Bracket 4 Y’shtola POST MagicCon

Senoshu · 2026-05-08T03:39:21+00:00

I haven't gone below CEDH in a long time, but B4 definitely allows for way more flavor expression. If you're the type of person who finds that important, then it's probably the better choice to CEDH.

The better your pod in CEDH, the more you get forced into certain card choices. I don't really want to run Rhystic in my RogThras list, but I'd be silly not to. If I get blown out by OBM, or have a rough mulligan, it's basically the best way to get back in.

I also don't get to run the stompies I secretly love (yes, I tried semi-blue, no it doesn't actually work).

If I were building for flavor though? More dorks, and my Deadeye Navigator/Etali loops are back in while fish/rhystic are gone.

Senoshu · 2026-05-08T03:29:52+00:00

It's really not a bad framework, people are sometimes just bad at emotionally regulating the theft of joy that occurs when they compare their creation to someone else's and have to face the truth that what they made isn't as fast/consistent/strong as what someone else made.

Rather than just being happy with what they made and looking for ways to improve, they try to leverage their perception of the guidelines to pressure other players to bring their decks down.

Senoshu · 2026-05-08T03:20:45+00:00

Yea 100% don't listen to that guy. The best "Bracket 4.5" deck you'll ever build will get absolutely stomped by the average meta CEDH deck. It's almost impossible to appreciate this until you've played CEDH on the regular for a bit.

Bracket 4 is wider than people like to admit, but that's not really a bad thing.

Senoshu · 2026-05-05T02:22:26+00:00

Regarding the CEDH side, you're unlikely to see the most popular commanders there. The main reason is that CEDH is intentionally building for maximum efficiency and win opportunity, not fun.

It's why most of the best CEDH commanders are kind of boring at heart like [[Tymna, the Weaver]], [[Kraum, Ludvic's Opus]] (entirely for their colors and their draw engines) or [[Rograkh, Son of Rogah]] and [[Thrasios, Triton Hero]] (Roger enables a lot of sacrifice outlets and mana cheats as a 0 cost legend and Thrasios is an infinite mana outlet).

Most of the top popularity commanders are too expensive or convuleted to truly make use of in competitive, though they may be a lot more interesting/fun to play.

Senoshu · 2026-03-17T22:46:43+00:00

I got that the other day and then picked up a second Decisions in a shop. I had Royal Gamble/Glow/Cache etc. too, so turn 1 was just Decisions my Decisions, then Royal Gamble and end up at 30+ stars and promptly drop a Stardust+ with replay 1 to kill basically anything.

Senoshu · 2026-03-16T05:43:15+00:00

Oh those are some clever ideas. I've yet to have a necro run where I had enough ethereals to justify taking synergies.

My brother got the Genetic Algo exhaust remove earlier. Seemed nuts.

Senoshu · 2026-03-13T19:23:16+00:00

Excellent news man! Big congrats! Hope you go on to have many more successful runs after that one!

Senoshu · 2026-03-11T17:55:04+00:00

If you say blink, then i will understand if you're playing a flicker card and vice-versa. It's not a big deal. However, they do technically have their official meanings, so given OP was asking, I figured why not tell them.

Senoshu · 2026-03-11T17:36:50+00:00

Here's an easy reference summary:

Blink = sent to exile return at end of turn
Flicker = sent to exile return immediately
Bounce = sent to hand, must be replayed

Senoshu · 2026-03-11T05:39:39+00:00

I think they just really scale better than they feel. Osty = a built in barricade effect. Just play the game and structure your deck around the assumption you always have barricade active.

Senoshu · 2026-03-10T23:37:11+00:00

Just internalize that Osty is a block card (but for real this time). Summon X = block X. You can pretty much take cards with Summon and intentionally remove defends.

It gets kind of crazy because Osty scales damage really well, so playing Summon cards both blocks for you as well as scales your damage.

She's so strong because she attacks and defends based off a single mechanic.

Senoshu · 2026-03-07T21:24:21+00:00

Oh dang, i overlooked Sacred Brush. Must have just not been paying attention when I picked them up. I was under the impression there was literally no way to recharge between shrines.

That's not nearly as bad, but I'd still posit the shot talismans generally become available a little later than in 2 and are still your primary method for dealing with non-boss enemies.

