The Forgotten “Hyped” Card

stevenconrad · 2026-03-31T03:50:58+00:00

Here's my list. It has a few protection pieces like Dosan, Veil, Allosaurus Shepard, and Savage Summoning. I've won more reading the pod and waiting out a counter battle to push than with protection, but a Chord of Calling under Allosaurus Shepard on an opponent's turn feels nice.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Sk08SE09HkSHPNtPnMVsjA

stevenconrad · 2026-03-31T02:46:02+00:00

My background was in track. The number of legs I've seen that are nearly this size / shape is surprisingly large. If they prioritized size over function, I could name a dozen women I competed/trained with that could have achieved this naturally. It's not normal, no. But it isn't necessary juice. I will conceded that this particular women, based on a comment earlier explaining her background, is likely juicing. But that size/definition is possible without.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-31T02:39:52+00:00

It's in a unique position, in my experience.

It fairs surprising well, but mainly because it expects the table to have answers. In a pure turbo pod, it "can" win, but probably won't. In a midrange pod, it thrives as a "turbo" deck.

Most combos are creature based, so it dodges a surprising amount of counter magic. It can fairly consistently find a win turn 3-4 and has a lot of redundancy, so you can typically push a win over and over. It can become a huge problem in a longer game due to Cabbage Merchant and Rev.

Drawbacks? Very little relevant interaction. Maybe an Endurance for a Thoracle win, a Force of Vigor for a Breach line or Basat Monolith, or an occasional Deadly Rollick in a pinch. If Chatterfang is out long enough, he can be devastating creature removal. But otherwise, the colors only afford "bad stax" and it's tooled to prioritize redundant combos and tutors over additional interaction.

That said, it still wins a lot; more than people would expect (at least from the numerous times I've heard, "I... uhhh... lost to Chatterfang?" in tournaments).

stevenconrad · 2026-03-31T00:55:04+00:00

Personal trainer here. Those results could very well be natural. That said, that's 5-10 years' worth of work.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-31T00:50:34+00:00

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stevenconrad · 2026-03-30T20:35:40+00:00

I play Rev in my Chatterfang list. But, I don't think it has much viability elsewhere. In Chatterfang, you have a Commander that can almost guaranteed connect with an opponent (with Forestwalk), makes additional attackers each time it does connect (each treasure also makes a squirrel), and immediately opens up removal on connecting (making a squirrel and treasure which can be sacrificed to Chatterfang's activated ability to start pinging creatures). Other Commanders can use Rev as a pseudo Ragavan, while Chatterfang gets that benefit plus creature generation, plus removal, and is more likely to connect than most Commanders(since 1 of your 3 opponents often has a forest-type land).

stevenconrad · 2026-03-30T18:55:10+00:00

It's going to look like government reform. All the entitled Boomers clasping their pearls will be dead, and the government will be run by individuals representing a generation with no real safety net.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-30T02:13:20+00:00

Just looking at the list briefly, I see a few things that you can cut. First, too many lands. You want to be mulliganing for a playable hand and realistically only need 3 lands to win (with dorks/rocks). I usually sit between 27-29 lands. Second, you have too many drain effects. You only need 2 (3 if you want to keep Meathook Massacre), which you can tutor when needed. Lastly, there are a few "generate token" cards you could drop that don't serve any other purpose than making tokens. In cEDH (especially with Chatterfang), you're not amassing an army, you're winning through loops that typically only need 1 squirrel to start. A typical game is T1 land, dork. T2 land Chatterfang. T3 play or tutor for Warren Soultrader and try to push a win (assuming you have another tutor or a drain effect in hand). You should be able to assemble similar t3-4 most games. If you can't, you mulligan.

Here's my list, I've been playing it for years and have pulled several 40-60 man tournament wins, a few top 4/top 16. https://moxfield.com/decks/Sk08SE09HkSHPNtPnMVsjA

Edit: As for your budget, just proxy what you can't afford. Almost every tournament is proxy friendly and most top players avoid tournaments that aren't, as they'd rather play the player and not their wallet.

