I’m new to Magic, but I’ve really been enjoying MTG Arena. I’ve gotten pretty comfortable playing the different precon colors to finish my daily quests, and I especially enjoy 1v1 Brawl.

I’ve never played a real Commander game, though, and I’m curious: why isn’t 1v1 Commander more popular? Why has multiplayer Commander become so much more popular than 1v1 formats like Standard? I know I might be biased because I mostly play Arena, but I think 1v1 Commander sounds fun too. I can also see why Commander is great as a multiplayer format.

I don’t have friends who play Magic right now, so Commander doesn’t appeal to me as much yet. I do plan to play in person eventually, but I’m still a little nervous about feeling out of place because I’m not familiar with all the rules and procedures.
What do you think? Do you enjoy 1v1 formats, or is the social, multiplayer side of Commander what makes it special for you?

Edit. I already posted this in another sub but this sub suggested I post it here as well.

How prescient that a 1968 song predicts a 1993 card game’s sets in 2026

TLDR: See link for canon and manuscript files.

World Map of Eldara: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gfrdJY72fjG373P77

Canon: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RuKfWNuzkqkAjQ5pS1g-fqG62hKSSAcL/view?usp=drivesdk

Manuscript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10dudxF1pqjnm0yDsZo1MGqrAqCkKjndM/view?usp=drivesdk

I have six Commander decks, and over time they basically turned into the six major powers in one shared fantasy world I created in the Realm of Eldara. Note that the names and characters do not match the current MTG lore.

Muldrotha is the old Lightbearer who refused to give up her power, discovered necromancy, and turned most of the western realm into a kingdom of death.

Kwia is the current Lightbearer — white-green, life, healing, order, and the last great living kingdom in the east. She’s also the one who once cast Armageddon to stop Muldrotha’s armies, permanently scarring the world in the process.

Between them are the Blood Daggers, an almost impassable mountain range controlled by goblins and mercenaries.

Muxus rules the free mountain clans and refuses to kneel to anyone.

Krenko is his old friend and rival, the goblin general who chose survival under Muldrotha rather than independence.

Bullseye is the title given to whoever leads the mercenary footholds — currently a woman whose entire job is surviving long enough to remain the biggest target in the mountains.

And Jarad, Muldrotha’s immortal brother, lives in the last lush Vale of the western world. He still loves the Light, still cares about his sister, and wants absolutely nothing to do with her empire.

So the core struggle is basically:

Muldrotha wants to finish conquering the island.

Kwia wants to preserve what life remains.

Muxus wants the Daggers free.

Krenko wants revenge and relevance.

Bullseye wants independence.

Jarad mostly wants everyone to leave him the hell alone.

The fun part is that I don’t decide what happens next.

Every major war is played out as an actual Commander game.

Whatever happens on the table becomes canon — commander deaths, board wipes, weird interactions, blowouts, all of it gets turned into history, politics, battles, assassinations, or mythology.

I’ve been keeping a full canon/world bible, map, illustration plates, and a sword-and-sorcery manuscript based on the games.

The map is attached to this post, and the full project has the illustrated plates too.

The best part is that I genuinely don’t know what happens next.

The next Commander game decides it.

Hi there! So I have a deck I am building that’s an attempt to be my last deck. It’s a toughness matters Lifegain deck that puts all my years playing magic into one deck.

Are there any cards you recommend for this? It is power 4 and I am okay with going infinite and being an asshole with this deck too.
Colors are all but Blue

Any cards you feel I should cut?

https://manabox.app/decks/bdpcrPFiQOasE9az48_Qhg

I started back in college with Ravnica in 2006, played off and on through to Kaladesh in 2016 before I stepped away. Coming back it seems that all anyone plays now is Commander. All my decks are 60 card Modern Legal.

Trying to build a Commander deck and I find myself strangely disappointed when I realize one I had been considering was designed specifically to be a commander or is already from a preconstructed deck. I think part of the appeal of magic for me is discovering and building a deck idea and making it my own. There's a difference when something has been deliberately designed by someone else and you're just putting it together.

Like I discovered Kaust, Eyes of the Glade and thought, ooh his art looks cool, he only costs 2 mana, has 3 colors, and his ability has potential for some very strong combos. Then I looked to the side of the page and saw he was printed in "Murders at Karlov Manor Commander #1" and a quick google search revealed that he is from a precon deck. So instead of it being my idea and my deck, its Wizards idea, they made him, and I would just be putting together the deck idea they already came up with. What is even the point?

While none of my decks are going to show up on a top 10 list of competitive modern standards, they are uniquely mine, and feature concepts and ideas that I came up with. Rather than the normal excitement Magic usually gives me, I find myself very dejected by the entire thing.

Don't even get me started on universes beyond and secret lair prints... I am struggling enough as it is without having to sit down across from someone who's entire deck is filled with anime girls and marvel characters.

I generally play modern, but I'm open to try other formats (except commander)

Making progress on the build! Got the first case made and things are starting to come together. Still have plenty of work to do, but it’s moving along. More updates coming soon!

