I think if someone keeps reflexively grabbing an anti-deck, this is a thing where it goes beyond a "rule zero" conversation and comes down to a confrontation with a person. And here confront doesn't mean fight, it just means bringing grievances to light because policing someone's deck choices with a last minute, often mediocre, substitute is more about some salt from the past than anything else.
So glad someone's talking about this, thanks Demo! Match-ups are pretty much as important as power level as far as getting a good game is concerned, I think. It can be as simple as "my dragon deck is full of flying creatures" and "my elf deck has 2 cards that can block fliers". It's good to know your deck's weaknesses so that you can highlight before a game if you don't think it will match well against other decks at the table.
@@edhdeckbuilding Yeah, I've found that with some of my recent brews too. Happens more for me when I'm going more heavily into a theme. It's fine though, as long as you're aware of it and have another deck or two that are broader / specific in other ways :)
@@edhdeckbuildingit happens often even to high level players. People just forget about the air force lol. Though with how magic is now days with creatures it's rarely as much of an issue. But a simple one to fix if it is one.
Flying is low key the most powerful keyword(outside of high power tables), unless you play against a tribe with flying most decks cant seem to realy handle them properly
I remember a time years ago:I pulled out a Trostani deck, anddthe guy next to me revealed an Erebos deck. He very kindly switched without a word. I try to pay that energy forward all the time.
i built a new rowan deck and my buddy built a ruric thar deck it was we the exact opposite issue, it supercharged me and i won my turn after Ruric thar came out. it was great we both had a "i built a new deck" convo at the beginning of the rule 0
Trying to avoid bad matchups during deck selection feels a bit unfair to me and leads to bad deck building because your deck’s weaknesses are never tested.
I have a grothama all-devouring deck that gets hosed by any death touch tribal deck. It normally forces me to play a little slower so my opponent doesn't fight him with their 1/1 death touch to draw a card .
Was playing at GalaxyCon in a event where we each pick a single deck and keep playing against random pods. One of my match ups was my self mill graveyard deck vs a phenax mill deck and two other who aren't important. Really funny game as the phenax player ended up super charging me with mill.
I have a deck that is themed around the card Fleshbag Marauder. It's not a particularly strong deck, but if someone is playing a deck with very few creatures, it can totally hose them. I always let people know that before the game starts & sometimes have to change it out. It doesn't immediately fold to any graveyard hate, but it can't take much, and it's not that fun to play against lots of it either.
Hellkite Tyrant is a card that can lead to very unfun situations when your friends play their artifact focused decks, to the point that you don't even want to cast it
I suppose now that I think about it My Kudo, King Among Bears deck I just made absolutely STOMPS most voltron decks. Yargle and Multani cant slam me with commander damage if its a 2/2 bear
One thing I like doing in a discussion when I have a new deck I want to try let's say a graveyard strat and I know my friend has a deck that hoses graveyards I will often request that they play that one so I can see where the holes in my deck are. Even if they beat me in that matchup 90% of the time I will get a feel for what I need to cut from my deck to make it more well rounded. It can be a good way to find out how to make your deck better and if your opponent is a "real friend" they might even offer up some suggestions you wouldn't think about
Is it not commen practice to pick a deck then find out/reveal while shuffling/set up so a anti strategy cant be picked on purpose? That how my group does it
As a personal rule I don use My Phenax deck against someone testing a new deck. My Marchesa, TBR is very effective against Creature decks, specially creature deck with +1/+1 theme. But is hosed by Tergrid. And in some regard, those Taxes decks with anti ETB effects. My Marsil deck is very effective against discard decks, Creature and Artifact decks. But is hosed by Decks like the new Drana and Linvala. Archelos gives the boot to the decks with heavy emphasis in Haste creatures and/or Treasures. Or the new Hilda deck that NEED to be the one tapping the creatures themselves.
I ran into this not long ago. I was up against an OG Elesh Norn deck, and I asked my wife to pick my deck for me. She picked my Blink deck... Brago, King Eternal. What I didn't realize until midway through that game, is that I have a commander with an extremely valuable combat trigger, and 2 power. So I had to keep Elesh Norn off the board as much as possible, which felt bad for my opponent as well. It happens
I once play with my Satoru Umezawa deck against a Karona, False God, and wooof that was brutal because I was the first player after him, in my turn I'd give Karona some evasion and use ninjutsu returning her to his hand. However a similar situation happened with a friend playing a Slicer, Hired Muscle deck, and since it's a very powerful deck, we agreed that he could take care of the bad match up.
