Hi I have built a very flavourful Nazgul deck. While playing in my group the first time it did ok. I got a 1 win out of 4 and 2 close games. But it is a little slow. I played against some more high powered decks like Koma and it did not do to well. I added 1 more land and 1 more mana rock. Any suggestions with keeping the deck flavourful but faster and stronger? Like should I add more lands or mana rocks? Or maybe add toxic deluge to reset the board to my favour?

My thanks in advance any help : )

I wasn't able to grab the precon for Valgavoth so I decided to make my own using him as the commander and the pieces I liked the most from the precon instead. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6uLN2BxzN0SrLF04ClXyJA

I have played it a good few games so far and it has won twice and had cool showings in the other games. In one of them I had turn 2 [[Ankh of Mishra]] turn 3 [[Zo-Zu]].

My concerns are do I have enough interaction and do I have enough ways to truly end the game. Thoughts and opinions appreciated.

I’m not a big fan of token, go-wide strategies, but one of my absolute favorite things to do is manipulate creatures into token copies of themselves. Two of my favorite decks are my [[Calamity, Galloping Inferno]] that abuses red ETB triggers and my [[Myrkul, Lord of Bones]] that uses aristocrats to kill the main pieces and make them tough to deal with enchantments.

I’ve struggled with finding a commander lately and came to the realization that this is something I really like recently. A few I’ve kinda found is [[Esix, Fractal Bloom]], [[Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds]], [[Niko, Light of Hope]] and [[Ratadrabik of Urborg]].

Anyone had any positive/negative experience with any of these commanders? Or are there other commanders with similar play patterns you’d recommend?

I recently picked up an amazing altar of Malstrom and I am stoked to build my first Timmy deck because it’s not an archetype i’ve really been into but want to try out. I’m pretty interested in doing keruga companion but I play in a lot of mid high to high-power casual pods and I’m wondering if the companion decks can keep up. Does anybody have any tips or advice on building it high power or are willing to share a deck list? Thanks!

Hello! I am building reanimator deck for the first time and am looking for some advice. I currently have 71 cards in the deck without lands, so I still have to take out 6 cards before I build my manabase. Since this is my first full reanimator deck I am not sure of the balance between stuff that fills my graveyard / big threats / reanimation. Any advice on where to cut stuff? All feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks.

https://archidekt.com/decks/9819981/sauron_final_final

Hi,

a crazy deck idea came to my mind,but I guess I need some help with it:

It revolves around [[Clara Oswald]] as a commander, paired with any of the doctors (likely Azorius one, but i am open): I figured, that Clara can not only double triggers on the Doctors 1-15, but also from other Doctors (there are like 3), changelings AND from creatures that gained creature types.

SO via cards like [[Runed Stalactite]] i could utilise Clara to double up on ANY triggered ability of creatures.

So the deck should revolve around the cards that grant any creature type (hello Lorwyn), some of the better changelings/doctors and then mainly creatures with great triggered abilities (Sabotage for example)

This field is obviously REALLY big and so i need help to narrow it down (Player Level 6, so upgraded precon, but still an area where you get frowned upon for using Smotherin Tithe or free spells):

So what is your favourite triggered ability on a creature, that would give strong value on its own when copied (so nothing that needs to combo with specific stuff)? An easy example for me d be [[Ghostly Pilferer]] drawing 2 cards for each commander etc.

THX

My friends and I were playing a game of commander and one of the friends went to declare attackers he then attacked with two creatures and didn't have enough damage to defeat me so he then decided to change his mind about the attackers and I said you can't just change your mind like that especially when it wins you the game and then he proceeded to say a tournament would let him change his mind is this true

I'm currently looking into building Ob nixilus captive kingpin for a high power setting. First off I know he's a cedh viable commander but is he something I can really build high power? I don't think he has many win cons other than Voltron so you're kind of forced to run a combo or two. Is that appropriate for high power?

As I've been playing commander since April, most of my skills have gotten progressively (slowly) better over time. One thing that seems to be stubbornly stuck is my ability to properly assess which player is the biggest threat at the table. Also too, random people (who don't know me) seem to be coming for me a lot more quickly these days, saying I'm a threat, regardless of which color, deck or commander I play. Maybe it's just anecdotal, but I'm not running Kaalia or Light Paws decks, and few tutors and zero stax/infinites/combos.

