You Are Breaking a Commander Taboo! | Unwritten Rules | Social Contract | EDH | MTG 

This is not a video about taboos, it is a list of card recommendations

Just play Timmy cards that don't trigger anyone emotionally... Actual Taboos: 1. Body Odor 2. B!tching 3. Not giving proper priority between actions. 4. Targeting a card just because you don't like it, not to progress the game or develop a board-state. 5. Body Odor 6. B!tching

Every deck I build, regardless of power level has suite of 10 to 18 cards that are removal /interaction/general answers to whatever type of troublesome permanent or spells my opponents are running. Many times these answers even synergize with my overall gameplan or are multi-purpose. I have noticed that a lot of so called “casual players” entirely ignore this category of spells in their deck building and only include things that are directly synergistic with their own plan. You can be a casual player and still pack answers to pushed cards

If 50% are doing it, is it even taboo at that point? Edit, i actually stopped playing commander with a buddy because he couldn’t play “casual”. If you can’t even “play” the game because you are locked out of casting anything (same goes for heavy removal) it is not fun.

I started playing MTG in 1994 and played a lot and got cards into binders and so on. It was my main hobby for almost 8 years, then I got my first child and MTG was put on hold. During the pandemic we pulled out all the cards and started playing again in the family. I soon started buying some draft and setboxes from different sets, and I was amazed when I realised that MTG never "stopped". In 2022 I walked into a store and bought four boxes that seemed very different, thinking surely they were from different years. It turned out they all were released during 2022. Anyway, that year I discovered Commander and in 2023 I put together my first ever Commander deck. I REALLY tried to figure out as much wincons and buffs and carddraw etc as possible. A few months later when I went to play with a new playgroup I brought the deck and (Blue/White/black) really got to try it. I won every game, but I realised I sat there and exscused myself all evening. I did draw a ton of cards, I stole their commanders and cloned them, I drained their life, and so on. And I saw that they did not have fun, and nor did I. I felt really bad, and somewhat confused. This had seemed like such a good idea when I built the darn deck. When I played classic MTG back then, we made decks with 60 cards and played with 20 life total. I always was competitive and tried to cook up the best and strongest deck I could. I came to realise that so many modern cards are really overpowered now. Or at least. they are much stronger that those from the first 10 years of MTGs history. Back then I never heard anyone talk about how salty a deck was. But now I realise it´s a thing. Personally I don´t mind the cards you talk about here, my pet hate-objects are the poison-decks and cards like sheoldred the apocalypse, and Elesh Norn. Yikes! We started buying and playing precons to get a more level playing-filed. That works well for us int the playgroup but I miss the building-part of MTG. What is the accepted salt-score on a deck for a social playgroup? My first deck has 43,5 in salt score on archidekt.com, but that does not tell me anything... My favourite precon yet is the LOTR-deck, Food and Fellowship! So fun to play!

This taboo situation is the worst part about commander. If you're trying to meet new people and play a commander pod with them, if they start naming taboo cards, its already putting a social barrier between me and the people I'm playing with.

To say that any public edh game has these expectations is like going to a concert and expecting everyone to sit in their seats, then yelling at the person in front of you because they are standing up and enjoying the music. People should play cards they enjoy and not be painted as some bad person because you decided to jam another creature in your deck instead of a piece of interaction. If your play group that you consistently play with wants to make abstract rules I am totally for that, but to say any public casual game has these unspoken expectations and you shouldn’t play these cards is just as ludicrous as the person yelling at the other person standing at the concert.

I would disagree that Rhystic Study is a stax affect

Commander is a social game that comes with a level of etiquette thats expected of everyone to follow. Being annoyed by the the social aspect says more about you as a player.

Play removal?

To save everyone some time, the cards discussed are: - Rhystic Study - Smothering Tithe - Esper Sentinel - Mystic Remora - Spelltithe Enforcer - Sphere of Resistance - Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Aura of Silence - Æther Barrier - Thorn of Amethyst Or in other words: Your standard Grand Augustin Deck Tech. Just say Stax and Tax effects aren't fun to you, it's easier and fits in RU-vid Shorts.

This is why prefer cedh. At least I can play the cards I want without any complaints.

I play smothering tithe in all my low power decks and you can't stop meeeeeeee!!!!

Ristic study and smothering tithe are two perfect examples of cards I just throw into a deck when I'm at 97 out of 100. Because I know they will give me value no matter what type of deck it is. When I first got into magic my playgroup told me to just throw in these cards because you'd be stupid not to have them in a deck with those colors.

I see it like this: if you're planning to win on your turn or just progress your game plan, Rhystic Study ain't gonna stop you while real stax effects might.

