I've basically reached the point where I'm hanging onto decks that I don't really want to play.
• Built Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Goal was to make a red-white control deck focusing on Sunforger. It has developed into an indestructible creatures + board wipes deck with a Skullclamp draw package.
• Built Shattergang Brothers
Basically a green-black deck intending to have the Commander always give me access to removal. Ended up with a bit of a reanimator theme and typically won with Necrotic Ooze making infinite mana and then killing with some combination of Feldon activations.
• Built Merieke Ri Berit
Just a random collection of solid cards, clones, etb triggers, and flicker effects. This didn't really have much focus but it was more satisfying to play than the first two decks Merieke was just a solid piece of interaction from the command zone if I ran out of things to do.
• Dismantled Merieke to build Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Merieke was drawing too much ire just for existing. People don't like having their stuff taken when it happens but also don't like worrying about having their stuff taken if I haven't even played her. She was just drawing a disproportionate amount of focus. I liked what the deck seemed to be doing so I moved a bunch of the stuff I liked into Derevi and started playing around with helping people with mana troubles by untapping their lands while maintaining the cloning a bunch of stuff aspect.
• Built Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
I liked that Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Sunforger had the same enablers, so the idea was to put both in a deck and have the best of both worlds. The deck has evolved into a pure reanimator deck, dropping both of them when it became clear that looters in Derevi (originally in Merieke) made that deck run smoother than all my previous decks.
The GB shell was put into Tasigur along with the looter package I learned in Merieke to try to make another fun political deck. I'm not sure what it is about Tasigur, but he's not really all that fun. I got to do Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Reclamation + Kozilek the Great Distortion, but that's really not something that needs to happen again.
• Built Bruse Tarl + Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist
Built first as a jumble of cards, I determined I like Ludevic more as an engine to get the deck setup. This deck was later turned into a low-powered Enchantment deck built around Starfield of Nyx and Wild Research. It's cute, but it feels like a 1-trick pony at this point.
At this point my built decks in order of enjoyment are Derevi, Alesha, Ludevic/Bruse, Tajic and I have Tasigur but I'm basically settled on dismantling him at this point. I want to build a Zur the Enchanter, Samut, Voice of Desent, and Riku of Two Reflections.
I like where Derevi is at presently. Alesha really wants some 2-mana looters but she's otherwise in a comfortable place. Ludevic Bruse is becoming stale, but I like the cardflow shell so I want to rebuild them as an aggro deck that can support other aggro decks. Ludevic in general makes me want to build a deck with Tymna the Weaver but there are a few of those around here so I'm not sure. Maybe Tymna+Bruse or Queen Marchesa to make the Mardu Sunforger deck I wanted to try a while back. Tajic is slow, inconsistent, and actually rather weak compared to the other decks. I do want to have an on purpose weaker deck available, but I think he'll need a lot of work before he's actually fun to play again, but the other option is just dismantling him for parts.
Given Tasigur's dismantling and the decks I want to try building, I'm going from 4 to 7 decks. What makes a deck fun/boring? How many games does a deck stay fun? I feels weird to build a deck and not want to play it after a short number of games when other decks stay enjoyable after many games.
Tajic isn't fun presently because he's super clunky and draw dependent. none of the decks I've built after Shattergang Brothers have had that problem since I tried a large looter package in Mereike which has just made every deck since then find lands when it needs them and ditch dead cards until later. Looters + repeatable recursion seems to be the formula I like for smoothing draws.
I think interaction is also a key part of what has been fun for me. Shattergang was boring because it was almost a goldfish deck. It's possible that my goal being Necrotic Ooze made my attempts to do the thing I wanted end the game. Clones and things like Mimic Vat are fun and give me something to do in the middle of the game that changes every game, so variety/replayability is also important.
Lastly, I had the briefest glimpse of political play with Unbender Tine in Mereike that blossomed into an entire deck with Derevi. I really like being able to help people on a whim, especially when they ended up with bad draws, stuck on lands, or are just playing an underpowered deck compared to the rest of the table. Helping feels nice.
What are your experiences with when and why you dismantle decks vs not?
I have some 20+ EDH decks & they each have a unique theme; I don't really pilfer them for cards to put into other decks. I brew on a deck for a week or two usually. For me there's too much time, inspiration and I'm also usually having a blast going through the brewing process, to dismantle a deck. I go with themes though, I get inspired by random things and memorialize the thoughts by keeping the decks together. It might be possible due to having a massive collection, Idk, I only have this one reality to reference where I've been in love with this game for a good minute and have a ton of cards.