Anyone have any good rules of thumb for both (1) assessing the threat of others and (2) trying to fly under the radar? (Of course, leaving aside the obvious like running kaalia, cruelclaw and krenko, and not slapping down sol ring and a bunch of moxes turn one)

Looking through all commanders that can run [[Hare Apparent]] it is obvious there is many. So with that i want to hear what commander you are going to use with Hare Apparent and what new tech is good with that commander.

First of here is a list of the other "any number of this card" and cards that care about card name, that could be useful in commander: Same card commander deck.

White

[[Delney, Streetwise Lookout]] and [[Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd]] seem to be the best mono white commanders, each gives more triggers.

Edit*
[[Preston, the Vanisher]] and flicker cards can get out of hand real quick :D

Azorius

[[Brago, King Eternal]], [[Niko, Light of Hope]]* and [[Yorion, Sky Nomad]] more etb from Azorius, no surprise there.

*The flickered Hare Apparent apparently won't be seen by the two shards copy, which means with only 1 Hare Apparent you will get 0 bunnies instead of 2. The working on Niko's clone is weird.

Selesneya

[[Emiel the Blessed]] and [[Finneas, Ace Archer]] flicker with Emiel or draw and anthem with Finneas.

Orzhov

[[Amalia Benavides Aguirre]], [[Lurrus of the Dream-Den]] and [[Shilgengar, Sire of Famine]] Amalia is a good way to draw lands and fill the graveyard waiting for a mass resurrection. Lurrus can bring back one Hare Apparent each turn or a value permanent. Shilgengar doesn't need the mass resurrection as it have it build in.

Boros

[[Arabella, Abandoned Doll]], [[Duke Ulder Ravengard]], [[Feather, the Redeemed]] and [[The Jolly Balloon Man]] boros does have a wide spread of options. From agroo with Arabella, value engine/flicker with Feather. Token copies that be populated and copied with either Balloon man or his big brother Ulder.

Esper

[[Bane, Lord of Darkness]] seems to be the only good option in Esper, but how fun is to put a new Hare Apparent onto the battlefield whenever another dies or just draw a card which is good.

Naya

[[Baylen, the Haymaker]], [[Duskana, the Rage Mother]], and [[Jetmir, Nexus of Revels]] a draw and mana engine in Baylen is really strong, there is also the draw option of Duskana with and anthem only for Hare Apparent. If you don't care about draw and just want a good anthem Jetmir is a solid choice.

Bant

[[Galadriel, Light of Valinor]] draws card, anthems and gives mana (sadly green and not white), what more do a commander need to do?

Abzan

[[Karador, Ghost Chieftain]] or [[Nethroi, Apex of Death]] a Lurrus with green in Karador? or what about just returning 5 Hare Apparent in one go for at least 20 bunnies?

[[Myrkul, Lord of Bones]] could have been nice, but as Hare Apparent check for creatures, the enchantment won't count for the total.

Jeskai

[[Satya, Aetherflux Genius]] or [[Zinnia, Valley's Voice]] create a Hare Apparent token on attack or cast, both options seems good.

Mardu

[[Caesar, Legion's Emperor]] can sac bunnies or Hare Apparent to both draw cards or shoot equal to the number of tokens you have.

4 and 5 color?

Non of the 4 and 5 color options seem to be a good commander for Hare Apparent.

Your thoughts?

Do you have other commanders in mind? or added thoughts about the commanders on this list? if you do i will happily add them to this list. I am also thinking about making a list of cards that seem good/better than normal if you play Hare Apparent deck.

Welcome to the the Saturday Spice Bazaar!

Is your commander list a bit boring? Need some quick ideas to spice it up? Have some spice of your own? Please use this thread to ask about and share the spiciest of cards to your hearts content.

If you're looking for staples, check out Playing With Power's list of staples for the most common staples in the top decks.

So I'm attempting to build a [[rograkh, son of rohgahh]] deck where the goal is to take advantage of infinite ETB and LTB triggers. If I have [[cloudstone curio]] in play, can I already just bounce [[rograkh]] over and over by himself due to his 0 cost ? Or can you not bounce a creature that was just played ? Do you have to bounce a creature that was already on the battlefield before him that shares his type instead ?

[[Cloudstone curio]] text reads: whenever a nonartifact permanent you control enters, you may return ANOTHER permanent you control that shares a permanent type with it to its owner"s hand.

