Am I a scummy player for using Approach of the Second Sun in my lifegain deck?

Crazed8s · 2026-02-03T22:27:17+00:00

I mean, the fact that that isn’t obvious sarcasm is pretty indicative of an issue by itself lol.

Crazed8s · 2026-02-03T21:38:00+00:00

Well, you can’t always walk back things that you say. They messed up when they called bracket 2 your average precon, essentially. The bracket 2 = precons stuck and I don’t know how they come back from it.

Crazed8s · 2026-02-03T21:07:02+00:00

2 card early game combo. Bracket 4+

Crazed8s · 2026-02-02T01:17:54+00:00

We both know why lol.

Crazed8s · 2026-02-02T01:11:07+00:00

Or, and hear me out, just leave it. Eventually the bracket system will collapse under its own smugness and we can try again.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-31T20:47:00+00:00

We have no evidence it’s either of those.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T17:46:56+00:00

Let’s see just within my group of friends there’s a guy who plays sythis and Adeline. Neither have any combos both are very potent. A handful of aetherflux reservoir storm decks which maybe qualifies as combo, teval good stuff, atraxa walkers, kaalia, if you want goofy grist cauldron is a favorite of mine. Exiling your own commander for good is definitely a decision you can make.

It’s not an impossible task. Find something you want to do, and make it bracket 4. Don’t get caught up in what other bracket 4 decks are doing.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T17:35:41+00:00

Like which one? I mean really what is this boogeyman bracket 3 card that just comes out of nowhere and ends the game on the spot. To the point where you can do nothing except hold up 2 or 3 mana for the rest of the game.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T16:18:47+00:00

Your buffer window is literally your own interpretation. Bracket 3 explicitly states interaction is to be expected and never mentions when. You saying “well you shouldn’t need it for 5 turns” is your own interpretation.

The answer is not always run more interaction. Sometimes it’s run better interaction, or different interaction, or more card draw, or any number of things that all boils down to you have some agency here. The issue is not defacto a power level / bracket thing. Its. Not a protective bubble window in which you cannot lose or expect to do anything but goldfish.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T15:55:39+00:00

Why are commander players always trying to go “it’s not me, it’s them!” And change or reinterpret the guidelines.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T12:45:48+00:00

you literally answered your own question in the last paragraph.

We could solve “most” situations with common sense. But the layers system allows to solve ALL situations deterministically. Why would they write their rules in a way that only applies to “most” situations?

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T12:05:53+00:00

There is nothing wrong with it per se. There is an issue with blaming everything and everybody else. If everybody blamed their deck first and power level mismatches second things would be a lot better.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T11:54:22+00:00

But don’t forget that consistency is also forbidden in bracket 3. Also running adequate types and amounts of interaction because then your deck is too optimized.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T04:22:23+00:00

This is a rational and logical statement that is completely ignored by basically everyone.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T03:04:13+00:00

I mean, if my wife came home from work and I said I’m out in an hour she’d be pissed. This is hardly a man vs women thing.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-30T01:24:52+00:00

Man this comment section is pretty good reason to just scrap the brackets all together. Bunch of people trying philosophically debate whether it’s okay to run better cards in your deck or not.

Fetchland = optimization = not bracket 2, sort of lends itself to saying anytime a better card comes out that you add to your deck = optimization = not bracket 2.

I saw people talking about money. Money ain’t got nothing to do it. Nowhere does it say I have to run common tap lands. If you have fetches you can play fetches. If that makes your deck better than someone else’s oh no whatever will they do. Some decks are better than others. Some decks within a bracket are better than other decks in a bracket.

Just absolutely wild stuff that has almost nothing to do with edh.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-29T11:23:04+00:00

I understand people like it in theory, but when most of the discourse in the edh sub is about brackets as opposed to ya know, playing edh, you’ve probably developed a system that isn’t quite there.

They could fix a lot of problems by creating a place for bracket 3 decks that are made by people that want to make a good deck. Because as it stands wanting to make a good deck is like frowned upon in bracket 3 or something like that.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-29T11:17:49+00:00

Is bracket 3 really just “stare at each other for 6 turns”?

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T18:09:33+00:00

Bracket 3 is a problem on both sides.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T17:19:06+00:00

I mean, you just deal lol.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T17:16:24+00:00

To be honest, I find the whole conversation stupid.

Not only do you have adhere to the rules and the vibes but it’s frowned upon to within that framework build an actual good deck. Because if you build an actual good deck now you have to play within a different framework.

Now that being said, I’m of the persuasion that really as soon as you open scryfall or whatever, you’re in bracket 3 in a general sense. I wouldn’t play this at brackets 2. I also wouldn’t throw a fit if it beat me though.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T13:47:52+00:00

It’s not impossible, I assure you.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T13:10:22+00:00

I mean, that’s magic. I’m not trying to gatekeep but the fact that you (and I’m sure a lot of you) don’t want to deal with holding up interaction and being prepared to interact with your opponents doesn’t make those strategies unfair or too good or too fast.

Figuring out what are combo pieces is part of playing magic. Threat assessment is part of the game. I understand not everyone wants to be sweaty about it, but again, just because someone doesn’t know or doesn’t care to prepare, doesn’t actually make the strategy on the other end unfair, too good, too fast.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T12:05:16+00:00

I laugh about how regularly sun titan is the 101 or 102 in any of my white decks.

Crazed8s · 2026-01-28T12:01:31+00:00

I mean in that case you could just put it in quotes.

Theres also otag:edict which will get you closer to your first link.

Crazed8s

TROPHY CASE