EDIT: I also do Star EDH and Pauper EDH, so not every deck has as much thought or $ put into it. Just a couple weeks ago I 1v1'd a Grand Arbiter Augustin IV pillowfort deck with my Laccolith Whelp Pauper EDH deck and got the kill with about 8 pieces of equipment attached and using Ebony Horse to juke his blocker hehehe, that's too good of a memory to take that deck apart some day.
I am always brewing decks. Currently have 4-5 decks I'm working on.
I believe at the moment I have 12 or 13 decks.
I'm basically making a deck every 3-6 months right now, since I am very busy with work and don't have much time to spend on it. But I work on multiple things at a time.
Most decks I make I really enjoy and keep them, even if I rarely play them. Sometimes I make a deck and find it didn't do what I wanted it to do, so I dismantle it. This usually happens immediately.
The closest I've come to actually dismantling a long-standing deck is my Ruric Thar, the unbowed. It was a big mana green deck splashing red for some effects. I liked the idea of not playing spells and had a lot of synergy, but it was always too slow and too disadvantaged. My opponent one day pointed out to me that Ruric Thar wasn't really contributing much to the deck. I realized the truth - even when I cast him, people just killed him right away. He was less impactful than other fatties. Really not doing anything other than painting a target on me.
After about 2 years of being disappointed in the deck's performance (though happy with the concept), I switched it to Mina and Denn, Wildborn. 75% of the deck stayed the same. Now my deck is faster, and actually more powerful as bouncing Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx with Mina and Denn allows me to nearly triple my mana for a turn.
Otherwise, my decks have slowly changed over time, but I never do anything drastic.
I hold myself at a 6 current deck maximum that way I am playing everything at least a bit, and I am quick to pull things apart well I can be if I a deck or approach is becoming stale.
Usually one. Right now I have a Vela the Night-Clad deck which is most likely going o be my deck that will continue to survive (Having an Altered Vela helps preserve it)
anyway, I take decks apart often and build new ones so yea, I usually have 1 deck that survives the dismantle. (Had 10 at one point and only 3 survived (nin, Arcum and Wort) but they are all gone now)
It always seems to me like any deck I play is missing something. I like playing interactive decks that can affect the board, but I also want to be able to pressure the board with aggro, and those don't always go hand in hand, so sometimes I try aggro, and then I feel like I get blown out of the water by consecutive boardwipes. I'm still looking for that balance, I think my first deck, Kaalia, was a good mix of the two, but again, she would get blown out by a well timed Sleep effect and it was so hard to play in multiplayer.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I know that feeling, but it's hard to really nail down what's missing.
I've only built six myself and only three still exist. One was pretty successful as a token deck, but only with tutors, so I broke it up; it was a pain to keep track of, to be honest. One got hammered and was just too weak; it did what I built it to do, but was just inconsequentially swept aside. The third was a movie theme that just never was really fast or strong enough; that one I did convert to a sixty card fun deck to play when I don't care about winning.
The three I have remaining are different enough that I don't get bored among them given how infrequently I get the chance to play. Zegana wins through sheer card draw and good stuff answers, but still holds to Simic spirit. Xenagos is just fun because it's hydras, but wins consistently because I pound opposition board resources while big hydras pound opposing armies. Jenara is basically the closest thing I have to a voltron stapled to an angel/human tribal. Jenara hasn't won yet, but I've always wanted to play angels, so it's fun anyway. Three is just the right number for me to maintain, too.
It always seems to me like any deck I play is missing something. I like playing interactive decks that can affect the board, but I also want to be able to pressure the board with aggro, and those don't always go hand in hand, so sometimes I try aggro, and then I feel like I get blown out of the water by consecutive boardwipes. I'm still looking for that balance, I think my first deck, Kaalia, was a good mix of the two, but again, she would get blown out by a well timed Sleep effect and it was so hard to play in multiplayer.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I know that feeling, but it's hard to really nail down what's missing.
Equipment. Really badass equipment, the best you can find!
I build/test/play/dismantle at a fairly frightening pace.
The only deck I've built and kept with is my namesake Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck, and even that has gone from tokens to hyper-competitive combo to superfriends back to tokens.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls came apart for being boring and me and my opponent.
