Summer League 2023 - Battlecruiser
In 2023, we started an EDH league for the power levels Battlecruiser, Low Power, and Mid Power. It didn’t seem logistically doable to make a tournament with time constraints for these power levels—PlayMAX has a 70-minute round timer—due to the slower nature of the decks being played there, and we were looking for a replacement for our monthly ‘Patreon Game Day’ and landed on the idea of a league.
This League is divided into three seasons per year. At the end of the season, players move to a top 16 within their power level and battle it out in a final match where one player per power level would be considered that season’s winner.
The League prizes rotate from season to season. The winners of the Summer League receive a set of 100 PlayEDH sleeves. In addition, everyone who made it to the top 4 in each power level receives a set of PlayEDH dice!
Exxaxl: Congratulations to our Summer League 2023 Battlecruiser (BC) winner, TwentySevenPennies, wait we’ve seen you before!
TwentySevenPennies: I’m very glad to be back, two League final wins in a row was not expected!
Exxaxl: I’m excited to highlight that an unedited precon stands a fighting chance in an environment we curate to allow for exactly that type of situation to happen. People unfamiliar with our power level structure can read up on what BC is on PlayEDH here). I know that a lot of people like the alternate commander/background option for that deck, though I assume you kept Firkraag, Cunning Instigator at the helm?
TwentySevenPennies: Firkraag is a bomb in BC. I would never call a 5-drop 3/3 a bomb usually, but the moment those +1/+1 counters start rolling in, it gets out of hand. I know how strong the card can be, so it was very much a deliberate choice to run Firkraag at the helm over Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer and Clan Crafter or the other options.
Exxaxl: Is there a reason you chose to keep the precon boxed and unedited over changing the deck to be more personal to you? Your previous deck we talked about – Volo, Guide to Monsters, which won Spring League 2023 – made it feel like self-expression, flavor, and theme mattered to you.
TwentySevenPennies: The difference between a really strong BC deck and an unedited precon is still there, and I think Firkraag is the perfect middle ground. There’s only five cuts I’d make if I was going to make changes to it. It has a really coherent theme that is unusual for precons. More and more we’re seeing precons that have a good theme and they stick to it well. Even just a couple of years ago, it wasn’t quite that way. Precons might have worked well together mechanically, but the theme or flavor was lacking. I’m a big DnD fan which I’ve already talked about at length in the previous article, and Firkraag does come from the Forgotten Realms universe.
Exxaxl: Are there specific cards or interactions between cards in the boxed precon you’d like to highlight? Something someone who just bought the deck might not have thought about or seen played out yet? I’ve already talked about the CLB precons on our website before, but those articles are always from a bystander, goldfishing and ‘observing the list’ point of view.
TwentySevenPennies: I like Spectacular Showdown, but not necessarily overloaded. I almost never play it as a finisher. Target your own creature and goad it. Some people seem to not catch on that Firkraag will also trigger if your own creatures had to attack. If they have no blocker, get two +1/+1 counter triggers and draw two cards with Firkraag. You don’t have to rely on your opponents creatures to get Firkraag to work.
Terrain Generator is a way better card in this deck than you might initially think. If Firkraag sticks around, you’re going to be drawing more cards than you think. Having the option to play more lands from hand feels great, because you will have lands to spare.
Another card I really like is Artificer Class. Level it up to Level 3, copy Stuffy Doll, cast Blasphemous Act, shoot 26 damage. Don’t underestimate the copy ability of the card, even though it’s not the most amazing card.
Dissipation Field is another card I like a lot. ‘Oh, you’re swinging, but I assume not at me?’ Since people might not have the mana to recast their creature. It can backfire though, which it did in the finals game. One of my opponents had some enters-the-battlefield (ETB) effects they wanted to repeat, which Dissipation Field allowed for.
Overall, I feel the deck as a whole has a good goad shell. When the deck initially released, people seemed to discredit the deck a little bit. ‘It wants to be dragons, it wants to goad, this deck doesn’t look great’. Draconic Dissent has a fantastic goad shell, with a good goad-enabeling commander, which can enable a goad engine itself, even if there aren’t any other creatures on your own battlefield.
Exxaxl: You said you’d only make five cuts if you were to change up the deck. What would those cards be and why?
TwentySevenPennies: Clan Crafter is very much designed to work with Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer. You need both at the same time, or you’re not going to make enough artifacts for Clan Crafter to do its thing. I’ve had games where I ended up having to sacrifice my own Arcane Signet to draw a card, which doesn’t feel great. I do think Baeloth on its own is still very good, but as a standalone card, Clan Crafter isn’t that great in the boxed precon.
I’d take out Thunder Dragon. For seven mana, a 5/5 body that shoots ‘some’ damage doesn’t feel all that impactful. The times I had it in my hand, it was underwhelming when it resolved.
