Messages

16

General Magic / Re: Planechase in March of the Machines

« on: March 08, 2023, 12:43:06 am »

We also let each player begin the game with a Fractured Powerstone in the command zone.  This led to lots of early die-rolling.

Ooh, now THAT's a cool idea; I did it my way because I wanted to add some intensity when players opting to main the card DREW it and were therefore able to multiroll when nobody else could.  Now that Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients exists, I'll have to change the rules so Planechase rolls can't trigger him; else he'd become too ubiquitous (aha, finally, a word I never use).

Despite the fast mana that everyone had access too (this was in the days before Arcane Signet), the games went very long.  I think this is way we gradually gravitated away from that format.

That's why I set up my CPD in that specific way; I wanted to force Phenomenal Encounters often enough that it wouldn't extend games by as much.

17

General Magic / Re: Planechase in March of the Machines

« on: March 07, 2023, 11:41:40 pm »

I never had that problem, because I started out with three rules in no particular order:

• Every turn starts with a mandatory roll, and players can't otherwise roll unless they use Fractured Powerstone (which can be cast and activated for free and at instant speed [activation with permission if it's not your turn], but can't produce mana and can't otherwise be interacted with).

• Every blank face was a mandatory re-roll (whiffing is no fun).  As you can imagine, we went through the Planar Deck FAST.

• This.

Unfortunately, I never got around to improving on that initial premise...in fact (despite the description), this is the first time I've written those other two rules down.

As an interesting side note, PLANECHASE Commander was my group's only format to be hard-locked to exactly four players per session, as a consequence of PLANECHASE rules mandating a minimum Planar Deck size based on the quantity of participants.

Once all of the new cards are revealed, I'll revive that old CPD; if there are new Phenomena, I hope it will be an even number so I can update the player quantity lock accordingly.

18

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Sisay Jegantha Nothing

« on: March 06, 2023, 03:27:39 am »

I see where this is going, but I don't think it's that efficient; do you really feel you need TWENTY-THREE mana rocks?  You're using up a LOT of valuable Deck space.

Hanna, Ship's Navigator can put Door to Nothingness back into your hand, and Ashnod the Uncaring or Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice can copy the Door's ability.

Legendaries with pump effects (like Arvad the Cursed or Heroes' Podium) can help you cheat out pricier cards; alternatively, why not use Skyship Weatherlight in place of Planar Bridge?

Ramos, Dragon Engine can pay for the Door by himself, but you might need to change some other cards around to better set him up.

Those are just a few ideas I had off the top of my head; I'm sure others will be better able to expand than I can.

19

Deck Comments / Re: hallowed priest - Comments

« on: March 03, 2023, 02:53:08 pm »

I concur; Karlov is PERFECT as a Hallowed Priest Commander, even if you DON'T take advantage of Black (which would be dumb, but I'm not going to throw any more stones).

20

Commander Discussion / Re: CMC tribal. What are you picking and why?

« on: February 28, 2023, 04:16:36 pm »

Colossal dreadmaw tribal. 6 mana 6/6s with trample only. Lead by O-Kagachi, Vegentful Kami

Please someone make this.

It exists, sort of, but obviously not ALL Mana Value six.  ZoraLloid made one a couple of years ago.
Personally, I'd just love to make an Oops! all Cheerios! Deck featuring Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, as a dig at people who try too hard to optimize their average (can't beat straight ZERO, now can you)?

I actually TRIED it, twice in fact, but there simply aren't enough cards to make a full hundred.

21

Deck Comments / Re: Angelic - Comments

« on: February 26, 2023, 09:07:52 pm »

Welcome to DeckStats.NET, and congratulations, because this is my first comment in several months, and I don't usually modify Decks.

I love your Deck so much that I finally got around to making my own Angel Deck (which I've always wanted to do), based on it.
Thank you for convincing me to actually develop one instead of simply talking about it; I'll make another change so it's more original.

22

Commander Discussion / Re: Cards that Might be TOO Popular

« on: November 26, 2022, 01:25:15 pm »

Hot take here: Rhystic Study. At this point in our group it's just a stax piece and I don't necessarily want that; I want cards. I've started to replace it with other cards.

I feel that calling it "stax" is a bit strong, but I agree with the other part.  I try not to use cards like that no matter how popular (justified or not) they are because I don't like effects that let my opponents pick whether they resolve.  I want my opponents to interact when they can, and to do whatever I want when they can't.  I'm likely to add that to my list when I get a chance.

