How do I downvote a post? I'd like to downvote a post please.
For me I think the most fun of my 90+ decks to play has been Kaervek (Read the thread in my sig if you want the details about HOW it makes things fun). If you don't want to do weird political stuff, though, then my next suggestion would be zirilan.
Phelddagrif is my favorite deck but, if I'm being honest, by the end of most games everyone else is exhausted and wants it to end. 3 hours is a short game for Phelddy.
In my experience commander players are more, uh, casual than those playing other formats. As such they're more likely to hold onto the fallacy that mill is making their deck worse and get mad that you're removing all their favorite cards.
As a result mill is even worse than it already is, in a format with lots of recursion and the inability to piggyback off other players' efforts in the way you might collaboratively kill someone with damage (unless there's another mill player, of course). Plus it's "less fun" since you're milling the cards they wanted to draw (as per the fallacy).
Zedruu can be strong. Can also be a nasty stax build. I don't think my build was fun for my opponents, but there's probably some build that would be. I think her natural strengths are towards staxxy control though.
Build zedruu as a voltron aura build. 1-3 cmc auras that boost power, give evasion, and donate them to your opponents as you bash them in (auras stock even if control changes).
Bonus if you donate bravado to the tokens player (counts the number of creatures the controller has, not owner or controller of the enchanted creature!)
Depends what your group finds "fun" really, but for me personally I like a bit of chaos but not so much that turns end up being long and complex due to too many layers of chaotic enchantments, if that makes sense. So with that in mind..
Forced combat is always interesting, with that in mind..
not sure if any other commanders have that type of effect, possibly, I just know of them.
Diaochan always makes things quite political and stops anyone running away with the game creatures wise, remember any opponent makes a choice, doesn't have to be the one that you just destroyed a creature. Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Its a matter of preference. I currently play 2 izzet decks. One is cEDH and the other is coin flipping.
If you want a fun commander, find one that does multiple things. I mean rafiq is fair, but he is voltron. You want a commander that can play to multiple strategies for the most fun.
I am currently toying around with Xantcha, Sleeper Agent. Basiclly a deck which is designed to gift your opponents a lot of weird stuff so that they have to constantly adapt their tactics.
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Drop your knees to the floor
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
So I have a very optimized Niv deck and while I love him, he wins a lot.
I want to build something that is fun for the table.
Suggestions for a commander or deck that will be fun for the table to play against even if it is not Uber powerful.
Basically I want a commander deck to which to after game one. I don’t want to wear my group out with Niv.
I wonder.. Have you ever seen anyone run an almost creatureless deck?
I have an O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami build that is almost creatureless, with a focus on 5-color enchantment "tribal". You can check it out in my signature and play it yourself.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami presents a huge crack-back risk to anyone who dares attack you, obviously.
So the plan is to make combat as difficult to navigate as possible for your opponents. If that means taxing combat (Propaganda) that's ok, or if every attacker takes some damage (Powerstone Minefield, Lightmine Field) or if each creature has a tax on just being alive to enter combat, through things like Pendrell Mists or Vile Consumption
So what I do is attack into my opponents super aggressively with a 1-man army named O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami and when they dare attack back or kill my things I'll will hose them on the crackback with commander damage or with nastyness like the following:
You could obviously do whatever you want, but the idea was based around wanting 5-color enchantments. All I needed for the longest time was a WUBRG legend to justify having next to no creatures, so it could really go all-in on the enchantments. So O-kagachi is the creature I chose for my 5-color enchantments and I went with a sub-theme that plays into the lore of O-Kagachi a little.. Being that he has destroyed armies single-handedly..
I have a great memory of a game I played 1v1 against a fella playing a very tuned Marchesa, the Black Rose deck and him balking at being dominated by this near-creatureless O-Kagachi deck. My scrapheap casual build is a lot of fun it turns out and can hilariously stall whole armies from attacking me.
I've heard many people complain about why they're getting attacked by a huge army when there's someone else at the table who could have been attacked, who has only 1 creature (me), and I can play a game of poker face and scare away the danger with merely the threat of crackback. It's a glorious social experiment
Essentially, my recommendation for a 'fun' commander is to pick one that scales well with the table and isn't essentially 'solved'.
