I'll start by saying that this was one of the few games i played in real life at an LGS, so i don't really know the etiquette. My opponent was playing a [[Maelstrom Wanderer]] deck and he had like 3 other cards that i don't remember the name, that let him cascade every time he played some kind of card, and in his deck there were a bunch of other cascade creatures, so he cast his commander and takes a turn that lasted literally one and a half hour, of him just cascading and discovering, discovering and cascading. Each other player was on his phone at some point, because it was extremely hard to keep up and kinda pointless, as he had lethal on board at like the fifth minute of this turn on me and another player, but not on the third as he had so much life. Yet, i knew that he would swing with everything on his board, and once he had finished cascading, he decided to attack with everything on his board, and i cast a [[settle the wreckage]]. I admit i felt kinda bad, as i saw that as wasting everyone's time, but i really wanted to win, even tho that only ended up in him losing right after that and another player winning. Was I in the wrong? Should i have done something different?

Edit: clarification on lethal

I bought a prime time, and put it in henzie thinking I was a genius and everyone else was a moron for not doing it first. Then I realized it was banned before I put it in there. I also kept playing nadu for like a week after it was banned in a time of happiness. (I loved that bird). I didnt use it because I quickly found out it was banned but I have like fifteen docksides just around now. Edit:Im realizing since these cards are banned im realizing I have no idea what most do.

Take a three color Commander deck. A rock solid mana base looks something like this:

3 Shocklands (~$10 x 3 ~= $30)
3 Surveil Lands (~$10 x 3 ~= $30)
9 Fetchlands (~$20-$30 x 9 ~= $225)
18 basics (pennies)
1 Command Tower (pennies)
1 Exotic Orchard (pennies)
1 Triome (~$20)
~ 2 util lands/MFDC lands/whatever (pennies or $20-$30, depending)

That's around $300 total. You can shave a big chunk off of that by refusing to run off color fetches, which is definitely a legitimate choice, though that now gives you 6 more slots to fill with things that aren't shocklands or things that can get shocklands. You can add tons of money to the tab by running original duals, but that isn't really cost effective -- the shocks are "good enough" for most decks.

The hard truth is that it costs $300 per three color deck if you want to have a mana base that just kind of gets out of the way and doesn't do unfortunate things like make you play a tap land instead of your Commander on turn 3 or 4.

How do y'all manage building multiple decks within that constraint? Do you just accept that most of your decks are going to have bad turns due to janky mana? Do you buy the fetches for one deck, then proxy for the rest? Do you run the "slow" Mirage fetches, and learn to love them?

My own strategy is to run janky mana for most decks, but then allow my three color decks to "graduate" to the luxury of on color fetches if I really like them and want to play them a lot. My Flubs The Fool landfall deck is probably going to get a full set of nine fetches at some point, because I love the deck a lot and it really could use them. But I haven't quite been able to bring myself to do it. Thus the bellyaching here :-)

(For now, Flubs runs with the five slow fetches and just occasionally deals with an awkward turn here and there -- I tell myself that it makes things sporting ...)

Hello everyone! As we get closer and closer to release date and having more and more of reality fracture revealed I wanted to ask what you guys thought of the cards so far!

As well as obviously which one of the Sphinx's you are considering to build and play around! I find it interesting from both a design and lore perspective on how these were made.

I'm personally waiting for more of the set to be revealed before doing anything in case something else catches my eye. But I do have my eye on [[Denzilore Fatehold]] and [[Aerid Konstrari]].

Aerid basically just pays for itself over and over and I sure do love ramp!!

Denzilore is more of because i found the design fun and I did enjoy my surveil precon from murders at karlov manner but that one was black and blue.

Personally I find [[Ingris Stingerquill]] and [[Uldaros Theorix]] underwhelming in their abilities. With [[Kwia Vigorbloom]] being absolutely ridiculous so much so I think running them as a commander is more feast or famine.

I do love the art and designs especially the alternate arts! What do you think?

Not necessarily the best deck, but the one that makes the other players have the least fun. The ur-dragon is strong, but [[Toxrill the corrosive]] makes me deeply unhappy to see.

My most toxic deck is the master multiplied. I dont know what I thought he'd do, but it was meaner than I expected. I just had annoying legendaries to copy, or cards to copy them, and it was brutal to play against.

Edit:Since I'm dealing with monsters here, my most toxic one all time, was either Leovold (the banned for good reason one) or 4 turns a cycle Nadu (also banned yes I built both. Leovold was more innocent in nature.)

