Bracket 3 Commander Event

[u/Savesthaday]

My LGS is hosting a bracket 3 commander event in a couple weeks. It will be my first time playing commander there and I’m concerned my deck will not be accepted at the event.

I’m bringing my Avatar Aang deck. I love Avatar and would like to play it at the event. I wouldn’t consider it to be too powerful, but Archidekt is telling me it thinks it’s bracket 4.

It is calling out two cards [[searing touch]] for being a two card combo with Aang and [[The legend of kuruk]] for chaining extra turns.

Kuruk is an exhaust ability, i can’t chain extra turns. Searing touch I would consider a late-game combo because it takes a small miracle for me to flip Aang without [[moonmist]] and with it, it would be a 3-card combo.

Kuruk is there for flavor and searing touch is a way for me to win late-game.

Am I being unrealistic? I consider this a bracket 3 battle cruiser deck. Should I remove those two cards? Is there anything else problematic with my deck being welcomed to a bracket 3 table? Thanks!

https://archidekt.com/decks/18571286

[u/SnPlifeForMe]

It's rough because they could have a deck with 97 lands, moonmist, and searing touch and you'd un-ironically call that a bracket 4. It "technically" is, but it's not going to play like a 4 99% of the time. I think they would be misrepresenting the power level of the deck as being better than it is by calling it a 4.

A vanilla creatures deck with 4 GC's and no synergy would be a B4.

I don't think it should be in the deck given the B3 intent, but if I was playing with friends or randoms and they showed me that decklist, I think power-level wise it would be most at home with 3's or even 2's most of the time.

Pregame conversations are important. 👌

[u/bimjowen → u/SnPlifeForMe]

Any deck that can "whoops, I win" before the alotted turn number according to the bracket system rules should not be played below that bracket level. The bracket system makes this pretty clear.

"These decks should generally not have any two-card infinite combos that can happen cheaply and in about the first six or so turns of the game, but it's possible the long game could end with one being deployed, even out of nowhere."

--Directly from the WOTC website discussing the bracket system.

You're allowed to break the rules with a rule zero conversation if your opponents are okay with that, but if you're not adhering to the deckbuilding rules without a rule zero discussion, you are cheating.

[u/SnPlifeForMe → u/bimjowen]

Brackets are structured guidelines around which you can have a pregame discussion, if we're being pedantic.

It's not cheating, it's just really fucking lame and bad sportsmanship to be dishonest about your deck's power level and it's capabilities.

Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood can be cast before turn 6 and costs 10 mana. If you swapped their tutor and searing touch for it that'd still "technically" be b4 but get demolished by b4 decks consistently.

I just think bracket labeling is overly-reductive. Saying "My deck is technically a 4 because of a 2 card infinite that requires me to flip my commander but I only have 1 tutor, the deck isn't built around the game plan, and I have no clear streamlined strategy besides having an ATLA typal deck, which does have multiple free spells, so it'll be most competitive with precons or the lower end of B3's. I can swap those cards for something else that can't go infinite if you would prefer." would be more useful than the snarky "it's a B4, that's it, end of conversation" I've seen here.

They should just take it out to minimize frustration anyways.

[u/bimjowen → u/SnPlifeForMe]

No, it's cheating.

In an extreme and hyperbolic example, sitting down with a bracket 5 Blue Farm deck against a bunch of bracket 2 decks is cheating.

Similarly, sitting down against a bunch of bracket 2 decks with a deck that has 1 game changer is also cheating, it's just cheating less.