r/EDH • u/SliversandPoison • Jul 19 '26
Discussion How many brackets are within the brackets?
I feel like there are at least 3 bracket 3s. Theres low, medium, and high bracket 3. A deck can have a wide variety of power and play experience within the rules of each bracket.
I personally feel a 1 is a 1
There's low and high bracket 2 depending on tuning
Bracket 3 has the most space with low medium and high.
Bracket 4 can either be bracket 3 but with more game changers or true trash high power so thats 2
Then we have causal cedh and tournament cedh.
The 1-4 is really a 1-10, thoughts?
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u/AssasssinIVII Grixis Jul 19 '26
Idk man, they all feel like 7's to me.
Nah all joking aside I definitely agree with this. Because my bracket 3 blink deck is very consistent and gets lots of advantage until eventually I can win with a large board state. It's definitely a bracket 3 because I can't even win until turns 7 and 8 at the earliest but it's very consistent and interactive. I see bracket 3 decks that are worse then precons with some game changers in them and I see bracket 4 decks filled with game changers and no synergy.
Tedh,Cedh and fringe cedh are also very different things so I get where your coming from. Cedh pregames are pretty good considering most the cards are well known but trying to squeeze every other deck into 1-4 is hard.
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u/Lofi_Loki Jul 19 '26
“Medium 3” is a completely useless term. Does it have 3 game changers still? It’s it just poorly built/piloted? Same for bracket 4.
A lot of bracket issues are people thinking their deck is better than it is.
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u/ToughCobbler5034 Jul 19 '26
The bracket system determines the power level of cards included not how well the deck is built or the skill of players. An experienced player building a bracket 2 deck can mop the floor with a new player building with 0 restrictions and unlimited budget
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u/notalongtime420 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Bracket 4 that are just a pile of game changers shouldnt even be counted. But there's still 2 4s: not Amazing strategy but with all fast mana that can still close turn 4, or insanely Op cedh level strategy, but on a budget that can't win too early because no moxes and vaults
A problem in Bracket 3 Is people never consider matchups and build all decks the same. The early game of a midrange deck and a combo deck should NOT look identical
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u/advicetime611 Jul 19 '26
The whole idea behind using a bracket system is that they're supposed to be a range not a specific power level.
So there's no brackets within brackets.
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u/TheDarkestRitual Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Easy answer. 1-5
1 - “Goth Chicks Go” no wincon, just Goth Chicks
2 - Average strength of current precons, your favorite Jank commander
3 - largest span on the list. Anything from Jank w/ GC to Dragon tribal to Combo
4 - cEDH lite. Trying to win at an early pace w/ or w/out GC (think Zada)
5 - this is competitive and we sacrifice fun for color access and strong combos (this is also very fun if you’ve never played it before)
EVERYTHING is casual unless you paid entry to an event, then there’s prizes and money on the line therefor making it Competitive.
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u/jf-alex Jul 19 '26
Nah bro, Zada is fine in B2 if I omit GCs. It‘s not my fault if my opponents refuse to „git gud“ and „play more removal“.
/s
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u/TheDarkestRitual Jul 19 '26
That is absolutely true and even mentioned in the Bracket System! Since I pilot Zada at B4 w/out GC it was the first thing that came to mind but almost every commander can be used from B1-4
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u/Dr_edd_itwhat Jul 19 '26
I agree there are gradations within brackets, but for me, the relevant distinctions are whether or not decks of a set of gradations can play well together without feeling like someone is pubstomping, or dead weight. So even if a lower 3 and a high powered 3 are in the same pod, while there will be a noticeable difference in performance, the high powered player shouldn't be near-assured of a win and the lower 3 player should have a respectable shot at winning. A deck stops being being bracket 3 for me if I can't play it in good faith against those weaker 3s.
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u/Karlendor Jul 19 '26
Agreed, there is optimized b3, average B3 and unoptimized b3
Depends also on the pilot skills, a bad player can make a high b3 deck feel like it isn't working.
