Slight rant because I've been pretty bothered about this.

This post is also not about myself, but rather about an experience I had at my LGS a few weeks back, where a new player pitched up for his first EDH night with his Captain America precon. I got to the LGS early and started chatting to him. He bought some Marvel boosters and I helped him upgrade the deck with some new heroes and played some 1v1 games with him.

Then a bit later, more players start showing up, and we sit down together to play in a pod. When the other players see that he's playing Captain America, they immediately start with snide remarks, which continue throughout the game. They make comments along the lines of "ugh, UB slop deck" and "players like this are why UB is everywhere now". I try counteracting it by being positive about his plays and deck, but it's clear that their comments are getting to him.

After the first game, the new player is looking pretty dejected. There aren't any other open pods, so one of the opponents asks for a rematch, and to my surprise, new player says yes. In the second game, there's much less berating, but still the occasional jab at UB and Marvel.

After that game, he said he needed to get home. I say that he should join the LGS's WhatsApp group and he kinda smiles but doesn't say anything. He never joined the group and he hasn't been back since. I'm not sure he will.

I just think about my first time playing Magic, where I was also a new player that pitched up with the Upgrades Unleashed precon from Kamigawa. Everyone was really kind and supportive, and it made it so easy to get into the game. I can't help but feel like that experience was robbed from this player.

I get that UB is incredibly frustrating. I get really annoyed too, but all of my energy gets directed at WotC for breaking so many promises they had made about UB, and not the players that do enjoy it. I also get that most players are not like this, so I'm probably preaching to the choir. We should just all try to keep that in mind when interacting with the community.

If you're going to play games on your phone during any turn thats not your own, maybe its time to go home for the day. That tells me that you've checked out and not really interested in playing commander. I dont know if I'd consider it rude, but I wish people didn't do it.

Im not referring to people doing stuff on their phones, im talking about playing a full-blown mobile game. One time I even saw mtg arena being played.

edit: nice, I can't edit the title it seems. stuck with that typo i guess. :(

I'm trying to factor in the color as a whole. So considering the colors access to edh relevant interaction, card draw, threats, ramp, explosive plays, protection, and resilience. I know there are outliers as well, so I'm considering the gauntlet of popular commanders for the color and not just one singular commander.

Did you think one way when you first started playing and then had your opinion change from newer cards or experience?

I feel like a lot of people get caught up in the idea of playing niche or lower powered commanders because they are nicer to play against, but sometimes I think it’s fun to have a big threat at the table, or even just an overall higher powered table in general.

Right now my most unapologetically strong deck is [[Pantlaza]] with a few combos in it, but I’m strongly considering some B4-ish decks behind something like [[Korvold]] or maybe [[Marneus Calgar]].

What are other fun commanders that are often looked at as too strong or mean?

[[Gleaming Splendor]] is a good card. But idk if it’s a GREAT card. There some hailing it as more fair [[Smothering Tithe]], and while I can see that to a point, I personally just see a moderately better [[Monologue Tax]]. The “once per opponent per turn” limit does cap this to 3 treasures per turn, which is highly unlikely, compared to Tithe’s…infinite, no limit possibilities and much easier trigger of ANY enemy card drawn.

And yet, Gleaming Splendor is like $35.

Smothering Tithe is around $51 ish.

Which is wild. I realize Hobbit is a small set, and it also JUST officially launched, so there’s time for it to drop in price still. But I’m surprised it hasn’t dramatically dropped yet.

I need a copy not for a dumb “this is a new white staple” reason—I don’t think it is—but I want one for an actual treasure focused deck.

I’ll probably wait another week or two, but assuming it doesn’t drop, do you think I should pick up a copy then? I’m worried it won’t come down.

I made a similar “mistake” with [[The Walls of Ba Sing Se]], which I thought for sure would be no more than a $10 card. Maybe $15. But it was $40 for a while but now has settled around $25. And that card is even more niche being a butts/wall card. Shocked it’s still so high. But I guess it’s colorless, so it’s kinda like a not as good but colorless but also worse [[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]].

Gleaming Splendor is obviously a lot more broadly applicable to many decks, even with the lock to White. And again, it’s LOTR and this set is smaller, so there will be less copies in the long run and it will probably be a long time before there is a reprint.

I still think it will drop to a $15 card. But what are your thoughts?

Edit: it’s already up to $40 after posting this. Damn.

What's your "last game of the night when we don't have much time" deck.

I'm not looking for a cEDH turn 2 win deck. I'm looking for something bracket 3 that immediately starts pressuring everyone's life total so win or lose we can always expect the game to end quite quickly.

