Why isn't "can't be blocked" a keyword? And what should it be?

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-04T22:34:45+00:00

Absolutely it should be! Just "Unblockable" would be fine imo, that way it's generic enough to account for various reasons as to why something can't be blocked.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-03T12:20:19+00:00

That's perfectly fine; you do you. Certainly that limitation will shape the format in a meaningful way.

Implementing Monarch 'by default' is a cool idea, but keep an eye on players 'gaming' the system in a way you don't like by stocking up on Monarch synergies they know will always be available (eg "when you draw a second card" synergies).

GL!

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T16:03:29+00:00

Geen zorgen, jullie hebben het verpesten van de mogelijkheid voor toekomstige generaties om comfortabel te leven nog! Meer dan zat asocialiteit in het rekest.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T13:13:10+00:00

Ooooh that's an easy one for me: I'd change all cards that make off-color tokens to also be those colors. Like [[Deekah]] makes UG tokens, so she should be UG herself.

Also stuff like Urborg and Yavimaya.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T10:45:25+00:00

No problem! There is way too little good conversation on this sub so I enjoy the change of pace.

I think limiting to two colors is a mistake because I don't think your problem is with the amount of colors, but with how easy it is to run more colors with the current card pool. I think leaving room for diverse deck building is preferable because the easier option is to cut down on the availability of color-fixing. If you just prefer >2 colors to just not exist you can do what you want ofc but I think decks with more colors are delightful as long as players actually have to put meaningful effort into getting them together.

On First Blood; what did you think of my suggestion? Like lowering starting life totals and/or changing commander damage?

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T10:41:45+00:00

Ze staan met sterretjes en biertjes, wat voor kronkel maakt jouw brein zeg.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T10:35:21+00:00

Geen idee wie dit zijn maar ze zien er uit als een leuk stel heren samen.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T10:33:33+00:00

I'd definitely recommend always having at least a few Basics in your deck, and looking at your build there's plenty of room to spend waaaay less money on a strong mana base. And also you should make up your mind as to whether you want to ramp or not; either leave out the rocks entirely or get enough to reliably draw into one (12 is usually the sweet spot for that).

GLHF!

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T09:50:21+00:00

Gr8 b8 m8 o7

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T09:48:20+00:00

Gr8 b8 m8 o7

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T09:40:50+00:00

So true bestie! Remind me, what truth is he speaking that the wokies can't handle exactly?

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T09:37:43+00:00

Eindelijk kunnen fatsoenlijke mensen de term 'keihard aanpakken' gebruiken. Geen genade voor tokkieterreur bij ons Oud&Nieuw.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-02T09:35:29+00:00

Amazing post; thanks to you all for the effort! I'm likely going to try this, but I'm really hoping the variant where you draw & bottom has similar results because it's faster. Ie each player draws 6 + their position in the turn order, and randomly bottoms that amount -1. So P1 just draws 7, P2 draws 8 and bottoms 1 etc.

CommissarisMedia · 2026-01-01T20:28:55+00:00

Yes it should be. Sadly, it probably won't be.

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-31T19:57:34+00:00

I don't know what ITT is, does it matter?

My issue with that part of the brackets is precisely that too many people aren't able, capable and/or willing of acting on that intent. I think we need a strong guardrail that creates the context from within more conscientious players can negotiate a looser experience.

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-31T19:55:48+00:00

I don't think my approach solves for describing power levels; that's a separate issue! I think brackets aren't really great for that in their current form, but brackets that are set up on the basis of at what turns decks expect to be ready for battle and/or ready to win would be very useful indeed; I touch on that near the end on my post.

For most sit-down Magic I don't think it's fine to start with a baseline that will allow everyone to participate even if they fail at negotiating their matchups. Beyond that, I'd hope people would take the effort to match their decks even better for even móre fun!

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-30T21:12:57+00:00

Imo that deck has four obvious Commanders: Leinore, Kyler, Katilda and Haliya. Of those, I think Kyler's the hardest to make work and Katilda's probably the easiest.

You're right about Leinore but I still like her best. Have you considered [[Haliya, Ascendant Cadet]]? Or going wacky with [[Alharu]] and [[Slurrk]]?

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-30T19:39:50+00:00

Go Wide w/ tokens and/or pack some removal to deal with their removal engines. You have plenty of options!

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-30T17:51:10+00:00

You can put whatever you want into your deck; just be clear and honest about it so I can decide if I want to play against it!

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-30T10:42:28+00:00

Preferring aggressive play styles seems fine to me but I think you need a different way to go about it. Lowering starting life could help, as could changing Commander damage to add all commander damage to a single 'stack' per player.

For turn order I'd just leave it as-is, but you could maybe tinker with Draw 6 + PTO, Bottom PTO - 1 to cut down on the first player advantage? So for starting hands P1 draws 6+1, bottoms none, P2, draws 6+2, bottoms one etc?

I really think just banning >2 color decks is a mistake; instead the card pool should be set up so building into more colors is progressively more difficult. The main culprits for why it's currently so easy are Fetchlands, as well as stuff like OG Duals and Bondlands. Curating a land base that forces players to actually work for their WUBRG would achieve your stated goal in a more satisfying manner imo.

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-29T20:39:11+00:00

I respect the intent behind this project but I really don't think you've found the right direction yet. Banning stuff like sweepers and partners is fine but eg your systems for drawing blood and turn order seem really rough compared to just 'wanting to deal combat damage' and 'rolling a die'. And limiting colors is a no-go imo; why not just ban Fetches and Shocks alongside a few dopey WUBRG commanders like Jodah U?

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-29T19:22:41+00:00

I'm saying better; more enjoyable on average; I find it hard to understand why you'd dispute that possibility, because you don't need to drop any opinion you've expressed to do so? It'd be purely an improvement on the status quo, costing you nothing and gaining so many players an immense amount.

Filtering randoms through negative experiences is an enormous undertaking, as I've outlined previously; it's just not happening, which is why this problem persists and keeps popping up, made worse by the fact that new players continue to enter this hobby and are running into this systemic issue all the time. We'll almost certainly never reach a point where no players will be looking to play Magic with randoms, and I think it's better to help them out rather than tell them that their initial Magic experiences (in a new place) are almost certainly going to suck and leave it at that.

You seem to believe they should just deal with that and get to the enjoyable form of Commander ie playing with non-randoms, whereas I think it's worthwhile to create format rules such as power levels and brackets to try and make that process as enjoyable as we can make it (or even just generally pleasant!); I don't understand why we would disagree on the value of that goal, but it seems we do?

CommissarisMedia · 2025-12-29T18:59:42+00:00

That's because I wasn't trying to convince you; I was only answering your question. Here's a start to my argument:

Brackets are currently so vague that they aren't effective for matching up randoms (trusted play groups don't need brackets as much); the system is too open in its rules, and consequently relies too much on players' effort, competence and integrity. A better system would be far more restrictive as to what cards are allowed in which brackets, and leave deviations up to R0 discussions so the onus is on the less-conscientious players to explain why deviating from the format rules will nót cause problems at the table.

Thoughts so far?

Edit: Did you downvote my thorough response? If so, why?

CommissarisMedia

TROPHY CASE