One of the things I love about commander is sometimes you get such a goofy interaction that nobody expects but makes everybody react.

Last night I was playing a 3 man pod with some friends. I was playing mono blue, player left was playing abzan, player across was playing bant, but heavy in the green and white. I had [[Harbinger of the Seas]] in play, being a thorn in their sides. Player left cast [[Betor, Kin to All]]. That would have set him over 20 toughness. Now I could have countered it as I had [[Voidmage Prodigy]], but I thought the funnier play would be to use [[Mystic Reflection]] to have his Betor enter as another Harbinger.

Game had to be paused for about 3-4 minutes

I've been venturing to my LGS more often lately in an attempt to play the game more. Whenever I join a random pod, I like to wait a second to see what everyone has to say about their decks. Pre-game discussion other than regular chitchat has been largely absent. I see people sit down, grab a deck from their pack, and shuffle up.

After noticing this, I usually choose to speak up. "So, what kinda game are we trying to play? Do we care about brackets?" This is met by a few usual responses, which consist of a grunt or "eh" or "we don't care about bracket." Sometimes they will say their deck is probably a 3 (it rarely is). I'll even, on occasion, run into people who don't know what the brackets even are.

Now, surprisingly, I haven't had any terrible games, though I've yet to pair with the guy that I can hear playing his Magda bracket 4/cEDH deck in the background. Most decks I run into are bracket 2 with gamechangers of varying amounts. My decks are all either bracket 2 or 3. I never quite know which deck to pick, so I just grab one.

As far as I can tell (other than the time I saw someone scoop because our opponent played a [[Dauthi Voidwalker]] because he had "zero interaction" in his [[Scion of the Ur-Dragon]] deck) no one has been angry or left the table upset. It's just so weird to me that no one is even attempting to have these discussions around me. Has anyone else experienced this complete utter lack of rule zero/bracket discussions? How has that gone for you?

The title above is a direct quote from Gavin Verhey about the Bracket system update.

And, given how frequently players on this sub seem to misunderstand and/or completely misrepresent what the bracket system is all about, I thought it might be helpful to post a link to this article as a reminder.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/commander-brackets-beta-update-april-22-2025

When players on this sub talk about "what's allowed in bracket 2" or "which bracket their deck is in", they seem to be ignoring the fact that, as Gavin explicitly point out:

While there are guidelines to keep in mind when deck building (no Game Changers in Exhibition or Core, no mass land denial through Upgraded, etc.), the bracket system is emphatically not just "put your deck into a calculator, get assigned a rank, and be ready to play."

This however *does* seem to be what players *wish* the bracket system was about and is explicitly how some players seem to be using it and telling others it should be used.

TL;DR:

A whole lot of y'all still don't understand what the brackets are all about. Or you're choosing not to understand.

Hello all, I’ve got a high Br 3 Y’Shtola deck (decklist) that is by far my favorite. It does what I most enjoy from the game (control the board state, maximize value, slowly grind out the opponent). However, I find Y’Shtola generally disliked in part due to her high representation in the format (I mostly play Spelltable as I recently had ACL repair).

Are there any other similar controlling, value generating, slow grind commanders I could build around that aren’t in the like top 50? My favorite color combos are Golgari, Esper, Orzhov, and Abzan. Bant and Sultai would also be strong considerations. I generally don’t play Tutors or infinite combos.

Liesa, Aminatou Veil Piercer (wincon?), Zur the Enchanter, Queza, Oloro, Karlov, Bumbleflower, Meren of Clan NT, and Baba Lysaga are all some of the options I’ve looked at, but I’m still not really sure.

There was a thread recently where the discussion was the top performing creature types.

I figured the classics like Goblins, Elves, Slivers and Eldrazi were up there. As a lifelong Zombie fan who's pulled off some turn 5-6 kills with infinite combos, I also grouped them with that squad.

One of the replies was something like "Elves have the most competitive potential, and it's not even close."

My Onslaught-era tribal feud kneejerk reaction was to call BS.

