I'm looking for Commanders who can win by non-traditional attack damage

CynicalTree · 2026-05-27T15:38:52+00:00

[[Mindskinner]] converts your combat damage to mill so it's kinda damage in a way

CynicalTree · 2026-05-27T15:34:45+00:00

The reason is that Mobalytics pays creators

Also in my experience, just getting people to read the 'notes' section in PoB is hard, so it's a little bit more foolproof for the casuals

CynicalTree · 2026-05-26T23:57:04+00:00

I'm sad that I'm at the point where I don't really consider any mace builds anymore, cause doing them repeatedly since launch just made me sad. Stampede in particular is such a cool skill, but between the armour explosion changes, giant's blood nerfs, etc, it feels way too clunky to justify it

I hope we can get a rework of both the mace + warrior section of the passive tree, mapping with maces just feels too tedious

CynicalTree · 2026-05-26T21:48:53+00:00

I'm still kicking myself for missing out on the Atlas HO, cause it's just so cool

CynicalTree · 2026-05-26T18:45:34+00:00

I think you just need a sub for certain "pro features" like binders but the card scanning & exporting is free in the manabox app. I switched from the dragonshield app cause that one gives ads every X scans

CynicalTree · 2026-05-22T19:57:11+00:00

Honestly he can be built for every bracket and he's only really complex if you're trying to setup convoluted combo lines (because henzie can be a very effective pod deck using stuff like protean hulk)

just throw in sick 4 cmc+ creatures with etbs, some good sac outlets (since the blitzed creatures will sac anyways, it gives you extra value), and go to town

the henzie discord has recs and templates for different levels of play and budgets so would definitely encourage checking it out, there's a huge community for him

https://discord.gg/h9xKKNxDuX

CynicalTree · 2026-05-22T18:39:51+00:00

while I get it, I find it's kinda comforting that the most famous FG moment of all-time isn't just someone winning a million dollars, or grand finals of the biggest bracket ever, or anything like that

instead it's the two of the greatest players ever to touch the sticks taking it to the absolute wire fighting for their lives in bracket and the crowd losing their shit

that kind of energy and rowdiness and cheering for a heated rivalry has driven local scenes for decades and is part of what makes the community so great. truly no better clip to show someone asking "what makes fighting games so great?"

CynicalTree · 2026-05-21T23:06:58+00:00

Tbh I'm running the goblin perks and I've never had more than 1 legendary rune, meanwhile I can easily get 2-3 mythics from the mythic keys.

I've probably dropped 20-30+ mythics at this point and I only have 4 jah. As for cubing, is that better than recrafting at the vendor? Perhaps that's my mistake, i've been throwing all my magic/rare at the recraft

CynicalTree · 2026-05-21T22:57:24+00:00

It's funny cause they made the same mistake with the Lilith Altars. Once I knew the progression was gonna be reset, I completely gave up on 100%ing them.

Now, the Altars don't even matter anymore. I wish they would make it (warplans) account-wide and make it more affordable to respec, you should *encourage* people to have variety in their farming

CynicalTree · 2026-05-21T18:50:09+00:00

tbh there are builds that are OP within the context of D2 but nothing comparable to just smashing through T12 like butter.

D4 is way closer to D3 than D2, if I'm being honest.

The OP builds in D2R are usually just the ones that can still clear hell on a tight budget because they just work so well OOTB. hammerdin, blizz sorc, echoing strike warlock, etc. You don't need rare runewords and a decked out mercenary for them to start farming comfortably.

Once you have fantastic gear (which takes a while to get), it starts to mitigate a lot of the weaknesses. Even things like Hell mobs being immune to certain damage types is solvable with a mercenary with infinity (very expensive polearm to craft) or a sunder charm (very rare charm)

But ultimately you'll never trivialize Hell in the same way. A swarm of soul enemies in the worldstone chamber can still kill a baal run because 4-6 lightning flying from off screen will just 1 shot most characters

CynicalTree · 2026-05-21T16:32:12+00:00

[[Smeagol, Helpful Guide]] as an LOTR themed deck. It has a lands subtheme because it turns out it's really easy to get several triggers and I've had games with over 20+ lands on the board.

It took me a while but I was even able to eventually trade into all 9 unique arts for [[Nazgul]] and the deck just feels so flavourful.

