More Commander

Played some more games today with both Gisela and Mayael.

On the Mayael side of things, Primeval Titan is still pulling his weight like a champ. Avacyn, Angel of Hope has been seeing the board a lot lately as well, and she's vying for the title of "Best creature in deck." I've been consistently impressed with her mass indestructibility. On the downside, I have yet to activate Slayers' Stronghold, despite drawing it in two or three games. I'll give it some more time, but so far I'm not sold. So far it's just a much worse version of Winding Canyons.

Oh, also, I added Shelter to the deck. Otherworldly Journey has been one of my favorite pieces of tech for a while now, and I've found myself wanting an additional copy. Shelter isn't quite as flexible for protecting my guys from mass removal or from non-targeted removal like edicts; it can't reuse enters-the-battlefield triggers; it can't regain control of a stolen creature; it can't remove auras or counters from an opponent's creature. However, it does draw a card, and it's a little better as a combat trick. We'll see how it pans out. I chose it over Faith's Shield or Stave Off or Apostle's Blessing because drawing a card is nice and Mayael's curve can afford to pay two mana instead of one (play Mayael at 5 with two up, activate her next turn at 6). I could see the other choices being good too: Faith's Shield can protect my noncreature permanents if necessary; Apostle's Blessing can be cast for colorless if I don't have extra white, can protect my artifacts, and can give protection from artifacts; and Stave Off can target an opponent's creature. I really wish that I could just play a second copy of Otherworldly Journey instead, though.

With Gisela, not much to say. The deck still needs some tuning, and to be honest, I still need some practice piloting it--I'm having difficulty sequencing my plays. Mostly, I feel like I'm either playing Armageddons too soon or not soon enough. A perfectly timed Geddon is a beautiful thing, but it's harder than I thought it would be to pull it off.

I did manage to get my first Heartless Hidetsugu one-shot, though. Played Hidetsugu and Gisela on the same turn with Anger in the graveyard and opponents all tapped out at even life totals. Tap Hidetsugu, 40 damage to all of them, 9 damage to me, boom! Good game. I'm sure that'll get old at some point, but I was grinning, I'll tell you that.