I think another important thing to note is you DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS. I’ve seen so many times where the person running away with the game bullies others into “fair deals” where the other player gets basically nothing, or where the person not-so-sneakily gets around the deal by mudding intention. If someone says they wont remove your commander, and they oubliette it instead “technically its still on the board” you have every right to retaliate and deny deals in the future. It is always a game at the end of the day, but I’ve seen people guilt trip others into essentially handing them the game over a “fair deal”
my favorite line is usually "who wants to be friends", not only because it gives me options, but because it causes the rest of the table to fight. A social goad, if you will.
In my group when we were starting out, we had someone say that in an equally malicious way. "wanna be friends? (good good, kill each other while I profiteer >:) )" After putting the board sideways at them in response, anyone that now wants to pull that has to make an actual convincing reason why I and the other aggro/stompy decks shouldn't pick you off as an easy target. Helped develop the table dynamic in a healthy way
If we’re at an LGS, I’ll usually respond with “Me! You seem like a swell guy/gal/person.” Even tho I know they’re trying to win, I’ll always be friendly. EDH encourages that kind of behavior anyway, and I usually enjoy the people I’m playing with.
In my experience one deal making aspect that people ignore is that you have the stick as well as the carrot. “If you remove this I won’t attack you for a turn” and “if you don’t remove this I WILL attack you” get the same result, with one being a two-way deal and one just benefitting you. Threats are a form of deal that will definitely add to your win percentage if you stand on business and you’re making them at the right times
10/10 times I've seen people make deals like that, the person being 'threatened' just spite played in return and took the L to make sure the person making the 'threat' also lose.
I refuse to break any deals I make in commander. One of my favorite decks I have is my casual Tayam deck and I have a mana gorger hydra in the deck. One game I went to give it hexproof and someone was going to in response kill it so I went to make a deal with them that if he doesn't stop it I will Never attack him with it and he was fine with it but then someone else wanted to blow it up I made a deal with the whole table that as long as it doesn't leave the field it won't attack the rest of the game. they all accepted and it sat on the field as a battery for my deck to rip counters off of. Near the end of the game it came down to a 1v1 where if I attacked the guy with the hydra which was probably over a 50/50 at this point would kill him but I refused to since I made the deal and I lost the game because of it. it was still a fun game even though I lost. If someone is playing with me and accepts a deal with me and then breaks it I will target them the rest of the game. I don't always play to win, I play to have fun and do the weird things this format lets me do. It's not hard to not break deals.
I love playing Guided Passage. People laugh and say like "I'll just pick the worse 3 cards in the deck", and then their expressions change when they realise there aren't bad cards to pick.
I believe my favorite deal I've ever made was when the big simic value player had a winning turn planned next turn but couldn't get rid of the indestructible platinum emperion another player had. so I offered to exile it on my turn but only if the simic guy wouldn't attack me on his turn. he tutored an avenger of zendikar with a finale of devastation. killed the other player. and on my turn I just played a massacre wurm and he took 16 damage because of it and won me the game.
And you are the reason I build to tank & kill the table instead of dealing with a**holes. My friend pulls that s*** and thinks he's cute but it's not. An infinite control loop of EVERYONE else's turns with no win con' other than, "fight amongst yourselves" while he auto jacks every f***ing turn ad infinium. Nope, no, not even; everyone gets nuked, everyone gets duked, no schenadigans can transpire therefore.
One of the best deals I ever made was to point out to the voltron player that if he swung and killed me, he'd die to the next player's attack, and promise that if he didn't attack me, I would kill said next player first. He took the deal, and then almost immediately regretted it when he realized too late that I never said I wouldn't kill them both. One of my favorite wins of all time.
See the issue with making deals and table politics is presuming that you are dealing with 3 intelligent beings... and not 3 neurotic monkeys who violently react towards anything that might spook them including their own reflection from a foil card.
I once had a game where I was playing a graveyard deck, and one of my opponents was playing aristocrats. I had a stone of earch (opponents things get exiled instead of dying) And they had their commander (opponents things get exiled instead of dying) Since they needed their commander, and I was not going to sac the stone just to help them out, be basically strangled each other to death and did nothing.
At my lgs I always highlight people who make unclear deals/break them as the game starts. Partially because it means that people won’t give them free stuff and partially because it puts me in good standing when I mention threats or try to make deals of my own
8:00 Slightly off topic but remember you can even politic rule zeros at a table. When it comes to toxic/infect I rule zero that it has to be half of starting life instead of 10. Still strong and a threat but no longer kill on site.
5:50 this is exactly why I love my Francisco, Malcolm deck because these threats don't work against it because of all the counterspells the deck has available.
I've been getting a lot of mileage out of responding to deal offers with "I'll respond on my turn". It puts the player making the offer in the position of acting in good faith until then and gives me time to gather more information on their intent for offering the deal.
I don't make deals. I somehow bullsh*t my way into getting at least one or two opponents to leave me alone long enough that I'm able to become the threat at the right moment. This includes a game with my Bladwing, Deathless Tyrant deck where I repeatedly rebuilt my boardstate via Bladewing's effect, somehow had 35 life, and even when this was pointed out to the table, was still left alone. I don't even think anyone was more threatening then me, I was just really good at BS.
I love Commander because of the deal making aspect, but I make it clear to everyone I make a deal with that I will never break a deal, and if you break a deal with me, I will never deal with you again. I stick by that, too: there are three players at my LGS that I will never make a deal with, because they went back on a deal they made with me. Trust is a fragile thing, and if you’re willing to lie to my face to win a casual card game, you’ve lost my trust. The only way I’d trust someone again is for them to apologize and promise not to break any deals again, and the consequence for breaking that promise is that I will quite literally not play with them anymore… or immediately target them in every game we get seated together at a local event.
This is a terrible take. The side-effect of deals is that you might be making one with the wrong person. That's called risk, and it could cost you the game. Maybe they keep the deal next time. Also, you can't expect someone to keep a deal even if it causes them to lose the game. That would be dumb.
