EDH/Commander General /edhg/

Previous thread is MIA edition

>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 decks strategy and card choices.
tappedout.net

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

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

CARD SEARCH

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

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

Thread question: What commander has art/lore/flavor that you love, but is virtually unplayable?

So quick question. if someone copies pic related with say mirage mirror or phyrexian metamorph do they lose the game?

I'm a newish player and want to build a Norin the Wary or Krenko Deck for general shenanigans. I don't really have any cards except for an allies starter deck I bought a year ago.

Is there a precon available as a starting off point for monored, just to get essential cards for cheaper?

Or should I just buy the singles first?

Give me your big bad rakdos finisher spells

there was a daretti mono red precon in 2014 but it's mainly based on artifacts.

You'd be better off just getting singles since it would be cheaper.

yes

No for Mirage Mirror, because it was already on the battlefield when it became a copy.

Theres the Mono-Red Daretti one, but it's filled with artifact shenanigans, so not very useful for you. Has some good stuff, but for Norin I would just buy singles.

The Merfolk vs Goblins deck would be a decent starting point for Krenko.Several of the Merfolk are modern playable too, so they could be decent trade fodder.

Omen Machine, cyclonic rift, moat, Kiki jiki, meddling mage, pithing needle, march of the machines, intruder alarm, sundial of the infinite. Make 20000 meddling mages naming every spell in magic, make 30000 needles naming every card in magic (save kiki for last). Move to end step and activate sundial.
No one can attack, cast spells, draw cards, or activate abilities. I don't know of any lands or cards with triggers from the graveyard that could disrupt this.
Alternatively cast Teferi's protection and activate lethal vapors 5000 times. Peace out suckers

>Alternatively cast Teferi's protection and activate lethal vapors 5000 times. Peace out suckers
Stuff like Leyline of Punishment will still murder the fuck out of you.

And yes, I have seen people run that card.

Mirage mirror is already on the battlefield so it doesn't care anymore.
For metamorph, if it was cast from your hand you won't lose the game either because "this card" was cast from your hand (but if it entered the battlefield from somewhere else and copied phage then yes you'll lose the game)

How do I git gud

I'm blowing hundreds of bucks and still losing to precons

What decks are you running?

"your life total can't change" is neither damage prevention nor lifegain

>tfw stingy with cash
>already thinking about christmas shit
>worried that since so many buyouts are happening at seemingly random, something that I'll need will get tagged between then and now

Anyone have any spicy tech for scarab god? Kind of want to build with it since I've had it for awhile and just realized it's now like a $40 card.

Would a zombie tribal be better or should I go for pure reanimator good stuff?

Anybody else here run whatever commander they feel like, moving the edh staples from deck to deck as needed?


Playing only one deck ever is like drinking your own piss. Noobs are exempt.

What's the thoughts on swapping cards? If it's just like a dollar rare then I'll buy one for each deck, but no way am I going to buy something like Eternal Witness for every deck with green that I'll make.

Locust and mogis

My meta is super heavy creature/boardwipe focused. I'm just not able to compete when by turn 5 everyone has multiple 3/3 4/4 creatures and I have crawlspace or propoganda which then gets hated out immediately

Slip of paper in the sleeve or proxy will be fine unless your playgroup consists of awful people

>Alternatively cast Teferi's protection and activate lethal vapors 5000 times. Peace out suckers

While your boardstate may be untouchable, any opponent with an alternate win con (read: every competent deck) will still beat you

Understand mana curve
Understand wincons
Understand how to properly play answers (hold until you are about to die, THEN answer)
For that matter, learn how important instant-speed is
Learn how to use hate pieces
Learn how to close a game
Understand that all things considered you should only be winning 1/3 of your games if you're only slightly stronger, don't expect 100%. This format is VERY varied for how well a game can go for you, and that's before you get mana-screwed/flooded.
Oh, and learn to hold things. Running all your cards out there means you'll hit removal quickly. Either get more card draw to persist through that removal, run counterspells, or just learn how to read the table for a time to go off.

I like zombie tribal for mine because, for one, a lot of zombies have ways of reanimating themselves or other zombies anyways, and 2, saving your Scarab God activations for stuff coming out of your opponent's graveyards is funny as fuck.

As long as you don't get hated out you will be the only one able to do fun graveyard stuff with creatures.

