So I've just returned from a night of EDH at my lgs which was great fun save for one thing: the deck I was playing for game 1.
The deck is a newly finished one that I've been working on and trading towards for some time. It has a clear plan and style to playing it but it simply isnt fun to the point where after only two weeks and 5ish unenjoyable games im probably going to scrap it for parts that can be used elsewhere. It is also making me think very hard about some other decks that I have in the pipeline that were first made at around the same time.
Anyone else have experience of this with decks that they've made? Did the deck just not perform as intended, did it just not feel "Right" or was it something else entirely? What was the commander of your most disappointing deck?
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EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
Sometimes my decks end up working well, but are just too powerful and not fun to win with. Played my Phenax last weekend and quickly locked the table down with lantern control, and then not much happened and everyone else hated me and eventually scooped.
Another good example is Kytheon. When playing it, I realized that voltron decks are just boring, and very bad politically. Voltron wincons are usually pretty slow, and they give your opponents lots of time to mess with you while you commit all your resources to one big threat that's easy to disrupt and easy to see coming, and they also make enemies in the same way infect does. Hitting people with irreversible damage tends to make enemies very quickly. Besides just being a bad wincon, they also aren't much fun imo. You're basically just going "hey, I built this big dumb threat, do you have a way to stop me?" and then they either can or can't, and if they can't you win. Whee. So much interaction.
Similar deal with Shirei. When it was on, it was SO ON and everyone else discarded everything and sacked everything and was wrecked, and it when it was off it was SO OFF and horrible.
Thada just didn't have a lot of good targets. It was always just a bunch of ramp, and a lot of library searching. Yawn.
In the container I keep my Magic stuff is a folder of decklists I have tried and subsequently taken apart. Three versions of Oloro I didnt like, two of The Mimeoplasm before I settled on the current build, a bunch of aggro decks that didnt quite make the cut, and so on.
The deck that recently disappointed me a lot was my Breya deck. I wanted SO much to have a fun Esper deck, and the addition of red plus it being an artifact deck seemed really awesome. Yet, every version (combo, token-focused, artifacts that copy abilities theme) I made I hated. All of them were either really inconsistent or plain unfun. The sleeves still sit half filled with the good black and white cards in the hopes that an inspiring Orzhov or Esper commander is released. The silver lining though is that taking apart the deck freed up the red and artifact cards, which I used to make a very fun and explosive Kiki-Jiki ETB focused deck.
Sekki, seasons' guide really was not fun. My current aurelia deck is ot preforming as it should and i built a melek ddcka few years ago that also was not fun.
I've been propping my Roon of the Hidden Realm deck for too long. It seems like it should work, but Roon is too expensive and his activated ability makes him tap. I tried mostly everything - including Boonweaver combo. Its just easy to disrupt unless you make it into an entirely different deck that might as well be Karador. The incrimental advantages and perceived "value" you'd expect from reusing EtB effects never quite worked out to my satisfaction.
Sedris, the Traitor King - I always have all fatties for reanimation, or all reanimation abilities, but never both at once.
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EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
My case is just a playgroup issue, where the decks I build don't end up fitting in despite my best efforts.
I come from a very competitive playgroup in Seattle, where everyone runs U/x combo decks with average cmc ~2.5
I went to EDH night at a bar in Fremont and started with my weakest deck, Archangel Avacyn, which is a combo deck but it's a -boros- combo deck so it's pretty terrible.
Proceeded to wreck the meta.
So I set about building some -serious- jank, and came up with Roon blinky valuetown, which had no clear path to victory and no combos, besides Roon being a pretty bad general.
Proceeded to wreck the meta.
This week I'm going to bring Vialsmasher with just a bunch of instants and no good path to victory other than smasher herself.
I have scrapped 3 decks (which makes it 1/5 decks so far). 2 played much differently than I thought, and I did not like them. One played well, but was too slow and low impact to keep up against anything.
Brago. Despite my large board presence and repeated triggers, it still felt like I wasn't doing anything. It felt like the things I was doing were just really underwelming and not much fun to play.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Flash aggro. A few years back, I built a monoblue aggro deck. The idea was fun, off colored, and building the deck was fun too. Unfortunately, between the numerous Umezawa's Jitte in my meta combined with everyone's hate for Teferi just made the deck do nothing. At the time, I had a second group to try it in and it was met with the same hate and just never did anything after about 10 games between two groups.