@@Arctanis-vt3hl I see where you're coming from, but I believe you're thinking about it the wrong way. You're right that deals are almost always risky, and that they can cost you the game, but THAT'S the risk: that you make a deal that ends up benefiting your opponent more. The risk should NEVER be "Haha, I lied, now I win". It's a social format, and meaning that social constructs are in play, and lying has consequences! The risk you're talking about is in the nature of the deals you're making and accepting: you should NEVER offer or accept a deal you aren't willing to abide by, it destroys your credibility and any future willingness of your opponents to make deals with you in future games. Deals that you should NOT be making are things like long term Ceasefires or alliances: deals in Commander should be tit for tat, short and sweet, so that the deal is over before too much has changed on the boardstate that would force one player to choose between breaking the deal and losing the game. "I'll remove that unblockable creature attacking you for lethal if you don't swing any of your creatures at me next turn", or "I'll counter that boardwipe if you don't remove my Commander next turn." These are the kind of deals that lead to fun and interactive gameplay. If the deals you're making are forcing you or your opponent to choose between upholding the deal and losing the game, then the deal probably never should've been accepted, because it was never beneficial to both parties.
I love Guided Passage! It’s so easy to include in Landfall decks with those colours since you want the land, plus there’s a high chance that the other choices will be ramp/payoffs to playing lands since it’s such a build-around theme.
One of my favourite cards to use for making deals is Head Games. I have maybe occasionally used it to give the player who's ahead a hand full of lands (especially if I know they have a combo in hand), but more often than not I'll use it on someone who's struggling, give them some cards that I think would be interesting for the game, or even conditionally giving them certain answers for specific problems that I don't mind helping them get rid of.
That how my janky Kenrith deck wins. I give you counters, I draw cards. I stop boardwipes, you dont attack me, and then suddenly, I'm beating the entire table to death with their own creatures.
I was playing commander with some of my friends that just started magic. I casted wishclaw and asked who else wants it. The only thing I asked was for them to give it back. One guy said yes so I passed it to him. When it was his turn, he activated it and asked what if he didn't give it back. I told him that ruling wise, there was nothing stopping him from giving it to someone else. But I reminded him we did make a contract. He then proceeds to say that it was a verbal one and that we didn't shake on it. He then passed the wishclaw to an opponent that tutored up a removal for one of my card. I will never make a deal with him again. Any and all future deals are off the table. I rather lose a commander game than go back on my word. Also, I don't enjoy grammar lawyering. It goes against the nature of the deal. We made a deal where we both benefit and you turn around and stab me in the back due to some loophole. I understand you want to deal in technicality but it's actively deceitful and disrespectful.
Would you blame the person you’re attacking for blocking with something you forgot to factor in? No. Making deals that have no assurances or anti-loophole language is a buyer beware moment. That said, the guy in your example was being a jerk, but nothing to be upset about. But same, I wouldn’t make deals with him going forward.
@@maximillianhallett3055 I'm not a fan of gotcha language, as mentioned on top. Kills the spirit of the deal and makes every deal a linguistic check to "cover all bases". But I'm not too upset since he is a friend and I still play commander with him. But no more future deals.
people usually just make deals WITH the arch enemy not to kill them, and they'll remove my blockers or something. "its ok i like second place" after those games i hate politics with a passion lmao
If you have a stable playgroup, those are the games where you start considering building a deck full of Wall of Shards, Varchild's War-Riders, Sheltering Ancient, Loran of the Thrid Path, the Haunted cycle etc. and just playing for 2nd place from the beginning, aren't they? :P
to me, politics is always some sort of kingmaking, usually 2 people team up and cuck the other players to benefit eachother. and just take the coinflip on whos gonna win.
I love scheming symmetry in my Sidar Knights deck. You can let the player most behind get a card for many reasons, and then I get to immediately draw my choice during Sidar’s eminence ability. And it looks like jesters so it gets some medieval era knight theme points
I don't know that I have ever made a deal in commander. I'll point out when I think something needs to go and maybe say I'll hold off on targeting people in order to address the threat, but once we are getting into terms and conditions I am out. Pretty much always a deal ends up benefiting one person more than the other and I would just rather not deal with that. Would it improve my win rate to do it? Probably. I just don't like to do it.
There's also not many cards that really encourage politics. I don't see too many cards that say things like target player draws or gets something out of grave. Mostly just removal and some buffs
6:29, I see this with aetherflux reservoir, the life gain player will be at like 60 and say “if anyone messes with my artifact, I’ll kill them” they can’t take out three players, so it’s actually not a bad idea to call that bluff, and if they aren’t bluffing it’s not a mistake they usually make twice
Though I use it sparingly to avoid every game action being a contract negotiation (and to make it less obvious to the opponents when I'm doing it), I always like to try and milk a little bit more value out of my cards that I was going to cast anyways that might help other players. Like if I'm being pestered by something like a stax piece, I might make a deal with the other player(s) who is also being pestered by it to simply not attack me for a turn. Players are usually smart enough to recognize that its slowing you down too and might just refuse the deal, a "use it or lose it" sort of scenario. However I find that asking for something rather small like 'don't swing at me for one turn' can seem rather innocuous to the other players and worth it just to guarantee get the stax piece off the table, should they have any shadowing doubts that you can still progress your gameplan even with the stax piece on board. While innocuous this can allow you a window to make a greedy play like, throwing out extra value engines instead of putting out blockers or go out for a large swing, without worrying about crackback from the opponents you made a deal with. Sure it only saves a couple of damage from coming your way, and doesn't really stop people from sending removal your boardstate, but its almost like we added a miniature fog effect from a player or two's combat damage onto our removal piece. Another quick way is simply trying to be friendly and sociable with people, it is a game after all so making friends and having fun is part of the experience. And the more pleasant and likeable you seem to other players the more likely they will be to hit you with any small group-hug-like cards like 'Loran of the Third Path' when everyone's boards seem to be at even grounds.
There's a rule - or rather, a lack of rule - that is really helpful when it comes to making deals: it is not forbidden to reveal cards you have in hand. Want me to remove that pesky enchantment? Sure! For a small price of revealing your hand. Most opponents are not prepared for this sort of a request and don't know how to react so the very moment you say these words you force your opponent to disclose information; if they show you their hand you learn what kind of threats they've prepared, if they don't then surely they have something super nasty but they can't use that due to the board state, so the deal is probably not worth taking.
