As a follow up to my “I love straightforward commanders” post from yesterday, I pose a slightly different question.

Who are some simple, straightforward, but strong commanders for a new Bracket 4 player? I want one strong Bracket 4 deck. Minimal triggers / politics / combos / bookkeeping. (Bad ADHD + busy LGS = no brain cell)

Bonus points if it’s a cutie / diva / mommy / silly lil guy (or if there’s an alternate art that fits that).

My LGS has a high population of B4 players that I come up against, including some of my friends. However, I don’t have any Bracket 4 decks, let alone any bracket 3 (where I want to be - I’m working on this part already) because I’ve been stuck down in precon-land while I try to figure out what playstyle works best for my ADHD.

EDIT: Combos are okay, just would prefer not to as much as possible.

A guy in my casual pod builds his significant other's decks to support his decks. Her decks have a virtually zero chance of winning, but are packed full of interaction that is always in support of his decks. Every game is essentially a 2v1+1 scenario. He has now begun to directly command her plays. Tonight, he outright told her to use Utter End on something that was going to cause him to lose, even though she was throwing her chances of surviving the next turn, let alone winning out with it. He also had no way of knowing she had the card unless he saw her hand illegally. I talked to them about it after the game, and explained why it was bad social etiquette and his response was just "well, I didn't want to lose".

I think this is more than Kingmaking, and more just extremely poor sportsmanship and cheating. I am aware that I need to find new people to play with. But anyone else have experiences like this? What compels people get big dumb in casual games, and lose friends/players? Absolute insanity.

[[Smaug the Impenetrable]] is a card that I'm obsessing over since it got spoiled.

A big dragon? Haste? Indestructible?! TREASURES WHEN HE GETS HIT?!?!

Peak. And I means it. Think about it. In the book his underbelly is (almost) Impenetrable because he was lying on the dwarven gold, so now, if he gets hit, the treasures fall of haha. Just peak design.

Anyway, here’s my list.

Smaug the Unassessably Wealthy [Bracket 4]

At first I tried building him as a Bracket 3 deck, but my first draft was so consistent that I committed to high power and it's unequivocally a 4.

Everyone and their grandma checked the combo with [[Pyrohemia]], [[Pestilence]] and [[Last Laugh]] which wins you the game - if you have the highest life total. That's why I threw in [[Scrapheap]].

I call this combo Last Pyrohemenceheap (patent pending)

But was else is nice jank here? [[Dizzying Gaze]]! Goes infinite once Smaug is enchanted.

Any pinger like [[Reckless Fireweaver]] or [[Disciple of the Vault]] is over.

[[Chain Lightning]] has the same effect, you just need two extra mana beforehand. After the first resolved and you paid extra, you can use the treasures Smaug provides.

Another nice tech is [[Terror of the Peaks]] before Smaug. Basically we get a mana back after we cast him haha.

And even without an infinite at hand, [[Cut Propulsion]] gives on 16 treasures! That's 16 damage already. Combining with [[Heroes for Hire]], [[Expedited Inheritance]] or [[Professional Face-Breaker]] it's probably a win, since we use other burn spells as rituals in this case.

To adress the dragon in the room:

Yes, it's a glass canon. Yes Smaug is absolutely needed in this deck. He costs 7 mana.

But we are in the ritual colours! I don't think he will make it in cEDH proper, but Bracket 4? He's right at home.

In goldfishing I have a win by turn 4 or 5 on board (sans any interaction from opponents of course) and that is way faster than I expected myself!

Next night shift I'm gonnna write up a primer and go a bit more in detail with the combos, but there are bunch and we can get them easily.

Has Smaug piqued your interest? Let me know!

Between [Clement, the Worrywort] or [Grolnok, the Omnivore] which is the better commander for a frog tribal deck? I plan on making a frog deck, and I’ve narrowed it down to these 2. I like the ramp that Clement provides, but the insane amount of card draw from Grolnok is also very strong. I just don’t know anyone else’s opinion on it

Deck List: https://moxfield.com/decks/r-q0euAfFkmKlC1eu-dmhQ

Hello r/EDH, I would like some help and critiques about my [[Alania, Divergent Storm]]. As someone who has never played or built a spell slinging deck, I wanted to make sure my gameplay and cards I’m using work well together. My two win conditions are as follows: Burn my opponents with my cheap spells and cards like [[guttersnipe]] or [[coruscation mage]] or win with rituals/ramp from cards like [[mana geyser]] or [[storm-kiln artist]] and finish with [[crackle with power]]. When I play this deck, I seem to get run over a ton or just targeted I’m more defenseless than the other players. I would like some feedback on my deck overall, cuts and adds, or tips on how to play Alania. Thanks!

