Last time you mentioned you wanted to keep 10 decks I considered it a great idea and I wanted to make that happen. I had 26 decks and that point. I have 32 now.
Hey Joey, real talk here. It's time that you made peace with the kind of Magic player you are. You're an architect, a deck builder. You get most joy from constructing strategies, tweaking them and then seeing how they play out. That's why your decks are never finished, that's why you do "Upping the Average", you are a natural constructor and MTG is your chosen tool. That's absolutely fine; embrace it. It's a healthy way to play the game; I have LCGs (Marvel, Arkham) that I build and dismantle decks over and over for not because they're bad, but because building the deck and seeing how the elements slot together is the joyous part of the game for me - I'm the same. It's a fine way to be, keep tinkering, keep brewing and keep enjoying who you are.
Joey even if you dont play your decks they have been a beacon to us net deckers. Its your group hug deck that inspired me to make my own k and t and its the most fun deck i have. Decks you dont play isent a paperweight, its an inspiration to your fans. It dosent mean that if your not playing something that its not worth your love. I have a Tarland all counterspell deck and i rarely play, but i brew it with a little help from Dana's Talrand. Love all your decks Joey coz we viewers certainly love them as much.
That comment on MtG burnout wasn’t dour-that was real. I feel it in my bones. I think we all do, to some extent. Thank you for continuing to bring the joy.
Joey describing and thus understanding his dopaminergic relationship with deckbuilding is great to watch. As soon as you know you get off from the creative brain juices during deckbuilding just keep in mind that the process may also create expectations that are unrealistic: When you goldfish your deck, you develop a voyeuristic expectation to the synergies you have brewed, but those may never happen in real games with people. As Joey, I enjoy immensely the creative part. Also, I rather seek to playtest only in real games. I rarely goldfish anymore. Keeps me happier when playing with my friends. And you're right I think in pointing out that you can always profit from endless brewing if you manage to gain mastery of the rules, synergies and heuristics of an eternal format such as EDH. To sum, when you are conscious of expectations, brewing constantly is a win win situation and it makes you a better casual player, especially when you can proxy or webbuild all those decks. No need to waste money when you know what to expect as a result. Cheers man, this was a goooopd episode.
I honestly love the multiple decks for one commander mentality. For instance, the Warhammer decks. I keep them in their OG state, but i have about 40 cards sleeved up on the side, and if i wanna play demon grixis, i just swap out the demon stuff and switch to bel'akor. I also have a fat pack sized box of cards that i never buy list because "one day ill use them" so this year, I decided i would start putting them in their own decks, and find fun synergies like smoke spirits aid and hellish rebuke
I have three Kykar decks: Anthem enchantress, Soellslinger, and Equipment Voltron...and I'm looking into a Stax version too. I put all the cards into pink sleeves, with inner sleeves...then I tag the corner of each inner sleeve with those little colored circle stickers (white for anthems, blue or spellslinger, silver for equipment...some cards have 2 - or even all 3 - stickers), so it's easy to swap cards in and out. Most of the lands stay the same between decks (with a few minor tweaks like the ratio of each basic), and the ramp/draw packages are mostly the same too, but it's amazing how those other 35 or so cards which do change totally change how the entire deck plays out and feels at the table!
I probably start building a deck about once a week, at a minimum. Now, this stays at a purely theory state, but occasionally one will stick around long enough (more than a few hours) where I want to build it in paper. So I totally understand that chaotic want, to put some creative thinking into an EDH deck. But I have had to put some rules into what goes into paper. I noticed a trend that if a deck sits in theory for more than a month or two, and I don’t delete it, it usually means that I can build it. Too often I have made on a whim decks or changed existing decks which means a whole lot of money on a deck that doesn’t have staying power (I.G. I have a zombie deck that has had 5 different identities and color, and still I will probably tear it apart for good). I think honestly the healthiest thing to do with that “chaotic want” is to set some rules. Sleep on an idea for a while. Give it some time to breathe before investing money into the project. IF you set some rules, you can go crazy with building because its a passion and brings you happiness.
This Lae'zel deck is incredible. Thank you so much for making this and sharing it with us. I lost my home and all of my possessions not long ago. As a result I was in the market for a good Commander deck so I could play with my friends. I needed a synergistic and flexible deck that was still powerful while not breaking the bank. All check marks have been ticked and I just ordered this deck in full! I will be eagerly watching and waiting to see what adjustments that you make going forward. In the meantime I am ready to have some fun with my friends! Thank you so much, I mean that from the bottom of my heart! So excited!
You are one of my favorite magic content creators! Keep up the good and entertaining work. I hit 21 decks myself. But I try not to spend a ton on magic (hahaha). So half of them ended up with guild gates and a really shoddy mana base. I had a epiphany. I can use the shell of the deck like the mana base and staples such as sol ring, path to exile, assassin's trophy, boros charm ect and switch out 30-40 cards to make a different deck. It restricts your deck building in a way and you won't spent as much and can really spruce up your mana base. Examples: I have Jodah the Unifier build as a Legends commander. I have a package to switch it to a legendary dragons deck without having to make 2 5 color mana bases. I have an omnath, Locus of rage Lands deck and can switch out to a chishiro voltron deck. I have a Mono White Heliod Lifegain deck that can be switched to Oketra tokens.
I love you, man. You're an awesome human being. This video hit home for me and I've been playing, building, tinkering for 17 years. Beautifully said my good syr.
Welcome to the club, mate. I've been doing it since 2016. Have 48 decks to my name. The way I found to slow down a bit on the brew train was having a 100 cardsleeve on the ready for budget decks. I build a deck, put on the sleeves... take it apart and build a new one and use the one 100 sleeves for budget decks. Now I have 20 budget lists but never more than one active deck at a time.
This video is therapeutic. I have been constantly brewing since 2018 and I am the only one I know like that. I feel like I have major issues and can't stop. Thank you.
I sooo feel you, I love theorycrafting, brewing and building new decks as much as playing them and ended up making 29 EDH paper decks in 10 months last year 🙈. I try to only build 1 each month this year, but I already did the January one in the first week and still have 10+ on the todo list + Phyrexia is coming out this weekend and it strains my patience so much to not go ham again 😂.
I always had just my 4 favourite decks. And I care about their unique identity and try to set apart as much as possible from each other. At one point I had 5, but 2 of them overlapped quite a bit, so I just kept one of those. Try to focus and remember of what you love about your deck, and why it is so. Each time you find the temptation to build a new graveyard with a slight different angle to it... How about trying to apply those to the deck you already own? Building just the ultimate graveyard deck that encapsulates everything you love about the graveyard and every possible interaction with it. That way you will be always playing all that you love, the new and the classic, with a lot of variance each match.
Hey Joey, a long time lurker here! I have this exact same problem and I found a weird but great solution: "Give away your decks" or "Trade your decks to others" I LOVE building and theory crafting and playtesting, but I always get to a point where I just have too many, and it stresses me out trying to keep them all up to date and not playing them enough anymore! So I will often give them to friends, family or do giveaways as a way of getting to have all the fun but then pass it along knowing someone else will enjoy it a ton too 🍻
Thank you for making this video and giving an update on the process. A lot of this resonated with my own thoughts, as I always seem to be brewing new creations. I have over 100 decks ready to go at any time. I rarely buy cards for them, but just change and add to them as I open new stuff. I always seem to be making one or more new decks and the process is both incredibly fun, but also exhausting.
You could have a conversation with Dan from the Commander Sphere. I think your train of thought is leading toward some points he made. Keeping the commander and rebuilding the deck is part of his yearly habit. Also, I have the same problem as you, the same joy from brewing! One thing helped me: I started building decks for some friends, and building decks for other formats: Pauper commander, regular Pauper, and pioneer. Pauper Commander is especially fun - so many cards I never looked at! I built at least five decks of any format since Christmas, but only one for Commander, and still got all the excitement!
Boy I’m glad I’m not alone😅If I had an unlimited amount of money, yes I’d be buying all my missing pieces of the 30 decks I’ve brewed over the last three months to now…I’ve just recently started editing my existing decks. I can’t help it I love crafting decks in any tcg I love playing!
You're reframing as giving the energies you experience as a way to introspect as to what you enjoy about the game inspired me this moment. I build a lot of decks because I'm a super budget player (I begin to hmm if a card is over $1 and over $5 is pretty much always out of the question unless gift money or trade) and when I get my hands on nice/expensive piece I want to make a deck that caters to it in some way. And I know I regret trading away pieces and finding I really needed them later. So I try to keep them in decks to avoid doing that. This episode is helping me realize I need to try to some other ways maybe of trying to balance myself as a collector and myself as a player
I have 21 decks and play every Sunday my LGS' Commander League. I bring 9 decks every week, rolling a die to determine which deck I'll be playing. Sometimes I get 2-3 games in, a blessing to get 5-6. After every Sunday, I look at my 'EDH Deck Schedule' swapping out decks I just played for ones I haven't. The ones that get put into Sunday's case are glanced to see when they were last updated, if it's been a while I get to tinkering. I also limit myself to having ONLY 21 decks... if I want to build something new, something needs to be dismantled. Loved this video because it encapsulates the joy and grief I have with being an addictive deckbuilder. That's why I put together my spreadsheet ('EDH Deck Schedule') to keep track of each deck's birthdate, record, date last updated and date last played. Recording and maintaining this addiction has kept it from genuinely going off the rails.
Joey, my man - Resolutions are always broken, so I hope you're not taking this too hard. Other people have called your deckbuilding "an addiction" in the comments, but it's not that either. This is your favorite game, you are heavily involved in playing and talking about it, and it's natural to have the deckbuilding energy you cultivated. Making that change is insanely hard to stop. I haven't made content in years, and I still can't stop brewing either. Outside looking in, I think the mistake is making a resolution like this altogether. Instead, keep it simple - let yourself go, find what makes you keep coming back to decks you're always playing. Decks you aren't playing, take em for a goldfish test once in a while and see if there's something you're forgetting. Just because you don't play a deck doesn't mean the deck is not receiving love. This is a fallacy, in my opinion. If it's sleeved, it's cared about.
