My favorite commander card is Descent into Avernus. You could build around it. You could break parity. But I just cram it into my red decks regardless of synergy, slam it every time I draw it and crank the game up to 11. Every game it doesn't get destroyed has a clock on it, and it enables more people to make their plays before the game ends, neatly excising two of commander's most frustrating elements.
Its a sick card. If Im too slow and lose to it - GG, if Im fast enough and win against it - GG, and in either case we're in a burn baby burn disco inferno moment together where we gotta find those big turns NOW lol
I love it to. I put it into an Anhelo card so I can cast my big spells faster assuming my opponents don’t just blow me up turn 4 with some giant Dino 😂
As a guy that gets at most one commander game per week and has 30 decks, the main aspect of the hobby for me is the maintenance of the decks and collecting the cards. Looking at the new sets, searching for certain abilities or stats for my decks, then deliberating on what needs to come out to make room for the new hotness, then ultimately making the change and cataloging it on Archidekt... that is the bulk of the hobby for me now and I'm pretty happy with it.
My philosophy for any (casual) EDH deck is to build it towards a goal. The goal is never to win, but rather to answer "does it do a thing?" and "how well does it do that thing?" Once that goal is reached, other than a few old cards uncovered over the years, the deck is done.
My mono blue wizard deck is solely built around the goal of drawing as many cards as possible. I recently had a match where I knew I was going to lose, and while lacking the mana to use Laboratory Maniac etc to turn it into a win I still managed to deck myself to go out on my own terms the turn before I'd get beaten to death by a large swarm of big creatures. I'd say the goal is achieved with that deck.
I gave away full decks and still have over 100. Iv been playing for about 6 years. I cannot upgrade decks i sometimes fully rebuild decks that start to be horrible. Im about to need to rebuild my keyword matters beck i made when commander legends released, it struggles to even have shot against current decks. Id put it on precon level now but when I first built it it was good and fun.
Yeah. Made me laugh. The only reason I have a hard cap of 40 decks is because I refuse to buy any more deck boxes. If I want to build a new deck - then one has to die. Makes me think twice... ...course I do it anyway, but it makes me at least think about it.
I currently have... 2? And Im gonna disassmble one to make another and make 1 or 2 more but probably never do more than 5 total in completely different styles. I ONLY want to have a top 5 favs and pick between them otherwise it feels like too many
I think the only precons I'm missing are: UB, Starters*, and Anthology Commander decks. *those 5 commander starter friendly decks that upgraded an uncommon to mythic, then reprinted back to uncommon later on.
One of the best EDH videos ever. This kind of content NEED views and absorption. Literally got me to sub Patreon, which I should have done long ago but I am lazy.
As a yugioh player, im in awe at just how much love and respect there is for the commander community from all angles. Learning about other card games and their plights really pusts into perspective how massochistic we (yugioh players) are.
For context, though i've only played Duel Links: First turn combo wins were common. I read that they just ban those after a while, presumably to replace it with yet another one.
A big help, especially on the wallet is “if you want to buy a card for the deck, first figure out what exact card it is replacing”. I’ve saved a lot of money this way when I realized I didn’t want to remove a single card for said new one.
For a lot of people, it is not about playing the latest and greatest, but rather it’s just remaining competitive. No one likes to sit down at a table and get curb stomped by a new deck made from the latest and greatest. An average commander deck from 10 years ago is nowhere near as competitive as average commander decks at this day in age. Look at Slivers as an example. They were the threat 10+ years ago, but with all the new stuff they are just average at this day in age. Keeping a decks in amber is a good idea if the play groups do a lot of the same, but this game isn’t known for its’ player base to not buy product.
@@robmitchell3039 Have, it was strong, and it was not impressive due to it being too linier. For a CEDH deck that is slow, but I don't think you are talking about that. For a regular deck EDH deck, that can be considered fast, but a host of decks can do it at that speed with an average amount of tuning (spell slinger, Voltron, and goblins).
This is the take I find the most agreeable. Rarely am I making or upgrading a deck to be as good as it can be. I’ll build it to do its thing to the nth degree and then tune it to improve it over time so it doesn’t just turn up and lose 100% of the time. The trick is having everyone else on the same page.
Heck, a strong commander deck from 10+ years ago probably gets its ass kicked by precons from the past year or two. If not a fully thrashing then at least a struggle to survive.
If I DO upgrade a deck, I tend to lean away from cards that make the deck "better". I seek cards that will improve the experience for the table instead of looking to increase my own win rate.
Totally. I had to tweak my Vannifar deck mostly to remove cards that had annoying rules things and to make it a more black and white gameplan. Also have only ramp and no sol rings or anything because otherwise its not the sort of mid level all-arounded deck I wanted
What I’ve really liked doing is making $50 budget decks on older unplayed commanders because it forces you to use some really interesting cards or have a very unique gameplan. Also consequentially any upgrades are super cheap to keep the deck within budget.
I actually almost always keep my decks identical or near identical to their original forms once created and tested for a goldfish or ten. I really like keeping my decks that way because it's nice to see these little snapshots into my own personal history. Remembering what cards really inspired me 5, 10 years ago. Remembering the fun moments I've experienced with the deck is a big reason I keep playing commander.
I've played against someone who had questioned why I even ran certain cards and told me after the last game what cards he thought I should be putting in my deck, and did so for my other opponent as well. For reference, I build theme decks. I was criticized by my card choice in a themed deck I had just built and was first testing against a sheoldred player.
That's how I keep the urge to upgrade everything at bay. I also like to maintain a theme and flavour for a deck. Sometimes a powerful new card also is thematic and it's great to upgrade.
I genuinely enjoy scouring through new cards coming out and seeing a card and going 'oh that'll be perfect in this one deck i own'. Like when Rip, Spawn Hunter was spoiled I jumped for joy because it's another addition to my 5 color vehicles deck. Those moments are very enjoyable. However, I made a Dungeons & Dragons themed deck with the Stranger Things characters, the D&D movie characters, and the Baldur's Gate 3 characters all in the deck, and the rest is all D&D cards. It's perfectly terrible, very unsynergistic, but, I love it for the theme. And that deck is 100% complete, and I will never touch it (Unless they make new D&D cards). So I do like the feeling of having a deck be 100%'d.
The most useful thing I did with my card acquisitions was decide that instead of buying and trading for cards for decks, just get cards that I want to play, and only one of cards that are worth more than a few dollars and incredibly thematically suited for the deck. This has not only saved a huge amount of money from optimised decks, it actually leads me to better use of cards. I'm not buying another Meathook Massacre or Doubling Season or Mondrak, so I have to decide which of the decks I have it feels best in. That not only leads to me having the spicy cards naturally balance across decks where they are most fun to resolve and some naturaly filtering of power levels, it also means I'm less likely to make new decks without scrapping old ones. It's much easier to justify scrapping an established deck when it means I get five or ten or more very strong cards to spread around as I like.
your first episode of shuffle up and play with jaheira is my favorite shuffle up and play episode ever released, 4 great fun decks piloted by 4 great fun players, it's everything i love in a live play show!
I have a similar approach to the game lately. Only my Yuriko deck is fully tuned and optimized. All of my other decks are full retro frame. This gives me some hype every year when a retro set is out and allows me to completely ignore all the other releases while, at the same time, helping me balancing my decks and giving me a nostalgia bomb on every game. I love this.
