How to Win More Commander Games 

The main way to win more is to face me. You'll win about 90% of the time

Played against a combo deck that had rhystic study. The player would tell you who let them draw the combo piece, tutor, or counterspell with rhystic study when it was used. Provided a valuable lesson for all the new players at the table

Instructions unclear: tried to mulligan more aggressively but then I got banned from my lgs and almost went to jail for assault

"Player removal is anything removal" This is so true. I had a game recently where I had about 20 different goblins and artifacts in play, somebody tried to boardwipe, and in response I realized I had an infinite damage rube-goldberg jank combo on-board and killed them to get the spell off the stack.

So glad that they made point 1 using the free mulligan. Cannot be over-emphasized. 1) Helps avoid bad starting hands. 2) Helps get your best starting hands. 3) Greatly improves consistency for ramp and card draw. 4) Helps get win cons and busted synergies..

I play Rhystic Study in Cedh and casual edh and I have realized how much competitive players respect the 1. They will pay it probably twice as much as casual players because they realize that paying that 1 is so much more valuable than getting me closers to my combo. On the other side of the spectrum in casual people seem to disregard the 1 and they don't realize the value in getting until they look over and see my 10 card hand. So in short, pay the 1 unless you're gonna win

My playgroup just doesn’t understand “get in free damage”. They don’t set a vendetta against me but they act like it’s a bully move. Yet they always ask why I win more games on average...

Use 9 to your advantage also, seems having less life means you're less likely to get attacked because people always use "you're on the highest life" as a reason

I love the "chip damage" tip and the "take another player out" encouragement to take the early attacks. For the longest time I didn't play aggro decks since I was too afraid of making enemies, but I started winning a whole lot more with aggro decks (and we got to play more games) once I decided to be more aggressive and start swinging more often!

When people say "I don't want to get on anyone's bad side" or something I point out that we are all enemies from the moment we decided to play. The game can only end with one person standing. So... ATTACK

4) Threat Assessment Mono Blue Player be like: "Your Llanowar Elf is a threat, I must be counter that."

just wanted to thank you i followed your deck building advice on the other video, cutting high cmc cards and i was just going off with low cards and won the game on turn 4. thank you!

Ive been playing mtg since 7th edition but just recently started playing commander and you guys are incredibly helpful for retraining my brain for commander

I love your content. It's making me a much better player. And you guys always manage to put a smile on my face. Cheers!

As a fairly new player who does not have a deep (or shallow in some cases) grasp of cards and their mechanics, I would love for you guys to explain more why certain things do not work in non vacuum scenarios. You guys have really helped me understand better, but I think you could help newer players (like myself) understand better why certain cards do not work well, and hence will make better decisions in general. Thanks for all you guys do!

Slowly but surely you guys are helping me suck less at commander.

I learned a lot of these lessons the hard way, but thank you for this.. it's like affirming.

Great video guys very informative thanks for letting some newer players the ins & outs of playing a game

By far your best video to date. 10/10 ive been showing it to people asking how to get better.

With all the videos going out that focus on infinite combos, you guys show up and prove that combat damage can get through!!!

I love that there was an edit in the rant about removing Grave Titan--it tells me that Beezy went off about it for even longer and had to cut it down. Sorry GT. I can think of at least 10 better things to do with you!

When I play my atraxa deck, I always give the first person 9 infect and hold threat of proliferation over their head and basically get a minion to help me the rest of the game

I hope you continue growing. Great content!

concur. mulliganing is really hard, and really important

Great video, guys! Thank you.

I love the "save your counterspell" part. I had 2 players tap out and counter 2 of my spells that wouldnt have won on the spot to then have player 3 go: Bolas Citadel, Marionette Master from Top, Mycosynth Lattice from top, Tap Citadel, win. :D I will forever remind them. Btw. I never had any lifegain in my decks and slowly start to include some incidental lifegain. Its not bad if you dont overdo it. Running the single elf you mentioned in elfball that can tutor for it may be worth it.

great tips guys I'll definitely start applying these more. was wondering if you could do a deck build on marchesa the black rose id be interested in what you guys come up with

Good points. Makes sense to me. Always a good thing to be reminded of these points.

