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Switch to Forum Live View How to make your commander deck work 'better' without changing the core strategy

5 months ago :: Jan 11, 2013 - 11:51AM #11
niheloim Date Joined: Feb 3, 2008 Posts: 6,220	Jan 11, 2013 -- 10:34AM, JBTM wrote: Because "action" cards do something to the board/gamestate. Drawing cards doesn't actually do anything until you start casting those extra cards. It doesn't mean that drawing cards is bad, just that they fit into a different category. I was kidding when I "took exception"... But really, concentrate may not be an "action" card, but what about Mulldrifter huh? It has wings. When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself: "Is this card better than Rings ?" If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists. 3DH4LIF3 We should all have one of these playable from our sideboards
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5 months ago :: Jan 11, 2013 - 11:56AM #12
niheloim Date Joined: Feb 3, 2008 Posts: 6,220	@Tremor... would you mind if I linked to this in my advice section in the Decklist Compendium? I really like the example you gave with the number between the two hypothetical decks. It was an easily understood illustration of the POWER OF RAMP AND DRAW! When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself: "Is this card better than Rings ?" If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists. 3DH4LIF3 We should all have one of these playable from our sideboards
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5 months ago :: Jan 11, 2013 - 2:24PM #13
Tremor88 Date Joined: Feb 11, 2007 Posts: 1,541	Please do In all honesty I posted this so I'd have something easy to link to when replying to deck help threads. It's one of those things that seem common sense to vets but a lot of newer players (and some vets) have a hard time understanding.
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5 months ago :: Jan 11, 2013 - 2:34PM #14
niheloim Date Joined: Feb 3, 2008 Posts: 6,220	Cool beans. When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself: "Is this card better than Rings ?" If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists. 3DH4LIF3 We should all have one of these playable from our sideboards
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4 months ago :: Jan 12, 2013 - 10:39PM #15
Scytale1 Date Joined: Mar 21, 2010 Posts: 204	Jan 11, 2013 -- 2:59AM, Elzaban_the_Ethereal wrote: So what about non-blue monocolour decks, where there really isn't much card draw available, especially of the Concentrate variety (especially in mono-red)? In my red decks I use stuff like Mind stone . I think Wheel of Fortune is a must in any red deck if it's mono red Chandra Ablaze just for her -2. I've also started running Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded he's not really card advantge but he help you to see a lot more cards then you would otherwise. You can also play stuff like Anarchist Charmbreaker Devils to get value out of your wheel of fortune effects. Even in colors with card draw available I much prefer stuff that advances my own board state rather then concentrate spells. Stuff like Mulldrifter Phyrexian Arena Bloodgift demon Garruk Primal Hunter Tamiyo, the moon sage Disciple of Bolas soul of the harvest etc. Playing a peice of artifact mana a turn is fine until you get blown out by Austere command meltdown Pulverise fracturing gust I mind it's very easy for people to over extend with artifact mana sometimes playing extra lands in a deck is the right choice.