Interested in creating a deck focussed on Monarch and politics.

I am leaning toward 5 color so I can take advantage of the Court cards. Is that the correct approach?

Aragorn, Marchesa, and Jared Carthalion all look very good but would limit my options and might be better to just include in my 99.

For 5 color Commanders I am leaning towards Kenrith, The Returned King or O-Kagachi Vengeful Kami. I like the flavour of Kenrith better as it suits the Monarch theme but O-Kagachi might be more useful in protecting and gaining back Monarch.

Any others I should consider?

Thanks!

My only real thought building the deck was a lot of lands. I picked Azusa because honestly the secret lair is gorgeous and I also wanted a great utility commander that, after I've ramped, wouldn't gut me if removed.

Edit: Budget isn't that tight, bud Id like to spend less than 15 USD on a single card if able. I haven't played with any randoms yet, just friends/coworkers. What I've noticed in my games is that I don't have any big finishers even when I have hundreds of mana, other than something like [[Hydra Broodmaster]] and some form of global haste

https://www.topdecked.com/decks/azusa/d57bc69a-2da4-4f70-981a-53396091b65d

I found this combo coincidentally today with my UW Urza, Lord Protector deck.

If you play Kairi, the Swirling Sky and then play Starfall Invocation with the gift, Kairi dies, then you can select to mill six and return two instant or sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand. You can then return Starfall Invocation from your hand, plus an additional card (perhaps a second card like Invoke Justice to resurrect Kairi in the event he's ever destroyed).

This way, since Kairi gets brought back to the field every time (because of the gift text), you can attack for six every turn, and you have infinite one-sided board wipes. Also, since Kairi gives you 2 cards from the graveyard per death, you're also going +1 with your opponent, so giving your opponent the gifted card doesn't even actually make you lose card advantage.

For extra salt, you can also throw Time Warp in and use that to gain infinite turns and turn this into a win.

I put this under Deck Help as it seemed most appropriate, but I can't post a decklist because I haven't even chosen my commander yet. :')

With a good chunk of the information out of the way, I am thinking of building a Voltron deck because I want a deck with the primary goal of protecting the creature I would be turning into the Voltron (be they in the command slot or in the 99) rather than just winning. Sure it would be nice to win, but I already have 5-6 decks that care about winning; because of this, I want a deck that I can have fun with even if I lose, so that is where the thought of keeping the Voltron alive.

Now, I say "Voltron" rather than "Commander" because the card I would be building up may be in the 99 as stated. Unfortunately, I am not sure who to choose or what other options I am not considering because this my first time choosing a commander using the internet rather than seeing the paper. I have not seen anyone play a Voltron at locals (such as when I built a [[Nekusar, the Mindrazer]] group slug) nor have I pulled a card I would like to build around (such as [[Gishath, Sun's Avatar]] or the gigachad [[Surrak Dragonclaw]] ), and neither do I know for sure which commander to choose for the deck (such as when I immediately went for [[Niv-Mizzet, Parun]] for my first commander deck, though I plan on replacing him with [[Niv-Mizzet, Visionary]] when he comes out and putting Parun into the 99).

So far, these are the ones I have my eye on:

• [[Aragorn, the Uniter]] - I have been around for a little bit, and the thought for Aragorn is to build with Ink-Treader colors. However, I am aware that four colors will be more difficult to get the mana up and running, especially with Aragorn needing one of each color.
• [[Dogmeat, Ever Loyal]] - I am considering this goodest boi as an alternative to Aragorn; most of the protection I am looking for is in White and I can still draw cards off equipment or auras/enchantments.
• [[Isamaru, Hound of Konda]] - This doggo would be in the 99, and be searched out with [[Sisay, Weatherlight Captain]] in the command zone. I figured this one would seem less threatening as a Voltron in the early-game after someone dedicates resources to taking out Sisay, and that it may be interesting to power up a vanilla creature rather than one that can do something already. However, needing all 5 colors in the mana-base is a steep price.

I want the deck to include Red as that is the color I have the most fun with, but I want to hear the thoughts of others (as I don't go to locals enough due to my schedule): are there any other commanders that I may want to consider? What should I consider when choosing someone to build around?

