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
Acting out of revenge is fun though. "Counterspell". " I counterspell". " Archmages charm" . " OK negate" . " wtf, whirlwind denial". "Alright timestop". "Dude, why, i wasn't even targeting your card". "Do you remember? Pepperidge farm remembers". cost me the game but it was absolutely worth it.
The point of this game is to have fun, winning is a side effect. I've let my friends planeswalker's ultimates go off when I could have stopped them, I've used prismatic strands to stop somebody from losing, I've even used congregate to heal somebody for 82, letting myself lose in the process (exsanguinate)Why? Because I wanted him to get revenge for something that another player did in an earlier match. "It's only fun if I win, otherwise it's a waste of time" seems to be your mentality and if you wanna be a try hard go for it, that's why I stopped playing with randoms. It's OK to lose sometimes, they got rid of ante.
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
Yeah I play a renaminator deck hey guess what in my blue deck I have a grafdiggers cage guess what graveyard decks are sooooo easy to shut down with rest in piece cage leyline etc so many hate cards but none of them run them so I make a big dude turn 3 sometimes and guess what they don't run much creature removal So it sticks around
It’s a struggle because I had about that much generic interaction in my theme decks, and then felt like it detracted from the casual fantasy environment. Gotta find the balance for casual or else everyone will pick on you for filling your theme with “good stuff” cards.
I do wish people played more removal in general, but I don't think it's an ok justification of someone suddenly playing a rhystic study like turn 2 within a pod of upgraded precons, and runs off with the game because no one could deal with that potentially before turn 5, because you are playing with upgraded precons. Casual is such a broad term that could literally be anyone from literally not having played magic before touching their first precon to very experienced players with good deckbuilding etiquettes that has been playing for years on end and has maybe 10 decks ready to play with, you can't literally lump everyone together. It's also kinda like, yes, playing something like a Gaea's Cradle with say a silly insect tribal deck isn't gonna suddenly make it spike really hard in power level because you can't do it consistently, but it will absolutely make your deck feel very swingy. Your opponents happen to not have a land destruction for that Gaea's Cradle for like 4 turns? Well, you are going to get a massive boost for just this game, and probably run off with it because you have gained a huge advantage of it being able to do it's thing for 4 turns. You can make it an archenemy situation and that could be fun too, but it also could be not appreciated, feeling like you just curb stomped on others. Play according to the people not to some generic rule you hear on the internet, heck, play full stax if your friend group calls for it.
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.
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!
Avg salt is 28 last time I checked but that number is pretty meaningless. In your anecdote it didn’t even sound like you had fun playing your cards so that’s naturally a really (unintentionally) toxic form of salt to play against. (I also bet your turns were on the longer side since you hadn’t played in a while which makes the experience multiplicatively more oppressive for your table). Precon nights are so fun; I’m glad you’re enjoying them. (My friend loves the LotR precon as well. He brings a bag of skittles to use as food tokens xD) My group’s meta is entirely based on deck swapping. Keep your builds fun because you’ll have to play against your shit as well. (I play against my Tergrid deck 2x as much as I play her 😅). My group can also afford a couple shitty games a week because we play often enough so salt isn’t a huge issue at my table
I know a similar feeling. I’ve been playing off and on since 96, sold a chunk of my collection (wish I hadn’t😅), and considered quitting after a truly awful FNM experience. Then a friend introduced me to commander around 2013. I was overjoyed, thought I was hot s*** because of how easy it was to win. Then one night a friend had enough, threw his deck across the room, and stormed out of the house (his house). Later a judge gave me some advice that really stuck with me, he said “build the kind of deck you’d enjoy sitting across from. The game ends when only one player is left standing but the goal is to have fun.”. I’ve since made up with that friend and while our games can drag on a bit longer than some people would like, I can tell you more about them than the more competitive players at my lgs can about their dozen 5/8 turn games they have. I asked one the other day, he was boasting about getting 10 games in one day, so I asked him to tell me about them and he could barely remember who won most of them much less what was played.
