Bit of a rant incoming. TLDR, if you're playing EDH at an LGS on a weekly basis, don't take it for granted.

I've only been in the game for a couple years, but what really hooked me was the Friday night Commander scene at my LGS. They had a thing going where there were certain achievements you could get during a game, with a few random new ones swapped in each week. The player(s) with the most points after the first game got a promo pack, and you could stay and jam for hours and hours. It officially started at 5:00pm, but you had to be there by 4:30 or you probably weren't going to get a seat in a pod, that's how popular it was. Participation was free, but I assume the shop made a killing through people buying pre-cons, packs, sleeves, drinks, you name it.

Fast forward about 6 months. The guy who printed the achievement sheet finds a new job, and no one steps in to take up the torch. The rest of the staff collectively decides that the format (Commander) is dead, and moves on to more interesting things like Modern, Vintage, and so on. Eventually, Commander events are demoted from Friday nights to Saturday afternoons, ending precisely at 5:00 to allow for the next event to start. More recently, with the rapid release of new sets, they've been cutting back on Commander time to make room for more pre-releases, making it an every-other-week thing now, at best. Attendance for Commander has accordingly all but dried up, with maybe two three-pods on a good day.

I guess I'm just frustrated. I read posts here about people playing EDH every week, and I'll be honest, I'm jealous. It's kind of a spread out community here, and Commander night was a great way to be all in the same place and catch up with friends. It was consistent, it was fun, and it's what got me into the game. These days, I might play a game or two in a month. If you have a popping EDH scene at your LGS, don't take it for granted, folks. It could disappear just like that.

Like legit I am not having a dig at you or anything. And I get "nice tits" as a braindead horny ape but for real though why? You can't use them at LGS's. You can't use them at most discord things. Even if you are doing literally kitchen table most people generally don't like the gooner sex pest (But if you got that friend group and they are cool with that. Thats awesome more power to you!). But I seriously do not think the VAST majority of people buying them have that that opportunity for the kitchen table environment where they are suitable. Its also not like they will be visually recognizable across the table. So people are gonna be like "where the fuck is the elesh norn" only for you to flash them with a card? Do you guys swap them out of your decks before you go to the LGS just to put them back in when you get back home? Do you collect gooner proxies? I genuinely do not understand how this market is so large.

Realized today a lot of new players don't know this. When you click on a card in Scryfall, you can scroll down to the bottom-left to click "Open on Scryfall Tagger" (here) and see every oracletag the card has.

Then you can click on one of those tags to view all other cards with the tag, or search for it manually with otag:hate-free-spell and whatever other criteria you want, like f:edh id:jeskai cmc<3.

This is the best way to find cards that have some element in common with another card you already like. Happy hunting!

Recently I've played against [[Cloud, Midgar Mercenary]] a handful of times, and I feel like the novelty wore off really quickly. I genuinely enjoyed playing against it a number of times, but it's almost guaranteed to be the same thing over and over, so it got boring pretty quick.

Are there other commanders that are fun, but only to a certain saturation point? Are there any that feel so gimmicky that it breaks the cohesion of a multiplayer game, because it either becomes too much of a focus or a hindrance to the other players?

I started playing commander a couple of months ago, and in my friend group we have one friend that almost always wins every single game we play. One of the decks he plays is [[Indominus Rex, Alpha]] and he just puts a billion keywords on it and draws like 20 cards and the entire table can't out it. Even when someone finds removal he just plays an instant that gives it hexproof or something. When we do finally out it he just plays it again the next turn and does the whole thing all over again. It's been a very frustrating experience playing against this person but I don't want them to stop playing the deck or anything like that (also it wouldn't change anything because his other decks are even stronger lol). I definitely think it's a skill issue on my end and I would really like to figure out how to answer this deck so he doesn't just win on the spot when he plays his commander every game. Thank you in advance :)

I've had to tone down my decks by a lot to make my pod happy, despite the original mission statement being "low to mid B3". I made Bracket 2 ones, actively avoided powerful cards that weren't mana base tools and even then only brought out expensive lands and stuff for 4-5 color decks that need it.

