Gaddock Teeg

[Finn]

Hey fellas. My casual group has now gone into EDH fully for now. I hope we keep this format for awhile. So, I have six games under my belt now. All three weeks it has been the same story. One particular player wins as the game goes long because his deck is designed to do the most broken things of all. It's all bombs. Another guy is fond of few permanents with mana accel, sweepers, and mass sorcery kills. There is another player bringing Kaervek with lots of nasty hate for search, mana supply, life gain, etc. Another player is going aggro. My generic Oloro deck has been fun and effective, but I can't compete in the long game with the all-bombs deck because the other players prevent me from getting anything going to take him out, presumably because they do not understand that they can't win with him alive. Whatever. I have won the two games when Mr. Bombs is not present.

I have a plan for next week designed to rein in these players who are aiming too high: Gaddock Teeg

What would you put into this deck?

[Megadeus]

An aggro type deck or a midrangey deck with ways to protect teeg seems good

[FTW]

Teeg is pretty flexible, anything low-curve and creature-based. I'd be really tempted to just play 100-card Maverick. GW hatebears, card advantage, protection, efficient midrange beaters. Maybe an Armageddon or 2. The problem then is not getting everyone to gang up on you, but it sounds like that is happening anyway.

[kombatkiwi]

Teeg is pretty flexible, anything low-curve and creature-based. I'd be really tempted to just play 100-card Maverick. GW hatebears, card advantage, protection, efficient midrange beaters. Maybe an Armageddon or 2. The problem then is not getting everyone to gang up on you, but it sounds like that is happening anyway.

Teeg seems kind of awkward for the multiplayer games that it sounds like you're playing. Trying to roll with hatebears is okay but unless you're super confident you can lock your opponents out of doing anything you're still going to lose to bombs-guy over and over. Even hateful bears aren't threatening when people have 40 life. Your opponent is (or opponents are) going to have time to find removal and when he does he's got a hand full of 6-drops while you draw into 2/2s.

If all the decks in your playgroup are built so wonky that they actually just can't answer a Teeg then you can probably get a bunch of free wins with a few hatebears and some equipments but it won't take long before people realise that StP, Go for the Throat etc are cards.

TL:DR Ideas like "low curve" and "aggro" don't work in multiplayer

[Offler]

When I first saw Gaddock Teeg I thought it will be widely played in EDH duels but it never happened.

From perspective of my black vampire deck:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?20395-EDH-Anowon-The-ruin-sage

It could be troublesome for some important cards, but the deck is mostly creature based. If Gaddock will be token based then it will be interesting.

However... Child of Alara is one of the reasons why was Gaddock never played in my group. Also cards like Oblivion ring sealed his fate...

[Davran]

I would actually suggest something like Saffi Eriksdotter as your general with Mr. Teeg as part of your 99. Saffi gives you easy access to lots of combo finishes if that's your thing, and she's also built in protection for whatever dorks/bombs you want to keep around. A few all start in my Saffi list are:

Aven Mindcensor
Reveillark
Karmic Guide
Eternal Witness
Eladamri's Call
Sun Titan
Martyr's Bond
Aura Shards
Adarkar Valkyrie

You could also take the Birthing Pod route - both Saffi and the Valkyrie can "save" the guys you pod away while granting you another ETB trigger. If you really want to go whole hog, Strionic Resonator will let you double up on triggers. Other than that, you've got your usual green and white staples.

If you're really set on Gaddok Teeg, I would suggest running Shield of the Oversoul since it helps keep him alive.

[Ace/Homebrew]

I'll second the Shield recommendation.

I would use:
Survival of the Fittest
Fauna Shaman
Birthing Pod *
And a bunch of toolbox creature cards.

Can we know more about Mr. Bombs? Who's his general? What are some of the bombs?

