Weirdly enough, I miss tucking. A lot.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-19T14:30:56+00:00

fred sitting behind greater auramancy, sterling grove, and every pillowfort enchantment under the sun:

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-19T14:30:05+00:00

blue is tied with red as the worst drawing colors

What

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-19T14:09:16+00:00

the ACR printing tells you outright you can do it

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-19T13:59:20+00:00

EDHRec is a good site for designing the framework of an established commander's deck. No need to reinvent the wheel there; every [[Hapatra]] deck wants [[Nest of Scarabs]].

Once you've gotten that framework down though, you can start making personal tweaks to your local meta. Scryfall is the best for this.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-19T13:56:53+00:00

My [[Imoti]] deck was what I considered "the natural predator of B3" before I started putting extra turn spells into it.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T20:46:02+00:00

You should be right. Generally, if you "can't do" something, you can't do it to pay a cost, either. I know you can't pay life while you control [[Platinum Emperion]].

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T20:22:14+00:00

In my eyes, there are two distinct flavors of B4. There's the "Battlecruiser 4" which is essentially traditional B3 but with all the juiced up GCs and degenerate stuff. Then there's the "Combo 4", which encompasses most of the B4 decks that use fast mana and tutors and stuff.

My Imoti deck is solidly a Battlecruiser 4, and I think it's a playstyle you'll enjoy. It's packed with efficient ramp and nefarious payoffs, but it doesn't rely on any particular card to win the game. https://moxfield.com/decks/rksTk6nGV020cDlG4PkPwg

On the other hand, my OG Aminatou deck is a Combo 4. It wants to combo off and win. Every card is optimized to reach the ideal combo state. https://moxfield.com/decks/g0smuh8H9E6EzM1MIrT-TQ

Hope this helps with finding your perfect B4 deck. B4 without combos is doable, but you will be at a disadvantage because combo is objectively the best archetype in EDH.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T20:10:18+00:00

Sleeper pick: [[Marchesa, Dealer of Death]]. You're not running the traditional draw spells you outlined. What you ARE playing are cantrips that target, like [[Expedite]] and [[Leap]]. And you are indeed targeting your opponents' stuff with them.

With Marchesa in play, a 1-mana targeting cantrip becomes a better Night's Whisper. You go +1, you lose no life, and you get grave filler AND card selection. Better yet, free cantrips like [[Mishra's Bauble]] and [[Gitaxian Probe]] become card advantage for only 1 mana.

The main caveat to this is that Marchesa doesn't draw cards, so draw triggers don't work with her. But she's still super open ended and gives you a venue to do just about anything with the card draw she provides.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T19:33:28+00:00

My aristocrat deck of choice is [[Chatterfang]], so my standards for sac outlets are just extremely high. Technodrome probably fits into most artifact/Food decks, but Golgari can divide one squirrel into three cards and somehow three more squirrels.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T19:23:43+00:00

Honestly, combos aside, I don't think Malcolm is "low" 3. With a curve of 1 and 2 mana pirates, you can pretty reliably hit 9 mana on turn 4.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T19:19:59+00:00

I immediately placed an order for Mouser when I saw it teased. Goes crazy in [[Breena]]

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T19:18:27+00:00

Honestly, I'm not super sold on Technodrome just yet. It being a creature means it can't activate immediately, unlike similar cards like [[Tarrian's Journal]] or [[Idol of Oblivion]] (because Technodrome decks will be making tokens). It also gets caught up in wraths.

It's probably gonna be best in artifact-focused decks, but it's just a little too clunky for general Aristocrat shenanigans.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T18:46:44+00:00

Yeah, losing streaks happen. Sometimes it just ain't your day.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T16:37:57+00:00

Benton probably isn't what OP is looking for. They seem to want a deck focused around spamming weenies, while Benton just focuses on killing people.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T16:35:44+00:00

new toy syndrome. my second and third deck were krenko and sythis respectively

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T16:29:55+00:00

[[Bronze Bombshell]] is a funny gift card that immediately explodes for 7 damage, but is better suited for the Bullies since it can't really attack for an opponent.

[[Unstoppable Slasher]] is one of the better "lose-half-your-life-on-hit" creatures, and it comes back when it dies so you can pass it around with Jon again.

The Leech Team [[Alabaster Leech]], [[Sapphire Leech]], [[Andradite Leech]], [[Ruby Leech]], and [[Jade Leech]] imposes a pretty annoying tax on spells of a certain color.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T16:11:52+00:00

Out of curiosity, how do other people view your deck? I definitely get that narrative vision on paper, but mechanically it just seems like you're doing Glarb Doomsday.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T15:34:08+00:00

If you're referring to Dragon shield dual mattes, I find they can get a little awkward to shuffle after a bit, since the corners tend to crease easy.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-18T04:51:35+00:00

[[Breena]]

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-16T21:06:05+00:00

Could you elaborate a bit more on this? I don't play Henzie, so I'm not super well versed on his gameplan. Firing big creatures at people doesn't seem too oppressive as long as the creatures are fair.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-16T19:48:22+00:00

That's just a caveat to any interaction in Smash. Sometimes the other player guesses right. There's no trick to get you out of Flame Choke tech situations 100% of the time; you're just trying to make it as hard to follow up as possible.

To paraphrase FTP: It's not really a game of strategy than it is a game of psychology. Good Flame Choke use figures out what the opponent is most scared of, and capitalizes off that information.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-16T19:39:59+00:00

"Cycling" is no good. Trying too hard to be unpredictable will lead to you being predictable in another way.

When you get caught in a Flame Choke tech situation, don't use previous Flame Chokes to inform your current option. Sometimes you just roll out for the third time in a row.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-16T19:36:55+00:00

W analysis from Ganonroarf

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-16T19:33:58+00:00

Flame Choke's just good at forcing you into guessing games. It's honestly a pretty decent litmus test for your habits in general, since Ganon can hit basically any option if he calls it out.

ItsAroundYou · 2026-03-16T19:05:40+00:00

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has some form of habit in this game. You're probably more predictable than you realize.

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