Accidentally hosed a lands deck with a random Confounding Conundrum. It was in my Brago deck, solely as a 2 mana permanent that draws on Etb. The worst part, my opponent asked if my Brago deck was a STAX deck. I said no, but I guess I had one piece that completely hosed his deck 😅
I'm so happy I have a really close play group that has been playing for years. We don't rule zero and we don't reveal our Commanders until everyone has their opening hand ready. If u lose just grab a better deck for the next game.
I think there's a line where you have to change your expectations for a deck that can't handle certain things. I think for the majority of the decks I play (that win turn 10 or earlier) they need to be built well enough to handle anything that might disrupt my specific strategy. If I'm playing very low power jank that struggles to do it's thing in the first place, let alone get it done with opposition, I'm going to embrace that and lower my expectations for what I can accomplish. I think having a sturdy, functional deck is more fun though and I can play it more often. Nobody I play with purposely hoses specific decks or strategies, but my playgroups are interaction heavy with a few control decks in the mix. I do think that has effected my deckbuilding, but just by needing my decks to be more flexible and resilient in general rather than worrying about matchups too much.
This topic is broader than what meets the eye. First of all, if we zoom in on players who play 90% of their games in one playgroup, I think deckbuilding is- and should be with their decks taken into consideration. If you for example have super late game group (like my group has), you are not gonna play something hyperagressive. But it works two ways; you make sure you dont play something that "breaks" the balance in your group, but you are also not gonna play something which gets countered by everyone in the group. Some of the things you said I don't fully agree with. Take your example of Goad. It doesn't really get countered / hosed by other type of decks. If an opponent gets to untap / has lots of vigilance, its still fun to work your way around it (lets say, goad other players to attack that one?). After all, its Magic. Should be fun and interactive. If it was as easy as "haha, I play a Goad card, now I just sit and watch chaos unfold", then there would be no fun. Its only normal that certain keywords / abilities have certain weaknesses, but that makes games just way more dynamic. Especially on lower level commander play (I'd say everything < 7, but thats personal ofcourse), I think it's most fun to put down a recognizable threat, which doesn't win immediately. Make sure everyone gets to react to it properly; remove the threat, build their own one, and the race is on. Last but not least; make decks which are fun against like 99% of all other decks with a relatively equal power level. If you play something that gets rendered useless as soon as like a boardwipe gets played or a graveyard gets exiled, you're not really playing magic in my opinion....
There are 2 decks in our regular play group that make me be careful which deck I decide to play. One is a Liesa, Forgotten Archangel deck. I've gotta make sure I don't play any aristocrats themed deck, cause their commander will completely shut down all my death triggers. There is also an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite deck. Any of my token themed decks get completely destroyed once he casts his commander. I make sure I don't play any of those decks when he plays Elesh. He'll complain about it too, but my response is I just want my deck to be able to survive you casting your commander.
Partly why I like everyone to choose their Commander and put it face down until we all have chosen and then go from there so no player purposely puts in a commander that can hate on another. It can cause the other reason you stated by incidentally putting in a commander that is the opposing version of another.
My favorite personal deck is unfortunately the easiest to hose. *Svella Ice Shaper* is dependent on artifact tokens, which are slow to accumulate and get disrupted by all kinds of strategies (blink effects, tapdowns, artifact theft, etc). Since the deck is a Polymorph theme, *Platinum Emperion* and *Portal to Phyrexia* help me sandbag and recover resources when another deck inevitably kneecaps me.
I love my Elesh Norn MoM deck and I don’t appreciate the players who complain about this deck because it shuts off their “random” ETBs. I don’t have any issues picking a different deck if someone’s strat clearly requires ETBs. I want them to play the game as well. However. Shutting off the random E-wit feels totally a non issue to me but some people have an issue with it and I personally just think this is unfun. And yes I know WoTC continues slapping an ETB on every creature but I don’t think every deck gets shut down by Norn simply because they don’t get every ETB. If the commander or the strat has an ETB tied to it sure. That would be unfun for the other player and for me but those who complain when they seen Norn because they have those random value creatures. Meh. Too bad.
