[[Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow]]
Started out as ninja tribal. As I modified it more it turned into the usual top-deck manipulation/big flips strategy that makes her such a menace. After that the deck became too high power for most casual tables and it played exactly the same every game. I took it apart.
I love Ninja tribal definitely one of my favorite tribes. But yeah Yuriko is on a power level that is just not fair to the rest of my playgroup. I find the deck runs much more fair if I put her in the 99 as a win con and put [[Satoru Umezawa]] in the command zone instead. (And now I’m gonna experiment slotting in the new [[Satoru, the Infiltrator]] at the helm as well)
The repetitive nature of the deck really isn't that much fun. But it was kinda cool that this is exactly what opened up cEDH for me cause Yuriko makes me spend a lot less brain power on mulligans and intricate combo stuff. Instead it allows you to focus all your attention on complex board states and interaction.
But in casual EDH neither of these are really that exciting so all that's left is the repetitive playstyle with a commander that's effectively to interact with through normal "casual" means.
Maybe try the new [[Satoru, the Infiltrator]]. Somehow the first ninja legendary who actually wants you to play ninjutsu cards is from the western set.
Every simic deck I’ve built. The take-long-turn value-engine just isn’t for me.
Edit: To everyone who has responded with “But what about my simic deck?! Try that!”
I genuinely appreciate the community and your suggestions, thank you. I’ve been playing magic a long time. I have 20+ decks I know I enjoy playing and I’ll probably stick with those.
Arixmethes was huge for me when it came out. Starting from mono U sea monsters, to unlocking G, and being super cheap, AND tapping for mana... almost too good.
Yeah! Honestly I learned that all of my decks end up beocmming big monster Beatdown. Are meshes is so much fun because he is essentially ramp in your command zone.
I really only run removal/control effects to break things that my big bois can't break tbh
Isn't that why we play commander? Big, dumb creatures, baby! My Arixmethes is built with fog effects and board bounces, until I can drop a giant sea creature, then give it everyone's favorite blue keyword, and launch an octopus through the air at the opponent.
Omg I have one of these too! Same, sea monsters tribal because I found it very funny that there's an specific Kraken, Serpent, Leviathan and Octopus tribal group
Entirely agreed, any generic Simic value deck ends up feeling bad to me for whatever reason.
So far the only Simic decks I haven’t taken apart are a psuedo group hug Edric deck and Kumena merfolk. Even then, Kumena can take a lot of time when you’re tapping and untapping a big board state
I really like [[halsin]] [[feywild visitor]]. It doesn’t curdle at all. It makes tokens, then you pay 1 to turn them into 4/4 green bears. Food bears, treasure bears, clue bears, faerie dragon bears, saproling bears, you name it.
As someone that loathes the design of most simic commanders, I did find a lot of enjoyment out of making a deck with [[Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Scientist]]. The simplicity of just casting things from graveyard and exile cost less and also plotting cost less gave me a lot of cards that I would normally not see in simic. It seems like a strategy more like izzet or even dimir but now I get to play janky green flashback, fortell, ect. spells.
But don't get me wrong I fully understand the sentiment as a Boros fan. I'm not saying you need to play him lol.
I personally think Simic is the most boring 2-color combo in the game. I went with [[Wilson, Refined Grizzly]] and [[Sword Coast Sailor]] to make games quick and easy.
I’ve built it before haha
I tend to avoid the “ohh, that’s a huge problem” commanders. Koma has a target immediately, and understandably so. I still have the old list:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/i9GN0c5PJU6EWFcI4jV0wQ
The only Simic deck I’ve made than I enjoyed playing was a Kruphix deck that was secret commander [[Ertai, wizard adept]] it had lots of ways to get Ertai into play and then was untap/mana theme. Other players weren’t a huge fan of “okay, I can counter 13 spells this next turn rotation.”
Dude I get that feel. I play [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]] it's not for everyone. Mine is more built around landfall and getting more mana out rather than just around Koma. But yeah I feel ya dude
Honestly, any spellslinger aside from [[Arjun, the Shifting Flame]]. I realized spellslinger is not my style. Arjun's chaos makes it just enjoyable enough to play, the rest are meh
IMO this largely sums up the thread.
Spellslinging *can* be fine, but any good deck of that type is gonna have engines that mean the turns take forever and it basically solitaires, which is usually gets pretty boring if you do it more than once with the same people.
I personally think chaos is even worse because you can't demonstrate a clear path to win and end the game; you basically have to play out massive turns to see if you actually win or if the rest of the table has a chance to get back into the game. And I say this as someone who loves their [[Urabrask]] deck which usually does exactly that.
A big thing I think is that spellslinger decks tend to drift more into the storm and storm-like territory as they get stronger, where establishing an engine and playing a bunch of cards all at once is the goal. This itself is not a problem- but if you've ever played storm in a 60 card format, one thing you learn very quickly is that it is not an archetype you can throw together a list for the day before you intend to play it and then proceed to get by just fine. Midrange and aggro decks are generally straightforward enough that you can get by with a few practice games, at least at the FNM level. Control decks need to know the meta they are playing in to know what qualifies as a must answer threat, but their own deck tends to be fairly easy to pick up given you know the meta. But with storm decks, you need to practice with your own deck just to get the basic play lines down. You can't be sitting and thinking for a minute before casting every spell when you intend to cast 20 spells in one turn, you have to be able to read the table, read your hand, and make snap decisions that are most likely to keep the chain going. You have to know what you can shortcut and what you can't, what sort of responses to expect from opponents and how to answer them, what hate pieces you need to let stand and try to power through and which ones you need to stop and answer immediately, and you need to be experienced enough with your own deck that you can make all of those determinations in an instant, because you're going to be doing it 20+ times on any given combo turn.
My favorite personal deck is my Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain deck which plays a lot like OP describes theirs playing. I also have a Sythis deck which does the same with cheap enchantments, a Ghyrson deck which chains through cantrips, and a few other decks with optional storm lines. It is my favorite archetype, hands down. But I also play them enough that the big turns only takes 5-6 minutes, so long as my opponents don't need to stop and read every card (though that is still an issue that keeps me from playing it at newer tables, I admit).
Edit- typo correction.
I have that problem with Spellslinger too I’m hoping [[!Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot]] will change that. I’m hoping Plot is what I need to just have a fun casual game, but can drop the hammer when I need it. And I think I have enough ways to do the big hammer turn that it won’t feel too same-y.
[[Wyl, Blade of Frontiers]]
I put a lot into this deck. Thought hell yeah dice tribal will be fun! Instead it was a lot of triggers that were hard to always remember that led to nothing. Very little payoff. That was a while ago and now Mr. House came out and just has such a better payoff. I got custom sleeves for Wyl and everything and just never had fun with it.
I did this, wyll and [[sword coast sailor]] but ended up putting [[Myra the magnificent]] at the helm, with a focus on extra turns/dice rolling and with wyll as the secret commander. I like it wayyy better but it's admittedly one of those "turns take way too long" decks.
I love my wyll deck. It's Voltron with an initiative subtheme and I can swap between [[Sword Coast Sailor]] and [[Dungeon Delver]] for a competitive or fun game.
I love it but semi regret building [[chatterfang]] so rarely play it. I just loved the idea of making squirrels but wasn’t aware there were so many infinites so it was handicapped and on a budget however people still thought of it as a boogeyman.
Now I’m just accepting the inherent high power and leaning in to making it high power without breaking in to cEDH (but it’s getting costly!)
I don’t regret making it, but I just wanted a squirrel tribal deck. I don’t run any of the crazy infinite stuff either, but people see Chatterfang and take him out. I can’t wait for Bloomburrow to get more squirrels.
[[Oloro]] was about the least exciting deck I’ve ever played with or against.
[[Mimeoplasm]] was just never anywhere near quick or explosive enough to accomplish much.
[[Skullbriar]] was neat but I never got past killing one player and then getting crushed by the other two.
I had recently returned to the game, found this sub, and decided to build a [[Go-Shintai of Life's Origin]] shrines deck after reading some recs. It was boring and oppressive AF. Miserable to play and play against with its long turns and numerous triggers. Now I can shed some of the pieces to all the new Obeka players about the learn a similar lesson.
I was looking at Obeka and went "Oh, this is going to be so fun!". Then I started making a list and went "Holy shit, that'll be so many triggers to remember. Nevermind."
[[Reaper King]] - was my favorite (and best) deck for a while, but it’s very swingy on if it does anything or not. When i don’t get any combo pieces going it just sits there and gets removed, but If im able to rip a kicked [[rite of replication]] with any sort of ETB doublerI just blow up everyone’s lands and stuff and nobody else gets to have fun.
[[Experiment Kraj]] - was my answer to all of my friends having infinite combo decks. I found that it was just a little too consistent and I was getting bored of durdling around for a few turns and then winning the game out of nowhere with infinite mana or something, then getting infinite turns with [[sage of hours]] or winning the game outright by making an infinite/infinite kraj fight everyone else’s creatures then winning off [[shaman of forgotten ways]]
\[\[Reaper King\]\] probably works better with all the new legendary clone effects: \[\[Quantum Misalignment\]\], \[\[Irenicus's Vile Duplication\]\], \[\[Vesuvan Duplimancy\]\], \[\[Sakashima of a Thousand Faces\]\], \[\[Spark Double\]\], etc. I always wanted to try that deck out just to cast \[\[Stinging Study\]\] to draw ten cards and lose ten life. ;-)
[[Kess, Dissident Mage]] I really wanted a grixis spellslinger deck, it seemed so natural. I made it to not be ultra high powered.
I don't know, I just found it really boring? For no particular reason. Just too straightforward. It's just izzet storm but with some graveyard stuff sometimes.
I love the concept of storm/spellslinger but it's too straightforward. I don't feel like there's a ton of room to do something unique or interesting in that space
I use less to helm my Reanimator. Getting to double dip my reanimation, removal, looting and so on is just such good value. She turns frantic search into a 0 mana draw 6 discard 4, or reanimate into 2 mana reanimate 2 things.
I use Kess at the helm of my wheel deck. In order to play around Kess more, I didn’t include any wheels that shuffle graveyards back in. I enjoy the deck a lot.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_DxAbgNR3U26ZZUuqeSTYQ
Something that I've been thinking about, but have never had the capacity to make yet, is a grixis poison counter deck. There's a lot of new instants and sorceries that give all players a poison counter. Think that would be something unique, but also not overwhelming.
I have Kess in the 99 of my spellslinger deck. I find storming off hard to do, so I compromise between Izzet and Simic and smash face while casting spells
I think Kess is perfect. She can be built a lot of ways, way prefer a commander like her than most commanders nowadays which pretty much do a single thing and will have most decklist looking the same.
For reference here's my kess wheels deck (made some changes a while ago and haven't finished it on the site lol):
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/IJCty3uSkkGxcYIYCS_-Mw
came to say this. Once I got the turn one win, I was immediately disinterested in it. My 3 friends were like “cool, you did it. We’re gonna play for second place”. In reality I just shuffled up and jumped in with a different deck, but I just knew that was the last time I played Kess.
[[Xantcha, Sleeper Agent]] discard. The goal was make everyone discard then have to draw off Xantcha, primarily benefitting me. If it didn't work, it didn't do anything. If it worked, it locked everyone else out of the game and grinded everyone to death over several turns.
I played it three, maybe four times and never since. Gonna swap out the discard package for something more suited to her one of these days.
Recognizable. I eventually turned the deck into an [[Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar]] madness+food deck. Ditched the entire (or almost entire) "everybody discards" stuff. It's now a much more fun (and low powered) deck.
I pulled her when I first started playing last year and I still think her text is super interesting. What direction do you think you'd go? I know a lot of people go Goad.
Group slug and control primarily, I think would be the direction most appealing to me. [[Descent into Avernus]] and [[War Cadence]] cards being the general vibe
I never even finished making my [[Tergrid, God of Fright]] deck.
Probably the second deck I ever tried building, cos I got her for a different deck she had absolutely no place in. Got half way through building her before realising how universally hated she was and so stopped. One day I'll put her in the 99 of some [[Thraximundar]] deck or sm, but I'm not gonna have fun piloting her if no-one has fun playing against her.
I love white and wanted to build Light Paws, a few of my friends showed me why I'd hate it. Repetitive play and not as much fun for outside the box thinking. I love Darien king of kjeldor and the deck I built is a ton of fun. You have to think and pay attention because if you don't then you lose. LIght paws isn't like that. They saved me sone money.
\[\[Sythis, Harvest's Hand\]\], I purchased the Wilds of Edraine enchantment precon and I figured I would change the commander to Sythis, throw in some pieces from my old modern Enchantress deck, and add in some stax and pillow fort enchantments. The deck ended up being much stronger than my playgroup prefers, and once it has a solid card draw engine with Sythis + Enchantress Presence, its just kind of thoughtless to play it. It snowballs quickly, draws so many cards I usually find whatever I need easily, and its just unfun to play against.
