard, which was why I chose a multicolored deck like Midrange TnT as the shell since it’s easy to dump different cards types like Remora (an enchantment), Esper Sentinel (an artifact and a creature), and fetches into the bin. I stole Chad’s Ledger Shredder just so I could dig deeper *and* fill my graveyard with different card types. Even without delirium, Gaea’s Cradle itself allows me to cast Emrakul well already, and I upped the land count to 32 lands so I hit my land drops consistently every turn to make development and action (playing threats/interaction) happen more hand in hand.
I like this write up!
Appreciate the insights and break down. Interesting to see the few plays where game was really made or broken. Love seeing casual cards being used for great effect.
This is one of those games that actually ended several turns before the opponents officially lost
Sudden realization that Chain of Vapor while controlling an opponent's turn is a death sentence for that opponent...
I guess Drake discarded the Necro to the cyclonic rift earlier, but that would have been another instant KO.
I felt pain seeing that, so brutal!
@@chifii This is the thing about controlling turns: the outcome will always depend of what their board and hand is during that turn. With Chain of Vapor, however, you don't need to rely on their hand, since you can cast your own and get the same results.
The flipping the bird as he casts Swan Dong at 10:22 is big Charles energy.
Ah fuck.... Swan *SONG*.
@@surreal382nah, you got it right the first time
Big Bird energy in more ways than one
That was the most Ao the Dawn Sky win I've ever seen from a 4-color deck.
LMFAO GOATED COMMENT
Probably my favorite episode so far. Emrakul is so mean. Perfect for cedh
This is why you usually see Charles play mono white! Because giving him more colors let him destroys everyone in the pod!
Charles doesn’t play mono white for fun he plays mono white to give you a chance at winning
Charles went Nicol Bolas archenemy on this one. All should fear the mono white player who finally decides to play a multicolor deck. Plus flipping the BIRD when casting SWAN song at 10:25 was poetic. I started giggling uncontrollably when he hard casted an Emrakul and then proceeded to make Drale bounce his entire board and sac most of his lands through chain of vapor, that was just brutal.
It is always SUCH a delight seeing Charles sit down at a table. He never ceases to bring an entertaining game.
I haven't seen an Emrakul the promised end in these videos ever I think. Charles is a madman lol
This is already one of my favourite games of cEDH ever. Charles in absolute god mode, LOVE IT!
Gosh… that was a butt whoop’n! He pub stomped those poor boys.
I was hoping Charles deck was going to be secret Gitrog. Did not see the emrakul coming.
Charles' deck having "some wild lines" did not prepare me for what was about to happen
What a thorough ass kicking.
It’s now clear that Charles plays mono white to constrain his power. We should all be so lucky
Charles has ascended to a higher power level. I love it.
I wish we could watch this game with audio to hear the player interactions. Loved it. Gas. Go Charles!
Charles should be tried for committing crimes against humanity. That game was brutal, holy shit. Congrats to him on the win!
13:00 Chad casts Stomp on Target Insect lol
Charles is cracked at Magic
That Emrakul into Wishclaw into Chain of Vapor was devastating, brutal, and unfair. I was thoroughly impressed.
Charles as spicy lines when not in mono W
Very juicy win! 👀
That deck was so fucking sick lmao. I love Charles
This is a hilarious and grim demonstration that Charles is partially playing mono-white to keep things interesting for himself. This was an absolute demolition
There’s more to this game than just the cards/decks, and hopefully I’m showing that even with the same deck, the power level/performance can spike under different hands. Me playing White wasn’t to promote White as a color, but to highlight how we’re only scratching the surface of strategic thinking/gameplay in a 4-player game.
@@Ilvaldi It's an incredibly potent demonstration! It really goes to show that cEDH is nowhere _close_ to solved!
This game is a prime example of why it's often good to respect the 🐟
Watching Charles cast my favorite card of all time, (and my favorite commander of all time) Emrakul, I couldnt be happier and more pleased with this game
Much love for my first love Damia, and my current loves Thrasios + Tymna (which my Damia deck evolved into) :D
That was NOT how I was expecting this game to end! Holy cow.
10:25 my man Charles gave him the bird both on resolution of the spell and physically
Omg Charles that was just dirty!!! Holy cow! Very cool seeing him pilot a non mono white deck and man it was spicy! He had all the right draws and the right answers at the right time. Great game.
That was absolutely nuts!!!!
Charles had this game on LOCK holy smokes!
That's what you get when feeding a fish so much
@@douglatins Or leaving Seedborn Muse alive in a Thrasios deck
@@DarkEinherjar they tried to fight me for the Seedborn, but I had answers.
@@douglatins absolutely right. I think the biggest issue was that I was able to pay for fish at 4 cumulative upkeep. My opponents could only hold out for so long before they had to cast spells.
This is why Charles is such a beast at brewing. He used Emrukal to fuel his Seedborn. Lolz
Charles is an absolute mad man
That was absolutely hilarious! Charles was very entertaining.
Love that casual "fuck you" from Charles
Wow this was amazing!!! Loved it!
This is like when Bo Jackson said "hey, can I play baseball?"
