6:16 #1 Keeping Sketchy hands 13:09 #2 Impatience / No Plan 18:45 #3 Not knowing your deck 21:30 #4 Angering Multiple Players 24:49 #5 Angering the wrong player 28:29 #6 Not paying attention to the board 30:45 #7 Improper threat assessment 36:32 #8 Complaining about improper threat assessment instead of capitalizing on it 38:59 #9 Playing at sorcery speed 42:25 #10 No politics
Karl Smink sounds like a troll 🤔 in all seriousness, the decks were pretty good and had Win condition a and threats, but no one could play them because they were constantly countered, tapped, bounced, or otherwise hated out of the game. And we couldn't Focus on a single player because no one was a clear threat.
I have a deck that I call Blue Bell. I named it that because everyone will have a scoop. It’s one I don’t often play, but it is filled with this game is going to last all night. My win con is to make people scoop.
Karl Smink sounds like someone thinks he's smarter than everyone. Decks were fine. 4 control decks = a long lasting annoying experience. Your stupid control deck would have been the same dumbass
Depends on the ramp and the point in the game. Land fetch is arguably better early game due to making draws better and skipping to a further turn. The only real advantage to draw is that it costs less.
it's not cool to keep a bad hand but it's funny when you still don;t die in 90 minutes because you become a sort of NPC that gets used by other players as a quest and the other 3 guys fight over you and it can become hilarious, , i think there is no agony in magic when you have 4 guys at a table that want to have fun
Agree. lol my friends always complain about me running wipes and taking out their creatures they overextended on... how about running your own or trying to hold back if you are winning? :P
I'd say the biggest mistake I see people make that wasn't mentioned is taking way too long turns. You have three other turns to at least somewhat plan what you're going to cast. It's okay to stop and think for a bit when you draw a card that changes your gameplan, but no one likes turns that take 5, 10, 15+ minutes for no reason.
I dont think having a 25 minute turn is fair. Especially when you don't just rush them afterwards. I once won with phage in my deck. I gave her menace and punched someone with one creature out.
I would agree, although I know a few people that will take a 5 to 10 minute turn and win on that turn. The time to think isn't because they didn't have a plan, it is to ensure victory before anyone can silence them. I am, however, incredibly annoyed by people who take that long just to pass a turn after making a couple of plays or less and marginally impacting the board if at all. It is one thing when you can secure a win within 90%, but it is simply rude to waste everyone's time.
What sucks is when you want to plan your turn during your opponents' turns, but their turns take less than 5 seconds each because they're not doing anything but you're set up to do more stuff. I've had that happen way too many times in games I've played.
Great advice guys. Something I've noticed from my playgroup and something I'd add to the list. "learn from your losses". A few of my friends make the same mistakes over and over and never learn from them. Taking away knowledge from a loss makes you a much better player than winning a game.
Loved this episode, my friend could really use this advice. Unfortunately he is the guy who pokes at everyone and doesn’t know when to fly under the radar. I’ve told him so many times just chill dude but he hasn’t learned his lesson. Due to this he is extremely salty because people group on him or he just can’t win.
Nice tips. The one about reading the cards... People NEVER read the cards. I'm always allowed to untap with Conqueror's flail and Iroas or Familiar Grounds on the table, with Iroas or Familiar Grounds in my hand... Sometimes with all of them!
Bruno Casagranda Neves I am so, so guilty of this. I make plenty of mistakes as I am just not a very good player, but this one is on top of my list to fix. It should be easy, and somehow it's just not.
Best of luck to all the contestants! I can't enter myself due to not living in the states (and being a student who doesn't have time to fly over to LA), but I'll be super excited to see the episode with the winner.
Meh, opponents conceding is legit wincon. I have won many games with Daretti deck, which only other wincon is turning sideways creatures and the deck has only 25 power worth of creatures split across 9 cards(Goblin Welder, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Lodestone Golem, Magus of the Wheel, Metalworker, Nullstone Gargoyle, Sandstone Oracle, Simian Spirit Guide and Treasonous Ogre), only in one game where I won opponents didn't concede and I had to get beatdown going.
oponents concession is the ultimate winning condition a deck could have. Like sun tzu said the greatest victory is the victory without fighting. it happens a lot with my uw agustin lock deck and i swear i don't have any win conditions in it :)
very true, i find the most challenging thing about trying to build my first commander deck around jodah and making it 5 colors is being selective with bombs. The whole deck very well just could be nothing but ramp and bombs. But it would be better if all the bombs synched up somehow. Im thinking of building around massive elderazi like Emrakul, the aeons torn and tutors that help me fish up those cards, along with some of my "give this thing indestructible" cards. Sometimes an unstoppable monster is a good enough win condition in and of itself, let alone an army of massive lads being sent out for the low price of WUBRG. If you guys have any advice I'm open to it. finding essential core cards is hard.
Biggest problem I see at a table: random choices. I think the player that 'attacks at random' and is rolling dice to see who they screw over is the player that needs to go first. It is something that goes against just basic threat assessment, since it isn't that you aren't correctly doing so, but that you're just disregarding threats in play.
That's kind of what I will do with my Jorn deck if no one person is ahead because he needs to attack for the ramp and turn 3 or 4 doesn't have very many creatures on the board.
I love players who bring different decks to the table each week promoting variety. The biggest mistake I see people make is play the same deck for too long. People will become as familiar with the deck as you and start to run hate so situational they would only dare run it if they could guarantee it would come it. I used to play a Splinter Twin deck so people started to play Blind Obedience, Thalia Heretic Cathar etc. to shut me out of the game. I started building different decks that were more budget so I could be less predictable :)
I have a $400 Nekusar deck that loses more often than my $50 Wort deck. People see Nekusar and go “oh my god! He needs to die!” They see Wort and they say “he’s not great but all you’re doing is ramping all game and playing a few goblins here and there.” Nek minnit Fireball copy where X is like 30.
People are always telling me "I don't negotiate with terrorists" because I just sit there with my Tree of Perdition. Minding my own business.... All I say is don't attack me. Lol
They always poke me when i threaten them for attacking me, then when I do wipe out a majority of their boards they get mad at me for doing it. Like did you think i wasn’t going to get back you like I promised?
Unless you allow for the commander itself to ignore the pauper component, your options are pretty limited (and mostly boring): Barktooth Warbeard, Chandler, Jedit Ojanen, Jerrard of the Closed Fist, Joven, Lady Orca, Ramirez DePietro, Sir Shandlar of Eberyn, Sivitri Scarzam, The Lady of the Mountain, Tobias Andiron, and Torsten Von Ursus The only guys on that list whom I would even consider would be Ramirez and Joven.
Honestly, I think the biggest mistake Craig made in the last episode was using Zacama at sorcery speed. Of course Zacama itself is a sorcery, but all of its abilities can be activated at instant speed, so Craig didn't need to destroy the propaganda and the orrery right after casting Zacama. Instead, he could hold the activation over everyone's heads, and use it as a great deterrant against people attacking him or his permanents.
basically playing too fast; Craig seems like the type of guy who just goes in and tries to do things instantly when he thinks of it he doesn't strategize as much, seems like he's all in or nothing no back up plan; it makes for getting rid of a player fast, but not for winning a game his hand is all out on the table already like every turn
For knowing the deck I recommend the App „MTG Unofficial“. It is a deck builder that lets you test your deck. You don't have an opponent and it is very rudimentary, but you get a feeling for where the combos in the deck are, when it goes off and what the weaknesses are. It is nothing compared to actually playtesting it, but it helps when you are just planning it
I used it for my Omnath-EDH. It took me one year to built it and one more year to get all the parts, but during that time I „tested“ it over a hundred times and it showed me my combos and my earlygame-weakness
Andrew Moore something I've been saying to my play group so much. "No one can play against your deck, it's so unfair" *lists over 50 cards that disrupt the game plan*
At my local I did a misplay. It was a new group so I was nervous. It felt good that the dynamic had been built, It was seen as a mistake. It was laughed at, then corrected with no hostility. THAT to me was the sign of a great communication dynamic/politic move as it made it easier for me to contribute.
