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Messages - mjb3102

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1
Deck Comments / Re: J.R.R TOKENING EDH/Commander - Comments
« on: August 12, 2022, 10:34:16 pm »
I used to run Eldrazi Monument in a previous version of this deck. While it can be very useful, I cut it for a few reasons:
- It puts pressure on the deck to make at least 1 token a turn to break even, which isn't always as easy as it sounds (especially without a token generator)
- 5 CMC is a lot for something that might not always be useful. Other 5 CMC cards in the deck include Seedborn Muse (allows me to combo off/generate a lot of mana), Elder Gargaroth (big body that can be a token generator or card draw), Doubling Season (makes all of my incoming token double), Divine Visitation (makes incoming tokens bigger/flying), etc. You could make the argument that Doubling Season and Divine visitation can also be not useful if I am low on cards/not producing tokens, but they at least are value for later turns unlike Eldrazi Monument which tends to be a "use it now to win/protect" card.
- Lastly, I alluded to this in the previous point but it just feels "win more" in this deck; +1/+1 and flying most times aren't going to win you the game unless you already have a 10+ tokens, which by then you already are gaining steam with Rhys the Redeemed doubling or just win via Scale Up, Beastmaster Ascension, Craterhoof Behemoth, etc.

Not a bad card by any means, just felt other cards offered more value.

I don't have a good answer for Akroma's Will. I will need to consider it/play test it. Thanks for the comment!

2
Deck Comments / Re: J.R.R TOKENING EDH/Commander - Comments
« on: January 05, 2021, 04:43:24 pm »
At one point I did run RIP but I felt it was ultimately a sideboard card due to my meta running little to no graveyard recursion. Plus, at one point we did have a few decks that used RIP to combo and win with Helm of Obedience so I didn't want to give them half of their combo! But overall I agree with your assessment that it would be a net gain if going up against any graveyard manipulation.Thanks for the comment!

3
Deck Comments / Re: Lord Windgrace .01 - Comments
« on: May 17, 2019, 04:05:26 pm »
I just so happen to be working on a Windgrace deck myself; not sure which way you are planning on going with it (land toolbox, land destruction, landfall, etc.) but I would recommend Assassin's Trophy, Constant Mists, World Shaper, and Ob Nixilis, the Fallen. My deck is still a work in progress, but just from my handful of games those card were very useful :) Good luck!

