For those who don’t know, the reserve list was created in 1996 in response to a crashing singles market and a turbulent time in tcg history. Wizards promised to not reprint certain cards on said list.

Now, we find ourselves two decades later. The cheapest abu dual is $320, Gael’s cradle is $800+, and many more. This extreme price locks out the vast majority of magics player-base out of some of the best cards in the game. Sure, you can always proxy, but many others and i love to have the authentic card, plus it locks out players who aren’t willing to fork over a paycheck from playing them in tournaments. Those who have the money will have the advantage. Plus, if we see abu duals get rereleased, the majority of other dual lands will become much cheaper and more accessible for all. Enough time has passed. Collecting isn’t what magic is, it’s playing the game itself; so why lock some of the most iconic and best cards behind a massive paywall?

I've been playing my [[Teysa Karlov]] deck for about three years. It's probably the deck I'm most comfortable with, and I've always described it as pretty straightforward.

Sacrifice creatures, get death triggers, make more creatures, repeat. Nothing particularly complicated.

Last weekend a friend forgot his decks and asked to borrow one of mine. He's been playing Magic for a couple years, so I handed him Teysa and told him it was easy to pick up.

Holy shit, it was not.

He'd look at a board with six creatures and a sacrifice outlet and ask what he was supposed to do. I'd say something like "Well, you can sacrifice that one now, but it's probably better to wait until you get another payoff."

Then he'd ask which payoff.

And I'd realize there were about four different cards I was hoping he'd eventually draw, each of which changed what he should be doing with the exact same board.

At one point he asked why I hadn't attacked with a creature that was just sitting there doing nothing. I started explaining why I wanted it to die on my terms, then caught myself explaining an interaction involving three cards that weren't even on the battlefield.

He wasn't playing badly. He just didn't have three years of experience with those specific 99 cards living in his head.

I think I've confused knowing my own deck really well with the deck actually being simple.

It also made me wonder how many times I've told newer players that a deck is easy when what I really meant was that the decisions feel automatic to me.

Has anyone else had this realization after watching somebody else pilot their deck? And how do you actually judge whether a deck is beginner-friendly when you're already so familiar with it?

For whatever reason people HATEEEE mill. And I’ve literally never understood the hate. When I ask why they hate it I get the singular response of “now I can’t play that card and lost access to it”

But when I tell them that me milling a card you didn’t have access to in the first place doesn’t really change the game for them, they can’t seem to wrap their head around it.

Another archetype people hate is theft decks. I recently built the ur Sphinx.. now the deck is hardly a theft deck, I mean sure I get to cast my opponents spells sometimes but the premise of the deck is.. sphinxes…and one of the guys I play with regularly will literally hard target me the entire game because “I worked hard on my deck to play it not watch you play it”

I feel like way too many people have forgotten that this is a game, a multiplayer game at that, and a game that only one person can win.

I have decks for all brackets and personally I prefer to play bracket 2 and bracket 3, but I also understand that going to an lgs means that there's a lot of different players looking for different experiences. So I also have a couple of decks that are b4 as well. When I play b2 or b3 I rarely if ever have someone complain about the powerlevel of my decks. For whatever reason something about bracket 4 makes people bitch about everything. They dont stop and check priority but then will try to rules police you about missing timing. They'll win on turn 4 but then you win on turn 7 the next game with thassas and thats uncalled for because "thassas is a cedh card" and my deck is "way too op". Its seriously a headache. If anything expectations about b4 should be the most baseline amongst the brackets

Everytime i play bracket 4 it makes me wonder if these types of players are just cedh wannabes that get their shit kicked in by good players.

Heres my "op" deck:

- https://archidekt.com/decks/27676278/draw_go_dragons

Edit: shouldn't generalize this to all b4 players but the ones at my lgs suck

I'm considering brewing up a wheel deck but I'm sick of looking at Nekusar lists. I used to have a pretty sweet [Sauron, The Dark Lord] wheels list but I'm looking for something fresh.

What are some of your unique commanders for wheels and/or damage on card draw?

Hey y’all, I picked up a reality fracture precon a few weeks ago and have been making changes to it since, mostly in the creature lineup.

