It's predictable, slow, and fragile. Either you fail to protect your commander and it dies and your plan sucks, or you protect it well and then you have to survive being the main threat at the table for multiple turns while you kill everyone. Which either means you can't deal with it and you die, or you can deal with it and you just sit there and wait to see what the table can do for multiple turns while you turn your dude sideways. It's either ineffective or it's boring.
I'm also kind of over any deck that has a harsh on/off mode. Best example is shirei, shizo's caretaker. When it's on (shirei lives and you have value pieces in place), everyone else loses their hands almost immediately and you draw a million cards and wipe their boards and you're in total control of the game. And when it's off, it does essentially nothing.
Also decks that involve a lot of dorking around, performing actions (usually drawing, scrying, etc which all require thinking about) without moving towards a win. My Melek build falls into this camp.
Stuff with counters, generically, is kind of annoying to keep track of everything. I stopped including storage lands unless they're REALLY good in my decks for that reason.
Oh, and most things tribal or type-synergy based like goblins, enchantress, etc. They're too straightforward to build and have generally been done to death. I prefer builds where I have more room for ingenuity.
Voltron. Regardless of whether it's effective or not (and often they are glass cannons), having a singular path to victory is the epitome of boring to me.
Tribal goodstuff. You can build tribal and not just cram things of that tribe into a build.
Stuff I'm sick of playing against:
Superfriends. Not because it's good. Some of them are, I just see so much of it.
Yeah, I will be happy if I never see another dredge deck, ever. Yes, it's powerful, but a) we've all seen it, so b) watching it play out is really boring.
I have not yet seen a superfriends build that was interesting to play against.
I'm over playing defensive decks, with tons of answers and few explosive plays. Everything I make at the moment is super aggressive. Being aggressive generally sucks in a multiplayer format, but I've played far too long to care about making "the best decks" and prefer to smash people in the face.
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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
lands. its like watching dredge, except it takes longer, locks the game down, and ekes out the win after everyone else has natural milled themselves.
Ux control. i think its something to do with the playgroup; they're not very good at threat assessment, and it makes controlling the game a tad too easy. and then the win itself is a huge drag.
tribal (slivers, elementals, treefolk, rebels, lords). it gets really samey quick. especially slivers and rebels, since they naturally lead to tutors, which makes it even more repetitive after a while.
inexperienced oloro players almost always fall into this camp. where they aren't aiming to combo, or even to win, just to gain a ton of life because life gain wins? somehow? most commonly they don't play anything that could ever end the game outside of swinging with a trinket mage. then they lose because they've run out of steam, or they ***** about how the game is taking too long the entire time.
bad control
i see a lot of these. inexperienced players that think counterspells are unbeatable so they build their own deck. it does nothing outside of counterspell the wrong targets, then loses to aggro or combo. generally followed with much griping.
all in aggro
a good example of these are bad slivers players who think volume is better than quality. they dump every single sliver they can onto the field, then lose to a single board wipe. then they complain when you go off or smash their face in.
oh, i guess none of those are really archetypes... but they should be.
Chaos decks. Can't really control them, chaos just leads to being unable to make choices that matter. Really, the worst kind of magic.
Voltron was the scourge of my friend group for a long time. Thankfully it died down after the group started jamming edicts, exile wraths, bane of progress, cyclonic rift.
I'm not allowed to build doomsday combo decks anymore because I always build my piles for style points then forget to stack them right and accidentally kill myself. Done with that life.
Sure, there is a chance of spending $4 on a booster and getting the Mythic Rare $30 super card. There is also a chance of surviving putting your tongue in a light socket.
It came to a point where i could call out most plays in a row.
I know the decks ppl are playing, i knew what they're aiming for, i knew the most likely card they would play at a certain manacost.
EDH became stale, but mostly the people themselves got dull, the people i really conencted with left or didn't come to EDH nights.
I took a break from EDH for almost year or so.
But if i would say a certain type... Voltron i guess?
My Kozilek deck is almost like a Voltron deck, but it usually uses kozilek to keep drawing action.
I like the blend.
But... otherwise it would be just goodstuff decks.
Its funny and maybe a bit of elitism thrown into it, but when people are excited and are talking about their staples i just shrug. I know, i've heard the same topics far many too times.
Group Hug. I ran it years ago and thought it was funny. Now I actively target anyone playing group hug because I realize how much it unbalances the game.
Also, chaos decks because it makes planning ahead impossible.
And enchantress. I just got rid of my Serra's Sanctum when it spiked because I realized I never wanted to build such a non-interactive deck again.
Extra turns solitaire because I hate playing against it.
Stax because it just makes the game miserable for everyone.