4
Deck Comments / Re: MTG Commando's EDH Banlist - Comments
« on: February 21, 2019, 09:58:30 pm »
Reason for Unbanning:
--Chaos Orb: We feel that this card would be inconsistent enough to limit its' power level and we don't want to ban it only due to the flip mechanic. The ruling states that once the card is announced the board positioning cannot be changed which was initially a concern with the original ban.
--Coalition Victory: This card is ubanned due to it being sorcery speed and having a large amount of requirements in addition to being a 8 drop. It was originally banned due to us not wanting cards that just say "I win." However, if we want to be consistent with this philosophy we would need to ban Test of Endurance and Felidar Sovereign (which is silly).
--Dig Through Time: Dig Through Time requires a reasonably full graveyard to be maximized which means it's basically inactive in the early game.
--Food Chain: Infinite mana enabler. Doesn't win the game unless you have CREATURES that you can cast from exile/win with. Basically a 3 card combo that you need to hope no one has an answer for.
--Gaea's Cradle: Very dependent on board state and is very susceptible to board wipes in addition to spot removal.
--Griselbrand: Has a very difficult casting cost to hit and also generally you won't use the ability more than once due to how much life is lost and needing to discard down to 7. Unless you're winning off of drawing 14 then you're probably only using the trigger once.
--Humility: Was originally banned due to it being "unfun." Would mainly be used with control/planeswalker decks that want to slow down the game. The reason for the unbanning is because of 2 things: 1) Can be destroyed with the majority of board wipes or any sort of removal, 2) it's symmetrical. If it protected itself more or only effected opponents/target for 4 cmc, then this would absolutely be banned.
--Library of Alexandria: While this card may be banned on the other lists, there is no consistant way to have Library and 7 cards in hand without having it in your opening hand. Even if you tutor it, you'll be using cards that reduce your hand to less than 7 and therefore will not be able to use the secondary draw ability. Even in wheel decks, where you can consistently get 7 cards in hand, you'll only get a few draws off of it before you go under 7 again. The reason this is banned in other lists is because the card is powerful in formats with smaller deck sizes and has been historically been banned/restricted due to its' perceived power level in those formats. 1/99 that has to be in opening hand to be worth the slot, otherwise have fun with a colorless mana.
--Mana Crypt: About the same power level as Sol Ring and at least has the chance of bolting you each turn if you flip wrong. Banning Crypt and not Sol Ring is pointless.
--Mana Drain: Will often whiff (if you don't have a spell to put the mana into) or just give you a few mana if you need to counter an essential cheap casting cost spell. Also, the mana is in colorless which can be trickier to use.
--Mana Vault: Less powerful than both Sol Ring and Crypt as it stays tapped and damages you most of the time since you have to spend the 4 to untap during your upkeep, which sucks for control decks. If you don't drop a big bomb off it that sticks then you'll get pinged each turn and probably won't untap it more than one time.
--Mishra's Workshop: Its' mana can only be spent on artifacts so you can't activate abilities. If you're not running an artifact based deck then you'll frequently hit hands where you're either using it to play good 1 or 2 drop artifacts or you just plain have nothing to dump the mana into. Also, it's difficult to make a deck that reliably gets Workshop out. While still powerful, it's far from a slam dunk win.
--Necropotence: Difficult to cast at triple black and you can get locked out of the game if you run low on life while drawing off it. Also, the cards drawn don't go to hand until the end of your turn so you can't over draw and do super cheap things with it as you would need to discard. A powerful effect but you need to set it up properly as a combo to be truly broken.
--Protean Hulk: Generally requires a 3 card combo or more to be good and that would be discarding it, reanimating it and killing it. If you can do all 3 cards and then not have one of the combo pieces still be in your hand you can win off it but that's the nature of combos. Besides getting a super lucky hand with Flash and Protean Hulk it's very very difficult to consistently get wins off Hulk.
--Survival of the Fittest: Swapped with Loyal Retainers. We have tested this for almost 6 months and found that although it is powerful, it is very limited to what you have in your hand and there isn't any "I win" combos without Loyal Retainers. It may give you a big advantage at times, but other times it is playmat ornament.
--Treasure Cruise: Requires a large graveyard before it's good which is more difficult to achieve in EDH compared to other formats that can run larger numbers of fetch lands and 1 drop cantrips. Due to this, the card usually doesn't really turn into an ancestral recall until the mid to late game making it less unfair for not giving an early game card advantage.
--Vial Smasher the Fierce: It has no protection and is still a 3 drop. I believe the initial banning was done more due to French commander moving to a 20 life format and the fear that this card could do too much damage in that format too quickly, however with a higher life format this card is less threatening.

5
Deck Comments / Re: MTG Commando's EDH Banlist - Comments
« on: February 21, 2019, 08:11:25 pm »
**PLEASE NOTE** We have removed "banned as commanders". This list will be kept for archiving purposes but it is no longer in effect as of 7/16/21