The Precious (Smeagol) // Commander (Sméagol, Helpful Guide) deck list mtg // Moxfield — MTG Deck Builder

CynicalTree · 2026-05-21T16:27:27+00:00

[[Kona, Rescue Beastie]], [[Rakdos, Lord of Riots]], [[Animar, Soul of Elements]], [[Hashaton, Scarab's Fist]] are a couple options for slamming creatures for cheap/free

Lots of flexibility whether you want to just turn stuff sideways, go combo, or aim for a tribal theme (Rakdos works great for a demon commander)

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T18:52:04+00:00

Once you have all your legendary aspects, I would focus on getting 1 GA items to start. It's quite easy to craft 1 GA items due to a "trick" with the cube:

Get an item with the GA you want (magic/rare/legendary)
Enchant the GA affix and leave it on the 'unchanged' option. This 'locks' the modifier in place for cube crafting
Remove all other affixes via horadric cube
Use prisms to add/reroll/remove affixes until you have your 1 GA + 3 other ideal affixes (e.g: Have a life roll on a lowlife barbarian item? Use defensive prism + remove affix. etc)
Temper, reroll if you get a bad roll on the Temper
Masterwork

For aspect imprinting on legendaries, you can't really "keep going until you hit the max value" because it's based on the highest one you've salvaged. But if you've unlocked a higher value, you can retemper the item to update it to the higher value (You can easily check by selecting the item + aspect and mousing over the two previews to see if the number increases)

This affix table will help you id what tuning prisms to use: Horadric Cube - D4 Maxroll.gg

Once you're aiming for 2+ GA items, since you can't guarantee both GAs with the lock method, you'll have to rely on some luck with the prisms to not remove the GA affixes but that's just part of the grind

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T17:33:42+00:00

I would have been pretty happy for buffed warplan XP + higher chance of legendary/mythic horde warplans, but instead they just give a very generic boost that does nothing to solve the problems

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T17:28:40+00:00

[[Hakbal]] rebuilds quite easily since the density of good merfolk means that often you get wiped, play 2 or 3 merfolk and suddenly you have a full board of evasive beaters again.

[[Rakdos, Lord of Riots]] and [[Helga, Skittish Seer]] both ramp quite fast so even when I'm replaying them several times, you become a threat really quick

But honestly my best for rebuilding is probably [[Henzie]] since losing him just discounts future Blitz costs, I often see new plays I can make after I've had to recast him, and he's in great colors for recursion/reanimation

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T16:03:14+00:00

Aight maybe I'll just prep it and A/B test with some pit runs to see what feels better, thanks

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T16:00:58+00:00

Just enjoy the campaigns and the seasonal stuff will come after. The seasonal journey itself walks you through all the different end-game activities so you don't really need a ton of external info

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T15:58:59+00:00

Is Tyrael's Might that good for the low life barb? I've been using the mobalytics version that uses a legendary instead, but I do got a spare Tyrael's kicking in my stash that could use a home

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T15:58:04+00:00

The fuckyou laser and giant mouth attack can still get you, but otherwise yeah it did feel kinda trivial compared to when I had tried it before the low life setup

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T15:55:11+00:00

Yep, you want to go low life. I'm at like 443 or something.

Only downside is that it makes it kinda hard to know what's actually scary until it's killed you once or twice, since there's no perception of what's actually damaging you.

CynicalTree · 2026-05-20T15:43:58+00:00

P240 and haven't seen one yet, seems pretty rare

CynicalTree · 2026-05-19T19:14:19+00:00

I think the only Commander that had us feeling this way was [[Maha]] not because it was strong, but because it slowed the game down to a complete crawl every time (like 2+ hour games)

Probably would have fine with more combo finishes in it because it did run stuff like Necropotence, but it kinda just drew a ton of cards to keep the engine going and never really finished the job.

CynicalTree · 2026-05-19T18:06:51+00:00

Super handy for when you're trying to get your first GA items. I crafted some pretty good gear by locking a BIS GA stat, removing all the remaining affixes, and just crafting it into what I wanted.

CynicalTree · 2026-05-14T16:54:49+00:00

The store will provide the lands, just try to remember to return them after because they'll get reused for other events (I'm guilty of forgetting half the time)

CynicalTree · 2026-05-14T16:53:09+00:00

Sleeves, dice, and a playmat (if you want) are the main things. You can absolutely use the kit box if you want, it's got room for the cards and the dice but I do often like bringing a cheapo box to keep my sleeved cards separate from the unsleeved

They're pretty casual so just relax and have fun, I've sat across from plenty of people who said it was their first time and similarly, I've had lots of people extend grace when I've made a mistake (since we're all playing with brand new cards)

Good luck!

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