I've had a lot more fun after I started admitting when I'm winning and helping people who want to remove something of mine but don't known what. I've found it lifts a lot off of your back and people are way happier to play with you.
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Angering multiple player? My deck does that very well, once I place my threat on the board, I need to end the game quickly or the game will end quickly for me.
the biggest mistake i made was playing with a dude with anger problems. he played mono blue and i used a cavern of souls of cast iona. he smashed a knife through my Iona however out of instinct I put my hand in the way. he kind of stoped himself once he saw my hand was in the way but the moment kind of carried on so i didnt get stabed fully but he did get about 75% of a cm into my hand.
I love to be the villian at the table. I will attack anyone at any time for any reason. It's all in good fun and I don't care if I win or lose. I would say forgetting triggers is one mistake that happens all the time, surprised you didn't talk about that as that is the most common mistake by far that I have seen.
after having failed at fnm by playing an aggro deck with one land and THREE one drops I NEVER again keep a hand with one land.One of the few lessons I REALLY learned in mtg.
Yeah my play group has several players that struggle with the sorcery speed thing and keep thinking they have to use all their activated abilities on their turn or miss out, I think a couple of them are slowly understanding not only can they use these effects at different times they're learning better moments to use said abilities
A mistake I see sometimes is players not being aggressive enough. Basically not doing anything to other players until they can win the game, especially as a creature deck, they end up not doing anything and dying without making an impact because they were too reserved and didnt want to be the aggressor.
One mistake one of my friends made when he was playing commander with me and my other friends was even know that he knew i was playing dragons, he kept on going after me and poking me with certain annoying things like destroying some of my enchantments, swinging at me only with creatures, and other things like that. I warned him by saying "look man, I'm just gonna say this. I have a card in my hand that "might" kill you unless you or someone less here has a counter. If you don't back off, I will play it.". He laughs at me and keeps poking me and right after then, i was like "Alright then, I warned my dude". Right outta nowhere, I played Triumph Of The Hordes while I had 2-3 dragons on the board, all of his stuff was tapped, and I killed him for exactly 10 infect damage beating him, and when that happened, the rest of my friends and I laughed at him and he was so salty for the whole day swearing like a sailor. I still lost that game, but i walked away from that table with the biggest smile on my face because of that triumph of the hordes against that guy. LOL XD
for me, my biggest mistakes was in the deck building stage and not having enough things to do in the early turns of the games. after a BUNCH of games with a bunch of different players with different play styles, i found that my decks werer always a little too slow and i would always be playing "catch up" all the time. So i tried to lower my curve and use more ramp in my decks :)
I think my biggest hurdle to overcome wasn't really gameplay as much as it was deckbuilding. I have a bad habit of putting a lot of answers in my deck and not enough ways to win.
You bring up people not paying attention or being familiar with a friend's deck having insight to what may be going on when it's not immediately apparent to everyone else. I have a fantastic example of playing a game against a Memnarch combo deck where the right play was to bounce a voltaic key on their upkeep, but when the play was made there was a huge issue of the choice in target when other threats where present. The play ended up being correct as I prevented a hasty blightsteel colossus from hitting someone but nobody else could have possibly seen that play without knowing the deck
My play group is down with the "friendly" partial. If you haven't got enough lands in your opening hand,pitch your high drops/late game cards,draw that many more,repeat till you have 3/4 lands. We ONLY partial for land.
I'll have you know that I keep all my hands expect those with only land, and those with no land. The reason is because I forget you can redraw unless those come up, and I believe in the heart of the cards!
4 years later and I can say... I still forget that Mulligans are a thing. But I do mulligan when I get a really bad hand now. Just not all the time. I've been playing YGO since I was 3 what else can I say.
in commander, i find i wont mulligan most hands if i am able to cast the spells with the lands i have. Now that's not to say there could be more optimal openers to get, but i'm perfectly willing to keep a hand with 7 lands, or three lands, maybe a ramp spell, and something to do with the mana i currently have. card draw is important but im not mulliganing my second seven cards if i can cast spells or just have a lot of lands in hand that'll help me get to the late game. it also depends on your deck and your commander and a few other things, but two or three lands and cards to play with those lands are very fantastic
I think something you guys mentioned but didn't codify, that could be rule-worthy, is the idea of don't play yourself out. IE: just because the board feels stable and you've got a lot of mana chilling, doesn't mean you have to flush all your cards. Keep enough cards, or access to cards, to be able to bounce back, first, from wipes. Another thing that bears mentioning is being aware of the play-order at the table, judge who plays into who plays into you etc. Choose a good seat in relation to who is gonna be coming at you and who you're gonna want to be going at.
My biggest mistake is being consistently competitive. I build my decks to win and rarely pull them out until they are ready. This causes my play group to go into every game with them already watching me closely. I'm the bear before my first turn. I fixed this by playing less competitive decks or using that play group to tune my decks so they can see I don't always play full throttle. It's helped some lol.
I've been playing Magic since 1998 and only recently got around to playing Commander. This video has been instrumental in both hyping me up and providing some great insight to make my first games more fun. Thanks guys!
For 200th episode do a game knights with a few special guest who have been on the show before and they each pick their two favorite decks they have played so far and he was two decks at once so each player is a two-headed giant.
The one on knowing your deck is a big one that gets me. It's not that I just toss random cards in, but I'll put a card in with one plan, and then more synergy will end up appearing that I miss until about five minutes after the fact.
I think there is a lot of really essential advice in this video for not just Commander but games and life in general. But specifically to magic, one thing worth mentioning is getting greedy and starting off with a decent hand and mulliganing to a worse hand. The grass isn't always greener.
There's one person in my playgroup who has a few mistakes they seem to make fairly consistently. He always plays his Niv-Mizzet Parun deck, but he thinks out loud about his combos. For example, when we were playing last night, on turn 4, he muttered to himself about how he couldn't quite kill everybody next turn. He then started complaining when people responded to this by targeting him for the rest of the game. The other mistake I've seen him make is the way he counts his mana. If he has Chaos Warp in his hand, he will set 3 of his mana sources apart from the rest of his land and mana rocks.
Well, one really big mistake I tend to make is to become a big threat and not being able to win right away and/or not being able to protect myself (like making 40+ 3/3 tokens without haste and leave them vulnerable to board wipe)
Being too afraid to get your Commander out. It happens in most of the games I play (for my opponents). Definitely agree with being unable to read the board and see where combo pieces are going. I have a Breya deck with the Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle. I've used it before and explained the combo to my playgroup but most of the them still don't realize what's happening as I'm beginning to build the board state for it. I have multiple options in the deck to win a game but if the pieces are there or if a game is stagnating, I'm going to start building the board state for it. It's kinda frustrating being the most experienced in my playgroup as I play Commander because I like the swings that happen and the politics. I also like being the archenemy but it rarely happens.
Yes, knowing your deck is extremely important, and one of the most important things you can do. One other major thing is trying to understand what your opponent's deck is trying to do as well. Are they trying to combo off and kill everyone in 1 big sweep that you can't stop? Are they just trying to play value cards and out value you until they can run you over? Are they trying to stall out the game using enchantment/artifacts that make it painfully slow for no one to play magic?? Once I started doing this, it helped me be a better player and make better evaluations of the situation.
I would say one of the biggest mistakes people make is revealing their intentions or other forms of information. Whether it be through attempting something that the can’t actually do (counter an uncounterable spell) or through slips of the tongue that give other players extra information (if you attack me, I will kill your creature.) Magic requires a poker face. Even deliberating over whether to respond to someone’s spell reveals that you do in fact have a response. Giving away small or subtle pieces of information can help your opponents reform their strategies to play around you (baiting out removal or counter spells before playing a win con.)
Shame I missed this deadline, I'd love to see you guys best my Captain Sisay deck. In fact I formally challenge you to x] Great channel guys, I'm new to it but I love it. Keep on rockin!