@@mitch7110 It is true that I did not have as fun as I was expecting. I was surpised about how guilty I felt. I might add that I really didn´t have the patience for blue in my early years. I started seeing it in a new light after playing som precons. When people start sighing around you, it is time to read the room. :) My deck does not make for long turns though. At least that is a blessing. With Caves of Ixalan we bought all four decks and roll a die for which one to play with. Of the four decks I have only rolled for the Dino one and the Vampire one. I have yet to try the mermaid and pirate ones. But the LOTR decks are so flavourful, I recommend them to anyone. We have had Warhammer 40 K themed night as well. It really doesn´t matter which deck you get with your roll there, they all seem great!
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 mean everyone used to cheat in proffessional magic calling ppl out on what should have been taboo fixed that. Whats the harm in calling it what it is?
@@dpriopelle cheating is one thing but using cards that are part of the game is a whole different situation. That's why I don't play at card shops. Too many house rules
Fair enough, as some who loves dimir decks i do get it. Everyone gets salty at the boardwipe and removal/counter spell player until they dont have an answer for someone else and they just stare at you.
I think there’s a difference between having answers to strategies you expect to see, and building a mass of nothing but counterspells/boardwipes/taxes/edicts, and some eventual win-con. If you can’t accept that a lot of people have no desire to play against the EDH equivalents of Icy + Winter Orb or Turbo Stasis, I have a theory for you. It’s not the rest of the EDH-playing community that’s too soft. It’s you wanting to play close-to-cEDH-level Control, when your 3 buddies are just looking to have a good time. I mean, do you truly, *honestly* think the other 3 players are really enjoying the Pillow Fort Esper Sentinel/Rhystic Study action? Honestly? Edit: I mean, if you’re just “Trying to answer the over-ramped, too much fast-mana Stompy Decks, why are all those 2-drop X-type-of-spells-cost-1 more Artifacts going unplayed? Why is it only the mass free-card draw and treasure token-generating resource denial cards getting all the play? Moreover, I personally think that these cards existing at such extremely low CMCs constitute failures on the part of the WotC design team members, trying to push stuff to the competitive playerbase.
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
Both of those problem cards can be taken care of by running a couple counterspells. I don’t understand the reasoning of prohibiting cards rather than interacting with your opponents board state a little
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.
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.
What is considered etiquette is very different playgroup by playgroup though. Like in my playgroup, complaining about Armageddon is bigger breach of etiquette than casting it
Whenever EDH players call it a "social game" I just know they're going to have the "winning doesn't matter until I lose" attitude that plagues just about every casual table.
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.
No - it is a tax effect. It does not force you to do anything. It does not stop you from doing you doing something. If you choose to pay the tax that is optional that on on you
@@hunterransom2594 Its technically not stax actually.. because its not forcing you to pay anything. You can read it like 'Draw a card whenever anyone casts a spell.' or 'Pay (1) whenever anyone player casts a spell.'.. People who whine about Rhystic study or smothering tithe are so annoying its crazy..
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.
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.
It's less these cards are toxic and more the decks they are in are toxic, like all these cards can go in a stax Augustin and stack on top of each other or a Wheel's Deck I've never had Smothering Tithe go off for me in a casual game I might get a few treasure tokens but I can see how in certain decks it'd be an issue but I think the bigger issue would be someone is drawing a whole bunch of cards in a turn unless you are forcing them to.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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!
@@vittoriosavian9964 because its such a easy go to for a argument heres a counter why play these strong cards if you know there just gonna die to removle
@@seamusdaniels1185You play strong cards because they win you the game unless your opponent has removal. You play removal because you otherwise lose the game against strong cards.
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.
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.
