How to Win More Commander Games
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- čas přidán 22. 07. 2024
- Here's 10 valuable tips that can help you win more commander games! Make sure you master these topics!
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Wondering how to win more commander games? There are some tactics you can utilize to increase your win percentage, whether you play mainly to win, mainly for fun, or some combination of the two! We've got ten of them for you in this video. We've got everything from mulligan decisions, to gameplay mistakes to avoid, all the way to simple things like declining to attack! Hopefully these explanations are helpful and you can get out there and win some more commander games! - Hry
Played against a combo deck that had rhystic study. The player would tell you who let them draw the combo piece, tutor, or counterspell with rhystic study when it was used. Provided a valuable lesson for all the new players at the table
That's pretty funny and useful for the other players
Yeah, never play with this kind of players again :D
I think that is browbeating everyone into making misplays tbh. A mind game.
I had never seen rhystic study before. Joined mtgo last month, and I learned so fast. So fast. 😂
The main way to win more is to face me. You'll win about 90% of the time
Because you stink!
Exactly. I'm somewhat close to the worst
Approximately the worst
😂
Not if you follow these 10 tips.
Instructions unclear: tried to mulligan more aggressively but then I got banned from my lgs and almost went to jail for assault
There's one every video
LMAO
"Player removal is anything removal" This is so true.
I had a game recently where I had about 20 different goblins and artifacts in play, somebody tried to boardwipe, and in response I realized I had an infinite damage rube-goldberg jank combo on-board and killed them to get the spell off the stack.
I love your profile pic, made me giggle 😂
Now I'm just curious what said combo was.
York probably some combination of Krenko and goblin bombardment
So glad that they made point 1 using the free mulligan. Cannot be over-emphasized.
1) Helps avoid bad starting hands.
2) Helps get your best starting hands.
3) Greatly improves consistency for ramp and card draw.
4) Helps get win cons and busted synergies..
This probably the one people miss on the most
I play Rhystic Study in Cedh and casual edh and I have realized how much competitive players respect the 1. They will pay it probably twice as much as casual players because they realize that paying that 1 is so much more valuable than getting me closers to my combo. On the other side of the spectrum in casual people seem to disregard the 1 and they don't realize the value in getting until they look over and see my 10 card hand. So in short, pay the 1 unless you're gonna win
Lets add in mystic remora
ALL THE DRAW
This is true, but at the same time, in casual, if you are paying the 1 everytime, and the other 2 players arent, you are getting doublefucked no? The rhystic studies player is getting the cards anyway and you are at a mana disadvantage compared to the others
My playgroup just doesn’t understand “get in free damage”. They don’t set a vendetta against me but they act like it’s a bully move. Yet they always ask why I win more games on average...
Send them to this video 😂
Exactly, I have several decks that are small/go wide, like Edric or cazur/ukkima. If I wait, I'm no match for the big monsters soon to come. The game starts on turn one, if you can't block, then maybe think about changing your deck a lil bit and lower your mana curve.
@Jamie sounds like you need to re-evaluate your deck. Just because you’re slow or on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t have early blockers.
I love the "chip damage" tip and the "take another player out" encouragement to take the early attacks. For the longest time I didn't play aggro decks since I was too afraid of making enemies, but I started winning a whole lot more with aggro decks (and we got to play more games) once I decided to be more aggressive and start swinging more often!
Use 9 to your advantage also, seems having less life means you're less likely to get attacked because people always use "you're on the highest life" as a reason
When people say "I don't want to get on anyone's bad side" or something I point out that we are all enemies from the moment we decided to play. The game can only end with one person standing. So... ATTACK
Yeah who is taking that stuff personally??
@Jamie Agreed but we're talkin about decks that are already set up and people refused to implement their game plans or attack out of fear of reprisal.
Ive been playing mtg since 7th edition but just recently started playing commander and you guys are incredibly helpful for retraining my brain for commander
4) Threat Assessment
Mono Blue Player be like: "Your Llanowar Elf is a threat, I must be counter that."
“I can’t beat ramp!”