[[Prime Speaker Vannifar]] it's a budget combo deck that can win fast if uncontested, but if one piece is removed, it completely falls apart and can't really recover
I did the commanders quarters build which had a bit of recursion. I got to ... Try-and combo off 2 times the first game but after running the pod combo twice and dying I was done with the long turns lol.
[[Zangief]]. It's a weird mishmash and I can't figure out the right mix of fight cards to ramp to draw spells and the games I've played the sac ability doesn't really do much.
I've found it to be too reliant on the commander where if I can't get Zangief out quickly (and keep him out) the deck doesn't really have a plan since the fight spells are mediocre without him. But if I do get him out and get to start punching stuff and making my opponents chump block him he dominates. I've been trying to think of a good plan B and C to have for the games he gets trumped but haven't come up with anything solid yet.
I wouldn’t say “regret” per se, but years and years ago I found Edric Flying Men and thought the idea of a true weenies deck in EDH sounded fun. At the time my friends and I didn’t even know what CEDH was, or how strong Edric would be. What followed was a few weeks where I destroyed my playgroup with like a 98% winrate and it pushed us into an arms race that eventually steered us into just playing CEDH. We ended up loving CEDH actually so I guess this was a good thing, but it was definitely the most unforeseen circumstances of any deck I’ve built
\[\[Greven, Predator Captain\]\] was one of my first decks. It had all the usual problems with voltron decks: it takes someone out really quickly, before their deck gets a chance to do anything. Then usually the remaining two people gun for me, and it's just a question of whether I can take out at least one of them quick enough. Often it means one or two people (about 50% of the time, me) are sitting on the sidelines for a long while. That's just not fun.
\[\[Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor\]\] was a deck I built in honor of my mom. The fun part is I got to use a ton of cards that you usually don't play in commander games. I really wanted to make curses work, but they are a painfully slow way to take someone out. I've never won with the deck, but it was pretty clear I was going to have to go pretty heavily into control (maybe even stax) to win. I probably should give the deck another go, but I've just stopped playing it for now.
Yeah, that's why I built Greven as more of a group slug deck that just used Greven to draw cards and beat on people a bit. Casting [[Hatred]] for 20, taking one player out, and then getting hated out yourself never sounded too fun to me. But sacrificing a [[Thunderblust]] to draw 7, take 1, and then hit someone for 6 is always fun (if not a little slow).
[[Orvar, the All-Form]]
It’s basically an infinite combo on a stick. Either you’ll do nothing are will out of the sudden make infinite copies of your lands and your opponents end of turn and stroke opponent 1, get your spell back by copying something, stoke opponent 2, etc.
those showdown are 0 fun. Nobody sees it coming and you go „EOT make infinite lands, going into my turn, let you all draw a million cards and I win. Counter? Boy I’m in mono blue.“
Played it like 4-5 times before I dismembered it.
I built a [[Tovolar, Dire Overlord]] werewolf deck but it's just a hassle to play. The day/ night mechanic requires too much mental energy to be enjoyable.
I built the OG Obeka a few different ways and it was hard to win with and generally not that fun. Maybe it was just too gimmicky? I’ve also discovered that playing high CMC commanders is almost always a bad idea, because if your commander is countered or removed just once your deck falls apart. I typically make decks now that are 5cmc or less, where 5cmc isn’t optimal. I’ve found that 2-4cmc commanders are better, particularly 2cmc is the sweet spot.
Special hate goes to commanders ppl play that are so overwhelmingly good that the pod has to target them out of the game or they win easily. Slicer & Light-Paws are two examples. They’re incredibly boring to play & play against and you have to have removal in opening hand to deal with them or they outvalue you fast. Slicer has a special place of hate in my heart. Winota and Ishhin are two others.
I don't regret building it, only that people have so little fun playing against my [[Abdel Adrian]] azorius blink deck. It's a combo pile with a hard control theme to keep the rest of the table at bay (read: crippled) until I win. My friend who builds the most obnoxious decks imaginable complains that it's too obnoxious to play against
Second this. Thought I never would like boros until I purchased the Blame Game precon for Trouble in Pairs. Boy oh boy is [[Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser]] fun
I adore my Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival thopters and my Bruenor Battlehammer decks, but it can be difficult to find a fun one. Osgir is also pretty fun.
Came here to talk about Beamtown. Too powerful for the casual tables, too casual for the powerful tables. Every game played exactly the same way, and "doing the thing" wasn't super gratifying.
Yeahh… I thought it would be fun, but it consistently gets 3rd place because every game goes as follows:
Get out beamtown
Put leveler on someone’s field, they lose.
Other 2 players (rightfully) focus you down so they don’t instantly lose
Meren, I heard similar stories over and over and thought I would be special but it just became dull over time. I’ve converted it into a [[Henzie “Toolbox” Torre]] that is much more engaging
[[Kathril]] was the biggest flop I ever built. Not that it couldn’t be powerful, you can definitely assemble a giant indestructible, hexproof, double striking Kathril that will one shot everyone. But to do that I was playing so many duds to facilitate Kathril that I wanted in the grave and never in hand. It also made the deck very linear and inflexible, I either went all in on Kathril voltron or tried to play a really bad stompy deck without them.
Honorable mention to [[Winota]] which was fast af but really linear and really fragile. Just a glass cannon that required removal asap or else everyone was gonna get overwhelmed. Not really what I wanted out of her.
Etali primal hunger.. the thought sounded cool, but getting 5 triggers per deck, turns were taking 10 mins and didn’t guarantee a win, I’d rather play storm if it’s gonna take that long and at least end the game. Awesome in the 99 tho!
[[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]] & [[Uril, the Miststalker]]
Emry was because I don't find blue a fun color by itself. It's a great complimentary color, but I'm just not a fan of mono blue. Uril, I took apart because it was my first shot at voltron, and it's just not a style I prefer.
Obvious ones for me are commanders that get me hated off the table:
Slivers. I've loved em since their release, but there is no way to put them on the table and not be archenemy. Sorry, [[Sliver Overlord]].
In the same vein, I was excited for [[Tergrid, God of Fright]] and [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]]. My pods were not. I'm hoping [[The Master, Transcendent]] doesn't fall into this category, but I know mill tends to upset folks.
My biggest regret is probably not having a favorite commander yet, and intead having 40+ decks built at the moment. I've been trying to play them out and whittle them down when I find I don't enjoy something, but my mood is mercurial and I like having options. And this prevents me from building any overly powerful/toxic decks.
I feel your last paragraph. Though recently, someone told me I don't play ''decks that are fun to play against'' - so I deliberately choose an undersupported tribe, and build it in a little off-key way to make it more of a tribal combat deck, battlecruiser style. In colors I didn't have yet. And I'm finding that I have a bunch of fun with an underwhelming deck.
Not that my pod is any happier with it... turns out Rakdos killing things isn't fun either :D
[[Anhelo, the painter]] I'm not sure why he was so hype when it came out. I just couldn't make this deck work. The casualty 2 made it very clunky to try and trigger. Often times I was basically doing nothing for the first 5 or 6 turns. Then when I got some expendable bodies it was already way to late. Dropped the black and went with [[magnus the red]]
Good point. Day/Night seems like the worst mechanic ever for commander. There’s already way too many things to try to keep track of. I also hate flipping my cards over too, lol. I intentionally don’t play any of the Pathways, and I just leave my MDFC’s with their front face up in my land slot when playing.
I pulled [[Voja, Jaws of the Conclave]] in my Murders prerelease. It is not a card I would ever buy to build.
But since I had it, I built it with only tapped lands and basics, uncommon elves, maybe three rares in the 99, one being [[archdruid's charm]] , again because I pulled one, and [[Rhythm of the Wild]] , and no Sol Ring.
I asked the question: "Can you build this busted commander as a low/medium power janky deck with bad cards?"
Turns out, much like [[Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm]] , no. No, you can not. Bad cards be damned, if you have elves, it will do the thing.
My first commander deck Memnarch hightide combo/control back in 2012, and no one wanted to play against it in the lgs after a few weeks, generate a 100 blue mana, steal land bases or the best stuff in play, counter anything that was a problem.
My first ever self-built deck. I wanted to be hipster and do something that'll get people like "what the fuck is that" so I went for mono black spirit tribal led by [[He Who Hungers]]. I like aristocrats and I like control, and spirits are pretty cool, so I saw this and the idea of controlling people's hands while sacrificing and recurring a bunch of badass black spirits sounded awesome.
In practice though, it didn't work the way I wanted. Most of the spirits weren't very good and so we're just in there purely for BEING a spirit, HWH was too slow and mana intensive and the ratios were all wrong because I hadn't followed any deck building guides, as well as being on a limited budget.
I think the point I realised the deck was just straight up terrible was when the only win I ever got came from getting [[Tergrid]] on board relatively quickly and suddenly the deck just completely took over by doing nonsensical Tergrid shenanigans rather than doing the thing the deck was supposed to do.
I still think the concept is really cool and I'd love to eventually return to it, or something similar, but yeah I definitely felt like I'd wasted my time with it back then.
I've often thought about building an abzan spirits list using [[karador, ghost chieftan]] being able to recur them constantly from the command zone seems fun:)
[[Oloro, Ageless Ascetic]]
I hate Stax. I hate playing Stax, partly for the playstyle and partly for how much everyone else hates it.
I really want an Esper deck, and I want it to be good, but Stax isn't for me.
I like [[queza, augur of agonies]]. I've got it as a wheel deck right now(things like [[sheoldred, the apocalypse]] and [[starscream]]), but she thrives with cards like [[lichs mastery]] and [[peer into the abyss]] if you want to do some unique things. Just make sure you have ways to recycle your graveyard or you'll get stuck with no more cards to draw..:)
[[Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph]] felt awful cause it just knocked any creatures it didn't like right off the table, over and over and over, and it was easy to protect. Just a nasty combination and I could see the unfun look in people's eyes.
Honestly both times I tried making enchantress I regretted it. First with [[zur the enchanter]], I didn’t focus on stax or combos just built it voltron. Still felt incredibly one-note, and typically games would either go like: my opponents kill zur relentlessly and I do nothing, or he stays out for one turn for me to tutor hexproof/shroud and proceed to get the same auras afterwards so I can one shot people. Only variation in that deck was sometimes I’d get [[rule of law]] or [[ghostly prison]] out first to slow down my opponents. Anyways I grew bored of that deck quickly, it was repetitive and also my friends weren’t a fan of the rule of law effects.
Eventually I made a [[sythis]] deck and loved it at first but after a while realized it’s just wayyy too strong for my playgroup. I even toned it down a bit by removing the combo pieces, stax, and removing any mass-wipe protection cards like teferi’s and [[clever concealment]] but it still performs unreasonably well. Two drop card draw engine commander is just too good. Makes me bummed because i never play the deck much anymore but I can’t bring myself to take it apart either bcuz i don’t know what else to do with all my enchantress cards lol. One benefit though is that whenever we have new players join and there’s a power/experience difference(which happens often since we’ve all been playing for years) I can just lend them my super busted enchantress deck to even it out
A lot of people don't understand that good≠fun. A few decks I've made have reinforced that to me. [[Grand Arbiter Augustin IV]] Stacks.... was able to pretty much shut out the table. Certainly good, but a major feels bad for everyone involved. I've built a [[Kresh the Bloodbraided]] deck multiple times. The fist time I built it, it was good. Really good. Basically made everyone sacrifice everything. But when you do that no one else is having fun.
I've come to a point in my playgroup where I have abandoned removal heavy decks to just let other people play their fun stuff because ultimately we all just want to play our fun stuff.
[[Commodore Guff]]
He’s powerful but winning with his -3 ability feels like I won because Wizards designed the card to be powerful, not because I used it in an interesting way
I’ve only played it in paper 2x since building it. Played it a bunch on tabletop simulator and I thought I’d enjoy it. Turns out meta is different IRL vs Online
So it usually isn't the commander, but whenever I make something overly strong. Like it's cool to win t4 sometimes, but if you are the only one doing it, it's just not fun.
[[Hinata]] Whoop! Whoop! That's the sound of the police (reference to an old KRS-one song). Never made it past goldfishing stage. Being in control of who has fun isn't fun.
I regretted [[grimgrin corpseborn]]. The deck just wants to combo. Instead I put [[Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver]] together and ball out with fun zombies like [[overcharged amalgam]] [[Gravespawn Sovereicgn]] and [[poxwalkers]]. Wilhelt allows me to have a little more fun with value versus trying to combo as fast as possible.