Politics can often be annoying to me in edh, so often people are so afraid of getting their commander removed that they make deals that literally throw the game. I’ve made it a point to make less deals myself, because it just feels weird that I, because of how I build my decks, can basically just threaten anyone when the think about removing my things, and they just cower and accept. Its exhausting.
I also especially dislike what I’ve come to call “hostage” deals, in which one player does the bidding of another who can obviously kill them whenever they feel like it. Or the other kind, where players threaten to throw the game by not removing the threat unless a deal is made. Neither really happens THAT often, because I run a lot of interaction, and am usually able to deal with the problem myself but still.
Our playgroup added a 1 turn limit on deals to avoid "I won't take you out if you don't touch my board until it's a 1v1" type deals and it has worked amazingly
Best deal I can recall was when I needed to get my Army through, playing Sauron, the Dark Lord. I had no good swings, because the Army was too massive but didn't have Trample. I needed to get through to draw a fresh hand, so I made a deal that if a player let me in for 1 point of damage, the massive Army wasn't coming their way.
Summed up a lot of my thoughts. I do like to tack on "feel free to say no" to most of my deals, just to remind them. Or if I see a "sugar on top" deal happening, I say "they are going to have to do that anyway/ Don't take the deal, we all want it gone"
I think one of the things I try to adhere to as well is the following when I make deals: Always make sure that whatever deal you're trying to make is one that people can't really afford to ignore. That's the way I typically counter any worries that the deal may be rejected. For example, I may be the only real way to manage the aggro player, so if I lose, it'll be a lot harder for them to stop that aggro player, and the rest of the table will crumble. I try to think of the table's dynamics before I make deals.
Really glad you made this. I tend to make deals a lot in my games and I see people call me cheap when I'm getting people on my side against a common threat. It's a skill just like any other and I hope videos like this make deals more common in the game.
My favorite deals to make are the ones where I am the one ahead of the table. I love twisting peoples arms into either bad or worse deals that they have no choice. I play the role of the bully with my friends 😂
I just added Guided Passage into my wubrg spellslinger deck. My idea was that even without politics, if I can copy it once or twice it's always good. Now I'm thinking with politics, and it seems that much better. Thanks!
Something very interesting to me is how my playgroup now actively plays poorly to not negotiate with me anymore. Last night, I played a nelly borca with like 6 mana untapped in my WBRG deck. I proposed my opponents drawing cards was good. I did not have a stellar board. But then the opponent directly after me. Attacked me. And attempted to kill every permanent I owned for the crime of offering cards to them. I held up my 6 mana for a reason, and warned that of it. So instead I stole their spells ans abilities and removed every permanent of theirs. Then the player after didn't attack at all despite only having two cards in their hand and a large enough creature to get the card. I have a reputation of leveraging politics however I don't understand why a card like nelly borca was treated in this way. What ended up happening is later, another player leveraged my general reputation to gang up other players against me, not based on my board or cards in hand. The game ultimately ended in a draw and went nowhere.
Probably won’t have a better time/place to share this story, so here goes: I was in a game earlier this week when it was just me, opponent A who had 15 life, and opponent B who had 30-something life (I forget the exact total, and it’s irrelevant anyhow). Opponent B used Nissa’s ultimate to make 2 8/8 fliers, of which opponent A could only block 1. They then tried to make a deal to get me to kill opponent A. I declined, because why would I get rid of the one thing keeping them occupied when I could just sit back and build my board back up. Opponent B decided then that the best course of action would be to kill me and then IMMEDIATELY scoop.
I used to be an overly political player (at the expense of my deckbuilding), though I feel like recently, I've overcorrected into being not that political at all. Part of it is because I play a lot of mean archetypes/commanders like Voja and Miirym where people won't negotiate with terrorists, but I also just find that games are more satisfying when I, and the rest of the table, play to the best of our ability. I sometimes get totally blindsided by an aggro player making a deal with a grindy value player not to attack them for X turns, then I'm left to handle them myself.
The thing is if you don't play with the same playgroup people will just lie, the only deals I Make all deals that benefit both parties in a quantitative way that they cannot lie about like drawing cards or Tudor effects
the main thing i take away from making deals is it can be super fun to get really specific with the deal you make, almost like a contract or something, it works well with the specifics of rules in magic and it can sometimes backfire but it means that you can only allow your opponents to take advantage of the one specific thing you have agreed to, obviously its not for every pod but if you're a fan of high power or just specific rules and stuff in general it can be fun. also i pretty much never take deals unless i need them, if im doing so-so im not going to take a deal that most likely will backfire, what they want out of the deal is usually worse than whats on board right now
Theres a certain feeling when you watch a player break a deal and the table goes silent. Sometimes I want to get popcorn as a new 1v1 sub game gets layered on the rest of the game, othertimes it's a very uncomfortable experience where I just want to leave...
Unfortunately, I am basically never in the position to do any negotiating. I like playing aggressive decks that put the whole table on a clock. Everyone else in my group likes to play slower, more controlling decks. I am almost always the player with the scariest board, often getting teamed up against to be stopped.
Politics are so broken in my play group. Everyone is hyper casual, but they get so wrapped up in their own gameplan that they don't even think to table talk. I'm no better. I don't even try to table talk because I'm stubborn and want to win all on my own. There is also a guy at my shop who views table politics as morally bad. To him, the idea of getting someone else to do something for you just because you asked, is morally manipulative and breaks the spirit of the game. I actually switched tables when they told me that. But no, I don't hate table talk, I just never really get the chance to use it. The only times I need to make a deal is when I'm already in the arch enemy situation. When your arch enemy, you don't get to make deals. And the few times the table has tried politics, it always results in someone getting mad and claiming that we are all plotting against them. They aren't deals, they are acts of treason.
One of my main goals outside winning would be to be the arch enemy of the table. I really want to 1v3 the table and win those odds a quarter of the time. So likely not a goal that fits well with deal making. Hahahaha
I know someone who's response to deals he's not a part of is to threaten punishment for whoever's being offered the deal, even if it doesn't benefit him.
Guided Passage is my favorite card I don't play. Unfortunately, against a pod of random Andys it's too much of a risk to choose the guy who will take 10 minutes to note every single card in the deck to make the most (un)optimal choice.