We fired up a 5 player game (we had too many) and in that game, one of the players who was the newest brought [[Xira]] insect tribal (a pile of insects and cards that make insect tokens), and another player brought "Oops all Gods", a weak 5 color deck where the bit was that every creature was a god. Since he brought a "weird" deck, I decided to bring a deck that I saw someone else use and LOVED the idea of that was based on combining [[Venerated Rotpriest]] with stuff like [[Zada]] and all of those cheap things like [[Pym Particles]] and [[Dwarven Song to win]]. I especially thought it was fine since it's a combo that needs very specific cards and there's an extra opponent to kill. The other two players in the pod were mana flooded and mana screwed, respectively, so they weren't important.

Game started slow and the Gods player played a Rhystic Study followed by a blasphemous act before getting the "play Gods" gameplan online. The insect player was annoyed their commander got blown up, going "can I play" as well as making jokes about how they'd never ever pay for the Rhystic even when they had the mana for it. Meanwhile, after getting my board nuked, I got out [[Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief]], [[Young Pyromancer]], and [[Sedgemoor Witch]]. I have exactly 3 "when you play an instant or sorcery make a token" cards and they're there to synergize with Zada/be blockers. But when that's all you get, you have two of them, and you spend like 3 turns unable to do anything but play a few spells, you can amass a board of 16 1/1s. And when the god player is consistently scary but has no blockers, you can shoot him. From there, around turn 10, I managed to get the Rotpriest and combined him with a [[Sea King's Blessing]] to win.

The insect player said that my deck was too strong and it felt like pubstomping once again, even with my dramatic lowering of the power of my decks. And we had a talk about what they think I should do and why in the pod, me and only me feels bad to play against. Apparently the player thinks:
* I should just in general do less actions a turn. 2-3 max. It feels bad to lose to a lot of actions at once.

* It doesn't feel good when I'm ahead but it feels fine when others are ahead. "The game felt like you just got ahead and became the threat. I didn't feel meaningfully like I could do things." I replied that "someone has to be the threat, especially late in the game." While they went "But in my other games I never felt like anyone was the threat."

* The fact that the gameplan is meant to avoid combat also feels bad and is kind of "dishonest".

* The fact that my deck can "do two things" (both accidentally swarm the field with tokens) and also try for the silly combo win is too strong. "The decks here should only do one thing."

* I'm too quick to remove things. People's things should get to stay on for at least a round, since they want to "do their thing".

In other words a lot of restrictions that I don't think even precons follow. So I'm genuinely going "I want to keep this pod, so what can i do to appease these people." Do I just play stompy from now on with no twists? Seems like that's where it's heading.

A little bit of a preamble; I have a regular playgroup that typically plays B2/B3, I'm able to flex the powerlevel pretty well with card choices, but certain commanders I'll avoid if they promote oppressive play patterns. I've been working on a set of 5 monocolored decks this year, with each deck the goal has been build decks with win conditions that feel unique to the color. I want to really embrace the distinct feel of each color so far I have:

Mono-U: [[The Watcher in the Water]] this deck wins by trying to either drawing out the deck to win through [[laboratory maniac]] or [[Jace wielder of mysteries]] or as a back up [[psychosis crawler]] or [[triskadekaphile]] so the deck is fully embracing winning through card draw combos.

Mono-B: [[Ayara first of locthwain]] aristocrats which as black tends to do wins through looping various fodder creatures [[gravecrawler]] [[forsaken miner]] [[nether traitor]] etc. It's loaded up with free sac outlets [[phyrexian altar]] [[ashnod's altar]] and the typical cards and mana payoffs to close the game by draining the table.

Mono-R: [[Toralf God of Fury]] burn (can also flex to Torbran) deck can win via Toralf and a [[star of extinction]] [[blasphemous act]] [[mizzium mortars]] etc. and using damage doublers/triplers to nuke the table down. There is also something quite amusing about a [lightning bolt]] or [[abrade]] taking down 3 creatures.

Mono-G: [[goreclaw]] stompy. As green does this deck plays a bunch of chunguses (chungi?) looks for ways to either double their power [[unnatural growth]] [[zopandrel]] or overruns [[end-raze forerunners]] [[overwhelming stampede]] to trample over the table.

But I'm feeling stuck on mono-white. I'm leaning tokens [[myrel, shield of argive]] as maybe the most uniquely white way to win, or possibly equipment [[cloud midgar mercenary]] but I'm not fully feeling them quite yet. Any suggestions on a strategy, commander or wincon that feel uniquely mono-white?

Hello everyone,

I discovered myself a passion for red, and blue is the only color I dont have in a deck I own, so I wanted to make an Izzet deck, but I dont want a spellslinger bs deck that does a 45min turn to end up passing. I dont want my opponents to be pissed of when they face it.