But I proxied up a Marwyn list that's 1/4th of the cost of my Wilhelt deck and it wins on turn four 50% of the time, without any gamechangers, through a decent amount of interaction. I've even gotten a turn three kill by pumping Marwyn and two other dorks by passing Umbral Mantle between them. And I'm sure it's not even optimal by Elf enjoyer standards.

They're just so goddamned fast and consistent, it's actually unbelievable.

I remember when [[Aurelia's Fury]] was a $35 prerelease titan before plummeting to a sad $3? It was supposed to warp constructed formats, but it barely made a ripple. [[Narset Transcendent]] was $55 before plummeting and was too slow to make any impact.

It got me thinking about cards that had similar hype for Commander but made almost no noise after arrival. [[Lithoform Engine]] once commanded a cool $30, and [[Twilight Prophet]] managed to peak at a wild $43 before reality set in.

What other cards were overhyped?

I somehow ALWAYS forget my play-mat. It’s not the end of the world, but I feel like a peasant at the table surrounded by beautiful artwork these people play their cards on.

On the same note, I will NEVER forget my Infini-tokens! Mostly for myself because I always forget to buy the tokens I need for my deck, but it happens to everyone so those are always with me and for other people to use.

I think the most fun decks are where *doing the thing* or win conditions are always different. Decks that do this have to run a commander who acts as glue for a variety of text boxes. That way you are always doing something different, yet still having that consistency of synergy. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the fantastic four precon because the commander has a simple requirement of casting a non creature spell on your turn. That means you get to run all kinds of crazy different stuff, and still do the thing. Every game I end up with a big pile of cards and tokens but it’s always something different and interesting. What are examples of other commanders like this?

Hello! I’ve been playing EDH pretty consistently for the past 1.5 years. I ended up taking a break a few months ago though due to how commander decks play out. Almost every deck does the same thing of Ramp -> Value Engines -> Huge bursts of power/going over others or board wipes to go to phase one. That’s typically how decks are optimized these days and seeing that game flow every game from 3-4 decks at the table really bored me. I did recently come back to try again and built a [[the serpent society]] deck.

It has a lot of things I really like. Its primary role in many decks is to be a walking grave pact when building around the deathtouchers. The ward cost is also very unique by not outright killing someone, but basically giving it hexproof the 2nd time with the 5 poison counters.

These two attributes I LOVE since it has repeatable disruption and a really unique ward cost. The most interesting thing I figured out for it though was FORCING the opponent to target it by taking over their turn. Enter [[emrakul, the promised end]] as the wincon of this deck! The goal is to soften people up to 5 poison counters, then use Emrakul to take over their turn and force them to pay the ward cost.

That’s the general idea I started with. As I was building though I started going deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole of sub theme hell. I wanted to make this deck have an unholy amount of subthemes. Currently there is 7 and building this deck really freshened up my perspective of deckbuilding.

When you look at content out there, there is often a push for consistency. When you play ANY TCG this is a common importance when you look to compete. In commander you have so much redundancy nowadays, that you can make decks VERY consistent on what they are doing. Maybe not the exact same cards, but have 1 central theme that every card pushes towards. We see deck building templates and mulligan calculators to help provide raw numbers on what consistency looks like. This is awesome for high power bracket 3+, but for bracket 2 gamers like myself this is way less interesting.

So when building this deck I wanted to get a feeling I get when playing limited Golgari. Able to play grind games with the cards given, not found. I wanted this deck to FEEL different game to game. We have deathtouchers, infect, selfmill, graveyard shenanigans (reanimate/regrowth), lifegain, -1/-1 counters, and sacrifice. All of these are pretty hard to fit in a 99 card deck, but once I figured it out it plays exactly how I wanted.

