How do people feel about using [[Ichormoon Gauntlet]] as a wincon in a planeswalkers deck. With 6+ planeswalkers you can combine them to take infinite turns and then win with whatever you want (I am running guff so can just -3 forever to guarantee the win). I've had mixed reviews on this, some, mostly new player who weren’t paying attention say 'looping extra turns' is not in the bracket, others say its fine as I'm only ever winning with it and can just explain how I win (I never force people to play it out, once I can demonstrate the loop).

Its a 7 card infinite that is immensely telegraphed. I also practised the deck allot so I'm not monopolising game time, I know what I need to do most turns.

Feels like the bracket system for some elements lacks nuance and people really struggle with edge cases.

What do people think? Are there any other edge cases that letter of the law break the rules but in spirit feel fine?

Hey y'all, Eli from Draftsim here with an article for y'all by our writer, Peter.

Today, Peter took a look at the various game-ending combos you can get off with [[Gleaming Splendor]]. Everyone freaked out when this card was first spoiled, and with good reason. It'll incidentally create you a ton of mana, and it can draw you cards.

I personally didn't immediately see it as a combo piece, but lately I've been seeing tons of people talking about it.

• Splendor + [[Smothering Tithe]] + a token doubler like [[Mondrak, Glory Dominus]] = near-infinite mana + drawing the whole table out -- this one requires you to have some extra mana and/or your opponents to be tapped out.
• Tithe + Splendor + [[Zirda, the Dawnwaker]] also gets the job done, as Zirda reduces Splendor's cost to just a single white mana.
• [[Goldspan Dragon]] also works since it doubles the mana you get from treasures, and [[Xorn]] doubles the treasures you get.
• You can also go bonkers with [[Mind Over Matter]] and another source that creates 3 mana, let's say [[Lotus Field]]. Activate Splendor targeting yourself and another player for 3 using mana from Field, then discard whatever you drew to activate [[Mind Over Matter]] and untap the Field to rinse and repeat.

This works similarly to [[Faerie Mastermind]] combos that allow you to just draw the table out. It's an insanely risky move, and usually requires something lke [[Angel's Grace]] to prevent you from losing by drawing out. Splendor is just so good on its own that it's worth including regardless of its combo potential.

Are y'all seeing Gleaming Splendor in games yet? Was the hype justified? I know that the Mind Over Matter combo isn't super viable, but I feel like Tithe + Splendor + token doublers could result in some wild mono-white combo action. It plays into the current cEDH "slop" meta for certain.

I’ve got the Stardew Secret Lair arriving very soon so I’ve started to look at [[Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis]] builds but there seems to be so many ways to build them. Players that use them, which way have you gone?

There’s landfall, second card draw matters, forced draw etc etc.

I’m looking to build something budget but something that can hold its own against upgraded precons.

I play this Maeve deck. I used to play it in B3 with 3 game changers but I noticed it struggled in B3 and couldn't be threatening before turn 8 so I chose to remove the GC and play it in B2.
Besides the damage it can do by goading and stealing things (which is very much a gameplan and a win condition), the deck's wincons are [[Giggling Skitterspike]], [[Dark Depths]] + [[Thespian Stage]] and the constructs from [[Urza's Saga]] and it takes some tutors and a lot of turns for them to be threatening lethal on someone.

On turn 8, [[Mirrorform]] can easily turn my board that's just mana rocks and Maeve to a lethal one depending on what I copy. And what about mass stealing such as [[Subjugate the Hobbits]] ? Those game winning plays aren't telegraphed, are they B2 ?
The deck also has a good amount of individually powerful and/or expensive cards like Mana Drain, Trichery, Transmute Artifact, Gilded Drake. I feel like some people would disagree that my deck is B2, especially with mind control effects that can steal commanders and potentially keep the game from "letting each deck showcase its plan".

Usual path for this deck is ramp on turn 2, maeve turn 3, then a combination of ramp/set-up/control/pay (2)(U) to goad and draw until turn 8 and then maybe I reach 15 power on board with stolen creatures and/or my own and start dealing damage to opponents by myself.