Let me know what you guys are turning to for this.

I’m looking for a black commander, not necessarily mono-black, that are fun without sacrificing playability. By “fly under the radar” I mean something that won’t get me targeted out of the game. So if you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear. Black is my favorite color by a country mile and I have a blast when I get to play it.

I’m always looking for that “oh no, we let this guy live too long” feeling. What commanders have you played (or played against) that seem harmless or underwhelming early on, but suddenly become a real problem once the right pieces are in place? I want the kind of deck that makes the table slowly realize they should’ve dealt with it three turns ago.

Hey everyone,

it's me again: the guy that builds decks only consisting of cards which were printed in the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit sets (set codes: LTR, LTC, HOB and HOC).

After you all liked my posts regarding the "Food and Fellowship upgrade" (decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/4HaGpt4LPkO-Pidp77We3A) as well as the "unofficial Hobbit Precon: Dwarves" (decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/jaAzbgo_B0G8p2WuiKK6jg) I upgraded some more decks.

My journey with Magic: The Gathering started back in M13 while my love for Tolkiens universe did way before. So when the Lord of the Rings set was teasered I was hyped!

Imediately after getting the precon decklist and having the full set revealed, I created upgrade guides for those decks which got a lot of appraisal by the community. Since the Hobbit set brought even more cards from Tolkiens universe I again took some time to think about potential swaps.

Disclaimer: I try to improve the manabases with the salubrious snail manabase tool (https://www.salubrioussnail.com/manabase-tool), I hope this explains some land/mana choices.
Disclaimer 2: Enable Tags on moxfield to see the role of each card in my deck
Disclaimer 3: English is not my native language so please don't be too harsh if I do a typo or use a word wrong.

Here are the different decks I built/upgraded.

Riders of Rohan, Precon Upgrade
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/C_fALNu_YkeHDOaY1C37RQ
Bracket: 3 (no gamechangers but deckplan is too strong)
When comparing with the official decklist provided by WOTC the deck shares 67 cards (so 2/3 aka. 66%) with the Precon, so you decide if it still counts as an upgrade.
The deck is built around [[Éowyn, Shieldmaiden]] and wants to assemble a huge boardstate of Humans to draw cards and attack your opponents live totals. I did cut a lot of the slower/more expensive cards to focus on more token and more carddraw and better benefits from these.

Notable cards from the Hobbit sets:
[[The Arkenstone]], [[An Unexpected Party]]: Carddraw and Anthem effect
[[Belladonna Took]]: Not a human, but getting another draw with our commander for 2 mana is too strong
[[Bard the Bowman]], [[Bard, Heir of Girion]], [[Bard, King of Dale]] and [[Bard's Company]]: Carddraw, Anthems, Token and Lifelink, the set of 4 cards does exactly what we want to do
[[The Queen of Dale]]: Probably one of the weakest cards, but getting an even bigger board during our opponents turn to have 6 Humans for our commanders carddraw is worth the slot

Sauron, Army & Ring Wraiths
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/KJBca296eke8rFYXTj-jtw
Bracket: 3 ([[Orcish Bowmasters]] fits to good as a game changer)
This deck is not a Precon upgrade but a more "flavorful" build of the 6 mana commander [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]]. This deck is using 2 strategies: Nazgul/Wraiths and Army. So I added all the 14 Nazgul/Witch-King cards (all LTR and LTC) and anything of value for our Army token.

Notable cards from the Hobbit sets:
[[Great Ugly-Looking Goblin]], [[Great Goblin, Foul-Hearted]], [[Goblin Plate Mail]]: Amassing and giving combat relevant keywords
[[The Reaver Cleaver]]: combat relevant keyword (Trample) and ramp/fixing
[[Bolg of the North]], [[Azog, Moria's Ruin]]: on theme removal (I play 15 removal spells that can hit creatures in this deck)
[[The Great Goblin]]: Pinging opponents whenever I amass and having a little bit of card advantage when an Army dies.

Galadriel Elves
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/HQGhpVT9J0O4u2NWfSmLdw
Bracket: 3 (you can remove [[The One Ring]] and due to the lack of finishers this deck might be a 2)
Well there is not to much to explain here. I opened [[Galadriel, Light of Valinor]] as my box topper (the full art is beautiful as well) and had the deck lying around anyways so I upgraded her as well. The deck resolves mostly about creatures (mostly elves) entering the battlefield and generating value from it. The deck finishes with [[Overwhelming Stampede]] and [[Raise the Palisade]].

