Completed, then Yeeted: The Curse of One-Time Decks | Magic: the Gathering 

There's a foodtuber I enjoy who used some water to thaw something, and mentioned that whenever he does it, people ask why he's wasting water, and his response was "I'm not wasting it. I'm using it." One of the neat things about Magic to me is that you can be deeply enfranchised and have spent hours thinking about strategy and synergy and brewing and never once have actually played the game. Or you can buy a Tyvar the Bellicose deck somebody else built and slam it 5 times a week and never think about how it's working or how to improve it, and have never considered building anything else. Both options and everything in the middle are super cool and equally valid ways to enjoy the game. Beyond just sharing your creativity with others, Joey, you didn't waste the time and money and creative energy; you used it.

I use the Marie Kondo method, and ask myself: “How does drawing this card make me feel?” The more cards in a deck give you a feeling of “love”, the more chance you have to create a lasting deck.

I think deck building and brewing is simply and under appreciated hobby. Building and playing are different experiences and sometimes you can brew a deck, be satisfied, and never play it at all.

I really have been enjoying these 10 minute topic videos. More would be appreciated

I feel you. My local game store does theme nights for commander. Every month there is a theme to build a deck around, and of you participate in the theme you get entered into a drawing for a slightly better prize pool. I've made seven or eight decks for theme nights that I really enjoyed brewing, then played once and took apart because I realized I didn't enjoy the play pattern. So all KY expensive cards went back in my binder and I brewed again. But I've had 2 or 3 decks that have stuck around because they were an absolute joy to play. Ovika, Enigma Goliath was a budget theme night deck that started wining games that I fell head over heels in love with. Now it's the first deck I grab every game night. I don't feel bad about taking decks apart anymore. I have a quiver that holds six decks that I bring to the store. If I don't touch a deck in three months, then it's time to move on. With the sleugh of magic products, and new legends coming out, there are always new decks to build. They won't all spark joy like ovika. But I'll enjoy the proccess of figuring it out.

You exemplify the exact way I think and enjoy edh 😂. Brewing is way more enjoyable for me at times. I feel the playgroups I've been in are always confused on why I have so many decks or change them up so much. My suggestion is let the decks evolve organically.Some decks require way more tinkering than others. While some kinda build themselves, I love the decks that have a limit or unique strategy and try to make them work. You invested in the deck that lost its flavor every quickly but magic is always bringing in new things to make it fresh. So keep the decks but tinker with them so they continue to represent you in some way. 😊

I argue that deck construction/deck collection is a different hobby than actually playing Magic: the Gathering. If holding on to the deck brings you joy, then keep it! But if not, then there's no shame in moving on.

This is why I proxy all my decks at first, then start filling them up slowly with real cards when I feel happy with the decklist.

Thank you for being willing to be vulnerable & express yourself this way! Relatable & helpful.

Feels like a one trick deck has to REALLY speak to you for it to not get boring quickly. I have a nicol bolas themed deck that tends to always win by ulting nicol bolas dragon god in a wombo combo turn. To me it tickles me every time because the flavor is amazing

The one I find that can follow this path is challenge decks: decks that are designed around a challenging concept or win condition. I built a gate deck that was supposed to be a challenge but after the first game I found it to be much too easy and thus no challenge. I was going to pull it apart but then I rethought the idea and found a way to make it even harder by adding new limitations. Now it's one of my favorite decks :)

I still play your Lae'zel//Master Chef deck to this day and I absolutely love it. I have found a ton of value in it. I say continue to brew these crazy corner case decks, that way you have fun brewing them even if you are not playing them and your viewers will have fun playing them. I love to play Commander but I have very little time to brew so I get a large amount of value out of these. I love things like Lae'zel//Master Chef and Tyvar that just wow the table with crazy interactions that no one has ever seen before. Keep brewing, we all love what you build. Thank you!

What a thoughtful video. Ive had this same feeling in the past. I have 12 commander decks, and i found myself playing 3 games per week but with the same three decks, one each. What ive done lately to get out of the rut of only playing my favorites, is acknowledging why i have favorites, and then forcing some variety. I picked my favorite two, and then each week i cycle in one i havent played in a while. When i play with that deck, i try to really pay attention, more than usual. When i get home, i take the deck down to its constituent parts, and i look at what worked and what doesnt. I force myself to brew about the deck. Now, i look forward to the new weekly deck more than the two favorites. It keeps my creative side really engaged, and ive found im playing better and more effectively with all my decks. Maybe this approach could help some people in a deck rut. Force your toe out of the comfort zone just a bit. Maybe next week ill play two new decks instead of just one. Maybe ill have an even better time.

Very insightful, especially with regards to "doing the thing." Almost nothing makes MtG boring to me faster than playing the same deck the same way every time, even if I'm winning. The interactions are the richest part for me, and seeing unexpected ones unfold is my favorite experience in the game

Thank you so much for that video it was a huge relief for me, since I have the exact same feelings for my Baru, Wurmspeaker deck. I had so much fun brewing it and still love looking at the lists of cards and artworks and still love the concept of that horde of wurms running rampant but I played it once and it was like "nice it really works" (mind you it was the first deck in that gameplaystyle I made) and never had the urge to play it again since then. I don't think I can give it away or take it apart since I like it to much, but yeah haven't touched in over half a year ^^'

I’ve had this happen a few times and Similarly to Joey, I discovered that the solution that worked best for me was taking magic but to its roots and making it a TRADING card game. I took my unplayed decks and ended up trading them as a whole to someone else who was experiencing the same issue with the deck they’ve built and we found ourselves very much enjoying the new decks we acquired, it’s also a fun prospect to offer to players as you meet them at your LGS!

