How to Be Salt Free in Commander | EDH | Don't Get Salty | Magic the Gathering | Commander 

Give complements to your opponents. Acknowledge their big plays/good choices. It'll make them smile, and that can reduce your own salt level.

Mitch: “How to be salt free”. Video: *here’s 10 ads* Me:......I guess this is training??

I've helped my friends build most of their decks, kinda hard to be salty when I'm watching something I helped create go off haha.

I used to be salty almost every evening I played. Then I took a bit of timeout from the game, sorted things out in my head and now when I went to play with friends I've defined a goal for myself to have fun at first place and to keep others in good mood, trying to resolve any conflicts before it goes out of hands. That's not about winning or pulling something that you've dreamed about when constructed a deck. That's about guys and girls sitting in front of you, while playing the game.

One of my friends favorite things to say when someone turn 1 sol ring > signet's is "He's ramping! kill him!"

I am a person who enjoys building decks, so when I see someone, who even asked for advice on what to cut, going "off" it's exciting.

Growing up in a big family I've learned to enjoy watching other people enjoy themselves, even if your plans aren't going well, smile when others smile is a great start.

Just a heads up, check your camera alignment with the neon lights, it's slightly tilted.

last time i was this early Wayfarer's Bauble was being printed

‘How to be salt free in commander’ I swear I can have all the advice in the world, I still get salty almost everytime I play 😂

It makes me a bit salty when people are on their phones or just not paying attention to the game, like if I have to tell you that it’s your turn just so you get off your phone then why are you even there?

My playgroup becomes very salty if they don't win, so I've shifted my decks into seeing cool stuff happen. I want to make 5 copies of a Thorn Mammoth. I want to win with Door to Nothingness. It's secretly great bc I just play to have fun (and still win) but my happiness isn't tied to victory. Which makes beating them way more fun.

I've gotten salty at illogical decisions before. Example: Someone counter warred with me to let a leyline of the void resolve when both of us were graveyard decks and I wasn't ahead. It also hurt them more than me as they cannot win without their graveyard (while I can)! It ended up letting the leyline player win while we both sat there screwed. They said they wanted the leyline player to win. That makes me a bit salty because I feel like someone self-sabotaging to help their friend win is unfun. Maybe I'm not alone in that one.

I only get salty when I have like 3 lands turn six with just Karlov, soul warden, and ajani's mantra and get singled out because I'm the life gain player

How not to be salty: Stop eating chips before and during the game.

The saltiest i ever saw someone get was my brother punching me in the face after i beat him in a game of magic when we were 8 and 12

Way to unsalt: As y'all mentioned, casual Commander is a game of variance. Unless you build crazy tutors to have a consistent game plan, sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it doesnt. just sit back and enjoy the gameplay. Commend your friends when they nuke your win con. Call yourself out when you misplay. Be transparent and just let the game flow - shuffle up and play again. Commander should be a break from the emotions and toils of our realities, give it the energy it deserves.

When cooking, salt is what adds flavour. Too much and you've spoiled your meal.

For me it's intentionally bad threat assesment. I've always taken the approach of "are you sure, because X does Y and that seems bad for YOU", and if they do it anyway and then lose to what I told them they would lose too becomes frustrating. I also hate cross game grudges. "You countered my commander game 1, so I'm going to focus you out games 2, 3, and 4"

If I catch myself on the salt tilt I just own it and admit to the table I'm a little salty but I'll get over it. Owning it, at least for me, makes it easier for me to reset mentally.

As a new MTG player I've recently started feeling my SALT level's rising. Thanks for the episode,Really helps.

