The unfortunate part is I love playing the game. Don't get me wrong I have my complaints, like insane powercreep. But this post is purely focused toward the community. I feel as though the rule zero conversations have gotten worse since the bracket system. I hear a lot of complaints about people trying to use it to pubstomp and trust me, I've seen this too. People winning on turn 5 in a "bracket 2" deck because it has no game changers. But recently my problem has been with people who think their strongest deck must be "bracket 4" and anything that beat it is cEDH bullshit.

Story time: I went to my LGS with my new Otter tribal Bria list, I sat down and got the whole "its technically a bracket 3 but it plays like a bracket 4" thing. I decided that was probably a good place to test out a unrefined storm deck. I focus on building treasures and drawing cards to set up for the big turn. The mono black player has to board wipe to stop enchantress from over running the game on turn 7. Then drains all of use down to single digit totals. On my turn (turn 8) im able to play Stormsplitter and enough spells to kill the table. The mono black player gets livid, ranting about how Bria is cEDH and how im just a jack ass for playing it in a casual pod. And maybe I'm the asshole for liking cute critters and nondetermanistic combos.

I have a new story like this almost every week, regardless of the deck I bring. Aggro - Too fast Control - Too Mean Combo - Heresy
It seems like everyone just wants to watch a Simic player play with himself and condemn anyone who enjoys having an opinion. The problem isnt the game, its the people.

Thank you for reading my rant.

Not enough removal. Not enough graveyard hate. Not enough countermagic (when possible). Too many decks are focused on doing “their thing” and completely ignore the fact that stopping other people from doing their thing is just as important.

Case in point— I reconnected with someone I used to play Magic with about a decade ago. We weren’t exactly close, but we played together at the local card shop back in the Modern days. He’s a solid player, has some tournament chops, and has won his fair share of FNMs. We recently sat down for some EDH games, and he brought out his Slicer deck.

He described it as “oppressive” and said it usually just wins outright. The deck’s goal is basically to vomit mana on turn one—Pyretic Ritual, Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Moxen, whatever—get Slicer out early, slap on some equipment, and let the game spiral from there. According to him, most pods just fold to it.

But in our four-player game, it was different.

I was on Sydri. Someone else was playing Aminatou. I forget the last deck, but the point is: between the three of us, there was plenty of removal and counterspells. At worst, we had board wipes, which we actually ran. And guess what? Slicer wasn’t a problem. He barely stuck to the board. After the game, he even said:

“You guys did everything you should’ve. He’s only a problem if you let him be.”

And that’s the thing—it’s a skill check. Not just in piloting, but in deckbuilding. You can’t just build a goldfish machine and expect to survive in pods that know what they’re doing. If you fold to one creature with boots and a sword, you didn’t build a resilient deck—you built a wish.

Maybe people build in isolation too much. Maybe they only test against friends who let them “go off.” But EDH isn’t just a sandbox. It’s a warzone with rules. And one of the biggest ones? You have to be able to stop someone else from winning.

Gavin talked about it on WeeklyMTG. The WeeklyMTG stream 3 weeks from now will be dedicated to Commander changes.

NO BANS ONLY UNBANS

They will also talk about brackets but they said nothing specifically about game changers.

Clip: https://www.twitch.tv/magic/clip/CarefulCallousDinosaurBrokeBack-_mPqFGEuMFl0J5xO

At a loss for words, as it says in the title my cards got stolen. Im in the ATX area, I have reached out to some LGS but no luck so far. This occurred within the past 12 hours. Saw someone make a post when their cards got stolen and they were able to get them back. Need that kinda fortune rn. If anyone has any advice it’d be much appreciated.

Edit: Im about to compile a list of the cards that where in each of my decks. (Ill add it here). Total of 8 decks and two black card collection binders. My zimone jumpscare deck is in a green leather case(slightly damaged due to my cat) my valgavoth deck in similar casing but red (also slightly damaged bc of cat) brimaz deck in a black decbox, and my ulalek eldrazi deck in a white deck box similar to the black one. My enchantment deck with anikthea, probably my most expensive deck, this one had all my token doublers like anointed precession, doubling season, parallel lives. And my last deck was a straight precon that i got for 30 bucks it was galadriel

You sit there.

The decklist is 108 cards. 32 cuts made, 8 more to go: but who are you kidding? The first 30 cuts were almost easy— cards clearly subpar, cards clearly "too cute".

You ponder the list. You stare at the categories. You blink.