My most fun decks are Nissa, White Bruna and Glissa. None of the three have a clear and obvious build path (Bruna is closest, but still not solved), so they're fairly hard to actually optimise in the first place, which means having to fill in the chinks in the armor with optimal plays and clever strategies. Whichever commander you go with and whatever build path you choose, you should move forward with that in mind. It should be a bit more enjoyable for your meta, and you might find it pretty rewarding, too.
Personally, I consider Ruric Thar, the Unbowed the most fun commander. He's especially great if you can have him and Possibility Storm in play at the same time.
Many other people are not quite so fond of Thar, sadly.
Maelstrom Wanderer. I've rebuilt mine from scratch 3 times over the years and I've probably played with over 200 different cards in the 99 swapping out and trying different things in it during that time. There are so many possibilities with it, and it's just a really good commander!
Fun is somewhat an overused word and is certainly dependent on local things like the playgroup and your own definition of fun. After a long time playing I realized that "fun" is something that changes a lot and sometimes even depends on your mood. What worked for me is always something that can interact with the table, e.g.
- UB Silumgar theft deck (most of the time you win with cards you got from the table). This scales very well with the other players decks and is therefore not overpowered, hence let's call it "fair". But sometimes it might be a bit frustrating for other players to lose their stuff to you, at least I experienced it. But all the players always enjoyed that the decks plays differently every time.
- a TapOut Bant control list with Jenara. Somewhat like the Azorius Titan lists in Modern. This is interactive for all players and scales quite well in multiplayers settings.
What I play today is a Big creature Stompy with Ghalta (over 40 Fatties), it totally lacks interactions (except for things like Terastodon) and simply plays my old favourite creatures. The fun simply comes from facts like "I remember that card! I got it form a booster 20 years ago!". So it's fun for me and for the table as well because I can tell the younger players stories about how it was quite a few years ago and how everything changed over time. This is certainly a very personal view on what's fun.
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
Fun is somewhat an overused word and is certainly dependent on local things like the playgroup and your own definition of fun. After a long time playing I realized that "fun" is something that changes a lot and sometimes even depends on your mood. What worked for me is always something that can interact with the table, e.g.
- UB Silumgar theft deck (most of the time you win with cards you got from the table). This scales very well with the other players decks and is therefore not overpowered, hence let's call it "fair". But sometimes it might be a bit frustrating for other players to lose their stuff to you, at least I experienced it. But all the players always enjoyed that the decks plays differently every time.
Many people have an irrational and undying hatred of theft effects. Nothing will piss off some people more than you casting Bribery on them or using an effect like Rubinia Soulsinger to grab one of their creatures. I have seen people rage quit over Hostage Taker, of all things. I don't really get it, but I see it all the time, so when choosing to run theft-based decks, keep in mind that doing so might make you enemies just because of what you are running.
Big props for Gishath. No, he's not good in cEDH. That strikes me as a feature, not a bug.
In my opinion, if a big stompy dinosaur deck doesn't have a place at the table, then maybe you should be playing Vintage, Legacy or Modern rather than Commander.
Many people have an irrational and undying hatred of theft effects. Nothing will piss off some people more than you casting Bribery on them or using an effect like Rubinia Soulsinger to grab one of their creatures. I have seen people rage quit over Hostage Taker, of all things. I don't really get it, but I see it all the time, so when choosing to run theft-based decks, keep in mind that doing so might make you enemies just because of what you are running.
It isn't pleasant to see a stranger touching your precious cards. Some people actually use theft decks to steal your cards.
Of course this isn't a concern if you are playing with your friends and scooping over a single theft effect is still overreacting
In my opinion, if a big stompy dinosaur deck doesn't have a place at the table, then maybe you should be playing Vintage, Legacy or Modern rather than Commander.
i <3 you
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
That is actually why my 8 year old son plays Gishath. Loves him some dinos. So, I finally landed on boros. Depala specifically. I love vehicles. The deck is super fair, and definitely not overpowered, and at least Depala gives me some card draw.
The deck is very budget friendly. Especially since I just had most of it laying around. So, yeah, vehicles plus dwarf tribal, and boros. I do love a challenge.