I have had an ongoing struggle with extreme saltiness in competitive multiplayer environments since before I took up Commander, to the point where it has cost me multiple playgroups and friendships. It's definitely still a beast I lose control of more often than I care to admit, but I also have to give myself credit for making a lot of progress over the last few years after acknowledging the problem was me, and starting to consciously work on it. One of the more important steps I took was to begin uncoupling my pride from the outcome of the game. When I'm outside a pod and able to look at the broader picture, I know that nobody is judging me or my intelligence based on how badly I got whupped in a game of Magic. All too often, however, I lose sight of the forest for the trees when I am in the thick of battle, without even realizing it, and then unfavorable shifts in momentum start feeling like bullshit luck or some kind of harsh critique of my deck formulation technique, which am deeply invested in. (I honestly enjoy deck-design more than playing) I was able to manifest my efforts to relax at first by assembling a deck for which winning was not the primary intent. With that tool in my kit, I was able to join a pod and not feel like garbage for losing, but rather concentrate on enhancing the experience for everyone at the table. Players could focus me down without cause, even as they were getting beat on by the rest of the pod while I was clearly playing a 2/10 deck in a 7/10 pod, and I could finally just shrug it off; winning with that deck was always an extremely remote possibility. That journey led to a deck design where the primary intent was to win, but to do so by using a vulnerable, inefficient strategy that ensured some degree of relevance for each player in the pod. Again, I go into nearly every game with that deck expecting a considerable uphill struggle, and the results have helped to inoculate me to the 'feel bads' of losing, somewhat. It has a terrible W/L ratio, but it is usually fun even to lose with that deck - and that makes it a lot easier to maintain an upbeat attitude. During the Covid lockdown, I took the next step on this journey; downshifting one of my most competitive, repetitive, fun-for-me-and-me-alone decks with the intent of making a deck that is both fun to win and lose with, but also fun to defeat and, most importantly, lose TO - in as much as such a thing is possible, anyway. I began by swapping out cards based primarily on how fun they are to play, and how fun they are to play AGAINST. All the tutors came out except for the land tutors. Any enabler of a plausible infinite combo came out. Cyclonic Rift came out. Rhystic Study came out. I didn't have to take out extra turns because there never were any, and the same is true for stax elements (unless you count a lonely Meddling Mage, which was actually added in to replace a tutor). No more wipes. A light package of disruption and interaction of varying potency are the only cards which remain to defend the deck's intentions. The deck will now mostly live or die by generating thematic, incremental, largely creature-based mid-to-late game value while beating down. No results from that last experiment yet; I'm still picking up the cards for the new build. Excited to try it out, though. One of the treasured friends who has been able to put up with me over the long-term saw value in what I was doing, and began modifying one of his decks with the same intent - swapping out instant-finisher X spells, Blood Moon, and other feel-bad cards. Together, we will explore to what degree it is possible to make decks that generate a reasonable number of what feel like 'honest' wins - but still put up enough of a fight that when they are defeated, the pilot still has a good time, and the winner gets to enjoy the fact that they overcame a worthy opponent. My first attempt at a 'chill' deck did not produce either outcome reliably. The second is often fun for the pilot, and sometimes for the other players, but defeating it usually feels like a forgone conclusion rather than an accomplishment. I am hoping this third project will yield more optimal results all around.

High five from a fellow Phenax player! I am building a Phenax deck as well, one that involves filling up opposing graveyards to reanimate from.

Thing that gets my salt levels up really quick is "king making" where one player doesnt have alot going on and makes it his mission to make a certain player win instead of trying to advance his own board state and playbthe game properly either by drawing them cards or ramping them it just makes the game very one sided.

I can see the “educate on threat assessment” becoming salt in my Group VERY QUICKLY. Other than that though. This is a great guide!

Play cEDH! Can't be salty if everyone else is trying to pull off their own degenerate combo ^^

I love the SaltSkidder background on your points, I love that card!

I get salty when it's board wipes played every two turns.

I have a friend in my EDH group, and he is clearly playing with cards on a scale above everyone else. One member of my group is a 12-year-old girl who only has one slightly modified precon deck. Another is a guy who has more cards, but frankly has no idea how to deckbuild and he doesn't seem to care if he wins or loses. Personally, I try to build a powerful deck but I love my gimmicks and I work on a lower budget. This fourth member definitely has a higher budget, and frankly, I don't care what people say: The people with the biggest budget usually win the most. I've tried to tell him over and over to tune it down a few notches so the rest of us can stand a chance, and hopefully after the lockdown lifts and we can play more, he'll have something a little more on our curve. Most matches just come down to me vs. him with the other two basically being random factors in what feels like a 2-player game, and I really don't like that. It's not that he's an asshole, he's a nice guy who doesn't like overly-competitive players, but I think that the problem with having high-budget cards is that it gets harder to intentionally not use those cards in your deck.

