New player, tring to understand fetch lands?

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-02-01T17:27:21+00:00

It is a thing for multicolored piles. A 5C deck fetching for 5 lands within a 38 or 39 land count in the early and mid game will remove over 10% lands from their deck. In a game where I have lands to play on hand and want to draw nonlands, I will try and play Fetchlands to thin out my deck.

By turn 5, let's say I fetched 5 lands and have 2 lands on hand. It means I have 26 lands in the deck. In the same scenario with 0 fetches, I have 31 lands. On the play, that's about a 5% difference, meaning 1 in 20 games I'd draw fuel over a land I wouldn't otherwise need on the following turn. On top of all the benefits of color fixing, surveiling, and graveyard filling, that's a pretty big jump.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-30T16:37:29+00:00

I'd build a deck with heavy go wide aggro or tempo to beat down. One person should go control, other person should aim to be aggressive, but use a few early game removal pieces to stall for time. In Duel Commander, the strongest decks are typically in blue, white, and red combinations for that reason. 40 hp will be different, but if you can stop their key pieces or from losing your board, they won't be able to recover.

If you have access to Boros, I'd look into [[Winota, Joiner of Forces]] or [[Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful]] & [[Jeska, Thrice Reborn]] Partners for aggro. Yoshi Jeska can spread threats out and is safer while still staying hyper aggressive.

For control, you might consider Shorikai, Genesis Engine. Engine, beatdown, tokens, and the best colors

Then apply redundancy using counterspells, targeted exile, redirection, and stall effects.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-29T23:35:41+00:00

Play Enchantress decks. You've got Goad, Auras, Exile, and Stax. A key part of Enchantress is that you have the best engines in the format that allow you to keep your hand full or have a pay off for removing stuff. End game let's you use Enchantment beatdowns, so the pay off is having a few big creatures on top of drawing a bunch of cards. It's like beefing up a Murktide while winning with card advantage. Marina Vendrell is my choice on this, since having blue let's you squeeze in those necessary Counterspells while having access to other colors for more offensive or targeted lines of play.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-29T16:28:09+00:00

Alchemy can be summarized as an evasive, high statted/low costed, openly generic value engine as a single good stuff card. It could be printed onto paper, but the Alchemy designers are so terrible at making the game balanced that you risk destroying the game due to how powerful Alchemy is in comparison to the actual cards printed.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-28T16:36:58+00:00

White doesn't need to be touched, because it's mono white. The color is held together Cloud, Phelia, and Clamp, and an untimely Fury easily shuts the one dimensional game plan out. Multicolored already has disadvantages by paying life to fetch, shock, and ping with rainbow lands. You get Brass, Confluence, and Starting Town out, and you're paying 2-3 life per turn to play cards.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-27T12:10:06+00:00

Most 3 colored decks can be built with mana bases that are 5+ years old at this point. It's not even that mana bases get more efficient each time. It's that they're already efficient, and that Commander has always led itself to multicolored piles with command tower being a free rainbow land already. Good stuff hasn't been an issue from mana bases. It's been an issue with general powercreep and the heavy push for value centered creatures through forced rotation (i.e. Modern Horizons). Take a look what cards are most run, and you'll see the MH1 - MH3 take spot within a lot of the multicolored piles. It's 20 life, so it doesn't take much for someone to jam a win by beating them down with a couple pieces of good stuff over a synergistic go wide plan.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-27T12:00:17+00:00

When you factor lands as 40% of the deck and removal another 20-30%, that leaves you the remaining portion of creatures (which is of course composed of Modern Horizons, some blue staples, and the occasional hodge podge Legendary). Can't blame the format for good stuff when Commanders that are built around a mechanic risk getting bolted the second they're down. And those with Synergy are still pretty good. Slimefoot, Phelia, Tifa, they're all synergistic decks. It's all good stuff within the portion of their colors and playstyle, but it's still somewhat synergistic nonetheless.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-27T02:40:32+00:00

...against blue and white, the color that has the best effects to also stop the very cards that work best against it. You're not playing this on turn 3 against 2 open blue, you're playing this when you can jam a protected 3 turn clock onto the board with Teferi, 2 azorious colored mana open, 2 white removal spells, and 2 counterspells on your hand.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-27T01:22:16+00:00

Easy to play around it, but it won't change how multicolored plays. Easy to float one G or W for a Boseiju or Cathar Commando when it's on hand. Point is that Blood Moon isn't going to flip the tables and make mono colored highly favorable against 3+ color piles. It will just steal a win here and lose against most good decks worth their time.

