Mana Ramp - 10 Card Draw - 10 Single Target Removal - 5 Board Wipes - 5 Standalone - a card that works on it's own or in concert with your commander. (25) Enhancer - a card that either amplifies or is amplified by your commander, standalone cards or other enhancers. (10-12) Enabler - a card that covers a weakness or a fills a gap in your strategy. (7-8)
Spottyfriend 10 mana ramp. From their previous video about making A mana base. Is the 10 ramp here would be the same as the rocks you re supposed to have ? Or is it 8-10 rocks then the 10 mana ramp? Just feels like the 10 rocks alone isn't enough
@@DonniesBoStaff why you hating on the nekusar player, i ask my group.. you're drawing cards because of me being here, i'm helping you out... *Wheels into another wheel, they take 28 for discarding a total of 14, and taking another 14 for drawing the other 14* guys? Oh you're dead
Jeremiah Bachmann yo, 40 lands is the deck building norm to start with, seriously it's weird they said it's 38. 38 assumes sol ring and a overall, low mana curve the deck stops at. Use a hypergeometric calculator to figure out your decks mana needs. Sample size for your likelyhood of having enough lands will change depending if you are on the play or the draw but learn about hypergeometric calculaters which are really tools deckbuilders usually can not live without and magic players never talk about. well players other than Patrick Chapin don't talk about them
@Mathew Bryant In what deck does 40 lands make any sense? Who said that was the norm? 36 lands if anything is the max unless a deck strategy requires a lot of lands.
I play forty lands as a rule of thumb. If you have decent card draw, you won't run out of gas. Having lands available ensures you'll be able to cast that card draw.
I've watched this 3 times. I'm very versed in deckbuilding, but it helps to remind me of how to approach decks with the basics in mind. Thanks for a great video.
Same. This is hands down one of the best videos ever produced on the topic of commander deckbuilding. It's very clear and concise, with their trademark humor and flexibility in discussing the topics at hand.
I have probably had a few level up (or at least "aha") moments, but the one that I remember most recently is when I had a judge friend of mine help me with my Meren deck. My Meren deck was AMAZINGLY resilient, nothing stayed dead and everything came back, but I just couldn't close out the game. It turns out my problem is that I was focusing too hard on not dieing. In my case by spending my card slots on controlling my opponents, and I just didn't have anything (or enough things at least) that could go over the top and finally bring the game to a close. It's all well and good to do cool things, but you need to also have enough things to do that actually threaten to finish the game.
Want to bring us to the next level? Put a camera behind you showing us how you do that wonderful thing you do. Behind the scenes stuff is always next level.
The Command Zone i really love watching your show, been watching and listening forever x3 but I have one thing that makes it really hard to use your content... timestamps. I think back and it's so hard to find exactly what I want. gotta find the right episode and then hope I can find the right place. timestamps would make it easier for me to go back and find the thing I was looking for
I think you've done a recent replacement to this video, haven't you? Like in terms of how many of what you MIGHT start with? It'd be cool to link to that video from here if that hasn't already been done.
Because no one really taught me how to get better, I played every weekend for two years losing every game I played until I gained an understanding of the rules, interactions, theories for deck building and the like, but I feel like someone at the shop could have been not a jerk and told me something as soon as I started instead of having to spend 2 years losing. I think the game play helped me with the deck building, but this video and many of them on this channel are my first time getting into commander. So, now I know how to do that too thanks to you guys and the guests you've had on game knights. Thanks!
Old school player, started collecting just after BETA. Took a break for a long time, came back and recently started playing Commander with the old friends. Just discovered you guys, recognized Jumbo Commander on one of your podcasts. Great podcast guys and will be watching you guys quite a bit. Nice job and keep up the fun casts!
I've come back to watch this video 3-4 times. I love it, and everything that it does for people who don't know how to build a deck. I would always make my decks SUPER endside heavy, and I would Jam pack my front end with ramp. But that doesn't really work with opponents who know what they're doing. The knowledge of curve is very important. It's so important to manage your decks thoroughly. Before this video, there were A LOT times in a game of commander, where I would think, "Damn, I didn't want to draw that." and now I have very few of those moments. Drawing sol ring in the late game is one of those moments.
Thank you for this video! My decks have often felt off balance, but I could never quite figure out the issue because I nearly always play with the same 4-5 people. This has greatly helped me fine tune my decks and now I’m winning more frequently than I used to.
Just realized that I WASN'T subscribed to you guys. I've been watching your podcast religiously for months now, and even showed my non-magic friends that "Creative Process" episode a couple weeks back. I JUST hit that button because you guys reminded me at the end. One of the biggest "Level-up" moments I've had in commander is through the article on Edhsource.com. He talks about an important aspect of EDH: Scaling. How some cards are inherently better or worse just because we play a multiplayer format. I've learned so much from that and The Command Zone that for a couple months, I COULDN'T BUILD A DECK! I finally built a Kresh Deck that I'm very proud of, that has so many of the philosophies I've recently learned. You guys ROCK!
Something I've improved upon in building decks is understanding your decks weaknesses. Using this video's terminology, don't forget about enablers, and over time make them more accurate to help save the pitfalls your deck can fall into. Word of advice, my first EDH deck, Kaalia of the Vast, albeit being made with the help of some very experienced edh buds had some slight consistency issues, but nothing too wrong with the meat of the deck (big bois, reanimation, speedy/protective voltron stuff for the commander). However what I did notice is that my worst match-up was blue, go figure I'm aggro and they're control, so I asked what enablers could get Kaalia past fucking counterspells. I found out about "stax" or player-restricting cards like Price of Glory (land destruction on instant speed players) and Defense Grid (mana-cost increase on instant spells) and cut some of whatever I had excess of, be it creatures and kill spells in that specific Kaalia deck or whatever, and it worked out brilliantly. Realize the greater image of how other decks can interact with yours (in a metagame) and what that means for the enhancers or enablers that you pick. Balancing out a 100-card stack can be hard, especially when just starting to play in the format or being completely new to MTG, but when you have a favorite deck that you have been constantly changing for years and then at one point playing you realize that it plays exactly how you want it to play down to each slot, man it's worth it. That's the thing with TCG's man, deckbuilding is fun and honestly introspective--but don't forget the reasonings behind each term used in the template. Great video Command Zone.
Guys I know this is an older video of yours but as a new subscriber and new commander player I must say, as always your content is always on point, entertaining and wholesome with the level of information given. Thank you, it's all much appreciated. Peace ✌️
I know this video has been around for a while, but my big level up moment in deck building was when I realized that not every combo has to get you to victory to be good. Stuff as simple as Wrenn and Six with a fetch-land in your opener gives your mulligan flexibility to even work with 2 land openers makes hitting curve with the right mana combinations through the first 4 turns or so. This kind of thing doesn't outright win you the game, but you're more likely to get into your midgame plan, which always makes for more fun games.
