I came upon a reel where someone was reviewing a decklist they were sent and was questioning why they didn’t have [[dark ritual]] in the deck, the player “misread” it apparently. Anyhow in the comments there were people arguing that you shouldn’t always run Dark Ritual in black, that it puts you down a card so it’s bad, that the rate isn’t good enough. How did we get to this?

I love a creature with a repeatable activated ability, even if it's a bit overcosted. It feels nice to have the utility of someting that can be used at instant speed at any point, as long as you have the mana.

I'd love to see some of other people's favorites/hidden gems. Would appreciate if they were vaguely useable. Bonus points if they have mulitiple abilities, like any of the Guildmages, such as [[Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage]].

Some other examples that come to mind are [[Ant Queen]], [[Captivating Crew]], [[Ambassador Laquatus]], or [[Daxos the Returned]].

Appreciate any input, thanks!

I had a few paragraphs written but it was too much so I'll keep it short.

Been playing since 1994, used to be competitive but now just play for fun. When I play with new players, I will do everything I can to make it a fun game. If I'm getting too far ahead, I will start holding back or misplaying until they can catch up. I let them win but I make them work for it. The games are always exciting and play out like an epic movie. Over the last 10 years, my win rate against new players is 0%. I've never told them what I've been doing and I never will.

Imagine this scenario. You've played 3 games and won two of them. The third you were tight there competing until the end. You go to grab your deck for game 4. You choose commander X....not because you think it could win, or even that its a fun deck. No, you choose it because you KNOW it will almost certainly not win.

Does anyone else keep a deck or two in there rotation in case you want to lose. I like to have these decks for when ive had really good luck on a game night and I dont want to play a deck i know starts me out on equal footing with every one else. The decks are fun to play, but just aren't strong for whatever reason. Now, I still try to win while playing the game, I just know going in its highly unlikely.

Hello. Fairly new to MTG in general here. Been playing kitchen table 60 card games with my boyfriend who introduced me and want to dip my toe into EDH.

Perhaps unfortunately though, the only card I'm drawn to for a commander is Pippa, Duchess of Dice. I just want to make a silly bracket 1 gimmick deck around her so bad. I have all the supplies on hand to do it properly. I have more than enough green coloured dice lying around, I have a deck of standard playing cards to place under them when they become tokens to make it easier to tell if they're tapped or not. I even have a dice tower to prevent dice rolling everywhere on the table. Being a considerate player is priority #1 and I've made sure to put some thought into that first.

Pippa is - of course - an un-card though and therefore not legal in Commander. However, it's a casual format so maybe I could get the all clear after a rule zero discussion? Especially if we're talking bracket 1 where everyone's just goofing around anyway. I wouldn't put any other un-cards in my deck. I don't see anything about Pippa's abilities that are particularly overpowered or obnoxious. It doesn't interfere with other players' decks or subvert the fundamental rules of the game. I just like rolling lots of dice. Heck, I want to impose more restrictions on myself in line with the gimmick:

- I can't attack with any creatures other than the die tokens. Every other creature in the deck must have Defender.

- I can't alter the power and toughness of the die tokens in any way other than re-rolling them. The number showing face up is sacred.

I'm just worried about causing a huge breach of etiquette. Is this deck something I should only suggest in a playgroup I've known for some time first? If I roll up to the LGS with this nonsense, will I be politely, yet firmly turned away from every table I approach? I want to be a little silly, but not annoying. If you saw a deck with this for a commander, would you at least hear it out?

So Im invited to a EDH kitchentable tournament. 3 player Pods, unmodified Precons only, Cardvalue 100€ tops, 100% proxy friendly.

In the past years most of the precons are pretty consistently good. I was think about goin as far back as possible and still be able to play a game. I mostly use this List for every Precon ever to get inspiration on what deck im choosing. I didn get through every single one for now. But my favorites of what ive seen are Urdragon and Saskia. What about things like Breya, Atraxa, Mimeoplasm, Prosh, etc. Are there old precons any good or did onyl the Commanders survive the time?

