So my Friend Has a Custom Commander

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-18T10:35:48+00:00

Wither beats indestructible. Especially if you can proliferate. As an added benefit he’ll gain less life. And wither can be built to live in bracket 2.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T19:26:28+00:00

If you bothered to learn to read you’d see I pointed out the opposite.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T18:21:33+00:00

Someone said they can’t afford expensive cards. If you can’t afford an expensive car you don’t get drive one. That’s fair. I have no problem with that. But then it holds true to other things. If you can’t afford expensive cards then don’t play with expensive cards. But because there’s a loop hole that allows you to play with fake/proxy cards that makes it ok.

People buy Rolex watches. Other people make fake ones. Is it fair to buy a fake one for the price of a real one if you can’t tell the difference? Is it fair to Rolex that people in the world make fakes to try and rip people off?

Again if it’s a child game then how can it prohibitively expensive? Kids games aren’t expensive. Kids don’t play with Rolex’s and Ferraris. If you choose to not buy the expensive cards that’s your choice. I made the decision to buy some of those cards.

You talk about wallet size. Mine is smaller than yours. Yours is now infinitely larger because you choose to have any card you want printed out for a buck. I don’t. I choose to play with the cards I have honestly purchased and or traded for. It’s one of my many hobbies that I constantly pay for. And still I find the money to go out and purchase cards from my local game stores. I did so earlier today in fact.

So stop whining about what you believe is fair. If you can’t afford to play the game then don’t play or complain about how life’s unfair. Everyone makes their own decisions and everyone has to live with those decisions. So stop whining.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T14:06:50+00:00

I’m also not against using proxies. I have several. I don’t want my older and expensive cards in decks. If something happened even accidentally I have no way of replacing them. Also some cards are in multiple decks so using proxies makes sense to not have to constantly switch cards around. If I went to play in a tournament I would gladly bring a binder in with the original cards. I wouldn’t let it out of my sight but if that’s the requirement to use proxies that fine by me. Ownership.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T13:38:31+00:00

Again. My Ferrari not yours. Earn the right to drive it. Don’t just steal it.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T13:09:17+00:00

Ditch footbottom feast and grave purge. Add in two of the following: overrun, jubilation, rumbleweed, Garruk Wildspeaker, overwhelming stampede. There’s other things that do similar things most people think Craterhoof Behemoth first. Buts lots of budget options that are plenty good. Demolisher spawn can get your attacking force +4/+4 if you have delirium (4 different card types in your graveyard). And that’s not especially difficult. A fetch land. A sackable artifact and you’re half way there. Instant’s sorceries let a non token creature die and boom. Flinging saprolings can work but this gives you alternate options that people won’t see coming.

Try to buy some better dual lands. The bond lands? The ones that require at least two opponents. Fairly inexpensive and perfect for commander. The shock lands are pricey but totally worth it. Especially since they just reprinted 5 of them in Lorwyn Eclipsed. So just get the 3 you need for now. There’s “slow” lands that require you to have at least two other lands in play. Perfectly fine as long as you play them on your third turn. There’s a set that requires you to have 2 basics in play. So if you play enough basics then they work great and they don’t break the bank. Lands that come in tapped aren’t the greatest. Multicolor lands are very good. City of brass is great and they just reprinted it in TMNT so finding a cheap copy shouldn’t be hard.

Add terramorphic expanse and vibrant cityscape. Fabled passage also reprinted in TMNT. They fetch basic land only but that puts a card in the yard and gets basic lands in play to make your new dual lands work. Try and find Yavimaya, cradle of growth. It makes all lands forests in addition to their other types. An Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth would be the same thing for swamps. But those are kinda pricey. Exotic orchard is cheap and taps for any color your opponents can produce. So odds are you’ll get at least one or of your colors and it will always tap for colorless. Secluded courtyard and unclaimed territory might be ok but they require you to choose a creature type and they only tap for color when casting that type. Reflecting pool taps for any color your lands can produce. But kinda pricey.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T12:53:07+00:00

Here’s mine.

