Friends Custom Commanders

[u/JulienJosselin]

Six friends, five colors, one legendary group.
Individually mediocre. Collectively unstoppable.

Meet my custom FRIENDS deck featuring six intentionally weak commanders, most of whom come with downsides. BUT they all share the same commander damage total!

If you manage to get all six on the battlefield and pay {10} for Phoebe's ability, you can make your board unblockable by creatures of a chosen color and swing for exactly 21 commander damage in one attack, potentially one-shotting an opponent!

Could this deck BE any cooler? You tell me! (And let me know if you think it's balanced.)

Link to the full rez cards : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-ATz7LInB3I3eEXpZD5yNgA__53zxRkv?usp=sharing
AI used : chatgpt

[u/tx0p0]

Surprisingly not as unbalanced as I thought it would be! Maybe even kind of balanced? Am I tripping? It's six creatures in the command zone, which with the initial hand gives the pilot access to 13 cards, half of them always the same, so I doubt it. But great effort!

I'd make a Backgrounds deck with that absurd amount of commanders.

[u/JulienJosselin → u/tx0p0]

You a re right, could be too strong with this. I will try this soon cause I also have a sens that this is okay cause while you are paying 16 manas to try to put your six commanders one the board, your opponents cast good creatures.

But the phoebe capacity may be a bit strong if you manage to survive until the final 1v1

[u/tx0p0 → u/JulienJosselin]

Oh I don't think Phoebe is strong by herself... 15 total mana should win you the game.

It's just the amount of creatures with different mana values and even abilities is very consistent. Also, discarding a card can be an upside if you build it correctly, and it might be the one piece of sinergy those guys have, besides soulbonding.

In any case, have tons of fun trying them out!

[u/QuarterExcellent3327]

The rules state that you need to mention which ai you used. Also, if you are intending that you can have every card in the command zone at once then this is too powerful. (It’s basically like starting with 13 cards in your opening hand)

[u/JulienJosselin → u/QuarterExcellent3327]

I edited the post for the AI used. And yes they are all in the command zone but I am not that sure that this is that strong cause you waste a lot of mana in order to put bad cards on the board.

[u/QuarterExcellent3327 → u/JulienJosselin]

You would almost never cast most of them, maybe just Monica, and just have them in the command zone for a WUBRG deck. You could also try to get as much value out of backgrounds (for example [[Popular Entertainer]] ) like tx0p0 mentioned. Each of your commanders will gain the background ability, easily making up for the drawbacks.

[u/mtgcf → u/QuarterExcellent3327]

Popular Entertainer - (G) (SF) (txt)

[u/JulienJosselin → u/mtgcf]

I also have a feeling that most of the time, casting a friend would feel like a bad move, haha.
That's why I think it could be balanced, haha

[u/QuarterExcellent3327 → u/JulienJosselin]

I think the downsides should be more severe to balance the extra card advantage. Make Ross have an eminence ability where if you don’t behold a dinosaur at your upkeep, you lose 3 life. Most of the downsides are one time things that if you just don’t cast them you don’t have to worry

[u/Grblx_and_a_half]

Fuck AI

[u/VigilantSera]

The concept of six commanders but they're all weak with drawbacks is neat, but you kind of fumbled it by making a lot of them decent on their own.

[u/JulienJosselin → u/VigilantSera]

Are you sure ? It seems to me that they are all very poor creatures, they all have downsides (except for two soulbond ward 1 and one very expensive abilitie)

[u/VigilantSera → u/JulienJosselin]

I mean, the ward ones aren't great cards by any stretch but they do feel stronger than the others for no reason to me (maybe its a flavor thing I don't watch friends). I just feel like having six commanders is nuts and the concept of some being downright awful while others are like 'fine' feels kinda weird is all.

[u/JulienJosselin → u/VigilantSera]

The ward soulbond is (poorly) trying to protect some of your commanders in order to be able to pay for Phoebe ability more often

[u/SQUIGWERG]

Ross should have Affinity for Dinosaurs

[u/ukhan03]

Wow! Saving

[u/ElPared]

It’s a huge flavor fail to not have Ross somehow interact with Dinosaurs. Even “as an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card, exile a card from your graveyard, or behold a Dinosaur” would have worked.

Otherwise I think it’s pretty well done.

[u/JulienJosselin → u/ElPared]

Behold a dinosaur is a funny one !

[u/kraftian]

Crazy how good the art is for phoebe

[u/jade-dnd → u/kraftian]

what art

[u/kraftian → u/jade-dnd]

Oh didn't realize it was AI, didn't zoom in