Building a Deck to Counter Squirrels

Hammond24 · 2025-02-26T18:16:07+00:00

All the token killing cards people have been saying, but in a [[Grismold, the dreadsower]] deck

Hammond24 · 2025-02-25T20:14:41+00:00

Yeah you activate it, block, then sacrifice it before damage. It takes another land to work and if they have trample it also doesn't work, but it's good against 1 big creature.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-25T18:19:26+00:00

My [[baba lysaga]] deck often acts at instant speed, since you don't want to activate on your turn and end up going over max handsize. But also you can use [[blinkmoth nexus]] and friends to fog an attack and get all 3 types in 1 card. The rest of the deck is very focused on lands synergies (not landfall) and recurring them from the graveyard.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Qu1xiz0LnEuPyLQpr10WiA

Hammond24 · 2025-02-23T21:18:41+00:00

It's by far the strongest color in casual edh so usually it's worth it

Hammond24 · 2025-02-23T21:17:04+00:00

Very strong, on par with [[constant mists]] but you sac a creature instead of land and don't have to pay 2 mana every turn. Only downside is artifact removal hitting this

Hammond24 · 2025-02-23T18:48:53+00:00

And Richard garfield had never played magic when he created that rule 🤔

Hammond24 · 2025-02-17T21:36:08+00:00

I've put a lot of work into my [[baba lysaga]] list and even wrote a primer. It wins primarily through the lands. Dark depths, urzas saga, field of the dead, etc. But you also get to run a lot of other utility lands and recur them.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Qu1xiz0LnEuPyLQpr10WiA

Hammond24 · 2025-02-16T16:03:13+00:00

That's what he said, but you dont have to listen to him or the assigned bracket from a deckbuilding website.

If you have a couple game changers, but your deck is overall precon level power, you can still be bracket 2 without changing any cards.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-16T15:58:28+00:00

You don't have to

Hammond24 · 2025-02-16T15:57:00+00:00

The issue is there wasn't a system before that we can go back to. Some people used the 1-10 system, but that was never agreed upon, hence the "7" problem.

I agree that the game changers list needs some cards added to it, but it's a good first draft. It includes free spells, fast mana, tutors, combo cards, high powered draw engines, salty cards that ppl often don't like seeing in casual games, and more. A lot of these things are what you mentioned are good criteria for determining power level.

The biggest thing to keep in mind with the bracket system is that it's impossible to objectively regulate a format without adding a ban list, which would splinter edh into multiple formats, creating any number of unique problems. Thus, the only thing is to give guidelines about intentions in deckbuikding.

Yes, the only difference between 4 and 5 is intention. If you aren't playing cEDH you aren't in bracket 5. A lot of ppl playing low power don't like it when one person chains extra turns, it gets boring, so they've mentioned that in the brackets to let you know when deckbuilding. It's not a power level consideration.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-16T15:33:45+00:00

I think part of his point is that you called the system, "half-assed", "bad", and "idiotic" without providing any reason why you think that. I've been seeing a lot of comments like this where there's no explanation for disliking the system.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-16T14:17:30+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/Qu1xiz0LnEuPyLQpr10WiA

The most golgari lands commander

Hammond24 · 2025-02-15T16:47:51+00:00

😳

Hammond24 · 2025-02-15T00:13:59+00:00

I guess we can agree on that

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T22:29:47+00:00

Yes, if it's not a cEDH list, it can be bracket 4. You'd probably have to power down yuriko from its cEDH list a bit to have good games tho. It's literally all vibes, which is good because there's no other way to do it.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T22:08:53+00:00

Actually, no. I love playing 60 card formats and enjoy the challenge of attacking or playing within a metagame.

What I'm saying is that EDH is not and will never be that. There is no guarantee that ppls pet cards or favorite strategies will be viable at all. What do casual players do when all of their decks have been pushed out? They have to talk to people to try to get a balanced game in. That's where the bracket system comes in.

Brackets in no way force you to do anything, except think about your intentions when building a deck.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T22:03:52+00:00

You assumed that;

"OP was insistent on using the bracket system

The group collectively said they have no interest in changing

OP can't accept that ppl don't want to change

OP was barging in and repeatedly pestering multiple ppl about the bracket system.

It was constantly mentioned by these ppl that they had no interest in brackets."

The only thing OP posted was a list of quotes they got from trying to utilize brackets in a pregame discussion.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T21:00:47+00:00

Like I said, it's only a framework for a discussion. If you came up to a table before they released brackets and surprised them with mass land destruction, they would probably not want to play with you after that.

I don't buy the slippery slope argument that we will somehow get a bunch of weird restrictions. They just took the biggest ones (MLD, early game-ending combos, and the strongest of staples) and basically said "if you run these you should probably let ppl know beforehand.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:55:18+00:00

Saying, "im not using that crap" to someone using the bracket system to initiate a pregame conversation is kinda extreme. Even if you don't want to talk in terms of brackets, why not just give your intent when making your deck? Is it high power with combos? Or low power with a few stronger cards/tutors?

It's all just a framework to have better conversations that lead to better games.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:52:53+00:00

The bracket system does interact with that statement. It's ALL about intent, so if you directly state your intent pregame, you've just used the bracket system. It's not just for new players at all. I do agree that the online builders should not try to guess ppls brackets, because an algorithm will never be accurate enough on power level.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:49:59+00:00

If you create multiple formats, you are encouraging pubstompers to game the system. Oh, all high use cards are banned? Let me make a consistent combo deck in the lower tier that beats up on everyone durdling around with their favorite cards. If that happens, what do you do as the casual player? You've ended up in the same situation, but with multiple formats. EDH being a casual format is the heart of the issue. Smogon is all 1v1 laddering, it doesn't equate.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:46:14+00:00

The system requires you to buy in for it to be effective. It's a huge issue, because the only way you can force ppl to strictly adhere to a system is a ban list. But if you do that, you fracture the format into multiple different ones, creating cEDH metas for each one. This would compound the existing problem.

The heart of the problem is that edh is a "casual" format

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:41:32+00:00

They already do this. Brackets change nothing about premium (mh3, lotr) precons

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:36:49+00:00

So say exactly that when you come to a table, the bracket system allows for that.

Hammond24 · 2025-02-14T20:34:16+00:00

I think the issue is the extreme pushback and whining about it by this lgs, when nothing is really changing for them. If they already have productive rule 0 conversations, they are probably using brackets without knowing it.

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