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I got rent to pay

I would play exactly one Freerunning card in the deck. The theme seems also kind of like a retrospective on how commanders have been treated over MTG history, so I like the nod to this unique mechanic & moment. Feels like it continues to fill out the theme, not break it. And I mean, it's printed on the card.

I had a similar situation come up recently. I made a Doctor Who theme deck using The Fourteenth Doctor & Rose Noble a while back & it's been a ton of fun. I had built it using specifically only cards from the Doctor Who precons. Even going as far to only use Doctor Who specific printings of cards. The more and more I played the deck a particular problem kept occurring. Fliers. The Doctor Who precons did not have that many fliers leaving a pretty big hole in my defenses. Eventually somebody brought up the Doctor Who secret lair that reflavored a bunch of MtG angels as Weeping Angels which would provide the deck with a couple fliers. I struggled if I should count the secret lairs as cards that fit the deck but my roommate reminded me that I was already allowing secret lair cards. The Fourteenth & Fifteenth Doctors as well as Rose Noble are all from a secret lair. So I chose to slightly expand the theme to any Doctor Who cards. I definitely agree with the decision that they are ok to play in the Commander Commander deck. I agree with the fitting of the spirit of the law argument. & I similarly agree with your take on the Freerunning working with commanders in general. I very much dislike that decision and outside of a deck like the Commander Commander deck I will not run any of the Freerunning cards.

Trying to resist the urge to go on another tangential rant about the stupid hybrid mana rule in Commander here... (Yes, I've seen/heard the arguments in favour of how it currently works. None of them have convinced me that it's worth it playing hybrid differently to literally every other format in the game.) That aside, my personal feeling here is that the freerunning stuff should be good to go. But my personal feeling doesn't really matter, now, does it? It's your deck, your restriction and hence, your decision.

Spirit of the Law all the way.

Interesting. Thanks! I would play Freerunning if the card works in the deck. Besides, you said that card needs to refer to your commander. And it does! I don't recall you saying it had to be in the regular oracle text. It's your rule and your deck.

I think the letter of the law is for hard rules. Your theme deck, you get to choose if they count or not. And for my own decks, I would find it perfectly fitting to make my own theme deck and egregiously break the spirit of it because that conflict entertains me. It's the "no Homers" club, we're allowed to have one.

Fake ass banana token with an eldraine set symbol on it had me do a double take

In the end this is all caused by the vagueness of the restriction itself. It can be intepretet in one way or the other. Since this is your restriction it is up to you to improve its definition. So you can decide whether you want to include cards which mention the commander in the rules text or not. Imho this would also extend your card pool to other cards with partner or similar rules. Whether you want that or not is up to you.

I have this with secret lairs, the goblins are too silly for my deck with the "we are goblin kind" goblin chieftain. Its not off theme but its off vibes.

For reference, the cards which mention commander in their reminder text but not in their rules text are cards with: Free Running, Partner, Doctor's Companion, Choose a Background, Friends Forever, AND finally, the only card to mention a commander in the reminder text WITHOUT a certain keyword: Fallaji Wayfarer, which is also the only card to mention color identity without mentioning a commander in it's rules text!

For a channel having an entire series (my only series right now...) dedicated to discussing Magic rules, I always enjoy these kinds of videos. Keep it up!

I swear to god if anyone feels comfortable telling me my theme deck doesn't count, I'm going to break out my MLD deck for game 2 and not warn anyone.

It's wild that we've got Joey out here giving us straight up life lessons every week.

Technically correct is the best kind of correct.

Not that my opinion matters, but I think that if any specific Freerunning card fits with what your deck does, it should be okay to include it in your deck. I don't feel the need to disclose specific cards I'm running in any of my decks, and I feel part of the fun of commander is seeing cards you don't expect to see or forgot existed. If you truly feel that it might be misleading to include them in your deck, maybe explain that it's okay for the reminder text to say "commander" and point it out on the partner mechanic's reminder text. I also like the idea mentioned that you should run a copy of the card that includes the reminder text in that instance, just to have it physically on the card itself.

I probably wouldn't play the Freerunning cards in a commander commander deck, but I also wouldn't give anyone else a hard time for doing it.

Maybe change the rule to every card in the 99 has to interact with your commander in some way. If the rule is causing issues, you can change the rule. It’s what the RC did with the commander death rule.

I care most that people follow their own rules. If you include a Freerunning card, go for it. But don't introduce the deck by saying "This deck includes only cards that refer to my Commander in their rules text", instead say "This deck includes only cards that refer to my Commander". As long as your rule for yourself is consistent, and it is presented consistently, do whatever you want.

I have a deck that runs every alternate win condition. The stipulation is that I cannot win any other way and that I take out each win condition after it's been achieved. One hypothetical that I haven't had to deal with yet is whether to give myself permission to win with somebody else's alternate win condition (for example by casting Rite of Replication on their Laboratory Maniac).