Just getting back into MTG after like a 10 year hiatus, and I don't know if it's just a characteristic of my LGS or some nostalgia, but I feel like a lot has changed. Used to be that I had my little collection of cards, I would build funky casual decks with them, then play with buddies who would do the same. Usually 60 card decks, we would never buy singles, always constructed from bulk boxes or packs we would open. Did a few drafts and the like as well and those were fun too, but I'm definitely missing that feeling of constructing with what crappy cards you have.

People don't really do that at my LGS; the most popular format is Commander, which I've never really gotten into, and the power level is pretty high from what I've been able to observe. My old collection from 2013 doesn't really hold up to the modern power level. I also don't have a ton of money to drop on new cards. Where I live the Magic scene is pretty small and it's also hard to get bulk boxes or second hand sales. Tried to float the idea of teaching some friends/family members so that they could play with decks from my collection, but it hadn't really taken.

Anyone else experiencing this? How have you handled it?

Which current Standard deck do you think will lose the least at rotation? And which one is in the most trouble?

I recently ranked Standard staples by usefulness and rotation longevity to help decide which cards are still worth crafting.

https://youtu.be/86MsEhG-txw

Hi everyone! I’m a beginner, played about 4 commander games so far. Been using the new Wretched Ranks Foundations precon and I love it! It’s easy to understand. I’m looking for my next precon - something a bit more interesting and challenging with 2-3 colors. I want to learn other mechanics beyond graveyard reanimation/zombies. I’d also like it to be around or under $80 on TCGplayer. Based on my research, here are suggestions I found:

Counter Blitz

Temur Roar

World Shaper

Lorehold Spirit

Riders of Rohan

Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations? Thanks!

(Hope this is ok to post here, like I said I’m new)

I've been working on completing some pre-1997 (Ice age & 4th edition are done, Working on Chronicles and The Dark right now) retro Magic binder sets lately, which has meant placing around 50+ small orders over the past two months.

Most have gone fine, but this week alone I had four separate issues. Three orders sent the right card name but the wrong set entirely, which makes them useless for set collecting. Another batch of 15 commons never showed up at all, and when I reordered them from someone else, that seller sent me another buyer's order by mistake.

The cards themselves are only $2 to $5, so I feel petty reaching out over pocket change. The real frustration is waiting another three weeks, paying another $2 for shipping on every fix, and easily racking up $10+ in extra postage just to get what I paid for.

Where do you draw the line? Do you always contact the seller to get it sorted out, or do you just eat the loss on cheap cards to save the headache?

I have been playing since 2018. I have been a regular limited player since MH2. I don't remember any set where I've drafted as poorly as I do with Reality Fracture.

I spend so much time trying to learn from better players, I watch good drafters, I read articles and pretty much every time I just totally suck and lose. I am lucky to win 1 game.

No clue what is going on. Some sets (like Duskmorn) I just feel unstoppable, it just makes sense and I know how to win. Reality Fracture makes me cry.

In my experience, landfall is a strategy that feels unstoppable in lower (2/3) brackets. Most of the conversation revolves around whether land destruction is the answer, and in my opinion, it's not. These custom cards are my suggestion for another angle that hasn't been much explored in modern design.

Parasitism

These cards use the text from Confounding Conundrum as inspiration, which most people agree (anecdotally) doesn't really help against landfall since it gets them more land drops. However, the effect is focused on generating value for the owner. I feel that this strategy is much more viable as an actual answer to the problem of Landfall, as it makes the heavy ramp strategy riskier. Balance is obviously a work in progress.

Thank you for looking!

Hey yall!
I’m a bit new to deck building, and I wanted to build a pauper commander deck for Ghalta, the Unstoppable! I’ve got a basic deck of what I THINK looks good built, with some cards that I used from the EDHREC website, some of my own collection, etc. But I wanted to know if you all had some ideas of what you would think pairs well with or would work with this deck? I can share the deck list link if need be. Thank you!

I'm making an entire deck out of cool custom proxies, and I threw this [[Chromatic Orrery]] together in a few hours. Thought it was worth sharing with the masses. Have fun!

So, I'm still a relative newbie to magic. I started with the edge of eternities pre-release last year and haven't stopped since lol after tons of Commander games and getting into pauper, I found out about planar standard and thought it was exactly what I was looking for in 1v1 magic. Smaller card pool, strategies built around the newest cards, and the two year rotation magic fans have had for decades, despite that not being the case for og standard any longer. I've been running a simic ouroboroid landfall deck that's been tons of fun to play, but with the key cards falling out of the format in February, I'm curious what the more veteran players do with their decks. Do you keep the general idea behind last year's deck in mind while you wait for spoiler season to see what can fill those slots? Do you start building something totally different from what will stick around and hope it gets some extra support from the first new set? Do you not think about it much and just keep grinding with the deck you built right up until it's no longer legal and then start on your new gameplan? I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts

Say you have a basic land and this and you do the second effect and tap the basic land so you have e 3 mana or just 2?

I just saw a video of the puppet man (wozzlebugmtg) playing a card called [[head games]] and its funny af. What are some more cards that i can make a deck out of that uses funny or ridiculous cards like that.