I've had my share of 'I need to scrap this thing like yesterday' for various reasons. Few cases:
Most notably I scrapped a Norin the Wary deck that worked, actually fairly well... but the constant tracking of the namesake and every triggered effect got tiring real fast.
One of my oldest EDH decks was a pretty successful Darigaaz, the Igniter that ramped like nuts, made everyone draw a lot, blew up everyone's lands so they had to keep their huge hands, and then killed with repeatedly copied Sudden Impacts. Fun to pilot, but soon enough I realized it was seriously not fun to play against, heh.
Changed my Simic 'creature spam' deck from Momir Vig to Zegana almost purely because I loathed doin the 'Vig dance' few times a turn cycle.
I've also scrapped more than a few decks just because they were too boring to play - in my case, often meaning 'plop down creatures, keep doing it until either opposition or me is dead' with no tricks or twists whatsoever. Plenty of tribal decks fell into this rabbit hole. They'd work to an acceptable degree, but I'd fall asleep when actually piloting the deck.
Intet, the Dreamer is a special case that I might one day return to: fun to pilot, always did interesting/janky interactions... but it was also incredibly slow to start and Intet's ability fizzled way too much given how tricky it was to get connect in the first place, even with all the deck manipulation.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist seemed like it would finally be that elusive (for me) monoblue deck that would be fun to play... but it ran into same kind of problem I've ditched a few decks because of: commander with an activated ability that you want to build around... and requires you to tap. She often got hated off the table and the deck did diddly squat without her. Same kind of category in the past: Brion Stoutarm, Mayael the Anima, Zirilan of the Claw. Problem with these kind of generals is that you end up spending so much resources just to keep your general around even for a turn cycle.
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
It took me a while to realize (and to accept the fact), but there is a difference from building a deck designed to win as frequently as possible, and building a deck designed to "do a thing."
Most of my decks are designed to "do a thing." Sometimes that "thing" is all it takes to win the game, like milling myself and then reanimating my entire 'yard, or taking infinite turns. Sometimes the "thing" is big and splashy, but doesn't immediately win the game (primal surge deck restricted to no instant i-win scenarios being my recent brew).
For those decks, all I care about is that my deck has a good chance of doing "the thing" it was meant to do. If it does the "thing" then I'm happy, even if I loose.
On the other hand, decks I design that are made to just win the game as frequently as possible (which IMO are some of the most boring decks I've ever made), are easy to constantly upgrade and improve on. Win-con not coming out fast enough? More ramp. Keeps dying? More recursion. More hate/answers? More permission. Win-con not actually good enough for the current environment? Find better win-con.
But I'd rather be doing a more interesting "thing" than perfecting some win-con. I'd prefer to make more memorable, explosive, entertaining games, that me and my buddies can talk and reminisce about at length, instead of adding another check-mark for the quick-combo-deck's victory log.
Similar deal with Shirei. When it was on, it was SO ON and everyone else discarded everything and sacked everything and was wrecked, and it when it was off it was SO OFF and horrible.
My Karona, the False God deck was like that, but worse. It was pillowfort with an Avatar tribal subtheme (so Karona could buff herself and the rest of my attackers), which is already not great since many of the Atavar creatures in the game are expensive and not that good. Further, when the deck was "on", I was sitting there doing pretty much nothing, with nobody able to do anything to me, which is quite boring. It's not even necessarily that I don't enjoy pillowfort, since I currently have a Narset pillowfort deck that I quite enjoy.
Thada just didn't have a lot of good targets. It was always just a bunch of ramp, and a lot of library searching. Yawn.
See, that's where you're misreading Thada. She's not a theft commander like Empress Galina, she's a mono-blue ramp commander like Azusa, Lost but Seeking.
Sliver Queen tokens. Performed very, very well, but only with tutors. As my friends have decklists that don't use hard tutors, I didn't feel it was fair. I demoted it back to the fun deck of two card token combos it used to be for use in Emperor games, but with a better card lineup than it used to have.
Damia, Sage of Stone Simic/gorgon mafia deck. Woefully bad at handling fliers, but was also too theme-ish and wasn't really built to handle serious-minded voltron decks like Scion of the Ur-Dragon. The funny thing is this deck did do what it was made to do, it was just underpowered. Took out black, made it only Simic with WAY MORE answers, and it is now a hoot to play with Prime Speaker Zegana.