This reminds me of when I played a game with a guy who said “I’ll play my budget deck” and slammed a one ring. Literally laughing I was like “what’s your budget?” and he said it didn’t have one. Next game he went infinite and won with a “group hug” deck on turn 6. Not following the “letter of the law” feels like the person is cheating. Like sure it’s your deck and your law but make the law congruent with the deck instead of “gotchas”. If letter of the law is “it must reference commander in its text” then no free running, if it is “must reference the commander” then it’s fine. Just change the law to be congruent with what you want, at the end of the day nobody actually cares and expectations being met are what matters. TLDR expectations are what we want met so if the letter of the law is broken that’s what causes this divide.

"sound of an eldrazi slamming into an opponent for like 8 damage, by trampling over a small army" *ooooh boy, so sneaky this spell costs less now*

I say no. It feels like it breaks the spirit of the theme. reminder text is just that a reminder of how the effect works. I also built a "commander" commander deck. I would not use them. I wouldn't use cards like Dihada that say [X] can be your commander.

Yeah freerunning definitely fits the spirit of the deck. But I also can't help wonder how many of the initial people saying no freerunning actually meant no assassins creed because people get...weird about universe beyond.

3:45 Well... if you search for fo:commander you would get the Partner and Freerunning cards, since it's checking the Full Oracle text. But the same is true of searching for fo:{W/B} and hitting Extort cards. Use this information as you see fit.

I definitely agree with the spirit of the self-imposed rule. If you're attacking with your commander to pay the free running cost, then it seems like a fit. If you're just normal casting them, then it feels like a theme break. In your shoes, I'd include some with the additional self-imposed rule that I could only pay the free running cost.

Whenever I see a theme deck across the table from me, that ends up coloring my expectations for what its power level will be. And the biggest feel bad moment is when someone discounts their deck as a themed build, but the actual gameplay shows that it’s way more optimized. I would try out the free running cards in the build and see how it affects the power level. If it turns out those cards make the deck significantly better, then I would leave them out to avoid any feel bad moments of people thinking you are abusing the theme of the deck.

Knowing when and how to break your own rules is an art.

Your own deck building restrictions aren't color identity. It's silly to hold them to the same arbitrary restrictions. Use em if you want, I think it fits by definition, but if the vibes are off, simply dont.

what i was gonna suggest turned out to be exactly what dequan watson suggested! use only the versions with the reminder text, i think?

After watching the video my thoughts are the same as the rules committee dude. Just use the version of the card that says "Commander". To me it still fits the spirit of the deck (cards printed for the Commander format which also mention your "Commander"), but you won't be able to please everyone so just play what you want

I kinda feel the opposite about free running. It works By the letter of the law. It has the word commander written on it and referring to Your edh commanders, but feels like it goes against the spirit of the deck. Idk i dont really care ifnyou include them cause it works no matter what technically just feels a bit off.

In your specific case, I feel it would fit the theme to run Freerunning cards, but only if the deck contains no other ways to trigger Freerunning -- no Assassins!

Before watching, I don't think anyone but you has any say in it. Do you, personally, feel like they fit? Then just go with the feels

I miss upping the average 😢

3 views in 49 seconds EDHRec fell off 😢

Sounds cool to me

21:36 you can’t just say “perchance”

32:00 another thing about new people missing these niche rulings is treasure food clue and shrines aren't creature types but all sit on the same type line. Noted more so with shrines I guess.

Amazing video, i just gotta say id take Korvold 9/10 times. The issue i have is Tergrid decks are built to be controlling from turn 1. Unless you are a card draw deck, you will never have a full hand, even if tergrid isnt on the field yet. If I sit down at game night and someone showsnup with tergrid, I immediately pull out konrad. If someone sits down with Korvold, I can play a lot of different decks.

Gisella, the angelic 6th praetor, who says double damage for foes, half damage for me. And also makes the green player slam into you ineffectually. XD

If it adds "fair" value, commander players will put it in everything. Ramp and card draw don't seem to count as powerful or unfair in people's minds, so when a busted source of mana or cards gets printed, like Nadu for example, a ton of players end up playing what's functionally a third of a cEDH deck. Busted resources, 1,000,000 game actions, bad interaction, bad/no closers, pure misery.

I was one of those Ria Ivor decks! Only made it a few months ago when I pulled her in a collector pack

1:10 subbed for the joke 😂 (Er, I mean… You’re right, I couldn’t counter your Call to Action spell)

I had to double check twice through out watching this, that I didn't have it set to an accelerated play speed. Wow Joey went fast on this one.

Twinning staff is bonkers in my Zevlor deck

Zurzoth is a great example of a card that had a restriction put on to prevent what could have been insanely busted

I have revel in riches in a couple of my black decks and I want it for the treasure generation but I always feel cheap and scummy if I steal a win using it after a board wipe for example, especially if I didn't cast the wipe so I've been thinking of cutting it

Symmetry Matrix lives in my Myrel Deck.

The ban list for commander is so bad. I also think mass LD should be more accepted mostly white and green have land ramp ao when ppl socially exclude mass LD ramp strats go unchecked at the core.