Animar came apart for drawing crazy amounts of hate. Same for Karador.
Most of my decks do one thing really well, and the games tend to play out the same after a while. So I get bored and out they go.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
Currently I have 9 decks, in the process of building one of each possible color combination to include rebuilding updated versions of previous decks for the combinations I don't have atm.
However I've built around another 8-10 decks that have been broken apart and probably another 15 on paper that I never got around to building irl. Once I find a deck is no longer fun to play or while building it on paper get the feeling that I'm not going to enjoy playing it for whatever reason (the hate it's going to draw, the mechanic or theme behind the deck not working exactly how I wanted it to, etc.), I take it apart.
The lone exception being my Sliver deck, simply because many of the cards it in I wouldn't use in any other deck but it has been striped of fetch lands and ABUR dual lands.
If the deck is still interesting then I keep it and add to it. If not it gets chopped. I have more chopped decks than standing but at this point I generally have enough staples in each colour that I could pretty easily throw together something in most colour combinations.
A couple on the block at the moment are Rafiq of the Many and Intet, the Dreamer. Both have been fun but Rafiq is very all in and often kills one player and then I get dumped on. Intet doesnt really do much apart from play fattys and is perhaps a bit boring. Alternatively it may be that my newer decks are just more enjoyable for me currently so I end up playing them more.
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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.
For me it all boils down to both how reliably the deck can do what I designed it for, and the level of variance and interactivity within a game.
In the past, I scrapped a Mazerik, Kraul Death Priest deck because it failed in the latter category. I built it as more of a token/sacrifice build initially, with a touch of combo. But the deck had a difficult time creating the token presence it needed, and steadily began inclining toward straight combo until I realized I'd been steadily gutting all the token cards in favor of other choices. It got repetitive and stale. The same is going on with my Feldon of the Third Path, but for the first reason: There are too many moving pieces, and the inherent reliance on my Commander weakens the deck. Either I'll steamroll everyone (very rare), do not much of anything, or some pathetic middle ground where I still get stomped on.
I feel that Commander, as a social game, is at it's best when each player is contributing something to the current events. When someone Fork a fatal Exsanguinate, only to be blown out by another player using Force of Will to counter it before it gets copied? Amusing as all hell, good times had by all.
I have a 3 deck limit for myself.
If I want to make a new deck, I ask myself "do I like the idea of the new deck more than I enjoy what I currently have?"
If no: then I keep my current decks. If yes: then I take apart an old one and build the new one
3 for me is a good number because I can switch when one deck gets a little boring, and it's also not too expensive to maintain 3 tuned decks. (that also helps dissuade transition)
four events of play. thats it. thats all they get.
if after four events, and modifications, it isn't doing what i want it to do, or it just loses a lot, i scrap it. if after one event i'm not having any fun with it. i scrap it.
if after four events i'm having fun with it AND its doing what i want it to do, then i keep it together and keep tuning it.
there are certainly decks i have that i like more than others, but the goal is to make them all enjoyable enough where i could roll a die to pick what to play, have fun, confidently pilot it, and win at least some of the time.
To start off with, I'm going to define terms I use that result in one of my decks becoming disassembled, but to different effect:
decommission/retire: I may keep the list, I may not, but I'm done playing the deck and don't plan on playing it again.
disassemble: The deck is leaving current rotation, probably to make room for a deck entering rotation that needs the cards. But there's a good chance it could be reassembled at some point.
My friends and I choose decks at random with either a die or the player to the right choosing a facedown commander card from several. So because I technically have 9 decks available for play, I don't get to play some of them very often. I'm finally paring down decks and my overall collection (especially duplicates) into a construction collection where everything is always sleeved. Between two and three decks at most will remain built (i.e., in rotation) at any time, mostly because that's the most games I'll get to play in one evening. However, even though I'm going to be physically disassembling decks, I'm keeping most of the lists so that I can reconstitute ones I still like.
What's my criteria for the distinction between the above definitions? Just enjoyment, really. I reflect on if I find myself leaving the deck at home or leaving the commander card out of the random pick. If I'm doing that it's a good sign that I don't want to play the deck for some reason and it probably shouldn't remain together.
