Choosing the Right Commander | EDHRECast 199
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- Опубликовано: 3 фев 2022
- With so many commander possibilities out there, it can be tough to figure out which one feels right for your personal brew. This week's episode is all about the various journeys we take to find a commander we love.
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Игры
The landfall comparison deck is spot-on: Matt wants to smashy smashy with Jelly Belly; Joey wants to prove that every strategy can interact with the graveyard; Dana plays an underrated but not strictly worse commander.
Joey you weren't chosen by a deck, you were chosen by the graveyard.
Next episode is #200!!!!! Congratulations y'all!
35:00 Another excellent place for Moon-Blessed Cleric is Aminatou, The Fateshifter. Use the +1 to draw the tutored card right away, or -1 to blink the Cleric and dig up another enchantment.
The way my face lit up when Joey brought up Sharktocrab, I hadn't even thought of that synergy before now but that's so good! I love this big dumb crime against nature, and the fact that it's potentially really good in Kenrith is even better!!
I used to have an Angry Omnath deck and my favorite part was making the tokens and having them deal dmg to stuff with effects like Warstorm Surge. I recently shifted it over to Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients and he works even better than I imagined! I can ping him to create creatures that ping other things and its just loads of fun.
Edit: Now that I think about it, Cream of the Crop would be a pretty sweet card in the deck!
I am SO HAPPY that y’all talked about Cream of the Crop! It’s been a very spicy tech in my Atla Palani, Nest Tender dragon tribal deck. It’s been great for setting up the top of my library for those egg death triggers.
Joey’s lesson at the end of the episode: “it’s not about choosing the commander, it’s about the games we played along the way”. 😂
I just want to mention… having a deck that has multiple playable generals and randomly choosing which one to play per game (or allowed the table to choose) is
Oh
So
Fun
There's a super nice mexican dude at my LGS who has basically every legendary 5-color creature for his lands deck. It's so sick, some of them he just never plays, but if he wants to play higher power he will usually play kenrith or cascade-jodah or smth. The funniest thing ever was when we played an American dude playing Arcades, constantly joking that we were gonna pay for his walls. José just casually crop rotationed for a tabernacle and made the American pay for his own walls. I was dying laughing for 3 days
I’m so glad this topic has come up! I’ve just finished putting together and playtesting a deck that I’ve intentionally optimised to work with THREE different commander choices (Shadrix Silverquill, Thalisse and the partner pairing of Tevesh / Tymna - of which I’ve already started producing a build that will favour the new Yoshimaru over Tymna) to play Orzhov tokens, but they each interact with the cards of the deck effectively in different ways that I personally find interesting.
I’m fully satisfied with what I’ve achieved through my brewing and playtesting and it’s definitely an exercise in deckbuilfing I’d recommend to anyone who has a general theme they want to pursue but are unsure of the avenue they’d like to commit to.
Oooh I have a similar brew going on
Great exmple! I have Silverquill, only done a few changes from the pre-con, but I do like that it's a deck where the commander can be switched out.
I'm trying to do the same thing with Boros Equipment too. Not sure that it'll be super optimized for any one Commander, but being able to switch between one or two options depending on what mood I'm in is a different benefit.
One thing that I found is super impotant to me is choosing a commander that communicates well enough what my deck wants to do. I recently built new Anje because I wanted a Vampire tribal commander that also played with blood tokens, knowing that new Olivia or Strefan might be better choices for the tribe.
Also, 200th episode hyyyype!
A point I would add to the conversation here is what are the commanders that your playgroup is playing? Because that may explicitly or not influence what commanders you look at building. In my playgroup we have a lot of tribal commanders floating around, a lot of naya and esper commanders and so those are swaths of potential commanders I choose not to look into.
And I have seen this conversation a tad in discord and twitch where people don't build xyz commander because someone else is already doing that, so trying to find your commander space per se is something to keep in mind when trying to find the right commander.
Also what's the problem card type in your playgroup. My LGS runs little enchantment removal, so a lot of players started running enchantments including smothering tithe. Now my green decks run tranquility in response to that.
