Fun Deck/Builds to try
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on March 21, 2024, 8:56 a.m. by Tsukimi
Hi All,
I might actually like deckbuilding more than the game itself? Not really but boy do I enjoy deckbuilding. I have built well over 20 decks for myself, and I also build for most of our playgroup as well so... I do a lot of deck building.
But my past 3 decks just . . . Were not very fun to play. Fun to build, boring to play. I've tried getting inspired but nothing is doing it for me so I'm turning to you beautiful people to ask - What's the most fun deck that you have built/played? What are your favorite building restrictions? The goal is to hopefully get back into the fun of deckbuilding and playing. Thanks y'all!
I have had an absolute blast with Ghired, Conclave Exile.
I kinda just have a soft spot for in general but the mechanic of the commander is very fun to build around and is also very fun to play. I honestly don't win a lot of games but 7/10 at some point in the game I feel like i am the threat or have a big splashy play to create some fun board presence/combat shenanigans.
I have a pretty detailed deck description if you are interested (its listed in my profile page) but the super quick description is capitalizing on making lots of tokens/ETB value and takeing extra combat phases to crash in with big stompy creatures.
ramps very well and searches lands good so even when playing high Mana value spells it feels quick and feels feels great for Akroma's Will and removal and ties it together with haste and Breath of Fury effects.
March 21, 2024 12:11 p.m.
Find the core of what you enjoy and work with that. Crow_Umbra said it perfectly.
Also, keep track of your interest and enthusiasm. You might be getting a little burnt out or developing builder's block. Sometimes, if you don't have any ideas or inspiration, just take a short break and reset. That doesn't mean walking away from the game, or stop building entirely. Just don't put pressure on yourself to come up with the next big thing. If something's not coming together, put it aside and move on, and when your deck designer instincts are recharged and ready, you can revisit it with fresh eyes. It there's a cool card or interaction you can't do anything with, make a note of it. Oddball Combos is my list of "cool stuff but I don't know what to do with it."
Don't treat it as an obligation to build or play all your decks. Design some decks that you're never going to play, just for fun theorycraft and staying in shape. Borrow a deck from someone else and see if that sparks anything.
To more specifically answer your questions, the decks I have the most fun with are the decks that have some of my favorite parts of the game. As Nath desires, so shall it be: A flawless world puts my favorite strategy (discard) in my favorite colors () (and I should probably take another look at this one too--it's been a while since I dusted it off).
Restrictions I set for myself are usually along the lines of "What is nobody else doing?" or "How far can I take this?" Basically, I want to do something unique, or at least very outside the norm. Above such mortal concerns was specifically built to use only part of Edgar Markov's color identity, and it feels special even though it's a well-known commander.
Related to that last point is to find a new way of doing something. are well-known group hug colors, so what about group hug? Pure freedom, being in the moment, and letting people live their best lives. Everyone gets to party! Everyone's invited! is what came out of that idea, and it's a great change from the usual safisticblooddeathfireexplodiness that the color combination is known for.
Shameless self-promotion aside, find what you enjoy and do that. Don't force creativity. Build for the sake of building, and play what makes you proud to play.
March 21, 2024 12:35 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #5
The deck I play every week (and enjoy) is my Torture! deck. Theme is the restriction I use exclusively, which makes it a LOT more fun for me. The troubles I’ve been having is that the new cards have been more and more specific to the storylines, and therefore less general in nature. There hasn’t been much in the way of a plain Cyclone or Evil Presence in the new sets; they’ve been “Ajani’s Mighty Cyclone that he Saved Jace with that one time” or “Liliana’s Evil Presence in the Teacher’s Lounge at Strixhaven.” There’s a point where they’ll run out of things like Fumarole to copy and paste out of a geology text book, or a different (please not flying) jellyfish from a biology book... and maybe they’re there finally, I don’t know. All of the new cards seem very paint-by-numbers, a lot fewer plain red square Legos to build with.
March 22, 2024 1:26 a.m.
Deckbuilding can be super fun : ) but the weird thing for me, and I don't know if other players get this too, but it's so surprising sometimes what decks I actually like to play. My original EDH deck was a pretty competitive elfball deck for the time because I really like a lot of the cards, but in practice it was awful to play. It was infinite combo win or not do much, and I probably played it for far too long.
After a long time, I've really realized that my favorite decks to brew up and play are ones that have an open-ended approach. I've been in too many EDH games that go turns 1-4 ramp, somebody wraths, and everyone really just starts playing around turn 7. My favorite brew in commander has definitely been Catti-brie of Mithral Hall because I play it as an aggro deck, a low cmc commander and curve, and there is lots of spot removal. I think spot removal is really underrated in commander, just from a fun perspective. Like, I have such a better time looking around and figuring out plays when I have to budget removal rather than sitting there with a wrath in the hand and just waiting to use it.