These are in all of my decks in one form or another. Each gains advantage/value. Taboo should be taking 10-20 minute turns doing combos, counting or slowly reading/thinking.

Nobody actually pays for rhystic study in my group so it’s never even a stax effect

Thanks for the great EDH recommendations!

I played both Grand Arbiter Agustin IV and Zur the Enchanter decks. Both were unapologetically stax. I regret nothing.

To be really honest I dont really care about how salty people get bout my cards I bought them so I wanna play them like anyone else, perhaps instead of being salty create a strategy to beat my cards I have been Beaten by weaker decks then mine and you know what I tell them congratulations you had a challenge and you solved it good game. Why can't things be that way

This is gonna be a ride if the first "taboo" card they talk about is Rhystic Study Edit: I like how during the discussion about Rhystic Study, they specifically said that if you were to split it into two cards reading "spells cost an additional one mana" and "whenever an opponent casts a spell, draw a card" they said that no cards like the first one exists and cards like the second one would be banned, but further down the list you have a card that literally says "all spells cost an additional 1 to play"

Rhystic, ST, and ES aren't actually stax effects, but they are extremely strong effects for comparitively low mana and devotion, and are annoying to enforce. Cards have been banned for less.

Rhystic Study a taboo? Lol. That's hilarious. Rhystic Study and Smothering tithe are hardly toxic, annoying? Yes, not toxic though. Like half of these cards are hardly "Toxic". Most of these cards are not problematic or toxic in general. This sounds more like I hate these cards and you should too. I would even say that mass land destruction is very toxic especially when people are not prepped for it.

I'll break taboos all day. Ramp out, play Tiamat, tutor your dragons. Would be a shame if something happened to your lands. Whoops.

At this point I don't run counterspells cause no one else does and I don't want to be the only one policing the game. I also don't really pay for rhystic/remora/tithe cause no one else does. There's no point in paying if 2 out of 3 aren't.

gotta be honest, all these cards are the base of my decks before i start building

I play Counterspells to stop game ending combos before turn 6.

As a community, I think we all need to re-evaluate what "stacks" actually means. I've been playing for 15ish years and to see the community put Thalia, Grand Abolisher, and Drannith Magistrate on the same level as Smokestacks, Winter Orb, and Stasis is insane to me.

they're just good cards, idk why people get mad for playing against it. In my opinion if its not banned it can be played, just don't have weak mental

I love how these cards are making the rest of the table Politikle work together the best part about commander

Tithe and Rhystic go in all my decks with access to those colors, Sentinel and Remora go in about half if the build is low on card draw. They all have the same thing in common, they die to targeted removal. Play more removal people!

Might I suggest stickers as the way to get around the legend rule? They can't be as mad when it's the Hotdog God-Pharoah's Statue and the God-Pharoah's Sassy Statue taxing them out.

I find all of these conversations about taboo cards tough because they can never fully account for the "I don't spend a lot on MTG but I cracked this sweet EDH power-house card and I am excited to play it" factor. Between the WOE and LCI prereleases, my 11 y.o. son opened Doubling Season, Smothering Tithe, and the white token-tripling God. These were three of the most valuable cards he had ever opened. So, he decided to build a selesnya tokens EDH deck for his first EDH deck. He spent about $25 total of his birthday money on the other 97 cards. This seems like exactly how kids should engage with EDH. I don't think it's fair to fault him (or many other newer players of all ages) for breaking a taboo by playing their coolest cards. These conversations feel like they are reserved to established, adult players with lots of decks and options.

Thx! There is a line of what to play and what not but it has to be discussed before playing.

We just have a few rules in my tables: 1) No land destruction exclusive cards (so cards like generous gift are ok and can target lands ONLY if doing so prevents a crucial play, not just for the sake of it) 2) No "win the game" exclusive cards. (Revel in riches is ok. Approach of the second sun, no) 3) No decks that aim to only assemble an infinite combo (we can have infinites, but the gameplan cant be all about it) If a player wants to play stax, we let it. That player has to be ok with being targeted by the whole table tho.

I only throw cards like Rhystic study and Smothering Tithe into my decks if they synergize with the deck itself. For example I recently made a deck with treasures as a subtheme, so I put Smothering Tithe into it for more treasure generation.