I absolutely loved how in depth this got with landfall decks! However, I did just order some cards for my Windgrace deck on Wednesday so I might be a little biased
I built gruul landfall as my first commander deck. It is still around to today. I stayed away from Omnath because if it dies once it costs 9 to bring out, and instead built Mina and Denn because having the engine in the command zone is so nice.
This episode really resonated with me. Recently, I decided to build an artifact deck that would beat face and ended up building Silas Renn+Rebbec since Rebbec gives artifact creatures evasion. Then I piloted it against a pod of 3 different artifact decks (Glissa Control, Akiri Equipment, and Reaper King Combo) and had a blast!
39:30 I made my first deck (sidisi brood tyrant) into landfall graveyard stuff. I am so with Joey on so many things. I got bored quickly of the other avenues I took with the deck (zombie tribal, mill, etc). I always found the thing I wanted to do most is sac all my stuff and then sac my world shaper, or play fetches several times with a crucible-effect. Now it allows me to play cards I absolutely love like zuran orb, squandered resources, tatyova, ancient greenwarden, etc.
Thanks for this video guys. Really helpful for new players like myself. I find I often just look at the top commanders for the cards I have and not which ones would be the most fun to play. This is the best commander focused series on YT. Keep up the great work!
I have to agree about Ranar. I’d converted my Roon deck to a Chulane deck because it was a “strict upgrade” and hated both the rote gameplay and perceived threat level of the commander. Ranar excited me because, yes, he isn’t seen as a huge threat, but also he’s more of an total exile tribal commander than just blink tribal. I can lean heavily on foretell (a mechanic I love) and play other exile-related cards I love while building a board of tokens.
In regards to Brago and Millicent, Ranar feels like the center of their Venn diagram while also playing completely differently (as mentioned); while neither of those commanders speak to me, Ranar hits that sweet spot by combining their two themes and giving me a great way to build either as my main and the other as my secondary theme.
I totally resonate with Dana's point about picking Kresh over Korvold. I have a stompy green deck that's just for fun, and I prefer Goreclaw at the helm to Selvala, since Selvala brings with her an expectation of high power level.
Darn it, Dana... You got me good with that "remains to be seen" joke, perfect follow-up from Matt's joke. 🤣🤣 I'm turning into a full blown dad, just need the spouse and kids to complete the transformation 😂
I'm similar to you Joey, the commander is usually the big sparkly thing that draws my attention and makes me want to build a deck around it. My favorite decks are
Rivaz Obosh odd dragons
Lazav Gyruda even clones
Karador without Planeswalkers
Jeleva creatureless Storm
Scion of the 10 Guild Elder Dragons
And my favorite, Morophon Kaheera which has a cool story.
Back in Ixalan I built Gishath dinosaurs but felt I was missing out on Tetzimoc and Nezahal. And then in Ikoria we got the Apex legends and Keruga, but I also really wanted to play 4 Omnaths and the Lorwyn incarnation cycle so in this scenario Morophon clearly chose me. It's become my favorite deck, fully foil with space shocks, Godzilla basics, 5 Ultimatums and a bunch of pet cards 😂
Great episode as always guys!! I cant play w my group more than once or twice a year so listening to you guys keeps me company and sharpening my decks for that day or 2 I can actually sit and play w my guys. We're all 20 years into magic w jobs and kids so it's tough. Thanks guys!
Ooooh I'll check out those Commander showdown articles. Great idea.
6:36 😅😅😅
guys, both of the intro dad jokes were really good! every time I think I'm going to be able to figure out the punchline before you say it, but I'm just not smart enough. lol
Love how much Joey was feeling himself after that bloody joke. Good stuff.
This was really interesting. I've actually found since I started playing Commender that I take pre-cons in very different directions to the main commander, or I build a deck with a particular strategy but then realise I don't necessarily enjoy the play style, Feather: The Redeemed being an example there.
The equipment example was great as I'm currently exploring the kind of equipment deck I want to build, I tried
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith, but after picking up the Wylth, Soul Of Steel precon found I enjoy Boros equipment most, but I'm not sure on the Commander yet, I have the tools to build any of them so will see how it goes.
