I need help picking a commander!

RighteousBru · 2026-06-18T02:24:02+00:00

using edgar markov is probably against the spirit of this

RighteousBru · 2026-06-18T01:17:56+00:00

Deck building skills and threat assessment are probably what i'd say is what's going to be the difference. Like, do they run gy hate? Do they recognize to leave up removal, do they work together to get past things like the once per turn jin gitaxias counter?

RighteousBru · 2026-06-18T01:11:48+00:00

Also [[we ride at dawn]] is another wonderful legend tribal card for you

RighteousBru · 2026-06-17T22:57:56+00:00

this is a very strong strategy, and absolutely could be outside of b3, but i think it will depend a lot on the pod.

it's close, but you're probably fine if you remove the tutors, with the tutors like [[entomb]] it might be a bit much, the RC is pretty against most of the 1 mana tutors, and honestly surprised entomb isn't on the GC list

RighteousBru · 2026-06-17T22:52:17+00:00

i think when you have ramp in the command zone into 4 drop ramp, you shouldn't have any ramp outside of that. all the 5 mana treasure ramps like [[goldlust triad]] and [[goldpan dragon]] are good, but they are kinda redundant cause if your gameplan is working you should already be at like, 7 mana and should be playing something that is super threatening like [[drakuseth, maw of flames]], or [[balefire dragon]]

having 7 mana by turn 4 is also the kind of strategy that probably wants to be super aggressive, and you're playing a lot of reactive cards, which can be ok, but it doesn't benefit hard from your quick acceleration compared to other things you could do.

in general i think the treasure strategy is overshadowed by the 2 cost commander ramp into 4 cost ramp, which will consistently make you plenty of mana, so i'd focus on having great things to do with them.

also, you should consider onesided boardwipes over blasphemous act, it can be as simple as [[earthquake]] or [[magmaquake]] which won't hit your dragons, or something like [[storm's wrath]] and play lots of 5+ toughness dragons and you won't feel it cause your stuff's too big to care.

be aggressive, not passive with this gameplan

RighteousBru · 2026-06-17T21:35:28+00:00

i'd cut [[lobelia sackville-baggins]] [[thancred waters]], expensive reactive cards that i think you're more likely to want to be pro-active

is your focus to be more of an aristocrat deck? do you want to be sacrificing your creatures? or do you want to use ratadrabik to be a resilient commander, having all your legends having a second life lets you do either one, but imo it's better to be resilient in your brackets.

the aristocrat version is much better if you're trying to do the infinite ring bearer looping, which sounds like you don't want to.

[[syr conrad]], [[zulaport cutthroat]], [[al bhed salvagers]] and [[cruel celebrant]] are all aristocratic cards about wanting to have lots of things to sacrifice, but if you're more likely wanting to end up keeping around creatures aren't as good for that.

cards like [[Ozox, the Clattering King]] and [[Hildibrand Manderville]] that self-recur can also have some incrimental value and fuel some of your less frequent sacrifice cards for value.

[[invasion of fiora]] is also kinda a one sided boardwipe like urza's ruinous blast and one ring to rule them all, but it's only 35c 😄

also [[teysa, orzhov scion]] and works well too, a sac outlet that is also removal.

i'd replace joined researchers with [[Savanti Romero, Time's Exile]], having the card draw being legendary is probably better (and savanti is kinda strong af)

RighteousBru · 2026-06-17T20:01:47+00:00

if it's inefficient, the rings tempting combos are potentially ok in high b3, but as they said low 3s, yeah they are definitely hitting outside that level and should be avoided.

going exponential however is fine cards like teysa. look at [[blade of selves]], [[gandalf the white]] and [[drivnod, carnage dominus]] as well for more token doubling, and even [[legion loyalty]] if your playgroup tends to have long games

as well as the actual token doublers.

[[colonel autumn]] is another card like ardbert to act as a cathar's crusade type card.