My play group is composed of a few really good friends who play EDH/Commander to have fun, more than to win. We use the partial Paris mulligan, often play huge games (6-10 decks), and have set up a tournament format (kind of like the Star City Games guys) that encourages fair play and strategy week to week, as well as limiting infinite combos to 5 triggers per turn (most of us eschew them entirely because they aren't fun). Most strategies that are super viable even in the relatively slow games of EDH are not going to do well in our group because the scale is just too large, and some strategies we employ (much higher average CMC) are specific to our play group. We have a blast playing 2+ hour games, chatting, eating, etc...I just want to let people know that you don't have to play super intensely/competitively to have a BLAST with your friends.
The one mistake that I tend to do when deck building is Forgetting some of the basic staples of commander like Board wipes, single target removal, graveyard recursion things like that. I get so caught up in whatever the theme is of my deck that I forget some things and find myself stuck in some games.
I definitely fall into the trap of over-extending myself on a regular basis. I don’t really have troubles with making the best of using timing, but a lot of the time I unconsciously have the attitude of “I don’t want to let my mana go to waste by not playing this card at all and trying to play catch up later.” Sometimes that means the board wipes hurt me the most. I think a lot of that is definitely a consequence of how I build my decks and what kind of engines I’m able to build that give me cards and mana and instant speed capability - but sometimes that’s also limited by what kind of access you have to quality cards. The hardest lesson for me to learn was that too much focus on synergy when deckbuilding actually had a doubly negative downside. The first is that your opponents see every single card you drop as being scary, and any removal they have is all going to go towards disrupting those nice synergies you want. The second is that you start to fall into the trap of making your deck predictable. Yes, there are always going to be certain cards that with the right commander are highly desirable and are part of your wincon - but it doesn’t help if your opponent sees that you’ve neglected to have card draw or responses available as part of your deck, because then you start making weak points for your opponent to focus on and exploit. Also politics is essential. Sometimes it’s as simple as things like “just because you can attack doesn’t mean you have to attack” Sure you can slip a bit of damage through to that exposed opponent, but next turn that might mean that their Decimate targets a few extra permanents that you control instead of your opponent. It leaves you in a worse overall situation that you have to claw your way back from after the tables are turned on you.
Josh: "oh don't attack me or i'll attack you back!" I'm not sure where this isn't the point in a pvp game. Like they are out to win, you are out to win. There is no high and mighty bullshit. Josh had something on the board that was a problem and Craig took care of it. No need to throw a hissy fit everytime he does something to you.
Sonic TMP lmao what? Craig started to destroy his board, so Josh attacked him - how is that a hoody fit? What would you expect him to do: “oh ik you just blew up my shirt Craig, so I’ll swing at Jimmy!”
It's not throwing a hissy fit, but what else would you expect? If someone starts messing with your stuff and your gameplan, is it that crazy to hit them back for it?
jimmy and josh said it's fine; it's more about seeing their board and knowing how they will hit back and be prepared for it craig doesn't have counters at all he kept getting his board cleared far too easily
I think the "have a plan" problem is so key. Like, I'll play commander with my boyfriend and a few other casual friends (with roughly equal power decks), and he'll complain that my deck (no matter which of those decks I'm playing) has a ton of synergy. But honestly all of them have synergy. It's just that I'm casting my cards in a way that fullfills a plan, making it look like my deck has more synergy because I'm not just casting cards because I can. Anyway, that's it, just wanted to echo your point with my own anecdote. :)
Bruno Nonohay judging by the link, it looks like it's open to everyone, but they can only afford to fly US. If you win and live outside the US, you have to pay for your own flight, but you can still be in the episode (as far as I can tell)
To your point about not angering multiple players; This is point of struggle for me because when I go to combat phase each turn, I have to make a choice, do I attack the same person over and over and thus avoid triggering the other 2 players? Or do I spread the hate evenly so no one feels picked on? - To piggy back off that point even, the other problem that often occurs is we will usually have one player in our pods that is a cut (or 2) above the other 3 players. He plays down to the pod so its all good, but the other 3 players KNOW he's better and thus it always tends to become archenemy at some point. Attention is drawn just by existing at the table. So do you preemptively attack the bear in hopes of taming him before he goes off, or do you avoid him BECAUSE he's the bear? And that is kinda the hard choice. If someone is clearly "the bear", the bottom line is usually to not anger them. But if the 3 other players ignore the bear and attack each other instead, now they are failing the politics aspect of the game by failing to recognize proper threats. Inversely, at what threshold do the other 3 players need to converge on the bear? My group struggles with all of those things. Everyone gets mad when you do anything to them. Everyone gets mad when you don't properly assess a threat that lines up with what they felt was the biggest threat. Everyone just wants to play their own decks without being interacted with. Paying attention at the table is a big thing in my group too. Several of the players really love to have their side conversations. One of them will be on their phone showing photos back and forth with someone not even in our game. It will get around to his turn and he'll have to take like 5 minutes just to re-cap on whats happened. And yes, as you said in the video, he will often get upset that he wasn't given a chance to respond to something. Like, bruh, you weren't paying attention even though I said the card name 3 times. To your point about not always playing sorcery speed; For better or for worse, this is one reason why I love Muldrotha so much. There is less reactionary thinking involved, but instead you have to learn how to macro play. Since the deck mostly functions at sorcery speed, you have to get better at predicting what things will happen when. Do I set up defense in the form of Seal of Primordium, or do I set up my Phyrexian Arena? To your last point on politics; Its not easy. You don't just sit down and be good at it. Not really. I've seen players never actively pursue political stuff in the game, but the moment they are about to lose, they suddenly become super interested in politics. I'm bad at politics myself still. For me, what usually happens is that I'll be the first player to spike in power, everyone turns on me in unison and even if I made it clear that I'm going to attack "X" player, the other 2 players are still at my throat because they know they are next either way. I suppose part of my problem with politics comes from the fact that my decks are very telegraphed in what it will do next. Muldrotha plays at sorcery speed and is a graveyard deck. You know what my options are, you know what is likely to come based on the board state. When I was playing Gishath, there is nothing subtle about it. Its big dinosaurs cheating out other big dinosaurs. The most I could do with politics is try to assure someone that I wasn't gonna attack them this turn. But seeing as how little benefit that ultimately is to them, deals were rarely ever made...
I do not have a flashy description for it but you probably can help me out with that: In my playgroup we have a lot of midrangy-battlecruiser decks. If there is a combo deck between them that will be ignored mostly as soon as a propaganda comes down and those battlecruisers (most of them with green but without enchantment removal) will fight any other player where they see the best opportunity to lower someones lifetotal. Even if that is totally irrelevant to the board state
My thoughts as a seasoned EDH player: 1. Keeping sketchy hands is a big one, but disagree on the need for three lands. I happily keep one and two-landers all the time, but I've built most of my decks in such a way that there's nothing sketchy about them! I don't need many lands to get things working for me. 2. I think not having a plan applies to deckbuilding as well as gameplay. The best decks are focused decks, and when you are playing every action must be done WITH PURPOSE. Never do anything "just because". 3. Yeah, seems right. Working on a deck is an iterative process and you need to learn the ins and outs of your deck as you go. You're going to stumble a lot in early builds, but there's little excuse not to know what you're doing. Remembering your lines, your list and your plan is REQUIRED to get the most out of the deck. 4. Disagree. I play with very little regard to who I'm pissing off and build my decks to play archenemy. Anyone who's played with me regularly knows I don't offer deals, rarely accept them, and almost never uphold them. I'll do things regardless of how many people they piss off and go "what are you going to do about it? Can you stop me? If you stop me, can you stop the other people I'm holding down?" Many decks and many players are just fine provoking the whole table. 5. Disagree! If someone's the biggest threat I'm going to concentrate on dealing with them. Full stop. I fully expect that things will only get worse if I do not. I've been on the other side of this often enough (see above) that I know that leaving this player be is a losing proposition. It's not too hard to convince other players to gang up on this person. 6. YUP. My playgroup doesn't allow takesie-backsies. If you missed my Mystic Remora? Too bad, you better pay 4 or I'm drawing my damn card. It's on you to notice it. 7-8. My biggest peeve. Guys... guys... do this right! Threat assessment is important. I've absolutely seen people lose because they removed my stax piece... which was stopping another player from winning. 9. Yes. Also, sorcery speed interaction sucks. Avoid it. Also, Vedalken Orrery SUCKS. Like seriously, the card is bad and almost no deck would be better for having it. 10. I like this elaboration on politics. I don't play politics in the traditional sense. No deals. No alliances. No grudges. My politics are very subtle. I'll make my case for why I'm doing things or why things should be done. I'll make shows of strength. This works well. Something as simple as passing priority to force someone else to use their counterspell so I can keep mine is political.
