One thing I've done in the past to help me decide what to cut: I categorised my decklist by the role in the deck (ramp, removal etc), with cards serving multiple functions being put in each category. Then I've looked at which cards pull double-duty, and shortlisted the cards which only serve a single purpose for removal. I think this approach works best when you have a 'tech deck' where you have very little flex space in the deck and might value cards which do more than one thing more highly than in other decks.
Step 1. Begin with motivation and hope. Step 2. Separate cards WAY too many piles of synergistic, viable cards. Step 3. Anxiety. Step 4. Have an Existential crisis upon realization that you cannot finish any task you start.
Haha, I feel this. I think the trick is getting your vision of what you want your deck to do super super super super clear. Then I make a pre-cut list of cards, and save that, then cut aggressively in line with that vision. If a card is anything but a hell yes in line with that vision, it's gone. Worst case scenario I don't fill the deck, but then I still have the pre-cut list saved.
Honestly needed this video. Been making a baylen go wide token creatures deck and was stuck at 103/100 cards for days. I’ve goldfished it a few times alone and with friends and realized I felt I was pulling too many instants in my opening hand. Going forward I will recommend friends watch this if they ever have any questions!
Love Baylen! And great, glad you enjoyed the video. On the one hand, I wanted to include tons more general deckbuilding principles and tips, but on the other I wanted to keep this as focused on the key points I was trying to make that I haven't seen elsewhere. So again, glad you enjoyed it!
Really awesome video! I myself am currently working on my very first Commander deck, which happens to be a Black/Green graveyard deck with Grist, Voracious Larva as my commander. I'm definitely going a lot more wide rather than tall, but this video still helped out a lot to figure out some stuff, not to mention brought some cards I never even heard of to my attention! Great work!
I always loved Meren but struggled to find or come up with a build that is not full of edict effects that would make the deck unfun to play against. I am loving yours though and I am thinking about building this. I have swapped several cards that I am already running elsewhere or for budget reasons: Mikaeus Unhallowed >>> Journey to Eternity Augmenter Guardian >>> Gift of Doom Sidisi >>> Rottenmouth Viper Massacre Wurm >>> Demon of Dark Schemes Survival of the Fittest >>> Birthing Ritual Can't wait to play it! You have my sub!
glad you enjoyed the video friend In my opinion not having ton of edict effects is the key to a Meren list that is fun for everyone. I've considered all of those cards, all are solid choices. Hope you enjoy it friend. I find the early reanimation, and tons of mill as a very fun Meren list to play. Often I don't even need to play Meren to have a fun game.
As a Meren/Enjoyer of all things graveyard, cutting Living Death feels wild to me. It's been one of my primary win cons for years getting that sweet Living Death + Gary recursion win. Really enjoyed the video 👍
Yeah It was definitely one that hurt to cut, but personally I've found single early reanimation is what I want, and that Living Death is often a dead card until much later. And then when I want to use it, often it's primarily to get Gary or Kokusho back right after saccing it to burst through a win and I don't need to clear the board, or bring back the rest of my graveyard to do that. Definitely don't think it's bad, or wrong to play it, because I love the card to death. Just right now it's not working for me.
@@BasedDeckDept completely understand, I've stopped playing my Meren deck, mainly due to how the rest of my LGS don't like playing against it. I can't decide if I need to stop taking the decks as far as I can and instead build more for fun.
My absolute favorite card in my meren deck is veteran explorer Ive put 10 plus lands into play for everyone in a single turn multiple times always a blast doing it
I’d love a video about when to recognise that your deck is missing ramp or doesn’t have enough card draw or needs more interaction, or needs a lower mana curve etc. deep dives I to why a deck would feel clunky, and how to identify the root cause of the clunkiness. I’m only just starting to figure these feelings I get during a game out… so would be good for new starters!
I'll add this to the list of topics It's a balance, that changes depending on other parts of your deck. For example, entire deck cost 3 mana or less? probably don't need any ramp. Most spells cost 4-5 mana? Well then you need some ramp. Etc. But yeah, I'll think through the topic properly soon.