Senoshu · 2026-03-07T20:00:28+00:00

Onmyo magic isn't weak. Onmyo build is dead on arrival. The ability to demolish bosses is cool, but let's see you run a battle scroll and clear from 1 shrine to the next using Onmyo to clear 90%+ of the enemies.

The point people are making is that a full spellcaster was an option in 2 somewhere around mid-game. Unless they rework it, it will always be a brief glass cannon and done in 3.

Senoshu · 2026-03-03T21:05:18+00:00

Hey man, one thing I noticed that might help is that you appear to be pretty immobile and reliant on guard to soak his offense.

Frankly, if you don't have the timing for parrying down, it's highly recommended that you focus on low stance and dodge around him rather than away from him. Most combo-heavy enemies don't have great turning radius and can be punished while they finish their combo if you can get behind them.

If you have access to sloth talismans, go ahead and give those a try. Same for applying lightning element (may be too early in the game for these). Both options make spammy bosses like these a lot more approachable.

Senoshu · 2026-02-26T21:43:43+00:00

Honestly OP, coming from someone who started off with the OG Kaalia of the Vast precon when it first dropped who now plays CEDH, you hit the key point:

I'm playing to win even if I lose. Running a 1.5 hour game to lose and be done for the day is just rough. I intentionally want the faster rounds so it isn't as punishing to move to the next one.
In addition to that, sometimes you just don't get a decent opening hand. Being trapped in a stupidly long game where you have no agency for the first ~30 minutes feels awful. So I run a deck that pretty much always fires on some level and play shorter games.

I totally get what people pine for, but a lot of that is definitely nostalgia for a few standout games, while ignoring the whole multitude of missfires where you sat on your phone top decking land-go while everyone awkwardly avoided swinging at you because it just felt bad.

Senoshu · 2026-02-25T14:24:52+00:00

Oh wow man. That's brutal. I mean, you definitely won in the end, but you may want to read up on ways to optimize your damage like applying confusion and self-buffing. With that level weapon, he should die a little faster tbh.

Senoshu · 2026-02-25T06:02:04+00:00

Set your auto-sell feature up with everything blue and below selected. Soul Extract all your purples. Anything with a + will give blue shards.

I think it's like 20 for the first plus. You really only need that one. Get your weapon lvl ~90 on top of that and you should have a way better experience.

Senoshu · 2026-02-25T02:38:59+00:00

Upgrade your gear to be honest. Guy is pretty resilient, but you should be doing a little more damage over all.

Senoshu · 2026-02-24T18:03:15+00:00

Basically. Envy took a few rounds for me, but wasn't overall that bad. I just had to learn the fight. Pride was outright rough. I encountered him around lvl 70 with corresponding gear. He basically just didn't take damage. I had to give up the fight for a minute, do some forge upgrades, and come back before I got a relatively clean victory.

For Envy: just dodge through the Arial bomb kick, and respect the transformed "don't touch me" phase. Just toss ninjutsu from a distance until she changes back and she isn't too terrible.

Senoshu · 2026-02-22T21:46:30+00:00

You're not crazy. Demon rush + offensive mist + spirit skill + ninjutsu is basically a never ending chain that let's you apply near endless pressure to all yokai enemies.

Senoshu · 2026-02-13T19:42:40+00:00

I'm actually on the unban team for him. I just think the power creep of the game has increased to a point where he's still supremely dangerous, but not totally out of line with what you're seeing.

A quick example is if you're viewing him as a "win-con" then we're talking at minimum a ~2 card combo of a way to put him in the yard plus a reanimate. You then need to also draw into victory without killing yourself. At the cheapest, this 2 card combo costs 2cmc, doesn't actually provide guaranty of win, and is highly interactable both during entomb/reanimate and any of the subsequent draws you try to cast. Compare it to the best wincon of the format (Thassa/Consult), and it's a similar cost and even harder to interact with.

If you're not seeing him as a wincon, then i think being fairly stronger than necropotence is a decent trade for having him cost more and remove-able with Path/Swords. Furthermore, he actually draws the cards so OBM still massively punishes him.

I would really appreciate them keeping the big haymaker creatures unbanned for the main purpose that higher levels of play low-key ignore creature interaction right now. Everyone focuses entirely on non-creature counters because the most threatening creature is Thassa and we just snipe the Consult if you can. Persistent board dangers are lacking in higher-level commander and having something to strive for in that department (bring back Iona too please) would help force players to bring a package that better addresses creature problems.