Really great Video, guys 🙂👍 I really do enjoy your Videos. Especially the one with your dorky deck ideas was awesome. You guys are getting much more comfortable making these videos since I started to watch your Videos. I hope this doesen't sound patronizing

Calling it now, number one is to never play Grave Titan

As someone who used to almost always run Wellwisher and Essence Warden in my elf decks, I totally agree that they usually do little or nothing to help you win. They look good when you start thinking about spawning 20 tokens or something, but I'd rather have another way to spawn the tokens, or more ramp, or an anthem, or more interaction in just about every situation.

My biggest issue is not taking advantage of attacks. My son's is threat assessment. I keep telling him to slow down and look first. I'm definitely not the aggressive kind of player but I need to move that way for sure

Thanks, with each tip yall gave I could picture real life situation I've experienced.

Keep Wellwisher in there. Sylvan library? A staple for almost any Elf tribal deck. Politic your enemy. Make them your minion/s from a place of power if you can. And...Never turn your back on a control deck. Great tips guys! Shared this vid with a new player...yeah, he's winning more games as of late. Thanks! Much love and damage to ya! Arcmage.

Always great videos😉greetings from italy😎🤘🇮🇹

I do tend to hold back at times because when I get to play it's mostly 1v1. So I dont always go for the throat. Although tonight my Koma, Cosmic Serpent deck just dominated a 4 player game. It was nice.

I’m sure you’ll get a preview card. Your channel is growing !

Hello. Love your awesome content shows. I have watched many of your episodes and was wondering what the top ten spells you should always counter in commander, and or top ten spells you should never let resolve on a battlefield? Just asking to see what you would recommend. Thank you guys for helping me be a better commander player. Your fan, Ross

My lgs allows up to 3 Mulligans for EDH, so I use it quite often. I played two games yesterday and used 2 Mulligans in each game. I did feel a bit bad by slowing things down while I re-shuffled, but it was okay. On a side note, I did get some grief for attacking with my flying 1/1’s early in the game. 😂

I remember playing in a pod of 4 in standard(ish-i was more kitchen sink) in the 90s. Lots of memories. Now with Commander and me being back in the game, I remember the politics. You have to save powerful interaction for the player who's ready to take off and win the game. It wins you friends and makes the game last longer. Not just seeing the threat to you, but who's the biggest threat to others, and how much do you want to keep them in check. But yeah if you can take someone out, do it.

I played my first commander tournament a couple weeks ago. I didn’t think politics was legal to do in the game. I’m use to 1v1 games of mtg. I probably had the most fun when I found out we can do politics. I made tons of mistakes on my games because I was soo overwhelmed by keeping up with 3 other players boardstates and extremely unfamiliar with the cards. I’m definitely going to implement these tips into my future commander tournaments.

I used to use grave titan as a sac combo piece in a meren deck. It wasnt my best option in my deck but is was there when i needed it. it won me games . But still more useful to sac it infinite times than using as a creature lol

Amazing tips. I run smothering tithe and currently no one in my meta is paying for it, my win percentage is stupid right now because of that. The tip about not being afraid to eliminate players is gold.

One of the craziest sequences I once had in commander was turn 1 land sol ring, turn 2 land and smothering Tithe, turn 3 land fist of suns (1 land and sol ring), tap 2 lands and sac 3 treasures for The Ur-Dragon. Then one player destroyed my smothering which I followed by attacking him with Ur-Dragon. But yeah I got ahead so fast because of smothering tithe, crazy!

About 8... Yesterday a guy could swing to eliminate any one player. A guy was doing 9/9s, flier 10/10s... And yet I was the eliminated one. I guess I was one of the most immediate threats, and the game was pretty fun but they couldn't keep the other one in check

Y'all seem so damn cool. I wish I could play Magic with y'all.

It’s pretty late in Canada, but hey I’ll still watch

Best way to increase win percentage: don't lose.