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4 months ago :: Jan 13, 2013 - 3:24AM #16
niheloim Date Joined: Feb 3, 2008 Posts: 6,220	Jan 12, 2013 -- 10:39PM, Scytale1 wrote: Jan 11, 2013 -- 2:59AM, Elzaban_the_Ethereal wrote: So what about non-blue monocolour decks, where there really isn't much card draw available, especially of the Concentrate variety (especially in mono-red)? In my red decks I use stuff like Mind stone . I think Wheel of Fortune is a must in any red deck if it's mono red Chandra Ablaze just for her -2. I've also started running Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded he's not really card advantge but he help you to see a lot more cards then you would otherwise. You can also play stuff like Anarchist Charmbreaker Devils to get value out of your wheel of fortune effects. Even in colors with card draw available I much prefer stuff that advances my own board state rather then concentrate spells. Stuff like Mulldrifter Phyrexian Arena Bloodgift demon Garruk Primal Hunter Tamiyo, the moon sage Disciple of Bolas soul of the harvest etc. Playing a peice of artifact mana a turn is fine until you get blown out by Austere command meltdown Pulverise fracturing gust I mind it's very easy for people to over extend with artifact mana sometimes playing extra lands in a deck is the right choice. playing extra lands is hard to do in colors that aren't green. Artifact mana is not a substitute for playing at least one land per turn. If you're playing catch-up with a Thran Dynamo there might be a problem. Tremors Example in the OP with the 33 lands and ten signets was just to show how ramp and card draw is better than the draw one card/ play one land per turn paradigm. Yeah, Vandalblast makes playing all artifact ramp look silly. There are ways to get extra lands into play. I think mono red might do well to play Wayfarer's Bauble and Solemn Simularum . I'm also a fan of Terrain Generator , escpecially with cards like Journeyer's Kite . When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself: "Is this card better than Rings ?" If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists. 3DH4LIF3 We should all have one of these playable from our sideboards
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4 months ago :: Jan 13, 2013 - 7:38AM #17
JBTM Date Joined: Nov 27, 2011 Posts: 1,691	Jan 13, 2013 -- 3:24AM, niheloim wrote: There are ways to get extra lands into play. I think mono red might do well to play Wayfarer's Bauble and Solemn Simularum . I'm also a fan of Terrain Generator , escpecially with cards like Journeyer's Kite . Druidic Satchel is one of my favorites.
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4 months ago :: Jan 13, 2013 - 8:02AM #18
morticianjohn Date Joined: Jun 14, 2006 Posts: 2,166	"ramp" isn't optimal for every EDH deck (although I can agree that a large majority of EDH decks require at least some kind of "ramp" especially if your play group plays "fair" decks). Don't be too smart to have fun
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4 months ago :: Jan 13, 2013 - 8:21AM #19
Tremor88 Date Joined: Feb 11, 2007 Posts: 1,541	Jan 12, 2013 -- 10:39PM, Scytale1 wrote: Even in colors with card draw available I much prefer stuff that advances my own board state rather then concentrate spells. You're nitpicking. I said it was a very oversimplified example. There aren't even 14 4-mana draw-3s in magic. Jan 12, 2013 -- 10:39PM, Scytale1 wrote: Playing a peice of artifact mana a turn is fine until you get blown out by Austere command Yeah. See aforementioned note about it being an versimplified example. I'm not actually saying every deck should run 11 signets. Heck, I'm not even saying you need to run 2-drop accelerants. If you prefer cultivate and far wanderings , go to town. All I said was that most decks posted here, and most decks I see played online don't pack enough ramp or card draw and I used a kindergarten-level example to show why they're missing out. Jan 13, 2013 -- 3:24AM, niheloim wrote: There are ways to get extra lands into play. I think mono red might do well to play Wayfarer's Bauble and Solemn Simularum . I'm also a fan of Terrain Generator , escpecially with cards like Journeyer's Kite . I'm actually a huge fan of tricks with thawing glaciers . EG: use expedition map to pair it with deserted temple , or if you play online it allows you to use lands with off-color mana symbols so it has awesome synergy with ravmica bouncelands . (eg: you activate thaw, then play your bounceland returning thaw and have effectively accelerated by 1). Jan 13, 2013 -- 8:02AM, morticianjohn wrote: "ramp" isn't optimal for every EDH deck (although I can agree that a large majority of EDH decks require at least some kind of "ramp" especially if your play group plays "fair" decks). Name a deck that doesn't want to ramp?
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4 months ago :: Jan 13, 2013 - 8:42AM #20
Perpetual Date Joined: Oct 24, 2011 Posts: 438	I guess you could argue that tribal decks have a lot of cheap creatures and therefore don't need ramp. You could also argue that a deck built around card advantage wouldn't need it as much, since with extra draws come extra land. But then you are back to what I said before: Good card draw doubles as bad ramp. Both arguments are fallacious. The title of the OP said how to run "better", and every deck will be better with the right ramp. Maybe one deck the right ramp is mana elves. Another may be mana rocks, and another may be land fetches. The two decks I run with the most dedicated ramp package both perform rather well despite one of them being a brainless Timmy deck and the other being a gimmicky Ally deck. That they both overperform, and both have more ramp than most of my eight or so other decks, makes me a believer in the idea put forth in the OP.
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