Thanks to one of your prior videos, I rediscovered my joy for a Wilhelt deck I had already upgraded! Sometimes it’s good to take stock of what you already have before jumping into a new brew to help scratch that itch 😌
I like the evolution approach. I have found that I take my decks, one in particular, and totally revamp it. There are a few key creatures in it as part of the 99 that I know I want to play. I then play with who is the commander. It is a Simic Deck but the commander started with Thrasios, then Koma, then Momir Vig, and is now Tatyova. In its current state it’s a landfall deck but has gone through significant changes over time.
Got back into MTG about 18 months ago... Currently sitting at 15 EDH decks AFTER breaking down the ones I don't play as often 😅 I think a big part of it is my playgroup, which is super wholesome and made up of some excellent brewers. The landscape is constantly evolving as we bring new lists to the table, sparking meta adjustments and new ways to engage with one another based on the "flavour of the month". Thankfully its less so about pushing the power level and more about keeping play experience fresh, as we've kinda settled on a "strong but fun & interactive" vibe. Not a single one of my decks do the same thing (I've been dubbed the Wubrg Slut), and I get the opportunity to play all my decks in a 2-week cycle, playing roughly 4 games a night twice a week. My biggest hurdle is not using enough "generically good" cards across the board, as I don't like having multiple copies of a single card, homogenising the decks (8 of the decks contain white... only one of them has Teferi's Protection), BUT this a very strong incentive to think outside the box when brewing. We'll see if I've made another 5 before the end of the year 🤣 only have 1 deck that's 2 colours.
Felt this in my soul! My career has a good Christmas bonus that pays most in December, then small amount late Jan. Every year. So I start at US Thanksgiving-ish seeing what decks I want to keep into the new year, and play testing online with changes. Then I look at cutting 1 or 2, challenging a build in one or two (similar to style you did at end of video), then theorycrafting and finalizing changes by time second part of my bonus comes around. At each new set, I take a look at some fun potential new commanders to try out, and maybe board / proxy test with new cards as my soul warrants lol But the risk of burnout is real. I've been playing MtG since Ice age, and have left several times as a result. But discovered EDH / commander in 2017, and this is longest I've been back in the game in a long time. :)
I definitely know the problem Joey, I have over 50 decks and everything you described it REALLY hard at home. stay strong brother. Enjoy what you love.
This is such a mood. But also your solution is ingenious. I have an equipment deck that used to be in the paperweight stage but recently rebuilt it from scratch, and now it’s one of the most fun to play. Plus I still have the old lists I can reference if I get regrets (spoiler alert: I have no regrets)
I have recently drastically reduced the amount that I pay and am trying to find the balance of deconstructing tuning and reshaping decks that I love and finding peace with letting some decks go. The process is time consuming but as you put very well it has redirected my constant want to build new decks in spite of how that causing me to neglect others decks. I think I am currently at 9 decks and should probably go down based on the small amount I am currently playing but when decks are new or made from budget cards they are hard to take apart. This video really spoke to me. Thank you for sharing your experience!
I understand how you feel. It's easy to get obsessed with making decks and trying to 'perfect' them and not enjoying the game. I like your idea of remaking the decks you already have. Thanks Joey 🙂
Something fun to try is brewing with only one rare, whether it’s your commander or a card in the 99 it really condenses a strategy and shows what parts are absolutely essential and feel the worst to lose. It also sometimes changes the strategy of a commander altogether and avoids staples
Brewing Artisan commander (only cards printed at common/uncommon) is almost the same thing and really fun to brew! I hadn’t been so excited for a new deck in a while as my Artisan Kardur list I built last summer.
I just deconstructed three of my decks recently. Two I had really grown bored with, one that is really fun but I just rarely played anymore. It was a hard choice, but afterwards I felt relieved that I did it. I already have two new decks in the works and the cards that were no longer serving me are now going to serve me again one last time to help me finish these new projects. Things have to end so new things can begin.
I started playing Magic in May of last year and I already have 6 decks. 6 EDH in less than the first year… yeah, I feel what you’re saying heavy. I especially fear burnout, but I also feel like I’m learning SO much from deck building. Not to mention I am beginning my collection of cards, so I don’t have a ton of the crazy staples, but by building decks I am slowly growing my staple collection as they get reprinted. Learning what to collect and HOW to collect is important. I used to grab a bunch of packs just to crack, but now I’m going to draft nights more and have more fun throughout my collection process.
I totally feel your pain as I had the same new year's resolution. What I've ended up doing is consolidating a lot of half baked ideas I brewed over the past couple of years into more interesting, more cohesive, more powerful decks. Like I'm taking the enchantress base from my Go-Shintai deck and comining it my terrible Ghen Arcanum Weaver Saga Tribal into an actually functional Saga Tribal deck. Or my Elsha of the Infinite vehicle tribal and 2-3 half baked spellslinger decks into Kykar storm, and so on. I get to still flex my creative muscle but cut down on total number of decks and catch up to my group who've all been honing at best 3-4 decks each.
I got really into permutations on spellslinger decks in 2020 and listening to this reminded me of that. I built Feather, Kalamax, and Niv-Mizzet in the span of a few weeks. More recently I've been really burnt out and was re-inspired by upgrading the Urza and Mishra precons
Theory crafting decks that I'll never build is one of my favorite hobbies. In a similar boat of refocusing that energy to what I have and pumping brakes on new legendaries, due to time, budget, and wanting decks to be more personal. On a whim my friend told me to take a crack at Ognis, turned out to be one of my favorite decks. Great video, Joey. Everyone should theory craft Volo, Guide to Monsters. Just as a fun exercise.
I'm currently sitting on 25 decks, and I'm building more. I still manage to play all of them fairly regularly. I make this work in 2 ways: 1: I switch what deck I'm playing every game. 2: I always start with decks I've recently changed. Even if I only changed one card. This helps me keep the love that got me to build the decks in the first place.
I think what you're doing is fine and okay Joey, mate. You're a commander lover, your job is centered around it too, it would be almost impossible for you to avoid brewing/crafting especially with all the new fun stuff that gets released every couple of months. For me, I try to limit myself to precons when I make a new deck, and only 1 per precon set. I often fail (eg. from ONE I'm getting both precons...) But yeah, as a fellow Graveyard lover, you'll only ever fit a certain amount of cards into one deck, leaving other cool cards without a home. When a slightly different Graveyard deck comes along, it's only normal to want to build that too, and again, nothing wrong with that :)
Hi Joey! I had a similar resolution as yours. Last year alone I built 30 decks on paper, 12 of which only saw a game or two before taking them apart . I love the process of deck building but opportunity cost is real, both in gameplay and money. Moving forward I will focus on the decks I already own and also attempt to keep must of my deck building ideas to deck building websites like Moxfield.
As a chronically addicted deckbuilder for other card games, I find personally that the reason I can't stop building decks is pretty simple. I enjoy the process of it; it's this beautiful combination of creativity and problem solving that can then be shared with friends. At least for me, there isn't really a moment where I'll be "satisfied" with a brew since finishing the deck was never the truly the point. For anyone that resonates with this, I highly recommend getting into cube building for any card game you and your friends play. It is the ultimate deckbuilding challenge, instead of building a deck of 60 cards from whatever viable cards fit your deck, you create a stack of hundreds of cards with every card released being a potential option, basically creating your own closed format, potentially with it's own custom rules, and catering the experience to fit what each of your friends enjoy.
I have an affinity for tribal decks, so I have a number of them. They don't require a lot of maintenance and I can play them depending on mood. I love brewing because it's an intellectual challenge plus you're sorting through your collection as you go, thereby spending more time with it beyond playing the game. And that means occasionally you find a card that would be useful but isn't getting heat because it's not part of the newest set--in other words, serendipitous discovery! That said, taking apart an older deck and finding new uses for those same cards, or strengthening a manabase in another deck so it performs better, is also fun.
I loved the thought experiment about moving cards to the maybe board and refcrafting with 10 cards in. I was theorycrafting a baba Lysaga deck (inspired by you ofc) and with so many fun options what I did was go through the main board and mark cards I really wanted in because they were fun/exciting for me and then make cuts/adds around those cards.
I started the year with 15 decks. Then it became too difficult to manage/handle, so I cut down on two decks that I didn’t care so much, that never played the way I wanted. I literally sold the cards, bought myself a Phyrexia bundle and perfected the other decks to reach that “crystalized” point you mention there. It felt like a great appreciation of them.
I relate to the topic and I don't even play out regularly. Brewing and discovering esoteric interactions is my favorite part of the game. I goldfish a lot and my son and I play a lot. I track cards to swap in for 2 or 4 player so the builds are flexible. Once we commit to a deck, it gets it's own Satin Tower, color matched dice & counters and I stock them with all the tokens they need. Like yourself, I upkeep builds as new sets evolve the metas. I started decorating the deck boxes for the ones I knew I'd keep as a way to 'lock it in'. I don't think there is any wrong with going for it. If you are responsible with your cash and time and can balance while engaging this hobby, ride the wave while it lasts. FWIW, I think MTG has simply matured to the point where there are so many pathways to explore that trying them inevitably leads to truly understanding what the designers were excited about in making it in the first place, which becomes addictive. Or better yet, in finding new synergies with old favorite cards that suddenly have new life. I don't doubt at some point a new hobby will take me away from MTG again, but I'll also probably be back and I see the cards as a playable investment in the meantime. Someday, my kids will be able to sell it all and make a nice return.
One of the things that I find fun is to build my decks as if each one cannot ever have the same cards in them except basic lands. When you do this you are forced to try out a ton of different cards and those 101-110th cards actually get played. When you can’t play shocks and fetches in both your 5 color decks then you dust off those gates. Oh natures lore and 3 visits are in one deck …then you have to use your emerald medallion and green signets and talismans. I started doing this both to save money and get more out the cards I do own and it’s really kept things fresh for me.