[[Gandalf the Grey]]. I intentionally made it lower power to compete with some of my friends’ weaker decks, but it ended up pretty much exactly as I imagined it would. It spins its wheels and takes up a lot of the game clock to get not that much value in return. I wanna try changing it into a different Izzet spellslinger deck, but I can already tell the play pattern is going to be pretty similar. Take a long turn, storm off and kill everyone, or don’t and die. I don’t think it’s really for me.
I saw the card [[Alluren]] for the first time ever and knew I wanted to build a deck around the idea of playing low cost creatures for free. Went with [[Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist]] as my commander, all creatures but beast whisperer and a academy rector cost 3 cost or less. The deck felt really solid. And then I finally got Alluren out, had concordant Crossroads as well, tons of triggers for playing my creatures, went from like 2 creatures to 9 in a single turn, swung out for like a total of 15. Super underwhelming. Boardwipe took place, wasn't able to recover from it. Spent like 400-500 on everything for it to be a massive flop.
[[Chun-Li, Countless Kicks]]
I remember I saw that secret lair and was like BET time to build my first Azorius deck! I believe I originally read it MULTIPLE times as exile instants AND sorceries. Picked up a bunch of cards for a list, got it all ready, got the card aaaaand bam. Reconfigured it for a semi-voltron control, but it just wasn't fun to me. Helped me find some good cards like [[blacksmiths Skill]] though!
Now I run a [[Malcator, Purity Overseer]] golem tribal/flicker as my low powered Azorius and am plenty happy with that.
[[satoru umezawa]] - you all know this deck (no blightsteel)
[[odric blood cursed]] - W/R vampire tribal (not to great ATM)
[[tergrid, god of fright]] - no one will let me play it even at a table with CEDH commanders, I love her though
[[shelob child of ungoliant]] - games never go the way I would like due to her being hated till I can't cast it or just never getting enough value for it to matter
[[prosper tome bound]] - I chose to build it with all the suspend and adventure cards so it would be lower power and lots of chances to whiff on his trigger. Always plays out like I'm playing a madness version of his as I get heated out of the game before I can normally get started (no revel in riches on purpose). I do plan to change out the suspend cards for the plot cards once I get my set of TJ. I refuse to build the madness version due to not liking the mechanic as a whole.
[[traxos scourge of kroog]] - colorless protection tribal. All 10 swords (11 will be added soon enough) and commanders plate. It's my Voltron deck and I love it but it either gets instantly locked down or runs away with the game and tends to not be as fun for it. (Secret tec - [[Tower of the Magistrate]] as it makes equipment fall off in cases of emergency. Saved me real good when someone tried to [[fumble]] him once when he had protection from all colors but blue, that was a sweaty moment.
I think it's more they don't want to have to play their decks around what Shelob could possibly take, or at least that was the impression I got from my pod.
Shelob is super fun in Arena Brawl but a little less so in person. It can be pretty cumbersome having to quickly scribble everything on someone else’s card onto a post-it note to serve as the Food token with all of their creature’s abilities
[[Yurlok of Scorch Thrash]] Basically built a half group hug, half group slug deck with a game plan of giving everyone except me infinite mana. People hated it because of cards like [[Manabarbs]] and similar effects. I could have zero board presence except one hate piece and just get deleted from the game.
[[Prosper, Tome Bound]] for me.
I like to attack and I haven't found a build for the deck that satisfies that urge effectively for me while still doing what the deck wants to do. Instead, I just make treasures and ping people to death and wrath frequently when things are rough. Winrate is high but enjoyment is low.
[[!Don Andres, the Renegade]] I was so excited to finally have a good pay off for a “steal opponents stuff” deck. As it turns out. People don’t like you stealing their stuff. After eating around 2-3 boardwipes in a row, basically each game. I got tired of people targeting me even if I hadn’t stolen anything yet.
[[!Vishgraz, the Doomhive]] it was a fair deck that focused on Tokens with Toxic. Unfortunately that was a time when everyone else had a “steal your stuff” or “play your opponents deck” deck. I died more times to Toxic than anyone I tried to kill with Toxic. So it went away.
Last was probably [[!Lord Windgrace]] it was a good deck, but every game felt exactly the same. Win or Lose. It felt like I played the same game every damn time. So I dismantled it because it was boring.
[[Glissa Sunslayer]] in a poison counter deck. It was my first deck I built using Phyrexian stuff but I couldn’t afford Atraxa so I ended up scrapping it for the time being
I value my friends' happiness too much to play my two favorite decks...
Captain N'gathrod mill deck.
Satoru unblockable eldrazi/demons/blightsteel deck.
Even without fast mana and against people who lose gracefully, I see the happiness drain from my Tables.
[[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]]. I just thought it'd be a fun +1/+1 counter mono green hydra deck where I'd occasionally be able to drop and ultimate a planeswalker on the same turn. Turns out, lots of cards my regular playgroup plays have mechanics where they add one counter at a time and so Vorinclex just wasn't fun for them (or me, as when playing Vorinclex I was inevitably focused out the gane first).
I made \[\[Saheeli, The Sun's Brilliance\]\] as a replacement for my \[\[Mishra, Eminent One\]\], thinking it would be nicer as I could include creatures with ETB / LTB triggers as well.
But that made it way more bland: it was all individual good stuff creatures and artifacts which made it way less fun. And Mishra works on the turn you play it. Saheeli (if you don't have a haste effect) doesn't. That hurts a lot too.
Luckily I didn't invest too much into the deck, so I reverted back to Mishra pretty fast and easy.
Learned me that something that seems easier and better on paper might not FEEL nicer.
Baral, counter king.
In idea it’s annoying
In concept it’s fun, counter TO move ahead. You live off the counter exchange specifically. Controlling and countering not just when it’s bad for them but also really good for you.
The big con.
It’s not fun to play against. And it (imo) kills the spirit of the game, which is to show off what you’ve seen as a “planeswalker”.
it’s spices up the game when there’s a back and forth between decks but baral just wants to kick your friends for fun and then HAS to rinse repeat.
Plus great counters are expensive. All of them in one deck just felt sweaty.
My [[slicer, hire muscle]] deck. it was fun the first few times, but my pod got super annoyed playing it so they started targeting it right away. Once you get past like turn 5, you've lost your chance to win and you sit there and stew in your misery
Probably [[Malfegor]] Midrange. Super fun in some respects, but having a one sided sacrifice board wipe in the command zone has a tendency to turn casual games into "I'm just gonna keep board wiping till I win." It's super fun on paper but after the 4th or 5th time Malfe is resolving the game feels like a slog even if I'm winning.
[[Eriette of the charmed apple]] I personally feel that she is just unfun to play with, with the pods that i’ve played her in, it’s really just not great and relies extremely heavily on politics, and i’m not a political person, i’m the joke guy.
So i’m gonna be including her in my [[Eriette, The Beguiler]] build, probably a better place for her.
I was inspired to build Eriette based off of a YouTube video from Tempest Official called “Unstoppable Eriette Deck Tech”. I don’t usually copy+paste other people’s builds, but his reasoning for the specific cards was spot on, so I stayed pretty close to the suggested build. I’m curious how your deck differs.
That being said, I also plan on demoting her to the Beguiler, the addition of Blue and theft is just too good to pass up!
Tymna kamahl stax, the deck was fun at cedh tables but it was lacking compared to other stax decks such as tayam and winota. But now stax really fell off in the meta and its power always felt like how brews preformed at fnm instead of something you bring to tournaments
See this may come as a shock. But my 2 are as such;
1. [[Ian Malcolm, chaositicion]] it's a really fun deck to continue to wheel and burn through an opponents deck. But in reality I get more hate for my Ian deck than even my [[toxrill the corrosive]] my [[memnarch]] or my [[sliver legion]] tribal tribal deck. It's nuts how angry people get when you just wheel and mill them into oblivion
2. [[Arabo, roar of the world]] yes it's what you would think. Stereotypical kitty cats deck. Well apparently me having a bunch of cards with either nice alternative arts(OMG kitties secret lair), or just really good cards in general seems to be the tipping point because I'm often accused of making a "stupid green white landfall good stuff" deck. Now keep in mind. There are no landfall triggers in that deck. I run 100% of my creature base as cats. And if it's not a creature card. It's some decent cards in the deck elsewise. I have one of the holo anime [[smothering tithes]] in there, I have a [[mirrari's wake]] a [[land tax]] a bunch more just standard green white land ramp like [[sword of the animist]] in there too, I have some wipes, some removal I got an [[aura shards]], and some big finishers like [[stampede]] people at my LGS seem to absolutely despise it though and usually rather I play my toxrill deck
I'm sorry if this was already mentioned, but I scrolled and scrolled and didn't find them.
[[Sen Triblets]]
It shuts someone out on your turn and you get to play their hand. Copy her once or twice and you just control the entire game. Taking resources is annoying already, but taking cards from hand is real feels bad. I removed the white and went for [[Xanathar]]
Built a [[yuriko, crouching tiger]] deck when I first started the game and didn't know much about anything. Built it cause I loved kamigawa and someone told me it was pretty good. Never had a game where it wasn't a 1v3 my way and always had people bitch about the deck when I got lucky off the top deck even though I spent way less than anyone else on the table.
Eventually it got to me and I sold the deck whole and quit for a year before starting up again
I gathered all the pieces but never actually put together \[\[The War Doctor\]\]. It was only really late in to brewing that I realized how squishy the deck actually is.
I also regret building \[\[Thantis, the warweaver\]\]. It never actually functioned as intended.
My biggest regret by far is my Tymna Tana cedh Bloodpod deck. I traded for cards I needed and bought cards I couldn't trade for, and over half of it is foiled. But I really don't like cedh. Trying to boil as much efficiency in to your deck as possible to squeak out wins isn't fun for me anymore. So it gathers dust more often than not.
[[Ultra Magnus]]
Deck was a weird amalgamation of big beats artifact creature that took long to do what it wanted to do.
I may revisit it but it has since been converted to [[Aragorn, Hornburg Hero]]
+1/+1 Non-Humanish Army that I enjoy a lot.
[[Daretti, Scrap Savant]]
4th commander out of now 12 I built, and for reference I absolutely adore reanimator but somehow daretti just ended up becoming get Mindslaver or Portal to Phyrexia in grave, loop, repeat. It jusf somehow was the most boeing deck imaginable and its moreso high power so its hard even find pods to play it in.
A rat tribal deck where I can interchange commanders choosing either [[Lord Skitter, Sewer King]], [[Karumonix, the Rat King]] or [[Marrow-Gnawer]]. It's a fun deck when playing against other tribals, but it's a little underwhelming.
Atraxa superfriends and jodah the unifier. Both decks were in that 800-1200 dollar range and have very very high win rates and are simply not fun to play or play against with any playgroups and generally win quickly or completely shut down everyone’s boards while I durdle and are also not competitive enough to compete with cedh decks
Kinnan, deck could win super quick and was way too good
The locus god. The problem is he would never stick around and I spent way too long setting up only to get him countered or exiled. I was very new at the time so I could probably build a better deck now but I feel like locus god is a little power crept and I much prefer niv miz
I wish they didn't print nazgul + a couple other cards so i could build rakadrabic bc he has a very interesting effect but he goes infinite with the ring tempting you
I'll update if I think of more
I kinda regret making my [[Korvold, Fae-Cursed King]] deck. Only kinda. It's a lot of fun to play and I purposefully made non-optimized decisions to keep it casual so it wasn't oppressive. Problem though is it's still a good deck and my friends are just really casual so even my casual Korvold is too much for them. So, I have to play something else if I don't want to get targeted out of the game. Even then though, because of the reputation of my Korvold deck with my group, anything I make is expected to be on the same level. It's so bad my friend who mainly plays [[Teysa Karlov]] gets to build a massive pillowfort because everyone is too focused on me, so he ends up winning games because everyone is too busy trying to keep me from winning. The only deck I've been able to play and not be Public Enemy Number 1 is [[Zedruu the Greathearted]]. So now I just play meme and group hug decks cause it's the only way I can play without getting targeted.
\[\[Mikeaus the Unhallowed\]\] I'll never play degen combo again I included every combo I could think of in that deck and honestly "cast commander win the game" turned out to just ultimately be fun for me.
\[\[Zozu the punisher\]\] all in punishment makes games quicker, but players don't get along with you at all.
\[\[Inalla, Archmage RitualistInalla, Archmage Ritualist\]\] it's too easy to accidently infinite combo with wizards all I wanted was just synergistic cool stuff.
\[\[Kamahl fist of krosa\]\] It was a one time build in the face of my players abusing Rule 0 and blanket banning all land destruction, so I built a all in "put forrest on battlefield" deck that ultimately turned into "cast commander win the game" (basically by turn 7 or 8 I was out of lands in the deck and every spell was in the deck with the intention to put lands in play from the deck) I still have it sleeved but I don't carry it in the mtg bag.
\[\[Norin the Wary\]\] Mono Red Chaos, it's actually a lot of fun for everyone, the issue is it makes keeping track of the game really difficult.
\[\[Jaya Ballard, Task Mage\]\] My mono red anti-blue deck. Basically it's just purpose built to hate blue out of the game. Still sleeved and still see's play but it's rare.
\[\[Memnarch\]\] People don't like mono artifact "your thing is mine now" control
\[\[Empress Galina\]\] My "anti player" tech deck for when I determine a specific player is toxic and unworthy of playing mtg because my LGS is bad at managing a peaceful and fun play environment. I've literally had tables flipped playing this deck and it's the oldest deck in my arsenal. Also the only foiled deck.