So firstly I’ll state the obvious -> nobody asked this nobody for such a long exposition on all this, but I really just wanted to do it for my own sanity to gather my thoughts and put it all in one place. If it starts a conversation, great! If it’s read by WotC, even the main man Gavin, and they want to pay me for my insights and services, even greater! (I’m joking … just in case it’s not obvious).

Here’s my view on all the latest shenanigans regarding:

• Universes Beyond
• Bans
• Power levels (1-10 / 1-4)
• WotC hand over

TDLR:

1. Universes Beyond sets should still be in keeping with the overall aesthetic of MTG. So too should in-house sets!
2. Power levels should be a simple explanation of how close to a precon you are, and how much did you spend (£/$/€) to make it better.
3. Don’t introduce a points system that will be used to min/max power brackets and be of no use to new players.

Experience:

• I first started playing MTG back in 2000, and stopped in around 2006.
• Fast forward to 2020, I played through Arena for ~6 months and stopped when it was clear you needed to invest quite heavily for the draft formats or to have the latest meta decks.
• And now in 2024, I’m 2 months in to my Commander journey, owner of 1 precon (with £30 of upgrades) and about 300 other cards. I’ve watched a LOT of YouTube content (CZ, Prof, EDHREC and others) and followed a lot here on Reddit

Being a returning player, I consider myself in a peculiar position because I know the rules and mechanics of Magic fairly well, but I stopped playing long before Commander even became a thing. The house rules we used to play were wild … play all lands in your hand on turn 1, always draw up to a hand of 7 after each turn … but our decks were drawn from pools of starter decks and booster packs before the last 15 years of power creep. I remember wanting more bang for my buck than [[Raging Goblin]] could offer, my friend saying that I was asking for too much. Looking at you [[Reinforced Ronin]].

A “new” players impression of MTG sets in 2024

So I came back to MTG and notice all the Universe Beyond sets, not really caring or even knowing about community concerns that started with The Walking Dead. If anything, the LotR set was the one that made me look at Magic again and although it took me 12 months, I bought my first (and currently only) Commander deck. On one hand I don’t think the UB sets really “feel” like Magic The Gathering … but then neither did Bloomburrow, Duskmorn, Cowboys, Detectives etc that were released in the last few years. Looking ahead, we’ve got race cars, space cars and more, which also don’t really remind me of the traditional MTG sets … but maybe that’s just nostalgia. Is the flavour of Kamigawa 2004 really that different to Outlaws of Thunder Junction 20 years later? Other sets look like prime MTG, so I guess it’s hit and miss.

In terms of UB, I think it’s great that those sets are bringing players to MTG. Though I also think WotC should be more cautious not to dilute the high fantasy genre of MTG sets, whether that’s UB or in-universe.

After all, I realise now that the Commander format is why I came back, not LotR specifically. I really like the casual, social aspect of the format and think it’s great that you don’t lose access to all those cards as soon as they rotate out of standard. (Ok I guess you can use them in other formats too).

See, if I was to try and sell MTG to my other friends, I certainly wouldn’t lead with the UB sets. I’d be leading with the vibes and casual fun that Commander has to offer despite the fact that Commander is actually such a complicated way to play the game. So maybe it’s a question of advertising/branding of the Commander format and not IP of any particular set?

Although the RC and CAG were overseeing the Commander format, WotC still own the cards and have been selling Commander decks for years. I guess what I’m saying here is that I think it would be better for WotC to have more solid sets (in-universe and Beyond) and instead lean on the Commander format as the attraction for new players … don’t lure us in with SpongeBob! (I feel like a hypocrite since I came back because of LotR, but that’s much closer to the MTG core vibe than Bikini Bottom).

A “new” player’s impression of the bans and WotC handover

Of course the bans didn’t affect me, I don’t own any of the cards and had to check each of them on Scryfall to understand what they were and what they did. The only one I recognised was Dockside because of how crazy it was in a Game Knights episode that it stood out as incredibly overpowered!

I think the reaction to the bans was ridiculous, but I’m sure so too did the silent majority of MTG players. Yes, it’s a shame that the monetary value was lost, yes people are passionate, yes there were probably better ways to gradually introduce the ban. The point I want to move to is the handover of Commander management to WotC and the proposed Bracket System.