Also, get ahold of a Training Grounds.

Trying to build jund spellslingers, you guys got any ideas?

Xira Arien may be the only one who can directly contribute to your plan, I think.

How do you build Mishra anyway?

Yea I might have to use her, good thing I already have one. I wanted to use something more explosive

Possibility storm, nether void ($$$) and blood funnel. In other words, jank interaction that's fun but only if you really commit to it. Most times you will degenerate into generic artifacts.dek with a neat trick, which would arguably be better suited to esper or something similar. That being said, grixis artifacts can be fun, just understand you're taking a step down with your colors and commander (power-wise, fun-wise I could be completely off the mark depending how you play)

Complete autismo here:

I'm building a grimgrin deck, and every list is a zombie tribal, which is okay, but a little played out. I remember a few threads ago someone posted a neat combo with grimgrin, phenax and undead alchemist which really sparked my imagination. What other fun things can I do with grimgrin? I just want a goofy jank deck that has a lot of fun dimir interactions, is "75%". I think I'm going to be playing against precons, and I'm finding it difficult to strike a balance between taming powerful decks, and not just blasting them into oblivion.

My first thought was no tutors under 5 mana, no fast mana-positive rocks outside of sol ring, and no stax pieces/two card combos, but am I missing anything?

Seems like the easiest way to be effective with Grimgrin is tokens, and zombies are pretty much the only type that come from black. Maybe some blue token makers like Talrand? Or just any type of recusion deck in general would also be good with him.

what can I do with pic related?
I like Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, but she seems too costly to run as your commander. And I'm not sure you want her in an enchantress deck.

I'm thinking of just using the lands, taking the removal package (grasp of fate) and build Kambal

>Nicol Bolas a European style dragon became God KANG of an Egypt themed plane

How did WotC get away with this?

Recursion is up my alley. Maybe I'll just make a janky mill-reanimator deck where I play big ol' sea monsters on the cheap. It could be fun.

Is dimir spellslinger a thing? I could just run steal effects and sac my opponent's creatures to untap grimgrin.

Commander damage still happens bro. Just because your life total isn't changing doesn't mean you can't count to 21.

You're retarded

You're so dumb it hurts.

Is not taking any damage taking combat damage?

>Alternatively cast Teferi's protection and activate lethal vapors 5000 times. Peace out suckers
I've been considering building a deck that's all about that interaction, using Time and Tide (with the right creatures) to maintain the ability to play cards, most notably counterspells for people trying to win around me or off my Chronatog.

Mostly just so I can introduce the deck as "War Games" and make the "only winning solution is not to play" joke, admittedly

Newbie here. How does Commander differ from regular magic in terms of actual gameplay? I know the differences in terms of deck size and such but how do those changes affect the game? Is it worth having a deck for both?

Are there general rules for building a solid commander deck?

You begin with more life points, 100 card deck w/ legendary creature as commander generally you'll need powerful creatures and spells not those 1/1 small stuff
You have to think in more strategic terms

Other than the deck construction rules, the difference is your Commander: a legendary creature who starts the game in the command zone, can go back to the command zone if basically any other bad zone change (Death, exile, shuffle) would happen to them, and who can be cast from the Command Zone with a tax of 2 generic for each previous time you've pulled them out of there. Essentially, this is one card you are guaranteed access to for the entire game.

Depends on how new you are?

>Brand spanking new
Buy a precon.

>What is a mana curve? Doesn't that hurt the cards?
Buy a precon, slap some extra cards into it that fit your style.

>The stack, how does it work?
Buy a precon, choose a commander you like, and build around it, keeping in mind an average CMC of 4 or greater is insane. 10 draw cards, 10 removal cards, 10 things that fit your strategy to win the game, 10 things that ramp, and 20 cards to fluff the rest. No less than 34 lands.

>Bitch, I'm playing legacy-lite
You know whats good, do your thing and just have fun.

>I'm casting magus of the moon, life and limb, and I'm going to magical hack mountain with forest
Just go shoot yourself already.

>not those 1/1 small stuff

ey, i heard you talking shit, like i wouldnt kno

Depend on the group. The more dosh you throw in, the closer you get to 100 card singleton vintage with fast combos and very high consistency. The less tutors/investment the more random/swingy your games get obviously, tending closer to battle cruiser thing the jankier you get.