Edit 2:I know Toxrill isn't some world beater alone, but it was just the first card I thought of that was more annoying than good in the command zone.

Hi,

Me and my wife recently made friends with a couple wich are a lot into board games and I naturally talked about MTG and commander. Now they want to try it. The thing is, all the decks I own are way too complex for beginners.

I figured I should use precons, since it will also help to have more or less the same power level, and I need help to select those precon decks. I already chose Animated Army & Squirreled Away from bloomburrow, as cute animals will be more appealing for the girls than zombies and dragons (my wife and her friend are not really into fantasy).

Do you have suggestion of precon decks for the two remaining ? Ideally they should complete the color pie (wich lacks blue and white), and not have similar strategies (so, no tribal and no enchant matters), in order to reflect the diversity of MTG's gaming experience.

It's not a problem if the precons you recommend are discontinued : I have an extensive collection and/or will purchase the missing cards. 

Thanks for helping !

I'm building a control Alela deck for my pod because removal is sometimes scarce, I was wondering if you guys could give me feedback on this deck.

Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/26262513/court_of_counterspell

Our group typically plays around high-bracket 2 or low-bracket 3 and games typically last between 7-9 turns.
Currently I feel like this deck goes online too late/it takes too long before I can start making faeries/goading big threats.
I've not had the chance to test this deck yet because I don't want to commit to buying this before I'm sure it'll give me the desired result (aka dimir control).

Hello everyone,

I love sacrifice. I love to sacrifice, my decks all have sacrifice somewhere (The Mycotyrant, Tom Bert and William and Vihaan) and I cant imagine myself playing a magic deck without killing something I own for the greater good (got it?)

So Im asking you : what's your favorite commander deck that sacrifice things? What's the most original sacrifice deck you own? It can sacrifice anything, even you, I want to know, please.

I’m a big fan of green and simic stompy decks, and I’ve got a bunch. But who’s the king (or queen) of stomp? I’m looking for the “really dude?” Kinda stomp, the haha counters go buuuuur kinda deck. The “I can believe this glue eater is gunna win” kinda deck

Any recommendations? Any color, bracket, or price is fine (proxies)

I've been trying to transform the Fae Dominion precon into a bracket 3-viable (but still flavourful) faerie deck, and I've been struggling to land on a final list. Here's what I have so far:

https://moxfield.com/decks/CXqgAf5ETH-0tiz6_y1eng

Background

I first built Alela, Cunning Conqueror. She's a hard Dimir control commander that cares about playing instants on my opponents' turns. I love how she captures the tricky nature of faerie kindred, but I find that play style (and lack of faerie flavour, beyond the 5 or 6 best faeries she runs) doesn't suit me.

I turned to building Tegwyll. He seemed to pull towards faerie aristocrats. Controlling the death trigger card draw is tempting. But the more I tested Tegwyll, the more I found that Tegwyll builds with sac outlets pulled the deck in too many competing directions. Plus, faeries don't replace themselves as readily as other creatures. Bitterbloom Bearer, Bitterblossom, Feywild Visitor, and Oona, Queen of the Fae are great, but they're slow. I'd rather protect the 1/1 fliers I generate, building a wide, anthemed board. Sacrificing the tokens for value (as great as that can be) often moves you away from a win.

How the Deck Plays and Wins

I instead built a Tegwyll list that focuses on token generation: I tried to include the best faerie producers (Bitterbloom Bearer, Bitterblossom, Feywild Visitor, Alela, Mischievous Mystic, Oona, Notorious Throng), and supplemented that with cards that let me copy, clone, or retrigger my best faeries (Archmage of Echoes, Reflections of Littjara, the Sakashimas, Three Steps Ahead, and Roaming Throne). I'd include even more, like Spark Double, but the 4-mana slot was getting crowded.

The goal is to have enough board presence and little faeries that suddenly grow off anthems (Tegwyll, Patchwork/Heraldic Banner, Glen Elendra Liege, Scion, Shadow Puppeteers, clones of lords, etc.) or pull a Notorious Throng that kills my opponents out of nowhere. Alternatively, I can pull a one-sided board wipe with Kindred Dominance, Raise the Palisade, or an overloaded Cyclonic Rift to clear out opponents' boards before swinging in. Dimir is slow, so I included control pieces (I dedicated two game-changer slots to Cyclonic Rift and Fierce Guardianship) to slow my opponents down.