I’ve seen a lot of opinions from very experienced players on how power levels and brackets may or may not work. It was EDHREC’s latest video that prompted me to make this post because they made the point that any new system MUST be accessible to new players. They already know how each others’ decks are suited, which decks and commanders are jank or high power … they can look at a deck list and understand if it’s tuned, synergised, fast or slow, powerful or weak. Us new players can’t. They rightly point out that a points system is too much work for WotC and too much homework for new players and I agree. New players will mostly be playing:

1. Jank from old collections
2. Out of the box precons
3. precons with a few new cards they add from boosters / friends / upgrade guides
4. Own brews
5. Brews copied from online

People engaging in these Reddits are already in the hyper-engaged minority. Even me! I don’t think that the average, casual new players who AREN’T on these subreddits will be scanning their decks into an app to determine which bracket they’re in. They’ll not check each card in each booster to see if they’ve cracked a 1 or a 4.

They’re also not spending hundreds and hundreds of pounds / dollars / euros on each deck, so I don’t think we need to worry about those players very much. If 4 of these guys with precons get together and 1 happens to have a Bracket 1 card [[Vampiric Tutor]] (maybe?) that they found in a pack, the other 3 won’t even notice. And it probably won’t impact the game very much.

So the bracket system needs to exist so that more experienced / engaged players can read the room and guide these Rule 0 conversations. As above, points-based Rule 0 conversations won’t work because absolute newbies won’t have done their homework. In any case, the major criticism of a points based approach is that it won’t account for synergy or overall strength of the deck anyway. A precon + Vampiric Tutor isn’t always a 1 (apparently!).

So I think a descriptive system is better, even if still open to interpretation. Every Commander precon can come with a guidance card to explain (like [[The Monarch]] which explains how that works)

1. Out of the box precon
2. Upgraded precon 15-25 cards-ish
3. Own brew, probably much better than an upgraded precon
4. Veeery powerful.

If you’re new, you can easily digest that if your deck is a precon fresh out of the box, it’s a 1. If it’s a pile of old cards from a shoebox, it’s probably a 1 or even lower.

You also know if you’ve swapped cards or spent money to upgrade it, Rule 0 can be where you explain if you spent £30 or £300 to beef it up. Is it a low 2 or a high 2?

Once a new player has had enough experience with enough upgraded precons, they’ll start to brew their own decks and know where those sit in relation to Brackets 1 and 2. I’m already starting to notice when someone at the LGS is dropping a [[Smothering Tithe]], already accounting for half of my upgrade budget in one card.

But it’ll be while before I can tell the difference between 3 and 4 … however players playing those decks or putting them online for others to copy, will know. They can communicate the level to us newbies in the pod. If they don’t, they stomp, and now I know for next time.

EDHREC summed it up nicely, you can’t fix a social problem with a points system.

My biggest concern with a points system is that it will still force a meta-game within each bracket. Even within a points system, people could build the super-decks with outlier Bracket 2 cards and stomp anyway, after happily explaining that they’ve got a Bracket 2 deck. That would very quickly suck the fun out of the casual nature of the format, drive competition up in all Brackets and probably do the same to cards within each power level, not just the top tier cards.

And what a nightmare if cards start drifting between brackets, new sets might mean that older cards need to be recalibrated, decks need to be reassessed and more homework needs doing.

Just a thought - cards already have a score assigned to them, largely based on power … and it’s in £/$/€. Yes, cost is not proportional to power, but it’s not a bad indicator is it? Precon + £30 upgrades is probably less powerful than the same Precon + £150 upgrades. Only one of those decks has your Smothering Tithe, [[Mana Drain]], [[The Great Henge]] cards …

For the most part, can we not just use cost to guide us from Jank through to upper 2’s, and then experience to separate 3’s and 4’s? cEDH? They already know what’s what and can consider themselves >4. I also like EDHREC’s point about how fast a deck plans to win … if you don’t know = then it’s not important. Turn 4? = Powerful.

What about salt level? Rarity & card availability? Coupled with cost and power of the card in certain decks / combos? It all makes sense, but will be far too complicated for the less engaged new player. The structure needs to be easy, so we can’t have our cake and eat it, too.

So to summarise my TED talk. Close your eyes and picture the future …

On one path, we’re sitting at the LGS playing Squidward vs Gandalf vs Chandra Moonwalker vs The Urdragon, all claiming power level 2 but sneaky Steve has his deck tuned up to a 2.99

Or we have some sketchy IPs in 2024, tighten them up in 2025 and have some description based Rule 0 convos that help gauge those early decks in newer players journeys.