Thanks guys for the video. I'm a strictly casual home-brew player with that I agree with most of these except having a plan. Murphy's rules of combat: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
I play Green in Commander -- which means my card draw is Sylvan Library or a way to cantrip, like Elvish Visionary. Other ways to go deep would be your 3-drop or 4-drop that has a way to draw when the power of a creature ETB-ing is greater than X.
Threat assessment can also entail the cards in your opponents decks. You don't even have to know the exact cards. For example, knowing the overall archetype of someone's deck can give you insight towards possible plays. You will likely make different decisions if someone is playing Sram vs someone playing Zacama.
I think a common mistake I sometimes make is not running the right KIND of card draw in my deck. I recently swapped out all the slower card draw (i.e. Phyrexian Arena) in my Edgar Markov deck in favor of burstier draw (2-for-1, 3-for-1, i.e. Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, etc.) simply because I don't want to be spending 3 mana in the early game on a Phyrexian Arena, I want to be dropping vampires instead. A special exception for Twilight Prophet. Then in the mid-game, that's when I want to be casting my 2-for-1 or 3-for-1, or sometimes my 12-for-1 (Champion of Dusk) draw spells to refill my then-empty hand. Another example would be loot, windfall or wheel effects in decks that don't mind pitching cards in their graves.
On the topic of improper threat assessment , I convinced one of my friends to board wipe by playing a large creature (I think it was a serras guardian) but when the board was cleared I then played loxodon lifechanter. ( in case you were wondering I was playing a sorin vengeful bloodlord brawl deck vs his niv izzet reborn deck. He time wiped on his own turn to return niv izzet to hand but couldn't rebuild in time to stop a 36 38 life linking loxodon.
One of the bigger mistake I make is not paying attention to board state. And after thinking about why I have come to the conclusion that it is when I'm in games of more than 4 players. So my addition to the list would be: playing in games with more than 4 players. It's more cards on the table to pay attention to and in addition you're farther from those cards because of space constraints. It can make playing those matches seem distant and uninteractive.
My biggest problem is not having any money at the end of the month for better land or mtg in general, so I decided to just add more draw/ramp and many more basic lands. I'm playing a 4 Color Commander Deck... Partner... and I run 25-30 basics, depending on how I want to make the deck before I play. Surprisingly I get the lands I need at the right time and the draw/ramp makes thing much easier. In commander, the obvious lands are : Temple of the False Gods, Command Tower, Forbidden Orchard, the obvious ones, but the main land base is basics. I have slowly added a few bounces and scrys, but the deck runs well overall and it ran just fine before the extra duals. Don't get bummed out just because you don't have the correct lands, just tune your lands appropriately for the colors you need and as they said, "STAY AWAY FROM SKETCHY HANDS" pls
6:16 #1 Keeping Sketchy hands
13:09 #2 Impatience / No Plan
18:45 #3 Not knowing your deck
21:30 #4 Angering Multiple Players
24:49 #5 Angering the wrong player
28:29 #6 Not paying attention to the board
30:45 #7 Improper threat assessment
36:32 #8 Complaining about improper threat assessment instead of capitalizing on it
38:59 #9 Playing at sorcery speed
42:25 #10 No politics
Not all heros wear capes
We need more people like you
#4 is the trademark of my Nekusar deck lol
thanks man
Cthulhu bless you
Playing a Full Control game. We had a game with all 4 players playing Control. It went for hours. And we didn't finish It. I still have nightmares.
Once I played an infect deck against 3 control deck they never allow me to have anything on the board so it was horrible please don't play control
Karl Smink sounds like a troll 🤔 in all seriousness, the decks were pretty good and had Win condition a and threats, but no one could play them because they were constantly countered, tapped, bounced, or otherwise hated out of the game. And we couldn't Focus on a single player because no one was a clear threat.
I have a deck that I call Blue Bell. I named it that because everyone will have a scoop. It’s one I don’t often play, but it is filled with this game is going to last all night. My win con is to make people scoop.
Van Tarver that's nasty. I love it.
Karl Smink sounds like someone thinks he's smarter than everyone. Decks were fine. 4 control decks = a long lasting annoying experience. Your stupid control deck would have been the same dumbass
7:43 Josh: "Ramp is good, but card draw could be anything. It could even be ramp!"
Luke Stadther Repeated card draw will eventually get you ramp, but ramp might not get you repeated card draw.
Haha! Nice family guy reference!
Danimal4900 I know it's a reference but theh are both equally likely to get each other.
Smart Alec In a vacuum castable card draw is better than castable ramp. Just saying.
Depends on the ramp and the point in the game. Land fetch is arguably better early game due to making draws better and skipping to a further turn. The only real advantage to draw is that it costs less.
Forgetting your triggers
Earthbound Kobi not always easy if board state gets massive. Sometimes there’s so many cards on the table you’re bound to forget something.
@Adam Hanson Thank you Professor for the tip lol!
I always find myself reminding everyone of their own triggers plus my own... its very exhausting.
#1: Trusting the ‘group hug’ deck
Nice second account
@Nash Braylen I've seen you and your alt, together, over and over. Take your crap elsewhere, please.
just started playing with some friends recently. heavily agree with this one
Yes
No such thing as a free lunch
I think people don't attack often enough and don't know who to attack.
Actually starts at 5:17
FYI, here's a thing to get to be on Game Knights before that if your interested in that.
You are a saint.
They talk about how to get on gameknights in the intro tho.
Always the comment I'm looking for.
Thnx bro =)
Ben Sherson To have my Norin deck played in front of hundreds of thousands
it's not cool to keep a bad hand but it's funny when you still don;t die in 90 minutes because you become a sort of NPC that gets used by other players as a quest and the other 3 guys fight over you and it can become hilarious, , i think there is no agony in magic when you have 4 guys at a table that want to have fun
Spoken like someone who's never played against a stax deck.
Commander is a format that sometimes rewards you for making the wrong decision and punishes you for making the right one.
well that's all of magic, tbh
@@Mercury_MPD no its actually not lol
not just magic. i feel this on a deep emotional level as someone who also plays poker.
That's just life
One big mistake for new commander players is not expecting a wrath and going all in
Yeahhh... that's my entire playgroup, haha
Jesse M especially if they are playing tokens
Agree. lol my friends always complain about me running wipes and taking out their creatures they overextended on... how about running your own or trying to hold back if you are winning? :P
Wiseley T wether it's casual or competitive ur supposed to win lol
JAMES BAKER one of the biggest mistakes is not playing interaction though.
I'd say the biggest mistake I see people make that wasn't mentioned is taking way too long turns. You have three other turns to at least somewhat plan what you're going to cast. It's okay to stop and think for a bit when you draw a card that changes your gameplan, but no one likes turns that take 5, 10, 15+ minutes for no reason.
plan your turn on opponents turn and adapt accordingly!
I dont think having a 25 minute turn is fair. Especially when you don't just rush them afterwards. I once won with phage in my deck. I gave her menace and punched someone with one creature out.
I would agree, although I know a few people that will take a 5 to 10 minute turn and win on that turn. The time to think isn't because they didn't have a plan, it is to ensure victory before anyone can silence them. I am, however, incredibly annoyed by people who take that long just to pass a turn after making a couple of plays or less and marginally impacting the board if at all. It is one thing when you can secure a win within 90%, but it is simply rude to waste everyone's time.
