I would cut all decks below Etali. Since honestly he is my personal favorite, especially with incoming T Rex secretlair, If you like casting opponents stuff like Etali does, you can build Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor which is my second favorite. What otherwise is most fun in edh is just very greedy decks exploding in duplications like example: rite of replication on nyxbloom ancient while you have parallel lives/doubling season with copy enchantments/ancestral dragons etc in play. Have spark double, sakashima's etc copy commander, go nuts.
I used to play a Discard deck based on CaoCao, Lord of Wei. Think of it like a Nekusar deck but mono black. Maybe give it a try ! I havent played much mtg in 7 years so my decks are not updated. Would love to see you tackle the Portal 3 Kingdom legendary creatures. Would be cool to see a edh game where all the 3 kingdom factions are represented. LiuBei, CaoCao, SunQuan, and maybe Dongzhuo as the 4th. All monocolored decks and it would be a flavor win.
My advise is to get rid of the bottom row, and then test the last 4 of the mid row to see if they still hold up ... Regarding what to build, I saw a lot of tribal themed decks, you should focus more on mechanics or alternative costs to spice things up... Rakdos lord of riots (alternative cost example) Stax/pillowfort (I personally use Aleila for this) Mono colored decks Or a popular commander in an unpopular build (Kykar Anthems for example)
My recommendation… Look for overlap/duplication in decks. Keep ‘a’ 5-color deck, low power deck, high power deck, artifact deck, enchantment deck, etc. Look for things that are unique. You probably like a bunch of the decks because they may do similar things. What you could do is “retire” a few. Put the decks that you are thinking about getting rid of and basically put them somewhere they aren’t readily accessible. If you don’t miss them then you can take them apart. If you are like “now that I’ve played this deck a bunch more and I actually don’t like it or this other deck was better” you can unretire something. After a few months you can dismantle the retired decks.
Keep them all! I have 30 decks for the last 4 years, and I have a few grouped decks to let friends borrow, or to play themed games! Especially with several creature type decks to choose from!💪🏻😎👍🏻
My opinions: Ditch the cEDH deck if you're not playing it; if you're not keeping up with the meta it stops being competitive. Ditch Jared low-power, you have too many 5c decks already. Take apart decks you keep together for sentimental reasons (Arabho, Etali, windgrace?). Save your deck lists, if you made a mistake, you can rebuilt them. Next metric is are decks doing roughly the same thing? Kami and Marchesa seem to be doing similar things (don't attack ME) . Kendrith & Tazari seem like they might be in a similar niche as well (5c creature type matters). If your board, interactions, and wins feels similar, then you probably don't need 2 of them. Yes, there are subtle differences, but compare them to what a muldrotha deck or a sram deck is doing. Last, assess your joy and willingness to play the decks. Are there decks that you don't play because they're a headache to play (Arabho does a lot of math?; Dungeons are a pain for the table to maintain state for?... etc.) If there are decks you just don't find yourself playing, retire them. Again, if you don't delete your lists, and you want it back, you can rebuild.
As far as cuts, I recommend pulling some of the commanders that you have multiple color combos of. (Looking at all the 5 color decks) The last 5 decks in your lineup can probably go since you rated them so low yourself. I would pick Jared to cut over sidisi. Also any decks that you find are narrow in play pattern like lord windgrace or one of your artifact matters decks could possibly go. Hope it helps!
I have 25 too. I don't take them apart because that would mean having thousands of dollars worth of cards in a binder without being used and if I do take them apart that will spark interest in other decks and I'd spend more money (even if it's substantially less).
For Neyali, Otharri does seem like a strong alternative. If you want to expand to Naya colors, Phabine is a really fun group hug/politic deck that hits really hard but looks like an ally.
Big thing learning in this video is that you like to go BIG! That's way more 5 color decks than Im used to seeing people play which is great, love to see this difference in what draws you to a particular legend. : 3
Love all these decks!!! I'd definitely cut Becket Brass and the Boros deck, the last two in the list. Maybe switch out the commander for the pirates deck if you really want to keep it. I just built Don Andres, the Renegade which may be a good change to it. Mostly stealing your opponents creatures and attack/sacrificing them as needed. Boros decks are just tough in general lol.