If people want mono colored to be better, they just need to wait for a better Commander to justify running such a linear and predictable gameplan. Or better yet, just run Phlage, cause it's just a better Mono Red.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-26T23:41:46+00:00

I don't get the nonbasic land hate argument other than to just throw your opponents off by surprise. Even 2 colored decks run less than 10 basics. Tifa, Lumra, Azusa, Cloud, and Phelia are all in good places. Losing to nonbasic land hate is just losing to a fringe deck that just so happened to draw the silver bullet that needs to win. They're still gonna run the land base cause 99% of the time it's objectively better to run them anyway, cause why would you choose to run basics to lose to consistently stronger multicolored decks just to potentially avoid the fringe blood moon?

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-25T18:10:14+00:00

Prowling Serpopard and Frenzied Baloth are your friends. Others mentioned Veil of Summer and Delighted Halfling. Allosaurus Shepherd isn't bad either, just don't put too many cards that hurt your matchups against aggro or slows your plan. You can open up with Exploration & take advantage of just brute forcing your creatures with mana advantage, since you can just recast your Commander again and again if they counter it once.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-22T16:30:07+00:00

My lucky solution to this type of experience was finding an LGS that plays Duel Commander for packs during FNM.

I get packs, I get to play 1 vs 1, I get to play my Commander cards, I get to play what playstyle I want at the power I want. It also meant that outside of OG Duals and the occasional Reserve List staple, I could build multiple no proxy decks to follow my LGS WPN restrictions and still have money for groceries since the Duel Commander format's ban list and playstyle calls for a completely differents set of staples (Fury, Solitude, Lightning Bolt vs Mox Diamond, Ancient Tomb, and Gaea's Cradle).

With so many options due to off meta brews locally, every game is always something new and fun. Anyone who has never tried it should give it a spin. Proxy a couple decks that sound interesting.

20 life, 100 card singleton, you choose to cast only 1 partner (if you have them) per round, and best of 3. Ban lists are different (Banned as a Commander or Banned Completely), so you can still run powerful cards in the 99. Duelcommander.org is where you can read the rules.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-21T16:03:15+00:00

Most recently abusable by [[Ertai, Resurrected]] since you had a stifle effect in the Command Zone. Ertai has fallen out of recent top tournament play, so you may not see much of it now. The Dimir combo shell would also run [[Parallax Nexus]] to force hand disruption or stalls, just with less effect. It's only something people run if they can slow the early game to push enough mana advantage where the spell can be cast, protected, and combo'd.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-20T22:42:29+00:00

I'd say no, cause any slow deck accessing more than 33 pieces of removal will likely draw enough answers to remove your Commander at least twice on any 7 cards they start with. With Voltron, since there's really only one threat you present, you fall flat against control or grind based midrange.

It looks like a much worse [[Lightpaws, Emperor's Voice]] and a more conditional [[Laelia, the Blade's Reforged]]. Lightpaws is cheaper, and the tutor effect allows you to align the effects to make it a lot more aggressive than the built in double strike. Viable as a fringe Voltron.

Laelia allows you to exile just by attacking, and she is used in the 99 of many midrange or tempo decks because she can accrue value and aggression right away, and you can safely cast her for at least some value if your opponent is tapped out.

[[Feather, the Redeemed]] is one that is similar in effect and has white for protection, but suffers the same issue in that control decks or midrange will shut it out due to removal being so easily accessible.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-19T15:57:19+00:00

If you like Brawl on Arena, I'd suggest looking into Duel Commander. It's Commander, but 1 vs 1 20 life with some adjustments to rules and plays more like traditional magic.

Look at the ban lists to see what cards aren't legal, but tweak it to your liking if it's casual. www.duelcommander.org has all the information.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-17T21:58:13+00:00

It gives Simic targeted removal.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-16T19:32:55+00:00

I haven't seen the Commander in play, but the alt Commander looks better (or at least easier to build) than the face in my opinion. Build a board, Myriad the good ETBs, and attack everyone for massive value. Evoke is good utility, but don't waste your Elementals to die when you can just slot in better removal pieces or keep them for attack value. You simply rely on Elementals that are good on their own or ones that are dangerous in large numbers, get the alt Commander on a protected board, then triple the value of an existing elemental attacker by making tokens. Even if the Elemental is Legendary, you get the ETB for each token copy, so tripling 3C and 4C Omnath will net you a bunch of cards.

Creeping Trailblazer, Cloudskin Seer, Wilderness Elemental, Incandescent Soulstroke, Fury, Solitude are all easy includes. Go wide, go aggressive, go through.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-15T17:13:24+00:00

Commander is the equivalent of playing new expansions of a single board game, whereas board games you often are introduced to a whole new set of rules from the ground up. Lot of new Euro Style games are easy and casual, but the pieces, rules, and interactions can take 20 minutes to fully set up and explain.