Do you think I missed anything? Maybe I’m oversimplifying it because I don’t fully grasp the increments from precons to cEDH?

Slimefoot, the Stowaway

I'm interested in getting a Slimefoot deck thats fairly mushroom themed and about precon power as me and my playgroup are fairly casual and try not to escalate in power too much because thats how we quit yugioh.

Only problem is I've never actually built a deck before and dont really intend to start now. If any of you have a Slimefoot decklist lying around I would greatly appreciate it if you shared them.

Thanks in advance!

Decklist: https://archidekt.com/decks/9845026/you_shall_not_pass

Hi all, this is the second deck I've ever tried to build "myself" (with assistance from EDHREC). I am aiming for an upgraded pre-con style gameplay and not cEDH. I was also hoping to keep some of the lord of the rings flair instead just focusing on synergy.

I was able to play with the deck, as is, once; I did well. I had plenty of mana, but I didn't really do much in the way of Gandalf's ability and only played 4 creatures the entire game (are games are kinda long some people are still learning and take 5-7 minute turns). I was curious if anyone who deck builds more often would have some recommended tweaks? I also understand that it's hard to grasp how a deck will perform with only a single game behind it; I'm more just looking to make sure I am ready for the next game (they are few and far between), and that I'm not too spread thin when it comes to the deck's function. I've never played much white and I am concerned I have tried to do a little of everything with no real focus.

I'm planning on making a dragon deck helmed by [[scion of the ur-dragon]] with his ability i can tutor a dragon to my grave and he becomes a copy

my question is if i activate it, then in response activate it again. search for the first instance for [[chromium, the mutable]] and before i let the second ability of scion go off activate Chromium's ability to give it hexproof and unblockable.

if scion transforms again does he keep hexproof and unblockable?

i think this would go into the layer system and though I'm pretty familiar with most of magics machanics this one still kinda confusses me

Hi deckbuilders!

I just finished a Naya build with [[Hare Apparent]] as the main theme

The deck is surprisingly strong and cheap as well

For all those building [[Hare Apparent]] decks let's share some knowledge!

I wanna hear wich route you guys took

I was gonna build in Bant colors but I found [[Baylen, The Haymaker]] and he provides ramp and card draw relly well

So i went with Naya instead

Here is my list

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/MqoTYFmY4k-Gq7JYHkqEnQ

Share your ideas and lists too!

God Bless

this is the current build:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ooz17UP9QkqPecGN8srSng

In considering there are some cards i have used in the past.

The main issues are generally consistency and card draw.
Generally i plan to win using the big x spells, staff of domination infinite mana/draw combo, or commander damage.

However, if i start falling behind, i feel like i really can't do anything.

I don’t do this at all but I have considered as my playgroup play A LOT of enchantments as their wincons and not that many creatures.

I like to have a variety of removal as balanced as possible but considering what I said, I think it would be intelligent to have a bit less creature removal and more enchantment removal…

Would that make me greedy/sweaty? 🥲

Edit: I mean adapting the removal type of a deck like swapping a “Destroy target creature” to “Destroy target creature or enchantment”. Building or changing a whole deck just to counter your pod makes you an arsehole lol

Hey yall,

For my pet deck, I was able to get a matching serialized number for both my companion and my commander. Because I plan on never getting rid of them, I wanted to get them slabbed up, so I just sent them off to PSA to get them graded.

I wondering if anyone knows of any deck box that can hold a commander deck and 2 slabbed cards, that isn’t massive. The Academic does not fit graded cards

I’m currently making [[Sisay, Weatherlight Captain]] as my commander for a new deck. I’m wondering if anyone knows of cards with abilities similar to [[Jegantha, the Wellspring]] so I can get around tapping lands and mana rocks to activate her ability. I have the idea of adding untap cards as well but I’m mostly looking for mana affects like the one mentioned. Any help would be great thank you!

I want to make a Rakdos Burnslinger with few creatures using a very specific strategy, but I don't really know which commander would work for this. I just want to feel like a dark wizard shooting despicable spells.

Basically the idea would be tempoing out and copying cheap burn spells like [[ Flame Rift ]], [[ Breath of Malfegor ]], [[ Rakdos Charm ]], and [[ Price of Progress ]] to blow chunks out of the table's life total so I can get them low enough to finish off with a big explosion.

