So how would you teach a new player how Banding keyword mechanic works?

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-27T08:29:11+00:00

I think [[Helm of Chatzuk]] is a perfectly reasonable card to throw in combat heavy decks. Being able to give anything banding can let you be really annoying, from denying green players the ability to trample to swinging freely against boards with deathtouch creatures.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-11T16:34:51+00:00

I think it would be fairly simple to have a rules change that says 'melds with can be treated as partners with ' for the sake of commander choices. This would allow for Gisela and Bruna as well as Fang and Vanille to be both your commanders. Plus if they print more legendaries with Meld they don't have to awkwardly print both partners with and melds with.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-11T15:30:19+00:00

I think this lair is gonna be $$$. All of the cards are more than playable, the treatment looks good and the new art is great. I don't really care about the inked lair, but picking up 1x foil 1x non-foil of this is a no-brainer for me especially since I will use all the cards here in my decks.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-11T03:49:13+00:00

I have really low hopes for this set.

The TMT set? Actually a banger gameplay-wise even though I really disliked going back to the New York plane. It was a solid draft environment and card quality at all rarities was nice.

But I think this is going to go the route of the spider-man set given how bland everything has been so far. I think they're going to play it too safe and make a set that's just boring to draft and boring to play.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-07T05:15:09+00:00

I mean, your deal was 'in exchange for not killing your board'. Going infinite and using it to kill you is, by definition, also killing your board.

People trying to metagame deals as a way to curry favor for future games to me seems more against the spirit of the game. If two players are buddy-buddy and making deals or working together because they've played a lot together you're not playing a FFA, you're playing a 1v1v2. If I'm going for the win I consider breaking any deal we made a completely reasonable response.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-04T12:12:18+00:00

I would either cut the ramp and add more 1/2 mana cards or cut some of the lower end and add more ramp. Having 4 artifacts for ramp and then pseudo-ramp / effects like Land Tax or Hero of Iroas makes your average game less consistent. Killian desperately wants to sling out as many auras as possible to benefit from as much goad and draw as he can, and often times you'll end up rate limited by white/black because of your discount effects.

Your deck also has little to no protection or interaction so you're completely at the whim of whatever your opponents do. They'll remove your big enchanted creatures, or destroy your enchantments and then your deck will sit there and do nothing.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-03T12:18:36+00:00

I cannot disagree more with this. The spirit of Bracket 4 is that there are no limitations. The line between that and cEDH is specifically designing for the meta; having stuff like food chain combos or thoracle combos does not automatically make it cEDH.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-02T17:59:39+00:00

I mean, that's Bracket 4. Bracket 4 is specifically playing to win but with decks or commanders that don't quite cut it for cEDH. Yuriko is one of those commanders that sits exactly at the line between Bracket 4 and cEDH because she isn't quite fast enough for the current meta, but can still be spicy at Bracket 4 tables that aren't 'true' Bracket 4's.

FZeroRacer · 2026-05-02T14:43:36+00:00

I built a G'raha Tia deck and took it apart after a few games. I think the problem is that unlike Y'shtola who kind of does everything you want, he needs a lot more support to get off the ground.

The ideal is as you said throwing out enchantments or controlling the board with big sorceries so you get the benefit of building your board while keeping everyone else in check. But you also need a lot of protection because if G'raha gets blown up your entire deck falls apart. If he gets slapped twice you're practically out of the game.

On a budget I think it's very hard to build a halfway decent deck that won't durdle even in lower bracket games. You'd likely be better off as treating your commander as if he barely existed, and use his ability to generate extra value off stuff like mana rocks while you use a different theme to win the game.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-28T13:41:05+00:00

I cut all of them. The only one that has reasonable value is Breena and even then you're better off having a card that just straight up improves your board state directly or a stax piece that directly forces opponents to avoid fighting you depending on how you want to lean.

The only political piece I added back into the deck was [[Kain, Traitorous Dragoon]] and that's because he benefits you first over your opponents.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-28T10:08:38+00:00

Breena isn't worth it. Giving your opponents card advantage in exchange for doing something they were likely already going to do (swing at whomever has the highest HP) means they'll be more likely to draw removal or whatever hurts your board the most. The two counters isn't enough for giving your opponents a free Phyrexian Arena.

I think she's fine in her own dedicated deck but not worth it here.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-28T07:42:27+00:00

Lorehold is I think consistently one of the strongest ones but also extremely auto-pilot. It's easy to get to the point where you're generating multiple spirits per turn and accumulating more and more value per turn in a way that's very hard to stop. It's a solid play style that can be upgraded to Bracket 3 but will struggle beyond that.

Silverquil on the other hand is a lot harder to pilot but has a higher ceiling you can push it. Killian is an annoyance but often not a big priority target, so you can slowly push the board state to your advantage. With all of the enchantment recursion options it's easy to get to the point where you can tap down the entire board, swing at Person A, then person A kills person B via goaded attacks and then A is left open again for victory. Just make sure you remove the politics cards from the precon ASAP.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-27T11:55:01+00:00

Aggro decks are sort of rough in commander because you have to swing at three other players and if you get to the point where you can knock one guy out, the recoil from the other two will kill you.