Just want to say Thanks for these kinds of videos. They are a real help to me for Commander in general and in the construction of my 2nd Commander deck. I built my first Commander deck back when the 1st Commander preconstructed decks came out, so it's been awhile, like about 9 going on 10 years.
Great episode. Your 'enabler' terminology helped me think about deck building in a new way. Especially the 'overlap' talk about Bane of Progress as a board wipe AND mana ramp in Rishkar. This opens my eyes to evaluating new Commanders in a new light; I had never even thought of the power of overlapping when seeing Rishkar for the first time.
You guys are the best thing for EDH on the internet aside from EDHrec. As someone who almost only played commander in my city it's beautiful to see what you guys are creating. I hope that in the future you'll be creating unique decks and sharing them with us!
Thank you So Much for that video. I just understood my problem with a lots of my EDH deck. I put too many enhancers and too few standalone. Using your advices I improved my deck!! Respect from Montreal
This is a really good guide for deck building. The point where deck building really clicked for me is after I built a Kraum//Bruse Tarl Tempo deck. Each card was carefully selected, tested, and replaced until I found a little secret. Redundancy is a double edged sword. You want redundancy in your deck so that you consistently draw the cards you want, but you want it to be varied to the point you don't have the same answer to one question. Running 10 counterspells in a control deck might sound like a good number, but if they don't each have a unique purpose, you'll find yourself flooded. By varying the spells into different categories (Mystic Snake can attack/be blinked, Disallow and Voidslime can hit abilities, Insidious Will can copy spells, Dissipate exiles the spell, and Counterflux and Render Silent keeps your opponents from going off.) You get a package in a package that makes each spell able to handle one scenario better than another.
I would say also, about 2 alternate win conditions that can function independently from your commander but can still synergize well. My old Meta was super counter and hate heavy so alternates are a must.
Great video! I swear you guys have talked about this subject before (with numbers of cards etc.) but I could never find the episode again to go back and make notes. Maybe I dreamed it? I will certainly watch this one multiple times over the near-future while I brew new decks. Good job guys, very thoughtful and comprehensive.
A grand moment for me is after a night of EDH with my playgroup, everyone was inspired to purchase brago (which is my leading commander[stax +Flicker control] ) for different decks that they have. It felt so good knowing that all the work I put into building that deck was good enough to inspire others who I'm my opinion are better than I am at MTG.
This could be the single most useful MTG deck building video on the internet. The biggest eye opener for deck building was when I was building Nekuzar and Derevi and played a game after learning about synergy...went from losing every time because I wasn't doing enough to becoming a super threat to my friends and being killed first...then I learned about how important board wipes and force discard is.
Krosan grip is the cure for Vedalken Orrery since so many folks seem to like running it, although it's only good for green decks. Additionally, ramp refers to Rampant Growth- the first ramp card, not rolling down a ramp.
This is one that I know some people refuse to do (or rather don't do) but using online lists to help shape a deck. I know there's a good portion of MtG players that hate "netdecking" but I find that the internet is an invaluable resource for helping with building commander decks since I know there are lot of people out there who know how to build a deck better than I do, in addition to finding obscure cards that fit decks really well that I wouldn't have found otherwise (angelic blessing in Feather, for example)
Obviously a super late response, but I just wanted to say I have a Karametra deck focused on winning through combat with themes that include landfall and 1/1 counters and fleecemane is great include in the deck. Good cheap card for a land search that is aggressive and can stay on the board to help keep Karametra turned on after a board wipe, so there are for sure places cards like that can find a home.
I honestly prefer to run more spot removal and fewer board wipes. A). because I want to save the panic buttons for real panic situations B). The game just has to end and when the board gets wiped so often that just does not happen. This is a product of the meta game I play in so its certainly not universal.
I'd have to agree, in my circle board wipes are not common as most of us don't have enough time to play games of that length. Most of our decks have maybe 1 board wiping card, but not often more than that. Just due to our preferences.
@Tony N i gotta agree with you man 1 boardwipe means my uril voltron will eat him alive before he gets it xD hexproof indestructible color protection and creature protection means you gonna need to waste that boardwipe to take me out
Ao i have been experimenting with a theme lately. I call it "Set-locked" Commander decks! You pick a theme from a specific set and build ONLY from that set. You ARE allowed "up to" 22 cards from outside said set, and they have been making tops at my locals too!!! I have made five guilds from Ravnica. Then some friends got into it and we decided that you would be allowed any "RETURN" to sets as well, and we ended up find some absolutely beautiful build templates this way. Just throwing you guys that for the funz! ;) Keep it up, and love your channel.
You can tell pretty easily whether an episode came out before or after Modern Horizons. Just pay attention how they react to the word "shenanigans". 7:46
One of the big changes to my deck building was when I was watching one of your earlier videos and you outlined the 10 card draw, 10 ramp etc guidelines. I never ran enough card draw in my decks and it punished me a lot without me realising. Ever since that my decks have been much more consistant. I think I had the issue because I was a standard player before and although card draw is still good there it's not essential. This is the first time I've heard you talk about the enabler et al. categories but looking through my decks I think I'm already doing well in that regard but I'm glad it's now something I'll be conscious of.
Same here, once I started to make sure I had around 10 card draw sources in my decks, suddenly they tended to fizzle out a lot less often. Enough card draw really makes a giant difference.
My biggest deck building level-up came when a buddy of mine helped me to build my first real deck, Rith the Awakener. I had a shambled mess at the end, and when I wanted to improve it I tried playing a bunch of cards that didn't synergize with anything. He told me to pick one theme, one goal, and stick to that. It is the first thing I think of when building decks now, whether it be choosing cards to run or making any cuts.
I'm trying to build a commander deck for the first time where my commander is Sharuum the Hegemon and so this was super helpful :D I think I found out that I've over committed to the idea of having artifacts to a point where I had no win con other than Platinum Angel. I did keep the card in there but I got some removal added along with couterspells and board clears so this really helped!
My "level up" moment is playing Teferi-Stasis Lock and realizing that you need to be able to destroy or exile permanents. The other moment was playing a Knowledge Pool-one spell per turn lock deck. That is where you really learn about the concept of the stack.