There's loads of great tips for deck building but in moxfield you can tag cards, I tag them into groups like ramp, draw, attack, protect, removal or something specific to your commander like ETB. You can do some maths or use Deckulator to figure out odds of drawing the types of cards you'd like to see in the first 12 draws (eg 5 mana, 1 ramp, 1 draw and so on..) This is just one method that helps make it really clear what group of cards should be cut down. More often than not it makes it easier to realise every group needs a shave and you should add more basic lands 😂
Great video! Meren is one of my oldest and most loved decks. Can confirm, Massacre Wurm is so much fun. Speaking of fun politics opportunities, Incarnation Technique is amazing. 5 mana to mill 10 and reanimate 2 creatures at the cost of letting someone else mill 5 and reanimate 1. Nice. Cards like this and Breach the Multiverse are great, especially when you need to get back in the game from having your graveyard exiled!
Hello fellow Meren enjoyer! Incarnation Technique is amazing and I'd never seen it, which I'm shocked by. Now I have to practice what I preach about cutting cards because this needs a home...
@@BasedDeckDept I hope you find room for it! If you're running any cards like Campfire or Cranial Archive that are meant to protect your graveyard from getting exiled, I think these cards are good substitutes. Once I just accepted that my graveyard is getting exiled at least once per game, I found that the best insurance policy was to just mill myself faster than they can exile me haha. In one game, I cast Incarnation Technique, got my graveyard exiled, later I cast Breach the Multiverse, someone else exiled my graveyard again, and I STILL ended up winning that game because I had enough little dudes like Deathcap Marionette and Circle of the Land Druid milling me along the way.
@@peterd8251 Yeah I'm right here with you when it comes to just more mill vs graveyard protection. I don't love cards that do one specific thing but don't impact the game in any meaningful way (like graveyard protection). Will definitely test out the technique!
Seems like a pretty solid meren list tbh. Im personally pretty averse to tutoring a ton so I solved it by adding more self milling options in my karador deck. Just a personal preference but if you get sick of the tutors I found running 15+ self mill has worked great.
Thanks for watching As for the note on tutors, that's very fair. I find that changing decks over time is a good way to keep things fresh. It's quite likely at some point that I'll swap out some tutoring for more self mill.
Yo, thanks for opening my eyes to Junji and Insidious Fungus! In return, here are a few cards you may be interested in: Boggart Trawler (Bojuka Bog upgrade) Lazotep Quarry (High Market upgrade/duplicate) Stitch Together (In your deck, probably a flat-out upgrade to Exhume/Animate Dead/etc.) Demon of Dark Schemes (Massacre Wurm alternative with a great reanimation ability) Grim Servant (Lower-curve Sidisi) Chupacabra Echo (Ravenous Chupacabra that gets past indestructible) Faceless Butcher (Lets you reuse ETBs, incredible removal when you can sac at instant speed) Altar of Dementia (Sac outlet that mills you; seems right up your alley) Funnily enough, half of these aren't in my own Meren deck lol, they work better for your strategy than mine. Just goes to show that the commander isn't everything!
Fantastic suggestions friend. I just love that no matter how long one has played this game there are tons of cards you still don't know, or have forgotten about. Will definitely check them out.
I feel like playtesting is the best way to figure out whats cuttable. After enough games you'll start to notice dead cards that just never do what you intended. They just stay in your hand doing nothing every game, or theres just too many hoops for it to work. Then ill notice maybe too many kinds of a certain kind of card. I have a self mill mycotyrant deck and i noticed it had too many self mill pieces. While self mill is crucial to my deck its all i was drawing and when im already milling like 10 cards a turn i dont really need to draw any more self mill engines but thats exactly what happens. On the opposite side of the spectrum perhaps my deck isnt doing enough self mill and im drawing too much recursion then i have to make some swaps. Then optimizing. If a card does the same thing but its less cmc or is just a better card then take out the card. Why run murder of i can run heros downfall or some other kill spell thats less cmc?
LOL when you copy and paste a placeholder and don't fill in the correct info. F. Fwiw my favourite slime is just a worse hornet queen for me 90% of the time. That's what it should've said
I often find there is merit to just play one deck for a while and change 1 card at a time. If you play and you miss land, add a land, if you play and miss card draw, add one. If you play and hate a card you draw, remove it. It often end up being the last few touches that make a very cool deck great. Also yeah, if you want to add a card because it is cool, find the least cool card in the category, or the most expensive and switch them.
Thanks for watching The only thing I'd comment on is that you need to be careful that doing this over time doesn't imbalance your deck significantly. This is exactly what I had done with Meren over a few years, but it lead to things being quite imbalanced. So occasionally sorting the deck and getting a birds eye view is helpful
Nice video! I'm currently building Meren as my first Golgari Commander. I love the cards art and reanimation strategies. Have you considered Six? It seems like he can generate a lot of value even if it's not on ETB. Thanks a lot!
