Good Evening,

I started brewing a new Etali deck and was looking for input. I didn't want it to be super high tier but still hold up at a table so the food chain combos are in there as a possibility.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/lB8Qvn5yAk2AkbxXC6o_NA

Ayara, Widow of the Realm 1BB

Legendary Creature - Elf Noble [R]

[T], Sacrifice another creature or artifact: Ayara deals X damage to target opponent or battle and you gain X life, where X is the sacrificed permanent's mana value. 5[P/R]: Transform Ayara. Activate only as a sorcery.

3/3

Ayara, Furnace Queen

[BR] Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Elf Noble

At the beginning of combat on your turn, return up to one target artifact or creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

Ayara cherished her new machine servitors just as much as she once did her many suitors: not at all.

4/4

https://imgur.com/a/HBGzKAe

So, I gained control of my opponents Creature, ended my turn and tiger the ability, the ability says at the beginning of my end step I may exile target I control then return that card to the battlefield under my control, I exiled my opponents creature, does this tigger?

We are back this week with another episode, this time discussing Universes Beyond (and within). Matt and Kyle give their hot takes about past and future Universe Beyond products, and discuss some of their favorite and not so favorite cross overs!

We would love to hear your takes and opinions on universes beyond and what (if any) you have been most hyped for, as well as how think bringing in different IP's affects MTG as a whole. Let us know down below or feel free to hits us up on our discord or other social media sites.

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Casual Tutors is a podcast hosted by two friends, Matt and Kyle, whose love of Magic: The Gathering and EDH specifically often leads them on long winded, thought provoking (hopefully), and entertaining conversations. We wanted to bring those conversations to the world in a fun casual format with minimal formatting or scripting that often times leads us to saying outrageous off the cuff things. If you love casual conversations about commander, the health of MTG, or anything else related, we hope you will love our show! Our entire podcast catalog can be found on Spotify or anywhere else you get your podcast. We love talking with others, so consider following our socials or joining our discord!

Hello, everybody!

Hope all's well.

I was wondering, how do other players build their decks? I usually start with a commander that piques my interest and then go through all my boxes of cards, pooling all cards that are vaguely related to what I am trying to do with that specific commander. Then, the grueling process of cutting down from that usually big card pool down to 100 cards. During this process I watch videos of gameplay and search up the legend's lore to better understand who the character is and what direction I feel the commander should take.

Cheers!!

I posted this in the TIFU reddit page, but someone told me it wouldn't be a bad idea to post it here.

Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/n-J_CQSNCkuFZi5zirMz9g

I (18m) have been playing magic for about a year and rolled up with my decks as per usual for not-so "Casual" FNM (Ill explain the air quotes later). I was looking at what everyone was playing to gauge the power level. I saw an Edgar Markov, Ivy, and a Simic pairing that I cant remember. I decided, "Hey, lets play [[Inalla, Archmage Ritualist]]," my favorite 8 power level deck (rated on Commander Plaza disc server) that I love to bring out when the table is high powered as since I make copies of wizards on ETB due to eminence and can tutor for my combos to win while also grabbing control pieces so the board doesn't get too far off rails.

Now this is where the mess up begins: I run thoracle in the deck. As I was pulling it out, a cEDH player who is at that pod not playing his competitive Kalamax nodges to me that he isn't putting it out. I think less of it, as I am someone who fails to pick up on language characteristics like that. Drew my hand after cut and shuffle, had thassa, ramp artifact, lands, demonic tutor, other things. Turns go like this:

Turn 1: Island, pass

Turn 2: Swamp, demonic to grab demonic consulation, pass

Turn 3: Arid mesa, fetch for steam vents, thoracle.

The table looks frustrated, and I then realized that since I have around 13 tutors that I messed up. I failed to recognize the easy access to a game winning combo in 3 turns. The rest of them carry on as usual and they finish with the simic pairing dude's infinite combo having more beef than the Edgar Markov's infinite to wrap it up with the Ivy knowing he is dead. Afterwards, the simic pairing dude looks at me, and starts grilling me about playing the deck and that I missed his Kalamax queue. I offered an apology. Not to mention, one of the cEDH players who drafted lectured and scolded me also, saying that he leaves his very obvious cEDH Winota at home for Fridays and that I should do the same with Inalla. I show a frustrated look while being scolded, brush it off, and don't think much of it throughout the later of the night.