Is it fair everyone if I’ve reached my limit with my pod where I can be like…”So everyone. I CAN boardwipe to eliminate at least that overwhelming wide board/counter Omniscience/let you know the creature bouncing mill deck only has one bounce card 🙃 but what am 👉🏻I👈🏻 getting out of it? Games can take so long sometimes that if I’m gonna lose anyway ‘cause people can’t respect how I’ve helped them and scratch my back, why should I even? 🙄 I’m here for fun, but losing several games in a row isn’t necessarily that either Anyhoo, mini rant of a question over lol. Hope everyone has a peaceful day!
I love making deals and politicing but man, for whatever reason my POD just doesn't do it much. Player 2 is very passive and doesn't really do anything to anybody for the most part and so he doesn't really like to make deals and usually doesn't have a reason to make deals. He doesn't mind losing. He just exists. Player 3 is just oddly seemingly against it and will lose over making a deal usually. Finally Player 4 is stronger than any of us so rarely needs to make deals as he dominates games by himself anyways.
in 99% of the time a deal is bad for you, because your opponent is trying to play you. I inly play with the info given to me. Spite also falls in this category. "i destroy your creature, because you did so with mine" is one of the worst things to do. analyze the table and assess threats. so many players are very very bad at this. Here comes my way of 'politics' into play. I always point out threats on the table. I.e. I tell ppl to hit the izzet spellslinger early and hard. when we go to the lategame and all have even LP Izzet wins. What I can then let out are the threats I have. So basically I offer or even push my Knowledge of cards onto the table, so that the threat assessment is in my favour. This works rather badly against very experienced enemies, but here noone needs "deals" because everone can detect bad deals and isnt easily fooled. So imo deals trick unexperienced player into bad states and only work when everyone has a lot of knowledge. But at that point they get redundant and only very few deals are made. At least when everone is playing to win and not just doing shit for the giggles.
Please someone help me, I struggle with the part of with who I make a deal with In my playground I play with a Kroxa and Kunoros reanimator, my friends play Nekusar, Miiryn and a Hydra deck (i forgot the commander). Sometimes I feel like the dragons and hydras are a menace but the nekusar betrays me, when i reanimate a creature the other players get scared and almost always unite themselves to kill my creatures. After my threat is defeated they dont want to make a deal with me still scared of me reanimating my creatures and becoming a threat again. Do you have any tips? And how to deal when you stroke a deal with someone and now that person is the threat?
First of all, don't make deals you're gonna regret. Amnesty deals are a huge trap. Second, you should always keep the current thread in mind, and remind to opponents, who can play a removal. Third, keep interaction to last opportunity possible. Don't just throw removal to first good thing, you should keep them to things that actually will cause you to loose. Random good bodies will die in next boardvipe. But if you're bad at politics, you could also make your decks resilient. Have enough draw and ramp to play good things, and if your deck heavily relies on commander, include some protection
Take a look at the video "The Curse of Smol Bean Syndrome". The more swingy your deck is, the more threatening it will seem, even when it's not currently a real threat. Besides that, all you can do is have good threat assessment, point out the biggest threats, and hope that the other players have good threat assessment
Deals are the worst thing about EDH. I'd rather lose on my own merit than to accept assistance and "owe" someone credit for my victory. Some cards have politics built into them (fact or fiction) and that can't be helped, but I reject any and all deals.
My usual deal I offer is asking who wants to ramp, and then I reward the person that agrees first by using Imprisoned in the Moon on their commander. Lesson learned, be specific with deal terms!
There is no such thing as deals in EDH. Everyone at the table is your opponent, and there is only one winner. You cannot trust them, and they cannot trust you.
I think another important thing to note is you DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS. I’ve seen so many times where the person running away with the game bullies others into “fair deals” where the other player gets basically nothing, or where the person not-so-sneakily gets around the deal by mudding intention. If someone says they wont remove your commander, and they oubliette it instead “technically its still on the board” you have every right to retaliate and deny deals in the future. It is always a game at the end of the day, but I’ve seen people guilt trip others into essentially handing them the game over a “fair deal”
“If you block with Drannith Magistrate, I’ll stop attacking you”.
I remember when opponent played winter orb. I then attacked him for 10 as I don't have artifact removal. And he proceeds to remove his own winter orb
"The beatings will continue until X chump blocks" is one of my favorite type of deals
Some sins are unforgivable
"Ill take the damage"
@@tedm3081 lol
my favorite line is usually "who wants to be friends", not only because it gives me options, but because it causes the rest of the table to fight. A social goad, if you will.
In my group when we were starting out, we had someone say that in an equally malicious way. "wanna be friends? (good good, kill each other while I profiteer >:) )" After putting the board sideways at them in response, anyone that now wants to pull that has to make an actual convincing reason why I and the other aggro/stompy decks shouldn't pick you off as an easy target. Helped develop the table dynamic in a healthy way
If we’re at an LGS, I’ll usually respond with “Me! You seem like a swell guy/gal/person.”
Even tho I know they’re trying to win, I’ll always be friendly. EDH encourages that kind of behavior anyway, and I usually enjoy the people I’m playing with.
In my experience one deal making aspect that people ignore is that you have the stick as well as the carrot. “If you remove this I won’t attack you for a turn” and “if you don’t remove this I WILL attack you” get the same result, with one being a two-way deal and one just benefitting you. Threats are a form of deal that will definitely add to your win percentage if you stand on business and you’re making them at the right times
10/10 times I've seen people make deals like that, the person being 'threatened' just spite played in return and took the L to make sure the person making the 'threat' also lose.
correct play
I refuse to break any deals I make in commander.
One of my favorite decks I have is my casual Tayam deck and I have a mana gorger hydra in the deck.
One game I went to give it hexproof and someone was going to in response kill it so I went to make a deal with them that if he doesn't stop it I will Never attack him with it and he was fine with it but then someone else wanted to blow it up I made a deal with the whole table that as long as it doesn't leave the field it won't attack the rest of the game. they all accepted and it sat on the field as a battery for my deck to rip counters off of. Near the end of the game it came down to a 1v1 where if I attacked the guy with the hydra which was probably over a 50/50 at this point would kill him but I refused to since I made the deal and I lost the game because of it. it was still a fun game even though I lost.
