Emperor Theory

[krichaiushii]

For those of you unfamiliar with the multiplayer variant known as Emperor, it is effectively two three-player teams, with limited ranges for all (emperors cannot target each other, and the flanks cannot target the diagonal opposite).

I am of the opinion that a good emperor deck should support its flankers in order to ensure victory for the team as a whole. That being said, the following cards seem to provide the best support.

Invigorate
Stream of Life
Giant Growth
Flickering Ward
Obsidian Acolyte
Crimson Acolyte
The White Wind (finally, a use!)
Heavy Ballista
Counterspell

These spells can benefit both you and your side, without screwing up any deck strategies your flanks may be running. Round it out with other library manipulation (U), some graveyard manipulation (G), and target permanent removal (all three colors), and theoretically, it SHOULD work.

Any brave souls willing to test/refute my theory? My play group is unfortunately in another state right now, so I can't test this myself.

Also, what makes good flanking decks?

Does one person building all three decks on one side (for synergistic purposes) result in a stronger game, or are three random decks thrown together at the whim of a die roll make for a better game?

Have I misspelled Emperor this entire post? Should it be spelled Emporer?

Any other comments, good or bad, on the game of Emperors as a whole?

 

[Spiderman]

Having never played Emperor and don't know good cards for it, I can only say you spelled it right.

 

[arhar]

The idea looks good so far.

Unfortunately, Emperor is a format that's really easy to abuse. Since while the generals are alive, no one can target the emperor, all emperor has to do is play a combo deck that kills everyone at the same time (like Mana Flare/Palinchron/lots of card drawing and counters/Rolling Thunder) and develop the combo at his leisure, since he'll have at least 10-15 turns to go off. That's why I haven't seen anyone play Emperor in a long time ((

 

[rkoelsch]

In most emperor games i've seen the emperor runs a control and the flanks run beatdown. I think random decks wouldn't work because an emperor with a beatdown deck is useless. Also I see Arhar's point and I really haven't seen any emperor played the last 2 years.

 

[Mikeymike]

-Arhar is right about the combo syndrome, but...that doesn't prevent it from being my favorite format. We've always played that the only thing you can't target is the Emperor himself. BUT his spells can be countered, his lands demolished and his permanents destroyed.

To answer your questions, let your teammates pick their own decks, its more fun that way. I agree with you: Emperor should play control, generals should play aggresion. For flankers, aggressive decks with spot control (i.e. duel decks) seem to be the strongest. This way they run through 1 general and can continue to keep pressure on the Emperor. Its best to stay away from Global effect cards b/c you can quickly steal your teammates thunder. But there is never anything wrong with having an active Disk on the board.

**Also, you can pass creatures to your flanking generals, but they must not have summoning sickness. I don't know how many people play this format but its definitely worth trying. If the general dies but the creature survives, it passes back.

Here are some great Emperor cards:
BUYBACK SPELLS, absolute huge for card advantage purposes
Yavimaya Hollow
Rolling Thunder/Firestorm/Sizzle
Donate (RoP, Propaganda, etc.)
Equilibrium
Unnerve
Viseling/Rackling
Indentured Djinn (everyone gets to draw cards)
Windfall/Memory jar/Wheel of Fortune
Multani/Lhurgoyf
Titania's Chosen
Sadistic Glee
Haste creatures (especially that 6/5 Djinn)
Viashino Heretic
Invasion Scapemasters
Invasion Weavers
Rhystic Study (you have 3 opponents)
Bribery
Parallax Wave (save your creatures, remove theirs)

 

[krichaiushii]

Okay, the Emperor plays control, whilst his flankers run duelling decks.

Would a better strategy be for each flanker to run a different color-spread and deck strategy, or should they be roughly the same?

If they are different, the opposing Emporer has to work harder to assist his flankers and fend off the opposing generals should they get through.

Yet if the flankers run similar decks (say both are WW, with the Emperor playing yet MORE Crusades), the friendly Emperor should be able to support them more easily.

Which works best?

Have you or someone you know ever constructed three decks, for the sole purpose of pitting them (as a team) against another group in Emperor?

And yes, this is why I find it hard to talk people into Emperor games -- it turns into the three guys with WW or SRB decks against three random decks...

 

[Nyx]

We always play with "limited range" rules. Meaning you can only target players you are adjacent to, and your "global" effects only reach players you are adjacent to. So if one flank general plays a wrath of god, it kills everything his emperor controlls, everything he controlls, and everything his opponent general controls, but the opposing emperor and the other two generals are "out of range." Neither emperor can cast spells on his opponent or his opponent's generals until someone dies. We also only play emperor with decks that also get used in one-vs-one play. We don't have decks specifically for emperor. That cuts down on the combos, but it's not so much a rule as a side effect of not having six magic players in one room often enough to justify specifically emperor-style decks.

A really fun way to play emperor is with the "junk deck" rules Skaf Elias (I think) posted in an old duelist where you design the deck your opponent uses against you. You must include a certain minimum of critters and/or burn spells, but he puts in the land. When six people all design the worst decks they can, and then randomly pick them and then pair off for an emperor game, you get wonderfully silly results! I highly recommend it to everyone with a sense of humor.

