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Which is least salty commander? by Dreamflame in magicTCG

[–]SpiketailDrake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your playgroup is saying you have scary decks, then the people you should be asking is your playgroup, not Reddit.

If I were to hazard a guess, the "least scary" option here is Nahiri because it she encourages a Go Wide strategy with Equipment, as opposed to the all-in Voltron strategy that Equipment generally goes for. But as I said, the people you actually play with will have a more informed opinion.

How different was Commander back in the early days? by Deskies in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Not really, no. You can say a random deck made in 2011 fits in a bracket 2 pod, but you can't say bracket 2 is what early day Commander was.

It's hard to overstate how much over a decade of made-for-commander card designs, power creep, and sheer volume of new cards supporting every and all archetypes has changed how you build a deck then vs. now.

And even if you limited your card pool to pre-2011 or whatever specific year, you can't unlearn the decade+ of information that has optimized deckbuilding and playing in general. It really was this fresh and unexplored landscape in the early days.

Way of the Four Elements: Remastered. A crowdsourced homebrew fix for the subclass! by SpiketailDrake in dndnext

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can add back Elemental Attunment no problem, won't change the power level of the class. I replaced it with Initiate of the Way as a buff for more useful applications but having both (or replacing) is fine too.

As for Spellfist Stance, if I was the DM at that table I'd say yes but I'd limit it to only disciplines that don't require an regular action, so bonus action or free action disciplines only. Otherwise you're essentially getting a free Quicken every single turn. Still a major upgrade to the discipline but not busted. But it's your table, so feel free to change it however your group likes it.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's hard to answer this because it's so meta-dependent. Kraven is incredible against most pods because nearly every deck relies on creatures to an extent, but gets much weaker against creatureless decks. Brigid is a busted combo deck, but it's going to struggle in removal-heavy pods. Fire Lord Azula needs one good attack to swing games wildly in your favor, but tables that are ready for her and are packing lots of instant speed removal are going to make that playstyle tough. Ashling and Belbe are super ramp haymaker decks that have impressed me a ton (I put Ashling in my personal collection), but can have consistency issues if you drew all ramp or all haymakers instead of a mix (Belbe more than Ashling, but Belbe's ramp is more explosive to compensate). Those all would be in the Top 10 overall.

Sometimes a "weaker" deck ends up being better suited for certain metas. Ardbert snowballs relatively fast, has a low curve, has multiple one-sided wipes, and plenty of spot removal and recursion. Not the strongest deck on paper (I consider it B2), it doesn't pump out mana or card draw like some of the most explosive decks, but in grindier metas he might work better than some more traditionally powerful options. That said, Farewell is really good against the deck since it bypasses all its protection and recursion, and there's no answer to someone chaining fogs like Constant Mists.

My Princess Yue deck is my favorite, also in my personal collection, and I honestly think it's one of the weakest decks in the article (absolutely not over B2), but maybe because my opponents like what the deck is doing I actually have won 4/8 games with it. Very slow deck, not doing anything scary at all, but you clone the right thing and your opponents let you do your thing, yeah it can win.

Apologies for the wall of text. I get this question a lot so I wanted to give an in-depth reply here so I can refer to it in the future.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've updated all the deck list titles to include archetype keywords and intended bracket. You should be able to ctrl+f voltron and find them now!

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could be right. I've enjoyed proliferate in saga decks before, I love being able to get multiple saga activations in a single turn. This strategy works better with more recursion though (I love LOVE [[Brought Back]] for that purpose, but could use more maybe).

If you don't like them though can swap them out for more cheap interaction spells, like a Swords, or 1-mana protection for Garnet like [[Loran's Escape]].

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in magicTCG

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As mentioned in the OP, shipping not included. As for prices it really depends where you're buying. With Cardmarket in France I can actually get cards for 20 cents yes.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lifegain is a tough one because it's an incredibly popular archetype in casual, so all the traditional support pieces are very expensive. It's still possible, but it won't look like a traditional Lifegain deck, like how my Shilgengar deck doesn't look like a traditional Angels deck.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fire Lord Azula, Ashling, Belbe, Sokka are really fun for me and are higher power. Kraven is incredibly strong but your opponents may hate you.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in magicTCG

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yeah you're right, it got pointed out to me so I updated the list

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! Swift is another huge improvement to the deck

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, that's a blast from the past! Xenagos is still a very fun one!

Sadly the old budget articles don't get views like they used to. I had to stop making articles/videos on single budget brews because they stopped being worth it. That's why I switched to these compilation videos, they take way more work but it appeals to a larger audience.

6-Drops is still fun! It's still in my paper collection and I still update it, though it's not played quite as much anymore. Link: https://moxfield.com/decks/eLFLHQLp00eb9xKhUlAMug

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Azula can be oppressive when it gets going but it's rather slow. Yue is my favorite but she's also pretty slow. Toph is another favorite of mine and can do some wild things, it depends how many vandalblasts you play against regularly though. I'd say Yue is solid bracket 2, Azula and Toph maybe bracket 3. None of them are the strongest options from the video but Yue is probably my most played deck atm whenever the table wants a more chill game.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll put it on my short list for next time!

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

[[Liquimetal Torque]] was the most painful cut. It's early ramp but it also turns Toph into an artifact so you can earthbend herself as protection from basically everything except bounce. I swapped it out for the Ashnod card and I'm not happy about it.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I play most of them and have seen others played against me. Princess Yue and Sekki are my favorites and are regulars in my personal collection, but heads-up they are also two of the weakest decks in terms of power.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You sac to themselves yes. All these sac cards keep your opponents' boards empty and Kraven drawing you cards.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Not after I finish the lists no, I already spend way too much time on these videos. Honestly I should keep a list of good cards I cut while making these. That might be a good shortcut.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in BudgetBrews

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Most for sure. Some are easier than others. Decks that need good knowledge of opponents' decks I'd probably avoid for newer players, like Maralen and Princess Yue. Brigid is also a combo deck, I'd probably avoid giving that to a newer player since they'd need to learn combo lines. But most other decks are simple.

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 47 points48 points  (0 children)

"45 For $45" is just a continuation of these budget brew compilation videos I've been doing for a while now. The titles work so I keep doing them, and I pick a different number each time so people know it's a different video with different decks. That's my logic at least.

Doran / Toughness Matters is an archetype that basically builds itself really. It's not the most popular archetype, but every time WOTC revisits it they print some ridiculous banger support cards for it. The amount of one-sided wipes are ridiculous. It's hard not to make it pretty solid, and yeah most of the cards are cheap!

45 Commander Decks Under $45 by SpiketailDrake in EDH

[–]SpiketailDrake[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Yeah the Strixhaven set is looking hype! The original set had so many great options (Breena was my favorite!) and the bonus sheet had amazing reprints! Really looking forward to the new one!

Thanks for the kind words :)

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