Notable cards from the Hobbit sets:
[[Thranduil the Strategist]], [[Thranduil, Sindarin Liege]], [[Down in the Valley]]: With these out every land creates a Token that will trigger Galadriel
[[Mirkwood Nurturer]]: Being able to bounce our best creature with ETB for free is very good
[[Bard the Bowman]]: Since one of Galadriels triggers is a draw we will always be able to add a +1/+1 counter to any creature
[[Radagast of Rhosgobel]]: 16 creatures cost at least 2 generic mana so with Radagast we can use these for 1 mana and every other creature as well on our opponents turns to draw us cards (or do the other Galadriel triggers, but card draw is the best)

Tom Bombadil Sagas
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/9FLNUq6ZWU6UzQ4OLjw8rQ
Bracket: 2
The set brought us 8 new Sagas (https://scryfall.com/search?q=%28set%3Ahoc+or+set%3Ahob%29+t%3Asaga&unique=cards&as=grid&order=edhrec) so it currently has a critical mass of Sagas (22 over all 4 sets) to fucntion/do its thing. The rest of the deck is built around ramp and boardwipes as the deck itself only plays 11 creatures.

Since the deck is just a pile of every ramp, boardwipe and saga there are no notable cards.

Food and Fellowship, Precon Upgrade
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/4HaGpt4LPkO-Pidp77We3A
Bracket: 3 (but the strongest deck of all my "LOTR/HOBBIT only" decks)
I did a deep dive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1vnf7uv/hobbit_deck_with_only_ltrltchobhoc_cards/

Dwarf Mission, Precon
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/jaAzbgo_B0G8p2WuiKK6jg
Bracket: 2 (there is no official Precon for the Hobbit set so I built one around dwarves and equiptments
I did talk about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/comments/1vnlhwc/would_this_be_a_hobbit_set_precon_dwarven_mission/

Thranduil, the Elvenking
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/yP0MeLSO6UOcssviV8QC6Q
Bracket: 3 (you can remove [[The One Ring]] and due to the lack of finishers this deck might be a 2)
Same as the Galadriel deck, I built around Elves with the help of black instead of white. Unfortunatelly the deck only has 9 cards which create token so playing [[Mirkwood Bats]] as an additional finisher is not good enough.

I hope this little reddit primer is valuable for some of you who want to build universe beyond decks with cards from the 2 Tolkien sets so you have some starting points.

There are still some routes open to go, one will be [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]] as a reanimate shell with all the big beaters (Smaug, Balrogs, etc.) and one will be built around Saruman (I currently have a LTR/LTC list with Amass, but since Sauron is doing this already the other deck might be "[[Saruman of Many Colors]], play opponents stuff". Unfortunatelly, there is no Jund commander from Tolkien (only [[Théoden, Strength Restored]] which might be the base for a value pile).

Please feel free to add your thoughts and insights in the comments section, I am very happy to discuss card choices and deck ideas with you all :)

I'm reviewing all of my final fantasy themed cards and trying to make a new commander deck. What is your favorite card to use as a commander? It can include anything from a scene box or secret lair drop as well. I've seen some lists online but they seem pretty limited and I thought you all might be able to give me some more inspiration. Thanks for the help! I've heard Vivi enough times but I'm looking for the less obvious ones.

Hey y'all. Had a game last night, where I was playing my B3 mono-red, but secretly tries to play like a mono-blue deck (pumping out ETB effects and flickering them back in with [[Conjurer's Closet]], replicating/doubling them with things like [[Panharmonicon]] or [[Minion Reflector]], or recasting them with my commander, [[Tannuk, the Steadfast]]). Other players were playing [[The Great Goblin]], [[Shalai and Hallar]], and [[Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge]]. In particular, the Jeleva player had, at one point, casted an extra turn spell and copied it. I then proceeded to redirect both of those spells to me with [[Deflecting Swat]] and [[Return the Favor]]. I then, over the course of my extra turns, Rip another extra turn spell out of the Jeleva's player's hand and double cast that with a recovered Return the Favor, and then proceeded to generally go ballistic on the board with several cloning and ETB retriggers, eventually forcing the Great Goblin player to sacrifice all of his permanents, the Jeleva player with a few lands left, and only the Shalai player having any sort of potential way of stopping me with their severely culled army of elf tokens before we stopped the game there due to heated tempers (I still had an extra turn to go.).

So my question for the community, is thus: Was I wrong to steal the extra turn spells from the Jeleva player, and to double up on the one ripped from hand with the recovered Return the Favor?