You could replace atraxa for Jared and do a five color counter deck. Make a Kavu pop Jared’s counter ability then use something to move all those counters, but I’m not quite sure if that’s what you’re looking for.
Yeah, Atraxa works well with Jared and is actually part of the 99, but Atraxa as it's own proliferate/counter matters deck is a different thing entirely imo
Id higly recommend swapping for Admiral Brass, Unsinkable! It's theft and graveyard recursion theme has made it my go to as it scales well depending on the pod. Lots and lots of fun!
Esmond, shout out to your Minn, Wily Illusionist deck. Even though it wasn’t very high on your ranking, I was inspired to build it after watching your gameplay with it. Especially the game against Liang Ying Mac and Zansher. One of my favorite decks.
I love it too! I think it ended up lower on the ranking just because I prefer decks that don't rely too heavily on the commander. It's definitely one of my more explosive decks
Watched the whole thing; surprised we built so many of the same commanders 🙌🏼 I like when each deck is unique in playstyle/colour combo, so I have 17 decks and none overlap (too much). I've just put together a janky Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate list that's all modular/affinity/counters with 40 artifact creatures :) Other suggestions would be Talion, the Kindly Lord (Oops, All Clones), Mogis, God of Slaughter (Group Slug) or, my personal favourite, Preston, the Vanisher (Blink/Recursion Value) ✨️
It's funny I have a out 70 playable decks and the one CEDH. Haha but seriously I feel like if you spent the time to get alt arts or secret lairs for the commander you should probably keep it
I am having the same issue too but I would take off Jared Cartalion, Mutate and keep the 2 fast decks if I need to make a choice. I don’t have a CedH deck but my Bralin/Shabraz is by far the closest and will be able to stand in a game of cedh if really required
Did the Karn swords deck work? Or was it more fun as a brewing exercise? It kinda sounds like your Vadrok deck falls into the latter category, which for me is a sign that a deck should be retired. If you have more fun goldfishing the deck than actually playing it with other people, then keep it online only
You can't get rid of either of your cat decks. I think white cat was trying to plead their case. I've been thinking of having Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar as a backup option for Arahbo for play groups that don't want to deal with Eminence. Might be an option for you too? This video was super fun though.
Just tested with the Gamegenic slide cases, they fit perfectly. The best way to be sure is to measure the length of your deck and compare it to the measurements on the shop page! We are in the process of making an XL-sized deckbox which is even larger too
Aclazotz felt more like a meme deck for one episode. I'd personally not play it. Jared I feel is just not that interesting compared to the other Legend in painbow. Jenson Carthalion. Color fixes, scrys all the time, creates angels, etc. I built it as some sort of weird "Everything is multicolored" deck and it's been fun, highly suggested. Jodah gets hated off any smart pod too quickly, but as a secret commander I like him. Kenrith is just a very lame commander. Too much value on one card, but also nothing really interesting. It's just more "good stuff". Minn's another one of those "get her off the field and the deck sucks." IMO O-Kagachi I feel is a bit unnecessary since you already have so many 5 color decks. Queen Marchesa introduces the Monarch mechanic so she's much more interesting IMO. Windgrace and any other great art should stay as a deck, why not. Looking at it now, idk if you have too many decks and not just too many of the same high-value decks. Ur-Dragon is boring, but strong. Jodah is boring, but strong. Kenrith is boring, but strong. Tuvasa is boring, but strong, etc etc. IMO there's nothing wrong with that, but I think you think you want to remove them because you've gotten used to them and they're a bit samey
I guess it makes sense to cut Jared out of the Sidisi / Jared pair as you have so many 5c. It'll also free up a bunch of useful lands. You clearly don't love Vadrok anymore either so that probably needs to go.
if i had to drop 5 of your decks i would drop 1.millicent.spirit guy. 2.the boros guy u have in last place.lol.neyali or whatever 3.jodah....cause EWWWWW... 4.RUxa,patient prof 5.and prob jared. maybe ACLAZOTZ...but u just build that.