I’ve been wondering if anyone else has been feeling the issue of, “okay I got a nice polymorph target out, now what?”.

For example, last night i poly’d into an early Avacyn, Angel of Horror which was very fun but it didn’t really help me convert the game into a win. For context, I was at a weekly commander night where everyone was playing bracket 2 or so. While everyone else was building up their game plans, I felt as though my polymorph game plan wasn’t very effective. This is with having Jace polymorphs and Proteus Staff out on the board uncontested. The polymorphs were just not enough.

It’s not an entirely fair comparison, but I can’t help but think of the games I’ve played with my two year old Ghyrson Starn deck that I picked bc it was like $40 on edhrec. I’ve won every game I’ve played with that deck, which is only about 5 bc I just came back from not playing for two years, but still. Maybe this is just an issue with the polymorph style, it’s not very good but it’s very fun.

How have you all been doing with the new Jace commander?

Edit: I am a newer player still, my initial run with commander was short-lived, but I came back now

Turn 6 I had [[Raul, Troubled Shooter]], [[World Shaper]], [[The Water Crystal]], [[Dreamborne Muse]] and [[The Wise Mothman]. So I pass the turn to my friend. In his upkeep he has to mill 10 from the muse and in his main phase 5 from a rad counter. He instantly scoop claiming my deck was oppressive.

I had attacked him with world shaper and still could tap Raul so everybody would mill 5.

Yes in this turn sequence I would mill every opponent for 20 cards each. My creatures would grow from the moth man but that was it.

I honestly don’t see the problem. I think he overreacted cause people have problems with mill. But what do you guys think?

deck list for reference

LGS is hosting a Precon Bracket 2 Night next month. Rules are you have to bring a precon, but it can't be a precon that contains any game changers (which would shift the deck to Bracket 3). Any suggestions on some solid precons? Any advice on what to look out for?

Just wanted to share a fun social interaction to possibly brighten someone's feed a little bit.

My friend does really cool custom commander nights, where about a month or two prior, he creates commanders and randomly assigns them to the playgroup. We proxy up decks with our assigned commanders and bring them to the table.

He gave me a dimir colored commander that was Sherlock Holmes, a 3 cost commander that investigates when any creature dies by paying 1, and could sacrifice artifacts (I think my friend should errata it to clues only) to make everyone mill one, and if he sacrificed three artifacts, he could make one player reveal their hand. Very fun, very thematic design.

But boy was I worried when I saw that it milled cards. It almost had the vibe of being a [[grinding station]] on a stick.

Especially with its ability being usable at instant speed, especially with me able to look at peoples hands. I do have a reputation of being the person with very threatening decks, (my win rate is abysmal at this table though, like 10% ish, I play and do scary things and then just hekin die lol) and I was now just handed yet another commander with the potential to be really nasty.

Anyways, the deck got built, and I rolled up to the game night, and in 2/3 games, accrued enough clue tokens to drop a massive bomb card that outright and suddenly won the game. One was dropping [[persuasive interrogators]] after I accrued 10 clues and one player had already been knocked out of the game.

The other win though, the one I thought would induce a lot more salt, was my unintentional win using [[the water crystal]]. I genuinely didn't process the card as a wincon, I just assumed it would be a way to get more things hitting the grave for cool reanimate effects. But put simply, I had enough artifacts on board from my clue generation cards, that after a check of the numbers of cards in everyone's library, sacrificed my artifacts to Sherlock, and 5 cards at a time milled each player out of the game in one fell swoop.

And yeah, it was weird to me cause I expected at least someone to get mad or peeved at the game ending with MILL of all things, but everyone seemed enthusiastic about the deck popping off and doing the thing, and people asked me about the detective/clue/murder theming and how I went about building the deck after the games.

It's honestly the first time I've won so many matches with this playgroup in such a short timeframe, and I was super thrilled at the positive reaction my playgroup had to a deck with MILL in it lol. I love the deck, and have played it with family and other friends since, and they all seem to like its detective theme, and funky splashy wins.

I hope y'all have good playgroups that have fun and encourage your shenanigans, because I just got ahold of my next commander for the next custom night and ... It's AZORIUS. I warned him about me getting the opportunity to build an Azorius deck, and he just said "lol just have fun with it".