I know I'm one of the ones who gets bored every time I see a Thoracle win, but Charles was just brutal. I need more.
That was so mean, the one drake turn with chain of vapor was brutal
Charles, your deck is awesome. Favorite Cedh deck ever
I will say this was the biggest beat down I've ever seen on this channel. All I gotta say is SHEEEEEEEESSSHH!
Incredible game to watch. Really great content!
Really enjoyed this video. Charles is a beast
I've never truly guffawed watching a game of cEDH... until now, that is.
What did I just watch? Charles should do a deck tech for that deck!
This game was super cruel lmao, good shit Charles
Well, Charles was deadly in mono white… now he’s deadlier with other colors… ❤ this guy!!!
My favorite vid of yours!!
You see, since Charles was in control of the table the entire game, his deck is simply a white deck in disguise.
How do I like a video twice? This was amazing!
"And this is what it means... to go even further beyond! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" - Charles
Omg 😱 Charles is a monster. Straight monster. I love it.
Charles with ALLLLLL the answers.
Charles aka the Chuck Norris of magic that was a master class on how to farm salt
Holy shit that was the coolest game in ages. And I don't even mind seeing Thoracle every game!
Old school Thras/Tym combo coming in and reminding everyone why they are the best commanders period lol.
charles rocked this game
This wasn't a game, it was just Charles manhandling the other three players.
The man is a menace, and my hero
(Crying) Stop, stop, they're already dead!
That was a spicy Tymna-Thrasios mamma mia
Charles has such mastery of this game that he intentionally limits himself to only white as that is the only way any game is fair against him
I 100% was thinking there might be a mono white deck with 4 color commanders as just combo and combat outlets
Wow did not see that game going like that. Honestly it shows to me at least that cedh is more about the synergy in the deck than anything. Never thought domia would be at a cedh table.
Super spicy game!
Omg what a bully! Charles had the perfect interaction and straight dominated. Love to see it
Man, Charles' deck is awesome...
That was a wild game, really loved the decks! Damia/Recylce is so good, just soooo expensive!
wow that game was brutal
Between Recycle and Emrakul, this game is SICK.
Never have I seen a table so thoroughly dicked down as I have just witnessed. 😳
holy fuck when he used chain of vapor/wishclaw after stealing control with emrakul
Nicol Bolas, is that you?
Charles is 1/2 machine 1/2 animal. All killer.
I never thought I would say this…but please go back to mono white, Charles. This was absolutely insane!
That was...brutal...holy shit.
Great game but quick question I’ve always been curious about. How do you determine which version of the card you show in the middle when resolving cards
We pull them through a service. It pulls all cards down through scryfall automatically
This was awesome.
Dang, a non-bo win.....that emrakul with chain of vapor is a death sentence whoever it gets pointed to
That escalated quickly...
Has anyone run hotter in you guys games than Charles in this one!? He had an answer EVERY SINGLE TIME! Wild
Charles shouldn’t be allowed access to more than one color at a time, that’s too much power for one mortal to bring to a cEDH pod
Goddamn that was.... GLORIOUS!
Just based on opening hands Charles expected that remora to carry and it definitely did. Sloppy play by the board openly casting into two fish I think
Ryan showed a lot of restraint on his plays, especially after Drannith came down (as he figured he didn’t need to overextend at that point). I think there was some expectation that either I was policing the table (which I was), or that Drake would also police me. One of the caveats was that Drake did not expect me to hold out Remora for so long past t3 and t4. At that point people had to develop their boards because I was so far ahead into it. And I think there was some presumption that at that point, I did have the removal/interaction to kill Drannith and pivot to a TnT gameplan, or go directly into a Thoracle finish. My opponents at that point needed to either present their win/go for it (like Chad’s Hermit Druid line), or set themselves up to interact and be ready to win themselves. The longer I’m not being interacted with by combat or removal, the more my board snowballed.
And you are very correct to mention how I leaned on Remora there. For some behind the scenes: I was hoping for Remora to mitigate a bit of my opening hand as I could cast into Thrasios and start accruing value into a midgame plan. I did not expect that I could hold the board hostage with Remora later on until after my first couple of draws, where then I changed my gameplan. Making a land drop every turn masked my reliance on mana dorks. A board wipe or 1 damage to all creatures in Mizzix would have drastically changed the texture of the game imo.
Hope that clarifies/adds on to what you’ve said!
good lord; killed each opponent differently to flex while controlling each of them SHEEEEESH
damn. Charles had all the answers all the time.
Wow...that was backbreaking.
Everyone claiming Charles is stronger with more colors, no. Charles has always been a competent pilot, playing other colors reflects this.
This looked like a super casual game where one player brought a CEDH deck by mistake
His power levels over 9000!!!!!
I hope Charles writes a primer. I play alot of TnT Druid but would love to try something new like this
Yay! More falco.
Now that is what i want to see in CEDH. Playing a card that makes people go oh fuck and then proceeding to steam roll everyone.
He had all counters all the game for every situation possible. Was nearly impossible to lose that game.
Even with that, it's need skill and knowledge to let some spells resolves.. Recycle or Drannith for example, if it's was me, I would tried to counter this aha