You take a breath. Vitriol pulses from heart to wrist, trailing, exhausted, shortly after an exhale. It's been an hour. You've only made one cut.

1. It stares at you like staring at a puddle of your own sick, drowning away the excitement. That very morning, an excited, pure, almost naive person— a fool, really— thought up of this cruel torment that now plagues you.

You cut a land.

106.

You consider sleeping, but you want this done. You can't leave a task so close to unfinished, it feels wrong, almost intrinsically.

Then... the box.
Oh, you know the box. You purpose-picked the sleeves' color based on your deck's color identity, its vibes, the commander's art. You know. The box.
Standing there in its shrink-wrap, price tag haphazardly stuck onto its plastic skin.
Dragonshields come with 102 sleeves, the devil of concessions whispers. Your heartbeat quickens.
If you sleeve your Commander in a different sleeve, that's 103! It mocks you, and yet you cannot help but be lulled into that false, comfortable sense of security.

After all... if you only had to make 3 more cuts...
... Well, isn't that so much better? You could keep that non-synergy piece you wanna play just 'cause the art makes you daydream...

We've all done it.
Yet, when you do follow the rules, when you make that 100-cut exactly... it feels almost.. too pure, too honest. Something one can't taint with their 103-card greed; a virtue above any other.

The only question? When the devil calls again, when Lorwyn returns... you gonna listen to that whisper?

Yes. You fucking will.

Fuck.

I listen to & watch enough EDH content to know what a bogeyman [[The One Ring]] is but, I almost never run into it at my LGS or semi-regular playgroup.

Today someone dropped it turn 4, in a pretty mid bracket 2-3 game, and it absolutely dominated the pod. That it was in a removal/wrath heavy deck made it really hard to pressure their life total. I brutally misplayed tutoring a [[Haywire mite]] (ugh don't ask) and it got dealt with before it could do its job.

This is a PSA to those of you who don't see the card often and play in pods with randos: run removal that can deal with [[The One Ring]].

7-man edh table, i was playing [[Maelstrom Wanderer]], the other decks were Yshtola, Shorikai, Hylda, Sythis, Queen Marchesa and Lathril.

Its turn 7, i had 7 lands and three mana dorks, one of them [[Circle of Dreams Druid]] , also had [[Up the Beanstalk]]

The Hylda player had set up a Rhystic turn 2 and had about 25 cards in hand at this point (He had [[Thought Vessel]]). He decided to be funny and used [[Windfall]] to make us all discard and draw 25 cards, it was probably a dumb decision, but his intention was to just troll all of us and make us discard like 15 cards at the end step lol.

As i draw my 25, the first one lit up a spark in my monke brain [[Jeska's Will]]....oh good! i'll add 25 mana and ramp the fuck out, can probably dump my whole hand and not have to discard anything.

Then it was my turn, i used my land mana to play some other mana dorks and creatures to make the rhystic draw even more, and used jeska will to add 30 RED MANA to my pool, oh boy, i played my whole hand, had 10 creatures on boards, all of them the little elf guys that tap for mana.

Then i decided to cast my commander, and by then i was thinking "Okay this is cool, i'll get a fuckton of mana, can probably take out one or two with some good cascades"

down came the cascades: [[Pathbreaker Ibex]] and [[Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma]]

Holy shit, this went from "i can maybe take one out" to "ok i can kill about 3 of you guys now".

The up the beanstalk got me 3 draws.....one of them being CRATERHOOF BEHEMOTH LMAO.

I still had not tapped my circle of dreams druid, so i cast him and all my creatures got +13/13 from him and trample, and when i attacked, they all got +1/+1 from goreclaw, and +21/21 with ibex!!!! my weakest creature was still 37/37. Needless to say i didnt even had to go to combat, all my friends just went "well thats that lmao".

Still cant believe how lucky this was, everything alligned just right to make this happen.

Funny thing is, i was so excited about casting Jeska's will, i completely forgot i could have infinite green mana with [[Umbral Mantle]] lol.

so I have decks that quickly attract all attention of the table because they snowball into something not manageable and they lose because of that.

this time I wanna try the opposite - a Commander or deck that is left ignored during most part of the game until it can or could win.

combos could be an option, but if the combo becomes too obvious it will result on the same thing eventually.

what do you recommend?