I recently found a whole another rabbit hole for deckbuilding: Pauper EDH. Uncommon commander and all commons in the 99 is a fun exercise, and you get to use all the random commons you have lying around.
You inspired me to turn my Muldrotha deck into a Baba Lysaga, and I'm losing every second of it. Way less oppressive and more fun for everyone around the table. Thank you
You are perfect as you are. I myself am trying to build a Jumpstart commander background cube for my playgroup (and my girlfriend, who does not brew decks at all). If I ever succeed in this massive undertaking, I will message you. Thanks for all the great content
Man, this is entirely my thinking right now. I love brewing and building and tinkering with decks and as a result I have more than 70 EDH decks, lots of which I’ve never played or have only played once then moved on. I’ve constantly got new deck ideas popping into my head and I don’t need any new decks. What I need right now is to cut some decks that don’t spark joy and focus my energies on decks that I’m likely to go back to again and again.
One of the things you mentioned at the end I'm going to do. I really like the first deck I built, but I was new and it took a while to figure out. So I'm going to dismantle it and start over; see how modern day me brews it.
I feel exactly the same man, I'm currently in college with a very limited budget and every other day I see a new commander and be like I should build that deck, making the decklist seeing the price point and repeating the process over and over again
I am up to 243 paper edh decks, and i just keep building. I don't get to play that often, but the building and updating is relaxing after a long night at work. I refuse to take apart decks, because of all the time and thought that went into them. There has been so many interesting cards to build around printed in the last few years, I still have ideas to keep adding to the collection.
What I have done when I get to the point you're at: Slim your deck down to an oathkeeper deck size (60 singleton cards). When you do that, you make extremely hard choices and you find out that the things you keep are really the core of the deck and help you establish what the deck is/what it should be.
Been on a deck upgrading spree lately, and I am feeling the burn out (of my wallet, mostly). I like how you suggested to channel that creative energy into thought deck building. Still creative but cheaper and better for players on a budget.
I feel like the past year of Magic has forced many of us (for one reason or another) to address the concern of burnout in the hobby. I have a couple decks I consider to be living, growing things. The others I view as complete but subject to (infrequent) revision. Like once a year I'll re-release the digitally remastered HD directors cut of it featuring new cards from the past half dozen or so sets. It gives me a feeling of closure having several 'completed' decks and the joy of an annual overhaul. As always, thanks for putting your own experience out there, I feel like a lot of us either identify with it or have fun contrasting it with our own idiosyncrasies.
I've definitely been committed recently to fine tuning a lot of decks with cards that I feel deserve more of a spotlight.. or show something done in a way that may isn't used very frequently 😅 it's really pushing my mind to build synergies a lot better and tighter and refine what I want my strategies to look like going forward
I had much the same feelings at the end of 2022 - like decks were starting to step on each other's toes, enjoyment was decreasing because of it, too much brain space on MTG... I'm trying to cap at 15 decks - and so far this year, I've taken 3 decks apart & replaced them with much looser builds; decks I can sit down with a casual/new player pod & play. It's helped a lot to relax my brain-fatigue in deckbuilding & I've found, works a little like cube. Not every piece is a well-polished perfect fit, so weird unexpected synergies & non-bos spring up, which is kinda fun after a year of serious tuning & streamlining to a fault.
I'm just throwing a bucket of diesel on a raging inferno with this, but I would argue not all decks necessarily need to be played to justify existing, I think some decks probably qualify as a creative work of art. Art doesn't need to 'do' something to be valid, this is especially true of really heavy Vorthos decks, where you might struggle to find good matches, but that still spark joy in your heart to playtest or even just look through. Such a deck might be played very rarely (and might even have very little actual satisfaction from play, especially if the deck is truly abysmal), even never, and still have a justification. I do feel for you though, I have too many decks atm, with some that I just don't bother playing with, but I rarely take them apart. Some of them are a blast to go back and play (Pox never truly gets old for me), but I might cannibalize a few for cards, in part because I want to build at least 5 trade binder decks (with hopefully very few upgrades, other than to equalize power, thinking of building the OG Elder Dragons... I am even looking forward to Chromium, the hardest of the Elder Dragons (Chromium is a really hard element in it's pure metallic form), but I'm probably going to build them this year), and I also want to build Atraxa at some point (though I'm hoping for a janky 7 so we'll see), so that'd be 6 (!) more decks for me if all goes as planned.
I love building decks. Not as much ad Cure for the Common Games, but I have over 40 decks and still growing! I go through a group of decks once a month and see if I still enjoy their concepts or not. If I have decks of the same color Identity I face them against each other and see what deck vibes better for said Identity.
I used to have a lot of decks. I mean a LOT of decks. I've pared down my decks a few times now. Every time i do the remaining decks get better. I did find that playing the off usual decks (My more experimental decks) it made it a lot easier to reduce the amount of decks total. I figured out by that play what really worked and how also what cards i wanted to play just because i liked them.
To add onto your last point, I felt that way in 2020. I had 26 decks with no real purpose, especially because lockdown made it to where I couldn't play at all. I'm not saying you need to go this far, but taking the decks fully apart and trying to rebuild them gave me so much more satisfaction than I previously thought. So many cards I thought I couldn't live without in some decks didn't even make the cut when you start from scratch. Some decks didn't even get rebuilt since while I was rebuilding it, I realized neither the original game plan nor the new one I was trying to create would be all that fun for me. I'm not saying go that far neccesarily, but forcing yourself to just change 5-10 cards will make a deck feel dramatically new. Try taking out the auto includes for a strategy and try adding cards that look interesting. All possible thought ideas to make retuning an old deck feel fresh and fun again.
I'm similar with my feather deck and several others, I keep it updated with the newest toys and it's been awhile since I've played it but nothing else scratches that itch, so even though I only play it rarely, when I do I have a blast and to me that makes it worth keeping around!
I went from 1 to 10 in 3 months and now a year later have 17. I liked the idea of having one of every color combination. That plan was super helpful to show me what colors excites me and what ones don’t. 17 decks and 2 have red. 8 have white.
You may be a brewer at heart I find great joy in Brewing new Commander decks it is just as much fun as playing them and when you brew you don't need anybody else around so you can do it whenever. Is funny but while I intend to only have 8 to 10 decks at any given time my goal is to have one commander deck list from every set that I can begin to put together at whim. And this have a variety of decks to play around the edges of the staple Decks that I love. This is just a thought
You were already my favorite mtg creator before this therapy session 😂 now I see it’s because it’s easy to see the life philosophy behind magic that I enjoy through your work. Harsh but needed to hear it. Ironically I decided to play this while tweaking my 36th deck. Life huh.
Hey, as a brewer i have 27 decks right now, and i feel the burnout but no because of brewing but of the ratio that wizards is releasing product not letting us enjoy new cards for more than 2 months, i started my project to own a EDH Deck of each color pie, guild, trioma etc 10 yrs ago, and only if i reaaaally love the deck it would stick, but i already knew that finishing this i was going back to my first method which was Build and dismantle decks for fun having all my remaining cards and sicking with the 32 i really love of each possible outcome. So hang in there m8! yoou're noot alone!
I feel you. I got 50 already. But I'm not stopping there. What limiting me is the budget. All of my decks don't burrow cards from each other. My key rule is to not include dual lands and fetches in my below Top 10 decks. Mostly are casual budget decks. I don't play CEDH so it's just fitting that I can create more decks. Some of my decks are since 2009. 5 COLORS Child of alara(boardwipe tribal) Jodah, archmage eternal(legends) The ur-dragon(5 color dragons) 4 COLORS WUBR - Ravos/Kraum(4color zombies) UBRG - Yidris, maelstrom wanderer(storm) BRGW - Sashkia the unyielding(double attack trigger theme) RGWU - Kynaios and Tiro(group hug) GWUB - Ishai/Ikra Shidiqi(big butt lifegain) Tarkir Clans Abzan - Tymna/Sidar kondo(weenie aggro/unblockable) Sultai - Mimeoplasm(miller/reanimator) Mardu - Queen Marchesa(Mardu control) Temur - Xyris, the whirling storm(tokens/wheels) Jeskai - Ruhan of the fumori(giants tribal) - Zedruu the greathearted(gifts/control) Alara Shards Bant - Rafiq of the many(exalted theme) Esper - Nevinyrral, urborg tyrant(boardwipe/zombies) Grixis - Nekusar, the mindrazer(grixis staxx/pain) - Lord Xander,the collector(sacrifice/clone) Jund - Kresh the bloodbraided(fatties/reanimator) Naya - Rith the awakener(token horde) - Mayael the anima(cheat eldrazis) - Gishath, sun's avatar(dinosaur tribal) - Ghired, conclave exile(populate) - Gahiji, the honored one(force attack/anti combo) - Kitt kanto, mayhem diva(goad theme) Ravnica Guilds Azorius - Urza, prince of kroog(artifact weenies) House Dimir - Oona, queen of the fae(exile theme) Cult of Rakdos - Obosh the preypiercer(odd multiplier) Gruul - Nikya of the old ways(primal surge) - Wort, the raidmother(X damage conspire) Selesnya - Trostani, selesnya's voice(lifegain) Orzhov - Selenia, dark angel(life exchange theme) Izzet - Okaun/Zndrsplt(flip coin madness) Simic - Volo, guide to monsters(Zoo) Boros - Firesong and Sunspeaker(X damage/lifegain) - Haktos, the unscarred(Commander combat) Golgari - Jarad, golgari lich lord(drawback monsters) - Nemata, Primeval Warden(saprolings) Mono Colors Red - Heartless Hidetsugu(half-half life) - Purphoros, bronze blooded(cheat red/artifacts) White - Sram, senior edificer(equip/auras) - Sephara, sky's blade(flying aggro) Black - Balthor the defiled(massive reanimation) - Patron of the Nezumi/Karumonix, the rat king(Rats) Blue - Blind Seer(color identity) Green - Titania, protector of argoth(lands) - Sasaya, orochi ascendant(mana explode) Colorless Karn, Silver Golem(staxx) Svella, ice shaper(Pauper EDH) 6 edh decks on the works with key pcs already. Just need too develop the mana bases.