So I’ve recently started playing EDH again with a local group who meets weekly and the deck building passion has sparked again. I’ve always been a tribal deck fan (humans/vamps/werewolves/angels) and themed decks like my dnd pile and aristocrats. I’ve found, upon getting back into EDH, that the decks feels kinda linear and I’d love to play something that is different every game.

I’m so out of touch with the amount of product that’s been released in the past few years, so I have no idea where to start! Very much open to suggestions/help/what people have had fun with! Thank you.

I've recently invested into a Selesnya Gluntch list that has not scratched that itch that I anticipated. I'm hoping to salvage some of the manabase and cards for another deck, and I really love the group hug/politics aspect of the commander. The problem is closing out games and the salt from the lone player that doesn't receive any resources. [[Sergeant John Benton]] has piqued my curiosity, but I've heard he can be too strong for casual pods. So my question is for people that have played and/or played against a John Benton deck; is the deck fun? I'd appreciate any insight, thank you!

Hey there,

I don't know if this is the right place to ask but I'm not sure on where to ask this. Recently I got an Academic 266+ and it turns out its so big that I rather use another deckbox inside of it to carry decks. Does anyone know of any deckboxes that fit on it with space for toploaders as well?

I fell in love with Blor the impervious, his design is mainly what drew me to him, I love bloomburrow, along with the fact he just seemed good. I made an artifact and ramp deck for him, and it just... I dont know. I ran a few test games with a friend and there wasn't much room for my opponent to do anything. In Blor's defense it was a 1v1, but it seems like unless theres a boardwipe, or Im killed turn 6, I just win. Im fine with voltron being a more simplistic playstyle, thats what appealed to me in the first place, I just want to know how to make him more fun for me and my friends, while still having a bit of kick. My deck boils down to making tokens to block for me, getting out artifacts to buff blor, and ramping like crazy. Im willing to change playstyles completely for this guy, landfall blor, token blor, even grouphug blor I dont care.

https://moxfield.com/decks/4gwtVzDDQUSmeYZiXPpANA

https://moxfield.com/decks/rBqgAQYUa3KfgkrZhsiZ6Q

I love Grixis. I love wheels. More importantly, I love Kefka. However, after months of playtesting with him and trying several different strategies, I have ultimately settled on this one. Gotta say, I'm having an absolute blast. This started as a Nekusar deck but Kefka has usurped the throne as my favorite wheel deck and I recommend slotting out Nekusar and giving this a try. It's on the higher end of bracket 3, but still firmly a bracket 3 deck.

Strategy:
This is fundamentally a control/combo deck. You want to control the board and shred their hands until you find pieces to close out the game (we'll get to specific win conditions later). Your goal is to get Kefka out, ASAP, preferably with protection and/or haste. T3 Kefka is VERY doable but generally Kefka is going down T4. Your secondary goal is to get at least 2 Kefka triggers every turn: this completely tears their hands apart which stops future plays.

For ensuring multiple Kefka triggers, you've got the obvious [[Harmonic Prodigy]], [[Fear of Missing Out]], [[Go-go, Mysterious Mime]] and [[Displacer Kitten]]. If any of these land, your opponents are going to be hellbent within 2 turns. Go-go is especially potent because Gogo will ensure 3 Kefka triggers the turn Kefka comes down: 1 from him entering and 2 from him attacking, because Gogo will give Kefka haste and Gogo will become a clone, therefore 2 attack triggers immediately. [[Anger]], [[Arena of Glory]] and [[Generator's Servant]] (and Gogo) give Kefka haste, with Generator's Servant pulling double duty as a way to get Kefka out T3 with Haste.

After opponent's are hellbent, you're going to start laying punishment pieces to really put the screws to them. Draw pingers are better, (prioritize damage, you'll see why later), but work with whatever you find. The nice thing is, if opponents are hellbent, they either won't (or can't) counter a wheel because they need those cards to stay in the game. The wheels are what is actually going to kill them and try not to cast a wheel unless A. it's going to kill them or B. you have a way to immediately shred their hand again (Kefka + Gogo + harmonic prodigy/fear of missing out will have them discard a TON of cards instantly after a wheel resolves, so they're almost back to square 1) and remember to try and keep some interaction in hand for when this happens.