I bought a guy's collection in 2018 and I preserved his cEDH deck Jarad in "amber." it's fun to break out and run those old lines again in high powered games. I also "amber" my season winning league decks too. Thanks for coining a term for the thing I do with special decks
I have "ambered" a Standard deck from back when Fires of Yavimaya was competitive, and Jade Leech was considered a useful card to have in the deck (2GG 5/5 with a drawback, I mean really!). I have done so, because it gave me my highest ever tournament finish, 2nd place, which would have been 1st place if not for my own dumb mistake. It's a terrible deck nowadays, but was a house back then and has *memories*.
I think the amber analogy is kinda perfect. I have 13 decks, and of those 4 of them are my pet decks. I play them the most often and they’re probably my highest power decks. But recently we’ve added a few players to our group who are relatively new and are just starting to build their collections. So I came up with the idea for all of us to build janky decks with only stuff from our collections. It’s a unique opportunity to challenge yourself as a deck builder, while also slightly lowering the power level of the table so that newer players can have a better opportunity to learn. They not only have to build a deck with restrictions, but they also get to see decks and play styles that they may have otherwise never seen. Also, keeping up with current metas and buying $40 cards is exhausting, so we as a playgroup decided to put a price cap on any deck we build of $300. It makes the games way more fun and also saves us some money.
Video isn't even out yet, and I wholeheartedly agree with the premise. To me, it fundamentally removes the fun/casual aspect of commander. Every time you upgrade your deck you're systematically inching closer to a competitive mindset. If that's what you want, that's fine. I believe that most people don't actually want that and just fall into that trap.
The problem though is that the power creep is real. And I'm not talking about splashy mythics here. Just check how run-of-the-mill effects over the years either become cheaper, or get an upside attached to them, and after a while both. That's most of the upgrades I do: commons and uncommons. Because that is the baseline at which new decks are built. Fall behind there, and you'll simply be outpaced by faster decks.
I've barely dipped my toes into commander yet (due to being busy) but I totally agree with the idea that something doesn't feel right about using meta lists etc to brew the best possible deck that your commander can pilot. I love the message of commander's roots that I have heard about, in that you'd throw together a big dragon and neglected but fun junk and see what happens, and I'm a little sad I didn't get to experience it first hand. But I'll be damned if I don't bring some of my own "shoebox deckbuilding" to the table. I already have a desire to attempt to build a deck using exclusively packed cards, and never buying singles for it. It'll take a little while, but I think every piece of half good card draw, removal etc I pull will feel amazing! I just wish it was cheaper to buy handfuls of older sets for fun haha. Cool vid! And props to the editor! He did a brilliant job!
I have a couple of 60 card decks that I've amberized. I built my first creatureless deck, in 2000 and made minor upgrades (mostly lands) between 2000 and 2010. I've left it alone since. If I ever sell my collection, it's the only MtG related thing I'll keep. I love leaving it alone, it feels like it has history with me. I have a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa commander deck that I treat the same way. One thing that I love about it, is the hidden mode of Kahahl's first ability. Inevitably, someone doesn't read it when I offer it to them, then goes on to Wrath the board. I absolutely love turning all of their lands, and just their lands, into 1/1s and watch them realize that not only did they annoy everyone else at the table, but they Armageddoned themselves.
I have 60 card decks from the 90s that I have never taken apart. Some got raided over the years because some of those old cards are absurdly powerful but quite a few remain intact.
I did not watch many of your videos recently, but this one (and the short on Descent into Avernus) really hit close to how I am often feeling about Commander. I took good cards out of my decks a few times, just to later upgrade those decks with new cards again...
I have only upgraded 4 cards in 2 years. Not because i am unable to acquire the cards. Not because i haven't kept up with the releases. Only because i don't have a color printer.
Great message and works even better when you dont spend much money on the hobby. About half a year ago instead of powercreeping my decks I instead starting sloting in cards thst went with the theme/commander. I made an atraxa phyrexian creature artifact deck with the vast majority of cards being directly related to mirrodin, phyrexia, darksteel. I love the deck and its unique to my playgroup. Its very strong but not overpowered.
Thanks for making this video. Recently I've changed on upgrading every single deck. It is expensive. So I've tried to narrow it down to maybe 4 good deck upgrades.
Most of my decks are so finely tuned down to the mana value that I don't really need to upgrade. And not finely tuned in a competitive power sense, just that every card has a good reason to be there in its mana value slot. Replacing them with new cards would just be redundant. I only upgrade a deck because I was never really satisfied with some cards and they're only there until something more synergistic comes along. So whenever I upgrade, it's usually like a 10+ card sweep of stuff that wasn't working which I replace. The last time I upgraded, it was to put a bunch of MH3 MDFC lands and Demolition Fields in each of my 18 Commander decks because MDFCs and targeted land destruction are great for any deck.
I very rarely upgrade decks and instead just build new ones. it has turned into me owning about 20 finished complete decks. some of my friends don't understand how I have that many but they keep spending money on upgrades. I like the more design aspect of doing weird things with my decks and playing the cards that are never seen. Psychic Surgery will forever be one of my favorite blue cards in commander.
I completely agree. I like casual and cEDH. We're not talking about different power levels of casual decks, that just happens when you brew different decks. This is about respecting new players and older ones.
Deck I like playing the most is my Surgeon Commander 5c mutate deck. I've got every mutate card in showcase, each triome in showcase, 15 basics - three for each different art from ikoria. That leaves me with little to no wiggle room for non ikoria cards. Playing it feels like visiting an ikoria themed art gallery and it feels just right. Rarely new cards fit in (newest would be flying hexproof tyranid afaik), and that's good. No deck demands constant upkeep and improvements. Heck - what's the Point of changing deck, if some cards I haven't drawn even once, not talking about casting them
Agreed. If the itch to get the newest hotness is not killing you, just wait it out, dig your own boxes &/or buy the next best option which may be miles below in price. & of course, also bcos you'r so f#cking good at the game, Vince!
I love this, im planning on making a Simic Guild deck where I only use cards that take place on Ravnica. It wont be that strong but it will be my favorite
I'm glad to see a video on this! At poitns too I'm super into upgrading decks, other times I jsut want to put my money towards other things and upgrading just isn't needed. Typically I have a small number of decks which get upgrades/tweaks whenever a new card looks cool. Though recently I've been working on making my Zinnia deck all animals, because I like the theme, which is a fun & silly challenge.
It’s a very refreshing video . Normally people push the new hotness and it’s really obvious but just don’t get obsessed with the new , just enjoy what you have!!!!
I like the idea of freezing a list. Ideally you have a playgroup that maybe commits to it with decks that worked well together, but idk with commander even just durdling a bit and then dying is usually a good time. I think it's about that time for my pet deck Phage, the Untouchable. Just stared at it yesterday for a bit, so maybe one last go-over with foundations.
I think this video actually brings up a lot of very good point...that's it, I don't really have a rebuttle I think it's actually made me think about placing 3 of my decks (Millicent, Ojer Axonil and Mazzy) into amber while still keeping up with my Kykar spellslinging and Kamiz Ninja decks , I also plan on building an Artifact Aristocrats deck and "Oops ALL Clones" which will both also probably go into amber thank you for this insight
Most of my decks are so tuned to my playgroup and the specific way I want to pilot them that I think I've unintentionally put them in amber. It's great to chill out and play with the goofy nostalgic cards that are specific to you. Recently I also stopped actively looking for upgrade cards in previews. Sometimes I'll find out about a card months after it released because someone else in my pod plays it or I stumble across it on scryfall. But the rush to get the hot new thing right when it releases and show it off right away is so exhausting, and I finally realized that, especially when I'm buying singles, there's no real rush. Less energy spent on hype is great.
