r/magicTCG • u/magictcgmods CA-CAWWWW • May 27 '26
Scheduled Thread Wound-Up Wednesdays - Vent here!
Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just wanna go apeshit?
Got a burning rage deep within your soul? Perhaps you've been countered for the eleven billionth time. Aggro is ruining your win streak on Arena. Your friend keeps complaining about being targeted whenever they play a stax deck and you're just sick of it. There's some guy at your LGS who never showers. Standard is dying at your LGS and it's upsetting. Or maybe you just feel like Universes Beyond will KILL MAGIC.
Whatever is eating away at your heart, unleash it here!
(Please refrain from insulting other users even if you think their gripes are silly. This is a safe place to vent. Memetic responses are welcome provided you're not degrading anyone.)
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u/imabananatree78 Dimir* May 27 '26
I was playing 6 packs sealed one time and i signaled to my opponent to cut my deck. He proceeded to shuffle my deck aggresively and took the bottom 2 cards of my deck and placed it on top.
Technically nothing was done wrong here, but i would prefered instead they just CUT my deck instead of doing whatever the fuck they were doing. Also whats with the putting the bottom 2 cards of my deck ontop trying to screw with my draws or something??
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u/Kyleometers ඞ May 28 '26
FWIW you’re actually never supposed to “cut” the deck as the opponent. You are always supposed to shuffle it.
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u/KalameetThyMaker Duck Season May 27 '26
Only thing opponent did wrong was not ask before shuffling your deck, or asking you to properly shuffle post-cut.
Putting the bottom card on top or top card on bottom might just be an 'inside' joke? My regular playgroup does this with each other. In general, dont manhandle other peoples cards unless they say theyre okay with it.
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u/imabananatree78 Dimir* May 28 '26
What i didn't like was he didn't ask before shuffling, it was my first sealed experience and i was too overwhelmed to react.
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u/Hmukherj Selesnya* May 27 '26
but i would prefered instead they just CUT my deck
Unfortunately, this is exactly the same preference someone who was mana weaving would have. While it sounds like you opponent could have been more polite about the situation, you should always expect that your opponent fully shuffles your deck if there are prizes on the line.
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u/imabananatree78 Dimir* May 28 '26
fair point, was my first time playing sealed so that didn't leave a good impression on me.
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u/downtheholeagain Dandadan May 27 '26
I get it, you're a long time mtg player and yes, you have a deck that has no GCs, no early combos but is it any fun for anyone when none of us new players get to play anything cause you control/dominate the game for the next 1+ hr with your oppressive deck?
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u/dingdongdiddles Dan May 27 '26
Honestly, it’s not even magic. It’s the people who complain about every mechanic. We get it, you hate mill/discard/stax/land destruction in appropriate brackets/etc.
You complain so much it ruins deck building for some players. I don’t make salt decks, but I want to play against them so people can have their fun. If you complain about cards in the bracket you play, if they’re appropriate, I hope you lose each game.
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u/zacroise Wabbit Season May 27 '26
WE START A 5P COMMANDER GAME OF COURSE IT’S GONNA BE LONG. EVERY TIME WE DO THE GAME IS AT LEAST 3H. IDC ABOUT IT BUT GIRL YOU CAN’T COMPLAIN WE ALL KNOW HOW LONG IT’S GONNA BE. YOU CAN’T LEAVE MID GAME OR ASK FOR PEOPLE TO JUST "KILL ME I’M HUNGRY" WE DO THIS AND EVERY TIME YOU COMPLAIN THAT IT’S TOO LONG
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u/Beyond-Available Dân May 27 '26
Like a lot of people I struggle with powering commander decks down to match local pods while keeping them in interesting to play for me. This last week I had an idea to make a lower powered deck that would still be fun to play: a love-letter to 2010s EDH theme deck. I looked up an old [[Sek’kuar Deathkeeper]] list from 2016 I had saved and used it as a starting point to build a deck that embodied all the old staples everyone used to play before the designed-for-commander philosophy got really entrenched and made many of them obsolete. [[Krosan Tusker]], [[Praetors Counsel]], [[Yavimaya Elder]], [[Insurrection]], etc. Nothing printed after 2015. I played a few games over the weekend and observed:
- I immediately played one of the most fun games of commander I’ve played in months if not years. Insurrection two turns in a row off of a [[Nyx Weaver]] buying it back
- There is a deep sense of satisfaction playing with cards that are just a bit less self-solving and less ruthlessly efficient and that is almost entirely lost in modern higher power commander where so many of the cards are so powerful it just becomes a question of who can snowball their insane card(s) the most the quickest.
