I like to be great at Magic, not because i want to win and optimize, but because i want to build thematic decks that function well and be able to enjoy the game seamlessly. I love the idea of us being wizards battleing each other.
I absolutely agree. My hottest take in Magic is probably that the introduction of planeswalkers in cardboard was the death of immersive lore in the game.
Great advice for newer players. It's easy to get overwhelmed in this game, but playing with the intention of and a focus on learning will help you understand the game and improve faster. You're good at presenting info, man. Keep it up!
I thought this was going to be more meme content. Like stage one is denial, I don’t have an addiction. Stage 4 is selling your whole collection. Stage 5 is buying back in. That sort of thing
It is, but if you don't have the tools to use that information, it doesn't really affect you. Knowing that "red burn is broken right now" doesn't do much good unless you do something to react to it.
What's it called when you know you're going to get blown out, but you're going to lose anyways and need to play to your outs, so you risk it, it happens and you just feel bad
Then you stop playing for the day for the most part and start playing again when in a better headspace. Reviewing my games later on confirmed that I do not play well when on tilt.
@@akorthouwer I was talking more about that experience in person, I don't care when I do that online but in person I feel like when it's a friend or especially when it's somebody I think is pretty good then I feel embarrassed like I didn't walk into a fairly obvious telegraphed bomb but every time I'm hoping it's a bluff, I really don't have outs, I don't have the luxury of playing around, I'd have no outs. This seems like a fairly specific occurrence but in limited it seems to happen frequently enough that I'm keenly aware of this interaction, probably because limited decks are very inconsistent so you can be in a position where you're dealing with very few resources that don't work that well together and also be in a position where you're hoping your opponent doesn't have the answer but is representing that they do.
I call it flopping around. I picture I'm like a magikarp, or any fish, out of water just flopping trying to survive. I think of all of my outs, and try to play to what I could have. I have actually won 2 limited sets against a good opponent doing this.
You play enough games that you get used to the emotion enough to cope with it. Imagine having gone through that emotion 100 times, 1000 times? Eventually it just becomes another mundane situation. We humans adapt to the wildest things, ie, the concept of flight has become mundane. Just keep at it and keep exposing yourself to it.
One of the best ways I have found to get better at the game is to play Blue! Its the bastard color, sure, but I think only the most obviously, since it just directly draws out the deck and counters spells. The others are their own bastards. But, on topic- playing Blue helped me learn *sequencing,* which i think is the most important aspect of the game beyond understanding the basic rules. Having a lot of instants and reactive spells in Blue makes you more aware of other turns and the steps involved. It really forces you to interact with the stack in a less orthodox way and think proactively about whether other players are on-tempo. This allows for more efficient interaction because you learn to snipe value engine pieces before the motor starts. Playing Blue puts you in that mindset to really think about *when* to spend your mana. Thats another conversation though, though I think it is tied very closely to the other parts of deckbuilding- particularly your mana curve.
I absolutely agree, but I will say playing against Blue also goes a long way towards getting better. Learning when not to play into open land and evaluate areas not directly on the board is tricky and blue always represents potential.
@@TheFirstJake very true as well! Super great discussion and jumping off point even for those of us who are more experienced with the game. It changes in ways we might not and maybe we miss the forest for the trees.
I actually improved radically at sequencing focusing on decks that utilize counters on permanents. It’s one reason I recommend people start with allied colors. It limits how many entirely new concepts a rookie is exposed to in the playing of their own deck. Experimenting a bit to find a color pair you’re really interested in is fine/great, but I don’t recommend that new players either constantly flit among all 5 colors, or try to begin with 3-5 colors. This applies more to EDH, of course.
Also, for newer players: sometimes you just get unlucky with what you draw. It happens. Other times, your deck seems unstoppable, just because that games you happened to draw an awesome hand and your opponents didn't. If you play and lose, it doesn't mean your deck isn't good. Of course, a deck could always be improved ...