Yes so much of what you said here I’ve told players at my lgs repeatedly. Just have fun! I’ve got players who enjoy playing against me not because it’s an easy win but because they know I’ll play some card they either haven’t seen in a while or never seen before because it’s not about the win for me it’s about the experience. So many of the competitive players at my shop don’t understand I’m out here making a feast and they’re settling for McDonald’s.
I'm a brand new baby Commander Player (bought a Precon from my LGS), but even I already feel this sense like I HAVE to upgrade things... In my case, it mostly comes down to a sense that 1: using a precon in the first place feeling like it might somehow NEED an extra card or two. 2: A bit of a sense of less like I need to "keep up" with modern, and more a sense that I ought to take my core concept and take it as far as I can manage. for example the aforementioned precon is Admiral Brass, Unsinkable. I am VERY HAPPY with my concept for Admiral Brass and the mechanics of "Beat things to death with pirates, and then if my pirates die then they come back next turn as stronger pirates", but feel this sense in the back of my mind that I should figure out just how to change it ever-so-slightly to make it "better" at its core concept of stealing shit and beating people to death with reanimated pirates. Wondering if things like Rogue or Warlock from the D&D set may add something, or reading Defiled Crypt and seeing that it makes my commander's reanimation tricks even better than they originally were (Though 2/2 Horrors don't exactly fit in the "Kill it with PIRATES" aspect). Etc. Like... HAVING a Commander Deck makes and scratches the same itch in my head that Warframe does, where I'm like "I want to do this 1 cool thing with this set of mechanics, and I am going to either overthink it to high heaven or steal builds from people smarter than me to make the maximum impact"
I make proxy re-skins of full commander decks, and that's really helped me stop tinkering once they're done. When I have to wait for the next one to be finished in order to print any new cards for older decks, it's quite a strong deterrent. I think the last amendment I made was removing Dockside from one after it was banned, otherwise it's just been fixing occasional errors I haven't caught during the creation process.
I used to play competitive until 2016, and haven't updated my commander list since 2020. I now just play it with friends as is and at the occasional commander night at random stores and it's been great. Easily the most fun I've had with the game in ages
I agree! Commander should be fun. I have already smbered two of my decks: Saskiya, the very first Commander deck I bought, and the Italian language Virtue and Valor that I bought in Rome last year. They mean more to me in their original form than they would if they were upgraded. Big Green, Big Blue, Demons, and Jinnie Fay, on the other hand, are the decks that I enjoy upgrading. Oh, and I'll have to change my Goblins deck now, since one of its cards got banned.
Outside of a couple of pet decks, I usually don't upgrade my decks very often. Sometimes I'll pull a cool elf and go "hey I should put this in Lathril".. but trying to keep 30+ and growing decks optimized constantly would be an expensive endeavor. Usually I will see a precon or legendary creature I like say Ooh shiny and upgrade it to the point I am happy with how it plays and play with it until the next shiny crosses my eye. My bag for game nights usually contains 1 of my pet decks I am in the mood to play, and a random mix of other decks of varying builds and power levels.. (I usually carry six decks with me 5 of which have been often selected by random number generator). If there is a theme I'm going for that week I may be a little more selective (spooky season is upon us let me play my zombies and vampires) but otherwise I am there to have fun.
I fully agree, no reason to constantly upgrade CASUAL decks. I always felt it was a good idea to take a look at your decks periodically, and to actually adjust when they are under or over-performing. I probably come back around to each of my casual decks every 6 months to examine if there’s any bombs I missed. If you have like 4 or less EDH decks however then you might consider keeping up with them
1:56 thank you!! I used to manage an lgs, and I frequently remind players that when they sit down for a game of Commander it's the same stakes as a game of checkers. I'd take you as a brother, maybe a cousin. I've got too many Grey's for you to be my father
I've somewhat moved into the habit of skipping releases and spoilers when it comes to the aspect of "I need that card" and leave decks as they are... I then go to EDHRec every 6 to 8 months and check what I have been missing for my respective commanders and if the new cards need to be in my list.... This has served me quite well
I'm Dutch and was great at Topo in the '90s but Bulgaria doesn't stand out to me for any reason besides maybe its president flipflopping like Turkey's, or was that Hungary's?
One of my most fun recent memories in Commander was an opponent playing Prisoners Dilemma and readily handed us infini tokens with pens each for dramatic effect. Only one opponent chose Snitch and wrote “get fucked”. We all lost it. Very fun interaction. Live for those moments
I also photographed my favorite mono green ELF deck when I finally realized I couldn't make any Cuts because it was too fun the way I've been playing it
I make too many decks to upgrade them. Instead I just occasionally revisit them and rebuild them with the new card set in the option pile. Avoids new product hype as well as helping me stay sane.
I only started EDH the start of the year. Really been a journey thus far. Going from figuring things out. To trying to be “competitive” after getting my butt kicked. Building more decks than I needed. And now landing on one I just can have fun with. Got tired quick of “keeping up”. Especially with 100 card decks it feels good to keep decks in stasis to really play out the deck.
This feels like a return to "the old days" when commander was more about "let's put together some deck with the cards we already have" instead of "I need to upgrade with the newest stuff". Might be just me, but it feels not nostalgic but rather relaxing to keep a deck steady for a good while (if it's fun to play!).
I decided to do this to Sythis a while back. The deck is fun to play, has a number of win cons, and she SLAPS! I haven't upgraded her build in about two years and shes got no problem keeping up with different tables.
I had been feeling the upgrade anxiety about a year ago, and my solution was to use one commander (in this example: Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief) and build 3 separate decks to utilize it in. I have a spellslinger/control shell, a voltron/enchantress deck, and a copies/tokens matters version. Excluding the mana base, there is only about 20ish cards that appear in all 3 builds. Now, when i see new cards, if something looks particularly interesting i very likely have a spot for it in one of the modes that wont make me feel like im compromising or taking something out i dont want to give up, since instead of 80 other cards im choosing from 240. It seems a bit much but it was preferable to building 3 separate commanders and having to consider upgrades each set with a small pool of cuts. Cant say it would help anyone, but hey. Wanted to share. (The cards arent all bangers either; bulk is your friend, kids)
Completely agree with the point to the video. However, if you are going to play the format or game with this mind set then be okay with losing more often. MTG is a game about winning and or losing. Even if you play for fun, you should be playing with the intent to win or the intent to lose. Regardless try to have fun with it. Losing only sucks if you are actively trying not to lose.
I am tired of sitting down to some competitive commander that I point out is strong and someone tells me its a casual build then they proceed to play it sub optimally, I sort of ignore them, and then the Heliod Walking Ballista combo me behind a Heroic Intervention when I try responding. Those people, make me want to just play blue control every game.
I wouldn’t even play Infinites at the LGS where I do 95% of my playing these days, but since I can’t get anyone else to stop with the I Win combos, or making decks that only exist to maximize opportunity to play the I Win combo(s), a ghetto kind of arms race remains the norm. So I absolutely do Heliod/Ballista from behind a HI or Dawn’s Truce, w/ a Veil of Summer in hand, because more than half the time I choose not to go infinite, someone else pops off later in T5-T6. Last Fri, had a guy sit down and say, “Mind if I run my new 5-color doors deck? Marina’s the Commander.” I say sure, and T3 it’s an infinite mana combo straight out of a cEDH Sythis shell. Asked to see it when we were done, and sure enough, it’s got everything needed to tutor up and facilitate 3 different enchantress style infinites. The Door enchants might as well be cardboard movie set backdrop. There’s no reason to build like that, except to be deceptive about your deck’s power level. Switched to my Arwen, Mortal Queen deck cuz it’s a ton faster, and just Magus of the Disk’d my way to a win by 3 c-damage KOs. He switched pods for the next game, so I went back to Hydra Tribal.