This has been my problem with every deck I’ve ever built. It’s been so hard to find at least even one deck that fulfills that spark to play and build without fizzing out after the first game or before. I really enjoyed this video, didn’t really resolve my problem but it’s nice to know others feel the same faded spark feeling.

Wow, that is a great take. I really enjoyed your perspective on this topic.

just speaking for myself, yeah that problem doesn't exist for me as someone who only owns 1 deck and cant even afford to proxy decks. This is also the reason I enjoy this channel so much. I love hearing about multiple decks and how people feel playing them. It actually helps me figure out which cards I actually would enjoy and which I wouldn't, and therefore I save money. So who cares if it's privilege or not, I still love the content and it's helpful to me too. It brings me joy to see EDH bring others joy. e.g. I can thank this channel for using my budget on fabled passage instead of buried alive for my mimeoplasm deck. Takes me a while to set aside budget for cards and I realize now I would've been heartbroken if I "wasted" it on a tutor.

I saw a post on Reddit awhile ago, and I decided to try it as well. One copy of each card, period. It limits down options the more decks you keep together, meaning I have to choose between more deck options, changing a deck to free up a card, or just taking a deck I don't play apart like it's a new precon and strip it for parts lol. This added a ton of variety to my decks, even staples like Sol Ring or Arcane Signet are limited so I really have to choose who gets the best toys and find less used replacements. I save all my decks and brews on Moxfield, so I can easily put a deck back together, but it's not just sitting on a shelf. Saves on deck boxes, sleeves, and space too. And I don't have to feel bad buying a pricier card, I'll only even need 1.

Hey Joey, love your content, you always come across so well, like these are your personal EDH thoughts/struggles but you present them in a way that feels like you're speaking for both yourself and many people at the same time, it's a great gift/skill you have with the way you talk. As for decks, I have the same issue, brew a lot, play a deck, get sick of it after one game. It's often just the deck itself not scratching that itch somehow, but I think there's some sort of guilt thing going on there too. like I see too much bling or too many "strong" cards and feel bad for having it. If it was a precon that I sleeved up brand new I wouldn't feel that way, but because I built it I almost feel bad for having it. Anyway, if you're unsure, I reckon take the plunge and just unsleeve it, the doing might be cathartic, it'll be such a relief and you can move on. If however you feel immediately like putting it back together, you might do that and it will have then solidified itself in your collection, rather than having doubt attached to it. Cheers :)

I've gotten burned building "one and done" decks too many times, so my new rule is to brew only with cards in my collection. It lets me get a good idea whether i will like the deck long term or not.

Really feeling this. I've made so many one-of decks over the last few years. I still think part of it is the fact that I've already built a great deal of decks so all my favorite and thus "low-hanging fruit" deck themes are already built. I'm basically building my 102nd and 103rd commander at this point. But I like your hyper-niche hypothesis, as well... The way you describe the Tyvar deck makes it sound like "every card is the same": a creature with a tap ability that taps for more than 1 mana. That is bound to make games similar, almost as if you play the entire deck every game. I've also found that old cards tend to be more open-ended. SalubriousSnail calls out high variety in output as a bad wincon strategy and I think he's right for something as Gavi Cycling. It's hard to win with a mish-mash of +1/+1, scrying, small tokens and blink. But for cards like Tyvar, the wincon is so focused that you essentially play 10+ copies of the same card and have an abysmal variety in output of your value engine

Joey, these type of vides have always been my favorite. As a person that plays solo, it is perfect! You are amazing!

Brewing and designing new decks is a huge part of magic that I love about it. Soooo many cards create endless possibilities for decks. Since I don’t have the opportunity to play much against other people, I brew more than actually play. At this point I’m nearing 50 decks and at every milestone (10/20//30/40) I said I would stop creating more decks. So of these see much more play than others, but I always like to revisit older deck designs once in a while. I might be obsessed too much lol, but I just cannot bring myself to trash completed decks. The thing is for me, that I will not sell cards. I have in the past sold my collection a few times and those are among my biggest regrets. So now I will keep everything and we’ll see where this hobby/obsession stops lol. Meanwhile I think most of the cards will probably appreciate in value anyway so I don’t see spending as a loss anyway. So yes, I have a few deck designs that I only have played once or twice, but I don’t mind not playing some decks for months. Afterwards it kinda feels refreshing as well to pull out an old deck.

I feel this. I personally build too many decks and the fact they release so many commanders has too many ideas flowing through. I was gonna start up my own channel because i got way too many ideas to just be putting on moxfield and wanna see if these ideas are even good. This video definitely ipens my eyes knowing i have about almsot 20 decks and maybe play 2 or 3 on game nights

Thank you for making this video, I’ve been going through the same feelings but never examined the feeling as in depth as you did.

Great video; I’m glad you got yourself to post it in spite of your anxiety. I’ve similarly made decks, played them once or twice and realized “this doesn’t fit me & I need to sell the deck” which luckily I’ve done to recoup the costs. Linking cards/playstyles is so subjective, so don’t be hard on yourself about no longer liking what you made.