If someone is playing with me and accepts a deal with me and then breaks it I will target them the rest of the game. I don't always play to win, I play to have fun and do the weird things this format lets me do. It's not hard to not break deals.
i use the word "fuck with" to get super broad in my deals
Wait so saying stuff like ‘Heyyy if someone wants to fuck with that god-pharoa statue I wont fuck with you for 2 turns’?
I love playing Guided Passage. People laugh and say like "I'll just pick the worse 3 cards in the deck", and then their expressions change when they realise there aren't bad cards to pick.
I believe my favorite deal I've ever made was when the big simic value player had a winning turn planned next turn but couldn't get rid of the indestructible platinum emperion another player had. so I offered to exile it on my turn but only if the simic guy wouldn't attack me on his turn. he tutored an avenger of zendikar with a finale of devastation. killed the other player. and on my turn I just played a massacre wurm and he took 16 damage because of it and won me the game.
I freak with Guided Passage. The floor is draw two of your least usable cards plus a tapped land, and in good decks that might not be so bad.
Long as your don’t play bad cards it’s fine! Though sometimes you could get a mana dork, ramp spell, and basic
My favorite deal is "I wont kill you this turn" and then proceed to cast time warp
And you are the reason I build to tank & kill the table instead of dealing with a**holes. My friend pulls that s*** and thinks he's cute but it's not. An infinite control loop of EVERYONE else's turns with no win con' other than, "fight amongst yourselves" while he auto jacks every f***ing turn ad infinium.
Nope, no, not even; everyone gets nuked, everyone gets duked, no schenadigans can transpire therefore.
If you’re playing blue and they let you get away with that specific wording, that’s on them honestly.
One of the best deals I ever made was to point out to the voltron player that if he swung and killed me, he'd die to the next player's attack, and promise that if he didn't attack me, I would kill said next player first. He took the deal, and then almost immediately regretted it when he realized too late that I never said I wouldn't kill them both. One of my favorite wins of all time.
See the issue with making deals and table politics is presuming that you are dealing with 3 intelligent beings...
and not 3 neurotic monkeys who violently react towards anything that might spook them including their own reflection from a foil card.
Checks out. Only monkeys would ever hang out with someone like you.
This, in a big way
😂
But the neurotic monkeys are the easiest players to manipulate once you learn their language
Have you played a lot of magic? That’s how I would describe most of the tables I sit at. 😂
I once had a game where I was playing a graveyard deck, and one of my opponents was playing aristocrats.
I had a stone of earch (opponents things get exiled instead of dying)
And they had their commander (opponents things get exiled instead of dying)
Since they needed their commander, and I was not going to sac the stone just to help them out, be basically strangled each other to death and did nothing.
0:13 seconds in and you've perfectly hit my sense of humor, have a like and comment.
At my lgs I always highlight people who make unclear deals/break them as the game starts. Partially because it means that people won’t give them free stuff and partially because it puts me in good standing when I mention threats or try to make deals of my own
I usually “auction” my buffs to whoever will give me the most turns of amnesty. When the board is balanced in nobody’s particular favor
Fun way to run a combat tricks deck.
8:00 Slightly off topic but remember you can even politic rule zeros at a table. When it comes to toxic/infect I rule zero that it has to be half of starting life instead of 10. Still strong and a threat but no longer kill on site.
5:50 this is exactly why I love my Francisco, Malcolm deck because these threats don't work against it because of all the counterspells the deck has available.
I've been getting a lot of mileage out of responding to deal offers with "I'll respond on my turn". It puts the player making the offer in the position of acting in good faith until then and gives me time to gather more information on their intent for offering the deal.
I don't make deals. I somehow bullsh*t my way into getting at least one or two opponents to leave me alone long enough that I'm able to become the threat at the right moment.
This includes a game with my Bladwing, Deathless Tyrant deck where I repeatedly rebuilt my boardstate via Bladewing's effect, somehow had 35 life, and even when this was pointed out to the table, was still left alone. I don't even think anyone was more threatening then me, I was just really good at BS.
I love Commander because of the deal making aspect, but I make it clear to everyone I make a deal with that I will never break a deal, and if you break a deal with me, I will never deal with you again. I stick by that, too: there are three players at my LGS that I will never make a deal with, because they went back on a deal they made with me. Trust is a fragile thing, and if you’re willing to lie to my face to win a casual card game, you’ve lost my trust. The only way I’d trust someone again is for them to apologize and promise not to break any deals again, and the consequence for breaking that promise is that I will quite literally not play with them anymore… or immediately target them in every game we get seated together at a local event.
This is a terrible take. The side-effect of deals is that you might be making one with the wrong person. That's called risk, and it could cost you the game. Maybe they keep the deal next time. Also, you can't expect someone to keep a deal even if it causes them to lose the game. That would be dumb.
@@Arctanis-vt3hl I see where you're coming from, but I believe you're thinking about it the wrong way. You're right that deals are almost always risky, and that they can cost you the game, but THAT'S the risk: that you make a deal that ends up benefiting your opponent more. The risk should NEVER be "Haha, I lied, now I win". It's a social format, and meaning that social constructs are in play, and lying has consequences!
The risk you're talking about is in the nature of the deals you're making and accepting: you should NEVER offer or accept a deal you aren't willing to abide by, it destroys your credibility and any future willingness of your opponents to make deals with you in future games. Deals that you should NOT be making are things like long term Ceasefires or alliances: deals in Commander should be tit for tat, short and sweet, so that the deal is over before too much has changed on the boardstate that would force one player to choose between breaking the deal and losing the game. "I'll remove that unblockable creature attacking you for lethal if you don't swing any of your creatures at me next turn", or "I'll counter that boardwipe if you don't remove my Commander next turn." These are the kind of deals that lead to fun and interactive gameplay. If the deals you're making are forcing you or your opponent to choose between upholding the deal and losing the game, then the deal probably never should've been accepted, because it was never beneficial to both parties.
