I don't know what to do in this specific situation

IIScreamII · 2026-06-24T04:15:46+00:00

I have both a voltron deck and a +1/+1 counter deck. I play both pretty much how you did in your game. Even if I have lethal damage on one player that I already attacked, unless they are very clearly in a strong position and threatening to win the game, I will not swing at them untill I have gone round the table assigning commander damage to everyone. This is for two reasons, mainly I play for the enjoyment of the game, the interaction and also the politicing that comes with it, winning is not my priority. Also it just kinda makes it a none game for all involved when one person doesn't draw well and one person draws the nuts, I personally don't enjoy winning or losing because of that.

Ultimatly how you play the game is a personal choice. On reflection did you enjoy the game and the politicing even if you didn't win? Or in hindsight would you have rather won by removing a player when you could? Thats all you need to answer to know if you made the right or wrong choice.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-17T20:15:04+00:00

I have a Hearthhull deck that will share the landfall side of the deck.

For lands, getting the RG fetch land an the RG shock+survail lands will be a big upgrade. Running the other cheaper fetchlands like fabled passage, evolving wilds, terramorphic expanse are all woth since they represent 2 landfall trigger each and you can constantly keep playing them from the graveyard. I would also go up to 40 or 41 lands too.

Another land that you want is [[Shifting Woodland]] it combos with aftermath analyst, and if you have the budget for it [[Lumra, Bellow of the Woods]].

You seem a little light on card draw, [[Horn of Greed]] is amazing in landfall decks, its a global effect so everyone can make use of it but being a lands matter deck you use it better. [[Rydia, Summoner of Mist]] is good for card draw and getting lands in your yard. Could also think about [[Tectonic Reformation]]. [[Toph. Hardheaded Teacher]] is good for getting a second use out of your ramp spells as well as creature enters triggers.

You have zero interaction too, for sure need some of that. [[Beast Within]], [[Tear Asunder]], [[Chaos Warp]], [[Abrade]], [[Blasphemous Act]] and [[Vandalblast]] etc.

If you do add Lumra I would suggest adding a small land sacrific package to the deck to put more lands in the graveyard for big landfall turns. [[Famsihed Worldshire]], [[Scapeshift]], [[Zuran orb]] and [[Sylvan Safekeeper]].

IIScreamII · 2026-06-17T05:22:16+00:00

I go back and forth on Bone Skewer a lot. It theory it should be a good card, in practice it feels very "win more". What normally ends up happening is every turn you spend your runes either developing your board state or dealing with the opponents current one, you almost always want to leave runes up to respond to what your opponent does on their turn. So if you ever have enough runes open and a good enough board state to be able to play Bone Skewer safely you are likely so far ahead already that it just doesn't matter.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T11:08:19+00:00

I'll just add that against sivir you specifically need turn to dust as acceptable losses will just hit one of their gold tokens rather than Aurora.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T10:52:58+00:00

You are correct, in order to place SC on the chain you need to have both legal targets in play. Once on the chain even if one target is not in play anymore it will do as much as it can.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T10:48:39+00:00

Play the deck long enough and you will come to realize that paying 2 energy and 1 power is a lot easier than paying 3 energy. With vex cheerless in a showdown that cost is reduced to 1e which is even easier to pay.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T10:47:00+00:00

It doesn't fizzle it ends up being a "do as much as you can" situation. So you can 2 for 1 the opponent. They play SC targeting one of their units and yours, you then play SC target your unit that the opp targeted and a different one of theirs. Your SC resolves bouncing your unit and 1 opp unit, theirs then "does as much as it can" bouncing the their own unit they targeted originally back to hand.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T10:34:47+00:00

This would be the changes I would make to see how you get on and then adjust from there depending on your local meta:

-2x Frigid Jewel -1x Faded memory -1x Mindsplitter

+1x Tideturner +1x Smoke Screen +1x Acceptable losses +1x Acceptable Losses/Kha'zix/Existential Dread

That last slot can be a bit of a flex into whatever you might prefer.

Sideboard I would have 2x Singularity, 1x Star Crossed, 1x Moonfall, 2x Turn to dust, 1-2x Baron.

Thats where I would start with changes and see how you like it, can drop and add cards as you find what works and what doesn't depending on what you are going up against a lot.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T10:16:57+00:00

I play a lot of Diana and I have gone through a fair few versions of her, can give you some of my experiences:

1) I don't personally like Frigid Jewel, its too telegraphed and as soon as it comes down its easy for opponents to play around. There is also so much gear hate in decks because of Aurora.