23

Commander Discussion / Re: Cards that Might be TOO Popular

« on: November 25, 2022, 11:38:49 pm »

I echo the previous comments; I'm not quite sure what you're going for here, it sounds like basically "cards that we see too often"?

Essentially, yes; that, and cards that you find yourself using too often.

I'm not sure I've ever seen Generator Servant, but I can see where you'd use it. Sylvan Safekeeper is I think well-known as a pretty powerful card, though. It's one of those ones that's pretty not good in more casual decks because the cost is so high (saccing a land), but it's well worth it in many situations. And, honestly, even casual decks would probably choose to lose a land over many creatures, especially in the late game. People will happily sac a land to dig a card deeper into their library, so why not sac a card to keep an eldrazi or Etali or something around? What makes this really good though is the zero mana cost and no need to tap; as many times as you like, at instant, you can just nope something that would remove any of your creatures.

I admit bias because my playgroup LOVES removal (and especially wipes), but Creatures without Indestructible and/or "can't be Countered" (and tappers without Haste) are WAY too easy to get rid of without the caster ever getting to use them.  For Generator Servant specifically, Hall of the Bandit Lord does the same thing but is far less likely to be worthless (and can also be done more than once), and I wouldn't use that either; enabling mass Haste is not expensive enough more to justify it.

Swan Song is not exactly very specific; it counters the majority of things that most people really want to counter, which is instants and sorceries. You're probably not taking this to stop someone else winning (though many combo cards are counterable with it, as are big win spells like Torment of Hailfire), but to stop them from stopping you winning - I reckon people would pack it even if it just said "counter target counterspell". For 1 mana, that's still pretty great (and the main reason people take things like REB/Pyroblast, noting of course that they can destroy permanents, and of course Veil of Summer).

So you'd only use it if you were going to win anyway?  My point stands; it's not that good.  At least those others work on ANY Blue threat, and not only the ones that interrupt your combo.

Expel from Orazca actually feels like the opposite, a card that's somewhat underplayed for how good it is.

I concur; I put it into a Deck that I already wanted to make but conveniently got around to making immediately after seeing that reply, immediately after seeing that reply.  (Yes, that sentence does make sense; read it again, slowly).

24

Commander Discussion / Re: Cards that Might be TOO Popular

« on: November 23, 2022, 10:37:56 pm »

I apologize for the delay, but I just now got enough time to review some of your suggestions, and yes, some of them are cards I also see often, but many are not; in fact, I've never heard of Generator Servant or Sylvan Safekeeper (but that's probably because they're prima facie terrible...I'm sure they have some hidden value), nor Expel from Orazca or Goblin Anarchomancer (but those are surprisingly good and I might have to use them myself).

Swan Song I'd think is too popular; yes, it's one mana, but it could still have had a better drawback in exchange...as is it's so specific that I'd never want to use it.  I should add Chromatic Lantern because I overuse that card, but I do very much love it...hmm...

Thank you very much for bearing with me and trying to provide useful input in spite of the limited criteria.

25

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Looking for help with a Kalamax deck, I had too much fun

« on: November 22, 2022, 02:04:50 pm »

Actually, I thought of using Tutors for some of your OTHER cards, so you wouldn't have to run so many copies of each piece.  Again, I admit I rather overthought that aspect.  I don't have any more ideas for improvement; I just wanted to clarify that.  And yes, you don't need backups for Kalamax because you can just run MORE protection so he WON'T get removed.

"Should I just run 9 cards in each category?"  Sure!  In fact, the 8x8 method (36 Land and 8 groups of 8 each) may help you consolidate somewhat (with a few tweaks of course; you don't need 8 copies of Fling, obviously).

EDIT TO ADD: I just noticed that I should point out: Ertai's Meddling will only DELAY Obliterate (but will probably make it symmetrical, and at the start of their turn, too, where it would most hurt); it stops single-target uncounterable like Dovin's Veto because the original target becomes invalid.  You COULD possibly stall long enough to win (or at least draw a Heroic Intervention type card to protect your stuff).

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Looking for help with a Kalamax deck, I had too much fun

« on: November 21, 2022, 05:05:46 am »

Appending #show_description to the end of your Deck link will display your Description so we DON'T have to click through to your page to read it.  I'm probably about to miss the point, but I'll TRY to help (by writing a wall of text, apparently; oops).