You’re not alone, I’ve definitely had this experience. Legends like Lagrella, Oji, Meria, Abomination of Llannowar, and Stangg Echo Warrior all had this issue. I’ve actually started having the problem where I’m “over it” while sleeving the deck up (Ragga Dragga, Alana&Helena, Oskar) and that has been a really strange feeling as well, haha. I guess for me the brewing is most of the fun for a lot of decks, and I just keep a robust list of my brews I can look over and that often is enough to satisfy :)

I had a Krenko, Mob Boss deck that I bought off of a friend. He built it, didn't love playing it, and let me borrow it. I played it one time & was having so much fun that I said something to the effect of "I need to build this guy." He sold me the deck. I had that deck for years before eventually breaking it down & doing something else with many of those pieces.

Joey, my friend. I think that we experience the game in a very similar manner. Righ now I have 31 EDH decks, one for tournaments and one Pauper. I really love to brew decks, almost as much as I like to play with those decks. Sometimes I see a new commander and I start to imagine WhenThe Process that happens in my head is the following: 1. Think of an idea: I start to research which cards go with the strategy that I have in mind, if it's easy to get what I don't have or is expensive. Some of my ideas die right there. 2: Complete the 100 cards: Thinking on what do I have in my collection or what can I get fast, I brew the deck. 3. Playtest the deck: I play several rounds to see if the deck, is fast enough, if I can find a wincon, if I enjoy the mechanics. Must of my ideas, die in this step. 4. Build the deck: I start looking for the cards to complete the deck, from Mithic cards to common and uncommon (it is because of the way I store my collection) 5. Play the deck: I go to my LGS and play as much as possible. Sometimes is very rewarding, sometimes is boring and dull. 6. Update the deck with new changes: Sometimes I take out things that didn't work for me, somethimes a lot of things. And... Sometimes, the gimic of the deck is not as fun, interesting or powerful as I thought. 7. At this point I can decide if the deck is what I expect, need some more testing or I should kill the deck. I deck that live thorough this point is a deck that I know I will want to play more times.

I must say you have exceptional taste in decks

My Brew style is “I want to hit all of the buttons in the spaceship” or to put it as my one friend says it “you take five steps on a two step process” I find the surprise the prestige of revealing a deck through the game to be the most fun. When the Pod isn’t really sure what the deck does until it’s there and out and the problem of the board, so I am constantly brewing (it helps I’m the card raccoon of my playgroup) constantly coming up with new and insane ways to surprise and delight my play group. Therefor typically once I win with a deck I break it apart. The surprise has been spoiled the secret has been given away. And for me this is a lot of fun for me still.

Oh. My. God. I’m so happy you’ve made this video.. I’ve been struggling with the same problem as you. At some point I’ve had 24 commander decks and I didn’t even enjoy playing 20 of them but brewing was an amazing experience. I went down to 5 decks when I left my country but now I’m back again to 10 decks. And I don’t even have time to play, I just watch other people play (like you) and watch other MTG content but I play for 2h biweekly on Spelltable. Also my biggest problem is that I’m still looking for THAT commander. The one and only but it’s so hard to find something that’s fun, not overpowered and not repeatable.. at this point I see so many patterns in Magic that it’s really hard to enjoy game itself, especially trying to keep up with new cards and new sets every two months..

I felt this way the first time I cast Windfall with a Notion Thief on board. At the time, I had seen this kind of combo on the High Powered episode of game knights (but with narset and Time Twister), and didn't want to use it. But i put both pieces in my deck and didn't realize the interaction between them until i was about to cast it. Luckily, i won the game on the next turn so my friends didn't have to wait with empty hands for forever, but it really spoiled a deck for me that I had crafting for months. I never played that deck again. But it's fine! Cuz i learned what kind of decks i like and i have plenty of those now

I actually have this happen to me quite often with brewing. I obsess over the brew soooo much by the time I get it completed….I’m kinda over it….it’s been living and playing in my head so much….it’s kinda played itself out…so now what I do is a throw a deck together with a lot less thought and figure it out by plying it! I find this infinitely more satisfying.

I do this all the time as a serial brewer. I typically leave my decks together until i get a critical mass of them, then i reevaluate the ones i dont play often. Sometimes that makes me realize that i dont play half of them very often and should be pulled apart. When i hit that wall, i only take those decks to play and if i am having to force myself through them and dont like it, i take them apart and end up thanosing my decks. Keeping one together for other players is good practice and I usually keep one that i could hand over, though. Thanks for this video. Ill hqve to show other friends i know that have the same issue.

I just played my first couple games with a budget Baba Lysaga deck this past weekend. I think I only activated my commanders ability 2 or 3 times between two games and felt like I was just floundering doing nothing the entire time. Though I think it had more to do with the group I played it with than the deck itself. Maybe if I play it in a pod where people don't feel the need to board wipe every couple turns it'd get a chance to do the thing. A similar thing happened with my Círdan, the Shipwright deck. First couple times I played it it didn't do much and the games ended quickly but this past weekend I had an amazingly fun game playing it because it actually had some time to do the thing. I think finding the right pod for a deck can sometimes sway how much you enjoy it.

My most recent occurrence of this was the Geralf, Visionary Stitcher mono-blue toughness matters deck I made. It ran janky cards you'd never run anywhere else like Phyrexian Soulgorger. It was all just playing fat booties in blue then sacrificing them to make fat flying zombies. Played 2-3 games with it and decided it was time to disassemble it after pulling off saccing my whole squad on someone's end step to make a lethal army of fliers by untapping with Freed from the Real.