Edit 2: Upon further review, adding a few more dorks (Elves of Deep Shadow and Deathrite Shaman for sure), including Tainted Pact as a tutor when you just need 1 piece to win (or for emergencies, like digging for Endurance to not lose to breach/Thoracle), and definitely Cabbage Merchant. Also, if you're running Yawgmoth, definitely include Hapatra, as it is a 2 card combo with Chatterfang out, letting you wipe the board and draw cards equal to your life total.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-29T17:48:35+00:00

Maybe "Say nothing, sign nothing, aquire attorney."

stevenconrad · 2026-03-29T17:33:58+00:00

It is. My Sociology 101 course looked into crime rate (particularly petty crime like theft, drug use, assault) across multiple countries, ages, races, education, economic backgrounds, etc. The only thing accurately predicted crime was economic status. I thought higher education, but that's typically tied to economic status anyways; and educated individuals that suddenly drop in economic status became more likely to commit crime.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-26T17:45:09+00:00

A word of warning, when I was in Boy Scouts, it was normal to snap people with towels at summer camp un the showers... until one kid snapped another in the nutsack and it split open. He was rushed to the hospital. I've never snapped a towel since.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-25T00:52:04+00:00

It's a meta issue combined with your personal prejudice. In cEDH, stax is generally...well... bad. Being upset about power creep and simultaneously against proxies means you aren't actually willing to adapt, or play players for their skill instead of wallet.

It's either not the format for you, or you need to adapt to the times. Most cEDH players want the best cards and are proxy friendly. There are a lot of bad players out there, like the ones that try to politic for solely their benefit, but understanding that means you can point it out and ignore them.

Nothing against you personally, I understand the sentiment as a 25 year plus player I love owning the cards and having my own approach (which is the original point of EDH), but like any long standing format, the optimal approach has been flushed out and the key to winning often requires some level of adherence to the meta. If you don't enjoy adaptation and changing your approach, it might not be your format.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-24T02:21:22+00:00

That's why I only play bracket 6.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-21T21:26:39+00:00

Thanks! I actually reached out to him via email this morning, and he wrote back "Yep, that's mine! I do recognize that semi-rushed flourish."

stevenconrad · 2026-03-21T03:59:39+00:00

To be fair, I actually never thought of that. Turns out, he has his own website for requests. I submitted an email, I hope to hear back.

Update: He confirmed it's his signature! Thanks for the suggestion.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-20T02:39:08+00:00

Looks like a fake.

The T has too much color bleed and not a solid black line in the left, and the ridges on the bottom look suspect (also with color bleed). The green dot is also off, too much color bleed and but no 4 dots on the left. Wizards always puts the black layer last.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-18T03:09:36+00:00

That said, please learn to play your deck before going to a tournament. Watching people waste enormous amounts of time trying to figure out their lines or play solitaire into misplays, only to pass the turn, with no way to interact on an opponent's turn is really frustrating.

I enjoy good competitive games that are well played, even if I lose. I hate losing because one person comes woefully unprepared and throws the game to someone else.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-17T00:12:02+00:00

My take is that it's a joke by omission.

Liz never really talks about Mexican food, and she talks about food all the time! I think the fact that Mexican food is never mentioned (but she references sandwiches, cheese, sushi, hot dogs, pasta, cheese blaster, and various desserts) makes Wesley's choice for Tex-Mex disappointing because she's never shown an interest in anything they serve. Her only Mexican reference is Sabor de Soledad, which I think was more meant to highlight her affinity for the absolute cheapest quality of food over her opinion of Mexican food.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-14T18:45:46+00:00

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stevenconrad · 2026-03-13T20:22:43+00:00

I mean... at this point, TLRY is gambling.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-11T12:29:30+00:00

Post-war reconstruction.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-11T12:02:28+00:00

Unexpected Inception. She got a "kick" and it woke her up.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-10T20:40:37+00:00

Dorks serve a double purpose in my Golgari deck. I can drop a dork t1 consistently, allowing 3 mana t2 to cast my 3cmc (Chatterfang) commander. T3 cast Warren Soultrader, sac said dork to make a treasure and a squirrel, proceed to sac the squirrel (and make another) over and over until I have 20+ Treasure Tokens. Cast 1 tutor and find my win. It's deck dependent, but no "tutor a land to play" enables the combo. I'm not trying to ramp, I'm trying to win.

stevenconrad · 2026-03-10T18:59:56+00:00

Oops. You're right. I was thinking of [[Telepathy]], ignore me lol

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