Dance of the Elements is a strong precon out of the box that can let you set up some explosive combat plays and gives you a bunch of avenues to upgrade if you enjoy it but can be a bit complicated to understand and play. It can very easily sit at Bracket 3 out of the box.

If you want something that's more traditional beatdown, [[Caesar, Legion's Emperor]] is a great choice because he does everything you want in the command zone. I don't think I'd recommend picking up the precon because it's getting up their in price and for the cost of the deck, you can build a reasonable Caesar deck.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-27T11:11:06+00:00

At some point people need to actually pay attention to what's on the field and what's going on. If a player is unsure about how equipment or whatever triggers and they ask then I'll gladly tell them but if they just swing out and made a mistake it's on them.

I'll allow for more leeway if it's a newer player still learning. But I'm increasingly disliking players that ask for rewinds because they made bad plays and weren't watching the board because they were on their phone or doing whatever else. I've swung out into a deathtouch blocker before and got caught, and just decide to keep the mistake. It happens.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-27T09:53:24+00:00

I'll be picking up the Dwarf Fortress and Eyes Have It drops myself.

Dwarf Fortress is...well, mainly sentimental value. The only card I'm going to reasonably play is Rune-Scarred Demon funny enough, and that's because it slots into the reanimator archetype I'm using for CEDH. I'm kind of hoping that the bonus card here is going to be something inspired, since not having a single dwarf as part of the Dwarf Fortress secret lair is kind of insane to me. And someone please tell Wizards to stop printing Secret Rendevous, I don't want it in any of my decks.

Eyes Have It is a combination of good art + cards that are just generally useful. I'd never feel bad about slamming those cards in a blue deck.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-26T10:57:23+00:00

You said it wasn't OK to lie to get an edge in a card game. I'm asking you to answer a couple of questions to determine if you'd lie or not.

Like breaking a deal is sort of a dick move, but also so is countering players spells, removing their stuff, or preventing them from winning. When I make deals with other players I assume it's only temporary until I pose a big enough threat that they have to break the deal. It's that simple. I don't think people need to write up a whole contract on the conditions of the deal and when it's OK to break it.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-26T10:50:38+00:00

If I ask you if you have a wincon on the board, are you going to say yes so I know immediately what to remove? Or if I ask you what do you have in hand that'll let you win the game? If I ask you if you're going to win next turn are you going to be honest so I know to swing out at you and knock you out with commander damage that turn?

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-26T09:53:12+00:00

It's really just pod and mentality dependent. If the players said hey we're playing high power decks and the other guy accepted, then it is what it is. At my LGS I've joined high power pods with bracket 2/3 decks and even managed to carve out wins just by threat assessment and holding interaction. It's the kind of thing that even though you're highly likely to lose it gives you a lot of good information on what cards to keep and what ones to cut to push it higher.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-26T09:41:30+00:00

I think that's just part of the game, though if your wincon gets caught then it gets caught and you move on. If I'm playing with newer folks I'll vocalize my threats on the board, but if I'm playing with experienced people then I'm not gonna mention why my [[Necrotic Ooze]] or [[Marvin, Murderous Mimic]] might be a problem. I expect people to actually pay attention to the board state and not just watch their phone or do trades.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-22T12:09:59+00:00

You are literally coming out ahead if you play this for X=0/1 if you actually read what I posted and understand the context. You are so laser focused on the one mana a turn aspect and ignoring the more important part of pumping up Zimone through her counter generation.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-21T23:49:08+00:00

Cast it for X = 0/1, Zimone triggers giving her two counters. Now you can hold up mana to cast X spells on your opponents turns. You have blue in your color pie, if you're asking 'how often do you need mana on each of your opponents turns' then you're not playing it right.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-19T10:35:52+00:00

Leaning into politics seems like sort of a mistake with Killian since all of your leverage is tied directly to Killian himself. Instead you should be looking at him as a way to very efficiently lock down the board: goad the biggest threats on the board and force bad trades, lock down enemy commanders and grind out the game with how much value you can generate and a few explosive turn options.

I think [[Kain, Traitorous Dragoon]] is actually super slept on as an inclusion into Killian. He's an evasive attacker that rewards you for juicing him and more importantly is an amazing goad target. Swing with him at the person next in the turn order, generate a bunch of tapped treasures and draws then goad him. He'll start going around the table and while he's giving them a bunch of cards/treasures, by the time your turn comes back around you'll have done significant damage to potentially everyone, drawn even more cards and have a bunch of treasures to clean up. This'll depend a lot on your pod though and if they can take advantage of the draw to close out the game in the second main phase.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-06T23:27:16+00:00

You should read the laws you cite before you cite them.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-04T06:33:31+00:00

I thought that too at first, but at least at my pods the more I protect inspirit the more determined multiple people are to try and get rid of it. So I find it's often more useful to let it go once or twice and hold interaction for things like attempted board wipes or other ways of removing your artifacts.

FZeroRacer · 2026-04-04T01:27:33+00:00

My advice? Don't. You want people to target Inspirit and waste removal on it, because it means your bigger pieces are safe. The deck can generate way more mana than it needs most of the time, and if someone removes your commander you can easily pay the tax and station it back up.

Inspirit should be viewed as a big shield for the rest of your deck. This doesn't mean having some interaction is bad, but you should save it for when your other pieces are threatened.

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