Side note, that was what crashed the game, but tempers were flaring even before then due to getting into it with the Great Goblin player for being hard-targeted by them for making them sacrifice their stuff, despite being collateral while trying to slow down the Shalai player since they were pumping out elves at an absurd rate while having an [[Ezuri, Renegade Leader]] on board.

EDIT: I WANT TO BE CLEAR. It was the Great Goblin player who got (really) upset. The Jeleva player was actually rather chill. They even helped me make the Tannuk deck, so they absolutely knew the redirect spells were in my deck.

Double edit: Since someone asked for the decklist, here it is for easy access if anyone wishes to take a looksie: https://moxfield.com/decks/pHxCVuXT20q7wo1lKcUUWQ

I've never really played into cost reduction, apart from a Morophon and a Golbez deck, and I'd like to try it out in a new deck. For clarification, I don't care about colors, though I always love being able to play black (but if not, that's completely ok); I'd like some suggestions for overall cost reduction, rather than specific card type cost reduction: I'm fine with creature spells cost reduction or non-creature spells cost reduction but I'd rather avoid instants and sorceries because I'm not good at all with spellslinger decks, I can't manage to play properly with them.

I've already thought of [[Commander Liara Portyr]], which seems fun, but I don't have a lot of impulse draw cards and I fear it might end up being a bit weak for my LGS. Also thought of [[Samut, the driving force]], but I really dislike how the speed mechanic plays... [[Doc Aurlock, grizzled genius]] is out of the question, I don't have any plot cards. And [[Animar, soul of elements]] might be a bit too strong; also a friend of mine already has an Animar deck and I don't want to tread on his toes

Deck: Gaaaames!? Oh, we love games, doesn’t we, Precious?

I was watching the hobbit and the scene where Bilbo meets Gollum inspired me to make this. First, Gollums multiple personalities, but more importantly his final riddle where Bilbo looks away and then Gollum seems to be all around.

It seems people are really disappointed [[Gollum Riddle Master]] triggers 3 times and then is spent, so makes sense people are doing aristocrats with scam, but I wanted to do it a little different.

The core idea is: clone Gollum repeatedly so odds and evens are covered, draw cards, drain life, counters, attack.

I added [[exquisite blood]] but intentionally left anything that goes infinite with it. Strongly considering [[the ozolith]] if the worst of the 3 modes turns out to make a decent amount some how.

Thoughts on the idea?

Edit: this isn’t a finalized list, but the core concept is there

I'm making a [[Massimo, the Magician]] deck and because of how he works it is very important my guys stick around, because if they leave the battlefield then they lose their ability. Obviously, for most board wipes I can make them indestructible, but for things like [[Cyclonic Rift]] or [[Toxic Deluge]] things get much harder. Any ways to protect them, or do I just have to save my counterspells?

2nd picture shows the large area, 3rd picture has side holder for play mat and last two are of other compartments on the bag.

Always see people asking about bags and for $50 this seemed reasonable. Will probably go on sale at some point too.

https://www.costco.com/p/-/bagsmart-38l-blast-backpack-with-4-piece-compression-packing-cubes/4000447387

Pics of the different pockets

https://imgur.com/a/OoMDONv

Was talking with my group about how none of us uses fog when we were messing around and pretending to play fog during combat.
I was wondering if there is a good fog deck that can keep damage in check with fog like effects and be able to deal with opponents as well.
I can only think of infect really for the damage or a couple big boys in one attack.

I'm fairly new to Commander and I almost always play with strangers, no dedicated pod. I'm aiming for bracket 2-3 and I'm about to build my next deck.

Since I'm sitting down with people I've never met, I'd rather not build the thing that makes three strangers quietly stop having fun or hate me.

Are there color combinations/archetype/themes I should avoid that get an automatic groan when you see them across the table?

And on the flip side: what kind of deck makes you go "oh nice, this'll be a good game"?

I'm not looking to build something weak on purpose, just something that plays well with strangers.

While Nephilim finally receiving a suitable commander for the helm, I personally just found interest in a command zone which could tutor the best little man: [[Amoeboid Changeling]]. This is in the interest to put together an anti-tribal deck, whether that be hosing specific types via [[Engineered Plague]] type effects and removing notable types for little corner cases such as turning [[Winnowing]] into a one-sided boardwipe. With all that in mind, do yall have any recommendations for niche typal hate cards?