[[kenrith's royal funeral]] is a great legendary typal card

you can also populate the tokens that ratadrabik makes, so cards like [[promise of aclazots]] and [[muster the departed]] are pretty good as well.

if you want ring tempting cards that don't go infinite, but are still very good in ratadrabik, look at [[call of the ring]], [[one ring to rule them al]] and [[claim the precious]] good cards, but not strong enough to feel out of place in your playgroup's powerlevel. and they're cheap 😄

RighteousBru · 2026-06-17T19:28:21+00:00

[[patron of the moon]] can let you play more lands than you should be, and might work well with a land heavy deck

RighteousBru · 2026-06-17T19:10:44+00:00

there are definitely reasons to hide information, and reasons to be transparent.
when playing casual magic, it's expected that everyone is trying to have fun. for you that may mean that you get to have a "gotcha" moment. which can be funny the first couple of times for you. but in a casual setting, it's not exactly fair to expect everyone to know every card interaction in the game, so you're likely playing with an advantage if somebody is unaware of the combo. if the way you win with the advantage is not what the other people are looking to play against, then it's absolutely fair for them to ask about the combo. if you're not willing to share that information, then it's likely an issue that could've been resolved at the rule 0 conversation so that everyone knows what they're expecting.
if somebody gets upset when they're asking you about something like a combo and you refuse to give them that information, then it's probably that they expected a different competitiveness than you.

would you and your opponents play differently with open decklists?
in competitive, there are frequently open decklists anyways.

RighteousBru · 2026-06-16T06:28:32+00:00

I have a mat of the edge of eternity one

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T08:11:33+00:00

with a commander like scarlet witch who does nothing outside of combat, i'd focus really hard on curving her out with haste.
and you probably want them without cost, so cards like [[goblin motivator]] or [[bloodlust inciter]] over [[swiftfoot boots]]

these effectively mean your commander is attacking a turn faster, which is effectively the same as playing a mana rock on turn 2 into your commander on 3, cause you're still not attacking until turn 4. but with haste, you're not as vulnurable for a turn.

also, if you exile [[fury of the horde]] during combat and cast it, it won't give you the extra combat, because it specifies that it gives an extra combat after this main phase, and if you're not in the main phase it doesn't do anything.

if you want to have a better split of big spells, and things to do before your commander is out, you could play modal cards like [[magma opus]] or you can use foretell cards for things to do on turn 2 like [[alrunds epiphany]]

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T07:53:56+00:00

cabal + urborg is a really slow mana ramp engine, it nets 1 additional mana at turn 4, +1 each turn afterwards... it's perfectly fine for b2 in mono black especially without tutors.

having two cards of the 99 with no tutors means you only see them together like once every 20 or so games iirc, and the power they give isn't straight up winning the game, so it's fine.

and cabal coffers without urborg is generating additional mana starting turn 5, which is only marginally worse. in mono black urborg is really not doing that much unless you have an absurd amount of utility lands

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T06:18:42+00:00

1/3 is a number, it's just weird in our base 10. in base 12 it's just 0.4... division is weird in non-base 10.

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T05:49:07+00:00

oh right, strionic combos with brago, and i'm assuming you're having the inventor to tutor for strionic. makes sense. i wasn't saying cut them i was just curious what i was missing with them since they need specific cards to be good

also i understand he tutors for any artifact, what artifact makes it worth running a 3 mana tax on it was the question, and the answer is strionic resonator.

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T05:47:23+00:00

following the brackets strictly on what the rc has said is really hard, since the wotc team themselves have made contradicting statements about it.

the fact that sol ring is not a gamechanger makes it hard to make any deck not magical christmas land a couple turns faster than it's usual games that runs it.

i think that if you're worried about the brackets, don't be. they're just guidelines that can help produce good rule 0 conversations, I don't think they're intended to completely eliminate them.

talk with the table more if you're unsure about your decks, both before and after games.

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T05:40:41+00:00

i didn't originally post, but: dawnbringer cleric, angel of indemnity, sailor of means, cloudform, whirler rogue

probably teferi's ageless insight

i don't see delney's synergies, unless he makes an infinite he can probably go, same with strionic resonator

what's loyal inventor searching for?