I love Guided Passage! It’s so easy to include in Landfall decks with those colours since you want the land, plus there’s a high chance that the other choices will be ramp/payoffs to playing lands since it’s such a build-around theme.
One of my favourite cards to use for making deals is Head Games. I have maybe occasionally used it to give the player who's ahead a hand full of lands (especially if I know they have a combo in hand), but more often than not I'll use it on someone who's struggling, give them some cards that I think would be interesting for the game, or even conditionally giving them certain answers for specific problems that I don't mind helping them get rid of.
That how my janky Kenrith deck wins. I give you counters, I draw cards. I stop boardwipes, you dont attack me, and then suddenly, I'm beating the entire table to death with their own creatures.
I was playing commander with some of my friends that just started magic. I casted wishclaw and asked who else wants it. The only thing I asked was for them to give it back. One guy said yes so I passed it to him. When it was his turn, he activated it and asked what if he didn't give it back. I told him that ruling wise, there was nothing stopping him from giving it to someone else. But I reminded him we did make a contract. He then proceeds to say that it was a verbal one and that we didn't shake on it. He then passed the wishclaw to an opponent that tutored up a removal for one of my card.
I will never make a deal with him again. Any and all future deals are off the table. I rather lose a commander game than go back on my word.
Also, I don't enjoy grammar lawyering. It goes against the nature of the deal. We made a deal where we both benefit and you turn around and stab me in the back due to some loophole. I understand you want to deal in technicality but it's actively deceitful and disrespectful.
This is why I only run Wishclaw Talisman in Aminatou who can flicker it back to my side.
Would you blame the person you’re attacking for blocking with something you forgot to factor in? No. Making deals that have no assurances or anti-loophole language is a buyer beware moment.
That said, the guy in your example was being a jerk, but nothing to be upset about. But same, I wouldn’t make deals with him going forward.
@@maximillianhallett3055 I'm not a fan of gotcha language, as mentioned on top. Kills the spirit of the deal and makes every deal a linguistic check to "cover all bases". But I'm not too upset since he is a friend and I still play commander with him. But no more future deals.
5:53 - the best piece of removal is the one you don't have to cast
people usually just make deals WITH the arch enemy not to kill them, and they'll remove my blockers or something. "its ok i like second place"
after those games i hate politics with a passion lmao
I think that's attacking the wrong party here
If you have a stable playgroup, those are the games where you start considering building a deck full of Wall of Shards, Varchild's War-Riders, Sheltering Ancient, Loran of the Thrid Path, the Haunted cycle etc. and just playing for 2nd place from the beginning, aren't they? :P
It's a fair play if you want another turn to find an out, but flat out kingmaking is kinda cringe
Isn't that almost like kingmaking?
to me, politics is always some sort of kingmaking, usually 2 people team up and cuck the other players to benefit eachother. and just take the coinflip on whos gonna win.
I love scheming symmetry in my Sidar Knights deck. You can let the player most behind get a card for many reasons, and then I get to immediately draw my choice during Sidar’s eminence ability. And it looks like jesters so it gets some medieval era knight theme points
I don't know that I have ever made a deal in commander. I'll point out when I think something needs to go and maybe say I'll hold off on targeting people in order to address the threat, but once we are getting into terms and conditions I am out. Pretty much always a deal ends up benefiting one person more than the other and I would just rather not deal with that. Would it improve my win rate to do it? Probably. I just don't like to do it.
There's also not many cards that really encourage politics. I don't see too many cards that say things like target player draws or gets something out of grave. Mostly just removal and some buffs
This is an excellent thumbnail. Your little production additions are very enjoyable.
Thanks but I actually don’t make those. My artist friend who made my avatar does! Link to her stuff in the description!
@@thetrinketmage your video production has been higher recently too. You kinda distanced yourself from the snail style video. I like it.
6:29, I see this with aetherflux reservoir, the life gain player will be at like 60 and say “if anyone messes with my artifact, I’ll kill them” they can’t take out three players, so it’s actually not a bad idea to call that bluff, and if they aren’t bluffing it’s not a mistake they usually make twice
"I won't block" can be a very good way of getting something you want especially with a fog effect in hand
Though I use it sparingly to avoid every game action being a contract negotiation (and to make it less obvious to the opponents when I'm doing it), I always like to try and milk a little bit more value out of my cards that I was going to cast anyways that might help other players. Like if I'm being pestered by something like a stax piece, I might make a deal with the other player(s) who is also being pestered by it to simply not attack me for a turn.
Players are usually smart enough to recognize that its slowing you down too and might just refuse the deal, a "use it or lose it" sort of scenario. However I find that asking for something rather small like 'don't swing at me for one turn' can seem rather innocuous to the other players and worth it just to guarantee get the stax piece off the table, should they have any shadowing doubts that you can still progress your gameplan even with the stax piece on board. While innocuous this can allow you a window to make a greedy play like, throwing out extra value engines instead of putting out blockers or go out for a large swing, without worrying about crackback from the opponents you made a deal with. Sure it only saves a couple of damage from coming your way, and doesn't really stop people from sending removal your boardstate, but its almost like we added a miniature fog effect from a player or two's combat damage onto our removal piece.
Another quick way is simply trying to be friendly and sociable with people, it is a game after all so making friends and having fun is part of the experience. And the more pleasant and likeable you seem to other players the more likely they will be to hit you with any small group-hug-like cards like 'Loran of the Third Path' when everyone's boards seem to be at even grounds.
There's a rule - or rather, a lack of rule - that is really helpful when it comes to making deals: it is not forbidden to reveal cards you have in hand.
Want me to remove that pesky enchantment? Sure! For a small price of revealing your hand. Most opponents are not prepared for this sort of a request and don't know how to react so the very moment you say these words you force your opponent to disclose information; if they show you their hand you learn what kind of threats they've prepared, if they don't then surely they have something super nasty but they can't use that due to the board state, so the deal is probably not worth taking.
Politics can often be annoying to me in edh, so often people are so afraid of getting their commander removed that they make deals that literally throw the game. I’ve made it a point to make less deals myself, because it just feels weird that I, because of how I build my decks, can basically just threaten anyone when the think about removing my things, and they just cower and accept. Its exhausting.
