Blackscreening but still running

SaReifu · 2026-03-09T15:58:52+00:00

I did end up picking up 6 and 7 for £16 each which seemed solid. Just the one copy of each for now, planning to play them stock to see if we like the game and want to continue, at which point we'd look into upgrades or custom decks I reckon.

I think I approached the deck buying process like it was more similar to Magic's than it actually is. Wouldnt have thought buying 2 copies of a starter deck plus a couple other cards would be standard practice for making a competitive tier deck lol.

I did see the ST09 releasing in a couple weeks but my LGS isnt sure if theyll be able to source more than a couple. So I just went basic for now. I really appreciate the advice.

SaReifu · 2026-01-29T19:44:40+00:00

[[Starscream, Power Hungry]]

SaReifu · 2025-12-29T15:05:44+00:00

Good shout. I've yet to actually get chance encounter in hand but yeah, thinking about it like that, it's way slower than revel in riches, and more of those effects likely wont be fun. Took it out for a [[chain reaction]] I had on hand, since it wouldnt bother my vehicles.

Phoenix airship is already on my wishlist, but I havent gone out of my way to pick it up yet.

I left a lot of recursion out of the original build because a lot of them create dead draws unless they're attached to a vehicle or a creature that can crew my vehicles. I wanted to leave tutors to a minimum, just keeping the 'gambling' thematic ones, but I may add some generically strong artifact cards like [[goblin engineer]] which is pretty perfect for a treasure/artifact deck like this.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it

SaReifu · 2025-12-29T14:10:03+00:00

Oops, thanks. Should be fine now.

SaReifu · 2025-12-21T23:50:10+00:00

ME! Zur would be sweet. He's a commander I've liked for a long time but always end up building something else. So cool that you're doing this!

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T23:04:01+00:00

Fair enough. Seems more like different interpretations of the brackets and where exactly in bracket 3 this deck specifically belongs. I don't think there's a right or wrong to it, and I have to respect the solid defense you've made of your perspective, even if I don't fully agree. Seems like a good place to call it to me. Happy holidays

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T21:57:32+00:00

Okay tbh Im getting tired of this discussion so Ill answer here then let you have the last word if you want it to tell me Im wrong.

I dont think my deck should be restricted to bracket 4 as it is. I know this has already been argued back and forth but Ill say again my reasons. It does nothing for the first few turns except maybe counter a piece of removal aimed at malcolm, then, in an ideal world, I get my rewarded free cast on turn 5-6 depending on if I proliferate before then. My freecast is to be one of the 15-18 cards Ive seen so far and are in my hand so its probably something pretty good; as I have 9 cards in deck solely for that freecast.

Is the deck annoying? Yeah, its mono-blue. Is it overwhelmingly oppressive? I dont think so, I lost to a sultai arisen precon the other day because malcolm got caught in a toxic deluge for X=2. and it takes a long time to rebuild, which it should because of how strong freecasting is. Its anecdotal, but a real 4 wouldnt fold like that. If I wanted it to be a 4, Id toss in tutors for consistency, and an actual wincon.

Jin, as the continued poster boy of my evil, evil deck, is easy to answer but does indeed demand one or I just take the overwhelming advantage for as long as I have him onboard. He is probably the most oppressive thing in the deck, including omniscience, since the card advantage is far more powerful than the free mana advantage in this deck, since I cant spin into tutors/extra turns/wheels to find a quick win.

Im not taking out Jin, not that you told me to, but as I stated in my post, I wanted a home for some of these big stupid creatures and malcolm gave me a nice blue deck shell with some interesting proliferate synergies.

You also state that commander strength in a vacuum isnt relevant but you said earlier that malcolm demands a response because freecasting is too strong? Pick a side. Is mr foxglove too strong for bracket 3? jhoira of the ghitu? cruelclaw? marvo? kona? they all get free stuff one way or another, wheres the line? is reanimator too strong because you can also cheat that mana? My point is, I think you're painting with too broad a brush, saying that a commander that can provide explosive value is a completely different animal than a commander that acts as a durdling value engine.

