For me, the issue isn't so much that the focus on designing for commander is leading to niche/hipster strategies suddenly becoming universally-viable. The problem is when they make those cards too good in that a) the deck builds itself too easily, or b) it obsoletes everything made after it.
Great debate! Moreover, I have the sensation that most of content creators evaluate the different commanders just fot its power. It is seen on the statememts like: why would you use another commander than ur dragon? It seems like the flavour, art and other factors does not exist. For example I have a ur dragon deck because it is the first, the oldest, father of all dragons, supercool!! And it is superflexible, it is modular deck, each module are dragons of each color. So it is worse than any other dragon commander, but it is superflavourfull! Not everythincmg is about power :)
I’ve fallen into this situation. Building Ashnod the Uncaring and I’m finding my game grinds to a halt because I’m not pulling what I need. I think I need to get cards into the graveyard faster because the deck runs tons of reanimating and unearth
I've been loving Out of the Tombs from the Necron precon for this sort of thing for my Lich deck recently! There's a lot of tailored effects out there to help you fuel your yard in a flavorful or fitting way!
Atraxa is such a weird example for this (and its popularity is kinda weird in general) because Thrasios+Tymna is better than her in the vast majority of "goodstuff commander" situations imo.
The Tymna Tana example I hit on sort of illustrates this as well. Tymna Tana is, often than not, better than Saskia but your gameplan is better telegraphed with Saskia in the command zone than those two. Same with Atraxa vs Thrasios+Tymna. Their biggest reputation is as a multitude of cEDH decks and meta-shaping commanders there. That reputation doesn't always translate well at all to the pregame discussion of a casual game!
I've been running into the 4 color dilemma recently bc i built Carth superfriends and it's a decently fun deck, but Atraxa is just so good and has so much more variety that i kinda regret locking myself into Golgari.
I wouldn't say you're locking yourself in there! You're choosing to just do something different! Most Atraxa decks I see are mostly green decks outside of the walkers anways! They WISH they could be your Carth deck!
@@ekplayscards Thanks for the encouragement! I don't think I'm gonna give up on Carth just yet, I just feel like I'm stuck at a certain power level and it's getting harder to break through to the next level.
@@gildedgrimoire7733 Something to keep in mind is that some commanders aren't meant to be able to get pushed to extreme heights! HOWEVER, with something like Carth, I'd check out cards like The Elderspell to trigger their ability a ton while also setting up an ultimate ability by one of your walkers. Things like that should help ratchet things up in an "i totally didn't see this coming compared to doubling season" way!
Great Chills impression dudette!
Lmaoooo thank you!
Thanks for watching and listening this week y'all!
For me, the issue isn't so much that the focus on designing for commander is leading to niche/hipster strategies suddenly becoming universally-viable. The problem is when they make those cards too good in that a) the deck builds itself too easily, or b) it obsoletes everything made after it.
Great debate!
Moreover, I have the sensation that most of content creators evaluate the different commanders just fot its power. It is seen on the statememts like: why would you use another commander than ur dragon?
It seems like the flavour, art and other factors does not exist.
For example I have a ur dragon deck because it is the first, the oldest, father of all dragons, supercool!! And it is superflexible, it is modular deck, each module are dragons of each color. So it is worse than any other dragon commander, but it is superflavourfull!
Not everythincmg is about power :)
I’ve fallen into this situation. Building Ashnod the Uncaring and I’m finding my game grinds to a halt because I’m not pulling what I need. I think I need to get cards into the graveyard faster because the deck runs tons of reanimating and unearth
I've been loving Out of the Tombs from the Necron precon for this sort of thing for my Lich deck recently! There's a lot of tailored effects out there to help you fuel your yard in a flavorful or fitting way!
Atraxa is such a weird example for this (and its popularity is kinda weird in general) because Thrasios+Tymna is better than her in the vast majority of "goodstuff commander" situations imo.
The Tymna Tana example I hit on sort of illustrates this as well. Tymna Tana is, often than not, better than Saskia but your gameplan is better telegraphed with Saskia in the command zone than those two. Same with Atraxa vs Thrasios+Tymna. Their biggest reputation is as a multitude of cEDH decks and meta-shaping commanders there. That reputation doesn't always translate well at all to the pregame discussion of a casual game!
I've been running into the 4 color dilemma recently bc i built Carth superfriends and it's a decently fun deck, but Atraxa is just so good and has so much more variety that i kinda regret locking myself into Golgari.
I wouldn't say you're locking yourself in there! You're choosing to just do something different! Most Atraxa decks I see are mostly green decks outside of the walkers anways! They WISH they could be your Carth deck!
@@ekplayscards Thanks for the encouragement! I don't think I'm gonna give up on Carth just yet, I just feel like I'm stuck at a certain power level and it's getting harder to break through to the next level.
@@gildedgrimoire7733 Something to keep in mind is that some commanders aren't meant to be able to get pushed to extreme heights! HOWEVER, with something like Carth, I'd check out cards like The Elderspell to trigger their ability a ton while also setting up an ultimate ability by one of your walkers. Things like that should help ratchet things up in an "i totally didn't see this coming compared to doubling season" way!
Props to Chase for that episode capper, really got me.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to fill my Taborax prescription
I can unsee it and it kills me
I never thought atraxa was/is a good card. I just don’t see it. Super slow, and a lightning rod for removal