Yeah, Izzet.
What sucks is when you want to plan your turn during your opponents' turns, but their turns take less than 5 seconds each because they're not doing anything but you're set up to do more stuff. I've had that happen way too many times in games I've played.
1. Tappiing out while you have removal in hand
2. Not counting blue mana of control players
3. Not focusing blue and black first
Sephyrias why focus dimir first?
@@naomisalama430 blue for counter magic and black for removal
Great advice guys. Something I've noticed from my playgroup and something I'd add to the list. "learn from your losses". A few of my friends make the same mistakes over and over and never learn from them. Taking away knowledge from a loss makes you a much better player than winning a game.
i just noticed that they had siracha, the art of war, and salt in the background
Loved this episode, my friend could really use this advice. Unfortunately he is the guy who pokes at everyone and doesn’t know when to fly under the radar. I’ve told him so many times just chill dude but he hasn’t learned his lesson. Due to this he is extremely salty because people group on him or he just can’t win.
I think a lot of problems with EDH players starts at deck building.
Nice tips. The one about reading the cards... People NEVER read the cards. I'm always allowed to untap with Conqueror's flail and Iroas or Familiar Grounds on the table, with Iroas or Familiar Grounds in my hand... Sometimes with all of them!
Bruno Casagranda Neves I am so, so guilty of this. I make plenty of mistakes as I am just not a very good player, but this one is on top of my list to fix.
It should be easy, and somehow it's just not.
Best of luck to all the contestants! I can't enter myself due to not living in the states (and being a student who doesn't have time to fly over to LA), but I'll be super excited to see the episode with the winner.
Feel you Dude. That are the times where it sucks to be a student
Similar, but I live in the states. I wish they did this next year or when I get out of school this semester.
There's nothing to say we don't do this again someday. -JLK
No one expects a Phyrexian inquisition!
Or a Phyrexian Infestation.
Is that a Phyrexian Bonkle? :O
Or anything Phyrexian!
Why is it Phyrexia is Magic's version of the Catholic Church? Lol
Noone expects the Roman empire
#11 building a deck without a defined path to victory. aka - no win conditions
Meh, opponents conceding is legit wincon. I have won many games with Daretti deck, which only other wincon is turning sideways creatures and the deck has only 25 power worth of creatures split across 9 cards(Goblin Welder, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Lodestone Golem, Magus of the Wheel, Metalworker, Nullstone Gargoyle, Sandstone Oracle, Simian Spirit Guide and Treasonous Ogre), only in one game where I won opponents didn't concede and I had to get beatdown going.
Isn’t that just not knowing your deck and how to win with it
oponents concession is the ultimate winning condition a deck could have. Like sun tzu said the greatest victory is the victory without fighting. it happens a lot with my uw agustin lock deck and i swear i don't have any win conditions in it :)
you only need 1 win condition; spam field with monsters; WHACK WHACK WHACK
very true, i find the most challenging thing about trying to build my first commander deck around jodah and making it 5 colors is being selective with bombs. The whole deck very well just could be nothing but ramp and bombs. But it would be better if all the bombs synched up somehow. Im thinking of building around massive elderazi like Emrakul, the aeons torn and tutors that help me fish up those cards, along with some of my "give this thing indestructible" cards. Sometimes an unstoppable monster is a good enough win condition in and of itself, let alone an army of massive lads being sent out for the low price of WUBRG. If you guys have any advice I'm open to it. finding essential core cards is hard.
Biggest problem I see at a table: random choices.
I think the player that 'attacks at random' and is rolling dice to see who they screw over is the player that needs to go first. It is something that goes against just basic threat assessment, since it isn't that you aren't correctly doing so, but that you're just disregarding threats in play.
Knight of Saint Traft I’ll do it sometimes only because I have the most threatening board and nobody else really has anything.
That's kind of what I will do with my Jorn deck if no one person is ahead because he needs to attack for the ramp and turn 3 or 4 doesn't have very many creatures on the board.
I love players who bring different decks to the table each week promoting variety. The biggest mistake I see people make is play the same deck for too long. People will become as familiar with the deck as you and start to run hate so situational they would only dare run it if they could guarantee it would come it. I used to play a Splinter Twin deck so people started to play Blind Obedience, Thalia Heretic Cathar etc. to shut me out of the game. I started building different decks that were more budget so I could be less predictable :)
But not all people have a ton of money to bring a new deck each day though.....
I do advocate having 2-3 decks though and rotating through them
Or you can just build to beat the hate.
My buddy put blind obedience in his deck to beat out my kiki jiki combo. I ended up beating him with Storm but that was a pain.
I have a $400 Nekusar deck that loses more often than my $50 Wort deck.
People see Nekusar and go “oh my god! He needs to die!”
They see Wort and they say “he’s not great but all you’re doing is ramping all game and playing a few goblins here and there.”
Nek minnit Fireball copy where X is like 30.
That’s fair but not a lot of players, especially casual ones, can even afford to have more than a couple decks.
People are always telling me "I don't negotiate with terrorists" because I just sit there with my Tree of Perdition. Minding my own business....
All I say is don't attack me. Lol
They always poke me when i threaten them for attacking me, then when I do wipe out a majority of their boards they get mad at me for doing it. Like did you think i wasn’t going to get back you like I promised?
I think you all should do a pauper commander episode with the professor in it. That be fun
Unless you allow for the commander itself to ignore the pauper component, your options are pretty limited (and mostly boring):
Barktooth Warbeard, Chandler, Jedit Ojanen, Jerrard of the Closed Fist, Joven, Lady Orca, Ramirez DePietro, Sir Shandlar of Eberyn, Sivitri Scarzam, The Lady of the Mountain, Tobias Andiron, and Torsten Von Ursus
The only guys on that list whom I would even consider would be Ramirez and Joven.
Lord Sathien in pauper commander typically you use a non-legendary uncommon creature as your commander.
Dominaria is out. There are options.
Old school commander, all cards have to be printed before 98. Would be sweet.
Honestly, I think the biggest mistake Craig made in the last episode was using Zacama at sorcery speed. Of course Zacama itself is a sorcery, but all of its abilities can be activated at instant speed, so Craig didn't need to destroy the propaganda and the orrery right after casting Zacama. Instead, he could hold the activation over everyone's heads, and use it as a great deterrant against people attacking him or his permanents.
a lot of groups on youtube do this with not just Zacama but other commanders that have those type of abilities. I don't know why, but ye it happens.
Agreed. It's the main reason why untapping lands is vastly superior to adding mana.
basically playing too fast; Craig seems like the type of guy who just goes in and tries to do things instantly when he thinks of it
he doesn't strategize as much, seems like he's all in or nothing
no back up plan; it makes for getting rid of a player fast, but not for winning a game
his hand is all out on the table already like every turn
SmugLookingBarrel he was excited to dinosaur. I did the same thing with my zacama deck you just get so excited to destroy everything
Except he didn't actually use its ability to do anything.
Starts @ 5:16
For knowing the deck I recommend the App „MTG Unofficial“. It is a deck builder that lets you test your deck. You don't have an opponent and it is very rudimentary, but you get a feeling for where the combos in the deck are, when it goes off and what the weaknesses are.
It is nothing compared to actually playtesting it, but it helps when you are just planning it
I used it for my Omnath-EDH. It took me one year to built it and one more year to get all the parts, but during that time I „tested“ it over a hundred times and it showed me my combos and my earlygame-weakness
Not having removal, for others. My mistake is figuring out when to attack or not
This one's huge. There's also a correlation between the "combos are unfair" crowd and people who don't run enough removal.
Andrew Moore something I've been saying to my play group so much. "No one can play against your deck, it's so unfair" *lists over 50 cards that disrupt the game plan*
Problem: Not playing Commander.
How did I fix it: Buy a deck and go down to my LGS.
This should be top comment.
At my local I did a misplay. It was a new group so I was nervous. It felt good that the dynamic had been built, It was seen as a mistake. It was laughed at, then corrected with no hostility. THAT to me was the sign of a great communication dynamic/politic move as it made it easier for me to contribute.