Alot of my friends don't have a deck,so they play with one of my 5. That way I pretty much always win! I love seeing how my different decks interact, too.

Joined a new play group a few months back. I was doing a 1v1 against a new player with a pre-con brawl deck and i had my Sarkhan Dragon brawl deck. The game went back and forth for a good while (it was a long game), and I ended up losing. Instead of getting salty, I actually said, "No, this is good. I found 1 or 2 weaknesses in my deck that need to be addressed." And over the past few weeks analyzing it further, I found even more errors in the deck! Currently working on finding cards to fix it :) So, what I'm saying is: Take your games more as learning experiences rather than a competitive track record. (Or at least your early games. After playing for a few years, maybe that changes.)

When I get salty, my tension can get a little too high. I have found the walking away and talking about it later tactic to work the best for me.

Hi I'm that Zen person only two things upset me in a game land exile and targeting behind players. What I've learned to do Is say I forgive you to the mass land exile players and to help out the players behind or get everyone to team up against the person breaking rule 0 in both instances I feel all the salt go away. Peace ( : enjoy the rest of your day.

* Eddie: Plays Phenax group mill Becomes my favorite guest of the show. The way I got around all the salt from my playgroup regarding my Phenax deck was converting it entirely into a self-mill deck instead. I still get to play mill, everybody else still gets to play their cards like normal, it's a good compromise. I will say Phenax was far more interesting to play when I was trying to mill out all the other players instead of myself, though.

I'm the kind of person who gets salty rather easily, so I've been actively looking into other players experiences and advice on how to deal with that. One thing I've done is adapt my expectations from "I wanna win" to "I wanna play my deck". As long as my deck did some cool things it was supposed to do, I'm satisfied, especially with the more budgety, janky decks. Playing a lot of interaction also gives you the feeling that you at least did something impactful, even if you end up losing. Another advice I took to heart is "When you don't have fun, don't be afraid to concede". While there usually is always a chance to win at the end, even if you've had a terrible start, it sometimes is just not worth it to suffer through an unfun game just for that chance. I'd rather get to the next game quicker.

I was actually surprised when Mitch was back on Quest for the Janklord after the broken deal on the first episode that he was on. Mitch totally kept it calm.

I only get salty when someone plays a mass land destruction spell....

There's one salt trigger that wasn't mentioned: the long, pacing turn followed by virtually no action, especially when there was obviously no hand evaluation/planning during the previous players' turns. One should notice when their turn becomes everyone's bathroom break.

The best thing I did for EDH was to stop playing to win, and just playing because I enjoy the game for the game's sake. If I end up winning, cool. If I don't, cool.

How I remain salt free is by playing my two silver-bordered decks. If at any point I feel like I've been targeted, or if I'm not having a good time, I'll pull them out because they're not made to win. They only get up to maybe 4s on the power scale, which means that I will almost never win against the 6s and 7s that my friends are playing. It's a good way for me to get back into it and have more fun.

The “don’t break your stuff” deal can usually be fixed with: “unless you directly threaten my board or a win”.

I really enjoyed this episode. The section on things that you can't change really spoke to me. Thanks for having Eddie on again.

The saltiest thing about commander is the great lack of bruna light of alabaster deck techs more definitely need to be made.

I loved the point about win percentages. I think a lot of people should try to do better at realizing when their deck is the source of other people being salty, or just not having fun in general, and try to adjust because of that. I took apart my Atraxa superfriends lists because after a lot of games, I found I was winning about 66% of the time in 4 player games which just wasn't fair to them. I then went full 5 color and everyone has a much better time

I've never had problems with being salty. I'm too busy having so much fun in this awesome game.

I haven't played commander for very long, but thought I should say this. When I get salty, I try to joke about it and turn my salt into comedy.

Eddie has some great insights. This was a very well thought - out topic.