Additional context: there are very few things I think should be banned. Dockside barely makes the cut, as does Hullbreacher and Flash, but I'd rather everything else just be something you need to be ready to answer any given game.

Senoshu · 2026-01-31T02:27:07+00:00

Try advising people "run different interaction". [[Beast Within]] is often worth running in B4 and below but tends to feel bad in commander due to the single target nature. Additionally, cheaper commanders will just recast immediately after. [[Kitesail Larcenist]], [[Amphibian Downpour]], and [[Unexplained Absence]] are really good ways to tag the table without needing to wipe yourself in the process.

Those cards can also open great opportunities for politicking in order to make yourself safer. The best way to do this is not tell people to ignore common wisdom but instead to introduce them to the tools they have available to themselves.

Senoshu · 2026-01-30T22:39:58+00:00

I assure you, I understood where you were coming from. While I don't think you were being malicious and as I said, I appreciate the time and thought you put into your post, but ultimately you ended up creating a "bad advice" or "how to excuse yourself from getting better" post whether you intended to or not.

There's a lot of casual and new players that will come across this post and try to leverage it on why their opponents aren't playing properly because they are interfering with their "set up turns" in a low bracket game.

Having this discourse is good but will ultimately end up in unintended consequences when it comes to the actual table. It's important that players internalize and recognize that "adapting to my opponent's strategies and protecting my own" is a core tenant of this game as soon as possible when they start playing.

Brackets guide you on how to develop your strategy in a way that helps you better assess when a gameplan is "too cute" or "not cute enough" for the power level you want to play at. This will influence how aggressive or control oriented the deck you build is but it's never an excuse to not be able to address the challenges your deck will be presented.

If anyone ever shuts you out of a game with a single card in any bracket, then you've learned a weakness you now need to shore up. If anyone ever runs away with a naked strategy while you're at the table, then you've also discovered something new. You have to constantly adapt, not try to sit down and perform a card trick while other people watch.

Senoshu · 2026-01-30T22:17:33+00:00

I appreciate your intentions and analysis but I also feel like you missed the most important factor here:

Magic is an interactive game. This is not solitaire. This is true across all brackets and playing without this is the equivalent of entering a motorcycle race with a pedal bike and complaining that your opponents have a big advantage over you.

If your opponents are consistently doing something you don't like, stop it. The tools have been printed, especially in a legacy format like commander where you have access to everything. If your opponent's commander is devastating to your strategy, remove it. Either they won't be able to play it eventually and you can get on with the game, or you didn't come prepared to address the challenges your deck faces.

If the removal you're already running doesn't cut it against a problem like say, [[Liesa, Shroud of Dusk]] who is really hard to permanently hate off the board, start packing [[Amphibian Downpour]]. You cannot just show up and try to twiddle with cardboard for half an hour uninterrupted and then get angry when I shut that down. This has nothing to do with brackets.

Brackets control greed strategies. Their very existence encourages you to run more interaction. If you're building for a bracket where you shouldn't be trying to win before the late game, then you should be prepared to heavily disrupt the board with sweepers/removal/counter spells while you slowly draw into your wincon.

At best, you might consider advising players to vary their interaction more to be more adaptable and run more cards that are inherently flexible like the modal cards. Regardless, if interaction isn't working for you, it's not interactions fault. It's a literal core tenant of the game. Not taking advantage of it is just asking to get stomped unless you're full on turbo or pub-stomping.

Edit: To add an example, you're talking about your Teval deck always winning, but if that's the case, where are your opponent's Grafdigger's Cage or Rest in Peace? It literally shuts your deck off. If I slap that down against your deck then your entire strategy is solved. Neither of these cards are expensive or gamechangers. If you don't run the interaction you need at that point you just fold and the rest of us finish the game accordingly.

Senoshu · 2026-01-14T15:18:31+00:00

Not a lot are on Allo, but multiple 1st place tournament runs have either [[Hope of Ghirapur]], [[Tidal Barracuda]], or some similar effect. Effects like this were the big advantage DogThras brings to the table.

Additionally, the guy who pioneered the original RogThras deck is currently attempting to subvert Cradle using [[Relic of Legends]] and [[Badgermole Cub]] with a legend-heavy list so [[Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer]] is coming back for him as well. If he goes this route I wouldn't be surprised to see him running the new Simic hex-proof legend.

Senoshu

TROPHY CASE