MTG: EDH / Commander

I'm currently looking at the Starter Commander precons as they were considered budget options for new players and I want to introduce some friends to EDH that are relatively new to the game.

However, when comparing them, the Draconic Destruction precon (Gruul) costs immensely more than the others. I'm located in Europe and there the cheapest option I can find is 70€. The other precons from this set go for around 40€ maximum.

I'm looking at pricings on the Moxfield deck list, but that adds all cards to around 50€. Is there a reason why this deck is so expensive especially considering its set-mates?

Do you have any EDH / Commander related confessions? Have you ever cheated in the game, maybe by accident? Do you always keep Sol Ring in your hand on T1 so you don't get targeted? Do you hate full art cards?

What are some commanders that you would build in a heartbeat if they worked just slightly differently?

I've always lamented that Toshiro Umezawa's ability didn’t also apply to sorceries. Spellslinger isn't really a theme that's associated with mono-B, so Toshiro's effect is rather unique and interesting.

But then you look at Black's selection of instants, and outside of spells that just kill things, the selection is dire. There’s some card draw, a handful of niche/limited reanimator pieces, the odd ritual here and there, and an assortment of other odds and ends. There just isn't enough quality or volume to build a theme around anything other than just killing things.

The only way to incorporate actual wincons that are related to the theme of the deck that I can think of would be grinding everyone down with Blood Artist effects and heavy board control, and if you want to win with Blood Artist, why not just run Aristocrats instead?

If it were instants and sorceries, Toshiro would be able to do a lot more interesting things that otherwise couldn't be easily accomplished in mono-B. Breaking timing restrictions on sorceries might've been kinda problematic back in the original Kamigawa block, but these days there are enough commanders that can do that, to the point where it's probably not that big of a deal.

Any other commanders you wish worked just slightly differently?

So I'm brewing up a [Anje Falkenrath] Madness deck. And I noticed the dual synergies with Vampires and Zombies a la [Stensia Masquerade] and [Dying to Serve]. Thus since it's causual and not cedh I though why not make it semi-tribal?

But I quickly ran into the problem with trying to do two tribes at once. I either run one tribe with a tack on, or I water both down too much. As such I come to you seeking wisdom. Any tips for makin a dual tribal deck work? Or is it a case of kill your darlings? Bonus points for card suggestion! Budget is a concern, but one or two semi-expensicve cards could be included.

I'm trying to build a fun, casual Reanimator deck using Kess, Dissident Mage, but I'm having a little trouble: Moxfield Decklist

Basically the deck is pretty inconsistent and susceptible and also not very interactive. Meaning I might be lucky and reanimate a big threat turn 3-4, but it's a single threat that can be easily dealt with. And because it is a big threat, it usually is the immediate focus. While others build their board, I filter cards until I can reanimate another big threat, leaving my board pretty empty. This could be compensated with interactions, but because the deck needs enough big threats, filter/loot cards and reanimate spells, there is little space.

I run a couple of tutors to help with the consistency, but they are kind of inappropriate for the power level of the deck. So sometimes I replace them with less good draws/threats/reanimates.

I feel like my only course is to play even more impactful threats, which are expensive to get, but also increase the power level inconsistency, while making me the target, because there could be something very bad incoming at any time.

So, is there a way to keep this a casual deck, but also make it more consistent and interactive? Maybe focusing a little more on spellslinging?

Edit: In the end I came to turns with the fact that a reanimator strategy alone does not work in a 4-player game (except maybe with much stronger targets). So I build the deck a little more into the spellslinger direction, cut the Demonic Tutor and accepted that it will be a power level 6 like my other decks.

White: Heliod https://manabox.app/decks/CFRv24kLT5Sk1WVix77sOA
Blue: Azami https://manabox.app/decks/bDQeB2UiSeex6Kl5fle0Yw
Black: Endrek Sar https://manabox.app/decks/OOXYqDmRT_2P9sR62YGUcw
Red: Krenko https://manabox.app/decks/1aKHtUfTT_u9F4Lm5-2Nzg
Green: Azusa https://manabox.app/decks/kav95jqtQsiABwNQsI61Jw

So I put together a Star Format Commander set. I have yet to play test so I am not sure how balanced everything is currently. I tried to make the decks on theme to their basic color identity, but that made balancing a little hard. The decks were made with only cards I already owned, so if some obvious things are missing that is why. Also I know there a few illegal cards for Commander in some decks, but wanted a fun factor and since this is a cube-ish type thing meant to only be played togehter I figured it was fine. It was a blast to put together and hopefully will be fun to play. Let me know what you guys think.

Bonus red deck in case it's just too hard for krenko to kill 2 opponents. Hidetsugu: https://manabox.app/decks/68Hkf2kJQr-X-RuyGakPZw

Backup YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BPN17KJ_W4&t=8

I'm looking for decks that if I explain them people genuinely are curious and confused. Currently people in my playgroup love my 90 Forest deck. It actually beat a CEDH deck.

I started playing Legacy years ago. So I love dumb ideas like 1 land Belcher and such. What are your suggestions?

