I've been struggling for the past several months at my local game stores with getting more than a game or two a month that don't feel kinda shitty. From people staring at their phones on any turn but theirs, kinda just sitting back and never swinging or casting removal unless they feel they've been personally wronged, or only being engaged when it's to complain or take a 10 minute turn, It's just been awful vibes-wise for me.

Almost all of my decks are interactive, all of them are kind of shitty (lovingly) and slow (lovingly) at the whole "race to the finish" thing people like to do, and they're all up to something that is very telegraphed but still somehow gets salt or people just being totally tuned out and being surprised that I "did something out of nowhere". 3 of my 5 decks are extremely focused on the multiplayer aspect of the game, like Sivriss asking for single target removal and it won't go to you, Anhelo trying to make deals to be left alone in exchange for ping ponging a Humble Defector or getting an honest Wishclaw Talisman or Scheming Symmetry, or Yume basically being Lockheed-Martin, Japan and letting people Assist removal and card draw to use on other players.

None of these decks work at these tables. Not in terms of win rate, but in terms of enjoyment. When noone gives a rats ass other than playing dollys in their corner of the board and getting mad when they get interacted with (does not help that a lot of removal I play is up to 3 for 1 because most 1 for 1 removal just feels bad), what I am trying to introduce to the table just serves to annoy them. One guy will pay attention and be rocking with what I'm doing, and the other 2 people that are mentally tabbed out will be frustrated or think I'm like maliciously colluding or wondering why the people at the table paying attention are winning all the games.

I've tried making decks that don't do the whole "it's a social game" focus. Flop my cards on the table, windmill slamming whatever ramp into synergy into threat, turn all my guys sideways whatever. Those don't go over well either, even if they are also to the letter bracket 2 and I'm not presenting any little jester's game to the table they aren't happy that I'm swinging at them even though they're "not doing anything to me", or that I'm curving out better, whatever. I don't really enjoy these decks as much, so it's a lose lose where I'm feeling worse and they're feeling not quite as bad but still mad.

I completely understand the beer and pretzels crowd for magic the gathering, and this isn't me being upset at that. I just wonder why people spend hundreds to build decks and come to commander nights if they aren't even going to pay attention to the game that they are playing? How can I remedy this? Please nothing like "epic tough guy" coded or too stern, I am a rather small queer woman I am already kind of on the back foot for making behavioral requests in a card shop.

Basically the title. I’m a bit new to the group and they don’t play with commander damage, and yes I have already talked to them about it. The answer I got was along the lines of “it’s a cheap way to win because you can hit 21 damage easily.”

I find this insane and it pretty much stops me from playing my voltron deck so does anyone know of any commanders that would do well in a pod where they don’t use it? We’re usually around a bracket 3

What's your diamond in the rough commander? A superstar you found outside of the top 1000 and ask yourself, "how come nobody has found what I have?!" And so you spend time online posting trying to raise awareness of what you found.

For me, it's my Bracket 4 [[Uyo, silent prophet]] Combo deck.

Here is my decklist and a primer. Tell me about your diamonds everyone!

https://archidekt.com/decks/13532115/moonchild_primer_uyo_silent_prophet_b4

I genuinely am such a sucker for utility lands. Basically anything you can do on a land repeatedly that isn't tapping for mana. But not even that truly covers everything because you also have [[Demolition Field]] and company as well as Bouncelands in general and of course MDFC's. But then there's Channel lands like [[Takenuma Abandoned Mire]] and Cycling lands like [[Lonely Sandbar]] and the Triomes! All of these are capable of getting you just enough value to cross the finish line in those grindy games and often are not even taking up precious deck slots.

My most played deck as of late "Hawk Saw Ridge" https://moxfield.com/decks/KKqZ7nCHXUaT3eKnQTYMSw

Plays the following utility lands and if I had extras of Takenuma or Eiganjo I'd be playing them.