@@Shawn-f3x shit my LGS has some people that do a lot of combo shenanigans and I took apart my Teysa Karlov list that had multiple combo shells in it and it was consistent in getting there to instead build Raffine, Scheming Seer where I purposefully built it with no combo's or tutors with the exception of entomb. it's certainly a very strong fast and consistent deck and I've left it in a way where it is very easy to interact with the deck, I've noticed some people have gotten a little salty with it cause it's a high budget deck but it's only as powerful as the table lets it be but it can't win really any earlier than like turn 6/7, but I love playing that deck and I won't power it down simply because people don't run enough removal or interaction to keep it in check.
@@ipsyop 999/1000 decks aren't actually too strong people just don't interact near enough on average. your deck sounds incredibly fun to play with and anyone whining have a lot of growth in the game left
@@Spoopy73 People lifting decks straight off EDHRec drastically worsens the low-to-no interaction problem, IMO. When I build a new deck, I do check the creature lists for a given Commander/Theme on there, because I took a 12 year break from MtG and missed a ton of sets. One thing I notice *constantly* in the Selesnya deck lists I’ve been looking at lately is there’s about 4-5 pieces of Interaction *maximum* . Swords, Path, Generous Gift, Beast Within, and *sometimes* Stroke of Midnight + 1 piece of Enchantment/Artifact Removal. I think part of the problem is that people associate high Salt Scored w/ a deck being effective. Not realizing the reason the score is higher is due to those lists running light on Interaction to squeeze in more bombs. The problem is only exacerbated by newer players trying to build-by-espoused formulas and finding no success. Which only drives them back to netdecking.
Ive got a ballista combo in my Vannifar Evolved Enigma artifact creature deck... but no tutors, no mana rocks, no phyrexian cards, not using the gimmick disguise flip mechanic at all, and basically am forced to naturally draw into it and play it with all pieces on board. Thats kind of the only way I feel comfortable running infinites and stuff. I also can only win by combat damage or that lol so its my only answer to some decks which is a big reason its in there. I have substitution cards just in case but the decks nowhere near strong enough to ever need to do that
I was gifted an Otrimi Commander precon when Ikoria came out. I made upgrades with the cards I had and made the restriction that I cannot buy any singles/packs for it. I still trade cards for it, but only with cards I already had on hand. It’s my favorite deck I have not intentionally spent any money on myself.
As silly as the cheerleader appearance may be, I'm actually more surprised that its the first time we see a cheerleader card? With sets like Ravnica, Battlebond and Strixhaven and perhaps even Kaladesh (All sets that have or very easily could have sports and thus cheerleaders.) yet we didn't, but we have gotten like, 'super fans' cards for said sporting events that happen on the mentioned planes; strixhaven even has mascots. There are probably some planes with sports or similar events I'm missing but yeah, just shocked at the realization that it took this long for us to get a cheerleader
While cheerleading is a surprisingly dangerous sport on its own, it's known for being a side show for a main event. It's in the modern horror set because of the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie that spawned an excellent series.
My favorite way to build a Commander deck is to pick a mono red commander, put all of my mono red and artifact cards that I already own into a pile and pick out cards that go together or that look fun. New experience with cards I already own! I love mono red.
Great video. A deck is good if you are happy with it and it usually does the thing you wanted it to do. It doesn't have to be perfectly optimized. It doesn't have to run staples. It doesn't have to win. It just has to make you smile. The less nonsense we buy from WotC in pursuit of being the very best like no one ever was, the less nonsense WotC will put out.
I recently took a 2 year break from Magic and honestly I missed less than I expected. There will *always* be something new and shiny relevant to your decks so having some "upgrade downtime" just saves you money.
The best way to go about it is naturally if you find a card for your deck while just looking at new stuff, make a proxy and try it. Forcing yourself to look through every single deck seems more overwhelming then being a new player at a commander table and getting stomped on by the other three players.
I tend to theme my decks, and I'll just build with the cards I have. Sometimes the point is to just build something kicking around in my brain even though I know I'll never play it. I have one of each Khan, as an example. Also, one of each 2-color Elder Dragon (the DTK 5 and the Strixhaven 5) as well as one of each mono-colored Elder Dinosaur. I've never played the Elder Dinosaur decks. They just sit there as a reminder of the exercise in creativity that was building a mono-colored deck. I also like building decks that use only the card pool from a single plane. It can be fun to build an Innistrad-only deck, even if you never play it.
Kinda been naturally doing this over the past one or two years, realizing keeping up with all my commander decks is way too stressful, and just not worry about upgrades too much. If i feel like i want to build more, im just going to make a new commander!
I’m so sick of people telling me that I didn’t build my deck right just because I didn’t make it as powerful as possible.
"Why don't you play OptimalCard in this???"
@ “you should be playing this commander for that deck instead”
im so sick of people telling me i didnt build my deck right because i made it as powerful as possible
Oh you should not meet my friend then. He hyper-optimizes and always "suggests" what I should put into my janky tribal
I’m so sick of people explaining to me
Why I won with more inexpensive cards than I could have.
My favorite commander card is Descent into Avernus. You could build around it. You could break parity. But I just cram it into my red decks regardless of synergy, slam it every time I draw it and crank the game up to 11.
Every game it doesn't get destroyed has a clock on it, and it enables more people to make their plays before the game ends, neatly excising two of commander's most frustrating elements.
Agreed. Great card design
veteran explorer
My Vihaan commander loves Descent into Avernus!!
Its a sick card. If Im too slow and lose to it - GG, if Im fast enough and win against it - GG, and in either case we're in a burn baby burn disco inferno moment together where we gotta find those big turns NOW lol
I love it to. I put it into an Anhelo card so I can cast my big spells faster assuming my opponents don’t just blow me up turn 4 with some giant Dino 😂
As a guy that gets at most one commander game per week and has 30 decks, the main aspect of the hobby for me is the maintenance of the decks and collecting the cards. Looking at the new sets, searching for certain abilities or stats for my decks, then deliberating on what needs to come out to make room for the new hotness, then ultimately making the change and cataloging it on Archidekt... that is the bulk of the hobby for me now and I'm pretty happy with it.
Yeah, I’m just like you. There’s no obligation to it, I simply like this process
My philosophy for any (casual) EDH deck is to build it towards a goal. The goal is never to win, but rather to answer "does it do a thing?" and "how well does it do that thing?" Once that goal is reached, other than a few old cards uncovered over the years, the deck is done.
My mono blue wizard deck is solely built around the goal of drawing as many cards as possible. I recently had a match where I knew I was going to lose, and while lacking the mana to use Laboratory Maniac etc to turn it into a win I still managed to deck myself to go out on my own terms the turn before I'd get beaten to death by a large swarm of big creatures. I'd say the goal is achieved with that deck.
@Iweleth If you don't get the chance to play the lab maniac, just be the lab maniac 😆
I’d love to freeze my decks. Good thing I haven’t played since the bans.
I build my decks like this.. will it do what i want.. and yes it does. Even if it’s a janky deck, dont care about winning.
I like to build decks around non-magic characters.
"But Aang wouldn't use a sword of War, even if it is also a sword of Peace."