😅🤣🤣🤣 this is terribly true for my group...
just wanted to thank you i followed your deck building advice on the other video, cutting high cmc cards and i was just going off with low cards and won the game on turn 4. thank you!
Dang!
I love your content. It's making me a much better player. And you guys always manage to put a smile on my face. Cheers!
As a fairly new player who does not have a deep (or shallow in some cases) grasp of cards and their mechanics, I would love for you guys to explain more why certain things do not work in non vacuum scenarios. You guys have really helped me understand better, but I think you could help newer players (like myself) understand better why certain cards do not work well, and hence will make better decisions in general. Thanks for all you guys do!
1 Wellwisher in a 99 card deck isn't useful unless your deck is benefiting from gaining life every turn or via other effects. Creature cards with no abilities is another example. Build a deck so your commander is a threat or focus point and in your opinion should be removed if U come across it. A card that U would hate to be used against U is possibly something U should use. Value is a very important... say u have an opt card, replace it for Preordain has more value. Murder vs Doom Blade, or if u can still find them Counter Spell vs Cancel...ect
With all the videos going out that focus on infinite combos, you guys show up and prove that combat damage can get through!!!
When I play my atraxa deck, I always give the first person 9 infect and hold threat of proliferation over their head and basically get a minion to help me the rest of the game
Do you pick the player with no backbone? Lol
Lmao, does that player not realise you're just going to kill them after?
@@baloo7869 oh yeah, I get the same guy every time
@@noahz42 damn stop picking on him lmao
I had that happen to me once, except the atraxa player also had Karn's Bastien on board, so I tried to just concede, but the other players badgered me into not doing so. I was made into a minion at their insistence, basically
I learned a lot of these lessons the hard way, but thank you for this.. it's like affirming.
Slowly but surely you guys are helping me suck less at commander.
Soon you will be the greatest in the world
Keep Wellwisher in there. Sylvan library? A staple for almost any Elf tribal deck. Politic your enemy. Make them your minion/s from a place of power if you can. And...Never turn your back on a control deck. Great tips guys! Shared this vid with a new player...yeah, he's winning more games as of late.
Thanks! Much love and damage to ya!
Arcmage.
I love that there was an edit in the rant about removing Grave Titan--it tells me that Beezy went off about it for even longer and had to cut it down. Sorry GT. I can think of at least 10 better things to do with you!
By far your best video to date. 10/10 ive been showing it to people asking how to get better.
We think it's a TON of information we either haven't shared yet or haven't communicated in a long-form video so I'm really happy with how this one turned out
@@NitpickingNerds I have a ton of issues with your usual videos. But like, I also watch them all. So maybe you're doing something right and I'm just a grumpy old person now.
But I had absolutely no grievances with this one. It's repeat info for me. But ive yet to have a solid "just watch this" video to point to. And now I do.
@@SeriosSkies92 I mean we are not the end all be all. You should disagree and agree with things we say because we are just giving our opinion.
I love the "save your counterspell" part. I had 2 players tap out and counter 2 of my spells that wouldnt have won on the spot to then have player 3 go: Bolas Citadel, Marionette Master from Top, Mycosynth Lattice from top, Tap Citadel, win. :D I will forever remind them. Btw. I never had any lifegain in my decks and slowly start to include some incidental lifegain. Its not bad if you dont overdo it. Running the single elf you mentioned in elfball that can tutor for it may be worth it.
I've literally seen wellwisher win a player a game because nobody got rid of it and anyone that attacked hit face and they just got the life back. None of the players wanted to to use their single removal on it and nobody drew a board wipe.
Great video guys very informative thanks for letting some newer players the ins & outs of playing a game
great tips guys I'll definitely start applying these more. was wondering if you could do a deck build on marchesa the black rose id be interested in what you guys come up with
My biggest issue is not taking advantage of attacks. My son's is threat assessment. I keep telling him to slow down and look first. I'm definitely not the aggressive kind of player but I need to move that way for sure
Get their answers out early. Spot removal isn’t endless.
concur. mulliganing is really hard, and really important
Totally! It’s important to not make a snap decision due to laziness or frustration
@@NitpickingNerds Just listened to LR where they had ine if tge guys from 17 Lands on, talking about mulligan stats on win % in draft. Would be awesome if commander had data like that. Check it out.