This is something I’ve been trying to do as well. I’m constantly thinking of fun new decks to build, and I already have a lot of decks that I really love. But, with all the new decks that I’m trying to balance and get reps with, some of my very favorites have been left untouched for months. I’m glad I’m not the only one with all this creative energy that I’m trying to reroute towards some things that I already know I enjoy
I relate. I spend a lot of my time brewing decks. I am trying a new thing. Using folders on Moxfield to keep them organized, new decks are in the ideas folder. If I still am thinking about them after a few weeks they get moved to my in progress folder (anything that hasn't been moved after a couple weeks gets deleted). Once in the in progress folder the goal is deciding if I am willing to give up a deck I have to have this deck. If not it gets deleted. if I am willing to give up a deck for it (maybe I don't play it anymore or whatever) then the old one will be dismantled and the new one will be built and moved to the current decks folder. That's the goal at least. Time will tell if I stick to it or not.
deckbuilding is fun, i have 74 tuned commander decks and have no regrets . If i have no desire to play a deck.... I either give it away or break it down for stock. But i do burn myself out sometimes and have to take a break but i always come back to it.
I'm in the lucky spot that I only have 2 commander decks yet, and one of them I don't enjoy playing anymore anyways. This video gave me the idea to list up all different general archetypes of deck, and only ever built at most 1 deck for each. Having for example 2 reanimator decks seems overkill to me, except if that is by far your most favorite strategy. We will see how it works out ^^
Taking apart my Omnath, Locus of Creation to rebuild into Atraxa Grand Unifier. Feel the same way about that deck. It just sits there while I play all my new brews. So changing it up will reignite that excitement.
I am also an avid brewer/builder. There have been times when I've built decks faster than they get played. My response to that frustration is often to take all of them apart and see which commanders I really have the urge to rebuild.
I have a good friend that I play magic the gathering with regularly. He’s been playing for nearly 2 decades and has over 60 Commander decks built in paper. What he does to make sure he plays them is he has a system of rotating decks. He will bring a group of 5 to 6 decks and he can only play each one of them five times. Then once all the decks have been played five times, he rotates the group out for the next group of decks. It takes him about a year or so to get through all of his decks, but this way he plays all of them at least 5 times throughout the year. And he still builds more decks when something sparks his interest. I’ll do something similar with my own decks. I’ll bring 4-5 of them and then when I play one of them I rotate it out for another deck. That way I will go through all my decks pretty consistently.
Tangentially related, but I got inspired to build a Vohar reanimator deck from that video on underplayed commanders and it was sweet in its debut games! I've been doing Vohar with Gyruda companion and it's been a blast
I've noticed of friends around me go through stages where they were building 1 or 2 decks a week! With this they weren't actually becoming better players or builders. Nothing they built performed well and stayed very long at all. I think theres a good balance to be found of brewing vs upkeeping decks. If you build something new, really delve into it and learn the ins and outs before building the next cool commander you see on edhrec.
There are so many releases my friends and I have just been making lists online and using online sims to just play the decks. Don't have to buy a ton of cards, but you craft ALL THE THINGS.
I am in a very similar boat! I have built 15 decks over the past 9 months and another 16 potential decks on Moxfield, most of which I’m absolutely planning on building as well. It’s definitely made me a better magic player but, I am not sure when I’ll have a feeling of burnout and I would certainly like to avoid it. I’m trying to build decks for other formats here and there to help mix it up!
I absolutely love building new decks. I don’t really get to play a whole lot, so building and tuning decks is my primary way of engaging with the game of Magic. But I wound up with a LOT of decks. So many that I decided I would limit myself to only having one of each particular color or color combination. Which i did accomplish…and then immediately built a second esper deck. Sooo…I’m just gonna keep building decks and not feel guilty about how many I have 😊
That's what works for me. Sit down, look at my collection and the deck I have, and look at the core idea of it. Then I take out everything that's NOT part of that core idea, find new things that are, and give them a try. My favorite deck was a Satsuki saga deck, I mention it a lot in these posts lol... But I noticed that... there's not enough sagas in GW for an entire deck, and a lot are just there because they're sagas. But the good ones, which was still the majority, made tokens or searched up lands. Then I found Rocco, Cabarety Caterer... It can search up Satsuki and add red sagas! And I remembered all the tokens I could already make, and red has haste enablers! So I looked at the cabarety I had; Jennie Fey, Phabine, cards like Gala Greeters & Rumor Collector. Then I started seeing I had a lot of lands in my hand just as a by product, and found landfall cards that make tokens or give big anthems like Maja, Greensleeves, and Retreat to Emeria... and then it all came together when I pulled an Awaken the Woods in a draft, first pick... Long story short, I have no clue what archetype it falls under now, but it's still my favorite deck
Wild new deck ideas always pop into my head so I usually jot them down in my notes and if they are interesting enough ill brew them online and proceed to goldfish them. In years past even if loved how the deck gold fished I wouldn't buy it however 2022 that wasn't always the case as I built 7 total decks in paper up over my average of
I did the same thing. I dismantled 20 decks (following the commander sphere video) and immediately built 4 in January. But 3 of those 4 were long-time brews and the last was an "aha!" moment. There arent any other legends i am hankering after. I think im set for a few months at least.
Right there with you Joey. As soon as I take something apart and have a spare manabase sitting around, I always start looking for something new to use it on. It's a problem? EDIT: Also, I really wanted to try the new white Myoijin w/ Lae'zel and Master Chef, since Lae'zel also doubles the indestructible counters ;)
I have the complete opposite resolution: I wanted to take a page from Dan from CommanderSphere and change my whole EDH Stable of Decks this year. Break apart the old ones and create new ones that excite me and so far I also have fail. I did say goodbye to a couple but at this moment I have a bunch of piles of deck ideas in the desk in front of me and I still have some decks that is difficult to actually part ways with.
I have a similar issue where I have like 14 decks but I only really play three or four of them. So I'm trying to be a lot more careful what I actually put to paper because I want to love any new deck I make as much as I love my favorite deck. To the point where I am seriously considering making a second deck of my favorite commander (Gyrus, Waker of Corpses) because I love him so much that even if the deck has a completely different strategy, I'll enjoy it. Quality over quantity is the new vibe and even though I'll have deck ideas and brew, I need to wait to make sure I feel the spark that lets me know that a deck could be a forever deck.
I came to the same conclusion last year, too many decks where just being used as paper weights. So I ripped apart half of my decks and make binderdecks from it from time to time. I only keep decks in my travel bag that I really enjoy playing. Personalizing (with full art) one of my favorite decks right now to do something else then just brewing 24/7 😅
I have been playing Magic for a grand total of 5 1/2 months. Last week I finished my 22nd and 23rd decks. I open a booster pack and find a legendary creature and go...well that's interesting... and a few days later I start looking at other cards and before I know it I have another deck I've created. Its addicting. I have already retired two older decks to make one..
Pretty interesting, especially because I sit at the exact opposite end of the spectrum: I have four decks. One of the reasons why I don't push myself to build more is because I have a tendency to burn myself out on things I really enjoy. I consciously make the effort not to over-do it and burn out. But the main reason is that I find actually playing my decks and finding tweaks to them a lot more fun than constantly playing new stuff. I play each of my four decks a lot, and I swap cards from each of those decks after every other session. There's always a card or five that seem like they're just "pretty good" and not "really good" and there's always some cards that I've been wondering if they'd fit, and always some cards that I've cut earlier and I felt like deserved a second shot at fame. My four decks are a constant, fluid motion. It's not like I don't brew, I pretty much always have four or five private shells that I've been brewing around with on Moxfield that I consider filling up and building at some point, but in order to actually go through and build a deck an idea or shell really needs to abosuletly sweep me off my feet. I'd claim that one of ten shells I finish makes it to a state where I proxy it to playtest it, and one in ten of those make me actually buy cards to have that deck. I'll probably end up building a fifth deck this year. Maybe I'll disassemble another deck I have to build a new one from its parts. But I don't see myself going out of 2023 with more than five deckboxes of EDH decks. If I really want to play things I don't have I can always ask my playgroup to do a deck-swap-night. And then the weirdest thing happens, during the deck swap nights I'm often pretty jealous of the person that gets to play my deck :D
I checked my TappedOut folder of my online EDH brews. I have more tabs on it than weeks in a year. I’ve been playing EDH seriously since Ravnica Allegiance. Those are two facts.
I recently started classifying my decks by what play experience they create. Currently: Control=Hinata, Grouphug=Council of Four,High varience=Wilowdusk,Reanimator=Araumi.Aggro=Ghired,Voltron=Mazzi,etc. And now if I create a third deck for the same experience I intend to break down another.
Last time you mentioned you wanted to keep 10 decks I considered it a great idea and I wanted to make that happen. I had 26 decks and that point. I have 32 now.
Yeah, I just hit 36...LOL...I've only ever actually dismantled one deck and then I ended up building it again
I'm at 31... just built a colorless deck :(
@@commanderpower99 just hit 26 (i have played for under 2 years)
Im at 17, but Ive built and sold atleast 7 decks lol
Started just buying decks since the start of the pandemic, including precons somewhere in the 30s too. Hard to figure out what to keep.
"I have an addiction, watch me justify it." The video. But I feel it 😆
My Strange Addiction: Brewing EDH Decks
Possessing a couple thousand dollars-worth in MTG cards, sometimes it feels like that.
