r/EDH

I’m sure a few people might be wondering this too given the new set. I was lucky enough to pull a [[Force of Will]], unfortunately not the lovely Japanese one.

I’ve been wondering, in what cases do you run it? My only decks with blue are 3 colours and my blue cards only really occupy 30% of my deck, I feel like having the resources to play the spell for free would be too scarce. Being a 2 for 1 also feels bad if I don’t get my card draw online.

So I ask, in what cases do you run it? What sorts of decks do it have it in and what sort of colour distribution or amount of card draw would justify using the card in anywhere but CEDH?

This is really just a commentary of what evaluation and reactive decision making that can cause you to lose games.

Talking about salt at the pod is like a national pass-time for the EDH community at this point but what I don’t think is talked about enough when we’re talking about salty play is how being spiteful actually just causes you to lose games you might otherwise win.

A lot of people are quick to react intensely to another player for targeting them. From being attacked to permanents being removed to being targeted for graveyard hate, theft, these are all under the banner of things that are BOUND to happen in a game of commander. If you relegate who you have beef with based not on certainty but on timing, mainly who does what to you most recently or first or whatever’s, you’re going to miss bigger things at the table. Sometimes you have to eat damage, sometimes you need to play past removal and go for the threat, sometimes you need to tell yourself “yeah you just removed my Land Tax while I was color screwed but I’m going to deal with you later.”

You know what the best revenge is? Winning. And sometimes to win you have to take things on the chin and navigate with the objectively correct course of action.

Of course I’m not talking about if somebody at the table is playing a deck that counters you that you should ignore them. Threat evaluation is both about who your antagonist is at table, who the biggest threat is at the table, who can be politic’d with or against to leverage resources, but also who you are most likely to win a 1v1 against. Just talking with people on this last point, a lot of people don’t consider what the 1v1 situation will look like when games are coming to an end. You should.

If you’re going after the guy who’s been annoying you even if you know you have the best chances of beating him in 1v1, evaluate things. It’s also possible that you’re being targeted here because you’re THEIR antagonist. Maybe it is best to retaliate. But the point is that you should look at these situations outside of the scope of emotion and understand that naturally, things are going to progress with you getting got by somebody at the table just circumstantially.

If there’s anything I’ve done at the table to win games, it’s actually leveraging this behavior so that I can find a way to incentivize some other players to target them (doesn’t always have to be verbal — pillow fort is just one way to do this) and knowing that if they continue targeting me, they’re going to fall on their own sword. It’s a very exploitable behavior that I take advantage of at tables when I can.

So yeah, just play less emotionally. Unless you actually enjoy the chaotic politics and actually like the game unfolding in unpredictable because of emotion (it can be fun) then just step back for a second. If your goal at the table is to build for fun but play to win, don’t get salty on a loss if you don’t reflect on if being petty and spiteful was worth it.

This is supposed to be a general discussion but I would like to give an example of what prompted the question:

In two recent Bracket 2 games, I have faced [[Kuja, Genome Sorcerer]] by different players. I was curious to see a Bracket 2 take on that commander, since I had only seen it in Bracket 3 and 4 before and it was pretty fast and deadly.

Both games started in very similar fashion: the Kuja player played turn 2 ramp into turn 3 commander into turn 4 [[Black Waltz No. 3]] and a flipped Kuja. So starting on turn 5, their non-creature spells were burning each opponent for a ton.

In one game on turn 5 they played a trigger doubler followed by three cheap spells which burned the opponents for 48 damage.

In the other game, they only managed 3 spells for a total of 24 damage. After that we opponents managed to get Kuja under control, but it took 2 spot removals and 2 board wipes in the following 4 turns for us to survive.

I expressed my opinion that the deck might be too fast and appropriate for Bracket 2. In both cases their argument was: "Just remove Kuja, he has no protection".

Kuja is just an example here. There are plenty of commanders that if you build them with a low curve and with synergy can kill tables early.

Do you think "just play early removal" is a good argument for a deck to kill "early" in a Bracket?

In my personal opinion, killing the table a turn early (8 in B2, 6 in B3, 4 in B4) if no one interacted with you is OK. Especially in the higher Brackets, where Interaction is to be expected. Killing the table 2+ turns earlier should only happen if there are outside factors like Group Hug or multiple aggresive decks diminishing life totals, maybe with a Sol Ring + Signet start and the perfect draw.

But that is just my opinion and I am curious to hear yours on that matter.