I think the tips you guys lay out here are fantastic! I think deck building is the most appealing part of the Commander format since there is so much room for creativity and personalization. Fixed metagames in other formats push out pet cards and synergies with powerful cards that typically can't all fit into one, streamlined deck. I think one thing you guys addressed that I wish you would have talked a little more about is inspiration. I think there are some phases of coming to EDH. The beginning thing is being inspired by all the big haymakers. You're telling me I can play all the Planeswalkers ever, in one deck?! That alongside format-specific things like Voltron-style decks. Next, you begin to appreciate attrition and formulate (consciously or not) the break down for a well-oiled deck, such as you've laid out. But there's something that happens after years of playing with the same cards -it get's old. So I think what keep me coming back to EDH again and again is being inspired. I love looking for quirky interactions and ensuring my deck is able to have fun regardless of what my opponents do. Coming up with unique ways to facilitate my board is part of the fun of the game. When your opponents have to read the card there is a novelty to the game and as long as you manage to keep your turns short enough and few "destroy all lands" or "discard your hand" effects to a minimum, your games will be rewarding whether you win or not because of the (partial) success of your deck building adventure, or even the knowledge that you couldn't make it work. Because even failures can be fun as long as the idea was inspiring!
It would be really great to see you guys build a deck live following these flexible guidelines. This video was great and exactly what I was hoping you might put together.
Awesome video. I just started in MTG and i was trying to make a commander deck but my lack of knowledge was huge..with this video my ideas are very much clear. thx a lot!
Really appreciate these deck building tips! I generally seem to suck at building decks, or at least they seem to get pretty thoroughly destroyed on xmage and at edh league.
You know I've been a huge fan for years now, but how did I just realize that Jimmy has a beautiful baritone/bass voice? I literally got chills when they were doing the intro.
This was extremely helpful. I have played commander for years now, but the hard numbers work as a great frame of reference - I usually just went with what feels right and tune it up or down from there. And usually that resulted in something comparable - but putting in enough carddraw, removal etc from the start should make the deck tuning much less about "making the deck work" and more about "making the deck work better/enable the game plan".
My K&T of Meletis deck leveled up my ideas on how to appear innocuous. I really believe there is nothing more powerful you can do in commander than seem harmless, be left alone and have a late game blow out win. K&T are great for this as people still think of them as group hug & they ramp everyone right into the late game. I also think players build a threat priority on players turn 1 - 4, and don't update that list until bombs hit as they become concerned with their play lines. I cut sol ring, mana crypt, and pick cards that achieve the same effect but don't provoke emotion. (Constant mists!) Slow roll those first turns, make a little defense, don't let beefs happen with you, let things go then bring to light a triumph of the hordes. I don't think I'll ever play a deck again that is trying to keep board parity with whoever did get their sol ring. This won't work on a very familiar meta where people catch on, but it kills when you're new or have a large pool of opponents.
Just want to point out that Steady Progress will ALWAYS ramp your experience counters if you have Mizzix of the Izmagnus in play. When you play Steady Progress, Mizzix triggers and gives you an experience counter, then SP resolves and you proliferate the counter (because you don't need to target or announce anything before resolution).
You guys should type up an article that covers the main points of these eps, that would be perfect to review for newbies who want to get in to Commander. My local store is having a Commander tournament this Friday and I am so excited, thanks for the tips!
My big moment was overcoming that 3rd pitfall you mentioned, lack of focus. As a competitive player for eternal formats I often try to just get more value than my opponents. things like jund is great in modern, but the same philosophy can't apply because you have more than one opponent. what "value " meant changed. So instead of filling decks with just good cards, now my deck does a thing.
My big moment was when I made a commander deck based on proliferation and infect. Infect was one of my favorite mechanics back in the day. Little did I know at the time how much it was despised and how broken it was in commander. Nevertheless that is where commander deck building really clicked for me and all my decks since then I've learned to study the little details And nuances in the cards
I come from Legacy as my prime format, so my biggest AH HA moment was how I viewed efficiency differently. Cards that are good in legacy are always good in commander.
my biggest "level up" (so far, still pretty new, started playing last spring) moment was when my friend who's played magic for like 8+ years looked through my deck after it played like trash one game causing me be obviously annoyed with it (the deck is usually a pretty big threat but eh ig every deck has the potential to just breakdown immediately) and said "there's nothing wrong with this deck, everything in here works well, I genuinely don't know what happened". I gave my walking magic lexicon of a friend an issue so big he couldn't figure anything wrong with it. of course the partial tilt came from the fact like 2 nights before in the same building it granted me my best night of edh (in a w/l sense) I've ever had , after for months showing up to edh having fun, inevitably picking up 3rd and 4th places every pod, I got 1st, 1st and 3rd which was game changing for me.
Other cards that overlap: Martial Coup: Get 1/1 Soldiers and wipe the board. Mana Reflection: Get a 2 for 1 on mana production. Umezawa's Jitte: An equipment that can boost and gain life. Sunforger: Casting and Tutoring up instants you might need, when you need them.
So I am a modern player by trade that is trying to learn commander. I do find the format very intimidating though. This video helped a lot thank you so much.
7 min in and i have so many things to say.. Did not realize you guys counted enchantment /artifact removal and part of the single and wrath parts. I tend to just leave one card open 1-2 card in the the deck for that stuff and then on top of that have 5 removal and 5 wraths. tho my meda is pretty creature heavy so i have been moving away from single and anding a few more wraths. lol... freaking love this show lol
This is a really great episode. I learned a lot and appreciate your time and effort. I have been trying to put together my karlov deck and have been struggling. Hopefully, now I can tweak and tighten the deck up.
What a good episode!! It's really close to what I suggest to people when building decks. I'll share it whenever someone has doubts about how to build their decks. This kind of videos is what people need to see when they are "Oh, look, this cards looks fun, I'm gonna put it in my commander deck", without questioning the use and value of the card.
So in thinking about a krenko mob boss edh deck I want to build, I’m thinking mono red doesn’t need as much mana ramp, especially since goblins mostly have low cmc, so I need more draw or at least cycling which is hard as hell to get in red. Thinking about incorporating that new enchantment Experimental frenzy that lets you play off the top of your deck. That’s pseudo draw
Great video. And I lived the latest episode of Game Knights. Also, I wanted to say thanks for all the information you guys provide. I recently became a Patron and ordered from CardKingdom to show my support for what you guys fo.
I have a 8-Hack(ish) edh themed deck, and I tried to balance it with the tips from this episode. The "Hack" cards can be classified as Enhancers, since they do nothing alone? Actually they are my main Win conditions. Thanks for the episode! It was awesome!
When the was building Sidisi Undead Vizier I realized that I wanted to skew towards more ramp and lands, since I could just find the other stuff, but having land and ramp to get to Sidisi is paramount. I'm not going full combo with her, the deck mostly exists to kill people with Phage the Untouchable, or Skitherix.
Brewing level-up moment: that Talrand all-the-bounces actually had a chance. Focusing on literally a single mechanic was pretty viable, in conjunction with an enabling general. Or maybe buying a precon: those things are kinda hot messes.