I want to run explore the underdark in my gates deck for the tutor/ramp effect but noone at my table really wants to deal with the initiative/dungeon effect of the card.

Is it reasonable to just ignore that part of the card, or should I just replace with another card?

I've been looking for inspirations on ways to use cards that feels like it's working outside those cards' expected parameters/use-cases. Things that feel like they hit strategies that WotC might not have thought about when printing the cards.

For instance, one of the most popular expressions of this is the open secret that Tivit, Seller of Secrets actually functions better as an artifact-combo commander than as a voting commander - every ETB or combat hit makes 5 artifacts, guaranteed, which makes Time Sieve combos easy.

Or, in terms of decks I've brewed/been brewing, Zevlor Elturel Exile as a poison-proliferate deck. Doesn't work great, but the idea is to try and spike the board with multiplied proliferate triggers, so I can tick people up by 3 poison per "single target spell plus proliferate as an upside" spell. Turns out that people just focus you and your commander out of the game pretty much immediately if you try that, but I digress.

Or, using Mutate as a mechanic not to try and actually proc on-mutate effects, but just to strip "legendary" off cards that are balanced around it as a mechanic, like Kiki-Jiki. Mutate him into a nonlegendary, and you can infinitely multiply him during your prior opponent's end step, and overrun the board during your turn.

It's effects like these that I really enjoy exploring, the cases that make people stop and say, "Wait, it works like that?" or, "Wait, you did all that just to do this?" It scoops a lot into the art form that is jank deckbuilding, and I'm curious to know what little corners of the MTG design-space you all have found funny little interactions in.

So I am here for suggestions about completing my mono colored commander decks. I currently have: White- ? Blue- Azami wizards Black- Chainer graveyard shenanigans Red- Hedetsugu double damage (or Krenko goblins) Green- ?

Looking for your suggestions for White and Green mono colored commanders and why you like them. If it is on theme for color identity that is a plus. I think the end goal is to have them be playable in a star format(be the first to kill your 2 enemy colors). Dont worry about the power of the commander/deck as I will do the balancing on my end.Thanks!

This deck is at the top end of what I would spend on cards, and some like Lorien Revealed and Time Stretch where chosen because I already own them. I might want to cut down on the price, so budget alternatives would welcome.

The goal is to put down permanents that reward me for drawing a stupid amount of cards. The main wincons are mill effects like psychic corrosion and sphynix's tutelage, damage effects like nivmizzet, along with life gain effects and mass token creature creation. The idea is that once I get my commander out, the game ends a few turns

I tried build the deck so I can survive until I can cast my commander, with some protection provided by the counter spells, but I feel like that might be a weak part of the deck.

Deck List

[COMMANDER] 1 Arjun, the Shifting Flame

[PLANESWALKERS] 1 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim

[CREATURES] 1 Baral, Chief of Compliance
1 Goblin Electromancer
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph
1 Haughty Djinn
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Murmuring Mystic
1 Oneirophage
1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
1 Urabrask // The Great Work
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 The Locust God

[ARTIFACTS] 1 Spellbook
1 Sol Ring
1 Arcane Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Talisman of Creativity
1 Thought Vessel
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Decanter of Endless Water
1 Alhammarret's Archive
1 Venser's Journal

[INSTANTS] 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
1 Brainstorm
1 Dispel
1 High Tide
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Shock
1 Arcane Denial
1 Censor
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Pyretic Ritual 1 Reality Shift
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Cancel
1 Counterflux
1 Disallow
1 Drown in Dreams
1 Cryptic Command

[SORCERIES] 1 Ancestral Vision
1 Earthquake
1 Jeska's Will
1 Irencrag Feat
1 Lórien Revealed
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Time Stretch
1 Enter the Infinite

[ENCHANTMENTS] 1 Jace's Erasure
1 Ominous Seas
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 Psychic Corrosion
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
1 Teferi's Tutelage
1 Jace's Sanctum
1 Teferi's Ageless Insight
1 Arcane Melee
1 Metallurgic Summonings
1 Cast Through Time

[LANDS] 1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Fiery Islet
1 Frostboil Snarl
20 Island
1 Izzet Boilerworks
5 Mountain
1 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
1 Shivan Reef
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Steam Vents
1 Stormcarved Coast
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Training Center

Advice and suggestions are welcome

Edit: fixed formatting issue, thanks to [email protected]

Like many others I use EDHREC for card ideas when building decks. This got me thinking - does it essentially reinforce itself?

Often times I pick many of recommended cards that others have chosen with a given commander - which in turn reinforces those cards as synergistic cards for that particular commander. Note: I build using moxfield (which I believe is used as a data source for EDHREC). More recently I've been using scryfall as an additional resource for deckbuliding, and I was really surprised how many cards that work well with a particular commander / archetype are not listed on EDHREC.

Don't get me wrong, I still think EDHREC is a wonderful tool, but now I wonder if it's essentially narrowing down the cards that people consider when building EDH decks due to it's reinforcement loops.

Thoughts?

I'm looking to make a $50 budget deck which you can see here.