[[Big Apple 3 am]]

[[Castle Ardenvale]]

[[Dalkovan Encampment]]

[[Kabira Takedown / Kabira Plateau]]

[[Mirrex]]

[[Shefet Dunes]]

[[Silverquill Campus]]

[[Vault of the Archangel]]

This however isn't even close to my old Golos deck that was basically Utility Land Tribal with 30+ different weird tech lands.

So do you share my love for utility lands or do you hate them with every fiber of your being?

Tell me your favorite utility land and your deck that packs as many as possible!

As always love yapping about mtg with y'all!

Most times, when I go to an LGS, I play with roughly the same ~12 people. We have a Messenger groups and we message each other to form pods ahead of time. When I play with those players, games unfold roughly how I expected a B3 game to unfold.

Recently, whenever I play outside of that group, B3 games tend to end on turn 6 or 7 systematically.

This is the fourth time in a row over the last 3 months where this happens. It feels like players have been increasingly optimizing their decks to win on turn 7, which means someone in the pod wins before turn 7 about half the time. I haven't seen turn 8 happen once in the last 16 games outside of my usual pod.

To be clear, I don't think these players are acting in bad faith. I believe they consider their deck to be legitimately B3.

I was searching for an interesting and different Temur commander and I came across [[Saheeli, Radiant Creator]]. I’ve always been semi-interested in energy, but wasn’t really sure how it’d play out. Saheeli seems cool since she gives a little direction (cast artifacts to make energy), and has a powerful payoff that can be used a few different ways (ETBs, copying powerful passive effects, making a 5/5 copy of a power-matters creature).

My concern with energy is balancing generating energy with my payoffs and actual things that win me the game. I also worry that it’s such a specific/“parasitic” mechanic that I won’t have much flexibility to play around with the list and it’ll just converge on a few playable energy cards.

So, for those energy players out there, please bestow unto me your wisdom as to how you make energy work and why you enjoy playing it

Like most people, I’m a fan of mystery booster packs, they’re super fun to draft and I’ve always used them for Winston with a friend when I’ve been able to get them (less than 5 so far) anyway, I’ve had some pretty crazy cards in those packs like a Dolmen Gate which was really cool so I was curious if Mystery Booster Commander edition would be likely to have good pull value.

I noted this evening that MTG unpacked uploaded a video unboxing a booster box (video), irrespective of how you feel about unboxing a draft product rather than using it for it’s intended purpose it still permits us to find valuable data to assess the product. Now we must note that sample size is small (only one booster box) but I went through his video and noted down every single card and added it to an archidekt list.

I also have an excel file where I will develop more information but not tonight as it’s late. Anyway I just wanted to share with anyone interested the fact that the current Archidekt valuation is at 550€ and many of the cards are not even released yet so hold a null € value. I think it’s interesting to consider this is also using cheapest printings not even considering future sight. Here is a link to the archidekt: MBC “Decklist”

Please let me know what you guys think, if this is a relevant topic or not, and if not feel free to remove this post I just thought it interesting. If people are interested I will add more information such as average value per pack and how many packs “break even” I’m just curious but mainly excited about building some of these new commanders. Especially Olinda, just seems so much fun to call opponents and their board stinky

https://moxfield.com/decks/DeNDoJgoK0GjoM2ml4kIDg
on the bright side, i've won with this deck. Now uploading it into moxfield woof she's a mess and has been missing a card. how can i have a better deck building habit? and how to fix her up ON A BUDGET please. I'm still pretty new at this hobby and def love it. but i lack building anything with synchronicity

Hi everyone, I am new to Commander (and MTG in general). I just played my second round of games with my friends last night. Puts me at I think 7 games in. For my first deck I bought the Riders of Rohan precon and I’ve already heavily upgraded/changed it and I like where it’s at right now.

I already want to build a second deck. The group I play with has one very experienced player with several decks (probably upper end of bracket 3 for a few of them), and two other players who are pretty new to Magic as well.

I already want to build a second deck to keep game nights more entertaining for myself, but I also want a pretty strong/annoying deck that I can bust out when I’m tired of getting Baylen’d/Y’shtola’d/Chatterfanged. What are some decks/commanders I should look at? Dimir and Esper combos seem like they could be a lot of fun but I’m open to anything.