@@Yomolink Glad you're enjoying Meren. Six is a fantastic card, but probably a bit slow for what I'm trying to do. If my Meren deck was more grindy and not trying to be as explosive with reanimation, I'd almost certainly add him
Hey! Firstly thanks for watching Then on Gruff triplets, I did consider it, but I didn't want to build my deck to win by combat damage, and if gruff triplets is just part of a value sac engine, then I've got better options. It also felt underwhelming when I drew it and didn't have a sac engine already up and running. Very similar reason that I cut Mitotic Slime. Triplets is great, just doesn't do what I want.
@@Schlummigumpf Glad you enjoyed it! If you liked this, no doubt you'd also enjoy my other recent stuff, and you'll probably notice some editing evolution in the newest one
When playing exhume, how often do you find yourself hesitating on casting it because of what an opponent could bring back? Do you just full send it knowing you're probably going to get the most value? Or do you find your opponents graveyards are usually stocked enough to make you pause and weigh whether or not its worth it?
Good question. It depends on what the other players are playing, but most of the time, my deck is going to win a 'scary creature in graveyard' arms race because that's what my deck is designed to do. If I'm in a situation where someone else will benefit a lot, I'll likely do some playful pre-emptive politicking before I announce I'm casting exhume. "Hey x player with an etali in the yard. If I helped you get that back, can we agree it's not coming at me?"etc. So in that sense, I'm almost always going to cast it, I'm just going to make the best of the situation that I can. More full send, with nuance.
@@charliescheirmann2926 It's a pleasure! I find that provided a card is doing something my deck wants, if there's a different potential mode, or possible variance that can be created, that's where the true magic of commander happens. So a big fan things like this.
i've been feeling similar towards win more cards, like doubling season and anointed procession, those are explosive, but on their own don't accomplish anything in the end
Yeah there's a fine balance between enablers like these. I probably want some of them, but just enough because if you draw just enablers it feels really bad. There's also the opportunity cost of tapping out 5 mana to play something that requires you to untap to get an effect then someone removes it. Feelsbad, so a fine balance.
@@JorgePalmaINACAP Indeed. I think too often players don't have the experience or skills to critically assess what should or shouldn't go into a deck and rely too heavily on external information like decklists and EDHRec. Something to add to my deckbuilding principles video
I would say that you seem to sleep a tiny bit on Cankerbloom. That card is MVP.. it can "just" sac itself to proliferate as the very first thing dying with Meren out and net you 2 experience counters and just return for free (well okay, 1 mana paid), it synergizes greatly with includes in my list, Sheoldred / True Scriptures, Grist, the Hunger Tide, Rottenmouth Viper and Gruff Triplets (though the latter is an ? for me).
Thanks for watching 🤜🤛FWIW I love Cankerbloom and I've run it in my deck for the past few years. I removed it because I wanted more 1 drops, and my 2 drop slot was already so saturated, plus the way I want my deck to work, the proliferate wasn't critical. I agree with all your points though and for most, I'd recommend the little guy. Love the other cards that you're running too and I can see why you run them!
@@BasedDeckDept Yeah, mainly Sheoldred/True Scriptures is an absolute bomb. Two removals for each opponent, one on ETB for 5 mana and one on flip, followed by a 3-card discard and then a full graveyard ress of everyone to my field is insane. Paired with Cankerbloom and also Yawgmoth to speed such things up if needed is a nightmare to a table that otherwise thinks it still has some time to deal with it.
It all depends on your play group, my opinion is largely irrelevant unless you're playing with me That said, if you were playing with me, yes I think it's based, as long as I know it's coming and can play a deck that stands a chance into that kind of game (good time not long time)
It does not and will not ever matter how little or much my cards cost. I put 40 lands in every deck I make and 6-10 mana rocks. I will never draw an opening hand with more that two lands (it’s a very rare occasion to get three) and I’ve only seen any mana rocks including sol ring in the first three turns of play about 1 time every 30 games.
@@BasedDeckDept You got me thinking. I want to bring up something about MTGA that annoys me in a video. I wish they'd let you make any deck with cards you don't own to test against the AI before investing wild cards. Edit: Just thinking about mtg in general lol
When in doubt, cut lands. You only get to play 1 a turn by default, and they often do nothing by themselves. Make sure every land you play does something for your deck.