I don't know, I just find the "meta" commander experience too laid out for you as far as deck design and play. My decks would probably be a ton better if I was doing Sol Ring into more ramp into Farewell into my commander and some combo, but to me the surprise factor of attacking turn 2 is way more fun : )
And fun thing that I've found is that there were a couple players in my group who also made aggro decks, and once you get 2 aggro players it's an entirely different game. Sometimes games might start normal and then people switch decks for game 2 and there are 3 aggro decks and then the person playing Dockside Extortionist and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King is actually so doomed, and I really enjoy that.
Though, to be fair I usually play more 60 card multiplayer jank : )
March 22, 2024 2:44 p.m.
FormOverFunction Well now I hope they print some very generic cards because you are just my favorite deck builder. Reading through your decklists is like looking at the pieces of a story and trying to put it together, and I think it's a really unique art form : ) Maybe they will print more Fifty Feet of Ropes
March 22, 2024 8:16 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #8
Thank you, Niko9, that’s very kind of you to say and it means a great deal to me. I think there should/will be a resurgence of aggro decks, loaded with combat tricks, because (whether people recognize it or not) that’s a huge piece of MtG that a lot of Commander people have all but never experienced. It’s really fun. Regarding your “open-ended” approach, I feel like this is similar to what we on tapped out (and specifically you, if I remember correctly) have talked about in the past: focus on the 99 and then pick a commander that matches those colors. It’s not that your commander shouldn’t have ANY impact on your deck (though your deck SHOULD work without the commander, imho) but it’s just one card. The new paint-by-number cards are VERY good / efficient / impactful, but they can make the game a little boring. There seems to be a HUGE decrease in “oops, this weird semi-random card I have in here is strangely and suddenly WAY more impactful on this game than any of the auto-generating list websites would have told me” events... and that’s what a 100-card Singleton format should have as a pillar to its foundation. I think it’s primarily because people want to walk into the fight with a working tool that can win, and you can’t blame ANY magic player for wanting that. That is undeniably the primary function of magic as a whole. It’s been my experience, though, that veteran players CAN (not always) evolve into a player who is completely comfortable with the other end of the spectrum: they’ve sailed to every continent, traded in every good, weathered every storm.... and now are content with simply sailing for sailing’s sake. Or, if you’d prefer a sillier analogy: they’re NASCAR/F1 multi-champions who have a contest every October, where they each grow as big a pumpkin as possible and then carve them into canoes and race them across a lake (probably while wearing Halloween costumes). Is it a race? Yes. Are they racers? Most definitely. Is anyone focused on whose pumpkin crosses the finish line first? Only sort of. Everything else about that race is far more important than who actually “wins.” This is too long already, so I’ll close with this: I’ve been playing for a LONG time, and I’m (generally) enjoying it now as much as I ever have. I sincerely hope that each of you get to the same (or at least a similar) point that I have.
March 23, 2024 12:29 p.m.
FormOverFunction Yep, I agree for sure! As much as I used try to nitpick and optimize decks, at the end of the day, if your group is all on the same power level we should be losing 75% of the time, so why not brew decks for fun? Commander was a fan made format, and I think the best version of it will always be a fan made format.
The thing is wizards is really good at designing cards that are good in commander, but so bad at designing cards that are fun or fit a theme. Like, not everything has to be 3 colors, draw cards or make treasures. I made a deck a while ago around Dihada, Binder of Wills because I love self mill strategy, but I have a hard time playing it. Every game is, do I have the colors to cast Dihada as fast as possible, because there really is no better play in the deck than, 4 mana to mill 4 and get 4 treasures. Luckily I didn't spend any money on the deck : ) I really thought I'd like it.
Or like the new Voja, Jaws of the Conclave that people are talking about as an aggro commander. I'm just looking at it like, yeah, but why does a wolf draw cards? What happened to drawing being like Pondering or Brainstorming. It's a little maddening that the only way they know to make a card good is draw or treasures, and then everything does that.
EDH is just weird in a way, because it's so fun to play with your friends, and so kinda lame to play with not your friends. I tried to get into games online and it's like, the first half of the game is everyone ramping and on their phones, then they miss interactions, then they want to go back, then somebody bricks on lands and quits randomly, then eventually combo win. I don't know, it's just such a great casual format, I just think it's harder than ever to make friends playing commander because there is almost an expected play pattern and that takes the fun of, cool merfolk deck, out of the game.