Your delivery is excellent! I'm an audio producer (radio) and you've got that covered well enough for UA-cam. But your camera is out of focus for most of this, fix that and keep improving. Your delivery is very solid! The flaws are very fixable! I see great things coming from this channel. Keep it up man! You're doing great!
@@TheFirstJake Try putting an object where you'll be standing, then focus on it, and that should help you easily calibrate it without much back and forth.
Step 1: get an internet connection Step 2: get $3000 Step 3: instead of buying 1 Mox Ruby, buy a whole Modern deck, a whole Pioneer deck, and the shell of a highly rated Commander Deck Step 4: draft a lot and try to plus on prize packs Step 5: repeat for 10 years Step 4 is worth doing but it won't get you far if you can't afford a meta deck
I had a deck idea recently that was actually pretty fun to play. I opened three packs of MotM jumpstart boosters to figure out what kind of deck i was building. What i opened was a Bant deck (G/W/B) so with those three packs I had 60/100 cards for a commander deck since each pack only came with a single copy of each card in the pack. It was up to me to figure out the 40 remaining cards to tie the rest of the deck together. On the plus side, since the packs came with no artifacts, that was where my mind went to make sure i could try to build it and tie everything together. It was an incredibly fun experience when i decided to make Galadriel, Might of Valinor my commander. Also, i found myself particularly hating werewolves
My wife and I play commander typically with a few friends, we both got into it together about a year ago, with the difference that I used to play when I was younger. We've obviously both grown as players, but she often gets frustrated by the slower growth she's experienced. I keep trying to figure out a way to explain there's no real linear path to becoming a "good" magic player, it just kinda happens over time, but didn't know how to really articulate that properly. Guess I can just show her this now! Thanks bud!
Also, this didn't feel worth an edit, but I do think it's funny to note, she's actually won more games than I have, she just has only won running my decks since hers still kinda don't do alot with any quickness, and I have a bad habit of trying to get too big too fast, and typically get dogpiled or wrathed then watch someone else finish the job I started lol. But yeah she just hasn't gotten there in terms of deck building yet, but is an overall (imo) better player than I am
Don't sweat it, my wife beats me 70% of the time... Still worth it though. The deckbuilding aspect of Magic is a whole game unto itself. I think there's a lot of people that prefer gameplay to deck construction and that's completely cool. I think there's a lot of ways to explore deckbuilding and different ways will click for different people. Thanks for sharing!
One thing I found that helped me make a jump was when a new set came out, I'd try to evaluate cards myself. Pick a format or a specific deck, pick 5 or 10 cards per color I think will be good in the format, and 5 or 10 I think were not. Not just knee-jerk "this seems good," but more "this seems good bc of this line of text, which will work well with Deck A/against strategy Y." Then, compare my thoughts to some content creators/pros, and look back later, maybe a set or 2 later or a year later, and see how right/wrong I was, and try to figure out why. Was there something I misread? Did a new card come out in the next set that changed everything? Did it not fit the meta? Did I actually get one right and call a card being good when I saw a lot of people calling it bad or overrated? Doing this really changed the way I thought about cards and improved my ability to choose what did or did not go into my deck
About to build my first commander deck. Xyris, the Writhing Storm. Its gonna be crazy to find the cards I want, but thankfully I've been playing MTG Arena for the last 2 or 3 years. I think have a good understanding of the core game, so going into a format with more people should be interesting.
@@TheFirstJake I'm thinking about going Buffs/Equipment. I got the idea from another channel's video titled "My playgroup's best deck is $20." So I just know it's a flyer and both players draw a bunch of cards. Sounds like fun! I'm open to any ideas or suggestions. 😁 I am not very far into the process yet. I just ordered the Xyris from TCGPlayer and am going to go into my LGS and see what they've got to help build it out. Figured it would be a good way to introduce myself to the store while getting information about when they have games and such.
