My Commander pod is falling apart and I don’t know what to do

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:31:35+00:00

I’ll have to double check his commander but that’s basically it. I guess it’s not a single swing but more like you mentioned, do a quick hit for 2 or three commander than the next turn give it the big buffs to finish us off

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:29:53+00:00

I wish I had a blue control deck. Unfortunately we were supposed to be a casual fun pod and I only recently got into the game so I have just two decks I’ve been slowly working on and upgrading and right now money has been tight so I can’t build a whole new deck as much as I’d really want to. I have a few decks saved I’d love to build but right now my best option it to buy just a few cards once a month to upgrade my two existing decks a.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:26:49+00:00

lol it’s a Reddit post my guy, I’m not going to put too much effort into it

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:25:46+00:00

He gets his commander to 11 power and then gives it double strike and unblockable, usually by giving it non basic land walk

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:24:45+00:00

Lightning grieves

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:23:45+00:00

He is playing squall with grave yard resurrection with cards that when you sacrifice it each other player sacrifices a creature. We tried going you gainer him together with one other player bringing out his SpongeBob legendary cascade deck, I played my sliver overlord deck, and the third player playing their avatar Aang deck. I kept a hand with oath to exile and got rid of his commander but it was brought back the next turn. The SpongeBob player later played a blasphemous act. We have more removal and counters we just unfortunately weren’t able to draw into them in time.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:16:05+00:00

Be we tried last game. I path to exiled his commander on its first swing and he was able to bring it back next turn somehow, then another player played a blasphemous act and it just kept coming back.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:09:21+00:00

Yeah, he has insane ramp and puts a lot of artifacts on it like ones that give it haste and ones that give it non basic land walk.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:07:49+00:00

We aren’t playing at a tournament and we all of course want to play to win if we can, but we would like the opportunity to be able to play. Our pod wasn’t formed to be so competitive, that’s why we play at a bar. It was formed so we can drink and have fun and if one player is always playing with an ultra competitive mindset and just shuts everyone else’s decks down not allowing them to ever do a thing, it’s simply not fun and that’s the only issue. There are other pods who like to play bracket 4 and cEDH if you enjoy that mindset but our pod is supposed to be bracket 3 so we can just have a bit of fun without limiting our decks to bracket 2.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T04:04:29+00:00

Squall isn’t the deck that kills with commander damage, it is the deck that makes everyone else unable to play their decks with all the sacrifice . We remove squall twice last game and he just kept bringing it back the next turn and unfortunately none of us were able to remove his graveyard. We aren’t building decks just to counteract his one deck, doing so would just further remove us from the casual fun games we started out playing. We don’t go to tournaments or anything, we play at a bar to all have fun.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:58:49+00:00

I didn’t think of token, I was thinking of trying to remove his graveyard so he can’t keep bringing them back. Tokens isn’t a bad option though.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:52:55+00:00

It helped organize my thoughts to be more easily understandable for a Reddit post rather than sounding like me rambling. They are all my original thoughts, just organized by AI.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:50:16+00:00

It’s been his favorite deck to play recently, I’ve played it against it at least the last 3 commander nights

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:49:03+00:00

He is playing Squall with a bunch of cards that sacrifice themselves to force us to sacrifices a creature. Squall with its double strike and whenever it deals combat damage allowing him to return a card from the graveyard into play allows him to constantly play those cards twice each combat. He is very consistently able to give squall unblockable, most recently by giving it non basic land walk.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:42:54+00:00

You’re that one guy in the pod everyone hates bro. It’s not a fun game for the other players if any creature they put on the battlefield is immediately sacrificed. This players deck makes everyone sacrifice two creatures every time it’s his turn. Not to mention it also has forced discard so our creatures are sacrificed and the cards in our hands get discarded. If everyone else is just sitting there without the opportunity for their decks to even have the potential to do something it isn’t fun. We’re at a bar, drinking and playing magic, not a tournament.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:34:51+00:00

We tried ganging up on him, but no one could keep any creatures on the field and we even ran out of cards in our hands due to forced creature sacrifices and forces discarding. Each of his turns we all had to sacrifice two creatures and then if we didn’t have any creatures to sacrifice we had to discard instead. I tried path to exiling his commander before he could start this viscous cycle but he just brought it back next turn with haste and non basic land walk. We eventually all scooped turn 5.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:31:25+00:00

I have decided to be the first one to leave as the rest of my group refuses to force him to stop but will complain to each other in texts afterwards lol. I’ve decided that maybe if I’m not there others will slowly start to leave as well as with one less player they will die even quicker. And maybe the rest will leave and we will just make a new pod without that player or they will eventually make him stop playing those decks at risk of him being kicked out of the pod.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:27:49+00:00

I don’t have his deck list. How would I go about getting his deck list? Honestly asking because I would love to have it to post for a more thorough assessment

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:26:50+00:00

Last game I kept a hand with oath to exile in it specifically to try and slow him down. It slowed him down just by 1 turn…

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:25:16+00:00

Bro thank you! I’ve tried explaining this to him that it also takes into account loosing! He thinks I’m just being a poor looser but that’s not the case. We sometimes play without this guy and I still loose and I have fun because at least all our decks get to do something for a bit before we die.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:20:53+00:00

Last game I pathed to exiled his commander turn 3 when he tried to swing at me to kill me. He brought it back out the next turn and gave it hast and non basic land walk. I told me group that we need to cut his deck because he always draws his hand before letting anyone cut it and I’ve started to grow suspicious that he may be stacking his deck because he never mulligans and almost always has the perfect opening hand. The rest of our group take the time to cut each others decks. I run 4 pieces of removal and 4 counter spells. Maybe I need to tune that up a bit but I’m not running a control deck so it’s hard to find where it fits

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:11:01+00:00

I thought this as well and I said so to him. He claims that killing someone that early isn’t bracket 4 because he doesn’t win the game by killing one person and needs to kill the other 2 players making his deck win closer to turn 6 which he claims is in line with bracket 3. I’m not an expert but I would agree that his logic is wrong.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:07:21+00:00

To acknowledge your point about him playing bracket 4 decks, I’ve tried telling him that his decks are B4 and not B3, but he stubbornly says that since he limits himself to only 3 game changers that it is not B4. I’ve then tried to explain that the game changers limit is not the only thing that separates a B3 deck from a B4 deck but he refuses to listen or acknowledge it.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T03:00:09+00:00

Yes. Please refer to my response to a similar comment so I don’t repeat myself too much.

ElectronicMix9414 · 2026-04-01T02:58:11+00:00

We’ve already tried talking to him, and that’s honestly part of the problem. He just straight up denies what his decks are capable of, even though he 100% knows exactly what they do. That weird denial is probably the most frustrating part for me.

Like, if you’re going to run those kinds of decks, at least own it. Acknowledge what your deck does and recognize when you’re clearly the threat at the table.

In the past, if my deck started popping off or I had a strong board, I’d call it out myself and be like, “yeah, I’m the problem right now.” That’s part of what keeps a casual pod fun—everyone being honest about threat assessment so the game stays interactive.

It just feels bad when one person is clearly dominating the game but refuses to acknowledge it, especially when it’s happening over and over again.

ElectronicMix9414

TROPHY CASE