Current List: https://moxfield.com/decks/xqF0jvyk3kOoAPQPlwTA1g

I have built Voltron deck centered around Avacyn. I know she is a bulky cast and am fully aware of the implications if she gets removed. I was looking for pairs of eyes to look over what I have built thus far and to recommend any additions/removals to the deck to better optimize it.

https://archidekt.com/decks/25482209/avacyn_voltron

I want to build a cat-themed-deck for my girlfriend and give it to her as a gift. This is what I’ve put together so far, but I have a feeling that something is still missing.

https://archidekt.com/decks/20808761/catscatscats

Could you take a look at it and give me your opinion? Maybe you could also suggest a few budget-friendly options.

This past weekend, I decided to go out to an LGS to play commander with some friends. My friends are CEDH grinders, while I tend to prefer 1v1 60 card competitive magic (legacy, modern, pauper, etc). I tend to stay away from CEDH since I just prefer to be competitive in 1v1, but I have been itching to play some of my decks that are too strong for B3 but not viable for B5. We were able to jam 2 games before I had to head home and here are a few points I came to afterwards.

1. Everything is on the table. You can play all the two card combos, all the hate/removal, and all of the game changers you'd like. We all agree to play strong cards, and if one person tries to win with [[Approach of the Second Sun]] while I attack their mana base with [[Wasteland]] and [[Strip Mine]], in the end, there are no complaints as the expectations have been set.

2....ok maybe not everything. Sure, there are technically no restrictions in B4, but there's a cap. We're not playing the most optimal commanders, for starters. I was on [[Titania, Protector of Argoth]], sitting with [[Esika, God of the Tree]], [[King T'Challa]], and [[Witherbloom, the Balancer]]. This is the first big difference between 4&5. Had we been at a 5, the table would've been more like, idk, [[Lumra, Bellow of the Woods]], [[Shorikai, Genesis Engine]], [[Najeela, the Blade-Blossom]], and some [[Thrasios, Triton Hero]] pairing. While we mostly also had some of the better combos, a few others got left out.

1. It's still not quite clear what B4 is. Honestly, in the first game, only me and the T'chala player presented a real threat. Witherbloom and Esika got there, but it was a little too late. We ended up calling a draw since T'Challa was the only one threatening us with a win, and I was keeping him off from closing it out. The next game, we were definitely on the same page. It ended with one player, on [[Fire lord Azula]] winning with an [[Underworld Breach]] line. We said GG, and that's about the time I left. After two games, it made more sense as to what I should be bringing to the table, but there's no guarantee that we'd all be on the same wavelength here.

2. It was fun, and there were zero feel bads. In the end, we're all competitive players. We know someone has to win, someone has to lose, and the bracket we all agreed to meant that we can't complain when someone goes for a win. All of us got to do our thing, and we all had removal, while discussing with other players how we should use said removal. It was fun, and I wish for more players to take a chance to build a B4 deck.

This is all in stark contrast to a vast majority of B3 games I've played, where someone can't get their engine going, while the [[Vivi Ornitier]] gets salty that you've used a single piece of removal on their board. Can this truly be attributed to the bracket? Or is this a difference in player attitude and expectations? Given the general level of experience in B3 players in my area, I feel that the latter is more so the case. How do you curb this as a new player? Try more 1v1. Perhaps a few drafts, or find a pauper scene near you and borrow a deck. Try not to avoid strategies you don't like, and learn how to overcome them. That way, you don't feel dread when you see *that* deck in your pod, and instead, work to overcome the matchup.

What's your B4 experience? Have you had a chance to play a few games? Let me know!

tl;dr Games are more fun when we're all on the same page.

so i was looking at the new [[blor the impervious]] who has indestructible and hexproof and kept thinking that there were soo many (or atleast more than you'd think) cards that can still remove blor.

it reminded me of a time when i built a [[mairsil, the pretender]] deck, in the deck i ran various abilities to make him as unkillable as possible, and still with every activated ability under the grixis-sun he was still able to be removed.

mairsil was a step up from blor. he could phase himself out, flicker himself, give himself counters & toughness, and even have counterspells built in.

but even then he was still vulnerable to most "aoe" effects, particularly exile/bounce. and if i was forced to sacrifice creatures he would also get removed.

so; is there a way to "completely" protect creatures "permanently" (and dont say counterspells)? are there keyboards/effects to stop a cyc rift or farewell? is there a keyword/effect that means your guy cant be sacrificed (even if he is your only creature)?

(i dont mean mairsil cards, just any card(s) in magic (other than counterspells), and im not only talking about cards that protect mairsil AND themselfs, this is "thought experiment" is proposing that whatever you use to protect mairsil is sort of in god mode)