My very first combo deck. Niv Mizzet. Throw in wheel and draw effects, that one sphinx that cycles your hand every spell you cast. It’s so easy to go infinite with curiosity, or tandem lookout, because I will dig through a third of the deck each turn. It was so fun to win the first two times. It wasn’t after that. Just dismantled that deck, and parts of it made up about three other decks now.

Oh I absolutely get this. I brew more decks than I build because of this exact conundrum. I enjoy the brewing processs as much as I enjoy piloting them. But an engineer doesn't need to love piloting the vehicle they've designed. Sometimes just as much joy comes from the creation. How I've usually solved this is building my deck online, giving it a bit of time and looking back at it. Am I still in love with it? If yes, then I usually try proxying the deck if it isn't a budget deck. The trial period, give what I've built a try and pilot it, see if I like it, and if so, start building out the deck. I've definitely tossed a handful of proxied decks I've made in the past because I had my one-and-done period with them as well, or it wasn't what I wanted it to be. So I get my fill of it, leave it in my deck database, and move on to the next thought experiment. The decklist still exists, I have my records of my time spent on it, but I got the fill of what I wanted out of my used creativity. But I won't let it overstay its welcome if I'm not having fun or I want to use cards in it elsewhere. I had fun and I'm going to keep having fun building more decks until I find those decks that end up being my forever decks. And they're the ones that always catch me by surprise.

I got SO lucky that my favorite deck is the first I ever built. I'm not the most affluent of players so I've been sticking my head out into the cheaper aspect of MTG and using the 10 cent bins to get a majority of my fun to play cards. I spawned out of Gatecrash. I had a lot of fun trying to find ways to utilize the recursion in counter form through the Dredge mechanic, but it wasn't for me. I wanted to make it work on a level I could never quite reach. But before that was my guild pack that I got from my little release event. I got a Dimir set. And I absolutely LOVED it. Intrigue, skulking through alleyways, silently jumping along the roofs of the city. It had me written ALL over it. It was my very first deck I ever built and it's my favorite today. B/U Mill. And people I've played absolutely hate how the individual pieces make the machine turn, but they're always interested in seeing how the pieces I've cobbled together make the machine. I have yet to find a deck that I've made be that much fun to build, but I always try to find the off meta way to play when I look through sets. If it's heavy on counters I try to find a new way to conceptualize the set for my own flavor. If I don't find a new way to look through the set to find a slightly different flavor that fits me, I find a way to recycle some of the older pieces I have to build something that seems like fun. I know that I'm the minority when I play. I don't want to win, I want to PLAY. Magic for me is like a new way to express the parts of your playfulness that may not make sense in other aspects of your life or in other hobbies. You can cook something fun and playful, but if you make something unapproachable it's hard to find a way to draw someone in to take a bite. With Magic, you can find a fun way to play with the aspects that you enjoy. It's kind of a whirlwind watching someone figure out what your deck is about if you can slow their deck tempo enough to really engage them. I rarely keep a deck long if it isn't playful and likely to start a conversation afterwards. Whether it's talking with them about what you think could help speed up your tempo, or how fun it was to see them come around to flattening you on the field.

My friend came up with an excellent solution for his Mayael deck. He has a pool of 40 big creatures and 20 of them are randomly shuffled into the deck. One day he can bring out an Avacyn. Another day it's an Ulamog's Crusher instead. It's brilliant.

Totally understand. I started playing commander about two years ago with friends that have a lot more experiece than me. My first deck came when I bought a Commander Legends box with one of them, so I got Ardenn and Rograhk... Boros voltron, such an experience for a beginner, so I brought that to my LGS and have some real tough games with ppl more experienced and with better brewed decks. My main deck came a little after when cracking some boosters I got a copy of Omnath, Locus of creation... It blowed my mind and got me at the top 5 in our LGS seasonal league after a lot of investment on it. Now I've set it aside for a time to give a chance to Atraxa, praetor's voice. Still testing and figuring out if this is the commander I like to play, got it brewed about a month ago but still doesn't make me feel the same that Omnath. In another club i play we do monthly budget tournaments, deck limit 100 including commander and I enjoy it brewing a new deck for each one. Even I try myself building monocolored decks of diferent colors and themes for each tournament, and is such a rush! Love your videos and thanks to EDHrec, I would totally wreck my decks 🤣

Every couple of years now, I build a Zada, Hedron Grinder deck to try out whatever new support cards for it have come out. Then I wipe the floor with my pod, because no one seems to understand that Zada is Kill On Sight, and then I take the deck apart again.

I didn't realize that other people felt this but this was total truth. Thanks for the video!

I’ve had a full range of experiences with my commander decks. Forever decks -> Deck shells that get reworked over time -> Taking parts of an old deck to make a new deck -> Playing a deck only a few times before shelving it -> Buying a precon and never opening it -> Brewing and buying cards for a deck only to never finish building it. I think the full range of experiences really speak to who someone is and what they’re thinking at a given time. Hobbies are meant to be enjoyed but you don’t always have the same excitement or passion at all times. Being ok with that ebb and flow makes hobbies and life in general more enjoyable. Sometimes I’m disappointed when I build a deck to not play it much or to see my friends not enjoy facing it but that’s just a normal aspect of any hobby really.

Its a bit tangential but whenever one or more of our playgroup is bored of their decks or not feeling it we play deck roulette. Everyone writes down like 4 or so decks in a numbered list and you roll the dice to see what deck to play! We normally also have a rule that if you get on of your decks you have to re-roll until you get someone else's. It can be really refreshing playing a deck that maybe you've admired, or even are totally unfamiliar with and have to really think about each thing you're doing. Plus watching someone else use your deck can really reignite the passion that put that together.