There's a number of reasons I've gotten bored with decks, but I believe the main reasons have been:
Tastes Bad - I don't like how the deck approaches its agenda to win. It might be too oppressive and is keeping other players from enjoying the game rather than just making them struggle a bit, or it might be winning with the same splashy spell or combo too often and I get bored. Sometimes if it's this type I can tweak and tune the deck to remove the bad taste.
Autopilot - The deck wins almost on its own and I'm just working the resolution of effects/rules. It crushes the board with predictable lines of play and doesn't need to care about much of the rest of the board state.
I enjoy playing a deck when it can go down half a dozen different paths to victory depending on what's drawn and what your opponents do. A deck build for being flexible, with a variety of answers and wincons, is more enjoyable for me to play if it feels like I'm winning in a slightly different way each time.
Some examples of decks that have fallen into various camps and why, and what I did about it:
Marath:
Naya tokens and +1/+1 counters. There was so much synergy in this deck and redundancies to the important effects that I'd often end up with a huge army rather easily that would crush the table without much in the way of difficult decisions. But it was one of my earliest decks when I was learning. It was fun for a while, and as my playstyle developed and refined I grew bored of it and retired it.
Chainer:
I used to loop Living Death + Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and it ended up being my go-to wincon because of Entomb and especially Buried Alive. I removed some of those pieces. Then the problem was Exsanguinate. More than half the times I played the deck, I won by dumping a bunch of mana into Exsanguinate and killing the rest of the table. It became a crutch, in my opinion, so I took it out. But I still enjoy the resource-race and reanimation and control elements, so I simply keep tweaking the deck toward the version I will enjoy the most, one in which I use more of the deck with more variance.
Tasigur politics/control:
I'd often end up with 30+ mana in the endgame, often thanks to being able to repeatedly fog with Constant Mists and still build lands faster than anybody else. But an endgame comprised entirely of Capsizing 5-6 things on my turn and then on my opponent's turn was really boring and menial to me. The early and mid-game are really fun because I have to make a lot of careful decisions and it's difficult to pilot through those stages. So to have that contrast in the endgame is a downer. Capsize went first, and I'm experimenting with a replacement for Mists. I enjoy this deck, but I may disassemble it anyway because I don't allow myself to play it very often due to how it protracts the length of the game most times.
My single criterion is how consistently it can win or lock out the game on or before turn 4. If a deck isn't capable of doing that, it gets scrapped. I've only taken apart one brew (Ayli Stax) in the past year and converted it into something better. I have two decks and focus on optimizing them instead of building more - card pool dilution is a pitfall I actively try to avoid.
I currently play Mardu and combinations thereof. At present I have all the cards, nonbasics, and even tokens and emblems sleeved up, enough so to make a cube that five people could draft full 99+1 commander decks from. Each game I take my commander, and my 38 piece land suite, and then select a random 61 cards of (in Alesha's case, a 252 card pool) and play that.
So I play the same deck...but the deck is never the same.
I recently completed deck #29. I plan to have a deck in every color identity; I'm only missing 4C nonblack, 4C nongreen, and Bant.
I've completely dismantled two decks: Vorosh, the Hunter infect/proliferate built before Mirrodin Beseiged, when there were no infect cards outside BG, no proliferate cards outside U, and no BUG legend other than Vorosh, was a terribad deck; and Glissa, the Traitor built from what I had lying around in about an hour after receiving an oversized Glissa from the MPR program, also terribad.
I try to choose colors that won't be overlapping too much with other decks I currently own. If the colors do overlap, I try to choose themes that won't overlap. I don't want to spend tons of money on EDH, so I try to stick to cheaper themes and colors I already own some cards for.
Honestly, I wish I only had about 3 decks, since I only play an average of that many. But since some of my decks are collections (for example, why keep a Kamigawa collection when I can put them all in a deck and have a Kamigawa themed deck - cards are to be used AND admired) so I have "Collection Decks" with a strong theme but limited playability I leave at home, and active decks with a little or more of both.
I'd love to take some apart, though. Especially since I rarely use them.
I only have one cutthroat deck, Azami. Been thinking about taking it apart and converting it to something casual as I win and my playgroup just ignores me and continues. It's also a tedious and quick win, fun for no one. So that's one reason to take apart a deck.