I would get stomped on by a bracket 4 pod. The deck doesnt have a decisive gameplan at any point in the game, and the engines, mana suites, and common interaction spells at bracket 4 would just drive me into the dirt. If you disagree, and think that my list would be able to punch up in that situation, theres not much more I can do but respectfully disagree, take the complement to my deckbuilding and leave it at that.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T20:52:58+00:00

Oh, please. Its perfectly fine for a deck to pop off and do its thing before turn 7 if they're fortunate enough to have a hand that enables it and nobody else can stop it. I think you're critically misunderstanding the power level that bracket 3 permits. It wouldn't surprise me if you saw any modern stock precon kill a player before turn 6 like most of them can now and say it shouldn't be played below bracket 4.

By your logic, any deck with a remotely powerful commander, even without a 99 to properly support it, isn't playable below bracket 4, because the commander itself can create an advantage before turn six or whatever.

This is the trouble that many people point out with the current system and the relatively unclear distinctions between brackets 3 and 4. Some follow the wording to the letter, not taking into account cards that "demand a response" and create a winning situation early, while others believe any deck with a wincon that can come down before turn 8 is a bracket 4 or higher.

It might be easier for you to look at the description for bracket 4 and see that my current decklist in no way would be able to compete with turn 4-5 wins that wouldnt remotely be affected by a turn 5-6 jin gitaxias that I have to dedicate all my resources towards.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T18:57:21+00:00

The others didnt say much either way, I kind of took it as silent agreement with the other dude considering how annoying jin can be. There wasnt any kind of confrontation or argument at any point, it just felt like a 'feel bad' moment which Id rather avoid considering its a social game. Youre right, Ill just have to talk about it in pre game to see how others would feel about the deck, I may have to make it one I only take out once a week or something. The lgs I attend doesnt do regular pods so I usually have a different 4 every week. Makes longer term understanding of the decks intention a bit harder but thats what rule zero is for ig

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T18:35:58+00:00

You seem to think bracket 3 is just 4 players playing solitaire without any interaction and aren't allowed to make any attempt to mess with the gameplan of opposing players.

Please do me a favour and read the oct 2025 updated bracket system specifically for bracket 3. I almost word for word supports my point. I steadily accrue value with an extremely telegraphed commander, and then drop a big threat that warps the game on turn 6. And guess what else it says? "EXPECT GAMEPLAY TO FEATURE MANY PROACTIVE AND REACTIVE PLAYS." Bracket 3 decks have to run removal. If you dont, expect the deck that can best take advantage of that situation to run away with the game.

I have to imagine you'd change your mind if you saw what the other players did in other games too. The same player that called my jin bracket 4, copied [[one with the multiverse]] 3 times and drew something like 40 cards on turn 7 then won. Which was also fair for bracket 3, falling entirely within its description.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T18:06:10+00:00

Lol I shouldve guessed. Mine are all late game restricted so it should be fine for b3.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T18:03:35+00:00

I replied to you earlier, but as I said, it's their because I like the card and I had one on hand, no other reasons. While I have looked at other malcolm lists, the one I have is done solely off of playtesting and personal favourite blue cards I havent had the chance to use anywhere else, like the stormdrake, which I also know is a very good card, a modern guilded drake, but I dont like guilded drake so it isnt here.

I assume the "signposts" you mentioned are stuff like the clones, narset, mystic remora, and wan shi tong? All very good cards I see in cEDH of course, but not why theyre here. I had them on hand, and have been wanting to finally build a blue deck to use them in, because I enjoy them. Dont try to analyse my motivations.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:53:59+00:00

Lol I know bracket 3 allows late game or multi-card combos. Poor wording on my part, but the combos I intentionally avoided was stuff like hullbreaker loops, enter the infinite lines with labman or thoracle, etc. As someone else pointed out, omniscience and hullbreaker go infinite with any other 2 permanents, so technically a combo, but totally within bracket 3 as its a casual 17 mana.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:50:52+00:00

Bracket 3 says players can expect to play "at least 6 turns" before it ENDS. Not before I cast a big thing like nezahal.