When the Golgari elves precon came out, I was inspired to build my own version of it, with Harald as the commander, and I played it a few times. Then Tyvar the Bellicose was printed, and he became the commander. I haven't had the opportunity to play it yet (I work on my LGS's Commander night) :-( , but I am excited to compare my decklist with yours and maybe make some improvements. Thank you for making this video, Joey!

This has been a really great video for me, as someone whos just joined the hobby. Thank you for that! Im currently looking at a few more budget decks to get started with, and i think ive narrowed it down to a Jarad Golgari Lich Lord (graveyard themed) deck and a Jorn, God of Snow (snow themed) deck

I've definitely been hitting this wall recently. As a result of my budget and the frequency of new card releases, I feel like I can't even finish building decks anymore before I get bored, and after I've built the deck and had some success with it I hesitate to alter it for fear of making it obsolete or too good and more boring as a result. The ways I've been focusing on trying to solve this is by subverting expectations for myself and others. I love taking a commander that seems to always be played in style "A" and playing it in a compeltely different way. I also really enjoy playing commanders that absolutely no one is familiar with. One of my favorite decks is my "The Howling Abomination" Gruul storm deck where the goal is to grapeshot or cantrip out on my own commander with a high storm count. Its cheap, unassuming, and really neat to play since so many people are unfamiliar with the commander, as well as storm as a concept these days. I've got an attraction deck, a superfriends deck, and a land-thieving deck. Im working on a sunforger build using discover and the war doctor, an infinite combo, graveyard deck that revolves around mutate, and a new group slug using indoraptor. I'm sure given time I'll find my way out of this rut, but I've been having a lot more fun theory crafting than playing lately. Hope this advice helps someone!

You could always try what I do joey, as someone with like, 15-ish decks: My larger deckbox holds 8 deckboxes, and each time I want to go to my LGS, I always mix up the decks in each indivdiual deckbox, then put 8 random decks into the bigger one, and go. I have no clue what decks i will have on me when i arrive at the LGS, and I even let my opponents pick from the deckbox what ill be playing. I just randomize everything. I could end up playing a deck i play every week if i was given the choice, or I could end up playing a deck I forgot I even own! Sometimes you forget you have the variety, but making yourself utilize it can make you have more fun!

When I watch your videos, I end up staring at that picture on your desk and seeing a pot plant leaf.

Thank you for the great video, Joey! For myself, I keep the deck lists after taking the decks apart. That way, I can enjoy the thing the deck was doing and give myself a starting point for other ideas like it.

For me, I usually don't take a deck apart until I have a reason other than just that I'm not playing it anymore. Sometimes when I leave a deck unplayed long enough I get the desire to "do the thing" again and it's fun to play the deck again at that point. So unless I need the cards for a different deck or I have some other reason to dismantle a deck, I usually just keep it around. But I definitely understand a lot of the feelings expressed in this video, and there's certainly no "wrong" way to handle any of them, but I think it's worth remembering that taking a deck apart does not mean it can't be rebuilt later if inspiration strikes again.

Good topic! This happens to me as well. All the time. I love brewing decks with not so great commanders and with mainly the cheap cards I have lying around. Play them once or twice or more and see if I like them and will keep them more permanently. Sometimes I'll build a bigger deck with cards I need to order, then I might proxy them first (lessons learned...). Then its way easier to break them apart. I think I have spent more on sleeves and deck boxes than on cards... But ie. the first deck I really made was Urtet with the Myrs, I ordered all the cards immediately... and after a couple of games realized that I had to cut some of those cards. And in the end I don't really enjoy the deck and almost never play it, because it works, it does the thing, and that's it. Mostly, this happens when you want to make a mechanic work, or set up a combo because it looks cool at first sight... And then you achieve it once and you go like "hmm ok, this works, what now, I don't want to play this in every game"... So in the end I think people need to realize that combos are not particularly cool. Get the experience yourself if you need. Same applies for some mechanics, but I guess that's more dependant on the play style you like. Tl,dr: cut the decks you dont play and if you don't have a strong attachment to them... but avoid putting much money into them in the first place, that makes it easier. ;)

I played my budget Soul of Windgrace / landfall deck a single time. I actually looked up videos on shuffling beforehand and practiced shuffling a bunch before I ever played it in person, because I knew once it go going I'd be searching up lands and shuffling non-stop. After the first game, I basically uniformly ignored the deck and, upon reflection, I realized the amount of stress I felt around piloting the deck was clearly not worth it, despite the fact that it was cool and powerful. I took it apart, repurposed the sleeves and lands, and I don't regret it at all ----- One upside of playing budget decks is, when you build one you don't end up playing much or you take apart right away, it doesn't hurt the wallet quite as much! But it'll always suck for the time/creative energy investment, as you mentioned. Definitely a bummer. That said, IMO don't get stuck in a sunk cost fallacy - if it doesn't excite you, take it apart or put it away, and don't sweat it.

I’ve had decks that I no longer wanted to play after the first time because I realized they were far too strong for my table. A good example was my Elsha Artifact Storm deck. It destroyed my table with ease. I made sure to utilize as much as I could from that deck into new decks going forward.

