I have a friend who just started MTG and she likes it. I told her about Commander and she likes the concept, so when I found that video I thought "hey, this is great, I'll send this to her!" I decided to watch it first to make sure it's good and because I'm fairly new to commander as well and I realized: "oh, she won't know what Grixis is. Oh, she won't know what Temur is. Oh, she won't know what FNM is...." I think the guys got carried in the moment a bit and forgot that a good chunk of the target audience for this video is very new to MTG and will not understand a lot of the lingo in there. If I had one feedback to give about this specific video, it would be to add little annotations for all of these terms that might fly over the head of newer players. I know when they say Grixis or whatever, it's not essential to understand that to get their point, but a new player might think they need too and be intimidated by that.
Same here. I started teaching my girlfriend the basics of Magic and then we both garnered an interest in Commander and that's been our big bonding activity on those lazy days we don't want to go anywhere.
Same with me one year before in 2016 and I started playing commander in 2018. It's funny how he started off teaching me and now I am waaaaaay more enfranchised than he is haha. We play almost every night together
Buying precons is actually a super smart way to have a huge collection fast, and certain of these you can just mash together and get a very strong deck very fast (I did that with the 2018 Estrid Precon and the 2021 Galea one, and bam : super strong tuvasa enchantress deck ready to go !)
yeah same I went right to target after watching this video and bought a precon, Mystic Intellect, I think it was called. I think Jimmy is right I don't need sleeves, the deck has been a ton of fun just shuffling the cards out of the box! I don't know if I'd like the feeling of shuffling with plastic over the cards.
@@handfulloftrash I think they suggest sleeves because it will keep the expensive card safe, not to be an elitist. To each their own but NM card is always going to feel better to sell then a HP card.
46:35 As someone who works at a game store, nothing makes me happier than when someone comes up to me and says, "I like my deck, how can I make it better?" because it both not only show us that you value our opinion but it also shows us that you value what we say and listen to everything regardless of if you agree or now which has happened to me
I recently played in a new lgs in my neighborhood, and on my first pod was a new player. They sighted this video and your content for helping them finally make the leap into commander. Big ups fam. Every new head is homie.
I live in a town of 2500 people and was talking to my friend at the gym about magic. A stranger came up and asked if we were talking about magic. He then joined our play group and he is one of my best friends.
That's awesome man. I wanna get into magic cause I think it's really cool but also to meet cool people. All I do is work everyday nonstop and would like to go and play at a store near me when I get a day off and see if I can meet some cool new people. When your 30 and just work 24/7 making friends is really tough. So I would love to meet over a similar interest like Magic.
I first started playing commanders with a friend who used to play in tournaments, buy he said it wasn't fun so he would only make decks he thought was fun. Even though he was better than me and my other friends he nerfed himself to make sure we were having fun, and that's what made me fall in love with the format.
when introducing new players, I think it would be good to avoid some of the prejudices that long-time players can hold, especially if they're really untrue, like "white can't ramp" or "green can do everything"
I got into MTG when I was a teenager. Friends got me into this, at first. Then, I played with other students every lunch break at High School. Back then, Commander wasn't even a thing. Unfortunately, I eventually moved from school and city and stopped playing for more than 10 years. Way later, I met one of the high school friends who told me about still playing MTG in a "new" format called Commander. It caught my interest so I read the rules on the net but wasn't ready to move to LGS with people I haven't met before yet. A couple of years later, I played several board games with drafting/deck building mechanics and started to really miss MTG. I searshed about commander and found Game Knights. I watched a couple of episodes and became hyped as f...un. That also gave me a good insight of how to play the format thanks to the good formating of Game Knights and the Podcasts. I ordered a couple of precons, since I lacked a lot of EDH staples at that time and started on that basis. That was also a "not too expensive way" to see if I like it or not. I found out then that another High School friend was managing MTG nights at his GF's store and gave it a shot. I really fell in love for Commander while playing it and while following your content, Commander's Quarters or Tolarian Community College and made fantastic friends in the process. Now, 3 years later, I have 20+ decks and I don't regret anything. It looked tedious to catch up after such a long break but the youtube content is such a gold mine made by passionated people. It quickly becomes a walk in the park.