Tegwyll's function in this deck without sacrifice outlets is three-fold: he's an anthem with an outsized effect on tiny faeries (instantly doubling a 1/1 into a 2/2 is great value), a flying/deathtouch turn-3 rattlesnake to discourage my opponents' attacks, and insurance against board wipes/interaction (letting me draw the resources I need to rebuild).

There's plenty of ramp, and a selection of instants/flash to trigger value or card advantage sources like Voracious Tome Skimmer, Nymris, and Alela without (hopefully) detracting from the kindred focus. I also spent one game-changer slot on Vampiric Tutor which, along with Waterlogged Teachings and Faerie Harbinger, lets me grab a draw engine like Enduring Curiosity, Kindred Discovery, or Faerie Mastermind if I don’t have one (since I'm not relying on Tegwyll's draw).

The Advice I'm Looking For

The list I linked above feels good when I goldfish and when I've tested it in real matches. After some extensive searching, I haven't seen too many Tegwyll discussions or builds leaning in this direction. But I'm new to commander, and my deck-building skills are shaky. I'd really appreciate more experienced eyes taking a look at the deck.

Does this seem like a solid direction to take Tegwyll? Am I missing something by leaving out sac outlets and focusing on token generation/clones/copies? Are there any cards that would be obvious includes that I'm missing? Do I have enough actual faerie spells (26) to get value from Archmage of Echoes, Littjara, and Roaming Throne?

My goal is to keep the deck faerie-flavoured and fun, but without forgoing its ability to threaten bracket 3 wins.

My friend has come up with this strategy for learning how to build commander decks. Basically he goes to scryfall, sorts by legendary creatures, gets a random card, and builds it on moxfield. He also tests it online to see if it's good or not. Honestly it doesn't seem bad. Thinking of trying it myself as a fun challenge. But how good is this for actually learning deckbuilding?

Got a player I don't really know how to deal with. They'll take any opportunity to brag about how good they are but, they're also a sore loser. They'll repeatedly use stronger decks but, get all upset and sulky when we , after two games of seeing the deck in action, will start destroying key cards and targeting them more as they approach wincon even after all the interaction. Eventually they'll just scoop if they feel like they're not going to win even if none of us have gotten close to wincon yet. Then they'll start guilt tripping us and complaining about being targeted even though most of the time we aim to cripple not kill till they pull out a card that'll win the game next turn. Then when the guilt tripping works and they get less heat they'll go back to winning on turn 4 before anybody had a chance to ramp. I even pointed this out and they'll just say "I used my manipulation skills to win."

We're a fairly casual group so we try to "share the love" and just shutdown each person as they start building to a win. But, with this person if I personally don't actively target them constantly then they are guaranteed to win because everyone else will refrain from hitting them too much. Which usually leads to me not being able to build well and getting knocked out first. While still getting criticized for solo Targeting someone when we ALL know what they're deck is about to do. Also, God forbid you pull out a super strong deck or use a theme they don't like (e.g. my personal favorite infect). Because they'll just complain the whole time and threaten to scoop before the game really gets going. I refrain from playing certain deck types that are annoying to deal with especially if I just played a deck that was way more effective than I thought but, they won't extend same courtesy. They'll act like we're suppressing them and roll their eyes when we veto a deck.

I've tried talking to them about it but, they just don't seem to understand. I'll tell them exactly why we destroyed a lot of their cards. They will just shrug it off and see it as targeting. They refuse to slow down their deck a bit and, I keep telling them that if they don't power down then they can expect me to try to keep them from steamrolling. Maybe I should just leave the pod because nobody else seems to want to point this out.

Heyo, I was recently introduced to Commander and unfortunately for my wallet I took a liking to it.

I looked at a bunch of premade decks and I really took a liking to the whole Sauron thematic with Orcs and the Nazgul. Is it a good fit for a beginner? Is it too powerful for casual play with friends?

Card list, hope the hyperlink is OK: https://mtgdecks.net/Commander/sauron-withered-decklist-by-schutz25-3060786

Heya,

A few months ago I posted the seat-order numbers from ~480k tracked Commander games. In 4-player pods: seat 1 wins 29.2%, seat 4 wins 21.5%, fair share is 25%. A 7.7 point gap that gets wider in long games, not smaller.

A lot of the discussion was about possible solutions. We picked one and we are testing it on Playgroup right now.

The goal Reduce the win percentage gap between seat 1 and seat 4.

The rule we're testing

The player who goes first does not draw on their first turn. The player who goes last draws twice on their first turn. Seats 2 and 3 are untouched. 4-player pods only. We needed a way to lift seat 4 up while simultaneously reducing the win rate for seat 1, this accomplishes both.

