{"ops":[{"insert":"This deck has changed a fair bit from its original conception, so I felt that it was time to provide a new description and primer.\n\nGarth One-Eye is a five color commander that can be built in wide variety of ways. What makes it unique is its tap ability to create a copy of 1 of 6 classic MTG cards from outside the game. This lets you essentially play an EDH deck with 106 cards. What the card's printing doesn't explain very well is how to cast these cards, and how you can get access to them again once cast.\n\nFirst the easy part: when you play Garth, it comes with 6 spells to be chosen from when activating its tap ability (Disenchant, Braingeyser, Terror, Shivan Dragon, Regrowth, and Black Lotus). You can only choose one of the six cards per tap/activation. For ease of use, I have them listed in the sideboard section of the decklist.\n\n(yes I know, EDH doesn't normally allow a sideboard, this is just to help with formatting and so I can select which printing of the six cards to display. It is NOT an actual sideboard)\n\nPicture a revolver with six chambers. Each of the six spells is a bullet. When you use a bullet, that chamber is now empty. You can't use it again until you \"reload\". How do you reload? By recasting or Blinking Garth. When Garth re-enters the battlefield, it is considered new, and comes with the six spells ready to be recast. You have \"reloaded\" the revolver. This is why blink cards are so important to have in this deck. You also want a bevy of untap abilities, so that you can potentially use more than one activation of Garth per turn. Finally, because of summoning sickness, Haste granting effects are also needed so that the tap ability can be used right away. \nIn short, any Garth deck requires a balance of Blink, Uptap, and Haste cards to be effective. The exact ratio is difficult to get right, and due to the variance of a card game, will not always work in your favor. I initially started with 10 of each category, and found that to be excessive. I am currently using 8 Blinks, 6 Untaps and 5 Hastes, but your experience my differ from mine. \n\nNow the more difficult part: how you cast these six spells. What I didn't understand at first was how the activating of the ability granted you the window for casting. Initially I thought it let you put the card in your hand, or play from exile, which is NOT CORRECT! How it actually works is this:\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"#0b1416","color":"#b7cad4","bold":true},"insert":"707.13."},{"attributes":{"background":"#0b1416","color":"#b7cad4"},"insert":" One card (Garth One-Eye) instructs a player to create a copy of a card defined by name rather than by indicating an object to be copied. To do so, the player uses the Oracle card reference to determine the characteristics of the copy "},{"attributes":{"background":"#0b1416","color":"#b7cad4","bold":true},"insert":"and creates the copy outside of the game. "},{"insert":"\n\n(Note that this does not mean from exile)\nThe ability creates the card and immediately gives you the opportunity to cast it. If you choose not to, there is no other point where you have permission to do so. The ability gives you explicit cast permission during resolution, so you don't need to be able to cast it using normal timing permissions. You can always and only cast the created card during the resolution of the ability.\nWhat this means is that when you tap and activate Garth's ability, you immediately choose which card to cast, spend the required mana to do so, then it goes on the stack. This creates a 'soft' version of the Flash effect, letting you play Sorcery speed cards at instant speed. Opponent going to attack? Tap and cast a Dragon to block. End of their turn before you begin yours? Cast a Braingeyser for extra draw, or a Regrowth to get a valuable card back into your hand. \n\nNow that we understand how Garth functions, we can decide how we build a deck around him. This is where it becomes more personal. I chose a guildgates land subtheme for fun and to keep it at a lower power level. One of the most powerful ways is to include the card Displacer Kitten. Having this on the battlefield with Garth and a Haste-effect allows you to cast a Black Lotus using Garth, Blinking Garth with the Kitten on the cast trigger, then doing that over and over again, amassing an infinite pile of Black Lotus. You then can cast Braingeyeser to cause your opponent(s) to draw their entire deck, losing them the game. If you want to build a stronger deck than the one I'm showing; include this combo along with a better landbase, faster ramp, and tutors to find the cards you need. \n\nFor the gates theme, we include Maze's End as a win condition. I don't rush to get this out as fast as possible, but games do have to end at some point. I prefer to play control and defeat my opponents with a strong creature attacking at the right moment (see. Beatdown cards). We run a few tutors to find the lands we need at the right moment. It is very important to find Gond Gate as early as possible, so that your lands can come into play untapped. Maze's End isn't effective without a large number of gates already out, so don't search for it right away. Gatecreeper Vine and District Guide are creatures that can use the Blink cards we run for extra value to find more gates to play. Crop Rotation was added as one of the Game Changer cards, allowing you to change a basic land into a more valuable gate, or into Maze's End in the late game. It can also be recurred with Garth using Regrowth for additional value. \n\nThe other Game Changer cards I am currently running are Teferi's Protection and Seedborn Muse. TPro is always useful as a protection spell to save your boardstate and life total. SbM was added to take further advantage of the tap/untap cards in the deck, and increase effectiveness of the deck during other players turns. Some other important cards in the deck are Marvin the Murderous Mimic (copying Garth's and any other creature's activated abilities), Nine-Fingers Keene (providing additional gate-synergy along with being a threatening beater), Sage of the Maze (can generate huge amounts of mana or threaten to create powerful land-creatures), and Guild Summit (rewards gates entering early and late game). Apart from that, the deck runs a large amount of removal and boardwipes to control the game, a selection of strong counterspells, and a large protection package to help keep Garth safe. \n\nThis is one of my favorite decks to play. It offers variety, never feeling like you're playing the same game over and over again, and allows you to have the tools for any situation. \n"}]}