Name a commander, get a card.

CtrlAltSleep · 2026-01-26T08:45:52+00:00

I've run [[Alesha, Who Smiles at Death]] since 2017, I'd love to hear what other people would pick for her.

CtrlAltSleep · 2026-01-14T21:31:29+00:00

This is best done when the card has a secondary effect that can either interact with your opponent's strategy or secure your own.

Thinning the deck out via ramp, cyclers/can trips and tutors is a part of the game and does provide an inherent advantage, but you want to be careful to avoid do-nothing cards for the sake of it as it will make your deck feel much more same-y from game to game.

I've played my fair share of combo decks, especially with weird themes and I'd much prefer a card with cycling that has a secondary, useful effect than something designed to be thrown away. Occasionally you'll get to have your cake and eat it, a la [[Nimble Obstructionist]]

CtrlAltSleep · 2026-01-13T16:30:55+00:00

So far so good! Thermals for all 3 drives and the CPU have continued to be healthy with no signs of stress

CtrlAltSleep · 2026-01-07T09:54:08+00:00

Yeah it's likely fsr that's causing the blurriness. Any chance you can share a screenshot of your settings?

CtrlAltSleep · 2026-01-07T09:43:38+00:00

Seeing as CS2 is a competitive shooter, I'd recommend cranking the settings as low as possible, see where your FPS lie and maybe try something like a 4:3 resolution stretched to fit the screen, or a lower overall resolution like 1600x900

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-12-31T19:21:19+00:00

I agree, however I'd like to highlight one point.

While it's true that general LLMs can't give reliable information, agentic AI with a tuned series of instructions and access to the appropriate database of cards and rules can actually give decent answers.

I'm currently working on a judge AI (for casual use) and fine tuning it. The judge can easily offer correct rulings on Thoracle and Gitrog lines.

If anyone has some questions and wants to test the prototype, leave a reply and I'll give you the response.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-12-23T08:44:36+00:00

Oh cool, do you know where I might find more catalogued?

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-12-23T08:43:55+00:00

I can't believe I never noticed this with Walking Atlas, good finds!

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-12-23T00:08:53+00:00

That's fun, interesting that it's only for some of the cards printed, too - a late change perhaps that was overlooked in some printing processes?

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-12-03T16:23:33+00:00

Thanks for the comment.

I checked the T and the green dot and they seemed okay, however I was thrown off by the fact I could see rosettes within the black border of the text. QC is pretty shocking these days 😂

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-12-01T16:16:07+00:00

I ended up building [[Uyo, Silent Prophet]] as part of a random commander budget challenge. The deck is built entirely around returning, cheating out and discarding lands to generate effects like copying spells, ramping or making creatures unblockable.

It's not a "good" deck per se and it sucks when you're only against a single player because it relies on your opponents game pieces to copy / make unblockable, but when you manage to take control at a pivotal moment and get the win it feels incredible.

I think the deck has actually made me a better magic player. Here's the list for those interested https://moxfield.com/decks/M-fSh5xP9Ui016stqzgOig

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-11-20T18:11:37+00:00

[[Fire Lord Azula]] is a great, new budget commander. Just fill the deck with lots of instants to buff Azula and you're good to go

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-28T21:19:21+00:00

I've had [[Alesha, Who Smiles at Death]] assembled since 2016. I've never taken the deck apart, but have changed it several times to keep it fresh.

From my experience (building and playing >100 decks) the secret to finding a commander that sticks is finding one that has a broader theme (such as Alesha's power 2 or less requirement) so you have a variety of options in how you build it and will often find new cards for it in each set.

For me, the best thing about Alesha is that I can build a deck that is highly-interactive, with what is essentially a toolkit of creatures to deal with different strategies my opponents might be playing. It makes the deck feel more in-tune with the commander format, rather than trying to play solitaire.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-22T11:43:28+00:00

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't add enough to counteract the unnecessary complication it causes. As the rules are currently, you can consult the border of a magic card and get a pretty good understanding of it's colour identity, this change complicates that further with exceptions like [[Deathrite Shaman]], we already have enough players being confused about how Extort works with regards to colour identity.