As someone who used to almost always run Wellwisher and Essence Warden in my elf decks, I totally agree that they usually do little or nothing to help you win. They look good when you start thinking about spawning 20 tokens or something, but I'd rather have another way to spawn the tokens, or more ramp, or an anthem, or more interaction in just about every situation.
What if your wincon is Hurricane?
@@grubgobbler3917 Hurricane as a win con seems like an odd corner case for elves. I feel like most of the time you'd be better off with another infinite mana outlet that buffs your elves or something like that. If your set on killing everyone with Hurricane so you dont have to do a combat step, you're still probably better off with something like Staff of Domination to give you infinite life instead of just a small amount per elf, and it gives you another way to get infinite mana and draw.
Really great Video, guys 🙂👍
I really do enjoy your Videos.
Especially the one with your dorky deck ideas was awesome.
You guys are getting much more comfortable making these videos since I started to watch your Videos. I hope this doesen't sound patronizing
I do tend to hold back at times because when I get to play it's mostly 1v1. So I dont always go for the throat. Although tonight my Koma, Cosmic Serpent deck just dominated a 4 player game. It was nice.
I remember playing in a pod of 4 in standard(ish-i was more kitchen sink) in the 90s. Lots of memories. Now with Commander and me being back in the game, I remember the politics. You have to save powerful interaction for the player who's ready to take off and win the game. It wins you friends and makes the game last longer. Not just seeing the threat to you, but who's the biggest threat to others, and how much do you want to keep them in check. But yeah if you can take someone out, do it.
Thanks, with each tip yall gave I could picture real life situation I've experienced.
They’re very real things!
My lgs allows up to 3 Mulligans for EDH, so I use it quite often. I played two games yesterday and used 2 Mulligans in each game. I did feel a bit bad by slowing things down while I re-shuffled, but it was okay. On a side note, I did get some grief for attacking with my flying 1/1’s early in the game. 😂
Calling it now, number one is to never play Grave Titan
You have never been more wrong
@@NitpickingNerds I know, I was really shocked when it was actually "Run 30 copies of Grave Titan"
It’s an out-of-nowhere surprise ending!
Good points. Makes sense to me. Always a good thing to be reminded of these points.
Glad you liked em!
@@NitpickingNerdsbut grave Titan should be added to every colored deck. It'll be the unsaid 11th tip.
I hope you continue growing. Great content!
Thanks so much! We're aiming for at least 30K this year!
I’m sure you’ll get a preview card. Your channel is growing !
We really hope so
@@NitpickingNerds Was that Jin-Gitaxias preview not enough?
I used to use grave titan as a sac combo piece in a meren deck. It wasnt my best option in my deck but is was there when i needed it. it won me games . But still more useful to sac it infinite times than using as a creature lol
One of the craziest sequences I once had in commander was turn 1 land sol ring, turn 2 land and smothering Tithe, turn 3 land fist of suns (1 land and sol ring), tap 2 lands and sac 3 treasures for The Ur-Dragon. Then one player destroyed my smothering which I followed by attacking him with Ur-Dragon. But yeah I got ahead so fast because of smothering tithe, crazy!
I played my first commander tournament a couple weeks ago. I didn’t think politics was legal to do in the game. I’m use to 1v1 games of mtg. I probably had the most fun when I found out we can do politics. I made tons of mistakes on my games because I was soo overwhelmed by keeping up with 3 other players boardstates and extremely unfamiliar with the cards. I’m definitely going to implement these tips into my future commander tournaments.
About 8... Yesterday a guy could swing to eliminate any one player. A guy was doing 9/9s, flier 10/10s... And yet I was the eliminated one. I guess I was one of the most immediate threats, and the game was pretty fun but they couldn't keep the other one in check
Great video, guys! Thank you.