Will Kenrith can likely go, though I'd keep Rowan Kenrith around. He doesn’t actually do all that much in the precon. His +2 ability temporarily strips two creatures of their abilities. They go back to normal one turn later. I’d prefer to have some actual removal in hand instead. Rowan has a pseudo-goad effect on first activation. I’m aware the +2 ability is similar to what Thunder Dragon did, but creatures without vigilance are going to be tapped on my opponents boards anyhow if they had to swing during their turn. I feel it hits more creatures than Thunder Dragon does.
It might be controversial, but I don’t like Hedron Archive. The deck can feel color-pip heavy at times and this card doesn’t color fix. I also feel Kher Keep, the land, doesn’t do all that much in this deck. Sure, it makes a 0/1 blocker, but I’ve never really felt like I needed to have those Kobolds available as blockers, be that to protect my life total or the planeswalkers in the deck. If I could cut a 6th card, it’s Temple of the False God. Give me an actual land that makes mana on its own please, I don’t like it in my opening hand, and it feels like I have to mulligan twice as much when it’s in your initial hand.
Exxaxl: Temple of the False God is keepable in your opening hand if you have five lands in your opening hand…but having five lands in your opening hand feels like it should already be a mulligan. You don’t want to ‘land, pass, go’ for five turns in a row. Which cards would you add to the deck now that you have five open spots?
TwentySevenPennies: Coronation of Chaos to add an extra goad effect for a low mana cost. The deck has a mix of goad and ‘goad adjacent’ effects like ‘must attack next turn’, and Coronation feels like a strong effect for its mana value You get a lot of combat related triggers when opponents are forced to attack.
Komainu Battle Armor on a flying Dragon would be fantastic, because it goads one opponent's entire board. There’s plenty of big evasive bodies to put this equipment on in the precon, so the chances of connecting with it are quite high.
Life of the Party gives my opponents a creature that’s goaded for the remainder of the game. The first strike makes it able to survive in combat and it looks like it’s a fun way to get more mandatory swing triggers.
Popular Entertainer would be a good additional effect with Firkraag. I’d get double the goad potential from swinging myself, meaning it’s harder to swing back into me, meaning more +1/+1 counters and more card draw from Firkraag. It’s important to keep Firkraag on board for the deck to work properly and if I can protect him from getting removed, I will. He tends to stick around for a long time, so adding another effect onto my commander seems smart.
And lastly Oceanus Dragon, mostly for flavor. It’s not the strongest card, but it’s a dragon that goads from the Baldur’s Gate set so it fits in nicely with the theme. We took out a dragon, so adding a new one back in feels like the right thing to do.
Exxaxl: Were there any memorable plays during the final game? Be those plays made by yourself or others.
TwentySevenPennies: The main thing that made me win the game was that the Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir player had an early start with a turn one Sol Ring. He accelerated hard, and got ahead of the rest in mana, which turned a lot of attention their way. Capitalizing on the fact my opponent has a big board so I have enough creatures to goad, helps the deck win games.
Because he had to swing his board, he had no creatures left to block. And because his board was the largest, people started hitting him when his board was tapped down. Geode Rager really helped me goad that player consistently, which is also why I highlighted Terrain Generator earlier. Both combined make for some nice goading in a singular turn rotation.
Turn 7 someone boardwiped, and I was scared that if this boardwipe resolved, they’d take away my prime goad target, the Sidar Jabari player. In the end, I was pleased the boardwipe actually happened, because me goading the Sidar Jabari player meant my other two opponents' life totals were going down fast. Maybe a little too fast, and when I’m left in a 1v1 situation, those goaded creatures will be coming my way.
The Sidar Jabari player did rebuild quite fast. Don’t underestimate that card’s eminence ability. But the boardwipe did mean the deck slowed down, which is what I needed at the time. It gave me time to replay Firkraag. In the end, we were the final two players alive, and I drew into The Akroan War. You don’t get counters on Firkraag if you get hit, so Firkraag becomes worse when it’s down to you and a final opponent. The saga being able to take his commander, which also enabled a lot of the deck, meant he had to boardwipe again, and he spent a lot of resources rebuilding the turn prior. After that wipe, I was able to rebuild with flying creatures which he couldn’t block and that’s what won me the game in the end.
It was a very fun and interesting game, it felt like I had to make a lot of choices while playing. Do I hold back? Is a boardwipe coming? What’s the correct creature to goad? I’m holding a boardwipe in my hand, is now the right time to commit to it or do I wait a little bit longer. I quickly caught on to ‘it’s going to be between me and Sidar Jabari, what can I keep in my hand so that I eventually win?’. Goblin Spymaster helped close out the game. He was forced to swing out at me with smaller Knights into my Dragons, which meant combat went in my favor.
I’m looking forward to the Fall League. If you’re already active on PlayEDH, I encourage you to join the League and take part in order to gain access to additional deck checks and earn the chance to compete for prizes. See you next time!
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