Thank you guys SOOOOOOOOOO much for this video, I am struggling to make a commander deck for my fiance and myself, this really has helped me find some kind of anchor to starting my deck. Im going for a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck :).
38 lands is a high land count to start with.I start at 35 and go down from there. There are just too many situations where a top deck land loses you an otherwise win able game. The higher your land count, the more draw you need to get through lands, but then you end up with a lot of land in your hands, from my testing 34 lands, 10 ramp and 10 draw ( 5 Cantrips/filtering 5 hard draw) is closer to the right ratio. The last thing you want is to jace's ingenuity and draw 2 or 3 lands.
I know it's a little of context but in commander duel you start at 38 and you go down only if you play zurgo or a low curve aggro strategy. A lot of decks have between 38 and 40 land even if 40 is consider a lot
I have found myself often at odds with a deck for what i want vs what the deck wants. The most extreme example of this is a four color EXCEPT green dect. That deck will beg you incessantly for green. I had actual arguments with a deck i built like that. Until i gave in and gave it access to, ( possible) five color mana. Mana birds, City of brass and that sort of thing. If you want a challenge in building a deck type this is in the top 5 of the hardest to accomplish. Doubly so if you try to keep the deck "No green". ;)
The lesson I'm still coming to terms to is not relying on your commander to fix a problem with your deck, my personal favourite deck (the second one I've made) uses Captain Sissay to find legendary cards I need, my deck runs 15-20 legendary cards so I'm finding what I want all the time, but what I've failed to do is make my deck consistent without the commander, my deck really suffers once the commander dies and shrivels up.
My play group was getting so optimised, and so competitive, and we stopped having fun. We decided to go In the complete other direction, and now, I have a 5 color token deck with craterhoof behemoth as the commander. The rules became: banned cards are allowed (except stuff like time walk), anything can be your commander, including an instant or something, if they are both legal commanders (by the earlier rules) you may have two commanders, but the next deck must only have one, don't make a deck that is meant to win fast, make one that prepares for 8 turns and then wins the next (my behemoth deck for example) don't overuse couterspells or removal (because it makes people have less fun [in our opinion at least]), don't take too long on your turn, and finally NO INFINITE COMBOS (unless they abide by all prior rules). So theres that, if you want to can do this the games are a lot of fun and are never really one sided, so everyone can win them.
Any of my people here from 2020? Around 13:30, Jimmy says "I want to mill myself isn't a win condition". I guess none of us could have seen Thassa's Oracle coming
With Thassa's Oracle, milling yourself still isn't the win condition, Oracle is. Self-mill turns Oracle on, but you still need that additional piece to win. On the contrary, milling an opponent is the win condition. Once they draw, they die, you don't need an addition step to win. That's what Jimmy's getting at. For the record, Lab Maniac was a thing when they filmed this, Oracle isn't some revolutionary concept that just came out. Self-mill into Lab has been a wincon for a while now.
How to build a commander deck: Commander: Maralen of the Mornsong Deck: 96x swamps 1x glacial chasm 1x ad nauseam 1x sickening dreams 1x dark ritual Done Skill.
Matt Bevilacqua played a deck just like this at my fnm, got first! Ran inquisition and duress (for blue) and bosejutu who shelters all and lightning greaves
Really loved this episode! As I, myself, have started building a new commander which is. Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper. I'm going with a aristocrats style deck. I was wondering if I could get your guys opinion on the card "Lifeline" in this style of deck.
Mana Ramp - 10
Card Draw - 10
Single Target Removal - 5
Board Wipes - 5
Standalone - a card that works on it's own or in concert with your commander. (25)
Enhancer - a card that either amplifies or is amplified by your commander, standalone cards or other enhancers. (10-12)
Enabler - a card that covers a weakness or a fills a gap in your strategy. (7-8)
Spottyfriend 10 mana ramp. From their previous video about making A mana base. Is the 10 ramp here would be the same as the rocks you re supposed to have ? Or is it 8-10 rocks then the 10 mana ramp?
Just feels like the 10 rocks alone isn't enough
20 board wipes :P
maan 101 i ran 13 wipes in a zurgo deck.
Troy Lambert How many fellow players in the playgroup are still your friends?
Doing god's work my internet friend
"I want to prevent myself from dying while making the opponent want to die." My favorite strategy.
Rhode Naros That's why I either play Nekusar or Kambal
I like to do that too. I also give them what they want after 30 minutes or so.
I want to die but I want to take everybody with me that's my favourite strategy
good way to live your life in general.
@@DonniesBoStaff why you hating on the nekusar player, i ask my group.. you're drawing cards because of me being here, i'm helping you out... *Wheels into another wheel, they take 28 for discarding a total of 14, and taking another 14 for drawing the other 14* guys? Oh you're dead
Funny, 2 years later and I still come back to this video for guidance. Been in my watch lated file for that long.
TheMagicMan23 same
I have a playlist just for MTG stuff I really like or come back to like this. I watch and listen to CZcams too much not to lol
I literally needed this video again..i hit deck builders block bad lol
im so glad i put it in there, keep forgetting the name of this video
As someone who has just started researching how to put together my very first Commander EDH deck, this video is a godsend. Thanks, west coast dudes.
Jeremiah Bachmann yo, 40 lands is the deck building norm to start with, seriously it's weird they said it's 38. 38 assumes sol ring and a overall, low mana curve the deck stops at. Use a hypergeometric calculator to figure out your decks mana needs. Sample size for your likelyhood of having enough lands will change depending if you are on the play or the draw but learn about hypergeometric calculaters which are really tools deckbuilders usually can not live without and magic players never talk about. well players other than Patrick Chapin don't talk about them
@Mathew Bryant In what deck does 40 lands make any sense? Who said that was the norm? 36 lands if anything is the max unless a deck strategy requires a lot of lands.
I play forty lands as a rule of thumb. If you have decent card draw, you won't run out of gas. Having lands available ensures you'll be able to cast that card draw.
Lands take up card slots. 33-38 works perfectly, depending on ramp
my moment was when I dropped the philosophy "if you only put good cards in your deck, it can't be bad."
I've watched this 3 times. I'm very versed in deckbuilding, but it helps to remind me of how to approach decks with the basics in mind. Thanks for a great video.
Same. This is hands down one of the best videos ever produced on the topic of commander deckbuilding. It's very clear and concise, with their trademark humor and flexibility in discussing the topics at hand.
