Causal to competitive - Choose my Commander
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 6, 2022, 4:02 p.m. by isaiahnixon
So I have realized that one man's competitive may be another man's casual. I have a regular play group that I enjoy playing with, we build fairly low budget, themed based causal decks. All games are typically close and go down to the wire. However, I often switch over to playing with another play group that is much more competitive than what I normally play. These games are nowhere near close. Game ending infinite combos, hundreds of damage taken, decks milled through. I do not stand a chance. It seems it may be their version of "casual", leaving me with even less of a chance for their pumped up decks.
I am hoping that I might edit one of my decks to at least be able to keep up with them when I play, so it's not 4 hours of losing every time.
To this, I am looking for feedback on which deck I already have that could be updated to be more competitive - on a lower scale budget. Here are my decks commanders and themes, choose my commander for me! Then I can, send a decklist as needed for any editing advice.
1) Mono-red Torbran Aggro (Slight Lotr Mines of Moria -goblins and dwarves theme)
2) Gruul Ruric Thar Unbowed - 100% creatures deck
3) Dimir Narfi - Snow Zombie Stax (Slight Lotr King of the Dead Theme)
4) Mono-Blue Charix Voltron - Considering chaning to Talbrand - Drakes
5) Yore - Ravos Soultender/Ludevic - Gargoyle Tribal - Fear themed - Considering changing commanders to Rebbecc architect/Silar Renn Artifact Protection deck
6) Selensya - Latheil Bounteous - Lifegain/Shrine Deck
7) In-process - Atraxa -1/-1 counter humility deck
At this point, I am not wanting to make a new deck, but use a bulk of the cards I already have to edit a deck to last in my other play group. Like I said, choose a commander that you think would be able to be made into a lowish budget competitive deck. I will send the list and see what we can make happen!
isaiahnixon says... #3
legendofa Thanks so much, this is helpful, and yes I agree that sacrificing some theme/flavor would be the only way. I would say that Atraxa might be the one I am happiest to edit, since I still need to purchase some of my planned cards. The Torbran is also becoming less themed, as more goblins and dwarves get taken out too.
Here is the Atraxa: Humble thy self! (Atraxa, -1/-1 Humility Deck)
The idea is to use a mix of -1/-1 counters, as well as humility and frog effects that make creatures 1/1 creatures, so that I can drop a cheap -1/-1 and kill everything over and over again, all while I try to boost my own creatures with +1/+1 counters.
Here is the Torbran: Mines of Moria. I just edited the actual deck a bit yesterday, but haven't updated it on Tappedout. I took out a few goblins and replaced some instants, while adding some enchantments, but overall it is what I have so far.
If you are interested, here is the Narfi: And The Dead Keep It, The Way Is Shut
The idea here is to lock people out of the game, while I have regenerating skeletons/zombies that I can cheaply keep alive and slowly knock them down.
October 6, 2022 5:38 p.m.
As a follow-up question, what kind of decks do you see in the more competitive group? Do people rotate through decks, or do they use the same deck each time? If the latter, what are the commanders and strategies you see the most?
It sounds like you're building this deck to a specific meta, and getting an idea of what's likely to be across the table will help.
October 6, 2022 5:46 p.m.
isaiahnixon says... #5
In two of the games, I was pretty much fully milled before 10 turns, in another I faced 100 10/10 tokens.
Both brutal. One was a "casual" merfolk. The other was Shorikai Genesis Engine. Another Captain N'Ghathrod. All ran many artifacts and had its pet Hullbreaker.
October 6, 2022 6:09 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #6
When my wildly-casual decks are successful against less casual decks it’s because of things like Rurik’s ability. Infinite mana is a lot less fun when he’s tallying up how many non-creatures you’ve cast. Maybe try to leverage something like that?
October 6, 2022 7:02 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #7
Check out my Torture deck for some “get pinged for when you do things” options. Harsh Mentor jumps to mind as an anti-combo someone that would fit nicely into your all-creatures deck.
October 6, 2022 7:04 p.m.
isaiahnixon says... #8
FormOverFunction Thanks so much! Yeah, that is very true. I have Harsh Mentor in my Torbran deck now, I didn't even think of putting him in my Ruric deck.
If I am picturing that right, it would essentially kill them for using the infinite combo, because they re infinitely tapping and untapping to mill me and would take all the damage for that. That is a great idea. Are there others like it that might fit? So that I can have a few options.
October 7, 2022 2:13 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #9
I shouldn’t be online right now so I can’t get a good search in, but I’d search for “activated abilit” (specifically to scoop both the words ability and abilities). Anything that locks graveyard actions like Yixlid Jailer could be a monkey wrench too. Good news bad news: scrolling through a search of ALL of the colors you’re interested can net you some great finds and give you some inspiration for other decks! Takes more time, but there’s so much to enjoy when just perusing. That may just be my own opinion, though, growing up well before the internet and having spent hours just flipping card-by-card through everything I owned. It’s a small pleasure we can lose/forget in these times. And get off my lawn. Lol.
October 7, 2022 9:14 p.m.
isaiahnixon says... #10
FormOverFunction Thanks again for the suggestions! I took a look at your profile and deck lists! I really like them a lot, as well as your vibe. It is very much akin to mine, heavy theme, but still trying to be functioning, some cool stuff!
I did the search and found a few, what do you think about these, do you think they'd accomplish or not powerful enough?
Emerald Dragon, Collector Ouphe, Ouphe Vandals, Brown Ouphe.
Any of these do the trick?
October 8, 2022 10:11 a.m.
isaiahnixon says... #11
FormOverFunction and if you are interested in taking a look at the Ruric deck, here is the updated one: You're Playing with the Big Boys Now!
legendofa says... #2
My first thought is that when you start uptuning decks to fit with a more competitive meta, theming and flavor is usually the first to go.
Usual "I'm not competitive" disclaimer goes here, but my top two choices from this list are Torbran and Atraxa, assuming that Atraxa has a reliable and dedicated win condition. Narfi is my third choice. Tribal usually doesn't work too well unless it's one of the major tribes, and even then it would probably be in one of the major EDH colors, like Elves.
Without seeing the Shrine deck, I imagine its core is a little fragile. If you have cards like Privileged Position or Greater Auramancy, that would help shore it up. Two colors feels a little light for Shrines, and lifegain all too often ends up doing nothing more than delaying an inevitable loss.
Ruric Thar has potential, but going 100% creatures is a little too gimmicky, and you're leaving out a lot of options.
None of these decks look bad; in fact, they all sound like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, you'll probably have to give up a little of each deck's core theme to uptune it, and my thoughts are based on what appears to have the most options to upgrade.
October 6, 2022 5:20 p.m.