r/CompetitiveEDH

I want to get back into cEDH. I haven’t played CEDH since the Foundations set was released, so I imagine my Kinnan list may need to be updated. I am an okay player but good enough to know I can’t build a cEDH deck. Is there a list putting up good numbers right now? I think mine was a Big flips variant but I’ll rock with whatever. How’s the meta rn?

This has become my personal pet pieve. I get that giving out up to 3 byes sucks for those grinding points at the tournament, but let's be real here, 4- and 3-player cEDH are just not the same game. We all try to brew some of the tightest, most efficient decklists ever seen, only for the entire game dynamic being shifted by a random variable?

First and foremost, some combos do not work in 3 player pods, like the ASC+OBM+FMM+Tinderwall interaction, or Tivit Timeseave combo. If you happen to try to run Tivit in your local tournament and get a 3 player pod, you have a massive disadvantage, that's not really fair.

Also, most of our decks are balanced around 4 player pods, and there are so so many staples that scale with the number of players in the pod. Etali is 25% worse for example. Cards we design entire decks around like Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe, Tymna or Faerie Mastermind, the top staples of the format, scale directly with the pod size. Cards like Jeska's Will, Tataru Taru, Praetors Grasp, Mnemonic Betrail and Culling Ritual also suffer from less opponents.

Meanwhile, having less opponents automatically means less interaction against you. Wheels become a lot safer if your opponents only draw 14, not 21 cards. This shifts the entire dynamic of the game, massively to the disadvantage of control decks and towards a more turbo heavy meta. In my experience, in 3 player pods, the best thing is to just jam a win as fast as possible (of course watch the pod), you are way more likely to succeed than normally.

cEDH is defined by adjusting our decks to the current meta, but 3 and 4 player pods just have a totally different meta. We all signed up for player 4 player cEDH, that was what we thought about when we brewed up the decklist, that's how we play at the LGS. Wins in 3 player pods feel undeserved, Losses feel like you barely played the game. They are boring and ruin the tournament experience for me.

So as the title says, what basic tips and tricks can you share that might help us all get better? I feel I learn something new every day about magic, which completely makes sense, but even though I have played for many years there is still some basic interactions or even loops that surprise me.

The tip I saw today was that you can use [[Flare of Duplication]] to copy [[Silence]], which then counters the the original silence and obviously also benefits the rest of the turn.

A very basic I learned fairly early, but still was a surprise to me, was that you don't have to name a card in your deck for [[Demonic Consultation]], but just name whatever card to mill yourself.

So what other tips and tricks can you all share?

EDIT It seems I misunderstood the duplication of Silence and it does not counter the original Silence but still can be a beneficial interaction to do in case someone uses Silence to have a protected win.

My extended playgroup is talking about starting a 1v1 Commander league, and I'm looking for advice from anyone who's played something similar.

Our group's meta is mostly Bracket 4, or what I'd describe as "off-meta cEDH." We generally welcome cEDH commanders and decks after the appropriate Rule 0 discussion, but it's often just the most powerful stuff you'd see from people who don't follow cEDH meta. Think of it as people trying to make their favorite homebrew compete in a cEDH environment rather than everyone showing up with the established piles. I like this meta for pods, and we have a weekly after-hours after FNM that's a blast.

Our LGS also runs 1v1 Commander for FNM, and that's where the idea came from. The store is pretty loose when it comes to power level, so you occasionally end up with wildly mismatched games. That creates feel-bads for everyone, and we'd like to avoid that in this league.

The goal is to have everyone bring Bracket 4 or stronger decks and simply play for higher stakes. We're aiming for more of a "poker night" atmosphere where everyone knows they're bringing powerful decks and nobody feels bad because they showed up underpowered.

My biggest concern is that nobody wants to adopt a dedicated 1v1 ban list. They'd rather use the regular Commander ban list, and I think that's going to lead to some very lopsided games. I'm far from an expert on duel Commander, but I'd imagine commanders like [[Urza, Lord High Artificer]] and [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]] become significantly stronger when there isn't a full pod to keep them in check. Also feels like fast mana in your opening hand is an insane advantage.