I remember that I wanted a Goblin Tribal deck, and I didn't want anything that was built too much, like Krenko or Muxus, and then Shattergang, BR Wort, Mizzix and Slobad attracted me, a Jund Politics Goblin Tribal? Yeah, that seems good, I liked the idea. Aristogoblins? Must be good, but again aristocrats is one of the most built strategies on the game, so I didn't want it too much. Mizzix falls on the same thing as Wort, it's an archetype built too much, and I already had an idea for Spellslinger. Affinity Goblins? That was spicy, I liked it to some extent. And then, I saw him, glory by himself... Ib Halfheart, exactly what I needed, a Underplayed, underwhelming commander, that can be good, did I manage to get him good? Kind of, I want to re-do the decklist before getting the deck
I wanting to build a goblin deck I just cannot decide on the commander.
I made a Zada goblin deck, it’s linear as fuck but it’s fun to play lol
@@HomeCookinMTG I mean, if you have fun, than it's good
@@psychozen7169 I will recommend the ones in the comment, (the ones I liked, imo they are the most unique, plus there are Wort GR and Pashalik Mons
Idea- Shattergang Brothers with a Marrow-Gnawer Rat/Nezumi subtheme! Then throw in a Conspiracy to make all rats into goblins (or goblins into rats). A bit of Krenko with some aristocrats/discard mixed in. Also Piper of the Swarm for flavor... and to steal their stuff, and then sac their stuff with Shattergang Brothers.
“I had to go to the I-See-You.”
You just gave every Bojack fan watching this flashbacks
I feel like my decision to go with mazirek landfall is from the same ideas that y'all had discussed from this entire episode. mazirek is kinda underrated from every pod I've played in, so he sneaks in and makes my scutes enormous! he is also a choice that fits me better because I want a combat and tokens focus, not combo like a gitrog. this episode has helped me get behind my many modifications as I have been tuning decks over the years
Dana, know that I laughed in Djimon Hounsou's voice. kudos, kudos
Commanders can inspire me, but themes can inspire me just as much. Also I think building around a theme and picking a commander that just makes that strategy stronger leads to a better brew in the end. When I’ve just picked a commander and built the deck completely around having the commander on the battlefield I’ve built a much more fragile deck
How to choose the right simic commander? Just throw all of them into the air and grab one at random.
Not sure if you guys have already done an episode on it but are there any commanders that you've tried a couple of times to make but never been able to/ not been happy with it so that it never gets finished or only played once?
My decks in order that they were built:
Edgar Markov- I love vampires and Ixalan was still in standard so the cards were dirt cheap. Built a standard Edgar deck and honestly, I didn’t like it. I switched it to a knight sub theme and took out cards like Skullclamp and had a lot more fun (and surprisingly more success). Now it’s a pretty mean combo deck that added some pieces from Midnight Hunt/Crimson Vow.
Karona, False God- Like Matt, I’ve always liked combat. I think it’s a seriously underrated step. I decided to control the combat step, not just mine, but every combat step. The real trick to the deck was making sure I didn’t get killed by the crack back, which can happen in one round of your opponents decide to all attack you. Thankfully the Impetus cards came out which added more goad effects. It’s not the most powerful, but it’s probably my most oppressive if it gets going.
Licia, Sanguine Tribune- Tbh, the idea for this deck came about because I misread “Tribune” as “Tribute.” It’s a little aristocratic, but instead of sacrificing a bunch of creatures, I sacrifice her over and over for value. With her cost reduction ability, she can overcome any amount of commander tax if I can gain enough life in a turn. It’s my most complicated deck, requiring me to track life gained, life lost, and damage, but it has some fun wincons.
Queen Marchesa- the deck is called “Queen Marchesa’s Gambit” and it returns back to the combat step focus. Instead of controlling the combat step, I’m making it more beneficial for my opponents to attack each other than it is to attack me. I don’t use goad or pillow fort tactics and make myself an enticing target with the monarch, but if they should come at me, they can expect some nasty surprises. So how much are you willing to suffer to get the monarch? 😏
All of them include sone rarely seen cards that only Dana would know and recognize. Not sure which Mardu commander I will build next, but Negan, Ghen, and Kaalia of the Vast are all possibilities, but that new Mardu samurai from Kamigawa also looks interesting. 🤔
The point about infect attracting attention to you is why I would run tainted strike in my slimefoot deck but not phyresis. If you can use the instant and win the game, so be it, but suiting that boy up for poison damage paints a helluva target.