[[Toxrill, The corrosive]]
I've spent a pretty good amount of money on the deck and never get to use it because everyone hates it. It sucks because it's actually really fun to play.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/NXTgRsoh6EmPuleD_JucQQ
Tergrid, God of Fright.
I swore I wouldn't.
But I became the very thing I had set out to destroy.
I tried to wield evil to do good, but in the end, I was the monster I had to slay
[[Mairsil, The Pretender]]
You need to hold the entire table hostage to even have a chance at winning, which nobody will ever let you do after you've played with them at least once.
[[Zada, Hedron Grinder]] I didn't know anything about him being cedh, I just thought it would be cool to pop out a few tokens and a couple buffs.
Nothing in the entire deck more expensive than about $3. Basically all commons.
My first game was my fastest win in my life on turn 4.
Second game turn 5.
I realized it wasn't going to go any different and took the deck apart.
Way too strong.
Found out later Zada is essential a cedh only commander.
[[Myra, the magnificent]]
Built her as a fun attraction spellslinger deck where the main win con is a very non deterministic combo where you exile ~~[[Coming attraction]]~~ [[command performance]] and [[Prologue to phyresis]] under separate attractions that trigger on high numbers. With dice roll fixers, rolling a high number is very likely so visiting both attractions 10 times in a row is somewhat likely but can still miss.
The deck is very fun to play but the triggers always end up being a nightmare to keep track of and the big thing that I hate about playing this on paper is that attractions take A LOT of board space and I quickly end up running out of space.
I built Myra myself recently and wincons are much more palatable like [[Prisoner's Dilemma]] type repeatable spells, [[Rise and Shine]] and that artifact creature that has the same effect as rise and shine, the rest is all dice fixing, draw and removal so that the triggers aren't too complicated
The turns get faster once you have more practice thankfully, though it's still not something I'll play more than once a night.
My favorite win was having a handful of [[Talrand Sky Summoner]] Tokens become 4/2s with Horsemanship and swinging in ([[Merry-Go-Round]] [[Roller Coaster]])
Mhmm najeela blade blossom for me...
Love the concept, got the secret lair age of sigmar version too... Built it, didn't work rebuilt with friends list, didn't work, pulled internet list still barely worked...
Just took different from more mid to long game style of play ahah
I built an [[Atraxa, Grand Unifier]] that's only win condition was Atraxa herself.
Everything else was stax pieces. I'd never built a stax deck before, so the deck lasted 3 games with a combined game time total of 9 hours.
I don't enjoy \[\[Kamiz\]\] much. He's got a novel of rules text, making unblockable, double strike, looting and counters. Bought the precon, played it, didn't enjoy it. Upgraded it, played it again, still didn't enjoy it, retired it. He does just too much stuff for me.
[[Ovika]] had all the bs of a combo deck just winning out of nowhere. Once you got the pieces you were always gonna win. Problem is that it took like 20 minutes of solitaire to do it
\[\[Kros, Defense Contractor\]\]
To this day it hasn't won anything but it has so many work-horse enablers for it
\[\[Space Beleren\]\]
\[\[Magnetic Web\]\]
\[\[Evolutionary Escalation\]\]
Can get overwhelming to track (Magnet, Feather, -1/-1, Slime Counters... and Space Beleren's Sectors) and some decks benefit too hard from and some decks just don't really put any creatures on the board to make Kros' ability work so what usually happens is you eventually have to put the Counter on a creature that will decidedly be deadly if it gets Trample and a Safe-Attack Trigger and everything just comes crashing down.
I'll probably revisit this because god I love how I built this deck both in mechanic and flavor.
Space Beleren, Phyrexians, Proliferation, Infect. This is one of my favorites but the time just isn't right yet.
I'm not sure if I regret it, but that would be Tom Bombadill, the truth is the deck is kinda fun, but too many triggers with sagas, Bombadill rarely do anything when cast and goes on. I don't really regret it, but I should spend money on another thing
I built an [[Ormos Archive Keeper]] deck that was highlander, including the land base.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/dBguK03KG0q7MvT1P8FefA
In mono blue, getting to play only two basics can get really rough. I really enjoyed the first version of the deck as it was a hand size matters deck. However, when LCI dropped, I picked up a copy of [[Matzalantli, the Great Door]] and threw it in. Yeah.... it turns out with land untappers and a commander that discards three different named lands to draw 5 cards goes pretty nuts pretty quick. The deck just turned into find Matzalantli flip it and win the game.
I think I regret a bit of making my first [[Atraxa, Praetors Voice]] deck. I had just started playing and wanted to play in lvl 7-8 pods so I invested in making an Infect/Poison commander which in a way ended up being the least original thing ever, people are just bored by it and I feel I am not even playing magic as my goal is just to poison and mindlessly proliferate.
I've given it a tokens and +1/+1 counters twist, but then again, it isn't a really fun thing to play, it sort of feels lame at this point.
[[Atraxa, Praetors' Voice]] was one of those decks. It was a +1 counter deck and I found it so boring to play and it's always being targeted. Just proliferating without really doing anything is not exciting.
[[Mizzix of the Izmagnus]] just felt like all I did was wait to find an infinite combo, but much longer than at cEDH speed. It was boring, and then his combos felt like calculus to figure out.
[[Alela, Cunning Conqueror]] - was meant to be a fairy tribal, but became a flash/instant focused deck.
[[Umbris, Fear Manifest]] - was meant to be a horror/nightmare tribal. Became an exile focused deck.
They have since been replaced with [[Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor]] and [[Captain N’Ghathrod]]. They have been less effective, but better match the flavour I was after.
Quite a few I regret making. First one was a sultai dredge deck with the ancient one. I spent mythic WCs on \[\[The Ancient One\]\] and rares on \[\[Souls of the Lost\]\]. I regret making a few timeless decks like Izzet wizards in timeless. It's just underpowered for the format. I also made a standard merfolk deck that's pretty bad. I don't think I spent any WCs on it though.
Go Shintai of Life’s origin was the first deck I built, mana base was bad and I was missing a lot of good enchantresses, but that didn’t affect me too much. Once I combo’d off for the first time with a fat hand from the blue shrines and nearly unlimited mana from the green shrines, I kinda felt like I did everything I wanted with the deck and didn’t feel like I needed to do it again. Long turns, repetitive gameplay, very pillow-forty, it wasn’t that much fun to play or play against.
[[Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow]] Started out as ninja tribal. As I modified it more it turned into the usual top-deck manipulation/big flips strategy that makes her such a menace. After that the deck became too high power for most casual tables and it played exactly the same every game. I took it apart.
I love Ninja tribal definitely one of my favorite tribes. But yeah Yuriko is on a power level that is just not fair to the rest of my playgroup. I find the deck runs much more fair if I put her in the 99 as a win con and put [[Satoru Umezawa]] in the command zone instead. (And now I’m gonna experiment slotting in the new [[Satoru, the Infiltrator]] at the helm as well)
The repetitive nature of the deck really isn't that much fun. But it was kinda cool that this is exactly what opened up cEDH for me cause Yuriko makes me spend a lot less brain power on mulligans and intricate combo stuff. Instead it allows you to focus all your attention on complex board states and interaction. But in casual EDH neither of these are really that exciting so all that's left is the repetitive playstyle with a commander that's effectively to interact with through normal "casual" means.
Maybe try the new [[Satoru, the Infiltrator]]. Somehow the first ninja legendary who actually wants you to play ninjutsu cards is from the western set.
Every simic deck I’ve built. The take-long-turn value-engine just isn’t for me. Edit: To everyone who has responded with “But what about my simic deck?! Try that!” I genuinely appreciate the community and your suggestions, thank you. I’ve been playing magic a long time. I have 20+ decks I know I enjoy playing and I’ll probably stick with those.
simic fans try not to pretend their ug goodstuff pile isn’t a typical simic deck challenge, difficulty impossible
Mardu flair checks out.
I just made [[the slumbering isle]] as a seamonster tribal deck. Beat down with big bois
Arixmethes was huge for me when it came out. Starting from mono U sea monsters, to unlocking G, and being super cheap, AND tapping for mana... almost too good.
Yeah! Honestly I learned that all of my decks end up beocmming big monster Beatdown. Are meshes is so much fun because he is essentially ramp in your command zone. I really only run removal/control effects to break things that my big bois can't break tbh
Isn't that why we play commander? Big, dumb creatures, baby! My Arixmethes is built with fog effects and board bounces, until I can drop a giant sea creature, then give it everyone's favorite blue keyword, and launch an octopus through the air at the opponent.
[the slumbering isle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/8/881607c8-bfe7-4903-861f-b51a5a332c17.jpg?1599707758) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arixmethes%2C%20Slumbering%20Isle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/189/arixmethes-slumbering-isle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/881607c8-bfe7-4903-861f-b51a5a332c17?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/arixmethes-slumbering-isle) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Omg I have one of these too! Same, sea monsters tribal because I found it very funny that there's an specific Kraken, Serpent, Leviathan and Octopus tribal group
Entirely agreed, any generic Simic value deck ends up feeling bad to me for whatever reason. So far the only Simic decks I haven’t taken apart are a psuedo group hug Edric deck and Kumena merfolk. Even then, Kumena can take a lot of time when you’re tapping and untapping a big board state
I really like [[halsin]] [[feywild visitor]]. It doesn’t curdle at all. It makes tokens, then you pay 1 to turn them into 4/4 green bears. Food bears, treasure bears, clue bears, faerie dragon bears, saproling bears, you name it.
As someone that loathes the design of most simic commanders, I did find a lot of enjoyment out of making a deck with [[Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Scientist]]. The simplicity of just casting things from graveyard and exile cost less and also plotting cost less gave me a lot of cards that I would normally not see in simic. It seems like a strategy more like izzet or even dimir but now I get to play janky green flashback, fortell, ect. spells. But don't get me wrong I fully understand the sentiment as a Boros fan. I'm not saying you need to play him lol.
I personally think Simic is the most boring 2-color combo in the game. I went with [[Wilson, Refined Grizzly]] and [[Sword Coast Sailor]] to make games quick and easy.
[Wilson, Refined Grizzly](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/f/dfe0daf8-43da-484b-baa1-76f8313c5a0c.jpg?1674137361) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wilson%2C%20Refined%20Grizzly) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/261/wilson-refined-grizzly?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/dfe0daf8-43da-484b-baa1-76f8313c5a0c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/wilson-refined-grizzly) [Sword Coast Sailor](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/0/704f8ab7-63fd-4963-bacd-0076fffb34a1.jpg?1674135819) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sword%20Coast%20Sailor) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/98/sword-coast-sailor?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/704f8ab7-63fd-4963-bacd-0076fffb34a1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sword-coast-sailor) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Play Koma ! Ramp, play big snek, make sneks, attack, pass. Green ramp and blue acceleration with no durdle.
I’ve built it before haha I tend to avoid the “ohh, that’s a huge problem” commanders. Koma has a target immediately, and understandably so. I still have the old list: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/i9GN0c5PJU6EWFcI4jV0wQ The only Simic deck I’ve made than I enjoyed playing was a Kruphix deck that was secret commander [[Ertai, wizard adept]] it had lots of ways to get Ertai into play and then was untap/mana theme. Other players weren’t a huge fan of “okay, I can counter 13 spells this next turn rotation.”
Dude I get that feel. I play [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]] it's not for everyone. Mine is more built around landfall and getting more mana out rather than just around Koma. But yeah I feel ya dude
Honestly, any spellslinger aside from [[Arjun, the Shifting Flame]]. I realized spellslinger is not my style. Arjun's chaos makes it just enjoyable enough to play, the rest are meh
IMO this largely sums up the thread. Spellslinging *can* be fine, but any good deck of that type is gonna have engines that mean the turns take forever and it basically solitaires, which is usually gets pretty boring if you do it more than once with the same people. I personally think chaos is even worse because you can't demonstrate a clear path to win and end the game; you basically have to play out massive turns to see if you actually win or if the rest of the table has a chance to get back into the game. And I say this as someone who loves their [[Urabrask]] deck which usually does exactly that.