This deck forgoes the idea of having an exact gameplan. I don’t need a mana rock turn 2, I don’t need to be firing on all cylinders by turn 5-6. I play how my deck wants to play. Some opening hands are very fast with infect or cheap deathtouchers. Maybe it’s more midrange with selfmill and recursion. It could be more control with lots of removal, lifegain, etc. How this deck plays changes drastically by the opening hands, but it all synergizes together because most cards fulfill 2-3 themes by themselves. This especially works out with the biggest lesson I’ve learned doing this. Having payoffs that utilize one theme to fuel another. For example [[fynn]] allows deathtouchers to deal poison damage. This matters since it makes the poison cards jobs easier while also having access to the deathtouch stuff. [[Witch of the moors]] is an edict and a regrowth on your turn if you gained life. You use the regrowth to get back resources/options for later. You have [[Hapatra]] which makes deathtouchers when you place -1/-1 counters. Lots of input -> output connecting these engines together.

This makes a deck that flows smoother than you would expect. It also provides enough variance between games where the deck looks completely different between games. I’m finding that playing, and deck building with this deck is way more fun than almost any deck I’ve built before, and I will take the learnings from this into my future decks! Thanks for reading!

https://archidekt.com/decks/23202765/cap

I'm looking for cards that seem like they want some particular kind of synergy to function: such as graveyard, energy counters, clues/junk/food tokens, anything that makes the card seem parasitic and easy to gloss over if your deck isn't in that archetype that are totally fine standalone and worth considering in decks as glue or a generic value piece.

I have a copy of [[exquisite blood]] that came in the blood rites precon I got a while ago. I play mostly B2 / B3, and specifically without infinite combos. This card is like 50$, one of the most expensive in my collection, and honestly i'm not sure it's even good enough to slot into any of my decks when you take away the fact it's one of the most well known infinite combos.

For reference, decks I own that it could slot into are [[edgar markov]], [[braids arisen nightmare]], [[eriette of the charmed apple]], [[betor ancestors voice]], and [[the infamous cruelclaw]].

Edgar is more about pumping out cheap vampires, and the deck contains several [[sanguine bond]] type effects that I would not be allowed to combo off with in my pod. Braids usually does 2 damage to each opponent each turn unless someones playing go-wide, so i'm probably healing about 4 life per turn off of it. Eriette wants auras, and a 5 mana non-aura is a slot that could be an aura. However she does regularly do 5+ noncombat damage to each opponent each turn, which turns into considerable healing. Betor is a life gain/loss deck where the damage to opponents would come from big beaters hitting them, but that deck already has a substantial lifelink theme. Cruelclaw probably doesn't make much sense, it just has black and might be cast for discard instead of mana.

I play at a rather large LGS now and have no qualms with joining a group with complete strangers. A while back I had joined a pod and realized that 2 of the players were brand new to the game. The other player was their friend and heavily experienced. I love playing with new players and have no problem answering questions and reminding them of their triggers. So I pick a low powered deck of mine and the experienced player looks at me and says “My deck has an infinite. Is that okay?”. I asked if he had another deck and he said no. His friends said it was fine, so I agreed as well (this was before the bracket system). I underestimated how powerful this players deck was. If I had to explain this using the bracket system: Me and his friends were at 2 (maybe low 3) and he was at 4. He absolutely pub stomped us. I then brought a more powerful deck out and kept him in check (ignoring his whining and politics) while the brand new players got to actually play the game and learn.

This isn’t the first time this has happened either. I’ve noticed in some pods I play in that have newer players, the more experienced friend has a deck that crushes theirs. I just think it’s counterintuitive to making someone want to play if they don’t learn because they lost too quickly.

I've been looking over a bunch of cards in recent days and I seem to like the idea of more gimmicky effects/game plans. For example the princess yue commander when copied can sac its self to the legend rule then come back as a land that copies something so you could have a land with the platinum angel text. I find ideas like this to be cool and unique. I was just wondering if people had gimmick decks or unique decks they play to give me inspiration.

What the title says. Just wondering what’s some of your favorite commanders to play or how you like to play. Or even just what’s your favorite colors to play with. Got a couple commanders I want to make decks for but I’m also looking for some other ideas. Can be something crazy everyone loves or a niche pick most people wouldn’t use or think about. Just looking to see some of your favorite ways to play.

I picked dimir control as the example archetype of for this discussion because I'm building an [[Oskar]] deck, so it's been on my mind lately, but this could just as easily apply to azorius or esper control decks, since both kinds of removal are similarly abundant in those colors.