I have probably had a few level up (or at least "aha") moments, but the one that I remember most recently is when I had a judge friend of mine help me with my Meren deck. My Meren deck was AMAZINGLY resilient, nothing stayed dead and everything came back, but I just couldn't close out the game. It turns out my problem is that I was focusing too hard on not dieing. In my case by spending my card slots on controlling my opponents, and I just didn't have anything (or enough things at least) that could go over the top and finally bring the game to a close. It's all well and good to do cool things, but you need to also have enough things to do that actually threaten to finish the game.
"I don't have a lot of mana ramp"
"Why"?
"My average cmc is 2"
You will still get mana screwed atleast once.
Make sure to check the More Info box to find all of the links we referenced in the show! Take your deckbuilding skills to the NEXTTTT LEVELLLLLLL
Want to bring us to the next level? Put a camera behind you showing us how you do that wonderful thing you do. Behind the scenes stuff is always next level.
The Command Zone
i really love watching your show, been watching and listening forever x3
but I have one thing that makes it really hard to use your content...
timestamps.
I think back and it's so hard to find exactly what I want.
gotta find the right episode and then hope I can find the right place.
timestamps would make it easier for me to go back and find the thing I was looking for
if your gearing for larger creatures inevitably what strategy is best for white
Hi from corona times
I think you've done a recent replacement to this video, haven't you? Like in terms of how many of what you MIGHT start with? It'd be cool to link to that video from here if that hasn't already been done.
Dec 2020 been playing for 2 decades and still watch this video everytime I build a edh deck
Because no one really taught me how to get better, I played every weekend for two years losing every game I played until I gained an understanding of the rules, interactions, theories for deck building and the like, but I feel like someone at the shop could have been not a jerk and told me something as soon as I started instead of having to spend 2 years losing.
I think the game play helped me with the deck building, but this video and many of them on this channel are my first time getting into commander. So, now I know how to do that too thanks to you guys and the guests you've had on game knights. Thanks!
Old school player, started collecting just after BETA. Took a break for a long time, came back and recently started playing Commander with the old friends. Just discovered you guys, recognized Jumbo Commander on one of your podcasts. Great podcast guys and will be watching you guys quite a bit. Nice job and keep up the fun casts!
I've come back to watch this video 3-4 times. I love it, and everything that it does for people who don't know how to build a deck. I would always make my decks SUPER endside heavy, and I would Jam pack my front end with ramp. But that doesn't really work with opponents who know what they're doing. The knowledge of curve is very important. It's so important to manage your decks thoroughly. Before this video, there were A LOT times in a game of commander, where I would think, "Damn, I didn't want to draw that." and now I have very few of those moments. Drawing sol ring in the late game is one of those moments.
"the bulk of your meat is gonna be stuff that works, with no help at all."
whoa
lol
Unbelievable Tactician!
Thats what she said.
I probably have 10-12 commander decks built ranging from Oloro, to Nekusar, to Damia and I still learn things from you guys. Thanks!
Thank you for this video! My decks have often felt off balance, but I could never quite figure out the issue because I nearly always play with the same 4-5 people. This has greatly helped me fine tune my decks and now I’m winning more frequently than I used to.
Just realized that I WASN'T subscribed to you guys. I've been watching your podcast religiously for months now, and even showed my non-magic friends that "Creative Process" episode a couple weeks back. I JUST hit that button because you guys reminded me at the end. One of the biggest "Level-up" moments I've had in commander is through the article on Edhsource.com. He talks about an important aspect of EDH: Scaling. How some cards are inherently better or worse just because we play a multiplayer format. I've learned so much from that and The Command Zone that for a couple months, I COULDN'T BUILD A DECK! I finally built a Kresh Deck that I'm very proud of, that has so many of the philosophies I've recently learned. You guys ROCK!
Something I've improved upon in building decks is understanding your decks weaknesses. Using this video's terminology, don't forget about enablers, and over time make them more accurate to help save the pitfalls your deck can fall into.
Word of advice, my first EDH deck, Kaalia of the Vast, albeit being made with the help of some very experienced edh buds had some slight consistency issues, but nothing too wrong with the meat of the deck (big bois, reanimation, speedy/protective voltron stuff for the commander). However what I did notice is that my worst match-up was blue, go figure I'm aggro and they're control, so I asked what enablers could get Kaalia past fucking counterspells. I found out about "stax" or player-restricting cards like Price of Glory (land destruction on instant speed players) and Defense Grid (mana-cost increase on instant spells) and cut some of whatever I had excess of, be it creatures and kill spells in that specific Kaalia deck or whatever, and it worked out brilliantly. Realize the greater image of how other decks can interact with yours (in a metagame) and what that means for the enhancers or enablers that you pick.
Balancing out a 100-card stack can be hard, especially when just starting to play in the format or being completely new to MTG, but when you have a favorite deck that you have been constantly changing for years and then at one point playing you realize that it plays exactly how you want it to play down to each slot, man it's worth it. That's the thing with TCG's man, deckbuilding is fun and honestly introspective--but don't forget the reasonings behind each term used in the template. Great video Command Zone.
Guys I know this is an older video of yours but as a new subscriber and new commander player I must say, as always your content is always on point, entertaining and wholesome with the level of information given. Thank you, it's all much appreciated. Peace ✌️
For me this has been the most helpful episode I've watched of the Command Zone. Can't wait to play my decks now that I've had a chance to retune them.
Every game I have a ramp card in my opening hand all my decks just perform sooo much better.
I know this video has been around for a while, but my big level up moment in deck building was when I realized that not every combo has to get you to victory to be good.
Stuff as simple as Wrenn and Six with a fetch-land in your opener gives your mulligan flexibility to even work with 2 land openers makes hitting curve with the right mana combinations through the first 4 turns or so. This kind of thing doesn't outright win you the game, but you're more likely to get into your midgame plan, which always makes for more fun games.
Just want to say Thanks for these kinds of videos. They are a real help to me for Commander in general and in the construction of my 2nd Commander deck. I built my first Commander deck back when the 1st Commander preconstructed decks came out, so it's been awhile, like about 9 going on 10 years.
"walking around. this earth. navigating spaces"
this whole short is giving slam poetry
Great episode. Your 'enabler' terminology helped me think about deck building in a new way. Especially the 'overlap' talk about Bane of Progress as a board wipe AND mana ramp in Rishkar. This opens my eyes to evaluating new Commanders in a new light; I had never even thought of the power of overlapping when seeing Rishkar for the first time.
You guys are the best thing for EDH on the internet aside from EDHrec. As someone who almost only played commander in my city it's beautiful to see what you guys are creating.
I hope that in the future you'll be creating unique decks and sharing them with us!
Thank you So Much for that video. I just understood my problem with a lots of my EDH deck. I put too many enhancers and too few standalone. Using your advices I improved my deck!! Respect from Montreal
Samuel Chabot Glad you found inspiration in the episode!