 

[nodnarb24]

The only time I played emperor was when I was in an emperor tourniment. It was in a type 1.5 environment. Only two groups (my group and some other group) didn't play combo decks. Lets just say we didn't come in first place.

 

[Mikeymike]

Have random teams assignments. Take 6 basic lands and number them 1-6. 1-3 are on team 1, 4-6 are on team 2. You can also say whoever gets #s 1 and 6 are the Emperors. To screw stuff up big time, have everyone pick decks before you randomly decide the teams. That way there is no collaboration.

That White Weenie game is an ugly scenario and probably would not make for a fun game. A 7/7 shadow/pro-black for 2 mana is never balanced.

If your going to a tourney or something to that effect, then I say collaborate before hand. Otherwise, do random decks and/or random teams. This way everyone can still enjoy the game w/o getting shellacked.

To answer your 1st Question, probably be better to run different color decks. I don't know if your group plays color hosers of any kind, but if the 2 generals are playing Black and all of a sudden Light of Day comes out, forget it.

I personally think 1 general running Green fat beatdown and 1 general running black discard/beatdown makes for a nice combination. The green player overwhelms 1 general while the black player widdles their hands away. The Emperor is caught in a jam, Do I stop the green about to start beating down on me or do I stop the black player who is about to steal all my cards?

 

[Darsh]

First off I have never played an emperor game.

I think there should be random team assignments or just make a rule where you can't tell your teammates what kind of deck you are building.

With Invasion out I think that Slivers would be a great Emperor deck, it could easily support it's generals with sliver tokens(courtesy of the Queen) and with Invasion's multicolor support(duals, harrow, ect.) would be pretty easy to make and to run.

What about Dual Nature?

 

[Duel]

My favorite emporer style:

Aggro-combo-aggro

Or:

shield-control-aggro-control


you place the shield in fron of the biggest threat (Essentially, the shield is simply a defensive deck that doesn't win, necessarily, but doesn't lose quick either.)

 

[Spiderman]

Nyx: I remember that Duelist, it was called Reverse Draft or something like that. You drafted the worst cards because you'd give the pile to your opponent to build a deck out of and play against you. I haven't done it in Emperor format, but I have done it in regular draft and duel play. It's really only good for a limited time (like one or two duels) because you (hopefully) figure out the right combos/deck to build and keep using that. Also, it was a pain to keep rebuilding the deck after you got it back from another player who probably didn't use the same stuff you did when he built a deck. But it was fun.

 

[Nyx]

I can see where it would get annoying in a draft setting. We just did it at home. We'd dig through all our leftover cards and make a couple of the worst 3 and 4 color decks we could scrounge up. Whenever we wanted a good laugh we'd pull 'em out and pass 'em around. Thus ours ended up being worse than anything you'd get in a random draft. There were literally NO good cards. Great stuff.

It's good to see that it actually got used competitively.

 

[rYaNsPVT]

You and you alone is the Emperor...
Armageddon
ShatterStorm
Wrath of God
Tranquility
Jokulhaups(did i get the spelling right?)
Nev's Disk
Inferno
Earthquake
Wildfire
Hurricane
Apocalypse
Syphon Soul
Living Death
Bottomless Pit

and many more... enuf to insult ur enemies and allies as well...

the good part:

Helm of Awakening
Bad Moon
Crusades
Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
Slivers....

[Edited by rYaNsPVT on 11-23-00 at 05:16 AM]

 

[Cateran Emperor]

Oh waitaminnut, you're not talking about theories on me. D'oh.

On topic, I find an excellent way to play is this:

Black Weenie - Black Fat - Black Weenie

All of them play Bad Moon, let the Emperor play an Ascendant Evincar, and go to town.

I'm gonna go play Diablo 2 now, so more later folks

 

[tyger51]

ive felt emperor is a good format. If it was played more often, youd see that the combo syndrome would fade away. Ive come up with 2 ideas for extended emperor:
1. 2 sligh decks as guards and turboland as the emporor
this can win quickly with the pressure of sligh in the opposing team, and , if nessacary, turbolnad can take infinite turns with a tumbscrews in play
2. CounterSliver decks as the guards with a new deck as emporor, survival donate
survival donat would search up creatures the guards needed and donate them after theyve been recured into play. a few gases's blessing ensures enough donates. I think it would be interesting to see a countersliver deck get a morphling out of nowhere. even if this isnt a good idea, donate stiill should be looked into for emporor games

 

[Cateran Emperor]

Quick note to tyger, Emperor rules make it so you don't have to donate creatures to your lieutenants. The turn sequence is as follows:

Untap
Upkeep
Draw
Main
Attack
Reinforce
Main
End

Reinforce is unique to Emperor Magic. During the Reinforce step, you can reinforce the ally directly next to you by having your creature "move" to that player's control. These creatures are summoning sick, but they don't trigger 187 abilities. That player now effectively has control of your creature. Lieutenants can reinforce the Emperor, but not each other. The Emperor can reinforce either Lieutenant. So if one Lieutenant has a Pro-Black creature that the other needs, the first transfers the creature to the Emperor, who sends it to the other lieutenant. Got it?