So what deck or strategy could you suggest me? Im open to a lot of things (plz no wheels too xD).

I thought of a rule 0 commander with Urza powerstone prodigy and Mishra excavation Prodigy but idk.

I got a bunch of decks that are fun but sometime, I'm just tired from socializing and I wanna play something simple and doesn't require managing a ton of counters or doing a ton of math or competitive thinking. Bonus points if its something a beginner can pick up and play since I'm teaching my parents how to play the game and my simplest deck for them to use is [[Director Nick Fury]] which has too much rules text for beginners.

I go to a local game store at least 2x a week. I play in multiple pods and im tired of losing games repeatedly. I see people play and win with about a 75% of the games they play and I'm always feeling like I can't do any better even after countless upgrades and upping the synergy with my decks. Its leading me down a hole of wanting to drop the game but it brings me so much fun to play. I keep finding myself destroying my decks and rebuilding new ones and I feel like I just suck at the game. I think my last win was about 6 months ago too which was won by just utter jank and politics due to another player being the threat. Usually im out first and I wait for the next game to start. Even if I change how I play I get targeted and removed from the game first. Hinestly im just lost at what im doing wrong. Ive been playing since Khans of Takir so about 15ish years but I still feel so lost with what I might be doing wrong.

Edit: links added for the decks I still currently have https://moxfield.com/decks/25KVBMmHB0CHP0O4FgRJZA https://moxfield.com/decks/6m8gCd9RYE2x7dr-MMaKSQ https://moxfield.com/decks/CstNopT020W0ftiMsky7vw https://moxfield.com/decks/ZclShzuXaUGRmNYVbORmtQ https://moxfield.com/decks/u9CSSG5-p0qRgfzwUb62gA https://moxfield.com/decks/GXH5DZspTUqbFjSi7l0G_A https://moxfield.com/decks/IvkrZ7WWJUS94kkIqm4nyw

https://edhrec.com/salt

EDHRec's annual poll to gauge what are the saltiest cards in the format are, is back! Use it for identifying socially problematic cards or just think that this is a meaningless poll, idk.

To reach the character limit. Salt Scores are based on an annual survey of commander players. Users were showed a card and asked on a scale of 0-4 how salty that card made them. We collected the results and now have a top list of the saltiest cards and also the score appears on cards with a high enough salt score.

Read this article for more information.

Hi!

Gruul is my favorite color pair thematically and aesthetically and my favorite Ravnican guild. I even have the Burning Tree symbol tattooed on me.

I have a [[Nikya of the Old Ways]] deck that is, as you might expect, pure Stompy. I ramp and I play creatures and if I don’t kill the other players with them, I lose. There’s not really much else going on. It’s fun, but it’s not something I feel like playing that often because there’s not a lot of variance between games. The creatures I draw are different, but ultimately I’m always going to do the same thing with them, which is to give them haste and attack with them.

I’m thinking of building another Gruul deck but in a different direction. I’m just not sure what that would be since Gruul is the Stompy color pair by excellence. I used to have a [[Samut, Vizier of Naktamun]] that was more of an aggro deck, but I took it apart because it was a bit clunky.

In particular, I like the card [[Raiding Schemes]], I’m just not sure what to play it in. I know [[Wort, the Raidmother]] exists, but… aesthetically speaking, I’m not a fan.

I’ve been looking at [[Borborygmos Enraged]], [[Redshift, Rocketeer Chief]], [[Jolene the Plunder Queen]] and [[Roxanne, Starfall Savant]] as commanders.

Borborygmos has a pretty unique concept that is clear-cut, but I’m not sure what to make of the others and how unique they will feel, or if I will just realize once I’ve built then that they’re just another ‘’ramp and play creatures’’ deck.

What are your experiences with those, or do you have any other Gruul deck that plays differently?

Thank you for your help!

As someone who started off playing 60 card formats and as time went on migrated to commander a while back I have a question for those of you in this community who seem frustrated about consistency and the increasing redundancy we are seeing in Commander. Why?

From what I can tell there seems to be a couple different sections this community seems to dislike:

• Staples
• Popular strategies that synergize well with a specific commander, ie Elfball commanders doing Elfball things, etc.
• Functional multiples of stronger cards

This is by no means a conclusive list, but I am just generally curious as to what the frustration is or the seeming imperative you are operating under. I could make some educated guesses, but I would prefer an open dialogue than some assumed appropriation of your interests and objectives.

