I saw some genuinely straight-up bizarre behavior in a game of mine the other day. It was a B3 pod where in game 1, one player brought out his "new, hasn't been tested" Gilgamesh deck, brought out a mix of Crystal Vein, Seething Song, and Jeska's Will to bring out his commander turn two and kill the table turn 4. In game 2 he brought out Ur-Dragon and as there were two control-style decks at the table didn't do much for most of the game before it was just me and him. He then cast Dracogenesis and the writing was on the wall, but I didn't concede let him continue with his combo, drawing cards from every dragon cast, getting more tokens, etc.

I ended up dying to Terror of the Peaks triggers and conceded, saying "let's play next." Instead the Ur-Dragon Player acted as if he didn't see me and CONTINUED NARRATING HIS TURN, describing casting more dragons, drawing more cards, attacking, etc. I walked away after multiple times saying we should shuffle up again. I CHECKED BACK 5 MINUTES LATER AND HE WAS STILL PLAYING OUT HIS TURN. Do commander players do this?? If you have me dead to rights, I'll let you kill me rather than conceding, but this was genuinely just playing with his deck in front of me for no gain. Please don't do this. Please don't. It's weird and showboaty and wastes time.

Still pretty new to the game, started playing super casual earlier this year so don’t really have any experience with anything outside bracket 2. That said, I’m always seeing that bracket 3 decks “expect to make it to turn 6/7” before pulling out a win. But if there are three other players at the table all with decks built with the same expectation (planning to win around turn 6), how long do brackets 3 games actually tend to last? Surely people are running enough interaction at that level to stop other players from playing their winning pieces, so I would expect games to push past turn 6 more often than not? I play bracket 2 and games easily run past turn 12, I just can’t wrap my head around games ending so quick. So, bracket 3 and up players, what’s your actual game length on average?

I see many posts about people who went to an LGS for the first time and had bad experiences with people whining or being salty for no reason, and the posters question wheter they did something wrong. The answer is: 99% of the time, no. Sure, maybe playing your Mono Blue Stax Urza deck at a B2 table wasn't a good idea, but besides those rare cases, it's not your fault.

Playing Voltron? "NOOO you killed me on turn 5!!! That's against Bracket GUIDELINES!"

Playing Mill? "NOOOO my PRECIOUS cards!!!"

Playing Theft? "NOOO don't touch my CARDS!"

Playing Dragons? "UNORIGINAL!"

Playing Lifegain? "NOOO the game's gonna last three HOURS!"

The important thing to remember is that some people are like that. They'll complain, and you should let them, but don't overthink it. Keep playing, meet some nice players, join a playgroup. Magic (and especially EDH) is a game. We should all be having fun.

I am a new player (haven’t played mtg but have played Hearthstone and Yugioh a lot) who is deciding to build his first commander deck from scratch.

I bought the new Jace precon deck but the strategy of getting out big beat sticks and swing them at people gets old really fast.

I wanted to build decks that have a different game plan than that, but it turns out that all of the commanders I want to build will probably be either kill on sight or make me the archenemy of the table.

Some examples: [[the wise mothman]], [[teval, the balanced scale]], [[koma, cosmos serpent]], [[niv-mizzet, parun]], [[niv-mizzet, ghost counsel]], [[muldrotha, the gravetide]], [[sorin of house markov]]

If I run these commanders people would probably not want to play with me (as I know in Yugioh players tend to refuse to play against players who run decks like Runick). Any advice on picking a commander with a similar plan or building these commanders without the salt?

This is absolutely hilarious. They don’t even specify or enforce any rules other than 1.) a limit of three game changer cards + 2.) no mass land denial. Is it just me or is this a horrible idea?

The people I know who play by the bracket system emphasize the importance of other criteria outlined in the bracket guidelines such as average number of turns in a game, no early combo wins in bracket 2 and 3, no early lockouts like [[Drannith Magistrate]] + [[Uba Mask]].