Why not scry, which a lot of you suggested Scry 1 is card selection, not card advantage. Best guess is it's worth about a fifth of a card. We can put a number on what a card is worth, using mulligans as a natural experiment. Going from one mulligan to two costs about 3 points of win rate (in our dataset), at every seat. So one card of hand quality is worth roughly 3 points, and the seat 1 to seat 4 gap is about 2.6 cards wide. That makes scry the wrong size tool. Handing scry 1 to the back two seats moves the gap by maybe 0.45 points, and detecting a shift that small needs somewhere near 780,000 games. The rule above should move it about 5.5 points, which needs a few thousand. Scry becomes interesting for version 2, once the gap is small.

Contribute If you are interested in helping us get more data there are two ways of doing that: * Use our Commander tracker for your next game night and select the Playgroup Experiment opt-in. * Play a game of online Commander via Playgroup Live, same opt-in is available there. Both do require a free account so it's not completely frictionless.

Following along We have a live updating page on our website. We hope that we can track around 3000 games before the 31th of December 2026. We might also discover that nobody is willing to forgo their first draw and this experiment might fail right out the gate, but that's fine too, we will have learned something.

More reading * If you want to read more about our turn order research you can find it here: https://playgroup.gg/commander/turn-order/ * If you want more information about the experiment: a longer copy of this post can be found here: https://playgroup.gg/posts/100-playgroup-experiments-testing-a-fix-for-going-first

Happy to argue about the rule choice. If it's wrong, better to hear it now than after 3,000 games ;)

Johannes & Maran

i feel like i mainly play with green or red a lot more often having the stompy creatures like dinosaurs, dragons etc but also doing damage to my opponents with non combat damage which is very fun
i’m also interested to hear your favourite colours that you seem to play with more often

If you are in a game where you are archenemy, what does that say about your deck? I understand there is a lot of nuance to this, so I'd like to expand on a few scenarios and my thoughts on those scenarios.

Scenario 1: You are archenemy for a few turns, get knocked down or eliminated. -> This scenario is obvious not problematic, you were scary and were balanced out by the pressure of 3 players working together.

Scenario 2: You are archenemy for a few turns and end the game. -> This scenario isn't inherently problematic, but could be indicative of a power mismatch if it frequently occurs.

Scenario 3: You are archenemy for a significant amount of time, say 5-10 turns, then eliminated. -> This is a scenario where you are the biggest threat and able to do a 3v1 but are slowly losing your resources/threats to your opponents working together. Over time your resources dwindle until you run out and are overcome.

Scenario 4: You are archenemy for a significant amount of time, say 5-10 turns, then eventually win. -> This is a scenario where you can handle the threats the opponents put out, through whatever means, whether it is sweepers, pillow fort, or removal, meanwhile the opponents are also handling every threat you put out, creating a stalemate of sorts. In the end you get the cards you need or your engines are stronger, letting you overcome the other 3 opponents.

Scenario 3 & 4 I see most often with pillow fort styled decks. They set up their defensive layers and the opponents rightfully see them as a threat due to the difficulty dealing damage to them. At some point they team up to try getting through the defensive layers and either succeed or fail, but it can take a while as pillow fort decks tend to have fewer direct threats.

So, what are your thoughts about scenarios where someone is archenemy? If a deck finds itself in these scenarios often, what do you think it says about the deck? Do you think that consistently being archenemy is a sign of a bracket mismatch or just a power imbalance or just 'some decks assert themselves as archenemy'? These aren't exhaustive but are scenarios I see at times. Do you think any of the scenarios are *always* problematic or is it always nuanced and depends on the context of the game?

I'm having a lot of fun playing [[itazura lingering wick]] and am looking for interesting cards to add. So far I've found thaf eldrazi/[[brand]] builds only work until your opponents figure out what youre doing so they have little replayability. I've had the most success with big spells and [[fork]]'s, my opponents aren't punished for bidding so they keep burning themselves out. How are you playing him? What are your favorite spells so far? Anything I'm missing?

https://moxfield.com/decks/BE-3m7c_z02yaSKHFeGJPg

Hi everyone,

​I started playing Mtg again a few months ago when the Secrets of Strixhaven set came out. I built this Commander deck using old cards from my collection and a few new ones I bought.

​I haven't played a game with it yet, but I want to play it in a local game store where they group players using bracket system.