I was the guy who would get salty for losing quite a bit. I really don't like losing. It wasn't till I realized I actually win more than I lose and the fact that my group goes after me as hard as they do is more of a compliment than anything really. Had to accept that its just a game. And also learn to appreciate the ways I could be beaten and then learn from them.

This worked quite nicely, hopefully you guys continue exploring these general waters rather than the earlier ones.

Eddie is a great addition to the show. I like this new conversational format. Dialogue and discussion is great! Also, really love the CQ Shield logo in the back. Any new merch plans with it? Enamel Pins, maybe?

I've just been ganged up on a lot in a lot of my edh games (not strictly because my deck is bad or good). It frustrates me specifically when one player is CLEARLY a big threat but instead of going after them they go after me because I MIGHT do something.

I just recently reached salt levels i would never have thought I would be able to reach, since I'm quite chill about loosing etc. Was playing my braids conjurer deck and I just got out my first creature with the effect. My opponent instantly killed my commander and my creature. Not that this would bother me so much but after a few round this specific opponent was just about to die and I saved him by bouncing a creature which was about to finish him. Instead of being grateful this guy instantly went all out on me with all his creatures and killed me. I was just like: What just happened? Why did I deserve this? 2nd round it went fairly similiar and I was about to scoop when my group convinced me not to scoop. Straight after that when the same guy as before had his turn, he decided to once more go all out and kill me. This was the moment my blood pressure went nuts and I just said "Congratulations" in the most meanest and sarcastic voice I could come up with. Then I went home

No salt. I love to see a deck go off, sometimes it’s mine sometimes it’s someone’s else’s. I like to see all decks work at the optimal level. It’s silly fun., seeing all the cards come together in a perfect storm.

Ahh just what I needed, thanks Mitch

5:32 is such a mood, deal’s are deals!!

Man, I want to learn to be umami in EDH.

I see you are working on getting less "yeps" per minute. Love the new direction of the channel

The main things that make me salty are when people play decks WAY above the power level of the group. And Land Screwing and having 2-3 lands still at turn 10.

Mitch, I really enjoy these longer episodes, especially with Eddie. A great guest, an insightful player. All round great episode and set up

I really like your recent discussions with some of your friends. Hope to see a discussion with your other friend Alek soon!

I've never been salty before in Magic, there was one time where I did get salty at a yugioh event, but it was a extremely extenuating circumstance. Yugioh does like, 40 card starter decks, they're basically all singleton, and they're bad. It was supposed to be a special event for yugioh day, which was basically a tournament with everyone playing those decks, and that was what had been advertised, but they fired that event with the special prize pool as a regular event, and I hadn't brought my regular cards. Despite going up against regular/full power decks, I put up a match win round 1, and in the second match, we were 1-1, and I was against a staxy burn deck. My deck was full of jank, and in overtime, it was basically first damage wins. Like, equipping a 0 power card with an equipment to swing in for damage. I lost that match because of an incorrect call by the head judge at the store, and it seemed likely it was because the person I was playing was an old lawyer who dropped bank in the shop, and yelled when things didn't go his way. I got a bit salty, lost my next match and won the last one with my absolute jank of an unsleeved starter deck.

All the flavors in the world, and people wanna be Salty.

I'm returning to magic after ~5 years and I play commander with friends now. I've only seen a handful of videos from Commander's Quarters and this video on top of the taboos in commander guide are amazingly well presented in such a reasonable way, I'll keep watching for sure

I have been playing for about 3 years and have gathered a decent collection. One of the hardest things is building my meta (play group). I have a rule where I will build a new players first deck based on what they like. After that they have to build their own decks. And then I have a few decks that I can play based on power level. If I know they are lower powered i grab a lower powered deck, if i know they are going to gang up on me i will pull out the big guns. No matter what I treat it as a learning and teaching moment.

I get salty at two specific things: 1) When someone does land destruction or mass land destruction without immediately ending the game. 2) When my decks mana screw me at 2 lands despite having 36+ lands in every single deck.