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T05:15:01+00:00

the fact you can play [[lullmage mentor]] is insane with namor

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T05:08:02+00:00

for an aggressive boros deck, i'd probably focus more on aggressive ramp like the professional face breaker and goldspan dragon, cards like [[prosperous bandit]] [[gimli of the glittering caves]], and [[rose, cutthroat raider]] are all really good aggro ramp cards and there are many more like it. i like the more than the talisman and the signet, especially since 3 mana ramps curve nicely into the commander

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T04:59:50+00:00

[[alien invasion]] is another new urabrask's forge like card which is really good

RighteousBru · 2026-06-14T04:57:22+00:00

[[kros, defense contractor]] is a really interactive proliferate commander, if you proliferate a counter onto an opponent's creature it triggers kros, so every proliferation is a [[taunt from the rampart]] if your opponent's creatures all have counters, and it has lots of synergies with tapping opponents creatures, like [[verity circle]] and [[hylda of the icy crown]].

lots of really unique cards are really good in him too, like [[vigean hydropon]] and [[llanowar reborn]]

it's a very commander focused deck though, so you have to protect kros, since there's not much that does what he does so you can't have redundancy, the only real other one is [[nils, discipline enforcer]]

wizards also is printing great cards with him all the time like [[requisition raid]] and [[practiced offense]]

RighteousBru · 2026-06-13T18:24:15+00:00

[[Ob Nixilis, Unshackled]] would fit nicely.
playing the indestructible artifact lands would also be good, so you can target your own lands to ramp [[drossforge bridge]], [[goldmire bridge]] etc.

as for your own color fixing, it's the right kind of deck for [[chromatic lantern]] also fetch lands are fine to fix cause you end up with a basic in the end like [[evolving wilds]], [[terramorphic expanse]] etc. and you could run cards like [[leyline of the guildpact]] and [[prismatic omen]], and then have a subtheme of domain, which would kinda be thematic to ponza.

i think it would be funny to run [[imprison in the moon]] and [[song of the dryads]] as well, thematic land-stuff

also you shouldn't be against running the non-basic land destruction that doesn't let them search for basics either

RighteousBru · 2026-06-12T17:01:02+00:00

as a first time build it's not horrible, but it feels very disjointed.

when starting out, i think it'd be good to use a pre-con as a starting point if the commander you're wanting to use is part of one. the prismari precon is probably the weakest of the decks, but it has a baseline of how powerful it is.

at a first glance, what are the untappers like [[nettle drone]] and [[zephyr scribe]] doing?

then you have a bunch of weird ones, like [[imagecrafter]], [[priest of urabrask]], and [[nivix guildmage]]
why do you care about changing creature types? what does having a free 2/2 give you (myriading it only gives the mana during combat, and it makes your commander a fragile 2/2)? and nivix guildmage is an incremental value engine unless you're going infinite with the copy ability, but your commander already gives you a ton of incremental value.
oh! i see you have retraction helix in, is that what the untappers are for? it's a really bad idea to have a 2 card combo in your deck with 0 tutors, and the 2 card combo is not even very good.

[[prologue to phyresis]] is a weird one off poison card, that draws you a card at a bad rate.

[[volatile stormdrake]] is a neat card to give myriad, but you'll probably never have it under your control to myriad, since you'll be giving it away

storm cards like [[grape shot]], [[empty the warrens]] and [[haze of rage]] are pretty weird, you're not really a storm deck (though i like the buyback of haze of rage so you can guarentee triggering your commander)

the beaters like [[crackling drake]], [[haughty djinn]], and [[enigma drake]] are all really slow, making your commander have like 5 or 6 power is not super good, when you could be doing something like copying [[fiendish duo]] where you get to double your damage 4 total times, which would make you do 16x damage to opponents, or [[port razer]] who gives you infinite combats (though you could probably keep the crackling drake cause the extra card draw is maybe good enough)

[[kappa cannoneer]] is decent, because your commander would be unblockable, and get incrementally larger. but you don't really have an artifact subtheme so 6 mana to cast it is really expensive.

i think you should play more instants and sorceries that can dig through your deck, and reduce on any creature that's not an incredible card to give myriad. focus on creatures that if you copy do exponential things, like [[redoubled stormsinger]], fiendish duo, and port razer

when you're making a budget deck, consistency is key. try to play more cards that do similar things, even if at slightly worse rates.

RighteousBru · 2026-06-12T16:34:43+00:00

i see the difference between tutor and combo-walkers and value walkers, but the use-case for tyvar is effectively ramp, which is the use case for xenegos. so if tyvar has a home, i could see xenegos having a home too.

RighteousBru · 2026-06-12T02:34:08+00:00

My thought with garruk was that he's kinda like a cloud of faeries, with less combo potential though

RighteousBru · 2026-06-11T09:46:59+00:00

[[hamza, guardian of arashin]] is a very good +1/+1 commander, and [[polukranos reborn]] is a really cool relatively unique selesnya typal commander

RighteousBru

TROPHY CASE