And, oh and this might be a waaaaay out there opinion, but I do think that EDH content creators and the design of the precons have created a certain bias in how good cards are, and it's played into them being in so many deck. Like, if every precon has Sol Ring then the edhREC data will have a massive uptick in how many games are won after playing a sol ring. Or how much of an absolute bomb something like Jeska's Will looks like in a command zone episode because they mulligan to perfect hands with perfect color fixing and early ramp. Drawing Sol Ring turn 6 or getting Jeska's Will when you don't have the right colors are things that I always think about while brewing because, for more than half the duration of every game, I'd much rather have a Tragic Slip than a Sol Ring. Cards with a high ceiling just look busted in a perfect game or a high sample size, but in play it's harder to tell if a win with Sol Ring is a correlation or just an occurrence.
I guess what I mean to say there is yeah, getting off staples, or at least considering what they are actually doing or me helps make decks feel more fun. Getting off combos with commanders and things is definitely one too. Because that seems like such a great idea when I'm brewing, but having a more versatile 99 can be way more fun to play.
But maybe my question is, how do you make the experience of playing with strangers in EDH better, or is it just a format that is designed to be at it's absolute best with friends. I've seen people just leave online games when I have a home brew, a few times even getting cussed at for being "off meta", and I very much feel like EDH for pure fun may be something that players have to create again somehow.
Also, I now want to pumpkin canoe race : ) That sounds delightful.
Sorry to go on a bit!
March 23, 2024 4:20 p.m.
Niko9 My thought here, as a very non-competitive Commander player, is that the deck building and game play rules lend themselves to early ramp -> drawing a bunch of cards -> jockeying for board advantage and resources -> combo win. It's a lot harder to deal 120 damage or mill 240 cards than it is to deal 20/mill 50. A Craterhoof Behemoth + Triumph of the Hordes or Demonic Consultation into Thassa's Oracle ends the game on the spot. They're relatively low-risk ways to win a match without too much calculation or preparation. And the best way to get to those game-winning spells is to draw, tutor, and ramp. So when cards are designed for or expected to be used in Commander, they're going to hit one of those facets.
It's really hard (for me, at least) to just bring in a deck and start playing, and I consider a pre-match discussion pretty much essential for casual play now. "About a 7, no tutors" is almost meaningless if nobody agrees on how the numerical standards work or whether Sylvan Scrying counts as a tutor. When I'm playing casually with different people, I outline my deck in broad strokes and ask for everyone to do the same.
"Off-meta" is meaningless in non-competitive play, but too many people (and I expand this to pretty much every competitive activity) are in a camp of "meta or bust." And I get it, the meta exists for a reason, many strategies are more effective than others, and winning is the goal of a competitive game. The side effect of that mindset is that they can end up seeing winning as the only possible priority, and assume that everyone else is trying to use the best strategies perfectly as much as they are. The other side is that casual brewers can end up more focused on innovation than on success, and insist that they're just ahead of the curve because they're trying things that haven't been shown to work, or have been shown to not work. I'm not suggesting anyone here is like that, but these people are out there.
Basically, people have different priorities and approaches to gameplay, and when two people don't agree on goals and desires, conflict happens. The problem comes when people start claiming their viewpoint is the only correct viewpoint.
March 23, 2024 6:40 p.m.
legendofa That's very fair, and it's not like I'm really against the tried and true commander playstyle, I just think that proactive strategies are so powerful and popular that most EDH games have large gaps in the game where one person is having fun and the rest are just there, and there could be a game of four players constantly going back and forth and making deals and things.
Demonic Consultation into Thassa's Oracle is a good example because, while I think it's fine in cEDH, at anything casual it's kind of saying, everything you 3 players did so far really doesn't matter if someone didn't draw Force of Will I do really think that the formats should be split into commander and cEDH, just because being able to solitaire to a win should maybe not be casual, and honestly, splitting cEDH would probably be better for competitive too so they could get a real banlist.
And just to be clear, I'm not salty or anything : ) The only thing that actually makes me salty in EDH is people on their phones for the first turns, but I guess people gonna do. I really just think that if they are going to print cards to make one play style very strong, there may eventually need to be some kind of fan made format for people to play around with other builds. Maybe something as simple as, no artifacts that tap for mana, format. No fast mana, no rocks to fix, no treasures, I think it could shake out to be a shockingly different.
March 23, 2024 7:34 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #12
Looking at all these elaborated answers, I'll leave a somewhat on-and-off-topic post:
The most fun I've had with a deck in a while is Neheb, the Eternal. I always feel like a 10-year-old with way too much fireworks in his possession when playing that deck. Sooo...have fun? ;D
March 24, 2024 3:02 a.m. Edited.
GutterbonesMan says... #13
I think for me my fav aspect of the game is cards that let me take a peek at someone’s psychology, so I love building decks with open ended cards where I don’t know what will happen next. It doesn’t do a whole lot for winning games, but in EDH that’s not really something I’m super concerned about. My Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist deck does exactly that and is a blast to play.
