Swan Song is rarely played, but fits the theme of this deck.

Phantasmal Image?

I miss the way they did precons. In the original precons, all the psychographs were represented. (Johnny would have a field day with all but the Mardu deck.) Here's how they stacked up:

Kaalia of the Vast Timmy and Spike

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Timmy

Basandra, Battle Seraph Spike

Riku of Two Reflections Timmy and Johnny

Animar, Soul of Elements Timmy and Spike

Edric, Spymaster of Trest Spike

Ghave, Guru of Spores All three (Johnny likes the "combos with anything" nature of Ghave; Spike likes the sac outlet and the fact that you can use any +1/+1 counter for Ghave's abilities; Timmy likes an army of mushroom people.)

Karador, Ghost Chieftain Spike

Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter Spike

Zedruu the Greathearted *f-etch* Johnny

Ruhan of the Fomori Spike

Nin, the Pain Artist Johnny and Spike

The Mimeoplasm Johnny and Spike

Damia, Sage of Stone Spike

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave Timmy and Spike

Not that it was all Timmy and Johnny; the first precons did include a reprint of Skullclamp after all.

Look at the last precons? All eight of the new legends were designed for Spike. Where's the room for creativity on the part of players?

I admit that some of the changes to EDH have been fine. (I joke that nobody used instants before 2014. Which is somewhat true, people were more concerned with card advantage with their answers than they were with actual, you know, answers.) But I would like some legends to be designed for Johnny or Timmy.

Didn't they already print Cyclonic Rift in a precon, though? (My tokens still hurt from that.) For WotC, precons are a perfect place to print powerful (but not broken) cards that won't see Standard again any time soon, or "good in EDH, bad elsewhere" cards.

You also get chaff with those chase cards, but that's a standard Magic hazard.

Okay, thanks. That makes more sense. I forgot unmodified precons. Which is funny, since I ran the unmodified The Mimeoplasm deck at the original Commander release. (The days when most precons were about Johnny.)

Kyren Negotiations is interesting for token decks. "Some call us Tim." And it's another one that doesn't care about summoning sickness.

Yeah, but they've printed strictly better cards for some time. The Reserved List is the only exception, and it's more cards like Thunder Spirit that they would reprint if they could; limited could really use a 2/2 flying first striker for 3 mana.

The question I have is how to tell these tiers. Once you start getting more than two tiers, one for casual and one for cEDH, it becomes just vibes.

It's kind of necessary? In light of recent events, I'd rather have people who can properly, legally, answer death threats and such. I'm not sure about four tiers; I could argue for two tiers, casual and cEDH, but that's just me.

Oh, that ;] isn't winking; it's just a typo.

Mostly it was because these cards were so high in price, and now, as I said, Jeweled Lotus is literally worthless (from $90), so, no, I don't think Pauper will attract this particular madness.

Death threats, man, that's when it stops being fun;]. I always liked what Hideaki Anno did when he received death threats for the ending to Neon Genesis Evangelion by showing them in the sequel? (Really, what is the word for what End of Evangelion is?) So, until (if) the RC ever returns, I trust WotC to be good caretakers of the format. (And have many lawyers in case anyone pulls this kind of stunt again.)

Back to the topic at hand, I do wonder what red'll do now that Dockside Extortionist is banned.

I remember for some reason thinking "wurm" meant worm and not wyrm. But I knew Craw Wurm wasn't that good; everyone had a bunch of them, so it had to be printed at a higher frequency or something. (We hadn't figured out that rarity involved multiple sheets.)

Jund is an interesting color combination for werewolves. I must say, I haven't played wereewolves since going 0/3 in a draft with them in the original ISD. Is this for Modern or Pioneer? Because I have suggestions for Modern.

Or if it did 3 with no coin flip. But we can't develop these cards.

ABUR duals are kind of interesting. They're probably the most overrated cards and I only use them because I got them (for Type 1.x/Extended and Type 1.5/Legacy) back when they were under $100, showing my age; they're good, but not as busted as people think. I would argue for banning Gaea's Cradle (which I also have) first because frankly, if the mana scales, you have to keep an eye on it in this format. Or players (not the RC, they seem to understand this, but players don't) can just admit some land destruction is healthy for the game; you just have to follow a few rules to keep it fun.

@Caerwyn: Exactly. I'd argue that free mana (excepting Lotus Petal maybe) is inherently OP. Notice that the Power Nine includes no fewer than six free mana artifacts. Would it make a lot of people who have Mana Crypt or Jeweled Lotus happy? Obviously it didn't. (Jeweled Lotus in particular is literally worthless now, but that's the cost of thinking of Magic cards as an "investment". The same thing happened to comic books in the 90s and nearly destroyed the industry.)

The RC can't make everyone happy. I'm still smarting over the ban on Primeval Titan and later, Sylvan Primordial; I'm eyeing Overlord of the Hauntwoods with skepticism because it so reminds me of PT. (At the time my reasoning was that ramp at six or seven mana isn't bannable when mana accel for free is still in the game; all mana accel is very dependent on mana cost.) But I understand why the ban was done, and you know? These new bans suggest the RC is starting to agree with me, by simply banning Mana Crypt and the like as well.

TBH, I usually don't support bans, but in Mana Crypt's case, yeah, it's arguably past time. And I've done basic land, Sol Ring, signet once, but at least I couldn't play anything else with my four mana that turn. Mana Crypt is arguably worse since you now have three mana available on turn 1.

Jeweled Lotus has the same problems as all lotoi: Three mana for nothing is just too much.

Mortlocke says... "This new found RC philosophy which desires to force players into slower games might continue with the sudden banning additional favorites like Mana Drain, Sylvan Library, or Smothering Tithe."

That's actually pretty funny, I actually think of Sylvan Library as somewhat overrated. It's great if you can either double your card draw or consistently scry/reshuffle the rejected cards away, but otherwise, you will have the same two remaining cards, just with a new one on the bottom. Unless you're paying 4 (or 8) life every turn.

I guess it's just that I tried putting the band lands in Captain Sisay and it never worked out for me.

Speaking of lands, Primal Order is a hilariously colorpie-breaking hoser you can put in a monogreen deck. (I wouldn't dare put it in any deck I play a lot of duals.) The cool thing about it is, a lot of players pimp out their mana base with nonbasics just because they can, putting in OG duals (if they can afford them), shocks, painlands, fetchlands, filter lands, and maybe even checklands (even though this mana base looks like checklands would almost always enter tapped). Then they get hit with 10+ every turn. And to think it's from Homelands.