Also, what decks should I build?
Also also, have you watched our Christmas Commander episode?? --> th-cam.com/video/qleC2ppXF-s/w-d-xo.html
Sidisi Lands with Dredge, featuring Muldrotha, Slogurk, Meren, and Gitrog. You get to touch so many cards.
I would cut all decks below Etali. Since honestly he is my personal favorite, especially with incoming T Rex secretlair, If you like casting opponents stuff like Etali does, you can build Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor which is my second favorite. What otherwise is most fun in edh is just very greedy decks exploding in duplications like example: rite of replication on nyxbloom ancient while you have parallel lives/doubling season with copy enchantments/ancestral dragons etc in play. Have spark double, sakashima's etc copy commander, go nuts.
bill the pony.
I used to play a Discard deck based on CaoCao, Lord of Wei. Think of it like a Nekusar deck but mono black. Maybe give it a try ! I havent played much mtg in 7 years so my decks are not updated. Would love to see you tackle the Portal 3 Kingdom legendary creatures. Would be cool to see a edh game where all the 3 kingdom factions are represented. LiuBei, CaoCao, SunQuan, and maybe Dongzhuo as the 4th. All monocolored decks and it would be a flavor win.
My advise is to get rid of the bottom row, and then test the last 4 of the mid row to see if they still hold up ...
Regarding what to build, I saw a lot of tribal themed decks, you should focus more on mechanics or alternative costs to spice things up...
Rakdos lord of riots (alternative cost example)
Stax/pillowfort (I personally use Aleila for this)
Mono colored decks
Or a popular commander in an unpopular build (Kykar Anthems for example)
My recommendation…
Look for overlap/duplication in decks. Keep ‘a’ 5-color deck, low power deck, high power deck, artifact deck, enchantment deck, etc. Look for things that are unique. You probably like a bunch of the decks because they may do similar things.
What you could do is “retire” a few. Put the decks that you are thinking about getting rid of and basically put them somewhere they aren’t readily accessible. If you don’t miss them then you can take them apart. If you are like “now that I’ve played this deck a bunch more and I actually don’t like it or this other deck was better” you can unretire something. After a few months you can dismantle the retired decks.
I've been in a bit of an edh funk lately and this sparked something in me to tinker with my own collection of decks. Thank you!
You are so welcome! I've spent the last 3 days sorting, organizing, and upgrading my decks x.x
Keep them all! I have 30 decks for the last 4 years, and I have a few grouped decks to let friends borrow, or to play themed games! Especially with several creature type decks to choose from!💪🏻😎👍🏻
My opinions: Ditch the cEDH deck if you're not playing it; if you're not keeping up with the meta it stops being competitive. Ditch Jared low-power, you have too many 5c decks already. Take apart decks you keep together for sentimental reasons (Arabho, Etali, windgrace?). Save your deck lists, if you made a mistake, you can rebuilt them.
Next metric is are decks doing roughly the same thing? Kami and Marchesa seem to be doing similar things (don't attack ME) . Kendrith & Tazari seem like they might be in a similar niche as well (5c creature type matters). If your board, interactions, and wins feels similar, then you probably don't need 2 of them. Yes, there are subtle differences, but compare them to what a muldrotha deck or a sram deck is doing.
Last, assess your joy and willingness to play the decks. Are there decks that you don't play because they're a headache to play (Arabho does a lot of math?; Dungeons are a pain for the table to maintain state for?... etc.) If there are decks you just don't find yourself playing, retire them. Again, if you don't delete your lists, and you want it back, you can rebuild.
This is great, thanks! It helps to remember that as long as I have the lists, I can always rebuild them :)
The real question is which life total tracker apps you should keep??
Indeed that is the question on everyone's mind
Would love to see deck techs for these, especially your favourite ones
Would love to do it when I have the time
As far as cuts, I recommend pulling some of the commanders that you have multiple color combos of. (Looking at all the 5 color decks) The last 5 decks in your lineup can probably go since you rated them so low yourself. I would pick Jared to cut over sidisi. Also any decks that you find are narrow in play pattern like lord windgrace or one of your artifact matters decks could possibly go. Hope it helps!