Joey, I love your point about your decks not having to be all about you! I have a Henzie "Toolbox" Torre and a Volo, Guide to Monsters deck that are not my go-tos, but one of my best friend's LOVES to borrow them. I'm a big deck tinkerer and I get excited to put new cards into those two decks to see how that friend will react to seeing them. Just another part of the social aspect of the game 😁

The most fun I had playing edh was when I moved to a new city and took only one deck with me. Played it over and over again and it felt like I just knew it alot better what I can do at any given game state. It was a Thantis tokens/bloodartist deck btw. I aspire to play like that again someday

Love seeing your insights

what all my decks have in common that i come back to and replay time and time again is variety in angles of attack, they win differently each time with a variety of bomby effects or board states (often rotating them in and out over time because I love the decks archetype) my jor deck is my favourite deck but probably 95% of the cards have changed over the 10 years i've had it by my side. I think probably dispatch and gold myr are probably the only cards to have never been swapped out at least once. it has graveyard synergy, self mill, reanimation, aggro, tokens, anthems, complete blowout cards like soulscour, fast mana, combat tricks and stack interaction. it's doing so much in so many different ways but from playing it so often and not forcing myself to optimise it for victory but for smoothness of operation (ie great landbase, well iterated on curve etc) it's one of my favourite decks to play. every 7 card hand I draw from it makes me smile, I love the whole deck down to the last land. that's the trick I think a lot of brewers don't get, there's nothing wrong with anyones building style, but if you want a deck that you want to play over and over again, don't add tutors, don't have one wincon you are always working towards, dont add huge value engines that put half your deck in your hand. fill it with powerful pieces with good synergy, cards that you love to play, make sure your mana is good so it operates well each game, put in just enough card draw to keep the deck strong and NO MORE, and work out how you're going to win AFTER you draw your hand, not BEFORE. all my favourite decks work this way, including my competitive mono blue artifact combo deck which isn't actually working towards 1 combo, but actually has about 7 or 8 combos (I'll admit it does run some tutors, but the exception proves the rule!) I think loving each card of your deck is a huge part of keeping its longevity, I love brewing gimmick decks that do weird stuff but I find them hard to replay because I'm not usually excited for most of the cards in the deck, especially after I've 'done the thing' so to speak. this is my advice, as a guy who's been playing edh for at least a decade now and has brewed built and played more decks than I can even remember now.

Normally, for me, this only ever happens when I build a deck that is too linear. I have a lot more fun with decks that have a high skill ceiling. My Dihada deck for instance, I literally never get tired of playing with that deck because of how much thought goes into every single play.

Great video and good thoughts! This feeling hits so hard for me. I built a Kenrith with Zirda Companion deck. I proxies it before I bought it and brought the proxy to game night to test the lines and some of the combos in it. I played it one time, it did the thing of infinite everything as Kenrith decks like to do, and then I never bought it. That was when I realized how much I like variety in edh. I am so thankful I didn't spend money on the cards because I would have hate played that deck until the sleeves ripped even if I was bored to death.

I’ve only made like 4-5 decks in my first year of heavily getting into magic (I’ve played before but just started deck crafting this year), with most of my other decks just being upgraded precons, and I’ve already dismantled my first deck. That being said, a ton of the cards in the set have gone into other decks like my King of the Oathbreakers Blink/Spirit deck and helped upgrade the new Blood Rites deck. I played it once against my wife’s werewolf deck and the fun feeling I had crafting it just didn’t transfer to playing it and then it just sat in storage for months.

Joe, I totally get what you are talking about, though I have only 5 decks. I had 7 but then pulled two apart recently. I brewed more decks than I ever owned in paper, because I realized at some point that „this just aint it anymore, i’m over”. That is also why I’m super carefull about hype and I watch carefouly if it stays. It took me 4 years to put together Mana Rock Tribal deck, just because I was doubting, but it’s super fun. AND it is Ok to just stop there, and be sated just with brewing and never playing that deck. There is no point in shaming yourself about stoping to have entertainment from something. This game is entertanment, and you enjoy it as you like :), lots of love

I've never thought about deckbuilding this way before, but hearing this I can definitely see it. The decks I like repetitively playing the most are the ones with the most flexible commanders, and the couple that I've kinda left by the wayside are the ones that are the most specific. Though I will say that I tend to run multiple hours of playtesting on decks before ordering them, and if I get sick of what it's doing in that period I'll cut my losses and move on. I like to think that's helped to reduce the number of decks I've abandoned.

I have brewed so many decks, played 100s of games over my 20 years of playing. I have now been using my experience to help others who are new. So much so I have started a deck build commission service for my LGS.

I totally understand that feeling. I've been having the same when I'm building a deck that's too "mainstream" or too simple, I'm sort of a Dina in that way ! For example I have spend thousands on a Windgrace landfall deck that I don't use, same goes for my beloved Breya... the list goes on ! And I still have them build "just in case", which leads to having plenty of decks for sure ! But that video came out exactly as I was taking apart my Rocco Wild Pair deck, it's been hours and hours of scryfall search and deck building just to play it once, it did the thing and I was done with it. Sadly all of that work for nothing ! Well not for nothing, it was fun building it ! Sometimes the fun doesn't come from the act of playing the deck but building it !

Thank you for discussing the topics that we all feel!

Thank you for your perspective! I've been heavy into commander for the last few months, and I've been struggling with something similar. I like brewing powerful decks that do the thing, but sometimes they're not all that fun to play with when it doesn't feel like people are having fun playing against them. I still really love the synergies and themes of the decks, but I'd rather build jank that doesn't win frequently than a synergistic powerhouse that my friends don't know how to deal with. I haven't really come up with a solution yet, but you can bet I'm brewing one up!