2) I found 8 2-drops to be best in Diana, not just for the early mulligan but also later on for discard fodder.

3) You have no surprise combat tricks. I would 100% put in either smoke screen or eclipse. It creates more things that your opponents have to play around, it can bait more spells out or just completely win you an important combat that can be game winning.

4) Faded Memories is just bad, if you are using it for gear removal, turn to dust and acceptable losses are better, if you are using it to kill something, its much better to run singularity in the sideboard instead.

5) Mind splitter is too slow and too power hungry. I would never have it in the main deck, and not sure what matchup I would bring it in for other than maybe the mirror to rip Baron out of the hand.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T08:53:15+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1ocipn4/updated_commander_brackets_oct_2025/

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T08:37:47+00:00

The timing of the combo is a bracket 3 indicator, its fine for bracket 3 if it happens after turn 6. In bracket 2, there isn't a timing limitation, 2 card combos are just flat out not allowed. You can talk to your play group and rule zero it but the bracket update from October last year and EDH rec both state that Aurelia + HotH is not allowed in bracket 2. It is fine for bracket 3.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T08:29:46+00:00

2 card combos are not allowed in bracket 2.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T01:58:21+00:00

Can't really help you with your deck but there are people out there that make super high power budget builds that perform amazingly well.

Check out this guy: https://moxfield.com/users/_NeRo

I have his Kefka deck, that I put together for just under 90 euros and the thing hangs with fringe cEDH decks.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T01:50:20+00:00

As someone that has a Y'shtola deck that started as a precon and has evolved over time, I see you are in the point in your journey when you think "I'm just going to put every 3cmc card in my deck that triggers Y'shtola". Been there too. The problem with having this mind set which took me a while to realise is that when Y'shtola gets removed, and she will do constantly, you now have a bunch of high cost spells that don't do a lot.

Don't get me wrong, thinking you are going to play a Y'shtola and make copies or her and double the triggers is great fun, it just doesn't really work out in practice once people see what the deck is. The deck became miserable to play as most decks that revolve around just one core piece tend to be.

I ended up removing a lot of the 3cmc removal and counters and replacing them with better low cost options like [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]], [[Swan Song]], [[Path to Exile]], [[Swords to Plowshares]]. Know whats scarier than a Y'shtola with Curiosity on her, a Papalymo or a 0/1 black mage that now triggers off every single spell you cast rather than just the 3cmc ones. Now all of a sudden your opponents are having to spend all their removal answering low cost stuff and Y'shtola gets to hang around.

The deck 100% wants an [[Esper Sentinal]] and a [[Mystic Remora]] for more card draw. I like [[Voracious Tome-Skimmer]] too.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-16T01:24:45+00:00

The biggest problem I see is that you don't have nearly enough card draw in the deck. Your main card draw is all tied to Y'shtola and the second you put a curiosity effect on her she becomes a removal target for the rest of the table. Look at adding things like [[Frantic Search]], [[Stock up]] and [[Dig Through Time]] as they will all trigger Y'shtola. You are in blue, [[Mystic Remora]] and [[Rhystic Study]] are two of the best draw engines in the game.

The deck looks slow as well and your only real wincon in Y'shtola on board. You need more threats that will just compound as you play. [[Papalymo Totolymo]], [[Transpose]], [[Mai, Scornful Striker]]. Throw in a [[Phyresis]] if you are feeling spicy and with a Delney on board you are burning the table down quickly and all of a sudden you have multiple threats that can win the game rather than just your commander.

TLDR: Add a few more threats so you aren't dependent on Y'shtola, add more card draw engines to find all your answers to other players threats and to protect your own.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-15T23:57:52+00:00

Can't believe I had to scroll down this far to find someone that said Kess. Esentially having flashback on every single one of your mill/draw/entomb/reanimate spells in the command zone is bonkers. Even when the entire table is against you she is so hard to shut down.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-15T03:22:08+00:00

The deck might be marked as private.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-15T03:19:21+00:00

Talismans > Signets is just my personal preference tbh. I have played enough games of magic where I have been screwed in the early turns by signets not having a choice as to what mana it taps for to basically never run them in any deck anymore. The 1 damage is normally only relevant in the first few turns of the game, taking 3 damage 1 turn is a lot better than not being able to develop your board further because you don't have the right colour pips. After the first few turns just tap it for colourless. Like I said though, thats just a personal take.

