Ways to Improve Your Commander Experience | Commander Clash Podcast 130 

A counter spell is just as likely to make them feel bad. Depends on your playgroup.

Alligators are a sleeper, be careful

​@@danielsniff6405it's a joke.

​@@danielsniff6405 whoooosh

​@danielsniff6405 if a counterspell makes your playgroup feel bad, then they deserve to feel bad. They don't wanna play magic, they wanna play solitaire.

Everyone has their own pet peeves. I happen to love both Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe. Play them as often as I can… if I get to have a lot of cards or a lot of mana, I get to do a lot of stuff and that translates to fun. I know the “You going to pay for that” gets old, so usually I just quietly tap the card twice to draw attention to it and I draw a card or get treasure if they don’t pay the tax.

@@Dragon_Fyre Sure you can like it. I guess I am speaking more towards the newer Commander players who see discourse online that you HAVE to play these cards because otherwise your deck isnt good enough to "hang". Kind of like what Richard was saying towards the end of the video which I completely disagree with in a multiplayer casual format.

Same. I know that playing those cards will start an arms race that my wallet can’t win

I can't play under you, and combo you on turn 4? But someone's allowed to smothering tithe turn 1 and wheel of fate turn two? That's the same thing, you win on turn 2, just with extra steps. It's pretty similar to fast-mana against 3 intentionaly powered down decks. "Wow. You did it." /S Of course, the real issue is that power levels are so muddled and no one can agree.

Ya I don't even play tutors anymore, or fetchlands. Just power that shit down and have a relaxed game pace.

That's honestly what makes it such a miserable format. Regular Magic you can just sit and go with anyone and have a pretty good time. Commander requires you to know people who see the game the same way that you do.

@@jeffe2267 I think that is both its strength and its weakness. Being far less competitive than 2 player formats can really make it more enjoyable with a fun group but in the end, one bad apple spoils the bunch. I prefer Commander amongst friends but 2 player formats tend to be more enjoyable at an LGS.

​@@jeffe2267 I think that's partially just because games last so much longer in EDH. In other formats if you find yourself playing with someone annoying, you just finish the game and move on. In EDH you might be stuck there for an hour and a half.

I never want to play a game that I just want to move on from. If that is a situation I find myself in often, then I am just playing the wrong place/game.@@marshallscot

@@Dragon_Fyre definitely a strength and a weakness, the casual multiplayer aspect has potential to make each game of the most fun multiplayer tabletop experiences you can have, period (as is evident by its commercial success), or a horrible experience depending on the social cohesion of the group

Im my experience this can actually backfire. It can provide extra land drops or etb effects to happen. So much that I actually run this in my landfall deck. Also with mdfc cards it allows you to pick them up and cast their backside.

confounding conundrum can slow down ramp almost shuting it down, but doesn't really punish it, if you draw it late.

What we really need is more everyone ramps up to the person with the most lands effects.

I was just coming in here to say that

@@krazykilper 1. CC only works on opponents so check that you're playing it right. 2. It's def super bad against landfall decks but normal green decks that just ramp or multicolor decks that rely on fetches are hurt by it a lot. And it cantrips so it's super duper free.

Thanks! Make sure to check out the first episode of the new Commander Clash season on Friday, I think you are going to like it ;)

Throwing in my agreement. I think most people would love it if these podcasts went another half hour or so, no need to rush to cut it off ay an hour.

@@MTGGoldfishCommander yooo! The leak! I'm excited.

Polluted Bonds, too

Shattered Angel? Confounding Conundrum? Probably not Nightshade Harvester. Invader Parasite? Tunnel Ignus?

I believe Dingus Egg also fits the bill

Or Land Tax to see their ramp and raise them a thinning

I don’t play edh, i just watch. How unacceptable is balance in comparison with armageddon?

Thanks!

first 2 are nice!! Thoughts of Ruin though hits the non-ramp players the hardest.. and likely sets Crim to 0 lands himself xD

That’s just Tomer being Tomer and it’s great

Tbh this is my defense for playing "staples" in less than competitive decks. I think it's totally reasonable to sol ring signet demonic tutor if it's just to get your silly strategy online. It's no fun to play against an opponent who just waffles not able to cast their spells.

@@ekuude yeah I totally agree with that!

Unique card that’s a bit worse v staple is a favorite of mine de-optimizing decks.

What's funny is that the cards we are talking about are not even bad for the game at large. It's just that the "staples" are not well balanced for the format to keep a proper pace. It's almost like we are actively fixing the game by making this choice.

If they have no defense they deserve it. Magic is NOT ramp ramp ramp bombs. Gotta show folks that.

100%

It can end up backfiring against landfall decks though.

@@jaywinner328 I run this in my landfall deck to punish other people for trying to ramp. If I I'm playing against another landfall deck I usually will hold it in hand which feels bad but its great against normal ramp.