I hope this personal experience of mine will help someone. When I first tried commander, I was unaware of precons so I took apart one of my old kitchen table decks and cobbled together a commander deck to the best of my ability. I got thrashed. But it wasn't getting killed that discouraged me. At some point, a regular at the LGS pulled me aside and basically said to me. "You will never win with a deck like that and I want to warn you now before you go off buying a bunch of cards so you're not a hundred bucks deep with a deck that is only marginally better." I was crushed. I gave up trying to get back into Magic and moved on. But then a year passed and I went back at it. I reimagined my old deck, watched episodes of game knights, and now I can say I have a solid grasp on the format. Eventually I earned my first win, and it felt great to reach that milestone off of building a deck completely on my own. (My first win I don't believe I deserved because things just happened to shake out where I was the last man standing. It's not like I really did anything. But it was still funny to beat a borderline CEDH deck with a terribly cobbled together mess of a commander deck in my FIRST GAME OF COMMANDER EVER. That's right. At one point I was 1 for 1 but I got thrashed every game after that.) What I'm trying to say is don't let losing discourage you. Give yourself time to get comfortable in a pod. At first a game can be very intimidating as so much stuff can be happening at once. It's okay to lose if it meant you lost playing a deck you like. It's so cool once you realize how to express yourself through this game and it's so rewarding to do so. Nowadays I have two decks I built myself from scratch. They're unique, fun, and do the things I like to do. Eventually things will line up. Let other people help you. Take every stage of the game into consideration, Focus on synergy. I'm still learning every day.
@@MathieuHouel I have a “Kill” deck that’s basically deathtouch/demon tribal with removal spells. Rise of the dark realms is my big win con but I can win in other ways. Chevill is the commander. The other is “Ape Tribal” and neyith is the commander. The rule for this deck is that every ape in the red and green colors HAS to be in it (two apes are black and another has blue and black in it’s color identity so unfortunately I can’t play those) and I can’t have any creatures in the deck that aren’t apes (no changelings either). Neyith herself is the only exception. I’m starting to sour on my chevill deck because it has trouble closing out games but my ape tribal deck is surprisingly strong. I put cards like “read the unwritten” and “selvala’s stampede” in it to prioritize dumping apes on the board. This helps with rebuilding after board wipes as well as stomping on the gas pedal when I have a busy board already. Definitely the deck I’m most proud of and have the most fun with. I call the deck “ape shit” and the overall strategy is “Ape Dump.” (Get it? Another word for shit is dump) Dump ape on board. Ape take dump on player. Ape go ape shit. Fight. Attack. Ape die. Dump more ape. Go ape shit again. It’s a stupid deck and a big element to it (thanks to cards like bag of tricks) is luck. The manna curve is pretty bad. What’s on top of the deck and what you roll can drastically change the outcome. You can whiff with a card like “storm the festival” or “turntimber symbiosis” But it’s a gamble worth taking. You can’t win with apes by playing smart or safe. You must become ape. This deck eats board wipes so you need a way to rebuild. Anyways I hope that answers your questions. What commanders do you play?
@@James.E.Guitar Interesting that Jimmy would use that term to refer to unsleeved cards,but then again I tell folks,"back in the day when I learned to play Magic we didn't use no sleeves,we played the cards nekkid!" 🤣🤣🤣
How I started playing Commander was through the Command Zone. 2016 saw me immigrating to the United States and I had the blessing of having a local game store walking distance from where I was living. I had played Standard on and off a few years and being in a new space meant learning from new people. Local players got me to try out their decks and that had me curious to know more. The Command Zone taught me a whole new world of new cards and interactions. As for how my collection for Commander started, I had a few older cards I picked up growing up. Christmas of 2016 saw me stumbling into a Breed Lethality (a highly sought after precon) at MSRP. Through the years, I got new precons to try new strategies and try out new colors. Loose packs got me to be resourceful and building with what I have. Now I buy singles but stumbling on the fortunate find always feels good. Commander is a designer’s game. The best parts of it are always the stories you tell to others. Be it some awesome combo or how dominating a single creature was in that game. It’s never always about how you won. Sometimes you lose badly and you have to learn how to take the loss with grace. I just find it neat that I can play with cards I got when I was 11.
