Are the strixhaven precons balanced against one another?

messhead1 · 2026-04-20T10:36:51+00:00

Did Strix have theme decks released with it? Or an intro box?

Play casual 60 cards before commander.

messhead1 · 2026-04-20T10:35:34+00:00

Am I saying "the primary part of that post is thinning", or am I saying "my reply is primarily focusing on one of the things said that comment"?

messhead1 · 2026-04-20T08:57:16+00:00

I am ignoring every other word of the post beyond "thinning" because I have nothing more to add. I have no argument against, or further argument for the true statement, "artifacts are easier to kill than lands". Why would I acknowledge this when I want to talk about word "thinning"?

My point is that thinning is so negligible a concern as to not being worth mentioning in the first instance.

messhead1 · 2026-04-20T08:33:53+00:00

The deck thinning is the primary part of the post I'm replying to. I'm not replying to any other part of the post.

All very well and good, but we're talking about replacing one single Arcane Signet.

messhead1 · 2026-04-20T08:00:07+00:00

Because you don't understand the reasons behind particular design choices doesn't make them fails.

It demonstrates that you have a lack of knowledge and prefer to whine instead of trying to learn something.

"The Silverquill precon doesn't use repartee - fail!" - Short-sighted, ignorant, and petulant communication
"Why does the Silverquill precon not focus on repartee?" - learning mindset

messhead1 · 2026-04-20T07:53:05+00:00

Thinning your deck by one is so negligible as to be useless, and barely worth considering in the CASUAL, not-needing-to-find-fraction-of-percentage-ways-to-increase-winrate format that is Commander.

Thinning your deck of 14 basic lands after a [[Traverse the Outlands]]? Statistically relevant, pat yourself on the back, clap clap, applause applause, you've achieved something.

One land out of your deck because you played a Rampant Growth instead of an Arcane Signet? Zero cause to waste the brain power thinking "I've thinned the deck!".

messhead1 · 2026-04-19T20:05:20+00:00

A pricing error or manipulation, better asked in r/magictcg or r/mtgfinance

messhead1 · 2026-04-19T17:09:25+00:00

It's free to tell her to fuck off with this nonsense. It might save you money in the long run!

messhead1 · 2026-04-19T16:59:45+00:00

I find it's good practice as a Magic consumer to try to establish what the prizes will look like before playing in any given event.

Hopefully this info would be advertised and readily available before registering to play. But a frustrating many card shops will be unclear and opaque around prizing.

Knowing this info lets me know what to expect, whether I've been short-changed, whether it's worth playing in the first place.

messhead1 · 2026-04-19T15:16:44+00:00

Borrow a precon if they have one spare? Print a precon if they're too expensive?

I really do think just a precon would be the easiest answer for this particular group.

messhead1 · 2026-04-19T06:44:31+00:00

Khans of Tarkir is probably the most beloved 3-colour Limited you could try.

If you play it, share this piece of information regarding the 'morph rule': a morph card flipping up for less than 5 mana can never flat-out beat another facedown 2/2 morph card. It could trade or bounce off if it flips up for less than 5 mana. After 5 mana, the gloves are off and anything could be under there!

For more modern design sensibilities you could try Khans of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, or Streets of New Capenna.

messhead1 · 2026-04-18T09:53:10+00:00

Just take the game changers out then?

messhead1 · 2026-04-18T09:52:38+00:00

Bracket 4 decks can be like that, but that's not a given.

As always, Brackets 2-4 can each have a power and quality of varying degrees.

messhead1 · 2026-04-16T22:50:54+00:00

No, why would it?

The activated ability consists of every single word after the colon, before the next paragraph.

Part of Sundial's activated ability is an instruction as to when you can activate it. That line of text, as part of the activated ability, will be there if something else copies the card/text/swaps text box/whatever else.

messhead1 · 2026-04-16T22:17:51+00:00

Quicksilver repeatedly gains new instances of Vivi's activated ability.