>Is not taking any damage taking combat damage?

You can accrue Commander damage without your life total changing.

In the case of Teferi's Protection it's not the "Your life total can't change" part that's saving you from Commander damage, it's the "Protection from everything" part. The life total change doesn't even matter when a Commander is swinging at you because you can't take damage in the first place. With Teferi's protection you will not accrue Commander damage.

However, if we were instead talking about a card like Platinum Emperion, which does prevent your life total from changing but does not actually prevent damage, you would still accrue Commander damage. The Commander swings, he deals damage, and your life total doesn't change. Nothing about "Your life total can't change" prevents damage, it just prevents one of the *results* of that damage.

So to clear it up: "Protection from everything" and similar prevention effects save you from Commander damage. "Your life total can't change" does not. Teferi's Protection just happens to have both.

He is right though, if you have Leyline of Punishment you can kill a player under Teferi's Protection with commander damage.

No you can't, at least not by lowering their life total. "Your life total can't change" isn't a prevention effect, it's a replacement effect. The card isn't preventing you from taking damage, it's just flat-out stating that no matter what happens, your life total stays the same.

Leyline of Punishment *does* get around the "Protection from everything" part, because that's a prevention effect. It does not, however, allow you to change their life total.

For instance, if they had just cast Teferi's Protection and you have Leyline of Punishment out, and you swung with your Commander, you'd still tally up Commander damage. They just wouldn't lost any life.

Woops my bad, I didn't see that you'd specified Commander damage.

does the phyrexian unlife + solemnity not work against commander damage, even though it turns to infect?

Yep, the damage itself isn't prevented so whoever is attacking you still gets their combat damage triggers, lifelink lifegain and racks up commander damage.

What about tymna for draw? I use her for my curse tribal deck and there's always usually someone that I can throw my utility creatures at.

>>Brand spanking new
>Buy a precon.

dont do this if the other players have homebrew.
you quickly notice the power level difference

make sure you're on the same playing field with similar decks

Objectively wrong frienderino.

If your friends are brand new and building their decks from scratch, yes, but that's a very specific circumstance. A precon is usually the most cost effective way to start playing with a group, and places most people at a relatively useful powerlevel.

ah okay, good to know. im going to use it in trostani cat tokens still, but its also good to know it for scorp god.

i played precon vs hapatra, some boros aggro and zedruu. wasn't any fun because my deck didn't do shit against theirs

I don't know that you can really call Bolas a European style dragon at this point. He's got some really weird proportions.

Since he phases out do you ever have to pay his echo cost?

Sire of insanity

It was clearly just a failed shitpost, but yes, he's kind of in between a European and Oriental dragon.

when he comes back

This is the most bullshit I have ever read.

So
>T1
etb
>T2
phase out
T3
Phase in
Add cumulative, pay it (Or can I choose to pay then add?), pay echo, remove fading?

In case you didn't notice, Nicky B is kind of the villain.

What no. This is wrong

Your boardstate is still untouchable. Since it's you know, empty.

You're like a little baby. Watch this.

My dudes, MTG has very discrete effects and interactions. Normally, you take damage, and the result is that your life total changes. Preventing the damage (by means such as gaining Protection from Everything) prevents the damage (obviously). "Your life total can't change" does not, it just stops your life total from changing because of it.

Teferi's Protection does both (it both prevents damage by giving your Protection from Everything and, additionally, stops your life total from changing), but it's important to understand what parts of the card are doing what.

Wait wait wait, what the fuck did I just read?

Thanks
Well I'm pretty new to this format, I used to play like 15 years ago and am back now so I don't know much of the new stuff
I have preference for green or green-black combo

Well I'll be damned

Read literally the first Gatherer ruling for Platinum Emperion.

>1/1/2011: The ability doesn't prevent damage. Rather, it changes the results of that damage. For example, if a creature with lifelink deals damage to you, you won't lose any life, but its controller will still gain that much life. Similarly, if a creature you control with lifelink deals damage to another player, that player will lose life but you won't gain any life. Notably, if a creature with infect deals damage to you, you'll get that many poison counters.

what a fucking beast of a card, shame it's 500 bucks
no idea, but oracle text is pretty good

...

People who actually do that are cancer.