You guys should make a deckbuilder guide like how much ramp/boardwipes/lands etc..

This is some great stuff.... awesome advice for all EDH players, including “poopy babies.” 😊👍🏼

For threat assessment, this last weekend...I played Magus of the Candelabra, and one opponent is like, “Eh, it’s decent,” and my other opponent was like, “ALL HANDS ON DECK! DEATH IS COMING! KILL IT UNTIL IT DIES FROM IT!!!” Damn my second opponent for having played against my deck.

As a Godo player i have learned to mulligan aggresively. And it applies to other decks as well. 5 good cards are way better than 7 awefull ones. Dont be afraid to go down a card or two.

Happy belated birthday Beezy!

I used to attack whenever I got the chance but because my friend and sister would complain because my decks were too fast or do combo stuff I toned down my decks and trained myself to hold back I do it without thinking. This is on top of the fact that i mainly play Orzhov.

HEY! I have used well wisher to gain life and followed it up with a massive hurricane that killed the 2 players left! My all time favorite win!

First? And on the day I joined Patreon. Rock on Gentlemen

Your hate for Grave Titan is so real. I consider putting it into my Meren deck (second deck I ever build) and then I found cards I owned that made tokens that where better.

I definitely agree with the get in early attacks. However I do believe your resolution is a bit off. If someone starts a vendetta against you, that is bad for you. They won't be making decisions that will help them win which is you were getting at. However, your stuff will get removed meaning that it will be much harder to win. When a player loses percentage points to win at a given point, they aren't given back to the table equally. Your other two opponents are scooping up the advantage when two people feud

Imo life gain is very good if the deck is built around it. I have liesa shroud of dusk deck with nykthos paragon, vito, sanguine bond and all kinds of triggered stuff making angel tokens, counters, card draw, taking creatires from graveyard and making enemies sacrifice creatures. Also its great to use life as a currency for greed for example when you get it back soon anyways.

How about another question. How many times SHOULD you be winning? Like what is an acceptable win rate in a 4 player game?

I would say fog in decks that don't have or focus on a lot of creatures is good example if I do like a kalamax deck I will have very little blockers I have one games before because a player swinged out and I fogged and I killed them on the crack back I think it's more about don't overload on fog affects

What's that? Run sixty copies of Grave Titan and 40 basic Swamps?

Best tips for winning more in Commander... Don't play mono white Don't break deals once you make them(people remember!) Always play Grave Titan lol

@grave titan got a shout out in the video! 🙌

You and me have the same Birthday! Happy birthday!

Hi, fellow nitpicking nerd here with a truly minute nitpick. Your thumbnail mistyped Pi. The second 6 (18th digit) should be a 3 instead. I normally wouldn’t bother, but with a channel like yours... I couldn’t resist.

“No proactive defense” is correct in almost every situation... except for pillow fort. I play pillowfort/group slug ft. land destruction as a wincon, and there is no way someone is going to be able to play for my ghostly prison past turn 5

I've observed that the player who first attacks me with commander damage will always do a "might as well keep attacking me" line since I'm always at the most of that commander's damage. Therefore, to attack me with your commander first makes me wary enough of you that I'll hardly allow you to get away with big plays if possible when I feel the crosshairs on me from turn 3.

That Elspeth wall scroll is dope AF

I loved the sign off this time

i once did a mulligan on a 7 land hand (1 fetchland, is important later...), then got a hand with 0 lands, but ramp, my best artifacts and some of my best working creatures... well next one 7 lands again... yeah, then i got a kind of bad hand, but 4 lands, and 3 higher mana creatures...

My girlfriend once used a whirlwind denial when I casted a 1/1 pilgrims eye. So it shows just how much of a threat fliers can be.

Ok, cultivate/K reach are amazing. 1 green, 2 colorless, to get an instant drop and a future drop. Ok, I’m not playing that in cEDH, but even in strong commander decks, it’s super playable. I guess if you only count mana crypt sol ring mana vault, lions eye diamond, etc as “real ramp”, then cultivate isn’t good. Ok🤷🏾‍♂️

Grave titan increases win rate drastically

#1 tip to win more is to stack the deck to go turn 1 sol ring into signet. 90% of the time it works every time

As a storm player, if I play one of my non stormy decks I usually lose, but people don’t like the 10 minute turn digging for the kill shot. So I usually go into a game not caring if I win lol

So my essence warden with wellwisher and well of lost dreams isn't amazing?