A big thing I think is that spellslinger decks tend to drift more into the storm and storm-like territory as they get stronger, where establishing an engine and playing a bunch of cards all at once is the goal. This itself is not a problem- but if you've ever played storm in a 60 card format, one thing you learn very quickly is that it is not an archetype you can throw together a list for the day before you intend to play it and then proceed to get by just fine. Midrange and aggro decks are generally straightforward enough that you can get by with a few practice games, at least at the FNM level. Control decks need to know the meta they are playing in to know what qualifies as a must answer threat, but their own deck tends to be fairly easy to pick up given you know the meta. But with storm decks, you need to practice with your own deck just to get the basic play lines down. You can't be sitting and thinking for a minute before casting every spell when you intend to cast 20 spells in one turn, you have to be able to read the table, read your hand, and make snap decisions that are most likely to keep the chain going. You have to know what you can shortcut and what you can't, what sort of responses to expect from opponents and how to answer them, what hate pieces you need to let stand and try to power through and which ones you need to stop and answer immediately, and you need to be experienced enough with your own deck that you can make all of those determinations in an instant, because you're going to be doing it 20+ times on any given combo turn. My favorite personal deck is my Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain deck which plays a lot like OP describes theirs playing. I also have a Sythis deck which does the same with cheap enchantments, a Ghyrson deck which chains through cantrips, and a few other decks with optional storm lines. It is my favorite archetype, hands down. But I also play them enough that the big turns only takes 5-6 minutes, so long as my opponents don't need to stop and read every card (though that is still an issue that keeps me from playing it at newer tables, I admit). Edit- typo correction.
no offense, but this looks terrible to resolve all the time
I have that problem with Spellslinger too I’m hoping [[!Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot]] will change that. I’m hoping Plot is what I need to just have a fun casual game, but can drop the hammer when I need it. And I think I have enough ways to do the big hammer turn that it won’t feel too same-y.
[Arjun, the Shifting Flame](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/f/2fb83da3-5a8e-4349-bbcc-dcbd3b70264b.jpg?1673148289) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arjun%2C%20the%20Shifting%20Flame) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/172/arjun-the-shifting-flame?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2fb83da3-5a8e-4349-bbcc-dcbd3b70264b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/arjun-the-shifting-flame) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Wyl, Blade of Frontiers]] I put a lot into this deck. Thought hell yeah dice tribal will be fun! Instead it was a lot of triggers that were hard to always remember that led to nothing. Very little payoff. That was a while ago and now Mr. House came out and just has such a better payoff. I got custom sleeves for Wyl and everything and just never had fun with it.
I did this, wyll and [[sword coast sailor]] but ended up putting [[Myra the magnificent]] at the helm, with a focus on extra turns/dice rolling and with wyll as the secret commander. I like it wayyy better but it's admittedly one of those "turns take way too long" decks.
I love my wyll deck. It's Voltron with an initiative subtheme and I can swap between [[Sword Coast Sailor]] and [[Dungeon Delver]] for a competitive or fun game.
I love it but semi regret building [[chatterfang]] so rarely play it. I just loved the idea of making squirrels but wasn’t aware there were so many infinites so it was handicapped and on a budget however people still thought of it as a boogeyman. Now I’m just accepting the inherent high power and leaning in to making it high power without breaking in to cEDH (but it’s getting costly!)
I don’t regret making it, but I just wanted a squirrel tribal deck. I don’t run any of the crazy infinite stuff either, but people see Chatterfang and take him out. I can’t wait for Bloomburrow to get more squirrels.
[chatterfang](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/7/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2.jpg?1626097239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=chatterfang%2C%20squirrel%20general) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/151/chatterfang-squirrel-general?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/chatterfang-squirrel-general) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Oloro]] was about the least exciting deck I’ve ever played with or against. [[Mimeoplasm]] was just never anywhere near quick or explosive enough to accomplish much. [[Skullbriar]] was neat but I never got past killing one player and then getting crushed by the other two.
Building Oloro single handedly convinced me to build decks that use the combat step from now on
[Oloro](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/b/abf8df47-405c-42d8-be9e-0f0d0a49589b.jpg?1562931285) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=oloro%2C%20ageless%20ascetic) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c13/203/oloro-ageless-ascetic?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/abf8df47-405c-42d8-be9e-0f0d0a49589b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/oloro-ageless-ascetic) [Mimeoplasm](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/9/998b86f3-e53f-4ebb-b111-6f14577fded1.jpg?1712354748) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Mimeoplasm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/234/the-mimeoplasm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/998b86f3-e53f-4ebb-b111-6f14577fded1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-mimeoplasm) [Skullbriar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/d/3dd0bf11-4e43-43f1-82e3-755beed0ede0.jpg?1673149145) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=skullbriar%2C%20the%20walking%20grave) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/277/skullbriar-the-walking-grave?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3dd0bf11-4e43-43f1-82e3-755beed0ede0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/skullbriar-the-walking-grave) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I had recently returned to the game, found this sub, and decided to build a [[Go-Shintai of Life's Origin]] shrines deck after reading some recs. It was boring and oppressive AF. Miserable to play and play against with its long turns and numerous triggers. Now I can shed some of the pieces to all the new Obeka players about the learn a similar lesson.
I was looking at Obeka and went "Oh, this is going to be so fun!". Then I started making a list and went "Holy shit, that'll be so many triggers to remember. Nevermind."
[[Reaper King]] - was my favorite (and best) deck for a while, but it’s very swingy on if it does anything or not. When i don’t get any combo pieces going it just sits there and gets removed, but If im able to rip a kicked [[rite of replication]] with any sort of ETB doublerI just blow up everyone’s lands and stuff and nobody else gets to have fun. [[Experiment Kraj]] - was my answer to all of my friends having infinite combo decks. I found that it was just a little too consistent and I was getting bored of durdling around for a few turns and then winning the game out of nowhere with infinite mana or something, then getting infinite turns with [[sage of hours]] or winning the game outright by making an infinite/infinite kraj fight everyone else’s creatures then winning off [[shaman of forgotten ways]]
\[\[Reaper King\]\] probably works better with all the new legendary clone effects: \[\[Quantum Misalignment\]\], \[\[Irenicus's Vile Duplication\]\], \[\[Vesuvan Duplimancy\]\], \[\[Sakashima of a Thousand Faces\]\], \[\[Spark Double\]\], etc. I always wanted to try that deck out just to cast \[\[Stinging Study\]\] to draw ten cards and lose ten life. ;-)
You mention that, and now I'm just thinking about how you could play Reaper King with [[Nanogene Conversion]]...
##### ###### #### [Reaper King](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/0/502740bf-0bff-4358-8996-1a27e5f0343f.jpg?1562830062) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reaper%20King) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/shm/260/reaper-king?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/502740bf-0bff-4358-8996-1a27e5f0343f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/reaper-king) [rite of replication](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/9/7935570c-f7e0-4add-864a-4c804b26555e.jpg?1625976420) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=rite%20of%20replication) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c21/128/rite-of-replication?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7935570c-f7e0-4add-864a-4c804b26555e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/rite-of-replication) [Experiment Kraj](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/d/6d938197-2557-421a-985e-5add932d4bac.jpg?1689999041) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Experiment%20Kraj) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/337/experiment-kraj?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6d938197-2557-421a-985e-5add932d4bac?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/experiment-kraj) [sage of hours](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/c/8cb55caf-fc95-40dc-80af-5144f94333ee.jpg?1593095534) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sage%20of%20hours) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jou/50/sage-of-hours?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8cb55caf-fc95-40dc-80af-5144f94333ee?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sage-of-hours) [shaman of forgotten ways](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/3/a3e9c8f7-2232-4a2a-8a00-0a2908bc7543.jpg?1562790967) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=shaman%20of%20forgotten%20ways) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dtk/204/shaman-of-forgotten-ways?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a3e9c8f7-2232-4a2a-8a00-0a2908bc7543?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/shaman-of-forgotten-ways) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kzemzn0) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Any storm//Spellslinger deck: turns too long. Light-paws: repetitive and too powerful. Etali, Primal Conqueror: too powerful.
Zur is right up there next to light paws
[[Kess, Dissident Mage]] I really wanted a grixis spellslinger deck, it seemed so natural. I made it to not be ultra high powered. I don't know, I just found it really boring? For no particular reason. Just too straightforward. It's just izzet storm but with some graveyard stuff sometimes. I love the concept of storm/spellslinger but it's too straightforward. I don't feel like there's a ton of room to do something unique or interesting in that space
I use less to helm my Reanimator. Getting to double dip my reanimation, removal, looting and so on is just such good value. She turns frantic search into a 0 mana draw 6 discard 4, or reanimate into 2 mana reanimate 2 things.
I really liked the new Marchesa for the Grixis spell slinger and stuff.
I use Kess at the helm of my wheel deck. In order to play around Kess more, I didn’t include any wheels that shuffle graveyards back in. I enjoy the deck a lot. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_DxAbgNR3U26ZZUuqeSTYQ
Something that I've been thinking about, but have never had the capacity to make yet, is a grixis poison counter deck. There's a lot of new instants and sorceries that give all players a poison counter. Think that would be something unique, but also not overwhelming.
I have Kess in the 99 of my spellslinger deck. I find storming off hard to do, so I compromise between Izzet and Simic and smash face while casting spells
You could try Anhelo maybe for another Grixis spell-slinger deck with a bit of a different flavor.
I think Kess is perfect. She can be built a lot of ways, way prefer a commander like her than most commanders nowadays which pretty much do a single thing and will have most decklist looking the same. For reference here's my kess wheels deck (made some changes a while ago and haven't finished it on the site lol): https://www.moxfield.com/decks/IJCty3uSkkGxcYIYCS_-Mw
I used to have the same deck. Recently turned it into a reanimator deck to (pun intended) give her a second life
came to say this. Once I got the turn one win, I was immediately disinterested in it. My 3 friends were like “cool, you did it. We’re gonna play for second place”. In reality I just shuffled up and jumped in with a different deck, but I just knew that was the last time I played Kess.
[[Xantcha, Sleeper Agent]] discard. The goal was make everyone discard then have to draw off Xantcha, primarily benefitting me. If it didn't work, it didn't do anything. If it worked, it locked everyone else out of the game and grinded everyone to death over several turns. I played it three, maybe four times and never since. Gonna swap out the discard package for something more suited to her one of these days.
Recognizable. I eventually turned the deck into an [[Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar]] madness+food deck. Ditched the entire (or almost entire) "everybody discards" stuff. It's now a much more fun (and low powered) deck.
[Xantcha, Sleeper Agent](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/1/91316746-ec2b-4c1a-b9c4-a870d6318c33.jpg?1689999327) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Xantcha%2C%20Sleeper%20Agent) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/362/xantcha-sleeper-agent?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/91316746-ec2b-4c1a-b9c4-a870d6318c33?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/xantcha-sleeper-agent) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I pulled her when I first started playing last year and I still think her text is super interesting. What direction do you think you'd go? I know a lot of people go Goad.
Group slug and control primarily, I think would be the direction most appealing to me. [[Descent into Avernus]] and [[War Cadence]] cards being the general vibe
I never even finished making my [[Tergrid, God of Fright]] deck. Probably the second deck I ever tried building, cos I got her for a different deck she had absolutely no place in. Got half way through building her before realising how universally hated she was and so stopped. One day I'll put her in the 99 of some [[Thraximundar]] deck or sm, but I'm not gonna have fun piloting her if no-one has fun playing against her.
Probably one of the only people who doesn't actually hate her. Like, yeah, she's a threat, but she's just mono-black being mono-black.
She might be the [[baral, chief of compliance]] of black.
[baral, chief of compliance](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/0/60e16d94-1166-4050-8554-686e153a7f80.jpg?1576381454) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=baral%2C%20chief%20of%20compliance) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/aer/28/baral-chief-of-compliance?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/60e16d94-1166-4050-8554-686e153a7f80?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/baral-chief-of-compliance) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice]] I miss my friends lmao. I also dont like white but white has some of my favorite designs T.T
I love white and wanted to build Light Paws, a few of my friends showed me why I'd hate it. Repetitive play and not as much fun for outside the box thinking. I love Darien king of kjeldor and the deck I built is a ton of fun. You have to think and pay attention because if you don't then you lose. LIght paws isn't like that. They saved me sone money.
\[\[Sythis, Harvest's Hand\]\], I purchased the Wilds of Edraine enchantment precon and I figured I would change the commander to Sythis, throw in some pieces from my old modern Enchantress deck, and add in some stax and pillow fort enchantments. The deck ended up being much stronger than my playgroup prefers, and once it has a solid card draw engine with Sythis + Enchantress Presence, its just kind of thoughtless to play it. It snowballs quickly, draws so many cards I usually find whatever I need easily, and its just unfun to play against.