Lol
I would watch that episode. Or whatever that hoarders show is called? "NO, I CANT GET RID OF THOSE CARDS! THEY COMBO WITH PITILESS PLUNDERER"
Hey Joey, real talk here. It's time that you made peace with the kind of Magic player you are. You're an architect, a deck builder. You get most joy from constructing strategies, tweaking them and then seeing how they play out. That's why your decks are never finished, that's why you do "Upping the Average", you are a natural constructor and MTG is your chosen tool. That's absolutely fine; embrace it. It's a healthy way to play the game; I have LCGs (Marvel, Arkham) that I build and dismantle decks over and over for not because they're bad, but because building the deck and seeing how the elements slot together is the joyous part of the game for me - I'm the same. It's a fine way to be, keep tinkering, keep brewing and keep enjoying who you are.
Joey even if you dont play your decks they have been a beacon to us net deckers. Its your group hug deck that inspired me to make my own k and t and its the most fun deck i have. Decks you dont play isent a paperweight, its an inspiration to your fans. It dosent mean that if your not playing something that its not worth your love. I have a Tarland all counterspell deck and i rarely play, but i brew it with a little help from Dana's Talrand. Love all your decks Joey coz we viewers certainly love them as much.
That comment on MtG burnout wasn’t dour-that was real. I feel it in my bones. I think we all do, to some extent. Thank you for continuing to bring the joy.
Joey describing and thus understanding his dopaminergic relationship with deckbuilding is great to watch.
As soon as you know you get off from the creative brain juices during deckbuilding just keep in mind that the process may also create expectations that are unrealistic:
When you goldfish your deck, you develop a voyeuristic expectation to the synergies you have brewed, but those may never happen in real games with people.
As Joey, I enjoy immensely the creative part. Also, I rather seek to playtest only in real games. I rarely goldfish anymore. Keeps me happier when playing with my friends.
And you're right I think in pointing out that you can always profit from endless brewing if you manage to gain mastery of the rules, synergies and heuristics of an eternal format such as EDH.
To sum, when you are conscious of expectations, brewing constantly is a win win situation and it makes you a better casual player, especially when you can proxy or webbuild all those decks.
No need to waste money when you know what to expect as a result.
Cheers man, this was a goooopd episode.
I honestly love the multiple decks for one commander mentality. For instance, the Warhammer decks. I keep them in their OG state, but i have about 40 cards sleeved up on the side, and if i wanna play demon grixis, i just swap out the demon stuff and switch to bel'akor. I also have a fat pack sized box of cards that i never buy list because "one day ill use them" so this year, I decided i would start putting them in their own decks, and find fun synergies like smoke spirits aid and hellish rebuke
I have three Kykar decks: Anthem enchantress, Soellslinger, and Equipment Voltron...and I'm looking into a Stax version too.
I put all the cards into pink sleeves, with inner sleeves...then I tag the corner of each inner sleeve with those little colored circle stickers (white for anthems, blue or spellslinger, silver for equipment...some cards have 2 - or even all 3 - stickers), so it's easy to swap cards in and out.
Most of the lands stay the same between decks (with a few minor tweaks like the ratio of each basic), and the ramp/draw packages are mostly the same too, but it's amazing how those other 35 or so cards which do change totally change how the entire deck plays out and feels at the table!
I probably start building a deck about once a week, at a minimum. Now, this stays at a purely theory state, but occasionally one will stick around long enough (more than a few hours) where I want to build it in paper. So I totally understand that chaotic want, to put some creative thinking into an EDH deck. But I have had to put some rules into what goes into paper. I noticed a trend that if a deck sits in theory for more than a month or two, and I don’t delete it, it usually means that I can build it. Too often I have made on a whim decks or changed existing decks which means a whole lot of money on a deck that doesn’t have staying power (I.G. I have a zombie deck that has had 5 different identities and color, and still I will probably tear it apart for good). I think honestly the healthiest thing to do with that “chaotic want” is to set some rules. Sleep on an idea for a while. Give it some time to breathe before investing money into the project. IF you set some rules, you can go crazy with building because its a passion and brings you happiness.
If your playgroup allows it you can proxy decks to try them out before spending.
This Lae'zel deck is incredible. Thank you so much for making this and sharing it with us. I lost my home and all of my possessions not long ago. As a result I was in the market for a good Commander deck so I could play with my friends. I needed a synergistic and flexible deck that was still powerful while not breaking the bank. All check marks have been ticked and I just ordered this deck in full! I will be eagerly watching and waiting to see what adjustments that you make going forward. In the meantime I am ready to have some fun with my friends! Thank you so much, I mean that from the bottom of my heart! So excited!
You are one of my favorite magic content creators! Keep up the good and entertaining work.
I hit 21 decks myself. But I try not to spend a ton on magic (hahaha). So half of them ended up with guild gates and a really shoddy mana base.
I had a epiphany. I can use the shell of the deck like the mana base and staples such as sol ring, path to exile, assassin's trophy, boros charm ect and switch out 30-40 cards to make a different deck. It restricts your deck building in a way and you won't spent as much and can really spruce up your mana base.
Examples: I have Jodah the Unifier build as a Legends commander. I have a package to switch it to a legendary dragons deck without having to make 2 5 color mana bases.
I have an omnath, Locus of rage Lands deck and can switch out to a chishiro voltron deck.
I have a Mono White Heliod Lifegain deck that can be switched to Oketra tokens.
I love you, man. You're an awesome human being. This video hit home for me and I've been playing, building, tinkering for 17 years. Beautifully said my good syr.
Welcome to the club, mate. I've been doing it since 2016. Have 48 decks to my name. The way I found to slow down a bit on the brew train was having a 100 cardsleeve on the ready for budget decks. I build a deck, put on the sleeves... take it apart and build a new one and use the one 100 sleeves for budget decks. Now I have 20 budget lists but never more than one active deck at a time.
This video is therapeutic. I have been constantly brewing since 2018 and I am the only one I know like that. I feel like I have major issues and can't stop. Thank you.
I sooo feel you, I love theorycrafting, brewing and building new decks as much as playing them and ended up making 29 EDH paper decks in 10 months last year 🙈. I try to only build 1 each month this year, but I already did the January one in the first week and still have 10+ on the todo list + Phyrexia is coming out this weekend and it strains my patience so much to not go ham again 😂.
Thanks for your thoughts and perspectives, Joey. I appreciate what you bring to the MtG community.
I always had just my 4 favourite decks. And I care about their unique identity and try to set apart as much as possible from each other. At one point I had 5, but 2 of them overlapped quite a bit, so I just kept one of those.
Try to focus and remember of what you love about your deck, and why it is so. Each time you find the temptation to build a new graveyard with a slight different angle to it... How about trying to apply those to the deck you already own? Building just the ultimate graveyard deck that encapsulates everything you love about the graveyard and every possible interaction with it. That way you will be always playing all that you love, the new and the classic, with a lot of variance each match.
Hey Joey, a long time lurker here!
I have this exact same problem and I found a weird but great solution:
"Give away your decks" or "Trade your decks to others"
I LOVE building and theory crafting and playtesting, but I always get to a point where I just have too many, and it stresses me out trying to keep them all up to date and not playing them enough anymore! So I will often give them to friends, family or do giveaways as a way of getting to have all the fun but then pass it along knowing someone else will enjoy it a ton too 🍻
Thank you for making this video and giving an update on the process. A lot of this resonated with my own thoughts, as I always seem to be brewing new creations. I have over 100 decks ready to go at any time. I rarely buy cards for them, but just change and add to them as I open new stuff. I always seem to be making one or more new decks and the process is both incredibly fun, but also exhausting.
You could have a conversation with Dan from the Commander Sphere. I think your train of thought is leading toward some points he made. Keeping the commander and rebuilding the deck is part of his yearly habit. Also, I have the same problem as you, the same joy from brewing! One thing helped me: I started building decks for some friends, and building decks for other formats: Pauper commander, regular Pauper, and pioneer. Pauper Commander is especially fun - so many cards I never looked at! I built at least five decks of any format since Christmas, but only one for Commander, and still got all the excitement!
Boy I’m glad I’m not alone😅If I had an unlimited amount of money, yes I’d be buying all my missing pieces of the 30 decks I’ve brewed over the last three months to now…I’ve just recently started editing my existing decks. I can’t help it I love crafting decks in any tcg I love playing!
You're reframing as giving the energies you experience as a way to introspect as to what you enjoy about the game inspired me this moment. I build a lot of decks because I'm a super budget player (I begin to hmm if a card is over $1 and over $5 is pretty much always out of the question unless gift money or trade) and when I get my hands on nice/expensive piece I want to make a deck that caters to it in some way. And I know I regret trading away pieces and finding I really needed them later. So I try to keep them in decks to avoid doing that.
This episode is helping me realize I need to try to some other ways maybe of trying to balance myself as a collector and myself as a player
I have 21 decks and play every Sunday my LGS' Commander League. I bring 9 decks every week, rolling a die to determine which deck I'll be playing. Sometimes I get 2-3 games in, a blessing to get 5-6. After every Sunday, I look at my 'EDH Deck Schedule' swapping out decks I just played for ones I haven't. The ones that get put into Sunday's case are glanced to see when they were last updated, if it's been a while I get to tinkering. I also limit myself to having ONLY 21 decks... if I want to build something new, something needs to be dismantled.
Loved this video because it encapsulates the joy and grief I have with being an addictive deckbuilder. That's why I put together my spreadsheet ('EDH Deck Schedule') to keep track of each deck's birthdate, record, date last updated and date last played. Recording and maintaining this addiction has kept it from genuinely going off the rails.
