Commander Players Are Losing Their Creativity...Here's Why! | Deck Driver MTG React 

For the love of god Shaf, let people finish making their point, *then* comment on it. For all the nitpicking you did about OP not using Scryfall images to remove the white corners, *this* tendency to pause the video in the middle of someone's argument is SO MUCH WORSE.

Stop telling people your going to reach across the table and "smack them" for playing farewell. We both know your not going to do A DAMN THING.

Lol im your opposite. I still wish we could get a thoughtseize that says look at each opponents hand a make em discard a card.

This aged great! (Lookin at you Dockside)

Everyone doesn’t have the same concept of what is “fun.” Personally, I like playing with broken; powerful cards and against them as well. CEDH is the ultimate equalizer. No power level discussion. Play what you want to play. The format is blowing up. There are HUGE tournaments with HUGE prizes. I’ve never seen a format with so many viable deck types. There’s no less than 40-50 commander combinations that can win a tournament with hundreds of entries. There’s so many ways to play THE SAME commander and have them be competitive. Dude; here’s an idea for anyone annoyed by good cards: play better Magic. Play removal. Play answers. Btw, monoblue Urza stax is a midrange deck that is busted when a good pilot is running the deck and mulligans correctly. (Sans polymorph/proteus staff).

The amount of cash you have should never be a gatekeeper to the fun you want to have in EDH. Proxy that stuff!!

Magic Players Enjoy Gathering CHALLENGE: LEVEL IMPOSSIBLE. Seriously... Like how do we have people saying simultaneously "It's your responsibility to have fun" And "If a game goes more than an hour you've failed" Improve your table talk

I think the point is that there is a point where decks have way too many synergy pieces and not enough enablers/interaction to allow for the main strategy to actually consistently happen. And a lot of decks are being built that way.

I will point out something that isn't cleared out with tempo vs midrange. Tempo, as the name implies is closer to aggro than Midrange. An example is Midrange will focus on grinding people down with card advantage, while Tempo uses cards that actively buys time to win. Also, the context matters in terms of what cards acts as what. In EDH, what we concider one-for-one, is not, but rather a tempo play. So Counterspell in edh focuses on one players spell and you sacrifice one of your cards to handle it while two others have not trades any cards, that is very much in line with a tempo play. But what you focus on trading is mana, this is different from midrange. Fleshbag Marouder is a midrange card, because you usually trade one-for-one with everyone and if you've build your deck correctly, you might gain something else in return. Cyclonic Rift is tempo (and a win condition), In Garruks Wake is Midrange. Now, the harder part to differentiate is Control vs Midrange, but I've already typed long enough

I love Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe but besides my favorite deck they don’t really see any other play. What I have started to do is include them ONLY in decks where they provide more synergy or excell at what they already do. Such as Rhystic Study in the new Aminatou as it’s an enchantment but also lets me draw my first card on all my opponents turns potentially enabling miracle. Or Smothering Tithe in MoM Helios because I literally want my opponents to draw cards. This lets me use these cool cards but they don’t feel like just dead no brain includes, they actually feel like they fit with the rest of the deck.

You mention "giving these videos their place in the algorithm", but you reacted to this video 4 days ago and it's stuck at 11k. You say "watch it for 30 seconds" as if that isn't going to tank the OP's retention stats? Have you considered that your reaction content doesn't help the original video at all? It's easier to argue it's a net negative, especially when your video uses almost the exact same Thumbnail? I had to reach out to you about this when you reacted to my content - sad to see you doing it again to another creator.

well : / my favorite Commander Deck(Teysa Karlov) is such a type of deck but these, value cards like Smothering tithe are also part of a sub theme, for example, Smothering tithe plus Revel in riches or a huge X spell like Debt to the deathless. along with the typical low budget token stuff you normally play with Teysa Karlov. I just love to sit back and build my board while others try do get their gameplan going, the difference with my deck is a board wipe turns into a win con thanks to a lot of Blood Artist type of effects. Tbh in my opinion the worst way to play magic is control versus control, because you wait for your opponent to do something but the dont do much as they rely on you doing stuff. This is less of a problem in commander but still a thing at times.