I recently took apart a number of decks that I never play anymore, which has left me with a bunch of good lands (I have a solid mana base for basically anything now) and I am now trying to put these lands to good use. The other day I was inspired by a really cool Vial Smasher + Thrasios control/burn list, and I've kind of always wanted to use Thrasios in a deck, but never could find the right context. And that's just the thing with 4c and 4c partners in particular – they were designed to be open-ended, even the ones with somewhat of a direction still feel enormously flexible due to their access to so many colors. I really enjoy this element to partners, though I've always stuck to 3 color pairings to make it a little easier to build. I took a shot at building breya and I was quickly overwhelmed by the available options. While I'm over my attempt to build breya, I am trying to brew something creature-centric with Thrasios, though the idea is still super nebulous.

So all that being said, I want to hear what sort of 4-color non-cEDH decks you all have built and why you like them so much?

PS, I have nothing against cEDH, my pod just tends toward B3 and B4 games.

https://moxfield.com/decks/_XFMA6oeXkiG5P46vrqfiA
Per the Decklist

I made the commander on a whim and I was curious as to what kind of theme I’d be able to cook up out of it. Initially I started with just the sea creatures themselves and added a pinch of copy spells and enchantments to make them a little more threatening. I also wanted a theme of control to be within the deck, but I didn’t want to go the traditional route of counter spells directly(the designated and forbidden overwhelming banana flavor of commander). Eventually, I started digging around my bulk for a potential enchant themed stax when I noticed that I held a decent helping of stun-based support. I instead went with the artifacts/stun/control build per my first mono blue deck and proudly gave it a try in my pod!
Needless to say, the Voltron player did not like me putting six stun counters on his Captain America and the other pod member proceeded to use every single card’s worth removal on me/my commander the whole session. I had no combos on the board, my only creatures at the time simply granted me card draw through combat triggers, and my commander at that point cost 8 to cast. I managed to get him out early game between a sapphire medallion and its self-reducing cost, so almost a turn or two over each time it hit the board, its protection would be burned through followed by removal.
I get that not everyone is a huge fan of stun counters, but what does that have to do with my commander? It doesn’t really have anything to do with the deck strat itself, I just liked the big boy, but for some reason its constant removal makes me kind of dumbfounded as to why they think its the big bad. Are the stun counters too much?

I'm looking for some help/feedback on a deck I'm working on.

It's meant as a Azorious control deck with enough punch in it to threaten the table. At this point, I've only put together my theoretical list and I fear that it won't slow down other members at the table. The deck feels more incremental with only a couple explosive plays (unless I'm missing lines). Aiming for around high bracket 2 or a bracket 3.

So thoughts and ideas are welcome. Thanks in advance

https://moxfield.com/decks/wvQh4eJ_EUuPiqAkoctbbg

Hey everyone! I’m looking for some feedback on my Commander deck. I’d appreciate suggestions on cards to add or cut, improvements to the mana curve, and any weaknesses you notice.

I’m interested in making the deck more consistent while keeping its main strategy of draw/second draw payoffs intact. I wanna go big but also go wide. Then having alternate cool wincons of clearing my entire library. I would love to hear what changes you would make or what you think in general.

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/6XafBOIKMEu8Tj7blxTS8w

Thanks for the help!

Been trying to decide which I want to use for my 32 deck color combination in Orzhov, and I just can’t seem to decide between the two. Was wondering if anyone’s had experience with both and can share some insights?

Goldfishing them both, Niv-Mizzet feels like the stronger option overall, the option (well ok, the main game plan) of turning lifegain into card draw is really strong, it always feels like you can brute force your way through your deck to get what you need or just sit on a giant pile of life if needed. Extort is also great, and there’s a bevy of ways to just end the game from Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond combos to just drawing your deck and tossing in Dr Doom. My main concerns are that it can be slow to get the big guy out, and then protecting him once he’s out since I imagine it’s boogeyman time once he hits the field. Plus he almost feels a bit too strong for what I usually play in, which is more upper bracket 2 into bracket 3.

