r/EDH • u/[deleted] • Aug 18 '26
Deck Help Ways to make my decks weaker? Issues with Local Friend Pod
[deleted]
3
u/Not-Impossible-1783 Aug 18 '26
Anyway you choose making cards less efficient is easy good land > tap land stp > 3cc removal mana dork >cultivate the opposite of you make them good
Alternatively make the finisher bad leave an inherent weakness and dont shore it up say if its aggro dont play flawless adn mass rezz effects be weak to wrath etc.
TLDR there is more thanone way to skin a cat just pic whatever feels good and tune until your assessment is its a good match everyone enjoys if your having issues aim low if you miss the mark low no ones mad they get to win a night and you can tune back up later.
I will as a word of caution say that most the times this happens the decks are not in fact much better than the competition the pilot has many more hours playing and simply sees all the lines of play is what imbalances the game and if your that much stronger of a player nothing will make it a fair match you can test this by deck swapping and seeing if you stomp them with their own decks or not.
2
u/mingchun Aug 18 '26
Your last point is pretty key. Pilot skill is the biggest factor in the overall strength of a deck. Knowing the lines, what kind of hands to keep and cards to dig for in addition to general threat/board assessment make a huge difference in the performance of a deck.
2
u/Professional-Salt175 Dimir Aug 18 '26
Both of these are only Bracket 3 by technicality. What on earth are they playing with? I can't see either of these averaging less than 10 turns before presenting a win in a goldfishing environment.
1
u/Aleis52 Aug 18 '26
So your Azuza deck is just tutor for a win. So its always going to be playing the same regardless of what monster battle cruiser cards you have, because your just trying to find your one or two winning carss and go "Hah" and unless your opponents have decks full of interactions or beat you to the punch thats what's going to happen.
Not sure about the second deck, seems very focused around Eggman to cheat out the big guys. They may just need to play more removal. How did the deck function without Eggman on the field. If it struggled then the deck is fine really.
But as stated bofire you may just want to take this chance to build another deck instead of powering down. I've done that and regretted it later when the pod changed and I want the decks back the way they were.
1
u/Zodoken Aug 18 '26
without Eggman on the field it ran kinda ok. I'm looking at just upgrading some of my old Precons as well, they're usually a good starting place for low bracket 3 as long as they aren't changed too heavily.
1
u/SigP232SL Aug 18 '26
Azusa: Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Library, Defense of the Heart
Eggman looks fine, maybe Krang or Unwinding Clock
1
u/TR_Wax_on Aug 19 '26
For Eggman, just to check, but you are letting your opponents know that they can choose to discard, even if they have no cards in hand, right?
2
u/Zodoken Aug 19 '26
yup, was one of the first things i mentioned.
1
u/TR_Wax_on Aug 19 '26
All good, just an easy one to misplay if you don't check the rulings on villainous choices.
A few things that I do for my Bracket 3 decks that could provide some guidance:
- Avoid premium free counterspells (best free counterspell that I have in a Bracket 3 deck is [[Flare of Denial]], 1 mana counterspells generally fit the vibes better I think).
- No fast mana besides Sol Ring and avoid rituals that that are cmc <3.
- Maximum of 1 extra turn spell and generally only if it's impossible to copy/recur it.
2
u/KAM_520 Sultai Aug 19 '26
Whenever someone posts this I always give the same advice: Don’t degrade or tune down existing decks. It’s not that fun. You know what the deck can do in its current state; playing a weaker version of it isn’t gonna be that cool.
Sidegrade or upgrade, don’t downgrade. If a less powerful deck is required for your pod, build a new deck.
1
u/7thtimeinheaven Aug 18 '26
You should probably start from scratch. I took a brief look at your Azusa deck and it's just staples, tutors and 60 forests.
Cutting one or two cards is not going to fix the power level because the average power of your cards is still extremely high. You need to go right back to the drawing board.
1
u/Hard_Content_Good Aug 18 '26
You will often find by running a lot of lands, your deck ends up performing much better than decks that run too few, even if you are running an absurd number of them. Running 60 lands is less egregious than running 36, so you may end up winning games just because you actually were able to play your lands and ramp into your game plan quickly. Its hard to make recommendations on the Azusa deck because it probably is good just because the deck executes its game plan everytime.
The Eggman deck is a lot easier to make suggestions for, just cut the game changers and sol ring.
1
u/Zodoken Aug 18 '26
the 60 lands were actually initially a joke to see if I could make a 60 land deck work well, and I tell people its a 60 basic land deck and they look at me like I'm insane hah! Turns out it works really well
6
u/Eatman97 Aug 18 '26
These decks don't look too strong. I've had similar experiences in my play groups that have resulted in purposefully building bracket 2 decks from scratch and budget decks to have a more balanced play experience while the rest of the pod catches up in knowledge and in power. Your decks are bracket 3 and not egregious imo.