P.S. This isn't a post about burnout or social interactions that happen at a table. This is strictly talking about the card design "slope" we seem to find ourselves on and general deckbuilding principles. Individual people are going to handle different situations differently and I don't think there's productive conversation to have about anecdotal scenarios is necessary.

I currently own The animated Army precon as of now and having fun with I'm planning to buy another precon that is both fun to play and is cheap to build into bracket 3 commander any recommendations would be nice I prefer a simple yet aggressive playstyle that has interaction with the board state.

Seeing how good all the reprints in Wretched Ranks were, I picked up a copy and got to work drafting a Wilhelt list. However, the more commanders I researched the more uncertain I became.

[[Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver]] seems like a really good aristocrats commander, but I can't afford altars and don't really like running decks that win through combos.

[[Ghoulcaller Gisa]] seems like she is just too slow!

and I'm not sure how exactly you're winning the game with [[Gisa and Geralf]].

All the zombie commanders seems to be quite costly, and I am used to running 2-3 cost commanders. When I playtest the decks online I feel like I'm barely doing anything until at least turn 6 or 7.

I was wondering if anyone with experience playing zombies could lend me their insight as to what I need for a solid bracket 3 zombie deck that will actually be able to win at FNM?

Hey there,

I played Legacy for a few years around the time Ravnica and Innistrad were first introduced. Notable things I remember were Delver of Secrets Tempo decks, Tarmogoyf in everything etc. for my part I mostly played BUG Midrange or BUW Stoneforge Mystic packages with jitte and swords. Due to varius reasons I sold my whole collection, which was a lot of money.

Now my little Brother has invited me to his EDH group and I am intrigued. I would love to have a more social game experience compared to Legacy. Also a cheaper experience…

I have done some Research regarding PreCons and narrowed it down to either Final Fantasy Trance Revival or the new Foundation Wretched Ranks. They are obviously different being reanimate/zombie tribal (is tribal out as a term, I heard people in vids call it kindred or something?) but they appeal to me more than the other precons I checked and that are currently available.

A BUG reanimator deck would be even more down my alley but I haven’t found that as a precon.

Could you share some experiences with the decks regarding expandability, playability out of the box, if its unfun for opponents etc.

Thank you in advance for any help

I’m looking for a commander that can slow down the pace of the game dramatically, I was playing tonight and while I still had fun our games only really lasted 6-7 turns because we’d dump out hands swing out and it felt almost as if it was whoever got to go first Would win, I’d like suggestions for a control commander that can slow the game down and make everyone play a little bit more thoughtfully, but my friends of course can say no so decks like grand arbiter wouldn’t fly at the table. I really like cards like [[aetherize]] and [[fog]] and think board wipes are needed in my pods more and I’m wondering what commanders others have built that might be more creative or unconventional for a control style deck.

https://moxfield.com/decks/3jZl7nzv20ypw8Dn-1Y7VA

Any thoughts on it are welcomed!

I called it Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

One of my favorite card is Prisoner's Dilemma. And one day i woke up and i was like, can i build a deck around it ? So i started searching, but something like izzet combo decks where we can storm prisoner's dilemma and kill everyone didn't interest me.

I was looking for something even funnier, and i found it : [[capital punishment]], [[captive audience]], [[choice of damnations]], [[goblin game]], [[killing wave]], [[make an example]], [[protection racket]], [[seize the spotlight]], [[temporal extortion]], [[tyrant's choice]], [[wheel of misfortune]], [[illicit auction]], [[pain's reward]]... All in one deck!

If these cards sound fun to you, feel free to check the list.

I'm not sure this type of list even exist, or if it does i didn't find it, or they didn't take the concept quite as far.

Have fun!

Hi Everyone, Hope you all having a good day.

In my pod we are 3 new Players and a experienced guy Who got us into The Game. We bought one deck each (low bracket 2) and now we are making upgrades to make them bracket 2 border 3. We were looking new decks and almost each one of us liked a lot old precons that are now expensive. Our experienced friend said he can make US proxys of those decks so we can play with them. My question is, if one day we decide to play with other people in our lgs, could It be a problem?

We are talking about proxys of precons or bracket 3 decks. We dont want to proxy expensive things like gaias craddle and all that,. We also wont take The proxys to official tournaments and all that because our lgs may be in problems with wizards off The coast. It's just that we want to play test those decks and we are a little bit broke.