I'm going to need a couple more details:

>what cards do you have?
>what types of strategies do you enjoy?
>who are you playing with?
>how dickish/expensive do you want it to be?

p.s. and also broke so I just bought a dozen or two of new cards to mix with the legacy stuff

>What commander has art/lore/flavor that you love, but is virtually unplayable?

This, among many other Legends' legends.

See also kinda hard to tell you exactly, I don't have many powerful cards, some elementals, ancient silverback, a wurm or two and thats it
Currently playing on a MtG club/store though not competitively at least for now
evwentually I'll have to invest more money on it

>Not having a deck for every color combo with all the appropriate staples in each one

I won a game with surprise 16 damage from combustible gearhulk when my opponent didn't want me to draw and that was pretty fun.

Are there any other cards that give your opponent a choice that can unexpectedly kill them?

I played on cockatrice, so no need to move staples. I had a bunch of decks, but the only one I ever seriously perfected was Toshiro. The rest were just side projects based on interesting cards that I eventually stopped being interested in.

Honestly, I'd just take a peak at your cards and buy the one with the most appealing commanders. This years aren't too too bad, and they're tribal so they're fun. I'd skip last years, as they're a convoluted mess, but personally I'd recommend Meren.

You get Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Meren, and my main man Mazirek as commanders, the deck pretty much builds itself, and it's pretty easy to upgrade. Everyone and their dog plays it, but don't hate the player, hate the game.

If you want to build build something, I'd recommend Maelstrom wanderer. You can throw whatever you want into it, and it'll come out okay, just focus on green cards that nab basics, cast Maelstrom, then laugh your way to the bank and play whatever you happen to have. If you want something in Green, green Omnath is pretty fun to play. As for monoblack, Gissa is pretty self-explanatory as well, though it's tough to go wrong with Drana, and I personally play Geth.

>glissa
>monoblack

Preach on, brother. I actually won one of the most rediculous games ever against my roommate recently because of this exact ruling.

>Rith the Awakener vs. Emmara Tandris
>Rith shits more tokens, but Emmara's are sticking around
>With two token doublers and Impact Tremors
out, I've got the clear advantage until he drops Worship
>With no way to deal with 12+ indestructible tokens, I just keep swinging with Rith, making as many Saprolings as possible
>End up getting 144 Saprolings one turn, dealing over 240 damage between Tremors and combat
>His life total remains 1
>Our faces when
>A few turns later, Rith kills his last flier and closes out the game via commander damage

Nice
thanks for the advice

I love playing any of the Tempt with _____ cards. Vengance is a favorite for any deck with a sac outlet.

yes

That's gisa not glissa

I know you're probably just a brainlet green player but you gotta use context clues m8, just think back to elementary school.

Maybe instead you just learn to fucking spell, retard.

Chains + Gitrog + Dakmor Salvage is where the real fun starts

Easy, I was off by two letters.

Glissa is still a pretty good commander on her own. Deathtouch and first strike is a bitch of a combination to deal with if you aren't used to insanity.

>playing staples cuz you have no originality
>not just building your own deck

netdeckers and edhrec are ruining this format

Who said I was a netdecker, friendo? I have my own opinions on what I think are "staple" cards of a color. O-ring for example is a staple white card because it's just good in any kind of white deck. I don't need the internet to tell me that.

You should probably read the post I'm replying to first as well, I was mocking the poster about being too poor to afford multiple copies of his favorite cards for each deck. This had nothing to do with netdeckers and edhrec. If you wanted to get mad at something for no reason, go turn on the news or go to /b/. Fuck, son.

As someone who hasn’t been playing the game until this year, but likes deckbuilding and doesn’t know the cards. Edhrec is a godsend. Having a starting place is so nice. Wtf do you expect, for me to only find cards via gatherer?

>complaining about netdeckers
>2017

this looks like weak bait, but if you're serious, staple cards keep the format functional. removal spells, tutors, ramp, every deck needs these. using them doesn't make your deck unoriginal or boring.

What you said is exactly what I've tried to explain to people when they complain about EDHrec "homogenizing the format". I have friends who loved the idea of the format but their first decks were absolute piles of shit. They spent a few hours looking around EDHrec and were able to build much more functional decks and we all had a lot more fun because of it.

At this point, I can think of most cards in the game off the top of my head but the scope of this game is probably so fucking intimidating to a new player.

you should re-read that original post you were replying to.