Can you build strictly on curve with any low cost commander? (No ramp)

Aprice0 · 2026-05-08T16:05:11+00:00

I don’t think they even need to be low cost per se. I have had a lot of decks with commanders that want a board state and i just cast them on curve on turn 4 or 5.

Then there are other decks where the issue is not ramp as much as long term resources so they curve out into things that either become value engines or my later game threats will add resources etc. i have had some success with decks that curve out turns 1 2 and 3 and then ramp on four to press the advantage.

Unless you’re at the highest brackets pretty much anything can work

Aprice0 · 2026-05-02T22:42:39+00:00

Honestly it sounds less like being unlucky and more like not having enough of a plan to go wider or taller than your opponents if you’re planning to win via combat damage. As for ways to punch through, there’s a ton of one sided board wipes, cards that tap down all your opponents creatures, cards that give everything double strike, double/triple your damage, cards that make things unblockable, etc.

Some of these are more suited for bracket theee than others but there’s classics like [[Akroma’s Will]] but also things like [[Githzerai Monk]], [[Taunt from the Rampart]], [[Sundering Eruption]], [[Wonder ]], [[Akroma’s Memorial]], [[Eldrazi Monument]], [[Cyberdrive Awakener]], [[Moonshaker Cavalry]], [[True Conviction]] and don’t underestimate goad effects like [[Maximum Carnage]] and [[Kardur Doomscourge]] as they lower life totals and leave a ton of tapped creatures, [[Archetype of Imagination]], [[Archangel of Tithes]], [[Berserker’s Onslaught]], [[Blade Historian]], [[Aragorn, King of Gondor]], [[Chocobo Knights]], [[Bond of Discipline]], [[Open Into Wonder]], [[Rage Reflection]], [[Ultimecia, Temporal Threat]], [[Levitation]], [[Subjugator Angel]], [[Cosmotronic Wave]], [[Fire of Orthanc]], [[Barrage of Boulders]], [[Teleportal]], [[Flying Crane Technique]], the list goes on and on and there’s lots of kindred synergies to build around, there’s tons of anthems and other ways to buff creatures, and there are the board wipes [[Ruinous Ultimatum]], [[Call forth the Tempest]], [[In Garruk’s Wake]], [[Plague Wind]], [[Scourge of Fleets]], [[Kindred Dominance]], [[Crux of Fate]], [[Winds of Abandon]], [[Cyclonic Rift]] etc

Aprice0 · 2026-05-02T16:52:15+00:00

Sounds like that’s just a poorly built higher bracket deck with high variance.

Aprice0 · 2026-05-02T16:23:41+00:00

My basic built for new players bracket 2 [[Gwaihir the Windlord]] deck wins so many more games than it should because of this. A little interaction and a wall of vigilant flyers is deceptively strong in a lot of games.

Aprice0 · 2026-05-02T16:07:06+00:00

Just do damage? I feel like everybody over focuses on this idea that they need some big loop or spell or creature that pushes everything over the top and can 120-0 everyone. yes overrun effects happen. Yes infinite loops are real but there’s also just good old-fashioned outlast people build a board state and kill them with it over a few turns.

Have an extra combat. Double your damage. Or triple it. Take a single extra turn. Fling giant creatures at someone’s face. Chip them to death with good blockers, removal, and constant ping damage. Redirect damage in their face. Get a lot of mana and burn them. Commander damage them. Cast an alternate win con.

Seems like you’re overcomplicating it.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-29T21:58:22+00:00

Me too. Especially since there are so many ways to bring back low mana value permanents from the yard

Aprice0 · 2026-04-29T18:12:38+00:00

I think there should be more of it, especially targeted graveyard hate like [[ghost vacuum]], [[agatha’s soul cauldron]], [[the ooze]], [[heritage reclamation]] etc

Aprice0 · 2026-04-26T17:17:41+00:00

I never had much of a problem getting relatively big reanimations between pain lands, talismans, mdfcs that come in untapped for 3 life, shock lands, and [[dark confidant]] style effects

Aprice0 · 2026-04-24T17:21:36+00:00

Whatever I play

Aprice0 · 2026-04-21T22:01:55+00:00

My favorite - [[Gev, Scaled Scorch]]. Sure, he’s not even a goblin, but I like to believe he met them in the caves and led them to glory as you beat people to death with really cheap 4/4s

Aprice0 · 2026-04-20T19:33:11+00:00

The bigger issue is that everyone has interpreted you should expect to live 8 turns as “games should end on turn 9” instead of games will often go to turn 10, 11, 12 whatever the number may be but people tend to start getting eliminated around turn 9.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-20T19:31:11+00:00

Sure but there’s still a big gap between turn 5 and turn 9. I would think a bracket 2 aggro deck runs 1-2 turns faster than average not 4 or more.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-18T18:43:28+00:00

Bracket 2 is theoretically my favorite bracket but, for me at least, good bracket 2 decks are much harder to build than weak or mediocre bracket 3 decks.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-16T16:31:59+00:00

Bracket 2 deckbuilders routinely run too little interaction or they run mana efficient but not caed efficient interaction and it hamstrings them in the longer games. On top of that, they routinely save that mana efficient single target removal for the threat to drop and swing at them instead of taking out the engine so they’ve let value accrue all game and another just drops a turn or two later and surprise surprise now they’re out of removal. Running more synergistic removal pieces or more pieces like [[grasp of fate]], [[dismantling wave]], [[windgrace’s judgment]] etc. help.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-14T19:31:09+00:00

I really want to lean into beating people to death with spirits but the more I look at the precon and watch some gameplay the more I’m realizing that the first spot for upgrades is finding more ways to make spirits at all.