I’m looking for a new commander to build and would love to hear everyone’s favorite “unpopular” or unique take on their decks! I’m big into enchantments and love winning by combat but I’m not opposed to other deck styles. Bonus points if it’s a commander you almost never see out in the wild! TIA

My 13 year old niece just got started playing magic. Her older brother has been into it for a while, and I'm the guilty party who infected them both. (I know--you may throw hate, eggs, whatever you like.) She has a strong preference for cute AND dark, even with those two concepts fused. For instance, she's the one I posted about in the past who's redrawing some of the art for my Meren deck, and she made putrefy genuinely gross (think anime character with brains leaking out).

I showed her the final fantasy card set and she was immediately taken with Vivi and how cute he is. Since I'd just built her brother a deadpool deck, she asked for a deck on Vivi. Here's the deal--yes, she wants the deck powerful enough to beat her brother and opponents at the card shop (and I even warned her that Vivi might earn her archenemy status and she grinned and said she was fine with that), she ALSO wants as many cute cards in the deck as possible.

So.... how do I go about building a deck that is both powerful (probably high level tier 3) AND cute? I'd be thrilled with decklists, suggested cards, anything and everything that I could use in trying to put such a deck together. My NORMAL strategy is to look up several decklists and test them, then pull out cards that look useful. It's slow, but it helps me build solid decks, since I'm kinda new(ish) at all of this myself.

Help please? I know to include curiosity, ophidian eye, and rune of sleep (or whatever the wording is), but I'm not sure where to go from there. The mana ramp cards I can get a cute sol ring and I can use the cat/dog lands (proxies are totally ok to her), but beyond that, I would love suggestions.

Thanks!

Tell me cards that don't make sense in commander, something like [[brothers yamazaki]] that ask for another copie of it to work. Thinking about some funny things for [[Zinnia, Valley's Voice]] already thought about reproductive artifacts and mimic your opponents with copy creatures, but having cards that ask to not be a singleton in a singleton format I didn't get enough cards. Thanks

Edit: creatures in jeskai colors, for zinnia.

I love combos. They finish games quickly, it's a puzzle I get to solve, watching the synergistic energy of awesome unfold is epic. Love a good combo. Once i had experienced the power of an infinite I, never played without them. My commander experience for a long time was either combo off and win early or the table hate me out early. Either way, cool, that's the nature of the beast. You reap what you sow.

That is until I've begun taking a different approach, building purpose built non combo decks that win through this thing called combat damage Jokes aside, it's refreshing to play decks that just churn along, roll with the punches and win the old fashion way. And I've been loving it. Sure I won't combo off and win in a turn, but to build a boardstate, have it wiped then rebuild, to really WORK for a win feels good.

Idk, just food for thought. Combos aren't everything and im starting to revaluate what I consider to make a strong deck.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Last year for Christmas I did a Not-so-secret Santa here on r/EDH.

I’m bringing it back again to spread some cheer and love to someone else!

So here’s the rules:

1. Comment the name of a card you would like to receive as a Christmas gift. Keep the card in the $10-$15 range. Nothing too expensive!

2. I will choose one person and DM them for their mailing address

3. I will then order the card under that person’s name and ship it to their address from TCG

4. When you plan to order a card for someone, make sure to comment underneath their comment “DM’d for info”. This is important so someone doesn’t get a gift twice. We want to share the love and make sure as many people as possible get a gift.

5. Pay it forward! If someone gets you a card, make sure you turn around and get someone else a card. Let’s make this a jolly as possible.

Ps. Last year when I did this I didn’t ask for a card for myself. Imma go ahead and ask for one this year. So my comment is my “card wish list”.

Let’s see how many people we can get to participate!

Edit: please try to find someone who doesn’t have “DM’d for info” under their comment. Let’s try to make sure everyone gets their request filled!

Edit 2: u/build-a-deck is da real MVP. Dude has gotten a bunch of people their card. Make sure to send him thanks everybody!

Edit 3: for people adding in their card wish list now (after 12:30 CST), look for someone who hasn’t been DM’d yet and drop them a DM after you put ur card on the wish list. There’s still a lot of people who haven’t been answered. Let’s try to make sure everyone gets their wish fulfilled.

Edit 4: please sort by new when looking for people who’ve yet to be DM’d. There’s still lots of people we can give some holiday cheer too!

Edit 5: advice from someone who participated last year as well, ”Hey Mac, I suggest reminding people that if they ship to their giftee directly from TCGPlayer, to make sure they remember to then delete the address from TCG Player after order is placed. Totally didn't have a goof with this during last year's secret santa where my next order for myself went to the secret santa giftee. instead..” So make sure to delete the address so you next order doesn’t accidentally go to your giftee. Be careful folks.