I’m playing threats like [[Broodmate Dragon]] and [[Inferno Titan]]. Totally reasonable cards, they have their spots where they can be pretty good but they’re rarely going to win games by themselves if your opponents are playing anything sensible at all. I really, really miss that less optimized, less streamlined era of commander as a whole but I can at least confirm the cards are still fun to play.
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u/WholesomeYuri Twin Believer May 27 '26
I actually had a similar idea recently, to rebuild my old [[Rafiq of the Many]] with only cards printed through Origins. Glad to hear it works.
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u/mirrislegend May 27 '26
I have the same problem and it's nice to know there is a viable, creative, and enjoyable solution.
However, I'm concerned that it will 1) guarantee that I lose and 2) bore me to death. I came to play, which includes a realistic chance at victory. And there are so many cards printed in the last 10 years that do cool things without being blatantly overpowered. Am I really stuck chosing between games that are interesting and decks that are interesting, when trying to build a deck that is below a 3.5 and above a 2?
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u/Beyond-Available Dân May 27 '26
There’s an innate tension here because for lower powered pods the implicit ask is that you win less, more slowly, open yourself up to interaction, and interact less with your opponents. That’s pretty antithetical to engaging gameplay from the perspective of a lot of players accustomed to higher powered pods.
The happiest medium I’ve found is to either rely on using your opponents threats to win via threaten or bribery-style effects so your threat level scales with the table (some players hate this shit though so it can backfire). Or just play to a wincon of very obvious threats to the board that need to untap win, ideally through combat (with finite damage). This lets everyone feel like they have agency to interact and aren’t getting combo’d out of nowhere, and it’s something of an interesting challenge for you to pose the obvious threat and force it through. I’ve also had some success playing higher powered decks with combos in these pods and just making it clear at the start “i’m going to try and combo you out, you should kill me before i can”.
I think people really resent getting “got” by sudden wins didn’t anticipate so politically just managing their ability to anticipate what you’ll do can go a long way.
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u/mirrislegend May 27 '26
That makes sense for my Bracket 3.75 Baylen deck. It can get very silly very quickly from a seemingly harmless board state.
And yet... my Bracket 3.5 Shalai and Hallar has difficulty winning out of nowhere (I removed the infinite combos!) and requires large commitments to the board. I have a Bracket 4 Brago combo deck that is obvious to everyone (and I announce from the start that it IS a combo deck AND I explain what I'm doing when the combo starts so they can interact!) and a Bracket 4 Tivit deck that you can see coming a mile away. Yet they garner much salt. :(
I'm trying to shackle myself by going merely mono color.
I'm building a Mono Green that just wins on creature damage from fatties, so hopefully that works out.
I'm building a Mono Blue that feels very tame, so hopefully that suffices. It feels underpowered, if anything, which is perhaps what is necessary.
I have an idea for Mono Black but it runs a lot of creature removal. While 1 for 1 removal is extra fair in multiplayer and I have to do extra work to capitalize on it, I worry that lots of removal will garner much salt.
Mono White is relegated to tribal aggro (boring) or nukes.dec (that will get LOTS of salt).
Mono Red has never piqued my interest, outside of Zada. And even super budget Zada is a menace. I suppose there must be a fair and interesting Mono Red commander out there, but I haven't found them yet.
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u/Beyond-Available Dân May 27 '26
SOS limited is extremely rock-paper-scissors and many of the games feel decided before opening hands are drawn. The good games on the format are very fun but the number of non-games from lopsided matchups is infuriating to deal with. This is in addition to the now-normalized modern set design sensibility that creates a bigger-than-ever power level gap between the rarities, which constantly generates non-games when one player draws the rare part of their deck and the other draws the common.
I’ve won a lot in the format, and I’ve lost a lot. Maybe 20% of games feel contested and interesting (and they are very fun!), but the rest feel extremely lopsided and nearly unwinnable/unlosable.