Feel the same way sometimes. I’ve got a Octavia deck Built to drop a bunch of cheap birds and instants and swing in with 8/8 birds. Once I made it and swung in for lethal however, the deck seemed done and finished. I made my 8/8 birds and now I’m done with this concept.

In the play group I'm a part of the couple of us that have more decks have started deconstructing for other deck ideas. Before we started, we kept decks that were less played for the few in the pod that are newer to the game and only have one or two decks so they could play them if they wanted something different

Last night, I built two decks from cards me and my partner already had, one for them and one for myself. We played the decks against each other. My partner loved theirs, I hated mine. The experiment was a huge success, the goal being "Hey, we've been on the fence about investing into decks we may not like, lets just build them quick and if the line of play is exciting, we'll upgrade them later. If not, scrap and lessons learned 🙂"

honestly, i built a korvold deck a while back which only sacrifices lands and it's all about landfall triggers, playing multiple lands from the graveyard, getting the draw from korvold and then playing more lands. It's a really cool idea for an overplayed commander and I enjoyed it, until i'd played it a few times and now i haven't played it in 3 months

This is why digital clients were invented. Totally get this. For me, building decks is a creative process that holds me a little hostage at times. (I have far too many decks now, and it's definitely a privilege but also a symptom of playing for 10+ years.) Using free online clients really helped me brew decks and test them with my friends before buying them. Another thing I've done/need to finish is building a commander cube-esque box of cards I like and saving my decklists so my lesser-played decks can be dis- and re-assembled whenever inspiration strikes me. That way I can re-use cards I own, rather than buying new stuff.

This is exactly why I proxy my brews. If I enjoy it enough to keep it together, I’ll start buying the cards for it.

I had this issue in a big way. Most acute example was my Pramikon deck, a lot of people love it and it was super fun and exciting to brew and I think I played it twice. I also ended up with something like 16ish decks which I know is not too many for some people but felt wild to me. So I set a resolution for myself and for every deck I made in 2023 I took apart 2. And I also started a little side hustle online building decks for people, let's me have all the fun of brewing but then I have money afterward instead of a new deck. It also got me to build some commanders I would never have considered before and some where when we were done I turned around and though "do I build that again now but for me?"

I have a precon i enjoyed playing once then spent a bunch upgrading it and havent played it since due to it being too strong to go against other precons but not strong enough to go against other decks so this video hit home!

I nearly have a deck for every color combination. Some get the achievement unlocked rebuild right away. Others are keepers. All the moods, themes, and play styles are covered so I’m ready regardless and don’t get bored with them.

This literally just happened to me. I played a Selvala deck at my LGS that someone else built. I had so much fun playing big creatures I wanted to build my own Selvala deck. The first time I played my version, I comboed off with staff of domination and umbral mantle. Drew and played basically the entire deck and won with craterhoof. It was fun in the moment, but I don't really want to do it again. I deconstructed the deck and just took the parts from it I like, ramp+big fatties, and now its been replaced with a Kiora sea-monster deck. Its way powered down with no intentional infinite combos and no "tutor up this card and win" type win-cons. Works well in my play group where most people are playing at like power level 4 or 5. My recommendation for this issues would be to try an "power-down" your deck and see if its anymore interesting before sticking it on the shelf and forgetting about it! Sometimes the bones are good!

I just started playing magic this year I've bought a couple precons and made or ordered other decks online honestly what I find fun about magic at least for me is buying a new box from the new set or a set i haven't ever got before and just brewing up decks with cards from the box and the left overs from the previous boxes i own properly like 25 commander decks and my favorite one so far is my in universe version of chun li i got from the list because i remember reading it and thinking holy moly this thing is insane and at the time me and a friend were only playing standard and its not legal in standard at some point i tried to learn commander because i realized im more of a casual player and just enjoy games that go longer and have bigger creatures being cast and bigger spells and commander fit that perfectly for me so i built myself the deck around chun li and im always theory crafting and Messing with it my newest deck though is ghyrson starn ive yet to play it but im really excited to see how it goes the first couple of games

I do have this issue all the time, usually what I do is keep it around for a bit and see if maybe it was a mood thing and if I come back to it, and if I don't after a set amount of time I dismantle it and use it's parts for other things, and if those things were hyper niche I trade for things I may need etc.

Tyvar for sure sounds like a great deck for other people to play. I have a few decks that i NEVER play, but i keep them together for the fact that theyre great decks for other players. Especially when introducing someone to magic. Because I have a few decks, it gives options for stepping up complexity as they play as well as giving them the option to learn different styles of decks. Ive also had friends just want a break from their old decks and ask for one of mine specifically, to which they then played it and found combos i didnt even realise were in the deck and that inspired me to play it again. If you had fun brewing it, keep it, let it be inspiration for other players, especially since tyvar the bellicose is an excellent starter commander due to the way it works.

When I get the drooling for a commander I usually look for games with that specific commander and binge everything that I find. After that I build a version in an app and dream about it. If that dreaming is not stopping at all, like a month later, I build that commander. Otherwise, if I get the drooling again, I look at the decklist and think, yes, that could be a sweet deck and get at least some satisfaction

Whenever I want to brew something new, I usually test it out in Cockatrice. My friends also like to play through Cockatrice, so I can get a better idea of how it will run before I dump money into anything

The brewers conundrum. I love the brewing process but have had to learn that enjoying creating a deck is completely separate from enjoying playing the deck. I build a lot of decks digitally just for the mental exercise now and some for friends that want a deck built around a specific commander but are not sure how to make it work.

