LDH Staples (EDH / Commander)

This is a list of staple cards for my pod's EDH format to aid with deckbuilding (budget permitting.) This is by no means a comprehensive list or meant to substitute for your own homebrewing; it's more of a reminder of cards that are pretty safe to include in the appropriate color(s) if you're looking to fill in a decklist.

We play on Cockatrice on Saturdays, starting around 1:00pm PST, usually for 3-4 hours (2-4 games typically). Games have 4 (sometimes 5) players, often with folks rotating in and out. People are always free to spectate. If you're interested in joining, DM me on Discord at Laggy#0637.
 

The pod rules follow below.

1. Tutor Effects Banned

General tutor functionality is banned (library-wide searching or functional equivalents) - this includes commanders (Scion of the Ur-Dragon) and targeting opponent's libraries (Praetor's Grasp.)

• 1a. Library searches can still target basic lands and lands with basic land types if they were able to do so before (so both Demonic Tutor and Sylvan Scrying can grab a basic land or a stomping ground, but Sunforger cannot.) This essentially exempts basic land search and basic land subtype search functionality.
• 1b. Targeting singular specific cards (Haldan, Avid Arcanist, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar) is also legal. Targeting ANY land (Crop Rotation, Kura, the Boundless Sky) or a non-basic land subtype (Circuitous Route) is not; such effects are limited to basic land and basic land subtype searching as per rule 1a.
• 1c. Companions are legal - they are not searched for and have rigid deckbuilding requirements.

This creates greater variance with decks, so that they don't play the same every time and emphasizes the nature of 99-card singleton deckbuilding.
 

2. Infinites Banned

Doing an infinite interaction (generating infinite mana, life, damage, ETBs, etc.) is banned. Near-infinite combos are legal.

• 2a. You can have potential infinites in your deck as long as you don't start them, defined as playing a series of actions that can be a potential loop/iteration of an infinite. (e.g. you can play Felidar Guardian to bounce Aminatou, the Fateshifter or vice versa, but you can't do both.)

By removing infinites as a default win condition, this makes slower (non-combo) decks viable and raises the average mana curve of games.
 

3. Land Destruction Banned

Land destruction effects (cards that destroy/exile/bounce/sacrifice/steal lands) controlled by other players do not affect your own lands.

• 3a. Cards that restrict or disable land mana functionality (Blood Moon, Hall of Gemstone, Contamination, etc.) are banned. Cards that have these effects stapled to them as additional non-optional text ignore those parts and do not otherwise fizzle. Permanent destruction effects (Beast Within) attempting to target lands fall under this.
• 3b. Abilities such as annihilator that force a player to choose a permanent to sacrifice still require the player to pick permanents under their control if they exist; they can choose to sacrifice nonland permanents or lands, but they cannot declare that they are sacrificing a land, given other options, and then claim protection. Only in the scenario where no nonland permanents remain are they able to refrain from sacrificing their lands.
• 3c. This protection does not extend to effects you control (Harrow, Myriad Landscape, Angelic Purge, etc.)
• 3d. This protection does not extend to lands that have (or have gained) other card types and are targeted by effects affecting those nonland types. For example, artifact lands (Seat of the Synod) can be destroyed by Abrade, lands that have temporarily become creatures (Celestial Colonnade, Sylvan Awakening) can be exiled by Swords to Plowshares and so forth. Such lands gaining a nonland permanent type are now vulnerable to permanent destruction effects.
• 3e. This protection does not extend to land destruction effects that are optional (Braids, Arisen Nightmare, Chain of Vapor); a player must still sacrifice a land if they want the desired effect attached to it (or lack thereof.)
• 3f. A player can choose to forfeit this protection at immediate speed (ignoring the stack) if they so desire (as a response to annihilator, etc.) In this scenario, they forfeit said protection until the stack is empty.

This prevents players from being shut out by Armageddon and friends, and lets them keep a safe mana base so that they continue to be able to play cards and participate in the game. Do note this does not prevent all possible avenues for land destruction; for example, playing Mycosynth Lattice and Vandalblast is a legal combination.
 

4. Deck Budget Limit

In Cockatrice, price check your deck via Deck Editor -> Send deck to online service -> Analyze deck (deckstats.net) and aim to be below $500 (use tcgplayer.com prices). You are allowed some discretion in handwaving down prices for cards that are obviously inflated due to supply/popularity reasons rather than power if the deck is not particularly strong for pod standards. On the other hand, if you're including cards whose power justify their price and/or your deck is a strong archetype, err on the side of being strict.
 