When my friend group was playing, my buddy put together a Yuriko unblockable/ninjas deck, and I found out pretty quickly that my Marath Will of the Wild toolbox deck would shut it down pretty hard. I recognized this immediately and told him any time he wanted to play his Yuriko deck that I would swap decks to something else. Later he built a deck around Dictate of Erebos style effects, effectively shutting down any creature strategies, and ran with it exclusively. I asked politely if he'd be willing to switch decks, and he got pissy and defensive and refused to play. He still doesn't play any mtg since then.
I know someone like that. In my area creature heavy decks are the norm so he built that same dictate deck and I called him out on it saying he built a control deck. He was not very happy about being called out or how much he would get 3v1 in a game when he played it since people knew if he wasn't focused no one else would get to play.
i have a kardur doomscourge deck and there is also a firkraag cunning instigator deck in our pod which makes playing kardur a lot harder because he just draws so many cards from it. my deck still functions without kardur but having it as a survival tool helps a lot
One of my favorite and best decks is Ratatrabik of Urborg which gets completely countered by Nemata, Primeval Warden. I have to basically deck pick whenever my friend plays his Nemata deck and that isn’t very fun because my entire strategy has to shift to ignoring my other two opponents to ensure that Nemata never sticks, which makes him feel targeted.
I was playing my mono green stompy lands deck against someone's Liesa, Forgotten Archangel deck when I realized how brutally my green deck can't do anything to a board of creatures that sacrifice to give other creatures indestructible, hexproof, or prevent damage for the turn and then are returned to hand at the end step. My green deck is a jack of all trades that can do everything but it was just impossible to do anything into that board except gain 1000 life and make 1000 1000/1000 creatures and stall for 100 turns till they deck out but I'd rather just scoop.
I played a game last week where one of my buddies didn't have his decks with him and he didn't have much time before he had to play D&D so he asked to borrow my self mill deck for a game where everybody was already set up to play mill decks. Needless to say the game was quick! lol
I have a Talion, the Kindly Lord that basically can function as a clone deck but has the capability to get me a copy of anything on the board and just start cloning it like crazy eg. Rug of smothering. Its kind of a clones/punisher build but gets hosed if there is a "rule of law" type effect out because i give everyone rrsources to cast more spells so talion can trigger more and draw me cards. So if everyone plays slow and low, it doesn't do much, or if talion gets killed too much 😅
Funny thing for me is like I say most players always want to win an I did a lot first a didn’t win a lot but then change my mind set a deck building . I have come point not to win but make it crazy for other players to challenge them an see how they overcome it an funny enough I win more games then I ever do now not on purpose just happens, besides bad match up I think mindset is bigger factor in commander an what your trying get out of your game. Think would surprise a lot ppl if just didn’t care lmao
All players should be trying to counter the decks in their local meta if winning is a goal. This results in decks evolving over time with specialized counter cards. And you should adjust deck to dodge those silver bullets
I try to pick my decks based on how a table feels. I wont straight up counterpick against anything, at the same time i probably want to have white or green against any enchantress deck, just cause they almost always run some sort of shutdown effects.
See I do the opposite, one of my favorite decks is Kroxa and Kunoros, and I haven't played it much recently because there's been an influx of mill decks at my LGS due to the Mothman deck, and I don't want everyone's new decks to feel like they're feeding me
I build a Carmen cruel skymarcher intentionally against treasure style decks and now happen to not pull it out, when there are sac decks arround.... Have to consider why i build the deck in the first place than 😂 It's a lot of fun....but somehow it feels wrong to take it out sometimes against the aristocrat's tokens... 🤔
Yeah, been in this conversation before due to a few decks than used Edicts as their main strategy. I dare you to have fun playing a Voltron commander against that 😑
I have a Firesong and Sunspeaker deck that I have to be choosy when I Play it. Boardwipe tribal seems like it would be pretty unfun if my opponents are all playing creature centric strategies.
Some weeks ago I was playing with my Syr Ginger deck and one of my opponents was playing that fu**ing monkey that creates Banana token and destroys an artifact every time it attacks. I drew dead the whole game 😅
I dont know about the others i play with totaly but for the most part it seams no one ever meta games to specificly hose another player by playing a deck thats very good against theres. I certainly dont do that more often then not almost no one shows there commander until most if not everyone has picked there deck and started to shuffle. Now after game one ya there might be some slight meta gameing of "oh that person is playing a deck like that i guess ill play something more that level" but i dont see that as them going for anti you deck and more so something that fits the table better.
