Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel | Art by John Avon
Hello, and welcome to Am I the Bolas? This week, on-board trickery!
This column is for all of you out there who have ever played some Magic and wondered if you were the bad guy. I'm here to take in your story with all of its nuances so I can bring some clarity to all those asking, "Am I the Bolas?"
I'm ready to hear you out and offer advice. All you have to do is email amithebolas@gmail.com with your story, a pseudonym you want to use, and, of course, only include details you don't mind in the column! You might see your story below one day. You might even hear it on the podcast. Which podcast?
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I'm Mike Carrozza, and it looks like some big-boned boys got ourselves a card!
Titanbones, Towering Heart
TITANBONES! TITANBONES! TITANBONES!
(Post edited for brevity, clarity, and then some.)
SUBMISSION
Hi, Mike
I had an incident at my LGS probably around a month ago that keeps coming back in my mind on whether or not I might be the Bolas.
I was playing Saturday Night Commander with my husband at our local LGS that we frequent. We waited for a short while to try and find a third and fourth player and eventually we got a couple of people to play with us. One was a person we'd played with before. The fourth player just arrived at the store. We hadn't played with him before and he said he was pretty new to this particular LGS, only having been there once or so before. This is the player I had the incident with.
We agreed to play a bit higher power decks, something along the high Bracket 3/low Bracket 4, but still pretty casual Commander. I had built a Kambal, Profiteering MayorKambal, Profiteering Mayor deck a few weeks prior and never had a chance to play it, so I figured this was a perfect opportunity. My husband was playing The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman (Bracket 4 due to infinite combos), the third player we'd played with before was playing Teval, the Balanced ScaleTeval, the Balanced Scale, and the fourth player that said he was new to the LGS decided to play Prosper, Tome-BoundProsper, Tome-Bound. I had already decided to play Kambal and was shuffling the deck long before I knew he was playing Prosper, but once I explained what Kambal did he commented on how bad that might be for him with Prosper's Treasure generation. Either way, we started the game. Kambal, Profiteering Mayor
Unfortunately for my husband and the Teval player, they kept less-than-ideal opening hands and were mana bricked the whole game, both of them missing one of the colors they needed for their three-color commanders. This Commander game was more or less Me vs. The Prosper Player. I had a very good board state, with cards like Suture PriestSuture Priest, Elas il-Kor, Sadistic PilgrimElas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, Cruel CelebrantCruel Celebrant, Kambal, Voice of VictoryVoice of Victory, and Charismatic ConquerorCharismatic Conqueror. He ended up exiling and stealing my Charismatic ConquerorCharismatic Conqueror with Tibalt, Cosmic ImposterTibalt, Cosmic Imposter. His own board presence was becoming extremely powerful with the amount of Treasure he was generating and exiled cards he had access to. He was to the point where he could easily play four or more spells a turn with the resources at his disposal. I was holding my own, slugging down the other players and gaining loads of life with my own group slug effects. Earlier in the game, I had played a Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel and verbally declared it when I played it. I'm unsure if the Prosper player heard me, it's possible he was distracted reading cards or talking to another player. Just for reference, the Prosper player had a WastelandWasteland on the field at the ready. On one turn, I threw the tokens generated from Voice of VictoryVoice of Victory's mobilize ability at Tibalt, knowing he could easily block and kill them, mostly just for Kambal and group slug triggers. As soon as combat ended, I remembered I had Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel and kicked myself for not using it (but didn't say anything to the table out loud, just thought about the misplay in my head). When it got back to my turn, I saw the opportunity again to try and kill Tibalt and threw Voice of VictoryVoice of Victory itself plus the two mobilize tokens at Tibalt with completely open mana. He blocked all three with three different creatures, some of which were important to him, like XornXorn. I then activated Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel to give them deathtouch and kill all three of his creatures. When he realized what I did, he claimed he had no idea I had Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel. He immediately scooped and expeditiously packed all of his stuff to leave the store. As he was walking past me to leave, he patted me on the back and said something along the lines of, "You know, giving warning to other players you have something like that can go a long way." I definitely understand giving warnings in a casual environment if an opponent makes a misplay to help them out, like a player attacking into you when you have a creature that could easily block and kill theirs. But to me, the Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel was a combat trick and not something I'd consider giving warning about. To his credit, the Vault wasn't at the top of my mana piles as I usually stack my lands in columns of about ~4 lands with the name of each land visible and I don't separate utility lands into different piles or anything. But he did have a WastelandWasteland he could've used to blow it up for several turns and never did, so it's very possible he didn't know I had it despite me verbally declaring it when I played it initially. No idea if he was waiting for something more egregious to come out, like a Field of the DeadField of the Dead, as that card was the specific example he'd given when he originally played Wasteland to put everyone's mind at ease about it being on the field. Pretty much everyone else around our table that witnessed the event said I hadn't done anything wrong, but I feel bad about the incident as it might discourage that player from ever returning to that LGS. Should I have warned that player I had a Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel before he declared his blockers? Am I the Bolas? Apologies for the long post, I did feel there might be a fair amount of minor details that add up to being important in the Bolas determination.
Thanks,
Fisticuffs McGee Sr. III
VERDICT
Thank you for writing and asking me to weigh in on your story. As I mention every week, if folks don't write to me, there's no column, so if you, the reader, want to send me a story, whether it's your own or one from Reddit or a friend's, please send it to amithebolas@gmail.com and I'll get to it here.
I can appreciate that playing some Bracket 4 Commander tends to be more competitive than lower brackets, but it's not automatically a competitive format. It's a little more cutthroat than the spirit of Brackets 1 and 2, certainly, but I feel like making sure people are informed of on-board effects maintains your integrity and the integrity of the win you're chasing. I definitely see both sides to this coin. If you announced it when it was first played and your opponent ignored it because they were distracted by their phone, then I think there's a disrespect at play here and that sucks. However, it is on you to make sure people know what's in play.
It boils down to this passage here:
"Earlier in the game, I had played a Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel and verbally declared it when I played it. I'm unsure if the Prosper player heard me, it's possible he was distracted reading cards or talking to another player. Just for reference, the Prosper player had a WastelandWasteland on the field at the ready."
If you're unsure whether your opponent heard you mention a card that'd be so easily lost in the shuffle of the big board state, especially among your lands, it is absolutely on you to ensure your opponents know that it hit the board. I get that it might feel annoying to have to take the high road if your opponent was on their phone or whatever, but it's the right thing to do. As much as your opponent should make sure that you know WastelandWasteland was played, you should make sure they confirm they know about the Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel.
You shouldn't have to remind them in a more competitive setting, but in order to get away with not doing so is to absolve yourself of any possible accusation of trickery or hiding your utility land. So while I don't believe you're the Bolas, your thumb is on the wrong side of the scale. When you used the Vault was not a Bolas moment, but not making sure Prosper heard you set you up to look like a villain later on.
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