I love your enthusiasm and attitude towards the game. I got a little sad because i thought this video was years old but I was happy to see that this video was made only 2 days ago! Looking foward to more content from you! Subbed! 🎉
Very well done video my man. This is a good way of explaining the different lecels of the game. Decision making is the only part i feel needed more depth.
That's true. Good decision making is critical, but I think it's so context dependent it's hard to cover quickly. Maybe someday I'll try to chip away at that monster.
I think control is a good place to learn the intricacies of Magic: rules, meta, and theory. Because control completely relies on thinking about that stuff on every turn.
Or you could just play mono red, not care about any of that and just play all the cards you can, swing with everything every turn and it basically doesn't matter which cards you choose, you just do what you can and get a 50% winrate
@ Jake Another great vid in my opinion……definitely material there to flesh out the steps into a deep dive series if you want. One step I would add is ‘know your opponent(s)’. Personally I love the challenge of commander since it is rare that any one deck has enough resources at its disposal to stop the other 3 so the strategies I have evolved are more so playing mental judo with my opponents than managing my own decks resources, which is almost second nature aka I rarely have to put much effort into my decks plan of execution. I believe I am true dimir player who uses subversion, manipulation and diversionary tactics like a weapon to clench more wins than my own deck’s power persea. It’s ultimately a battle of resources in my opinion and generally my goal is to get my opponents to expend theirs on each other. Another key factor is timing. Just bc you can make a play on turn 6 doesn’t mean you should……for example I find that often it’s better to wait until one of your opponents tries to make an explosive play then after the other opponents use their resources to stop that play on say turn 8 then, THEN I swing for the fences. And if you are really cunning then you have been enabling that said player who is the least threatening to you to make that particular play by subtlety suppressing the other opponents reactions to allow the player you want to pull ahead to do so. Lastly, in regards to knowing your deck and timing it’s also best to understand the speed of your deck. Aka I generally use midrange decks BUT sometimes a midrange deck can get an aggro hand where you have 3 pieces of land 2 pieces of ramp, 1 power card and 1 piece of synergy/interaction. Problem being if you then play your midrange deck like an aggro deck chances are your opponents will see you as an aggro threat and obliterate your board state and since you have a midrange deck chances are you’ll likely never recover from that. Or I guess I should say ‘know your resources’ obviously this is all much less applicable to 1v1 formats but some of it still has great merit. Let me know what you think. Ps also in regard to knowing your opponents I encourage players to play with as many new opponents as possible which will quickly pay off if you find the art of mental chess thrilling. You will assimilate and refine your own tactics and strategies much faster which you can then import back into to your local pods in my opinion.
Absolutely, though I would caution leaning too hard on personalities of players in actual gameplay. I think too often that leads to gameplay decisions based on spite and out-of-game actions. Understanding different players' propensity for certain styles of play definitely can help you predict what information they know that you don't. To your second point, I think I generally agree on all points. There have definitely been times when slow-rolling an aggro deck or overextending with a control deck was the right call. This is the type of thing that is hard to codify and will be different in every game you play. In addition to your last point regarding opponents I also encourage players to swap decks and play a second game. It's really helpful to see other people wrestle with the same decision making.