Demo...this is the third time you've called out my boy Yurlok, and two times I have stopped myself from responding to your take. Outside of the occasional simic shenanigans, who the heck is playing helix pinnacle BESIDES the Yurlok deck? In your second vid where you touted tapping and untapping him, which I thought was the whole point, you had to realize he wasnt monolithic. Add leyline of abundance with umbral mantle or sword of paruns, go infinite and burn out opponents in one shot. He is monolithic in the way any other combo commander is, dont play him until the win is in position. With something like city of solitude or dosan the falling leaf, you can use his ability a few times per turn without aiding them. On top of that, don't forget he is a 4/4 vigilance body. In colors that aren't hard to pump power. Anyone using doublers is wasting their time when Yurlok is perfect for hate pieces like citadel of pain and wars toll. This further enhances yurloks unique opportunity to mess with people's mana. Players can take this concept even further when you add in MLD. I don't. Anyway, for a guy who built his throne on identifying uniquely powerful cards, this one stood out to me as something you would normally appreciate. Lastly a personal anecdote, I returned to the game after 15 years away and was stunned when someone won a game by going infinite while leaving unspent infinite colorless mana. I was appalled that mana burn no longer existed. Yurlok corrects this injustice.
Two of my decks mentioned in one video, AND the only 2 wins i ever got on the discord! Lets go Avacyn and Klothys! As far as the topic, my Sharae deck gets hated on every game i play it because it shuts off so many cards with its stun counters. Lots of creatures or effects need attacks to happen and shes very good at blinking and proliferating. Granted the poison and land destruction doesnt help
I am under no obligation to play a deck that allows you to win. If you have an inherent weakness I your deck, for what ever reason, it is your responsibility to recognize and shore up your deck against it. If I play a deck that just happens to point out that weakness, well then consider that I'm doing you a favor by pointing it out. So, you can accept that, or whine about it. Those are your only two options. Play the game playa'.
I highly disagree with this honestly. The sentiment of “I’m going to play a different deck based on what someone else is playing” imo is extremely unhealthy for the game. If the deck you want to play is such a glass cannon that it makes you reach for something else then you need to reevaluate the deck and its strengths and weaknesses. Anyone who changes a deck to counter my deck choice, likewise, is someone I don’t want to play with. If someone plays a strategy that plays poorly into yours, do not forget that there are 2 other players at the table. Furthermore, sure it can be a bit more challenging and you may have to play a bit differently, but assuming it’s not a true glass cannon you aren’t going to be absolutely hosed. And if it is a glass cannon? Good you deserve to play it and get hosed and then maybe you can reevaluate if you want to keep going all-in on a strategy knowing people play counters to it.
I played aggainst a deck which main objective is to cast a spell every turn which makes everyone sacrifice a creature. So I was going to play my voltron deck but i know that i wont do anything that game, so instead i just play other deck which play more creatures. I dont feel that is bad thing, and i also dont think that my voltron deck is a glass cannon but if every turn i have to sacrifice a creature maybe i dont get to do a whole much
Agree to disagree… there have been times my buddy’s grabbed my ruric thar deck when I wanted to playtest my storm deck and I’m like ummmm yeah I’ll play a different deck because if you’re trying to playtest a deck you don’t want to put it up against the worst possible match up first until a lot of tuning has been done and you can stand a chance because if it’s anything I’ve learned in 20 years of competitive play is there is no deck that has a 100% win rate against any and every deck. None… every deck can be answered… or shut down… but THAT deck will just loose to a different deck. This game was meant for players to use their old cards from competitive play or other formats to play casually while your waiting for tournaments to start and what not. Like pauper almost.
I think if someone keeps reflexively grabbing an anti-deck, this is a thing where it goes beyond a "rule zero" conversation and comes down to a confrontation with a person. And here confront doesn't mean fight, it just means bringing grievances to light because policing someone's deck choices with a last minute, often mediocre, substitute is more about some salt from the past than anything else.
So glad someone's talking about this, thanks Demo! Match-ups are pretty much as important as power level as far as getting a good game is concerned, I think. It can be as simple as "my dragon deck is full of flying creatures" and "my elf deck has 2 cards that can block fliers". It's good to know your deck's weaknesses so that you can highlight before a game if you don't think it will match well against other decks at the table.
can't deal with flying creatures is one i've been discovering with my decks lately.