I also especially dislike what I’ve come to call “hostage” deals, in which one player does the bidding of another who can obviously kill them whenever they feel like it. Or the other kind, where players threaten to throw the game by not removing the threat unless a deal is made. Neither really happens THAT often, because I run a lot of interaction, and am usually able to deal with the problem myself but still.
Our playgroup added a 1 turn limit on deals to avoid "I won't take you out if you don't touch my board until it's a 1v1" type deals and it has worked amazingly
Best deal I can recall was when I needed to get my Army through, playing Sauron, the Dark Lord.
I had no good swings, because the Army was too massive but didn't have Trample.
I needed to get through to draw a fresh hand, so I made a deal that if a player let me in for 1 point of damage, the massive Army wasn't coming their way.
Summed up a lot of my thoughts. I do like to tack on "feel free to say no" to most of my deals, just to remind them. Or if I see a "sugar on top" deal happening, I say "they are going to have to do that anyway/ Don't take the deal, we all want it gone"
I used to enjoy politics but now rarely engage in them anymore unless there’s somebody who is clearly ahead.
The thumbnail is iconic
Scheming Symmetry is a bit outside my budget just to try but guided passage might go great in one or two decks I have and it's dirt cheap.
Guided passage looks hilarious, thank you for showing me that card 😂
I think one of the things I try to adhere to as well is the following when I make deals:
Always make sure that whatever deal you're trying to make is one that people can't really afford to ignore. That's the way I typically counter any worries that the deal may be rejected. For example, I may be the only real way to manage the aggro player, so if I lose, it'll be a lot harder for them to stop that aggro player, and the rest of the table will crumble. I try to think of the table's dynamics before I make deals.
Really glad you made this. I tend to make deals a lot in my games and I see people call me cheap when I'm getting people on my side against a common threat. It's a skill just like any other and I hope videos like this make deals more common in the game.
I just target the person who is good at making deals first if the game is at parity.
@@Yangblaze11 that's me 😭
My favorite deals to make are the ones where I am the one ahead of the table. I love twisting peoples arms into either bad or worse deals that they have no choice. I play the role of the bully with my friends 😂
Nobody wants to break a deal, everyone wants to find a loophole. Word accordingly!
This rules. I love this angle
Guided passage is so f'in good. Got it in my Animar deck which only has like 5 non-creatures.
"no hitty if you no touch my stuff" - Krugg, master dealmaker
The nim deathmantle shout out. I love that card
Guided Passage is my favorite spell in all of commander, I don't generally even make deals, I just view it as a selective draw 3
I think my favorite deck to play is Ms Bumbleflower, and that is a crazy deck for making deals
I run all the hunted cards in my behind group hug deck and they are awesome
I just added Guided Passage into my wubrg spellslinger deck. My idea was that even without politics, if I can copy it once or twice it's always good. Now I'm thinking with politics, and it seems that much better. Thanks!
Sneak in a spicy jesters mask for the ultimate gamble. "I'll give you an otk hand as long as you don't kill me"
Something very interesting to me is how my playgroup now actively plays poorly to not negotiate with me anymore. Last night, I played a nelly borca with like 6 mana untapped in my WBRG deck. I proposed my opponents drawing cards was good. I did not have a stellar board. But then the opponent directly after me. Attacked me. And attempted to kill every permanent I owned for the crime of offering cards to them. I held up my 6 mana for a reason, and warned that of it. So instead I stole their spells ans abilities and removed every permanent of theirs.
Then the player after didn't attack at all despite only having two cards in their hand and a large enough creature to get the card.
I have a reputation of leveraging politics however I don't understand why a card like nelly borca was treated in this way. What ended up happening is later, another player leveraged my general reputation to gang up other players against me, not based on my board or cards in hand. The game ultimately ended in a draw and went nowhere.
I like striking deals with low health players to "not attack them", then play a burn spell to finish them off xD
Probably won’t have a better time/place to share this story, so here goes:
I was in a game earlier this week when it was just me, opponent A who had 15 life, and opponent B who had 30-something life (I forget the exact total, and it’s irrelevant anyhow). Opponent B used Nissa’s ultimate to make 2 8/8 fliers, of which opponent A could only block 1. They then tried to make a deal to get me to kill opponent A. I declined, because why would I get rid of the one thing keeping them occupied when I could just sit back and build my board back up. Opponent B decided then that the best course of action would be to kill me and then IMMEDIATELY scoop.
I used to be an overly political player (at the expense of my deckbuilding), though I feel like recently, I've overcorrected into being not that political at all. Part of it is because I play a lot of mean archetypes/commanders like Voja and Miirym where people won't negotiate with terrorists, but I also just find that games are more satisfying when I, and the rest of the table, play to the best of our ability. I sometimes get totally blindsided by an aggro player making a deal with a grindy value player not to attack them for X turns, then I'm left to handle them myself.
The thing is if you don't play with the same playgroup people will just lie, the only deals I Make all deals that benefit both parties in a quantitative way that they cannot lie about like drawing cards or Tudor effects
You do need to watch out for randos lying it sucks
the main thing i take away from making deals is it can be super fun to get really specific with the deal you make, almost like a contract or something, it works well with the specifics of rules in magic and it can sometimes backfire but it means that you can only allow your opponents to take advantage of the one specific thing you have agreed to, obviously its not for every pod but if you're a fan of high power or just specific rules and stuff in general it can be fun. also i pretty much never take deals unless i need them, if im doing so-so im not going to take a deal that most likely will backfire, what they want out of the deal is usually worse than whats on board right now
6:22 THE ONE PIECE!!!! THE ONE PIECE IS REAL!!!!!!!!!
Theres a certain feeling when you watch a player break a deal and the table goes silent. Sometimes I want to get popcorn as a new 1v1 sub game gets layered on the rest of the game, othertimes it's a very uncomfortable experience where I just want to leave...
Unfortunately, I am basically never in the position to do any negotiating. I like playing aggressive decks that put the whole table on a clock. Everyone else in my group likes to play slower, more controlling decks. I am almost always the player with the scariest board, often getting teamed up against to be stopped.
I love Head Games.