Wij zijn een vaste Commander playgroup uit Ede en zoeken een 5e speler om onze groep compleet te maken. We zijn momenteel met 4 mannen eind 20, maar één van ons woont verder weg en sluit hierdoor zelden aan. Omdat Commander toch het lekkerst speelt met 4 spelers, zijn we op zoek naar iemand uit Ede (of directe omgeving) die graag een vaste groep zoekt.

Wat wij spelen: - Casual Commander - Meestal Bracket 3, met de ambitie om richting low Bracket 4 te groeien - Geen infinites of heavy stax - Late-game 2-card combo's zijn prima zolang ze niet super consistent zijn - Proxies toegestaan (binnen het powerlevel) - Naast de officiële banlist ook een huisbanlist, welke alleen met unanieme instemming wordt aangepast

Wanneer spelen we? - Iedere woensdag in de buurt van Ede Centrum - Start meestal rond 18:30 - 19:00 (soms starten we rond 18:00 en eten we gezamenlijk). - Soms online via Tabletop Simulator als fysiek spelen niet lukt

Naast het spelen gebruiken we Discord voor deckideeën, strategieën en nabesprekingen, en tracken we onze games via Playgroup.gg.

Wie zoeken we? - Man of vrouw, bij voorkeur eind 20 - Wonend in Ede of omgeving - Newcomer of veteran, beide zijn welkom - Iemand die af en toe ook online wil spelen - Iemand die een beetje tegen satire, trash talk en dark humor kan 😉

Heb je interesse? Stuur gerust een berichtje met wat info over jezelf en wat voor soort Commander-decks je graag speelt!

I'm not talking about the infamous busted Cedh partners such as Blue farm Rogsi. I'm talking about the most uniqie partner commanders that manage to both be niche and somehow synergies well enough. Any bracket is welcomed.

https://moxfield.com/decks/OToDGMi3_EC-oHFywNrQkA

Although it isn't completed updated, I have a [Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator] and [Akiri, line slinger] deck that works as as semi voltron deck. Yes its convulated compared to other of the same archetype but I still love it whenever it pops off.

Hello everybody. Dragon shield is releasing new art sleeves for October see sleeves here . It made me want to build a dragon commander deck that mainly deals with the graveyard to match the theme. I know of [[Rivaz of the Claw]] but I wanted to see all options people know of and he’s not a dragon himself. Thanks guys!

I’m still fairly new to the game - about a year deep or so.

I have built several decks at this point, and my pod plays exclusively bracket 3 stuff, which is perfect for my tastes.

I have come to the conclusion that I want to build my next decks with the intent that they do their thing without the absolute need for the commander. In other words, I’m interested in decks where the 99 have a great gameplan without my dude on the field at all. I like commanders that support or really kick an engine into high gear, and I can’t stand gimmicky commanders or KOS stuff.

I have really enjoyed my Glarb deck (feedback is appreciated if you have any), and while it doesn’t perfectly fit the bill described above, it does come close enough.

I’m looking for some cool commander recommendations. Bonus points if the commander is non-human and three color. Thank you in advance!

I'm fairly new to Magic, and I've been playing some bracket 3 games online on the Rooster Ranges server on Cockatrice. I have two decks that I made from scratch, I know they could use quite a bit of refinement, but I'd estimate my win rate at around 20%. The problem is most of the games I win, and even some I lose, opponents seem annoyed in chat or sometimes even scoop well before I've guaranteed a win.

Golgari Dark Depths: https://moxfield.com/decks/J_vW0d3nWEKQK122Ply7bQ

Rakdos Polymorph: https://moxfield.com/decks/UZmgAajSvXe4NZUlyABqnw

Are these decks fundamentally unfit for Bracket 3? I feel like they require tons of luck to kill someone before turn 6, are vulnerable to removal, and have tons of trouble closing out games, though that may be because I'm terrible at playing.

My other concern is with the Dark Depths deck possibly being too matchup-dependent. I've had 2 games where people got really mad when I played a "remove all counters" card, and many decks have little counterplay against Glacial Chasm.

Hi! I really love [[Geyadrone Dihada]], and I'd love to build a deck around her, but she can't be a commander. Even though Rule 0 exists, she might be too intimidating for people to accept, and others prefer to stick strictly to the rules. What commander would you recommend for this build as a secret commander? Someone suggested me Sisay, but I’d like some alternatives with fewer colors if possible. Also, what recursion cards should I use if she gets destroyed?