I would actually recommend Captain Sisay over Teeg. That way you can find Teeg if he'll win you the game, otherwise you can find any other game winning legend (Jitte, Elesh, Iona, Saffi whatever...). I have seen Sisay pilots slow roll by tutoring for nothing but lands early on (Yavimaya Hollow, Gaea's Cradle). A lot of the Saffi combo pieces are good on their own (Sun Titan, Karmic Guide, Reveillark) and if you find one you can tutor for the Saffi win.

*Pod is blocked by Teeg...

Glad to hear you are enjoying your time with EDH! Now is the time to put on your political pants. :wink:
If someone at the table wins half the games you've played with them, everyone else at the table should know before you draw your first card. Don't protest too much, but if you put the bug in everyone's ear from the start, they will be wary of Mr. Bombs.

[Finn]

Thanks for the sound advice.


Teeg seems kind of awkward for the multiplayer games that it sounds like you're playing. Trying to roll with hatebears is okay but unless you're super confident you can lock your opponents out of doing anything you're still going to lose to bombs-guy over and over. Even hateful bears aren't threatening when people have 40 life. Your opponent is (or opponents are) going to have time to find removal and when he does he's got a hand full of 6-drops while you draw into 2/2s.
If all the decks in your playgroup are built so wonky that they actually just can't answer a Teeg then you can probably get a bunch of free wins with a few hatebears and some equipments but it won't take long before people realise that StP, Go for the Throat etc are cards.
This is my concern as well. I have a lot of experience with this phenomenon in fact. My gamble is that the format IS completely out of bounds in that regard. There is virtually no spot removal and plenty of mass removal. I would not mind in the least if my deck works for a week or two and then I lose because players come with more reasonable decks.


However... Child of Alara is one of the reasons why was Gaddock never played in my group. Also cards like Oblivion ring sealed his fate... <-this. Mr. Bombs is using this as his commander, and it is certainly effective.

After reading these comments, my thought is actually that I don't have to make the deck either low curve or even aggro. The expensive cards just have to be creatures. What might be handy are more creatures that duplicate his effect in some fashion, and are bonafide finishers.

[Offler]

Actually this is only second time I ever heard that somebody really plays Child of Alara as his commander, even when google returns a lot of different decks. The truth is that playing this commander is not as easy as it may look. People use add "banal responses" from each color, why they dont have clear idea about winning strategy.

In case of my co-player its based on sweeper-control and reanimation combo. Whatever dies due Child of Alara, or is discarded via Intuition, Fact or Fiction or Gamble WILL return and will interact in a combo. People who say, that Commander needs more control havent played against this type of deck.

I have chosen two different strategies against this type of deck. First is black Anowon deck with cards like Sorin Markov and Exanguinate. Usually its combined with combat damage...

Second is Teferi with Vanishing. This usually assures that I am immune against normal control. However Child can be sacrificed anytime. At all I have to complete my combo within

Another type of control I have seen against Child of Alara is Land destruction. My co-player use a lot of old duals which costed him fortune. Destroying them or making them unusable with Mana web or Quicksilver fountain should work, however removal of artifacts is just a matter of playing Austere Command. In Red/Black is should be even more effective, but green/white... I am not so sure...

There are also different methods, when Child of Alara will survive anything and will simply not go to grave. Any white removal (instant) which will force controller to put it to command zone, something that assures that child will not be sacrificed in response (and thats hard task when sacrifice is usually cost, not effect). Making enemy commander indestructible ... well. lets say its crazy method, but it will prevent to sweep the board...

[Megadeus]

Why not just cast Blood moon and win the game?

[Pastorofmuppets]

You could run Sisay, and have Teeg in your toolbox.

[Finn]

I'm definitely going to have Sisay. I don't know how much I like her as commander though. My stuff often does not last until my next untap. This will be an experiment then. To see how far a meta has to go to make Teeg a good choice with this as an example of extreme. Unlike Offler's scenario, Mr. Bombs with Child of Alara does not have many duals. He has already had to adapt to account for the Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Price of Progress, and Ruination his wife is using in her nasty Kaervek pile. Armageddon probably makes sense though.