Hazezon Tamar Dune-themed deck. Got some very nice compliments here about the theming, but never performed well in my group. Demoted to 65 card for use as an Emperor's deck. Managed to concentrate the answers and best threats, then added three more Deserts. I think I will like it more this way.
I never had a mono red commander that I really enjoyed playing until I finally caved and modified a Daretti precon. I tried Zirilan of the Claw, Heartless Hidetsugu, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker but aside from the occasional Hidietsugu game, it wasn't much fun.
My Kuon deck just made the table hate me and felt like it required too much setup for the pay off, though I plan to revisit the idea one day.
And my Yidris deck is really fun at first, getting ready to smash face and win, but once everything gets rollling I feel like it's a fun-draining experience for my opponents(extra combat steps and extra turns galore), and tracking triggers gets tedious and and I often end up missing something happening and giving away the win. I've yet to dismantle it because it is just an awesome experience at first, but the so-called second act of the deck is kind of a let down.
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EDH Pantheon UBRG Yidris, Eye of the Storm WBR Kaalia, Herald of Apocalypse UBG Damia, Sage of Nightmare WBG Karador, the Bridge Between WU Grand Warden Augustin IV RG Omnath, Locus of Awakening BG Nath Addict UR Niv Mizzet, Brain Aflame B Kokusho, the Mourning Star U Memnarch is All
I've pulled apart many decks because they were diappointing. My meta is pretty laid back so I can get away with more "themed" decks, but there have been some decks that I have built that were really miserable to play. I look at it as that this is just normal for a non-rotating format.
Some of the more notable ones have been Grand Arbiter Augustin IV "tax everything" deck (would never win a game, just get concessions or get hated out), Azami, Lady of Scrolls Wizards (playing 'Draw-Go' in a casual meta is lame), Arcum Daggson tokens and big mana artifacts (deck was very repetitive), Rafiq of the Many equipment voltron (was too easily hated out), and Zurgo Helmsmasher Wraths and Earthquakes (was hated on way too much because of the constant board wiping dragged the game out incessantly).
Most of the time, I'm able to save a deck by refocusing it on some aspect of the deck that I did like. A great example of this was my Wort, the Raidmother deck that was originally Rosheen Meanderer. Rosheen was not very good, but the deck showed me just how powerful Wort could be, so I converted it over and never looked back.
My first two commander decks I liked alot, and have kept them together only slowly swapping cards over time. I made a Angel/ human Knight themed with Sigarda, Host of herons as the commander. Basically started out as a greatest hits of magic cards for me slowly tweaking into something that wins as I went on. I made then a boros deck, my second favorite combo of colors with Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas, since I wanted something different than the usual Angel commanders that crop up in my local area, Aurelia, the Warleader and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. I have them in the deck, just not as commander along with a mixture of soldiers with a few other giants and angels to trigger experience counters. I also found it worked pretty well, and people would be often take off guard with how brutal Kalemne could be with Commander damage. Between that and having alot of ways of becoming indestructible in the deck, it would outlast or overrun people if I my deck did what was supposed to do right.
So this led me to deck number 3. I didn't want to repeat colors, and wanted to run a token theme so I picked up Daxos the Returned for a commander, and tried make it work. I liked how the experience counter thing worked and tried build around tokens and enchantments with Daxos. It took way too long to get rolling and felt under powered. I felt like it lacked the punch I wanted, and needed something to speed it up.
So I tried Teneb, the Harvester to get into the colors I wanted. Looking back I probably could gotten this to work if I'd built around Ghave, Guru of Spores instead but I was focused on getting into the colors for more powerful tokens and ramp options. Teneb was there, but he was rarely a factor in games since I didn't build a deck with synergy toward what he does. I won more games than my previous incarnation, but the deck felt like it still had an identity crisis.I put this deck on the side as it wasn't what I wanted.
Commander 2016 came out, and then I was inspired to finnally resolve this situation. I took and broke the deck into two halves. I made a token life gain deck to finnally make a token deck that could win and does some damage even when it does with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. I said screw it I will repeat for this color combo, since I play it so often I had more than enough green/white lands make a solid mana base so just as well to use them. With the life gain effects I can win thru Aetherflux Reservoir, and just use my lifetotal to blast away the table or dump out Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance to seal the deal. Sometimes the token method just over runs the table, but I got options that work.
