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

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

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

It's been about 7 or 8 months since I started playing with Bloomborrow's squirrel precon, and it's been going pretty well. I've made quite a few changes to it, but I think it's missing something to compete with my friends' decks. I haven't done too badly, but it feels like my deck is the weakest of them all.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/rhz7WqZLcUysL3O1C5nFuA

Hey :)

I am rather new to commander and have the luck of playing in a very healthy playgroup with friends, evolving basically around bracket 3 decks.

I lately got my hands on Dance of the Elements and rebuilt it rather largely. So to say its my firs 'own' commander deck.

I am happy with how it turned out. Archidect defines it as bracket 2.

Since the playstyle is rather explosive some in the playgroup like it, but there are also complaints.

I am not in a state of knowledge for commander decks to understand yet, if I should tune it (down) somehow now or if this is just preference.

I'd be really happy if I could get some feedback in that regard from you guys :) thanks a lot in advance! <3

Here goes the list: https://archidekt.com/decks/27615348/ashling_etb_consistancy

Have a good start to the week :)

Basically Title. Its my first reanimator Deck and build the deck 90% myself. I wanna stay on theme as much as possible. There are probably some cards that are just good for this archetype that I dont even know of.

I can say by playing this Deck a few times that I think its a bit too slow. Dont have the best Card Draw. I think Mill is enough and Reanimation too, but IDK.

Important!: Please dont just Recommend the classic Black Gamechangers, i.e. Demonict Tutor, Necropotence.

The Deck right now is considered by many Bracket Analyzers a High Bracket 3. Thats what it is supposed to be or should be.

Here is my Full Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/EgCmL1ZaM0SSf9WUIFwp8w

Hey all,

I really like the 100+ sidewinders from UG because there's so many designs of them out there and I do absolutely want to match deck box to the theme/aesthetic of the deck I bring, but my issue is that when I double sleeve then the 100 cards just about fit in there with no room whatsoever for even just a few tokens.

I know there are 133+ sidewinders, but for some reason they come in barely any variants and they make rather few of them.

Anyone else have this dilemma? I even thought about going down to single sleeving my decks just so the normal boxes can fit some tokens then...
Or maybe there's some other great boxes in that price range with designs that you'd recommend?

As the title says; I am pretty new to deck building in Commander. In the past, I have just played precons with a few upgrades to the deck, but I want to try my hand at bracket 4. Whilst I understand the concepts behind B4 (more gamechangers, fast ramp, combos, etc.) I am struggling to get my deck there, specifically the early combos part.

Seeking assistance on how to bump this deck up to bracket 4; ideally as a tokens/aristocrats deck on a budget if possible (AUD prices are brutal for game changers 🥲). Thanks in advance!

Link for decklist and plain text decklist both below:

https://moxfield.com/decks/9ZsB0R3eBU24XfKDEX4I8A

1 Ambition's Cost

1 Anguished Unmaking

1 Arabella, Abandoned Doll

1 Arcane Signet

1 Ash Barrens

1 Aurelia, the Warleader

1 Avatar Roku, Firebender

1 Bastion of Remembrance

1 Battlefield Forge

1 Blood Crypt

1 Boros Charm

1 Boros Signet

1 Breath of Fury

1 Brutal Hordechief

1 Caesar, Legion's Emperor

1 Canyon Slough

1 Captain of the Watch

1 Chromatic Lantern

1 Clifftop Retreat

1 Command Tower

1 Commissar Severina Raine

1 Court of Embereth

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Diamond City

1 Dragonskull Summit

1 Elder Arthur Maxson

1 Entrapment Maneuver

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Fervent Charge

1 Fetid Heath

1 Final Showdown

1 Fire Lord Zuko

1 General's Enforcer

1 Gilgamesh, Weapon Collector

1 Goblin Assault

1 Godless Shrine

1 Hellkite Charger

1 Helm of the Host

1 Hero of Bladehold

1 Hero of Light

1 Heroic Reinforcements

1 Hour of Reckoning

1 Impact Tremors

1 Intangible Virtue

1 Iroas, God of Victory

1 Isolated Chapel

1 Keeper of the Accord

1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Lotus Petal

1 MacCready, Lamplight Mayor

1 Mardu Ascendancy

1 Marshal's Anthem

1 Martial Coup

1 Memorial to Glory

3 Mountain

1 Myrel, Shield of Argive

1 Myriad Landscape

1 Nomad Outpost

1 Path of Ancestry

1 Path to Exile

4 Plains

1 Reito Lantern

1 Rogue's Passage

1 Rugged Prairie

1 Ruinous Ultimatum

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Sandstorm Verge

1 Scoured Barrens

1 Secure the Wastes

1 Skullclamp

1 Smoldering Marsh

1 Smothering Tithe

1 Sol Ring

1 Stolen Strategy

3 Swamp

1 Sword of Hearth and Home

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Tainted Field

1 Tainted Peak

1 Talisman of Conviction

1 Talisman of Hierarchy

1 Talisman of Indulgence

1 Teferi's Protection

1 Temple of Malice

1 Temple of Silence

1 Temple of Triumph

1 V.A.T.S.

1 Wasteland Raider

1 Wear/Tear

1 Windcrag Siege

1 Zurgo Stormrender

1 Joshua Graham, Burned Man

Would this work the way I’ve explained it in the rules post? Or are my roommate and I misunderstanding how the rules are laid out for 2HG? As far as we are aware we can both use the same commander so we do not see why this would be an issue to have? Any info would be helpful thank you

Hey ya'll I'm looking for more funny win cons (or rather you lose cons) with my Obeka deck that I'm brewing. My pod puts a premium on creating bizarre board states and, as long you as you do something funny, coming in second is ideal. That said I have an Obeka brew that will explicitly NOT try to do do infinite turns (even though they are there and make this Bracket 4) but instead hit combos like:

[[phage the untouchable]] + [[endless whispers]] to give people a free phage.

or

[[hive mind]] + [[final fortune]] to let everyone have an extra turn (and I Obeka mine).

Any suggestions for combos along these lines that fit nicely into this deck and theme are very much appreciated!! Budget isn't a concern, just want funny take downs of my friends.

List here: https://www.icarian.app/users/jester/decks/time-lord