Works 60% of the time every time. Cutting lands is ok until it's not But I've definitely been guilty of cutting the odd land or two to squeeze in the juice
@@maxspecs It depends on the deck. In 3 colour decks, maybe 10? If it's a budget deck, probably up to 15. Likewise for two colour decks it's likely more, especially for the budget end.
no offense but seeing you not play sol ring because it's too powerful only to advocate for survival of the fittest ($200) over fauna shaman ($2 AND a creature) feels like an insult to both casual and budget players
That's a fair bit of projected negativity. My deck contains both Fauna Shaman and Survival to begin with. I recently added and bought a gold bordered one for $40 as this is one of my main and more powerful decks, and I've wanted Survival since the beginning. I'm not anti proxying and if you look at by deck videos, you'll also see mostly budget brews, so I'd like to think I'm not insulting anyone. Appreciate you watching though and hope this helps you understand my approach 🤜🤛
One thing I've done in the past to help me decide what to cut: I categorised my decklist by the role in the deck (ramp, removal etc), with cards serving multiple functions being put in each category. Then I've looked at which cards pull double-duty, and shortlisted the cards which only serve a single purpose for removal. I think this approach works best when you have a 'tech deck' where you have very little flex space in the deck and might value cards which do more than one thing more highly than in other decks.
Big fan of cards fulfilling multiple roles
Step 1. Begin with motivation and hope.
Step 2. Separate cards WAY too many piles of synergistic, viable cards.
Step 3. Anxiety.
Step 4. Have an Existential crisis upon realization that you cannot finish any task you start.
Haha, I feel this. I think the trick is getting your vision of what you want your deck to do super super super super clear. Then I make a pre-cut list of cards, and save that, then cut aggressively in line with that vision. If a card is anything but a hell yes in line with that vision, it's gone. Worst case scenario I don't fill the deck, but then I still have the pre-cut list saved.
This reminds me back when I first got into commander and tried brewing a Ludevic/Kraum deck. Ended up with like 220 non lands and was sad.
Honestly needed this video. Been making a baylen go wide token creatures deck and was stuck at 103/100 cards for days. I’ve goldfished it a few times alone and with friends and realized I felt I was pulling too many instants in my opening hand. Going forward I will recommend friends watch this if they ever have any questions!
Love Baylen! And great, glad you enjoyed the video. On the one hand, I wanted to include tons more general deckbuilding principles and tips, but on the other I wanted to keep this as focused on the key points I was trying to make that I haven't seen elsewhere. So again, glad you enjoyed it!
Loved this video… I also have a soft spot in my heart for Meren, some great examples here
Thanks friend, glad you enjoyed it
Really awesome video!
I myself am currently working on my very first Commander deck, which happens to be a Black/Green graveyard deck with Grist, Voracious Larva as my commander. I'm definitely going a lot more wide rather than tall, but this video still helped out a lot to figure out some stuff, not to mention brought some cards I never even heard of to my attention! Great work!
Glad you enjoyed it! Busy working on a deck building principles video. You'll likely find that useful! 😁
Definitely needed this
❤️❤️
I was dumb enough to think this was about actually damaging the cards. Remember: perfection is when there's nothing left to remove.
I always loved Meren but struggled to find or come up with a build that is not full of edict effects that would make the deck unfun to play against. I am loving yours though and I am thinking about building this. I have swapped several cards that I am already running elsewhere or for budget reasons:
Mikaeus Unhallowed >>> Journey to Eternity
Augmenter Guardian >>> Gift of Doom
Sidisi >>> Rottenmouth Viper
Massacre Wurm >>> Demon of Dark Schemes
Survival of the Fittest >>> Birthing Ritual
Can't wait to play it! You have my sub!
glad you enjoyed the video friend In my opinion not having ton of edict effects is the key to a Meren list that is fun for everyone. I've considered all of those cards, all are solid choices. Hope you enjoy it friend. I find the early reanimation, and tons of mill as a very fun Meren list to play. Often I don't even need to play Meren to have a fun game.
As a Meren/Enjoyer of all things graveyard, cutting Living Death feels wild to me. It's been one of my primary win cons for years getting that sweet Living Death + Gary recursion win. Really enjoyed the video 👍
Yeah It was definitely one that hurt to cut, but personally I've found single early reanimation is what I want, and that Living Death is often a dead card until much later. And then when I want to use it, often it's primarily to get Gary or Kokusho back right after saccing it to burst through a win and I don't need to clear the board, or bring back the rest of my graveyard to do that. Definitely don't think it's bad, or wrong to play it, because I love the card to death. Just right now it's not working for me.