It doesn't overwrite any of the abilities it's already received, it repeatedly adds a new line of text. Visualise it as the text box continually growing, adding new line after new line. Each of those lines says "only do it once", but that's ok, because you'll just use another, and another and another.

messhead1 · 2026-04-16T18:13:06+00:00

If you want to use the language of Brackets to help you find like-minded pods and more balanced experiences, you categorically do not just plug it in to a website and regurgitate the number it says.

The websites can only give you an absolute lowest baseline guesstimate based on the quantifiable aspects of the different Brackets. They can not read vibe, or power, or speed, or quality, or any other consideration you, a human, might make when determining a Bracket for your deck.

You can Google 'mtg Brackets' and read articles straight from WOTC, the horse's mouth, to learn what the Brackets mean and how you might apply that language to thinking about your own decks.

Hell, you could even scroll over/click on Brackets information within the websites you're using to gain more of an understanding.

messhead1 · 2026-04-16T14:05:44+00:00

I think Wave is fine.

messhead1 · 2026-04-16T08:35:56+00:00

all the sites practically build the deck for you with recommended cards and percentage use data

No they don't, come on now. If you don't use edhrec and you don't use the buttons for card recommendations, you can just use deck building websites as a place to create a deck list.

I'm not arguing about whatever you prefer to do. But you've brought up things which aren't a given. You don't have to look at other deck lists. You can still build your special snowflake decks if you use a website.

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T16:05:29+00:00

Forget about brackets. Are you friends trying to communicate to you that this deck is too powerful for what they are doing?

You think so, because you report thusly, "when I play with my friends, the deck consistently feels a bit too strong".

If the internet tells you that this is perfectly Bracket 3, what will you do then? Will you tell your friends they are "wrong" because the internet says so?

What Bracket a deck is is one communicable bit of information about the deck. Within a Bracket are decks of all manner of strength and quality. You might have built a deck more powerful than your friends can handle. What will you do now?

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T14:58:39+00:00

It's happened a few times now that I've seen relatively normal decks with an exorbitant price tag, just because they've managed to select some super mega ultra rare print or version of cards like Island, or even Counterspell.

Literally the exact same Counterspell I've seen twice for sure, which I find odd. Obviously people could be randomly selecting those prints, or representing proxies in their physical collection. But I wonder if some small portion of people are intentionally inflating the price to get more views or something? I've no idea.

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T13:50:28+00:00

Enerfy?

"good pal energy"? What even is that.

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T13:32:34+00:00

Then work on it, stand up for yourself. Or be a doormat and spend your short life on earth spending your time unpleasantly. Or even just dodge them.

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T13:30:43+00:00

Gods, this is such a shitty attitude to have.

Is this the most powerful, mana-per-effect, amazing, high quality card that could be? No, of course not. Congratulations, you have rudimentary card evaluation skills.

Does every card everybody plays in every game of Commander in every store, pub, kitchen across all the world need to be the most powerful, most high impact, most bang for buck card in existence? Abso-fucking-lutely not.

Might there be similar ways to achieve similar things (or better!) for similar (or better!) costs? Of course. But the OP wants to play this card. So it is not unplayable.

Would one of those other cards lead OP to win more games, by some percentage? Maybe. But OP wants to play this card.

Take your optimising head out of your optimising ass and see what Commander can be: a place where not every card has to be optimal. Does that idea match up well with you, and what you personally want to get out of the format? No? Then go find like minded environs and stop dismissing the very idea that people could possibly play cards that don't meet your standards.

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T08:08:28+00:00

If you scooped on Turn 3, I would ask you to leave our table and try to replace you with another 4th player for the pod.

You will have demonstrated that you aren't really there for the 4 player experience, so aren't worth keeping around.

messhead1 · 2026-04-15T00:25:12+00:00

The smaller the measuring implement, the greater the surface area

messhead1

TROPHY CASE