I think in the time I've played Commander I've only ever dismantled 2 decks (beyond Commander Precons, since I generally play them unaltered a few times, choose 1 per year to keep together and modify, and dismantle the rest). Only two I've ever dismantled were Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Vorel of the Hull Clade. I have a current stable of around 15 decks, but only 1 is truly "finished" (Rhys, the Redeemed, and only ever "finished" until a new Set comes out, and I analyse for new additions.) Rakdos, Lord of Riots ended up evolving from a Lyzolda, the Blood Witch deck that was really bad, and couldn't stand in multiplayer. Even Rakdos eventually couldn't stand up to my meta no matter how much I changed it, so I just dismantled it and used the pieces for other decks. Vorel of the Hull Clade only became dismantled because I decided Atraxa, Praetor's Voice would work better, so I merged the two decks together.
So, I feel like i'll only ever take a deck apart if it's too bad to ever win a game, or if I find a General that does a similar thing I like better.
I used to disassemble decks either when I tired of them or some new Commander came out that made me want that deck. Now, I have realized that building a deck when the commander was not representative of some character to me (usually from a role-playing game, but sometimes from novels I have written), then the deck could potentially be disassembled whenever a commander that did match that criterion came out.
So I purged most all of my decks. Now the ones that remain do not get taken apart. I am currently on 13 decks extant, with three in the process of being built.
Don't want to brag but I achieved the goal of completing all colors combinations a few months ago, thanks to the Partner Commander I was able to complete the 4-colors combinations.
I'm actually at #49, I switch 3-4 Commander across time, but most have the same commander from the start.
The only challenge is to keep track of all of them...I've completed a spreadsheet when I cross the 25 mark..#, Name, Sleeves, Color, Type, Yr Built
As you can see I accelerate the deck building in the last few yrs...
To make sure they do not gather dust, I lend them to friend and family, they sometimes share ideas and improvements..
See attachments for the list..216 is the total number of deck (all formats)...
• Built Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Goal was to make a red-white control deck focusing on Sunforger. It has developed into an indestructible creatures + board wipes deck with a Skullclamp draw package.
• Built Shattergang Brothers
Basically a green-black deck intending to have the Commander always give me access to removal. Ended up with a bit of a reanimator theme and typically won with Necrotic Ooze making infinite mana and then killing with some combination of Feldon activations.
• Built Merieke Ri Berit
Just a random collection of solid cards, clones, etb triggers, and flicker effects. This didn't really have much focus but it was more satisfying to play than the first two decks Merieke was just a solid piece of interaction from the command zone if I ran out of things to do.
• Dismantled Merieke to build Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Merieke was drawing too much ire just for existing. People don't like having their stuff taken when it happens but also don't like worrying about having their stuff taken if I haven't even played her. She was just drawing a disproportionate amount of focus. I liked what the deck seemed to be doing so I moved a bunch of the stuff I liked into Derevi and started playing around with helping people with mana troubles by untapping their lands while maintaining the cloning a bunch of stuff aspect.
• Built Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
I liked that Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Sunforger had the same enablers, so the idea was to put both in a deck and have the best of both worlds. The deck has evolved into a pure reanimator deck, dropping both of them when it became clear that looters in Derevi (originally in Merieke) made that deck run smoother than all my previous decks.
• Dismantled Shattergang Brothers to build Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Shattergang Brothers was a glass cannon and until going off, it was just a tutor chain. Demonic Tutor for Jarad's Orders for Eternal Witness and Anger to get back Jarad's Orders to get Sidisi and Necrotic Oose to get Feldon and then Feldon Sidisi for Seedborn Muse and Vedalken Orrery and start going off. Just boring.
The GB shell was put into Tasigur along with the looter package I learned in Merieke to try to make another fun political deck. I'm not sure what it is about Tasigur, but he's not really all that fun. I got to do Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Reclamation + Kozilek the Great Distortion, but that's really not something that needs to happen again.
• Built Bruse Tarl + Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist
Built first as a jumble of cards, I determined I like Ludevic more as an engine to get the deck setup. This deck was later turned into a low-powered Enchantment deck built around Starfield of Nyx and Wild Research. It's cute, but it feels like a 1-trick pony at this point.
At this point my built decks in order of enjoyment are Derevi, Alesha, Ludevic/Bruse, Tajic and I have Tasigur but I'm basically settled on dismantling him at this point. I want to build a Zur the Enchanter, Samut, Voice of Desent, and Riku of Two Reflections.