Love your podcasts, you guys motivate me to keep making EDH content. Can't wait for the next one!
I've had a lot more fun after I started admitting when I'm winning and helping people who want to remove something of mine but don't known what. I've found it lifts a lot off of your back and people are way happier to play with you.
My biggest mistake is mentally giving up before I'm actually dead
I feel this one big time in pretty much every card game I play.
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Angering multiple player? My deck does that very well, once I place my threat on the board, I need to end the game quickly or the game will end quickly for me.
the biggest mistake i made was playing with a dude with anger problems. he played mono blue and i used a cavern of souls of cast iona. he smashed a knife through my Iona however out of instinct I put my hand in the way. he kind of stoped himself once he saw my hand was in the way but the moment kind of carried on so i didnt get stabed fully but he did get about 75% of a cm into my hand.
yoitsgunattack yeah, that guy shouldn't be playing, and you shouldn't be playing with him.
yoitsgunattack actually?!
for some reason its easyier to see smaller then larger but i think its clear enough to tell the is a scar there. imgur.com/a/B8XZA
And this is why we need to ban Iona
oh fuck you :^) i only bust out counter decks for people who only play with one thing... forever.. constantly...
I love to be the villian at the table. I will attack anyone at any time for any reason. It's all in good fun and I don't care if I win or lose. I would say forgetting triggers is one mistake that happens all the time, surprised you didn't talk about that as that is the most common mistake by far that I have seen.
after having failed at fnm by playing an aggro deck with one land and THREE one drops I NEVER again keep a hand with one land.One of the few lessons I REALLY learned in mtg.
#1 Biggest Mistake: Not putting Sol Ring in your Deck. :^)
Omnath don’t need no sol ring
When he has Commander Tax, it doesn't hurt.
Depends, there are many situations I'd rather have a signet over a sol ring.
¿Por que no los dos? (Why not both?)
Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Moxen, Signets, Talismans
Yeah my play group has several players that struggle with the sorcery speed thing and keep thinking they have to use all their activated abilities on their turn or miss out, I think a couple of them are slowly understanding not only can they use these effects at different times they're learning better moments to use said abilities
has jimmy got his own salt brand selling now.
A mistake I see sometimes is players not being aggressive enough. Basically not doing anything to other players until they can win the game, especially as a creature deck, they end up not doing anything and dying without making an impact because they were too reserved and didnt want to be the aggressor.
One mistake one of my friends made when he was playing commander with me and my other friends was even know that he knew i was playing dragons, he kept on going after me and poking me with certain annoying things like destroying some of my enchantments, swinging at me only with creatures, and other things like that. I warned him by saying "look man, I'm just gonna say this. I have a card in my hand that "might" kill you unless you or someone less here has a counter. If you don't back off, I will play it.". He laughs at me and keeps poking me and right after then, i was like "Alright then, I warned my dude". Right outta nowhere, I played Triumph Of The Hordes while I had 2-3 dragons on the board, all of his stuff was tapped, and I killed him for exactly 10 infect damage beating him, and when that happened, the rest of my friends and I laughed at him and he was so salty for the whole day swearing like a sailor. I still lost that game, but i walked away from that table with the biggest smile on my face because of that triumph of the hordes against that guy. LOL XD
for me, my biggest mistakes was in the deck building stage and not having enough things to do in the early turns of the games. after a BUNCH of games with a bunch of different players with different play styles, i found that my decks werer always a little too slow and i would always be playing "catch up" all the time. So i tried to lower my curve and use more ramp in my decks :)
#1: Playing Boros
Angry Wombat23 unless Gisela is your commander
Gisela is the GOAT!!!
Tyler DePino what’s goat?
Greatest Of All Time(#TomBradyIsNotTheGOAT)
These guys got a video on that.
I think my biggest hurdle to overcome wasn't really gameplay as much as it was deckbuilding. I have a bad habit of putting a lot of answers in my deck and not enough ways to win.
I love the "play commander with us. And a guest! *unrelated footage of the Professor plays*"
You bring up people not paying attention or being familiar with a friend's deck having insight to what may be going on when it's not immediately apparent to everyone else. I have a fantastic example of playing a game against a Memnarch combo deck where the right play was to bounce a voltaic key on their upkeep, but when the play was made there was a huge issue of the choice in target when other threats where present. The play ended up being correct as I prevented a hasty blightsteel colossus from hitting someone but nobody else could have possibly seen that play without knowing the deck
Holy Guacamole! FEATURED ON A GAME KNIGHTS EPISODE!?!?!?! AAAAAAHHHHHH
My play group is down with the "friendly" partial. If you haven't got enough lands in your opening hand,pitch your high drops/late game cards,draw that many more,repeat till you have 3/4 lands. We ONLY partial for land.
Our playgroup still uses partial Paris.
Our playgroup does Full Paris. You tutor 7 cards, then scry 92.
j/k
Joe McIntosh our playgroup does aswel
I'll have you know that I keep all my hands expect those with only land, and those with no land.
The reason is because I forget you can redraw unless those come up, and I believe in the heart of the cards!
4 years later and I can say... I still forget that Mulligans are a thing. But I do mulligan when I get a really bad hand now. Just not all the time. I've been playing YGO since I was 3 what else can I say.
You guys and the Professor from TCG are my favorite MTG personalities!
in commander, i find i wont mulligan most hands if i am able to cast the spells with the lands i have. Now that's not to say there could be more optimal openers to get, but i'm perfectly willing to keep a hand with 7 lands, or three lands, maybe a ramp spell, and something to do with the mana i currently have. card draw is important but im not mulliganing my second seven cards if i can cast spells or just have a lot of lands in hand that'll help me get to the late game.
it also depends on your deck and your commander and a few other things, but two or three lands and cards to play with those lands are very fantastic
I'll do politics but I won't make any deals or alliances, been backstabbed a few times in the past that left a pretty bad sting.
I think something you guys mentioned but didn't codify, that could be rule-worthy, is the idea of don't play yourself out.
IE: just because the board feels stable and you've got a lot of mana chilling, doesn't mean you have to flush all your cards. Keep enough cards, or access to cards, to be able to bounce back, first, from wipes.
Another thing that bears mentioning is being aware of the play-order at the table, judge who plays into who plays into you etc. Choose a good seat in relation to who is gonna be coming at you and who you're gonna want to be going at.
My biggest mistake is being consistently competitive. I build my decks to win and rarely pull them out until they are ready. This causes my play group to go into every game with them already watching me closely. I'm the bear before my first turn. I fixed this by playing less competitive decks or using that play group to tune my decks so they can see I don't always play full throttle. It's helped some lol.
Nat. Twenty Gaming your flaw is your decks are too strong? Shut the fuck up please.
I've been playing Magic since 1998 and only recently got around to playing Commander. This video has been instrumental in both hyping me up and providing some great insight to make my first games more fun. Thanks guys!
For 200th episode do a game knights with a few special guest who have been on the show before and they each pick their two favorite decks they have played so far and he was two decks at once so each player is a two-headed giant.
A Game Knights episode takes 6-8 weeks to produce. They would have had to already film it to have it be used as the 200th episode of The Command Zone.
jqxok I know but they could just record it now and then release it later
Academy Headmaster sí señorita
The one on knowing your deck is a big one that gets me. It's not that I just toss random cards in, but I'll put a card in with one plan, and then more synergy will end up appearing that I miss until about five minutes after the fact.
Basing threat assessment on prior games.
I think there is a lot of really essential advice in this video for not just Commander but games and life in general. But specifically to magic, one thing worth mentioning is getting greedy and starting off with a decent hand and mulliganing to a worse hand. The grass isn't always greener.
Good to see them back at it again
id k dynasty ftw
There's one person in my playgroup who has a few mistakes they seem to make fairly consistently. He always plays his Niv-Mizzet Parun deck, but he thinks out loud about his combos. For example, when we were playing last night, on turn 4, he muttered to himself about how he couldn't quite kill everybody next turn. He then started complaining when people responded to this by targeting him for the rest of the game. The other mistake I've seen him make is the way he counts his mana. If he has Chaos Warp in his hand, he will set 3 of his mana sources apart from the rest of his land and mana rocks.