@@TheFirstJake agree to all minus the first point….. I suppose a better way to word it is sort of a diluted king-making strategy? My decisions are based on the decks and gameplay feedback. I lean towards “fortifying” the player that is the least threatening to my deck and in the process sort of “creating a false perception” of a threat to the table in order to attrit the tables available resources to the point that when I strike there is a high probability I’ll either be unopposed or the level of resistance is negligible. I do sometimes play more than 1 session depending on how long the previous game took. Then I often downplay the previous victory but if some are not convinced then that’s fine too. My preferred deck type for commander generally consists of 2-color bottom up midrange builds with several wincons so I’ll also try to overemphasize my commander just to use up opponent resources when the deck is built to win and function off the 99. My commanders are generally used as engine accelerators up until turn 5 or 6 then I generally can take it or leave it. I try to emphasize resilience and flexibility. For example in one of my zombie deck builds I can use the tried and true bolas’s citadel, aetherflux resevoir, sensei’s top combo but if someone removes a piece nbd bc I can use grave crawler + phyrexian altar + aetherflux resevoir or rooftop storm + sedraxis alchemist + aetherflux resevoir or grave crawler + the altar + vengeful dead or vengeful dead+ tombstone stairwell etc….many overlapping and interchangeable layers etc…. I also try to add/build high synergy “modular combos” with interchangeable pieces making it very difficult to truly shut the deck down outside of a true stax deck but I’ll often feign that I’m crippled then make another explosive play. I have many flavors of misdirection I’ve honed through games of commander but my deck isn’t invincible however there are several deck types that simply out accelerate or oppress mine 9/10 times. Many players sort of “show their hands” or reveal what their deck intends to do way too soon in my opinion.
Some decent stuff here. I do think a greater emphasis on learning how the game actually works vs learning how the game *plays* is important. There are entire swaths of the player base, new *and* old, that don't know the difference.
Exactly. I like to make the distinction between structural rules and mechanical rules as well. I will add though that if you're having fun with the game, it's fine to ignore all distinctions and just enjoy playing.
That experience thing is real. I remember during my first month of magic, I built a gruul lorwyn elf deck. Challenged my buddy at the store. He completely destroys me. Then we swap decks. He does it again. Fast forward 10 years and my newb friends challenged me to a 2v1. They showed up with their decks and i threw one together from their trash. They didn't stand a chance
Hey man! First time viewer, and just wanna say: keep it up! Really liked those transition styles, and I'm sure that if you keep pouring a lot of passion into the channel you can get somewhere really cool! Lots of love
As a new player this was super helpful step by step on improving thank you! Do you have any videos on how to build commander decks? I always get overwhelmed and intimidated even trying to start
Glad to hear it! I intend to make that video soon, but not yet. Fortunately, commander is the one format with great preconstructed decks! Whatever strategy you’re looking for, there’s probably a precon that gets you 75% of the way there. Did you have a commander/archetype/gimmick in mind?
@@TheFirstJake won my very first game last night! Lost the other two but still had a ton of fun! Definitely can’t wait to see a video about building decks, excited to learn and have even more fun!
As a person who started out with an old school starter, I don't agree with everything. For example, I used to do a lot of pre-release events. I think that it's good at times to know the cards in the set ahead of time, at least at the common level. It helps when playing, as the more research and knowledge you have. The better understanding of possible outcomes. I have even used deception in a game. Such as start looking at a card and acting as if I am going to tap lands. Attacking and looking at my hand as if I had something. But this also depends on your opponent and understanding them.
I think it's great that you don't have a bunch of distractions in your video you get right to the point in your delivery is great keep going you can only improve. I really loved what you said about some people playing for 6 months can be better than some playing for 10-20 years. I think some pros get caught up too much in making sure they get all the lingo in magic right, rather than the core concepts, or say certain colors just "suck", well anything can be amazing if you build it right and try to know who you're playing against. I had heard more than a few times that orzhov isn't a very good combination for whatever reasons. I'm happy to say that I have a very good pain gain and drain deck thats black/white. Great job man! Also I'm wondering did you happen to get the shirt you're wearing off of Etsy? If so I must have purchased it from the same person i got a faerie shirt haha
Thanks a lot! My only advice for the Orzhov deck is to make sure you have a couple options to close out the game quickly once you get people down to a manageable level. Nobody is going to let you slowly 1-2 damage them out of the game without teaming up on you. The shirt was a present from my wife so I have no idea.