I guess you could also add Wandering Archaic ? 5 colorless 4/4, with : "Whenever an opponent casts an instant or sorcery spell, they may pay (2). If they don't, you may copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy." Also, I have all white ones suggested in my monowhite deck. I don't have Thorn of Amethist but I have Thalia instead to annoy too. I only didn't have the Spelltithe Enforcer since is a bit high on mana for soldier deck but I might add to my future stax+voltron Balan deck. Anyway, taboo would be Armageddon rofl

Stax is great. Stax is wonderful. Stax is the saviour. It's the straight up best way to answer degenerate combo or solitaire "ramp until 40 mana" decks. Want to play a low to the ground beatdown deck with 2-3 mana creatures? Not going to happen without Stax. You need to slow down your opponents so your low impact cards can pull through. Thalia, Mindcensor, Opposition Agent, wonderful cards stopping the disgusting green ramp decks from getting a free win every game. Edit: Oh, and Rhystic is ALSO an amazing stax piece. Good bye degenerate storm. Can't just storm off without a second thought, now there are actual consequences. Pay the 1 or lose.

Thank you for all the new suggestions of cards

"Rhystic Study is a stax effect" K vid done now

There is nothing worse than people taking turns that are longer than 3 minutes. You can destroy all my lands, you can play a $2000 deck if you want, you can play stax so nobody can play much, as long as the turns keep moving. At my LGS a few weeks ago we picked up a random fourth playing mono green that took 4 straight 6-8 minute turns, and I have never had less fun playing MTG in my entire life.

When Rhystic study came out it was very bad. I collected them because my wizard deck was all about pay 1 more. Disruptive Students and Patron Wizard. People just gave me all of their RS. No one played with them. Even when commander started (before official) no one used it. Mystic Remora was used more often because it could be dropped during the "building" turns. Turn 3 you need mana open for counters.

My group of friends all play stax decks, but cry when I bring up that I want to play my Soul of Windgrace land destruction deck

I don’t always put Rhystic Study in my my decks because I often have other forms of card draw, but when I have a deck that doesn’t, and often will get caught spinning it’s wheels just going off whatever I top deck, I’ll need a rhystic study or mystic remora to give it a little extra push to keep up with the other players. It can get people advantage and win games but more often than not it can just even the playing field when you are behind and getting swarmed with Agro/combo decks.

I have 1 copy of Rhystic study, it's in my Morska undersea sleuth deck. I limit myself to two cards per opponents turn to trigger my commander.

Considering how strong Green is in commander, Insight is basically the "if your opponents' cast a spell, draw a card" that is percieved to be ao busted. It's situational, but that situation is pretty easy to find yourself in.

So, personally, I really don't see a problem with complete board wipes that includes getting rid of lands. I started playing back with Onslaught Legion and Scourge. I had inherited some older cards like Throne of Bone, Hand of Death, Dark Ritual and Black Vise to give a few examples. I played against people who could destroy most of my lands a few at a time. To me, this is a standard accepted tactic. I used to have to play against mono Blue control decks that were more than capable of preventing you from doing anything by turn 3 consistently. I really don't get the issues being brought up in this video...

I think these cards would be less salt inducing to play against if they didn't cost so much. As a casual player, I thought about picking them up, but I can pick up an entire precon deck for the same price or nearly so as Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe and so 100 fun cards beats just so I can make a joke in every deck playing blue or white. If they were like $5 a piece, they would be played more, and hated less. It might be why Mystic Remora isn't as hated as well. Sure it goes away but you can't avoid it even if you wanted to. But if you want to play it in blue, it is $5 not $40

Smothering tithe gets silly in Marneus Calgar,do you pay the two or can I make a treasure and draw a card each draw. Add in a teferi temporal pilgrim and Gg

Stacks effects in decks makes games much more balanced.

In my personal opinion, players do not put thought into handling these types of cards on the board with utility spells, my group plays pretty high power cards like this or even stax type effects from time to time. It needs to be there to stop players from ramping into combos and who knows what else. People are so worried about taboos they can't even play their cards anymore. If you are playing with a group that can't stand what you are doing maybe you are in the wrong group. People in my pod get salty, but they wont hate on your cards or your strategy, there is room for all strategies and friends will often help each other build these "taboo" decks.

I have a dino deck that I run Smothering Tithe in because I need to fix my mana because of high cost creatures. It does not stop others from playing. They don't have to pay the 2. Any deck that has white in it with fairly costly creatures and spells should run Smothering Tithe to fix their mana.

A whole lot of commander decks need stax effects in there just to exist long enough in the game to work out their win condition, especially if they are swinging for damage, without some combo, and some combos are so much faster than others. There is no reason why every player in this game playing with friends cant just proxy the best decks they can come up with, and that's the beauty that most every single player im talked to in this game all have in common, they love the creativity to making there deck unqiue to them, and working things out. Staxs doesnt take this away it adds to it, because its problem that you should and will face and you have to plan ahead of time to over come it.