Thanks! I do like the 5c decks alot lol, but yeah going by the rankings and play patterns, this is solid advice
I have 25 too. I don't take them apart because that would mean having thousands of dollars worth of cards in a binder without being used and if I do take them apart that will spark interest in other decks and I'd spend more money (even if it's substantially less).
PS we also have the same clear deckboxes haha
For Neyali, Otharri does seem like a strong alternative. If you want to expand to Naya colors, Phabine is a really fun group hug/politic deck that hits really hard but looks like an ally.
Big thing learning in this video is that you like to go BIG! That's way more 5 color decks than Im used to seeing people play which is great, love to see this difference in what draws you to a particular legend. : 3
Love all these decks!!! I'd definitely cut Becket Brass and the Boros deck, the last two in the list. Maybe switch out the commander for the pirates deck if you really want to keep it. I just built Don Andres, the Renegade which may be a good change to it. Mostly stealing your opponents creatures and attack/sacrificing them as needed. Boros decks are just tough in general lol.
You could replace atraxa for Jared and do a five color counter deck. Make a Kavu pop Jared’s counter ability then use something to move all those counters, but I’m not quite sure if that’s what you’re looking for.
Yeah, Atraxa works well with Jared and is actually part of the 99, but Atraxa as it's own proliferate/counter matters deck is a different thing entirely imo
Id higly recommend swapping for Admiral Brass, Unsinkable! It's theft and graveyard recursion theme has made it my go to as it scales well depending on the pod. Lots and lots of fun!
Ended up going for Don Andres to replace Beckett Brass! No longer on pirates, just a 100% grixis theft deck lol
Esmond, shout out to your Minn, Wily Illusionist deck. Even though it wasn’t very high on your ranking, I was inspired to build it after watching your gameplay with it. Especially the game against Liang Ying Mac and Zansher. One of my favorite decks.
I love it too! I think it ended up lower on the ranking just because I prefer decks that don't rely too heavily on the commander. It's definitely one of my more explosive decks
Watched the whole thing; surprised we built so many of the same commanders 🙌🏼
I like when each deck is unique in playstyle/colour combo, so I have 17 decks and none overlap (too much). I've just put together a janky Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate list that's all modular/affinity/counters with 40 artifact creatures :)
Other suggestions would be Talion, the Kindly Lord (Oops, All Clones), Mogis, God of Slaughter (Group Slug) or, my personal favourite, Preston, the Vanisher (Blink/Recursion Value) ✨️
long time no see buddy, THAT URZAR DECK!!!!
Hahahaha yasss but I dismantled it since this video lol
Literally was sorting decks as this came up in the feed. 😮
Meant to be
Cool video! I’m really curious about the Omnath deck!!
It's SOOO FUN if it survives past turn 5 lol
It's funny I have a out 70 playable decks and the one CEDH. Haha but seriously I feel like if you spent the time to get alt arts or secret lairs for the commander you should probably keep it
This video is so comfy - reminds me of the Chit Chaff episodes from Loading Ready Run!
Hahahaha cool, I gotta go check it out then
I am having the same issue too but I would take off Jared Cartalion, Mutate and keep the 2 fast decks if I need to make a choice. I don’t have a CedH deck but my Bralin/Shabraz is by far the closest and will be able to stand in a game of cedh if really required
Did the Karn swords deck work? Or was it more fun as a brewing exercise? It kinda sounds like your Vadrok deck falls into the latter category, which for me is a sign that a deck should be retired. If you have more fun goldfishing the deck than actually playing it with other people, then keep it online only
Yeah the Karn Swords is pretty powerful tbh! I think you're right about Vadrok though :/
You can't get rid of either of your cat decks. I think white cat was trying to plead their case. I've been thinking of having Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar as a backup option for Arahbo for play groups that don't want to deal with Eminence. Might be an option for you too?
This video was super fun though.
