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've got Wrexial sea monsters tribal, and it works fairly well, but mostly because I think it's got more mana rocks than any other deck I own.
Last time I played it, I powered out T2 Crypt Ghast, T3 Liliana of the Dark Reams, T4 Wrexial (mostly to protect Liliana by blocking the only creature on the board bigger than Crypt Ghast), and T5 Void Winnower. T6 I got Liliana's emblem, transmuted Grozoth for Artisan of Kozilek, cast Artisan, reanimated Grozoth, and filled my hand with 9-drops. Then, for some reason, the player on my left cast Possibility Storm while I still had Void Winnower out...
I mean, sure, it stopped me from resolving my 9-drops, but by that point all my swamps tapped for BBBBB (emblem+ghast), and I had a number of big mana rocks plus Doubling Cube and Voltaic Key; I was perfectly fine casting Nullstone Gargoyle to get a Shipbreaker Kraken, for example. And my opponents couldn't cast even cmc spells, and the odd cmc spells they cast would be thrown into the Possibility Storm, and what they got out might be even cmc, which they wouldn't be able to cast.
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.
This was pretty much the deck I took apart, I wanted to win with Form of the Dragon and pillowfort but ended up with me just untapping and drawing a card each turn instead of actually playing the game.
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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.
Athreos, God of Passage - basically a sac/ping deck with Living End-esq shenanigans in it. Low CMC, too so that I could abuse Immortal Servitude. However, with each opponent having 40 life, Athreos' ability never did much. Scrapped it.
This is the only one that's "disappointed" me. I thought it'd be killer... but it was just "meh".
My current Mogis deck is a bit disappointing if I was worried about wins. It loses a lot, but is the grief is strong with it, so I play it every now and then.
I haven't actually played many commander games, but the few I have I haven't enjoyed fully either, and that was probably due to my lack of knowing how to play commander correctly.
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.
Mayael was my first commander deck I built and played. Even with ramp, to get her engine going took way too long to get out.
I made the deck focus around fatties entering the battlefield ( Cards like, Soul of the Harvest, Paleoloth, Warstorm Surge, and Where Ancients Tread.) I seemed to be a second thought to the whole table. I'd spend a turn playing an enchantment or spinning the Mayael wheel once, then someone would do a board wipe or simple spot removal, and I would be back to square 1.
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 also tried to make a simple mono-blue, big sea creatures, deck, but it was awful to even test play. However, it was surely flavorful! (If only we could get a better leviathan/kraken/octopus tutor than Grozoth...)
Izzet is my favorite color combo, but I know it's difficult to make a long-grindy Izzet colored deck that would work in Commander (and doesn't go straight combo-win). Best bet is to add in a color so you can still play your favorite red/blue spells, but have some kind of stability.
In short, my advice is: don't bet on expensive combos, flavor-only decks are only that, and to make decks more fair to play over broken.
I am fairly new to the commander scene, even if I have been playing Magic for 20 years now. I built a deck with Breya (I had bought all the precons just for the cards to pimp my regular decks), and so far it seems like a letdown. I am trying to add synergy to go along her abilities, while avoiding any infinite shenanigans. The main problem I find is that the cards I use seem a bit meh in general and underpowered (namely token generators such as Thopters and Servos). I tried checking decklists on this site but they are usually quite strong and several use the infinite route to victory. I may dismantle the deck if things don't improve, I guess I will see as time goes by and I get more games under the hood.
Admittedly, the same applies to my regular decks, some of which end up falling by the wayside because I just can't get them to do what I have in mind. Some, on the contrary, are just too powerfull (for example, my token deck featuring Purphoros) and I don't enjoy winning so easily with them, so they are collecting dust.
Took apart a long-standing deck yesterday: Marath, Will of the Wild. Basically, deck idea being 'abuse Marath's abilities for profit, spam as much Elementals as I can, buff them up with any variance of anthems in Naya, beat face'.
The deck worked; it did what it set out to do just fine. Won its' share of games and all that.