I am a Stacks player, so I respect all these choices. And yes, I have them in all my decks that run those colors😈💯

This video could have been called “Everyone hates Rhystic Study!”

I use Rhystic study in a current deck I have been designing, I only learned last week what "Stacks" means. but I did already now about the "do you pay the one?" meme. so I have a proxy of that funny picture of spongebob in the chicken wing like pose with "Do yOu pAY THe OnE?" It also has a matching smothering tithe with Patrick on it "Do yOu pAY THe TwO?" I am a rather secluded player, so I am out of the loop on a lot of things, I am also not super good, so once I can make this deck actually viable, I'll look to remove these cards. as right now, they're more serving to keep me afloat in games, rather than giving me an advantage. (this deck has won once out of about 2 dozen games)

I think Tax and Stax cards are simultaneously Fun and Unfun, but that decision rests with each individual player. I have my own conception of casual, yet many people see it as way stronger that it really is. My buddy has 4 decks. Zur Stax Control Urza Stax Combo Tergrid normal build Sen Triplets Stax Tax I never complain or felt bad playing against any of them, but I often have to remind him how salty those commanders are to a vast majority of players. It's not like he plays with random people with no "Rule 0" conversation. But if you're looking for high power games, he throws down hard. His decks truly are in the mid - high power range, definitely not cEDH level, but I'm sure his Zur and Urza builds could sneak some wins at a cEDH table.

Funnily enough, I'm making an oloro life gain deck with ghostly prison, propaganda, smothering tithe, rhystic study, and esper sentinel in the deck. Lol

I won’t but I considered adding God-Pharaoh Statue to my artifacts copy deck. Just exile it with Prototype Portal and watch people go pale.

This is amazing, literally just traded in smothering tithe, esper sentinel, and drannith magistrate, so I think I agree

Stax is not Tax...but they do often end up together

Is Mystic Remora the "fair" version of Rhystic Study?

What makes this stuff hard is the play style discussion. When My Fun is Orzhov tempo my options in commander are........ basically hatebears with stax pieces. Without stax pieces, I'm consistently several turns behind the rest of the table in mana production. I wish is wasn't this way, but that's how the color pie's design has treated my colors. Even so, I don't build stax decks. I just accepted being the slowest deck. I'd love see a day where Wizards improves mana production for white.

So a deck is toxic and unfun so all cards in that deck can't be played? I think that the difference between a "stax piece" and "stax deck" is being missed. If I have one "stax piece" that's on theme with my deck, me and my deck are bad/toxic/mean?

I get it casual play vs. good value, but bullying someone out is just as toxic as playing those cards. I am a sliver player who plays some of these cards on the list. I have talked to my group beforehand. Yes, i get targeted at first until Mob Boss pops off and starts making 10 plus goblin tokens

These aren’t stax. They aren’t denying resources. Also by this thinking, green players shouldn’t play broken elf cards, blue shouldn’t counter spell, players should never put infinite combos and tutors in their decks.

24:19 I could throw this in Orvar today and have a blast, as you can just have mirror box out and copy it over and over.

Lets drop! Staples lmao! Love the channel. Dont agree with the worry on great cards lol.

god-pharoah's statue+ karn the creator+ Helm of the host+ anything that doubles tokens created.

I feel like my Kwain deck is being attacked here. I love that deck but the color combo says I ain’t gonna fight but neither are you

most of these staxy cards I don't proxy... I have one rhystic study... it's in one deck... done... I don't think I have done anything wrong because I bring at least 3 decks to every game night or lgs

I have one Rhystic Study between all my decks, and its it's original common printing I have from when I was a kid, I will feel no shame in playing it

smothering Tithe, Rystic Study, and Mystic remora is allowed in all the groups i play with. even the Random people i meet at the store its all fine. i do not play these in all my decks.

I will continue to play Smothering Tithe as long people continue to drop multiple lands and draw a dozen cards in a turn... looking at you Simic.

Only card I play on this list is Esper Sentinel, but that is only in modern format.

Would playing Worldslayer with Avacyn, Angel of Hope be considered taboo?

I'm actually okay with Smothering Tithe on the board in casual commander. but I understand if others aren't.

Something I had issues is infinite combos because I had plenty of them before and know I will need them on high interaction tables and such, but yet about half of my group of friends do not have any infinite combos on their decks whatsoever yet a few of my friends *do* have them, continue to use them and even after I tried calling out 'Do we wanna use them?' Unsuccessfully. So I feel like the most fair way for me to play right now is to actually *have* infinite combos on my decks, both for when I'm playing people outside my immediate group of friends (They're almost always on the high-interaction end of the spectrum) but also when I feel like I must mediate with my friends by basically trying to target and drop the friends that do have infinite combos with some of my own and then just interrupt and continue playing and see where I land with other players that don't want to just combo-win every time.