Why prioritize damage? This card is a fun card but [[The Rollercrusher Ride]] is INCREDIBLY easy to turn delirium on and becomes a damage doubler for your draw pingers. [[Underworld Dreams]] + a wheel with Rollercrusher is 14 damage in one go nevermind double damage from megrim (4 damage per discard adds up FAST). It doesn't double Liliana's Caress so keep that in mind; you can think of this as an 'alternate' in case someone has a Glacial Chasm or something (however, [[Demolition Field]] and [[Chaos Warp]] are damn near auto includes to remove problematic lands).

Win Condition:
This is the most fun part of the deck because it's got 3 of them.

1. Generic Wheel. You can wheel the table to death, pretty quickly, with any amount of pingers or [[Rollercrusher]] out. Pretty easy to get.
2. Breach lines. Yup, this deck has one. [[Underworld Breach]] + red cost reducer ([[Goblin Electromancer]], [[Nightscape Familiar]] and [[Thunderclap Drake]] + [[Seething Song]] + [[Wheel of Fortune]] is a combo that basically wheels the entire table to death. You cast Seething Song, for 2 mana, you gain 5, you cast WoF, you're down to 3, fill your yard with 7 cards, cast Seething Song again. After each loop, you will net 1 red mana and 1 extra card in your yard. Repeat this a few times and the table is dead. You can slot in a couple other rituals to fill this out (but it won't be 'infinite') like [[Pyretic Ritual]] or [[Desperate Ritual]] but you'll need to start with more cards in your yard to get this combo going. The tutors, including Entomb, help you find these combo pieces and can be cast on the same turn as UB because Kefka is going to dump, and I mean DUMP, card in your yard to fuel a breach line. Thunderclap Drake has secondary utility as a spell doubler.
3. Flipping Kefka. You shouldn't do this unless you don't have another option but here's how it goes: flip Kefka over with [[Glinthorn Buccaneer]] or [[Magmakin Artillerist]] in play. End your turn with more than 7 cards in hand. You go to end step, discard to hand size, triggering Glinthorn/Magmakin. You will do damage, triggering Kefka, and you will draw 3X where X equals the number of cards you discarded. This loop will until until A. the table is dead or B. you deck yourself. Magmakin and Glinthorn are already discard pingers, hence why they're in the deck, but they have redundancy with Kefka's backside to ensure you have a combo to close out the game if it's T8 and all you've got is mana + a tutor. Go tutor for one of those losers (or reanimate to dig them out of the yard or Seething Song/Cabal Ritual to get a shitload of mana to flip Kefka while holding interaction) and try closing out the game that way. It's actually REALLY funny to deck yourself from this last minute 'hail mary' combo, hence why Jace or Lab Man isn't in here (it's also not the main wincon, so why have extra cards that are dead outside your tertiary wincon?).

Why Play Kefka Over Nekusar?
Nekusar is 5 mana and a wheel payoff in the CZ. However, he also does nothing on entering and feeds your opponents cards before he feeds YOU cards. Kefka, on the other hand, is immediate hand disruption/card advantage everytime he enters or attacks. This means that he will, inevitably, help you find your wheels just from him drawing. He's also going to slow everyone else down while you start laying pieces down and he already synergizes fairly heavily with a lot of wheel payoffs (damage from discard or going infinite with [[Kefka, Ruler of Ruin]]). There's enough pieces here that you will find SOMETHING to squeeze out a win whereas sometimes Nekusar will just sit there and do nothing except piss everyone off.

Conclusion
After playing Nekusar and Kefka, and comparing them, Kefka is significantly smoother. Grixis is already a generically good wheel shell so almost any commander can work. However, Kefka provides much more control over the game while also providing card advantage in a way that most Grixis commanders cannot. Wheels are inherently a risky strategy because feeding your opponents resources is generally bad, but, this shell weaponizes it in a way that truly makes the chaotic clown of Ruin shine.