@@TheFirstJake Debt to deathless, wound reflection, meathook massacre, avacyn angel of hope, sanguine bond, and liesa Shroud of dusk should take care of that 👍 I had a big problem with ramp in the beginning, but I added monologue tax and mana tithe to help with that as well as a couple other cards. Divine visitation would turn all my tokens into 4/4 angels if I'm able to combine that with kaya Gheist Hunter, and a few other token generating cards that came with the pre-con. Always keeping an eye on my cards, to see what works and what doesn't. I won my first four player commander game a couple weeks ago and had some help from angel of the dire hour win some kid tried to full swing at me haha.
If you told em you know what a deck is wanting to do based off of the commander then i would ask ya to explain to me Phage the Untouchable as commander. And if you were to say Torpor Orb or Platinum angel you'd be wrong as they could have K'rrik Netherborn Alter Sundial of the Infinite Witchbane Orb Endless Whispers Pithing Needle Lethal Vapors then playing Phage That's right it's a 8 card you win combo with Phage, but be sure to name Lethal Vapors with Pithing Needle before playing Lethal Vapors otherwise they can use Lethal Vapors 0 cost activated ability to destroy it by skipping their tur. Now Sundial is only because when Endless Whispers triggers to make a delayed trigger that activates at the end of the turn you then activate Sundial just ending the turn bypassing the end step thus the next end step the delayed trigger of Whispers activates which would be on the opponents turn killing them, but with the way the stack works APNAP or active player non active player the Phage killing them trigger would come out near last as Endless will trigger to then make a delayed trigger giving Phage to the next target player ect. Witchbane Orb gives hexproof so they can't give Phage to you Now it is debatable if this will work or if Phage will simply remain in your gave however there are some abilities or delayed triggers that do persists after it's controller leaves the game so it can easily be argued that the other person will get Phage at their end step unless Phage is somehow removed from your grave as cards you own goes into YOUR grave which is why it is a you win combo. Example if you play a card that makes two other players control each others next turn (Cruel Entertainment) the delayed trigger will resolve and they still control each others turn if you left the game as it is a immediate timed event, which again is why i for one think this combo will work with Phage and Endless Whispers winning you the game if the opponents could not close out before their end steps. Cruel Entertainment is a good example of a delayed trigger still going off and resolving after it's controller leaves the game as rule 800.4j exists "800.4k When a player leaves the game, any continuous effects with durations that last until that player’s next turn or until a specific point in that turn will last until that turn would have begun. They neither expire immediately nor last indefinitely." Rule 800.4k explicitly points out effects that are created by a player sticks around after the player leaves the game according to the judge blogs blogs.magicjudges.org/rules/cr800/ Now according to the fandom wiki it is rule 800.4m mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer I would love a debate about this and or to be corrected about this preferably from a certified judge as interactions so obscure like Phage and Endless Whispers and Lethal Vapors are usually never given a single thought until they show up in something like a tournament. Now cruel entertainment reads "Choose target player and another target player. The first player controls the second player during the second player's next turn, and the second player controls the first player during the first player's next turn." and that is confirmed to actually happen if the person choses two different people and still leaves the game and Endless Whispers says "Each creature has "When this creature dies, choose target opponent. That player puts this card from its owner's graveyard onto the battlefield under their control at the beginning of the next end step." " and thanks to APNAP it resolves before the lose the game trigger so they pick target opponent then a delayed trigger is created and they will be considered the controller of the delayed trigger since they controlled Phage at the time, so who is to say it won't act like Cruel Entertainment and still work? as the two people chosen by Cruel Entertainment do take each others turn if the caster leaves which does leaves a delayed trigger actually staying around giving grounds for the argument in the first place. As it is a delayed effect that lasts till a specific point in the turn the beginning of the end step. Again i am willing to be debated or accept if a certified judge tells me i am wrong as i am genuinely wanting to learn how the game works here since searching for complex interactions like these and finding examples of delayed triggers sticking around is exciting when you find out there is a chance it might work but you need a judges clarification or confirmation And i do hate how nerdy i sound in this when discussing learning how the game rules work such as the complexity of Panglacial Wurm and Selvala heart of the wilds that can actually result in "legal" cheating as you can cast Panglacial Wurm during your search of a different card as in during a spells resolution so when a rewind happens due to a rules violation you will have a advantage, the Panglacial wurm situation might result in you getting a warning by the judge as it is still cheating even if accidental I need to stop talking now as rules complexities and unique situations will make me ramble out too much too easily lol