3 Enchantment - Aura Enchant a non-land, non-creature permanent. Enchanted permanent has cumulative upkeep 2. Jump-Start

I actually haven't met anyone so far that has any hard limits on what's played. There's usually collective greater moan and groan in regards to mill, a lot of mono black decks I run, certain tribles like slivers and eldrazi. But if you wanna play it, play it, if it's bad enough you've aggrod the table. Golly I hate mill.

Idk about others, but I only put these style cards in my high end casual or CEDH decks. Mono blue Urza stacks with Rhystic Study and Mystic Rhemora is awesome card draw

First? I play a land and a sol ring

What does lodestone golem do?

Rhystic study isn't that bad. I seen it hurt the player many times with cards that hurt players when they draw or can't draw additional cards. Or just remove it. Maybe you should run it some kinda removal

Haha yeah it is more a card recommendation video, which enchantments and creatures are good :D The biggest TABOO for me is proxying everything, for example 10 Duallands of Fetchlands in a 5 colour Commander of a Gaeas Cradle and don‘t say it at the beginning

Ristic Study and Smothering Tithe problem would easily be solved if they were: Whenever an opponent does ... , you may pay (1)... It would be enough nerf that people would start considering them bad

My playgroup is too wild. I need Rhystic Study to find answers. 😅

Hey flikering astral dragon to make 5 somthering tiths and rystic studys is fair and balanced

i would LOVE to make a deck WITH ALL OF THOSE lol just to be like: "OKAY, NOW YOU DONT HAVE FUN, I DONT EITHER..."

im gonna go put all these on a deck

I haven't played much at my shop but sll these cards are played in regular play, I don't own much of these card but I can't stop them from playing them. If they want to be like me and not play the cards because they don't own it cool, but...thats not what people do, everyone will play the best cards possible and not care what you feel or think.

The "social contract" aspect always makes me struggle. I had one group of friends that i played with socially, and they were all better than me, and sometimes built powerful decks, but i enjoyed playing with them because they were my friends. These randos that i am apt to run into, in public, have NEVER been kind, non-toxic, or casual; theyvall play to win, and enjoy the thrill of roflstomping weaker players, or bitching when THEIR deck decides to get cold, for a game. We don't get to pick who else goes to the store to play. Beyond that, though, while I do gwt why some of these are frowned upon, and why some things shouldnt have as much of a presence in some EDH, the fact is that some of the other sides of those coins aren't meaningfully balanced to incentiveize agrrring not to. "Land destruction is BAD!" Okay, but all Green does is ramp, and hard. Simic just ramps, and then draws, and that ramp pays for those extra resources in hand. At times, I just don't get what ine is SUPPOSED to do to keep up, if I can't pop those Lands with Sinkholes, or Arnageddon them, and then some solutions are just so $$ expensive that I don't want to play pay to win. Personally, I dont have a huge issue with Stax; at least theyvare slower. I'll be happy so long as that isn't the ONLY deck that person brought, and I can request they maybe rotate which deck they use, occasionally. It's no worse than seeing Urza LHA, Korvold, or Chulane across the board.

I mean, if running smothering tithe, thalia heretic cathar and Baird steward of argive in my Teysa Karlov deck makes me a stax player then... Crap..

Don't have an issue with most of these cards. I don't own a RS, but in WU decks MR, ES and ST help keep up with G deck card draw and ramp.

okay so... build a deck with all of these in it - got it.

Whack takes on just strong cards. If you want to play low power then just talk to your pod, it's fine. I never had an issue with anyone for playing stax pieces, neither for counterspells. The meta is full of degenerate combos and im all here for it, because the format is just very good for them. The moment I stax out a combo or counter their key piece everyone is happy. Pushing though obstacles and interacting with the stack is super fun imo.

If these cards hurt you that much then you are not running enough interaction.

Blue and white are taxing colors to counter the temp ramp of red and black and the permanent green ramp. Why is "spells cost 1 more" so salty? I have never played a game where I had to pay 1 more to cast a spell and saw it as a problem.

This videos only confirms my suspicions that the biggest problem are the Azorious players. Still running Rystic in my Izzet Theft deck though.

at 17 minutes: I disagree that Mystic Remora being temporary mitigates how staxy it is. Tangle Wire is a stax card through and through and it's temporary, for example.