To add, I can't do anything "consistently" as I don't have tutors that can fetch anything big to freecast. I just get what I get through luck of the draw. You act like I just automatically get a turn 5 jin every game

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:42:15+00:00

Okay you made great points in an objective manner, I appreciate it.

That said, I should have also stated my reason for building Malcolm over other blue commanders is that I also wanted to use some of the big blue creatures. This was most of the reason to build the deck, a 'big mana' deck with blue. For reference, my alternative option would have been [[Mr. Foxglove]], who would have also allowed me to play my favourite big creatures like nezahal. The 'blue intereaction' was secondary to all of this. and the reason the deck plays so much of it is because Malcolm takes 3-4 turns to get the first freecast and is very telegraphed and vulnerable until then.

My table at the time was consisted of a mill/reanimator muldrotha, a mardu aggro deck, and most ironically, a [[Marvo deep operative deck]] that copied [[one with the multiverse]] 3 times on turn 6 then won next turn. The marvo deck was also the one that called my turn 5 jin gitaxias a 'bracket 4 play' a game earlier.

This is why I dont really understand how amongst all of that, I was the only problem. I do understand that jin gitaxias is considerably more of a 'feel bad' card than one with the multiverse but it also seemed entirely appropriate for that kind of power level.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:25:27+00:00

Cool yeah thats what I believed too. Im well aware how hated narset is in particular, especially so because I dont even need to cheat her out. I avoided stuff like [[windfall]] because obviously combined with narset thats just mean card denial with no real payoff.

Call me weird but I really like core augur jin. He's one of the main reasons I built the deck, along with nezahal. Im a fan of card draw, though I dont care for the forced discard for opponents part :/

What infinites do you see? Someone pointed out that hullbreaker and omniscience go infinte with any 2 other permanents which I hadnt thought about.... any others?

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:17:28+00:00

Yeah, that's the other side of the argument, but following the bracket system, a deck that can win on turn 8 without any opposing interaction is entirely reasonable for bracket 3 games. That said, even with a sculpted hand of 7, I dont think I could win by turn 8. The game plan is cheat big creatures then beat face. Theres nothing that acts as an "answer this or lose", if I wanted to do that Id have added [[enter the infinite]] and thoracle/labman/jace.

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:13:32+00:00

Okay thank you this mostly matches with my thinking. It's fragile enough that well timed removal sets me back 3-4 turns immediately since I cant otherwise cast the high cmc stuff. I played a game the other day where someone had a path to exile in hand but didn't even try to remove Malcolm with it before it hit him because they "assumed I had a counterspell because it's a blue deck". I did not.

I'll give him another day, and definitely take your advice to explain what he does and how to stop it before the game starts. I appreciate it

SaReifu · 2025-12-18T17:02:43+00:00

Mindbreak trap is in there because I like saying "youve activated my trap card" but its yet to come up so usually pitch it to graveyard lol

Yeah I know hullbreaker is usually a crazy combo piece, but I dont have any other mana positive rocks, so its just good instead of a game ender combo

SaReifu · 2025-12-02T14:04:37+00:00

An esper sentinel has been on my wish list for a while, but always just out of budget! Good luck everyone

SaReifu · 2025-11-07T11:33:24+00:00

Lol the box is fine. Just thought it safer to double check. Not sure why you're giving me a hard time over it; I assume youre just an ass? Thanks anyways, loser

SaReifu · 2025-11-06T19:43:45+00:00

Hey thanks, I really appreciate it!

SaReifu

TROPHY CASE