@@BasedDeckDept completely understand, I've stopped playing my Meren deck, mainly due to how the rest of my LGS don't like playing against it.
I can't decide if I need to stop taking the decks as far as I can and instead build more for fun.
My absolute favorite card in my meren deck is veteran explorer
Ive put 10 plus lands into play for everyone in a single turn multiple times always a blast doing it
That seems like a fantastic way to guarantee all kinds of messed up things for everyone. I love it
I’d love a video about when to recognise that your deck is missing ramp or doesn’t have enough card draw or needs more interaction, or needs a lower mana curve etc. deep dives I to why a deck would feel clunky, and how to identify the root cause of the clunkiness.
I’m only just starting to figure these feelings I get during a game out… so would be good for new starters!
I'll add this to the list of topics It's a balance, that changes depending on other parts of your deck. For example, entire deck cost 3 mana or less? probably don't need any ramp. Most spells cost 4-5 mana? Well then you need some ramp. Etc. But yeah, I'll think through the topic properly soon.
There's loads of great tips for deck building but in moxfield you can tag cards, I tag them into groups like ramp, draw, attack, protect, removal or something specific to your commander like ETB.
You can do some maths or use Deckulator to figure out odds of drawing the types of cards you'd like to see in the first 12 draws (eg 5 mana, 1 ramp, 1 draw and so on..)
This is just one method that helps make it really clear what group of cards should be cut down.
More often than not it makes it easier to realise every group needs a shave and you should add more basic lands 😂
Great video! Meren is one of my oldest and most loved decks. Can confirm, Massacre Wurm is so much fun. Speaking of fun politics opportunities, Incarnation Technique is amazing. 5 mana to mill 10 and reanimate 2 creatures at the cost of letting someone else mill 5 and reanimate 1. Nice. Cards like this and Breach the Multiverse are great, especially when you need to get back in the game from having your graveyard exiled!
Hello fellow Meren enjoyer! Incarnation Technique is amazing and I'd never seen it, which I'm shocked by. Now I have to practice what I preach about cutting cards because this needs a home...
@@BasedDeckDept I hope you find room for it! If you're running any cards like Campfire or Cranial Archive that are meant to protect your graveyard from getting exiled, I think these cards are good substitutes. Once I just accepted that my graveyard is getting exiled at least once per game, I found that the best insurance policy was to just mill myself faster than they can exile me haha. In one game, I cast Incarnation Technique, got my graveyard exiled, later I cast Breach the Multiverse, someone else exiled my graveyard again, and I STILL ended up winning that game because I had enough little dudes like Deathcap Marionette and Circle of the Land Druid milling me along the way.
@@peterd8251 Yeah I'm right here with you when it comes to just more mill vs graveyard protection. I don't love cards that do one specific thing but don't impact the game in any meaningful way (like graveyard protection). Will definitely test out the technique!
Seems like a pretty solid meren list tbh. Im personally pretty averse to tutoring a ton so I solved it by adding more self milling options in my karador deck. Just a personal preference but if you get sick of the tutors I found running 15+ self mill has worked great.
Thanks for watching As for the note on tutors, that's very fair. I find that changing decks over time is a good way to keep things fresh. It's quite likely at some point that I'll swap out some tutoring for more self mill.
1. What's the floor?
2. What's the ceiling?
3. Does it draw you a card(s)?
4. Is is Cmc 4 or more?
Yo, thanks for opening my eyes to Junji and Insidious Fungus! In return, here are a few cards you may be interested in:
Boggart Trawler (Bojuka Bog upgrade)
Lazotep Quarry (High Market upgrade/duplicate)
Stitch Together (In your deck, probably a flat-out upgrade to Exhume/Animate Dead/etc.)
Demon of Dark Schemes (Massacre Wurm alternative with a great reanimation ability)
Grim Servant (Lower-curve Sidisi)
Chupacabra Echo (Ravenous Chupacabra that gets past indestructible)
Faceless Butcher (Lets you reuse ETBs, incredible removal when you can sac at instant speed)
Altar of Dementia (Sac outlet that mills you; seems right up your alley)
Funnily enough, half of these aren't in my own Meren deck lol, they work better for your strategy than mine. Just goes to show that the commander isn't everything!