@@TheFirstJake well to be fair the version of a Phage deck i built is a attempt to bridge the gap between High power and Competitive EDH as i was trying to make the Strongest Phage the Untouchable deck, but i never got a chance to test it yet as i gold fish a lot trying to see how consistent it could potentially be and adjust it from there. Mono black decks that don't run K'rrik as the commander are really hard to pull off because mana, however i do not know how to classify this deck as it is like a adaptive storm or control type of deck as you can just tutor K'rrik and win right off the bat with Aetherflux as storm without even needing the Phage wincon You can even play it more controly as believe it or not there are counter spells in Black but they are conditional such as Thrull Wizard only targeting Black Spells and Deathgrip only targeting Green spells however you also have access to Painter's Servant meaning counter whatever you like but Deathgrip is a better option to pair it with as it flat out counters the spell while Thrull Wizard is more so a tax piece. Also as you already know Pithing Needle and Lethal Vapors are stax cards but you don't actually have to use them for the Phage combo. Example if someone has a Najeela you can just Pithing Needle naming her to turn off her WUBERG ability since it is a activated ability. If i include any Stax cards in any of my decks i prefer them to be Modal as in they have more than 1 purpose, with a exception to some like Conqueror's Flail that makes it where my opponents can't cast spells during MY turn over say a Defense Grid which affects everyone during someone else's turn making their spells cost 3 more pretty much. There are also just great value stax cards that any deck could run such as Karn the Great Creator since it shuts off all artifacts YOUR opponents control pretty much and it is colorless, which for a higher power game alone not just competitive there are a lot of artifact ramp meaning you gained resource advantage over them just for having Karn out. But you can also start getting rid of their rocks slowly by using Karn's +1 ability and turning their artifacts into creatures whose power and toughness are equal to mana cost so he can be a effective removal as well. Now i do Have Defense Grid in the deck but i don't need to worry about it's downside as i have Deathgrip and Painter's Servant so a counter spell on a stick so no worrying about paying 3 extra mana for counter spells from me. Now i do have Torpor Orb in the deck as well to turn off ETB's but that's not really for Phage however if i wanted to hard cast her i could, i also have artifact removal in black i know it's rare as to my knowledge only 3 in existence and less for enchantment removal but anyways if i wanted to get Phage out get rid of Torpor Orb and on a later turn play Lethal Vapors to have it work i could. With the best thing about Vapors being if in higher power of play you might lose the game if you skip your turn as if it is a competitive deck turn 3 or 4 win so you might not need the needle. There are even cheap costing creatures to act as sac fodders for the rituals for fast mana pretty much acting as a storm outlet as well. Like this deck was built to deal with just about anything that would be thrown at it. Can you see how i lost track of the decks identity? Is it a control deck? Is it a Storm deck? or what? I honestly don't know what this deck is anymore but it can easily Pivot into storm or control to match the Pilot's playstyle or if ya really wanted Turbo with K'rrik because Black is best at card draw and tutors. The worst part is i know of cards that could make the deck better but i don't know what cards to cut Cards that could make the deck better are Crucible of Worlds, Lake of the Dead, and Gate to Phyrexia but i would have to find 3 cards to cut which is the hard part. Lake of the dead allows me to sac a land to add 4 black mana to my pool so in total without mana doublers i have 5 mana per turn off of 1 land as with Crucible of Worlds i can play lands from my grave, and gate to Phyrexia allows me to sac a creature to destroy target artifact and can only be activated during my upkeep. Also in the odds case of someone exiling my cards never fear i have planned for that as well because Mirror of Fate and Elixir of Immortality essentially allows me to play my entire deck from exile meaning if i have enough mana i just win on the spot as K'rrik and Aetherflux Reservoir are still in the deck causing that specific combo to break even though it was already infinite. So by turn 12 the deck is literally unbeatable if the game ever gets that long TLDR: This deck is a skill issue for both sides as if ya don't know how to play against it ya lose and if ya don't know how to play it ya lose, in other words i don't know why i like making double edge sword decks
My advice for new players is to read the definition of “draw” in the comprehensive rules, then read what the Explore mechanic does and recognize it is not considered “drawing” a card, and then decide if they are comfortable with a game that introduces such unnecessary complexity and ambiguity. If they are, then I recommend the dive head first into Magic. But, if like most people, they recognize that a game designing mechanics specifically to subvert the rules is utter bullshit, then I suggest they spend their time and their money on more worthy endeavours.