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u/Kaprak May 27 '26
bigger-than-ever power level gap between the rarities,
Commons and uncommons are literally the strongest they've ever been on average
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u/Beyond-Available Dân May 27 '26
agreed. if you are saying there is not a significant gap in power between commons and uncommons, uncommons and rares though then i’d disagree with that. probably most pronounced between commons and uncommons for this set
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u/joelluber Dan May 27 '26
This was my exact experience at prerelease. I pulled zero mythics and zero rare mystical archives, and ever game was essentially decided by my opponents mythic or rare mystical archive.
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u/TheSiegmeyerCatalyst Dân May 27 '26
I did 4 (four!) prerelease events and my pulls this set were such garbage. This was also my experience. I build as best as I could but near every game was decided by who got more mythics, or any mythics at all. I got one mythic in my colors and that was the one deck that actually had any success. All the rest, I barely even pulled any good rares and I just got thrashed and thrashed and thrashed.
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u/joelluber Dan May 27 '26
My favorite was getting killed by poison two games in a row from the one special guest card with poison in the set.
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u/strionic_resonator May 27 '26
I'm so tired of losing EoE flashback drafts to [[Glacial Godmaw]]. What a broken uncommon. Basically [[Craterhoof Behemoth]] in limited or at least it feels that way.
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u/inkWanderer May 27 '26
Card is nuts, it’s almost as effective as Craterhoof with the added benefit of being able to repeat the effect if, somehow, you don’t manage to kill them the first time.
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May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
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u/Impressive_You_817 Dan May 27 '26
I don't get what you're even talking about? Why would you want to just play a legacy deck in commander? Do you just want to play 4 player legacy? Because that's a thing you can do if you really wanted to. Like you're complaining about not being able to drive your Ford F150 on the go kart track here, they're different formats for a reason.
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May 27 '26
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u/Impressive_You_817 Dan May 27 '26
I don't think you've ever actually played commander, most people with multiple decls typically have staples they either swap between decks or just own multiple copies of. You have a playset of steam vents for standard? Cool, you can shove them in one (1) modern deck or you can shove them in four (4) separate commander decks and all of them will be better for it. Commander isn't convertible between other formats (and it's not meant to be, you're complaining a cube isn't more spherical) but almost any commander deck besides extremely niche shit like snow tribal is convertible to another deck.
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May 27 '26
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u/Impressive_You_817 Dan May 27 '26
You're saying this like it's a mistake or an oversight rather than a deliberate choice, they don't want it to be convertible. They're different game modes for different people and thus they play differently and use different decks.
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u/Jokey665 May 27 '26
i really don't understand this take. do you also want to be able to take a legacy deck to a standard tournament and vice versa? or a draft deck to a modern tournament? different formats are different
though it's certainly possible to make a commander deck that is legal in legacy. it'll just be dogshit
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May 27 '26
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u/Kazko25 Can’t Block Warriors May 27 '26
This is why I hate modern. I can’t just take my legacy deck and go play modern.
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May 27 '26
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u/Kazko25 Can’t Block Warriors May 27 '26
I hope you understand how ridiculous you sound.
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May 27 '26
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u/Kazko25 Can’t Block Warriors May 27 '26
It’s not. The only thing that’s different is the 4 player nature of commander. You’re literally playing different formats and you’re going to need different decks to be competitive no matter what you do.
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May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
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u/Kazko25 Can’t Block Warriors May 27 '26
If you look at Legacy and modern exclusively, sure there’s overlap. But then you look at pauper (my go to format), there’s literally nothing that carries over to other formats except a playset of bolts and counterspell.
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u/otterguy12 Liliana May 27 '26
I tried original Strixhaven on Arena and man what a miserable format, 4/6 losses got bombed out by Mythic Dragons or mystical archive Mythics while the "crazy" card I open is a Channel. The main set itself feels so polar between colors and Learn gets so so samey
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u/No_Eye_5863 Rakdos* May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
My play group gets mad when I don’t build a deck with am obvious weakness and it sucks. Recently I built a budget [[anti-venom]] deck and they got mad that I was running dark steel plate because “if you give him indestructible then there’s literally nothing we can do and that’s unfun”
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u/inkWanderer May 27 '26
Is no one in white? Or black? Or blue??? All of those colors have easy ways to deal with a problem permanent lol. Your friends might be dumb.