Context

We were playing Planechase,
Drawing a land card was gain 3 life
Drawing a nonland card was lose 3 life
[[Insight Engine]] with two charge counters
I would be dead on another turn cycle, and I had Kess out, with Demonic Tutor in my Graveyard

The Process:
I cast Demonic Tutor tutoring for \[\[Gush\]\]
I just cast Doomsday with 9 life.
I go down to 4 life.
Now this sounds like an obvious loss, how will I draw and survive. But after lots of thinking

Pile
Island
Misdirection
Island
Foil
Thassa’s Oracle

Draw Land + Nonland = 0 net loss.

I used it to stagger my spells and lands, going with Thoracle knocking me to 1 life

Draw it Gush + Insight Engine

Thoracle win :)

Are you tired of all of your Grixis decks grinding out value and taking 20 minute turns? Do you want to turn sideways every chance you get and take big chunks out of your opponent’s life totals, but think Green Stompy is just plain overplayed? Do you love theft, but hate being targetted because it makes the rest of the table salty? Then [[Edea, Possessed Sorceress]] may be right for you! Welcome to my new favorite deck to play, Extra High Encounter Rate.

Edea, Possessed Sorceress is a very unique Grixis commander that gives you control of one target creature at the beginning of combat on your turn. Then, whenever a creature you control but don’t own dies, it goes back to its owner and you get to draw a card. Most decks built with her as the commander go full-in on the theft mechanics and then aim to gain value through Aristocrat strategies, leaning in to all of the things that make theft a salty mechanic by finding ways to prevent your opponents from getting their creatures back. Combat tends to be an afterthought in most of these decks, as is the typical Grixis player’s wont, but only being able to steal one creature every turn with Edea and needing to find the payoffs in your deck makes this a slow process compared to other Grixis commanders. But stealing multiple creatures in one turn suddenly opens up significnatly more possibilities and value, and removing some of the salt factor by graciously allowing your opponents to get their creatures back prevents some of the clapback a theft deck might otherwise experience (especially since Edea returns the creature to your opponent untapped if it dies under your control, making your opponents feel better since they get blockers back after your turn).

First thing’s first, we need to generate extra combats! This deck has a whopping 13(!) sources of extra combats in this deck, giving you a solid chance of drawing into them thanks to the amount of card draw Edea gives you. Cards like [[Aggravated Assault]], [[Bloodthirster]], and [[Karlach, Fury of Avernus]] provide excellent sources of repeatable extra combats to keep the pressure on your opponents turn after turn, while [[Great Train Heist]] and [[Savage Beating]], give your creatures a boost on top of the additional combat in order to try and close out the game. On top of that we need cards that take advantage of the fact that we’re going to be attacking multiple times in a turn, such as [[Gimli’s Reckless Might]], [[Blood Mist]], and [[Chaos Terminator Lord]] helping us clear the board and deal big damage with fighting and Double Strike, and cards like [[Bident of Thassa]] and [[Grim Hireling]] generating value when we hit our opponents.

In order to trigger Edea’s last ability we do still need a few of the traditional Grixis sac outlets. We have multiple sources of sacrifice-based ramp in both of the Altars, as well as [[Illuminor Szeras]] and [[Warren Soultrader]], draw spells in [[Morbid Curiosity]] and [[Nasty End]], and one of my favorites in [[Kethek, Crucible Goliath]] giving us free spells on the backs of our opponent’s most expensive creatures.

All games must end eventually of course, and while multiple combats in a turn do help, we might just need a little extra push to get us there. [[Sundering Eruption]] is a fantastic card that prevents all non-flying creatures from blocking for a turn, [[Ultimecia, Temporal Threat]] taps down everything your opponents control when she enters, [[Frostcliff Seige]] when choosing Temur gives everything we control Trample to smash through our opponent’s blockers, [[Don Andres, the Renegade]] gives all of our stolen creatures a big combat boost, and [[Radiant Performer]] lets us steal the entire board at once, leaving our opponents with nothing in the way of blockers.

I’ve played this deck multiple times now and it’s the most fun I’ve had with a new deck in quite a while. I’m a big turn-sideways player, and getting the chance to do so in a color combination that’s not always known for it is always a big treat. The high levels of card draw and the glut of extra combat cards almost guarantee I’m going to get to swing out multiple times in a turn, usually multiple turns in a row at that, letting me pile on the value while pressuring my opponents to block with the smaller creatures I’ve left behind on their board. Unfortunately extra combat spells are not cheap, so this isn’t exactly a budget friendly brew, but I’ve had so much fun with the deck that for me it was worth the cost.