Some players consistently lead to a negative experience fore me, personally, for many of the reasons you guys stated. One thing I've tried to do lately is just not play with those folks. My desire to play EDH isn't higher than my desire to avoid toxicity...usually

Hey Mitch, just wanted to let you know I've been enjoying the podcasts recently! Thanks for uploading quality content for us commander fans :D

I have begun just being intrigued by what a deck is doing. In modern when I played against a combo deck, I was pissed that it was so good at taking me down at first, but I was laughing so much at the rediculousness of the combo that I didnt really end up that mad.

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I found through my experience that the players who get really salty tend to be players that don’t play other more competitive formats, so they aren’t very accustomed to some kinds of interactions or having someone actively trying to break your game plan every turn

All my decks get wrecked by anything, so I don’t get salty on losing since I’m always losing. Nice to be able to avoid that sakt Edit: I mean’t salt

I have a play group that I like that is very far away from me, but I really enjoy playing with them despite the distance. As a new player, I never go into a game of Commander with winning in mind. I know that might be counter-intuitive for a lot of people, but I get together with my group so seldomly that I really just enjoy the interactions we all have when we play and I play the best that I can, the only way I know how given my current knowledge and if I win, yay! and if I don't win, which is about 85%-90% of the time, then it is experience I can take away and apply to the next game. Granted, a 10%-15% win is very conducive to being incredibly salty and sometimes I am sick of losing, but it's mostly derived from my lack of experience with the game, what the cards can do and how often I play with my group.

This could have saved my playgroup 2 years ago. Thanks, Eddie and Mitch, for putting this out.

My answer just play high or cEDH if somebody just wins out of blue everyone is like yep that was a wild game now next game?

I stay salt free by playing "political" decks. My group likes to do their own thing on the table so I like to influence the board by playing Kenrith and speed up the process. If someone has a bad hand, I have them draw a card. They want mana, I give them one. Their fav creature died, I rezz it back, all for political favors.

I love the idea of playing against your own deck/cards. I had been running Serra Ascendant in a Ikra Shidiqi deck and never realized how frustrating it was until I thought about how I'd feel if it was played turn 1 against me, then smacked me in the face for 20-30 damage through 3-4 turns.

I’m afraid I was salty earlier today when my son beat me (again) with his Kenrith deck by using Willbreaker to steal most of my best cards (again) and take over the game instantly. Our playgroup discussed it and he (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to replace Willbreaker. Ironically, he got the idea for building a Kenrith deck using Willbreaker by watching Mitch. Thanks Mitch! 😜🤣

This really made me think. When someone targets ones' stuff when there is an obvious more thretening target you have to be humble about it. You don't know their hand and so forth and can't be some judge for some objective truth.

I usually only get salty when I make mis plays and it causes me to lose or I miss a chance to win. I will forever hate mill.

Go in with the expectation to be social and have fun over winning and it won’t matter. Choosing your playgroup can be huge as well.

I love magic because unlike a lot of other games I play (League of Legends mainly), I never walk away from a game salty.

I get salty when my opponents make a bad deal for the table, i.e. Player A makes a deal not to counter something Player B is doing if Player B doesn't attack them with their big monster, Player B takes the deal, and then Player A casts an "I WIN" spell. now Player C and D are salty at Player B because they've ended up king-making Player A with their deal.

It's called flipping the table before you lose

Great vid, helps me realize that I should probably adjust my current decks to fit heater in my new playgroup :) I'd probably have more fun playing slightly powered down decks to fit in better

Another great video. Thank you!

First? Dont be salty tho

The best way to not have anyone get salty? Dont kick the weakest player in the game, _because they are the furthest behind._ Targeting someone or attacking someone, because you can, or they are open, is guaranteed to generate salt -- especially when it happens turn after turn.

About the only thing that really makes me salty anymore, is instant speed scoop during combat. That really grinds my gears. Other then that, shuffle up and play again.

"Keep strictly to a theme" now you're talkn' my style.

If you play cEDH deck at a casual pod you actually a bad person XD

just be sad and depressed about everything someone mills your broodmother? cry someone path to exiles your krenko? cry

One thing id like to note in addition to the things you guys stated about borrowing a deck. It can also have the effect of the person realizing that the deck they have been *salty* about isnt actually as easy to play as they might have thought, Which sometimes is a key reason for the salt, not appreciating or understanding how the deck operates or the Myriad of lines you can take.