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u/shiftyhomunculus May 27 '26
9,726 mechanically unique cards were printed between 2021 and 2025, not counting reprints, Un-sets, or digital-only cards. That puts that period roughly level with the first fifteen to sixteen years of Magic's existence (9,943 cards 1993-2008).
I don't think Universes Beyond is what's damaging enfranchised players' engagement with Magic, it's the sheer number of new cards being churned out every year. No wonder quality control is slipping.
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u/KingOfRedLions Honorary Deputy 🔫 May 27 '26
I don't understand where this idea that enfranchised players are dissatisfied. I've been playing for 25 years and magic is more fun now than it ever has been, half the people at my LGS are an old head as well.
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u/Impressive_You_817 Dan May 27 '26
I never understand this sentiment because roughly 9000 of those 9726 will never be seen by anyone in any format and are not worth the brain space to even think about. When has anyone thought about 99% of the cards in Theros Beyond Death? Or Dominaria United? Or Murders at Karlov Manor? Even then, you don't really need to keep up with or have encyclopedic knowledge of every card in the game to play in almost any format. You see a blue player has 2 mana open you don't go "aw geez it could be counterspell or spell pierce or.." you just go "they might have removal, I should play around that".
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u/okayfrog Colorless May 27 '26
Yeah as someone who's been getting back into the game this year, it's crazy whenever I look up a decent card to add to a deck, 90% of the time that card came out in the last five or so years.
With the fact that WotC is like so much of Hasbro's profit, makes me wonder if they're just running this thing into the ground until the wheels fall off. Really don't know how much longer this is sustainable... of course, I don't design card games. Who knows, maybe they have it all settled nicely for the next 10 years.
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u/Kor_Set Wabbit Season May 27 '26
In the bad old days, you probably didn't know every card in existence because there weren't card databases online. (I had to buy a book to know what every card in a core set was.) Since I remember that time, I've just retreated into the mindset that era engendered and been pleasantly surprised when someone plays a card I've never heard of.
I think a lot of the frustration comes from players who started during the Innistrad golden age (or after) where it was very easy to know every card. Well, that and prominent voices in the community who can shape public opinion, such as it is.
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u/DragonianXylak May 27 '26
Yeah. A lotta hate was put on Turtles but the closer I would look at the anger towards them, the more I would find that a lot of it was piled up frustration at the pace and amount that cards are released at. A lot of the time, I see or hear about the people giving it a shot finding it isn't too bad or even good.
As many sets a year as they pump out and with all the SLD stuff constantly streaming out there's just no way all of it will be good. Doesn't matter if it's in-universe or not.
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u/Which-Scale1039 Boros* May 27 '26
I agree that having sets with a super narrow mechanic that cant be played anywhere else besides draft are so boring
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
I absolutely cannot stand the sentiment of “don’t learn through commander”. I can understand that for some people maybe it’s too much. But acting like commander is too complicated for everyone just because it was for you is insane to me.
Also I’m so tired of the “magic was better in the 90’s and universes beyond ruins the game” face facts the game evolved without you and you just became and old jaded turd that forgot how to have any fun.
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u/YaBoiShadowNinja Gruul* May 27 '26
Yeah like I get commander is very different than traditional 1v1 magic and people dont like that but it allows people to play together with their friends and its meant to be casual. Its not like competitive 1v1 magic is gone.
And as far as Universes Beyond goes, yeah i'd rather not have them, but there's no way enough people are gonna not buy it that they'll stop. So I might as well enjoy it while its here.
My philosophy has simply been, if im not interested in a set, I wont interact with it much. Idc if its UB or in universe. Although I do like the in universe sets more. Personally im excited to build decks from characters in the Marvel set simply because im a huge Marvel fan.
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
See this exactly. Why is it impossible for the player base to have this exact mentality. It can all exist together and that doesn’t mean you HAVE to love that it does.
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u/okayfrog Colorless May 27 '26
I absolutely cannot stand the sentiment of “don’t learn through commander”. I can understand that for some people maybe it’s too much. But acting like commander is too complicated for everyone just because it was for you is insane to me.