Being a top-down builder, I always choose the right commander 🤙🏼
4:40 I love that. If Dina didn`t exist and Willowdusk was the only golgari lifegain commander in Strixhaven It would be dissapointing. The more legends the better
I love Greven I would give him a second chance, he works better when you try to two hit instead of going for the oneshot. Playing Neheb Dreadhorde Champion instead of Wall of Blood. Okay just what Danna said at 27:00
44:45 thats so true if Omnath gets killed you just play him again and again and again. You have the mana anyway may as well use it. Eventually they will run out of removal, probably...
I heard a good one recently... "Did you hear scientists discovered that diarrhea is hereditary? They say it runs in your jeans." 🤣
Just saying, as an ICU nurse, if you use that joke on me, I'm going to laugh.
I also had a weird stumbling into a combo with Scroll Rack, God-Eternal Kefnet, and Expropriate. I know this is a known combo for these spells, but *I* did not know about it. So when it actually played out in real gameplay it felt really cool at the time. The problem is, I don't think it would be all that fun after that fact.
I mean, extra turns are extra turns. They play out either scoops all around or a monopoly of the play time
@@Kazz1187 The problem was, it used all my mana to do it, and so I basically took infinite turns only so I could steal all the other players' permanents. They scooped after they saw how that was going to happen.
Dual land as an engagement ring, beautiful!
This video 17623% helps me in deciding my deck! Yes, I am back playing my Kruphix deck! :)
I started loving Legends with my Reki, which I wanted to add white to for better removal, so I made Sisay my commander. Then Kethis came out, then Sisay. It's now Esika small Legends. Love your thoughts on that!
My Rakdos (Lord of Riots) goodstuff brew was getting dull until Karazikar and Kardur came along, which made me super enthusiastic about playing those colors again, outside of Kazarov (Sengir Pureblood)...
...
...some of my brews ended up resulting from archetypes I used to find mostly boring, like tokens (Slimefoot, the Stowaway) and wizards tribal (Adeliz, the Cinder Wind).
I've always thought mono green elves were horribly boring, then Varis (Silverymoon Ranger) came along, and I subsequently started building tribal elves, flash, dungeons, and wolves, with Varis at the helm, and Ezuri and Yeva in the 99. I'm actually surprised I built Varis before Sefris...
...
...as for trying to fly under the radar, Chulane is in the 99 of my Rubinia Soulsinger jank Vorthos Bant faeries, and Korvold is in the 99 of my Shattergang Brothers Jund tokens aristocrats brew.
I could swap them in, but I would attract too much attention, and take stuff off theme.
22:45 I have to wonder how you scale back Greven. He's always going to be a target. Just everything about him is WITNESS ME! and it seems like playing him any slower than suicide pace is probably doomed to failure.
I just built a toggo/icktekik landfall deck and I cant wait to play it
Wonderful Episode, as always, that you.
The Questions you refer to at the beginning of the Episode are super importend and interesting, and different do each player, as you have shown.
As Joseph, when I learn about a potential Commander, that seems interesting, I start thinking about it and brew in my head and start searching, but in this process I always come these two questions:
1. Do I have a similar Deck already and will this be different enough (often we are drawn to things we already like and know, but I do not need 5 Voltron Decks)
2. Will this really be fun to play and lead to an good experience for everyone involved, or does it only sound cool (Jhoira Weatherlight Captain Artifact Storm sounded cool, but when I played it, it was saddening to see the other players waiting for me to kill them, and so I took it apart, it wasn't fun for me, nor them)
And the powerlevel is something I often do consider. I do not want decks that are oppressing. I want a fair fight, but there are commanders that can be really powerful and other can not reach that level. I do think that it is much harder to build a Deck at a medium powerlevel with a Commander which has the potential to be absurd strong, than it is to build a deck around a mediocre Commander that is as strong as it can get with him. At them moment I am brewing a artifact, epuipment, high toughness, token Deck around Geralf, Visionary Sticher because gaint token creatures in blue is quite uncommon but seem like fun. With Slagwurm Armour & Dragon Throne of Tarkir, Emry, Junk Diver, Myr Retriever. It will not be as powerful as other Commanders from Crimson Vow, but who can dislike gaint flying Zombies
Thank you for your great Content
No one, including Joey, foresaw those dad jokes at the beginning.