Problem is... the deck was the epitome of boring. It had almost zero interactivity outside of occasionally pinging things with Marath or removing a problem permanent. Plop elementals, plop buffs for them, rinse and repeat until either opposition or me dead. I realized the deck was barely more than 'cool elementals.dec' (there are a fair amount of interesting cards featuring elementals), with no plan B or secondary themes. At some point I realized I had not taken the deck out for a game in a long, long time and started pondering 'why?'.
Helps of course that I have another Naya deck that actually is a bit more fun to play, heh.
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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
I always find it difficult to build Voltron decks that I like, but Adamaro was the pinnacle. He did one thing, and even though he did it moderately well, it was not as fun in practice as it was on paper. Playing all the Chrome Moxes and Simian Spirit Guides and Dwarven Ruins just to slam him turn 1, then give him a Rush of Blood or Winter Orb or whatever to end the game before it starts.
Either the opponent does nothing, or they have an answer and I do nothing. Bleh.
Last time I played it, I powered out T2 Crypt Ghast, T3 Liliana of the Dark Reams, T4 Wrexial (mostly to protect Liliana by blocking the only creature on the board bigger than Crypt Ghast), and T5 Void Winnower. T6 I got Liliana's emblem, transmuted Grozoth for Artisan of Kozilek, cast Artisan, reanimated Grozoth, and filled my hand with 9-drops. Then, for some reason, the player on my left cast Possibility Storm while I still had Void Winnower out...
I mean, sure, it stopped me from resolving my 9-drops, but by that point all my swamps tapped for BBBBB (emblem+ghast), and I had a number of big mana rocks plus Doubling Cube and Voltaic Key; I was perfectly fine casting Nullstone Gargoyle to get a Shipbreaker Kraken, for example. And my opponents couldn't cast even cmc spells, and the odd cmc spells they cast would be thrown into the Possibility Storm, and what they got out might be even cmc, which they wouldn't be able to cast.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
This was pretty much the deck I took apart, I wanted to win with Form of the Dragon and pillowfort but ended up with me just untapping and drawing a card each turn instead of actually playing the game.
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.
This is the only one that's "disappointed" me. I thought it'd be killer... but it was just "meh".
My current Mogis deck is a bit disappointing if I was worried about wins. It loses a lot, but is the grief is strong with it, so I play it every now and then.
Mayael was my first commander deck I built and played. Even with ramp, to get her engine going took way too long to get out.
I also tried to make a simple mono-blue, big sea creatures, deck, but it was awful to even test play. However, it was surely flavorful! (If only we could get a better leviathan/kraken/octopus tutor than Grozoth...)
Izzet is my favorite color combo, but I know it's difficult to make a long-grindy Izzet colored deck that would work in Commander (and doesn't go straight combo-win). Best bet is to add in a color so you can still play your favorite red/blue spells, but have some kind of stability.
In short, my advice is: don't bet on expensive combos, flavor-only decks are only that, and to make decks more fair to play over broken.
Admittedly, the same applies to my regular decks, some of which end up falling by the wayside because I just can't get them to do what I have in mind. Some, on the contrary, are just too powerfull (for example, my token deck featuring Purphoros) and I don't enjoy winning so easily with them, so they are collecting dust.
The deck worked; it did what it set out to do just fine. Won its' share of games and all that.
Problem is... the deck was the epitome of boring. It had almost zero interactivity outside of occasionally pinging things with Marath or removing a problem permanent. Plop elementals, plop buffs for them, rinse and repeat until either opposition or me dead. I realized the deck was barely more than 'cool elementals.dec' (there are a fair amount of interesting cards featuring elementals), with no plan B or secondary themes. At some point I realized I had not taken the deck out for a game in a long, long time and started pondering 'why?'.
Helps of course that I have another Naya deck that actually is a bit more fun to play, heh.
I always find it difficult to build Voltron decks that I like, but Adamaro was the pinnacle. He did one thing, and even though he did it moderately well, it was not as fun in practice as it was on paper. Playing all the Chrome Moxes and Simian Spirit Guides and Dwarven Ruins just to slam him turn 1, then give him a Rush of Blood or Winter Orb or whatever to end the game before it starts.
Either the opponent does nothing, or they have an answer and I do nothing. Bleh.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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