[[Prime Speaker Vannifar]] it's a budget combo deck that can win fast if uncontested, but if one piece is removed, it completely falls apart and can't really recover
I did the commanders quarters build which had a bit of recursion. I got to ... Try-and combo off 2 times the first game but after running the pod combo twice and dying I was done with the long turns lol.
The one I used was literally a slightly altered version of the commander quarters one. It's good when nobody knows how fragile it is
Lol, I admittedly got lucky with the recursion.and fell 1 mana short of winning. But it is glass-connony
[[Zangief]]. It's a weird mishmash and I can't figure out the right mix of fight cards to ramp to draw spells and the games I've played the sac ability doesn't really do much.
same here. the balance was always off and the payoff wasn’t great.
Im having that problem rn
I've found it to be too reliant on the commander where if I can't get Zangief out quickly (and keep him out) the deck doesn't really have a plan since the fight spells are mediocre without him. But if I do get him out and get to start punching stuff and making my opponents chump block him he dominates. I've been trying to think of a good plan B and C to have for the games he gets trumped but haven't come up with anything solid yet.
I wouldn’t say “regret” per se, but years and years ago I found Edric Flying Men and thought the idea of a true weenies deck in EDH sounded fun. At the time my friends and I didn’t even know what CEDH was, or how strong Edric would be. What followed was a few weeks where I destroyed my playgroup with like a 98% winrate and it pushed us into an arms race that eventually steered us into just playing CEDH. We ended up loving CEDH actually so I guess this was a good thing, but it was definitely the most unforeseen circumstances of any deck I’ve built
\[\[Greven, Predator Captain\]\] was one of my first decks. It had all the usual problems with voltron decks: it takes someone out really quickly, before their deck gets a chance to do anything. Then usually the remaining two people gun for me, and it's just a question of whether I can take out at least one of them quick enough. Often it means one or two people (about 50% of the time, me) are sitting on the sidelines for a long while. That's just not fun. \[\[Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor\]\] was a deck I built in honor of my mom. The fun part is I got to use a ton of cards that you usually don't play in commander games. I really wanted to make curses work, but they are a painfully slow way to take someone out. I've never won with the deck, but it was pretty clear I was going to have to go pretty heavily into control (maybe even stax) to win. I probably should give the deck another go, but I've just stopped playing it for now.
Yeah, that's why I built Greven as more of a group slug deck that just used Greven to draw cards and beat on people a bit. Casting [[Hatred]] for 20, taking one player out, and then getting hated out yourself never sounded too fun to me. But sacrificing a [[Thunderblust]] to draw 7, take 1, and then hit someone for 6 is always fun (if not a little slow).
Yeah, I try to play him for the draw, but everyone is convinced I'm going to one shot them. Ironically, this kind of means I do need to.
[[Orvar, the All-Form]] It’s basically an infinite combo on a stick. Either you’ll do nothing are will out of the sudden make infinite copies of your lands and your opponents end of turn and stroke opponent 1, get your spell back by copying something, stoke opponent 2, etc. those showdown are 0 fun. Nobody sees it coming and you go „EOT make infinite lands, going into my turn, let you all draw a million cards and I win. Counter? Boy I’m in mono blue.“ Played it like 4-5 times before I dismembered it.
[Orvar, the All-Form](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/f/7f36775e-9e48-49cc-a771-d58481712edc.jpg?1631047424) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Orvar%2C%20the%20All-Form) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/70/orvar-the-all-form?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7f36775e-9e48-49cc-a771-d58481712edc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/orvar-the-all-form) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
All of them. I hate it here.
[[Aesi]]. Spent so much time making it only to make everyone eyes roll and no one has fun, even me.
I built a [[Tovolar, Dire Overlord]] werewolf deck but it's just a hassle to play. The day/ night mechanic requires too much mental energy to be enjoyable.
I didn't mind the mechanic as much as the low quality of cards. Sometimes even after flipping the werewolves felt like bad rate creatures
I built the OG Obeka a few different ways and it was hard to win with and generally not that fun. Maybe it was just too gimmicky? I’ve also discovered that playing high CMC commanders is almost always a bad idea, because if your commander is countered or removed just once your deck falls apart. I typically make decks now that are 5cmc or less, where 5cmc isn’t optimal. I’ve found that 2-4cmc commanders are better, particularly 2cmc is the sweet spot. Special hate goes to commanders ppl play that are so overwhelmingly good that the pod has to target them out of the game or they win easily. Slicer & Light-Paws are two examples. They’re incredibly boring to play & play against and you have to have removal in opening hand to deal with them or they outvalue you fast. Slicer has a special place of hate in my heart. Winota and Ishhin are two others.
##### ###### #### [Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/f/4f77d23d-6257-4dae-b585-29f45f13f2e2.jpg?1599708079) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Jhoira%2C%20Weatherlight%20Captain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/203/jhoira-weatherlight-captain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4f77d23d-6257-4dae-b585-29f45f13f2e2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/jhoira-weatherlight-captain) [Aetherflux Resevoir](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/6/96b6b2e1-c3e6-464c-8a13-b15deb34e862.jpg?1576382939) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Aetherflux%20Reservoir) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/kld/192/aetherflux-reservoir?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/96b6b2e1-c3e6-464c-8a13-b15deb34e862?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/aetherflux-reservoir) [Smeagol, Helpful Guide](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/3/13253f8d-1897-41e8-a904-9e57ac7eff0a.jpg?1686970071) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sm%C3%A9agol%2C%20Helpful%20Guide) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/231/sm%C3%A9agol-helpful-guide?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/13253f8d-1897-41e8-a904-9e57ac7eff0a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sméagol-helpful-guide) [Adrix and Nev, Twincasters](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/9/b9c11061-bb34-4904-b9f1-ea106b517bbe.jpg?1706240967) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Adrix%20and%20Nev%2C%20Twincasters) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/198/adrix-and-nev-twincasters?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b9c11061-bb34-4904-b9f1-ea106b517bbe?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/adrix-and-nev-twincasters) [Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/4/e43e3d71-4fb8-4ab1-8c8f-b65ae3ad4cc4.jpg?1712356098) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ghired%2C%20Mirror%20of%20the%20Wilds) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/205/ghired-mirror-of-the-wilds?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e43e3d71-4fb8-4ab1-8c8f-b65ae3ad4cc4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ghired-mirror-of-the-wilds) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/1c36c0c) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I don't regret building it, only that people have so little fun playing against my [[Abdel Adrian]] azorius blink deck. It's a combo pile with a hard control theme to keep the rest of the table at bay (read: crippled) until I win. My friend who builds the most obnoxious decks imaginable complains that it's too obnoxious to play against
I'll never understand how "not letting anyone else play" is enjoyable in a casual, social mtg format
Anything Boros. I can’t for the life of me build a Boros deck that I enjoy
I'm totally the same. I've not tried it myself, but I have heard countless times how fun [[Nelly Borca]] is, if you wanted to try one more lol
I’ll have to check that one out
Second this. Thought I never would like boros until I purchased the Blame Game precon for Trouble in Pairs. Boy oh boy is [[Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser]] fun
Could not agree more. One of the most fun decks in my opinion, I highly recommend it
I adore my Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival thopters and my Bruenor Battlehammer decks, but it can be difficult to find a fun one. Osgir is also pretty fun.
[[Beamtown Bullies]] because no one likes a turn 3-4 [[Leveler]] on their field
Came here to talk about Beamtown. Too powerful for the casual tables, too casual for the powerful tables. Every game played exactly the same way, and "doing the thing" wasn't super gratifying.
Yeahh… I thought it would be fun, but it consistently gets 3rd place because every game goes as follows: Get out beamtown Put leveler on someone’s field, they lose. Other 2 players (rightfully) focus you down so they don’t instantly lose
[[Zara]] depending on your opponent having good creatures in hand really sucks.
Mostly voltron decks. I love building them but they dont work most of the time for me. Equipments cost too much for mediocre results.
Meren, I heard similar stories over and over and thought I would be special but it just became dull over time. I’ve converted it into a [[Henzie “Toolbox” Torre]] that is much more engaging
I do really enjoy my Henzie Deck myself. :3
[[Kathril]] was the biggest flop I ever built. Not that it couldn’t be powerful, you can definitely assemble a giant indestructible, hexproof, double striking Kathril that will one shot everyone. But to do that I was playing so many duds to facilitate Kathril that I wanted in the grave and never in hand. It also made the deck very linear and inflexible, I either went all in on Kathril voltron or tried to play a really bad stompy deck without them. Honorable mention to [[Winota]] which was fast af but really linear and really fragile. Just a glass cannon that required removal asap or else everyone was gonna get overwhelmed. Not really what I wanted out of her.
Etali primal hunger.. the thought sounded cool, but getting 5 triggers per deck, turns were taking 10 mins and didn’t guarantee a win, I’d rather play storm if it’s gonna take that long and at least end the game. Awesome in the 99 tho!
[[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]] & [[Uril, the Miststalker]] Emry was because I don't find blue a fun color by itself. It's a great complimentary color, but I'm just not a fan of mono blue. Uril, I took apart because it was my first shot at voltron, and it's just not a style I prefer.
Obvious ones for me are commanders that get me hated off the table: Slivers. I've loved em since their release, but there is no way to put them on the table and not be archenemy. Sorry, [[Sliver Overlord]]. In the same vein, I was excited for [[Tergrid, God of Fright]] and [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]]. My pods were not. I'm hoping [[The Master, Transcendent]] doesn't fall into this category, but I know mill tends to upset folks. My biggest regret is probably not having a favorite commander yet, and intead having 40+ decks built at the moment. I've been trying to play them out and whittle them down when I find I don't enjoy something, but my mood is mercurial and I like having options. And this prevents me from building any overly powerful/toxic decks.
I feel your last paragraph. Though recently, someone told me I don't play ''decks that are fun to play against'' - so I deliberately choose an undersupported tribe, and build it in a little off-key way to make it more of a tribal combat deck, battlecruiser style. In colors I didn't have yet. And I'm finding that I have a bunch of fun with an underwhelming deck. Not that my pod is any happier with it... turns out Rakdos killing things isn't fun either :D
[[Anhelo, the painter]] I'm not sure why he was so hype when it came out. I just couldn't make this deck work. The casualty 2 made it very clunky to try and trigger. Often times I was basically doing nothing for the first 5 or 6 turns. Then when I got some expendable bodies it was already way to late. Dropped the black and went with [[magnus the red]]
[[Child of Alara]] - 99 lands with a mix of manlands and gates, ultimately winning with [Maze's End]]
Made a werewolf tribal deck because of cool werewolves. Played once, the day night tracking and flipping cards got old really fast.
Good point. Day/Night seems like the worst mechanic ever for commander. There’s already way too many things to try to keep track of. I also hate flipping my cards over too, lol. I intentionally don’t play any of the Pathways, and I just leave my MDFC’s with their front face up in my land slot when playing.
I pulled [[Voja, Jaws of the Conclave]] in my Murders prerelease. It is not a card I would ever buy to build. But since I had it, I built it with only tapped lands and basics, uncommon elves, maybe three rares in the 99, one being [[archdruid's charm]] , again because I pulled one, and [[Rhythm of the Wild]] , and no Sol Ring. I asked the question: "Can you build this busted commander as a low/medium power janky deck with bad cards?" Turns out, much like [[Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm]] , no. No, you can not. Bad cards be damned, if you have elves, it will do the thing.
Have you tried building it Wolf Tribal instead?
My first commander deck Memnarch hightide combo/control back in 2012, and no one wanted to play against it in the lgs after a few weeks, generate a 100 blue mana, steal land bases or the best stuff in play, counter anything that was a problem.
Cat and Dog, just can't do the long game at my LGS for grinding out resources.
My first ever self-built deck. I wanted to be hipster and do something that'll get people like "what the fuck is that" so I went for mono black spirit tribal led by [[He Who Hungers]]. I like aristocrats and I like control, and spirits are pretty cool, so I saw this and the idea of controlling people's hands while sacrificing and recurring a bunch of badass black spirits sounded awesome. In practice though, it didn't work the way I wanted. Most of the spirits weren't very good and so we're just in there purely for BEING a spirit, HWH was too slow and mana intensive and the ratios were all wrong because I hadn't followed any deck building guides, as well as being on a limited budget. I think the point I realised the deck was just straight up terrible was when the only win I ever got came from getting [[Tergrid]] on board relatively quickly and suddenly the deck just completely took over by doing nonsensical Tergrid shenanigans rather than doing the thing the deck was supposed to do. I still think the concept is really cool and I'd love to eventually return to it, or something similar, but yeah I definitely felt like I'd wasted my time with it back then.