All of that gets ignored in their bracket 3 tournaments. Isn’t this just gimped cEDH with an arbitrary limitation to three game changers in each deck? Having a bracket 3 tournament is silly at best and very misleading at worst to the people unfamiliar with how the store runs these events.

I forgot to add that yes, prizes are given to the winners.

Outside of [[sol ring]] and the occasional ritual I don't think I have ever run into fast mana during a bracket 3 game. I know that they are technically allowed by the brackets but fast mana has always felt like the hallmark of bracket 4. The reason I made this post is because I have seen some people on here using all their GC slots on fast mana and it made me wonder if my local meta is just slower than average. So how much fast mana is seen in your bracket 3 games? Is it something you need to be able to keep up?

My friend group has decks that are all around 2 or 3 and its always a good time in that range.

Ive been drawn to the idea of Sphinxes, but all I see is people saying how awful they are, even with Ur-Sphinx or Unesh at the helm.

Was curious if theyre really that bad as to not be able to compete in the zone Ive mentioned.

Or, is there a way to make them consistent and fun still?

If the answer is still no, im curious about Sphinxes thst would be good commanders for other things then. Like Ingris or Denzilore? Would those work well? I would lose all the sphinx flavor though unless I proxied a bunch of art or something. Idk.

So I just had this really awkward interaction with a dude on spell table that kept sprouting he goes to cedh tournaments but I genuinely think his rules knowledge was just wrong. Dude casted tendrils of agony with a storm count of 19 using a sensei's loop with bolass citadel and drained himself to 1 life in the process. Another player is playing zurgo aristocrats, and attempted to respond to the storm copy of tendrils at the top of the stack with a sacrifice outlet activation to let zurgo trigger kill him on the stack before the storm copies or original copy could resolve. Seemed easy enough, dude must have forgotten there was an aristocrats player and didn't leave enough wiggle room, if he was cool about I would have probably let him roll back a few storm counts to survive as it didn't win him the game anyways and this is bracket 3. But the dude got super heated and tried to say that "the way storm works means that I'm gaining the life from tendrils before the zurgo trigger kills me". Unless I'm thinking of the stack incorrectly, would the zurgo trigger not resolve before the tendrils, seeing as it would be the newest thing to hit the stack all before the first tendrils resolved? Dude ended up getting super heated that we were genuinely asking a ruling question, we were all saying that we weren't trying to call him a liar but just wanted to fully understand the interaction. He refused to go step by step or provide any actual explanation and just ended yelling he plays cedh and leaving. Any actual input on the stack interaction?

EDIT: i knew I wasn't insane, spell table is an interesting place folks

I’m having a hard time warming up to this new design. While there are definitely some great improvements, what I loved most about this site was its simplicity.

A lot of the features I used frequently are now buried or weirdly placed. On top of that, the site feels noticeably slower. It reminds me a lot of MTGStocks, complete with its clutter. Oddly, articles don't stand out anymore and just melt together into the background.

What do you all think? Is this just a matter of getting used to it, or is the user experience actually worse?

So far I have built [[Jace, Multiversal Architect]], [[Codie, Ravenous Codex]] and [[The Ur-Sphinx]] but havn't had the chance to play either. Contemplating swapping Jace into a [[Nissa, Leyline Tamer]] and a [[Tam, The Possibility]] deck but unsure about what I want to do.

The new [[Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Council]] seems like a really cool concept but feel like it might get old going straight life drain.

I have a deep love for Omnath as OG Omnath was the first commander deck I built but [[Omnath, Locus of the Void]] doesn't seem all too strong. Especially if you're not running Eldrazi to ramp into.

IMO all of the new Sphinx's seem fun. [[Uldaros Theorix]] seems like the most fun going into clones but I also feel like it might get repetitive going that route.

Last [[Loot, The Anomaly]] might be one of the oddest/most unique cards to me and definitely one I want to try to make.

What have people been really enjoying out of this set?