As a new player asking the board if your not seeing anything when that one guy has a shit eating grin will help you learn that much faster

Wellwisher's going in my deck to allow me to alpha strike someone out of the game without dying to crackbacks from my other opponents. Obviously that'll come down to meta; it doesn't save me from Prosh commander damage or an infinite combo, but in my average 75% game, there are a lot of board states with a lot of 4/4's that'll slow down my win by multiple turns when I could've allowed one of the 7 cards i drew off cashing in my draw spell and the last two leftover mana last turn to enable my alpha strike this turn and begin eliminating players then and there, while still having this turn's mana to leave up interaction or follow up with a redundant threat depending on my opponents' most likely outs. If I'm playing BG Elves, then it allows me to run and utilize a bunch more pay life effects and still make attacks without having to do a bunch of mental math every time to estimate the value I'm getting versus how many shields I have to keep up. Obviously there's a bit of a tradeoff if it's in my opening hand and I'm not indexed far enough into paying life to make use of that early or often as time goes on. But that's a lot more informed and complex of a decision process than the poster-child trap card Wellwisher has become

18:50 I have complains about it. I'm a controller player, sometimes I will defend other player that will be eliminated, because he is kinda of a threat, if the board has other threat. On my matches, sometimes two threats emerge and start battling with each other, if one is removed, the other will start targeting me, I need to let these two threats battling so I can increase my board.

As always, gentlemen, excellent work! Turn one sideways for the doofus.

My playgroup upsets me because no one ever pays for rhysitic study. Thats why the moment it enters, its removed.. well unless it's mine (;

So I have to be a bit nitpicking with you guys... In your thumbnail the 18th digit of Pi is wrong. It should be a 3 instead of the 6. ;) Love your Videos by the way!

I put one or two lifegain cards in my deck because damage is the primary way I have seen games end. Yes, those other win conditions exist, but dealing with the primary way isn't awful. Also as a budget player, using Ezzaroot Channeler for major ramp is pretty good.

My friends and I actually keep a percentage of each of our decks and who wins and stuff

Happy Birthday 🎂

Hey NPN, how can I make my azorious commander decks and oathbreakers better? How can I control my 3 opponents?

My playgroup just doesn’t play enough counterspells - me, I play at least 7 in every blue deck. Delicious, delicious, unprotected combos.

I already had a good grasp on most these tips but thank you. Some really good stuff here Tho I do agree killing players would help over all. I do like to sometimes leave them alive if I think they are gonna help me. But I leave them at single digits Also I play for fun a lot do killing people just seems wrong But I shall try kill one person when I can and see how that does.

I think i'll increase my win percentage by not showing this video to anyone :b

My play group has gotten better at this, we have a land fall ominath player that runs house with us so I built a zur deck and I was holding the table hostage, and someone took me out which was the only thing holding the landfall deck in check and the landfall deck won instantly, needless to say the group is getting better at threat assessment now

Happy birthday btw

These guys telling me to mulligan my 2 landers. That's about as good as I'm gonna get in my 22 land Anje deck.

Not being afraid to eliminate players is a BIG one

Great video thanks! I gotta admit I'm guilty of a few of the sins pointed out here, hopefully I'll correct my ways accordingly and start winning more games!

happy Birthday!

I have sooo much truble saving removal. I just feel the urge to blow up stuff all the time :D also I'm the only one in my playgroup who runs 8-10 removal spells against the 3-4 other people play, so I end uo taking care of everything and being left with nothing to protect myself ^^'

fog effects have won plenty of games the swing with everything and suffer the crack back or give others another chance against the obvious threat

The Splitkicking Birds!!!

Rystic Study is a may ability. Eventually, the one with the rystic study will decline the trigger.