I run between 6 and 12 decks at any given time, but overall I've probably made more than 30 commander decks.
Not really, I've had a store group that is not fixed, and groups of friends that eventually stop meeting up over the years. Right now I have a sort of stable group but they have one deck each and the power level is very out of balance.
For the first few years of edh, pretty substantial. Lately? Almost no variance. Broken cards are stronger than general synergy, so the list rarely changes.
It sounds like we have a similar enough experience to compare notes.
~14-15 decks currently, Built/co-built a ton more for friends and ended up retiring ~10 of my own decks along the way to get where I am.
As others have mentioned, unfortunately, the nature of the game is such that stronger cards or functional reprints of worthwhile ones (ex. Cultivate and Kodama's Reach) need to occur to incentivize people purchasing the new products. Sometimes people chase new arts, foils, promos, alt. languages, etc. But the act itself of "Upgrading" one's deck, whether it's strictly on a power level basis or for the sake of a theme, it's a completely natural part of the game and the deckbuilding process.
Some people happen to have more disposable income than others and it allows them to circumnavigate the trials of saving up, trading, cracking, etc. It's unfortunate when it allows for a larger power jump than a playgroup is ready for, because the arms race often follows.
I won't claim to know what the financial circumstances are like for you or those around in your current group, but I'd like to try to recommend a few things.
Try to get the group to be on board with a different deck idea with a budget of $30-50 ($100 if everyone's down) and see what they say. Obviously exclude foil costs if people have them and cut the cost for basic lands out entirely.
Try to get your LGS to run a Commander League with points. They often have merits/demerits for playing fast mana early, knocking people out before a certain turn, looping a combo more than a few times in a turn, etc.
Maybe offer up one of your other decks for them to run instead of the one they have. They might be curious about running a different archetype (ex. Voltron, tribal, lifegain, etc.), but lack the funds or card collection to make one they think would have a shot in the current meta there. This goes back to the TL;DR I mentioned - Budget, CMC average, No cards over a certain CMC in deck, Color restrictions, Less popular theme, Play bigger games with more people and opportunity for interaction, etc. Get them to give something like that a shot?
Try a game type variant. Planechase, Star Magic, Cowboy/Bang, King (whatever you want to call it), something.
Rules
The game needs 5-7 people total.
Cards to denote the given roles are sleeved and shuffled face down and picked at random.
Plains = Sheriff/King (There's only ever 1)
Island = Deputy (starts at quantity 1 and then gets another at odd player intervals - 5, 7, 9, etc.)
Swamp = Outlaw/Assassin
Mountain = Renegade/Usurper (There's only ever 1)
The Sheriff is the only role to be revealed at the start of the game.
Sheriff starts with 20 life + 10 for each other player. Everyone else is at 40.
Sheriff goes first (and draws)
If anyone kills an outlaw, they get to draw 3 cards as a bounty.
If the Sheriff kills their Deputy, they discard their hand.
The Renegade often plays the fence.
Everyone is trying to convince the Sheriff that they are the Deputy, until they aren't.
Win conditions:
Sheriff and Deputy(s) win when the Outlaws and the Renegade are dead.
Outlaws win when the Sheriff dies.
Renegade wins when they and the Sheriff are the last 2 standing and the Sheriff dies.
**Alternate win conditions don't function at all**
It adds a very political element to the game, and it helps muddy the waters for power levels.
The King variant just has the Usurper take the King's place as King if they manage to kill them.
We play the Bang variant probably 75% of the time with the other 25% being a mix of free-for-all and 2-headed giant.
I suggest these things because I have had to do the same at the request of my play group. I have some 8-9's in my collection that positively go nuts, but I only break them out every once in a while, because of how degenerate they can get. Maybe get a couple lower power games in before breaking out the haymakers for a quick game at the end of the night?
I really, really like option 3 and have used it to great effect. I've actually taken it a step further in the past, where each member of the playgroup builds enough decks for each other member to use, and builds them the way they like. Then each night the group uses a different members decks. The member that built them explains the concept of each deck and everyone gets a chance to look through the deck they get to familiarize themselves with it before playing. The only rule is that each deck built by the same member should be around the same power level as the others, so they are evenly matched. Once you don't have to worry about the arms race, you feel comfortable building wonkier decks with sub optimal choices, because you can ensure its going up against decks built the same way. Some players will build a set of 75% decks of different archetypes, some will build upgraded precons, some will build theme decks, some tribal, some a mix, some will build niche archetypes, some will build a battlecruiser meta, some will build a cut throat meta, some will build an intentionally jank meta. Everyone gets a chance at their preferred meta having it's day in the sun, and the card and deck variety goes way up. The downside is you need a consistent playgroup, and most of the players need some disposable income (though slightly upgraded precons, intentionally jank, and battlecruiser metas can be built on the cheap).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Chronic misanthropic contrarian yells at cloud, the thread, part 27: "knowing how to build decks ruins the game" edition.
Indeed. I feel like this thread should be exhibit A on adding downvotes to the forum.
The forums has an ignore function if you care, I have had onering on it for years.
This is pretty funny. Until the post describing this thread, I haven't done anything to this guy. I've disagreed with him, but that probably describes 90% of this forum. I think that about sums him up.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Chronic misanthropic contrarian yells at cloud, the thread, part 27: "knowing how to build decks ruins the game" edition.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I really, really like option 3 and have used it to great effect. I've actually taken it a step further in the past, where each member of the playgroup builds enough decks for each other member to use, and builds them the way they like. Then each night the group uses a different members decks. The member that built them explains the concept of each deck and everyone gets a chance to look through the deck they get to familiarize themselves with it before playing. The only rule is that each deck built by the same member should be around the same power level as the others, so they are evenly matched. Once you don't have to worry about the arms race, you feel comfortable building wonkier decks with sub optimal choices, because you can ensure its going up against decks built the same way. Some players will build a set of 75% decks of different archetypes, some will build upgraded precons, some will build theme decks, some tribal, some a mix, some will build niche archetypes, some will build a battlecruiser meta, some will build a cut throat meta, some will build an intentionally jank meta. Everyone gets a chance at their preferred meta having it's day in the sun, and the card and deck variety goes way up. The downside is you need a consistent playgroup, and most of the players need some disposable income (though slightly upgraded precons, intentionally jank, and battlecruiser metas can be built on the cheap).
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
This is pretty funny. Until the post describing this thread, I haven't done anything to this guy. I've disagreed with him, but that probably describes 90% of this forum. I think that about sums him up.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!