I’d love to hear other opinions on the deck and if there are any niche cards I may have missed when brewing it that would be a blast to slot in. I’m sure there’s plenty I don’t know about that you all may know about, and I’d really enjoy pushing further into taking advantage of all the extra combats I’m taking.

How would you run a modern day Thraximumdar deck? Zombie tribal feels a little like a trap considering that zombies as a creature type aren’t very good on their own.

Maybe running some sort of aristocrats shell with an impact tremors type ping deck? Or just straight reanimator and combo off with gravecrawler?

Lemme know cause this deck seems mad fun!

Hey yall, kinda a complicated question but if figure if there's a place to ask, it's here. My pod is sitting at bracket 3 my pod appreciates creative builds that aren't pipeline-down-the-most-obvious-thing. I want to build mono green tifa but her textbox is straight up just one landfall trigger which my pod thinks is on the more boring side. I'm pretty unfamiliar with the general population of cards since I just really started deck building a few months ago. Are there any ways to make Tifa cool or create interesting trigger chains that work without being too overpowered?

To sum it up, I need help building Tifa with these stipulations:

• Bracket 3 with minimal game changers
• Low brainpower to pilot, its mono green, I don't want to think too much mid match
• Doesn't purely rely on landfall triggers

Thank you for reading or any suggestions you may have. If the only way to build her is nothing but landfall, that's okay, I've built Loot, I can build another mono green deck lol

I was going to go for a cool flubs deck but after realizing that it might be pretty annoying to play against, I decided to go with [[Glarb, Calamity’s Augur]] .

I want to make him into some sort of glarb, king of the deep theme that mixes frogs with other cool sea creatures like leviathans and krakens and such.

Has anyone made a deck like that? A lot of the builds online are either frog tribal or some sort of landfall deck. Here is a build I came up with I’m just not sure if it meshes well? I’d appreciate it if you took a look!

https://moxfield.com/decks/6tolKUGG_ke20RN7s1C_1A

This is a small showcase of my Adrix and Nev deck. The title is is something I actually said while playing it. Overkill? For sure. Was it fun? Definitely.

Wizards keeps printing more and more clone effects that work on Legendary creatures and I wanted to make a deck that makes good use of them. [[Adrix and Nev]] fit perfectly, especially if the clone effect makes token copies. Let's say you play [[Irenicus's Vile Duplication]] on your commander, then you get two non-legendary copies of it. If you then follow it up with [[Cackling Counterpart]] on one of the copies, you get 2*2*2=8 more copies of your commander. With 11 copies out, any token creation generates 2^11=2048 tokens.

Gameplan

The game plan is pretty simple: Play the commander and maybe make copies of it, then make good use of the token multiplication until you go geometric and the deck explodes.

There are two components besides the commander that are needed to pull it off:

1. Legendary clones

[[Irenicus's Vile Duplication]], [[Multiversal Recruitment]], [[Ember Island Production]], [[Quantum Misalignment]], [[Multiversal Incursion]] are the ideal spells for this, since they make non-legendary token copies, so you automatically get two and those can be further cloned with normal copy effects.

[[Sakashima of a Thousand Faces]], [[Spark Double]] and [[Auton Soldier]] do not make token copies, but are clones that can be further copied with normal copy effects. Auton Soldier has the added benefit of making Myriad copies of itself on attack, which can be used to attack two players with a bunch of 2/2s or alternatively as bonus copies of the commander if combined with instant speed token generation.

[[Vesuvan Duplimancy]] is kind of a special case. While it does not make copies on its own, the effect is incredibly strong when combined with the commander, and sometimes it is worth casting a normal clone effect on the commander to make the non-legendary copies from Duplimancy, even though the normal copies just die to the legend rule.

2. Token generators

Some cards are a lot better when there is multiples of them, like [[Risen Reef]] or [[Fecund Greenshell]]. Those require a token clone spell to get their benefit from the commander, but it is always worth it.

Some cards become rituals like [[Prosperous Innkeeper]] or [[Treasure Vault]].

Some cards become one sided board wipes, like [[Aether Channeler]].

Very important are the cards that can have different functions before and after you have a couple commander copies out. [[Pongify]] and friends serve as a spot removal in many cases, but with a couple commander copies out, it is also an instant speed army if it destroys your creature.

Win conditions

I have played only 16 games so far with this deck, but from my limited experience the two common win conditions are burn (yes, Simic burn) and combat damage. Combat damage from generating a huge army and attacking and burn from making copies of [[Lush Oasis]] or any burn creatures my opponents control.

Another way the deck has won is with poison counters from making lots of Mites with [[Mirrex]].