On the higher end as a finisher I can use copy spells to copy burst mana sources like [[ Dark Ritual ]] or [[ Mana Flare ]] for a big [[ exsanguinate]], [[ Earthquake ]], or [[ Torment of Hail fire ]]. Maybe a select few situational alternative wincons like [[ Mob Rule ]], [[ Insurrection ]], or [[ Rise of the Dark Realms ]].

To protect against early aggro i'd be using edicts like [[ Fatal Grudge ]] and [[ Sheoldred's Edict ]], [[ Liliana's Triumph ]] and [[Innocent Blood ]]. Alongside that maybe a few smaller wipes like [[ Brotherhood's End ]] or protection spells like [[ Darkness ]]. And then obviously later in the game answering more serious board states with black and red's amazing suite of removal spells and a handful of more conventional wipes.

I'd be refilling my hand with spells like [[ Blood for the Blood God ]], [[ night's whisper ]], [[ Sign in Blood ]], [[ Reforge the Soul ]] and filtering with [[ Magmatic Insight ]], [[ Demand Answers ]] and other looting spells.

I don't know... what commander fits this overall strategy? Most of the Rakdos color pie is either aristocrats, reanimation, or aggro.

[[ Florian, Voldaren Scion ]] really only finds a single card and you only get payoff once on your turn.

[[ Magar of the Magic Strings]] is pretty mana intensive and requires attacking creatures.

[[ Mogis, God of Slaughter ]] doesn't really do much other than annoy people without multiple layers of damage amplification.

[[ Obosh, the Preypiercer ]] limits it's effect to Odd mana cost cards when most of your best burn spells are even costed.

[[ Tor Wauki the younger ]] does a limited amount of amplification and life gain... so he might be my top contender, not sure though because he's kinda expensive for his effect.

[[ Lord of Pain ]] and [[ Vial smasher the Fierce ]] only really work for a group slug/staxy strategy.

[[ Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls ]] is similar to the others above but doesn't synergize because the most efficient damage spells are entirely sorcery speed effects.

[[ Rowan, Scion of War ]] might work, but only half of my spells really do self-harm so there will be times the ability wouldn't be actuvatable.

[[ Rankle and Torbran ]] is too expensive and requires combat damage.

Am I overlooking some potentially viable commanders for this specific strategy? Or am I overlooked some of the advantages of the listed commanders?

What do you guys think?

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/WfNynNwS70WmrobCUISJzw

I picked up (and got signed!) one of my white whale cards at MagicCon Vegas, a [[Mirror Universe]]. The whole gist of the deck is to kill opponents by getting to either a very low or negative life total (using “you cannot lose” effects to survive) then swapping that to an opponent. The fall-back is utilizing both life gain and life loss doublers, since swapping numbers is accomplished by gaining and losing the right amount of life. Similarly “when you gain life, they lose that much” effects can easily KO opponents.

I know that traditionally [[Selenia]] heads this style of deck, but I wanted to make it a little harder to combo off while also providing an extra tool for removing problematic permanents, so Vona seemed like a good fit. I’d considered [[Ghen]], but red didn’t synergize nearly as well with swapping. Definitely open to other suggestions!

Does the list look reasonable as-is? It’s a bit light on creatures, and given the number of enchantments I was considering [[sphere of safety]] and [[ghostly prison]] to stave off early aggression.

Brewing a Sorin of House Markov

Trying to lose and gain a ton of life --ya know orzhov things.

I want to make the Children of Korlis work in this deck does anyone know cards like Greed or phrexian processor that would allow me to pay life for an effect. Whats the most efficient way in black/white to lower my own life total?

Recently a friend got me and another friend into Commander. However, without fail, each game we've played has resulted in my loss. I like to try and build themed decks, since I don't have much experience with MtG.

As an example, this was the first deck I built. If anyone could point out any glaring flaws or ideas, I'd appreciate it.

This one was just a basic Spider theme deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/m57XHgSmFUSQ42mVhv7hhQ

For information, my friends and I play rather casually on a virtual tabletop.

I don't really know enough to be trying to aim for a specific meta or play style, I just like making and playing these kinds of themed decks.

I play commander with friends and i have created this deck fully within Lord Of The Rings flavour and want to keep it that way.

What would you guys recommend for a possible upgrade within the Lotr cards within Magic?

https://archidekt.com/decks/5547619/sauron_and_his_dark_minions