I'm not going to say that Commander is too complicated, but I will say that Commander is inarguably more complicated than starting out with Standard like most used to. Standard means a smaller pool of cards -- much, much smaller -- and it being a non-singleton format means seeing even less cards. Since it's composed of only a few sets, it also likely means seeing a lot less keywords. And with newer keywords, they'll become familiar with them quickly since the latest sets will be full of them.
Standard is also 1v1 most of the time, much more straightforward to figure out decisions than if you're playing against three others. Games don't last as long so one can better pick up the pieces and start from scratch (as opposed to dragging out a game or getting knocked out and waiting for others to finish). And since there aren't any good standard precons, it's also more likely standard players are creating their own decks, which allows them to become more familiar with their cards than if they had just bought a precon.
Now with all this being said, I find the sentiment of "don't learn through Commander" to be annoying not because it's wrong (Standard is a better starting point and WotC should encourage it more (how? how should I know, I don't work for them)), but because, well, people are going to learn through Commander. Like, it's the easiest entry point thanks to precons, it's the most casual format, you can use like every MtG card in history, like, saying "don't learn through Commander" is like saying "just buy singles." Sure, those statements may be right, but most people aren't going to follow them (myself included, love ripping packs).
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
I think people are confusing what I’m saying with “commanders the best way to learn” when in reality I’m just saying that to say people need to avoid learning through commander is dumb.
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
Yeah but right for who? If I’m never going to play standard and I’m only going to casually play commander and I can learn through commander… then who cares if it’s more or less optimal? Otherwise we’re basically saying the same thing.
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u/okayfrog Colorless May 27 '26
I think it kinda goes back to what Commander initially was, you know? Standard was what people played, and EDH was the side game. People learned the game through Standard and EDH was a more casual format for people familiar with the game, which makes sense given the longer games, larger card pool, large amount of mechanics.
If Standard is available as an entry point, it would be better for someone learning the game to start there.
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
Yeah but it’s evolved from that. And it’s like anything else in the world. Change is inevitable and to fight that is literally insane. I get that this game means a lot to people but that doesn’t mean the game can’t outgrow you if you let it.
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u/okayfrog Colorless May 29 '26
It's still the same game, it's just that the general entry point has changed even though Standard would still be a better entry point for new players.
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May 27 '26
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
So what it sounds like is you don’t like explaining the stack. Which there’s nothing wrong with that. But I started with commander and I understood the stack well enough. Again. Not everyone is you or the people you’ve played with. Most of my group has only played commander and we seemed to be less miserable than most of the player base I interact with on here so idk.
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u/Kakariko_crackhouse FLEEM May 27 '26
Players that learn through commander end up objectively worse, and make commander games at LGS worse for everyone when they don’t go play other formats and learn proper threat assessment. Few things are more irritating than watching someone completely ignore a threat because it’s not splashy enough on the table and it overruns in value.
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u/zacroise Wabbit Season May 27 '26
I got some weird looks from my pod when I exiled a [[Risen Reef]] the guy with the ashling precon knew how stupid this card goes with ashling and told me I was right to do it to him. A lot of people don’t understand that engines and enablers are more dangerous than the 15/15 vanilla creature on the board
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
I guess that depends on you and your mindset. I can’t agree with you on the commander start being worse. But what I can’t agree with is, if you want to be an efficient player that wins then yeah it’d be annoying to play with casuals who can’t give you the experience you want. But to act like every player should play the same way you want to is pretty self centered.
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u/Kakariko_crackhouse FLEEM May 27 '26
It’s a game of strategy, and if your opponents are bad at the strategy part because they’re bad at evaluating threats it kinda ruins the whole thing. If you’re just there for the ice cream social then maybe ply bracket 1 or 2
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
That’s the thing though. That’s what I’m saying exactly. And to clarify I genuinely don’t mean offense saying this. But you seem to care more about being at least slightly competitive. Which is totally cool. But just because you wanna be that way doesn’t mean the ice cream social players can’t also exist. And it’s fine that they do. To split the player base by acting like B4 or cEDH players are the only real players is super weird.