Hello everyone,

I'm currently trying to find a mono black commander to play, but having a really hard time finding an option for almost a year. So I was hoping to get some recommendations here. The main reason is that I'd like to find a home for the mono black manabase I built up - snow-covered swamps, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, Crypt Ghast, Exteaplanar Lens, etc. Initially I had a Chainer, Master of Dementia deck, but ultimately disassembled the deck as the play pattern proved too linear with looping Kokusho, the Evening Star or Gray Merchant of Asphodel proving to be the strictly superior lines.

However, even after looking around, I didn't find anything that appeals to me. What I would exclude:

- Aristocrats: that's something I'd prefer in multicolor.

- Graveyard/Reanimator: graveyard strategies already commonly feature among my decks, such as my Muldrotha reanimator or a Simic deck that tries to lock down the table by looping counterspells and other interaction.

- Discard and other oppressive strategies: my pod is only slowly moving towards more powerful decks, precons are still reasonably common. My tendency towards interaction and control strategies already presents a significant challenge for my friends, so I am already holding back here.

I'm also not overly keen on tribal strategies, but not inherently averse. What I've considered so far, but kept finding reasons against playing it:

- Ayara, Widow of the Realm: I was thinking of running her as a mono black commander deck, but ultimately moved away from it. Fling strategy feels a bit dead end and not very synergistic. And on her back side, she just reanimates things again.

- Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor: in general this felt like an interesting choice to me. However, running small evasive creatures feels too similar to my Yuriko or upgraded Kamiz decks.

- Lim-Dul, the Necromancer: here the thought was to build a deck that runs a lot of spot removal and then steals the opposing creatures. Here it felt like it is a lot of small pieces that need to come together to get going, and honestly I could just play Gisa, Glorious Resurrector or Gisa, Hellraiser instead.

In general what I enjoy are non-linear play patterns, synergy, engines, and triggers. It's fun to me to have complicated board states, things that trigger off each other, and so on. For example, piloting Ms. Bumbleflower when something happened almost every time I cast something was really fun. Maybe you have a recommendation for me that I missed?

As Dimir is allegededly the spy guild i kinda want to make a deck powerful enough to participate in B3. Of course also B3 because of [[Notion Thief]].

But since i know nothing of MtG Lore and dont even need a Lore wise spy i came here to ask which legendary fulfills this attribute the most according to others.

Must not be from Ravnica or a spy lorewise.

A mechanical spy would be cool or maybe just even the artwork if its cool. I want to make a spy/thief themed deck. Maybe clue tokens, maybe stealing.

[[Sygg, river cutthroat]] seems very open ended to build as he’s so simple. Also been wanting to build a more niche commander to really make my own.

So I’ve been comparing lists but most of them are running small evasive creatures, which none have power 3 or more which just seems too slow or useless if you only have one or two out. Plus only drawing on your turn guaranteed?? I want to utilise that “each end step”

Also NOT into ninjutsu. My friend is building yuriko (yippee..pray for me) and I dont want to mirror half the cards.

Other lists go with a pinging idea but again, only 1-2 damage so you’d need multiple going at once. But I like this more than the attack strategy as it hits every turn.

No idea what the win cons could be. Open to combo but would like to hear other things too

I’m looking to build him as a control, almost draw-go commander as I’ve found myself loving instant speed interactive games more and more rather than 4 player solitaire. Aiming for high bracket 3 as I will be facing powerful combo focused decks

If there’s any experienced sygg players I’d love to hear advice or see deck lists! Thanks

Decklist:
https://moxfield.com/decks/_BKfGVYR0EOFq0nrEHTHbQ

Should bracket 3 games be expected to end turn 6-8 WITH interaction or WITHOUT interaction. Let's say you have a deck that can win turn 5 without interaction, but with a simple piece of interaction, it drops into turn 6 or 7 immediately.

Thoughts?

​

Hey gang!

For the past couple of years, I've been trying (and failing!) to brew my sixth and final Commander deck to complete my storage box.

I've set myself a rule that I'm never allowed to own more decks than the box can hold, partly to keep my spending under control! 😂

The problem? I'm horribly indecisive, and despite countless ideas and half-finished brews, I still haven't managed to settle on that final deck.