Commander really needs more vocabulary around what most board games will call a “development phase”. It’s obvious that commander players want a slower game in which creative expression can be nestled into gameplay. It’s basically a requirement that players need some time to spend resources on something other than not dying.

Why random commie ramble in middle of video? Freedom of speech is good. Is dude Canadian or something

These problems are exactly why people should be playing REGULAR MAGIC not commander. And guess what all these problems go away

Sadly I am too stupid to build decks. And any creativity I do have is never practical, and never works. So. Yea, there ya go. Still love commander though. I am unable to build win conditions not matter what I learn, what I try to do.

It is because the constructed decks...in highlander back in time we build our decks by ourselfs!

Problem is, the first MF in the playgroup to put a rhystic stydy in hia deck, creates the need to power creep

Guys just play build how you want. Trying to make random strangers happy in edh is disastrous on your own well being. Dont let others dictate what makes you happy. You dont need their permission. Best example is the "farewell play" if your opponent smacks you and rips your card, you respond accordingly..

I'm kind of on board with the guy in the video but not there all the way yet. Still putting like 10+ ramp sources but maybe that's the price to pay when you just want one or two super early... I'm finding in my decks if it's not turn 1/2 mana rocks and ramp are usually dead to me. Have way better things to spend on. I have a mono-white deck that had smothering tithe but turn 4 was always like a hot turn with a lot of strong 3-4 mana plays that improve my standing a bunch. I just never used it Swapped it with a land tax and when i get that turn 1 and just gut all the land from my deck making every draw fire while never missing a land drop... Oh man it feels so good Don't think I'm good at it yet but keeping up constant threat forcing everyone to keep up or die durdling. It makes the game outright exciting

I see to many people go all in on their commander strategy and build solely around it but they have no protection or removal or ramp or draw etc so if they don't open a perfect hand every game they are constantly playing from behind like their commander gets taken out and now they can't afford the cost to recast it and their board does nothing else without it or the slightest breeze of interaction from an opponent stops them because they have nothing to catch up. You got 99 slots there's plenty of room to run removal and draw or a few alternative win con or 2.

I think its kinda weird that people try to dictate whats "fun" or how someone should build their decks. Edh philosophy is abstract. What you consider a "proper edh" may not be for others. This constant trying to tell others how to play is weird.

shaf i actually don't always disagree with your points or with your delivery (it's zoomerpilled bc it has to be but I get that there's an attention war on) but goodness golly gosh who in the world "reacts" to a video without at least linking it in the description Please, for the love of god, actually cite your source. It's not a matter of credit, it's obvious that deckdriver made an actual video and you just reposted it with you talking over it loudly, but simply tagging someone is Not Enough on youtube. Cite. Your. Source. The Source. Not the writer, director, editor, publisher, whatever, but the ACTUAL source. The LINK that YOU clicked when preparing to "make" this "video" ffs

When mine group started with commander by buy of precons and play for start in this form we invite openly anybody but in 30% of situation they bring printed biger power and dont mention it in converzation so they ofenly win and we start on basec individualy take it to print in own decks to break them faster thean they can us what lead to sort of cold war and for one year to ban proxy, than we reconsider why we let anybody push as to unconfort zones and give us rule of not prin more than 5% - 10% of deck and evry body neeed to show what they print and some body when we are already big group go to pay over the good card. So we at end go for CEDH with no limit on print or buy and is most clean form.

Because creating passive value is good in a multiplayer game? Passive value just gives me more resources freely that I can use as answers or threats. Sure, you can slap attackers down and commit resources to the board, that's great, but the cards you play should generate some kind of value either standalone or synergy wise and provide hand recovery because you know good players play removal and will deal with them.

Honestly imo dual commander has a pretty good ban list from what I've seen. Commander should be more competitive for tournament scenes which is called cedh, but should edh just have a ban list ready for cedh players and any causal commander player can just rule zero? Or does this all make everything complicated for players over all?