Joey, my man - Resolutions are always broken, so I hope you're not taking this too hard. Other people have called your deckbuilding "an addiction" in the comments, but it's not that either. This is your favorite game, you are heavily involved in playing and talking about it, and it's natural to have the deckbuilding energy you cultivated. Making that change is insanely hard to stop. I haven't made content in years, and I still can't stop brewing either. Outside looking in, I think the mistake is making a resolution like this altogether. Instead, keep it simple - let yourself go, find what makes you keep coming back to decks you're always playing. Decks you aren't playing, take em for a goldfish test once in a while and see if there's something you're forgetting. Just because you don't play a deck doesn't mean the deck is not receiving love. This is a fallacy, in my opinion. If it's sleeved, it's cared about.
the segway into old stick fingers was HILARIOUS
Thanks to one of your prior videos, I rediscovered my joy for a Wilhelt deck I had already upgraded! Sometimes it’s good to take stock of what you already have before jumping into a new brew to help scratch that itch 😌
I like the evolution approach. I have found that I take my decks, one in particular, and totally revamp it. There are a few key creatures in it as part of the 99 that I know I want to play. I then play with who is the commander. It is a Simic Deck but the commander started with Thrasios, then Koma, then Momir Vig, and is now Tatyova. In its current state it’s a landfall deck but has gone through significant changes over time.
Got back into MTG about 18 months ago... Currently sitting at 15 EDH decks AFTER breaking down the ones I don't play as often 😅
I think a big part of it is my playgroup, which is super wholesome and made up of some excellent brewers. The landscape is constantly evolving as we bring new lists to the table, sparking meta adjustments and new ways to engage with one another based on the "flavour of the month".
Thankfully its less so about pushing the power level and more about keeping play experience fresh, as we've kinda settled on a "strong but fun & interactive" vibe. Not a single one of my decks do the same thing (I've been dubbed the Wubrg Slut), and I get the opportunity to play all my decks in a 2-week cycle, playing roughly 4 games a night twice a week.
My biggest hurdle is not using enough "generically good" cards across the board, as I don't like having multiple copies of a single card, homogenising the decks (8 of the decks contain white... only one of them has Teferi's Protection), BUT this a very strong incentive to think outside the box when brewing.
We'll see if I've made another 5 before the end of the year 🤣 only have 1 deck that's 2 colours.
Felt this in my soul!
My career has a good Christmas bonus that pays most in December, then small amount late Jan. Every year.
So I start at US Thanksgiving-ish seeing what decks I want to keep into the new year, and play testing online with changes. Then I look at cutting 1 or 2, challenging a build in one or two (similar to style you did at end of video), then theorycrafting and finalizing changes by time second part of my bonus comes around.
At each new set, I take a look at some fun potential new commanders to try out, and maybe board / proxy test with new cards as my soul warrants lol
But the risk of burnout is real. I've been playing MtG since Ice age, and have left several times as a result. But discovered EDH / commander in 2017, and this is longest I've been back in the game in a long time. :)
I definitely know the problem Joey, I have over 50 decks and everything you described it REALLY hard at home. stay strong brother. Enjoy what you love.
Vohar is so perfect for a reanimate strategy. That’s awesome!
This is such a mood. But also your solution is ingenious. I have an equipment deck that used to be in the paperweight stage but recently rebuilt it from scratch, and now it’s one of the most fun to play. Plus I still have the old lists I can reference if I get regrets (spoiler alert: I have no regrets)
I have recently drastically reduced the amount that I pay and am trying to find the balance of deconstructing tuning and reshaping decks that I love and finding peace with letting some decks go. The process is time consuming but as you put very well it has redirected my constant want to build new decks in spite of how that causing me to neglect others decks. I think I am currently at 9 decks and should probably go down based on the small amount I am currently playing but when decks are new or made from budget cards they are hard to take apart. This video really spoke to me. Thank you for sharing your experience!
I understand how you feel. It's easy to get obsessed with making decks and trying to 'perfect' them and not enjoying the game. I like your idea of remaking the decks you already have. Thanks Joey 🙂
Something fun to try is brewing with only one rare, whether it’s your commander or a card in the 99 it really condenses a strategy and shows what parts are absolutely essential and feel the worst to lose. It also sometimes changes the strategy of a commander altogether and avoids staples
Brewing Artisan commander (only cards printed at common/uncommon) is almost the same thing and really fun to brew! I hadn’t been so excited for a new deck in a while as my Artisan Kardur list I built last summer.
I just deconstructed three of my decks recently. Two I had really grown bored with, one that is really fun but I just rarely played anymore. It was a hard choice, but afterwards I felt relieved that I did it. I already have two new decks in the works and the cards that were no longer serving me are now going to serve me again one last time to help me finish these new projects. Things have to end so new things can begin.
I started playing Magic in May of last year and I already have 6 decks.
6 EDH in less than the first year… yeah, I feel what you’re saying heavy.
I especially fear burnout, but I also feel like I’m learning SO much from deck building. Not to mention I am beginning my collection of cards, so I don’t have a ton of the crazy staples, but by building decks I am slowly growing my staple collection as they get reprinted. Learning what to collect and HOW to collect is important. I used to grab a bunch of packs just to crack, but now I’m going to draft nights more and have more fun throughout my collection process.
I totally feel your pain as I had the same new year's resolution. What I've ended up doing is consolidating a lot of half baked ideas I brewed over the past couple of years into more interesting, more cohesive, more powerful decks. Like I'm taking the enchantress base from my Go-Shintai deck and comining it my terrible Ghen Arcanum Weaver Saga Tribal into an actually functional Saga Tribal deck. Or my Elsha of the Infinite vehicle tribal and 2-3 half baked spellslinger decks into Kykar storm, and so on. I get to still flex my creative muscle but cut down on total number of decks and catch up to my group who've all been honing at best 3-4 decks each.
Your video came at a perfect time for me. I am going through a similar thing with my decks. Thank you for sharing!!
I got really into permutations on spellslinger decks in 2020 and listening to this reminded me of that.
I built Feather, Kalamax, and Niv-Mizzet in the span of a few weeks.
More recently I've been really burnt out and was re-inspired by upgrading the Urza and Mishra precons
We are all on the same boat. I'll just tab out right now and look for some new brews. 😊
Theory crafting decks that I'll never build is one of my favorite hobbies. In a similar boat of refocusing that energy to what I have and pumping brakes on new legendaries, due to time, budget, and wanting decks to be more personal. On a whim my friend told me to take a crack at Ognis, turned out to be one of my favorite decks. Great video, Joey. Everyone should theory craft Volo, Guide to Monsters. Just as a fun exercise.
I'm currently sitting on 25 decks, and I'm building more. I still manage to play all of them fairly regularly. I make this work in 2 ways:
1: I switch what deck I'm playing every game.
2: I always start with decks I've recently changed. Even if I only changed one card.
This helps me keep the love that got me to build the decks in the first place.
I think what you're doing is fine and okay Joey, mate. You're a commander lover, your job is centered around it too, it would be almost impossible for you to avoid brewing/crafting especially with all the new fun stuff that gets released every couple of months. For me, I try to limit myself to precons when I make a new deck, and only 1 per precon set. I often fail (eg. from ONE I'm getting both precons...) But yeah, as a fellow Graveyard lover, you'll only ever fit a certain amount of cards into one deck, leaving other cool cards without a home. When a slightly different Graveyard deck comes along, it's only normal to want to build that too, and again, nothing wrong with that :)
Hi Joey! I had a similar resolution as yours. Last year alone I built 30 decks on paper, 12 of which only saw a game or two before taking them apart . I love the process of deck building but opportunity cost is real, both in gameplay and money. Moving forward I will focus on the decks I already own and also attempt to keep must of my deck building ideas to deck building websites like Moxfield.
As a chronically addicted deckbuilder for other card games, I find personally that the reason I can't stop building decks is pretty simple. I enjoy the process of it; it's this beautiful combination of creativity and problem solving that can then be shared with friends. At least for me, there isn't really a moment where I'll be "satisfied" with a brew since finishing the deck was never the truly the point.
For anyone that resonates with this, I highly recommend getting into cube building for any card game you and your friends play. It is the ultimate deckbuilding challenge, instead of building a deck of 60 cards from whatever viable cards fit your deck, you create a stack of hundreds of cards with every card released being a potential option, basically creating your own closed format, potentially with it's own custom rules, and catering the experience to fit what each of your friends enjoy.
I have an affinity for tribal decks, so I have a number of them. They don't require a lot of maintenance and I can play them depending on mood. I love brewing because it's an intellectual challenge plus you're sorting through your collection as you go, thereby spending more time with it beyond playing the game. And that means occasionally you find a card that would be useful but isn't getting heat because it's not part of the newest set--in other words, serendipitous discovery! That said, taking apart an older deck and finding new uses for those same cards, or strengthening a manabase in another deck so it performs better, is also fun.
I loved the thought experiment about moving cards to the maybe board and refcrafting with 10 cards in. I was theorycrafting a baba Lysaga deck (inspired by you ofc) and with so many fun options what I did was go through the main board and mark cards I really wanted in because they were fun/exciting for me and then make cuts/adds around those cards.
I started the year with 15 decks. Then it became too difficult to manage/handle, so I cut down on two decks that I didn’t care so much, that never played the way I wanted. I literally sold the cards, bought myself a Phyrexia bundle and perfected the other decks to reach that “crystalized” point you mention there. It felt like a great appreciation of them.
I relate to the topic and I don't even play out regularly. Brewing and discovering esoteric interactions is my favorite part of the game. I goldfish a lot and my son and I play a lot. I track cards to swap in for 2 or 4 player so the builds are flexible. Once we commit to a deck, it gets it's own Satin Tower, color matched dice & counters and I stock them with all the tokens they need. Like yourself, I upkeep builds as new sets evolve the metas. I started decorating the deck boxes for the ones I knew I'd keep as a way to 'lock it in'. I don't think there is any wrong with going for it. If you are responsible with your cash and time and can balance while engaging this hobby, ride the wave while it lasts. FWIW, I think MTG has simply matured to the point where there are so many pathways to explore that trying them inevitably leads to truly understanding what the designers were excited about in making it in the first place, which becomes addictive. Or better yet, in finding new synergies with old favorite cards that suddenly have new life. I don't doubt at some point a new hobby will take me away from MTG again, but I'll also probably be back and I see the cards as a playable investment in the meantime. Someday, my kids will be able to sell it all and make a nice return.