Tutor an opponent a new hand
Politics are so broken in my play group. Everyone is hyper casual, but they get so wrapped up in their own gameplan that they don't even think to table talk. I'm no better. I don't even try to table talk because I'm stubborn and want to win all on my own. There is also a guy at my shop who views table politics as morally bad. To him, the idea of getting someone else to do something for you just because you asked, is morally manipulative and breaks the spirit of the game. I actually switched tables when they told me that.
But no, I don't hate table talk, I just never really get the chance to use it. The only times I need to make a deal is when I'm already in the arch enemy situation. When your arch enemy, you don't get to make deals.
And the few times the table has tried politics, it always results in someone getting mad and claiming that we are all plotting against them. They aren't deals, they are acts of treason.
Lowkey I think deals should create temporary emblems that have exact wording and enforce the deal.
One of my main goals outside winning would be to be the arch enemy of the table. I really want to 1v3 the table and win those odds a quarter of the time. So likely not a goal that fits well with deal making. Hahahaha
I know someone who's response to deals he's not a part of is to threaten punishment for whoever's being offered the deal, even if it doesn't benefit him.
Great video
Love the intro :^)
What if my opponents (Evan) wants 2nd place?
You forgot to mention that there are people agreeing to deals and then not upholding them.
Shoutout to my most consistent good play, Secret Rendezvous.
Guided Passage is my favorite card I don't play. Unfortunately, against a pod of random Andys it's too much of a risk to choose the guy who will take 10 minutes to note every single card in the deck to make the most (un)optimal choice.
I hate to admit that person might be me. But at least I can sort through a deck quickly
Have you seen the Iron Man leak? bauble tribal anyone?
Is it fair everyone if I’ve reached my limit with my pod where I can be like…”So everyone. I CAN boardwipe to eliminate at least that overwhelming wide board/counter Omniscience/let you know the creature bouncing mill deck only has one bounce card 🙃 but what am 👉🏻I👈🏻 getting out of it?
Games can take so long sometimes that if I’m gonna lose anyway ‘cause people can’t respect how I’ve helped them and scratch my back, why should I even? 🙄 I’m here for fun, but losing several games in a row isn’t necessarily that either
Anyhoo, mini rant of a question over lol. Hope everyone has a peaceful day!
Love it
I play stella. No one wants to make a deal with the person holding a gun to the table lol.
I love making deals and politicing but man, for whatever reason my POD just doesn't do it much. Player 2 is very passive and doesn't really do anything to anybody for the most part and so he doesn't really like to make deals and usually doesn't have a reason to make deals. He doesn't mind losing. He just exists. Player 3 is just oddly seemingly against it and will lose over making a deal usually. Finally Player 4 is stronger than any of us so rarely needs to make deals as he dominates games by himself anyways.
The art of making deals for cards that later get banned.
I’m so good at politics that the regular players at the lgs I go to generally ignore it.
You can tell by my win loss ratio that I’m not a very good negotiator
I have a player at my group that I don’t make deals with anymore. He screwed me over so bad twice in the same game and I’m too petty to let it go. 😂😭
woot new video
in 99% of the time a deal is bad for you, because your opponent is trying to play you. I inly play with the info given to me. Spite also falls in this category. "i destroy your creature, because you did so with mine" is one of the worst things to do. analyze the table and assess threats. so many players are very very bad at this. Here comes my way of 'politics' into play. I always point out threats on the table. I.e. I tell ppl to hit the izzet spellslinger early and hard. when we go to the lategame and all have even LP Izzet wins. What I can then let out are the threats I have. So basically I offer or even push my Knowledge of cards onto the table, so that the threat assessment is in my favour. This works rather badly against very experienced enemies, but here noone needs "deals" because everone can detect bad deals and isnt easily fooled.
So imo deals trick unexperienced player into bad states and only work when everyone has a lot of knowledge. But at that point they get redundant and only very few deals are made. At least when everone is playing to win and not just doing shit for the giggles.
I never negotiate. I extort.
good video :)
nice try woke liberal, you cant force me to socialize with people
Please someone help me, I struggle with the part of with who I make a deal with
In my playground I play with a Kroxa and Kunoros reanimator, my friends play Nekusar, Miiryn and a Hydra deck (i forgot the commander). Sometimes I feel like the dragons and hydras are a menace but the nekusar betrays me, when i reanimate a creature the other players get scared and almost always unite themselves to kill my creatures. After my threat is defeated they dont want to make a deal with me still scared of me reanimating my creatures and becoming a threat again.
Do you have any tips? And how to deal when you stroke a deal with someone and now that person is the threat?
First of all, don't make deals you're gonna regret. Amnesty deals are a huge trap.
Second, you should always keep the current thread in mind, and remind to opponents, who can play a removal.
Third, keep interaction to last opportunity possible. Don't just throw removal to first good thing, you should keep them to things that actually will cause you to loose. Random good bodies will die in next boardvipe.
But if you're bad at politics, you could also make your decks resilient. Have enough draw and ramp to play good things, and if your deck heavily relies on commander, include some protection
Take a look at the video "The Curse of Smol Bean Syndrome".
The more swingy your deck is, the more threatening it will seem, even when it's not currently a real threat. Besides that, all you can do is have good threat assessment, point out the biggest threats, and hope that the other players have good threat assessment
@@Raghetiel Thank you! I'll try to put some of the tips that you said in practice in my next games!
@@FasFas160 Thanks, I'll try to watch the video! I really need to improve my threat assesment, especially when I'm the threat
LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Deals are the worst thing about EDH. I'd rather lose on my own merit than to accept assistance and "owe" someone credit for my victory. Some cards have politics built into them (fact or fiction) and that can't be helped, but I reject any and all deals.
0k hanb on a moment, how tf did you negotiate a better deal at a fast food place, we need answers
My friend tries to use politics every turn/game. Just let me hit you with my 2/2 it's only turn 4!
9:20
My usual deal I offer is asking who wants to ramp, and then I reward the person that agrees first by using Imprisoned in the Moon on their commander. Lesson learned, be specific with deal terms!
My best deal this year was paying 120$ for a useless card
real gigachads make 0 deals and just swing
There is no such thing as deals in EDH. Everyone at the table is your opponent, and there is only one winner. You cannot trust them, and they cannot trust you.
ngl politics are why i quit edh
First