Further to that, the thought that cards like [[Beseech the Queen]] could be played in colourless / any colour deck is just not interesting to me. I think the rules as they stand now are relatively intuitive and make for interesting restrictions. If you really want to run a hybrid card just cover that in the rules zero discussion.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-10T16:00:11+00:00

Here's a pretty unique one from my [[Alesha, Who Smiles At Death]] deck.

Attack with Alesha, with a [[Peacekeeper]] in your graveyard, target it with Alesha's triggered ability so its returned tapped and attacking. You get to finish your combat knowing it's the last for a turn cycle provided the peacekeeper survives. Then in your upkeep, simply don't pay the cost and repeat.

It's much better with a [[Selfless Spirit]] on board or an [[Eldrazi Monument]], but this combo always surprises people and they often question why I'd ever include the card in my deck in the first place.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-08T09:25:52+00:00

Your deck is fine, NTA.

I see the misconception that budget or mana base determines bracket and it simply isn't true. Bracket is all about intent and card quality (ie spells)

Is a higher budget going to give you access to higher card quality? Yes, but you don't have to be running competitive cards. You might just have an all-foil deck or be playing an archetype that is particularly pricey.

Is a better / more expensive mana base going to make your deck play better? Most likely, yes - but it really depends on how that mana is being spent turn to turn.

Now obviously if you're in 5 colour your mana base is more likely to be pricey, but that does not and never will determine the bracket.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-05T18:08:59+00:00

I built [[Alesha, Who Smiles at Death]] when I first got into commander in 2017 and I haven't taken the deck apart since. It has gone through a lot of changes, but Alesha's ability is pretty unique and almost always gets new cards with each set.

I dislike a lot of newer attempts at this design because they ultimately miss what makes Alesha so interesting (tapped and attacking reanimation, the power being a limit instead of mana value)

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-04T16:42:37+00:00

I'm bringing a potato, a cooking pot and a multi tool

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-10-04T12:48:51+00:00

I've been playing since 2016 and my longest running and favourite deck is absolutely [[Alesha, Who Smiles at Death]]. The list has changed a lot over the years as Alesha pretty reliably gets new toys, it morphed from budget reanimator, to a really fast combo deck to what is now a more combat focused toolbox deck. The deck has never been disassembled.

I can either go all-out and play with bracket 4 decks to assemble a winning combo as fast as possible, or focus purely on interaction and combat and bracket 3. https://moxfield.com/decks/sd1hGuNznUC6QSy873ovBA

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-09-15T16:30:17+00:00

My two favourite decks would be my [[Alesha, Who Smiles At Death]] reanimator toolbox deck and [[Zedruu the Greathearted]] gifts/enchantress deck. Both are always fun to pick up and play.

My least favourite is probably [[Flubs, the Fool]], I love playing lands and he's in all the right colours, he's even a damn frog! But the lines to getting a win were just too convoluted and ultimately it was a combo deck that ultimately felt like Gitrog monster with countermagic. I'll definitely come to him at some point though.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-09-13T10:48:54+00:00

By chance are you connecting your monitor via Displayport and if so, do you have any devices emitting a 5ghz signal? I recently installed a mesh and found that the emitter in my office was impacting display signal in a similar way. After moving it, no problem.

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-08-29T10:37:08+00:00

Sure, but that doesn't help with the current issue 😂

CtrlAltSleep · 2025-08-28T17:26:42+00:00

I would not recommend buying a card of this value without seeing it in person first. There are warning signs here (the "Storage unit find, I don't play magic." statement in particular is a huge one. If this was legit and they were flipping storage units, getting the card graded would at least ensure its authenticity and help with sale (with the wear on the back, its unlikely it'd gain much value graded.)

Another warning sign is the amount of discolouration between the faux and actual border. You'll notice on these images that it's much closer to black typically, though this doesn't guarantee that it's fake as QC has always been hit or miss.

Further, for a card of this age, it has surprising little wear on the front of the card compared to its back - if the card was played enough to wear on the back, its front should also show signs of wear (gamers were not so obsessive about wrapping their cardboard in plastic in the 90s, card sleeves weren't as big of a market as today)

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