Love that the top-end of your example of someone with too many commander decks was 12, as though I’m not sitting on over 50 decks here.
I gave away full decks and still have over 100. Iv been playing for about 6 years. I cannot upgrade decks i sometimes fully rebuild decks that start to be horrible. Im about to need to rebuild my keyword matters beck i made when commander legends released, it struggles to even have shot against current decks. Id put it on precon level now but when I first built it it was good and fun.
Yeah. Made me laugh. The only reason I have a hard cap of 40 decks is because I refuse to buy any more deck boxes.
If I want to build a new deck - then one has to die. Makes me think twice...
...course I do it anyway, but it makes me at least think about it.
I currently have... 2? And Im gonna disassmble one to make another and make 1 or 2 more but probably never do more than 5 total in completely different styles. I ONLY want to have a top 5 favs and pick between them otherwise it feels like too many
I think the only precons I'm missing are: UB, Starters*, and Anthology Commander decks.
*those 5 commander starter friendly decks that upgraded an uncommon to mythic, then reprinted back to uncommon later on.
that's wild. I have 0.
One of the best EDH videos ever. This kind of content NEED views and absorption. Literally got me to sub Patreon, which I should have done long ago but I am lazy.
As a yugioh player, im in awe at just how much love and respect there is for the commander community from all angles. Learning about other card games and their plights really pusts into perspective how massochistic we (yugioh players) are.
For context, though i've only played Duel Links: First turn combo wins were common. I read that they just ban those after a while, presumably to replace it with yet another one.
A big help, especially on the wallet is “if you want to buy a card for the deck, first figure out what exact card it is replacing”. I’ve saved a lot of money this way when I realized I didn’t want to remove a single card for said new one.
Yeah I KNOW I need to do this but fail everytime 😭🤣
For a lot of people, it is not about playing the latest and greatest, but rather it’s just remaining competitive. No one likes to sit down at a table and get curb stomped by a new deck made from the latest and greatest. An average commander deck from 10 years ago is nowhere near as competitive as average commander decks at this day in age. Look at Slivers as an example. They were the threat 10+ years ago, but with all the new stuff they are just average at this day in age. Keeping a decks in amber is a good idea if the play groups do a lot of the same, but this game isn’t known for its’ player base to not buy product.
Having a good power (and gameplay style) range in your collection seems to be the key :)
Apparently you haven't played a well built sliver deck. My friend's can consistently go infinite and win on turn 4.
@@robmitchell3039 Have, it was strong, and it was not impressive due to it being too linier. For a CEDH deck that is slow, but I don't think you are talking about that. For a regular deck EDH deck, that can be considered fast, but a host of decks can do it at that speed with an average amount of tuning (spell slinger, Voltron, and goblins).
This is the take I find the most agreeable. Rarely am I making or upgrading a deck to be as good as it can be. I’ll build it to do its thing to the nth degree and then tune it to improve it over time so it doesn’t just turn up and lose 100% of the time.
The trick is having everyone else on the same page.
Heck, a strong commander deck from 10+ years ago probably gets its ass kicked by precons from the past year or two. If not a fully thrashing then at least a struggle to survive.
If I DO upgrade a deck, I tend to lean away from cards that make the deck "better". I seek cards that will improve the experience for the table instead of looking to increase my own win rate.
Unless I'm having consistency issues or my deck feels too weak, I only make changes for theme and fun 100%
Totally. I had to tweak my Vannifar deck mostly to remove cards that had annoying rules things and to make it a more black and white gameplan. Also have only ramp and no sol rings or anything because otherwise its not the sort of mid level all-arounded deck I wanted
I wasn't expecting to get called out today by Kenobi, but hey, that's dad's for ya.
What I’ve really liked doing is making $50 budget decks on older unplayed commanders because it forces you to use some really interesting cards or have a very unique gameplan. Also consequentially any upgrades are super cheap to keep the deck within budget.
Same! Live for the jank!
This is the way
I actually almost always keep my decks identical or near identical to their original forms once created and tested for a goldfish or ten. I really like keeping my decks that way because it's nice to see these little snapshots into my own personal history. Remembering what cards really inspired me 5, 10 years ago. Remembering the fun moments I've experienced with the deck is a big reason I keep playing commander.
I've played against someone who had questioned why I even ran certain cards and told me after the last game what cards he thought I should be putting in my deck, and did so for my other opponent as well.
For reference, I build theme decks. I was criticized by my card choice in a themed deck I had just built and was first testing against a sheoldred player.
I got asked the other day why I had Inspiring Cleric in my Blink/Lifegain deck. Apparantly ETBing for 4 life wasn't something they considered.
That's how I keep the urge to upgrade everything at bay. I also like to maintain a theme and flavour for a deck. Sometimes a powerful new card also is thematic and it's great to upgrade.
Thats crazy to me. Theme decks IMO are the coolest decks Id be asking questions about all the cards you packaged in to make it.
My frog themed deck is in shambles after Bloomburrow
I genuinely enjoy scouring through new cards coming out and seeing a card and going 'oh that'll be perfect in this one deck i own'. Like when Rip, Spawn Hunter was spoiled I jumped for joy because it's another addition to my 5 color vehicles deck. Those moments are very enjoyable. However, I made a Dungeons & Dragons themed deck with the Stranger Things characters, the D&D movie characters, and the Baldur's Gate 3 characters all in the deck, and the rest is all D&D cards. It's perfectly terrible, very unsynergistic, but, I love it for the theme. And that deck is 100% complete, and I will never touch it (Unless they make new D&D cards). So I do like the feeling of having a deck be 100%'d.
The most useful thing I did with my card acquisitions was decide that instead of buying and trading for cards for decks, just get cards that I want to play, and only one of cards that are worth more than a few dollars and incredibly thematically suited for the deck. This has not only saved a huge amount of money from optimised decks, it actually leads me to better use of cards. I'm not buying another Meathook Massacre or Doubling Season or Mondrak, so I have to decide which of the decks I have it feels best in. That not only leads to me having the spicy cards naturally balance across decks where they are most fun to resolve and some naturaly filtering of power levels, it also means I'm less likely to make new decks without scrapping old ones. It's much easier to justify scrapping an established deck when it means I get five or ten or more very strong cards to spread around as I like.
10/10 ad read.. would listen again
your first episode of shuffle up and play with jaheira is my favorite shuffle up and play episode ever released, 4 great fun decks piloted by 4 great fun players, it's everything i love in a live play show!
Holy shit the amount of WORK done on this single video is im-freaking-mense! Great job!
I have a similar approach to the game lately.
Only my Yuriko deck is fully tuned and optimized. All of my other decks are full retro frame. This gives me some hype every year when a retro set is out and allows me to completely ignore all the other releases while, at the same time, helping me balancing my decks and giving me a nostalgia bomb on every game.
I love this.
I like this idea
I bought a guy's collection in 2018 and I preserved his cEDH deck Jarad in "amber." it's fun to break out and run those old lines again in high powered games.
I also "amber" my season winning league decks too.
Thanks for coining a term for the thing I do with special decks
I have "ambered" a Standard deck from back when Fires of Yavimaya was competitive, and Jade Leech was considered a useful card to have in the deck (2GG 5/5 with a drawback, I mean really!). I have done so, because it gave me my highest ever tournament finish, 2nd place, which would have been 1st place if not for my own dumb mistake. It's a terrible deck nowadays, but was a house back then and has *memories*.
I think the amber analogy is kinda perfect. I have 13 decks, and of those 4 of them are my pet decks. I play them the most often and they’re probably my highest power decks.