Recognizing good cards and knowing the rules without knowing how to build good decks leaves you with very expensive terrible piles. I play against them all the time and it always hurts a little.
Let me rephrase this for ya. Knowing the decks is necessary because you know how YOUR deck works and all the lines/interactions in your deck which does falls into understanding the rules as you have to know how the cards interact with each other, which in turn after building a certain number of decks and knowing how they work you will actually be a way better player as know how the cards interact with each other can actually help you turn bad cards into good cards Which really what you suggest "learn what makes good cards good" is pretty much the same thing as learning how the deck works or knowing the deck, as you have to recognize WHY something is good and hopefully that leads you into turning bad cards into good cards because of interactions and understanding "What makes a good card good?" as there are so many variables that could play into it even what format you are playing in will determine if a card is good or bad A card being good or bad is not objective it is subjective especially when you start getting into higher tiers of power when you have about literally 27k unique cards to play around with and a very small number in comparison that are banned depending on the format. It's not that easy to evaluate a card as you can always find a use for it in a deck or build a deck around it Part of the fun of magic is figuring out what insane combos or synergies you can pull off or is possible as there is a nigh endless amount of them and you can really turn terrible cards into really great cards or at least usable cards, Battle of Wits in Commander is a great example as you can turn it into a creature (Opalescence, Zur eternal schemer and Starfield of Nyx turns Enchantments into creatures) and actually say you won with Battle of Wits as you have to be witty to win with Battle of Wits in a format with a hard deck limit Alternatively you could turn enchantments into artifacts then play a card that turns artifacts into creatures to get around that as well if you want the deck in Simic colors but this type of deck would be more so on the Enchantress side
I like to be great at Magic, not because i want to win and optimize, but because i want to build thematic decks that function well and be able to enjoy the game seamlessly. I love the idea of us being wizards battleing each other.
I absolutely agree. My hottest take in Magic is probably that the introduction of planeswalkers in cardboard was the death of immersive lore in the game.
it allows you to be creative without doing "whatever"
Great advice for newer players. It's easy to get overwhelmed in this game, but playing with the intention of and a focus on learning will help you understand the game and improve faster.
You're good at presenting info, man. Keep it up!
Thanks a lot!
I thought this was going to be more meme content. Like stage one is denial, I don’t have an addiction. Stage 4 is selling your whole collection. Stage 5 is buying back in. That sort of thing
All of those are sub-bullets in stage 5.
I agree that knowledge of a metagame is the most important thing someone can have in any tcg.
It is, but if you don't have the tools to use that information, it doesn't really affect you. Knowing that "red burn is broken right now" doesn't do much good unless you do something to react to it.
What's it called when you know you're going to get blown out, but you're going to lose anyways and need to play to your outs, so you risk it, it happens and you just feel bad
Yeah that happens. It’s called life. The best we can do is shuffle up and try again.
Then you stop playing for the day for the most part and start playing again when in a better headspace. Reviewing my games later on confirmed that I do not play well when on tilt.