The other half of the deck ended up falling under Atraxa, Praetor's Voice. The various plainwalkers and powerful creatures seems to work well with her. Teneb is still sitting out doing nothing heh.
My Queen Marchesa is still in limbo, but that's a story for another time as I haven't quite decided how I am going tinker with it yet or change it.
So many decks end up just not quite working out. For me the largest disappointments have been: Aggro (especially voltron), and Superfriends. And I've never been able to keep a bant deck from being 110% miserable whether it's agonizing to play or hell to play against.
Aggro is mostly a meta-call mixed with personal play style. I like to have a flexible game plan able to react to or prevent whatever my opponent's decks try to do so all my aggressive decks end up being pulled in too many directions as I try to cram too many tricks and answers in and end up being unable to reliably win with the beatdown, or the deck ends up being to linear drop->swing and I don't find enjoyment in playing regardless of how the game goes. Combine that with a meta that is decently competitive and leans more combo and/or control and it's just not my cup of tea.
I have had multiple iterations of superfriends decks and they're a blast to play when the deck is going perfect, unfortunately the line is just way too narrow. 99% of the time you are either unable to do ANYTHING at all because all the 'walkers are getting pummeled to death regardless of their worth or power OOOORR you have the game under such a backbreaking value engine that you're essentially playing solitare because you drew right and keep burying your opponents under wraths and 'walker ults. I love so many 'walkers that just don't quite make it into non-superfriends decks for any number of reasons but I have yet to have any build of superfriends stay enjoyable for more than a handful of games.
Bant... I love so many cards that fall under Bant but all the decks end up all-in aggro/voltron and I can't stand piloting them or I go alittle overboard on the control or pillowforting and the games become misery incarnate for everyone as I can't let them do anything so I can win but none of my wincons are anywhere close to fast. This depresses me the most as I really do love so many UW/GW/ and UG cards and Finest Hour is still one of my all time favorite cards.
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I had a wordy signature here once.
URGRiku, Sorcerer SupremeGRU Who needs permanents anyways? WUBRGDeckbuilder's ToolboxGRBUW Warning:Contents include 34 decks and growing
I had a lot of dragon decks over the years because DRAGONS!
Since my meta became more competitive I was looking for a "competitive" dragon deck and finally decided to build Scion.
Basically it consists of ways to one-shot players and to combo off. Whenever I played it it NEVER felt like a dragon deck at all but rather a (IMHO boring) combo deck.
I am on the brink of changing Scion back to my Jund goodstuff dragon tribal. Or maybe I should remove all combos from Scion and play him as a ramp into dragons deck...
My first deck, Lorthos, the Tidemaker. I wanted a leviathan, kraken, octopus tribal, but it turns out playing lots of big cost creatures makes for a slow early game.
I upgraded it to dimir with Wrexial, the Risen Deep, but it still sucked. Very disappointing deck.
I have pulled apart a lot of decks. Some because I just didn't play them, some that were not fun, and some were just too similar to other decks. Here are a few of the decks I have taken apart and the reasons for taking apart each:
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
This is one deck that I took apart because it did what it was supposed to too well and that was without making it "broken". That is, very few tutors and I played it in a way as to not be overly oppressive but it always turned out to do be doing too much for the metas I play in to handle and it turned out that I ended up playing archenemy too often.
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder & Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
I modified this from a Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck since I felt that this color combination was one that I really wanted to play as it would combine Karador with Red but I felt that it diluted the deck too much. It was just trying to do too much and even though I was fine with it being "goodstuff" there just wasn't even there to make it seem like a cohesive deck. Karador was already that way so I never it put it back to just Abzan. I just pulled it apart.
Horobi, Death's Wail
I really liked the idea of this deck, but it just didn't do everything I wanted it to do. If Horobi just said "whenever [b]another/b] creature, ..." it would have been fine, but Horobi is just too easy to get rid of.
Kemba, Kha Regent
This was just too linear and more of a glass cannon than I would like. The plan was to suit up Kemba as much as possible but then if Kemba goes away, the game plan falters.
