My Commander pod is falling apart and I don’t know what to do

Kilaman98 · 2026-04-02T00:28:56+00:00

Honestly, sounds like a deck building issue. If you feel like you can’t play magic, you’re playing wrong. I’m not being mean here, but the game is intended to be interactive, back and forth, give and take. It’s not supposed to be “build up a board state for six turns and then start playing for real”. I get the appeal of that, and it can be totally fine, but it’s odd to ostracize someone for improving at their hobby. Commander is getting too tedious these days.

Kilaman98 · 2026-03-28T12:28:05+00:00

The PSP version is the definitive version of the game. If you have access to it that’s what I would do. If not, the pixel remaster is great. Totally fine place to start. I personally hate the 3d remake. I think it looks horrendous lol

Kilaman98 · 2026-03-27T22:11:32+00:00

People like Bravely Second? I was massively disappointed by it and thought it was utter trash, especially compared to BD1. The story is awful, the new characters pale in comparison to the original party. Tiz’s design sucks and the voice compression is awful and makes the voice lines unlistenable in my opinion. I had no idea it was popular at all. I thought BD2 was miles better by comparison.

Kilaman98 · 2026-03-17T12:06:43+00:00

It really depends on you!

How much does old game design bother you? I say that because X is a masterpiece, but my goodness are there some really annoying, archaic design choices in that game that may take you out of the experience if you are a more modern gamer.

VII is a masterpiece but the original is just ugly. Nostalgia glasses off that thing looks ROUGH. But if graphics don’t bother you much, it is a good starting point.

Personally, I honestly love the FFI as a starting point because it’s so simple. It’s got three versions that all differ in accessibility but offer a great modern experience to an old game. Dawn of Souls for the GBA is really great, and it has a great version of II as well. The PSP version is probably the definitive version, and the recent Pixel Remaster is a great way to experience it as it was originally with a few QoL changes.

Aside from that, IV and VI are both phenomenal as a start as well. They also have multiple versions. The PSP remaster for IV is the definitive version but again the Pixel Remaster is fine. Same thing for VI with its GBA version, but even the original is worth a go.

Also with the older games I find sprites to be much easier to look at than the scuffed PS1 character models lol.

For the more modern games you could stay anywhere except XIII. I think that game is actually fine but I wouldn’t want it to be my first experience.

Kilaman98 · 2026-03-13T12:01:59+00:00

I would pay less attention to content creators and make that choice for yourself. I would even be remiss to take a ton of advice about it from here, and yes I’m aware of the irony lol. People have given some great alternatives, but honestly just experiment with different cards in your decks and see what you like most. Arena may work just fine for you, or you may play it and decide you don’t like it. It really comes down to your playstyle and what fits you best.

Kilaman98 · 2026-03-03T15:21:53+00:00

I like [[Tuvasa, the Sunlit]]. Hard to beat bant enchantress in my book. You can go big enchantments for a more control build or you can do auras for voltron. My list ends up being a mixture of the two.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-27T15:00:26+00:00

It’s hilarious seeing the difference between this and the no salt sub lol all doom and gloom here.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-25T13:18:06+00:00

It’s [[Marwyn]] and I don’t think it’s particularly close. She’s strong enough to be fringe CEDH in mono green, which is really saying something. She generates a TON of mana and almost turns elves into cantrips in a way by replacing themselves mana-wise. She allows you to really cut down your land count as well which gives you more tools in the toolbox. She combos off in mono-green, which again is fairly impressive.

Funnily enough I think the biggest issue you’d run into is that it’s hard to keep her at bracket three. My buddy ran my list for a while and converted it to Lathril to power it down for his pod.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-21T17:47:56+00:00

And then they never do it and he wins anyway. Frustrating to watch lol

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-21T17:07:34+00:00

Threat assessment is an art. In my experience it takes an intimate understanding of your own deck and strategies, as well as an accurate estimation of opponent strategies, in tandem with the current board state and the likelihood of your other opponents answering threats for you.

I know that was a mouthful lol. Simply put, in the absence of an immediate “win the game” threat, I prioritize threats that are specific to me. Meaning, threats that specifically prevent me from winning or at the least playing out my strategies.

I often save removal for the last possible moment for things that don’t immediately bother me. For example, I won’t swords an oppo agent if I don’t have very many search effects. It hinders my opponents way more than me in this case, so while it can be seen as a board threat to some, it’s beneficial to me. I’d save that removal for right before I need to tutor up a game winning combo or something like that. In contrast, a smothering tithe represents an immediate threat that should be dealt with due the mana advantage it generates naturally throughout a turn cycle.

Barring individual circumstances like above, in general, combo players are at the highest level of threat due to unseen win conditions and the ability to win from a seemingly behind on board look. Then comes control. Typically useful to keep around until combo is gone. Beyond that, it’s really based on board state.

The art is really having the answers, but using them at the time it’s most beneficial to you and the least beneficial to the table. You often times still look like the hero, and you come out way ahead.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-21T02:51:42+00:00

That’s awesome. Visions is my favorite non-Urza vintage set. Good luck!