The deck feels generally well-balanced for normal play, but seems to have the issue that it can't really win until it draws one of its combos, those combos being:

Ivy Lane Denizen + Herd Baloth/Scurry Oak Vigean Graftmage + Faeburrow Elder/Kami of Whispered Hopes/Incubation Druid Devoted Druid + Swift Reconfiguration

The Ivy Lane combos produce infinite creatures, the other combos produce infinite mana, with Devoted Druid also letting grab infinite nonland topdeck-casts from Falco by spending the -1/-1 counters. Once I hit any of them, I can crank out enough resources to make a play toward winning the game.

However, the game feels awfully slow and inconsistent when it revolves around drawing at least one of three specific cards, plus one of the 1-3 matching combo pieces, and then having both on the field, uncountered, long enough to win the game. Feels fragile, more than a lot of combo decks I see others go for.

Am I doing this right? I currently have Threats Undetected and Shared Summons in the deck to try and help set myself up for this a bit better, and I figure that my draw/scry options, with Falco's help, can dig pretty far for cards like these, but I want to know if maybe I'm going about this totally wrong.

I don't see what prevents Jhoira from effectively suspending any card at instant speed.

I understand that the rules for the suspend keyword mean that you can only suspend a card if you could cast it at that time - so you can't suspend a creature at instant speed. From searching the internet, it seems that people ascribe the same restriction to Jhoira - that you can not, for example, suspend a creature on your opponent's end step. But I don't quite see why not.

The text on the card just says (a) that the cost is to pay 2 mana and exile a non-land card from your hand. (b) then it gets 4 time counters. (c) then is gains suspended.

So at the moment you exiled a creature, you would just be paying the casting cost. It would only gain the time counters and suspend triggers once its in exile. Based on that, it would seem you could in practice use Jhoira to suspend anything at instant speed - which is pretty OP.

I am guessing there is some good answer showing that my reasoning is wrong - I'd appreciate any insight!

So I know the normal Obeka builds, but I am here looking more for silly jank then efficient combos and synergies. The whole idea started with getting around re animating Phage and then skipping the lose the game part. What other fun janky things like that could I add to the deck?

The basic idea is to flip tons of coins, while buffing Okaun to the teeth to kill with commander damage.

This is the first deck i've made after several years out of the hobby, any critique/suggestions would be welcome!

This is one of my first attempts to make a "precon" style deck with an obvious game plan and that especially that doesn't require prior knowledge to play.

I don't have nearly enough "play an additional land" effects but those are pretty price-gated anyway.

What do you think?

EDIT: The fetchlands are proxied.

Looking for a recommended abzan (wgb) commander. I really like reanimator, angels and stax!

Hello all,

I've created a moxfield package of the cards that I add to each and every one of my EDH decks. I'd love some feedback on any cards you think I'm missing or if you think I should not classify a card as an "essential" card.

Note: I do not play mono-colored or colorless EDH decks, those would certainly not include several of these cards.

I just grabbed the final cards I needed for my Isu, the Abominable(comments welcome!). It started out as a yeti-themed deck but there just wasn't enough to keep it going so it morphed into a pretty standard snow deck I think.

I am definitely looking forward to trying to get the Thespians Stage -> Dark Depths combo off at the table!

May try again with the yetis in another deck. Not sure it would work, but the theme in my head is "hunting yetis" where you have yetis for beating folks with and other cards creating clue tokens. But yeah, not sure about the synergy yet...

Nothing is better than getting some big groan-worthy guy for cheap, and the best part is since the grave is public your opponents see it coming!

I've got a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant commander list, and some of my favorites are:

Archon of Cruelty: Classic value dude. Gets you stuff immediately, hits for 6 in the air, and continues to cause problems every turn he's alive. He's usually the best option.

Ancient Brass Dragon: Reanimate a Reanimator! Honestly kinda slow, not to mention inconsistent, but I got the extra large Bauldurs gate d20 and it's just so fun to roll!

Dreadfeast Demon: what if my zombies were demons instead? Obviously requires some work to make sure you have fodder, but even if your entire board gets eaten having a board full of 6/6s with evasion is a pretty good spot to be.

Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut: But what if instead of demons, they were Juggernauts?? Transforming everyone as soon as he arrives makes Graaz a big aggro play, and depending on boardstate may take out a player or two on the same turn. I've even had the "can't be blocked by walls" text be relevant (take that fog bank!)

So what are your favorite bigguns to bring back from the dead?

Mine is definitely Hua Tuo, Honored Physician. I love decks with consistent value engines, and he's an interesting commander with less than 150 decks on scryfall.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/sR6Q8QgAuUyp7FfLG5cqPA

Note: I tend to build budget decks because I am a poor student with a lot of debt, though the only expensive upgrades I can think of would be cards like Apex Devastator .

Sideboard is filled with cards that I haven previously had in the deck. Felt that pipers like howlpack piper and Champion of Rhonas are clunky because I generally want to be casting creatures from the top of my deck, not from my hand.

This is one of my favorite EDH decks. It's not too overpowered, as has a pretty novel mechanic that make it a blast to play. Any suggestions / comments are definitely welcome. I also included a primer for the deck outlining some notes about the way to play it / think about it.