Too many of the same card?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 25, 2022, 11:58 a.m. by BlueStar220
This may strike as an odd question, but does anyone find themselves with too many of the same type of card? I'll give an example: One of my commander decks uses land/creature board wipes. Such as Obliterate, Jokulhaups, Devastation, and Bearer of the Heavens. These cards more or less do the same thing.
Now at first glance, this may not seem like a lot of cards. These land wipes only take up 4 out of 100 cards. However, I have also filled the deck with a fair amount of draw and search cards. (Specifically 14 cards that let me draw, and 5 cards that allow me to search). After playing many games, I found that I would often times have more than one land wipe in my hand. I don't ever find myself playing more than one land wipe per game. So this would many times mean that at least one card in my hand is useless. So the question is, can I justify replacing perhaps one land wipe for something more useful? Or is it more beneficial to keep as many win condition cards as possible?
Seconding TypicalTimmy here, if you're not using it in the majority of games, then I would scale back all besides the most useful of the cards. Unless land destruction is your decks thing, then drop at least 2 of the 4 (Devastation and Bearer of the Heavens would be my first choices)
January 25, 2022 2:06 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #4
May I ask, what is your decklist? Running Boros land destruction is not something normally seen. Usually black is thrown in for targeted single removal, or sometimes even green. Wave of Vitriol is an example of mass land destruction in green, and black - while I don't believe has printed MLD, has ways around it.
- All lands are Swamps
- All Swamps are 1/1 creatures
- All creatures get -1/-1
Nobody ever gets a land for the rest of the game. If you buff your own side, such as with Gaea's Anthem, your side survives while theirs does not. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite also works quite well but is a lot harder to get out early game.
January 25, 2022 5:01 p.m.
BlueStar220 says... #5
January 25, 2022 5:18 p.m.
Redundancy can be good for a wincon, but I guess it takes a lot of testing to see if it's too redundant. You'd probably know best if you are hitting the same card function too often, or if there are things that your deck needs like counters and stack interaction that could replace a few of these cards.
The only real advice I can think of is to try to judge it as objectively as possible. You'll always notice when you have two in your hand because you can see it as a problem right in front of you, whereas the games when you need your wincon can be harder to quantify because in-game your thought process can go, I need more card draw, or I need more tutors. Heh, at least that's how it is for me.
I guess all I'm saying is that, well, maybe it would be better to have fewer, but to really optimize it is a numbers game, and cutting wincons may only be worth it if there is something else that the deck desperately needs. Two wincons in hand isn't bad as long as the deck gets to one of them : )
January 25, 2022 8:31 p.m.
It depends on how important it is to have when your able to cast them. 3-4 is prob reasonable for that cmc and your card draw.
TypicalTimmy says... #2
Depends on your meta, but if you're not even using one, I'd suggest drop all except Obliterate - as that can't be countered. So it's there if you need it, and it can't be stopped when you want it.
January 25, 2022 12:02 p.m.