Ashling the Pilgrim
Today, I found a shiny Ashling the Pilgrim on eBay for $7. I put in a $5 offer, and the guy took it. When I get the card, I'll build an EDH deck around her, starting with 99 Mountains. From there, I'll be actively looking and trading for cards that will go well with her, and updating this post as I do so. I don't want to copy anyone's list with this one, but I am open to suggestions, so if you play Ashling or know anyone that does, help me out a bit and tell me some of her favorite cards!How does a 99-Mountain deck work?
For those unfamiliar with
Ashling (that $0.50 red rare from Lorwyn), she is a somewhat popular commander, partially because her + 99 mountains is the cheapest viable EDH deck in existence. How is this viable? Well, If you look at the first part of her ability, you'll notice that, as long as we keep giving her mana, she keeps getting bigger. One way to make sure that we're able to feed her all the mana she wants is to build the deck so that we never miss a land drop. When you read the second part of her ability, you'll realize that Ashling can be really effective at controlling the board. As long as Ashling is out, the threat of a board wipe is always present. This puts us in a very powerful political position for the entire game. Oh, you were planning on winning with a token army? Better use it to beat up the pillow fort player, or I'll kill them all. You just gave your voltron general hexproof? That's cute, now why don't you start swinging at other people, since I'll
murder it and everything else if you even think about sending that thing at me. Oh and btw, you'll never be able to build up that thing's toughness faster than I can increase Ashling's potential energy, and if you try, I'll blow it up. Don't test me! I'LL FUCKING DO IT!
The other nice thing that 99 Mountains brings to the table is that we are never really crippled by the two mana re-cast penalty. While she won't be able to deal as much damage the turn after we blow her up, that doesn't really matter because nobody else has a board and she'll usually become strong enough the turn after that. See what I mean? The threat of a wipe (and, with it, our political position) never goes away.
How does the deck win? Damage, of course. Sometimes, there'll be a player that won't be able to recover quickly enough from a wipe, allowing us to swing with
a big Ashling and win through 21 general damage. However, when we blow Ashling up, it also hurts players, and this will generally be the way that this deck wins. Other players will weaken each other, so we don't actually have to do that much damage. We just have to make sure that we play the political game well enough that people don't make a big dent in our life total, making it impossible for us to blow up a big Ashlling without killing ourselves.
Upgrading the deck
Fact: a 92-Mountain deck is better in every way than a 99-Mountain deck. We can throw in a bit of extra gas while still ensuring that we will always always always drop a land every turn. Of course, it is very improbable that we draw an opening hand of 7 nonlands and then have our next draw also be a nonland, so 91 Mountains is also fine. Hell, I'm perfectly fine with putting myself two turns behind if it means that I see all of my gas. Honestly, this will never happen, and if it does, my opponents would
probably call me a cheater. Know what? I bet it would never happen on 90 Mountains either. Hell, we could probably even go down to 89 or even 88 and get the same results. There are cards out there that are better than Mountains for Ashling (mana doublers being #1, as they uhh... double our mana, and Ashling loves mana; then equipment (especially the kind that provides lifelink, protection, or Scythe of the Wretched's ability); and removal and card advantage engines aren't bad to have either). Don't cut too many, though. As Stardust mentions, we still want to keep our Mountain count high (50+).
What I'm playing at the moment
[deck=Ashling's Mountain Range]
General
1 Ashling the Pilgrim
Land
99 Mountain
[/deck]
While I do have some additions, I'd like to play a few games with the deck in its simplest form in order to get a feel for my general; to learn the fundamentals and gain a sense of her potential and her limitations.
[
deck=Cards I own that I'd like to add]
In no particular order:
1 Slagwurm Armor
1 Rummaging Goblin (*)
1 Reforge the Soul (*)
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Wheel of Fortune (*)
1 Possibility Storm (*)
1 Devil's Play
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Buried Ruin
1 Codex Shredder (*)
1 Staff of Nin (*)
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon (*)
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Batterskull
1 Gamble
1 Goblin Welder
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Hammer of Purphoros (*)
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Glacial Chasm (*)
1 Fault Line
1 Darksteel Forge (*)
(*)=uncertain
[/deck]
Wishlist
If you could help me out even further by trading me some cards to improve this deck, that'd be awesome. I have a deckbox account. Check it out if you like. Sadly, I don't have much in terms of value (that's what happens when you'
re always trading for the shit you want, but can't justify paying cash for it), but hopefully I at least have something that you want. I'm also a sucker for foils, as long as the cost of the upgrade to foil isn't outrageous (as it is with most EDH staples).
Wishlist
[/spoiler:
