Using removal that fits the theme of your deck feels so rewarding. In my bant poison/proliferate deck I use Bring the Ending, Corrupted Resolve, and Glen Elendra Archmage as my counterspell package. I made a $50 for a friend of mine using Vishgraz as the commander. It was so much fun finding blinkable removal spells like Knight of the Autumn, Ravenous Chupacabra, Acidic Slime, and Reclamation Sage that fit the budget and are extremely effective. I think one of the major factors in me building a deck in paper is finding those removal spells that get enhanced by the deck archetype or the commander.
I kept looking for the 1/3 video, and the 2/3 video, because I thought this video was part 3 of 3. Then I clued in that the channel is called 3/3 Elk, as a reference to the card. Me so silly! Anyways, thanks for all the great content! #subscribed
Building a temple piracy deck. Let's goooooo! Gosh. I adore the advice given in this video. I love getting advice to smooth out the experience while allowing the strong player gets ganged up on. (Provided I am not relegated to being pod mom of being the only one playing removal. But that's just why I'm playing Alela with a host of sub commanders. To scale off interacting with the table in as many fun ways as I can find at instant speed.)
This video exemplifies a lot of things I dislike about edhrec. Making a good deck means searching for and adding cards that benefit **your** deck, and it is an iterative process that takes time. Shoving the cards in your deck that edhrec recommends can be viable but it soulless and rarely forms cohesion or individuality.
One question I repeatedly ask myself when I have to cut cards is "would I be happy casting this when I have nothing?" A lot of my less enjoyable moments in commander come from struggling to rebuild. The wraths are fine in my eyes. I'll be sad when a four-mode Farewell gets full value, but that sorrow pales in comparison to the pain of having absolutely nothing to do for two, three, maybe even four turns in a row, all because I "don't want to do that yet, nothing will happen" (i.e. an aura in hand with no creatures in play/hand/etc). If I'm happy to cast a card when I have absolutely nothing, I'll always be happy to cast it. P.S. omg I love the blooper reel, youtube needs more of that
I think the term vegetables is perfect for magic because in real life a lot of people think vegetables are "less tasty" because they don't SEASON THEM. Force of Will is the plain uncooked broccoli of MTG, but Stratus Dancer? (Morph creature with a counter effect) that's pan fried broccoli cooked with butter and garlic. Sure it's technically not as good for you, but it's so much of a better experience.
One thing I'd throw on at the end when it comes to "what is or isn't working with the deck" - don't judge a deck based off one game. Sometimes it may pop off, then other times, people may shut you down. I've had games where I just could not draw enough cards, then other games where I had way too many cards and constantly had to pick what to discard. That said, in my Kyler deck, 4 or 5 games in a row I ran into the problem of having beefy creatures, but no way to get them through to end the game. That is when I knew there was a problem that needed fixing.
a friend of mine wanted to get into edh and i'm digging through my old cards and decks and just wishing I knew as much about deck building as I do now after having played mtga for four years (and then stopping for two because I'm so burned out on the company and just want to buy from hobby shops and trade for cards now) but still , very glad for advice and ideas to improve. Also your voice is very nice!
Yes! That’s exactly why I only include cards that fit my theme, like running fumigate instead of wrath of god in my life gain-themed deck (with an angel sub theme)
1:18 related: this doesn't happen often but sometimes they decide to team up with the threat of the table and settle for 2nd place I get a little salty. Actually the first and only time I have ever rage scooped.
You know what's funny is you mentioned mana dorks as a card type that loses functionality in late game. But! With proper deck construction, alongside beast whisperer effects they are essentially one mana cantrips that trigger all of your creatures effects and make a wide board for your pump.
yeah i thought about mentioning stuff like how in a deck with beast whisperer or skull clamp they can still be good late but felt like it wasnt entirely needed hehe
@@33elk it works to your point tho, having a decks theme help with consistency/fix clunkiness. Those elves could be mana rocks or green land ramp, but in a creature theme they help support the deck. Great video!
One other thing that I think is worth touching on is the versatility of your deck. Lots of looting and rummaging can help with this. My most versatile deck runs Plargg, Dean of Chaos // Augusta, Dean of Order as the commander, and with Plargg's second ability, the only card that can get hit is sunforger (I pay 5 mana to cascade into nonlegendary, nonland card cmc 3 or less). With sunforger, I can search for all the 4 mana instants that the deck is filled with. Many of such cards are silver bullets like niche combat tricks and rather specific removal. However, the thing that really ties the whole deck together is Plargg's first activated ability: {t}, Discard a card: Draw a card. This ability is honestly nuts to have and easy to overlook, as it can let me pitch some of the niche instants for my bombs, synergy pieces, rocks, etc. and stays a useful ability for the entire game (and I also have ways to return those instants from my yard to my library if I need to fetch em with sunforger later).
I have made an effort to not use sol ring, and other common staples. What i found is the more I do this, other follow suit. Maze of ith has disappeared from our play months ago. Awesome video!
cycles for 2 mana, scries deep late game. mid game gives some ramp via scions. Random gravehate and removal on it as well. All at instant speed. There is no point in which you draw kozilek's command and you are like "damn it, didn't wanna draw that!" this is true mostly for modern, but in a colorless-only/heavy commander deck i can see it remaining true.
@@33elk I've been making a mono-green deck and have leaned on a small colorless suite for some better interaction (Null Elemental Blast, Selective Obliteration). Kozilek's Command wasn't on my radar, but I may check it out! Thanks for the reply.
When cmdr Queza meets Lich's Mastery and you draw your whole deck but it's not enough to take out all the opponents, you'll be damn glad to see a One With Nothing and an Elixir of Immortality
I like to categorize my card draw and removals between veggies and sinergy, you can´t just run veggies because EDH rewards decks that do more but also cards that do more then to cost more mana. In my Juri deck for example I like to play Astharion Thirst but I can´t put that many expensive removal
Good video. I would also like to add that you should know before the game how you are planning on winning the game, or at least have some ideas. I have faced decks that have the plan of "I make synergies" for a wincon and it's usually painful to get over the finishline. My friend told me about a guy that used an infinite loop to make infinite mana and when asked how he would use that mana to win he stated that he "made infinite mana".
So im trying to build an ultra magnus deck but i cant find the right balance between card draw and running artifacts to use the commander. Without card draw i get stale fast but if i run card draw i dont find myself with deck synergy. Any thoughts or tips would be very helpful
How do you suggest building around very limited concepts? I've got a Marina Vadrel deck, but it's not great because there are only like 15 rooms, and only 6 of them are any good. How do you make very niche/gimic decks work?
I can't fathom a table where sun droplet is ever good on its own accord. It's good with exactly a dedicated lifegain deck but on its own? There's not a world outside of like true turbo jank piles of bulk.
@@insaneAquacaster hehe its not hard!! Put all the good exalted cards and synergies into raiyuu. Simple as that! Some sprinkling of Voltron classics like doublestrike enablers and you’re set!
How valuable is it to add funny cards? For example, I have a Lurrus as a companion deck that I love to death, it is mostly an artifact count deck, however it has some graveyard themes. Because it can both get Lurrus back, and it is a very unique card, I run "pull from eternity". I can honestly admit that this is by far the worst card in my deck, as I want every card to be impactful or draw cards, and it does neither. However the idea of using it to get Lurrus or a key piece back from exile is just too big of a fantasy to take out the card (plus the funny interactions with being able to deny impulse draw / suspend)
Long time player here (since pre commander) and my stance on funny/pet cards is that I try to keep it down to only one (that's on the top narrow side) and I'll keep it in my deck until it "does the thing" once. Then I've gotten it out of my system and I can either replace it with a different funny card or just put something that's actually good in the deck in its place. But sometimes the stars align and after casting the funny card, you realize that it's actually better than you thought and worthy of staying in your deck. Just my two cents.
I think funny cards add soul to a deck. It's one thing to build a good, efficient deck, but I think that pet cards are what truly make a person's deck "theirs". That said I try to limit "funny" cards to AT MOST three per deck, usually one or two.
Not running Arcane Signet in a 3 color deck w a 4 mana commander is obviously a mistake. You're far from guaranteed to curve out with pirates on turns 1-3 while also hitting all three types of basic land.
@@33elk If the person building the deck has a more expensive mana base, then I would agree, but when comes to more budget builds, you are going to sacrifice some speed for sake of consistency. Reason why I play some stax pieces and hatebears to slow the game down.
![[EDH] What you NEED to make a Commander deck](/img/n.gif)
The Discord: discord.gg/NBTgYG2deZ
goated thumbnail
Elked, even
Fr
Came here to say the same thing. That thumbnail is straight heat 🔥
0/1 Goat
I give it a 3/3
I swear I hear Snail’s voice speaking through Elk’s mouth here lol
clicked cause the thumbnail looks sick
As soon as I heard you say "compactness" I had a flashback to the teachings of the Snail lol, great vid!
Using removal that fits the theme of your deck feels so rewarding. In my bant poison/proliferate deck I use Bring the Ending, Corrupted Resolve, and Glen Elendra Archmage as my counterspell package. I made a $50 for a friend of mine using Vishgraz as the commander. It was so much fun finding blinkable removal spells like Knight of the Autumn, Ravenous Chupacabra, Acidic Slime, and Reclamation Sage that fit the budget and are extremely effective. I think one of the major factors in me building a deck in paper is finding those removal spells that get enhanced by the deck archetype or the commander.
My orzov enchantment deck runs over 20 pieces because it wants to play 3 enchantments a turn and most of the good ones in white are removal.
Yeah that evasive Pyro synergy is wild
The animation matching the bloopers was hella funny :)
I kept looking for the 1/3 video, and the 2/3 video, because I thought this video was part 3 of 3. Then I clued in that the channel is called 3/3 Elk, as a reference to the card. Me so silly! Anyways, thanks for all the great content! #subscribed
Love the deleted scene at the end lol
Building a temple piracy deck. Let's goooooo!
Gosh. I adore the advice given in this video. I love getting advice to smooth out the experience while allowing the strong player gets ganged up on. (Provided I am not relegated to being pod mom of being the only one playing removal. But that's just why I'm playing Alela with a host of sub commanders. To scale off interacting with the table in as many fun ways as I can find at instant speed.)
This video exemplifies a lot of things I dislike about edhrec. Making a good deck means searching for and adding cards that benefit **your** deck, and it is an iterative process that takes time. Shoving the cards in your deck that edhrec recommends can be viable but it soulless and rarely forms cohesion or individuality.
DUDE that thumbnail is so cool!
One question I repeatedly ask myself when I have to cut cards is "would I be happy casting this when I have nothing?"
A lot of my less enjoyable moments in commander come from struggling to rebuild. The wraths are fine in my eyes. I'll be sad when a four-mode Farewell gets full value, but that sorrow pales in comparison to the pain of having absolutely nothing to do for two, three, maybe even four turns in a row, all because I "don't want to do that yet, nothing will happen" (i.e. an aura in hand with no creatures in play/hand/etc).
If I'm happy to cast a card when I have absolutely nothing, I'll always be happy to cast it.
P.S. omg I love the blooper reel, youtube needs more of that
Blooper REEL!? that was all live struggling
I think the term vegetables is perfect for magic because in real life a lot of people think vegetables are "less tasty" because they don't SEASON THEM. Force of Will is the plain uncooked broccoli of MTG, but Stratus Dancer? (Morph creature with a counter effect) that's pan fried broccoli cooked with butter and garlic. Sure it's technically not as good for you, but it's so much of a better experience.
One thing I'd throw on at the end when it comes to "what is or isn't working with the deck" - don't judge a deck based off one game. Sometimes it may pop off, then other times, people may shut you down. I've had games where I just could not draw enough cards, then other games where I had way too many cards and constantly had to pick what to discard. That said, in my Kyler deck, 4 or 5 games in a row I ran into the problem of having beefy creatures, but no way to get them through to end the game. That is when I knew there was a problem that needed fixing.
Finding removal spells that synergize with your commander is such a great feeling and my favorite thing to always look for.
a friend of mine wanted to get into edh and i'm digging through my old cards and decks and just wishing I knew as much about deck building as I do now after having played mtga for four years (and then stopping for two because I'm so burned out on the company and just want to buy from hobby shops and trade for cards now) but still , very glad for advice and ideas to improve.
Also your voice is very nice!
First video I've seen from you, but I've been enjoying your takes on the Magic Mirror. Keep up the good work, friend.
I love that you always tend to post when I get out of work
the nine exclamation marks go hard
Yes! That’s exactly why I only include cards that fit my theme, like running fumigate instead of wrath of god in my life gain-themed deck (with an angel sub theme)
Very good advice to new players actually, also great thumbnail :3
1:18 related: this doesn't happen often but sometimes they decide to team up with the threat of the table and settle for 2nd place I get a little salty. Actually the first and only time I have ever rage scooped.
Table politics was likely involved
I love watching the fish flap around trying to scrabble for second mwahahaha
You know what's funny is you mentioned mana dorks as a card type that loses functionality in late game. But! With proper deck construction, alongside beast whisperer effects they are essentially one mana cantrips that trigger all of your creatures effects and make a wide board for your pump.
yeah i thought about mentioning stuff like how in a deck with beast whisperer or skull clamp they can still be good late but felt like it wasnt entirely needed hehe
@@33elk it works to your point tho, having a decks theme help with consistency/fix clunkiness. Those elves could be mana rocks or green land ramp, but in a creature theme they help support the deck. Great video!
One other thing that I think is worth touching on is the versatility of your deck. Lots of looting and rummaging can help with this.
My most versatile deck runs Plargg, Dean of Chaos // Augusta, Dean of Order as the commander, and with Plargg's second ability, the only card that can get hit is sunforger (I pay 5 mana to cascade into nonlegendary, nonland card cmc 3 or less). With sunforger, I can search for all the 4 mana instants that the deck is filled with. Many of such cards are silver bullets like niche combat tricks and rather specific removal. However, the thing that really ties the whole deck together is Plargg's first activated ability: {t}, Discard a card: Draw a card. This ability is honestly nuts to have and easy to overlook, as it can let me pitch some of the niche instants for my bombs, synergy pieces, rocks, etc. and stays a useful ability for the entire game (and I also have ways to return those instants from my yard to my library if I need to fetch em with sunforger later).
Finally a video doing away with ramp! I hate ramp in sooo many decks.
I have made an effort to not use sol ring, and other common staples. What i found is the more I do this, other follow suit.
Maze of ith has disappeared from our play months ago.
Awesome video!
Okay, I need the sales pitch for Kozilek’s Command. Seems a bit expensive, but I can kind of get it. Great video.
cycles for 2 mana, scries deep late game. mid game gives some ramp via scions. Random gravehate and removal on it as well. All at instant speed. There is no point in which you draw kozilek's command and you are like "damn it, didn't wanna draw that!"
this is true mostly for modern, but in a colorless-only/heavy commander deck i can see it remaining true.
@@33elk I've been making a mono-green deck and have leaned on a small colorless suite for some better interaction (Null Elemental Blast, Selective Obliteration). Kozilek's Command wasn't on my radar, but I may check it out! Thanks for the reply.
You say I cant control my opponents, but my mindslaver loops disagree.
thank you for the insights!
Hey I was watching that!!! Bring it back!!!
fixed the upload, go back!!
Great content as always ^^
Beckett Brass is the pyro from tf2 confirmed-
When cmdr Queza meets Lich's Mastery and you draw your whole deck but it's not enough to take out all the opponents, you'll be damn glad to see a One With Nothing and an Elixir of Immortality
Zombie Infestation does it better than OWN.
Yo Elk's gonna turn Santa Clause's sled into a voltron commander this christmas with that thumbnail
Good stuff, easy to follow
I like to categorize my card draw and removals between veggies and sinergy, you can´t just run veggies because EDH rewards decks that do more but also cards that do more then to cost more mana. In my Juri deck for example I like to play Astharion Thirst but I can´t put that many expensive removal
Good video. I would also like to add that you should know before the game how you are planning on winning the game, or at least have some ideas. I have faced decks that have the plan of "I make synergies" for a wincon and it's usually painful to get over the finishline. My friend told me about a guy that used an infinite loop to make infinite mana and when asked how he would use that mana to win he stated that he "made infinite mana".
Elk outtake at the end! Tehe
the !!!!!!!!! have brought me here
i knew it was a good idea
Great information
yaaaay new elk video
Have you played Slay the Spire? It's a rogue deck building game
I think you would love that game
Im gonna try to use these tips for my glissa deck, but i dont know if its gonna work against kranko, fynn and atraxa
So im trying to build an ultra magnus deck but i cant find the right balance between card draw and running artifacts to use the commander. Without card draw i get stale fast but if i run card draw i dont find myself with deck synergy. Any thoughts or tips would be very helpful
Anyone have ideas for a blue, white, black, knight tribal with a graveyard sub-theme?
Why did you mention the example earlier with Admiral Beckett Brass running cards like Coastal Piracy to synergize with the evasive pirates?
Huh
@@33elk making a reference to your funny outtakes at the end of the video
@@Crockist ahhhagdahgdhah
How do you suggest building around very limited concepts? I've got a Marina Vadrel deck, but it's not great because there are only like 15 rooms, and only 6 of them are any good. How do you make very niche/gimic decks work?
Do you think you used enough exclamation points? I think you could've used some 1's for variety's sake. :)
9:51 "Pyrote"
Why wouldn't I run arcane signet for mana fixing in a 3 color deck?
@@quncle if your mana is bad, sure
seems other people share my sentiment that this thumbnail is sick
Sun Droplet is so good isn't it? Makes you almost immune to chip damage, assuming you're playing at a table where chip damage is a dangerous thing.
I can't fathom a table where sun droplet is ever good on its own accord. It's good with exactly a dedicated lifegain deck but on its own? There's not a world outside of like true turbo jank piles of bulk.
Can you create the Boros exalted deck? I am very curious
@@insaneAquacaster hehe its not hard!! Put all the good exalted cards and synergies into raiyuu. Simple as that! Some sprinkling of Voltron classics like doublestrike enablers and you’re set!
@33elk Aight thx a lot🙌🏻
0:14 ban Sol Ring!
How valuable is it to add funny cards?
For example, I have a Lurrus as a companion deck that I love to death, it is mostly an artifact count deck, however it has some graveyard themes.
Because it can both get Lurrus back, and it is a very unique card, I run "pull from eternity". I can honestly admit that this is by far the worst card in my deck, as I want every card to be impactful or draw cards, and it does neither. However the idea of using it to get Lurrus or a key piece back from exile is just too big of a fantasy to take out the card (plus the funny interactions with being able to deny impulse draw / suspend)
Long time player here (since pre commander) and my stance on funny/pet cards is that I try to keep it down to only one (that's on the top narrow side) and I'll keep it in my deck until it "does the thing" once. Then I've gotten it out of my system and I can either replace it with a different funny card or just put something that's actually good in the deck in its place. But sometimes the stars align and after casting the funny card, you realize that it's actually better than you thought and worthy of staying in your deck. Just my two cents.
I think funny cards add soul to a deck. It's one thing to build a good, efficient deck, but I think that pet cards are what truly make a person's deck "theirs". That said I try to limit "funny" cards to AT MOST three per deck, usually one or two.
Me when I mention the example
Hey, Magar loves One With Nothing. Ther eactions I get when I play it rule.
Nah, this is wicked good advice though.
shout OUT
If only sun droplet was an activated ability rather than an on upkeep trigger...
(yes I know it would be broken but STILL)
hello
Not running Arcane Signet in a 3 color deck w a 4 mana commander is obviously a mistake. You're far from guaranteed to curve out with pirates on turns 1-3 while also hitting all three types of basic land.
I agree if your mana is bad, but if your mana is good it shouldn't be an issue.
@@33elk If the person building the deck has a more expensive mana base, then I would agree, but when comes to more budget builds, you are going to sacrifice some speed for sake of consistency.
Reason why I play some stax pieces and hatebears to slow the game down.
Do you not run any 2 mana rocks in this? @@33elk
Opm
is elk a femboy