Hi all. I've been playing Magic for a little under a year. I mostly play standard and sealed on Arena, where I have ~400 hours of play. I do play quite a bit of paper commander, but not as frequently. I'm not much of a deck builder (yet!). I have bought quite a few precons, and have slowly been upgrading them over time. I have never built a commander from scratch. I have the most fun with Ashling, Teval, and Zurgo. Based on those interests, what would you recommend building next? I'm considering life-gain/drain, spell slinging, and/or something kindred. That said, I'm open to anything! Shooting for high 3 to high bracket 4. Thanks!

I run a strictly tribal white deck, but even with that is running Kindred Judgement over Vanquish the Horde? Nearly 4x the mana cost most of the time. I have some ways to grant field wide indestructible, which would be easier with Vanquish. I'm also running Split Up as my other board wipe, but maybe these two are more worth it the end. Thoughts?

My first home brew was The Great Goblin and I enjoyed it but it wasn’t really competitive against the bracket three decks at my LGS.

I would expect Purphoros to be much better suited but want to keep it bracket three so no Blood Moon or infinite combos.

Opted for a token strategy and would appreciate any advice you all might have.

Purphoros Token Deck

Hello everyone, I'm am started a new personal project where I'll have 1 deck that is only built from cards I've opened.

My plan is to start myself off with 1 precon and 3 boxes worth of sets across magic. I'll be proxying everything so im not concerned about raw card or pack value.

Now this bring me to my main question, which precon would be best for have individual card usability? I was thinking tmnt or the new jace since land base is likely to be my biggest pain point for awile also offering plenty of legends. Also which boxes do you think i should pick to open? Personally leaning towards the original Theros block as mono colour support is probably good at the beginning and its around the time I started.

Anyways appreciate all input thank you!

Edit: since 2 people have already asked. When I mean "open" i dont mean physically open, im gonna be simulating cracking packs and tracking what I opened.

For context, I have a Golgari deck I'm deconstructing and want to use the parts for something.

So I've whittled it down between [[Blech, loafing pest]] and [[Meren of clan nel toth]]

On one hand, I have a ton of cards for a Meren deck, but when I put it all together, it just seems like a generic Golgari deck. It's just full of the cards you put in any black/green deck.

On the other hand, the blech deck seems kinda boring to me. Yeah the go wide with a bunch of creatures with +1/+1 counters is strong, but it seems a bit dull to me.

I did look at [[Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth]] too but I need to get some blue cards for her.

Link for current deck on moxfield: Current deck I already own IRL

Link for potential deck upgrade: Potential upgraded version for quintorius deck (b3)
(gamechangers not in mainboard, swaps listed on the primer alongside the potential extra cards)
Will copy the primer and post as a comment under this post for ease-of-access

Link for moxfield comparison between the 2 decks: The comparison

--

Hello!

I built a quintorius, history chaser deck, intentionally aiming at a B2 power level (no infinite combos, much lower win, only one tutor and only because its tied to other effects). However, the deck might be a little too slow for certain commander tables.

I was thinking of getting new cards to both upgrade and have a "swappable tier version" of the deck (ie: keep both lists, and just swap the cards in and out depending on bracket to play).

I wanted to get opinions on the upgrades and the swaps before I started trying to collect the cards for it, esp. since some "aspirational future buys" are quite pricy currently (enlightened tutor for example).

Am open to any recommendations, be it cards-to-cut, other cards to consider adding, or different cards to swap for certain spots (ie: instead of aiming to get a elspeth, stormslayer to replace Quintorius Kand, to look for another type of card).

Thanks in advance!

I had a B4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student deck that was sweet, but i just didn’t have enough opportunities to play it. I like the powerful stuff that simic can do, but some of the decks feel a bit samey and uninspired.

I was initially interested in Quandrix the Proof, but I’m kind of waffling on that. I run it in Tamiyo as a backup show and tell target, and it’s always really fun to play out. Definitely curious to hear from folks who run Quandrix in the command zone.