Edit: just to avoid misunderstandings: I am not advocating for less interaction in B2, I am a big fan of interactive games. I am just saying "turn 5-6 have removal or die" is not B2 intent.

Obviously every deck requires a degree of knowledge to pilot, but it’s undeniable that some decks are easier than others.

Personally, I believe control decks require the most skill to pilot, as it requires significant knowledge and understanding of the game to win with. Controlling 3 other people while knowing when to use key interaction pieces will decide the game. I also think graveyard decks can be tricky to pilot, as when your GY gets filled up it creates a lot of important decision points.

I saw a discussion on here recently where I was shocked to see how may people believe a green deck should never include arcane signet. Are there really so many better options that people wouldn’t include arcane signet? I would almost always rather have a cheaper and more fragile rock than a 3 or 4 cost land ramp spell.

I’ve heard some decks in certain brackets can get close to 15+ slots dedicated to mana acceleration. I love my green land ramp spells, but if I’m ever putting that much mana acceleration in my deck, it’s not all gonna be land ramp. You’d have to start including dorks, rocks, or both if you’re trying to avoid mana acceleration that costs 3 or more.

I’m always including natures lore and three visits as the best, then the slower ones like rampant growth and Sakura tribe elder. I might include a handful of 1 cost dorks, but that still doesn’t push me out of wanting more ramp at the 2 cost slot.

There’s also cards like herd heirloom but they’re restricted on what you can use the mana for. There’s a lot more options if you include more narrow cards like that, but I want my mana to be flexible rather than rigid and potentially a downside to tempo.

Green has tons of great options to accelerate mana but they’re not all equal. For 2 mana some of these spells let the land come in untapped and are ready to be used instantly just like a rock. Yes, the rocks are more fragile like a dork would be, but people still run dorks despite their fragility. If you want more than a handful of mana accelerants that cost less and are faster to use, you might want to include something like arcane signet

I like to run about 10 mana rocks in decks without land ramp and I'm currently building a [[Torbran, Thane of Red Fell]] deck looking for rocks. I've ordered them based on how important I think they are and what I'm considering cutting

1. [[Sol Ring]]
2. [[Arcane Signet]]
3. [[Liquimetal Torque]]
4. [[Felwar Stone]]
5. [[Mind Stone]]

Thinking about cutting:

7. [[Thought Vessel]]

8. [[Benders Waterskin]]

9. [[Fire Diamond]]

10. [[Ornithopter of Paradise]]

11. [[Iron Myr]] or any of the mana myrs

Thought Vessel just doesn't seem great since I've never run into hand size issues but at least it's 2 mana so I'm on the fence. I thought Benders Waterskin would be great to play spells more frequently but not being able to use on the person before me since it doesn't untap on my turn feels like a detriment, especially for 3 mana.

EDIT: Thank you for letting me know Benders does untap on my upkeep

The rest come in tapped (creatures can't be tapped until next turn) and I'd prefer cheaper mana rocks I can use right away. I'm not committed to 1 through 6 either if there are things I should be cutting for upgrades.

My playgroup was doing our thing last Friday when my friend dropped an [[Out of time]] on us. Upon my money brain receiving this cosmic order, I began to serenade my poor playgroup with the song by the same name by The Weeknd as we endured our creatures doing jack all while Zur the menace did his annoying thing. Among other things, we thought it would be funny to craft a deck with cards named after songs. Any recommendations? I figure basic lands will slide but everything else is on the table, WUBRG and all

I am fundamentally a combo/control player so I am very biased in this discussion. I like 'this wins on resolution' style wincons and I run sufficient removal and interaction to protect those wincons, remove pieces that jeopardize my wincons resolving or protect my draw engines/disruption pieces. Naturally, this means I run quite a bit of removal (10-15 pieces minimum with almost all at instant speed) and I noticed that I wind up policing the table quite a bit in games. I'm usually in this weird situation where I am simultaneously policing the table (counter rhystic on T2-3 with [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]] or [[Swan Song]]) and also the 'problem' at the table (shooting for a combo win on T8 or so).

So, how much removal does everyone run? What kind of traits do you look for in removal? What kind of stuff do you prioritize/prefer?

I’m looking for advice on how to handle a situation I’ve run into recently.

I built a control deck around [[Vren, the Relentless]] — light on rat tribal, heavy on removal to feed Vren. It’s strong, and I get that people don’t enjoy sitting across from a deck that stops them from keeping creatures. So when I notice the table isn’t having fun, I switch to something more casual and less interactive.