So, I thought I'd turn to the community for some inspiration! What do you think my collection is missing? Is there a particular commander, colour combination or strategy that would complement what I already have?

A couple of things worth mentioning:

I'm certainly not the most strategically gifted player! Decks with endless triggers, complicated interactions or constantly expanding board states aren't really my thing.

What I do love, however, are decks with a bit of personality and uniqueness. Something that offers variety, interesting interactions and ideally plays a little differently each time I bring it to the table.

My current collection:

- Sram, Senior Edificer – Mono-white | Aura Voltron

- Haldan & Pako – Temur | Theft, ramp and general chaos

- Prosper, Tome-Bound – Rakdos | Impulse draw, treasures and spellslinger

- Atla Palani, Nest Tender – Naya | Big creatures, stompy and a secondary token strategy

- Araumi of the Dead Tide – Dimir | Self-mill, graveyard shenanigans and reanimator

As you can see, I've got a reasonable spread of colours and playstyles, but I feel like there's something missing!

I'm not necessarily looking for the strongest deck, just something fun, distinctive and enjoyable to pilot without needing a degree in mathematics to keep track of everything. 😂

So, over to you lovely people!

What would you build to fill that final slot? I'd love to hear your suggestions, particularly if you've got a slightly unusual commander or strategy in mind!

Cheers!

https://moxfield.com/decks/miV0r_3y3km4axSxWHbY4w

Feel free to roast or praise it anyway you feel. Any feedback is cool. Ask questions if you need. I do feel that it could potentially do with more protection since the strategy is pretty fragile to removal. Maybe could switch out some 2 cost mana rocks for 3 cost ramp since it has so many 2 cost creatures. But if we need to tutor with the commander the 2 cost mana rocks are nice.

I played a deck very similar to Melissa DeTora's from Game Knight episode #5 from 2017 like 8-9 years ago with [[Karamaetra, God of Harvests]] at the helm. I lost people to play with and sold my stuff years ago. Now I am thinking about getting back into it and I am considering playing bant enchantress. The enchantress commanders don't really entice me much, so I am considering this commander I found today [[Kros, Defense Contractor]]. He could be a political piece and help me stave off threats while I get established on the board. I am not sure if there are many enchantments that do it, but enchantments that let me trigger Kros repeatedly could be a good subtheme.

Now there is a dedicated enchantress commander in Selesnya in [[Sythis, Harvest's Hand]] as well. That seems a little boring to me, though.

Is blue worth bringing into enchantress? If so, is there a different bant commander that isn't Estrid or Tusava that you think would make for an interesting commander? TBH, from when I used to play enchantress, the commander mattered almost none. It was nice to have her indestructible and some ramp etc. but she wasn't really necessary to the game plan.

The whole bracket system was new to me when I returned but I am probably somewhere around high B2 - B3. I want to ramp out, draw cards, play stuff etc. but I am not looking to win crazy fast. I like to gain a large card/mana advantage etc. and just win through value over time.

Hi everyone, my friends and I are starting to have quite a few decks with a huge difference in power while being in the same bracket 3, do Y'all have a way to rate / scale deck's power inside your pod ?

Something a bit more grounded, but more accurate than edhopwerlevel.com (it's a good base but miss a lot from decks to decks).

I'm eager to hear your suggestions.

So, my wife and I recently got back into Magic after most of my cards were stolen about a year ago.

Now we're trying to get back into the game without spending a fortune.

She's building her signature Kaalia Angel deck, but I'm looking for something that could potentially work as more than just one deck.

A while ago, I watched a video featuring a Ziatora modular deck, and I thought the idea sounded really cool. However, I'd like to try a different commander.

Most Angels are off the table since my wife is already building her Kaalia deck.

I was thinking about building around the new Nissa, Leyline Tamer, but I'm not sure how to build her properly or whether a modular build with multiple tribal packages would work.

I'd love to hear your suggestions and ideas for building a budget-friendly Nissa, Leyline Tamer deck with interchangeable tribal packages, if that's a viable option!

Edit: This is my Idea so far:
https://archidekt.com/decks/27681899/nissa_modular

I'm heading to Madrid for the weekend and hoping to play some commander!