One year later this is some of the best advice I've come across for building great commander decks. Thanks Jimmy and Josh!
This is a really good guide for deck building. The point where deck building really clicked for me is after I built a Kraum//Bruse Tarl Tempo deck. Each card was carefully selected, tested, and replaced until I found a little secret. Redundancy is a double edged sword. You want redundancy in your deck so that you consistently draw the cards you want, but you want it to be varied to the point you don't have the same answer to one question. Running 10 counterspells in a control deck might sound like a good number, but if they don't each have a unique purpose, you'll find yourself flooded. By varying the spells into different categories (Mystic Snake can attack/be blinked, Disallow and Voidslime can hit abilities, Insidious Will can copy spells, Dissipate exiles the spell, and Counterflux and Render Silent keeps your opponents from going off.) You get a package in a package that makes each spell able to handle one scenario better than another.
I would say also, about 2 alternate win conditions that can function independently from your commander but can still synergize well.
My old Meta was super counter and hate heavy so alternates are a must.
Great video! I swear you guys have talked about this subject before (with numbers of cards etc.) but I could never find the episode again to go back and make notes. Maybe I dreamed it? I will certainly watch this one multiple times over the near-future while I brew new decks.
Good job guys, very thoughtful and comprehensive.
A grand moment for me is after a night of EDH with my playgroup, everyone was inspired to purchase brago (which is my leading commander[stax +Flicker control] ) for different decks that they have. It felt so good knowing that all the work I put into building that deck was good enough to inspire others who I'm my opinion are better than I am at MTG.
I feel like I'm a seasoned Vet for EDH and I still learned some things in here. Great video and easy to want to watch. Love the content!
I’ve been playing magic for one month and u guyz have made me so much better thank u
I don't see ramping as going down and picking speed like Jimmy, but rather as ramping up to a higher amount.
I see the idea of ramping as slowly accruing advantage piece by piece. Starting off with 1 per turn, then 2 per turn, etc.
"Ramp" is short for the card, Rampant Growth: one of the first mana-'ramping' cards to be widely used.
@mdiem *slams desk* Thank you!
moxen are the original ramp cards :P
You give up tempo to have a bigger turn later. Like playing mana rocks or mana dorks.
That's what he meant.
This could be the single most useful MTG deck building video on the internet.
The biggest eye opener for deck building was when I was building Nekuzar and Derevi and played a game after learning about synergy...went from losing every time because I wasn't doing enough to becoming a super threat to my friends and being killed first...then I learned about how important board wipes and force discard is.
Krosan grip is the cure for Vedalken Orrery since so many folks seem to like running it, although it's only good for green decks. Additionally, ramp refers to Rampant Growth- the first ramp card, not rolling down a ramp.
This is one that I know some people refuse to do (or rather don't do) but using online lists to help shape a deck. I know there's a good portion of MtG players that hate "netdecking" but I find that the internet is an invaluable resource for helping with building commander decks since I know there are lot of people out there who know how to build a deck better than I do, in addition to finding obscure cards that fit decks really well that I wouldn't have found otherwise (angelic blessing in Feather, for example)
Obviously a super late response, but I just wanted to say I have a Karametra deck focused on winning through combat with themes that include landfall and 1/1 counters and fleecemane is great include in the deck. Good cheap card for a land search that is aggressive and can stay on the board to help keep Karametra turned on after a board wipe, so there are for sure places cards like that can find a home.
This is a must watch for anyone (like me) whose starting to play Commander.
I honestly prefer to run more spot removal and fewer board wipes. A). because I want to save the panic buttons for real panic situations B). The game just has to end and when the board gets wiped so often that just does not happen.
This is a product of the meta game I play in so its certainly not universal.
I'd have to agree, in my circle board wipes are not common as most of us don't have enough time to play games of that length. Most of our decks have maybe 1 board wiping card, but not often more than that. Just due to our preferences.
@Tony N i gotta agree with you man 1 boardwipe means my uril voltron will eat him alive before he gets it xD hexproof indestructible color protection and creature protection means you gonna need to waste that boardwipe to take me out
But if your Meta has both wide and hexproof strategies, board wipes are a must.
I hit that perfect card in my Alesha deck last week with Hidden Stockpile from Aether Revolt! it really put in some work.
Tyler Poirier that card is sooooo underrated in every format I play it in!
What I found helped me was having a secondary theme as a back up in case the primary theme didn't do the trick.
My deck has three backup win cons
Ao i have been experimenting with a theme lately. I call it "Set-locked" Commander decks! You pick a theme from a specific set and build ONLY from that set. You ARE allowed "up to" 22 cards from outside said set, and they have been making tops at my locals too!!! I have made five guilds from Ravnica. Then some friends got into it and we decided that you would be allowed any "RETURN" to sets as well, and we ended up find some absolutely beautiful build templates this way. Just throwing you guys that for the funz! ;) Keep it up, and love your channel.
So glad I found this episode. Wish I'd found it sooner lol. Now I can fine-tune my Reaper King deck for it's new Stax incarnation.
I have watched this video probably more than 10 times. All deck stats start at 50:18.
Base deck stats @ 3:21, with explanation following.
Rough deck stats @30:20, explation soon after.
Thanks man
You can tell pretty easily whether an episode came out before or after Modern Horizons. Just pay attention how they react to the word "shenanigans". 7:46
One of the big changes to my deck building was when I was watching one of your earlier videos and you outlined the 10 card draw, 10 ramp etc guidelines. I never ran enough card draw in my decks and it punished me a lot without me realising. Ever since that my decks have been much more consistant. I think I had the issue because I was a standard player before and although card draw is still good there it's not essential. This is the first time I've heard you talk about the enabler et al. categories but looking through my decks I think I'm already doing well in that regard but I'm glad it's now something I'll be conscious of.
Same here, once I started to make sure I had around 10 card draw sources in my decks, suddenly they tended to fizzle out a lot less often.
Enough card draw really makes a giant difference.
My biggest deck building level-up came when a buddy of mine helped me to build my first real deck, Rith the Awakener. I had a shambled mess at the end, and when I wanted to improve it I tried playing a bunch of cards that didn't synergize with anything. He told me to pick one theme, one goal, and stick to that. It is the first thing I think of when building decks now, whether it be choosing cards to run or making any cuts.
I'm trying to build a commander deck for the first time where my commander is Sharuum the Hegemon and so this was super helpful :D I think I found out that I've over committed to the idea of having artifacts to a point where I had no win con other than Platinum Angel. I did keep the card in there but I got some removal added along with couterspells and board clears so this really helped!
My "level up" moment is playing Teferi-Stasis Lock and realizing that you need to be able to destroy or exile permanents.