Amazing tips. I run smothering tithe and currently no one in my meta is paying for it, my win percentage is stupid right now because of that. The tip about not being afraid to eliminate players is gold.
Like I say I’m not 100% sold on the “always pay” strategy for smothering tithe though it was effective when I saw it. But yeah it’s okay to kill players! 😂
Always great videos😉greetings from italy😎🤘🇮🇹
Hi Italy
You guys should make a deckbuilder guide like how much ramp/boardwipes/lands etc..
Hello. Love your awesome content shows. I have watched many of your episodes and was wondering what the top ten spells you should always counter in commander, and or top ten spells you should never let resolve on a battlefield? Just asking to see what you would recommend. Thank you guys for helping me be a better commander player. Your fan, Ross
We have a few videos on Haymakers and big swingy game-winners, a lot of the stuff that’s must-counter is on that list although it’s pretty hard to rank them. Thanks for commenting, we appreciate it!
Best way to increase win percentage: don't lose.
Tell me how that goes 😊
Simple let the player assume they have won then say ha ha I have angles grace once they have grabed their lands to go to next game play it because it is split second.
Damn, this is deep.
Like the advice fighters get from their corner. "Don't let him hit you." "Hit him first." "WIN" etc. Like no shit, that is the goal but that isn't even sound advice. That is a given lol
@@blaze556922 it's a joke, fam.
I used to attack whenever I got the chance but because my friend and sister would complain because my decks were too fast or do combo stuff I toned down my decks and trained myself to hold back I do it without thinking. This is on top of the fact that i mainly play Orzhov.
Imo life gain is very good if the deck is built around it. I have liesa shroud of dusk deck with nykthos paragon, vito, sanguine bond and all kinds of triggered stuff making angel tokens, counters, card draw, taking creatires from graveyard and making enemies sacrifice creatures. Also its great to use life as a currency for greed for example when you get it back soon anyways.
HEY!
I have used well wisher to gain life and followed it up with a massive hurricane that killed the 2 players left! My all time favorite win!
For threat assessment, this last weekend...I played Magus of the Candelabra, and one opponent is like, “Eh, it’s decent,” and my other opponent was like, “ALL HANDS ON DECK! DEATH IS COMING! KILL IT UNTIL IT DIES FROM IT!!!” Damn my second opponent for having played against my deck.
Who's that opponent? I'm having a bad day, a pub stomp might help me feel better.
@@firstandlast.1254 just to be clear, if I had been allowed to untap with the Magus, there’s an 80% chance that I would win.
@@crawdaddy2004 I recognize that. You recognize that. Lemme get in a game or two with the guy that doesn't. Not more than that, though.
Y'all seem so damn cool. I wish I could play Magic with y'all.
Hi, fellow nitpicking nerd here with a truly minute nitpick. Your thumbnail mistyped Pi. The second 6 (18th digit) should be a 3 instead. I normally wouldn’t bother, but with a channel like yours... I couldn’t resist.
I've observed that the player who first attacks me with commander damage will always do a "might as well keep attacking me" line since I'm always at the most of that commander's damage. Therefore, to attack me with your commander first makes me wary enough of you that I'll hardly allow you to get away with big plays if possible when I feel the crosshairs on me from turn 3.
As a Godo player i have learned to mulligan aggresively. And it applies to other decks as well. 5 good cards are way better than 7 awefull ones. Dont be afraid to go down a card or two.
i once did a mulligan on a 7 land hand (1 fetchland, is important later...), then got a hand with 0 lands, but ramp, my best artifacts and some of my best working creatures... well next one 7 lands again... yeah, then i got a kind of bad hand, but 4 lands, and 3 higher mana creatures...
Your hate for Grave Titan is so real. I consider putting it into my Meren deck (second deck I ever build) and then I found cards I owned that made tokens that where better.
How about another question. How many times SHOULD you be winning? Like what is an acceptable win rate in a 4 player game?
This is some great stuff.... awesome advice for all EDH players, including “poopy babies.” 😊👍🏼
Great video thanks! I gotta admit I'm guilty of a few of the sins pointed out here, hopefully I'll correct my ways accordingly and start winning more games!
