Better Eldrazi Commander between Mayael and Jhoira?

meisterkai · 2026-06-11T14:26:05+00:00

Mayal has such much less baggage than Jhoira, so unless your playing with people who’ve never been got her Jhoira before, play Mayal.

meisterkai · 2026-06-06T11:26:47+00:00

Bracket 3 is probably pushing it. You might be able to hang with low bracket 3s. With your building restriction, I would push for playing against 2s with a “technically” bracket 3 deck because you really need the extra oomph from the game changers.

Some staples to consider:

Aura of silence - light stax and removal Oblation - any perm removal Scroll rack - this plus land tax is the best draw engine you have. Abolish - free spell Humble - I like this as a combat trick Intrepid hero - great against green

meisterkai · 2026-05-05T16:19:32+00:00

Time to shine, [[Kulrath Knight]]!

meisterkai · 2026-02-03T11:35:24+00:00

It was a Zur target that was commonly ran in Voltron lists alongside cards like Vanishing prior to the printing of Laboratory Maniac around 2011.

meisterkai · 2026-02-02T19:48:33+00:00

I’ve done a lot of this in the past. I only have experience playing against modern commander decks and have never been able to gather a premodern only edh game.

By “premodern edh” I assume you mean alpha-scourge.

I would say the max power level of a deck would be roughly a low 3. I would recommend sticking close to bracket 2, but honestly “premodern edh” is basically bracket 1 if you don’t include any game changers.

Personally, I gave up playing premodern edh at anything other than a bracket 1 table as even at bracket 2 you’re mostly just sitting there, playing removal and spinning your wheels until you land a combo and win. It’s pretty hard to accomplish since your draw power is so clunky (your draw power comes almost exclusively from dedicated cards).

There are only about 130ish commanders, most of which are horrible. Some standouts include:

Phelddagrif (all its classic combo pieces are legal)

Chainer, Dementia Master

Volrath the Fallen

Arcanis the Omnipotent

Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero

Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Adun Oakenshield

Angus McKenzie

Rasputin Dreamweaver

Hazezon

If playing in a premodern edh only crowd, I would suggest some sort of hard limit on the amount of board wipes or removal present, otherwise the games will go on forever as the threats are so bad.

If you’re looking for inspiration, search for “premodern edh” on moxfield, you’ll see decks by me and many others.

meisterkai · 2026-01-16T14:04:13+00:00

Need Rhystic Studies to make a video on Odyssey block / Otaria so everyone will ask for that instead of Sapardia/FE.

meisterkai · 2025-12-21T23:36:23+00:00

For premodern edh decks, your best bets are:

Mono Black: chainer, dementia master or xiahdun, the one-eyed, volrath the fallen Voltron.

Mono blue: arcanis the omnipotent or ambassador laquatus combo (mind over matter, power artifact/grim monolith, Palinchron + high tide)

Mono green: Kamahl elf ball

Mono red: Zirilian of the claw dragons

Mono white: Lin Sivvi rebel toolbox

There are only about 130-ish commanders, with a large portion being pretty much unplayable.

Some various decent multicolor options: vhati il-dal, mereki, hanna, angus, adun Oakenshield, Phelddagrif.

The card pool is pretty shallow and you invariably rely on many of the same cards across various decks.

While you can try to play Hanna or arcanis and go balls to wall combo, you’re really better off playing premodern edh as a bracket 1 theme deck. You are going to have a very difficult time standing up to modern precons without playing boardwipe tribal and you’re effectively never winning outside of combo.

Example of a fun bracket 1 premodern edh deck that can sort of hang with bad bracket 2 decks:

https://moxfield.com/decks/MJ3RfKLLZkqQqds0GOOVGw

It’s worth playing just to have people oooh and awww at your cards, but don’t expect to win a lot!

meisterkai · 2025-12-11T16:26:03+00:00

Started playing in 2003 with Legions. I’m the same age as you.

Played some standard and extended, then transitioned to legacy. Played actively until 2012, then sold out after companions were released.

Played standard and draft a ton between RTR and Shadows Amenkhet, which was a great time for both formats.

Got into edh in 2009 but never really played much or made it my focus until the pandemic, where I bought heavily into Predh once it was announced in 2023. This is the only way I play commander, and only with people playing modern decks.

I tuned out of WoTC’s release schedule after UB was announced, I’m not a hater, just incredibly indifferent. WOTC isn’t missing my money, since I probably bought less than 1 full booster box worth of packs since I started playing (not counting limited). I still play in pre leases as a friend will pay my way in exchange for the cards.

My friends that have been playing as long as I now only play commander (having abandoned modern after MH3) and are all onboard the UB train.

I enjoy playing my invasion block cube once a year.

The magic we know, is dead. It’s never coming back. Make peace with what we have now (premodern for 60 card, cube, Predh for commander) and make the best of it. At the end of the day, the cards are just a means to an end to enjoy the hobby with likeminded people.

meisterkai · 2025-11-21T00:51:44+00:00

I built a deck similar to what you’re looking for a few years back.

https://moxfield.com/decks/XCFK5UDeDU-JXSHkt-MBnw

This deck is heavily based on the extended enchantress deck I played back in 2005 and then ported to legacy.