I have been playing a lot of "bad" blue enchantments, Land Equilibrium, Dream Tides, Energy Flux, Pendrell Mists, Disruption Field, Meishin Mind Cage... To turtle up, and yeah, sometimes you draw them and it's just bad, but you are in blue, you have looting effects. And if I see more enchantress, maybe Aura Flux.

I have had almost no issue with other people ramping these days. I think the sheer numbers game doesn't always equate as such.

If you’re OK with those cards, you’re either OK with mass land destruction or a hypocrite. There is a huge difference in cards that punish your opponents with those that effectively lock them out of the game.

@@Dragon_Fyre I'm perfectly fine with land destruction! I run a lot of basics in my decks and ways to fetch out basics. I have a full complement of dual lands and tri-lands, but I do my best not to pack my decks with so many non-basics that they're functionally worthless in the face of a blood moon. There should be a real oppourtunity cost to including nonbasics. You can't get a perfect manabase without paying the piper, and it's real sour grapes moments to poopoo punishing someone's risky manabase. You can run five colour decks with fetchlands and basics just fine, especially with the new complement of fetches from New Capenna.

What defines being greedy and not?

@@KaldarisX All things come with a price. I don’t like players that play “targeting land destruction” like the cards you mentioned, so as soon as someone attempts to play one, it’s probably going to be my sole purpose in that game to just single out that player as the target of every action I take thereafter to set an example for the future. STAX or “board wipe decks (not having them but where that’s the focus of the deck)” are the other actions people can take, where I will no longer care about the game, I’m just focused on being spiteful at that point and will even declare to the other 2 players they are now safe. Far as I’m concerned, that player is just there to ruin everyone else’s fun…

​ @aklepatzky ​@@Dragon_Fyre The more you expect to get out of your mana base. The more oppourtunity cost there *should* be to running it. As I said. Power and flexibility like that doesn't come in a vacuum. Targeted hate cards are there to punish people who refuse to run a decent amount of basics in their decks. I, personally, think it's unreasonable for people to have Kamigawa Channel-lands, Cabal Coffers, Shrines of Nyx, Gaia's Cradles, Tri-lands, utility lands, and so many other nonbasics and somehow think that what you're doing gets to be absolved of any kind of targeted disruption. By and large, commander players have become enormous, whiny babies in the face of any kind of talk about mana disruption, they want their precious perfect mana base to be safe. But it isn't supposed to be, by design. It's only a lax social construct that keeps your mana base from being targeted. I'm more than happy to run Back to Basics or Blood Moon in any relevant deck to punish people that insist on using NOTHING but non-basics for their decks. To Aklepatzky, your deck is greedy when you're running a minimal amount of basics. Consider Tomer saying his five colour deck has 'one basic' in it. That's greedy as heck. Basics exist for a reason. They're the most undisturbed and undisrupted kind of land. If you want security, use basics. Use fetches to get basics. When I see a deck that only has like six or seven basic lands in it, that's a greedy mana base and prime for disruption!

Crim is a special breed of player that WANTS to be knocked out first to prove he got a reaction. I know that would not fly well with most circles I play in... I think people enjoy it more when everyone is at similar play levels and have fair chances towards the end. I'd hate for anyone to have to be knocked out early.

Contamination too 🙂

Blood Moon is casual because it only punishes non-casual decks 😎

I never played against blood moon. Is it really that bad? Cuz the nonbasics turning into mountains still makes u mana and ur basics can pay for the colors. I wouldn’t be salty if I got punished for not running basic lands

@Lyr00 their recent video they were making sound like Blood Moon is worse than Armageddon lol 😆

Blood moon in mono red deck, just a regular thing you can do. If you need a few turns to do something slowing down the multicolor decks with fetches in casual is understandable. Calm your Omnaths.

I thought the same thing 😂 funny that he only runs one basic in his 5c decks

I feel like that was my habit when I first started. But then the game kept releasing new cards every other month. Plus, if I am spending money on just 2 decks, then I am probably going to get bored real quick/not playing a variety of power levels, etc.

Urza's Sylex

I’m currently trying to build Kykar with some weird “Spirit Matters” cards instead of strictly Storm. Hopefully that helps me build a mid-power goofy deck.

I feel like that is a way to disguise the fact of popping off too well. I think one can genuinely have a great thing happen for the in game without a way to manipulate peoples' impression of it. I know I would be pretty miffed if someone was trying to pretend they didn't bring a 9 to a 6 pod with funny jokes.

...70? Holy 🙀. I had 5 at my peak and thought it was excessive lollll

My brother has a hard time shuffling and when I built a commander deck for him I avoided evolving wilds and rampant growth effects, and WOW is it hard to build a good ramp package in green or white deck without searching your library

Yeah, it's been a challenge, lol, especially in mono-white-thankfully, artifact removal isn't super common in my playgroup, so I've been able to get by with artifact-based acceleration for the most part

It's GENERALLY effective but can really backfire against land fall decks.

​@@nykthosacolyte5710yeah lol. I tried this card against onmnath bounce lands and lost even harder XD