My brother showed me magic, we played 60 card constructed with any decks that he had. My first couple months of playing magic I used the Chulane brawl deck against an Ixalan limited dino deck and the Final adventure challenger deck.
Chulane huh? That must’ve been an interesting first time experience for magic, playing with such a broken card. Just curious were other decks disappointing after playing chulane?
@@HomeCookinMTG We accualy didint play with a commander, we just basicly played modern. I got chulane out once every now and again and I didint really understand how powerfull his first ability was. I did really enjoy using his bounce ability thoughto avoid removal
Used to play magic like 10 years ago and after finding your channel it's making me want to go out and get back into it. I know o have se old cards somewhere but commander seems like the path I want to try! You guys are great keep up the great work and thank you for lighting my magic fire 🔥
I think one of the best commanders to play is ‘Karador, Ghost Chieftain’. It was my first and recommended to me by my LGS. When I was new to commander, I wanted to play everything in my deck and it was really fun being able to replay all my favourite cards at the time from the graveyard. 100% recommended if you’re new.
If I could tell me something, I'd say thank you. Thank you for sticking through with a hobby that I now never see myself leaving. In terms of advice, try Commander sooner. It's a good decision.
I like the legacy/vintage rule of allowing up to 10 proxies in a deck. this way it gives you room to test cards, or play with stuff you cant normally afford because it allows people to play decks they may not be able to play.
I just got into magic and commander these are super helpful. Just made my first deck as a blue/red Niv-mizzet, parun deck focused of card drawing and damage to others through triggers
Been watching this on my tv , and i got back into magic recently after a 20 year absence, first person was the professor I watched, then the comand zone. The fact that Josh and Professor are both from oregon make me happy. Im a 503 area code myself😂
I hope to play commander soon, my current group mostly plays legacy and don't seem too interested in commander, but I really wanna jump into it, this cast was all super helpful on good ways to start
1) Buy precons 2) Buy singles 3) Play Limited 4) Upgrade your decks with singles and pulls you got in limited 5) Build your own pet deck from cards you now have 6) Repeat from 2)
My 7th grade science teacher taught a ton of students how to play after school and as "homework" we had to buy theme decks. This was in 2008. I stopped playing around 2011 and then came back in 2019 and discovered Commander. I haven't looked back ever since. What an amazing format.
I started with the D&D crossover set/precons. My method is buying precons, singles of staples (especially when they get reprints), and praying Command Legends 2 will be good.
The latest precons are so good and it's definitely a good way to get the hang of commander. Putting in a few cards and streamlining the deck will help improve the equality of your games too
I always advise people, that want to buy a booster box of a set that they really like, to learn to play limited. As fun as cracking packs can be, draft experiences are such a unique experiece and can help teach people lots of different cards. If someone was determined to buy a box of commander legends, Id try and convince them to draft it and help teach them a bunch of stuff!
To add to your point about testing things out and finding out what you like: I think Historic Brawl on Arena is actually a great way to do this. Not perfect, obviously, because card selection is way more limited, but you can get a good feel for a lot of things and it's considerably more affordable than buying paper cards (though I guess it does require some amount of time investment)
Ehhhh I don’t know if I really agree it’s a very different format. It’s only 1 on 1, You can use any planeswalker is your commander, There’s only 25 life, there’s no commander damage, And the ban list is different. It can help you out with a general idea of deck construction I guess, but the gameplay experience is going to feel pretty different
Got my wife into magic since my play group hasn’t got together in half a year. Now we play almost daily. And my group is meeting tomorrow so that’s cool
If you don't want to invest in a deck up front, ask to borrow a deck from another player. If you have 3 commander players to play with it means you have roughly 35 decks to pick from.
