EDH/Commander General

Cool Commanders Edition

RESOURCES

>Official Site: Contains deck building rules and the current ban list.
mtgcommander.net

>Deck List Site: You can search for decks that other people have made. Authors often have comments that explain their deck’s strategy and card choices.
tappedout.net

>Another resource for commander discussion; they have an entire forum dedicated to discussing decks. People often make primers, which go into detail about how they built and play their deck.
mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh

>Statistically see what everyone else puts in their commander decks based on what is posted to the internet.
edhrec.com/

>Find out what lands you can add to your deck, sorted by category, based on a chosen Commander’s color identity.
manabasecrafter.com/

>CARD SEARCHING

>Official search site. Current for all sets.
gatherer.wizards.com/

>Unofficial, but has GOAT search interface.
magiccards.info

Topic of discussion: What's the coolest Commander you run? Who's the coolest in your playgroup? What's the coolest you've ever seen?

Other urls found in this thread:

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/e-v-i-l-w-o-m-a-n/
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mrs-steal-yo-girl-2/
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/who-wants-card-draw/
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Kraj is pretty cool. Thinking about building him.
We're all pretty cool guys in our playgroup. We're chill and that's all that really counts.
Coolest would probably be the white legend that switches blockers. Can't be bothered to look him up. Alternatively pic related :^)

Am I the only one who runs Squee as general? I never even see it in the 99 even though I think he's great in decks that loot a lot

He's in my competitive daretti deck and he's great there. I just feel like there aren't enough worthwhile loot effects to justify running him on his own.

Depends on your definition of cool. I run Sydri Stompy for a different kind of artifact flavor.

Yeah he's not super strong but he's one of the only reliable recursion tools that red has. The dream is to just Skullclamp him over and over.

He'll grind out long games really well but is obviously slow to start.

What do you guys think about how Sheldon and the RC manage the format?

Honestly I think they do a great job, its a huge format with an unprecedented amount of usable cards. They take a lot of undo shit and it's not really fair.

I think they ban too many cards. I also think the way the "spirit of EDH" is really fucking bad for the format. It has resulted in way too many people creating chaos/group hug decks and also too many people crying about certain types of things like MLD, stax, counters.

Some argue that you can just houserule whatever you want but if you go to a shop to play, you need a central banlist. You can't start every game by comparing personal banlists and altering your decks.

The RC matters but I think the current one needs to be replaced and Wizards should just take over. They need to unban some stuff then step back and leave it alone.

I still think it's stupid I can't play Rofellos in my 99, but Metalworker is a-hokay.

But what do I know. I'm just some salty elf lover.

MTGO is probably the reason for that. Banned as commander apparently couldn't function in it or they just didn't want to invest the time into making it work.

I'm building a deck made out of some of the weirdest/most interesting blue cards printed. Pic related, Master of Predicaments, Jeskai Infiltrator, etc. Need more suggestions of interesting/fun/political cards to put in.

Metalworker is also expensive

Emrakul is actually really cool. She either is an assassin commander, dealing 26 commander damage the turn you drop her, or she wins by assembling an engine that allows you to control the entire game, mindslavering 3-4 opponents at once.

Been building her since release and she is a breath of fresh air to the selection of colorless commanders.

The issue with the RC is that they're bipolar: they ban stupid shit like Sylvan Primordial and Trade Secrets, but claim that they want a small banlist, so they don't ban shit like Obliterate. The have the clause "or cards like them" so technically, people shouldn't be playing fast mana/Decree of Annihilation/Necropotence/etc, but they not banned so they're fair game.

EDH is in a wierd sport right now. It's getting real popular (normies get out reeee) which isn't close to a bad thing, but when a format gets popular people come around and want to break it. Which is fine, I've built decks that exist to abuse the vintage-lite style and they're fun to play. However, these decks are not fun to play against which is why I only use mine in 1v1. However, the tryhard competitive players see this as just another competitive format, and go from there, and instead of self-quarantining, they play with anyone and everyone. This leads to a pretty bad experience for everyone, since the competitive players don't get the challenge they wanted, and the casuals get crushed. Eventually, the casuals "git gud", leading to a downwards spiral of an arms race where everyone ends up playing stax/combo

Honestly, the issue with EDH is more a philosophical one than anything.

You cant abuse Obliterate like Sylvan Primordial tho'. But yeah the issue is really more philosophical than just "ban this unban that".

Obliterate ruins the game/draws it out even more, both of which are way more egregious than a fatty that can kill a couple lands and ramp you into your next big thing.

