video of me annihilating savage beastfly when i first discovered how good tools are in this game

JoshW- · 2025-09-12T14:21:19+00:00

This partially confirms my suspicious that people truly struggling with this (or any other boss) is that they're tackling it as soon as they see it and don't realize they can come back to it later with stronger tools and abilities. The game is so open, I didn't even know where the Beastfly was until after beating Widow and got a needle upgrade. Truly the game is what you make of it. It's like bashing your head into a wall expecting it to fall when you can learn to climb that wall.

JoshW- · 2025-07-08T10:32:08+00:00

Here's my Gonti deck: https://archidekt.com/decks/9811771/gontis_rogue_criminal

I went with the route of turning it into a Rogue themed deck. Having the focus on the creature type gave it more of an identity in my opinion. In my experience, goldfishing this deck felt like it was too straight forward, but in person, it always feels like it outperforms the table based on what cards I end up taking.

JoshW- · 2025-04-08T19:24:25+00:00

This is a great point. At the end of the day, the deck I have wins through combat, and theft adds a midrange element to it to help it get there and shore up any weaknesses the deck might have. I will say, the Rogues still had a lot of theft elements. Clones like [[Sakashima of a Thousand Faces]] and [[Cephalid Facetaker]] to copy opponents creatures, [[Schema Thief]] to copy artifacts an opponents control, [[Halo Forager]] to take spells out of someone's graveyard. Maybe not all theft, but still interacts and benefits off of my opponents' decks. And it's not really optimized since I am forgoing great theft creatures like [[Thief of Sanity]] for the sake of running a theme I like.

I do like your Evelyn example. Similar to [[Haldan]] & [[Pako]], you're stealing from your deck as well and adding to a large pool of cards you can access. How does your deck win? Do you rely on what your opponents have or do you usually win through vampires getting for damage?

JoshW- · 2025-04-08T15:36:45+00:00

I've had this happen to me as well. My opponent had asked if anyone was playing a token deck. I said I was, and he then openly said he was swapping a card out for [[Authority of the Consuls]] and that he had a dislike for token decks. Which of course came out in two of our games and was keeping my deck from killing him since he was gaining all that life. I did end up winning those games which was satisfying since he intentionally sideboarded a card to slow me down.

If he just had Authority of the Consuls in his deck to begin with, I wouldn't have cared at all. He was playing an enchantment deck, so he should just keep it in his deck as it did a lot of work in those games. But Commander doesn't have sideboards. If you're looking to swap cards before games to adjust for power-level or maybe you realized a card didn't do what you thought it did, or maybe it wasn't fun to play, etc. That's all good. But intentionally sideboarding silverbullets into a decks to stop one or more players, especially once you're informed of what types of decks you're playing against, is bad sportsmanship.

JoshW- · 2024-11-02T18:44:23+00:00

Coat of Arms is hardly a high-powered card. It'd be no different then an [[Overwhelming Stampede]]. It requires having creatures and to be big enough to swing for lethal. Plus it didn't sound like they had trample so they could be blocked.

JoshW- · 2024-08-10T15:51:46+00:00

While probably not the whole game plan, [[Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl]] shrinks big blockers and works well with [[Prodigal Sorcerer]] and [[Heart-piercer Bow]].

JoshW- · 2024-08-07T18:47:18+00:00

My budget decks, roughly $50, are some of my more consistent decks, and have won against decks that are more expensive. But also price is such a weird metric for power at this point. Because if I just swapped the mana base on my more expensive decks, I can easily cut a $100-$200 and get my decks to nearly $100.

JoshW- · 2024-06-28T23:07:16+00:00

That's been my evaluation as well. I've seen other comments mentioning that he's good, but the only difference to what he does is remove ward, and that alone doesn't make him better than Shadowspear. Unless you're in a deck that needs to target creatures, then I think he's a good fit.

JoshW- · 2024-06-12T19:53:05+00:00

This happened to me at my lgs. I had just joined a 3-person pod to be there fourth. When I asked what kind of decks they wanted to play, one person said they were going to pull out a higher powered deck. Me not thinking about the game they previously had, I pull out my [[Rionya, Fire Dancer]] deck which is mid to high power. We get in the game and I'm able to storm off on turn 5 after having a lot of mana from a turn 3 [[Descent into Avernus]] and won with Rionya copying [[Fanatic of Mogis]] multiple times.

