The Best Keywords in Commander ft. Rachel Weeks | EDHRECast 272 

Thanks for having me, friends! I had such a great time!

I'm always amazed by how good Flying is in commander.

Your content is fabulous. Everyone here is a treasure. It's gotten to the point where I like these videos before I finish watching them. I didn't even wait to watch the video to write this comment.

Horsemanship best keyword without doubt

Yes! Thanks for having Rachel! Love her and all of you (including Joey) in all content!

I am SO excited that y'all have Rachel as a guest. She's a favorite!

Great episode, more shows like this that discuss tactics of the game. I've been playing for the past year, and I've gottent better at the game, but episodes like gives me much more insight into how to build and play.👍🏽

Myriad is such a fun keyword for commander, especially in a flicker deck.

Haste has probably the highest power jump in commander compared to 1v1 magic.

man Rachel is taking over the MTG content! girl is crushing it!. I find 1st strike to be very good in go wide decks and can trigger at instant speed on the defence. 1st strike changes the blocking dynamics so much imo,

I know I'm late here but I think an even more important part of Vigilance is actually being able to attack and then activate a tap ability on your creatures. That feels so powerful.

Rachel is the GOAT 👑

The team did a great job on this one. One particular creature I love in decks with access to white is Loyal Unicorn which gives the team vigilance and protection from combat damage during your turn which turns off first strike, double strike, deathtouch, and lifelink for your opponents during your combat phase.

Did I miss where you mentioned deathtouch with trample? Love to see RW! Flying is an important keyword. If you have it you’re ready to rumble. If you don’t you fear it!

Flying is a subcategory of Evasion. I wonder why commanders don’t focus more on other forms of evasion … anything to make a creature more difficult to block can improve that creature’s damage output.

There's another great card from LotR for Jinnie Fay, granted not as good as Farmer Cotton: Peregrin Took. Every time you create any token, you'll create a food, I mean cat :)

Before I get too deep into the episode, I want to share my top 5 and the reasons behind them. I like to think of this exercise as a way of asking yourself, "What keywords am I most willing to burn slots in my deck just to grant them to my other creatures (or permanents)?" 1. Haste - With any strategy, it is highly recommended that you reap value from your cards before a full turn cycle. With haste, that is the only possible way, in an attack-based strategy, that you can guarantee full value from your creature cards. How many of you have played an Etali, Primal Storm, only for it to get caught in a board wipe or removed before your next untap step? With haste, it must be dealt with before your next combat step, rather than your next turn. 2. Trample - The other necessity for an attack-based strategy is evasion, with trample, you have full reliability in punching through for damage with your big creatures (other than 'can't be blocked,' but that isn't exactly a 'keyword'). I choose trample over flying due to the nature of having a "grey area" for damage; as long as you have a lot of power, you WILL get some damage through, whereas if there is a single thopter token on the enemy board, you will not get any damage through with your flyer. 3. Hexproof - Overall the most reliable defensive keyword/phrase. With hexproof, your permanent(s) are immune to the largest pool of removal. Not much else to say here. 4. Indestructible - The next most useful defensive keyword/phrase. While being vulnerable to a larger pool of removal, you get niche uses, such as being a useful blocker, or synergy piece for a "destroy" based board wipe. While indestructible has its uses, I prefer it to be on "until end of turn" instants/triggered abilities to highjack enemy "destroy" based board wipes or with your own destroy-based board wipes for a huge tempo swing, rather than as a static ability. 5. Lifelink - The ability to recharge your life total just by dealing damage places a powerful mental strain on your opponents; whether it's because you're swinging with a huge lifelinker to put your life total out of easy-kill range or used defensively to disincentivize people from attacking you for chip damage, as you would simply gain more life than they would like during the exchange. *Honorable mentions* Reach - being able to block flyers without the downside of "anti-air" removal has mattered more times than I thought possible Menace - This ability has been more promising than I thought for the ability to force an opponent to lose two creatures for your one, or for you to take down one of their two important blockers, as most of the time, people only leave up enough blockers for "one at a time" blocks. *Dishonorable mention* Vigilance - While potent when you are going "all your eggs in one basket," outside of that, I find that just having one good attacker and one good blocker are more common to have than burning a slot for granting vigilance. *EDIT* I didn't know THEY were going to do a top 5 as well...cool.

I loved this edition of Challenge the Stats! Remembered Rachel talking about Righteous Aura in her Mangara deck and it slots right into my Aragorn, King of Gondor (also running Mangara) too- a great way to defend your Monarch!