Rubinia Soulsinger
This was a "steal creatures" deck with a minor Planeswalker theme. After playing it a while, it just didn't seem to be as fun as I thought it would. Looking back, I think it was because it wasn't as focused as I would have liked and it lacked red for the most threaten effects. I have recently built Yasova Dragonclaw which is a bit more focused on stealing stuff and I like it much more.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa & Vial Smasher the Fierce
I modified this from a Johan deck which used to be a Teneb, the Harvester deck. It was an Enchantress deck and I could never really get it to where I wanted it to be. Teneb was probably the best iteration of the deck and 4 color was just too spread out where I would find I would have mana issues or I wouldn't quite get the cards I wanted. I think the biggest thing was not having a general that fit the theme in these colors. If Wizards ever comes out with an Abzan Enchantment matters general, I may put that version of the deck back together.
Zedruu the Greathearted
This was supposed to be a griefer deck just to see how it would play and I liked it to start with. However, eventually I realized I wasn't actually playing the game an instead I would just work my hardest to make the game un fun for everyone else. I knew that going into the deck so it wasn't a surprise but I found I really just didn't like the playstyle so I took it apart.
Above isn't an exhaustive list of "disappointing" decks by any means, but it does show that I have built a number of decks that, for one reason or another, just didn't do what I wanted them to do and then dismantled them.
Even though each deck has been built on different synergies and interactions, my best guess is that I just don't like the style of the color pair, or that it doesn't mesh with my group very well. The decks all seem way too strong, even the more casual builds. This is likely because there aren't a lot of counterspells in my group so the interaction with instant and sorcery based decks is relatively low.
Mizzix was probably the most fun because it was cut-throat and not trying to be fair at all.
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EDH playing competitive Magic cast away
Current Decks GTitania midrange RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
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So I've just returned from a night of EDH at my lgs which was great fun save for one thing: the deck I was playing for game 1.
The deck is a newly finished one that I've been working on and trading towards for some time. It has a clear plan and style to playing it but it simply isnt fun to the point where after only two weeks and 5ish unenjoyable games im probably going to scrap it for parts that can be used elsewhere. It is also making me think very hard about some other decks that I have in the pipeline that were first made at around the same time.
Anyone else have experience of this with decks that they've made? Did the deck just not perform as intended, did it just not feel "Right" or was it something else entirely? What was the commander of your most disappointing deck?
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
Sometimes my decks end up working well, but are just too powerful and not fun to win with. Played my Phenax last weekend and quickly locked the table down with lantern control, and then not much happened and everyone else hated me and eventually scooped.
Another good example is Kytheon. When playing it, I realized that voltron decks are just boring, and very bad politically. Voltron wincons are usually pretty slow, and they give your opponents lots of time to mess with you while you commit all your resources to one big threat that's easy to disrupt and easy to see coming, and they also make enemies in the same way infect does. Hitting people with irreversible damage tends to make enemies very quickly. Besides just being a bad wincon, they also aren't much fun imo. You're basically just going "hey, I built this big dumb threat, do you have a way to stop me?" and then they either can or can't, and if they can't you win. Whee. So much interaction.
Similar deal with Shirei. When it was on, it was SO ON and everyone else discarded everything and sacked everything and was wrecked, and it when it was off it was SO OFF and horrible.
Thada just didn't have a lot of good targets. It was always just a bunch of ramp, and a lot of library searching. Yawn.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
The deck that recently disappointed me a lot was my Breya deck. I wanted SO much to have a fun Esper deck, and the addition of red plus it being an artifact deck seemed really awesome. Yet, every version (combo, token-focused, artifacts that copy abilities theme) I made I hated. All of them were either really inconsistent or plain unfun. The sleeves still sit half filled with the good black and white cards in the hopes that an inspiring Orzhov or Esper commander is released. The silver lining though is that taking apart the deck freed up the red and artifact cards, which I used to make a very fun and explosive Kiki-Jiki ETB focused deck.
The Mimeoplasm || Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher || Vial Smasher/Tymna Group Slug
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief || Talrand, Sky Summoner
Yidris - Unblockable Saboteurs || Kiki-Jiki, ETB breaker
Kess, Dissident Mage
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
I come from a very competitive playgroup in Seattle, where everyone runs U/x combo decks with average cmc ~2.5
I went to EDH night at a bar in Fremont and started with my weakest deck, Archangel Avacyn, which is a combo deck but it's a -boros- combo deck so it's pretty terrible.