I played a game 2 month ago where nobody payed for a rhystic study never saw a table lose so fast in commander it was like sobody was aware how to play magic guys learned from it hope the same for your dudes greatings from Germany 🎉
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
I have always said if you cannot play a precon at a random edh day, in any of the pods whatsoever, then the edh format is no longer casual (which is a huge issue being its the only casual mtg format) Players use the term “staple” as a cop out for broken cards that are too strong for casual or are straight cedh main stays. Staples are basic lands, creatures, and ramp….everything else is not. Every other format in mtg is 1v1 and sweaty; go play those formats to be a degenerate and focus on winning. If you dont have your own playgroup, and go to the lgs for casual edh with a high power and cedh option only, then you are a D*** and don’t respect others time. Winter orb and dockside need a banning or make cedh seperate from edh; add bans to edh and leave the format be for cedh players.
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.
Same. I have a u/g deck themed after the simic guild itself (graft was an amazing mechanic!), lots of +1/+1 counters and oddball creature types. So I put mystic remora in there as a nod to how this fish is “not a fish” because science. My play group was surprisingly cool with it after that.
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...
Just because you play one card that has a taxing effect does not mean you are playing a stax deck. If I have one card in my deck that counters a spell I'm not playing a control deck. I wouldn't even call a single stax card in your deck a stax sub theme. I also think you can let people draw off it. Knowing how to play against cards is part of the skill portion of the game. Yes, letting your opponent draw a bunch of cards can result in an insurmountable advantage, but so can letting people resove any spell they want or keep any permanent on the board without fear of removal. I think it is a more useful to come prepared to combat cards like this rather than shame people for playing a card or even a specific strategy. Play removal, punish card draw, destroy it. There are many ways to play against it. A powerful card won't single handedly win the game. Come prepared to interact instead of just building your engine. I also think stax can be a perfectly acceptable way to play. It is the way people play stax that is annoying. Playing stax as a draw-go deck designed to annoy people is problematic. But if i play a bunch of hate bears to slow down everyone's decks fishing for their infinite combos or value engines and then i pump up the team and smash how is that different than removing everything that hits the board or powering out that infinite combo? There are plenty of strategies that aren't the most fun to play against. I guess if you only play with people that run annoying decks, meta game a little.
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.
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.
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)
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
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.
For me its a bit of a "fool me twice, shame on me" situation. There are typically three other people who can respond to an annoying enchantment. It isn't preventing me from playing and it isn't actually forcing me to do anything. If I know this annoys me, the pod and I should be responding to it or removing it.
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.
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 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.
Not gonna disagree that these cards are stax adjacent. Def Not stac but close. However I think you guys are off base with the tone. You make it sound like any casual player who plays these cards are scum and you should always focus on them. You are indeed shaming the community. Casual format is about a variety on the power level. You can play fun durdling decks or kill yourself with broken combos or have infinite combos. So long as you communicate during rule 0 what players can expect from your deck. Otherwise if we shame 'play styles' then the durdlers would shame the aggro decks because they die before they can durdle or the discard decks shame the draw cards decks and on and on. Point is: be fair to your fellow players as they may not play the same style as you but they love the same game as you.
It’s fun… in cedh there is no such thing as turn zero. I thought turn zero where gemstone caverns or leyline effects… then they wanted me to explain my Deck to them? Am I st Peter? Can we now even ask our enemy to show us their hand in turn 3? And how they want to progress. I need an exact Explanation!! 😂😂😂 But for real: when I game back I was like. Okay, casual sounds like whiny Kids trying magic. And until this day it is exactly that. Whiny People who try to shun you not using card X, bit will stomp you with their Jank… 😂 how about we all play the strongest stuff we OWN. And f turn 0. who wants to use it, can do it of course. But I won’t do it. And when you want pre game info on me. one answer. Find it out yourself.