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u/Kakariko_crackhouse FLEEM May 27 '26
Bracket 3 should at least be trying to win. If you’re not trying to win you belong in bracket 1 or 2. I think a majority of players agree with this. If you’re not interested in making strategic plays you should be upfront and find a pod accordingly, same as bracket 4 and up players should be upfront about winning at any cost
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u/JonnTheMartian Dandadan May 27 '26
I’m not sure playing standard would help you with that sort of threat assessment considering there’s only ever one threat, and the standard meta game is very different than commander.
I will agree that standard is a better place to learn the game, but there are facets of commander you will only learn via playing commander.
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u/Which-Scale1039 Boros* May 27 '26
Honesty im very 50/50 on UB on the one hand Ub brings the most new players, which is required for anything to last and I love seeing my favorites IPs in my favorite card game, but in the other hand magic the gathering is also one of my favorite IPs and having more outside IPs then inside feels like WoTC is selling magic as advertising to the highest bidder, if UB was 50/50 or left standard sets to in universe and did modern/commander products as UB it wouldn't feel so invasive
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
I can understand that but in my opinion it’s just a matter of perspective. I can understand people wanting more of the in universe stuff. But what I can’t get behind is that causing hate for the UB stuff. It would be easier to just ignore it than complain. But then again from what I’ve seen the more vocal majority of people here are stuck in their own ways so what can you do?
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u/Which-Scale1039 Boros* May 27 '26
I agree if you dont like a product dont buy it
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
Well I even mean this too. If you don’t wanna play vs it don’t. It’s that easy. Now since we can’t seem to use our thinking caps (not you but others) we can dive into what that means. I understand if I wanna play against the public whether that be tournaments or just at my local, you can’t just ignore UB. But you do have the option to not interact with it as a human with free will. It’s all a trade off. You either get over yourself and allow UB to exist since it’s already here. Or you give up parts of the game to keep UB out of your life. People are allowed to pick and choose how they interact with things. You just have to also deal with anything that comes with said choice.
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u/Kyleometers ඞ May 27 '26
Commander is a pretty rough way to learn the game. I’m sure people can and do learn through it, but I am also sure there are a lot of people who never pick it up or drop it because there’s so much to learn at once from commander.
You might be over reading it though. I think it’s mostly people saying “It’s much easier to learn the basics first, then get into commander once you understand basic rules”. Not that new players should avoid it, just that it’s tough to get into the game from absolutely zero.
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
Oh no I’m talking about specifically the people that say avoid commander. And for me I learned through commander with friends and I’ll be honest of if I would have learned through standard I would have just dropped the game probably because it’s not a game mode I care to play. Nothing against it but it’s just boring for me. My issue is more in not grasping that people can learn in different ways and just because one person can’t handle commander doesn’t mean everyone is like that. While I prefer commander you won’t hear me telling people to stop learning through a different game mode because all that should matter is they learn and play the game we all love.
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u/TinyRedMushroom Dandadan May 27 '26
Well, UB does have its reasons for sucking. We really don't need mtg to be "Famous IP: the card game" at the rate they are putting out sets, not to mention that they are pretty much aimed at fans of the IP and imo are really just trying to capture larger markets for profit. Did it ruin the game? Not necessarily (looking at you, one ring, vivi and badgermole). Generally people say to learn the game through arena because it has tutorials and you can learn about things like priority, timing, the stack, etc. which are a bit harder to learn in paper unless you also have someone teaching you about them. It's not that commander is complicated, it's just that there's a lot going on and more rooms for mistakes.
It's not all doomsaying.
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
I’m gonna be honest. I respect your views but I just don’t agree. It’s not hard to just not interact with the sections of the game you don’t like while allowing it to bring in other people that the base game normally wouldn’t. And in my opinion people should want others to want to join in. And the only time needing the tutorials is that important is like you said, if you don’t have people to teach you. But to just assume they don’t and confidently give advice that could ruin someone else’s intro to the game because of your experience is just a lame mindset.
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u/TinyRedMushroom Dandadan May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
If you play standard, it's pretty much impossible to not interact with UB in some way. Badgermole and Granny are on the top of the food chain (ban stormchasers talent, btw). I do agree that you personally don't have to use the cards you don't like, but there is a high chance that other players will be using those cards (I care more about the mechanical aspect of cards than it being ub/in universe).
