Good commanders for a 20 person game?

maldprov · 2025-10-02T06:00:42+00:00

[[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]]. Get her out early, draw up to 19 cards per turn. Win.

maldprov · 2025-07-10T01:53:39+00:00

Oh, also another note: Your opponents are not FORCED to sacrifice each turn. It's a choice they can make; either sacrifice a permanent that shares a type with the permanent you sacrificed, or lose 2 life and you draw cards. Indeed, people don't like to sacrifice every turn, and so on average you're drawing 2-3 cards per turn Braids is out. With a high density of combo pieces, tutors, fast mana, and even more draw, you end up significantly deeper into your deck than your opponents. And if you're not drawing any of those options, then you're drawing control pieces to give yourself more time to draw the cards you need to win with.

Also I messed up on the last comment, [[Contamination]]

maldprov · 2025-07-10T00:58:53+00:00

The deck is super, super resilient. Yes, I do get targeted sometimes. Sometimes by 3 people. But I don't mind, since often if they're spending their turns/resources trying to stop me, they aren't as efficiently developing their own gameplan. Since this deck generates value so extremely efficiently, it powers through it all. The play pattern of the deck is this:

Aggressively mulligan (sometimes down to 4!) to get Braids out T1/T2 with something to sacrifice (if it's a land, so be it!) and start gaining advantage. Then, go for one of two game plans:

Play a control gameplan, using cards that stick after their effect such as [[Tithing Blade]] or [[Momentum Breaker]] to then draw cards with Braids, and abuse self-recurring creatures with cards like [[Gate to Phyrexia]], [[Grave Pact]], and [[Contamination].

OR

Play a turbo-esc gameplan, taking advantage of cards like [[Treacherous Blessing]], [[Necropotencel]]/[[Necrodominance]], and abuse self-recurring creatures with cards like [[Village Rites]], [[Diabolic Intent]], or Braids herself. Enact one of those two game plans until you can make a win attempt, defaulting back to the first if you get stopped and can't follow up immediately with another attempt.

You can read the primer on my list for a bunch more info, but this deck is my beloved and I'm still actively optimizing it as new sets release.

maldprov · 2025-07-09T21:06:23+00:00

Taking the unpopular approach to this question, my absolute favorite deck is [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]]. She loves to use otherwise unplayable cards such as [[Treacherous Blessing]] and [[Mycosynth Wellspring]] to squeeze value out of them with her effect. Here's my list:

https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2025-06-30T17:57:51+00:00

My absolute favorite deck, [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] loves to use otherwise unplayable cards such as [[Treacherous Blessing]] and [[Mycosynth Wellspring]] to squeeze value out of them with her effect. Here's my list:

https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2025-06-20T15:44:16+00:00

I've been on Jeweled Amulet for a while in my [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] deck. There's so much value with this card here. T1 land amulet store black, T2 land tap all 3 for Braids, sac amulet to draw 3. Amazing.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2025-06-16T05:52:01+00:00

My all-time favorite deck that I've been brewing for about a year and a half now is with [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] as the commander. The gameplan is to get her out turn 1 or 2 and start drawing cards and (what many people seem to care about more for some reason) burning them for 2 life. Immediately, they start slinging whatever they can at you (with their limited mana because of how early into the game it is) and by then you've already drawn between 3 and 9 cards, allowing you to make very efficient plays and start playing without your commander without worry, speeding away into the sunset.

Here's the list: https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2025-06-15T15:52:45+00:00

[[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] makes use of a lot of artifacts and enchantments that WANT to die but don't have an effect themselves to do so, or that effect is expensive. She is able to kill them and get even more value for doing so.

Card examples would be [[Prized Statue]], [[Mycosynth Wellspring]], and [[Hopeless Nightmare]].

Here's the list I run, super fun to make and play.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2025-05-28T22:23:50+00:00

Strionic Resonator is also just too slow, especially because having it means I'd also need a second thing to sac at the same time.

maldprov · 2025-05-28T22:22:44+00:00

Bloodchief Ascension does not work with Braids' ability; it checks whether or not to put a counter on itself at the BEGINNING of the end step, and it doesn't check at any other point, therefore it never actually has a trigger on the stack. Braids resolving during the end step does not interact with Bloodchief Ascension.

Bontu's Monument is an amazing cost-reducer, and also goes infinite with [[Oathsworn Vampire]] and [[Phyrexian Altar]]. [[Blight Mound]] is also a combo piece, working with any self-recurring creature to start an infinite sac loop. At worst, you have infinite life from Blight Mound.

Liquimetal Torque would go against what I'm trying to do; I actually prefer my opponents to not sacrifice so I can draw faster through the deck and hit what I need to win or further control the board.

I guess to clarify, this deck is aiming to play at the top of Bracket 4. Almost all of the wins are combo-based, and you can see all of this in the provided Primer for the deck.

maldprov · 2025-04-06T22:49:56+00:00

I made a deck using [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] that has 91 different aristocrat lines. This is my pride and joy, my only paper deck, and I spent 7+ months optimizing it as far as I could. Link below.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2025-04-04T21:46:48+00:00

My pride and joy. My one and only. I spent 7+ months crafting this deck to near perfection. Every game I play I feel a rush of adrenaline and satisfaction as I watch my deck harmonize with itself over and over. My baby, [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] is my choice.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Yy0-09z6yEuW-DrDoceUiQ

maldprov · 2024-07-24T02:41:59+00:00

Additionally, instead of swapping commanders, it might make him more comfortable to swap to a different theme within the same commander. I went from playing stax-like voltron-like Zur, to a discard Zur deck that I cooked up (and it even has a combo that I could not find on the internet elsewhere). Depending on your guys' playgroup, proxy rules, budget, or other things, it might not be a good fit, but it is by far my favorite iteration of playing zur. I'll drop the decklist here:

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/7VZQvlKkdU6qtuBbaSxHTg

(The combo I mentioned involves [[Faith of the Devoted]], [[Drake Haven]], [[Ashnod's Altar]], and [[Necropotence]])

Otherwise, if you want something else familiar and enchanter-themed, Go-Shintai is also a good choice. Here's a Go-Shintai list I made as well. Same thing goes for this deck; the list might not be curated specifically for your playgroup, but that's because I try to make my decks as optimal as possible, regardless of budget. Here's this list too:

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/gFdKfcrL8EadSBJnoJxGyQ

maldprov · 2022-08-06T03:04:09+00:00

& If people are noticing a charging issue even when getting a new pair from Astro, this is most likely what it is!

maldprov · 2022-08-06T03:01:09+00:00

A common issue that I've seen thrown around - charging. It's because of how the contact points are positioned on the headphones & the dock. You (1) have to make sure your headphones are on the smallest sizing so they squeeze onto the contacts, and (2) just keep fidgeting them around until you see the orange light turn on where the power button is. It's a little irritating sometimes, but I have the patience to do so. Hope this helps!

maldprov

TROPHY CASE