I really enjoy my URG haste deck. It plays some creature theft, clone type cards, bounce and then a hefty amount of flash or haste creatures. Works well when people play a wrath and you follow it up with something hasty.
I currently use Yasova Dragonclaw as the commander though am going to try Maelstrom Wanderer as a way to rebuild after the game goes long and my hand is potentially emptied.
I think fun games can be just having interaction. Have strong creatures and strong removal. You won't race to a win, so everyone gets a chance to play. So maybe avoid creatures that are easily combo-y, or build them in a way that makes them no combo.
I like Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, just but all your fun r/b creatures in there and you never know how each game will go! Fun for the whole family. Alternatively, the most fun I have is building around a commander. It can be a much weaker strategy, but it is fun. My Grenzo has gone through walls, Sherie hidden commander, and Rakdos good stuff and they're all fun.
It is also worth mentioning that not only do I think it's more fun to not play the same game every time, but your opponents will too. So drop tutors.
If you play larger games, then avoid control and tutor heavy decks just so gameplay is faster.
I want to build something that is fun for the table.
Suggestions for a commander or deck that will be fun for the table to play against even if it is not Uber powerful.
Basically I want a commander deck to which to after game one. I don’t want to wear my group out with Niv.
(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'
For me I think the most fun of my 90+ decks to play has been Kaervek (Read the thread in my sig if you want the details about HOW it makes things fun). If you don't want to do weird political stuff, though, then my next suggestion would be zirilan.
Phelddagrif is my favorite deck but, if I'm being honest, by the end of most games everyone else is exhausted and wants it to end. 3 hours is a short game for Phelddy.
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
I have also been looking at Zedruu.
Thoughts on either of those strategies?
The Kaervek idea is interesting.
As a result mill is even worse than it already is, in a format with lots of recursion and the inability to piggyback off other players' efforts in the way you might collaboratively kill someone with damage (unless there's another mill player, of course). Plus it's "less fun" since you're milling the cards they wanted to draw (as per the fallacy).
Zedruu can be strong. Can also be a nasty stax build. I don't think my build was fun for my opponents, but there's probably some build that would be. I think her natural strengths are towards staxxy control though.
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
Bonus if you donate bravado to the tokens player (counts the number of creatures the controller has, not owner or controller of the enchanted creature!)
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Forced combat is always interesting, with that in mind..
Thantis, the warweaver
Basandra, Battle seraph
Fumiko the Lowblood
not sure if any other commanders have that type of effect, possibly, I just know of them.
Diaochan always makes things quite political and stops anyone running away with the game creatures wise, remember any opponent makes a choice, doesn't have to be the one that you just destroyed a creature. Diaochan, Artful Beauty
(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'
If you want a fun commander, find one that does multiple things. I mean rafiq is fair, but he is voltron. You want a commander that can play to multiple strategies for the most fun.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
Personally, I like Mathas, Fiend Seeker, which I built around monarch, mutual discard, force attack, Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, and taxing.
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
I wonder.. Have you ever seen anyone run an almost creatureless deck?
I have an O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami build that is almost creatureless, with a focus on 5-color enchantment "tribal". You can check it out in my signature and play it yourself.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami presents a huge crack-back risk to anyone who dares attack you, obviously.
So the plan is to make combat as difficult to navigate as possible for your opponents. If that means taxing combat (Propaganda) that's ok, or if every attacker takes some damage (Powerstone Minefield, Lightmine Field) or if each creature has a tax on just being alive to enter combat, through things like Pendrell Mists or Vile Consumption
So what I do is attack into my opponents super aggressively with a 1-man army named O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami and when they dare attack back or kill my things I'll will hose them on the crackback with commander damage or with nastyness like the following:
Repercussion + any of the following
Chandra's Ignition + Star of Extinction + Aether Flash Wave of Reckoning
Berserk + Rush of Blood + Onward // Victory + Fatal Frenzy + Insult // Injury
You could obviously do whatever you want, but the idea was based around wanting 5-color enchantments. All I needed for the longest time was a WUBRG legend to justify having next to no creatures, so it could really go all-in on the enchantments. So O-kagachi is the creature I chose for my 5-color enchantments and I went with a sub-theme that plays into the lore of O-Kagachi a little.. Being that he has destroyed armies single-handedly..