But recently we’ve added a few players to our group who are relatively new and are just starting to build their collections. So I came up with the idea for all of us to build janky decks with only stuff from our collections. It’s a unique opportunity to challenge yourself as a deck builder, while also slightly lowering the power level of the table so that newer players can have a better opportunity to learn. They not only have to build a deck with restrictions, but they also get to see decks and play styles that they may have otherwise never seen.
Also, keeping up with current metas and buying $40 cards is exhausting, so we as a playgroup decided to put a price cap on any deck we build of $300. It makes the games way more fun and also saves us some money.
wish I could like a video 8 times. more people need to see this
I play a lot of tribal decks, so I usually only update decks if a new card for a tribe is printed that goes well in one.
My issue : my tribal deck is human tribal
@RCCrisp i don't have one of those, what makes that an issue? Just the never ending stream of them?
Video isn't even out yet, and I wholeheartedly agree with the premise. To me, it fundamentally removes the fun/casual aspect of commander. Every time you upgrade your deck you're systematically inching closer to a competitive mindset. If that's what you want, that's fine. I believe that most people don't actually want that and just fall into that trap.
The problem though is that the power creep is real. And I'm not talking about splashy mythics here. Just check how run-of-the-mill effects over the years either become cheaper, or get an upside attached to them, and after a while both. That's most of the upgrades I do: commons and uncommons. Because that is the baseline at which new decks are built. Fall behind there, and you'll simply be outpaced by faster decks.
@Volkbrecht I played one of my oldest decks last week and it won handedly. It's a mikaeus the lunarch artifacts deck. Just find a chill pod
Yo some of the stills in this video are insanity. Lol PK's always out there, but damn.
As an editor, i really apreciate the edit's this video
Me too ❤
This is why I love watching the magic the Gathering goldfish crew play commander. Those guys always think outside of the box
I've barely dipped my toes into commander yet (due to being busy) but I totally agree with the idea that something doesn't feel right about using meta lists etc to brew the best possible deck that your commander can pilot.
I love the message of commander's roots that I have heard about, in that you'd throw together a big dragon and neglected but fun junk and see what happens, and I'm a little sad I didn't get to experience it first hand. But I'll be damned if I don't bring some of my own "shoebox deckbuilding" to the table. I already have a desire to attempt to build a deck using exclusively packed cards, and never buying singles for it. It'll take a little while, but I think every piece of half good card draw, removal etc I pull will feel amazing! I just wish it was cheaper to buy handfuls of older sets for fun haha.
Cool vid! And props to the editor! He did a brilliant job!
Love the energy in your opening and editing in this. Keep up the work, Kenobi.
I have a couple of 60 card decks that I've amberized. I built my first creatureless deck, in 2000 and made minor upgrades (mostly lands) between 2000 and 2010. I've left it alone since. If I ever sell my collection, it's the only MtG related thing I'll keep. I love leaving it alone, it feels like it has history with me.
I have a Kamahl, Fist of Krosa commander deck that I treat the same way. One thing that I love about it, is the hidden mode of Kahahl's first ability. Inevitably, someone doesn't read it when I offer it to them, then goes on to Wrath the board. I absolutely love turning all of their lands, and just their lands, into 1/1s and watch them realize that not only did they annoy everyone else at the table, but they Armageddoned themselves.
This is how I feel with my lord of the Nazgul commander deck. Labor of love lol
I have 60 card decks from the 90s that I have never taken apart. Some got raided over the years because some of those old cards are absurdly powerful but quite a few remain intact.
Wow! This video is a true firework of editing effects and mixing of snippets of film. Bravo to your Editor! 🎉
I did not watch many of your videos recently, but this one (and the short on Descent into Avernus) really hit close to how I am often feeling about Commander. I took good cards out of my decks a few times, just to later upgrade those decks with new cards again...
whoever the editor is, crazy music choices, love it
I have only upgraded 4 cards in 2 years.
Not because i am unable to acquire the cards.
Not because i haven't kept up with the releases.
Only because i don't have a color printer.
Make your own secret lair with pencils, it takes a bit of work but adds yoir own personality to it.
Great message and works even better when you dont spend much money on the hobby. About half a year ago instead of powercreeping my decks I instead starting sloting in cards thst went with the theme/commander. I made an atraxa phyrexian creature artifact deck with the vast majority of cards being directly related to mirrodin, phyrexia, darksteel. I love the deck and its unique to my playgroup. Its very strong but not overpowered.
Thanks for making this video. Recently I've changed on upgrading every single deck. It is expensive. So I've tried to narrow it down to maybe 4 good deck upgrades.
Most of my decks are so finely tuned down to the mana value that I don't really need to upgrade. And not finely tuned in a competitive power sense, just that every card has a good reason to be there in its mana value slot. Replacing them with new cards would just be redundant. I only upgrade a deck because I was never really satisfied with some cards and they're only there until something more synergistic comes along. So whenever I upgrade, it's usually like a 10+ card sweep of stuff that wasn't working which I replace. The last time I upgraded, it was to put a bunch of MH3 MDFC lands and Demolition Fields in each of my 18 Commander decks because MDFCs and targeted land destruction are great for any deck.
I very rarely upgrade decks and instead just build new ones. it has turned into me owning about 20 finished complete decks. some of my friends don't understand how I have that many but they keep spending money on upgrades. I like the more design aspect of doing weird things with my decks and playing the cards that are never seen. Psychic Surgery will forever be one of my favorite blue cards in commander.
I've downgraded from 50 decks last year lol if they all function and are fun, why mess with them? 😂
This is my favorite video of yours ever. And you've made some damn great vids, my friend. Thanks for your strong opinions.
good work here. pro editing and good takes plus you were funny af this round
vince! this video was awesome as always. the editing is top notch. thank you so much for being the awesome goofball that you are!
Thanks again!
Idk man, if a new, cool dragon comes out, I will definitely give it several looks at the very least.
My LGS gives out prizes randomly to everyone at commander night. So prizes for commander, kind of
I completely agree. I like casual and cEDH. We're not talking about different power levels of casual decks, that just happens when you brew different decks.
This is about respecting new players and older ones.
Deck I like playing the most is my Surgeon Commander 5c mutate deck. I've got every mutate card in showcase, each triome in showcase, 15 basics - three for each different art from ikoria. That leaves me with little to no wiggle room for non ikoria cards. Playing it feels like visiting an ikoria themed art gallery and it feels just right. Rarely new cards fit in (newest would be flying hexproof tyranid afaik), and that's good. No deck demands constant upkeep and improvements. Heck - what's the Point of changing deck, if some cards I haven't drawn even once, not talking about casting them
Agreed. If the itch to get the newest hotness is not killing you, just wait it out, dig your own boxes &/or buy the next best option which may be miles below in price.
& of course, also bcos you'r so f#cking good at the game, Vince!
New editor? High production value video! 😮
I've been editing for PK for a little while now, but glad you enjoyed it!
@noRugrats_ i can tell you put a lot of effort into this video. Love it, keep it up!
I love this, im planning on making a Simic Guild deck where I only use cards that take place on Ravnica. It wont be that strong but it will be my favorite
I love how much you love Fraying Line!
I'm glad to see a video on this! At poitns too I'm super into upgrading decks, other times I jsut want to put my money towards other things and upgrading just isn't needed.
Typically I have a small number of decks which get upgrades/tweaks whenever a new card looks cool.
Though recently I've been working on making my Zinnia deck all animals, because I like the theme, which is a fun & silly challenge.