If the issue is with how people play stuff like Sylvan on turn 3-4, I think that's more indicative of the state of fast mana than anything. If Sylvan on turn 5+ is an issue, then you need to reconsider how you build decks.

Obliterate is fine

>a fatty that can kill a couple lands and ramp you into your next big thing
You never saw a miserable game of "who can reanimate and clone Sylvan more?" have you, the damn triggers are mandatory and anyone who doesn't have a clone effect ready will just be blasted bit by bit out of the game. Obliterate just levels it out for everyone, maybe gives and edge to the caster if he had more than 10 mana to recast something he bounced.

>giving emrakul haste and doublestrike in colorless

how?

Cast using Hall of the Bandit Lord and equip a Fireshrieker or Grappling Hook

>what are equipment

>they just didn't want to invest the time into making it work
I don't think they could of they tried. It's a 20 year old client with a bunch of Frankenstein code under the hood, and WotC is notoriously terrible at anything digital so they just kinda patch it up with each new release

Telim Performance is very hilarious against some decks.

I want to build a black discard deck where im the only one who's not topdecking. What are my options?

>Playing some unholy Yasova jank
>stolen, Greaves-equipped Krenko on my board is shitting out goblins
>First main phase, drop Telemin Performance
>Nail the Rhys player's Craterhoof
>gg no re

I got laser focused every game after that but man that was a fun time. I want to bring back a refined Yasova

flip lili is pretty good. just play a lot of reanimation or things like waste not and geths grimoire

Haste Enablers:
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Obsidian Battle-Axe (A tribal equipment to also feed delirium)

Kill shot enablers:
Eldrazi Conscription (A tribal AND the only colorless enchantment, puts her at 23)Fireshrieker
Grappling Hook
Hedron Matrix

On any of the titans these are really powerful, but with Emrakul you can easily end up with a 21+ power, flying, protection from instants, trampling Commander that kills one player, then lets you royally fuck up another player.

Emrakul is pretty solid really. You just need solid ramp and delirium feed. I normally cast her for 8-9 mana the first cast.

Remember that black has access to a TON of draw, I don't think you need to worry about being in topdeck mode

What's your opinion on cards like Unnerve?

He's a bit inconsistent with the banlist criteria but most people don't want a mile-long banlist so I think he's doing alright. The format's problem is its playerbase, not the RC. Sheldon catches so much shit from people who have autistic metas and refuse to house rule because "I can't bring my Doomsday combo deck to multiple metas and still be able to tuck opponent's commanders."

Giving Wizards control of the format is by far the worst thing that could happen. It's already bad enough that they can insist on printing cards for the format that are so much better than the competition that they replace all the competition.

>Having a colorless control deck suddenly go Voltron on your ass in a single turn.
>The cards that enable it are also perfectly designed to fuel the commander's delirium.

Damn, that sounds pretty awesome user.

quite bad. once shot discard is often not useful. here is a list i play often. it is about mid power level and wins on a decent basis. you can use it for reference. the real power in a discard deck is enchantments. cards like painful quandry are deal-with-or-lose threats. unnerve and tasigur's cruelty are cute, but not the consistent pressure a deck like this needs,
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/e-v-i-l-w-o-m-a-n/

the deck has combos like words of waste + necropotence or bottomless pit/oppression + library of leng that are extremely disruptive, not to mention how quickly the game is over if i have a waste not out at any time. constant pressure is very important in a deck like this. mindslicer is an emergency valve. you'll get a feel for what the deck does when you go through the list.

Last thread some one told me Dismiss into Dream was secret tech for Derevi. Why? I feel like its a bad card and that person is trying to trick me into wiping my own board.

>For the past year I've been building what I thought were Timmy decks
>last night I realized that I'm some sort of meta Johnny fucked that likes to combo into big spells earlier than I should with elaborate magical Christmas land setups
Talk about an existential crisis. How on earth do my fellow combo fucks enable their degeneracy? Honestly, I just get beat on for 4 or so turns until I slowly start building my game winning board. Propaganda like effects seem good but niche, in so much as it doesn't stop anything.

I'm sorry. I misread that card. Holy shit that is secret tech. I did not see it was opponents.

Those are all morph/bluffing/head games cards, so I guess you'd also want Liar's Pendulum, Ixidor, and Ixidron, maybe blue's "manifest" cards like Cloudform, Reality Shift, and Write Into Being. Perplexing Chimera is pretty funny in multiplayer.