I have a great memory of a game I played 1v1 against a fella playing a very tuned Marchesa, the Black Rose deck and him balking at being dominated by this near-creatureless O-Kagachi deck. My scrapheap casual build is a lot of fun it turns out and can hilariously stall whole armies from attacking me.
I've heard many people complain about why they're getting attacked by a huge army when there's someone else at the table who could have been attacked, who has only 1 creature (me), and I can play a game of poker face and scare away the danger with merely the threat of crackback. It's a glorious social experiment
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
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
My most fun decks are Nissa, White Bruna and Glissa. None of the three have a clear and obvious build path (Bruna is closest, but still not solved), so they're fairly hard to actually optimise in the first place, which means having to fill in the chinks in the armor with optimal plays and clever strategies. Whichever commander you go with and whatever build path you choose, you should move forward with that in mind. It should be a bit more enjoyable for your meta, and you might find it pretty rewarding, too.
Many other people are not quite so fond of Thar, sadly.
your own definition of fun. After a long time playing I realized that "fun" is something that changes a lot and sometimes even depends on your mood. What worked for me is always something that can interact with the table, e.g.- UB Silumgar theft deck (most of the time you win with cards you got from the table). This scales very well with the other players decks and is therefore not overpowered, hence let's call it "fair". But sometimes it might be a bit frustrating for other players to lose their stuff to you, at least I experienced it. But all the players always enjoyed that the decks plays differently every time.
- a TapOut Bant control list with Jenara. Somewhat like the Azorius Titan lists in Modern. This is interactive for all players and scales quite well in multiplayers settings.
What I play today is a Big creature Stompy with Ghalta (over 40 Fatties), it totally lacks interactions (except for things like Terastodon) and simply plays my old favourite creatures. The fun simply comes from facts like "I remember that card! I got it form a booster 20 years ago!". So it's fun for me and for the table as well because I can tell the younger players stories about how it was quite a few years ago and how everything changed over time. This is certainly a very personal view on what's fun.
So, what's fun for you?
Ruhan of the Fomori
Many people have an irrational and undying hatred of theft effects. Nothing will piss off some people more than you casting Bribery on them or using an effect like Rubinia Soulsinger to grab one of their creatures. I have seen people rage quit over Hostage Taker, of all things. I don't really get it, but I see it all the time, so when choosing to run theft-based decks, keep in mind that doing so might make you enemies just because of what you are running.
Big props for Gishath. No, he's not good in cEDH. That strikes me as a feature, not a bug.
In my opinion, if a big stompy dinosaur deck doesn't have a place at the table, then maybe you should be playing Vintage, Legacy or Modern rather than Commander.
It isn't pleasant to see a stranger touching your precious cards. Some people actually use theft decks to steal your cards.
Of course this isn't a concern if you are playing with your friends and scooping over a single theft effect is still overreacting
i <3 you
The deck is very budget friendly. Especially since I just had most of it laying around. So, yeah, vehicles plus dwarf tribal, and boros. I do love a challenge.
I currently use Yasova Dragonclaw as the commander though am going to try Maelstrom Wanderer as a way to rebuild after the game goes long and my hand is potentially emptied.
I like Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, just but all your fun r/b creatures in there and you never know how each game will go! Fun for the whole family. Alternatively, the most fun I have is building around a commander. It can be a much weaker strategy, but it is fun. My Grenzo has gone through walls, Sherie hidden commander, and Rakdos good stuff and they're all fun.
It is also worth mentioning that not only do I think it's more fun to not play the same game every time, but your opponents will too. So drop tutors.
If you play larger games, then avoid control and tutor heavy decks just so gameplay is faster.
Modern
URGTemur ScapeshiftGRU
EDH
WGKarametra EnchantressGW
UBGSidisi, Brood Tyrant ReanimatorGBU
UBRKess DoomsdayRBU
WBGGhave TokensGBW
WUBZur RebelsBUW
WUBErtai CursesBUW
WRFiresong and Sunspeaker Spell SlingerRW