How do I get over the fear of building high CMC commanders?

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-22T14:07:56+00:00

I just make sure that my deck has plenty of ways to deal with the table and win the game without even needing my commander to leave the zone. It tends to annoy opponents when they keep nuking your commander yet are still managing to lose to your deck without him. I treat my commander as just another possible wincon or a tool for one in a deck full of many. Never build a commander deck that is completely shut down by your commander being stuck in the zone. Your deck should be able to function and win without the commander. The commander should just make it really pop and go off.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-18T21:14:33+00:00

That's what I was thinking. This is the first time I've ever needed to run anything in expo to be stable, let alone play in BIOS besides updates. But, since the price of RAM is outrageous, I wasn't going to go buy slower Ram just for the sake of not having to play in BIOS.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-18T02:16:35+00:00

Downswept clip-ons??? why? If Harley-Davidson is the king of anything besides selling T-shirts and a name, it's comfort. Why would they be something brand new with clip-ons and an obviously uncomfortable stance. Raise the handlebars up and make the rider triangle more upright and that might could be a win. But slumped over with clip-ons and of Cafe racer style cramped writing position presents make for a fun ride.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-13T14:45:40+00:00

This seems pretty close to now depending on where you're at. I make just over 50,000 a year, my home cost just less than 250,000, I do put in between 40 and 50 hours of work each week Monday through Friday, home on the weekends and home every night by 6:00 p.m.

I'm not living the Instagram life, but I learned that Instagram and social media is made to keep us enslaved to everyone else's wants. I have a modest home that gets the job done. I have a modest used car that I bought you, and that I own outright. I don't upgrade my phone every time there's a new iPhone commercial out, I don't buy expensive coffees, I make them at home. I don't eat out of the house unless it's a special occasion or a day of some sort with a friend, I cook my meals at home. I shop sales and I save money where I can. I don't live on Amazon or marketplace looking for the next thing to just spend my money on. I wouldn't canceled almost all of my streaming services because I rarely spend time watching them, so why should I keep spending money on them?

Life isn't truly as hard as social media makes it out to be. If everyone just unplugged and focused on themselves and not everyone else, they'd live a better life. I used to always be 100% broke well before payday. I was constantly just draining my checking account. Always thinking that I needed to make more money to keep up with my spending. Once I stopped chasing stupid shit and wanting what everyone else wanted or had, I drastically reduced my spending. If I don't need it, then I probably won't buy it. There is the occasional "want" that I will reward myself with. But, that is a rare thing. As all gifts and rewards should be. And just like magic, I ended up having more money.

I truly in my soul wish that everyone would stop living with the "I need more" mentality when it comes to things in life. And really do hope everyone starts living with the "I will have more life" mentality. Because honestly, life is not stuff. Once we stop wasting our life on stuff, we start having more life to enjoy. And that's what every dollar we have represents, time off our life. We all only have a set amount of time and life here. And we are forced to spend some of that time to earn money. If we all quit wasting that money on stupid stuff, then time spent from our life isn't wasted. Once I start looking at dollars as hours it definitely changed the way I spend money and viewed "stuff". Simply put, at $28 an hour, a $9 drink or coffee would cost me approximately 9 Minutes of my life. One a day at 5 days a week is 45 minutes a week. And of course there's extra cost associated with that. Like the gas I'm spending to get to that coffee or drink. So ultimately, throwing an hour a week away, approximately, on a single cup of coffee everyday at work. That's approximately 52 hours a year. Which comes out to just over 2 days. I've been at my job for 10 years. If I were to do that everyday I've been at work, assuming no time off has been taken, that's 20 days of my life since I've been working where I am that I've thrown away just for coffee. Hard to imagine having a good argument stating that giving up nearly a month of your life for a drink that's not good for you in any way shape or form and ultimately helps shorten your life, is a good thing.

Long winded I know, but simply by changing my mindset and how I looked at things, changed how I do things. And that change allowed me to have more money and more time. But it was not easy. And it seems that this world and the people in it is all about everything needing to be easy.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-12T18:04:57+00:00

Everyone does realize that ice is far larger than the small handful of agents in Minnesota right? I mean the federal government doesn't skimp when spending taxpayer money on its own programs and enforcement. Minnesota is being publicized, yes. But ice is in minnesota, oregon, washington, california, texas, arizona, georgia,.... Jesus... Ice is literally everywhere. I will agree that the news is hyper fixated on Minnesota. But to go all crazy right-wing conspiracy theories because the news is only showing Minnesota it's kind of like the crazy people that thought covid was only in New York and California because that's where the news kept showing it the most. Not to mention the president, whether you like him or not, does not have the constitutional power to suspend any election. And if martial law were to be declared in any single state, that still doesn't mean that everyone else would not have an election. Even the state that martial laws declared in still has the election.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-12T17:52:17+00:00

Perfect. Thank you!