I love ya'lls work! Keep it up! I would love it if you guys could add price tags for cards in challenge the stats

How was 'Eminence' not brought up in this discussion? That might be one of the most impactful keywords in a game of commander.

LOVE YOUR SHOW!!! Long-time listener (pre-video era) and now viewer (video era) of your show! Question: Could you guys PLEASE do a video on how to connect online to play commander via Discord & Spelltable??? Some of us non-techie Commander fans need idiot-proof, super-clear, how-to instructions for getting all setup on Spelltable and how to function on Discord (even beginning with creating an account and how to find appropriate groups) to then find commander games of various skill- & casual/competitive-levels. PLEASE!! No one else has done a true "how-to" video on all this for the utterly non-initiated. PLEASE HELP!!!

Its been a whole year since i started playing magic. Ive spent so much money on this darn hobby! But its so much fun! Love this episode. Rachel is awesome.

Patrician's Scorn in Chun-Li has been an impressive crusher move.

I've built a deck around Connive, and it is fun!

Chapters. I always want to see chapters: 3:45 Flying 9:30 Trample 15:08 Haste 24:44 Challenge the Stats has some gems 32:12 First Strike 36:20 Vigilance 40:46 Lifelink 45:59 Deathtouch 49:20 Indestructible 52:09 Menace 54:24 Hexproof 58:04 Doublestrike 1:02:37 Infect 1:04:29 -misc others (protection, flash, reach) 1:06:50 Rachel's favorite 5 1:07:02 Dana's favorite 5 1:L07:34 Matt's favorite 5

Lifelink's effects are multiplied on a good blocker. Deters attacks since you can reduce the effect of that chipping damage for any creatures that would bounce with it, for every player at the table. They will tend to chip in at other opponents instead. I like to have at least one lifelink effect in every deck when playing battlecruiser pods.

Would love to hear you talk also on the less common keywords, like Landwalk, Fear, Undying etc. The keyword staples are the staples for a reason, but I think that these rare keywords enable more unique strategues that can spice up your deck and play experience.

The only decent anti-flying spot removal: Atraxa's Fall - A Naturalize that trades down instant speed to gain the option to also hit flyers and battles. Shower of Arrows - Also Naturalize but cost 1 more to hit Flyers and also tacks on a free Scry 1.

the ad read for mint mobile was fantastic Matt!

First strike has its own few places. It helps a lot in a Heliod, Sun Crowned deck - you can spread the counters around so your blocked creatures survive, especially with Rick, Steadfast Leader. Then, as you discussed, a first strike combat trick on a deathtouch creature can surprise those massive tramplers. It's worth thinking about!

My dragon deck is all flyers, and I have six sources of Haste, and five sources of Double Strike. It is a case of "Blink and you're dead." There are several ways for the damage to escalate very very quickly, even without Prossh swinging for lethal out of the command zone. In fact, this favouring of specific keywords is interesting and thematic. My Dimir list is meant to heavily rely on Investigate, Surveil and Suspend.

One thing I will say about first strike is that it becomes obscenely powerful while defending if you can give your whole team first strike, with cards like Field Marshal or Archetype of Courage. Suddenly, anyone wanting to attack you is faced with a tough choice: If they have a big 12/12 trample Ghalta, and you have 12 1/1s, they can attack you and at worst wipe your board. If those 1/1s have first strike, though, then suddenly you get to block the 12/12, kill it, lose no creatures and take no trample damage. A wide board of small first strike blockers might as well be a Solitary Confinement, because no one's ever going to swing into it.

I'm glad for the shout out to Loxodon Warhammer, it's a pet card of mine. Part of the mantra that I was told while learning to play MtG was that lifegain is bad. Well, when the 30 life a turn from a Ghalta primal hunger holding a warhammer in a Xenagod deck is the only thing keeping you alive from a crackback, you start appreciating how good lifelink can be for stabilization.

11:00 found myself in this exact situation had a Thalia and Gitrog with 30 +1/+1 counters and five enchantments and equipments, but no trample. had a lot of life though. Then an opponent attacks with an Etali and rips a trample enchantment of the top of my deck. Trample is very important to any voltron strategy.

Myriad is fun. Nod to Myriad.

I've been running Whiptongue Hydra in my mono-green +1/+1 counters deck, and it's been a really good midground between answering flyers and advancing my game plan. Even in a world where it only hits one or two flyers, it's still good for it to be entering with counters, and usually it has a much better payoff because nobody sees it coming.

Speaking of flyers and anti-flying tech, Ifh-Biff Efreet has been my favorite card since 1994. Opened one in the single pack of Arabian Nights I managed to get and I still have it. And I agree: Vigilance is super underrated.

