"EDH Battles:The Elemental , Zombie Troll and Vampire"

"Watch me grow big..."

"EDH Battles:The Elemental , Zombie Troll and Vampire"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

It was my first time to bring my Skull Briar deck to a 1 on 1 EDH tournament. It was there that I again fell in love with this deck. I am a Necromancer and this is by far the most aggressive Reanimator deck that I have done. Though I was not able to go out on top I did see some spectacular plays with the consistent Skull Briar , Lotleth Troll and Necropolis Regent holding hands and dishing out pain.

The addition of the Vampire was sealed the first time I saw her. She even mocks Jarad in her flavor text but reinforces the Scavenge mechanic for the Golgari. Perfect. 

In my games turn 3 is where the magic happens so one of the games went like this and it was a heart pounding turn 3 for me!

Turn 1: Play Swamp. Done

Turn 2: Play Forest. Cast Lotleth Troll. Done

Turn 3: Play Swamp. Cast Skullbriar. 

- Discard Necropolis Regent to Lotleth Troll, put +1/+1 counter on it. 

- Cast Reanimate. Take 6 damage.Put Necropolis Regent in play.

- Attack.

- Damage with Lotleth Troll - 3 , Skull Briar - 1

- Skull Briar - trigger ability to put 1 +1/+1 counter , trigger Necropolis Regent ability put 2 +1/+1. Skull Briar is now 4/4.

- Lotleth Troll -  trigger Necropolis Regent ability put 3 +1/+1 counters. Lotleth Troll is now 6/6

- Necropolis Regent just stands around and looks at all the +1/+1 counters she has created.

"She is my Regent Cakes...She makes everyone fat."

Opponent: 1 Commander Damage , 4 Normal damage.

Turn 4: Play Swamp. Attack with 3 creatures.

- Skull Briar - trigger ability to put 1 +1/+1 counter (Now has 4 counters on it), trigger Necropolis Regent ability put 4 +1/+1 counters. Skull Briar is now 9/9.

"I love eating hearts..."

- Lotleth Troll -  trigger Necropolis Regent ability put 6 +1/+1 counters. Lotleth Troll is now 12/12.

- Necropolis Regent triggers her own ability and  6 +1/+1 counters. Her grin grows a lot bigger and she shows more of her fangs. She is now 12/ 13. 

Opponent: 4 Commander Damage. 16 Normal damage.

Turn 5: Opponent concedes since he is now facing a combined 33 points of damage and in 1 on 1 EDH you only have 30 lives.

Through out the games Skull Briar and Lotleth Troll would come out to shock opponents. A 5/4 Lotleth Troll is usually enough to knock out 40 life points but one of opponent was so so surprised when I discarded my whole hand of 6 creatures to make him a mencing 8/7 creature with Regenerate that could end his life in 5 turns! Makes me wish he had Infect too. As spectacular as the play was EDH games does not end when your first threats appear. It is a progressive dance of Threat/Counter Threat that goes on until players no longer have threats or responses are exhausted. The inability to respond or put on threats determines the victors.

"Excuse me as I take your permanents..."

An early threat without a response  , spells outright disaster like in a recent game where It that Betrays was discarded to Lotleth Troll on turn 3 and reanimated by the Split Card  Life/ Death (Death Part). By this time my opponent played his second land and had no other permanent on the board. He was facing an It that Betrays that would take his two lands and delay him even more. There was no choice but to scoop up cards and hurt me in the next game which he did.

I do love these Three guys but the deck does have its all set of heroes that come out in every game. There is none in the deck that puts on so much pressure as the Haste Skull Briar that can be killed but can Return to kill you at any turn. There is always room for improvement but in the mean time I am happy with the speed and power that these 3 have shown and I will be able to improve them as new tech becomes available. 

The Elemental , Zombie Troll and Vampire would always have more tales. This is merely one of them.