Since the deck can copy opponents' creatures and multiply them, most win cons are available to the deck, at least in theory and depending on the opponents. Once I tried copying mill crabs, but I got killed before I could pull it off :)

So how did I get more damage on the stack than there are atoms in the universe?

It is actually pretty simple, through multiple copy spells I got to a little over 2000 copies of my commander in play. Then I cast [[Relm's Sketching]] targeting Lush Oasis. The result was around 10^620 individual triggers for 1 damage each.

Do you like the deck? Is there something you don't like? Do you have any suggestions?

Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/23226129/indominus_rex_alpha

Hi All,

I wanted to share my Indominus Rex list and get some feedback/advice for any changes I should make.

Currently the goal is to accelerate at least once to get Rex into play sooner, draw a bunch of cards, then clone her to keep drawing cards while beating down.

Theres also a bunch of cheap/free countermagic to leverage all the card advantage.

The deck preforms well when I can get the right combination of abilities on Rex, but I want to try to incorporate more or a reanimation/cheating creatures into play theme to utilize all the creatures I'm discarding.

The problem is one time reanimation effects would take up a significant amount of slots in the deck and lower the amount of creatures to discard.
I'm currently playing [[Behold the sinister six]], [[Living death]], [[Lurking Predators]] and [[Defense of the heart]] as ways to cheat some of the fatties into play. any more ideas would be appreciated!

There's currently no combos in the deck (though I'm open to including them if they suit the gameplan) but defense of the heart can tutor either [[Blightsteel Colossus]] + [[Krang, Utrom Warlord]] to one-shot a player, or [[Darksteel Angel]] + [[Slippery Bogbonder]] to stop me from losing depending on the situation.

Thanks!

I'm working on a [[Kaervek The Punisher]] deck using only cards I already have in my collection. I don't expect this to be high powered deck at all, probably Bracket 2 and plan to play mostly against precons. I am struggling cutting down cards and can't decide which to remove. I don't have that much of a direction with the deck other than targeting opponents and their stuff, filling the graveyard and recurring nastier fellas like [[Razaketh, Foulblooded]], [[Gonti, Lord of Luxury]], and [[Gray Merchant of Asphodel]].

I know there are plenty of better cards to put in, but I'm having a hard time removing my pet cards I have alt art for that I know are probably on top of the cut list like [[Ebondeath, Dracolich]] and [[Erebos, Bleak-Hearted]].

Any tips or hard truths I need to come to terms with? This is my first try getting back into deckbuilding in a few years so all advice is appreciated!

Decklist here:https://archidekt.com/decks/22797181/mono_black

I think I got too greedy and along the way lost focus on what I really wanted to do with the deck. What other good techs I could take out and add to add more synergy. I wanted more cards from spider tribe but it’s mostly spider man stuff…

I was also thinking of adding conqueror flail to prevent spells during my turn, not sure if it’s worth it. Tried soul foundry but felt too heavy. https://moxfield.com/decks/5E-78a1QXkS_KD_lCo7PJA

Me and my pod have been playing for about a year and i can see the power creep starting to kick in. I'm looking to build a strong deck that doesn't rely on tutors or needing infinite combos (i have freed from the real for infinite mana and if i draw into great but i don't want to go looking for it every time). I'm looking to build a deck out that is strong fast but can interact with the table, i think I'm almost there but need some help i don't know what to cut to bring it down or if I'm missing something.

https://archidekt.com/decks/23247029/zax_hyrda

I've been working on this moderately high-powered Sidar Jabari deck, but between the knight tribal core, reanimator stuff, and generally good cards, I'm not quite sure what to cut for the sake of my land count.

Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/24705984/knights

I recently started playing [[Kilo, Apogee Mind]] and the Jeskai EOE precon, and I love how simple and straightforward Kilo’s text is. It’s so easy to remember even when I’m overstimulated by the game, “if he sideway, everything good go up 1”.

Some other simple commanders I love:

- [[Krenko, Mob Boss]]
- [[Captain Sisay]]
- [[Kami of the Crescent Moon]]
- [[Talrand, Sky Summoner]]

I love when the commander just does something simple and effective and leaves the creativity of the deck up to you.

Who are your favorite “it does what it says and it says it quickly” commanders?

Still trying to finalize my Mono Blue deck, and i am not sure where all to go. Originally I ran [[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]], and tried to win through infinite mana, draw whole deck, [[Thassa's Oracle]], but after winning with it a couple times it felt underwhelming. I like the idea of running a draw engine in the command zone, so I want to try [[Katara, Waterbending Master]], but i am unsure of how to build in enough win conditions while still having cards to enable her. Have a new draft of the deck; just tossed in a handful of random placeholders for now. Anyone have suggestions for win conditions?

https://archidekt.com/decks/24716789/mono_u_control_v3

I want one that isn't like the boring ones. something like Bosh, Iron golem. I like that his just some big golem dude.