16:24 Samut would like a word with you Dana. 😉 Also, Bloodrush might only be on like 8 cards, but it is hands down the best combat trick in not just Magic, but every game ever. Change my mind.

On First Strike, I run Archetype of Courage in my Queen Marchesa (Long May She Reign) deck. If ive been wheeling and dealing like i want to and have enough assasins with deathtouch, goving them all first strike can set me up real well.

Haste is undoubtedly the best keyword. If every creature were to inherently have haste, the texture of the game would be so radically different. My favorites, though, are haste, flying, double strike, vigilance, and trample.

Next episode should be deadly keyword combinations. Deathtouch, first strike Double strike, [when creature deals combat damage] Trample, deathtouch, Flying, trample or Flample. My experience with lifelink and even damage is that 4 damage is the minimum you can gain or deal before everyone starts side eyeing you.

I want more of this lineup

The way I look at haste is that it gives all my creatures an ETB effect.

I have an Odric, Lunarch Marshal deck. The most important keyword is vigilance. It allows a massive alpha strike without allowing a crack back

the new Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir has First Strike, and it's a really subtle how relevant that keyword is. it also has flying, which helps to trigger his recursion ability to pull knights from the graveyard into play, but the fact that it can do it during the first strike step means you can do things like pull Blacklance Paragon to give another knight deathtouch and lifelink (after blockers have been declared) or pull out a Knight Exemplar and suddenly all of your knights are +1/+1 and indestructible. it's so powerful that i've actually found giving everything else double strike kind of a hindrance, so i instead prefer to have things like Duelist's Heritage instead of something like True Conviction

I was expecting this to be about commander-keywords, like Myriad, Partner and Melee. But this was also interesting, and there's certainly a larger card pool to speak of.

It's all kicker or flying just with different names

Double strike with Veyran is my secret win con. If you have harmonic out its just 3 spells to get to 22/22 commander damage with doublestrike. Artful dodge, pyschotic fury, expedite, dead.

Dang no myriad mention :( One of the ones that only matters in multiplayer formats

In my gut true zealot and inspiring leader deck, you'd be surprised how much damage that a 4/1 (or 6/3 with inspiring leader) skeleton can do. The number of times that people don't have a creature they don't want to give up, so they take just the damage is a surprisingly high number

20:50 that's exactly how my primal surge deck works (although it could probably win grey merchant and pestilence if necessary).

Shadowfax should be the default haste example now and forever.

Nobody mentioning "Keyword Soup" at all was surprising to me. Akroma (Vision of Ixidor)//Kraum (Ludevic's Opus) is pretty dang fun, especially with extra combat steps and extra turns. Also, menace is low-key super powerful, especially when given to all of your creatures, combined with deathtouch, or supplemented with a Vorrac Battlehorns type of equipment, aura, or ability.

No mention of landwalk, or the mighty Skulk? Maybe an idea for a follow-up covering the not so impactful keywords in Commander?

Vigilance is great in my Shanid deck, the menace and vigilance combo means I can be aggressive and safe

It's Rachel Weeks of Commander Sphere fame!

This video made me actually raise my evaluation of menace. On a big creature, menace is similar to annihilator 1 (better against artifact tokens even)

My intro pack way back in 4th edition included a Shivan Dragon and a Nightmare. I always find excuses to work those two into decks. Flying rules.

Rampage is my favorite mechanic. I'm just sad so few creatures have Rampage. Rampage, like deathtouch just makes it so they don't want to block your creature that has rampage, so what you need to do is slap a lure effect on the creature and crash it into the army of elves and watch as it eats them all without dying, so long as it has trample, the opponent should die too if they have enough creatures.

So I have to disagree with Dana on the "give the whole team first-strike" in one particular case: Boggart Mentor in a krenko deck makes that awkward stage when you don't quite have enough goblins yet to explode but still have a few (say one Krenko activation in) much smoother because you know you can win on defense now.

Patrician's Scorn is sick with Nine Lives and Fractured Identity. You cast Fractured Identity on your own Nine Lives, hold priority, cast Patrician's Scorn for the alternate cost.

In an objective sense, I’d have to accept that Haste is the best keyword - when you combo off or even just make big bois, there is a massive difference between hitting now and hitting after three players get a chance to stop you. But as an inveterate life-resources who grew up with making life into a resource aaaalll the way back with Necropotence in Ice Age, I will never regret a bit of Lifelink keeping my decks able to spend life freely.