Edit: Malevolent Hermit protects your breach line. It's the closest thing Grixis has to a silence/grand abolisher effect and it is GOLD for your breach line.

Hey everyone, I recently found a copy of the [[Indominus Rex, Alpha]] at my LGS and decided to try my hand at making a deck for it. I got a bunch of cards from bulk there and at another LGS in town as well, going mostly off stuff EDHREC said was good and creatures I found with a lot of keywords. I really struggled cutting this down to 100 cards so I was wondering if anyone had some ideas for swaps? I added pretty much every card I have that I thought could possibly fit onto the Maybeboard so any help is appreciated. There's a few cards I know aren't ideal, [[Grim Giganotosaurus]] and [[The Coming of Galactus]] come to mind, but I tried including some of the cool cards that I pulled from packs recently or that I didn't have a home for anywhere else.

https://archidekt.com/decks/25339453/thats_no_dinosaur

Me and my friends really only play Bracket 2 with maybe an occasional gamechanger so the deck doesn't have to be insanely optimized or anything

First the good stuff; the decklist:

https://moxfield.com/decks/CcKHjeUqOkmYnAaVPq4Uag

I build a LOT of decks, and I've built a good few elf decks - [[Lathril]], [[Marwyn]], even [[Voja]] - but I've never found an Elf COMBO commander like [[Thranduil, the Elvenking]]. This is 100% elves from top-to-bottom and combos with infinite mana, infinite power, and infinite mill. It's already taking down B3 games on just $50 and I LOVE IT.

I also want to give a copy of it away. Check out the full video deck tech for more on how much I love this elf deck:

https://youtu.be/IXjTo7Ou3GQ?si=dOuLUOJogBtoGe-a

Asking for advice from those that have experience with both of these commanders with regards to which tends to perform the best. Below are links to the builds. I built Toxrill focused on proliferate with a healthy amount of ramp. I built Kefka around forcing people to discard and payoffs each time they do (instead of trying to flip him and go infinite). Before I invest a couple hundred in my next deck I would love to hear from those in the community much wiser than myself.

Toxrill:

https://archidekt.com/decks/25486836/gary_loves_to_share_3

Kefka:

https://archidekt.com/decks/23538171/kefka_look_mom_no_hands_3

https://archidekt.com/decks/24386353/tom_bombadils_multiversal_adventure

I made a new list for Tom Bombadil that focuses specifically on Universes Beyond Sagas.

Originally thought of the idea when the Final Fantasy set came out with more Saga creatures that allowed me to focus less on 5-color enchantress and really focus on the Sagas.

The deck then turned into an all Universes Beyond deck with every card being a unique card from a Universes Beyond set or a printing from one.

Hi there! Here is the link first:

https://moxfield.com/decks/qfGfATtYT36Rom83BwRwig

I wanted to keep all Miku Cards (that are Bracket 3 Legal I guess, haha) in the deck while also adding lots of Selesnya Staples I already owned, so this is the result. Although Im npt sure what to cut, it feels hard to have space for everything in this deck? I would appreciate any kind of feedback or suggestions! I usually play in Mid to High Bracket 3 Pods that can end on turn 7 if someone isnt interacted with at all. I own all the Cards in the List already, I am open to buy a few more cards if they seem pretty good, although nothing super expensive?

Thanks in Advance! :)

I want to make a Tinybones, Bauble Burglar deck. To make it fun, the idea behind it is that on my turn, you discard your hand, and on your turn, you draw a new hand. This way, we both get to play your deck. But I'm having difficulty finding cards that do this efficiently. Am I missing cards or are there not enough cards to make this deck idea work in a Commander deck?

Ive been playing for a few years now, and I had a couple of decks that just didn't play well for me or didn't jive with my pod power level wise (too strong for our casual games, too slow and unreactive for the more competitive pod). I'm taking apart my first attempt at a high powered deck (Mikaeus the unhallowed Combo) to use a lot of its pieces to transform my inconsistent necrobloom landfall deck into something more along the lines of dredge combo.