I m glad you never stop glazing the fraying line, it's such a great card
Bro, you're on fire in the first 5 mins here!
It’s a very refreshing video . Normally people push the new hotness and it’s really obvious but just don’t get obsessed with the new , just enjoy what you have!!!!
I like the idea of freezing a list.
Ideally you have a playgroup that maybe commits to it with decks that worked well together, but idk with commander even just durdling a bit and then dying is usually a good time.
I think it's about that time for my pet deck Phage, the Untouchable. Just stared at it yesterday for a bit, so maybe one last go-over with foundations.
Great Stuff! I love this, thanks 🙌
I think this video actually brings up a lot of very good point...that's it, I don't really have a rebuttle
I think it's actually made me think about placing 3 of my decks (Millicent, Ojer Axonil and Mazzy) into amber while still keeping up with my Kykar spellslinging and Kamiz Ninja decks , I also plan on building an Artifact Aristocrats deck and "Oops ALL Clones" which will both also probably go into amber
thank you for this insight
Most of my decks are so tuned to my playgroup and the specific way I want to pilot them that I think I've unintentionally put them in amber. It's great to chill out and play with the goofy nostalgic cards that are specific to you.
Recently I also stopped actively looking for upgrade cards in previews. Sometimes I'll find out about a card months after it released because someone else in my pod plays it or I stumble across it on scryfall. But the rush to get the hot new thing right when it releases and show it off right away is so exhausting, and I finally realized that, especially when I'm buying singles, there's no real rush. Less energy spent on hype is great.
Yes so much of what you said here I’ve told players at my lgs repeatedly. Just have fun! I’ve got players who enjoy playing against me not because it’s an easy win but because they know I’ll play some card they either haven’t seen in a while or never seen before because it’s not about the win for me it’s about the experience. So many of the competitive players at my shop don’t understand I’m out here making a feast and they’re settling for McDonald’s.
Whoever your editor is right now is doing a great job
I'm a brand new baby Commander Player (bought a Precon from my LGS), but even I already feel this sense like I HAVE to upgrade things... In my case, it mostly comes down to a sense that
1: using a precon in the first place feeling like it might somehow NEED an extra card or two.
2: A bit of a sense of less like I need to "keep up" with modern, and more a sense that I ought to take my core concept and take it as far as I can manage. for example the aforementioned precon is Admiral Brass, Unsinkable. I am VERY HAPPY with my concept for Admiral Brass and the mechanics of "Beat things to death with pirates, and then if my pirates die then they come back next turn as stronger pirates", but feel this sense in the back of my mind that I should figure out just how to change it ever-so-slightly to make it "better" at its core concept of stealing shit and beating people to death with reanimated pirates. Wondering if things like Rogue or Warlock from the D&D set may add something, or reading Defiled Crypt and seeing that it makes my commander's reanimation tricks even better than they originally were (Though 2/2 Horrors don't exactly fit in the "Kill it with PIRATES" aspect). Etc. Like... HAVING a Commander Deck makes and scratches the same itch in my head that Warframe does, where I'm like "I want to do this 1 cool thing with this set of mechanics, and I am going to either overthink it to high heaven or steal builds from people smarter than me to make the maximum impact"
I make proxy re-skins of full commander decks, and that's really helped me stop tinkering once they're done. When I have to wait for the next one to be finished in order to print any new cards for older decks, it's quite a strong deterrent. I think the last amendment I made was removing Dockside from one after it was banned, otherwise it's just been fixing occasional errors I haven't caught during the creation process.
I used to play competitive until 2016, and haven't updated my commander list since 2020. I now just play it with friends as is and at the occasional commander night at random stores and it's been great. Easily the most fun I've had with the game in ages
I agree! Commander should be fun. I have already smbered two of my decks: Saskiya, the very first Commander deck I bought, and the Italian language Virtue and Valor that I bought in Rome last year. They mean more to me in their original form than they would if they were upgraded. Big Green, Big Blue, Demons, and Jinnie Fay, on the other hand, are the decks that I enjoy upgrading. Oh, and I'll have to change my Goblins deck now, since one of its cards got banned.
Yo, was just looking at a TCG cart stressed. Just moved it to 'saved for later'. Thanks homie, appreciate the vid.
Outside of a couple of pet decks, I usually don't upgrade my decks very often. Sometimes I'll pull a cool elf and go "hey I should put this in Lathril".. but trying to keep 30+ and growing decks optimized constantly would be an expensive endeavor. Usually I will see a precon or legendary creature I like say Ooh shiny and upgrade it to the point I am happy with how it plays and play with it until the next shiny crosses my eye. My bag for game nights usually contains 1 of my pet decks I am in the mood to play, and a random mix of other decks of varying builds and power levels.. (I usually carry six decks with me 5 of which have been often selected by random number generator). If there is a theme I'm going for that week I may be a little more selective (spooky season is upon us let me play my zombies and vampires) but otherwise I am there to have fun.
I have a couple decks fitting this concept, I’ll implement it more!
I fully agree, no reason to constantly upgrade CASUAL decks. I always felt it was a good idea to take a look at your decks periodically, and to actually adjust when they are under or over-performing. I probably come back around to each of my casual decks every 6 months to examine if there’s any bombs I missed. If you have like 4 or less EDH decks however then you might consider keeping up with them
1:56 thank you!! I used to manage an lgs, and I frequently remind players that when they sit down for a game of Commander it's the same stakes as a game of checkers.
I'd take you as a brother, maybe a cousin. I've got too many Grey's for you to be my father
I've somewhat moved into the habit of skipping releases and spoilers when it comes to the aspect of "I need that card" and leave decks as they are...
I then go to EDHRec every 6 to 8 months and check what I have been missing for my respective commanders and if the new cards need to be in my list....
This has served me quite well
Why is bro throwing shade at Poland when Bulgaria is right there 😭
I'm Dutch and was great at Topo in the '90s but Bulgaria doesn't stand out to me for any reason besides maybe its president flipflopping like Turkey's, or was that Hungary's?
One of my most fun recent memories in Commander was an opponent playing Prisoners Dilemma and readily handed us infini tokens with pens each for dramatic effect. Only one opponent chose Snitch and wrote “get fucked”. We all lost it. Very fun interaction. Live for those moments
I also photographed my favorite mono green ELF deck when I finally realized I couldn't make any Cuts because it was too fun the way I've been playing it
I've found recent enjoyment in the challenge of building $100 budget decks. Added benefit to being cheaper to foil, too.
I make too many decks to upgrade them. Instead I just occasionally revisit them and rebuild them with the new card set in the option pile. Avoids new product hype as well as helping me stay sane.
I only started EDH the start of the year. Really been a journey thus far. Going from figuring things out. To trying to be “competitive” after getting my butt kicked. Building more decks than I needed. And now landing on one I just can have fun with. Got tired quick of “keeping up”. Especially with 100 card decks it feels good to keep decks in stasis to really play out the deck.
I appreciate the music choice during the "ad" read.
Fuck, now I want to reinstall BattleBlock Theater.
Wow the editor COOKED with this
This is the first time I’ve heard of Commander compared to Mario Party and I freaking love it. Please be my dad.
This feels like a return to "the old days" when commander was more about "let's put together some deck with the cards we already have" instead of "I need to upgrade with the newest stuff". Might be just me, but it feels not nostalgic but rather relaxing to keep a deck steady for a good while (if it's fun to play!).
I decided to do this to Sythis a while back. The deck is fun to play, has a number of win cons, and she SLAPS!
I haven't upgraded her build in about two years and shes got no problem keeping up with different tables.