Fantastic suggestions friend. I just love that no matter how long one has played this game there are tons of cards you still don't know, or have forgotten about. Will definitely check them out.
Very nice video, thank you vm!
@@flosiporosi7827 🤜🤛
I feel like playtesting is the best way to figure out whats cuttable. After enough games you'll start to notice dead cards that just never do what you intended. They just stay in your hand doing nothing every game, or theres just too many hoops for it to work. Then ill notice maybe too many kinds of a certain kind of card. I have a self mill mycotyrant deck and i noticed it had too many self mill pieces. While self mill is crucial to my deck its all i was drawing and when im already milling like 10 cards a turn i dont really need to draw any more self mill engines but thats exactly what happens. On the opposite side of the spectrum perhaps my deck isnt doing enough self mill and im drawing too much recursion then i have to make some swaps. Then optimizing. If a card does the same thing but its less cmc or is just a better card then take out the card. Why run murder of i can run heros downfall or some other kill spell thats less cmc?
Couldn't agree more. I'm yet to do a more 'mechanically focused' deck building video, but that would rank right up there.
Today I learned Mitotic Slime has flying. Great video though!
LOL when you copy and paste a placeholder and don't fill in the correct info. F. Fwiw my favourite slime is just a worse hornet queen for me 90% of the time. That's what it should've said
I often find there is merit to just play one deck for a while and change 1 card at a time. If you play and you miss land, add a land, if you play and miss card draw, add one. If you play and hate a card you draw, remove it. It often end up being the last few touches that make a very cool deck great. Also yeah, if you want to add a card because it is cool, find the least cool card in the category, or the most expensive and switch them.
Thanks for watching The only thing I'd comment on is that you need to be careful that doing this over time doesn't imbalance your deck significantly. This is exactly what I had done with Meren over a few years, but it lead to things being quite imbalanced. So occasionally sorting the deck and getting a birds eye view is helpful
Nice video! I'm currently building Meren as my first Golgari Commander. I love the cards art and reanimation strategies.
Have you considered Six? It seems like he can generate a lot of value even if it's not on ETB.
Thanks a lot!
@@Yomolink Glad you're enjoying Meren. Six is a fantastic card, but probably a bit slow for what I'm trying to do. If my Meren deck was more grindy and not trying to be as explosive with reanimation, I'd almost certainly add him
Hey, nice video. Have you considered gruff triplets for your meren deck? I love it when you have the ability to sac it and bring it back :D
Hey! Firstly thanks for watching Then on Gruff triplets, I did consider it, but I didn't want to build my deck to win by combat damage, and if gruff triplets is just part of a value sac engine, then I've got better options. It also felt underwhelming when I drew it and didn't have a sac engine already up and running. Very similar reason that I cut Mitotic Slime. Triplets is great, just doesn't do what I want.
Fair enough, keep up the great work. I really enjoyed your style of editing
@@BasedDeckDept
@@Schlummigumpf Glad you enjoyed it! If you liked this, no doubt you'd also enjoy my other recent stuff, and you'll probably notice some editing evolution in the newest one
When playing exhume, how often do you find yourself hesitating on casting it because of what an opponent could bring back? Do you just full send it knowing you're probably going to get the most value? Or do you find your opponents graveyards are usually stocked enough to make you pause and weigh whether or not its worth it?
Good question. It depends on what the other players are playing, but most of the time, my deck is going to win a 'scary creature in graveyard' arms race because that's what my deck is designed to do. If I'm in a situation where someone else will benefit a lot, I'll likely do some playful pre-emptive politicking before I announce I'm casting exhume. "Hey x player with an etali in the yard. If I helped you get that back, can we agree it's not coming at me?"etc. So in that sense, I'm almost always going to cast it, I'm just going to make the best of the situation that I can. More full send, with nuance.
@@BasedDeckDept Using it as a political tool is a good idea.That makes alot of sense, thank you!
@@charliescheirmann2926 It's a pleasure! I find that provided a card is doing something my deck wants, if there's a different potential mode, or possible variance that can be created, that's where the true magic of commander happens. So a big fan things like this.
i've been feeling similar towards win more cards, like doubling season and anointed procession, those are explosive, but on their own don't accomplish anything in the end
Yeah there's a fine balance between enablers like these. I probably want some of them, but just enough because if you draw just enablers it feels really bad. There's also the opportunity cost of tapping out 5 mana to play something that requires you to untap to get an effect then someone removes it. Feelsbad, so a fine balance.