It’s pretty late in Canada, but hey I’ll still watch
Aw, thank you!
I would say fog in decks that don't have or focus on a lot of creatures is good example if I do like a kalamax deck I will have very little blockers I have one games before because a player swinged out and I fogged and I killed them on the crack back I think it's more about don't overload on fog affects
My girlfriend once used a whirlwind denial when I casted a 1/1 pilgrims eye. So it shows just how much of a threat fliers can be.
“No proactive defense” is correct in almost every situation... except for pillow fort. I play pillowfort/group slug ft. land destruction as a wincon, and there is no way someone is going to be able to play for my ghostly prison past turn 5
What's that? Run sixty copies of Grave Titan and 40 basic Swamps?
No, Tibalt!
18:50 I have complains about it. I'm a controller player, sometimes I will defend other player that will be eliminated, because he is kinda of a threat, if the board has other threat. On my matches, sometimes two threats emerge and start battling with each other, if one is removed, the other will start targeting me, I need to let these two threats battling so I can increase my board.
I definitely agree with the get in early attacks. However I do believe your resolution is a bit off. If someone starts a vendetta against you, that is bad for you. They won't be making decisions that will help them win which is you were getting at. However, your stuff will get removed meaning that it will be much harder to win. When a player loses percentage points to win at a given point, they aren't given back to the table equally. Your other two opponents are scooping up the advantage when two people feud
I think the position of going full vendetta mode after getting attacked for any amount of damage is just untenable. What are they supposed to do if every opponent attacks them for 2, go back to just playing normally? Lol I think if someone wants to overreact like that, it's fine, but it'll cost them
If you know someone will make or has made a suboptimal play (e.g. irrational vendetta), it doesn't make it any better to make a suboptimal play of your own.
@@RalpOwns I'm not saying you shouldn't attack, but you should bear in mind that they may start a feud
@@NitpickingNerds now that I can agree with
Best tips for winning more in Commander...
Don't play mono white
Don't break deals once you make them(people remember!)
Always play Grave Titan lol
I've learned nothing!
#1 tip to win more is to stack the deck to go turn 1 sol ring into signet. 90% of the time it works every time
Happy belated birthday Beezy!
Thank you!!!
As a new player asking the board if your not seeing anything when that one guy has a shit eating grin will help you learn that much faster
As a storm player, if I play one of my non stormy decks I usually lose, but people don’t like the 10 minute turn digging for the kill shot. So I usually go into a game not caring if I win lol
So my essence warden with wellwisher and well of lost dreams isn't amazing?
Well that is synergistic
I think i'll increase my win percentage by not showing this video to anyone :b
A bold move!
My playgroup upsets me because no one ever pays for rhysitic study. Thats why the moment it enters, its removed.. well unless it's mine (;
Ok, cultivate/K reach are amazing. 1 green, 2 colorless, to get an instant drop and a future drop. Ok, I’m not playing that in cEDH, but even in strong commander decks, it’s super playable. I guess if you only count mana crypt sol ring mana vault, lions eye diamond, etc as “real ramp”, then cultivate isn’t good. Ok🤷🏾♂️
You and me have the same Birthday! Happy birthday!
Hey awesome, it's the best birthday after all!
First? And on the day I joined Patreon. Rock on Gentlemen
Hey thanks for joining! We will also send you an official message through Patreon (I do them in batches)
Wellwisher's going in my deck to allow me to alpha strike someone out of the game without dying to crackbacks from my other opponents.
Obviously that'll come down to meta; it doesn't save me from Prosh commander damage or an infinite combo, but in my average 75% game, there are a lot of board states with a lot of 4/4's that'll slow down my win by multiple turns when I could've allowed one of the 7 cards i drew off cashing in my draw spell and the last two leftover mana last turn to enable my alpha strike this turn and begin eliminating players then and there, while still having this turn's mana to leave up interaction or follow up with a redundant threat depending on my opponents' most likely outs.