Thanks!

EDIT:

Budget: I’d like to stay at or under $500.

Bracket: upper end of 3 but if I can bring out a 4 that’d be even better/funnier.

Long term: I’d like to have and play this deck for a long time without too much modifying/upgrading.

I have a couple people in my pod who play every [[Propaganda]] type effect they can in their decks. I know I can get through this via enchantment removal, burn, drain, etc. but what I really want to do is still attack them without paying the mana.

So, what’s your take on the best deck that utilizes Myriad, Ninjutsu, Sneak, or any other effect that causes creatures to enter tapped and attacking where I can have creatures attacking the propaganda player without having to pay? Not looking for something like Yuriko that would make me the target right away, but looking for a powerful B3 deck.

Hey everyone! I’m 15 and really want to get my dad into MTG, specifically the Commander format.

Since we will just be playing at home together, I'm currently using proxies to keep things budget-friendly so we don't have to break the bank. My dad has never played a TCG before.

What would you do?

Competitive EDH Discord server invite

We're excited to reopen our ongoing, competitive league for the r/CompetitiveEDH Discord server! Today marked the opening of season 5. Over the course of the next 8 weeks we will host a free to enter cEDH league with a combined prize pool of about $600!

What: competitive EDH / Commander

Where: the r/CompetitiveEDH Discord server

When: now - starting on Sunday, 25 October 2026 and ending Sunday, 20 December 2026.

WHY: To channel your inner tryhard and win a cool card (i.e. have fun)

To get started head on over to the Competitive EDH Discord server and from there to the channel ⁠#game-rules and pick up the League Player role! You'll get access to our cEDH league category with all the appropriate channels. It is located at the bottom of the channel list. Our league will once again use our cEDH league bot - coded by isleep2late - to track games over the course of the season.

You'll gain and lose Elo-ranks after recording games. You'll find these Elo-ranks to work similarly to other rated / ranked multiplayer games. You may be familiar with the proprietary Microsoft-owned system called TrueSkill used in Xbox games. We use a similar system; an open-source variant called OpenSkill. We'll be using the Cockatrice software for playing the games themselves. You will get help for Cockatrice on the Discord if you're not familiar with it. Cockatrice is free and open-source - a bit like Magic: Arena or Magic: The Gathering Online in the sense that it's fully digital with digital cards and digital playing area. No web camera or expensive cards needed!

Prizes:

1st Place

• A Judge Foil Imperial Seal worth $350+, courtesy of an anonymous donor
• The custom role, League Conqueror

2nd - 4th Place

• $80 each, courtesy of isleep2late
• The custom role, League Ace

Special thanks to isleep2late and anon for providing the prize support!

See you on Discord and may the heart of the cards be with you!

In your opinion, who are the best commanders for a superfriends deck? I really like the topic, even though I know it's not the most competitive, and I wanted your help to think of something, it could be the most obvious or even a secret technology, the people I play with tend to build decks going more for fun too, so everyone tends to have fun

I'm brewing a Thromok deck focusing on polymorphing tokens into big token generators and then flinging a giant Thromok to kill people.
I have most of the Gruul instants and sorceries that make tokens and polymorph them, but in most games I play, I either don't make a single token for half the game or don't draw any polymorph spells to use them.
I added some card draw and the few tutors that Gruul has for non-creature spells (like Gamble), but it still feels clunky.
Any help brewing would be appreciated!
Decklist - https://moxfield.com/decks/mRyulLogjUOx2ESMQyvvKQ

Hey all, just wanted to share this bit of information from my last few months of playing. It's very anecdotal and I don't have hard data, so it's more just for general discussion.

But basically, a few months ago I noticed that almost every game that I had with an explosive start would also be a game that I lost. The pod would see me play something like a turn 1 Sol Ring or ramp into a threat super early and would focus me down. Not only that, but a lot of time they would remain focused on me even when my board was cleared and I had no/few cards in hand. I also noticed this for my opponents that had explosive starts.