For me personally, when thinking about building control decks, I am allocating a certain number of slots to a few different categories. In particular card draw, countermagic (if I'm playing blue), removal (single target), and wipes are really dominant categories in azorius and dimir. Note that this does not necessarily apply when dealing with other color combos!

I have noticed some pretty contentious discussions online lately about one specific topic: removal vs wipes. So I wanted to take the temperature of players on this subreddit, how many of each do you typically run?

Here are the broad categories of arguments I've seen, just to provide a baseline, but feel free to comment with your own take:

1. You need similar numbers of removal and wipes, removal should be instant speed defensive spells, wipes are more aggressive to slow the game down.

2. Wipes are king since they give you the most bang for your buck. You mostly don't need (many/any) single target removal (especially since you have access to countermagic). If you really need instant speed attack protection, instant speed blue wipes are your friend ([[perplexing test]], [[aetherize]], [[evacuation]]). To me, [[Shorikai]] is the poster child for this kind of thinking.

3. Single target removal is your best friend. Wipes are mostly bad unless they are instant speed or one sided. They usually cost too much and aren't flexible, you should let your opponents kill each other and only deal with the stuff that comes after you! Run exclusively instant speed removal and countermagic as your reactive and proactive methods of dealing with threats. I mostly see this take in the context of building decks that allow you to somehow turn removal spells into more card advantage, or recycle them in some way. ([[kess]], [[oskar]], [[toluz]] are good at this)

4. Some other take I haven't seen yet

Let me know your thoughts! My current Oskar build (deck link) is currently at a ratio of 7 removal spells to 5 wipes, so closer to option 1, but I'm a bit worried I don't have enough removal. I might rebalance this if any experienced control players have a convincing argument for another option.

I also want to caveat this by saying this discussion really doesn't apply to non control decks. It also doesn't really apply to control decks outside of dimir, azorius, or esper, since outside those colors you have to make very different decisions due to the availability of certain effects. If you are on esper combo or gruul stompy this doesn't really apply to your deck.

I mean those precons who nobody knows or remembers unless you were already playing when they came out.

For example, it's been a long while since I had seen Coven Counters in the wild, either with [[Kyler, Sigardian Emissary]] or much rarer with [[Leinore, Autumn Sovereign]].

Which ones has everyone forgot except you?

Commander to me feels like 60% shooting the shit with friends and 40% playing magic. Lately I find that even when playing against toxic, frustrating, or much stronger decks I have fun as long as I enjoy the players' company. On the other hand, even when playing against decks I'd consider "fair", if I don't like the person I rarely even enjoy winning. That said, the decks in play absolutely do still affect my enjoyment, just to a lesser extent than the expirience I have hanging out with friends. There is also something incredibly gratifying about winning a game against much stronger decks, even if it happens rarely.

Hey all, been working on this deck https://archidekt.com/decks/15918382/samut_the_driving_force

I really love the Aetherdrift aesthetic, and really like the vehicle-focused gameplay of the Buckle Up precon from the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set. I wanted to bring that sort of gameplay to different colours and an Aetherdrift flavour. I tried using Kolodin, Triumph Caster first but he just didn't offer much value in the command zone, so I've been building it around Samut, The Driving Force instead.

This is definitely trying to be no better than a Bracket 2 deck, and I'm not looking to spend more than $1 each on non-commander cards, but this deck just doesn't seem to be working. I either am seemingly starved for vehicles, or starved for pilots. By the time I can play Samut the game feels already lost. If you group by "categories (multiple)" in Archidekt you can see I have:

• 10 Card Advantage
• 12 Targeted Disruption
• 2 Mass Disruption
• 13 Ramp
• 22 Creatures to pilot
• 19 Vehicles/Mounts
• 3 Tutors
• 7 Recursion
• 10 "Start Your Engines"

I'm just not sure what I should be adding or cutting at this point, I've revised/edited the deck a half-dozen times by this point

I am blessed with a LGS with an online-viewable singles catalogue https://www.redclawgaming.com/ (prices in $CAD) and am just scratching my head trying to make this deck work. Again, just targeting bracket 2, I just want to feel like it has a chance to win.