One of the things that I find fun is to build my decks as if each one cannot ever have the same cards in them except basic lands. When you do this you are forced to try out a ton of different cards and those 101-110th cards actually get played. When you can’t play shocks and fetches in both your 5 color decks then you dust off those gates. Oh natures lore and 3 visits are in one deck …then you have to use your emerald medallion and green signets and talismans. I started doing this both to save money and get more out the cards I do own and it’s really kept things fresh for me.
I recently found a whole another rabbit hole for deckbuilding: Pauper EDH. Uncommon commander and all commons in the 99 is a fun exercise, and you get to use all the random commons you have lying around.
You inspired me to turn my Muldrotha deck into a Baba Lysaga, and I'm losing every second of it.
Way less oppressive and more fun for everyone around the table.
Thank you
You are perfect as you are.
I myself am trying to build a Jumpstart commander background cube for my playgroup (and my girlfriend, who does not brew decks at all).
If I ever succeed in this massive undertaking, I will message you.
Thanks for all the great content
Man, this is entirely my thinking right now. I love brewing and building and tinkering with decks and as a result I have more than 70 EDH decks, lots of which I’ve never played or have only played once then moved on.
I’ve constantly got new deck ideas popping into my head and I don’t need any new decks. What I need right now is to cut some decks that don’t spark joy and focus my energies on decks that I’m likely to go back to again and again.
One of the things you mentioned at the end I'm going to do. I really like the first deck I built, but I was new and it took a while to figure out. So I'm going to dismantle it and start over; see how modern day me brews it.
I feel exactly the same man, I'm currently in college with a very limited budget and every other day I see a new commander and be like I should build that deck, making the decklist seeing the price point and repeating the process over and over again
I am up to 243 paper edh decks, and i just keep building. I don't get to play that often, but the building and updating is relaxing after a long night at work. I refuse to take apart decks, because of all the time and thought that went into them. There has been so many interesting cards to build around printed in the last few years, I still have ideas to keep adding to the collection.
What I have done when I get to the point you're at:
Slim your deck down to an oathkeeper deck size (60 singleton cards).
When you do that, you make extremely hard choices and you find out that the things you keep are really the core of the deck and help you establish what the deck is/what it should be.
Mimeoplasm is my favorite commander. The cheeky shenanigans you can pull off with the slimey Boi is funny as hell
Been on a deck upgrading spree lately, and I am feeling the burn out (of my wallet, mostly). I like how you suggested to channel that creative energy into thought deck building. Still creative but cheaper and better for players on a budget.
I feel like the past year of Magic has forced many of us (for one reason or another) to address the concern of burnout in the hobby.
I have a couple decks I consider to be living, growing things. The others I view as complete but subject to (infrequent) revision. Like once a year I'll re-release the digitally remastered HD directors cut of it featuring new cards from the past half dozen or so sets. It gives me a feeling of closure having several 'completed' decks and the joy of an annual overhaul.
As always, thanks for putting your own experience out there, I feel like a lot of us either identify with it or have fun contrasting it with our own idiosyncrasies.
I've definitely been committed recently to fine tuning a lot of decks with cards that I feel deserve more of a spotlight.. or show something done in a way that may isn't used very frequently 😅 it's really pushing my mind to build synergies a lot better and tighter and refine what I want my strategies to look like going forward
I had much the same feelings at the end of 2022 - like decks were starting to step on each other's toes, enjoyment was decreasing because of it, too much brain space on MTG... I'm trying to cap at 15 decks - and so far this year, I've taken 3 decks apart & replaced them with much looser builds; decks I can sit down with a casual/new player pod & play. It's helped a lot to relax my brain-fatigue in deckbuilding & I've found, works a little like cube. Not every piece is a well-polished perfect fit, so weird unexpected synergies & non-bos spring up, which is kinda fun after a year of serious tuning & streamlining to a fault.
I'm just throwing a bucket of diesel on a raging inferno with this, but I would argue not all decks necessarily need to be played to justify existing, I think some decks probably qualify as a creative work of art. Art doesn't need to 'do' something to be valid, this is especially true of really heavy Vorthos decks, where you might struggle to find good matches, but that still spark joy in your heart to playtest or even just look through. Such a deck might be played very rarely (and might even have very little actual satisfaction from play, especially if the deck is truly abysmal), even never, and still have a justification.
I do feel for you though, I have too many decks atm, with some that I just don't bother playing with, but I rarely take them apart. Some of them are a blast to go back and play (Pox never truly gets old for me), but I might cannibalize a few for cards, in part because I want to build at least 5 trade binder decks (with hopefully very few upgrades, other than to equalize power, thinking of building the OG Elder Dragons... I am even looking forward to Chromium, the hardest of the Elder Dragons (Chromium is a really hard element in it's pure metallic form), but I'm probably going to build them this year), and I also want to build Atraxa at some point (though I'm hoping for a janky 7 so we'll see), so that'd be 6 (!) more decks for me if all goes as planned.
I love building decks. Not as much ad Cure for the Common Games, but I have over 40 decks and still growing! I go through a group of decks once a month and see if I still enjoy their concepts or not. If I have decks of the same color Identity I face them against each other and see what deck vibes better for said Identity.
I used to have a lot of decks. I mean a LOT of decks.
I've pared down my decks a few times now.
Every time i do the remaining decks get better.
I did find that playing the off usual decks (My more experimental decks) it made it a lot easier to reduce the amount of decks total.
I figured out by that play what really worked and how also what cards i wanted to play just because i liked them.
To add onto your last point, I felt that way in 2020. I had 26 decks with no real purpose, especially because lockdown made it to where I couldn't play at all.
I'm not saying you need to go this far, but taking the decks fully apart and trying to rebuild them gave me so much more satisfaction than I previously thought. So many cards I thought I couldn't live without in some decks didn't even make the cut when you start from scratch. Some decks didn't even get rebuilt since while I was rebuilding it, I realized neither the original game plan nor the new one I was trying to create would be all that fun for me.
I'm not saying go that far neccesarily, but forcing yourself to just change 5-10 cards will make a deck feel dramatically new. Try taking out the auto includes for a strategy and try adding cards that look interesting. All possible thought ideas to make retuning an old deck feel fresh and fun again.
I'm similar with my feather deck and several others, I keep it updated with the newest toys and it's been awhile since I've played it but nothing else scratches that itch, so even though I only play it rarely, when I do I have a blast and to me that makes it worth keeping around!
I went from 1 to 10 in 3 months and now a year later have 17. I liked the idea of having one of every color combination. That plan was super helpful to show me what colors excites me and what ones don’t. 17 decks and 2 have red. 8 have white.
You may be a brewer at heart I find great joy in Brewing new Commander decks it is just as much fun as playing them and when you brew you don't need anybody else around so you can do it whenever. Is funny but while I intend to only have 8 to 10 decks at any given time my goal is to have one commander deck list from every set that I can begin to put together at whim. And this have a variety of decks to play around the edges of the staple Decks that I love. This is just a thought
You were already my favorite mtg creator before this therapy session 😂 now I see it’s because it’s easy to see the life philosophy behind magic that I enjoy through your work.
Harsh but needed to hear it. Ironically I decided to play this while tweaking my 36th deck. Life huh.
Hey, as a brewer i have 27 decks right now, and i feel the burnout but no because of brewing but of the ratio that wizards is releasing product not letting us enjoy new cards for more than 2 months, i started my project to own a EDH Deck of each color pie, guild, trioma etc 10 yrs ago, and only if i reaaaally love the deck it would stick, but i already knew that finishing this i was going back to my first method which was Build and dismantle decks for fun having all my remaining cards and sicking with the 32 i really love of each possible outcome. So hang in there m8! yoou're noot alone!
I feel you. I got 50 already. But I'm not stopping there. What limiting me is the budget. All of my decks don't burrow cards from each other. My key rule is to not include dual lands and fetches in my below Top 10 decks. Mostly are casual budget decks. I don't play CEDH so it's just fitting that I can create more decks. Some of my decks are since 2009.
5 COLORS
Child of alara(boardwipe tribal)
Jodah, archmage eternal(legends)
The ur-dragon(5 color dragons)
4 COLORS
WUBR - Ravos/Kraum(4color zombies)
UBRG - Yidris, maelstrom wanderer(storm)
BRGW - Sashkia the unyielding(double attack trigger theme)
RGWU - Kynaios and Tiro(group hug)
GWUB - Ishai/Ikra Shidiqi(big butt lifegain)
Tarkir Clans
Abzan - Tymna/Sidar kondo(weenie aggro/unblockable)
Sultai - Mimeoplasm(miller/reanimator)
Mardu - Queen Marchesa(Mardu control)
Temur - Xyris, the whirling storm(tokens/wheels)
Jeskai - Ruhan of the fumori(giants tribal)
- Zedruu the greathearted(gifts/control)
Alara Shards
Bant - Rafiq of the many(exalted theme)
Esper - Nevinyrral, urborg tyrant(boardwipe/zombies)
Grixis - Nekusar, the mindrazer(grixis staxx/pain)
- Lord Xander,the collector(sacrifice/clone)
Jund - Kresh the bloodbraided(fatties/reanimator)
Naya - Rith the awakener(token horde)
- Mayael the anima(cheat eldrazis)
- Gishath, sun's avatar(dinosaur tribal)
- Ghired, conclave exile(populate)
- Gahiji, the honored one(force attack/anti combo)
- Kitt kanto, mayhem diva(goad theme)
Ravnica Guilds
Azorius - Urza, prince of kroog(artifact weenies)
House Dimir - Oona, queen of the fae(exile theme)
Cult of Rakdos - Obosh the preypiercer(odd multiplier)
Gruul - Nikya of the old ways(primal surge)
- Wort, the raidmother(X damage conspire)
Selesnya - Trostani, selesnya's voice(lifegain)
Orzhov - Selenia, dark angel(life exchange theme)
Izzet - Okaun/Zndrsplt(flip coin madness)
Simic - Volo, guide to monsters(Zoo)
Boros - Firesong and Sunspeaker(X damage/lifegain)
- Haktos, the unscarred(Commander combat)
Golgari - Jarad, golgari lich lord(drawback monsters)
- Nemata, Primeval Warden(saprolings)
Mono Colors
Red - Heartless Hidetsugu(half-half life)
- Purphoros, bronze blooded(cheat red/artifacts)
White - Sram, senior edificer(equip/auras)
- Sephara, sky's blade(flying aggro)
Black - Balthor the defiled(massive reanimation)
- Patron of the Nezumi/Karumonix, the rat king(Rats)
Blue - Blind Seer(color identity)
Green - Titania, protector of argoth(lands)
- Sasaya, orochi ascendant(mana explode)
Colorless
Karn, Silver Golem(staxx)
Svella, ice shaper(Pauper EDH)
6 edh decks on the works with key pcs already. Just need too develop the mana bases.