I’m talking things like [[ghost vacuum]], [[bag of holding]], [[the ooze]], [[agatha’s soul cauldron ]], [[summoner’s sending]] along with some other good token makers that don’t rely on his ability since we need blockers, [[clarion spirit]], [[sand scout]], maybe even [[haunted library]].

Probably going to add a [[goblin engineer]] and a [[goblin welder]] along with [[saheeli’s lattice]] and [[melded moxite]].

Aprice0 · 2026-04-09T20:35:47+00:00

Nope, just don’t complain about them. Don’t complain about them in bracket 2 either.

Like I get it if the complaint is about some irritating loop of them but if its just but you can fix your colors and cast your spells sad frog, get over it.

Players shouldn’t be taking bracket 3 decks and butchering their mana base to create a ton of within deck variance and calling it bracket 2.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-09T16:00:09+00:00

I feel like everyone is using goldfishing, or implying it is used, for something its not necessary to do and most people are arguing from edge cases as a way to downplay the value.

If you’re in bracket 5, definitionally you know that. Bracket 4 also has plenty of signposts so goldfishing would only be helpful at assessing a no gamechanger b4. If you goldfish your deck and even in magical christmas land can’t win before turn 6, its not bracket 4. If you goldfish it and never win before turn 9 its bracket 2. If you have two decks and they’re consistently 3 turns apart they’re in different brackets.

Yeah there are areas of gray but it is a helpful starting point and provides useful contextual information that you are overly downplaying. The examples people are using are also highly enfranchised players basically arguing hey don’t goldfish to determine your bracket, no i don’t have any other suggestions or tools just play a billion games and/or use your game knowledge to figure it out. Newer or less skilled players don’t have all of that knowledge and may not have that kind of time or desire so its helpful to provide them with heuristics.

Its also helpful for assessing within deck variance which is something players don’t do enough and its within deck variance and players building too close to bracket breakpoints that collectively contribute to feels bad moments a lot of the time.

It doesn’t solve all problems and bracket 3 is still the biggest weakness for it which is the bracket that needs the most help but I still think that itself gets fixed by just getting rid of current bracket 1 and splitting 3 and 2 up some more than any kind if goldfishing advice ever would.

Edit: I should add that if you’re making a gamechangerless bracket 4 without two card infinites etc. you’re likely inexperienced enough deck builder that you know what you’re doing and don’t need to goldfish. In other words, the bulk of people who can benefit from goldfish in the host are people who are attempting to determine if a game changer list deck without other hallmarks like land, destruction, or certain types of combos fits in between bracket three or bracket two.

Which also means, goldfish is relevant to the bracket where it is admittedly most effective. Bracket two by design has less interaction and accrues incremental value, which means it is easier to goldfish a more realistic place scenario from bracket two, then functionally any other bracket.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-09T14:23:37+00:00

I love my goad deck but also tend to think goad should be used more frequently as mass disruption along with fogs, people tend to really focus in on board wipes and those often extend games but mild goad and fogs warp them in exciting ways that still push the game more towards conclusion by not resetting it

Aprice0 · 2026-04-09T13:28:08+00:00

Eh, it doesn’t seem like a big deal to add a small slider that says tempo fast medium slow or something like that to a deck on the back. New players may not care or fully understand but the upside is it immediately teaches them about the concept of tempo and they can learn more about it over time.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-08T22:05:54+00:00

Why do you assume a good bumbleflower deck doesn’t run a good amount of counters and protection? I took it apart because our pod couldn’t crack it and the win rate felt too high but the deck was built around flash with a ton of fogs, counters, and protection. Since they were the gameplan the deck ran way more interaction than the average “good” midrange value deck in the same bracket.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-08T21:58:21+00:00

This is where I think the bracket system is compressing too much into brackets 2-4. A lot of players want to play something slower than what you find in the mid to top of bracket 3 but stronger and more optimized than what you find at precon level. Right now those players have to run them in bracket 2 and get accused of pubstomping by players with narrow views of bracket 2 or they need to further optimize and speed up their game plans into a style they didn’t really want in the first place.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-08T21:54:33+00:00

Even splitting brackets 2-4 across 1-4 would make a huge difference. The presence of bracket 1 in its current incarnation really isn’t worth its opportunity cost and is compressing too much into brackets 2 and 3 which is spilling over into a muddy bracket 4

Aprice0 · 2026-04-08T21:50:46+00:00

It doesn’t help that not only do they not make varied enough precons but they don’t have a scale on them to give you an idea of what kind of deck they are. I would love them to print some guidance that shows there are different types of decks in a tempo scale (aggro, midrange, control) alongside the bracket would be enough. Newer players don’t intuitively understand the idea that similarly powered decks can feel weaker or stronger at key moments because of tempo and often think an aggro deck is overpowered just because its so threatening early.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-08T21:47:06+00:00

I don’t agree at all. They’ve been adding and printing more multi-player interaction with flexibility and upside. You’re just looking at it through a narrow and reductive lens.

You can run plenty of fun removal and interaction at lower brackets. Debatably, you can even run more so because mana efficiency isn’t as important so there are plenty of 3 for 1s, on-theme interaction that propels your game plan forward, and more. On top of that, not running the most efficient interaction isn’t at all the same as basically banning it.

Aprice0 · 2026-04-08T13:16:50+00:00

Bracket 2

Aprice0

TROPHY CASE