I usually agree with CQ on their perspectives. This, however, is a topic I FIRMLY disagree with. If a table has a rule 0 for cards like this, i am not interested in playing at that table. I play EDH at a tier 8-10 level. I play so much that im the go to guy for my group to ask judge related questions. I dont build underpowered decks. It is ridiculous to put limitations on players that didnt sign up for it. I had this argument with a player about Blood Moon. He didn't run any basics in his deck, and got mad at me because i exploited his weaknesses. That's the game. We are here to win. I dont play a game with the intention to just have fun. I have goals. My goal is to win or die trying. Winning isn't everything, but it certainly matters. It is not my fault if you play on a budget. I make a conscious decision to spend more money on expensive cards to use to win. If you choose to have other priorities, why is that my problem? Go find a group of people that play at your level. It is not my responsibility to make sure you are having fun. I have fun when i spend 3 mana for Study. I have fun when i draw cards. I have fun when my opponents are finding it difficult to beat me. Magic is ABSOLUTELY a game of, "who has the most money, wins." I love infinite combos. I love destroying lands. I love forcing my opponents to discard their hands. I like it when no one has a response to my shit. When i use these effects, it should send a message. Get Good, or get Wrecked. Oh, you spend 7mana for your Commander and it is the main strategy of your deck engine? And all that stops with 2 blue mana. Ill pay the 2 blue to counterspell your Commander. Salty? Build the deck better. Run more interactions. Run more removal. The pure joy i get from getting rid of a powerful piece of your puzzle is palpable. When i cant get rid of something, and i get salty i ask myself, "would you play that card?" If the answer is "Yes, i would play that card." Then you have NO right to be salty. This humbles you. This makes you realize that you have inconsistencies in your deck and it could be better. So get better, or change your meta. I have 32 decks, so i never get bored. In sports, you dont go into the game hoping your opponent wins. You go into the game with the intention of WINNING! So, go forth and WIN! Losing sucks. Dont wanna lose? Get better at the game, pay more money for better cards. Dont wanna do that? I think the younger magic players that just started out may be more your speed. You dont go into a professional sport when you dont have the experience to contend. That's setting yourself up for failure.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Players should feel free to play whatever they want regardless of what the deck is. Stax, land destruction, or whatever and not have to feel bad about it. As a playgroup, we can all be mature and not get angry like children at someone playing with the cards the game allows. And if it becomes too big of a problem, we can discuss playing other decks for now but never perma banning it. That idea is toxic and not good for the format
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.
ok, I understand - all powerful blue and white cards are taboo ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ There are a lot of annoying cards in other colors which should be in that category, but ok... blue and white...
@@chasepeeler9188 blood moon + magus, aura shards, vorinclex (both), sheoldread (both), consultation, Orcish Bowmasters, Smoke, Contamination, Ad Nauseam, Price of Glory, Desolation, Leyline of the Void, Choke and a lot of other cards
Can't remember the name but there is a green enchantment that doubles all of your creatures attack and toughness at the beginning of each players combat until end of turn. That said I'm against the idea of "that card is too good you shouldn't use it" so I wouldn't put any on that list
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.
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
I think that when you are faced with a problem or threat, you find a solution. If someone plays a Rhystic Study, is the solution to kill them? Or would it be easier to cast a nature’s claim? It is true that these cards are good, but they all have answers. So rather than just killing the players for playing the cards, or shaming them for it, as you say you aren’t doing, but then kinda seem like you are anyway. Instead, we can just expect players to use them and bring the required interaction. That’s how Magic has always worked, they go rock, you go paper. Why just sit and complain rather than finding a solution? Additionally, they aren’t really stax. Smokestacks, the namesake, destroys permanents and slows the game. So do things like the various orbs. Rhystic, Mystic, and esper sentinel are value engines with an optional tax. There is a real choice there depending upon your strategy. You generally should pay, but then it is functionally a one sided sphere of resistance. And if between three players, there isn’t removal for 1 enchantment, then maybe they should rethink their lists or have a more clear rule zero discussion about the power level.
Great video, however the video title is a bit misleading. All cards shown are just Stax cards. A better title would be "Secret Stax cards you run without knowing".
It’s 2024 it’s time for everybody to admit the commander has gotten a lot more competitive, and all these arguments of life, stacks and lamb, destruction, and poison win conditions belong in the past
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.
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.
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 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.