Wait will the guest star be before or after Gram and Kathleen?
It's Shred I'm okay with that.
Well, one really big mistake I tend to make is to become a big threat and not being able to win right away and/or not being able to protect myself (like making 40+ 3/3 tokens without haste and leave them vulnerable to board wipe)
22:43 Is that card legal in commander? Isn't a flying 6/6 a bit overpowered on turn one?
It's banned in 1v1.
this might sound awkward but i really like how the music drops as soon as josh says "peace" at the end. it flows quite nicely
Always here every episode
Being too afraid to get your Commander out. It happens in most of the games I play (for my opponents). Definitely agree with being unable to read the board and see where combo pieces are going. I have a Breya deck with the Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle. I've used it before and explained the combo to my playgroup but most of the them still don't realize what's happening as I'm beginning to build the board state for it. I have multiple options in the deck to win a game but if the pieces are there or if a game is stagnating, I'm going to start building the board state for it. It's kinda frustrating being the most experienced in my playgroup as I play Commander because I like the swings that happen and the politics. I also like being the archenemy but it rarely happens.
"And then you have 1 card or no cards"
Me: Ensnaring Bridge
Yes, knowing your deck is extremely important, and one of the most important things you can do. One other major thing is trying to understand what your opponent's deck is trying to do as well. Are they trying to combo off and kill everyone in 1 big sweep that you can't stop? Are they just trying to play value cards and out value you until they can run you over? Are they trying to stall out the game using enchantment/artifacts that make it painfully slow for no one to play magic?? Once I started doing this, it helped me be a better player and make better evaluations of the situation.
My mindset:
I own the entire board, but I only control my deck.
I would say one of the biggest mistakes people make is revealing their intentions or other forms of information. Whether it be through attempting something that the can’t actually do (counter an uncounterable spell) or through slips of the tongue that give other players extra information (if you attack me, I will kill your creature.) Magic requires a poker face. Even deliberating over whether to respond to someone’s spell reveals that you do in fact have a response. Giving away small or subtle pieces of information can help your opponents reform their strategies to play around you (baiting out removal or counter spells before playing a win con.)
Its 00:31 AM in Italy. I really should be sleepung right now. But f**k.
Love from Italy :)
same here in austria lol
love from France 1:31 am
Butt fuck love from Italy. Lol
Lode a commander! Il miglior formato che esista :D
4:30 am here, i’m living on methylphenidate
Shame I missed this deadline, I'd love to see you guys best my Captain Sisay deck. In fact I formally challenge you to x]
Great channel guys, I'm new to it but I love it. Keep on rockin!
totally diggin the hot sauce in the back
Also just found this channel a couple weeks ago and love all the advice you all give. You have definitely helped make improvements in my game
Who knows, maybe episode 200 won't come out for 5 more years
My play group is composed of a few really good friends who play EDH/Commander to have fun, more than to win. We use the partial Paris mulligan, often play huge games (6-10 decks), and have set up a tournament format (kind of like the Star City Games guys) that encourages fair play and strategy week to week, as well as limiting infinite combos to 5 triggers per turn (most of us eschew them entirely because they aren't fun). Most strategies that are super viable even in the relatively slow games of EDH are not going to do well in our group because the scale is just too large, and some strategies we employ (much higher average CMC) are specific to our play group. We have a blast playing 2+ hour games, chatting, eating, etc...I just want to let people know that you don't have to play super intensely/competitively to have a BLAST with your friends.
The Phyrexian Inquisition
The one mistake that I tend to do when deck building is Forgetting some of the basic staples of commander like Board wipes, single target removal, graveyard recursion things like that. I get so caught up in whatever the theme is of my deck that I forget some things and find myself stuck in some games.
My politics are I'm North Korea don't anger me.
That's right, always be the bear XD
My politics are, I'm Trump, and my button is bigger.
Or.... what? You will threat a nuke, then do nothing?
Mono Red? Lol jk
@SonAlexander lol like craig, he nuked Mel ridiculously hard, but had no follow up plan for jimmy at all
I definitely fall into the trap of over-extending myself on a regular basis. I don’t really have troubles with making the best of using timing, but a lot of the time I unconsciously have the attitude of “I don’t want to let my mana go to waste by not playing this card at all and trying to play catch up later.” Sometimes that means the board wipes hurt me the most.
I think a lot of that is definitely a consequence of how I build my decks and what kind of engines I’m able to build that give me cards and mana and instant speed capability - but sometimes that’s also limited by what kind of access you have to quality cards.
The hardest lesson for me to learn was that too much focus on synergy when deckbuilding actually had a doubly negative downside. The first is that your opponents see every single card you drop as being scary, and any removal they have is all going to go towards disrupting those nice synergies you want.
The second is that you start to fall into the trap of making your deck predictable. Yes, there are always going to be certain cards that with the right commander are highly desirable and are part of your wincon - but it doesn’t help if your opponent sees that you’ve neglected to have card draw or responses available as part of your deck, because then you start making weak points for your opponent to focus on and exploit.
Also politics is essential. Sometimes it’s as simple as things like “just because you can attack doesn’t mean you have to attack”
Sure you can slip a bit of damage through to that exposed opponent, but next turn that might mean that their Decimate targets a few extra permanents that you control instead of your opponent. It leaves you in a worse overall situation that you have to claw your way back from after the tables are turned on you.
Josh: "oh don't attack me or i'll attack you back!"
I'm not sure where this isn't the point in a pvp game. Like they are out to win, you are out to win. There is no high and mighty bullshit. Josh had something on the board that was a problem and Craig took care of it. No need to throw a hissy fit everytime he does something to you.
Sonic TMP lmao what? Craig started to destroy his board, so Josh attacked him - how is that a hoody fit? What would you expect him to do: “oh ik you just blew up my shirt Craig, so I’ll swing at Jimmy!”
It's not throwing a hissy fit, but what else would you expect? If someone starts messing with your stuff and your gameplan, is it that crazy to hit them back for it?
Oh no, trying to kill someone in *magic* after they attacked you, what poor manners...
jimmy and josh said it's fine; it's more about seeing their board and knowing how they will hit back and be prepared for it
craig doesn't have counters at all
he kept getting his board cleared far too easily
I think the "have a plan" problem is so key. Like, I'll play commander with my boyfriend and a few other casual friends (with roughly equal power decks), and he'll complain that my deck (no matter which of those decks I'm playing) has a ton of synergy.
But honestly all of them have synergy. It's just that I'm casting my cards in a way that fullfills a plan, making it look like my deck has more synergy because I'm not just casting cards because I can.
Anyway, that's it, just wanted to echo your point with my own anecdote. :)
Why always only for US :(
That is all I ever wanted!!!!! :((((((
Bruno Nonohay judging by the link, it looks like it's open to everyone, but they can only afford to fly US. If you win and live outside the US, you have to pay for your own flight, but you can still be in the episode (as far as I can tell)
On the site it is written this:
"Airfare offer is only valid to legal residents of the United States."
:((((
Bruno Nonohay Exactly. If you can afford the flight, I think they are fine with you playing still.
Bruno Nonohay
Still specifically is talking about the airfare part, not the show part.
You are right!
Guess I am making a video, then XD
To your point about not angering multiple players;
This is point of struggle for me because when I go to combat phase each turn, I have to make a choice, do I attack the same person over and over and thus avoid triggering the other 2 players? Or do I spread the hate evenly so no one feels picked on?
- To piggy back off that point even, the other problem that often occurs is we will usually have one player in our pods that is a cut (or 2) above the other 3 players. He plays down to the pod so its all good, but the other 3 players KNOW he's better and thus it always tends to become archenemy at some point. Attention is drawn just by existing at the table. So do you preemptively attack the bear in hopes of taming him before he goes off, or do you avoid him BECAUSE he's the bear?