Banned as Commanders:
--Braids, Cabal Minion: Banned since you can very quickly cheat this card out and then just gain permanent advantage off cards like Crucible of Worlds. If you use it with black land destruction in the deck it's very very hard to remove Braids enough to survive all the permanent sacrificing.
--Derevi, Empyrial Tactician: Here's the duel commander write up on why this commander is banned - "Derevi combines with many cards to create an enormous advantage very quickly. Combined with Hokori, Dust Drinker, you can lock your opponent while not suffering the effects yourself. Combined with Bloom Tender, you can create 6 mana on turn three, for exampling letting you cast Frost Titan and completely lock your opponent out of the game. Combined with Birthing Pod you can tutor multiple creatures into play every turn, crushing the opponent under value. And these are only a few examples. As a result, when playing against Derevi, you’re torn apart between trying to stop various threats which are quite good on their own, and trying to deal with a Commander that can come back very cheaply again and again. Not many decks are able to do that and still remain competitive against the rest of the field. Some specialized answers exist (Lignify, Darksteel Mutation, Gilded Drake) however we don’t want to turn matchups against Derevi into a lottery of whether you can find and resolve one of those scarce answers. So rather than try and ban any number of those otherwise interesting cards, we prefer banning the engine."
--Edric, Spymaster of Trest: In multiplayer, this card greatly advantages any player not attacking you by allowing them to draw a card whenever they connect with an attacker on another player. Even in single player, this is still a super powerful, and cheap, draw engine that is very difficult to overcome.
--Erayo, Soratami Ascendant: If you build your deck around flipping Erayo on turn 2 you can probably do this a high percentage of the time. Because you don't have to tutor for this card the effect is completely devastating coming out that early every game. This is why it's fine as a non-commander since you can't build the deck around flipping it and reliably get it that early.
--Griselbrand: The card draw off of Griselbrand is just too much and black has plenty of ways to accelerate into this commander. In a 30 life game you can probably still draw 14 cards and sclupt your hand to win the next turn. Kokush, the Evening Star - This combined with sacrifice effects is one of the reasons it was banned very early on in multiplayer commander. It's not nearly as broken in 1v1 but it's still difficult enough to deal with due to cards like Recurring Nightmare that it's too powerful still even as a 1v1 commander.
--Leovold, Emissary of Trest: Shutting down opposing draw engines is one thing but the card draw you get off of it's protective ability is extremely hard to deal with. And for only 3 it's relatively easy to recast repeatedly even if you can't protect it.
--Rofellos, Llawnowar Emissary: This card is good by itself but due to it's low cost and easy replayability in green it's just too good as a commander. It can generate far too much mana by turn 3 and requires an immediate answer. With Greaves it's practically unstoppable turn 2 in a mana ramp deck which makes it bannable as a commander.
--Zur the Enchanter: Zur can tutor up any answer to just about anything due to the number of great 3 or less enchantments in UBW. Some of the extremely oppressive combos like Bitterblossom/Contamination make this deck a nightmare to play against. Unless you're packing a ton of enchantment removal it's exteremely difficult to get out from under all the locks this deck can bring out.

6
Deck Comments / Re: MTG Commando's EDH Banlist - Comments
« on: February 21, 2019, 08:10:50 pm »
Banned in Library for Multiplayer:
--Balance: Banned in multiplayer only since the swing you get from slow playing your deck and/or playing limited creatures is extreme in a multiplayer environment. In single player it isn't as much since you need to actually be in a disadvantaged state for it to be useful and you can't just slow play as easily in 1v1. It can be a dead draw if you get it later in the game when you have advantage or if you need to board wipe but have your commander out.
--Biorhythm:  The potential to just win off of a board wipe + bioryhthm & a dude is just too high for multiplayer since it's a slower format than 1v1 and will allow the biorhythm player to build up their hand. It's significantly less broken in 1v1 due to the faster nature of the format.
--Limited Resources: Restricts lands based on total number in play, which is not that bad in single player but horribly broken in multiplayer since it stops players from playing any lands after 10 are in play.
--Prophet of Kruphix: The ability to untap during each other players turn AND play creatures as instants in 1 card is just too much for multiplayer. Seedborn Muse at least doesn't allow you to play creatures with your untapped mana so it's much harder to abuse. Not as potent in single player since you don't get as many other untap phases as in multiplayer.
--Sundering Titan: In multiplayer this card is broken since it will blow up around 5 lands every time it LEAVES and ENTERS play. It doesn't even need to die for this to happen. In 1v1 it will likely net 2 lands at best and will probably destroy lands for the Titan player as well so it's not nearly as impactful.
--Sway of the Stars: This card sets life totals to 7, which even with a casting cost of 10 is too powerful in multiplayer. Similar ruling to Worldfire.
--Sylvan Primordial: The insane advantage you gain off of destroying the most threatening permanent from EACH player in multiplayer and then putting that many forests into play is just too disruptive for this format. It's fine in single since you're only getting 1 permanent and 1 forest for 7 but it's utterly broken in multiplayer.
--Trade Secrets: This card is a problem with Diplomacy as the player targeted in multiplayer can just agree to keep drawing cards and cause a massive disadvantage for all other players. Obviously this isn't a problem in 1v1 so it's fine there and borderline unplayable.
--Worldfire: Another lifesetting card but it puts players to 1 which is too easy to win with in a burn deck. Another card only banned in multiplayer due to the slowness of the format compared to 1v1 where this card is too costly in red to be as devastating.