@@edhdeckbuilding Yeah, I've found that with some of my recent brews too. Happens more for me when I'm going more heavily into a theme. It's fine though, as long as you're aware of it and have another deck or two that are broader / specific in other ways :)
@@edhdeckbuildingit happens often even to high level players. People just forget about the air force lol. Though with how magic is now days with creatures it's rarely as much of an issue. But a simple one to fix if it is one.
I have a few flying tribal decks and flying is strong.
Flying is low key the most powerful keyword(outside of high power tables), unless you play against a tribe with flying most decks cant seem to realy handle them properly
I remember a time years ago:I pulled out a Trostani deck, anddthe guy next to me revealed an Erebos deck. He very kindly switched without a word. I try to pay that energy forward all the time.
i built a new rowan deck and my buddy built a ruric thar deck it was we the exact opposite issue, it supercharged me and i won my turn after Ruric thar came out. it was great we both had a "i built a new deck" convo at the beginning of the rule 0
Trying to avoid bad matchups during deck selection feels a bit unfair to me and leads to bad deck building because your deck’s weaknesses are never tested.
I have a grothama all-devouring deck that gets hosed by any death touch tribal deck. It normally forces me to play a little slower so my opponent doesn't fight him with their 1/1 death touch to draw a card .
With Yurlok, you seal the deal with City of Solitude.
Shuts off their playing during your turn when you go off.
Was playing at GalaxyCon in a event where we each pick a single deck and keep playing against random pods. One of my match ups was my self mill graveyard deck vs a phenax mill deck and two other who aren't important.
Really funny game as the phenax player ended up super charging me with mill.
I have a deck that is themed around the card Fleshbag Marauder. It's not a particularly strong deck, but if someone is playing a deck with very few creatures, it can totally hose them. I always let people know that before the game starts & sometimes have to change it out. It doesn't immediately fold to any graveyard hate, but it can't take much, and it's not that fun to play against lots of it either.
Hellkite Tyrant is a card that can lead to very unfun situations when your friends play their artifact focused decks, to the point that you don't even want to cast it
Can be even worse for there are more cards to exile all artifacts.
I suppose now that I think about it
My Kudo, King Among Bears deck I just made absolutely STOMPS most voltron decks.
Yargle and Multani cant slam me with commander damage if its a 2/2 bear
One thing I like doing in a discussion when I have a new deck I want to try let's say a graveyard strat and I know my friend has a deck that hoses graveyards I will often request that they play that one so I can see where the holes in my deck are. Even if they beat me in that matchup 90% of the time I will get a feel for what I need to cut from my deck to make it more well rounded. It can be a good way to find out how to make your deck better and if your opponent is a "real friend" they might even offer up some suggestions you wouldn't think about
Is it not commen practice to pick a deck then find out/reveal while shuffling/set up so a anti strategy cant be picked on purpose? That how my group does it
As a personal rule I don use My Phenax deck against someone testing a new deck.
My Marchesa, TBR is very effective against Creature decks, specially creature deck with +1/+1 theme. But is hosed by Tergrid. And in some regard, those Taxes decks with anti ETB effects.
My Marsil deck is very effective against discard decks, Creature and Artifact decks.
But is hosed by Decks like the new Drana and Linvala.
Archelos gives the boot to the decks with heavy emphasis in Haste creatures and/or Treasures. Or the new Hilda deck that NEED to be the one tapping the creatures themselves.
I ran into this not long ago.
I was up against an OG Elesh Norn deck, and I asked my wife to pick my deck for me.
She picked my Blink deck... Brago, King Eternal.
What I didn't realize until midway through that game, is that I have a commander with an extremely valuable combat trigger, and 2 power.
So I had to keep Elesh Norn off the board as much as possible, which felt bad for my opponent as well.
It happens
I once play with my Satoru Umezawa deck against a Karona, False God, and wooof that was brutal because I was the first player after him, in my turn I'd give Karona some evasion and use ninjutsu returning her to his hand. However a similar situation happened with a friend playing a Slicer, Hired Muscle deck, and since it's a very powerful deck, we agreed that he could take care of the bad match up.
Accidentally hosed a lands deck with a random Confounding Conundrum.
It was in my Brago deck, solely as a 2 mana permanent that draws on Etb.