I had been feeling the upgrade anxiety about a year ago, and my solution was to use one commander (in this example: Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief) and build 3 separate decks to utilize it in. I have a spellslinger/control shell, a voltron/enchantress deck, and a copies/tokens matters version. Excluding the mana base, there is only about 20ish cards that appear in all 3 builds. Now, when i see new cards, if something looks particularly interesting i very likely have a spot for it in one of the modes that wont make me feel like im compromising or taking something out i dont want to give up, since instead of 80 other cards im choosing from 240. It seems a bit much but it was preferable to building 3 separate commanders and having to consider upgrades each set with a small pool of cuts. Cant say it would help anyone, but hey. Wanted to share.
(The cards arent all bangers either; bulk is your friend, kids)
Theres a spiky way to play Fraying Line - flash it in before your turn with like Liberator or goblin welder
Completely agree with the point to the video. However, if you are going to play the format or game with this mind set then be okay with losing more often. MTG is a game about winning and or losing. Even if you play for fun, you should be playing with the intent to win or the intent to lose. Regardless try to have fun with it. Losing only sucks if you are actively trying not to lose.
Props for loving Hornet Nest
I am tired of sitting down to some competitive commander that I point out is strong and someone tells me its a casual build then they proceed to play it sub optimally, I sort of ignore them, and then the Heliod Walking Ballista combo me behind a Heroic Intervention when I try responding. Those people, make me want to just play blue control every game.
I wouldn’t even play Infinites at the LGS where I do 95% of my playing these days, but since I can’t get anyone else to stop with the I Win combos, or making decks that only exist to maximize opportunity to play the I Win combo(s), a ghetto kind of arms race remains the norm.
So I absolutely do Heliod/Ballista from behind a HI or Dawn’s Truce, w/ a Veil of Summer in hand, because more than half the time I choose not to go infinite, someone else pops off later in T5-T6.
Last Fri, had a guy sit down and say, “Mind if I run my new 5-color doors deck? Marina’s the Commander.”
I say sure, and T3 it’s an infinite mana combo straight out of a cEDH Sythis shell.
Asked to see it when we were done, and sure enough, it’s got everything needed to tutor up and facilitate 3 different enchantress style infinites. The Door enchants might as well be cardboard movie set backdrop.
There’s no reason to build like that, except to be deceptive about your deck’s power level.
Switched to my Arwen, Mortal Queen deck cuz it’s a ton faster, and just Magus of the Disk’d my way to a win by 3 c-damage KOs. He switched pods for the next game, so I went back to Hydra Tribal.
@@Shawn-f3x shit my LGS has some people that do a lot of combo shenanigans and I took apart my Teysa Karlov list that had multiple combo shells in it and it was consistent in getting there to instead build Raffine, Scheming Seer where I purposefully built it with no combo's or tutors with the exception of entomb.
it's certainly a very strong fast and consistent deck and I've left it in a way where it is very easy to interact with the deck, I've noticed some people have gotten a little salty with it cause it's a high budget deck but it's only as powerful as the table lets it be but it can't win really any earlier than like turn 6/7, but I love playing that deck and I won't power it down simply because people don't run enough removal or interaction to keep it in check.
@@ipsyop 999/1000 decks aren't actually too strong people just don't interact near enough on average. your deck sounds incredibly fun to play with and anyone whining have a lot of growth in the game left
@@Spoopy73 People lifting decks straight off EDHRec drastically worsens the low-to-no interaction problem, IMO.
When I build a new deck, I do check the creature lists for a given Commander/Theme on there, because I took a 12 year break from MtG and missed a ton of sets.
One thing I notice *constantly* in the Selesnya deck lists I’ve been looking at lately is there’s about 4-5 pieces of Interaction *maximum* . Swords, Path, Generous Gift, Beast Within, and *sometimes* Stroke of Midnight + 1 piece of Enchantment/Artifact Removal.
I think part of the problem is that people associate high Salt Scored w/ a deck being effective. Not realizing the reason the score is higher is due to those lists running light on Interaction to squeeze in more bombs.
The problem is only exacerbated by newer players trying to build-by-espoused formulas and finding no success. Which only drives them back to netdecking.
Ive got a ballista combo in my Vannifar Evolved Enigma artifact creature deck... but no tutors, no mana rocks, no phyrexian cards, not using the gimmick disguise flip mechanic at all, and basically am forced to naturally draw into it and play it with all pieces on board.
Thats kind of the only way I feel comfortable running infinites and stuff. I also can only win by combat damage or that lol so its my only answer to some decks which is a big reason its in there. I have substitution cards just in case but the decks nowhere near strong enough to ever need to do that
I was gifted an Otrimi Commander precon when Ikoria came out. I made upgrades with the cards I had and made the restriction that I cannot buy any singles/packs for it. I still trade cards for it, but only with cards I already had on hand. It’s my favorite deck I have not intentionally spent any money on myself.
“Once you decide to amber a deck it is a legally binding contract; deciding to edit the deck in question allows PK to become your dad” - PK
As silly as the cheerleader appearance may be, I'm actually more surprised that its the first time we see a cheerleader card? With sets like Ravnica, Battlebond and Strixhaven and perhaps even Kaladesh (All sets that have or very easily could have sports and thus cheerleaders.) yet we didn't, but we have gotten like, 'super fans' cards for said sporting events that happen on the mentioned planes; strixhaven even has mascots.
There are probably some planes with sports or similar events I'm missing but yeah, just shocked at the realization that it took this long for us to get a cheerleader
While cheerleading is a surprisingly dangerous sport on its own, it's known for being a side show for a main event. It's in the modern horror set because of the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie that spawned an excellent series.
My favorite way to build a Commander deck is to pick a mono red commander, put all of my mono red and artifact cards that I already own into a pile and pick out cards that go together or that look fun. New experience with cards I already own! I love mono red.
loved today's sponsor!
Great video. A deck is good if you are happy with it and it usually does the thing you wanted it to do. It doesn't have to be perfectly optimized. It doesn't have to run staples. It doesn't have to win. It just has to make you smile. The less nonsense we buy from WotC in pursuit of being the very best like no one ever was, the less nonsense WotC will put out.
"The cheerleader is stupid"
That, from the guy who defends Universes Beyond. You don't get to complain, you get Spongebob.
I recently took a 2 year break from Magic and honestly I missed less than I expected. There will *always* be something new and shiny relevant to your decks so having some "upgrade downtime" just saves you money.
The best way to go about it is naturally if you find a card for your deck while just looking at new stuff, make a proxy and try it.
Forcing yourself to look through every single deck seems more overwhelming then being a new player at a commander table and getting stomped on by the other three players.
The editing on this one went hard
I tend to theme my decks, and I'll just build with the cards I have. Sometimes the point is to just build something kicking around in my brain even though I know I'll never play it. I have one of each Khan, as an example. Also, one of each 2-color Elder Dragon (the DTK 5 and the Strixhaven 5) as well as one of each mono-colored Elder Dinosaur. I've never played the Elder Dinosaur decks. They just sit there as a reminder of the exercise in creativity that was building a mono-colored deck. I also like building decks that use only the card pool from a single plane. It can be fun to build an Innistrad-only deck, even if you never play it.
Kinda been naturally doing this over the past one or two years, realizing keeping up with all my commander decks is way too stressful, and just not worry about upgrades too much. If i feel like i want to build more, im just going to make a new commander!
Ngl I didnt realize we were doing an ad read until you said it was over
Commander has become Yu-Gi-Oh.