I like where Derevi is at presently. Alesha really wants some 2-mana looters but she's otherwise in a comfortable place. Ludevic Bruse is becoming stale, but I like the cardflow shell so I want to rebuild them as an aggro deck that can support other aggro decks. Ludevic in general makes me want to build a deck with Tymna the Weaver but there are a few of those around here so I'm not sure. Maybe Tymna+Bruse or Queen Marchesa to make the Mardu Sunforger deck I wanted to try a while back. Tajic is slow, inconsistent, and actually rather weak compared to the other decks. I do want to have an on purpose weaker deck available, but I think he'll need a lot of work before he's actually fun to play again, but the other option is just dismantling him for parts.
Given Tasigur's dismantling and the decks I want to try building, I'm going from 4 to 7 decks. What makes a deck fun/boring? How many games does a deck stay fun? I feels weird to build a deck and not want to play it after a short number of games when other decks stay enjoyable after many games.
Tajic isn't fun presently because he's super clunky and draw dependent. none of the decks I've built after Shattergang Brothers have had that problem since I tried a large looter package in Mereike which has just made every deck since then find lands when it needs them and ditch dead cards until later. Looters + repeatable recursion seems to be the formula I like for smoothing draws.
I think interaction is also a key part of what has been fun for me. Shattergang was boring because it was almost a goldfish deck. It's possible that my goal being Necrotic Ooze made my attempts to do the thing I wanted end the game. Clones and things like Mimic Vat are fun and give me something to do in the middle of the game that changes every game, so variety/replayability is also important.
Lastly, I had the briefest glimpse of political play with Unbender Tine in Mereike that blossomed into an entire deck with Derevi. I really like being able to help people on a whim, especially when they ended up with bad draws, stuck on lands, or are just playing an underpowered deck compared to the rest of the table. Helping feels nice.
What are your experiences with when and why you dismantle decks vs not?
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
EDIT: I also do Star EDH and Pauper EDH, so not every deck has as much thought or $ put into it. Just a couple weeks ago I 1v1'd a Grand Arbiter Augustin IV pillowfort deck with my Laccolith Whelp Pauper EDH deck and got the kill with about 8 pieces of equipment attached and using Ebony Horse to juke his blocker hehehe, that's too good of a memory to take that deck apart some day.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/334931-what-is-the-most-pimp-card-deck-youve-seen-or?comment=5361
Commander
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage Grenades! EDHGR
UWSygg's Defense, EDH - Voltron & ControlWU
BUGMimeoplasm EDH ft. Ifnir Cycling-discard comboBUG
WBTeysa, Connoisseur of CullingBW
BWSelenia & Recruiter of the Guard suicice combo EDHWB
UBRWGO-Kagachi - 5 Color Enchantments - EDHUBRWG
I believe at the moment I have 12 or 13 decks.
I'm basically making a deck every 3-6 months right now, since I am very busy with work and don't have much time to spend on it. But I work on multiple things at a time.
Most decks I make I really enjoy and keep them, even if I rarely play them. Sometimes I make a deck and find it didn't do what I wanted it to do, so I dismantle it. This usually happens immediately.
The closest I've come to actually dismantling a long-standing deck is my Ruric Thar, the unbowed. It was a big mana green deck splashing red for some effects. I liked the idea of not playing spells and had a lot of synergy, but it was always too slow and too disadvantaged. My opponent one day pointed out to me that Ruric Thar wasn't really contributing much to the deck. I realized the truth - even when I cast him, people just killed him right away. He was less impactful than other fatties. Really not doing anything other than painting a target on me.
After about 2 years of being disappointed in the deck's performance (though happy with the concept), I switched it to Mina and Denn, Wildborn. 75% of the deck stayed the same. Now my deck is faster, and actually more powerful as bouncing Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx with Mina and Denn allows me to nearly triple my mana for a turn.
Otherwise, my decks have slowly changed over time, but I never do anything drastic.
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
anyway, I take decks apart often and build new ones so yea, I usually have 1 deck that survives the dismantle. (Had 10 at one point and only 3 survived (nin, Arcum and Wort) but they are all gone now)
I just dismantled Mazirek, Kraul Death priest for a superfriends deck.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
I guess what I'm getting at is that I know that feeling, but it's hard to really nail down what's missing.