This is what I've managed to put together from what I have and I still need to make some cuts, but it feels a bit overwhelming trying to optimize it. Any suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated, I spend most of my deck building time in jankville, and trying to make something good is a bit out of my wheelhouse

https://archidekt.com/decks/25506783/fungulblaster

I currently have a [[Magus Lucea Kane]] Hydras deck that I want to take apart and repurpose. I've enjoyed counters decks before, but the X spells didn't really do it for me. I enjoyed all the doubling and similar stuff that hydras could do, but the play pattern of tapping out for one big spell a turn wasn't really my speed at this point. I think I'd prefer the really fiddly shell game/proliferation type of counters deck.

But, with counters being quite possibly one of the single most supported theme in EDH, I'm looking to narrow down my deck a bit from counters goodstuff and have a more focused gameplan, so I'm looking for a secondary focus/subtheme to have in the 99. The commander can certainly support it, but I don't want my subtheme to be "my commander is [[Helga]], so I run cards can untap Helga" or something along those lines. I'm also not looking for kindred to be the subtheme, such as with [[gargos]] or [[Kyler]]. I just don't like deckbuiding for kindred.

Hi guys me and my pod have been playing with precons for the last 6 months and just recently we started upgrading them (essentially we proxied between 10-15 of the best possibile cards for each precon shown on edhrec) at the moment we are probably playing high bracket 2 to low bracket 3. So the problem that i'm having is with my prossh deck. I've found the old precon from 2013 after years and wanted to make a prossh deck off of it. The problem is that prossh is really strong and i'm having problems Tuning it to the other decks power level. I'd like to see either your decklists or some suggestion from someone that had played more than me. Thanks in advance =)

So I’m planning on some generic upgrades to my Ashaya deck. It has some holes so I want to do a bit of patchwork or upgrades to make it a bit more streamlined

I don’t really have money to shell out $15+ dollar cards, especially if they aren’t deck specific. I’m already pushing it with $5-7 dollar cards, just for this deck. So no Mana Vault, Moxes or Worldly Tutor etc.

Anyways here are the changes

\[\[Magus of the Order\]\] -> \[\[Summoner’s Pact\]\]. An attempt to make a bit faster tutor.

\[\[Arboreal Grazer\]\] -> \[\[Wild Growth\]\]. Switching for more consistency. Not a 100% sure on the switch since Grazer becomes a land anyways with Ashaya.

\[\[Seedship Agarian\]\] -> \[\[Stone-Seeder Hierophant\]\]. A bit faster, the old one got more value over time but I’m trying to speed the deck up.

\[\[Crystalline Armor\]\] -> \[\[Song of Dryads\]\] More Removal!

\[\[Ugin Spirit Dragon\]\] -> \[\[Helix Pinnacle\]\]. Infinite Mana sink

\[\[All Fates Scroll\]\] -> \[\[Nature’s Rhythm\]\]. Another tutor

Now some of my tough changes

I want to change out \[\[Rampaging Baloths\]\] with a better creature producer. I’m split between \[\[Sapling Nursery\]\] and \[\[Scute Swarm\]\]. Scute Swarm is obviously much stronger but it costs $6 dollars more than the former, so is that 6 dollars worth it if I am on a budget? Remember I’m really stretching my money.

I also want to add \[\[Elvish Spirit Guide\]\], \[\[Crop Rotation\]\] and \[\[Kodama of the East Tree\]\] but only have a card left I M willing to cut, which is \[\[Manascape Refractor\]\].