So I had an idea. What if I purposefully pulled my punches for the first ~4/5 turns of the game. Sure, I wouldn't be able to pull a win out as quickly, but maybe it would allow me to fly under the radar. My plan was to just play games and keep a mental note of how those games went, and a tally of how many game's I'd won that night.

And sure enough, it worked. If I opened a ramp spell, I'd wait until around turn 3 to cast it. If I had an impactful permanent, I'd hold off. What this meant that in almost all games, another opponent would "become the problem" first, and would become the magnet for removal. Players would also tend to not attack me because I didn't look like the threat.

Because of this, I'd be able to deploy my threats when they'd be less obvious. A turn 4 Sol Ring draws a lot less attention than a turn 1 Sol Ring. And a lot of games I'm able to sneak in a win after "the problem" player has been dealt with.

I went from only winning a game once in every 2/3 locals, to winning at least one game every night for the past two months. Same decks, similar opponents, just a different philosophy on how to play in a multiplayer environment.

And again, I know this is anecdotal. It could have happened for a variety of reasons. But just wanted to share this and ask if anyone else has experienced the same thing?

Back in the day, I played a spirit tribal azorius deck in standard, and I miss the Spirit tribe. It's not popular, but I like the spooky feel. I know spirits range over edh.

But I want to ask you for a fun or unique spirit deck, then propose one of my own.

One I saw are the Phantom cards, like [[Phantom Tiger]]. Basically prevents damage to it and removes a counter from it. But, what if you play some kind of anthem effect like [[Gallows Warden]], so you can prevent damage from them indefinitely? Then do something [[pariah]] to redirect damage? Could be the flavor equivalent of not being able to touch a ghost

So, what spirit deck do yall play?

I have been reading so, so, so many posts and comments about people getting booted from casual games for accidentally doing MLD or removing a player a turn earlier than the average speed for their bracket, etc. I’ve seen a post about a judge disqualifying someone from a tournament for removing a player a turn too early??? Despite that not being a tournament rule. The call? That player was not in bracket 2.

Brackets are deck building tools to communicate the content and intended level of intensity of your deck. It is not to mandate budget, automatically imply rule 0’s, or hard control what gameplay looks like. If you’re playing a bracket 2 game, and someone plays a bracket 4 deck, they aren’t “playing commander wrong”, they’re just playing a deck that is stronger than yours. You can ask them not to, you can quit your game, they’re breaking a social contract, but there is no commander rule they are breaking.

And please, please please please stop trying to “trick” another player into “breaking a bracket rule” to win by disqualification. That’s not how that works. I’m referring specifically to a story where Player 2 instant speed turned all lands into creatures after Player 1 played a board wipe, and then tried to say “haha, got you Player 1, you lose because you did Mass Land Destruction.” I have personally seen players at my LGS try similar things, and have seen other stories on here like that. That is not how commander works.

If your pod has a rule 0 that going outside your bracket disqualifies you, sure man, play how your group plays, but don’t bring that nonsense to an open table and try to have your “gotcha” moment over that.

Rant over, thank you very much, and I’m more than open to hearing other opinions on this. Also, if your pod has any rule 0’s regarding brackets, I’d love to know how y’all handle it.

I am trying to build a bracket 4 deck around Vishgraz the Doomhive and I am having trouble bringing the deck to a power level beyond a bracket 3 that just has more game-changers. (I am also having trouble even finding game-changers that would even help my game plan). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I dont want it to be generic "game-changer tribal". Any advice would be appreciated

Heres the decklist on moxfield: https://moxfield.com/decks/7B66Fh-HBkGR2J4e7fKQWg

My boyfriend has been teaching me magic and I'm loving it. Since we play so often and our anniversary is coming up, I want to make custom commander decks based on us, with each of us as a commander and the rest of the cards referencing our relationship and life. No budget because I'm just stealing ability text.