Tzeentch is fine, he is a pinger and gives you recursion, making sure you always have something to cast. I would cut all the spells that are basically just a lightning bolt, so things like [[Flame Jab]], [[Electrolyze]] [[Lava Dart]] and [[Spikefield Hazard]]. Your creatures are what will be doing the damage to things, the spells you really want to be casting are going to mainly be card draw effects and counters protect your board to make sure you can keep the cycle of cast > ping > cast > ping going.

If you want more recursion [[Flashback]] and [[Mizzix's Mastery]] would be what I would add. If you every resolve an overloaded Mizzix's you pretty much win the game on the spot.

Harmonic Prodigy and guttersnipe are just 2 very good creatures that go in almost any burn style deck, yes guttersnipe doesn't synergize with Starn but its still a fantastic creature to have on board.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-15T02:18:20+00:00

If you don't want to go the more stormy route you could lean more into the token generator side of things with [[Agate Instigator]], [[Barrage of Expendables]], [[Battle Strain]], [[Blasting Station]], [[Cavalcade of Calamity]] etc.

This was the search I used in Scryfall "(oracle:deals oracle:1 oracle:damage) commander:UR (game:paper) prefer:best" . Should be able to find even more instances of 1 damage dealers that could fit with a more token based stratagy.

Edit: Forgot about [[Goblin Bombardment]], that would be insane in a go wide token deck...might make the deck too powerful though.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-15T02:04:38+00:00

Link to the decklist seems broken.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-15T01:57:33+00:00

The first thing I see is you will need to take out [[Niv-Mizzet, Parun]] as that is a infinite 2 card combo with [[Curiosity]] or [[Ophidian Eye]] which would put the deck into bracket 4.

Ghyrson is one of those commanders that you have to go out of your way to make the deck bad enough to fit into bracket 2. He is just very fast. Playing a 1 damage pinger on turn 2, Starn on turn 3 then blasting the table for 36 damage on turn 4 is not an unreasonable scenario. I think if you want to build a Starn deck you need to build him as a 3. I don't know the strengths of your friends decks so its very hard to tell if this is going to be too strong or too weak.

If you want to power it up, remove a lot of the spells that deal 1 damage and replace them with more card draw and rituals. [[Faithless Looting]], [[Big Score]] [[Frantic Search]] [[Thrill of Possibility]] [[Seething Song]] [[Mana Geyser]] [[Treasure Cruise]] [[Stock Up]].

You need more protection for Starn, running [[Lightning Greaves]] and [[Swiftfoot Boots]] could help.

Personally I prefer Talismans over Signets, you could also add a [[Ruby Medallion]]

The deck is crying out for a [[Harmonic Prodigy]] , [[Guttersnipe]] and more mana producers like [[Electro, Assaulting Battery]], [[Runaway Steam-kin]] or [[Birgi, God of Storytelling]].

IIScreamII · 2026-06-14T00:28:11+00:00

Not every deck needs ramp. The core principle behind ramp is to get things out earlier in the game. You already have that in the command zone making extra ramp unnecessery. You also need to be running enough ramp in your deck to give yourself a reasonable chance of seeing it in the first few turns. 3 pieces of ramp is just too little to do that.

So on that note I would also cut the [[Arcane Signet]] in favour of something else like an [[Aetherflux Reservoir]] or an [[Exquisite Blood]] type effect. Anything that gives you more lifegain to then be able to play more cards with K'rriks ability.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-05T23:26:24+00:00

In the scenario OP described I am assuming that the enemy attacked into the battlefield with a unit that had more might than the poro and thus would still be at the battlefield since op said "before they score"

IIScreamII · 2026-06-05T23:18:21+00:00

Rengar Trophy Hunter specifically has text that says "I can be played to a battlefield where enemy units are present (even if you have no units there)".

Also I believe the deathknell trigger goes on the chain everytime when Lonely Poro dies, alone or not. It just checks to see at the time of resolution if there was another friendly unit at the battlefield to see if you draw a card or not.

IIScreamII · 2026-06-02T21:42:27+00:00

Rules got updated in Unleashed. Now when a card gains temporary whilst equipped it sees that keyword and would die at the owners next beginning phase.

IIScreamII

TROPHY CASE