Elenda on the other hand is quicker to get out since she’s not 6 mana. Aristocrats with a touch of vampire tribal is fun, and you get dual options for beating someone with a giant vampire for commander damage or making a horde of vampire tokens if she gets taken out and simply rebuilding from there, so it has good endurance and a solid gameplan. More combat-focused than Niv obviously, and unlike having to source or buy a bunch of Niv stuff, I imagine a good chunk of stuff for Elenda is sitting in my LCC precon. My main concern with building Elenda is that for me personally, it devolves pretty quickly into another token deck, which I already have a couple of, so it’s not really a unique spin on a deck for me. It also feels like it needs more moving parts than Niv (who just needs you to gain life to do the thing), Elenda herself is just the payoff of her own deck; you have to provide your own sac outlet and (ideally recurrable on the cheap) things to sac, etc. So if you don’t see them timely, you’ll just be kinda twiddling your thumbs until then.

But yeah looking to see if anyone has some insights about both of them. Thanks!

I am currently building a Dimir control “draw/go” deck.

I’m one of the two more experienced players in my group (it’s a pretty battlecruiser-y meta) and I play the most blue and interaction and because of that some of them seem to always think I have a trick up my sleeve and that I have an answer to everyone. They won’t even assess the board correctly - another guy could have a 14/14 flyer and instead of attacking him they’ll hit me because they assume I’ll kill the flyer just because I actually run counterspells in my decks (it’s kind of funny)

However it got me thinking and I wanted to build a good control build but I’m struggling to figure out which commander to use

[[Nymris, Oona’s Trickster]] [[Talion the Kindly Lord]] [[Sygg, River Cutthroat]]

Nymris seems like the best engine to reward what I’m doing already, Talion is just value but a big power bump, and Sygg seems to draw a lot of cards and I’d add some pinger damage / group slug subtheme as burn which could be an additional wincon

The next issue is how do you guys have control decks win? I’ve got a handful of compact wincon combos to draw into as well in mind - [[singularity rupture]] + [[riverchurn monument]] ; [[rite of replication]] + [[gray merchant]] but these both seem sort of dimir goodstuff-y. I have a [laboratory maniac]] and [[demonic consultation]] as well. I can run any number of these but the last one seems like it’s not allowed in bracket 3, right? And that’s what I’m aiming for

Any feedback could help

Deck list: https://archidekt.com/decks/26685854/bards_ballad

I've built this deck to be a lot more of a control deck originally, including cards like [[Counterbalance]], [[Meekstone]] and [[Rhystic Study]]. However, I eventually got rid of those cards for the salt they drew and focused a bit more on the token theme and sheer endurance with lifegain and ways to prevent damage,.

So far, the deck is performing quite well. However, there are some cards I am considering cutting/changing:

• [[Charismatic Conqueror]]. This one can be very strong - but always having to ask my opponents if their stuff comes in tapped or untapped is incredibly annoying - for me and most likely for my opponents. More annoying than even Rhystic Study's "do you pay the 1" as it triggers off tokens too. I need to ask for every damn treasure someone makes.
• [[Smothering Tithe]] or [[Gleaming Splendor]]. I am considering cutting one of those to remove the infinite from the deck. Not sure though, but I am afraid some might think the infinite is not fine in bracket 3.
• [[Emrakul's Messenger]]. Certainly cool and synergistic card, but I think an eldrazi doesn't quite fit the deck's theme.

What would you replace those cards with? Any other cards I could switch out? Are there other cool creatures that work with the token theme and are preferably 2 cmc at most and humans?

Hi there! I’m trying to create a deck where the main goal is not to win but to instead play a bunch of weird wacky stuff and make sure everyone has to deal with it. Any advice you guys might have on what I should keep over what I should drop to maximize the chaos would be greatly appreciated or if you have any recommendations for weird things to swap in I would love to hear it! The commander in here is purely for the name and WUBRG and will probably never actually be played. Also this is not for regular play but for a specific pod I’m in to try to match up to some of the things people are wanting to bring. https://archidekt.com/decks/27868176/chaos_incarnate Thanks for the help!

i just made a [[Beorn the Fierce]] deck and i tried it on untapped.in and they all told me that its too strong for the pod. Now i already downgraded it from a power 7+ w a few game changers to a 6.5 without game changers but they told me its still too strong (they play at a 5-6 power level). I want to downgrade it but i dont know what to remove without losing the decks soul. What should i cut?
https://archidekt.com/decks/27839662/copy_of_bearss_fiacco

(pls dont respond "they need to get better" cuz this is a pretty casual pod and everyone is just trying to have fun)

I just watched a game with four Y'Shtola, Night's Blessed as the Commander. You got that right. Four fucking Y'Shtolas. Tbh that game was insane. A slugfest of counterspells, controls, clones, players gaining life, players losing life. Eventually Y'Shtola won (lol). But it was epic and I wanna know if any of you have seen something similar.