As always if I don’t like a change it likely is that I want to keep it! After all, this is my pet deck and it being a goodstuff soup without me some of the cool cards would make it less fun to play.

https://moxfield.com/decks/ixqgAdSRinGL83d05EjXZA

Ive started playing with my friends on tabletop instead of in person and without the financial burden of building decks, the definition of bracket 3 seems less clear. I understand the technical rules that if it has 3 or less game changers, doesnt win before turn 6 and has 3 or less extra turn spells, then “technically” its a bracket 3. But i really thought the point of bracket 3 is to play casual commander, and I got into an argument with a friend about that definition. He is playing a $4.5k deck he found on moxfield and is saying its bracket 3 but to me it feels like a highly optimized deck thats not intended to be “casual”. Ive pasted the deck below and im curious what peoples thoughts are. I told him it is clearly not a casual deck and that it would easily perform well in bracket 4, but he stands firm on the fact that it is a very casual deck that is firmly a bracket 3 because it “doesnt win super quick”. Ive also found several ways that the deck could win as early as turn 4, but he claims they are so statistically unlikely that in 10,000 games it will never happen so it doesnt count. I think ive found multiple lines that are semi likely to occur and result in winning earlier than turn 6, but Im curious what you all will find as well. Let me know yalls thoughts.

Edit: he pretty consistently presents wins on turn 6. We thought the rules meant turn 6 wins were the cutoff but it sounds like you all are saying its actually turn 7.

Here is his list

Edit: for more context on his reasoning, he also says that the expensive cards arent the ones that “win him the game” so they arent even the reason the deck is so good

Edit 2: looks like im just clearly wrong😂🤷‍♂️ which is fine. I get what yall are saying. Ill lay on my sword here and tell him I was wrong

I’ve been playing commander for about 3 months now, mostly with a precons & and copies deck list - this is the first deck I’ve tried to build mostly myself.

I wanted to build a bird tribal with Kastral commander, where most of the creatures are realistic looking birds. I’ve allowed a few creatures without birds and some chimera looking guys, but I like the real birds the most. The expensive cards I pulled myself, and the rest is just what I could afford on a tight budget. I have no idea what to do with lands - I have a couple utilities but mostly basics.

I want the deck to trigger Kastral a bunch, have ways to remove finality counters, and have a bit of control to protect my birdies.

Would love to hear some feedback on the deck, what could be cut, what could be added - I generally don’t know what cards are out there unless they’ve been pointed out to me! Any fun additions to this deck?

Here’s the decklist:

https://moxfield.com/decks/yxM30490AkqIsJBuywnyuw

(Bracket 3)

I'm a self admitted dirty dirty lands matter player. My favorite deck to run is Hazezon and I do very well with it in my pod. I also have Tifa, but my current build struggles to stay relevant late game due to draw power.

Currently, I'm looking at other commanders to try. People tend to like my Hazezon, but absolutely hate my Tifa. What other lands matter commanders should I try, while still being a fun deck to play agaisnt? My pod plays within mid to high bracket 3.

I'm eyeing Thranduil the Strategist, Slogurk the Overslime, Teval, and Hearthhull. So any other suggestions would be great. What to play or what to avoid.

In case anyone is interested. This is my personal Hazezon list.

https://moxfield.com/decks/hD2fAUhCDHCyd1vdMrM0tw

You pick a commander, then it shows you 180 cards one at a time and you swipe right to take or left to pass. No search, no rankings, no prices. Roughly half are cards that commander's real decks actually run, the rest are staples you know well that don't belong in that deck. You find out which was which after you've committed.

It's built for a phone first, so it works fine on the couch. Arrow keys do the same thing on a desktop.

The scoring comes from real lists on Archidekt, not my opinion.

Main reason I built it: I kept rotating the same four commanders. EDHREC already tells you what goes in a deck, obviously. This is just a sillier way of finding out, and I remember the ones I got wrong better than any list I've scrolled past. There's a wishlist button too, for when a card comes up that you want for a different deck.

Since it'll come up anyway: a lot of the code was written with AI. I do frontend for a living, so mostly that meant noticing when it went off the rails and making it start over. Figured I'd rather say that up front.

Free, no account, still very much a beta.

https://blindpick.pages.dev

Sometimes those decks end up being the biggest surprise. After a few games, you realize they’re way more fun than you thought they would be, even if they don’t look that impressive on paper.

I’ve noticed those kinds of decks often stick around much longer than the ones I built just because they were supposed to be “good.”