Kalamax DOES feel fun, but 132 Main, 30 Sideboard is ridiculous.  You could easily drop almost HALF of your Deck and lose very little value (allowing for additions you overlooked of course); you could even KEEP all three of your wincons, if you emphasized consistency over running every POSSIBLE card.  Notably, Kalamax copying the first INSTANT could be leveraged (further than it already is) by FIRST casting a Sorcery-speed Tutor and THEN a Fork clone to get three or four copies of the Tutor and find EVERY card you want instead of only one of them.  You're also missing a LOT of Fork effects; if the goal IS getting an infinitely big Kalamax to use for other stuff, then you'd want to run as many as possible and as LITTLE "other stuff" as you can.

Ertai's Meddling will get rid of Dovin's Veto (I noticed you particularly hate that card).  If it's Lab Man you want, then Chord of Calling (which you have) for 5, copied with Kalamax, will get you Leveler and Thassa's Oracle, which will replace that wincon without ANY Draw power, plus it won't fall to Nars3t or Notion Thief (but instead to Opposition Agent).  Also, you have a couple of Vehicles; I feel leaning into that angle may be more consistent at tapping Kalamax than relying on bizarre Stax effects or Springleaf Drum clones (but the Drum is really good), plus they might let you still have Combat even if Kalamax is your only Creature, so you can reduce the advantage your opponents would build up.

27

Commander Discussion / Re: Cards that Might be TOO Popular

« on: November 21, 2022, 03:20:42 am »

I meant what I said: it's not "just" a list of staples because that would be a thousand cards long, and I'm documenting some "goodstuff" cards that I'd otherwise end up using in every Deck just like I see others do.  The bit about bannings was in regard to cards like Teferi's Protection, Fierce Guardianship, and the four broken Creatures, mainly; that's where the list started, and some other "popular" stuff got added to it.  Also, I'm tired of seeing Opt in every Deck EVEN IF it's not banworthy.

Seedborn Muse is very good, but I wanted something with similar mana value; if it was a set of EXPENSIVE Creatures Green has a LOT of options.  It's possible that no such card exists, and that would be why I couldn't find one.  I'll be using Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, because that's the card I see the most that has similar cost to the others; it just FELT wrong to me.  I'll add Seedborn Muse too, but not for the same reason.

EDIT: Some changes made, including the Deck title; hopefully the new title is less confusing.  I also swapped Opt for Brainstorm (duh).

28

Commander Discussion / Cards that Might be TOO Popular

« on: November 20, 2022, 09:02:55 pm »

I haven't posted in a long time, so here goes; I make a lot of sort-of-bad reference lists, and I get stuck VERY easily.

For several years (I know, it doesn't look like it), I've been making a list of cards that would probably be in EVEN MORE Decks if playgroups didn't keep banning them.
The CURRENT reason is that I'm trying NOT to make a pure "goodstuff" Deck and I'm stuck because I don't LIKE using subpar cards.

The ORIGINAL reason was that I wanted to find a Green card for the set of Magistrate, Hullbreacher (now Notion), Opposition and Dockside; likely Ilysian Grove.

(I was thinking Eternal Witness or maybe Loaming Shaman, but they're not AS good as the first four).

What other cards are SO good that you'd rather see FEWER of them, and what cards in my list AREN'T as popular as they look?  (I'm thinking Spellskite, but I HAVE seen that one A LOT).

29

Deck Comments / Re: Casual EDH Ban List - Comments

« on: March 03, 2022, 12:25:57 am »

@jlutzxinc: The list was initially seen as an add-on to the official ban list.  Some cards ended up being there based on the data collection process from edhrec (salty cards, top played cards) and the cedh staples list.  I have added a section of banned in edh to solve this problem.  Could you link your ban list?

I'm sorry for taking so long to reply; it looks like you addressed my concern.  My Banlist DESCRIPTION shows that my group also adheres to several other Banlists, but the list ITSELF is only for cards that either aren't on them or are there for the wrong reason (but still should be).   Your solution is equally valid.

ETA on the next day (so I don't double post, apologies in advance for length):
It occurred to me that you might like to see a few OTHER reference lists of mine.  The first I've made especially for your review.
The second I made a long time ago, but I've made it relevant here via the first's description.
And the third isn't directly relevant but it may help you navigate your format independently of any bans.
Please click on the links (especially for the second one), because there are many additional notes in the comments that are only visible via the Overview tab.  Again I apologize for the late reply.

30

General Magic / Re: Ya boy is back

« on: March 01, 2022, 02:51:47 pm »

I really don't know where to start with new cards (there's so many!), but you should know that the Rules Commitee have banned Hullbreacher and Golos and unbanned Worldfire.

Welcome back!