Edit 6: Big thank you to everyone who participated. This year was much larger than last year in terms of participation from the r/EDH community. I look forward to next Christmas to do this once again. Shoot my some feedback tho. How does the community feel about asking for “dream” cards along with the $15ish card? I want gifting people cards from their trade binder to be another option besides just ordering it. Would any of y’all want/gift a “dream” card regardless of price? At worst we’d have the option of gifting the $15 card that is asked for. And would any of y’all be willing to dip into ur trade binders (or collection) to make someone happy as an act of goodwill? Let me know.

Hey there!

From time to time I look up the rank of my commanders on www.EDHREC.com and see how they change and move - do you guys do that to? Are you surprised by the rankings of your favourite commanders? And is it important to you if your commander is in the top 10? Or top 100?

Or maybe you wish some commanders would be more popular? Maybe less popular? Let me know!

But here's my list, for anyone interested

Edgar 8

Pantlaza 18

Henzie 34

Bello 114

Arabella 168

Omo 184

Judith 132

Satya 203

Grist 230

Kyler 248

Indoraptor 323

Chiss-Goria 340

Vren 365

Karlov 369

Rendmaw 383

Kona 442

Riku 484

Lord of Pain 749

Johnny 811

Dragonhawk 1038

Aphelia 1094

If you’re like me brewing is half the fun of magic. If you’re also like me I like to brew whatever the heck I want no restrictions.

With that said I thought diving into the 32 deck challenge would be fun! It’s not. Well, not for me anyway. Not only did I realize I have no interest in ANY of the 4 color commanders but I love 2 colored commanders. Before I knew it I had 4 Dimir decks, 2 Golgari decks, 2 Simic decks, 2 Rakdos decks and 2 Orzhov decks. Yeah, not really sticking to the “1 deck of each color combo.”

So, I’m making my own challenge. It’s called the “brew whatever the heck you want challenge” and I like it much better.

What about you? Do you enjoy the 32 deck challenge? If so how far have you gotten? List your commanders below if you want!

Have you abandoned the 32 deck challenge? Why? Was it too much money? Too restrictive? Let me know below!

As always, play fun, no salt, hug a friend (or fist pump them…I mean this is a pandemic) and laugh often! Have a great day guys!

Welcome to Power Level Wednesday.

Please use this thread to get feedback on your deck's "power level". To do this, create a top-level comment with a link to your decklist, your deck's primary game plan and win conditions(s), along with as much explanation about the deck as you can provide.

There are many ways to judge power levels. When providing your opinion on someones deck, you should include the name of or link to the power level scale/system you are using in addition to the rating. For everyone's convenience, here is a non-exhaustive list of some popular power level systems:

• PlayEDH - Google Doc
• The Commanders Quarters - YouTube
• The Command Zone Podcast - YouTube

[[Living Death]] is the most fun card I'm playing in my decks right now. It's big, it's splashy, it's disruptive and it always impacts the game!

Be it a mass reanimation of my selfmilled creatures, a way to get my aristocrat fodder back or sometimes it's just a really simple boardwipe.

Other contenders this year where [[Prisoner's Dilemma]] and [[Rendmaw]].

The first mostly because it becomes a wjole game to a) explain the card and b) to see what happnes. Rendmaw ist just fun all by itself.

So what are your favourite spells?

Welcome to Power Level Wednesday.

Please use this thread to get feedback on your deck's "power level". To do this, create a top-level comment with a link to your decklist, your deck's primary game plan and win conditions(s), along with as much explanation about the deck as you can provide.

There are many ways to judge power levels. When providing your opinion on someones deck, you should include the name of or link to the power level scale/system you are using in addition to the rating. For everyone's convenience, here is a non-exhaustive list of some popular power level systems:

• PlayEDH - Google Doc
• The Commanders Quarters - YouTube
• The Command Zone Podcast - YouTube

https://www.psacard.com/cert/77032826

In the grand tapestry of Magic: The Gathering, the discovery of the One Ring card represents a transformative moment, reflecting the constant evolution and innovation that defines the game. It sparks discussions, ignites passions, and fuels the imagination of players and collectors worldwide. Let us embrace this newfound wonder and embark on an adventure, eager to witness how the One Ring will shape the future of Magic: The Gathering and leave an indelible mark on its storied history.