And that is kinda the hard choice. If someone is clearly "the bear", the bottom line is usually to not anger them. But if the 3 other players ignore the bear and attack each other instead, now they are failing the politics aspect of the game by failing to recognize proper threats. Inversely, at what threshold do the other 3 players need to converge on the bear?
My group struggles with all of those things. Everyone gets mad when you do anything to them. Everyone gets mad when you don't properly assess a threat that lines up with what they felt was the biggest threat.
Everyone just wants to play their own decks without being interacted with.
Paying attention at the table is a big thing in my group too. Several of the players really love to have their side conversations. One of them will be on their phone showing photos back and forth with someone not even in our game. It will get around to his turn and he'll have to take like 5 minutes just to re-cap on whats happened. And yes, as you said in the video, he will often get upset that he wasn't given a chance to respond to something. Like, bruh, you weren't paying attention even though I said the card name 3 times.
To your point about not always playing sorcery speed;
For better or for worse, this is one reason why I love Muldrotha so much. There is less reactionary thinking involved, but instead you have to learn how to macro play. Since the deck mostly functions at sorcery speed, you have to get better at predicting what things will happen when. Do I set up defense in the form of Seal of Primordium, or do I set up my Phyrexian Arena?
To your last point on politics;
Its not easy. You don't just sit down and be good at it. Not really. I've seen players never actively pursue political stuff in the game, but the moment they are about to lose, they suddenly become super interested in politics. I'm bad at politics myself still. For me, what usually happens is that I'll be the first player to spike in power, everyone turns on me in unison and even if I made it clear that I'm going to attack "X" player, the other 2 players are still at my throat because they know they are next either way. I suppose part of my problem with politics comes from the fact that my decks are very telegraphed in what it will do next. Muldrotha plays at sorcery speed and is a graveyard deck. You know what my options are, you know what is likely to come based on the board state. When I was playing Gishath, there is nothing subtle about it. Its big dinosaurs cheating out other big dinosaurs. The most I could do with politics is try to assure someone that I wasn't gonna attack them this turn. But seeing as how little benefit that ultimately is to them, deals were rarely ever made...
IM 17! WHY DOES THE UNIVERSE HATE ME?!
Rhodes I’m with you brother,
Alright all you 17 year olds, let’s start a play group and call ourselves the “Game Squires”
Rhodes SAME
You were born in 2000. It's your own fault honestly
Hollie Sullivan yeah! It’s their fault their parents didn’t fuck earlier
Matthew Martin
GAME SQUIRES FTW!!! It literally broke my heart though because I turn 18 in late March... so I'm just barely intelligible 😭😂
I do not have a flashy description for it but you probably can help me out with that: In my playgroup we have a lot of midrangy-battlecruiser decks. If there is a combo deck between them that will be ignored mostly as soon as a propaganda comes down and those battlecruisers (most of them with green but without enchantment removal) will fight any other player where they see the best opportunity to lower someones lifetotal. Even if that is totally irrelevant to the board state
If you want to single-handedly hold down the combo player, play stax.
I love everything about this show except the singing.... so annoying. Can't skip fast enough.
its so funny xD
Cool story bro.
happy to oblige!
My thoughts as a seasoned EDH player:
1. Keeping sketchy hands is a big one, but disagree on the need for three lands. I happily keep one and two-landers all the time, but I've built most of my decks in such a way that there's nothing sketchy about them! I don't need many lands to get things working for me.
2. I think not having a plan applies to deckbuilding as well as gameplay. The best decks are focused decks, and when you are playing every action must be done WITH PURPOSE. Never do anything "just because".
3. Yeah, seems right. Working on a deck is an iterative process and you need to learn the ins and outs of your deck as you go. You're going to stumble a lot in early builds, but there's little excuse not to know what you're doing. Remembering your lines, your list and your plan is REQUIRED to get the most out of the deck.
4. Disagree. I play with very little regard to who I'm pissing off and build my decks to play archenemy. Anyone who's played with me regularly knows I don't offer deals, rarely accept them, and almost never uphold them. I'll do things regardless of how many people they piss off and go "what are you going to do about it? Can you stop me? If you stop me, can you stop the other people I'm holding down?" Many decks and many players are just fine provoking the whole table.
5. Disagree! If someone's the biggest threat I'm going to concentrate on dealing with them. Full stop. I fully expect that things will only get worse if I do not. I've been on the other side of this often enough (see above) that I know that leaving this player be is a losing proposition. It's not too hard to convince other players to gang up on this person.
6. YUP. My playgroup doesn't allow takesie-backsies. If you missed my Mystic Remora? Too bad, you better pay 4 or I'm drawing my damn card. It's on you to notice it.
7-8. My biggest peeve. Guys... guys... do this right! Threat assessment is important. I've absolutely seen people lose because they removed my stax piece... which was stopping another player from winning.
9. Yes. Also, sorcery speed interaction sucks. Avoid it. Also, Vedalken Orrery SUCKS. Like seriously, the card is bad and almost no deck would be better for having it.
10. I like this elaboration on politics. I don't play politics in the traditional sense. No deals. No alliances. No grudges. My politics are very subtle. I'll make my case for why I'm doing things or why things should be done. I'll make shows of strength. This works well. Something as simple as passing priority to force someone else to use their counterspell so I can keep mine is political.
Thanks guys for the video. I'm a strictly casual home-brew player with that I agree with most of these except having a plan. Murphy's rules of combat: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
I play Green in Commander -- which means my card draw is Sylvan Library or a way to cantrip, like Elvish Visionary. Other ways to go deep would be your 3-drop or 4-drop that has a way to draw when the power of a creature ETB-ing is greater than X.
Threat assessment can also entail the cards in your opponents decks. You don't even have to know the exact cards. For example, knowing the overall archetype of someone's deck can give you insight towards possible plays. You will likely make different decisions if someone is playing Sram vs someone playing Zacama.
I think a common mistake I sometimes make is not running the right KIND of card draw in my deck. I recently swapped out all the slower card draw (i.e. Phyrexian Arena) in my Edgar Markov deck in favor of burstier draw (2-for-1, 3-for-1, i.e. Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, etc.) simply because I don't want to be spending 3 mana in the early game on a Phyrexian Arena, I want to be dropping vampires instead. A special exception for Twilight Prophet. Then in the mid-game, that's when I want to be casting my 2-for-1 or 3-for-1, or sometimes my 12-for-1 (Champion of Dusk) draw spells to refill my then-empty hand. Another example would be loot, windfall or wheel effects in decks that don't mind pitching cards in their graves.
On the topic of improper threat assessment , I convinced one of my friends to board wipe by playing a large creature (I think it was a serras guardian) but when the board was cleared I then played loxodon lifechanter. ( in case you were wondering I was playing a sorin vengeful bloodlord brawl deck vs his niv izzet reborn deck. He time wiped on his own turn to return niv izzet to hand but couldn't rebuild in time to stop a 36 38 life linking loxodon.
One of the bigger mistake I make is not paying attention to board state. And after thinking about why I have come to the conclusion that it is when I'm in games of more than 4 players.
So my addition to the list would be:
playing in games with more than 4 players. It's more cards on the table to pay attention to and in addition you're farther from those cards because of space constraints. It can make playing those matches seem distant and uninteractive.
My biggest problem is not having any money at the end of the month for better land or mtg in general, so I decided to just add more draw/ramp and many more basic lands. I'm playing a 4 Color Commander Deck... Partner... and I run 25-30 basics, depending on how I want to make the deck before I play. Surprisingly I get the lands I need at the right time and the draw/ramp makes thing much easier. In commander, the obvious lands are : Temple of the False Gods, Command Tower, Forbidden Orchard, the obvious ones, but the main land base is basics. I have slowly added a few bounces and scrys, but the deck runs well overall and it ran just fine before the extra duals. Don't get bummed out just because you don't have the correct lands, just tune your lands appropriately for the colors you need and as they said, "STAY AWAY FROM SKETCHY HANDS" pls
I love that the bottle of rooster sauce in the background has been used. So authentic!