@@BasedDeckDept same with haste enablers if the strategy that generates the majority of the attackers makes them enter after combat damage
@@JorgePalmaINACAP Indeed. I think too often players don't have the experience or skills to critically assess what should or shouldn't go into a deck and rely too heavily on external information like decklists and EDHRec. Something to add to my deckbuilding principles video
I would say that you seem to sleep a tiny bit on Cankerbloom. That card is MVP.. it can "just" sac itself to proliferate as the very first thing dying with Meren out and net you 2 experience counters and just return for free (well okay, 1 mana paid), it synergizes greatly with includes in my list, Sheoldred / True Scriptures, Grist, the Hunger Tide, Rottenmouth Viper and Gruff Triplets (though the latter is an ? for me).
Thanks for watching 🤜🤛FWIW I love Cankerbloom and I've run it in my deck for the past few years. I removed it because I wanted more 1 drops, and my 2 drop slot was already so saturated, plus the way I want my deck to work, the proliferate wasn't critical. I agree with all your points though and for most, I'd recommend the little guy. Love the other cards that you're running too and I can see why you run them!
@@BasedDeckDept Yeah, mainly Sheoldred/True Scriptures is an absolute bomb. Two removals for each opponent, one on ETB for 5 mana and one on flip, followed by a 3-card discard and then a full graveyard ress of everyone to my field is insane. Paired with Cankerbloom and also Yawgmoth to speed such things up if needed is a nightmare to a table that otherwise thinks it still has some time to deal with it.
Is tinybones trinket thief based?
It all depends on your play group, my opinion is largely irrelevant unless you're playing with me That said, if you were playing with me, yes I think it's based, as long as I know it's coming and can play a deck that stands a chance into that kind of game (good time not long time)
Okay, i am a complete crow xd
Aren't we all. Ever fighting the urge to go full crow mode
It does not and will not ever matter how little or much my cards cost. I put 40 lands in every deck I make and 6-10 mana rocks. I will never draw an opening hand with more that two lands (it’s a very rare occasion to get three) and I’ve only seen any mana rocks including sol ring in the first three turns of play about 1 time every 30 games.
Based
@@BasedDeckDept You got me thinking. I want to bring up something about MTGA that annoys me in a video. I wish they'd let you make any deck with cards you don't own to test against the AI before investing wild cards.
Edit: Just thinking about mtg in general lol
@@Jupiterbun-bunJetson Yeah I feel that
5:07 "+its not a creature" BASED sol ring is cringe enjoyer
I'm having a ton of trouble making a deck with just really hot women on the cards. I can't seem to find a cohesive strategy or shell for that
The Lord gives his strongest soldiers the toughest battles 🤜🤛 I'll have a think and see if I can solve your conundrum
@BasedDeckDept thank you so much. I have seen three tappedout lists that list out ALL the cards, so if you need em lemme know
When in doubt, cut lands. You only get to play 1 a turn by default, and they often do nothing by themselves. Make sure every land you play does something for your deck.
Works 60% of the time every time. Cutting lands is ok until it's not But I've definitely been guilty of cutting the odd land or two to squeeze in the juice
@@BasedDeckDept How many basic lands do you actually run in any deck with 3 or more colors? or even 2 color decks?
@@maxspecs It depends on the deck. In 3 colour decks, maybe 10? If it's a budget deck, probably up to 15. Likewise for two colour decks it's likely more, especially for the budget end.
37 lands in every single deck period
no offense but seeing you not play sol ring because it's too powerful only to advocate for survival of the fittest ($200) over fauna shaman ($2 AND a creature) feels like an insult to both casual and budget players
That's a fair bit of projected negativity. My deck contains both Fauna Shaman and Survival to begin with. I recently added and bought a gold bordered one for $40 as this is one of my main and more powerful decks, and I've wanted Survival since the beginning. I'm not anti proxying and if you look at by deck videos, you'll also see mostly budget brews, so I'd like to think I'm not insulting anyone. Appreciate you watching though and hope this helps you understand my approach
🤜🤛
I mean not liking sol ring isnt an uncommon opinion, especially among the more casual part of the community
I’ve never seen so many bad takes in one place
Unfortunate, thanks for watching 🤜🤛