7
Deck Comments / Re: MTG Commando's EDH Banlist - Comments
« on: March 23, 2018, 09:52:06 pm »
Banned in Library for Single/Multiplayer:
--Ancestral Recall: Draw 3 cards for U. This card is never ever bad and is probably one of the best cards in magic. Obvious ban.
--Black Lotus: The speed which lotus grants you at dropping bombs in the early game is unparalleled and can cause games to become unwinnable very quickly. Another obvious ban.
--Channel: The ability to use Channel to power out a turn 2 Eldrazi or even try the old Channel + Fireball combo is just too broken for this format. Even with Emrakul banned there are still plenty of high costed colorless targets that make the game unwinnable when cast on turn 2. The card fits in perfectly with ramp decks so even if you're not able to tutor it the decks will still run fine but will explode for fast kills when they draw it within the first 2 turns.
--Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: Due to the numerous ways to cheat this card out early and the fact that it protects itself from instants and sorceries it might still be a little too powerful to unban. It's included in both other banlists likely for that reason as cards like Polymorph and Show and Tell would be too broken with this card. Because it also has annihilator 6 it makes it almost impossible to board wipe it after it gets one swing in which drastically limits any options of controlling it.
--Gift's Ungiven: The potential to pick 4 cards that give you a guaranteed combo at instant speed is just too powerful. You can do things like pick up Buried Ruin, Academy Ruins, Mindslaver, Crucible of Worlds to guarantee a Mindslaver lock combo. There's many other combos besides just that. The card advantage of getting 2 cards makes this better than other search options available in blue.
--Karakas: Being able to bounce your own commander back as a protective measure or bouncing your opponents commander back repeatedly is insanely broken in this format. Forever banned.
--Mox Emerald/Ruby/Jet/Pearl/Sapphire: These cards provide a very unfair early turn accelerant with no disadvantages (unlike Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond and Mox Opal) to any deck that runs those colors and will allow for many more unwinnable early game bombs.
--Panoptic Mirror: Add any time walk spell to this card and the game is over in 1v1 or multiplayer.
--Sharazad: This card causes a sub-game of magic to be played where the loser of that game returns to the original game with half life. This would make games last forever and is mainly banned due to it's extreme stall potential with any regrowth effects.
--Time Vault: This card combos with Voltaic Key and other artifacts to make infinite turns by untapping it. Not fun to play against at all.
--Time Walk: 2 mana for an extra turn. Easily breakable in decks with Planeswalkers or just control in general.
--Tinker: The ability to get a turn 3 powerhouse like Inkwell Leviathan is just too powerful and difficult to overcome. Plus, with Sol Ring you can get this as early as turn 2.
--Tolarian Academy: There are lots of cheap 0 drop artifacts plus artifact lands that make this card as broken or more so than Gaea's Cradle. Blue doesn't need to generate this much mana this easily.
--Yawgmoth's Bargain: Along the same line as Necropotence except this card doesn't have any disadvantages that Necropotence does and is easy to cast at double black, even though it is a 6 drop. Too much card advantage for such a reasonable cost.