Proceeded to wreck the meta.
So I set about building some -serious- jank, and came up with Roon blinky valuetown, which had no clear path to victory and no combos, besides Roon being a pretty bad general.
Proceeded to wreck the meta.
This week I'm going to bring Vialsmasher with just a bunch of instants and no good path to victory other than smasher herself.
...I'm trying so hard...
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Flash aggro. A few years back, I built a monoblue aggro deck. The idea was fun, off colored, and building the deck was fun too. Unfortunately, between the numerous Umezawa's Jitte in my meta combined with everyone's hate for Teferi just made the deck do nothing. At the time, I had a second group to try it in and it was met with the same hate and just never did anything after about 10 games between two groups.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
Most notably I scrapped a Norin the Wary deck that worked, actually fairly well... but the constant tracking of the namesake and every triggered effect got tiring real fast.
One of my oldest EDH decks was a pretty successful Darigaaz, the Igniter that ramped like nuts, made everyone draw a lot, blew up everyone's lands so they had to keep their huge hands, and then killed with repeatedly copied Sudden Impacts. Fun to pilot, but soon enough I realized it was seriously not fun to play against, heh.
Changed my Simic 'creature spam' deck from Momir Vig to Zegana almost purely because I loathed doin the 'Vig dance' few times a turn cycle.
I've also scrapped more than a few decks just because they were too boring to play - in my case, often meaning 'plop down creatures, keep doing it until either opposition or me is dead' with no tricks or twists whatsoever. Plenty of tribal decks fell into this rabbit hole. They'd work to an acceptable degree, but I'd fall asleep when actually piloting the deck.
Intet, the Dreamer is a special case that I might one day return to: fun to pilot, always did interesting/janky interactions... but it was also incredibly slow to start and Intet's ability fizzled way too much given how tricky it was to get connect in the first place, even with all the deck manipulation.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist seemed like it would finally be that elusive (for me) monoblue deck that would be fun to play... but it ran into same kind of problem I've ditched a few decks because of: commander with an activated ability that you want to build around... and requires you to tap. She often got hated off the table and the deck did diddly squat without her. Same kind of category in the past: Brion Stoutarm, Mayael the Anima, Zirilan of the Claw. Problem with these kind of generals is that you end up spending so much resources just to keep your general around even for a turn cycle.
Most of my decks are designed to "do a thing." Sometimes that "thing" is all it takes to win the game, like milling myself and then reanimating my entire 'yard, or taking infinite turns. Sometimes the "thing" is big and splashy, but doesn't immediately win the game (primal surge deck restricted to no instant i-win scenarios being my recent brew).
For those decks, all I care about is that my deck has a good chance of doing "the thing" it was meant to do. If it does the "thing" then I'm happy, even if I loose.
On the other hand, decks I design that are made to just win the game as frequently as possible (which IMO are some of the most boring decks I've ever made), are easy to constantly upgrade and improve on. Win-con not coming out fast enough? More ramp. Keeps dying? More recursion. More hate/answers? More permission. Win-con not actually good enough for the current environment? Find better win-con.
But I'd rather be doing a more interesting "thing" than perfecting some win-con. I'd prefer to make more memorable, explosive, entertaining games, that me and my buddies can talk and reminisce about at length, instead of adding another check-mark for the quick-combo-deck's victory log.
Just the opinion of a hyper-casual hipster
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
See, that's where you're misreading Thada. She's not a theft commander like Empress Galina, she's a mono-blue ramp commander like Azusa, Lost but Seeking.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Sliver Queen tokens. Performed very, very well, but only with tutors. As my friends have decklists that don't use hard tutors, I didn't feel it was fair. I demoted it back to the fun deck of two card token combos it used to be for use in Emperor games, but with a better card lineup than it used to have.
Damia, Sage of Stone Simic/gorgon mafia deck. Woefully bad at handling fliers, but was also too theme-ish and wasn't really built to handle serious-minded voltron decks like Scion of the Ur-Dragon. The funny thing is this deck did do what it was made to do, it was just underpowered. Took out black, made it only Simic with WAY MORE answers, and it is now a hoot to play with Prime Speaker Zegana.
Hazezon Tamar Dune-themed deck. Got some very nice compliments here about the theming, but never performed well in my group. Demoted to 65 card for use as an Emperor's deck. Managed to concentrate the answers and best threats, then added three more Deserts. I think I will like it more this way.