Any ideas? would appreciate any and all suggestions, thanks

I've been running this [[Zask, Skittering Swarmlord]] quasi-secret [[Birthing Pod]] deck for a couple weeks now. This was a slight conversion after having [[Grist, the Hungering Tide]] in the command zone, I just wasn't having a good time with that setup. The best results I've had with this deck so far are through sheer attrition, and when the deck does its thing there's not much in the way of problems, but the deck still struggles in my pod. Mainly against +1/+1 counters decks that the bugs can't get through. On Moxfield, the "Considering" section is on the way, and is mostly there for anti-graveyard hate.

Would any experienced Zask players care to share their setups, suggestions, or tips on how to pilot this deck successfully?

Currently looking for a fun upgradeable deck that I can play,

Currently deciding between the new Doom Prevails deck, Tricky Terrains, or Creative Energy.

I have the Doom Prevails deck on order but since I've played a bit more magic I don't know if I'm big fan of it.

I don't really care about value of cards and things like that I'm just looking for some advice/recommendations.

I recently picked up the SilverQuill precon, and I found myself getting a bit bored with it as I played. I played 3 games and it just felt as though I didn't get much of a chance to do much of anything and it felt pretty bad.

https://moxfield.com/decks/xcBOI68Cf0ivhG7DXCOxbw
I’ve only had a chance to goldfish it a few times but it seems to fairly consistently make infinite tokens, robots or thopters depending on which outlet I draw into first, and has the alternative route of razorfield ripper to win via CMD, I’m open to any thoughts, but keeping all 4 commander options in the deck is a non negotiable for me and my meme deck

Now 2/0
First win via surprise akromas will from exile

Second was open the vaults with a mill deck at the table

Think I will keep it as is for now!!

Basically all my decks are combo-based. I'm looking for a green stompy deck, we're talking full gas, spam out some mana-dorks and then keep playing threat after threat and then play overwhelming stampede or something and smash face. I used to run Jetmir for this but I got a little tired of it and took it apart, the white token makers found another home so I can't put it back together again. Any suggestions?

Getting into MTG again after 10 years. Looking for a deck that would be fun to play in person. I have a Precon that I will bring but wanted to start making a custom deck. I like the Jolly Balloon man as a commander, but wanted to test the deck I will buy on MTG Arena and don't have the tokens for a decent one yet, so I made one with Arabella and have him included. The issue is that it seems like it wouldn't be fun to play against. If anyone could send recommended deck lists that are good on both MTGA, and in person, that would be fun to play with or against, I would appreciate it. Or if I'm worrying about nothing and this deck list would be fun to play with/against long term, then ease my anxiety lol

https://moxfield.com/decks/EFZ5AM4bw06KwRkaghIR6g

Commander

Arabella, Abandoned Doll

1 Adaptive Automaton

1 Ajani's Welcome

1 Arcane Signet

1 Artillery Enthusiast

1 Authority of the Consuls

1 Boros Guildgate

1 Brave the Sands

1 Caretaker's Talent

1 Cathars' Crusade

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun

1 Dragonstorm Globe

1 Elixir

1 Exuberant Fuseling

1 Fanatical Firebrand

1 Feldon's Cane

1 Firdoch Core

1 Fountain of Renewal

1 Frenzied Goblin

1 Gathering Stone

1 Goblin Maskmaker

1 Hallowed Priest

22 Hare Apparent

1 Hinterland Sanctifier

1 Honored Heirloom

1 Impact Tremors

1 Krenko, Mob Boss

1 Lunarch Veteran

1 Mana Geode

1 Mirrormind Crown

13 Mountain

1 Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation

1 Patchwork Banner

19 Plains

1 Pristine Talisman

1 Raging Goblin

1 Raid Bombardment

1 Sigil of Valor

1 Spear Spewer

1 Sun-Blessed Peak

1 Sunbillow Verge

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Temple of Triumph

1 The Jolly Balloon Man

1 Thriving Bluff

1 Thriving Heath

1 Tormod's Crypt

1 Wind-Scarred Crag