What are some good cards in grixis to get rid of enchantments? Other than chaos warp everything seems to be 7+ mana or take multiple turns. I keep getting fucked by RiP and leyline.

Your best option is probably to counter it or to bounce it and counter it when they play it again

There aren't any. Black and Red have very few ways to deal with enchantments by design, and blue is basically "Bounce it and counter it on the way back down". There's options, but as you said they pretty much all cost 7 mana (All is Dust, Scour From Existence, Karn, Spine) or are Chaos Warp.

How would you abuse it?

Ugh, probably just going to play Planeswalker bolas then

start by tearing off the goggles and ripping up those trousers...

If I'm playing with friends, I'd go lite with Voltaic Key.

...

Howling mine for free card draw just for you.
I guess it could work with other "as long as [artifact] is untapped"

So... tap an artifact to draw, then pay 1 to untap it, and draw again? Having three cards out to draw 2 cards a turn isn't exactly 'abuse'.

howlint mine, winter orb, pili pala

good politics with that

Staff of Domination and Kydele say hello

Because it gets played? :^)

Holy shit lmao, misread something there.

That's what I get for not playing magic in months.

Right into my Teferi Stax Lite deck it goes

One of my friends has a bunch of bullshit decks that go infinite by turn 4 or 5, and one deck that's kinda solid that's built out of junk he's gotten from drafts. We're really looking for a new "low level" commander for him; one that doesn't go infinite but at the same time is good enough to be played for more than just its colors.

Any suggestions?

Pila-Pala

Would you play this tezzeret with any particular UBx commander?

>+1 create a colorless artifact token named Etherium stone which has: Tap Symbol:sacrifice this and add one mana of any color into your mana pool.

>-2 target creature get +x/-x until end of turn which x is the number of artifacts you control.

>-7 you get an emblem with “At the beginning of your combat phase, target artifact you control becomes a 5/5 artifact creature.”

Master of Metal is way better for EDH

I mean, you could just suggest "Hey, can you build a deck inbetween draft chaff and consistently wins on turn 4" and let him build something HE wants in that range.

wow this is very underwhelming.

I'd put it in a mimeoplasm deck with gravepact, all the blue artifact tutors I can find, and tayamio's journal. Mazirek and those kaladesh "deals damage equal to the number of artifacts you control" guys would be very strong together. That mana fixing is spicy as Fuck even for a regular dimir deck.

The intropack tez seems better. A shame because this one has the better art.

I like the intro pack Tezz because it's more "in line" with what the Planeswalker deck versions SHOULD be; they said that they were going to be expensive and splashy to keep them from being 'must play' cards in Standard, but the first two we got were just overcosted shitty trash. I much prefer "expensive but neat" like Master of Metal.

This fucker has to be the most broken commander I've ever brewed with. I tried him in a storm deck and he just always kills on connect even with only one cascade trigger

>killing on one cascade only
What how, that must be the most christmasland combo ever

>cascade into draws into tutors into ad nauseam into doomsday

you dont even need to cascade to play storm with those colors, its just much easier with cascade and near 100% consistant

naw man, it's easy. You just need to play a ton of cards that cascade for much higher than what you cast them for or that net mana

>evoke
>delve
>palinchron and friends
>cards that already have cascade
>the usual storm suspects

cascade into extra combat steps and wheels to keep fueling the fire. Generally it wins with an extra turn or combat with a shitton of goblins/beast made hasty by maelstrom wanderer.

Hitting Mind's Desire is also a complete massacre

Meh, it still costs 7 in the best 3 color combo with the most busted general that has tons of other options. It's certainly fun in Teferi though.

Oh yeah, and on top of that, you rarely have a "bottleneck" card that fizzles your turn if they counter it. Even if you do not get to lethal storm, most cards already net value and you end up with a gigantic board state

I though he meant something like one card cascading and blam, win. I can understand how through various cards with cascade you at least break everybody else's boards.

>a shitton of goblins/beast made hasty by maelstrom wanderer
Token producers? I'm playing spellslingers with Yidris and I'm worried the lack of bodies might backfire against wide decks, I should probably get some in the 99.

Is it the combo itself or just the speed that you hate? Because there's plenty of good reanimator decks that go infinite occasionally but other than that are just good grindy decks. Kerador and Mimeoplasm come to mind.

