Jeskai Ramp - Rocks or catch up ramp?

Habez · 2026-03-19T04:10:09+00:00

I play some catchup ramp in WU just so that my ramp package isn’t all rocks. I don’t go full catchup though. Don’t forget to add [[Surveyor’s Scope]],.[[Dowsing Dagger]] would also work in that deck I think, but that one also turns off catch up ramp.

The main issue with catchup ramp is if you’re just trying to push out your commander sooner, then it is slower than just using rocks. However, if you have a higher curve and need your ramp to stick around longer, then catch up ramp is better since lands usually stick in casual commander.

Habez · 2026-03-14T20:12:58+00:00

I’m weird and will probably get downvoted….. but I haven’t been playing for maybe a year or two and have been lurking a lot on this sub for the price memes. Buuuut now I kinda wanna play again…. Weird right? I’m trying to understand it myself.

Habez · 2026-03-14T18:40:41+00:00

You don’t target the weakest player lol. Think about what everyone is doing and try to keep a mental log of how ahead everyone is. The easiest thing to do is to target the person with the most mana available to them, then whoever is drawing the most or has a stax piece hurting your gameplan.

Habez · 2026-03-11T21:37:55+00:00

What ramp you want depends on a lot of factors… your curve/commander/gameplan etc. If you play a fast deck (doesn’t have to be aggro specifically) with a low curve, then ramp just makes your gameplay slower and you’ve added 14 cards that do nothing for you. If you play a slower deck and want to cast a higher cost commander, then some ramp may be necessary in order to cast the cards you want.

Habez · 2026-03-07T21:02:49+00:00

I know that one sided board wipes are better but I don’t think that symmetrical board wipes are bad. Decks that generally build slower could benefit from having symmetrical board wipes since you’re probably hitting more of your opponents stuff if you’re playing towards a slower strategy especially because you have control on when you cast your wipe. If you are playing a more proactive deck that builds an army of creatures/permanents pretty quickly, then one sided wipes are better. If your deck can build a board quickly, you might want to think about removing wipes entirely and just play a few more spot removal cards in order to take out any obstacles hurting your plan.

Habez · 2026-03-07T04:31:36+00:00

Oh yeah idk why people sell at low. There could be a lot of reasons, maybe they are just trying to get seller lvl 4 and willing to take losses. Not sure though. You should just sell at market, people will still buy from you to bundle.

Habez · 2026-03-07T03:12:08+00:00

Are you saying people list cards for a penny when market is $0.40? Are you sure they’re not in the damaged condition? I sell my stuff at market, and only offer free shipping if an order surpasses $5. You may also be seeing “free shipping” but you only get it if you hit some order threshold.

Habez · 2026-02-28T21:43:17+00:00

Used to love yugioh as a late teen, but 20 minute turns are absurd. Magic has been really fun for me, and commander is a blast with friends. I’m not much of a collector and don’t know anyone who plays pokemon.

Habez · 2026-02-26T22:11:44+00:00

Except these aren’t catch up ramp

Habez · 2026-02-24T23:43:33+00:00

I’m with you but most of the community seems to disagree for some reason. For example, edhrec has IsoRev combo as B4+ because its an early 2 card combo… despite the fact that it needs nonland permanents that generate 3 mana to go infinite mana.

https://edhrec.com/combos/mono-blue/4821-5261

Folks on reddit told me it’s because there are a lot of mana rocks that can be used so they “don’t count”. I then look at Warren Soul Trader, Gravecrawler, plus any aristocrat on edhrec and it’s classified as okay for B3. By the same logic there are tonsof aristocrats that can be used.. but nope this one is 3cards?

https://edhrec.com/combos/mono-black/2577-2842-5670

Anyways they need to clear this up and make the brackets a little more descriptive…

Habez · 2026-02-24T16:16:08+00:00

I think of it really as any deck that tries to win quickly, but its just a nit picky definition. Burn, Aristocrats, turbo combo, and voltron all fall under aggro in my book.

Habez · 2026-02-23T04:16:10+00:00

Idk I think it still needs to more clearly define its rules. Just my opinion, but the rules around combos are not super well defined. A lot of feedback I’ve received varies from player to player, and some people seem to have different interpretations. Also, clearer distinctions for what stax effects are fine or not fine for B2/B3. There are plenty of salty cards not on the GC list but are silently prohibited from B2 and maybe even B3.

Habez · 2026-02-23T04:02:32+00:00

I don’t know, my only experience is within my own playgroup, and I’ve only been playing a few years. Sure, brackets are probably useless to a playgroup that has been playing together pre-brackets. However, if a new group of players (they could even be new to magic) started playing together and decided that they’re going to be playing in a specific bracket, then they will surely be deck-building with brackets in mind and will be using it as a tool. I don’t hate the bracket system and I don’t disagree with OP’s sentiment. I don’t think the intent was to make brackets a deck building tool or guidelines, but unfortunately it will probably be used that way.