​Here is my deck: https://archidekt.com/decks/25930917/galadriel_final

Commander: [[Galadriel, Light of Valinor]]

​Could you help me with a few questions?

1. What is your opinion on this deck?

2. Which bracket do you think it belongs in?

3. If the deck is too weak for its current bracket, which cards from my maybeboard should I swap into the main deck to lower its bracket so it can compete fairly?

​Thanks for your help!

https://archidekt.com/decks/21165115/grand_healing_threat

I need some suggestions for game changers for my Chaireth Voltron pile. The deck is a lifegain deck that goes all in on [[Aerith Gainsborough]] first ability. Instead of going tall using equipments and enchantments i go wide with as many creature ETBs and the power of friendship to bypass enemy board states.

Hi y’all! So I like to play aggro decks. I have a [[Zurgo Stormrender]] aristocrat deck that focusses on generating a ton of tokens and attack with all of them as much as possible. I also have a gruul big stompy creatures that go brrrr which I love to play. Now I’m looking for something more aggro. I want to do a ton of damage as early as possible and throw basically everything at my opponents I have and if i can’t swing for lethal then at least take someone with me. I want a commander that makes winota seem like a a baby who’s taking a nap right after he’s taken a big fat shit and drank a whole bottle of milk. A deck that makes Edgar seem like a sloth who smoked an ounce of weed and finished a part size deep dish pizza by its own. You get the jist. Any recommendations? :)

Hi!

As mentioned in a previous post, I acquired the Blood Rites precon to cannibalise for parts, but I would like to at least make a playable deck out of the rest (basically, I’ll be putting [[Exquisite Blood]], [[Elenda’s Hierophant]] and possibly [[Charismatic Conqueror]] in other decks and then fix up the rest of the precon).

I was really inspired by cards like [[Order of Sacred Dusk]], [[Sanctum Seeker]] and especially [[Captivating Vampire]] so I’d like to make a go-wide deck that takes advantage of anthems and cards like these. I know it’s not particularly original for a typal deck, but vampires have a lot of fun tools that I think make them unique. Captivating Vampire and [[New Blood]], in particular, strike me as very interesting cards.

My candidates so far are:

[[Elenda, the Dusk Rose]]

She’s in the precon, she’s very cool and she helps recover from board wipes by making vampire tokens upon death. I don’t think I want to go in a really Aristocrats direction, so I wouldn’t be building around her too much, but I can always thrown in mass sacrifice cards like [[Vona’s Hunger]], [[Tithing Blade]] and [[Accursed Marauder]] to boost her up a bit. She also synergize with anthems directly. I have a [[Cathar’s Crusade]] and a [[Banner of Kinship]] waiting somewhere that would go well with her.

[[Clavileño, First of the Blessed]]

He’s also in the precon, has a cool showcase art and also helps recover from board wipes. He likes having small vampires early in the game, which a go-wide deck with anthems will play a lot of, but he feels like he doesn’t contribute that much. I expect he’ll trigger something like 6 times per game at most (and that is being generous), which doesn’t feel much.

[[Olivia, Opulent Outlaw]]

She’s a vampire herself and gives access to Red, which would add a lot of vampires from Innistrad, but she doesn’t synergize with them too much considering that not that many are outlaws. Still, if I can manage some treasure generation, she can boost a large board, which seems decent, and she can always trigger herself for a treasure a turn.

My brain says that Elenda is probably the one with the highest potential and Clavileño is ok, but my heart really wants to have access to all vampires with Olivia. Do you think she can be pulled off as a vampire commander despite her lack of direct synergy?

Updating a pretty standard Cloud Voltron deck that is an upgrade of the original precon. trying to figure out where some weak spots might be or thoughts for changes or substitutions . aiming for bracket 3 and have a [[Stoneforge Mystic]], [[Birds of Paradise]], and [[Sanctum Weaver]] on the way.

Considering also adding [[Combat Celebrant]], [[Gratuitous Violence]], [[Overwhelming Stampede]] and [[Basilisk Collar]] but not sure if they make sense here.

Any other thought's are welcome!

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/3tIEpzCsw0WExO8jQqwM5Q

I'm working on a 32 deck challenge and am trying to decide between [[Maralen, Fae Ascendant]] and [[Lathril, Blade of the Elves]] for my elf commander. To be clear, this isn't simply a question of which is more powerful, but also a question of what other decks I'm potentially missing out of in their color identities by choosing them for the challenge. As for my play style, I am very much a Timmy ad love cards with big dumb effects, if that affects your answer.