This was my Tayam the Luminous Enigma deck. It was full of mana dorks, things that just naturally put counters on them and drumbellower/seedborn muse. The deck literally took 10 minutes durdle turns, but on everyone 's turn, not just my own. Played it once, did the thing and immediately took it apart ha

Man, this is how I felt with landfall decks as a whole. Lucky for me, goldfishing is where I found out how bored I was with the idea beyond brewing with it. And WUBRG good-stuff, had the itch to brew good-stuff Ur-Dragon, goldfished a few times with it, and it felt like I had flushed it out of my system. Since then I've re-brewed Ur-Dragon as a treasure deck and man, I'm still tinkering with the design. It's so damn pricey though that I'm probably going to make a lot of proxies and testing in kitchen games before settling on a draft for it

You do you king, dont let anyone limit your brewers addiction.

I actually had a similar situation with my Etrata the silencer deck, I loved the commander and brewing her was fun, played her once, did the thing and won, didn't touch her for months. The deck now about a year later is a forever deck all I did was swap out the commander for Burakos, Party Leader and Candlekeep Sage, turned from a simply get 'em once deck to a tricky aggro Dimir list that plays more like a Boros deck than a Deck than a Dimir one with loads of copies of my commander and insane combat tricks using the insane amount of mana generated. all this to say, sometimes a deck just needs a shifted perspective, I've changed nothing about the list other than cut etrata and ravenloft assassin and while not always a thing you can do with every niche deck list, it can certainly be something worth trying to reinvigorate a deck.

I've had my fair share of One-Time Decks. I love brewing and building decks so its bound to happen from time to time. I try and mitigate the problem by building relatively budget decks and prioritizing cards from my collection. However, there will always be that deck ends up being a one-time deal. Rather than get hung up on these failed decks I use them as an opportunity to brew again. Whether to find a new home for the cards or a new direction for the commander.

After my 48th deck, I decided to stop purchasing new shields for decks and formed pool of "budget staples of multiple colors. Overtime I created a secondary collection that I then use to build various different kinds of decks. Kind of like a toolbox that I use whenever I need to build a new one. Once I'm done with the deck, I take it apart and use its parts to build something else. As such, I don't have to worry about buying new shields or where I will store the decks I build.

I've run into this same issue after building my latest deck -- I had heaps of fun brewing it and then after playing it once and seeing the synergy I had the feeling of "okay that was fun, whats next"? And its such an odd feeling.. So much time and money goes into creating and bringing to life these decks to just put it away after a few uses. How I am trying to combat this is by revisiting the deck later on and trying different combo's and strategies -- this way the heart of the deck is still there. There is a reason we get excited and build these decks the first time, it can be just as fun remaking it from a different angle.

I built a Sliver deck when I first started playing despite having collected for a while. Had the mana base and all the big Slivers (not the Queen) and the Coat of Arms and such. I played it once and it just sat there until I took it apart recently.

That's a cool idea for this deck. I used to brew often and have came across this same issue. What I decided was if you don't enjoy the deck after playing with it a few times. Take a look at the list and put in a few cards that fit the theme but are a new challenge to achieve. I have a Olivia crimson bride deck and it was like all the others and not very fun until I added taste of blood and have been trying to kill someone with that and now I play it often just to basically unlock that achievement for it. I don't run tutors just so when it happens it will be organically.

SIR I FEEL YOUR WORDS IN MY SOUL. I also struggle with this, because myself and my friend are brewers to the core, while the other two in our normal pod are “make it perfect” folk, and I think part of it for them is budget. I’ve drafted weekly for a decade so I’m always getting new cards and feel incredibly guilty about flashing new decks every week, even though those decks were made with cards I already had in my collection. It feels like privilege even though they’re not optimized and stacked with commons and bulk rares. One, a poison/Ivy the spellthief deck, has been on my table for months but I haven’t played it yet. But this sort of impulsive, meme-y building has led to some of my favorite stacks, like a legendary/artifacts/impulse draw Meria deck. Gah.

this video help me realize why its been a while why i wasnt appeal on buying cards... i realize its the fun of brewing i like once the puzzle is complete i care less about playing the deck giving me the feeling of i love more the mini game of brewing in the game of magic the gathering then playing a game of magic with the new deck

I have a few decks that I’ve brewed and taken apart shortly after playing them. I just found that after I played them, the play style just wasn’t what I was looking for, but I didn’t get too down about it, cause it just inspired me to turn the pieces from those decks into new ones, one’s that I actually enjoy playing, not just so I didn’t waste my money 😂 I think the trial and error of a new deck is something we all go through, and finding out what we like and don’t like just helps us to become more well rounded players overall, capitalizing on our strengths and not trying to be jacks of all trades.

I’m a lot like Joey in that I’m always brewing something. I build One-and-done’s all the time. I have 16 complete decks currently after just recently dismantled 3 that were only played once or twice because I realized they weren’t a style I wanted to pursue and I have another I’m likely going to take apart after playing it once(the deck is literally a week old). I see changes and failed decks as part of keeping the game fresh for myself, so what if I had to spend $100+ to build it, something about the deck spoke to me so I built it, played it, and now I’m over it. The issue I run into is when a “forever deck” has run its course; just recently I took apart 4-color Omnath after not touching the deck in well over 6 months. I loved the deck and the mix of mechanics I used but the deck had run its course and became more tedious than fun to play.