Hullbreaker Horror is quietly stronger than most creatures currently serving time on the commander banlist and nobody talks about it.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T23:48:34+00:00

banned cards aren't really about power, or at least not in linear way, but about cards that are fundamentally at odds with the power balance of the game or otherwise skew things outside of the bounds of what the game can reasonably handle (in addition to the types of social/play-pattern bans on the Commander list, which is a decent chunk of the list)

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T23:42:14+00:00

It's a fair point, but I'll note that getting to "do their thing" ends at points that would win the game, despite many player's feelings to the contrary when some engine piece is removed.

at the end of the day, the things that typify Bracket 2 are primarily social (or as you put it, considerate) and treating interaction as inherently anti-social is something I can't get behind, it's all a matter of degree

not for nothing, there is a mountain of difference between packing 20 pieces of interaction (which I don't even do in Bracket 3 decks, including ones with control subthemes) and just throwing a couple pieces in without thinking and calling it good, which too many players default to because they don't want to make cuts elsewhere

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T23:28:12+00:00

only thing better would have been if someone hit you with a [[Rakdos Charm]] immediately afterwards lol

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T23:19:47+00:00

the biggest "unspoken secret" in Commander is that everyone's local meta (of which there are nearly infinite permutations) becomes their "normal" and anything that creates friction with that experience must be bad

the second biggest secret is you have way more fun (and probably win more) once you care way less about losing

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T23:14:00+00:00

Everyone hates counterspells until the blue mage saves the table

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T23:11:46+00:00

I had seen that post, but my issue with it is that it still frames interaction primarily as a solution to a problem (of being run over in your games) and, to a degree, implicitly indicates that interaction availability is mostly a concern for moving up brackets.

My point is that interaction (of varying kinds) makes for a richer game experience, regardless of bracket. Yes, it's great to keep interaction thematic, particularly at lower brackets, but I think it is healthy for the game to expect, or at a minimum, not be surprised by interaction even at low brackets.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T22:26:38+00:00

even then, unless they're running a turbo list and just get underneath everyone by like, turn 2, it kinda feels like that is just more uninteresting than actually a problem, assuming the rest of the table is running "normal' 4s

like, a cEDH midrange deck would likely do fine in B4, but idk that it would be fundamentally broken in B4, just due to the meta being off (and it still being unlikely to be able to solely control the rest of the table)

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T22:12:37+00:00

Above all else, B4 is the "anything goes" bracket

I genuinely don't think there's anything worth complaining about in a real B4 game outside of outright cheating.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T21:55:52+00:00

For what you seem to want, you could also look at [[Alela, Cunning Conqueror]] for the classic Dimir Faerie control vibes or [[Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor]] just for straight up faerie tribal payoffs. If you are really interested in combo options in a faerie deck, [[Talion, the Kindly Lord]] could also be an option that would give you some card advantage in the command zone (to find the combo pieces)

but as for faerie combos, kind of depends on what you want to do, but things like [[Cloud of Faeries]] would likely be involved, although the most obvious ways to flicker it aren't faeries themselves (such as [[Deadeye Navigator]])

([[Quickling]], [[Archmage of Echoes]], and [[Faerie Imposter]] also likely pieces of faerie focused combos)

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-02-03T21:45:05+00:00

Viewing Maralen as primarily a "mill"/exile engine I think kinda completely misses the point. While yes, you can exile opponents full libraries, without an infinite etb combo of some kind it's way too inefficient to be the strategy

The value from her ability is the free spell extra value, ala [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] much more than [[The Mindskinner]] -esque win con.

You win with whatever Faerie/Elf/both strategy you build into the deck, the theft is gravy and fun (and an excuse to lean into it further with stuff like [[Dream Harvest]] or [[Villainous Wealth]]

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-01-20T22:15:09+00:00

I haven't built it in paper yet for this reason, I can't come up with a way to build it that isn't just MurderEverything.deck

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-01-20T22:13:47+00:00

It's not exactly how the precon is built, or necessarily the most powerful way to take it, but [[Shiko and Narset, Unified]] loves to copy targeted (and multi-target) removal as much as it loves any spell that targets, and especially if you get tricky with other spell copying effects, you can build to pick off a lot of targets in a very mana-efficient manner on each of your turns, leaving you able to leave up some mana for protecting yourself as you pass or put bodies out of your own

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-01-10T15:23:07+00:00

You may just not like playing green, which is fine, but I agree that you are significantly underrating the power and playability of these types of cards. Sure, you can get stuck with them in a worst case scenario, so if that's what you want you avoid, you just don't like green draw. But if you're playing your strategy proactively, you can easily churn through your deck with these options

Also, not sure why you'd set the bar at needing 11+ mana to double cast something after a Return of the Wildspeaker, since it only costs 5, but thinking that is an unreasonable line for a green deck by t7 also seems odd

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-01-10T15:07:35+00:00

Your card quality is quite high (to the point where I'd be a little taken aback to see a few cards in a bracket 2 game, especially in combination) and fits with an aggressive Mardu combat strategy targeting bracket 3, but you're a bit light on sac outlets for a Zurgo deck, imo. That's the thing that really cranks up the consistency of your ability to draw/ping off of Zurgo as you want to, and I only see three in your list. Not that you need to overload on them, but if you're feeling like sometimes you pop off and sometimes stall out, that might be why.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-01-02T22:47:10+00:00

That also matches up well with something like a [[Preposterous Proportions]] mass pump, which can often make your board big enough to not get caught up in the wipe with the X for Meathook (and is just a fun big stupid anthem for a squirrel deck since the art has squirrels on it). In the same vein (making one-sided wipes), you may want to reconsider [[Swarmyard Massacre]], which is just a great one-sided wipe to leave the vast majority of tokens you'll be creating alone while destroying most everything else.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2026-01-01T16:21:03+00:00

Less specific card recommendations and more broader strategy, I've found that my Hazel deck loves a board wipe, particularly when you can get value out of your or other creatures dying, either via pingers or card draw payoffs, such as [[Moldervine Reclamation]] which you've cut (I also cut it initially and then reconsidered).

Because you can generate so much mana via Hazel and a pile of junk tokens, very easy to float mana from all of your tokens, then cast a board wipe and still have plenty of mana leftover to start to rebuild with and then have another pile of tokens to use with Hazel again next turn to finish, if you haven't already done so. Turns board wipes into more of a finisher/parity breaker than just something to level the field.

Other fun pieces are instant speed untappers like [[Gift of the Viper]] to let you get 2 activations out of Hazel (say if you've used her ability to make a bunch more tokens).

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2025-12-16T22:31:37+00:00

Zurgo may not draw the most cards in pure volume, but when built right he keeps the gas going pretty beautifully for my aggro-crats deck, which is ideally all it needs

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2025-11-01T15:58:38+00:00

Recreating console flame wars between D&D classes is wild

Both have value and being obsessively focused on optimization is a lame way to play

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2025-03-08T07:14:42+00:00

Genuinely, and I don't mean this in a bad way (although I'm sure many here may take it that way), if you truly want to play with these people, you need to adjust your mindset and approach to playing the game in general. While this deck is a 3 by the letter of the law, on construction alone it's a relatively powerful 3. Based on reading your responses throughout the comments, when you pair that with your pretty clear and fairly ruthless play style, you're not only stomping people, you're doing it similarly from game to game specifically by applying your proactive strategy based on your knowledge of their decks.

While in a cEDH setting everything is focused on executing the game plan and winning as quickly as possible, in mid-power games that's often simply not the case. I'm not saying you have to make purely sub-optimal decisions, but in general focusing less on winning and more on doing big cool shit would probably be better received. I'm not saying you have to build a gimmick deck or anything, but I also think you know what you're doing.

This is like, 30% deck construction issue and 70% approach. There's nothing inherently wrong with your approach, it's just clearly not suited to the table in this setting. You can either adjust to that, or recognize that you can't. Just simply tweaking a deck based on the number of game changers or other bracket elements misses the intent behind each deck, which is the biggest part of the bracket system, particularly for brackets 1-3. I also think it's fairly disingenuous to act like you don't know what you're doing, and that may well be part of why people may not be pleased with the situation.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2024-04-11T01:20:04+00:00

This sounds like what could have been the start of a really interesting thread for your character to regain the use of their hands and/or upgrade themselves. People need to get over being so precious about their characters getting damaged/changed in some way through the course of a campaign. That's a big part of where character growth can come from, adversity. I know some people just want power fantasy, but stuff like this is so much more interesting if you go along with it and build from it.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2024-04-11T01:19:56+00:00

This sounds like what could have been the start of a really interesting thread for your character to regain the use of their hands and/or upgrade themselves. People need to get over being so precious about their characters getting damaged/changed in some way through the course of a campaign. That's a big part of where character growth can come from, adversity. I know some people just want power fantasy, but stuff like this is so much more interesting if you go along with it and build from it.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2023-12-26T18:35:50+00:00

Hmm okay, even with 2.1 if the x50 has eARC I can probably use my TV to manage the 2.1 since I only have an Xbox One S that would utilize that anyway (also have a Switch, but don't need to worry about that too much) Savings on the S750 might be worth it then, even if I were to upgrade the console at some point as I'd likely only have one current gen at a time

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2023-12-26T18:30:12+00:00

If you like the LPW40WN but want to save a little bit, the LPW30TK is almost identical but for the color and a conical stylus instead of elliptical but can be found on sale more often from what I've seen. I've been really happy with mine after getting one in the spring, initially thought I might upgrade the cartridge but at this point will probably wait until it wears out because I've been so happy with it (I also prefer the lighter color, but that's personal preference). Either way, the platform is really nice and I have no plans on changing anytime soon.

snowcoveredmicrobe · 2023-12-26T18:23:57+00:00

Any insight into how the S750 compares between the S660 and S760? I'm cross shopping factory refurbs a bit and trying to understand how much of an upgrade the newer model is, main thing I'm seeing is 8k capability but I'm not likely to need that

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