The other moment was playing a Knowledge Pool-one spell per turn lock deck. That is where you really learn about the concept of the stack.
I think the tips you guys lay out here are fantastic! I think deck building is the most appealing part of the Commander format since there is so much room for creativity and personalization. Fixed metagames in other formats push out pet cards and synergies with powerful cards that typically can't all fit into one, streamlined deck.
I think one thing you guys addressed that I wish you would have talked a little more about is inspiration. I think there are some phases of coming to EDH. The beginning thing is being inspired by all the big haymakers. You're telling me I can play all the Planeswalkers ever, in one deck?! That alongside format-specific things like Voltron-style decks. Next, you begin to appreciate attrition and formulate (consciously or not) the break down for a well-oiled deck, such as you've laid out. But there's something that happens after years of playing with the same cards -it get's old.
So I think what keep me coming back to EDH again and again is being inspired. I love looking for quirky interactions and ensuring my deck is able to have fun regardless of what my opponents do. Coming up with unique ways to facilitate my board is part of the fun of the game. When your opponents have to read the card there is a novelty to the game and as long as you manage to keep your turns short enough and few "destroy all lands" or "discard your hand" effects to a minimum, your games will be rewarding whether you win or not because of the (partial) success of your deck building adventure, or even the knowledge that you couldn't make it work. Because even failures can be fun as long as the idea was inspiring!
It would be really great to see you guys build a deck live following these flexible guidelines. This video was great and exactly what I was hoping you might put together.
Awesome video. I just started in MTG and i was trying to make a commander deck but my lack of knowledge was huge..with this video my ideas are very much clear. thx a lot!
Really appreciate these deck building tips! I generally seem to suck at building decks, or at least they seem to get pretty thoroughly destroyed on xmage and at edh league.
You know I've been a huge fan for years now, but how did I just realize that Jimmy has a beautiful baritone/bass voice? I literally got chills when they were doing the intro.
I've watched this episode a few times now. So good!!! Thanks for making this episode guys!
Great video guys only been playing mtg for a year and commander for 6months and your channel has helped me so much
This was extremely helpful.
I have played commander for years now, but the hard numbers work as a great frame of reference - I usually just went with what feels right and tune it up or down from there.
And usually that resulted in something comparable - but putting in enough carddraw, removal etc from the start should make the deck tuning much less about "making the deck work" and more about "making the deck work better/enable the game plan".
Thank you so much for this!
I am currently in the process of building my very first commander deck from scratch, and this is so helpful.
Who's your commander?
My K&T of Meletis deck leveled up my ideas on how to appear innocuous. I really believe there is nothing more powerful you can do in commander than seem harmless, be left alone and have a late game blow out win. K&T are great for this as people still think of them as group hug & they ramp everyone right into the late game. I also think players build a threat priority on players turn 1 - 4, and don't update that list until bombs hit as they become concerned with their play lines. I cut sol ring, mana crypt, and pick cards that achieve the same effect but don't provoke emotion. (Constant mists!) Slow roll those first turns, make a little defense, don't let beefs happen with you, let things go then bring to light a triumph of the hordes. I don't think I'll ever play a deck again that is trying to keep board parity with whoever did get their sol ring. This won't work on a very familiar meta where people catch on, but it kills when you're new or have a large pool of opponents.
Just want to point out that Steady Progress will ALWAYS ramp your experience counters if you have Mizzix of the Izmagnus in play. When you play Steady Progress, Mizzix triggers and gives you an experience counter, then SP resolves and you proliferate the counter (because you don't need to target or announce anything before resolution).
You guys should type up an article that covers the main points of these eps, that would be perfect to review for newbies who want to get in to Commander. My local store is having a Commander tournament this Friday and I am so excited, thanks for the tips!
Since I started watching this show, my win rate has at least doubled. Very good episode for new players. :)
Nice use of "No Country for Old Men". Excellent show as well!
My big moment was overcoming that 3rd pitfall you mentioned, lack of focus. As a competitive player for eternal formats I often try to just get more value than my opponents. things like jund is great in modern, but the same philosophy can't apply because you have more than one opponent. what "value " meant changed. So instead of filling decks with just good cards, now my deck does a thing.
To be fair you can value people out in EDH. Meren can play a lot like a Modern Jund deck, for the easiest example.
My big moment was when I made a commander deck based on proliferation and infect. Infect was one of my favorite mechanics back in the day. Little did I know at the time how much it was despised and how broken it was in commander. Nevertheless that is where commander deck building really clicked for me and all my decks since then I've learned to study the little details And nuances in the cards
For ramping i always thought of the card putting up a ramp to help you climb the mana stairs ...
I come from Legacy as my prime format, so my biggest AH HA moment was how I viewed efficiency differently. Cards that are good in legacy are always good in commander.
my biggest "level up" (so far, still pretty new, started playing last spring) moment was when my friend who's played magic for like 8+ years looked through my deck after it played like trash one game causing me be obviously annoyed with it (the deck is usually a pretty big threat but eh ig every deck has the potential to just breakdown immediately) and said "there's nothing wrong with this deck, everything in here works well, I genuinely don't know what happened". I gave my walking magic lexicon of a friend an issue so big he couldn't figure anything wrong with it. of course the partial tilt came from the fact like 2 nights before in the same building it granted me my best night of edh (in a w/l sense) I've ever had , after for months showing up to edh having fun, inevitably picking up 3rd and 4th places every pod, I got 1st, 1st and 3rd which was game changing for me.
Are you going to do more game knights? I really liked that show
They said in the podcast that they recently finished filming one :)
this. i can imagine making these is a ton of work
We're working on the next episode right now! They take a ton of work but the plan is to release one episode per month.
Michael Sagi Yeah we want MORRREE
Michael Sagi it's monthly
Other cards that overlap:
Martial Coup: Get 1/1 Soldiers and wipe the board.
Mana Reflection: Get a 2 for 1 on mana production.
Umezawa's Jitte: An equipment that can boost and gain life.
Sunforger: Casting and Tutoring up instants you might need, when you need them.
So I am a modern player by trade that is trying to learn commander. I do find the format very intimidating though. This video helped a lot thank you so much.
7 min in and i have so many things to say.. Did not realize you guys counted enchantment /artifact removal and part of the single and wrath parts. I tend to just leave one card open 1-2 card in the the deck for that stuff and then on top of that have 5 removal and 5 wraths. tho my meda is pretty creature heavy so i have been moving away from single and anding a few more wraths. lol... freaking love this show lol
Watching this episode was my big deck building level up moment.
This is a really great episode. I learned a lot and appreciate your time and effort. I have been trying to put together my karlov deck and have been struggling. Hopefully, now I can tweak and tighten the deck up.