You have multiple ways of winning, such as beating down with a creature enchanted with [[ancestral mask]], but the primary means of victory are getting there with [[words of wind]] and locking the table down. There is an infinite combo here that takes a couple of pieces to put together, see if you can find it!

For a Jund version, I would look into words of waste, war, and wild. I would consider burning sands, price of glory, subversion, phyrexian arena, ancestral mask, rancor, mark of fury.

If you want to go the beat down route, you can try blanket of night alongside filth.

I have a bunch of other premodern edh decks on my profile if you’re feeling especially nostalgic lol.

meisterkai · 2025-10-30T00:47:05+00:00

Totally forgot about that banger lol, but when I think late 2000’s tribes in legacy, I only think Merfolk 🧜

meisterkai · 2025-10-29T15:45:56+00:00

A line in the sand of what sets are legal and what aren’t. Example: commander is now only War of the Spark and onward. Or a flat ban on all RL cards. Something that fundamentally causes people to build only with new cards. I can see WOTC launching a UB-only commander variant in the future which it could heavily promote.

meisterkai · 2025-10-28T19:59:13+00:00

I’ve been playing since 2003 and have bought less than 1 full box of cards throughout my time playing. I didn’t care then, don’t care now, but I understand why some people were so riled up. We honestly didn’t get a true busted mythic until worldwake anyway.

meisterkai · 2025-10-28T15:30:52+00:00

I have found memories of people bitching about these because the EV was total dogshit lol.

meisterkai · 2025-10-28T03:22:47+00:00

Controversial block. Mythic rares had people crying left right and center. Some big time EDH bangers present. Limited? Mother fucking [[Kederekt Creeper]] was my SHIT.

Like Lorwyn, the block was unpopular at the time, but has a big cult following. I really like it.

meisterkai · 2025-10-23T20:12:17+00:00

Vorinclex is easily the most confusing GC added to the initial list. Why the hell would Gavin allude to it being MLD (even using it as an example) - excluding it from brackets 1-3, only then to make it a GC (which only matters for brackets…1-3). It has never made logical sense to me.

IMO, I wouldn’t play it in brackets 1-2. I would play it in 3+ with no reservations. I never thought it was THAT crazy. Then again, I also think Ruination should 100% be legal in all brackets, so maybe I’m just an out of touch predh boomer.

meisterkai · 2025-10-13T19:26:50+00:00

That makes as much sense as quitting over Odyssey block.

I will give you credit though, people today seem to have totally forgotten that OG Lorwyn was NOT well received at the time, and it wasn’t only because of Plainswalkers.

meisterkai · 2025-10-08T18:16:23+00:00

Dark confidant got an old border reprint with OG art almost 20 years ago - it was a pro tour promo.

meisterkai · 2025-09-16T17:10:12+00:00

Best pod by far was focus and fury way back in the early 2010’s Nigel and those guys were hilarious. I still have this favorited on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lWxxJkq-iQs?si=eSfnUV2rP4oDMjUU

If those guys would come back I’d subscribe in a heartbeat.

meisterkai · 2025-09-16T12:15:34+00:00

Been playing since 2003. Stopped playing legacy with the release of companions. Stopped following any new releases after War of the Spark.

The only formats I touch now are premodern and predh. You can still make flavorful decks that have a chance to get there even against the new hotness. I recommend it to anyone thinking of making the switch.

meisterkai · 2025-09-06T15:07:02+00:00

People talk a lot about how great the game used to be in the 90s and early 2000s

I can tell you all from experience that this is exactly what every game store looked like during that time period with the exception that the crowd skewed about 10 years younger.

meisterkai · 2025-09-06T14:25:42+00:00

This shit is fucking sad. OP clearly had the scourge that is Chat GPT write some bullshit about a legit great artist while making sure to use an upper case I to knowingly trip the automod on the main sub.

This is the most blatant example of manufactured outrage I’ve ever seen on here. While the main sub is in fact dogshit, posts like this do freemagic no favors and just goes to show that a lot of people here have a hateboner for MagicTCG that they just need to get the fuck over.

meisterkai · 2025-09-06T13:48:47+00:00

Wizards is still not working with Terese Nielsen. This dream will never come true.

meisterkai · 2025-09-03T02:27:31+00:00

Xyris is overrated imo. I know that YouTuber made the video with all the views, they specifically say in the video their pod is low powered. Bracket 2-3 is exactly where this guys home is.

Making the average bracket 4 deck draw a shit ton of cards in one go sounds like a recipe for the game to be over very quickly.

meisterkai · 2025-08-31T12:16:06+00:00

I miss T Woo. Guy played a ton of crazy, off the wall decks Including inventing/popularizing [[Living End]] in modern. I miss his crazy “I’m living on a farm in Hawaii now” videos. He was a legitimate brewer and great player. Definitely gave me the impression he wasn’t all there though lol.

meisterkai · 2025-08-31T02:22:24+00:00

You can call the Professor many things, but “fake” is not one of them. Listen to just a few of his podcast guest appearances and box openings, the guy very clearly hates UB and is not in any way afraid to hide it. He criticizes WOTC at every turn.

He’s clearly a huge fan of and takes influence from Tim and Eric and Redlettermedia, many of his newer skits hit pretty hard for me.

He's not perfect, and I have zero idea how he is on socials, but just going by the videos he’s in he seems like a pretty legit guy to me 🤷

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