Primal Genesis was my first Commander Deck, and 2 years later, Ghired is still my favorite commander, the deck he’s in is super evolved from the Precon he started in, but he’s been a consistent threat in my playgroup, and I identify with the deck way more than anything I’ve piloted since :)
I find the restaurant analogy funny with me personally since I usually order the same thing everytime, but in edh I want my decks to be different to have variety
I got strong-armed into magic by one of my dnd buddies about 3 years ago. I wanted nothing to do with the game, but it eventually grew on me, and is now one of my favorite pastimes
A small thing to add when buying singles, if you're not a hardcore collector and have no intention to resell the cards later, look for moderately played or heavily played copies of the more expensive cards to save money. For example, I bought a HP copy of Savage Beating for my Prossh, Skyraider of Kher deck, normally a $28-$30 card in near mint condition for $20 in heavily played condition. The card may not look the prettiest, but it plays and sleeves just as well as a near mint and freed up another $10 in budget for another good card for the deck.
I remember when i started magic in general. The local roleplaying store had free starter decks for people who wanted to join there tournament. It was only 30 cards so you could choose two different colors. That really helped me get into magic. Also my Kindergarten had magic so i played there aswell.
Mtg forge is awesome for starting and testing decks. Play games against AI for free! While not perfect (the ai are a lil dumb), it's an awesome resource. And it runs at least as well, if not better than, MTGO
It's not a lie, 3 years ago I watched my first Command Zone episode. Back then 20 Years ago, I already played Highlander, but with no commanders. The episode was thrilling and so I got back to magic because JLK and Jimmy are great and entertaining people. I had a little collection left from back then, as I tried to start again with magic in the year 2013. After I watched the episode, I started to collect again magic and Precons were GREAT!!!! The best way for every new player that wants to enjoy commander. I started with the precons anje falkenrath and Ghired. After that, I bought nearly every commander deck, only because they have so many subthemes, and it's a good way to get some cards for this way to play. After some months I started to buy singles to boost the pre-cons. I love commander so much since back then. I'm so sad that I´m living in Germany, so I will never be able to play against JLK and Jimmy or Ladee Danger.
Lol your food analogy made me understand why my rule to have only 10 decks is not succeeding and I’m currently working on my 11th deck…because I’m also a massive foodie who needs to try a bunch of different things at different restaurants 🤣
Shared this video to a friend who is getting in after getting his feet wet with arena and mtgo. At work is a good way to meet other players as well. I'm in Nova Scotia Canada and there are LGS events here (and we're a small town). Spelltable also is very easy to play on.
I appreciate the videos. I've been collecting MTG cards since 2001, but I'm only now getting into actually playing because commander seems like a lot of fun.
My brother got me playing magic a few months ago and been enjoying it and you know the funny thing your live is set to go off on my birthday i will try to be there to watch 😁
I bought my first commander deck after me and some friends had played online a bit (thanks quarantine) and basically like I was split between three decks and a friend of mine who was with me then was like "hey [name] you like doing combos and explode-y stuff right? You should take the prismari precon" so I trusted him and did So I proceeded to buy it (and sleeves) and the next day I played it with them for the first time and fell in love with it- and the format.
Vinny’s binder system is great! I used to swap 13 cards between my 2 decks. Now that I have 8 decks, I’m so glad I can just carry my decks plus 1 tiny binder and I’m good to go.
Consuming Commander content has definitely been helpful to me for picking what I want to play. I built my Brallin and Shabraz wheels deck after watching Josh play Smothering Tithe into Wheel of Fortune in his Firesong and Sunspeaker deck on Game Knights. It's the first Commander deck I really liked.
I started playing Commander when the first precons came out. I got the Zedruu one, thinking I was going to like it, and hated it. I've built a ton over the years, and never found one that clicked. I never found one I liked that was able to keep up with what my friends were playing. That deck, ironically, ended up being too strong.
I'll definitely be attending to tune in that day. The 29th is my birthday so that will be an awesome gift 😀 can't wait to share my thoughts on them common commander mistakes lol!