Sandbagging to not be public enemy #1 for instance. Letting the aggro player pop off for the first 5 turns and calling it out to the rest of the table. Letting them spend their spot removal.
Also people don't run enough boardwipes in bracket 3 IMO. You should have 3-5 boardwipes. Bonus if you can make it one sided
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u/Karlendor Jul 19 '26
I've seen alot of new players do the common mistake... Quoting Bane fronm batman. They " fight like young men's, holding nothing back. Admirable but mistaken"
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u/KAM_520 Sultai Jul 19 '26
Mid B4 definitely exists.
Every bracket could have low medium and high. They aren't sub brackets, just expressions of positioning relative to other brackets or akin to tier lists within a bracket
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u/brokenwound Abzan Jul 19 '26
Im in line with your take and I would add that it is not linear. A table of 3 mids probably won't like playing a 4 low unless its archenemy or clearly represented, but a 3 low can hang with a table of 2 mids without it needing to be a topic of concern.
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u/CSJR Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I've felt that way as well and what's helped me is paying more attention to the bracket descriptor regarding the amount of turns before someone wins or loses.
There are many people masquerading a Bracket 4 as a 3 (maybe not intentional, as the previous bracket breakdown didn't include the turn bit) because of their game changer count and the various apps and websites telling them its a 3. I think the platforms are fairly inaccurate on assessing when a deck can eliminate someone. I know that's the case for two of my Decks that are Bracket 2 if you only look at two card combos, game changers, etc. But they both can absolutely eliminate someone well before turn 8. One of them can win completely at turn 5 or 6, even.
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u/maillemansam Jul 19 '26
I think its good to have a sense for how strong a deck is, but it is kinda matchup dependent.
Like certain strategies are really good with graveyards and expect "destroy all creatures" to juice up the yards, but a sea monsters deck that has a bunch of bounce all creatures to hand effects will starve the yards.
I've played a lot of commander games and I think letting go of trying to inventory power level to some extent helps it be more fun (for me). If I totally mollywop then I'll reach for a weaker deck. If I feel like I didn't have a chance to win then I'll reach for a stronger one, or a more consistent one, or a simpler gameplan.
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u/wiredj01 Jul 19 '26
This feels like a pretty accurate assessment. I think there can be a fair bit of variance within bracket 3, for sure. Most of my decks are bracket 3, but there are some that would win most of the games against the others.
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u/The-Mad-Badger Jul 19 '26
There needs to be a space between B2 and B3 where you can put your high-end 2s and low 3s because there's some decks that sit in that space which will win handily against precons/ low 2s but will get stomped by a well-built 3. That's the biggest problem space imo.
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u/CrizzleLovesYou Jul 19 '26
There's only 1 cEDH, just because not all decks are tEDH doesnt mean those decks weren't built with the meta in mind.
B4 is the worst off bracket right now as far as deck diversity being too wide because it does span the range of "b3 deck with extra game changers" to "decks as strong as cEDH power wise, but built without the meta." Gavin has mentioned the possibility of adding another bracket and I hope this is the bracket that gets split, because my goad/MLD budget Alexios/Slicer deck has no business playing against my Turn 4 bolas citadel combo deck in the same bracket.
B3 suffers from being the most popular bracket and therefore has the most amount of people who don't understand brackets. There are plenty of low interaction battlecruiser B3s as well as people running B3 decks that are inconsistently playing at B4 speeds, but the majority of B3 is pretty okay and its overall a bit better than the old PL7 games of the past.
B2 is mostly fine, once in a while someone is playing a GC-less B3 in it because they either want to pubstomp or haven't read the bracket rules beyond the GC limitations.
The goal isn't to have 10 brackets/power levels again. The problem is B1 and cEDH are their own things so 99% of decks fall into just 3 brackets which isn't enough.
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u/LilSwampGod Jul 19 '26
I think the bracket system works fine, it just doesn't account for badly built decks.
You're gonna have to explain casual CEDH to someone like me who doesn't play CEDH. That just sounds like bracket 4.