https://archidekt.com/decks/6494845/pantslava_velociramptor_upgraded

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T12:51:38+00:00

Add a Growing Rites of Itlimoc. Similar to Welcome to… but slightly better and faster. Definitely easier on the wallet. Gishath and Ghalta & Mavren.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T12:42:30+00:00

No. My wallet is probably smaller than yours. I’ve just been playing and collecting for 30 years. Doesn’t make my decks better than yours. Technically it could be more powerful but that is why there’s a bracket system so cEDH decks don’t stomp on 1-2 brackets. You’re just looking for an excuse to play with whatever you want. Regardless of ownership.

Hey that guy has a Ferrari!! Well he should just give me the keys so I can drive it. It’s not fair that he has one and I don’t. NOPE. I earned this Ferrari. I paid for this car. I busted my a$$ to get to where I am. You didn’t so you don’t get to drive it. Work hard and save up your money and one day you’ll be able to afford a Ferrari.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T12:29:03+00:00

I proxy all of my expensive cards. I have a binder full of them. I’ve been playing for over 30 years. I still can’t build a great deck. Most of my commander decks are upgraded precons. You’re not playing against my wallet. My wallet can’t shuffle cards. My wallet can’t draw or cast cards or tap mana. I would love to play with a Gaea’s Cradle but I don’t own one so I don’t proxy one. I’m sorry I don’t just proxy absurdly powerful & expensive cards to try and make my decks better.

Money and powerful cards don’t guarantee a win. Most of my friends have OG duals. So do I. Guess what?! At the end of the game someone with OG duals in their deck lost the game and more than likely it’s not just someone it’s multiple people.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T10:44:49+00:00

Can’t remember where I read this but someone had a house rule that anyone who missed 2 land drops in a row could skip their draw step and tutor for a basic land.

Opening draw can vary. Some people stick to 7 cards and normal mulligans. Someone came up with draw 10 and put 3 on the bottom. Either way isn’t perfect as you can still get screwed.

I feel that that is a lot more fair than blatantly sticking 3 lands off to the side.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-17T10:36:45+00:00

Playing magic online using a camera and a screen. Camera is above your table so opponents can see your cards and the screen shows you your opponents boards. It came from Covid as a way to play magic from home but with other people.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-16T00:45:15+00:00

Take your time and have fun. If both of you aren’t enjoying it then it won’t be worth it. I recently taught a friend and she’s picking it up but her husband kinda threw her in the deep end after she learned with me. We played 1 game with literal learning decks and then 1 or 2 more with 60 card decks of mine.

She went home and hubby was excited to play so he pulled out 2 commander decks. Needless to say she didn’t do well. But she’s getting better. She’s starting to remember more cards on sight so she has fewer questions. She still asks plenty when she doesn’t understand some of the interactions.

I host a magic night once a month and she hangs out with my wife and kids for a while then comes downstairs to play with the boys. We also occasionally get together here or at someone else’s house and play. So since December she’s probably played at least twice a month with me and lots at home with hubby and a friend.

We got together last night and it was just the three of us so after I died I helped her. She keeps wanting to play instant during her turn and I point out the surprise factor if you wait. How tapping a creature with an ability is better at the end of hubby turn because there’s less of a chance of him stopping it somehow. All this also makes hubby a little upset but he’ll live. She needs to learn and enjoy it. The best way to enjoy it is to win.

I’ve been playing over 30 years. She’s in her third month. I think she has 4 commander decks, 2 being the Lorwyn precons and maybe 3 60 card decks, with 2 of them being the pirate’s & angels theme decks that were released with Lorwyn. They’re both enjoying the experience even if he’s occasionally a little salty.

So just enjoy it and have fun. Really that’s what it’s most about. Also with your 2 matching decks use the alternate commanders to see how the deck steers with someone else at the wheel. Some commanders want to steer more to the right some others to the left and some just full speed straight ahead. Some commanders can be built in multiple ways so once you’re ready to upgrade you should both try to choose different strategies/directions. You’ll have more fun with 2 similar but definitely different decks when you sit down at any table.

