legendofa -
Good stuff. You could totally repackage that as a TEDtalk, and the room would be packed.

Cheers!

You might want to pull the banned cards.

(As I type this, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Dockside Extortionist are all banned in Commander) ...

theNeroTurtle -
I'm always serious. Dont worry about it though; I didn't expect you'd understand.

Cheers!

"We can maybe try to change each other's minds in some other thread" <> "I can change your mind" ;-)

But that said, challenge accepted. Balthier and Fran. That's it. My whole argument. Three words; one card.

... pause ...

So did that change your mind? If not, no worries. I concede, with a handshake and a GG;WP! :-)

Cheers!

Shadow Rider maybe ... not for the actual deck, but as a "mascot card" for your sideboard. Or maybe as a custom playmat?

As background, the card supposedly shows a Dauthi Knight in its original form (before they all got yanked from Dominaria into the Shadows between Dominaria and Rath).

Cheers!

(Ha, figured out how to tag tokens)

theNeroTurtle -
For the Mrs: Boo

seshiro_of_the_orochi -
Yeah, Hansk would be absolutely perfect in the deck. I unfortunately normally play in an ultra-budget pod, so it won't fit there. But if I like the deck as much as I hope to, I'll be putting together a less-budget version to play vs random folks, and it'll have a place in that deck for sure!

Nothing from Avatar caught my eye, but yeah, it'll be super-interesting to see which of your new decks carry on!

I have a good friend who plays Beluna Grandsquall and he'd probably want to decide the "factually best giant" issue on the table! :-D
But I agree, Vivid is going to be very VERY cool. As for Lorwyn, I find myself surprisingly interested in the Jund Precon (decklist, from WotC) ... not so much for upgrading, but just to have a "raw" precon to run when the situation warrants.

Good luck (and good skill!) in 2026!

//

theNeroTurtle -
Lol ... I mean, I'm honestly seriously sorry you hate the Universes Beyond products, but I've been playing since Revised and I couldn't disagree more. But we can maybe try to change each other's minds in some other thread. As for this one, I really just wanted to see what folks were working on :-)

I'm also honestly sorry the Angel deck didn't work out for you/your wife. But yeah, making Raccoons work seems like a REALLY rough time; yikes! If Squirrels ends up falling flat, maybe Otters? Seems like there might be a competitive UR deck somewhere in there. Incidentally, though she wouldn't have been remotely competitive, I spent most of Bloomburrow thinking I should build Alania, Divergent Storm, for her flavor text alone :-D.

There are lots of competitive Artifact decks of course, so leaning into Myr might be an option?

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes could seriously be an option as well ... I know they look on the surface like a Bracket 1 deck, but I honestly think they could be pushed all the way up into Bracket 4.

Good luck (and good skill) on your quest, and throughout 2026!

Welcome to 2026! What's everyone working on?

//

I picked up Ellie, Brick Master + Joel, Resolute Survivor over the holidays ... with any luck, they'll be my (first) New Deck for 2026.

Ellie, Brick Master + Joel, Resolute Survivor is my "New Year, New Deck" project, so I'm VERY much looking forward to seeing how your deck evolves here. Cheers!

HUGE Balthier and Fran fan here; big +1 from me.

Something I just found out about recently though: Cybermen Squadron (really, any Myriad effect) is big non-bo with Vehicles :-(
More info over on this thread.

Cheers!

Tarzunga -
Very cool idea (using this as both a testing ground and as a gift) and a great-looking deck. Big +1 from me!

A few thoughts, in no particular order ...
- I notice you have the deck listed as Bracket 2, but with some Game Changers in the maybeboard. It may be obvious, but I wanted to rec' keeping it in Bracket 2 for your brother. I've just seen too many newer players gleefully play a Game Changer, just to have everyone at the table assume they're more experienced than they are ... and then crush them.
- Similarly, I'm not a big fan of combos for newer players. Without a fair amount of experience, Bracket 2 multi-card combos can be slow to execute (which can be frustrating for opponents) + understanding the interaction windows can be tricky (which can be frustrating for everyone at the table). All that said, the 'Find my Combos' tool over at Commander Spellbook is a GREAT resource. Plugging in your decklist, it looks like there are four combos you could easily add.
- As for actual suggestions though: They're already on your maybeboard, but it seems like Blanket of Night and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (though oc it's VERY pricy) would go very well here. If you add them, you may want to also add some Swampwalk creatures and Filth.

Good luck (and good skill!) with the build; cheers!

theNeroTurtle -
I think my only rec' at this point is to keep iterating the manabase as you adjust the deck. I usually use Salubrious Snail's manabase tool, and try to always have at least a "functional" manabase for my deck, and hopefully a "strong" manabase. Currently, Salubrious shows the deck as "struggling", so focusing here may honestly be the best way to improve its competitiveness.

Also worth mentioning: It looks like wideline1414 is also working on an max-Angel Giada list atm. Might be worth checking out their list/collaborating with them.

Good luck (and good skill) with the build!

theNeroTurtle -
Thinking about this a little more, and wondering if there are any Angel-focused combos worth adding. Please take this as brainstorming though, not an actual suggestion, as I'm not sure if it would help or harm the deck! :-D

Unfortunately, the only "pure" Angel combo I know of is Giada, Font of Hope + Twilight Shepherd + an artifact-based sac' outlet (e.g., Phyrexian Altar or Blasting Station).

There are others, based around Karmic Guide, Restoration Angel, and Archangel of Thune, but I'm not sure any of those can be accomplished without pulling in other creature types :-/

Cheers!

Paging dr.kronski ...

//

theNeroTurtle -
I don't have anything useful to offer here, but dr.k may. They have a +1/+1 counters + stax effects build, which I'll probably use as my starting point if I ever try Giada.

Good luck (and good skill!) with the build; cheers!

Looks fantastic; big +1 from me!

Only things I can think to suggest are maybe Dragonologist it you find yourself wanting another card advantage effect, or Spit Flame for a bit more targeted disruption.

Cheers!

Thanks much for the upvotes on my Zurgo and Balthier & Fran; cheers!