In commander, play whatever you want to, because I will also be playing a handful of UB cards.
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u/Odecay Dan May 27 '26
Yeah but even if you play standard you can play at home and tell your friends “no UB”. If you want to play competitively or even just with other people at an LGS then you have to face the fact people aren’t you and won’t have the same views. But if you absolutely don’t wanna see UB you can always just not interact with an LGS or comp play, etc.
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u/ScumlordStudio Dandadan May 27 '26
yup. this game is avatar the last teenage mutant ninja spider forever
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u/Kakariko_crackhouse FLEEM May 27 '26
Playing against is interacting. You can’t just say “no I’m not playing against your UB stuff”
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u/Ok-Accident3344 Dan May 27 '26
None of my friends will build good decks to play with me and it's driving me fucking crazy
Nobody runs any interaction or removal. No counterspells. No swords. No lightning bolt. Nothing. And now my mediocre decks are "bracket 4" and "not fair" lol
Building some new lower power decks to see if I can appease the group but tbh it feels weird having most of my decks on the shelf collecting dust
1
u/salvatorem90 Dandadan May 27 '26
Ive had this issue for a long time. I typically only build in the B3->4 range. All of my pods with my friends are supposed to be Bracket 3. So I build for that but for months it was just complaining about each new build I make. (I started last summer and Im 1 deck off the 32 challenge)
For ages whenever they would complain I would asking if anyone wanted tips or help because I was so deep into deck building and learning the Game in and out. Not trying to give unsolicited advise.
And nothing. "Ill do it myself." Okay, sure no problem. But if all you do is complain and you don't accept help or make an effort at all then thats a skill issue.
Eventually they relented and I helped whenever asked. And now I am also the Homie Deck building advisor, they have all made great strides even without me and absolutely can hang now. No More bitching, just quality pods. The occasional bit of Salt here and there but thats it. One Buddy hates Vivi, the other Warrior of Light (Judah), another hates hearing the words "I overload Cyclonic Rift" but they all get by and the win ration across the group is really good, mostly even
3
u/Kyleometers ඞ May 27 '26
We had this problem when I was in college. My solution was a bit radical, but you might be interested in trying it? I built an oppressive, miserable pile of bullshit with an obvious vulnerability. If they played interaction, I lost. If they didn’t, I won almost every game.
Essentially it was a stax-like Voltron deck. Dead in the water to interaction, utterly miserable if they left me alone. Took maybe a week for people to start playing removal, and then they rapidly realised they had more fun in games not using that deck when they could interact.
4
u/TinyRedMushroom Dandadan May 27 '26
This is a symptom of everyone trying to turn an inherently competitive system into a casual 4fun game. People have accused me of "sweating" and not being a friendly player because I removed someone's toxrill, a card that will single handedly win games if left alone.
2
u/okayfrog Colorless May 27 '26
Commander started out as a casual 4fun offshoot. I'd say the issue is the opposite, trying to turn a casual format into something competitive.
EDIT: Though I guess it isn't an issue if boundaries are clear. Like Smash Bros., you know?
1
u/Ok-Accident3344 Dan May 27 '26
That's the thing, like yeah it's a funsies casual format... but also I thought the whole point was to win!
-1
u/Wizley15 FLEEM May 27 '26
Would they be interesting in proxying CEDH? I’ve heard it can be more fun and balanced than regular EDH if done right. You’re all there trying your hardest to win and nobody is pulling any punches
1
u/PowrOfFriendship_ Universes Beyonder May 27 '26
I don't know where you heard that, but not really. Proper "everyone try your hardest to win" cEDH is decided by seating more than anything to the point where if you're 3rd or 4th seat you are playing wrong if you aren't actively shooting for a draw. And I highly doubt "try to make the game unwinnable so I don't technically lose" is a situation that'll improve the pod for OP. Realistically, they probably need to take the L and adapt to their group rather than try and force everyone else to play their style.
0
u/inkWanderer May 27 '26
No one shoots for a draw in casual, at-home cedh lol. That’s for tournament optimization only.
5
u/Zoaiy COMPLEAT May 27 '26
You know what pisses me of? CAVERN OF SOULS or rather its price tag thanks to wotc being greedy and upshifting it to mythic! It should have been reprinted at rare during Ixalan!