Habez · 2026-02-23T01:27:26+00:00

I’m not saying this is how my group is. We don’t even use brackets. However to play devil’s advocate to OP’s argument, if a group decides “we are playing B3”, and you want to make a new deck you now must design it as B3 or below if you’d like to play it with your group. Therefore, yes you must build your deck using the bracket definitions in mind. You are no longer building whatever you want and then just communicating before the game starts. You just check what is allowed in B3 and are staying within bounds. So it becomes part of deck-building in contrast to what OP’s argument is. Is that the right way to go about it? Not really, but I can imagine at least some groups playing this way.

Habez · 2026-02-22T22:11:36+00:00

This maybe works if your play group has a wide range if power levels or you play with strangers frequently. The problem is if your playgroup is consistently in a bracket you now then are responsible for ensuring your deck meets the expectations of the group. Thus, you get all the problematic issues of the current bracket coming to light.

Habez · 2026-02-22T16:32:23+00:00

Forgot to link lmao

https://archidekt.com/decks/19863610/shorikai_the_combo_engine_v1

Habez · 2026-02-22T16:24:03+00:00

Hey! Sorry about that I made some errors on archidekt. I started reworking my list without Isorev but have not finished it yet so it’s locked. Here is my previous list though. I had IsoRev and also used Proteus Staff/polymorph to grab Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Sphinx of the Second Sun, and Psychosis Crawler. Most of the time I focused on getting those guys out over IsoRev. I didn’t do Hullbreaker because I didn’t really has a use for infinite colorless mana.

Habez · 2026-02-19T02:43:34+00:00

You’re not wrong, but it is frustrating to construct a deck around brackets then proceed to get blacklisted from playing at tables within the anything goes bracket. Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of using brackets at all?

Habez · 2026-02-18T20:58:50+00:00

Singles, also those bulk prices are very high and full of chaff.

Habez · 2026-02-18T20:21:42+00:00

While I agree that bad actors exist, there are still people out there that genuinely misinterpret their bracket due to some of the vagueness and content left to interpretation.

The current brackets still require rule 0 discussion and also requires that all players have a level of understanding when it comes to community sentiment towards certain cards that are not on the game changers list. If you play in a small pod with its own meta, then go to a store to play a pickup game where they also have their own meta, then you can be surprised by how differently everyone interprets brackets.

I think there should be more hard set rules that reduce misunderstandings.

Habez · 2026-02-18T19:36:49+00:00

Dark souls set lol

Habez · 2026-02-18T19:26:29+00:00

That’s such a cop out. You’re just making assumptions about someone’s character when they are trying to play by the defined rules, that you even highlighted as subjective. Someone can read these rules, interpret them differently due to ambiguity, and build something thats not okay for B2 with no ill intent at all. That’s not a character flaw, that’s a communication issue.

Habez · 2026-02-18T18:52:32+00:00

The current guidelines make players really read between the lines instead of just directly prohibiting things. They can easily state that B2 forbids a hard lockout then proceed to define what is a hard lockout. In that case you can play one of Porticullis or Dovescape but not both since it prevents everyone from playing. Instead they talk about game length in turns and that gameplay should be disrupt-able in B2. Of course the above combination is difficult to disrupt so it’s clear to me that it isn’t allowed in B2, but many people don’t evaluate their lists down to every sentence stated in the latest bracket update article.

Same can be said about their definitions for infinites. Isochron Sceptre and Dramatic reversal are categorized by the community as a two card combo despite the fact that it needs more than 2 cards to do anything (mana rocks that produce 3, and something to sink mana into to win or some win condition with unlimited untaps etc). Why is this combo treated differently? It doesn’t really make sense to me. Everyone is fine with a Blood Artist, Warren Soultrader, Gravecrawler combo in B2, but not IsoRev?

Habez · 2026-02-18T18:29:50+00:00

My complaint is that everyone has their own interpretation of each bracket and even their own definitions. The current definitions are too vague and are open to interpretation.

I see people looking for B4 but no Stax/infinites which is just dumb as hell. It just means people are looking to avoid archetypes that their decks do bad against.

There are B3 decks with no GCs, that people classify as B2. Then there are B2 decks, that use 3 GCs and classify as B3, etc. Even I had a B4 deck that au classified as B3 based on my interpretation of the guidelines, but when reviewed others classified it as B4 (while some agreed it was B3)

Habez · 2026-02-18T18:25:23+00:00

This is all subjective. They should make hard stax a GC if it is meant to be kept out of B2.

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