On Tuesday night, I show up for free play. Bring all of my decks. The two players who scolded me on Friday show up as usual. Now, those two tend to pick on me in a joking manner, but their "jokes" felt different. They started to poke at me winning in three turns with Thoracle. More like frustration than poking at me. I then realized that at one point that the one person who was my opponent is still very bitter and the drafter is also frustrated even though they didn't participate in the game and imo should have stayed in his lane. The drafter pulls out his phone, shows me a picture of what "Casual" should look like (no infinite loops and combos, no I win the game crap, no mana profit artifacts except sol ring, etc., this is what I meant by air quotes when fitting his definition). Here is where I drew the line in my head: No ones decks on Friday don't fit that. I then show in a very angry tone that I was sorry, that I was reckless, that I would remove it and Wheel of Fortune (the other item on the casual rule was no cards over $100, note that this came from my dad's collection). That turned it quiet as we moved onto planechase EDH. Then the opponent from Friday during mid game as I'm playing Brago says "I wish I had a turn 3 thoracle."

I immediately start thinking of an exit plan. Thank god I got infinite milled so I immediately packed up and was out of there. On my way out, I apologized to the owner if I made him mad. He said that he wasn't mad but that it isn't his intention for people to roll around with "Big daddy" decks. I proceed to get in the car, sob a little from comments that I felt was hurtful, and drove 5 minutes to home.

With tomorrow being locals again, I am looking for advice as how to move forward tomorrow with those specific individuals and I want to also hear if I am in the wrong (I feel I am, but to be sure). Now, some things to note:

#1. Before I had thoracle in it, no people complained about the deck on Fridays since It was usually turn 6 I was winning where my opponents had the equal chance to get going and possibly have responses but I usually go for it if I can respond myself to a disruption to the combo like a counter.

#2. The owner of the shop runs it as a non-for-profit and breaks even. The owner has a $5 entry fee on Fridays, and is already setting up a competitive nature when the losers get 1-2 packs and the winner gets 3-4 packs depending on stockage.

#3. The other two players at the table did not show the same equal frustration as the other person, and based off their language, I think they accepted my apology, with the Ivy player saying that I'll learn and grow from this experience.

#4. My dad played magic in the 90s, and I was lucky that he kept some of his good stuff like Demonic Tutor, Wheel of Fortune, and Acid Rain to name a few (I use them). He doesn't play anymore unless if I want to and doesn't mind me using his stuff, just not to take his Bazaar of Baghdad out of the house.

I was looking to build a [[Firkraag, Cunning Instigator]] deck, where ussally he is around less than a dollar, and saw the foil version of his extended art was $150 on both TCG Player and CardKingdom, was wondering why theres such a dramatic difference between his non-foil price and foil price

So far I have found that I can use Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist's Ult to make Nexus of Fate a creature and have it die to hit the graveyard or stack my deck and use something like reality shift on myself and kill the resulting Nexus of Fate manifest. Beyond these two methods I haven't found anything and these methods require quite a bit of setup to say the least so I was looking for other possible methods.

Thanks!

I like building decks around commanders without clear build arounds, or building in unique ways. I guess that would make me a Johnny. I also sometimes build cards around their art, or character more so than the mechanics. I like to keep things kind of unique like a wannabe hipster I guess.

I have a [[Drana Kalastria Bloodchief]] deck that I really like, mostly for the art and the Zendikar vampire lore is cool. I’ve also been toying around with a [[Linvala, Shield]] deck because I’ve had a difficult time finding an Azorius commander, the arts cool, and I like angels. Plus I heard about the [[Gift of Immortality]] pseudo-combo and that seems neat, I just wish her party ability wasn’t so bad.

Anyway, I really like the idea behind the team-up cards and [[Drana and Linvala]] are probably my favorite (close between them and [[Thalia and Gitrog]], but I feel like they’ll be more popular and hipster and all.)