The three I have remaining are different enough that I don't get bored among them given how infrequently I get the chance to play. Zegana wins through sheer card draw and good stuff answers, but still holds to Simic spirit. Xenagos is just fun because it's hydras, but wins consistently because I pound opposition board resources while big hydras pound opposing armies. Jenara is basically the closest thing I have to a voltron stapled to an angel/human tribal. Jenara hasn't won yet, but I've always wanted to play angels, so it's fun anyway. Three is just the right number for me to maintain, too.
Equipment. Really badass equipment, the best you can find!
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/334931-what-is-the-most-pimp-card-deck-youve-seen-or?comment=5361
Commander
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage Grenades! EDHGR
UWSygg's Defense, EDH - Voltron & ControlWU
BUGMimeoplasm EDH ft. Ifnir Cycling-discard comboBUG
WBTeysa, Connoisseur of CullingBW
BWSelenia & Recruiter of the Guard suicice combo EDHWB
UBRWGO-Kagachi - 5 Color Enchantments - EDHUBRWG
The only deck I've built and kept with is my namesake Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck, and even that has gone from tokens to hyper-competitive combo to superfriends back to tokens.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls came apart for being boring and me and my opponent.
Animar came apart for drawing crazy amounts of hate. Same for Karador.
Most of my decks do one thing really well, and the games tend to play out the same after a while. So I get bored and out they go.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
However I've built around another 8-10 decks that have been broken apart and probably another 15 on paper that I never got around to building irl. Once I find a deck is no longer fun to play or while building it on paper get the feeling that I'm not going to enjoy playing it for whatever reason (the hate it's going to draw, the mechanic or theme behind the deck not working exactly how I wanted it to, etc.), I take it apart.
The lone exception being my Sliver deck, simply because many of the cards it in I wouldn't use in any other deck but it has been striped of fetch lands and ABUR dual lands.
Building: Varina
A couple on the block at the moment are Rafiq of the Many and Intet, the Dreamer. Both have been fun but Rafiq is very all in and often kills one player and then I get dumped on. Intet doesnt really do much apart from play fattys and is perhaps a bit boring. Alternatively it may be that my newer decks are just more enjoyable for me currently so I end up playing them more.
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.
In the past, I scrapped a Mazerik, Kraul Death Priest deck because it failed in the latter category. I built it as more of a token/sacrifice build initially, with a touch of combo. But the deck had a difficult time creating the token presence it needed, and steadily began inclining toward straight combo until I realized I'd been steadily gutting all the token cards in favor of other choices. It got repetitive and stale. The same is going on with my Feldon of the Third Path, but for the first reason: There are too many moving pieces, and the inherent reliance on my Commander weakens the deck. Either I'll steamroll everyone (very rare), do not much of anything, or some pathetic middle ground where I still get stomped on.
I feel that Commander, as a social game, is at it's best when each player is contributing something to the current events. When someone Fork a fatal Exsanguinate, only to be blown out by another player using Force of Will to counter it before it gets copied? Amusing as all hell, good times had by all.
If I want to make a new deck, I ask myself "do I like the idea of the new deck more than I enjoy what I currently have?"
If no: then I keep my current decks. If yes: then I take apart an old one and build the new one
3 for me is a good number because I can switch when one deck gets a little boring, and it's also not too expensive to maintain 3 tuned decks. (that also helps dissuade transition)
BGGRock
Modern
BRGJund
BBGRock
if after four events, and modifications, it isn't doing what i want it to do, or it just loses a lot, i scrap it. if after one event i'm not having any fun with it. i scrap it.
if after four events i'm having fun with it AND its doing what i want it to do, then i keep it together and keep tuning it.
there are certainly decks i have that i like more than others, but the goal is to make them all enjoyable enough where i could roll a die to pick what to play, have fun, confidently pilot it, and win at least some of the time.
What's my criteria for the distinction between the above definitions? Just enjoyment, really. I reflect on if I find myself leaving the deck at home or leaving the commander card out of the random pick. If I'm doing that it's a good sign that I don't want to play the deck for some reason and it probably shouldn't remain together.
There's a number of reasons I've gotten bored with decks, but I believe the main reasons have been:
Some examples of decks that have fallen into various camps and why, and what I did about it:
Marath:
Naya tokens and +1/+1 counters. There was so much synergy in this deck and redundancies to the important effects that I'd often end up with a huge army rather easily that would crush the table without much in the way of difficult decisions. But it was one of my earliest decks when I was learning. It was fun for a while, and as my playstyle developed and refined I grew bored of it and retired it.