I’d like to correct a few things here. The proper sound effects are: Simic go brrrr, Gruul go smash, Rakdos go bonk
I've been wanting to build a goblin deck for a while now. Any time I bring it up and say that I want to use the newer Krenko out of Rav3, everybody just goes "But why not just build old Krenko??? It's like, a million times better!!" Because I don't WANT to build old Krenko, I WANT to build new Krenko!
You have to win as a surprise, else most of your opponents will just concede.
One of my favorite decks was a creatures only mazirek with umori companion.
I have to comment on the topic of "why don't you play x as the commander". I completely agreed with you guys. I have one copy of the cEDH staples. I asked once if I should use a, b, or c as my next cEDH deck and of course people jump in and say why not play timna and thrasios. Neither were options.... I don't like the attention they bring and I personally don't like playing with partners. Ended the conversation as I was just upset with it.
Dana - "I don't want to be killing someone with infect on turn 5."
Flashback to EDHREC stream 2 weeks ago: "How about if it were more than 5, Joey?"
can you do a video on the inverse problem knowing your commander but it fits into multiple deck types
Is there a place where we can see the karazikar deck list? I find that so fun and Joey seems like he'd have some spicy tech
A link to all our decklists is in the description! :) We'll paste it here too, happy to share! edhrec.com/articles/edhrecast-our-decks/
I never start with the deck first. I always find a commander i like first then build the deck.
Do you think that a totally newbie to mtg can start directly from Commander format? it's the only one i am interested in
right know with wotc printing commander precons with every set i think You can. find something You like from among the precons and go from there.
it could be a bit more dificult to start with but You should have 3 other players on a Game to help You out.
Cream of the Crop is an excellent card. Agreed that it is underplayed.
What are the best redundancy abilities?
Question for everyone, I have a steal your stuff in a grixis colors and I use admiral beckett brass as the commander. Curious about some other suggestions people might have!
Obeka. There are many cards that return them to their controller at the endstep, which Obeka can just stop. Zara, Renegade Recruiter for example steals creatures right out of their hand. Treacherous Urge does the same on an Instant.
Oh fantastic! I looked at obeka but also overlooked her at the same time!
RadHa lands is my jam.
A bunch of people in my play group said I should build korvold treasure instead of korvold food be treasure is better, rather than just helping me make what I had better.
Anyone else listen to this podcast for the dad jokes/puns? :D
Is it bad i want a sword of fire and punch
To your point about not just telling someone to run the objectively "moar stronk" Commander, I couldn't agree more. My first deck was Uncle Karl B/W extort, and I got so sick of hearing "just run Kambal as the lead, he's better". I wanted to lean into the Orzhov flavor of grimy corrupt churches, and frankly, I wasn't interested in who was the "right" choice for that. I found my lead singer, and I was happy with him.
I didn’t know Matt Morgan was a fan of Victor Borge… 😁
9 min in and already very topical. Im thinking of making a sneak attack..KRESH jund deck and due to the goodies in kamigawa revisiting a deck to copy a bunch of "sword ofs" and pop them on a creature for beatdown (im looking Jeskai partner- Archaelogist guy is a must)
I LOVE vampires but I'm forced to pick Edgar. Not sure who else would be fun but equally as power. Anyone have any ideas of an alternative Vampire commander? P.S - I wish Prof would do a mono black commander revisit / updated version!
Florian is powerful by helping you find lands early and power play or interactions mid game. He runs very smoothly. Felisa is fun to play and sneaky as few people build her as Vampire tribal. But both those options are below Edgar power and you loose one color.
Maurer I also found to be super-fun. It's different from Edgar because you can and should play bigger vampires. Not the Same power level, but very enjoyable.
