How I Build Decks: 2022 Deck Building Template 

Hey thanks! Glad i could help :)

Yeah I figured theres a few people out there that really like their card. Because ive always played bad card draw colors, ive just learned to operate with less of it. Thanks!

Thanks. Trying to get the second one going, but Im sick right now and completely lost my voice.

Lol thanks. Haha you like that metaphor?

@@CommanderReplay Oh yes. You could also call it "mechanical music."

Hey thanks! Yeah I wasn’t able to include a ton of detail just because I was trying to keep this video short. I do plan to go through each category in their own seperate videos and I’ll definitely talk about a lot of those things. Volcanic offering has been incredible for me as a way to blow up lands without saccing your own.

@@CommanderReplay absolutely love volcanic offering. Been running it for a while after you pointed it out. 5 mana to kill 2 creatures and 2 problem lands that aren’t yours are sooo good. I’ve been trying to run as many cards that are 2+ for 1 in terms of removal for a while. The more value the better. Volcanic offering, Dismantling wave and Druid of purification give so much compared to their mana cost.

Having played against you many times, I definitely agree on the wipes that can hit multiple permanent types. They're very effective and can cripple any players who've over-extended.

Thanks for watching and commenting :)

I was going to mention the overlap thing, but I cut it for time. Was trying to keep it short. But that is an important aspect of it.

Soooo goood. When I do a full video on removal that card will definitely be mentioned. I actually run it less now because it can be really mean if your opponents are playing high power nonsense.

Haha. Was having some fun with that 😄

Thanks. The key there will be to use cards that serve more than 1 purpose. The easiest way is creatures that help fill the roles. The second, is modal type cards that help fill both roles. Thirdly, somewhere in your deck you will need to make concessions on something mostly likely. For casual decks I run a bit less removal. Other time ill cut a card draw piece or 2, or cut a few creatures. Just depends on what my plans for the deck. The template is a good starting place but each individual deck and shift from it, and as long as your decisions are smart it can still work quite well.

Thanks! Yeah the focus was really on keeping this thing short and consumable because i could have easily talked for an hour on it. I plan to do a video on each topic, when I get to removal, graveyard hate will certainly be a topic.

36 with roughly 13 pieces of ramp would be my recommendation. Usually right around 48-50 total mana production cards in your deck is where I end up.

Yeah thats a great point, I had never thought about trying to quantify like that.

Decklist? I'm always looking for new Aurelia pieces :)

Which combos are you running?

@@CommanderReplay I run Hearth and Home. Helm of the Host. Feast and Famine + Aggravated Assault. 7 or 8 ways to tutor them. Teferi's Protection. I only run about 8 or 9 ramp pieces. But then there's a few random things in there like Hammer of Nazahn. Sigarda's Aid. Brass Squire. One of my favorite ways to kill opponents is getting Colossus Hammer attached to Aurelia and double combat someone to death. I just imagine her with a massive Hammer just smashing people. It sucks that she loses flying but there's ways to get other evasion on her

Yeah that is definitely true. I would have included that, but I cut so much material to keep the time down.

Depends on the deck… like yuriko has ninjas, kinnin has its big non human flips, najeela has her warriors, urza has his artifacts, malcom has his pirates. Agree some decks get samey bc the players have studied the best cards to play in grixus turbo and there are pacakges like breach, and thorcle, but generally non turbo cEDH level decks are running a solid number of commander synergy in lists.

Basically anything that allows you to produce more mana than 1 land play per turn. Signets, Farseeks, 3 mana rocks, Thran Dynamo all great stuff. I am a big fan personally of muti ramp cards and/or things that have card advantage built in, thats gonna be your skyshroud claims, burnished harts, and for CA cultivate and kodamas reach. Treasures are also ramp, but too complex to get it into in a short comment, but a few treasure prodcuers are usually solid. Way back in the day people use to not count things like Mirari's wake mana ramp, and that is a highly flawed view point. Untapping twice with a mirari's wake will produce significantly more mana than a signet played on turn 2 over the course of the game. Same applies to feast and famine and other doublers. I would argue that doublers or some big mana producer likes a nykthos is probably more important than signets, but you want to make sure that you balance each type. Finally another thing that I think is misunderstood is gauranteed land drops, thats gonna be predominantly your white cards like tithe, land tax, and gift of estates. While these are not ramp, they are still mana production and hiiting your 6th and 7th land on time can get you ahead for no real cost, if others get stuck on 5 lands so I like to run 1-3 of those, with usually about 15 total mana production cards. Ive been meaning to do a full video on this.