March 25, 2024 10:07 p.m.
Hey y'all thank you so much for this amazing response! I posted this and then life got wonky so I haven't had time to respond but I have to say even just reading all of this has given me some great inspiration! I really love this community and being able to talk w y'all here on Tappedout. I'm gonna be responding to individual peeps today :3
March 29, 2024 10:32 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi Red and black are my least favorite colors - but I am realizing I am too used to seeing it that way and honestly Neheb looks like a lot of fun.
I think you, legendofa, FormOverFunction, Niko9 and the eternally wonderful Crow_Umbra hit the nail on the head - even after taking time away I started to enjoy deckbuilding less and less and I think it's in large part because I hang on to decks too long that aren't fun to play. Happens more than I'd like that I spend a lot of time carefully and thoughtfully building, only to play and realize.... Dis not fun. So I'm going to focus even more on fun and building and let older decks fall by the wayside.
I'm lucky to have an excellent playgroup and none of us are playing CEDH or using sol ring etc, so I don't need to worry about that, I agree it's a stifling way to deck build.
Also Legend I have always loved/followed your Xantcha group hug deck from the sidelines and not just because she's one of my favorite mtg characters but because I just love seeing people push the boundaries of MTG themes and archetypes. I like building odd things - if you have any more commander suggestions I am all ears.
Lastly, I realized one reason I stopped having fun is because I basically manage most of the decks in our playgroups. So I've built my friends really powerful decks since they were newer to the game, and now they still have those decks and all of mine are way powered down. So now that we've been playing more it might be time to tip the scales back both ways, and I think that will help a lot.
Honestly this is gonna sound cheesy (deal with it) but I have realized my favorite thing about deckbuilding aside from the rush of multiple carefully curated lists is sharing stuff on here and talking w y'all about it, seeing what you build and getting inspired. (:
April 5, 2024 1:54 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #16
This site really is a new aspect of “fun with magic” that I didn’t expect. I’m very glad to be here too - and welcome baaaaaack!
Crow_Umbra says... #2
Hey Tsukimi, always good to see you around! I saw your post a bit ago and have been thinking of a decent response. Theory crafting decks is so much fun; I took a peek at the decks I have brewed up, and I'm somewhere around 150-160. Mind you, some are duplicates of others, and this is spanning the last 3ish years I've been on Moxfield.
Brewing and play-testing solo can be a lot of fun to see what a deck can do in a vacuum. I'll play-test the shit out of decks before I decide to put it together irl, as I've had a few instances of putting something together, only to discover it wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be.
I think for me, my parallel journey might be with Aura/Voltron strats. When I first started playing janky 60 card table top with college friends, about 10 years ago, one of my first decks was a mix of Bogles with Heroic and Auras. Fast forward to about 2019, when our playgroup started playing EDH, & I took my first deckbuilding stab at Tuvasa the Sunlit. The more I played her & tinkered, the more overwhelmed I became at the options available to Aura/Enchantress decks in Bant.
Eventually, Tuvasa got split into Siona, Captain of the Pyleas and Eutropia the Twice-Favored. The more I played those two decks, the more I enjoyed the aggro element of turning threats sideways, but wasn't enjoying something which I couldn't figure out. Siona & Eutropia didn't last more than 6 months, & eventually got turned into Mazzy, Truesword Paladin. Mazzy lasted even less, and she got binned. Now, I'm finally re-enjoying Auras again with Gylwain, Casting Director (for now lol).
In this roundabout and convoluted history with Auras/Voltron/Enchantress, I really picked apart what I was and wasn't enjoying most: I loved turning dudes sideways, but didn't enjoy how the strategies faired in my playgroups against wider boards. I dug even deeper and discovered - I just didn't really like playing Green all that much either. The more I played EDH, the more I gravitated to the Mardu portions of the color pie.
I started focusing more on strategies that compromised the Mardu chunk of the pie, as it felt like a challenge to build without Blue and Green, as someone that mostly played Bant for the first few years. What initially felt like a color pie restriction helped me discover the colors I enjoy playing with most. I think at this point, it's fairly obvious which deck is my favorite, but I digress lol.
I think like with any hobby where you aren't feeling the same joy, sometimes it's necessary to take a step back and reflect on what generates the most enjoyment for you, and focus on how to maximize that. Maybe the reality is that you enjoy brewing more than you do playing. It might be helpful to also dig into what you found boring about the decks that you played recently, or what if anything, was fun about playing them. Maybe take a break from brewing and playing for a bit and try out another hobby; I find that sometimes revisiting my other hobbies can inspired how I approach and practice with the others. My dad used to tell me, "How you do anything, is how you do everything" when it came to practice and effort.
March 21, 2024 11:58 a.m.