The issue: even after I switch, the table keeps focusing me down — not because of my current deck, but to “punish” me for having played the previous one. In one game, I even said, “This feels pretty petty,” and they admitted it was. That feels backwards to me.

I switched off the deck you didn’t enjoy, and now you’re incentivizing me to go back to it, because I’m getting targeted either way.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of cross-game grudge? Do you just accept it, talk it out, or find a new group?

My friends and I are doing a precon night (and potentially a fun little league to follow), and one of the precons I've been considering is the new Witherbloom Pestilence, as I really like the new [[Dina, Essence Brewer]].

Now, my concern is the other players aren't playing any of the Strixhaven ones. They are playing older precons, like Arcane Maelstrom with [[Kalamax]] and Divine Convocation with [[Kasla, the Broken Halo]]. I really love the new Witherbloom but I also don't want to overshadow my friends when we play either.

So I'm wondering how well do the old precons fare against the new Strixhaven ones?

Good day, thank you for your taking your time and clicking this page. Im currently looking for suggestions for my next commander deck. Reason im on here and not looking my self, my pod says "i have a type" and im trying to break that mold a bit, I guess, but still something I would find fun.

Currently decks:

[[Inalla, Archmage Ritualist]] - Wizard tribal

[[Zhulodok, Void Gorger]] - Eldrazi party (gift from wife)

[[Don Andres, the Renegade]] - Theft

[[Hugs, Grisly Guardian]] - Group Hugs

[[Flubs, the Fool]] - Landfall combo

[Ertai Resurrected]] - ETB/blink (Flash)

[[The Cabbage Merchant]] - Food tokens (saffron olives mtg goldfish deck (it looked funny)). - building atm

Thank you in advance

I'm getting into bracket 4 decks, and wanted to know how much warning to give to my pod about certain things.

For example: Player to the right of me is about to pass their turn to me. I control [[Voice of Victory]]. Would you warn the table, something like "You're about to not be able to cast spells on my turn because of my VoV?"

Or: I control [[Forensic Gadgeteer]] and [[Basalt Monolith]]. I can demonstrate the loop and make infinite colorless mana. Would you let them know, "You've got to destroy one of these two things when I activate the Basalt ability, not after it's resolved?"

I know this is a pod by pod, personal preference, depends on the stakes sort of thing. But I also know that boards are big and confusing and not everyone can pay attention to everything that's going on out there.

Just curious about other people's practices with this sort of thing!

How many tribal decks do you play? What tribes? What colors? Which is your favorite?

I play dragons, elves, humans, Nazgul/knights, and artificers/golems

Which is my favorite is a hard choice, but I have to pick dragons. [[Atarka, World Render]] was my first commander deck. It was surprisingly strong, and it got me hooked.

Shout out to my [[Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir]] [[Nazgul]] and knights deck as a close second!

Just curious, because I remember a while back someone said something along the lines of this:

"You are the green player. You do not run Arcane Signet."

Does running mana rocks become a detriment if you play green or something? I could never really wrap my head around this one

I got the sultai precon with [[Teval, the Balanced Scale]] a while back and have been having a ton of fun with it. I’m watching people stream early access Strixhaven and noticed that the Lorehold spirits deck cares about similar things to Teval. I went looking on EDHRec and found [[Quintorius, History Chaser]] and got the idea of making an unholy 5 color Teval and Quintorius deck. My problem is I’m struggling to find any commanders that would run both of them. My current best option feels like running [[Scion of the Ur-Dragon]] and running it like a suboptimal dragons list, but that answer doesn’t feel very satisfying. Has anyone seen a deck like this or know a good commander for the pair? My group sadly doesn’t allow partner with for non-partner pairings so I can’t rule zero them together.

I currently have 2 decks out of all the decks I built which I absolutely love:

The first is [[Judith, Carnage Connoisseur]], I really love how having deathtouch on instants and sorceries means that any "deal 1 damage to every creature" becomes a boardwipe and a card like [[Spikefield Hazard]] basically becomes a [[Swords to Plowshares]] but also being an Mdfc.

The second is [[Lorehold, The Historian]], which I have been itching to build ever since he was revealed a while back and I am really enjoying the gambling playstyle, but specifically again the fact that I can slot in many high-cost cards which would usually not be playable because of the synergy they have with my commander, and also stuff like [[Library of Leng]], [[Hidden Retreat]] or [[Penance]] that allow me to control my miracles, and are cards I would never touch otherwise.

So I wanted to ask if there are any more such commanders? That have a special mechanic to them and make you look at cards in the deck and be like, "Woah, that's a cool interaction!"?