The worst part, my opponent asked if my Brago deck was a STAX deck. I said no, but I guess I had one piece that completely hosed his deck 😅
I'm so happy I have a really close play group that has been playing for years. We don't rule zero and we don't reveal our Commanders until everyone has their opening hand ready. If u lose just grab a better deck for the next game.
I saw some sac decks playing dictate of erebos and similar cards, those are brutal against everything that wants to have at least one creature.
I think there's a line where you have to change your expectations for a deck that can't handle certain things. I think for the majority of the decks I play (that win turn 10 or earlier) they need to be built well enough to handle anything that might disrupt my specific strategy. If I'm playing very low power jank that struggles to do it's thing in the first place, let alone get it done with opposition, I'm going to embrace that and lower my expectations for what I can accomplish. I think having a sturdy, functional deck is more fun though and I can play it more often.
Nobody I play with purposely hoses specific decks or strategies, but my playgroups are interaction heavy with a few control decks in the mix. I do think that has effected my deckbuilding, but just by needing my decks to be more flexible and resilient in general rather than worrying about matchups too much.
This topic is broader than what meets the eye.
First of all, if we zoom in on players who play 90% of their games in one playgroup, I think deckbuilding is- and should be with their decks taken into consideration. If you for example have super late game group (like my group has), you are not gonna play something hyperagressive.
But it works two ways; you make sure you dont play something that "breaks" the balance in your group, but you are also not gonna play something which gets countered by everyone in the group.
Some of the things you said I don't fully agree with. Take your example of Goad. It doesn't really get countered / hosed by other type of decks. If an opponent gets to untap / has lots of vigilance, its still fun to work your way around it (lets say, goad other players to attack that one?). After all, its Magic. Should be fun and interactive. If it was as easy as "haha, I play a Goad card, now I just sit and watch chaos unfold", then there would be no fun. Its only normal that certain keywords / abilities have certain weaknesses, but that makes games just way more dynamic.
Especially on lower level commander play (I'd say everything < 7, but thats personal ofcourse), I think it's most fun to put down a recognizable threat, which doesn't win immediately. Make sure everyone gets to react to it properly; remove the threat, build their own one, and the race is on.
Last but not least; make decks which are fun against like 99% of all other decks with a relatively equal power level. If you play something that gets rendered useless as soon as like a boardwipe gets played or a graveyard gets exiled, you're not really playing magic in my opinion....
There are 2 decks in our regular play group that make me be careful which deck I decide to play. One is a Liesa, Forgotten Archangel deck. I've gotta make sure I don't play any aristocrats themed deck, cause their commander will completely shut down all my death triggers. There is also an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite deck. Any of my token themed decks get completely destroyed once he casts his commander. I make sure I don't play any of those decks when he plays Elesh. He'll complain about it too, but my response is I just want my deck to be able to survive you casting your commander.
Partly why I like everyone to choose their Commander and put it face down until we all have chosen and then go from there so no player purposely puts in a commander that can hate on another. It can cause the other reason you stated by incidentally putting in a commander that is the opposing version of another.
My favorite personal deck is unfortunately the easiest to hose. *Svella Ice Shaper* is dependent on artifact tokens, which are slow to accumulate and get disrupted by all kinds of strategies (blink effects, tapdowns, artifact theft, etc).
Since the deck is a Polymorph theme, *Platinum Emperion* and *Portal to Phyrexia* help me sandbag and recover resources when another deck inevitably kneecaps me.
I love my Elesh Norn MoM deck and I don’t appreciate the players who complain about this deck because it shuts off their “random” ETBs. I don’t have any issues picking a different deck if someone’s strat clearly requires ETBs. I want them to play the game as well. However. Shutting off the random E-wit feels totally a non issue to me but some people have an issue with it and I personally just think this is unfun.
And yes I know WoTC continues slapping an ETB on every creature but I don’t think every deck gets shut down by Norn simply because they don’t get every ETB. If the commander or the strat has an ETB tied to it sure. That would be unfun for the other player and for me but those who complain when they seen Norn because they have those random value creatures. Meh. Too bad.
When my friend group was playing, my buddy put together a Yuriko unblockable/ninjas deck, and I found out pretty quickly that my Marath Will of the Wild toolbox deck would shut it down pretty hard. I recognized this immediately and told him any time he wanted to play his Yuriko deck that I would swap decks to something else.
Later he built a deck around Dictate of Erebos style effects, effectively shutting down any creature strategies, and ran with it exclusively. I asked politely if he'd be willing to switch decks, and he got pissy and defensive and refused to play. He still doesn't play any mtg since then.