I personally have never played commander, but I had been playing 60 card deck casual MtG for 15 months or so at school pre-covid, then shifted towards playing 1 on 1 with a close friend over facetime weekly going up till now. This friend of mine has a spam removal spells deck in green/black that they enjoy playing, so I grew to not like playing big creature decks which would just get demolished by removal spam. Then that friend's birthday came around and we decided to rope a few more friends into trying Mtg as a party activity, and we got one of those friends to join us for our weekly facetime sessions.
If you're in the Orange County CA area (HB, FV, Westminster, GG, SA) my church friends play MTG after service Sundays typically (Commander, Pauper, Pre-release, Draft) if you want to join a relatively wholesome very casual low power tier group, come join! Of course you're welcome to come to English service at 11am. We grab lunch afterwards and start playing. There's only maybe 3-6 (guys and gals) of us, but we just started teaching kids to play as well from elementary but the age goes up to people in their late 30s. FCBC-FV. We also play board games sometimes and have a group that are learning to play D&D.
Since Jimmy was confused to see Nicholas Cage listed as a Superman actor, I have an End Step recommendation for you guys. Look up the documentary "The Death of Superman Lives... What Happened?". It's a fantastic doc by the late Jon Schnepp about a 90s Superman movie that was almost made, but didn't quite get there. It's fascinating, extremely well researched, and a great watch!
I always thought Magic as I got older would be the bridge for our generation as popular as bridges I thought Magic as intellectual as it is would be what our generation would gravitate to but someone was getting older now feels awkward walking into a game store with all these younger people saying I’d like to play commander it’s great if you have a group of friends but as you get older you drift away from some of your friends and it’s not always that easy any advice
I second that rec to get groups that don't play format but do play mtg, to try a lil commander. I play with a mostly sealed draft group, and we have started including a game of commander at the end of draft nights. The others have gotten more into it and now we look forward to commander as much as draft.
Great point about sleeves, trying to save money by neglecting sleeves is extremely counterproductive, it’s 100% worth shelling out some extra money for them to preserve the value of your cards
You guys should do card or card type reviews. For example counterspell tier list, where you rank counterspells and list costs, or card draw in x color tier list etc. To educate people in the best cards or the best substitutes for those cards at lower price brackets.
What I like to do when I'm introducing a friend to the format and they want to dive in, I will either get them a precon as a welcome to the format gift or I will take them to moxfield, and we will look through all the various hubs and search using budget as a search term and we will find a decklist and I will get them that deck.
Speaking of Mixing collections with people this is how my wife and I do it. We made sure that neither of us wants to play the same colour identity as the other Drafting the 32 colour identities and taking 3 0-1 colour decks each 5 2 colour decks each, 5 3 colour decks each and 3 4-5 colour decks each and we are building toward the 32 2 decks at a time going up from the 0-2 colour side which we finished first and now building the 3 colour decks and if both of us need a card and we only have one usually I will let her have the one copy until such time as we can get a second copy.
i started playing commander during Guildpact (best block ever) lol kidding aside, what made me play commander is that no card is trash. every card has it's own deck. they may be fringe or narrow but that makes it even more fun
3 Sol ring? More like THIRTY TWO as you would want one for every colour identity possible however I agree don't buy all 32 at once. What I did Is I bought the one for each deck as I came to that deck first for the 10 two colour decks, then the 6 0-1 colour decks and now onto the 10 3 colour decks.
For precons idk the price anymore but there wasn't a black deck mentioned but the 2 black decks recently are really fun and good bases for there strategy are prosper tome bound, its a BR thats wants you to "draw" and cast cards for extra value. And the dimir zombies from midnight hunt,its essentially a zombie tribal base i litterly have been on the fence about this tribe for awhile and I litterly just purchased it put my scarab god as the general and like 4 other cards and it sits along side normal decks.
Your guys point about potentially using one of your deck as inspiration is exactly how I ended up building my arcades defender value deck, all of Josh's value decks rubbed off on me lololol
if I could go back I would advise not trying to get the single most powerful cards so fast. Nothing wrong with strong cards but the journey to those powerful cards is part of the fun and upgrading decks slowly.
The best way to build a collection is limited, you get to have fun, meet other players and you keep the cards. Then you get to trade which is amongst the best things mtg has to offer.