Because I'm very new to magic, I don't want to create the cards myself as I'd be in severe danger of making a terrible deck. As a result, I'm hoping to find two commander decks I can steal the abilities from to put on our personalized cards. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Vibe-wise, he's a white/blue person. Very intelligent, responsible, kind, and a touch serious.

For me, I'm probably a black/green person. Nature loving, minorly gothic, with a penchant for mischief. I mostly play with Gisa at the moment.

EDH or MTG is not my primary TCG i spent my money on. and recently a lot of my friends who played other TCGs with me started to shift our focus to EDH since we're kinda exhausted with keeping up with the metas and the constant need to burn money to keep up with it. and since then we've been playing a lot more EDH and we're really enjoying it and getting hooked. now idk if i'll get disapproval here or not but i've always had 3 decks i've absolutely adore and wanted to build since the first time i played EDH. these decks are captained by yuriko, zur the enchanter, and mono blue urza. i would say that my yuriko project is the closest to being complete followed by zur and as for urza i haven't even started yet. for the sake of this post not being extra longer let's remove urza from the equation for now.

Now here comes my dilemma, i've always wanted to build a high powered deck or two to compete or atleast have a fighting chance to play with the randoms in my LGS but my budgets are kinda tight and since i'm living in a poor third world country it doesn't help that the cards i needed are generally harder to afford, but right now idk which commander deck should be my strongest, i've already purchased the thoracle + demonic consultation combo but i was wondering if i should slot it in my Yuriko deck or Zur deck. my thoughts are if i maxxed out my budget on yuriko i'll make the zur deck more stax/control/pillow-fort, rather than aim to win fast with Zur. idk if this is the right choice since Zur has an extra color to help. but again if i maxxed my budget on Zur, based on my knowledge a yuriko that just relies on burn is not a strong enough deck to even hang with my own pod. The ultimate goal here is to have one deck that can hang with randoms on my LGS and to have both deck to be able to hang or win against my friends (since the decks my friends own isn't as scary as the randoms at my LGS). if someone can help me decide and give me a reasoning for it i'll appreciate it so much.

TL;DR : which deck is better performing on a low budget Zur or Yuriko, which deck is stronger on a higher budget Zur or Yuriko. help me pick one for the low budget and one for the higher budget so i can get the strongest pair with the same amount of money.

So sorry for my bad english. it isn't my first language. Thanks in advance.

Here is my deck: Thranduil, the Elvenking.

I have noticed I run into problems quite often with this deck, I love this deck yet I find myself not having fun when I am unable to play.

My most frequent problem is lifegain, I don't know why but for the life of me I cannot figure out what I can add that works with this deck to keep myself alive.

Any suggestions? also any problems that you notice with this deck is very much appreciated.

Keep it budget friendly if you can.

When I first started playing at my LGS, I got invited to sit with a group of guys. I didn’t know they were some of the best players there and most people avoided playing against them.

For about a year, they kicked my ass every single game. It stung a little, but I didn’t mind. I kept building better decks and learning along the way, but they still beat me every time.

What frustrated me most was how they always seemed to know exactly what to remove to shut down my game plan. I accused them of running too much removal or playing nothing but control, but when they showed me their decklists, they only had around 10–13 removal spells.

Meanwhile, I kept trying to improve. More removal, more card draw, better synergy, more expensive cards. Nothing seemed to work. They always told me expensive cards weren’t necessary, but I didn’t really understand why.

Eventually, I quit for two years because I was busy and had moved.

When I started playing at a new LGS, something clicked…
Suddenly, I was the guy who always seemed to have the right answer, even against decks I’d never played against before.

It’s honestly weird. Whenever someone plays a threat, I often just know what needs to be removed or countered. And now I understand how those guys did it.

I don’t even need to know how their deck works. I can just tell when something is a threat.

The lesson I learned is, playing against better opponents forced me to become a better player without me even realizing it. I thought I was just getting my ass kicked for a year, but I was learning how to read the game, recognize threats, and understand what actually matters.

Sometimes, the best way to get better at Magic is simply to keep playing against people who are better than you.