It is a super delicate balancing act. Any of those effects you can get on creatures or lands helps. A lot of times it comes down to tough choices of, well I need or want this instead of another enchantment removal spell, just that when the gravepact shows up you may not have the answer. So do I get like a perfect 13/13/10 in every deck? No not usually, unless im trying to build something reall high power, otherwise its just about making well thought out concessions.

Yeah ramp doesnt necessarily cause feel bads although it certainly can. For example if its all fast mana its gonna feel like you're playing 2 different games. Also depends on your strategy and what you're opponents are doing. If they are ramping a lot, their probably wont be any ill will. In short, commander is complicated😄

No, but I think i have like 4 scripts written for this. Given that this was the best video I did last year, youd think Id get going on those :) Thats unusual that your struggling in 1v1, because spot removal is much stronger in 1v1 than in multi. Could be the possibility that your spending all of your resources to get to that point. Whenever possible I try to hold things back, but there will always be times where you kill a player who needs to be dealt with, and that gives another player to take over the game...thats just commander.

Glad you liked it. I made a very specific effort to keep it as brief as possible, I had to cut a lot of stuff to keep the run time down. 30 lands is a bit low for my liking, but if you’re doing something cedh-esque it might be fine. If you like bigger cmc plays than you’ll want more lands.

@@CommanderReplay I figured out how to have enough room more than 30 Lands and the cards on your list: put in cards that do more than one thing.

Yeah maybe try 2 or 3 and then bump up one of the 3.

But are you having fun? Cause if you are, you are winning at Magic :)

Not a bad idea! I’ll write it down.

@@CommanderReplay well you're already doing a how to build edh decks, seems fitting to go through your favourite ramp, draw, removal, also some of your personal fun favourites

It definitely is. Being at 60 or more life really reduces the number of things that can easily kill you.

I think it also makes players choose another target.. "I can only do 5 damage and you have 60 life."

Yeah I didnt have time to go into depth here cause I was trying to keep the video short, but there is a school of thought that if you are like a control/combo deck you might want to really load up the card draw. Its a very blue way of playing, and that can certainly work, its just not what I do a ton of.

Lol yeah most of the good stuff is in black and white. Also the typical play patterns for most orzhov decks are long slow and grindy, feeding into the removal thing.

usually 36 with around 2 gift of estate type effects.

I think i cut the segment on overlapping cards for time. So the key is, you want a good number of cards that fill at least 2 categories. In most cases that means getting creatures that help with things like ramp or reanimation or whatever the case is. The second is that every deck needs to make some concessions in at least 1 or 2 categories. The count is sort of a perfect world thing, but actual deck needs will vary.

@@CommanderReplay much appreciated!

Basic starting place for me is 36 lands, 11 ramp, 2-3 cards that find lands like gift of estates, land tax, tithe keeper of the accord or armillary sphere. That is for a deck that contains white and does not contain green.

Yeah that is another way to do it. I cut so much for time In this video, but if it were longer I would have mentioned it.

@@CommanderReplay Yeah, you covered a lot and there's still so much more to cover LOL

The problem with RIP is that it hits your stuff too. Especially if youre in a high interaction meta, such a big part of the game is recursion on your best stuff. I have a hilarious video for a rainy day where an opponent played RIP that hosed every deck at the table including their own.

@@CommanderReplay Oh interesting I guess it really depends on what deck you have and what meta you are in. White does have some good recursion and since you play white it might affect you. also this card might be good (Wheel of Sun and Moon)(it also might backfire but its pretty interesting also you could use it on yourself if you really need it). I would also love to see that video where the RIP messes up your opponent.

Sometimes that when the fun is just getting started. Other times its miserable.

@@CommanderReplay just not a fan oof 2 hour games

I still like 36 lands, with 2 land tax type cards, or a ton of draw depending on your colors.

@@CommanderReplay Thanks

Greetings Mr Flintlock

Lol me too man, me too. Definitely covered that topic a few times

@@CommanderReplay you might've been where I picked up the idea initially. But I've been thinking about it more and more with my Gideon deck. just needs that extra bit of _oomph._

Akroma's Will does the closest thing to an extra combat I think. It's the best we have for now

Welcome to modern edh! Yeah sacrifices do need to get made. Often times that is cutting creatures, or finding cards that fulfill both roles. But yes many times building a deck for me comes to down, i can add these 3 or 4 fun cards, or i could add the right amount of removal. The removal will lead to more wins, but is likely wont generate the novelty of trying something new.