Otherwise, some type of control deck, I've had good fun with Sydri (though combo kills are once again prevalent), and Garza Vol.

rafiq voltron

He's one of, if not the best storm commanders. The colors are great, and cascade is busto, especially when you cast brainstorm, cascade into Ancestral Visions. I have a list online that costs space money in the real, but kills turn 4 easy, with turn 3 being possible

Empty the Warrens and Hunting Pack

I'm seriously having trouble making a list that is on the powerlevel of my playergroup whilst still doing what I want to do with it. Perhaps I should switch more to the value plan and making it more voltron-ish

What does your playgroup top out at, power wise? Because there's a possibility he's just too good no matter what, much like Maelstrom Wanderer.

That said, just playing expensivesorceries.Dec is something to consider, and is pretty interactive, especially since a good number of Cascades will just hit more ramp.

Quick,

post the card that you use in every deck even though it might not be the best.

the best deck in our group is probably Brago without any infinite combos in it, but I already think that deck is pretty oppressive compared to our other decks. I've disassembled Karador myself because people couldn't handle recurring fleshbag marauders

Mindslaver, always

Preordain & Dig Through Time

They are the best.

Pet cards, idk, nothing in every deck. I'm too much a tryhard.

Mizzium Mortars

Go down in powerlevel. Don't let the arms race ruin your group.

My favorite Sac Engine

Honestly I've just fallen in love with Mind's Desire and want to play that in a deck for value instead of it reading "you win the game" but it has been deemed impossible so far

maybe a low-tier storm commander like Jori En could work

He's like 15 bucks, that's not that bad.

I think you mean "undue shit"

Warping Wail, it just always seems to be useful, and no one sees a counter out of Mono red coming.

Not perfect, but not as bad as they catch hell for. My biggest frustration is that they write shit off as "You can always houserule it!" without seeming to take responsibility for the fact that even if there isn't an 'official' banlist or rules set, everyone uses theirs as if it were official. They take their 'role' too lightly, and use their Armada Games environment as a microcosm of every other EDH meta/group, which can lead to shit going fucky. "This card is fine because none of US abuse it!" bullshit.

The only target player discard you should be running should be full hand discard. Shit like monomania and mind twist.

Fucking christ, thank you.

There's a guy in our group who has to put like 10 different one-for-one discard spells in every fucking black deck he builds, even though we pretty much exclusively play multiplayer.

OR things that otherwise synergize with your deck.

For example, Raven's Crime is fine in a Gitrog deck, because it's primarily there as a way to get lands into the graveyard rather than primarily as a discard engine.

Ashnods, sword of the animist and nim deathmantle go in all decks.

Black gets Archfiend of depravity and all the black draw cards.

Green gets Asceticism.

White gets declaration in stone and battle mastery.

Blue gets sage owl and aqueous form.

I suck at red, but deflecting palm goes in basically everything.

Ravens crime is mass discard.

If you have like 7 black mana and a grip full of lands, I guess

Green will always have Acidic Slime, Blue will always have Ponder, White will l ways have Knight of the White Orchid, Black will always have Fleshbag Mauarder, and Red will always have Vandalblast.

Those are some really fucking weird auto-includes.

Alright Veeky Forums. I have an odd decision to make soon. Do I finish foiling out my Merieke,
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mrs-steal-yo-girl-2/ mostly with some of the foils and a better land base. Or I could make Nekuzar tappedout.net/mtg-decks/who-wants-card-draw/ . Merieke would br 250 and Nekuzar would be 210, assuming I can't get any trades


Same though

I've never had a problem with arms races ruining groups, of the past three groups I've consistently played in one dissolved because we all had to go back to Uni, one dissolved because the store got shut down, and my most recent one is going strong.

Granted my current group is all legacyfags, so we don't shy away from powerful decks. Is my group really that unicorn-y or is the arms race just a meme?

Oh I know, my life is pain. I have standard draw lists for red, blue and black, but that's a whole different kind of autism.

>how can I cut sage owl? I get a flier and I get to look at 5 cards for 1B
>pfft aqueous form is only one mana, I'm sure I can cut something else.
>well, I know arch fiend of depravity is 5 mana and I'll never use him properly, bit what if this magical combo that will never happen?
>Declaration in stone? More like declaration of fuck tokens.
>Hexproof and regenerate, how can I lose?

To be fair, Asceticism and Dec in Stone are great cards for the right meta. Whether or not your meta is the right one is the question.

Does anyone have a good Yidris list for straight up value? I'm trying to build a deck but having a little trouble just getting past the "big creatures and big spells into more big creatures and spells" stage.

Would you rather have more decks or a fancier one? I'd chose more, but ymmv.

If everyone is onboard for powerful cards, go nuts. The arms race is mainly bad for newer players, who feel that they need to ramp up power to be able to compete (which is true).