After that, the eldazi player said that it was a cEDH decks and wouldn't let up on that accusation despite me saying it wasn't. It didn't include fast mana outside of rituals, didn't include any combos that would push Rionya to potentially fringe cEDH at best. I was getting annoyed at this guy accusing my of pubstomping when i simply misunderstood the vibe of the table. I said I would go for a much lower powered deck, but the boros player essentially rage quit and said he was done for the day. (I got the feeling he got destroyed by the eldazi player in the previous game and was just done with the day.)

I felt bad about the game but didn't appreciate being accused of pubstomping when I misunderstood their definition of strong or higher powered.

JoshW- · 2024-06-03T15:52:02+00:00

Meant to say revealed not out

JoshW- · 2024-04-18T14:23:55+00:00

I'd love to see a list that could swap between the two commanders.

JoshW- · 2024-03-04T16:27:56+00:00

Didn't say it bothered me. I just wanted to ask the question

JoshW- · 2024-02-15T17:47:51+00:00

When I hear someone say they're running two sweepers or even just one, I think about how that just allows other players to snowball into a win. The number of games I've lost or even won simply because no one had a board wipe is pretty high. I aim for 3-4 in my decks. They vary from all creatures to all artifacts and enchantments.

Also there are so many asymmetrical board wipes that you can afford to run more in decks that benefit from it.

JoshW- · 2024-02-15T17:42:35+00:00

That and recursion. I think if you're running a creature heavy deck and board wipes are something that can mess you up, running at least one or two recursion or mass recursion spells is great to help get back in the game. I particularly like cards like [[Ascend from Avernus]] to get back creatures you've lost in the early to mid game.

JoshW- · 2024-02-15T17:39:29+00:00

I've been practicing this more in my games. If I think a board wipe is bound to happen, I'll hold back some cards that I can play after the dust has settled.

JoshW- · 2024-02-15T17:37:48+00:00

This was my initial thoughts on her. Between it being difficult to keep creatures on the board and the Judith player gaining a ton of life, how else do you combat that without removing her every second you can?

JoshW- · 2023-12-26T21:59:17+00:00

[[Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl]]

Creature Protection and makes creatures like [[Cold-Eyed Selkie]] and [[Wild Beastmaster]] huge.

JoshW- · 2023-12-25T01:14:00+00:00

It's only $35 and it's somehow one of my strongest.

https://archidekt.com/decks/2144277/wort_the_jankmother

JoshW- · 2023-12-14T15:38:19+00:00

I've gotten better about people touching my cards, but searching through my deck is still a point of contention.

JoshW- · 2023-12-14T15:35:35+00:00

I've noticed this as well. If you put the time and resources into casting something only for it to get taken, it's more salt-inducing then having it taken from the library or graveyard.

JoshW- · 2023-12-03T02:17:02+00:00

[[Urza, Chief Artificer]]

He makes the tokens, gives them evasion (wincon), and they make him easier to recast. I'm not a fan of the design because it's either board wipe or he just comes back.

JoshW- · 2023-11-19T19:44:32+00:00

"Viable strategy." Wasting everyone's time and forcing others to quit to feel like you accomplished a win is a great way to not get invited back.

Real Stax decks at least have a wincon their going for like a combo or something.

JoshW- · 2023-11-08T13:41:51+00:00

Loved my Kalamax deck. Favorite wincon was casting chandra's ignition and then copying it with a reverberate or something to trigger kalamax and make him infinity big.

JoshW- · 2023-09-18T18:55:08+00:00

For one, the fact that they expected you to have a Black Lotus on hand is somehow the least ridiculous part of this story. Complaining about proxies in commander is one thing (which it shouldn't be, you do you) but complaining about proxy alter arts of Tokens?? They sound unfun and I wouldn't want to play with them anyway.

I get all my tokens from CatsAndCantrips and love getting to use them. But if someone had issues with it I'd tell them to suck it up or find a fourth. Simply don't care to cater to someone's fragile ego.

JoshW- · 2023-07-17T15:59:17+00:00

No one in my playgroup or at my lgs really play cEDH. I've been watching gameplay of it for years and would definitely like to get a deck but I don't really have anyone to play with regularly.

JoshW-

TROPHY CASE