I know someone like that. In my area creature heavy decks are the norm so he built that same dictate deck and I called him out on it saying he built a control deck. He was not very happy about being called out or how much he would get 3v1 in a game when he played it since people knew if he wasn't focused no one else would get to play.
i have a kardur doomscourge deck and there is also a firkraag cunning instigator deck in our pod which makes playing kardur a lot harder because he just draws so many cards from it. my deck still functions without kardur but having it as a survival tool helps a lot
One of my favorite and best decks is Ratatrabik of Urborg which gets completely countered by Nemata, Primeval Warden. I have to basically deck pick whenever my friend plays his Nemata deck and that isn’t very fun because my entire strategy has to shift to ignoring my other two opponents to ensure that Nemata never sticks, which makes him feel targeted.
I was playing my mono green stompy lands deck against someone's Liesa, Forgotten Archangel deck when I realized how brutally my green deck can't do anything to a board of creatures that sacrifice to give other creatures indestructible, hexproof, or prevent damage for the turn and then are returned to hand at the end step. My green deck is a jack of all trades that can do everything but it was just impossible to do anything into that board except gain 1000 life and make 1000 1000/1000 creatures and stall for 100 turns till they deck out but I'd rather just scoop.
I played a game last week where one of my buddies didn't have his decks with him and he didn't have much time before he had to play D&D so he asked to borrow my self mill deck for a game where everybody was already set up to play mill decks. Needless to say the game was quick! lol
Ayo! Mentioned! If i was a better magic player the Betrayal would have betrayed you.
I made a locust god deck and my brother made a nekusar deck. Makes my life miserable if I don't focus on taking him out as fast as possible
In my playgroup I have a Horobi deck and another player has a Feather deck. I will always switch out my deck so he's not hosed completely!
I have a Talion, the Kindly Lord that basically can function as a clone deck but has the capability to get me a copy of anything on the board and just start cloning it like crazy eg. Rug of smothering. Its kind of a clones/punisher build but gets hosed if there is a "rule of law" type effect out because i give everyone rrsources to cast more spells so talion can trigger more and draw me cards. So if everyone plays slow and low, it doesn't do much, or if talion gets killed too much 😅
Funny thing for me is like I say most players always want to win an I did a lot first a didn’t win a lot but then change my mind set a deck building . I have come point not to win but make it crazy for other players to challenge them an see how they overcome it an funny enough I win more games then I ever do now not on purpose just happens, besides bad match up I think mindset is bigger factor in commander an what your trying get out of your game. Think would surprise a lot ppl if just didn’t care lmao
All players should be trying to counter the decks in their local meta if winning is a goal. This results in decks evolving over time with specialized counter cards.
And you should adjust deck to dodge those silver bullets
I try to pick my decks based on how a table feels. I wont straight up counterpick against anything, at the same time i probably want to have white or green against any enchantress deck, just cause they almost always run some sort of shutdown effects.
See I do the opposite, one of my favorite decks is Kroxa and Kunoros, and I haven't played it much recently because there's been an influx of mill decks at my LGS due to the Mothman deck, and I don't want everyone's new decks to feel like they're feeding me
I build a Carmen cruel skymarcher intentionally against treasure style decks and now happen to not pull it out, when there are sac decks arround.... Have to consider why i build the deck in the first place than 😂
It's a lot of fun....but somehow it feels wrong to take it out sometimes against the aristocrat's tokens... 🤔
Played against a chaos deck that forced plays off the top library and cascade...which totally bombed my hydra X spell deck.
Yeah, been in this conversation before due to a few decks than used Edicts as their main strategy. I dare you to have fun playing a Voltron commander against that 😑
As you often say removal helps you win games
I have a Firesong and Sunspeaker deck that I have to be choosy when I Play it. Boardwipe tribal seems like it would be pretty unfun if my opponents are all playing creature centric strategies.
Nearly didn't see this video because of the thumbnail.