Chainer:
I used to loop Living Death + Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and it ended up being my go-to wincon because of Entomb and especially Buried Alive. I removed some of those pieces. Then the problem was Exsanguinate. More than half the times I played the deck, I won by dumping a bunch of mana into Exsanguinate and killing the rest of the table. It became a crutch, in my opinion, so I took it out. But I still enjoy the resource-race and reanimation and control elements, so I simply keep tweaking the deck toward the version I will enjoy the most, one in which I use more of the deck with more variance.
Tasigur politics/control:
I'd often end up with 30+ mana in the endgame, often thanks to being able to repeatedly fog with Constant Mists and still build lands faster than anybody else. But an endgame comprised entirely of Capsizing 5-6 things on my turn and then on my opponent's turn was really boring and menial to me. The early and mid-game are really fun because I have to make a lot of careful decisions and it's difficult to pilot through those stages. So to have that contrast in the endgame is a downer. Capsize went first, and I'm experimenting with a replacement for Mists. I enjoy this deck, but I may disassemble it anyway because I don't allow myself to play it very often due to how it protracts the length of the game most times.
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Check out my competitive Ezuri, Claw of Progress primer!
I currently play Mardu and combinations thereof. At present I have all the cards, nonbasics, and even tokens and emblems sleeved up, enough so to make a cube that five people could draft full 99+1 commander decks from. Each game I take my commander, and my 38 piece land suite, and then select a random 61 cards of (in Alesha's case, a 252 card pool) and play that.
So I play the same deck...but the deck is never the same.
For reference: Alesha Cube
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
I've completely dismantled two decks: Vorosh, the Hunter infect/proliferate built before Mirrodin Beseiged, when there were no infect cards outside BG, no proliferate cards outside U, and no BUG legend other than Vorosh, was a terribad deck; and Glissa, the Traitor built from what I had lying around in about an hour after receiving an oversized Glissa from the MPR program, also terribad.
I've transformed two decks into something else without completely dismantling them: Zedruu the Greathearted became Narset, Enlightened Master pillowfort when Narset came out; the manabase and some of the utility stuff remained the same (Zedruu had had a Sunforger package); and Damia, Sage of Stone morph tribal became Leovold, Emissary of Trest (~12 cards changed from Damia) when he was released, which was changed to Thrasios, Triton Hero+Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper (~25 cards changed from Leovold) Flash Hulk combo to spite the ban changes.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Artifact value/combo.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - Sultai zombie reanimator.
I'd love to take some apart, though. Especially since I rarely use them.
I only have one cutthroat deck, Azami. Been thinking about taking it apart and converting it to something casual as I win and my playgroup just ignores me and continues. It's also a tedious and quick win, fun for no one. So that's one reason to take apart a deck.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
So, I feel like i'll only ever take a deck apart if it's too bad to ever win a game, or if I find a General that does a similar thing I like better.
Legacy - GW Enchantress
Modern - U Urzatron (In construction)
Multiplayer - B ZOMBIES
Casual - B Suicide Black
Casual - WURx Krark-Clan Ironworks
Pauper - URBx Affinity
Pauper - B Pestilence
Pauper - W Steel Soldiers
EDH - W Isamaru, Hound of Konda 1V1
EDH - GRB Kresh the Bloodbraided
EDH - GW Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
EDH - UR Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
EDH - RB Lyzolda, The Blood Witch
EDH - UW Bruna, Light of Alabaster (Reworking)
EDH - UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
EDH - UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
EDH - WUG Phelddagrif
EDH - BGR Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Pauper EDH - G Garruk's Packleader
Pauper EDH - RG Bloodbraid Elf
CUBE:
500 Peasant Cube (52% Foil) Cube Tutor Page
So I purged most all of my decks. Now the ones that remain do not get taken apart. I am currently on 13 decks extant, with three in the process of being built.
Of those, two of them are my "pimp" decks. Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis Enchantress and Zur the Enchanter control.
I'm actually at #49, I switch 3-4 Commander across time, but most have the same commander from the start.
The only challenge is to keep track of all of them...I've completed a spreadsheet when I cross the 25 mark..#, Name, Sleeves, Color, Type, Yr Built
As you can see I accelerate the deck building in the last few yrs...
To make sure they do not gather dust, I lend them to friend and family, they sometimes share ideas and improvements..
See attachments for the list..216 is the total number of deck (all formats)...