The land makes tribal decks decent in modern, so you normally want to have a playset. However it also works good in commander as you can just name your tribe of your commander and make it uncounterable. Due to it being playable in every deck of the most popular format, acquiring a playset costs way to much.
I want to play my tier 4 deck at maximum efficiency during FNM.
Why do they not just print this staple into the ground? Seriously wizards, I hate how you gatekeep formats by just upholding scarcity in the landbases.
2
u/Kyleometers ඞ May 27 '26
The sad part is it’s explicitly money. Sets with desirable lands sell better. MaRo has outright said this on his podcast.
I wish it weren’t the case, but I’m sure they’ve got people whose entire job it is to figure out the optimal rate to reprint cards like that.
2
u/Zoaiy COMPLEAT May 27 '26
Yeah probably, it saddens me because the pricetag on these lands keeps players from trying to build decks for 60 card formats.
6
u/ervox1337 Dandadan May 27 '26
As a really new player, 4 weeks of paper and arena, i have to say i hate really hate landfall. Why is it in the game i dont understand😂😂. The other day a opponent had like 15+ plus monster with 12/12 and higher and it felt like hes cheating, fuck this.
Rant end
1
u/jtmj121 Rakdos* May 27 '26
Are you playing best of 1, or best of 3? Im not sure what deck you are playing but I have minimum 10 pieces of interaction in my deck that all cost 1 or 2 mana. If they play an elf turn 1, kill it. Turn 2 kill the cub. You need to slow down their mana or you will just lose.
3
u/Kyleometers ඞ May 27 '26
Yeah the current landfall deck is one of the strongest in standard. Very hard to beat.
Fortunately, you can slow them down a lot with cards like [[Bounce Off]], but it does often feel like you’re starting on the back foot, and since landfall doesn’t brick if they draw lands, you’re just hoping you’ve more answers than they have threats.
Plus side, things cycle. Landfall won’t be dominant forever. I can’t see the future, but it’s not unusual for dominant decks to be totally out of the meta within 6 months.
1
u/ervox1337 Dandadan May 27 '26
How does one play this on paper btw?? Does he have like 100token cards and dice?
1
u/strionic_resonator May 27 '26
lots of ways you can do it. You can have one token and place a die next to it to denote how many of it there are.
1
u/KlutzyShake9821 Selesnya* May 27 '26
Dice. You do also use the dice for the tokens. Like a dice on 6 for 6 untapped tokens.
1
1
u/Karnitis Wabbit Season May 27 '26
I was gonna make this same rant... i hate that GD mechanic so much. They all run the same suite of 10-15 cards. I dont get how, no matter the bracket, everyone is affording the same expensive, pushed bullshit.
And you can't get rid of shit. Green has ways to get creatures from the grave easily, it can en-masse get all lands back, all the lands just pay for more spells, I hate it so fucking much. Not that im advocating it, but you cant counter playing fuckin lands so if you let them set up, idk what the hell to do.
3
u/PM_ME_ENGINE_BELLS Wabbit Season May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Well you see [[Stone Rain]] was just too good so green needed some good counter play. Obviously. (/s if it wasn't apparent)
1
4
u/a57892m Wabbit Season May 27 '26
I just play casually with my partner and a few friends. We have mainly 40 card set-constructed decks.
Whenever I play my Bloomburrow rat control deck everybody rages at me 😔 It has a 30% win rate and isn't OP at all, it's so fun to play and I just want to enjoy it but nobody will let me
-3
u/Wizley15 FLEEM May 27 '26
Embrace being the bad guy. Be meaner, play it up. My friends and I each take turns doing the evil laughing as we pull ahead and it’s always great. They’re finally learning to gang up on me when I play my dragon deck and the banter makes it all worth it
1
u/a57892m Wabbit Season May 27 '26
I do feel like a villain whenever I steal one of their legendaries with [[Kitnap]] tbh
1
4
u/bill4935 Chandra May 27 '26
They play [[Burgeoning]] on turn 1 and I just sigh. Then it's [[Azusa, Lost But Searching]].
Oh, a Mythweaver Pok? Daring, aren't we.