So I feel like Drana and Linvala (D&L) are an obvious stax piece. Not really much to build around. EDH is full of ETB’s, activated abilities less so (guaranteed value vs set-up and what not). According to EDHREC, of the top 200 most popular cards, only 15 of them are creatures with activated abilities. Of those creatures, 13 of them are mana dorks (Including [[Esika]] who honestly isn’t being used for that anyway). The first that isn’t is [[Viscera Seer]], which okay, not too bad of an ability to have, but realistically not something that is going to help the deck out as much. [[Dauthi Voidwalker]] is another that I believe just doesn’t work with D&L since you don’t get the static ability. Then you have [[Shalai]] which okay you have an expensive mass +1/+1 counter engine but honestly Shalai is for the hexproof and while it could be neat are you really going to have that mana or boardstate to handle it?

Point being, this card in the command zone to me translates only really to stax knowing this. How would you feel if someone was playing a deck helmed with this?

I’m up to the challenge, despite the commander having very little to no build around the potential, but was curious on opinions if this was at your table.

P.S. anyone going to try out this commander? Ideas would be cool to share! I’m going to not go stax though, but interested to see what others are thinking

Posting this for my husband because he didn't have a reddit account, but wanted to get some outside input.

First some background:

Last year we started going to a new game store that does a weekly casual league. We go almost every week.

At first when I started going I won fairly often. Not from pub stomping, I would play similar power decks, but am just skilled at grinding out and looking for answers in the later game. I also have a different paystyle than a lot of the people at our game store because I'm a blue mage at heart and love being able to draw a lot. I would say at least a fourth of the people we play with also love to play a lot of interaction and being able to grind for answers when needed. The rest mostly play decks that are more proactive than reactive.

After the first few times playing, people realized that I was a good player & understood that I like to build decks that are interactive and started to target me more often and rightly take out key peices to my strategy. This is fine and I understand that if I am a threat to their game plan or ahead in a game I am going to be targeted.

Our game store just started a budget league (decks under $100). In our league you get points for how you place, whether you are running a budget deck or not, and the pod votes on one player to give a cool point. But if you knock out everyone in one turn you get less points.

So onto my problem:

The last time I played everyone targeted me despite me not popping off and even being behind for most games. I got knocked out first for 3 out of 4 games (I was knocked out second one time) and ended up waiting for a new game for 40-60 minutes every time. I feel like I am getting 3v1'd even if I am playing a lower power commander or deck than the rest the of the table. This is starting to make me feel like I need to bring higher power decks to every table just to compete.

I had built two new budget decks for this league, but now I don't even know if I should play either of them anymore as budget decks since I'm getting targeted so much when I bring similar powered decks. Honestly, I am thinking about just bringing a high power deck or super controlling or stax deck.

My favorite way to win in a one vs one setting is for the other player to concede because I lock them out of the game. But I know that a lot of players don't enjoy playing against that so I tried to make my budget decks with fair commanders that are more enjoyable to play against. But if people always treat my decks like they are going to be super controlling and pop of fast then maybe I should just give them that.

What do you guys think about the new knight tribal eminence commander? Never played a knight tribal deck so idk how good his ability is. Just want to see your thoughts. I also thought they WOTC was done with eminence commanders since it’s such a broken ability.

Which would be cards from Adventure's in the Forgotten Realms and Baldur's Gate?

I just got out of seeing Honor Among Thieves and I'm on a D&D kick! I want to make a dungeons and dragons EDH deck. I know there are precons, but they typically only have a few new cards mixed in with a lot of reprints and staples.

I am more looking for a deck that only features set cards from D&D, I want bards and tieflings and owlbears and wild magic in my deck!

Any suggestions? Has anyone else made a deck like this or thought about one? I'm looking for all ideas on how to get started and what directions I could head in.

Hello! I know this is a new card and hasn’t been released yet, so if the answer isn’t known yet that’s alright, I just figured I’d ask as I’m building a deck for him now and am unsure on when his ability can be used! The cost is Jund+1 and sacrifice a saproling, to bring slimefoot and squee +1 creature back from the graveyard to play. I’ve only seen abilities like this specify they can be activated from the graveyard. So, can his ability be used from the graveyard to bring himself +1 back to the field, even though it doesn’t explicitly say you can activate this ability from the graveyard? Additionally, can this ability be used while he is already on the field, to just bring back a creature from the graveyard, but not slimefoot and squee due to him being on the battlefield? Thanks for the help!