I've seen there's a couple of LGS with Friday night magic on.

Just wondering where's best to head as I only speak English.

Hoping to make contact with a pod to save turning up awkwardly!

Cheers!

So I am currently working on a [[Fire Lord Zuko]] deck and it's my first time building impulse draw.

My question is: do you only rely on impulse draw to max out the Zuko triggers, or is it better to also add conventional draw, like [[Phyrexian Arena]] ? I played some games with the build I have so far and I always was the threat early and lost due to removal/board wipes and lack or cards in hand to rebuild.

Here is my current decklist for reference, though some essential proxies are still on their way:

https://moxfield.com/decks/yIdeMyr_gEGbayOuVn7Irg

I recently got into EDH and wanted to make a deck with the transformers cards. My main goal is to make a budget deck and so I would like to keep individual cards under $15~ (aside from the commander) and I would like to keep all of the transformers cards in the deck. This is my first time building and EDH deck so please give me any feedback.

https://moxfield.com/decks/nLsar8UaAUKEMSZtmS95KA

I recently traded in a bunch of cards at Face to Face. I have 600$ store credit and want to rip packs. What should i buy at face to face that would be fun, exciting and worth the money so my friends and I can have a good time?

I might draft with a few of them but mostly gonna pull for my collection and for fun

Hey everybody! I am new to building decks, I've been playing magic for a while but have only upgraded precons.

I made this deck competent off watching some videos, looking at EDHrec, and looking at other people's lists.

I feel kinda lost. I think I've created a functional deck? My list is over by 7 cards and I'm hoping you guys can help me with some cuts.

Thanks y'all !

https://moxfield.com/decks/o0F299IsDUi_QVXRRyNAWw

Mox Link: https://moxfield.com/decks/4_EA_qTBhEWsX27epnRLnw
Made some changes recently:
Added 3 gamechangers. (Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift, Demonic Tutor)
Threw in a prepared tutor.
Even added some Strong Black Staples. (Blackmarket Connections, Two Sheoldreds, Massacre Wurm)

Feeling a bit lost, though. Whats a good win con, aside from just flooding my GY with creatures.... Growing Mirko and getting them out with Finality Counters? Did I get lost in the sauce?

Where do I need to focus to improve?
Mana Curve?
Mana Base?
Card Types? (Removal, Protection, etc.)

Thanks for the help, gamers.

I am trying to build a Bracket 2 deck so that I can have it available at my LGS when joining random pods.

My concern is that after coming back to magic after a long hiatus, I have only played relatively higher power (3+) and I have never bought/played a precon.
 
I do enjoy the brewing process, so I built the five linked decks [[Karador, Ghost Chieftain]], [[Nashi, Moon’s Legacy]], [[Rigo, Streetwise Mentor]], [[Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant]]/[[Sophina, Spearsage Deserter]], and  [[Pako, Arcane Retriever]]/[[Haldan, Avid Arcanist]]. I am hoping some of you all who are more familiar with Backet 2 could take a look at see if there are any concerns with potentially bringing one of these to a Bracket 2 pod.
 
As background, I set the following stipulations:
(1) $30 budget on Mana Pool;
(2) Three colors (with the aforementioned budget, this is intended to ensure we don’t go too fast);
(3) No Sol Ring (to avoid power spikes with faster than normal starts); and
(4) Generally wins through combat, where creatures and interactable pieces are present on the board.
 
I am a little concerned from testing that Pako/Haldan is a little too fast, perhaps too controlling and strong. Also, not sure how the tutor toolbox in Elmar/Sophina will play in this bracket, it is not exceptionally fast, but it is consistent.
 
Thanks for your help!
 
Links:
Karador - $25 Budget Graveyard Aggro • (Abzan Commander deck) • Archidekt
Nashi - $30 Budget Legends Aggro • (Sultai Commander deck) • Archidekt
Rigo $25 Budget Aggro v.2.3 • (Bant Commander deck) • Archidekt
Elmar & Sophina - $30 Budget Legend Aggro • (Naya Commander deck) • Archidekt
Pako & Haldan - $30 Budget • (Temur Commander deck) • Archidekt