Olivia crimson bride legendary vampires looks fun personally. Her effect says they stay around as long as you control a legendary vampire so if you use it to reanimate legendary vampires they satisfy the condition.
How about Licia, Sanguine Tribune? More of a lifegain/counters.
Vona's pretty powerful too, but it's orzhov not mardu.
+1 for Strefan, enjoyed the precon so much I took apart my Kalitas deck and put all the good vampires from it into Strefan.
"You Should Just Play X" was my Zaxara deck...
3:16 I guess He was tailor made to avoid your dad jokes Matt
I realize you guys are not necessarily trying to promote Cedh, because in Cedh it’s more about what is the best in slot for every card in the deck including the general. I can appreciate the looser style of play and deck construction of regular edh. But I rarely play anything but Cedh. When listening to you guys talk about certain criteria sounds jarring at times. Then I remember this channel is not about Cedh typically. I enjoy the conversations and the atmosphere you all present.
Keep up the good work.
Great episode!
However, there's 3 Rakdos Goad options though: Kamber, the Plunderer and Laurine, the Diversion.
It is funny that Dana mentions that everybody expects the exquisite blood out of a Vito deck. I have it in my Vito but usually never win with it because Exquisite Blood gets destroyed some way or another. If I win it is usually due to another strategy (Grey merchant/Kokusho/Chainer or Exsanguinate).
In this case the expected combo is the decoy.
can we get a video that's just a montage of the introductions?
tainted remedy? be still my heart ❤️
Remains to be seen. Hahahaha this round goes to Dana.
For joey's challenge, it makes me sad that the two best 1/1 counter sharks cant be in the same deck
Don’t ever stop these jokes please!
I don't believe that Matt doesn't watch much food network. With the dad tier his jokes are on, the dude is definitely napping to at least 3 hours of it every Sunday
I might build three fucking izzet decks for a proxy play group for three goofy commanders.. all at once.. because im already deep diving similiar ish cards but three seperate niche. Goblins, exile, and wizards.
Sure, Millicent is a good spirits commander and Brago is a good blink commander, but do they give you an army of spirits when you use Curse of Swine to exile your opponents entire boards and replace them with pigs?
Neither does Ranar. You'd only get one Spirit of that Curse. :(
My grandfather deck has no bad cards
And jund commander is lack of choice
If Matt is married to omnath does that make him Roil-ty? XD
Underrated reply.
Best comment
Right commander? all of them?
Moon-blessed cleric and Teleportation Circle is my favorite white combo
I'd rather do land. Jeweled lotus, into lol commander
Given that Sheldon has given it some exposure, and the reddit community reacted with the usual 'something new, ewww' response that usually happens. Have you guys considered giving us one podcast episode about Conquest after trying it out a bit? It's an interesting release valve that might help with some of the more troublesome balance issues that happen with groups that include newer people.
Also it's another format for you guys to do your amazing data collection on.
Cream of the crop after this episode now goes doubled T_T
20:16 TIL M19 was full of strictly worse cards...
Also, one more comment on here, going into the "but why don't you just do X" thing:
At my LGS, the is a player who I really do not enjoy playing with. He only plays competitive level decks. If you go to him asking for advice on building a deck idea you have, his response will always be, 100% of the time, "But why do that when you can build this 4000 dollar cEDH deck that isn't even in your original colors, let alone sharing your original strategy, instead?" If you tell him that you don't want to or don't have the money to build that deck, he will then try relentlessly to convince you to do it anyway, including fully explaining how the deck plays every single turn in detail and how much you'll love playing this deck and that you need to build it because it is far superior to your little $300 brew that you started coming up with.
oh my goodness, if I came across someone like that I would be like "sounds like YOU have a deck to brew!"
i want a legendary creature named X ... so i can say you should play X!
isnt there a silverboaeder from unglued i think that it's called X?
Ok elon musk 😂
🤣🤣🤣
did Dana just said idiot rack cast>?
Guys
You challenging the stats comes down to "That card should be played more". Its boring
My braids deck would get a mood about it and it wouldn’t play worth a darn-