I'm looking for effects in Naya that are token generators, but only for large tokens (think 5/5 or better). Effects like [[Godsire]] or [[Phyrexian Rebirth]] for example. So a card like [[Wedding Announcement]] I would consider unplayable for my purposes.

Only caveat with these token generators is that I don't want them to be attached to a creature card. Anyone have some suggestions?

TL;DR: I need help for Jinnie Fay treasure deck

Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/nPgHrVsUtEuIrXGbgYYbVw

Budget: about $200 (the cards I need to buy are tagged as 'buy')

Power level: 7 or 8

Hey everyone! I'm currently building up my Jinnie Fay deck that's secretly a treasure deck. I chose this theme because I wanted a consistent generation of tokens that had the capability to surprise people (treasure tokens from instants that can be converted to a dog or a cat) or absolutely overwhelm people by having an absurd board state (Old Gnawbone and convert tokens to creatures, etc).

I also chose this since I wanted to have Jolene and Jetmir as secret commanders. Being able to build up a wide board should be easy with the amount of treasures I'm aiming to generate should I get into a situation where I can't bring out Jinnie.

With this in mind, I feel like my biggest issue with this deck is the fact that it's not really taking advantage of white cards. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what's missing either since I'm fairly new to brewing.

I'm not really aiming to make this into a super high powered competitive deck. Just something that sits at 7 or 8 and letting me consistently enjoy the fear in people's face when there's about 30 cats or dogs coming their way. What are your thoughts? Thank you for the help!

When they spoiled this commander I just HAD to build around it. Looks like so much fun!

I saw some really cool Modular tribal ideas, but I have a few artifact decks already and wanted to focus more on just counters.

Still on early tinkering stages, but would love to hear some feedback / ideas!

What do you all think of Bright-Palm?

Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ajfgFV3kFkSFzVX6plPk9Q

[[Mana Cannons]] has been an all-star in every deck I've tested it in. It's a free [[Shock]] or [[Lightning Bolt] in any deck that touches Red. It flies under the radar and does a lot of work before it's removed. I haven't tried it as a combo piece, but seems like it would the finisher on any multicolor infinite piece. Anyone else seeing this as an all star?

Hi, I’m building a UW soldiers Edh deck headed by Harbin. I am wanting to attack during my turn and not worry about the crack back as much. I’m looking for card ideas to mitigate that. Cards like settle the wreckage, aetherize, aetherspouts, etc. Anybody have some ideas?

I'm trying my hands on something i haven't really seen (so far).An archer tribal deck.

Deck is about tapping my archers every turn and untapping them during my opponents upkeep with [[Ohabi Caleria]]

Problem is i dont know any good tap trigger permanents that would work in this kind of deck.Any card suggestions?

Prototype : https://www.moxfield.com/decks/OucA93Aa2Eas6Sqz1sPAVg

Hello everyone, I am interested in getting the Secret Lair for the D&D Honor Among Thieves edition and was wondering how I could build a EDH deck with all 6 into the deck. I get that they all have abilities that dont synergies well together but could prob find a way to make it work.

For commander I do have a "Kenrith, the Returned King" to use so I get the 5 colors. It will also help me be more versatile with his many abilities.

So if anyone have suggestions or also thinking to build something similar, feel free to leave a comment. Thanks :)

Do any of you know if there's an open Discord server for Gishath players? I've noticed in comments of several posts that there are servers for commanders like Henzie, so I wanted to see if Dino Tribal has been getting the same kind of love. I'm always on the lookout for new resources and brains to pick for improving my Gishath list, and I'd love to connect with more people here who play him.

​

Thank you!

Hello!

I'm making my first commander deck and I really love the idea of having an angel deck based on Red / White cards. I'm thinking tons of angels + ways to exile / prevent damage but I'd love to hear any other ideas on how to run the deck.
Current commanders I have for it are Aurelia Exemplar of Justice, Avacyn Angel of Hope or Aurelia The Warleader ( leaning towards using Warleader ATM)

I'd love to hear your thoughts and favorite angels / spells you think are a MUST HAVE.
Thank you!

What is the feel for Gold Border cards? I run a couple of the cheaper ones but was contemplating getting a cradle, way more $$ efficient.