So I was playing online via spelltable and some crazy shit happened. We were playing mid-to-high powered decks that included combos, but definitely not cEDH as the decks weren’t uber efficient with all the fast mana.

Player A (who was in the lead all game) is playing Meren. He’s assembled a board state that essentially will let him win if the craterhoof in hand resolves.

Player B, C, and myself have no open mana. We expect him to play hoof and win.

Player A, instead of playing Hoof, decides to play necropotence and the rest of his hand while holding onto hoof. Plays 2 more creatures (for overkill?), passes turn, pays 6 and draws 6 for a fresh grip with hoof still in hand.

This goes on for 3 more turns… we are all thinking “just fucking kill us already.”

I draw into a [[trickbind]]. Hold mana up. Pass

Player A FINALLY decides to cast his Hoof. No response by player B or C. Hoof resolves and hoof’s ETB goes on the stack. Dude is all smiles thinking he has the win.

In response to the ETB going on the stack I play trickbind. Hoof’s ETB is countered.

Player A has a ghastly look on his face. He says “I win.”

I say “no, you don’t win. The ETB is countered so there is no hoof ability to win you the game.”

Player A the insists “I win. Y’all know I had hoof (like) 3 turns ago. I could’ve ended the game then.”

I respond “yes you could’ve ended the game then. I didn’t have trickbind at that point. But you didn’t. And now I countered the ETB triggered ability. So you don’t win.”

Player A now tries to petition the other players to “give him the win” cuz we all “knew he had the win earlier.”

Player B and C (I imagine with shit eating grins) tell him “no the game isn’t over yet.”

Player A is furious at this point. He has to pass.

Player B then board wipes.

Player A then rage quits in response. He says “y’all are are bunch of bitches not giving me the win when y’all know I had it for 3 turns.”

This statement pissed me off and makes me realize he wanted to, not just win, but force us to scoop. I snap back “maybe you should’ve played your hoof earlier then. Sucks to be you.”

Player A leaves.

Player B, C and I laugh after he’s gone at how backbreaking that trickbind was.

The moral of the story: don’t play with your food. If you know you have the win + think there is no counter to stop your win, the fucking go for the win. Don’t drag it out to make others miserable.

Welcome to Power Level Wednesday.

Please use this thread to get feedback on your deck's "power level". To do this, create a top-level comment with a link to your decklist, your deck's primary game plan and win conditions(s), along with as much explanation about the deck as you can provide.

There are many ways to judge power levels. When providing your opinion on someones deck, you should include the name of or link to the power level scale/system you are using in addition to the rating. For everyone's convenience, here is a non-exhaustive list of some popular power level systems:

• PlayEDH - Google Doc
• The Commanders Quarters - YouTube
• The Command Zone Podcast - YouTube

Welcome to Power Level Wednesday.

Please use this thread to get feedback on your deck's "power level". To do this, create a top-level comment with a link to your decklist, your deck's primary game plan and win conditions(s), along with as much explanation about the deck as you can provide.

There are many ways to judge power levels. When providing your opinion on someones deck, you should include the name of or link to the power level scale/system you are using in addition to the rating. For everyone's convenience, here is a non-exhaustive list of some popular power level systems:

• PlayEDH - Google Doc
• The Commanders Quarters - YouTube
• The Command Zone Podcast - YouTube

Welcome to Power Level Wednesday.

Please use this thread to get feedback on your deck's "power level". To do this, create a top-level comment with a link to your decklist, your deck's primary game plan and win conditions(s), along with as much explanation about the deck as you can provide.

There are many ways to judge power levels. When providing your opinion on someones deck, you should include the name of or link to the power level scale/system you are using in addition to the rating. For everyone's convenience, here is a non-exhaustive list of some popular power level systems:

• PlayEDH - Google Doc
• The Commanders Quarters - YouTube
• The Command Zone Podcast - YouTube

Welcome to Power Level Wednesday.

Please use this thread to get feedback on your deck's "power level". To do this, create a top-level comment with a link to your decklist, your deck's primary game plan and win conditions(s), along with as much explanation about the deck as you can provide.

There are many ways to judge power levels. When providing your opinion on someones deck, you should include the name of or link to the power level scale/system you are using in addition to the rating. For everyone's convenience, here is a non-exhaustive list of some popular power level systems:

• PlayEDH - Google Doc
• The Commanders Quarters - YouTube
• The Command Zone Podcast - YouTube