The video you watching just made me feel Hella self conscious about my decks lol I run anointed procession and smothering tith in my caesar legions emperor. He has an ability that drains off of creature token count. I run purpheros and impact tremors along with mayhem devil and mirkwood bats which I feel has synergies with my deck. It's strategies focused. It's actually taking work to put all these pieces on the board while your drawing attention. I actually don't like cards like torment of hellfire. I find that I see people just throwing in torment to dump all their mana in a deck with no synergy. I think the best reason not to run the cards he's mentioning is you can probably draw less attention to yourself by substituting a staple.

@ThatMillGuy, first of all I would like to say I like your content. May I ask you a favor though? Can you edit or tailor your videos so that if you are reviewing other creators videos so that their screens are unobstructed and that you don't talk while you're playing a video in the background? It makes it hard to focus on what is happening and detracts from the overall enjoyment and learning experience. Thank you for your consideration.

I play mono green elves pretty exclusively in EDH. Feels like bro is trying to call me out specifically. I interact a bit and build up an army of dinky 1/1’s all game, then somewhere between turn 4 and 6 I pop off and either draw a ton of cards or win. However, I seem to win a lot more than 25% of the time, so I dunno. Aggro decks, in my experience, seem to give the illusion of doing something while actually not doing anything. They’ll put out early threats and knock down life totals a little, but in my experience that just makes it easier for a deck like mine to win over the aggro deck. Also how is stuff like Shamanic Revelation “win more”? It’s just a good, board state conditional card draw spell. Even when it pops off and I draw like 30 cards, it’s usually to dig for a wincon.

foreshadowing

The only time im farewelling late in the game is in my planeswalker deck, when i have a bunch on the field and they are either being threatened, or close to ulting

I'm not sorry, with the amount or ward and target removal protection, I'm boardwiping to prevent my loss as often as to get the win.... Defence wins games

Definitely disagree on rishkars expertise as a win more card one big creature doesn’t mean you’re head. I used it last night to come up from behind.

If you’re playing the cards in the thumbnail outside of high power/cedh, you’re playing the wrong format. Be creative.

Hi, friend of deck driver here, and can I just say uhhhh, WHAT THE FUCK THIS WAS A MASSIVE TRIP SEEING THIS SHOW UP IN MY FEED

What creativity? Netdecking from EDHRec is the opposite of being creative.

Just play Duel Commander but in a 4-player table. It's way more exciting.

Ironically mill is the easiest faceroll archetype. The deck literally builds itself.

I paid for those cards, so im playing those cards. But i do like the 1 land spy deck you play

8:00 that is my exact philosophy with Sol Ring

Not being able to say gun is ridiculous and shows how ridiculous YT is

Confirmed I will not be playing Dockside

Good thing I didn’t play dockside anyways, dodged a bullet

I’ve wanted a deck like this 😂 can I get that Decklist, my dude?

5 million dollars with a dividend rate of 4.25 is 200k a year.

good video but i like dinosaur too much to not play midrange

Idk, you cut them to be "creative" and then you never win

Love your content, exp the shorts. Keep it up man!

This guy a bully and dont realize it😂

Not going to lie, I do have a Rhystic Study and Damnation on standby for my Gisa and Geralf Tribal as an assist. In their places, I prefer Acererak and Unbreathing Horde, but I will bring out Rhystic Study and Damnation in case I need them. The issue, I think, is people see these cards listed as "staples" and think "OH, I NEED TO GET THOSE AND ADD EM, THOSE ARE MUST HAVES!"

The truth is, and its not only with card games, but it is all a race to the bottom. Basically unless its a tightly controlled ecosystem (ie. Fighting Games, Chess) every single human endeavor will break down along these lines. Things will get faster, more optimized, more dependant on the variables that the fewest people have/luck. Playing stables become necessary until there is: a) a point system introduced which will min/max which how they spend their points or b) a budget limit which will do the same. Also, if you want to say that "freedom of speech is not freedom from consequence" is a very silly thing to say because it authorizes the use of force due to whatever your perception is. Is saying that you should hurt someone who says something you don't like make it so they can strike first in self-defense? How about don't hurt people?