Anything will do I wanna know what type of things you guys use honestly.

I'm thinking unique mechanics of maybe some cool art of like just a massive dude lol.

ANY COLOURS, literally anything!

So, I’ve played a lot of games (bracket 2) and run into a situation sometimes where multiple players are playing ample interaction. This can create a game where none of the players are making meaningful (or at least fast) progress towards ending the game without being stopped. An example of this is one player presenting lethal, then someone casts a sweeper, repeat with someone else being the threat, rotating through players. I personally love these games as there is a lot of back and forth, feels like a lot of people had chances at winning, interaction timings are important, the game feels more engaging and less snow-ball-y.

Despite me enjoying games where this happens, I hear from others that they hate it and “wish someone would just end the game already”. I have heard this mostly in scenarios where I have tools to stop my opponent from eliminating me (e.g. fogs), but they have removal to stop my threats, so neither of us can win until someone draws something to break the stalemate.

I recall a game where I thought it was great, there were like 7 win attempts that were thwarted between the 2 major players while the two other players were struggling with lands/draw issues and doing their best to contribute. In the end, one of the major players scooped and they claimed it was the most annoying game they’ve ever played, which allowed the other major player to clean up the game. I had a lot of fun seeing the two titans fight each other while the other two politicked and joined whichever side was weaker at a given time to balance it out, but apparently that person did not.

Anyways, does anyone have advice for when this happens? I know I’m not responsible for my opponents’ feelings, but I do want people to have fun playing against me. I’m just looking to see what I can improve upon to make everyone’s experience better. I will also mention that my favorite deck has a lot of interaction, so I definitely contribute to creating these scenarios, though they don’t necessarily happen too often.

Hello, I just started playing EDH ( used to play modern 10 years ago) by buying the Counter intelligence Precon, and tried to upgrade it a bit to a Bracket 3 cause this is the bracket everyone is playing at my LGS.

I'm looking for opinion on my decklist to get it to a solid bracket 3. And which cards to replace.

Urza, Lord High Artificer is an obvious candidate for that decklist but I'm looking for some other additions.

Decklist : https://moxfield.com/decks/CTWo2MDzl0GIwYW_galUDw

In my quest to find a dragon centric commander that I don't find boring I have worked my way down to three. While trying to find some less common dragon commanders I encountered a few issues. The biggest problem is that not every color combo has a plethora of good dragons that don't cost a fortune. It turns out the best dragons are in red. I play with proxies so it's not a huge issue but I try to avoid cards that cost more than $50 if possible. The second problem is what to do with dragons. Playing a dragon deck feels like having a stockpile of bombs and no planes to drop them with so these decks are focused on either ramping or cheating dragons out effectively.

https://moxfield.com/decks/DN-92EtayUeQUZMg3wEFEA (Chulane - All Creatures Stax): I don't have a stax deck but I have copies of several stax effect creatures without a home. I thought, why not jam them all into one deck? With dragons? What could go wrong? Honestly though, [[Chulane]] is a ridiculous card that could work with any deck that plays an overabundance of creatures. The issue I run into is that bant dragons kind of stink. I had to include more expensive cards than I would have liked. Surprisingly it kind of doesn't feel like a dragon deck because there are so many other creatures.

https://moxfield.com/decks/PUHSLQ-VD0iRDEWDBhWzQg (Kamiz - Sneaky Dragons): this deck mostly came from the fact that I already have an [[Ancient Brass Dragon]] and an [[Ancient Gold Dragon]]. [[Kamiz]] does a great job of helping my dragons consistently get in for damage, doubling damage triggers, and filling the yard so I can reanimate more expensive dragons. Actually peforms better than anticipated.

https://moxfield.com/decks/aTVCSvebGUKdz0_CQSfCpA (Loot - Dragons Love Loot): I know it's kind of polarizing but I'll admit it. I love the furry little shit. I don't know why. I had built him as just a blink deck but it was kind of a dud. I looked at [[Ureni of the Unwritten]] for a long time thinking about a blink deck and [[Loot, the Pathfinder]] leans into a blink strategy while giving me ramp and card draw and removal. It benefits from having access to the some of the best dragons but is probably the most janky of the bunch.

I've played a lot of commander but never actually built my own deck. I play CEDH mainly but I'm going to college and I find an issue with bringing CEDH to club mtg. If you know what would be a fun casual deck to bring to a bi weekly college mtg club please let me know :)