A deck's budget is often a decent representation of its power level, and this sets a reasonable cap on how many expensive generic goodstuff cards you can include.
 

• 4a. Lands are exempt from a deck's budget cap (to allow for good mana bases, which are otherwise notoriously expensive), aside from the following exceptions.
• 4b. MDFCs (Sea Gate Restoration, Agadeem's Awakening, etc.) and multi-type lands (Urza's Saga) are not exempt, nor are the lands listed below (these must be factored into the deck budget.)
   
  Lands of rare or mythic rarity with notable self-impact or archetype hosing:
• Cavern of Souls
• Gemstone Caverns
• Homeward Path
• Maze of Ith
• Phyrexian Tower
• Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
• Scavenger Grounds
• Tower of the Magistrate
   
  Lands on the Reserved List:
• Badlands / Balduvian Trading Post / Bayou / Bazaar of Baghdad / City of Shadows / City of Traitors / Diamond Valley / Elephant Graveyard / Gaea's Cradle / Griffin Canyon / Halls of Mist / Heart of Yavimaya / Island of Wak-Wak / Kjeldoran Outpost / Lake of the Dead / Land Cap / Lava Tubes / Library of Alexandria / Lotus Vale / Mishra's Workshop / Plateau / Rainbow Vale / River Delta / Savannah / Scorched Ruins / Scrubland / Serra's Sanctum / Sheltered Valley / Soldevi Excavations / Sorrow's Path / Taiga / Teferi's Isle / Thawing Glaciers / The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale / Timberline Ridge / Tolarian Academy / Tropical Island / Tundra / Underground Sea / Undiscovered Paradise / Veldt / Volcanic Island / Volrath's Stronghold / Winding Canyons / Yavimaya Hollow
   
  Lands exclusively printed from the Legends set:
• Adventurers' Guildhouse / Cathedral of Serra / Hammerheim / Mountain Stronghold / Seafarer's Quay / Tolaria / Unholy Citadel / Urborg
   

5. Pseudotutor/Land Destruction Ban List

The following cards, while not strictly tutor or land destruction effects mechanically, do similar things in practice (allows one to search their whole library, reduce their library to fetch a specific card, turn off the majority of lands in most decks, etc.)

• (U) Back to Basics / Enter the Infinite / Proteus Staff
• (B) Ad Nauseam / Demonic Consultation / Paradigm Shift / Tainted Pact
• (G) Hermit Druid
• (UB) Lim-Dûl's Vault
   

6. Generic Value/Impact Ban List

The following cards are deemed both too generically good and having outsized impact on deckbuilding variety and game state.

• (W) Farewell / Smothering Tithe
• (U) Consecrated Sphinx / Cyclonic Rift / Fierce Guardianship / Force of Negation / Force of Will / Mana Drain / Rhystic Study / Pact of Negation / Time Spiral
• (B) Bloodchief Ascension / Exquisite Blood
• (R) Dockside Extortionist / Jeska's Will
• (G) Triumph of the Hordes
• (C) Blightsteel Colossus / Emrakul, the Promised End / Emrakul, the World Anew / The One Ring / Kozilek, Butcher of Truth / Sensei's Divining Top / Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Fast Mana Rocks

• Chrome Mox / Grim Monolith / Mana Crypt / Mana Vault / Mox Diamond / Mox Opal / Sol Ring

Lands

• Ancient Tomb / Cabal Coffers / Field of the Dead / Glacial Chasm

Fetchlands

• Arid Mesa / Bloodstained Mire / Flooded Strand / Marsh Flats / Misty Rainforest / Polluted Delta / Scalding Tarn / Verdant Catacombs / Windswept Heath / Wooded Foothills
   

7. Mulligan Rules

There are no free mulligans. All players (including first) draw on their first turn.
 
We use the London mulligan rules:

• 1. Draw seven cards every time you mulligan.
• 2. When you are satisfied, put a card back on the bottom of your library for each time you have mulliganed.
   

8. Concession Rules

Concession due to a player's perception of imminent loss is not considered bad sportsmanship. Punishing an opponent attempting to put you into an unwinnable position by conceding is expected behavior. Players are encouraged to concede when it seems reasonable to speed up game pacing, e.g. when a control/stax deck has locked down the board convincingly.

• 8a. Conceding has been changed to a sorcery-speed action that does not use the stack (as opposed to normal rules where it is effectively split second.) This puts a reasonable limit on how much concession can be weaponized against someone else utilizing your board state.
• 8b. If all players except one agree to concede the game, the game ends immediately in victory for the remaining player (using the normal rules concession speed.)