29:32 for context, he build combat trick centric Xyris and i think his win con is commander dmg. I believe what he is trying to say is that instead of runnin all these "value" card, he would prefer to pour more resources towards interaction. In general,i think he is just trying to preach the deck philosophy of being "interactive + creatively synergistic", like most other youtuber in the same genre. It's fine to have well-oiled machine but I think some of us would prefer the other side of the coin, which is just having clunky glass canon that sometimes work and blow up in our own faces most of the time.

Many of these cards require context. For example, the average token deck doesn't necessarily need Doubling Season. However, a superfriends deck where you slam the Doubling Season, then every Planeswalker ever is often times a winning strategy. Besides, with the exception of dedicated aggro strategies, such as Zada, you're going to need some mid range pieces to help you along. I get the idea that too much value isn't useful after a point. Yet, value will often allow you to stabilize and re-engage your strategy. It's all a balancing act that most people aren't willing to engage with properly.

Half of the examples he listed for “win more” cards are accelerators when used properly. The Elenda/Annointed Procession example, if you have something like Phyrexian altar out you can sacrifice the tokens to make mana and +1 counters, sac elenda, then make a bunch of tokens and recast elenda. Eventually the tax will outpace the tokens you’re making, unless you have anointed procession which doubles the tokens and now you’re turning a couple tokens and elenda into infinite scaling tokens and counters… The problem is not including these cards, it’s using them only for value generation and not progressing the game. A smothering tithe by itself doesn’t do anything but tax your opponents’ card draw, but if you start forcing opponents to draw cards and then ramping a ton as a result which then lets you cast a big X spell for example. These are not “do nothing” or “win more” cards, they are enablers. Use the enablers to enable something, not to generate incidental value from just existing… that’s where those issues come from

I run a BIG EXPENSIVE Commander in Godo, Bandit Warlord; however, I also built the deck to be able to win as early as turn 1, turn 2 to 5 usually, but ALSO able to run a Stax plan

For creativity purposes I love a deck that can pull together a game plan with common's, uncommon's and some bulk rare's and mythic's. It is too often people will just play good cards that on their own can take over a game. However, if your crazy good cards becomes answered then it feels like a slog to get to the next best card, but when you have a build that has redundancy that can run off with a game, it generally takes more than just some spot removal to stop it and it feels creative because your not using the cards everyone else is and it becomes fun and cheaper.

Well people want it to be switched up! Ok so nothing is fun to play against, seeing as most of my play styles where pointed out I guess I may as well full send it! Kaalia land destruction it is!

Why have a ban list in the first place when they don't ban problematic cards? Just let every card be legal and allow playgroups to manage their own local ban list.

Also yeah... Tempo and Mid Range are the same term... In 1 v 1 they are both decks dedicated to going 1 for 1 on removal while you have a pressure piece just horfing the board... The Iconic Midrange/Tempo state is "X creature has become The Abyss" which means it's swallowing 1 or 2 threats per turn.

Smothering tithe+ soldevi sentry+ mindslaver is one of my ways to kill an opponent Group hug gotta win somehow

I run snakeskin viel in marwyn for the protection but also because it boosts her power which makes more mana

Combat damage

Daily content, while I'm sure isn't easy, is much appreciated, keep up the grind brotha!

Glad I have your videos to help entertain me on my rides home from work. Keep up the good work 🎉

To my knowledge, WotC doesn't allow premium stores to allow proxies in any format if they are running the event?

24:17 okay, i feel called out on a lot of those picks 😅. I have a marwyn the nurterer deck that runs basically all those green card draw spells 😂😂😂

Scryfall is king

This is just a video for you to vent after losing in commander night. Buck up n build some more decks

Fruit Monsters TCG players are still creative!

Why are you pulling out politics arguments, just talk game. You are wasting yours and ours time when we just wanna watch some magic, and not politics metaphors, but now I learned many of them

I can't agree with your take around 21:00. Why shouldn't you cast a boardwipe late game? I don't understand why people should stop fighting for a win, just because a game is already going on for 1 or 1.5 hours. Is magic not fun for you anymore after your 10th turn? Do you only want to play the early game turns?

21:02 into the video😂😂

21:12 this is a WHAT now sir?

For more about this sort of theory, check out Salubrious Snail's "Snail's Guide to Winning an EDH Game"