And my Yidris deck is really fun at first, getting ready to smash face and win, but once everything gets rollling I feel like it's a fun-draining experience for my opponents(extra combat steps and extra turns galore), and tracking triggers gets tedious and and I often end up missing something happening and giving away the win. I've yet to dismantle it because it is just an awesome experience at first, but the so-called second act of the deck is kind of a let down.
UBRG Yidris, Eye of the Storm
WBR Kaalia, Herald of Apocalypse
UBG Damia, Sage of Nightmare
WBG Karador, the Bridge Between
WU Grand Warden Augustin IV
RG Omnath, Locus of Awakening
BG Nath Addict
UR Niv Mizzet, Brain Aflame
B Kokusho, the Mourning Star
U Memnarch is All
Some of the more notable ones have been Grand Arbiter Augustin IV "tax everything" deck (would never win a game, just get concessions or get hated out), Azami, Lady of Scrolls Wizards (playing 'Draw-Go' in a casual meta is lame), Arcum Daggson tokens and big mana artifacts (deck was very repetitive), Rafiq of the Many equipment voltron (was too easily hated out), and Zurgo Helmsmasher Wraths and Earthquakes (was hated on way too much because of the constant board wiping dragged the game out incessantly).
Most of the time, I'm able to save a deck by refocusing it on some aspect of the deck that I did like. A great example of this was my Wort, the Raidmother deck that was originally Rosheen Meanderer. Rosheen was not very good, but the deck showed me just how powerful Wort could be, so I converted it over and never looked back.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist | Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | Bosh, Iron Golem | Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Brago, King Eternal | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Wort, Boggart Auntie | Wort, the Raidmother
Captain Sisay | Rhys, the Redeemed | Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight | Obzedat, Ghost Council | Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind | Vorel of the Hull Clade
Uril, the Miststalker | Prossh, Skyraider of Kher | Nicol Bolas | Progenitus
Ghave, Guru of Spores | Zedruu the Greathearted | Damia, Sage of Stone | Riku of Two Reflections
So this led me to deck number 3. I didn't want to repeat colors, and wanted to run a token theme so I picked up Daxos the Returned for a commander, and tried make it work. I liked how the experience counter thing worked and tried build around tokens and enchantments with Daxos. It took way too long to get rolling and felt under powered. I felt like it lacked the punch I wanted, and needed something to speed it up.
So I tried Teneb, the Harvester to get into the colors I wanted. Looking back I probably could gotten this to work if I'd built around Ghave, Guru of Spores instead but I was focused on getting into the colors for more powerful tokens and ramp options. Teneb was there, but he was rarely a factor in games since I didn't build a deck with synergy toward what he does. I won more games than my previous incarnation, but the deck felt like it still had an identity crisis.I put this deck on the side as it wasn't what I wanted.
Commander 2016 came out, and then I was inspired to finnally resolve this situation. I took and broke the deck into two halves. I made a token life gain deck to finnally make a token deck that could win and does some damage even when it does with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. I said screw it I will repeat for this color combo, since I play it so often I had more than enough green/white lands make a solid mana base so just as well to use them. With the life gain effects I can win thru Aetherflux Reservoir, and just use my lifetotal to blast away the table or dump out Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance to seal the deal. Sometimes the token method just over runs the table, but I got options that work.
The other half of the deck ended up falling under Atraxa, Praetor's Voice. The various plainwalkers and powerful creatures seems to work well with her. Teneb is still sitting out doing nothing heh.
My Queen Marchesa is still in limbo, but that's a story for another time as I haven't quite decided how I am going tinker with it yet or change it.
Aggro is mostly a meta-call mixed with personal play style. I like to have a flexible game plan able to react to or prevent whatever my opponent's decks try to do so all my aggressive decks end up being pulled in too many directions as I try to cram too many tricks and answers in and end up being unable to reliably win with the beatdown, or the deck ends up being to linear drop->swing and I don't find enjoyment in playing regardless of how the game goes. Combine that with a meta that is decently competitive and leans more combo and/or control and it's just not my cup of tea.
