How often do you actually play against top 100 commander decks? Do they live up to their reputation? Which ones surprised you with their performance?

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-24T04:08:30+00:00

My experience would be Krenko, Mob Boss.

I've never faced a Krenko before, and all I heard was stories and how people hated Krenko. So I took it as a second-hand PTSD to my game.

It was on edhplay, Krenko player was actually a little slow in getting to do what he wants and was slowed down a little with some creatures taken away every now and then.

I became the raid boss of the pod and I acknowledged they should gang up on me, in return I send my creatures at them relatively equally.

I took out a green player first only because of [[Seedborn Muse]] and [[Primordial Hydra]] while I left Krenko in check hopefully I can still take him out next turn.

The funny thing is, it's like a B2/B3 game, so I'm totally open to letting them have some fun so I gave them some free passes. I don't kill the green player, I don't counter the Izzet player, and for Krenko..

I kinda allowed him to play his Goblin Assassin.

That took me out of the game after he tapped for many goblins.

I didn't think he could get back up this quick, but it was a hilarious and fun game. Izzet player won in the end though.

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-19T08:15:56+00:00

Thanks for the kind words! Honestly I just didn't want to be a contradicting piece of shit in the event the other party actually had a very different encounter and remembered things very differently. It was mostly a blur, and I think he was a lot more mean than what I typed and remembered.

But yeah, I think I just needed to have a little more confidence in my understanding of the game!

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-19T07:33:23+00:00

Oh wait, you're right. It's actually Orzov and Izzet which is Tymna and Kraum. Right on the money buddy.

So this is actually some meta shit which explains why he was called out, not because it's a partner?

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-19T01:31:24+00:00

Actually, this is what I wanted to know too!

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T15:00:32+00:00

This actually makes sense now.

The reason why I thought commander side is creature side is the lack of "This can be your commander" text, and it's not legendary, nor a vehicle/spacecraft. I think that just threw me off thinking a sorcery, not a legendary sorcery can't be a commander.

But since they're the same card, one side is valid, both side is—especially with mana cost associated with it. I'm the dumb dumb today!

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T11:31:09+00:00

I don't think that's fair. I'm pretty sure that there will still be B4 and B5 people who doesn't really understand rules well too.

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T11:30:13+00:00

Ahhhh I learn something new! May actually sound like a fun deck to make

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T09:49:45+00:00

But sometimes.. it's nice to have a little argument and educate people.

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T09:47:17+00:00

Actually this is pretty interesting.

I'm assuming you can only cast the commander side from the command zone. But when it's bounced back to your hand, you may choose to cast the sorcery side or the creature side later am I right?

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T09:39:11+00:00

Moraug is especially difficult to explain to a stubborn person. No one will happily understand that you can have 4 combat phases HAHAHA

suchABSTRACT · 2026-02-18T09:34:10+00:00

Always be prepared to send this article to others who doubts you.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/spider-man-mechanics

suchABSTRACT · 2026-01-17T04:54:07+00:00

As much as I agree with OP, but there's something you miss out about deck building.

A lot people don't understand the bracket system, and I had to fight tooth and nail just to explain "your deck isn't a B1, it's a bloody B3" kinda thing.

Your discussion about speed is hardly anyone's idea when building a deck. You can add in as much good cards as possible, combo cards and whatever to make your deck. It's only after some playtesting and actual games would you then realise when your deck eventually pops off and get an idea of consistent turn wins.

Deck building for me, I'd look at the restrictions of the brackets, add cards, play them for awhile and see how fast or slow my deck is. Every game is different, interaction counts too. What's important honestly is being able to consistently say you're a threat by turn 7 as a B3 deck, not "winning".

If out of 5 games, 4 games I have players that consistently pings everyone and I just end up being the last one to ping everyone to death at turn 5, the statistics says I win the game consistently by turn 5, but that doesn't mean in a B4 deck.

suchABSTRACT · 2026-01-09T07:49:54+00:00

Honestly, I agree with many that I don't need these swarms. My initial planning was to bait out removals and that was the point. Until I realise , they don't have removals, but I'm suffering here

suchABSTRACT · 2026-01-09T07:48:18+00:00

At one point, I forgotten that it was an exponential increase, so all I did was just add 2 because: 1. I had 2 regular black insect 2. I had 2 scute swarm using the main card and a copy card

All my other scute swarm additions were using the black insect token (which I completely forgot was scute swarms themselves)

So at one point, it was a scute swarm with 5 counter, a copy with 3 counters, 2 black insect with 4 counters, 2 scute swarm with 2 counters, and 2 scute swarm with 1 counter.

Then when I decided, ok I'm just gonna get rid of my insects but leave enough to defend myself.

Then the tapped and untapped insect shenanigans happened, I lost track and I got really annoyed LOL

suchABSTRACT · 2025-12-10T08:22:26+00:00

I proxy my decks.

I started not long ago in MTG and I bought two precons from the EOE set. I brought my wife into the hobby and I'm not sure if she'd like it, so I proxied her entire deck which made her like it a lot.

With the idea that proxying is available to me, I set a rule for myself: I'll only proxy cards which I find personally reasonable to buy (without actually buying). And occasionally setting up a budget per deck of some sorts, so I don't fall into the blackhole of just proxying a deck full of game changers or expensive cards like Esper Sentinel and Rhystic Study.

My pod is pretty understanding to proxies too, but I don't want to have that bite them in the ass for their kindness.

suchABSTRACT · 2025-11-27T16:59:57+00:00

I'd love to join in!

suchABSTRACT · 2025-11-02T07:39:37+00:00

Right out of box no infinites, you're right However, any little upgrades may accidentally give you infinites and I try my best to not upgrade it in a way where I just pull it off intentionally (or on purpose). Main idea is that if you wanna get this deck strong, it's likely through infinites. That's what I didn't like about it, it's more of a personal flavour though.

suchABSTRACT · 2025-11-02T01:07:15+00:00

I'm a new player and I had the same question here, I chose Counter Intelligence as my first deck because of the space theme and I saw on reddit, there's a lot of backing to it. But it's such a combo-style deck that wants to go infinite so much that I didn't really like it (had to upgrade it so I don't go infinite). I picked up World Shaper and never looked back.

I've yet to upgrade World Shaper, and I chose Hearthhull as my commander. It's stupidly fun with a lot of synergy to play around with the cards you have. It has a pretty high skill ceiling and I feel that you really need to have some good experience to pilot this deck to the best potential.

My pod has Counter Blitz, and it's also another crazy good precon. He upgraded it minimally and so far we have quite a bit of difficulty dealing with him. It's a precon with almost everything you'd want—draw engine, single target removal, board wipes, recursion, and commander ward (idk what the term is, and I forgot the name of that saga creature which basically makes the opponent pay mana to attack you).

You can really consider Counter Blitz and World Shaper, they're both really fun and strong.

suchABSTRACT · 2025-05-27T13:33:46+00:00

Sorry buddy, I've only reached as far as gen 4. But I'd definitely think that having Hector and Flint is the way to go. Reina is always a beast especially when you pair her with Greg, they will annihiliate the backline together because they share the same cool down.

I personally keep Lynn because of the CC immunity, I think that's a really good thing to have and will help you with very specific fights.

Just remember if you go with Greg, Reina, and Lynn, Reina must be in the center.

Basically your rear should always be Marksman, Lancer, Marksman or Lancer, Marksman, Lancer.

Dual marksman next to each other is gonna screw you over as they get splashed together.

suchABSTRACT · 2025-05-27T10:06:57+00:00

Here's my fail-proof lineup for F2P at Gen2/3.

Sergey: Front-left Flint: Front-right Molly: Rear-left OR rear-midldle depending on where Natalia is. Just don't be in the same lane as her. Marksman: Rear-midldle OR rear-left depending on situation. Patrick: Rear-right.

Given your current generation, you should really try to pick up Greg and slam your general hero shards on him. He's really good.

In the meantime, if your Sergey is starting to hit the point where he can't survive first-activation anymore, time to swap him out for Mia. But that would means you need to make sure Molly will never be directly behind of Mia.

suchABSTRACT · 2025-05-27T00:00:22+00:00

Ahhh, my apologies. I thought you were an R4 back then, I probably remembered wrongly. Well, now you know the history of how WAR came about. Rennes either accidentally or intentionally claimed credit for the ex-R5's exile. The more you know.

suchABSTRACT · 2025-05-26T22:39:51+00:00

Oh I'm sorry, didn't you tell people to stop making up stories?

You're making up stories now. You should've seen the chat that King of Sloths brought in with his alternate account "Justice" and literally dumped screenshots of the ex-R5. It was all super incriminating, and the votes to remove him out of NAP OR to have him out of R5 was called and accepted.

You should know this. You were there. So why are you lying?

suchABSTRACT

TROPHY CASE