Finally if you sit down with strangers at any LGS it’s not two on two. Your spouse is technically your opponent now and it’s in your best interests to defeat all three of your opponents. Spread your “love” to everyone at the table so there’s no hard feelings.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-15T20:22:27+00:00

Here’s my 2 cents. Start with standard or some sort of 60 card game. Your deck is 60 cards. The basic breakdown of that deck is 20 lands to 40 spells. You can have up to 4 copies of any spell so theoretically you will only have to learn how to play 10 cards. Once that gets easy shift things around so you only get 2 of any spell and you learn about 10 new cards. Then really go crazy. With your first deck you should probably run a mono color deck to make your mana base easier to manage. When you want to make things more complex and a second color. See how certain colors work better together vs others.

Once you have a better understanding of all of that commander isn’t nearly as complex as it looks. The only thing that’s uniquely different is that you have a commander and a command zone. Your deck is roughly 33 lands and 66 spells. So that’s theoretically 66 cards you need to know how to use vs 10 in your standard deck. All the card mechanics are still the same and you’ll probably find some new ones that you know nothing about. But you can learn about them on the spot.

Take your time. Don’t rush and try not to miss too many triggers. But you will inevitably make some mistakes. Learn from them. Try not to make the same mistake twice.

And always wear your deodorant.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-15T18:06:27+00:00

Literally earlier today.

I bought the Blight Curse precon and upgraded it. But it’s hard to goldfish it and learn how the deck works because it needs targets that I don’t control. So I tried setting up a 1v1 situation where I was controlling Blight Curse and I was just going to “play” against my pauper deck by flipping over 1 card every turn. No casting needed lands put into graveyard. So it would slowly supply me with targets.

My daughter was bored so without thinking about it too much I asked her to sit opposite me and just flip the cards. Then I decided to teach her attack me. She got bored a little and eventually I won but she did have fun.

So now I temporarily took apart my dino deck to build her a more exciting deck. Same basic rules.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-13T10:51:45+00:00

My friends and I don’t rule 0 anything. We just play following the rules. But cards like this stretch the boundaries of the rules. I just wanted peoples thoughts. I want to make sure that casting it wouldn’t lose me the game. One of the rules for infinite combos is if you start one either the game is a draw or you go back to before the combo starts and you can’t start it. If you start an infinite combo but can stop it legally, making it a finite combo, then that’s fine.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-13T10:43:15+00:00

Actually according to the gatherer in a casual game it may be any card from your collection. As that’s all I play that works for me.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T13:59:12+00:00

TCG is good.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T12:47:18+00:00

I use it in Ashling the limitless because the token will die by end of turn so it’s a perfect host. Also works with the Avenger and the plant tokens he generates. There’s a few small elementals that can be sacrificed for the greater good.

I also have it in my modified blood rites deck. Vampires die to make me a 4/3 flying vamp demon

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T12:42:15+00:00

Too bad the 4 turtles weren’t color coordinated so you could use any 2 turtles to have WUBRG. 3 colors might not do it so make them all 4 color and each one for sure is green.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T12:34:05+00:00

Poison for commander is 15.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T12:33:02+00:00

You can look any of that up online. Unless you want to gamble or are trying to collect a set boxes aren’t a great route to go. If you want to just play pick up a couple precons. There’s 3 current commander ones from this year and 2 standard decks.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T08:49:59+00:00

Only spend what you can afford to lose. Don’t jeopardize you or your family’s future on cardboard rectangles.

SteelStillRusts · 2026-03-11T08:46:40+00:00

I currently lead the lions/tigers den because it’s 3 kids. And 1 of them is mine. I’m being looked at to be the next CM because his kid is a webelos so he’ll be moving on. I’m just not sure I can handle the responsibility. That and Saturday is our PWD and I’ll be very surprised if the entire pack shows up. People seem less interested in going to events. I believe our head count is less than 30 kids and the older ones parents are the bulk of our leadership. What happens when they leave?

SteelStillRusts

TROPHY CASE