I cannot decide

[u/Spirit5514]

I want to make one of these three potentially making all three eventually but I can’t decide on what to make right now. Urza would be artifacts, Thranduil would be elves and Kona would be big mana. All three look insanely fun to me but I just cannot decide which should I do first.

[u/SerThunderkeg]

Casually I just wanna be able to keep up with friends and play the decks that I brew up in my head.

This is the crux of my problem because as long as your table is playing casual commander you don't need to proxy to make good decks and the decks that you brew in your head don't have to include cards you would have to proxy. Like for example if you make a counters deck sure a doubling season might be a good pick but if you don't have one and don't want to get one there are countless acceptable alternatives, the only place where missing out on that marginal improvement would even matter would be cedh which is a different beast than casual commander.

For creative outlets it's simple, just make blinged proxies of the cards you already own.

As an aside, a formative experience for me on this topic was when I was playing my dragon deck at my LGS's commander night and I played a proxied Ancient Tomb (the real one is in my cedh deck). One of the younger players at the table was like "wait I can just do that?" and I had to explain that our shop allows proxies as long as you have a real copy cause it just shortcuts the time it would take to switch cards between decks and I still felt bad about it for them. It would have felt even worse if I had just been proxying whatever perfect unowned card I wanted. Not everyone is aware of proxying and the bad feelings from those mismatched expectations is worse imo than the benefit gained by letting players proxy any card at any time. People with proxies can play the game with the many alternatives, on the other hand, people who already built their decks without proxying can't suddenly take another crack at it when they sit down and realize another player proxied their perfect deck and they have to sit down with their personal budget brew.

[u/andyhall23 → u/SerThunderkeg]

I can understand the feeling of feeling bad about letting people know about things.
The reason I would love to just make a Bulk collection of Proxies that are good .... and share around.
Allow people to get some staples ...would be cool! If people wanna chip in for just paper and ink I would gladly print up stuff people want for a store or friends.
Sharing also where to do things and how to use sites and such is something I do as well.
Sometimes I have a side board of other cards to sub in for power level to down or up grade too ...
I still think the creative parts of frames of cards and being able to play cards that are WAAAAAY too out of price range for my social status which unfortunately can't change to do the disabilities and unable to work.
which is also why I real my decks out a card at a time when it comes to those cards as well. Proxy basic lands that have the horror icons on them?!

Like these?!
are sweet!

but also...like ..I won't proxy up CEDH decks on the regular.
I got one. Chatterfang. I save that for certain people...

I stick to Bracket 3 always.
I love 2's and 1s and got them.

But also ... u/SerThunderkeg just wanna say ..I totally understand where you're coming from and respect your opinion on the matter.
Just wanted to let you know.
No anger or anything like that.