8
General Magic / Re: Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 11, 2018, 09:13:16 pm »
Although I mentioned price, it wasn't a huge deciding factor on the banning of these cards. No card was banned without the approval of multiple players in the group. I apologize if I made it seem like a bigger deal than what it was.

I however completely agree with khurtz (who is one of the people that helped me make this list) with our intent on focusing more on 1v1 than multiplayer.

9
General Magic / Re: Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 11, 2018, 08:20:01 pm »
Dual lands are expensive, yes, but not broken. They mana fix, which there are other options without the price hike. Things like Mana Crypt or Strip Mine are just plain broken, expensive or not.

10
General Magic / Re: Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 11, 2018, 07:18:56 pm »
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"Why Strip Mine but not Dust Bowl?"

ApothecaryGeist is correct with the activation cost. I would also like to point out that Dust Bowl can only go after non-basics and Strip Mine can go after ANY land.

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mjb, I applaud your playgroup's use of a local ban list.


Thank You :)

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If no one is playing a card, there is no reason to ban it.

The "staples" on the list have more to do with the range of skill that is in our play group; we have new comers to a magic collector that has access to any card he wants. Without boundaries, the new people would be at a significant disadvantage. Not to mention, we want everyone to be judged by skill and not by what they can afford.

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Hermit Druid isn't even that good...

Yes he is, google the combos you can hit with him :)


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things like Doomsday, the cradle, and Food Chain are only good in specific decks and i think bans should be for general over poweredness

You got me on Doomsday; the big combo with that card is a way to cheat Emrakul, however, we already have him banned (even though I personally love the card) so that is one we probably will revisit.
Cradle and Food Chain is just simply out of price range for most people in the group. However, I would also argue that you wouldn't run them if they weren't a great fit for your deck and thus cause the deck to abuse those abilities.

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things like strip mine and mana crypt are EDH staples

I've already addressed Strip Mine in another post, but as for Mana Crypt I would say that in a format that the loss of life for mana just simply doesn't matter makes this card broken. People still argue that Sol Ring should be banned so we felt a more powerful version of Sol Ring should be banned. This also is another card that some could afford and others can't (currently ~$70 on TCG).

11
General Magic / Re: Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 11, 2018, 06:58:41 pm »
The only problem is some cards are banned that shouldn't be because it's edited version of the 1v1 ban list.. multiplayer is different

If you go view the banlist page, it will show comments that say if bans are multiplayer only. We also took into consideration 3 different banlists listed above.

12
General Magic / Re: Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 10, 2018, 10:13:11 pm »
That was something we really liked about the French List; some cards are only broken as commanders so we definitely took influence from that. Although you cannot see it on the post, if you view the actual page that the list is on you can see that some cards are only banned in multiplayer as well. This was another idea we felt necessary due to come cards getting MUCH better the more opponents there are.

Regardless, our group so far likes the list (we've been using it since November) because it gives a lot if archetypes breathing room while removing cards that would be too much "pay to win" or "I play this card and now I win." We can be very competitive and fairly large at times compared to other groups (we're ~12 people) so some limits are needed.

13
General Magic / Re: Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 10, 2018, 09:53:30 pm »
WOTC has two lists that my group was following for a while; One was for MTGO (for 1v1) and the other is just a general banlist (I assumed multiplayer). Both of these lists had some cards we disagreed with so we moved to the French 1v1 banlist. That worked for a while but then they started to ban some questionable things so we just made our own.

MTGO: https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/rules-and-formats/banned-restricted/magic-online-commander
General: https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/commander-format
French 1v1: http://www.duelcommander.com/banlist/

14
General Magic / Custom Banlist that my EDH playgroup uses
« on: January 10, 2018, 09:36:41 pm »
Hello Everyone!
My local playgroup and myself came up with a custom banlist based on what we felt was a needed change in direction of both WOTC's banlist and the French 1v1 banlist. Feel free to use for your own playgroup or to ask questions about why certain cards are/aren't banned.

Enjoy!

https://deckstats.net/deck-14905392-d1ea3c9956e38b6603b0ba35eef3b768.html

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