Tired of any deck that retrieve and recur cards/effects indefinitely, combos involving Deadeye Navigator is one prime example, and people abusing Aminatou’s second ability while ignoring her 1st and 3rd is also annoying.
I like commanders without straightforward design, in other words I avoid commanders who can only be built one way. However, anything as ridiculous as Atraxa is also ignored.
I like wacky decks with synergy, so I’m tired of decks that play too safely or filled with good stuff.
U/x hard control for me. I've tried to build it several different times, but it's not my thing. Even if I don't double down super hard on the control aspect, I don't really enjoy being the reactive player. I do like having the option to do so (like with Marath), but I also need the ability to be the active player if I so choose.
Control and Pillowfort, really. Made a few of them over the journey, they seemed like a good idea in my mind but in live gameplay they were extremely boring. I did the opposite with an Isperia Supreme Judge deck and encouraged people to attack me, and the game was fun again.
I'm tired of playing in matchups where people are essentially goldfishing or otherwise have very little or inflexible removal. Threats or strategies that require extremely specific answers / interaction. Rhystic Study. Mismatches in general.
From the building perspective, I did not enjoy Shattergang Brothers or Mereike and I think I just generally want to avoid commanders that come with built-in removal or are otherwise a huge threat on their own because I actually want to play my cards without getting painted as a target. Instead I've grown extremely fond of commanders that are either resource-generators or that otherwise mitigate variance. Tajic stops a percentage of ambient damage. Ludevic draws cards in a non-threatening way (compared to Tymna or Edric). Derevi makes mana. Queen Marchesa comes with a resource-generating mechanic.
An idea on my back burner is mono-white Ephara since she provides all the card draw you need to get going. Alternatively, monoblue Ephara could also be interesting as a creature-heavy build in a color known for its spells.
I built Baral because I was tired of nonland permanents being the foundation of my decks. I suppose it would be safe to say, the only archetype I wasn't tired of was spellslinger.
Any variant of Stax or Voltron. Either I succeed and the game is over with zero interaction, or the more likely case, I fumble around and do nothing all game. There's very little nuance involved, particularly in Voltron.
That said, having stax element or the option to win a commander damage victory because the deck leans towards the red zone... yeah, those work. Just won't make a dedicated deck for either.
Hard control, a bit similarly. I am just not a player that enjoys any kind of draw-go. Nothing wrong with the archetype itself, just proven time and again that whenever I attempt it, it doesn't work.
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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
Whenever I build a new deck, I go in pretty deep. I typically build with the intent of the keeping the deck together for years and maintaining/tuning it over time. The last two decks that I have built are control decks. Each have distinct strategies and tactics, but heavy in interaction and not looking to ramp/play threats. I haven't played a creature deck since Edric was first spoiled in the OG commander decks. I just cannot find it in me to feature creatures at all.
Before building the two decks I currently use (GAAIV and Hanna), I played Child of Alara Lands.dec for a few years pretty much exclusively. Like some of you, I also dislike super friends as an archetype. For a long time, removal for planeswalkers just didn't exist so I built a deck around Child of Alara. In the process of destroying the gatewatch, I traumatized too many creature decks.
I guess that is also one reason why I have stayed away from building EDH decks with Commander set generals. Despite the power-creep of creatures, it's still my least favorite type. I've just seen too many games where a player is burned by relying on creatures (even a general that can keep coming back).
For me, there are three:
Elves
Artifacts
+1/+1 counters
Mostly due to having decks that do these things for so long, I don't really feel like I want to lay them again.
I had Ezuri/Rishkar, Ghave and Zegana, Daretti/Breya
It's predictable, slow, and fragile. Either you fail to protect your commander and it dies and your plan sucks, or you protect it well and then you have to survive being the main threat at the table for multiple turns while you kill everyone. Which either means you can't deal with it and you die, or you can deal with it and you just sit there and wait to see what the table can do for multiple turns while you turn your dude sideways. It's either ineffective or it's boring.
I'm also kind of over any deck that has a harsh on/off mode. Best example is shirei, shizo's caretaker. When it's on (shirei lives and you have value pieces in place), everyone else loses their hands almost immediately and you draw a million cards and wipe their boards and you're in total control of the game. And when it's off, it does essentially nothing.
Also decks that involve a lot of dorking around, performing actions (usually drawing, scrying, etc which all require thinking about) without moving towards a win. My Melek build falls into this camp.
Stuff with counters, generically, is kind of annoying to keep track of everything. I stopped including storage lands unless they're REALLY good in my decks for that reason.
Oh, and most things tribal or type-synergy based like goblins, enchantress, etc. They're too straightforward to build and have generally been done to death. I prefer builds where I have more room for ingenuity.
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
Voltron. Regardless of whether it's effective or not (and often they are glass cannons), having a singular path to victory is the epitome of boring to me.
