ABUR Duals and What Deck(s) to Place Them In.
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on April 2, 2017, 8:06 p.m. by Phaetion
I'm 1 ABUR Dual off from finishing the set (I'm missing Underground Sea), and this would be the first time I own the full set.
As such, I want to try and build a deck(s) that use all of them. I have two options:
Build a 5-color deck. This would be the obvious route to go. I'm a control player. I found this out recently, so I'll need a strong removal and counter package all the while having some kind of theme that isn't goodstuff. Child of Alara comes to mind here (though I have a soft spot for allies, even though I don't like tutors in the command zone).
15 Partner Half-Decks. The harder, but more fun route. The idea is to build 15 50-card decks, then mash them up however you like, then play. There will be issues (i.e. 3-color cards, 2-color decks, and Duplicates), but I'm hopelessly enamored by Partner, and I want to build all the combinations.
Any suggestions? Advice? Which path should I take? Thanks in advance.
DrukenReaps says... #3
I hadn't thought about making a bunch of half decks with the partners that would be really cool just grab any two at any time and you always have a new deck. Definitely need to plan it out before you begin building. Personally I would plan it out then look it over and see if I still like it if not it is easy to build one 5 color deck compared to 15 half decks. I don't mean plan out every card either just the strategy and maybe some example cards. I might have to do that now...
April 2, 2017 8:28 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #4
Sean from commanders brew did exactly that second idea in articles on mtgcanada.com
I'll try to find the link...
April 2, 2017 10:18 p.m.
MagicalHacker: I've been following that too. The main bone I have to pick with him, though, is that he only focused on Ravos when he could've done Tymna as well. Alas...
April 2, 2017 11:05 p.m. Edited.
MagicalHacker says... #7
Wait, he didn't do Tymna? Tymna is great though D:
April 2, 2017 11:19 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #8
Build a commander box. Take all your staples and put them in the same sleeves, then grab a bunch of commanders you like and do the same thing. Fill the box with cards to support your archetypes and then you can just spend ten minutes before/during game night slapping a deck together. Then you can have any number of decks ready to go with little to no prep.
April 3, 2017 12:58 a.m.
MindAblaze: I built a EDH box a year ago. It became too expensive for me to maintain.
April 3, 2017 8:26 a.m.
MindAblaze: There were several factors at play:
I think I got a little greedy and dug too deep. Where it once was overwhelming to get the cards I need, it became overwhelming to decide what deck to play. Every time I made a decklist, I always had a card to acquire for it.
Sleeves. It's not cheap getting 2000+ sleeves and having some as backup (I use Dragon Shields, but I hate the wavy tops that occur with time)
Not fully knowing my playstyle. Really, it took me ~6 years to figure it out (because I was more focused on finding that one deck which I could settle with).
These were some of the main ones, especially the first two.
April 3, 2017 1:54 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #12
Overextending is something I'm worried about. It feels like the box opens up lots of options, but that's a double edged sword. Too many options can be bad.
April 3, 2017 2:49 p.m.
MindAblaze: And that's a major reason why my box fell apart. I got a wee bit too greedy.
I could try again, but I must severely limit my options. Currently, I have a mono-green themed Commander box that I've been on and off with for nearly a year, though I need to cut the number of cards down. At the same time, I want to focus on the Partners.
I feel like creating a special cube would do the trick.
April 3, 2017 3:03 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #14
It's a complex problem. The partners look like fun build arounds. I really like the idea of 50 card decks that you mash together.
April 3, 2017 5:16 p.m.
MindAblaze: I could do that. But then what do I do about the issues I mentioned (Duplicates, 3-colored cards, etc.)?
April 3, 2017 5:19 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #16
So I'm working on a box that resembles a huge tome, and in that tome I have the Ultrapro flip boxes in all five colours and grey. The plan is to put the staples into the boxes, and somehow sort the multicoloured cards into their own box that also fits into the tome. Then I have, either in the book or separate a bunch of shells that need filling in with staples. I would find a way to store the shells, and maybe keep a slip or a marker of some kind that indicates how many cards are there. I'm not sure how practical it ends up being.
April 3, 2017 6:31 p.m.
MindAblaze: So, if you were doing half-decks, how would to split it up?
20 for the shell, 10 staples, 20 lands, for example?
April 3, 2017 8:41 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #18
Something like that, it would depend heavily on which commander you're talking about obviously but I'm tempted to set staples aside completely so your Sol Ring, Force of Will, Demonic Tutor etc will be ready to be slotted in where you want them. I don't know, it sounds good to me in theory but practically...complicated. The goal is to have a shell ready to go that can be filled out by a bunch of cards that support the strategy. Tutors ramp removal etc...
April 3, 2017 10:22 p.m.
MindAblaze: An update. I finally pulled everything together. But I'm facing some serious issues in the form of cards that don't make the transition when merging half-decks (like Master Biomancer in the Ishai/Reyhan build).
smackjack says... #2
Sell them. Those 9 cards are worth $1,100. Spend the money on a trip to wherever you always wanted to go.
April 2, 2017 8:28 p.m.