First Strike is good if you have Vigilance with it, it also has synergy with things like Death Touch and big power buffs, I love using Inquisitor's Flail in my Anax and Cymede deck. It is a bit lackluster if the creature is smaller for having it, but it's an asset IMHO. I will say as a global ability giving First Strike is pretty terrible compared to granting Double Strike, even if you have to pay more mana for the ability, First Strike is just 'meh' enough that even when I was starting out I quickly realized that my one First Strike anthem creature was ungodly bad in practice, even if a combat trick that offers First Strike is often useful. I feel like Double Strike/power doublers are great win cons, I built around that in my Anax and Cymede deck, it takes a bit, but access to one sided wipes and stax effects make the impossible possible, and A+C are easily a 2 turn clock. That said, someone building Lord of Tresserhorn Voltron (I went with Pavel Maliki for Jank Voltron) earns a bajillion respects! Love that card! I hope you cast him with Dictate of Erebos out! Great to see Rachel on here, she's a great contribution to the community.

Surprised you guys didn’t talk about how trample works with deathtouch or interacts with protection.

5:10 I disagree. I have been trashed by not having fliers so many times that it's now on my checklists for things my decks need to have- at least 12 things that are flying or can deal with things that have flying. Silklash Spider is one of my best friends for this reason. A huge butt that casually blocks flampling dragons along with a mana dump to blow up the sky? Omfg take my money... AND IT CONSISTENTLY SELLS FOR UNDER 1$

Dense Canopy is one of my favourite cards against flyers.

I wish you'd chosen a more advanced topic. It's great to see Rachel, but I wanted to hear her takes on something more complex. She's an amazing deck brewer and pilot.

I see Rachel, I click

I agree with Rachel, Flying is the best ❤ keyword. Kangee decks representing!

Trample and Flying are so strong because too many people rely on 1/1 tokens as blockers

Let's talk about all the first abilities in magic. All best abilities!

Mutate of course. It makes sure everyone has to study the comprehensive rules at least once (per cast) to understand what's going on. Isn't spreading knowledge great?

I generally despise the rules committee but Rachel is pretty cool

I think flying is so powerful because of how underrepresented reach is and how terrible reach creatures tend to be. Reach should be the counter, but it’s rarely on anything beyond a overcosted common that has 2 power…

First of all I loved Rachel Weeks' commentary as always. But convergence of sandwurms and spider silk armor are great counters for flying. There are more.

I like to put things with reach in my decks, so when people ask if I have flyers I'll say no all "sad like" and then block the shit out of their flyers with my reach guys, some get mad some understand they only asked about flyers, either way it works almost everytime 😂😂

I'm a simple man. I see Rachel Weeks and I immediately hit LIKE

I usually only care about first strike when paired with deathtouch. Teehee.

Casual EDH: Combos are bad!! Also Casual EDH: *plays Craterhoof for instakills*.

There are very few problems in a game of magic that 13 flying squirrels can’t solve.

To be fair, flying back in the day was so powerful that they needed to make a keyword just to give everyone a defense for it (reach).

With Rachel Weeks hosting the command zone and guest hosting the Edhrec cast, is she now the unofficial face of Commander?

How do you miss cascade?

And remember kids, if you want to use all of these keywords in a game make sure you use the apex typal: Slivers

This is why I like to give my creatures Reach in any green deck. Otherwise I get wrecked by flying creatures

oh boy i cant wait until everyone talks about bands with wolves

On the point of First Strike, I think you guys are looking at it from the wrong perspective. While I agree its offensive capabilities it doesn't change much in general attacks, on the defense it's incredibly underrated. Just a couple first strike creatures can deter large attackers, turning what could've been free attacks against you into very poor trades where they just lose their creature for nothing. Unless they have their own first striking creature, no one is attacking into a first striking army.

Out of curiosity, why is it that on almost every episode one of the main three is gone? Not hating or everything but I miss when y’all have a full cast

Wow, Joey got a glowup! c:

I don't think that comparison between First Strike vs Vigilance was fair... Knight of the White Orchid is most a ramp card for white decks, while Sun Titan is a big beater with graveyard recursion. They are not used because of the keyword abilities.

Matt don't rest upon your laurels

Skulk is pretty underrated

I also could have sworn we just saw patricians scorn

Best keyword is Haste, because I can't wait to give you a huge hug for all the damage.

Definitely Banding

New Joey is cool

Laughs in indominus

Why show the card plummet when so many two drops removal spells can remove way more than just a single flier. Hurricane can at least kill palyers. Green is one of the better suited colors to deal with fliers as reach is common enough on good creatures. Flying by itself is never a problem, it is specific fliers.

Mustache Matt for the win

No dad joke as the beginning 😢