Could you link the anti etb deck?
it's a patrons deck
Some weeks ago I was playing with my Syr Ginger deck and one of my opponents was playing that fu**ing monkey that creates Banana token and destroys an artifact every time it attacks. I drew dead the whole game 😅
I dont know about the others i play with totaly but for the most part it seams no one ever meta games to specificly hose another player by playing a deck thats very good against theres. I certainly dont do that more often then not almost no one shows there commander until most if not everyone has picked there deck and started to shuffle. Now after game one ya there might be some slight meta gameing of "oh that person is playing a deck like that i guess ill play something more that level" but i dont see that as them going for anti you deck and more so something that fits the table better.
link the decks
It is not a good idea to play a Intruder Alert when an opponent has Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Braker as commander.
Demo...this is the third time you've called out my boy Yurlok, and two times I have stopped myself from responding to your take.
Outside of the occasional simic shenanigans, who the heck is playing helix pinnacle BESIDES the Yurlok deck? In your second vid where you touted tapping and untapping him, which I thought was the whole point, you had to realize he wasnt monolithic. Add leyline of abundance with umbral mantle or sword of paruns, go infinite and burn out opponents in one shot. He is monolithic in the way any other combo commander is, dont play him until the win is in position.
With something like city of solitude or dosan the falling leaf, you can use his ability a few times per turn without aiding them. On top of that, don't forget he is a 4/4 vigilance body. In colors that aren't hard to pump power.
Anyone using doublers is wasting their time when Yurlok is perfect for hate pieces like citadel of pain and wars toll. This further enhances yurloks unique opportunity to mess with people's mana. Players can take this concept even further when you add in MLD. I don't.
Anyway, for a guy who built his throne on identifying uniquely powerful cards, this one stood out to me as something you would normally appreciate.
Lastly a personal anecdote, I returned to the game after 15 years away and was stunned when someone won a game by going infinite while leaving unspent infinite colorless mana. I was appalled that mana burn no longer existed. Yurlok corrects this injustice.
Two of my decks mentioned in one video, AND the only 2 wins i ever got on the discord! Lets go Avacyn and Klothys!
As far as the topic, my Sharae deck gets hated on every game i play it because it shuts off so many cards with its stun counters. Lots of creatures or effects need attacks to happen and shes very good at blinking and proliferating. Granted the poison and land destruction doesnt help
that's certainly a deck lulu wouldn't mind playing against.
This only works in archenemy or rule zero situations, anti deck responsibly kids.
None of your decks would come even close to beating any of mine
I may be a offender of this ive made several anti-meta decks.
I am under no obligation to play a deck that allows you to win. If you have an inherent weakness I your deck, for what ever reason, it is your responsibility to recognize and shore up your deck against it. If I play a deck that just happens to point out that weakness, well then consider that I'm doing you a favor by pointing it out. So, you can accept that, or whine about it. Those are your only two options. Play the game playa'.
I highly disagree with this honestly. The sentiment of “I’m going to play a different deck based on what someone else is playing” imo is extremely unhealthy for the game. If the deck you want to play is such a glass cannon that it makes you reach for something else then you need to reevaluate the deck and its strengths and weaknesses. Anyone who changes a deck to counter my deck choice, likewise, is someone I don’t want to play with. If someone plays a strategy that plays poorly into yours, do not forget that there are 2 other players at the table. Furthermore, sure it can be a bit more challenging and you may have to play a bit differently, but assuming it’s not a true glass cannon you aren’t going to be absolutely hosed. And if it is a glass cannon? Good you deserve to play it and get hosed and then maybe you can reevaluate if you want to keep going all-in on a strategy knowing people play counters to it.
I used to feel this way until my friends switched to animar decks every time I tried to play orzhov.
I played aggainst a deck which main objective is to cast a spell every turn which makes everyone sacrifice a creature. So I was going to play my voltron deck but i know that i wont do anything that game, so instead i just play other deck which play more creatures. I dont feel that is bad thing, and i also dont think that my voltron deck is a glass cannon but if every turn i have to sacrifice a creature maybe i dont get to do a whole much
So wrong. Must be a youngster.
Agree to disagree… there have been times my buddy’s grabbed my ruric thar deck when I wanted to playtest my storm deck and I’m like ummmm yeah I’ll play a different deck because if you’re trying to playtest a deck you don’t want to put it up against the worst possible match up first until a lot of tuning has been done and you can stand a chance because if it’s anything I’ve learned in 20 years of competitive play is there is no deck that has a 100% win rate against any and every deck. None… every deck can be answered… or shut down… but THAT deck will just loose to a different deck. This game was meant for players to use their old cards from competitive play or other formats to play casually while your waiting for tournaments to start and what not. Like pauper almost.