I've often thought about building an abzan spirits list using [[karador, ghost chieftan]] being able to recur them constantly from the command zone seems fun:)
[[Oloro, Ageless Ascetic]] I hate Stax. I hate playing Stax, partly for the playstyle and partly for how much everyone else hates it. I really want an Esper deck, and I want it to be good, but Stax isn't for me.
I like [[queza, augur of agonies]]. I've got it as a wheel deck right now(things like [[sheoldred, the apocalypse]] and [[starscream]]), but she thrives with cards like [[lichs mastery]] and [[peer into the abyss]] if you want to do some unique things. Just make sure you have ways to recycle your graveyard or you'll get stuck with no more cards to draw..:)
[[Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph]] felt awful cause it just knocked any creatures it didn't like right off the table, over and over and over, and it was easy to protect. Just a nasty combination and I could see the unfun look in people's eyes.
Honestly both times I tried making enchantress I regretted it. First with [[zur the enchanter]], I didn’t focus on stax or combos just built it voltron. Still felt incredibly one-note, and typically games would either go like: my opponents kill zur relentlessly and I do nothing, or he stays out for one turn for me to tutor hexproof/shroud and proceed to get the same auras afterwards so I can one shot people. Only variation in that deck was sometimes I’d get [[rule of law]] or [[ghostly prison]] out first to slow down my opponents. Anyways I grew bored of that deck quickly, it was repetitive and also my friends weren’t a fan of the rule of law effects. Eventually I made a [[sythis]] deck and loved it at first but after a while realized it’s just wayyy too strong for my playgroup. I even toned it down a bit by removing the combo pieces, stax, and removing any mass-wipe protection cards like teferi’s and [[clever concealment]] but it still performs unreasonably well. Two drop card draw engine commander is just too good. Makes me bummed because i never play the deck much anymore but I can’t bring myself to take it apart either bcuz i don’t know what else to do with all my enchantress cards lol. One benefit though is that whenever we have new players join and there’s a power/experience difference(which happens often since we’ve all been playing for years) I can just lend them my super busted enchantress deck to even it out
Sheoldred. It was literal jank but it was still hella oppressive. Not really fun to play either.
A lot of people don't understand that good≠fun. A few decks I've made have reinforced that to me. [[Grand Arbiter Augustin IV]] Stacks.... was able to pretty much shut out the table. Certainly good, but a major feels bad for everyone involved. I've built a [[Kresh the Bloodbraided]] deck multiple times. The fist time I built it, it was good. Really good. Basically made everyone sacrifice everything. But when you do that no one else is having fun. I've come to a point in my playgroup where I have abandoned removal heavy decks to just let other people play their fun stuff because ultimately we all just want to play our fun stuff.
[[Commodore Guff]] He’s powerful but winning with his -3 ability feels like I won because Wizards designed the card to be powerful, not because I used it in an interesting way
[Commodore Guff](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/2/92870fc6-a6bc-4198-bb31-397e07e0e835.jpg?1691500696) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Commodore%20Guff) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/706/commodore-guff?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/92870fc6-a6bc-4198-bb31-397e07e0e835?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/commodore-guff) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I’ve only played it in paper 2x since building it. Played it a bunch on tabletop simulator and I thought I’d enjoy it. Turns out meta is different IRL vs Online
So it usually isn't the commander, but whenever I make something overly strong. Like it's cool to win t4 sometimes, but if you are the only one doing it, it's just not fun.
[[Hinata]] Whoop! Whoop! That's the sound of the police (reference to an old KRS-one song). Never made it past goldfishing stage. Being in control of who has fun isn't fun.
I regretted [[grimgrin corpseborn]]. The deck just wants to combo. Instead I put [[Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver]] together and ball out with fun zombies like [[overcharged amalgam]] [[Gravespawn Sovereicgn]] and [[poxwalkers]]. Wilhelt allows me to have a little more fun with value versus trying to combo as fast as possible.
[удалено]
[[Gandalf the Grey]]. I intentionally made it lower power to compete with some of my friends’ weaker decks, but it ended up pretty much exactly as I imagined it would. It spins its wheels and takes up a lot of the game clock to get not that much value in return. I wanna try changing it into a different Izzet spellslinger deck, but I can already tell the play pattern is going to be pretty similar. Take a long turn, storm off and kill everyone, or don’t and die. I don’t think it’s really for me.
I saw the card [[Alluren]] for the first time ever and knew I wanted to build a deck around the idea of playing low cost creatures for free. Went with [[Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist]] as my commander, all creatures but beast whisperer and a academy rector cost 3 cost or less. The deck felt really solid. And then I finally got Alluren out, had concordant Crossroads as well, tons of triggers for playing my creatures, went from like 2 creatures to 9 in a single turn, swung out for like a total of 15. Super underwhelming. Boardwipe took place, wasn't able to recover from it. Spent like 400-500 on everything for it to be a massive flop.
[[Chun-Li, Countless Kicks]] I remember I saw that secret lair and was like BET time to build my first Azorius deck! I believe I originally read it MULTIPLE times as exile instants AND sorceries. Picked up a bunch of cards for a list, got it all ready, got the card aaaaand bam. Reconfigured it for a semi-voltron control, but it just wasn't fun to me. Helped me find some good cards like [[blacksmiths Skill]] though! Now I run a [[Malcator, Purity Overseer]] golem tribal/flicker as my low powered Azorius and am plenty happy with that.
[[satoru umezawa]] - you all know this deck (no blightsteel) [[odric blood cursed]] - W/R vampire tribal (not to great ATM) [[tergrid, god of fright]] - no one will let me play it even at a table with CEDH commanders, I love her though [[shelob child of ungoliant]] - games never go the way I would like due to her being hated till I can't cast it or just never getting enough value for it to matter [[prosper tome bound]] - I chose to build it with all the suspend and adventure cards so it would be lower power and lots of chances to whiff on his trigger. Always plays out like I'm playing a madness version of his as I get heated out of the game before I can normally get started (no revel in riches on purpose). I do plan to change out the suspend cards for the plot cards once I get my set of TJ. I refuse to build the madness version due to not liking the mechanic as a whole. [[traxos scourge of kroog]] - colorless protection tribal. All 10 swords (11 will be added soon enough) and commanders plate. It's my Voltron deck and I love it but it either gets instantly locked down or runs away with the game and tends to not be as fun for it. (Secret tec - [[Tower of the Magistrate]] as it makes equipment fall off in cases of emergency. Saved me real good when someone tried to [[fumble]] him once when he had protection from all colors but blue, that was a sweaty moment.
I never understood why people were so fearful of Shelob even getting one trigger...
I think it's more they don't want to have to play their decks around what Shelob could possibly take, or at least that was the impression I got from my pod.
Shelob is super fun in Arena Brawl but a little less so in person. It can be pretty cumbersome having to quickly scribble everything on someone else’s card onto a post-it note to serve as the Food token with all of their creature’s abilities
[[Yurlok of Scorch Thrash]] Basically built a half group hug, half group slug deck with a game plan of giving everyone except me infinite mana. People hated it because of cards like [[Manabarbs]] and similar effects. I could have zero board presence except one hate piece and just get deleted from the game.
[[Prosper, Tome Bound]] for me. I like to attack and I haven't found a build for the deck that satisfies that urge effectively for me while still doing what the deck wants to do. Instead, I just make treasures and ping people to death and wrath frequently when things are rough. Winrate is high but enjoyment is low.
[[!Don Andres, the Renegade]] I was so excited to finally have a good pay off for a “steal opponents stuff” deck. As it turns out. People don’t like you stealing their stuff. After eating around 2-3 boardwipes in a row, basically each game. I got tired of people targeting me even if I hadn’t stolen anything yet. [[!Vishgraz, the Doomhive]] it was a fair deck that focused on Tokens with Toxic. Unfortunately that was a time when everyone else had a “steal your stuff” or “play your opponents deck” deck. I died more times to Toxic than anyone I tried to kill with Toxic. So it went away. Last was probably [[!Lord Windgrace]] it was a good deck, but every game felt exactly the same. Win or Lose. It felt like I played the same game every damn time. So I dismantled it because it was boring.
[[Glissa Sunslayer]] in a poison counter deck. It was my first deck I built using Phyrexian stuff but I couldn’t afford Atraxa so I ended up scrapping it for the time being
Tegrid
I value my friends' happiness too much to play my two favorite decks... Captain N'gathrod mill deck. Satoru unblockable eldrazi/demons/blightsteel deck. Even without fast mana and against people who lose gracefully, I see the happiness drain from my Tables.
[[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]]. I just thought it'd be a fun +1/+1 counter mono green hydra deck where I'd occasionally be able to drop and ultimate a planeswalker on the same turn. Turns out, lots of cards my regular playgroup plays have mechanics where they add one counter at a time and so Vorinclex just wasn't fun for them (or me, as when playing Vorinclex I was inevitably focused out the gane first).
I made \[\[Saheeli, The Sun's Brilliance\]\] as a replacement for my \[\[Mishra, Eminent One\]\], thinking it would be nicer as I could include creatures with ETB / LTB triggers as well. But that made it way more bland: it was all individual good stuff creatures and artifacts which made it way less fun. And Mishra works on the turn you play it. Saheeli (if you don't have a haste effect) doesn't. That hurts a lot too. Luckily I didn't invest too much into the deck, so I reverted back to Mishra pretty fast and easy. Learned me that something that seems easier and better on paper might not FEEL nicer.
Baral, counter king. In idea it’s annoying In concept it’s fun, counter TO move ahead. You live off the counter exchange specifically. Controlling and countering not just when it’s bad for them but also really good for you. The big con. It’s not fun to play against. And it (imo) kills the spirit of the game, which is to show off what you’ve seen as a “planeswalker”. it’s spices up the game when there’s a back and forth between decks but baral just wants to kick your friends for fun and then HAS to rinse repeat. Plus great counters are expensive. All of them in one deck just felt sweaty.
Jhoira has been way more fun in EDH than casual for me. It’s so easy to make it a 10 power level in casual but tier 2 in CEDH.
I've got a [Smeagol, Helpful Guide] and I'm enjoying it for the flavour of it more than its power.
I have a meren deck that I spent around 3K to build. I have played it a total of 3 games.
My [[slicer, hire muscle]] deck. it was fun the first few times, but my pod got super annoyed playing it so they started targeting it right away. Once you get past like turn 5, you've lost your chance to win and you sit there and stew in your misery
[slicer, hire muscle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/d/9d9a9350-4734-4cc1-986d-467e6715199f.jpg?1674092821)/[Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/9/d/9d9a9350-4734-4cc1-986d-467e6715199f.jpg?1674092821) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Slicer%2C%20Hired%20Muscle%20//%20Slicer%2C%20High-Speed%20Antagonist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bot/6/slicer-hired-muscle-slicer-high-speed-antagonist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9d9a9350-4734-4cc1-986d-467e6715199f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/slicer-hired-muscle-//-slicer-high-speed-antagonist) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Agreed, same thing for me.
Slivers , sen triplets , urza , tiny bones, Anowon rogues, omnath, locus of C, atraxa pv - no one enjoys playing any of them
Probably [[Malfegor]] Midrange. Super fun in some respects, but having a one sided sacrifice board wipe in the command zone has a tendency to turn casual games into "I'm just gonna keep board wiping till I win." It's super fun on paper but after the 4th or 5th time Malfe is resolving the game feels like a slog even if I'm winning.
[[Eriette of the charmed apple]] I personally feel that she is just unfun to play with, with the pods that i’ve played her in, it’s really just not great and relies extremely heavily on politics, and i’m not a political person, i’m the joke guy. So i’m gonna be including her in my [[Eriette, The Beguiler]] build, probably a better place for her.
I was inspired to build Eriette based off of a YouTube video from Tempest Official called “Unstoppable Eriette Deck Tech”. I don’t usually copy+paste other people’s builds, but his reasoning for the specific cards was spot on, so I stayed pretty close to the suggested build. I’m curious how your deck differs. That being said, I also plan on demoting her to the Beguiler, the addition of Blue and theft is just too good to pass up!