I have had multiple iterations of superfriends decks and they're a blast to play when the deck is going perfect, unfortunately the line is just way too narrow. 99% of the time you are either unable to do ANYTHING at all because all the 'walkers are getting pummeled to death regardless of their worth or power OOOORR you have the game under such a backbreaking value engine that you're essentially playing solitare because you drew right and keep burying your opponents under wraths and 'walker ults. I love so many 'walkers that just don't quite make it into non-superfriends decks for any number of reasons but I have yet to have any build of superfriends stay enjoyable for more than a handful of games.
Bant... I love so many cards that fall under Bant but all the decks end up all-in aggro/voltron and I can't stand piloting them or I go alittle overboard on the control or pillowforting and the games become misery incarnate for everyone as I can't let them do anything so I can win but none of my wincons are anywhere close to fast. This depresses me the most as I really do love so many UW/GW/ and UG cards and Finest Hour is still one of my all time favorite cards.
URGRiku, Sorcerer SupremeGRU
Who needs permanents anyways?
WUBRGDeckbuilder's ToolboxGRBUW
Warning:Contents include 34 decks and growing
I had a lot of dragon decks over the years because DRAGONS!
Since my meta became more competitive I was looking for a "competitive" dragon deck and finally decided to build Scion.
Basically it consists of ways to one-shot players and to combo off. Whenever I played it it NEVER felt like a dragon deck at all but rather a (IMHO boring) combo deck.
I am on the brink of changing Scion back to my Jund goodstuff dragon tribal. Or maybe I should remove all combos from Scion and play him as a ramp into dragons deck...
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
I upgraded it to dimir with Wrexial, the Risen Deep, but it still sucked. Very disappointing deck.
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
This is one deck that I took apart because it did what it was supposed to too well and that was without making it "broken". That is, very few tutors and I played it in a way as to not be overly oppressive but it always turned out to do be doing too much for the metas I play in to handle and it turned out that I ended up playing archenemy too often.
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder & Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
I modified this from a Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck since I felt that this color combination was one that I really wanted to play as it would combine Karador with Red but I felt that it diluted the deck too much. It was just trying to do too much and even though I was fine with it being "goodstuff" there just wasn't even there to make it seem like a cohesive deck. Karador was already that way so I never it put it back to just Abzan. I just pulled it apart.
Horobi, Death's Wail
I really liked the idea of this deck, but it just didn't do everything I wanted it to do. If Horobi just said "whenever [b]another/b] creature, ..." it would have been fine, but Horobi is just too easy to get rid of.
Kemba, Kha Regent
This was just too linear and more of a glass cannon than I would like. The plan was to suit up Kemba as much as possible but then if Kemba goes away, the game plan falters.
Rubinia Soulsinger
This was a "steal creatures" deck with a minor Planeswalker theme. After playing it a while, it just didn't seem to be as fun as I thought it would. Looking back, I think it was because it wasn't as focused as I would have liked and it lacked red for the most threaten effects. I have recently built Yasova Dragonclaw which is a bit more focused on stealing stuff and I like it much more.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa & Vial Smasher the Fierce
I modified this from a Johan deck which used to be a Teneb, the Harvester deck. It was an Enchantress deck and I could never really get it to where I wanted it to be. Teneb was probably the best iteration of the deck and 4 color was just too spread out where I would find I would have mana issues or I wouldn't quite get the cards I wanted. I think the biggest thing was not having a general that fit the theme in these colors. If Wizards ever comes out with an Abzan Enchantment matters general, I may put that version of the deck back together.
Zedruu the Greathearted
This was supposed to be a griefer deck just to see how it would play and I liked it to start with. However, eventually I realized I wasn't actually playing the game an instead I would just work my hardest to make the game un fun for everyone else. I knew that going into the deck so it wasn't a surprise but I found I really just didn't like the playstyle so I took it apart.
Above isn't an exhaustive list of "disappointing" decks by any means, but it does show that I have built a number of decks that, for one reason or another, just didn't do what I wanted them to do and then dismantled them.
Even though each deck has been built on different synergies and interactions, my best guess is that I just don't like the style of the color pair, or that it doesn't mesh with my group very well. The decks all seem way too strong, even the more casual builds. This is likely because there aren't a lot of counterspells in my group so the interaction with instant and sorcery based decks is relatively low.
Mizzix was probably the most fun because it was cut-throat and not trying to be fair at all.
Current Decks
GTitania midrange
RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal
GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron
U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher
RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect