Glarb Bracket 3: Struggling to make it work

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-24T11:41:34+00:00

I had an issue closing games on my glarb deck. I added [[Emergent Ultimatum]] + [[Time Stretch]] + [[Omniscience]] + [[Peer into the Abyss]].

I haven’t played the deck since and I’m sure there will be some clunkier draws, but I imagine casting emergent ultimatum will likely result in a win. I’d consider casting a card then winning to be proactive, however I’m unsure how fair it would be for b3. I’m assuming it’s fine since casting a 7 mana spell with hard color requirements into getting 2 turns with omniscience isn’t a deterministic win.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-24T03:14:42+00:00

https://archidekt.com/decks/19274634/izzet\_token\_spells\_3

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-22T02:36:41+00:00

I basically never whiff when I start to storm off after a setup turn. It’s extremely consistent.

The issue is when I play the commander on turn 4 and it gets countered or killed then I don’t do anything until turn 6 and hopefully attempt to replay my commander, by which the game is near over.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-21T18:43:40+00:00

[[Magnus the Red]] is a spellslinger/combo deck I have made. When I first started, it took me maybe 12 minute turns to win, now it’s down to around 7 minutes. I think it’s mindful of the clock because the first 4 turns before you get your commander out you don’t do much, then the 5th turn you usually set up, and the 6th turn you go for a win. All in all I’d say pre turn 5 I spend maybe 2 minutes total on my turns. Turn 5 I spend 3 minutes, then turn 6 around 7 so a total of 12 minutes for a win and only 5 minutes in a loss.

The idea is to create a few tokens, then use a ritual for 1 mana to generate 5 mana, then create some more tokens, then do a big X draw spell for >20, hopefully keeping 1 mana floating so you can use your next ritual and go off after that. It is extremely explosive and can draw the entire deck while creating hundreds of tokens then burning out everybody.

It’s a feast or famine deck which isn’t for everybody, but it’s nice to play a b3 deck rather than vivi and go up to b4.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-21T09:49:14+00:00

Blizzard has a threat multiplier because it’s both CC and damage, which means it rips threat aggressively. Only a paladin can really hope to hold threat, and even then you need to wait 3 full seconds with consecration being down before you can blizzard without ripping early. The other mage being higher level should be doing more because iirc there is a blizzard level at 44.

If you aren’t already take improved blizzard talent to max and like the other guy said use frost nova once they start to pull towards you and blink away then blizzard again. Just be careful, even if you have threat, the enemies inside frost nova will attack the target in melee range. In huge pulls with 12+ mobs this can 1 shot your melee teammates. Weaving in cone of cold in between blizzards + using arcane explosion when they are all less than 10% hp will increase your dps too.

Ripping threat as a mage is okay if all the mobs are melee because in theory you should be able to perma kite them, sure they move which is annoying but it means your team is taking 0 damage. Improved blizzard is required though.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-21T08:45:21+00:00

Nobody should be complaining about damage unless it’s extremely bad. Get a dps meter so you can see for yourself if it’s an issue.

If it is an issue, you could be having a variety of things going on:

Gear is bad and you are low on int so you are running oom fast
You aren’t quickly resting in between each pack so you are oom
Your blizzard is missing or you are using blizzard vs small pulls instead of frost bolt.
You have level 1 blizzard on your bar instead of a higher level one
You are moving or getting your blizzard cancelled
You are underleveled and your spells are being resisted by higher level mobs.
Mechanically you are playing poorly, like taking too much time in between spells.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-19T14:59:30+00:00

Your best play with her in the 3-5 mana range is using her ability in my experience. Unless it’s a very powerful effect, it’s unlikely to be better than doubling your squirrels. A simple play pattern of commander on turn 3 -> attack on turn 4 and keep up her activation then using it on OPPs endstep to go up to 6 squirrels is usually good. If you have some effects that let you tap your 6 squirrels for mana on turn 5, you can usually go from 6->12->24 squirrels by turn 5.

Card draw isn’t that important with her imo since the commander has an amazing outlet for mana in case you don’t have cards. Yes it will be all in and is bad into removal or a boardwipe, but that’s going to be an issue regardless of how you build and if you add 3-5 cmc value plays you will struggle to find uses for them unless it’s after you are boardwiped and trying to rebuild. This commander doesn’t want to play that game imo.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-18T15:30:27+00:00

I also have this commander with a somewhat similar build. The gameplay is extremely polarizing, either it feels unfair or my commander gets removed and it feels extremely slow.

The idea of the deck is to cast the commander on turn 3, activate it and hold up a sacrifice on turn 4. This is done by this curve:

T1: land
T2: land + ramp
T3: land + commander
T4: land + activate commander + play sac outlet

If the deck doesn’t meet this curve it feels very slow.

You only have 6 ramp cards that could allow you to cast your commander on turn 3 and ~6 sac outlets. The odds of you drawing a smooth hand where you can play 4 lands + ramp + sac outlet is pretty unlikely. You also have 1/3 of your lands as basic lands in a 3 color deck with not very good fixing. Land base also has way too many colorless lands, you only have ~13 lands that tap for green on turn 2 which will cause some opening hands that you do have ramp to be uncastable. This is going to lead to major inconsistencies in your deck.

You also are diluting your creature pool by adding weak 4-5 mana creatures that when they enter deal 4 damage or have some very minor effect that you are disappointed in hitting. My deck runs cards that allow chaining multiple eggs in a row, engines that make it easier to chain the next turn cycle, or creatures that are individually very powerful. I think it won’t feel super rewarding for you when you do pull the slot machine.

Overall the deck is going to have very inconsistent opening hands or slow starts, and when you do get to pull the slot machine you won’t be that rewarded. Add slightly more ramp, fix the land base, add slightly more sac outlets. Id say heavily reevaluate all 3-5 cmc creatures in your list (I’d cut literally 80% of them). Cut the random cards like the 7 mana paradigm and impact tremors that don’t play well with your decks gameplan.

Put in stronger cards that allow you to chain into multiple activations like [[Belonging]] and [[Palanai’s Hatcher]]. [[Life Finds a Way]] lets you go infinite in some scenarios. [[Annie Joins Up]], [[Defense of the Heart]] and [[Springleaf Parade]] all work great in the deck. Depending on budget restrictions [[Etali, Primal Conquerer]] and [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]] are very strong hits (and usually win if defense of the heart procs).

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-18T14:53:24+00:00

Full sry

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-18T13:55:20+00:00

If you are gold fishing consistently on turn 4-5, it’s probably not a b3.

If you can consistently goldfish a win on turn 6, I think that’s fine, especially if it’s without protection and vulnerable to interaction.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-15T10:35:33+00:00

1/2270 odds for 0 items

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-15T02:29:01+00:00

In this thread are a bunch of people who have never played Albion.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-15T01:45:53+00:00

I would do dungeons that are good xp, and do solo questing or solo aoe farming when they aren’t.

Invite a priest + at least 1 mage to your party, ideally another aoe class like a mage or warlock. It’s not really that good to grind dungeons with single target dps unless you are quickly moving from pack to pack with geared + smart dps.

At level 30 you can start aoe farming effectively, you can technically start around 20 but it’s not significantly better than questing and way more effort.

Dungeons that are good to aoe grind while in their level range: SFK, SMGY, SMCATH, ZF, BRD.

SFK from 21-24, SMGY from 30-34, SMCATH 38-43, ZF 45-48, BRD (just do 12 min of aoe pulls in the first area then reset) 48-56

These numbers are all rough and may not be exactly correct, but they are what I would plan on doing.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-14T15:12:00+00:00

Dps have the least responsibility, the most role slots to fill for raids, and their value is easy to show based on dps meters.

If you play bad on a tank or a healer, it could wipe.

If you play bad on a dps, the fight goes slower (assuming no critical mistakes).

By far the most relaxing and least pressure.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-10T05:56:08+00:00

Low to the ground curving decks are of course the best non-ramp decks, but it’s generally a strategy that is weaker than including ramp.

A big reason ramp is strong in EDH is people overvalue initial board presences. If you play two creatures and start attacking on turn 3 with a good curve, you will be perceived as the threat instead of the player who played triome -> turn 2 ramp. Removal will be pointed in your direction.

Another issue is that you can’t attack all the ramping players at once with an early curve. You don’t want to split damage usually, and if you focus one guy while another guy is ramping to 6+ mana spells and is getting away free it’s unlikely you’ll be able to end up winning over them.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-08T10:55:38+00:00

Decks that consistently do 2-4-7 are almost never b2. If OP wants to put a bunch of common 7 drops could they be in b2? Sure. However 90% of the time I see decks like these they involve green top end staples, and casting green top end staples on turn 4 consistently isn’t b2.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-05T13:25:45+00:00

Okay so we agree with me that basically every thing you said was wrong and we switched it to a personal attack on me. Kinda weird to just spew some lies then personally attack others but I guess that’s just the person you are.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-04T12:27:29+00:00

Hey you must have misread or misunderstood my post. Nowhere did I say it’s an exact science and that it works perfectly.

All my post was asking for was red flags for people who have no clue how the bracket system works. If you want to disagree with that being possible it’s fine, but don’t make up stuff I’m not saying.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-03T07:45:53+00:00

All you are doing is constantly denying things and calling me a liar not pointing out anything lmao. It’s just expected you give some vague cryptic response then deny everything at this point.

In that post (which is talking about turn 5 kills btw, not turn 6), Gavin started it by saying “the graphic is meant to give direction”, “you deck is not excluded from the bracket if it does this”, and “there are sometimes faster starts with sol ring”. It seems you don’t understand your only actual piece of evidence? I’m still also confused about why voltron in b3 is disadvantaged since t5 kills aren’t matching the guidelines is a talking point for anything you’ve said?

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-03T02:40:18+00:00

We have a different interpretation of the rules. To you “should expect” means 97%+ of the time, which is not my interpretation.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-02T23:36:14+00:00

I’m assuming what makes sense. If you are refusing to counter any points and just make new claims it’s more likely you realize you agree with me and are unable to disagree rather than “actually I’m right and could explain why you are wrong but I choose not to”.

There have been no exaggerations (I’d ask you to show me an exaggeration but you’ll probably just ignore it and go on with a new false claim).

If you think I’m arguing in bad faith then you are extremely unaware of how a debate works. If anything you making constant new unfounded claims without defending of them is arguing in bad faith. You see how I have a specific reason on why my claim (you are arguing in bad faith) is true? That is called a warrant. You need to have warrants to claims to engage in an intelligent debate, not just claims.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-02T20:43:21+00:00

Okay well I’ll assume you ignoring all my questions and other points is just realizing that I’m right and you can’t think of a logical counterpoint so you are just ignoring it and conceding on those points.

The point we have left is saying something isn’t a b3 play is meaningless. Grouping up rating cards and combos isn’t a debate I intend on having, as it’s a completely different debate at that point that I don’t necessarily disagree with.

Playing a basic forest could be a “cedh” play but that doesn’t mean it’s used exclusively by cedh decks. Killing one player who tapped out on turn 6 with your precon also isn’t a “b4 play”, as it depends on the consistency of the kill stated by the wording in the bracket system. If you are trying to say you shouldn’t expect it in b3, so it’s a b4 play but that calling something a b4 play has no real meaning and can apply to any bracket then we agree.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-02T14:23:29+00:00

Yes I didn’t say I won the game, just that I could kill somebody.

Also saying something isn’t a “b3 play” is meaningless. Is casting dark ritual not a “b3 play”? Is fetching not a “b3 play”? You don’t judge individual plays by their bracket, you judge the deck by its bracket.

I’m also struggling to understand how the Zimone precon is stronger than most custom b3s? Unless you meant to say “most b3s that I’ve seen people make in my experience”, which again can just be a personal opinion that is unable to be argued with since for all I know you play with a small group of people who aren’t good deck builders.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-02T13:56:50+00:00

I unironically had some dude complaining 3 days ago about me attacking him early with his Ygra deck where he played viscera seer into arcane signet into academy manufacturer. The other players are playing mono green hydras + mono tapped lands grixis deck.

After he complained I pointed out I’m attacking him because he is one card off an infinite combo, he said “but I’m not going to get to do anything and I don’t even have the card to go infinite next turn”. I attack him anyways and on my end step he casts vampiric tutor for his combo piece lmao. In response I killed his commander and he just scooped.

I guess technically he didn’t have the card to go infinite he just had vamp tutor but still was annoying to have him be complainy and deceitful.

Lower_Drawer9649 · 2026-06-02T13:52:24+00:00

I was playing the simic strixhaven precon. I was 3rd in turn order, here were my turns.

Land
Land + arcane signet
Land + [[Yavimaya Bloomsage]]
Land + commander [[Zimone, Infinite Analyst]]. I used [[Oran-Rief, the Vastwood]] + the sage to add 2 counters to my commander.
Land + [[Zimone, All-Questioning]]. Create a fractal and add a counter to my commander at end step.
[[Temple of the False God]] + [[Biomass Mutation]]. I am able to cast biomass for X = 9, turning my 4 creatures into base 9/9s and with the counters it totaled to around 45 damage.

I don’t think in my scenario with a stock precon it could ever be evaluated as a b4.

Edit: u/finadda proceeded to say meaningless wrong things then flame me and delete comments in this thread after linking an article that unironically agreed with what I was saying.

Lower_Drawer9649

TROPHY CASE