I know my group doesn’t care but curious if anyone has notice they are a decent investment and if they have any sort of value

Going to Kawaii Con on Oah’u tomorrow, signed up to play in 1v1 commander. Issue is I’ve never played in a paper event before, in fact I’ve really only played at tabletops a handful of times, and never with strangers. It’s a casual format and while I know some people are spiky I’m just going for the experience. Any advice for a first time player? I’m playing Niv-Mizzet Parun and it’s basically just a slight upgraded Strixhaven precon (no scepter/reversal, no untapped duels, no infinite combos, no free countermagic).

Hard to put into words but when you see a Chulane or a Tergrid or Ur-Dragon people know that the commander is pretty kill on sight and you likely have a strong deck.

I'm looking for a commander that people would be like "okay... and?" but the 99 is what really shines. So not a worthless commander by any means just one that's not seen as SUCH a threat. Just kind of a surprise commander thats FUN and can be powerful (no combos or anything though).

Have any of you tried Rule 0 to allow for wishboards so cards like Karn can go grab something? If so, how’s it going? Was it too strong? I’d love to see the RC allow this one day. It seems like allowing Fae of Wishes or Masterminds acquisition to have targets could really broaden gameplay some. I’m not saying we need a full 15 cards but 5 or 7 could be nice. Has the RC ever said why they don’t allow it? It just feels unfortunate that a whole game mechanic is categorically banned.

Hello all :)

So i always kind of liked the toolbox flexibility of sissay, and had a lot of fun with her. The problem is, i mostly play very higher power, just one level below cedh. I'm not good at deckbuilding, and i cant judge a decks powerlevel by its results, since the friends i play with are very new. What id like to make, is a very high powered sissay deck, that isnt quite cedh. Never played much cedh, so not sure how to downgrade any of those, and those are the only ones i can find.

If someone would be willing to share their decklists with me, id be very thankful.

Hello fellow nerds,

I've been wanting to make a non blue wizard tribal deck to work. I have this build right now:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/EvZIcVBh7kaKI4VSn2D66Q

(ignore manabase for now)

But it kind of looks like an incoherent pile of cards. If you guys could help me with some wincons or fun subthemes or you have a pet peeve wizard that you want to share please do!

I do feel like it needs some more card draw

My playgroup is very casual and budget is max 120

Hello everyone!

First things first, I've been playing magic for 25+ years on and off, edh only since it became a format rather than a few judge's guilty pleasure, and more and more a cEDH/High powered player.

Now that these useless informations are out, the core of our subject : Slimefoot and Squee ! I've loved this card as soon as I saw it, and knew I had to try and build the deck.

For those who aren't aware; it's a 3/3 for JUND that spawns saprolings on EtB or on attack and can reanimate stuff (along with itself) by sacrificing those saproling (and paying a few mana).

You'll find my decklist and a very WiP primer here, There's obviously a few cards to replace, as marked in the description and the primer, but given the commander isn't out yet I guess it's okayish while we discuss.

A few cards I've found great : grist is obviously cool, able to deal with threats on board and feed the grave as well as providing fodder for various sac engines.

Vilis may seem out of line but being able to reanimate it and drawing a lot can fold the game very fast.

Burning Tree shaman seems jank but it's actually really helpful at fixing mana and/or paying the reanimation cost,

Cards I haven't seen shine yet : scavenging ooze seems a good tech choice but I will probably replace it by a Veil for protection, Grey merchant and Nadier nightblade are a bit slow and should get out as they only provide a win if the deck is only infinite, and we have other/better options for that. RecSage, Ragavan and PFB are on the edge, as while the cards are definitely good, they don't really go in the main plan and I need room for Finale or Razaketh.

From my first tests : the deck is very efficient, as always with jund you can go infinite with half a sandwich and a goblin; and if you don't get too hasty you should be able to steal a few games. Grave hate is obviously an issue; but the biggest offender (RiP or dauthi) can relatively easily be dealt with.

I guess this is it. I'd love to hear your ideas, techs, thoughts, opinions and advices on how to make this strong. I understand this will never reach the highest tables of cEdh, but I also think it can hold its own and steal a few victories, and is definitely a strong contender on high power tables.

Thanks for reading!