Decks that Surprised Us | EDHRECast 299 

18:24 No, I don't have a problem! I can take apart any number of my 50 decks at any point in time! You have a problem!

PogMatt needs to be an emote for the EDHREC Twitch channel and Patron Discord!

I'm so glad Faldorn got a shout out here. I fell in love with this commander as soon as I played the precon for the first time. I've heavily edited it since then and it's become my favorite commander deck to play. Ever. They way it generates card advantage and advances its game-plan at the same time is addicting. Plus it's developed a tendency to pop off at completely random, so that kind of chaos is always exciting.

The deck that surprised me the most was a Selesnya aristocrats headed by Palukranos Reborn. Seeing a deck designed around playing and recurring hydras for x=0 was super cool.

“Banging really hard on that drum in a way that made it really difficult for you to match that beat” what a beautiful way to phrase that

I received a Faldorn precon as part of my compensation for MtG market research. It ended up wolfing the entire table and quickly too. That is a mean deck and I am glad it's getting some love.

Im just glad i wasnt the only one saying "Murders at Markov Manor" 😂

I always love the Closed Captioning on RU-vid, especially for MTG videos. Hawk ball and the Hummer folk… 😂

Crazy how you mentioned both ellivere and hakbal cause they were christmas gifts that shocked me how powerful they were out of the box

Strong agreement on Hakbal being a great deck that doesn’t need Vorel. A cheap and easy replacement I haven’t seen other people using or on the page is Grey Harbor Merfolk, the 1U 0/3 that’s unblockable and gets +2/+0 if you control your commander.

Hakbal, Ellivere and Faldorn are 3 of my favourite decks lol. I also really like the LotR Fordo&Sam Precon deck. Between LotR and Eldraine, food got buffed really hard in 2023.

I play Sara Jane with the third doctor instead of the sixth and is very fun to see the table attacking me not realizing the doctor is a 15/15 because of all the clues 😂😂

The deck that surprised me the most was my Massacre Girl Vehicles. At first I thought it'll be silly brew, but it was my favorite deck of the year. And my play group love that deck too, and this is real Surprise.

The Faldorn deck is my favorite deck to play hands down! upgraded it’s a force at the table.

The idea of a deck that scales with the group sounds amazing

I have a 50 land Fladorn deck using all the impulse and extra land play stuff. Turns sometimes go a bit because you make a circle of playing lands and casting spells to play more lands to cast more spells. There is a lot of impulse/land play/regrowth effects.

I built Slogurk on a new set, new commander kind of whim and it was one of my favorite decks of all time. Last year, and still into this year, I've been building and editing The Mycotyrant on observation that the deck would have a lot of similarities to Slogurk. This might be my second favorite deck of all time. I love self mill and reanimator, I love go wide and tall, I looooove aristocrats and this deck does ALL of it. What an absolutely incredible commander and good excuse for a gitrog combo

It took me a long time to realize we weren't going to Edgar Markovs mansion.. I was so sad

Didn't watch yet, but I've seen Quintorius, field historian which is a commander that seems really fun to build because there are so many ways to build around it

Faldorn has been my main deck since I got the precon, and I have been upgrading and updating it regularly. It is SO MUCH FUN to play and watch people react to it just going off and pumping out Wolf tokens and value.

Actual challenge the stats for Hakbal - Danny Pink should be in every Hakbal list, it's currently in less than 10%. Every time you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature for the first time each turn, draw a card. So every time you go to combat, you could be drawing one card for every creature on board that is exploring. Crazy value.

Thanks for reading my challenge ❤

It was neat getting back into Magic back in 2023 as a Transformers fan. I actually bought a Brother's War gift bundle and pulled Ultra Magnus and spontaneously built him, and I limited myself to less than $2.50 for new cards for it. The thing competes quite nicely against my friend's Ur Dragon. Could I make it even better with Darksteel/Blightsteel Colossus? Yes, but I refuse to out of principle. Did I semi-break that rule when I pulled Carn, Legacy Reforged? Yes.

Shout out to Roco, Street Chef. A deck i had very little hope in, yet keeps defying my initial expectations time and time again. A versatile commander, paving the way for multiple play styles, is great for accesibillity and upgradability. A handful of chaotic cards, such as possibility storm and knowledge pool, work very well in the deck, which is great if you want to scratch a certain itch. Seriously, too good. Life gain, anti control deck, big creature, combos for days, artifact synergies, token synergies. Highly recommend

19:59 I was REALLY hoping Matt would be like “You know what else I want to do for the novelty of it? Challenge the stats!”