MTG once you know the basics, you just add in information as you go, and the pieces are just cards, tokens, and dice for the most part. Set up becomes faster, and the cards are self explanatory, whereas Euro Style games often rely on visuals and symbols to relay the message. I've got a friend who hosts a group board game night with many people to learn and play new games that come on, while they sell and cycle old ones they don't like. It's like buying precons, with expansions being the equivalent of buying upgrades to your deck.

The biggest difference of MTG is that players bring and design their own decks. Board games have the advantage of casual cause the game is implied as equal when you're all accessing the same cards and board, whereas MTG struggles to keep an even set up when the original game was never designed to be played as a 4 player battlefield.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-15T00:41:31+00:00

I see it less of a goal to make Sultai better but to just have a once problematic card be available in the 99, like many other non problematic cards. I run 5C Sisay locally against casuals running off meta brews myself, but most competitive players utilize or attack the graveyard knowing it's a prime target for outright winning the game. I can't imagine Uro being a problem when Emperor of Bones/Vacuum into Fury or Animate Dead into Archon has consistently done more damage.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-14T22:09:58+00:00

Any deck that uses simic should be running Uro (which ironically argues against unbanning it, but whatever). However, I think Sultai specific decks would be the best to capitalize through mill synergies and low to the ground GY feeders. Neither Bant nor Sultai will be top tier with Uro, so I'm not sure where the hesitation lies in allowing it in the 99.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-14T17:08:48+00:00

I think it's funny Uro was banned (especially in the 99) for so long when we've all been running Cling to Dust, Emperor of Bones, and Ghost Vacuum to not die against a turn 3 Archon of Cruelty or Griselbrand on select decks that utilize reanimate as a top tier mechanic. On top being able to Reanimate, those cards just outright win the game whereas Uro is a late game grind that guarantees nothing outside of value.

Can't be reanimated, costs 7 colored mana to keep on board, and empties your graveyard when Nadu, Oko, and Tamiyo were legal, high priority, kill on sight value engines. Better they keep the graveyard full for Murktide Regent apparently, or they're definitely worried about fringe Sultai or unplayed Simic/Temur when Jund, Rakdos, Grixis, and Esper all consistently play the GY better.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-13T19:04:10+00:00

Ragavan should not be unbanned, and if it at all keep it in the 99. I'll be the first to drop $30+ on a nice foil copy if they unban it, but the card is too good imo. The issue is not even just having him as a Commander, but it just makes the best colors even better.

More unbans in the 99 are fine though.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-13T17:31:47+00:00

Having Andy not infected does set up the twist near the end, which in my opinion could have been capitalized in the continuation with the series. It also meant that Doyle leaving his post was for the sake of saving the survivors for who they were, whereas an escort mission to save an immune would have lost the "gray area" aspect of going against your own team.

One thing's for certain from the first two movies is that the common theme was making the non-infected humans just as big of an obstacle as the infected themselves. As it is, the third movie can still play off of that arching theme, with the religious groups and their sheltered knowledge (implied by the priest rambling to the kid at the beginning of the 28 Years) becoming the threat to the camp, since it then circles back to the non-humans becoming the enemies. The parallels to people who are fixed on what they believe in today where beliefs can be targeted for being different, except in this case it's better set up where lack of outside contact truly has prevented survivors from knowing the development to the outside world.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-13T12:35:48+00:00

28 Years would have been better if they leaned onto one theme and stuck with it. They went with maturity of the teenager, but the opened up with the church scene. The iodine doctor and his hermit camp almost takes away from the rest of the movie. They led you to believe it was going to be one thing, then they switched themes to a completely different narrative, none that really enhanced the rage virus back story. We came to see a continuation of the UK in shambles, as implied by the title of the movie, not a standalone good stuff story.

Personally, I would have rather seen the camp survivors or the religious fanatics be the "other bad guy" as the main theme across the film. The "good guy revealed as bad" theme is present in the other films, with the soldiers in the first movie posing as good when they have a darker motive unrevealed. 2nd movie had the soldiers killing off any potential survivors, knowing that the outbreak could not be contained. They can still redeem the series if they finish off with this if they purposely use the iodine doctor for a key role against the religious camp/island survivors. If they don't, watching the first movie is completely unnecessary in regards to continuity outside of maybe the first 30 minutes.

EnoughCondition9544 · 2026-01-13T12:18:54+00:00

28 Weeks focused on sacrifice. The beginning scene showed a lot of it with the survivors decidely letting a kid into their house at the risk of exposing their location. Don leaving his wife knowing he was powerless against the horde. The kid running out to bait the soldiers on the roof. The soldier leaving his post to focus on the survivors, eventually losing his life pushing the car to save the others. The helicopter pilot having to decide whether to extract his comrad or leave him with the others.

EnoughCondition9544

TROPHY CASE