This is something I’ve been trying to do as well. I’m constantly thinking of fun new decks to build, and I already have a lot of decks that I really love. But, with all the new decks that I’m trying to balance and get reps with, some of my very favorites have been left untouched for months. I’m glad I’m not the only one with all this creative energy that I’m trying to reroute towards some things that I already know I enjoy
I relate. I spend a lot of my time brewing decks. I am trying a new thing. Using folders on Moxfield to keep them organized, new decks are in the ideas folder. If I still am thinking about them after a few weeks they get moved to my in progress folder (anything that hasn't been moved after a couple weeks gets deleted). Once in the in progress folder the goal is deciding if I am willing to give up a deck I have to have this deck. If not it gets deleted. if I am willing to give up a deck for it (maybe I don't play it anymore or whatever) then the old one will be dismantled and the new one will be built and moved to the current decks folder. That's the goal at least. Time will tell if I stick to it or not.
deckbuilding is fun, i have 74 tuned commander decks and have no regrets . If i have no desire to play a deck.... I either give it away or break it down for stock. But i do burn myself out sometimes and have to take a break but i always come back to it.
I'm in the lucky spot that I only have 2 commander decks yet, and one of them I don't enjoy playing anymore anyways. This video gave me the idea to list up all different general archetypes of deck, and only ever built at most 1 deck for each. Having for example 2 reanimator decks seems overkill to me, except if that is by far your most favorite strategy. We will see how it works out ^^
Taking apart my Omnath, Locus of Creation to rebuild into Atraxa Grand Unifier.
Feel the same way about that deck. It just sits there while I play all my new brews. So changing it up will reignite that excitement.
I am also an avid brewer/builder. There have been times when I've built decks faster than they get played. My response to that frustration is often to take all of them apart and see which commanders I really have the urge to rebuild.
I have a good friend that I play magic the gathering with regularly. He’s been playing for nearly 2 decades and has over 60 Commander decks built in paper. What he does to make sure he plays them is he has a system of rotating decks. He will bring a group of 5 to 6 decks and he can only play each one of them five times. Then once all the decks have been played five times, he rotates the group out for the next group of decks.
It takes him about a year or so to get through all of his decks, but this way he plays all of them at least 5 times throughout the year. And he still builds more decks when something sparks his interest.
I’ll do something similar with my own decks. I’ll bring 4-5 of them and then when I play one of them I rotate it out for another deck. That way I will go through all my decks pretty consistently.
Tangentially related, but I got inspired to build a Vohar reanimator deck from that video on underplayed commanders and it was sweet in its debut games! I've been doing Vohar with Gyruda companion and it's been a blast
I've noticed of friends around me go through stages where they were building 1 or 2 decks a week! With this they weren't actually becoming better players or builders. Nothing they built performed well and stayed very long at all. I think theres a good balance to be found of brewing vs upkeeping decks. If you build something new, really delve into it and learn the ins and outs before building the next cool commander you see on edhrec.
There are so many releases my friends and I have just been making lists online and using online sims to just play the decks. Don't have to buy a ton of cards, but you craft ALL THE THINGS.
I am in a very similar boat! I have built 15 decks over the past 9 months and another 16 potential decks on Moxfield, most of which I’m absolutely planning on building as well. It’s definitely made me a better magic player but, I am not sure when I’ll have a feeling of burnout and I would certainly like to avoid it. I’m trying to build decks for other formats here and there to help mix it up!
I absolutely love building new decks. I don’t really get to play a whole lot, so building and tuning decks is my primary way of engaging with the game of Magic. But I wound up with a LOT of decks. So many that I decided I would limit myself to only having one of each particular color or color combination. Which i did accomplish…and then immediately built a second esper deck. Sooo…I’m just gonna keep building decks and not feel guilty about how many I have 😊
That's what works for me. Sit down, look at my collection and the deck I have, and look at the core idea of it. Then I take out everything that's NOT part of that core idea, find new things that are, and give them a try. My favorite deck was a Satsuki saga deck, I mention it a lot in these posts lol... But I noticed that... there's not enough sagas in GW for an entire deck, and a lot are just there because they're sagas. But the good ones, which was still the majority, made tokens or searched up lands. Then I found Rocco, Cabarety Caterer... It can search up Satsuki and add red sagas! And I remembered all the tokens I could already make, and red has haste enablers! So I looked at the cabarety I had; Jennie Fey, Phabine, cards like Gala Greeters & Rumor Collector. Then I started seeing I had a lot of lands in my hand just as a by product, and found landfall cards that make tokens or give big anthems like Maja, Greensleeves, and Retreat to Emeria... and then it all came together when I pulled an Awaken the Woods in a draft, first pick...
Long story short, I have no clue what archetype it falls under now, but it's still my favorite deck
Wild new deck ideas always pop into my head so I usually jot them down in my notes and if they are interesting enough ill brew them online and proceed to goldfish them. In years past even if loved how the deck gold fished I wouldn't buy it however 2022 that wasn't always the case as I built 7 total decks in paper up over my average of
I did the same thing. I dismantled 20 decks (following the commander sphere video) and immediately built 4 in January. But 3 of those 4 were long-time brews and the last was an "aha!" moment. There arent any other legends i am hankering after. I think im set for a few months at least.
Right there with you Joey. As soon as I take something apart and have a spare manabase sitting around, I always start looking for something new to use it on. It's a problem?
EDIT: Also, I really wanted to try the new white Myoijin w/ Lae'zel and Master Chef, since Lae'zel also doubles the indestructible counters ;)
I have the complete opposite resolution: I wanted to take a page from Dan from CommanderSphere and change my whole EDH Stable of Decks this year. Break apart the old ones and create new ones that excite me and so far I also have fail. I did say goodbye to a couple but at this moment I have a bunch of piles of deck ideas in the desk in front of me and I still have some decks that is difficult to actually part ways with.
I feel you, I started building Queen Kayla, Look away for one second and I had 5 different builds sleeved up in front of me, a horrible curse
I am literally in the same boat, this year alone I have brewed 10 different decks and ordered three of them, I’m scared to burn out!!!😮
I have a similar issue where I have like 14 decks but I only really play three or four of them. So I'm trying to be a lot more careful what I actually put to paper because I want to love any new deck I make as much as I love my favorite deck. To the point where I am seriously considering making a second deck of my favorite commander (Gyrus, Waker of Corpses) because I love him so much that even if the deck has a completely different strategy, I'll enjoy it. Quality over quantity is the new vibe and even though I'll have deck ideas and brew, I need to wait to make sure I feel the spark that lets me know that a deck could be a forever deck.
I came to the same conclusion last year, too many decks where just being used as paper weights. So I ripped apart half of my decks and make binderdecks from it from time to time. I only keep decks in my travel bag that I really enjoy playing. Personalizing (with full art) one of my favorite decks right now to do something else then just brewing 24/7 😅
I have been playing Magic for a grand total of 5 1/2 months. Last week I finished my 22nd and 23rd decks. I open a booster pack and find a legendary creature and go...well that's interesting... and a few days later I start looking at other cards and before I know it I have another deck I've created. Its addicting. I have already retired two older decks to make one..
Pretty interesting, especially because I sit at the exact opposite end of the spectrum: I have four decks.
One of the reasons why I don't push myself to build more is because I have a tendency to burn myself out on things I really enjoy. I consciously make the effort not to over-do it and burn out. But the main reason is that I find actually playing my decks and finding tweaks to them a lot more fun than constantly playing new stuff.
I play each of my four decks a lot, and I swap cards from each of those decks after every other session. There's always a card or five that seem like they're just "pretty good" and not "really good" and there's always some cards that I've been wondering if they'd fit, and always some cards that I've cut earlier and I felt like deserved a second shot at fame. My four decks are a constant, fluid motion.
It's not like I don't brew, I pretty much always have four or five private shells that I've been brewing around with on Moxfield that I consider filling up and building at some point, but in order to actually go through and build a deck an idea or shell really needs to abosuletly sweep me off my feet. I'd claim that one of ten shells I finish makes it to a state where I proxy it to playtest it, and one in ten of those make me actually buy cards to have that deck.
I'll probably end up building a fifth deck this year. Maybe I'll disassemble another deck I have to build a new one from its parts. But I don't see myself going out of 2023 with more than five deckboxes of EDH decks. If I really want to play things I don't have I can always ask my playgroup to do a deck-swap-night. And then the weirdest thing happens, during the deck swap nights I'm often pretty jealous of the person that gets to play my deck :D
This is a great video and I feel 100 % the same way as you. I like your nevanced approch, thank you for sharing this ♥
I checked my TappedOut folder of my online EDH brews. I have more tabs on it than weeks in a year. I’ve been playing EDH seriously since Ravnica Allegiance. Those are two facts.
I recently started classifying my decks by what play experience they create. Currently: Control=Hinata, Grouphug=Council of Four,High varience=Wilowdusk,Reanimator=Araumi.Aggro=Ghired,Voltron=Mazzi,etc. And now if I create a third deck for the same experience I intend to break down another.