Vorel and the double counters, you can if you want go full on Ixalan tribal, (only cards from the plane of Ixalan) in which case, The Millennium Calendar is a fun and thematic alternative win con for Merfolk to go for. The Millennium Calendar actually synergises with Merfolk really well, and in this case Vorel is awesome as he allows you to double the counters on the calendar, there are also a few Merfolk that let you tap or untap things, again which helps you get to 1000 on the Millennium.

Burakos//Folk Hero is so much fun. You never know what combination of party members you’re going to get. Casting a huge Debt to the Deathless is also very fun.

Been waiting! Best part of most Fridays 🎉😊

Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat goes straight to my Saruman Orc Army deck. Thank you!

Quintorius! My boy getting a Shout-out! XD I'm so proud!

Joey thank you for correcting Matt on "ojer axonil"'s pronunciation; that one drives me crazy, and that was well -navigated

I made a Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon deck and it's the first time I've made a deck that just works right away! It's consistent and I'm impressed at the win rate!

I have a Rilsa deck, it's a blast getting through the Undercity twice in a turn

With the Wilds Of Eldraine precons and the Lost Caverns precons the bar has really been raised for what to expect from a normal set precon. I think the Murders at Karlov Manor precons will either set this new standard in stone or cement it as just a lucky run. Really excited to see how they turn out.

I recently built Eowyn Shieldmaiden and it's doing a lot better than I thought it would. 2 turns after getting my creatures wiped I enter the turn with only Eowyn and a Court of Vantress that copied my opponent's Roaming Throne at that time. I proceed to play Cathar's Crusade then Anim Pakal who gets a counter. I enter combat, make 4 hastey trampling 2/2's, draw 2 cards, and everyone gets 4x counters. I attack with the 4 tokens, Anim triggers and makes 6 gnomes, everything gets 6 counters, Anim triggers again and I make 13 more gnomes. All 3 of my opponents died that turn to 4x 25/25 trampling tokens that entered at the beginning of combat. I've never had a recovery from a boardwipe quite that fast before.

A deck that disappointed me this year was Tawnos the Toy maker. I tried for a couple of months to get this commander to be playable in my play group but it ended up not working.

I budget upgraded faldorn replaced maybe 10-12 cards for around 20-25 bucks and the deck slaps, helps also that in the deck you have Jeska's Will which works amazing with Faldorn and the deck comes with Passionate Archeologist which is in my opinion the best card in the deck and it is a mayor player in all impulse deck. A friend has an upgraded Prosper deck and he always tutors for the Passionate Archeologist which in Prosper is a must kill on sight enchantment.

Council of four is an excellent intro commander as you can put just about anything into the deck and it balances out pretty well. I have a pretty aggressive version with less control in it and it always becomes arch enemy as the other people fuels me with their action. I have that one in a bundle box together with a Karlach + tokens deck. Both are super fun to play. I love the baldurs gate setting and I think the set is amazing.

I just took my Vorel deck apart this week, so I know what you mean about Magic moving on. I'm gonna miss that deck.

ManaCurves! I played against you! Good time!

General tip for Tasha: Build the Arena version with a proxy. It has no Arena exclusive/reliant abilities,and is MUCH more functional without being oppressive.

Rise and shine works great in mono blue vehicles!

Omg the Livaan mention for Ojer Axonil synergy is something I learned not that long ago and yeah, I don’t get why people aren’t pairing them together.

As a Vadrik storm player, I agree with the challange regarding Livaan. Since Ojer, like Vadrik, would prefer to grow in power as you cast spells. Also, a 1/3 body works is pretty decent.

Someone in my group plays Chainer and yes it plays the same each time but it's fun for your opponents to challenge it. It's a really good deck. What I recommend is add a few other Legendary creatures in it that run similar but different and when you're bored with Chainer try it with the other commander. I build most of my decks this way so that when i bring one deck I'm really bringing 3+ decks.

Marston, you're a rockstar

Much seguay, very challange had me in tears 😂

@36:20 was expecting a semi-truck pun here.

Hey Joey! What do you think about using The Third Doctor instead of The Sixth Doctor alongside Sarah Jane Smith? He is a little easier to cast, makes an artifact token, and can potentially get very large if you make lots of Clues etc!

I built slicer, just to make ppl to attack. At my lgs ppl tend to play battleship magic and not to attack. As for my budget deck my thrun breaker of silence definally slaps.. and is resilient as no other.

Joey, if your Sarah and Sixth deck doesn't cast sixth, then why not put the Third Doctor in the command zone? It does almost exactly what you want.

I was wondering if there's a way to see how often 2 particular cards are together in all lists

i kept vorel in hakbal just because it doubles the amount of counters on ANY perminant and Simic Acendancy comes in the deck, which i kept in. it hasn't happened yet, but in my oppinion there's plenty of other merfolk which are kind of "Meh." that im fine keeping Vorel in, especially since you can go wide and go tall, meaning i can make an opponent with a single target removal spell pick between killing my commander or killing a 30/30 creature, potentially with islandwalk.