I'm also curious about which commander would be the funniest one to see an "everyone brought them" game of. Four Group Slug players racing to death, or four [[Council of Four]]s or something else nuts. Any ideas?

Im building a Tam, the Possibility superfriends deck. It's firmly in bracket 3. I made the deck swing heavily into control. I have almost half of my nonland cards serving as interaction or board wipes. (Many of them are planeswalkers with removal stapled to them). I only have two creatures in the deck so I avoid wrathing myself. The main goal of the deck is to repeatedly wrath the board and control the state of the game long enough to let me either swarm out with creature tokens or ult one of my game ending walkers. However, I often find that my deck struggles with pulling out a win, as i still get ovewhelmed near the endgame. What are some Finishers i could add to my deck to make it just a fraction faster?

P.S. I know my deck lacks many proliferation cards, but in all honesty most of them feel extremely slow to me.

Here's my current deck list https://moxfield.com/decks/DxChAY8aInCrKB6Cl70icg

pls review/suggest:

https://moxfield.com/decks/CTaL4f19KUCiu3QBL17arQ

inspired by EoE spacecraft & trying to make some of the new star trek stuff work. not sure if the deck is silly and broken or just silly. probably bracket 2-3ish with the Mishra's Workshop and a couple theoretical combos but nothing too insane or consistent. I wanted strong flavor and restrictions:

• colorless
• artifacts
• spacecrafts and vehicles, manned by artifact creatures (robots/constructs/golems)
• everything is a permanent that deep space 9 can slam out without fuss
• in space!(?)

I've been trying to build control for a year or so now. I've tried spell slinger and enchantress stax but I just can't seem to figure it out. Either I become the threat and everyone is after me, so I can't develop my own board state, or I win out of nowhere after keeping everyone shut down. I just don't get it, what's the right way to go about control without becoming too much of the main threat?

I'm trying to build Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and I am having trouble bringing up the speed of the deck. I'm currently getting around a turn 7-8 win condition/board state and I am wondering how I could improve this. I am looking to bring it down to around turn 5 or 6 if possible. My main win-con in this deck is heartless hidetsugu but it is so obvious that I am worried that I will just get counter-spelled and be outta luck.

Here is the decklist as well: https://moxfield.com/decks/T9MbDO_uqk-f2feoY88jCQ

Hey everybody!

I have recently started building a Liliana-deck, with a Discard and Zombie theme, with [[Liliana, Heretical Healer]] as the commander for the deck.

But I dont know if this is a good deck or if I have forgot some "must have" cards for this type of a deck.

It would be awesome if you could take a look and see if there is something you want me to change :)

I want the deck to be a Bracket 3 deck :)

Here is the decklist:

Liliana’s Discard of the Dead • (Mono-Black Commander deck) • Archidekt

I'm still trying to find out what type of decks I enjoy playing the most. I like when a deck is very thematic/tribal focused (not just good stuff), and I'm having fun with my Council of Four/Knights slow pillowfort value, but I also love big Timmy Demons/Dragons/Angels etc.

Looking for B2/3. Hoping for something that discourages being attacked to set up an explosive late game battlecruiser. As opposed to my Ureni which Ramps asap and then drops bombs... but doesnt really have a wall.

Thanks for any ideas!

Help me choose a commander

im at a loss as to what to make my next deck. i would like to ask about folks favourite commanders, that fit my criteria if possible. i would love suggestions. i was gonna do adrix & nev next but other than generating a ton of food tokens i have no idea where to take the deck.

so for commander reccs,

1) the character has to be female.

2) no more than 3 colors, but i would prefer dual colors bc its easier to mana fix.

3) no one trick ponys, like yuriko or kaalia. (i love them but they got boring very fast)

4) i would like a commander that has multiple viable ways to win.

if anyone has any reccomendations i would love to hear them. also anything on what to do with adrix and nev to close a game would be welcome as well.