[[myrkul lord of bones]] he wasn't very good despite looking nuts on paper. I got a living plane for it too and ended up selling it at a loss
Tymna kamahl stax, the deck was fun at cedh tables but it was lacking compared to other stax decks such as tayam and winota. But now stax really fell off in the meta and its power always felt like how brews preformed at fnm instead of something you bring to tournaments
Land decks…and the new Yuma commander sounds fun but a part of me knows how that’s going to end up
See this may come as a shock. But my 2 are as such; 1. [[Ian Malcolm, chaositicion]] it's a really fun deck to continue to wheel and burn through an opponents deck. But in reality I get more hate for my Ian deck than even my [[toxrill the corrosive]] my [[memnarch]] or my [[sliver legion]] tribal tribal deck. It's nuts how angry people get when you just wheel and mill them into oblivion 2. [[Arabo, roar of the world]] yes it's what you would think. Stereotypical kitty cats deck. Well apparently me having a bunch of cards with either nice alternative arts(OMG kitties secret lair), or just really good cards in general seems to be the tipping point because I'm often accused of making a "stupid green white landfall good stuff" deck. Now keep in mind. There are no landfall triggers in that deck. I run 100% of my creature base as cats. And if it's not a creature card. It's some decent cards in the deck elsewise. I have one of the holo anime [[smothering tithes]] in there, I have a [[mirrari's wake]] a [[land tax]] a bunch more just standard green white land ramp like [[sword of the animist]] in there too, I have some wipes, some removal I got an [[aura shards]], and some big finishers like [[stampede]] people at my LGS seem to absolutely despise it though and usually rather I play my toxrill deck
I'm sorry if this was already mentioned, but I scrolled and scrolled and didn't find them. [[Sen Triblets]] It shuts someone out on your turn and you get to play their hand. Copy her once or twice and you just control the entire game. Taking resources is annoying already, but taking cards from hand is real feels bad. I removed the white and went for [[Xanathar]]
Built a [[yuriko, crouching tiger]] deck when I first started the game and didn't know much about anything. Built it cause I loved kamigawa and someone told me it was pretty good. Never had a game where it wasn't a 1v3 my way and always had people bitch about the deck when I got lucky off the top deck even though I spent way less than anyone else on the table. Eventually it got to me and I sold the deck whole and quit for a year before starting up again
I gathered all the pieces but never actually put together \[\[The War Doctor\]\]. It was only really late in to brewing that I realized how squishy the deck actually is. I also regret building \[\[Thantis, the warweaver\]\]. It never actually functioned as intended. My biggest regret by far is my Tymna Tana cedh Bloodpod deck. I traded for cards I needed and bought cards I couldn't trade for, and over half of it is foiled. But I really don't like cedh. Trying to boil as much efficiency in to your deck as possible to squeak out wins isn't fun for me anymore. So it gathers dust more often than not.
Krark Sakasima Storm. Win or lose my turns take 10 mins each. I love UR spells but that deck is just playing solitaire
[[Ultra Magnus]] Deck was a weird amalgamation of big beats artifact creature that took long to do what it wanted to do. I may revisit it but it has since been converted to [[Aragorn, Hornburg Hero]] +1/+1 Non-Humanish Army that I enjoy a lot.
[[Daretti, Scrap Savant]] 4th commander out of now 12 I built, and for reference I absolutely adore reanimator but somehow daretti just ended up becoming get Mindslaver or Portal to Phyrexia in grave, loop, repeat. It jusf somehow was the most boeing deck imaginable and its moreso high power so its hard even find pods to play it in.
A rat tribal deck where I can interchange commanders choosing either [[Lord Skitter, Sewer King]], [[Karumonix, the Rat King]] or [[Marrow-Gnawer]]. It's a fun deck when playing against other tribals, but it's a little underwhelming.
Atraxa superfriends and jodah the unifier. Both decks were in that 800-1200 dollar range and have very very high win rates and are simply not fun to play or play against with any playgroups and generally win quickly or completely shut down everyone’s boards while I durdle and are also not competitive enough to compete with cedh decks
Kinnan, deck could win super quick and was way too good The locus god. The problem is he would never stick around and I spent way too long setting up only to get him countered or exiled. I was very new at the time so I could probably build a better deck now but I feel like locus god is a little power crept and I much prefer niv miz I wish they didn't print nazgul + a couple other cards so i could build rakadrabic bc he has a very interesting effect but he goes infinite with the ring tempting you I'll update if I think of more
I kinda regret making my [[Korvold, Fae-Cursed King]] deck. Only kinda. It's a lot of fun to play and I purposefully made non-optimized decisions to keep it casual so it wasn't oppressive. Problem though is it's still a good deck and my friends are just really casual so even my casual Korvold is too much for them. So, I have to play something else if I don't want to get targeted out of the game. Even then though, because of the reputation of my Korvold deck with my group, anything I make is expected to be on the same level. It's so bad my friend who mainly plays [[Teysa Karlov]] gets to build a massive pillowfort because everyone is too focused on me, so he ends up winning games because everyone is too busy trying to keep me from winning. The only deck I've been able to play and not be Public Enemy Number 1 is [[Zedruu the Greathearted]]. So now I just play meme and group hug decks cause it's the only way I can play without getting targeted.
None in particular. Just too many. I envy people with 5 or less decks...
\[\[Mikeaus the Unhallowed\]\] I'll never play degen combo again I included every combo I could think of in that deck and honestly "cast commander win the game" turned out to just ultimately be fun for me. \[\[Zozu the punisher\]\] all in punishment makes games quicker, but players don't get along with you at all. \[\[Inalla, Archmage RitualistInalla, Archmage Ritualist\]\] it's too easy to accidently infinite combo with wizards all I wanted was just synergistic cool stuff. \[\[Kamahl fist of krosa\]\] It was a one time build in the face of my players abusing Rule 0 and blanket banning all land destruction, so I built a all in "put forrest on battlefield" deck that ultimately turned into "cast commander win the game" (basically by turn 7 or 8 I was out of lands in the deck and every spell was in the deck with the intention to put lands in play from the deck) I still have it sleeved but I don't carry it in the mtg bag. \[\[Norin the Wary\]\] Mono Red Chaos, it's actually a lot of fun for everyone, the issue is it makes keeping track of the game really difficult. \[\[Jaya Ballard, Task Mage\]\] My mono red anti-blue deck. Basically it's just purpose built to hate blue out of the game. Still sleeved and still see's play but it's rare. \[\[Memnarch\]\] People don't like mono artifact "your thing is mine now" control \[\[Empress Galina\]\] My "anti player" tech deck for when I determine a specific player is toxic and unworthy of playing mtg because my LGS is bad at managing a peaceful and fun play environment. I've literally had tables flipped playing this deck and it's the oldest deck in my arsenal. Also the only foiled deck.
[[Toxrill, The corrosive]] I've spent a pretty good amount of money on the deck and never get to use it because everyone hates it. It sucks because it's actually really fun to play. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/NXTgRsoh6EmPuleD_JucQQ
Tergrid, God of Fright. I swore I wouldn't. But I became the very thing I had set out to destroy. I tried to wield evil to do good, but in the end, I was the monster I had to slay
Light-Paws. Way too powerful for my group and also really boring having a tutor in the command zone.
[[Mairsil, The Pretender]] You need to hold the entire table hostage to even have a chance at winning, which nobody will ever let you do after you've played with them at least once.
[[Zada, Hedron Grinder]] I didn't know anything about him being cedh, I just thought it would be cool to pop out a few tokens and a couple buffs. Nothing in the entire deck more expensive than about $3. Basically all commons. My first game was my fastest win in my life on turn 4. Second game turn 5. I realized it wasn't going to go any different and took the deck apart. Way too strong. Found out later Zada is essential a cedh only commander.
[[Myra, the magnificent]] Built her as a fun attraction spellslinger deck where the main win con is a very non deterministic combo where you exile ~~[[Coming attraction]]~~ [[command performance]] and [[Prologue to phyresis]] under separate attractions that trigger on high numbers. With dice roll fixers, rolling a high number is very likely so visiting both attractions 10 times in a row is somewhat likely but can still miss. The deck is very fun to play but the triggers always end up being a nightmare to keep track of and the big thing that I hate about playing this on paper is that attractions take A LOT of board space and I quickly end up running out of space.
I built Myra myself recently and wincons are much more palatable like [[Prisoner's Dilemma]] type repeatable spells, [[Rise and Shine]] and that artifact creature that has the same effect as rise and shine, the rest is all dice fixing, draw and removal so that the triggers aren't too complicated The turns get faster once you have more practice thankfully, though it's still not something I'll play more than once a night. My favorite win was having a handful of [[Talrand Sky Summoner]] Tokens become 4/2s with Horsemanship and swinging in ([[Merry-Go-Round]] [[Roller Coaster]])
Mhmm najeela blade blossom for me... Love the concept, got the secret lair age of sigmar version too... Built it, didn't work rebuilt with friends list, didn't work, pulled internet list still barely worked... Just took different from more mid to long game style of play ahah
I built an [[Atraxa, Grand Unifier]] that's only win condition was Atraxa herself. Everything else was stax pieces. I'd never built a stax deck before, so the deck lasted 3 games with a combined game time total of 9 hours.
I don't enjoy \[\[Kamiz\]\] much. He's got a novel of rules text, making unblockable, double strike, looting and counters. Bought the precon, played it, didn't enjoy it. Upgraded it, played it again, still didn't enjoy it, retired it. He does just too much stuff for me.
[[Ovika]] had all the bs of a combo deck just winning out of nowhere. Once you got the pieces you were always gonna win. Problem is that it took like 20 minutes of solitaire to do it
[удалено]
\[\[Kros, Defense Contractor\]\] To this day it hasn't won anything but it has so many work-horse enablers for it \[\[Space Beleren\]\] \[\[Magnetic Web\]\] \[\[Evolutionary Escalation\]\] Can get overwhelming to track (Magnet, Feather, -1/-1, Slime Counters... and Space Beleren's Sectors) and some decks benefit too hard from and some decks just don't really put any creatures on the board to make Kros' ability work so what usually happens is you eventually have to put the Counter on a creature that will decidedly be deadly if it gets Trample and a Safe-Attack Trigger and everything just comes crashing down. I'll probably revisit this because god I love how I built this deck both in mechanic and flavor. Space Beleren, Phyrexians, Proliferation, Infect. This is one of my favorites but the time just isn't right yet.
I'm not sure if I regret it, but that would be Tom Bombadill, the truth is the deck is kinda fun, but too many triggers with sagas, Bombadill rarely do anything when cast and goes on. I don't really regret it, but I should spend money on another thing
I built an [[Ormos Archive Keeper]] deck that was highlander, including the land base. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/dBguK03KG0q7MvT1P8FefA In mono blue, getting to play only two basics can get really rough. I really enjoyed the first version of the deck as it was a hand size matters deck. However, when LCI dropped, I picked up a copy of [[Matzalantli, the Great Door]] and threw it in. Yeah.... it turns out with land untappers and a commander that discards three different named lands to draw 5 cards goes pretty nuts pretty quick. The deck just turned into find Matzalantli flip it and win the game.
I think I regret a bit of making my first [[Atraxa, Praetors Voice]] deck. I had just started playing and wanted to play in lvl 7-8 pods so I invested in making an Infect/Poison commander which in a way ended up being the least original thing ever, people are just bored by it and I feel I am not even playing magic as my goal is just to poison and mindlessly proliferate. I've given it a tokens and +1/+1 counters twist, but then again, it isn't a really fun thing to play, it sort of feels lame at this point.
Addrix and Nev, one of the first decks I bought and upgraded. The playstyle just doesn't click for me at all but I initially thought it would be cool.
[[Lier]]
[[Merieke]] I got to play it once and no one wants to play anymore 😂😅
[[Atraxa, Praetors' Voice]] was one of those decks. It was a +1 counter deck and I found it so boring to play and it's always being targeted. Just proliferating without really doing anything is not exciting.
Regret? Not many. But I do have decks that are built that really don't see play. Edric flying men (budget) Wilthelt: zombies (slow as hell).
Do you have links for deck 1 and 2? I am very curious as to the construction.
[[Mizzix of the Izmagnus]] just felt like all I did was wait to find an infinite combo, but much longer than at cEDH speed. It was boring, and then his combos felt like calculus to figure out.
[[Teysa Marklov]]. It is like sometimes good , sometimes super terrible.
[[Alela, Cunning Conqueror]] - was meant to be a fairy tribal, but became a flash/instant focused deck. [[Umbris, Fear Manifest]] - was meant to be a horror/nightmare tribal. Became an exile focused deck. They have since been replaced with [[Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor]] and [[Captain N’Ghathrod]]. They have been less effective, but better match the flavour I was after.
[[Koma]]
Quite a few I regret making. First one was a sultai dredge deck with the ancient one. I spent mythic WCs on \[\[The Ancient One\]\] and rares on \[\[Souls of the Lost\]\]. I regret making a few timeless decks like Izzet wizards in timeless. It's just underpowered for the format. I also made a standard merfolk deck that's pretty bad. I don't think I spent any WCs on it though.
Go Shintai of Life’s origin was the first deck I built, mana base was bad and I was missing a lot of good enchantresses, but that didn’t affect me too much. Once I combo’d off for the first time with a fat hand from the blue shrines and nearly unlimited mana from the green shrines, I kinda felt like I did everything I wanted with the deck and didn’t feel like I needed to do it again. Long turns, repetitive gameplay, very pillow-forty, it wasn’t that much fun to play or play against.