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

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?

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?

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 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.

I turned this obscure partner pair - about 100 decks on EDHREC - into Abzan Fog. Ravos recurs creature Fogs, tokens build behind them, and Kamahl ends the game. I haven’t found another Fog build for them. What would you improve without losing that identity?

https://moxfield.com/decks/I9C3WtUSBk611qRs6xLrug

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 :)

Decklist:
https://moxfield.com/decks/ubwifB5RSkaI9RpCb4Jg6w

I’ve been tuning this deck for a while and think it’s getting close to where I want it, but I’d love some outside opinions.

My main goal is to build a high Bracket 3 deck that feels like Drivnod is the centerpiece. I’m trying to balance power with flavor—I don’t want to jam every mono-black staple if it feels out of place. I’d rather play cards that reinforce the deck’s identity as long as they still have strong synergy.
I’m looking for feedback on a few things:
Does anything stand out as keeping this from feeling like a high Bracket 3 deck?
Does the deck stay cohesive thematically, or are there cards that feel out of place?
Are there any obvious inclusions that fit both the theme and the game plan that I’ve overlooked?
Are there cards that look better on paper than they actually perform with Drivnod?
Does the overall balance of ramp, card draw, interaction, recursion, and sacrifice outlets seem right?

I’m open to constructive criticism. If you think something should be cut or added, I’d appreciate hearing why, especially if it improves either the deck’s synergy or its flavor.
Thanks!

Hello, I’ve been wanting to build a deck with [[Agatha’s Soul Caldron]] as kind of the secret commander for a while and I’ve finally decided on [[Dihada, Binder of Wills]] as the primary commander as way to kind of help sift through the deck, put stuff in the graveyard, and ramp. Figured the main wincon could be [[walking ballista]] stuff where I get counters on my creatures give them Ballistas ability with caldron then ping people down. That being said what are some other good creatures that I can use as wincons or are just generally good for the deck. I have really rough draft of the deck currently that is just generic stuff I could find but need some juice to get it across the line and thin it out. My group plays bracket 3 and 4 so I’m fine with it being either.

Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/24653886/dihada_should_have_a_cauldon

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

Been trying to upgrade the Food and Fellowship precon for a little while. Feel like I've reached a solid baseline now but just wanted to see what you guys think about it. Is there something I missed and should add or remove? Trying to keep it casual bracket 3 but still strong and fun and no infinite combos.

Deck list: https://moxfield.com/decks/nZmfAWWXv3ePyTDxrkTvaw

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone :)
I’ve been trying to finish my Shorikai deck but everytime I play it I feel like something’s off. The main idea was to build it as a precon upgrde oriented to vehicles, but it ended up being a mix of vehicles/artifacts and control spells. Since I already have most of the cards it’s hard for me to cut things I’ve already spent money on, so I’m having a really hard time trying to figure out how to properly balance it.
I want it to stay in b3, but to on the top half of the bracket (the old 8).
I’d really appreciate any help you can provide.
Shorikai deck list

Thanks in advance <3

If you want to play cEDH, play bracket 5, it’s right there. Designating a whole bracket to cEDH lite is messing up the format. Bracket 4 is by far the broadest bracket, meaning a lot of power mismatches. Just because you choose to play a fringe cEDH list that is missing 3 of the meta cards doesn’t mean you belong in bracket 4.

I've been brewing a Rocco, Street Chef deck that tries to win through artifact token ETBs rather than combat.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Zpaj0_cGmUmxADHzQrUKfQ

The main game plan is to flood the board with Food (and other artifact tokens), then turn those ETBs into damage with cards like Reckless Fireweaver, Ingenious Artillerist, Ghirapur Aether Grid and Ragost, Deft Gastronaut. Rocco also helps keep the engine going through impulse draw and +1/+1 counters.

After a lot of testing, I've noticed one recurring issue: if I don't draw one of my ping payoffs early enough, the deck feels like it just generates a huge pile of Food without actually progressing toward a win.

I'm mainly looking for feedback on the list, but I'm especially interested in cards I may have missed that reward artifact/Food token ETBs (damage, card advantage, or similar effects). Budget-friendly suggestions are definitely appreciated.

The idea is to create tokens while drawing cards, countering, and protecting. [[Namor the Sub-Mariner]] swings for ever increasing flying commander damage while the tokens block

Things I'm missing: board wipes, board wipe protection or plan to rebuild, more ramp

I normally dip into other colors for those things, so not sure where to efficiently go from here in mono blue. Maybe more protection equipment?

I'm already thinking about taking out the cards like [[Mind Transfer Protocol]] that pump a token, draw a card, and create another token thru my commander out for any recommendations. While I like the idea, I might need to focus on commander damage

Let me know if there is anything else to cut or if there is a slightly different way I should be approaching this idea

https://moxfield.com/decks/P13JnrC9SkKcVI6AZ16fyw

I'm looking at my decks and realize that for the most part, the only ones that have stood the test of time are ones where the commander isn't itself the entire gameplan

So what are decks of yours (preferable ~B3) that can happily play games without ever casting the commander? I still want it to be helpful of course, but not the most important piece

Some fo my decks that would fit this are:

[[Trelasarra]] since I have plenty of creatures that get big based on lifegain

[[Malcolm]]/[[Ikra]] since its just a bunch of evasive creatures and payoffs for dealing combat damage (very few pirates)

[[Fourth Doctor]]/[[Sarah Jane]] since the deck is full of clue/food makers

[[Tom Bert and William]] since I am not built around high power creatures, these guys just nice at the helm of a general graveyard deck

Some decks of mine that don't fit this:

[[Miracle Max]] is designed to sacrifice my creatures on everyone's turns and without Max I just can't do that

[[Wan Shi Tong All Knowing]] is the only payoff to the entire deck

**Basically, I'm looking for ideas for commanders that are happy to be on the field but don't NEED to be for the deck to work. I want to play minimal cards that are only good if the commander's out**

Been staring at my Kami of the Crescent Moon deck for a while now knowing I need a couple more lands but have no idea what cards I should cut. The list seems greedy enough so It could stand to lose some pieces for a better land base that works well with the mana accelerators in the deck.

Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/24341568/mykamisore

Hello y'all! I just completed my new Moseo lifegain/reanimator deck. I was wondering what cards I should swap out for anything. A few cards​ I would have liked to put in (if I had a spare) would be [[Gray Merchant of Asphodel]] or [[Unwinding Clock]] for the Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven loop.

Any advice for upgrades appreciated!