Dealbreaking is something my old hometown multiplayer (we didn't know about commander) playgroup solved in the following way: a deal is a deal. You commit to it and breaking it loses you the game immediately. BUT when you are down to 1v1 all deals are off. Also, you make the deal with the imperfect information inherent to the game. If you agree a certain removal is not used on you, that does not save you from the opponent having a second copy of something (our multiplayer was not singleton). This allows for deals to be used in trickery, and everyone understands the risk involved.

Hi

How play a salt free game: Never neglect following the rules that govern a turn in Magic the Gathering. Allow priority to pass and don't just play cards a quick as possible and skip phases. Just follow the format of a turn. Pay attention when someone else is passing priority. If you would have any responses on other people's turns don't get caught up in conversations.

To me, what makes Magic "magical" and fun is the astronomically rare complex board states that happen in casual games. I call these "The Battle of Five Armies". When every player has a strong board position and who is "winning" changes from one turn to the next, when everyone's deck is popping off on turn 8, 10, 12, 14, and it could really be anyone's game, that's what I love. These board states are literally ONCE IN A LIFETIME, ONCE IN A UNIVERSE due to the incredible mathematical improbability of all the factors, from the cards in decks to the cards in play, cards in hands, and the players playing them. Therefore the complexity is absolutely unique and the strategy, tactics, decision-making, and luck that go into playing the game become the pinnacle of what MTG has to offer. It's the beauty of Chaos that you get to interact with together with your friends in a truly unique experience that no other MTG players have ever had or will ever have. So what makes me the saltiest is when people play expensive or otherwise brokenly overpowered cards and decks that attempt to bypass all of that. When they play for turn 2 or 3 wins, infinite loops, A+B = I win combos, or one-card win buttons like Cyclonic Rift or Ruinous Ultimatum, to me it says they don't want to engage in the beautiful chaos. They don't want to have that unique experience of intensely difficult decisions, plotting and planning, and winning by the skin of their teeth. They don't want to earn a complicated win through a trial by fire, they just want to smash the "I WIN" button. Rather than win by skill and luck they want to win by owning a card or two and having enough mana to cast it, often times before the game even really gets going. TL;DR: The beauty of the game is in the sharing with your friends all the wild and once-in-the-universe unique interactions that can happen. Players that bypass that to hurry and win are not only cheating themselves out of earning a win they had to fight for, they are taking the true joy of the game from the other players as well by mistakenly thinking that winning the game is better than actually playing it to the fullest.

Saltskitter as the background of the bulletpoints was great. Haven't seen that card in a long time

Eddie's voice though... it approaches Morgan Freeman levels.

How to dissolve the salt: Force yourself to compliment their deck/gameplay. You'll find your salt wash away.

I've got a couple of salt stories. I once had a playgroup that was run by one dude who was had us all over to his house. One of the people in our group wanted to build a deck using sylvan primordial, and the person in charge of the group wasn't having it. The way they intended to use it was in a fair capacity, no flickering, or cheating out early, but the other guy wouldn't listen. It got into a heated debate over the spirit of the game vs rules as written, plus the fact that this player was having trouble keeping up with the person running it, since they had loads of disposable income and would often build decks with mana crypts, mana drains, force of will, etc. and there was an obvious power disparity. In the end, it was, "My house, my rules," and the person with the sylvan primordial just quit magic all together since it was such a small town, and there really wasn't another place to play.

Bad Threat Assessment is what gets me going. My friend has been running away with games and the other night I was in a position to stop him and save the rest of the table. I casted a Rishkar's Expertise to draw into something and the other person at the table countered it. I said "why would you counter this? X is going to win the game so im trying to save us!" And his response was "well now at least you don't win." I honestly took it kind of person attack cause I'm not one that wins many games as I typically play less efficient archetypes and colors so I was really perplexed as to why he did this. Especially since I said I was trying to take out who was winning.