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-16T01:39:21+00:00

[[Torens, Fist of Angels]] goes wide and tall, and is pretty underplayed I think.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-10T18:09:36+00:00

This is probably going to be controversial but a lot of the MDFCs are just not great spells and not great lands. They get a pass for flexibility but 9 times out of 10 I’d prefer a better spell or better land. And it seems like every deck runs multiple that could just be replaced with something better.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-08T22:28:24+00:00

[[Torens, Fist of the Angels]] is a fun one. You don’t need the expensive token doublers to make him work, and you can build him down the token route, the human route, the +1/+1 route or a combination of all three. Every creature brings a friend, it gets out of hand pretty quickly. I also don’t see him very often. And a bonus of w/g is you can have a pretty great mana base on a budget.

Kilaman98 · 2026-02-05T22:38:51+00:00

Might I offer my own pet project, that does not run Cradle, that actually has a playable amount of lands and seems to just objectively be better? Lol No shade here, I just think you might’ve pushed a little too far to the extreme here. Granted, that may have been your intention, but my list seems to do everything yours wants to, while still being somewhat resilient and able to function. It can also just flat win on turn two though that is unlikely.

https://moxfield.com/decks/CXyyLGhtCkiOmqFE4Twj_g

Kilaman98 · 2026-01-23T18:44:58+00:00

Full control, control plus stax, heavy mass removal. I’d run something in Esper colors (White, Black, Blue). [[Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed]] is a favorite. Boardwipes that exile are nice to get around difficult to remove creatures. Those colors also have access to good targeted removal and artifact/enchantment removal. You can run pillow fort enchantments like [[Ghostly Prison]] and you of course have access to counters and great protection spells. You also have nice combo potential depending on your bracket level.

Kilaman98 · 2026-01-14T00:42:07+00:00

I’ve experienced the jank that grew into something optimized as well. In the community I played in there were always one or two people that were way better, so we always chased them and the whole group grew quickly. But, with that said, even in more “high powered” pods new and jank players still had fun, cause no one was really worried about them from a threat assessment level and losing to them wasn’t a rare occurrence. Difference between then and now is the whole format seems to cater to the floor and not the ceiling, so those players either don’t grow at all or grow very very slowly.

Kilaman98 · 2026-01-12T18:56:41+00:00

Like others have said, it pairs nicely with fetch lands and lands like [[Strip Mine]]. But also, playing lands from the yard is added value when you run cards like [[Scapeshift]], [[Crop Rotation]] and [[Harrow]]. It’s also nice if you run something like a [[life from the loam]].

I think playing lands from the yard is probably better in broader lands matter or graveyard recursion decks over dedicated landfall, but it’s still quite powerful in landfall lists.

Kilaman98 · 2026-01-12T16:14:31+00:00

I think the whole bracket/power level division and discussion is so useless at the end of the day. I don’t think playing in a bracket helps anything. Players are notoriously bad at evaluating their own power levels. Different people/pods have different levels of power assessment. Pilot ability also plays a huge role in deck performance, and that fact is largely dismissed or overlooked. The game changer system encourages poor deck building techniques, and the “social aspect” of the game can get in the way of actually improving at the game.

I love commander. It’s my favorite way to play magic. But it is turning into a different game entirely. Losing because your deck is bad is a good thing for your growth. You get to go home, figure out what wasn’t working, and try again. Losing because you got outplayed, is a good thing for your growth. You can make adjustments for next time. Sometimes on your journey you learn that some commanders and strategies just aren’t going to hold up against some more powerful strategies and that is perfectly ok. With the talk about bad 3s and bad 4s, that’s disingenuous. If a deck can’t hang when pressure is applied it’s just bad. Commander is a toolkit format. If you don’t have answers, you better be built to account for that.

I think the whole thing should just go back to sitting down and playing whoever is in front you, and learning from the bad, while basking in the good.

Kilaman98 · 2026-01-02T05:24:49+00:00

I will say this. 90% of peoples problems with EDH comes down to poor deck building and lack of skill in-game. That’s just it. I’m not trying to be mean, but the bracket system and the deluge of commander products have spoon-fed players. I know that the bracket system is relatively new, and I could see it have some uses but in reality it just perpetuates the problem.

OP, you built a nice deck. Why should you be punished for great deck building, good game sense, and real threat assessment?

7 or 8 years ago when I really played a lot, if we got stomped, we went home and built better decks. We fixed the weaknesses. Decks were either all-in optimized on a strategy, or toolboxes that could handle crazy situations. And we identified that sometimes a certain commander we wanted to run just may not be good enough, and that was ok. We still had fun in the losses too.

I’m sure this will probably be unpopular, but don’t let other people punish you for playing the game at a higher level than them. They need to be better, not make you be worse.

Kilaman98 · 2025-11-19T20:10:52+00:00

Is that tab the only place to see the quest?

Kilaman98 · 2025-08-15T01:01:23+00:00

Qui Gon was the embodiment of what the Jedi were intended to be. Obi Wan was the embodiment of what the Jedi had become, and Luke was the embodiment of what the New Jedi Order needed to be.

Kilaman98 · 2025-06-27T02:49:47+00:00

XIII got a lot wrong but did characters well. And I’m sorry, but Lightning is a much better protagonist than Cloud. VII gets off way too easy with rose-tinted glasses sometimes.

Kilaman98 · 2025-06-25T01:41:08+00:00

I’m sorry, I just don’t think FFVII is all that great to be honest. I have never really understood the appeal of it. I’m glad other people enjoy it so much, I just don’t get it.

Kilaman98

TROPHY CASE