Do y'all have a podcast??? I need to listen to this all day👍🏾👍🏾
1:34 for main topic. Nice short intro this video, guys!
Just threw a deck together to play EDH for the 1st time, was fun but I`ll definitely look at this to make a better deck!
What a good episode!! It's really close to what I suggest to people when building decks. I'll share it whenever someone has doubts about how to build their decks. This kind of videos is what people need to see when they are "Oh, look, this cards looks fun, I'm gonna put it in my commander deck", without questioning the use and value of the card.
So in thinking about a krenko mob boss edh deck I want to build, I’m thinking mono red doesn’t need as much mana ramp, especially since goblins mostly have low cmc, so I need more draw or at least cycling which is hard as hell to get in red. Thinking about incorporating that new enchantment Experimental frenzy that lets you play off the top of your deck. That’s pseudo draw
Years later, this video is still useful
great episode all around. so much detail. Need to watch again to get it all to sink in!
Great video. And I lived the latest episode of Game Knights. Also, I wanted to say thanks for all the information you guys provide. I recently became a Patron and ordered from CardKingdom to show my support for what you guys fo.
I have a 8-Hack(ish) edh themed deck, and I tried to balance it with the tips from this episode. The "Hack" cards can be classified as Enhancers, since they do nothing alone? Actually they are my main Win conditions.
Thanks for the episode! It was awesome!
Jimmy talks about consistency, but is always behind during Game Knights. lol
Philson He's just extremely unlucky with mana... :(
He is consistently behind
@@teleshar No he just keeps bad hands and gets punished
@@stupidrock0153 he's a red player, keeping questionable hands that can become amazing with the right draws is pretty on color
So, what you are saying is that he is always behind? Sounds consistent to me!
When the was building Sidisi Undead Vizier I realized that I wanted to skew towards more ramp and lands, since I could just find the other stuff, but having land and ramp to get to Sidisi is paramount. I'm not going full combo with her, the deck mostly exists to kill people with Phage the Untouchable, or Skitherix.
Brewing level-up moment: that Talrand all-the-bounces actually had a chance. Focusing on literally a single mechanic was pretty viable, in conjunction with an enabling general. Or maybe buying a precon: those things are kinda hot messes.
STORAGE LANDS! My favourite lands making it onto the big scene!
Thank you guys SOOOOOOOOOO much for this video, I am struggling to make a commander deck for my fiance and myself, this really has helped me find some kind of anchor to starting my deck. Im going for a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck :).
38 lands is a high land count to start with.I start at 35 and go down from there. There are just too many situations where a top deck land loses you an otherwise win able game. The higher your land count, the more draw you need to get through lands, but then you end up with a lot of land in your hands, from my testing 34 lands, 10 ramp and 10 draw ( 5 Cantrips/filtering 5 hard draw) is closer to the right ratio. The last thing you want is to jace's ingenuity and draw 2 or 3 lands.
What commander and what kind of deck are you even playing?
38 is the starting point for me and it can only go up from there.
I know it's a little of context but in commander duel you start at 38 and you go down only if you play zurgo or a low curve aggro strategy. A lot of decks have between 38 and 40 land even if 40 is consider a lot
I tried with 35 lands and barely got any so I boosted it to 37 and got enough.
I usually play 36-38 lands.
I always start at 40, then remove 1 for every 2 good ramp, and 1 for every 3 ok ramp. Only after testing do I add/remove from there.
I have found myself often at odds with a deck for what i want vs what the deck wants. The most extreme example of this is a four color EXCEPT green dect.
That deck will beg you incessantly for green.
I had actual arguments with a deck i built like that. Until i gave in and gave it access to, ( possible) five color mana. Mana birds, City of brass and that sort of thing.
If you want a challenge in building a deck type this is in the top 5 of the hardest to accomplish. Doubly so if you try to keep the deck "No green". ;)
The lesson I'm still coming to terms to is not relying on your commander to fix a problem with your deck, my personal favourite deck (the second one I've made) uses Captain Sissay to find legendary cards I need, my deck runs 15-20 legendary cards so I'm finding what I want all the time, but what I've failed to do is make my deck consistent without the commander, my deck really suffers once the commander dies and shrivels up.
My play group was getting so optimised, and so competitive, and we stopped having fun. We decided to go In the complete other direction, and now, I have a 5 color token deck with craterhoof behemoth as the commander. The rules became: banned cards are allowed (except stuff like time walk), anything can be your commander, including an instant or something, if they are both legal commanders (by the earlier rules) you may have two commanders, but the next deck must only have one, don't make a deck that is meant to win fast, make one that prepares for 8 turns and then wins the next (my behemoth deck for example) don't overuse couterspells or removal (because it makes people have less fun [in our opinion at least]), don't take too long on your turn, and finally NO INFINITE COMBOS (unless they abide by all prior rules). So theres that, if you want to can do this the games are a lot of fun and are never really one sided, so everyone can win them.
Oh, also this isn't some group uug game either, there are wins and losses, we just extended them past 3 turns
Any of my people here from 2020? Around 13:30, Jimmy says "I want to mill myself isn't a win condition". I guess none of us could have seen Thassa's Oracle coming
With Thassa's Oracle, milling yourself still isn't the win condition, Oracle is. Self-mill turns Oracle on, but you still need that additional piece to win. On the contrary, milling an opponent is the win condition. Once they draw, they die, you don't need an addition step to win. That's what Jimmy's getting at.
For the record, Lab Maniac was a thing when they filmed this, Oracle isn't some revolutionary concept that just came out. Self-mill into Lab has been a wincon for a while now.
dude game nights are awesome guys im glad i found you
My friend has a Ravos and Reyhan deck he uses Fleecemane Lion in and it's an absolute monster late game, and a huge bother early.
59:33 you obviously never rode a horse
How to build a commander deck:
Commander: Maralen of the Mornsong
Deck:
96x swamps
1x glacial chasm
1x ad nauseam
1x sickening dreams
1x dark ritual
Done
Skill.
Matt Bevilacqua love this 101 card edh list
lol ooops , just really needed that 1 extra swamp man.
Matt Bevilacqua played a deck just like this at my fnm, got first! Ran inquisition and duress (for blue) and bosejutu who shelters all and lightning greaves
glacial chasm keeps you from dying, also works if you play king as even if you die you can still technically win
Matt Bevilacqua I'd cut 3 Swamps for Mox diamond, Mana crypt and Rain of filth. The reasoning is you get to go off the same turn you Naus
Really loved this episode! As I, myself, have started building a new commander which is. Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper. I'm going with a aristocrats style deck. I was wondering if I could get your guys opinion on the card "Lifeline" in this style of deck.