I mostly wanted to hear people gush about their favorite Blue Green + decks.

It’d be great to find another deck where I can use my good UG lands and spells.

So I'm playing a pretty basic [[Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood]] + [[Akroma, Vision of Ixidor]] partner deck that sets out a really basic gameplan of "I'm going to ramp into playing big angels with lots of keywords", it's currently Bracket 2-3, no GC's/infinites/tutors but if I get big flyers out I can chunk someone for a bunch of health

My Akroma is a really efficient target for cheap removal, and I've tried playing [[Sigarda, Font of Blessings]] - to give everything else hexproof and +1/+1 in combat via Akroma but even when I play that, it gets shot then Akroma gets shot, then I gotta get to 9 mana to play my commander again and... it just kinda sucks?? Even [[Asceticism]], in response to me playing it my creature gets shot

I don't really know what to do :| I thought I'd try commander but it's not much fun so far

Hey everyone! I'm fairly new to Commander and trying to build a strong, consistent [[Giada, Font of Hope]] Angel tribal deck for Bracket 3.

My current list is basically a mix of cards I've seen in other decks and stuff that looked good to me, so I'm not sure how well it all fits together.

I'm aiming to make it as strong as possible without Game Changers or cards over $12 each, while potentially leaving room for Bracket 4 upgrades later.

What would you cut or add? Is my ramp, draw, and interaction good enough? Are there any obvious weaknesses or better ways to close out games?

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/Huv_qxOgQkiq9zvZBUiQqA

Any advice or specific swaps would be appreciated. Thanks!

This guy seems like he could be exceptionally solid for several landfall decks lurking around.

[[Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes]]

Im looking at my Teval deck thats playing 2-3 fetch lands per turn, which is making a 6-8 power Jace token every round. Besides the relatively decent card draw, the deck loves the surveil as well. As a random long shot, getting to give Teval a +6 or +9 later in the game isnt great but certainly isnt irrelevant.

As Simic, any if your Tatyova or Uro decks seem like automatic yes cards for a 2 mana blocker that might draw you 3-6 cards. Playing him on curve with a mana dork gives you a Jace right away, and casting him on two with a playable fetchland makes him a cantrip right away with another card likely if you untap with him.

I dont think hes gonna replace Bloom Tender or anything crazy, but as a sneaky value card this might have a good run in some B2-B3 lands matter decks.

https://moxfield.com/decks/fXLcxlB9T0yYOoNzUYkfMQ

Use tags

I haven't seen a ton of tuned [[loki, god of misrule]] decks, this one's a bit off from what I'd call tuned as well. I'm looking for some ideas for some impactful cards.

The idea is to use Loki to copy a token generator and chain one or two turns of those tokens essentially squaring themselves and then into a copy of a bomb board wide for the win. Tokens are mostly on draw and spell cast.

The deck draws the beejeezus out of itself. It should be ready for a win by turn 5 or 6 is the hope. It has [[hullbreak horror]] + sol ring and [[timestream navigator]] and any token copy of it for infinite turns for upsetting lines/wincons. [[blighted agent]] for a go wide approach to the finish.

Maybe a blightsteel or other big colorless bomb?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Hi so I'm still relatively new to magic (began playing in April of 2025) and pretty much only play commander. I have a few commander decks that I've upgraded based on guides, but since this deck is brand new and has really funny and wonky mechanics, I was wondering if anyone had any takes on fun ways to upgrade it to have success in a bracket 3 pod. Any thoughts or advice would be lovely! Decklist here:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/secret-lair-commander-deck-odds-and-ends-decklist

https://moxfield.com/decks/tHatHR23U0K3QNP3E82dLg

I don’t know enough about the game and the sheer amount of MTG cards is kind of overwhelming. It feels like it’s good? But that’s coming from the dude who just played MTG for the 3rd time in 10 years this last Friday and had to have cascade explained to me like 5 times lol

Thank you in advance