If I'm playing BG Elves, then it allows me to run and utilize a bunch more pay life effects and still make attacks without having to do a bunch of mental math every time to estimate the value I'm getting versus how many shields I have to keep up.
Obviously there's a bit of a tradeoff if it's in my opening hand and I'm not indexed far enough into paying life to make use of that early or often as time goes on. But that's a lot more informed and complex of a decision process than the poster-child trap card Wellwisher has become
That Elspeth wall scroll is dope AF
It's suuuuper cool! We might have gotten it even without the channel lol
So I have to be a bit nitpicking with you guys... In your thumbnail the 18th digit of Pi is wrong. It should be a 3 instead of the 6. ;)
Love your Videos by the way!
Honestly I noticed before the video went live and just thought it wasn't worth it so I deserve it lol
Hey NPN, how can I make my azorious commander decks and oathbreakers better? How can I control my 3 opponents?
Either draw enough to keep them in check or be very picky about counter and removing to stay in 2nd or 3rd until you set up a combo for the win. Leverage your opponents as removal tools vs each other as they fight over king of the hill, while keeping yourself within reach of the leader using instants. Azorious, Esper, and older Mardu have a similar strat of suppress the win but not the advantage. Finish first doesn't mean leading the whole way.
Side note, Tax(pay) and Stax(prevent) lists are the only way to control the table and it's a CEDH staple and unfun playstyle. If not playing CEDH, lean tax and don't play stax. It will mean you will have less targets for each card drawn.
My friends and I actually keep a percentage of each of our decks and who wins and stuff
Woah that's cool, what do the numbers look like?
fog effects have won plenty of games the swing with everything and suffer the crack back or give others another chance against the obvious threat
@grave titan got a shout out in the video! 🙌
He is very lucky to get any shoutout at this point
I loved the sign off this time
Thanks Ben!
Wait why is cultivate bad? It’s in my precon.
Grave titan increases win rate drastically
you misspelled "decreases"
As always, gentlemen, excellent work!
Turn one sideways for the doofus.
Oh, a small piece of feedback that may just be something I'm interested in... but anyway: When doing "lists", it might be nice to shrink down the text (like "6) Save your removal") and leave it at the bottom or corner somewhere just in case a segment is long, and you look away and back and can't quite remember which topic the things you're hearing relate to. It would be helpful.
Thanks for the great content!
My play group has gotten better at this, we have a land fall ominath player that runs house with us so I built a zur deck and I was holding the table hostage, and someone took me out which was the only thing holding the landfall deck in check and the landfall deck won instantly, needless to say the group is getting better at threat assessment now
well if you were holding the table hostage then you were probably the biggest threat
@@travisrainwater3291 no he wasn't a threat... A threat means threat to win the game. Annoying to play against, but not necessarily a threat.
My playgroup just doesn’t play enough counterspells - me, I play at least 7 in every blue deck. Delicious, delicious, unprotected combos.
How can you say chipping in damage is a big deal and also not a big deal at the same time?
Chipping in for a couple points won't decide the outcome of most games, but we're saying dont miss it when it's literally free
Not being afraid to eliminate players is a BIG one
I keep bad hands with my karametra deck because I already shuffle way too much
GET THE NITPICKING NERDS A PREVIEW CARD!
Rystic Study is a may ability. Eventually, the one with the rystic study will decline the trigger.
I already had a good grasp on most these tips but thank you.
Some really good stuff here
Tho I do agree killing players would help over all.
I do like to sometimes leave them alive if I think they are gonna help me.
But I leave them at single digits
Also I play for fun a lot do killing people just seems wrong
But I shall try kill one person when I can and see how that does.
So, get in for chip damage. But also don't block if you're at a high life total.
I'm suspicious...
I put one or two lifegain cards in my deck because damage is the primary way I have seen games end. Yes, those other win conditions exist, but dealing with the primary way isn't awful. Also as a budget player, using Ezzaroot Channeler for major ramp is pretty good.
If you want to increase your win percentage always wait for everyone to tap out to go off and stop playing tapped lands. Play no tapped lands ever.
Exactly