Tribal goodstuff. You can build tribal and not just cram things of that tribe into a build.
Stuff I'm sick of playing against:
Superfriends. Not because it's good. Some of them are, I just see so much of it.
Enchantress. I'm sure it'll wear off.
Dredge. It's like watching paint dry.
I have not yet seen a superfriends build that was interesting to play against.
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
(Also known as Xenphire)
Ux control. i think its something to do with the playgroup; they're not very good at threat assessment, and it makes controlling the game a tad too easy. and then the win itself is a huge drag.
tribal (slivers, elementals, treefolk, rebels, lords). it gets really samey quick. especially slivers and rebels, since they naturally lead to tutors, which makes it even more repetitive after a while.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
inexperienced oloro players almost always fall into this camp. where they aren't aiming to combo, or even to win, just to gain a ton of life because life gain wins? somehow? most commonly they don't play anything that could ever end the game outside of swinging with a trinket mage. then they lose because they've run out of steam, or they ***** about how the game is taking too long the entire time.
bad control
i see a lot of these. inexperienced players that think counterspells are unbeatable so they build their own deck. it does nothing outside of counterspell the wrong targets, then loses to aggro or combo. generally followed with much griping.
all in aggro
a good example of these are bad slivers players who think volume is better than quality. they dump every single sliver they can onto the field, then lose to a single board wipe. then they complain when you go off or smash their face in.
oh, i guess none of those are really archetypes... but they should be.
Voltron was the scourge of my friend group for a long time. Thankfully it died down after the group started jamming edicts, exile wraths, bane of progress, cyclonic rift.
I'm not allowed to build doomsday combo decks anymore because I always build my piles for style points then forget to stack them right and accidentally kill myself. Done with that life.
It came to a point where i could call out most plays in a row.
I know the decks ppl are playing, i knew what they're aiming for, i knew the most likely card they would play at a certain manacost.
EDH became stale, but mostly the people themselves got dull, the people i really conencted with left or didn't come to EDH nights.
I took a break from EDH for almost year or so.
But if i would say a certain type... Voltron i guess?
My Kozilek deck is almost like a Voltron deck, but it usually uses kozilek to keep drawing action.
I like the blend.
But... otherwise it would be just goodstuff decks.
Its funny and maybe a bit of elitism thrown into it, but when people are excited and are talking about their staples i just shrug. I know, i've heard the same topics far many too times.
Who needs Colours?
My most played EDH deck:
X Kozilek, the Great Distortion
UBR Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Also, chaos decks because it makes planning ahead impossible.
And enchantress. I just got rid of my Serra's Sanctum when it spiked because I realized I never wanted to build such a non-interactive deck again.
Extra turns solitaire because I hate playing against it.
Stax because it just makes the game miserable for everyone.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
I like commanders without straightforward design, in other words I avoid commanders who can only be built one way. However, anything as ridiculous as Atraxa is also ignored.
I like wacky decks with synergy, so I’m tired of decks that play too safely or filled with good stuff.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
From the building perspective, I did not enjoy Shattergang Brothers or Mereike and I think I just generally want to avoid commanders that come with built-in removal or are otherwise a huge threat on their own because I actually want to play my cards without getting painted as a target. Instead I've grown extremely fond of commanders that are either resource-generators or that otherwise mitigate variance. Tajic stops a percentage of ambient damage. Ludevic draws cards in a non-threatening way (compared to Tymna or Edric). Derevi makes mana. Queen Marchesa comes with a resource-generating mechanic.
An idea on my back burner is mono-white Ephara since she provides all the card draw you need to get going. Alternatively, monoblue Ephara could also be interesting as a creature-heavy build in a color known for its spells.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Bruse Tarl & Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Mayael the Anima
Same goes for Meren of Clan Nel Toth.
Bruse Tarl & Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Mayael the Anima
That said, having stax element or the option to win a commander damage victory because the deck leans towards the red zone... yeah, those work. Just won't make a dedicated deck for either.
Hard control, a bit similarly. I am just not a player that enjoys any kind of draw-go. Nothing wrong with the archetype itself, just proven time and again that whenever I attempt it, it doesn't work.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Before building the two decks I currently use (GAAIV and Hanna), I played Child of Alara Lands.dec for a few years pretty much exclusively. Like some of you, I also dislike super friends as an archetype. For a long time, removal for planeswalkers just didn't exist so I built a deck around Child of Alara. In the process of destroying the gatewatch, I traumatized too many creature decks.
I guess that is also one reason why I have stayed away from building EDH decks with Commander set generals. Despite the power-creep of creatures, it's still my least favorite type. I've just seen too many games where a player is burned by relying on creatures (even a general that can keep coming back).
Many of the commander set generals are this way. Since many of them pushed in power level in very obvious directions.