For those of you with experience playing competitive 1v1 Commander:

• Have you found the regular Commander ban list to work ok, or does a dedicated 1v1 ban list create a healthier format? If so, which ban list is the one to use?
• What life total has worked best in your experience?
• Are there any house rules that helped keep the format balanced?
• How would you explain the benefits of a 1v1 ban list to a playgroup that has never used one?
• What commanders would you recommend for a competitive—but still interactive—1v1 environment?

Part of me wants to build the most broken deck I can and let the results speak for themselves if the group sticks with the multiplayer ban list. Right now I'm considering [[Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers]] to cheat out a few absurd creatures and threaten wins on turns 2 or 3, but I'm curious if there are even better options to smoke these guys. I think that a bunch of fast mana and rituals are going to be even more powerful in 1v1, but haven't played enough of this style to be sure.

If you've run or played in a league like this, I'd love to hear any advice, lessons learned, or things you'd do differently.

Hey all, I’m looking for the best way to print proxies? I have a website(mtgprint) and it’s working great, I just don’t know what the best type of printer would be, or if it works on foiled cardstock ya know? Anyway, lookinh for help because cards are too expensive lmao

Why [[Gwenom, Remorseless]] you ask? I think she’ll fit my play style the best. No Etali where I play with the decks of others or Kinnan shanenigans, just plain old Bolas on a stick. Paying life to cast cards until I get one of many wincons (tutor assisted) makes me a happy symbiote.

The cards are currently shipped and slowly coming in. The ones I have had the money for that is, I still have to save up some more for the Mox Diamond price range. While gold fishing I have a structured turn 3-5 win with an occasional turn 2 or even turn 1. Meta tells me there will always be some kind of counterspells, but if Gwenom hits the board and attacks, it’s going to pop off as long as I don’t get two lands in one turn.

And yes, I know a single [[Vexing Bauble]] can shut me out of the game, but dont tell the folks at my lgs about that one!

See you on the other side!

What would you guys say: starting with how many blue spells is it worth running free spells like [[Force of Will]] and such?

So I run a prismatic bridge deck and with it [[Vexing Bauble]] because with 19 or 20 blue mana spells I don't think it's worth running blue free spells that discard/exile another blue card from hand nor running a deflecting swat/fierce guardianship with 5 mana cmdr.

Besides that I run [[gitaxian probe]] [[mental misstep]] [[daze]] [[mind break trap]] and lastly [[archive trap]] as free spells. So for me it's still worth to run vexing Bauble with these 2 phyrexian free spells and the 3 other ones, right?

Now to archive trap: is it any good? I didn't draw it yet in my games so I didn't experience it's value. Noone is running it as far as I know, why? Isn't a free spell to make an enemy mill their precious tutored spell nice, seeing that everyone runs 1mana tutors?

Edit: I see now that it's not worth cuz of underworld breach. Even tho if I have 2 gy hate cards, right?

Thanks for reading and pls bear with me, I'm not that experienced in Cedh.

Just curious on how many people actually play with non-proxy decks, or even partial non-proxy decks.

I have enough proxies and non-proxies to put a deck I’ve been wanting to play together. And wondering if I should just go full proxy so all the cards are the same exact quality. And prevent the urge from double sleeving the deck, knowing I have some expensive real cards in it lol.

Also. Does the double sleeving make the deck annoyingly big to handle?

Just looking for a general consensus on these thoughts. Thank you in advance

Verdict: seems like a good mix of proxy, non-proxy, and mixed. Double sleeve preferred. Also glad to see I’m not the only one spending 10x more on a card version cause it looks cooler lmao

So, I used to play Blue Farm, T&T and Rakdos as my usual commanders, so I wanted to try something new. I bought Najeela. I have several questions about the deck and play style:

1. How much peaces of interaction must have my deck? I checked several deck lists and I see that each of them have different number of interactions. I mean, each of them have Silence and Force of Will, but I'm not sure about amount.

2. Are Jegantha, Faebow Elder and Bloom Tender good cards for the deck? As far as I see, they just giving you easy infinite combo, if you have colors (for Faebow Elder and Bloom Tender).

3. How should I play this deck: as a trible or as a combo? This question is more about amount of tutors for the deck. As far as I know, Najeela more focused on kindred, not on combo search.

Sorry for my mistakes in English.
Thank you for your answers and advice!

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering if there are any good deck tech videos for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Also, if you've played the deck yourself, could you share your experience? I'd love to hear your insights on how to build and pilot it correctly in the current meta.

Thanks in advance!