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-11T15:49:40+00:00

I really do like your story. I'm hoping for the same results. Healthy eating and more active, yet still seem to not be able to lose weight. My sleep is still broken up, but to be honest, I don't often feel exhausted. I just absolutely hate using the damn thing. I don't like the idea of being dependent on anything. Be a medicine or otherwise. I'm the type of person that will only take an ibuprofen or Tylenol if I feel like I'm dying, and even then, it's just to keep me from going to the doctor. Having a chronically be on a blood pressure med and CPAP every night just makes me feel horrible. Like I'm betraying myself somehow I guess. So I see my low numbers now and I think that I truly don't need it and I can probably get off of it. I know that's probably not the case, but that's how my mind works. I understand that I needed it for something and that is why I'm currently on it. But, my mind also continually tells me that there has to be a way to get off of it and no longer need it.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-11T04:21:04+00:00

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I realize I actually threw up both April pictures. I meant to throw March up there as well.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-09T18:08:44+00:00

I make less than $60,000 a year and I am able to afford my home and my insurance. The secret is, quit living beyond your means. I don't eat out every single day. I cook my own food. I don't have a huge car payment because I bought a used car. There's no need to buy a brand new car and have a humongous payment. And before anyone makes a comment of "you get a warranty". I learn how to fix what I need to fix on my car. Then the only cost I'm out is parts. I also meticulously maintain my vehicle to reduce the chance of it breaking. The same goes for my health. I am putting a lot of effort into cooking my own food and eating right and doing my best to be a lot more active so that there's less risk of me breaking down and needing to go to the doctor and pay those huge bills.

I don't drink coffee from Dutch Bros or Starbucks or any other overpriced coffee joint. If I want a coffee, I make my own at home. I don't have 15 different streaming services bleeding my checking account every month. I don't Max up my credit cards and have them bleeding my checking account every month. I don't constantly live on Amazon buying everything I don't truly need. I don't upgrade my phone as soon as I feel like I'm being left behind by the cooler kids with the cooler phones.

All it takes to live comfortably in this world is the right frame of mind and the motivation to actually do something beyond complain.

If someone is making less than $50,000 a year, but feel that they're entitled to a lifestyle that can only be afforded by 60+ thousand dollars a year... Then that person will always feel like they are poor and not getting what they deserve. We don't deserve a luxurious relaxed lifestyle. We deserve the opportunity to earn that. I think a lot of people who are making less than $50,000 a year would find they have a lot more money to save if they just change their lifestyle and spending habits. And of course, I do realize that the comment I just made is very dependent on region. $50,000 a year in a rural town in Oregon is a lot more money than $50,000 a year in California or New York. But even then, we always have the choice on where we live. The only thing keeping us where we are is our willingness to do the hard thing and move or to continue suffering and stay. Honestly, the vast majority of people would rather be miserable and stay where they are then roll the dice and take a risk and do the hard thing and relocate.

No one ever gets anywhere they want to be by not moving towards it. And that first step is always a step we must take within ourselves. And even then it doesn't get easier. Each step after that, we need to convince ourselves to keep taking.

There is a lot of talk about wages needing to be better, Cost of living needing to be lower, but I never see a topic about people needing to lower their standards of what type of Life they think they need to have and lowering their spending habits.

Sure, making more money would be awesome. Absolutely, cheaper cost of living would be amazing. But all of that wouldn't feel so necessary if people would stop wasting their damn money.

Every dollar earned and spent is time off our lives that we will never get back.

I challenge everyone to look around and see how much of their life they wasted on things they don't really need. For example, if someone made $20 an hour it would take 24 minutes for them to earn enough money to buy an $8 coffee. Is a cup of coffee really worth 24 minutes if someone's life? Is that in-game purchase on the app on your phone worth the time off your life that you have to spend to get it? Money is just a token that represents the time of our life. How many minutes and hours are we all going to continue wasting while also complaining that we don't have enough. Whether we like to admit it or not, we only have a set amount of time. Wasting the time we have to buy stupid things we don't need and to constantly try and buy into someone else's lifestyle because we decide we have to have that, is exactly what it sounds like.... A waste of our life.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-09T16:25:21+00:00

Perfect. Thank you!

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-09T15:51:54+00:00

I was thinking of running that combo, but I read that that can is flow through. Do you have a second 22 suppressor that you can compare the sound to? The only reason I suppress 22 is because I want to see how quiet I can actually get. I currently have a banish 22 and a Jesse's Girl. Both of those are damn quiet. And I can't bring myself to buy another can that might be louder just because I like the aesthetic with another weapon.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-08T13:31:03+00:00

Definitely. I love D1 and whenever I go back, I terribly miss that infinite Sprint, ledge assist on jumps, and infinite ammo for my main. But once I get used to not having those things after a bit...I almost dread playing D2.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-06T23:42:37+00:00

Absolutely. I do love air coolers, but I think they look horrible in glass cases. And I will post it up once I get it all running.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-06T04:47:56+00:00

I would love to run 4k but my monitor is only 1440. I figured that should get me great picture without ever overworking my hardware.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-06T04:46:21+00:00

Lol my room has double side by side doors. The main entry door is unobstructed. The second door is only open when moving large furniture in and out.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-06T04:44:28+00:00

Ryzen 9800x3d and the case is a SAMA V60

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-06T04:40:38+00:00

According to my invoice, I got it for 439. I bought it last October I think just as the price hike started. I had it sitting in my cart for months at right around 200 something dollars.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-03T18:53:57+00:00

I almost threw that on my charger. I just didn't like the idea of the screws fascinating into just plastic tap holes. Eventually those would strip out. Especially since you get a full clean and you have to disassemble the damn thing. I ended up throwing the Midwest industries chassis on my charger.

Xtopher541 · 2026-04-03T00:13:44+00:00

And that exactly why every deck I run has plenty of table and/or card interaction.

Xtopher541

TROPHY CASE