You should consider turning Neyali into Isshin tokens! I want to pick up one for my deck. It also fits Otharri quite nicely
25 is a lot? 😅 Oh boy... I have an issue
I feel this lmao 😅
We all have issues - it's just how big they are lol
Is there a way for you to upgrade and modernize your arahbo deck and make it more fun and competitive to play with ?
Yeah I've decided to do exactly this
What are the top loader looking cases you use for your commanders called?
I use both mini snap fit cases and full sleeve snap fit cases
@@QMTG Thank you!
You can play the Swords in any deck....
Yes, but only a colorless commander will GUARANTEE that there will NEVER be any non-bos with any of the other cards in the deck
Id Cut those that you don't have fun with, and those which rely too much on comamnders.
The cats must stay tho.
I will like to see modern horizons three commanders for deck tech from you but the set is not out yet 😊😢
Hahahahah ok!
Thanks
25 for a content creator is too many?
Geez, I'm a regular joe and I'm at like 18...
Just tested with the Gamegenic slide cases, they fit perfectly. The best way to be sure is to measure the length of your deck and compare it to the measurements on the shop page! We are in the process of making an XL-sized deckbox which is even larger too
Kavus are fun.....
Ikr!
This a sign. I have 24 and I need to do the same. 15 does sound like a good number
Aclazotz felt more like a meme deck for one episode. I'd personally not play it.
Jared I feel is just not that interesting compared to the other Legend in painbow. Jenson Carthalion. Color fixes, scrys all the time, creates angels, etc. I built it as some sort of weird "Everything is multicolored" deck and it's been fun, highly suggested.
Jodah gets hated off any smart pod too quickly, but as a secret commander I like him.
Kenrith is just a very lame commander. Too much value on one card, but also nothing really interesting. It's just more "good stuff".
Minn's another one of those "get her off the field and the deck sucks." IMO
O-Kagachi I feel is a bit unnecessary since you already have so many 5 color decks. Queen Marchesa introduces the Monarch mechanic so she's much more interesting IMO.
Windgrace and any other great art should stay as a deck, why not.
Looking at it now, idk if you have too many decks and not just too many of the same high-value decks. Ur-Dragon is boring, but strong. Jodah is boring, but strong. Kenrith is boring, but strong. Tuvasa is boring, but strong, etc etc.
IMO there's nothing wrong with that, but I think you think you want to remove them because you've gotten used to them and they're a bit samey
Yeah tbh looking at my decks, I tend to lean towards consistent, reliable commanders and strategies. It makes me feel safe lol :)
Ever considered doing the 32.deck challenge?
For 5 color counters matter deck, I'd suggest Ramos:)
And then you can add All Will Be One😎
@@wedgearyxsaber ah yeah! 😎
Rather than cut decks... why not sideboard the decks and have a game night with friends where everyone plays a Deck at random?
Space constraints mostly. Also people usually have their own decks that they wanna play!
remove aclazotl, etali, windgrace, choose between ruxa/arahbo, marchesa/o kagachi
Why not a giveaway. Would be cool tbh
Ok I'll do it when the channel hits 50k subscribers hahahaha
I disagree with the premise of the vid Esmond! I'm at 66 commander decks and am not slowing down!!
Lol!!! You probably have way more space than I do!!!
You can't cut Araboh, he's too cute!
* *ahem* * giveaway? * *ahem* *
Hmmm. Sounds like a good way to celebrate 50k subscribers!
This tells me you have a problem with 5 colour decks.
I guess it makes sense to cut Jared out of the Sidisi / Jared pair as you have so many 5c. It'll also free up a bunch of useful lands. You clearly don't love Vadrok anymore either so that probably needs to go.
Ended up cutting both Jared and Sidisi, as well as Vadrok. 5c is by far the best color tho
You really like 5C huh lol
It's the best color
if i had to drop 5 of your decks i would drop
1.millicent.spirit guy.
2.the boros guy u have in last place.lol.neyali or whatever
3.jodah....cause EWWWWW...
4.RUxa,patient prof
5.and prob jared. maybe ACLAZOTZ...but u just build that.