I bought an ellivere precon to get back into magic and added $10 of cards they had at the store I wanted (mesa enchantress, revoke existence, etc.) and literally went 15-0 with the deck. Didn’t lose an edh game the entire month of October with a $50 deck against (mostly) tuned higher-powered casual decks

Vorel is amazing with the millenium calender

Top 2 precons of the year. Merfolk and Ellivere

Alibou is probably one of my most cracked artifact decks. can she bean them in the face for 100? I mean, yeah. but ahe also smooths out my draws and digs for the ten-card rube goldberg combo that quickly shambles together to assemble a win. Oh yeah and haste, haste good.

I would like to challenge the stats for "Zephyr Stinger" in "Blue, loyal Raptor"+"Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer" decks. It is an awesome way to get flying counters

Optimus Prime is EACH end step!?

I have a 5 color Omnath deck that is a Godzilla and Transformer deck and it slaps. Everyone loves the deck and I always do cool things with it. My favorite is mutating onto the Transformers when they are in their vehicle forms so when my turn ends it is no longer a creature and it is harder for them to interact with. Fire deck

Hey! could you maybe do an upping the average on Najal, the storm runner or Gavi, Nest warden?

It wasn't hard fore to take apart decks and I'm glad. Sometimes I just wanna see what it can do, do it then I'm good on the deck

I have a Wilson/Far traveler deck that is a dungeon/party deck. And it is soo unassuming, until I am getting 200+ dungeon/initiative triggers in an endstep

My deck that most exceeded my expectations was Zedruu. Everyone is shockingly ill equipped to deal with enchantments and donated cards

Wait, Joey's introduction for Matt is... kinda right, isn't it?

My wife name is kayla so I built a Kayla queen of .... boros deck/stax,combo deck and have loved it ever since. Even ordered custom sleeves with our picture on them. Then built a urza deck to go with it lol

I see Matt in the thumbnail I press play

Matt try Ultra Magnus for your artifact creature deck

Oh cool, Matt is a blue main for life!

One of my decks that is disappointing to me is my Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp deck, which is what I did with the Lorehold precon. I just want to have an army of modular creatures.

36:21 Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader is, in fact, a semi-permanent >.

So happy to see my girl Livaan in Challenge the Stats!

Is there a link to the Rilsa Rael, Kingpin deck?

Oh cool, almost at the 300th episode

I got tasha to work but i almost completely play based on the ways to create 3/3 demons

I only just realized there wasn't a Markov Manor on Ravnica...

We end the week with a killer joke once again

What? It's not Markov Manor?

I used to play Vorel with tangle wire and Smokestack, people did not like it XD

The guys at my LGS said that Precons are not a joke or to be taken lightly

ah yes, Dexpectations

Have a Livaan deck. Can confirm: she's a house.

I NEED that Rilsa Rael decklist

Ardenn kediss always slaps. Even a budget deck will crap on people!

The segment about Faldorn reminded me of how satisfying it is to play my Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival deck. Its Boros Prosper and I love it.

On the 6th doctor + Sarah Jane, the doctors are just overall not that good, overcosted effects that are hard to want to play. Sarah Jane's effect is small but she's 2 mana so she's way more playable than basically all doctors.

@Matt, there Ellivere sees some fringe cEDH play!

John Marston was just and simple the best Game Charakter ever for me. Kinda miss him

Kurders at Marlov Kanor

Anje madness with Passionate Archaeologist and similar was strong without being too repetitive, but I eventually tired of it.

Optimus prime - “semi-permanent way” +1

Chainer can repetitive and samey however the other way to use him is to steal other peoples cards from their graveyards. So yes grey merchant can be the wincon however you can also play other people's cardboard. If you make it a Mono black you did this to yourself. You are restricted to creatures but with how powerful creatures are its quite good at using other peoples card board.

Joey you would like playing Flesh and Blood if ya like the turn by turn puzzle

The deck that has blown me away is Comissar Severina Raine. Holy crap can it slap. Its orzhov aristocrats on meth. Its not uncommon to be closing out players on turn 5.

Joey you should check out Monoblack burakos with Haunted one as your background its really powerful and a ton of fun.

I wanted to make gimbal work so bad since he is obviously the weakest precon from MoM and probably 2023. The only way he ever wins is with a rise and shine or cyber drive awakener turning all those artifact tokens into creatures with trample from gimbal.

Matt with the red dead patreon shoutout

praised segues 2024... "we'll see what happens" :D

Soooo.... where's the Matt Morgan Video Game spinoff podcast??

MISS ANJE?! too funny