@@akorthouwer I was talking more about that experience in person, I don't care when I do that online but in person I feel like when it's a friend or especially when it's somebody I think is pretty good then I feel embarrassed like I didn't walk into a fairly obvious telegraphed bomb but every time I'm hoping it's a bluff, I really don't have outs, I don't have the luxury of playing around, I'd have no outs. This seems like a fairly specific occurrence but in limited it seems to happen frequently enough that I'm keenly aware of this interaction, probably because limited decks are very inconsistent so you can be in a position where you're dealing with very few resources that don't work that well together and also be in a position where you're hoping your opponent doesn't have the answer but is representing that they do.
I call it flopping around. I picture I'm like a magikarp, or any fish, out of water just flopping trying to survive. I think of all of my outs, and try to play to what I could have. I have actually won 2 limited sets against a good opponent doing this.
You play enough games that you get used to the emotion enough to cope with it. Imagine having gone through that emotion 100 times, 1000 times? Eventually it just becomes another mundane situation. We humans adapt to the wildest things, ie, the concept of flight has become mundane. Just keep at it and keep exposing yourself to it.
One of the best ways I have found to get better at the game is to play Blue! Its the bastard color, sure, but I think only the most obviously, since it just directly draws out the deck and counters spells. The others are their own bastards.
But, on topic- playing Blue helped me learn *sequencing,* which i think is the most important aspect of the game beyond understanding the basic rules. Having a lot of instants and reactive spells in Blue makes you more aware of other turns and the steps involved. It really forces you to interact with the stack in a less orthodox way and think proactively about whether other players are on-tempo. This allows for more efficient interaction because you learn to snipe value engine pieces before the motor starts.
Playing Blue puts you in that mindset to really think about *when* to spend your mana. Thats another conversation though, though I think it is tied very closely to the other parts of deckbuilding- particularly your mana curve.
I absolutely agree, but I will say playing against Blue also goes a long way towards getting better. Learning when not to play into open land and evaluate areas not directly on the board is tricky and blue always represents potential.
@@TheFirstJake very true as well! Super great discussion and jumping off point even for those of us who are more experienced with the game. It changes in ways we might not and maybe we miss the forest for the trees.
I actually improved radically at sequencing focusing on decks that utilize counters on permanents.
It’s one reason I recommend people start with allied colors. It limits how many entirely new concepts a rookie is exposed to in the playing of their own deck.
Experimenting a bit to find a color pair you’re really interested in is fine/great, but I don’t recommend that new players either constantly flit among all 5 colors, or try to begin with 3-5 colors.
This applies more to EDH, of course.
Also, for newer players: sometimes you just get unlucky with what you draw. It happens. Other times, your deck seems unstoppable, just because that games you happened to draw an awesome hand and your opponents didn't. If you play and lose, it doesn't mean your deck isn't good. Of course, a deck could always be improved ...
Your delivery is excellent! I'm an audio producer (radio) and you've got that covered well enough for UA-cam. But your camera is out of focus for most of this, fix that and keep improving. Your delivery is very solid! The flaws are very fixable! I see great things coming from this channel. Keep it up man! You're doing great!
Thanks a lot! Yeah i didn’t notice the focus until I was already editing. Working on getting that dialed in.
I agree with this for the most part. The outtro is much too loud tho.
@@raedien Thanks for watching until the end!
@@TheFirstJake Try putting an object where you'll be standing, then focus on it, and that should help you easily calibrate it without much back and forth.
Step 1: get an internet connection
Step 2: get $3000
Step 3: instead of buying 1 Mox Ruby, buy a whole Modern deck, a whole Pioneer deck, and the shell of a highly rated Commander Deck
Step 4: draft a lot and try to plus on prize packs
Step 5: repeat for 10 years
Step 4 is worth doing but it won't get you far if you can't afford a meta deck
Don't worry, they'll ban half the meta deck anyways.
I had a deck idea recently that was actually pretty fun to play. I opened three packs of MotM jumpstart boosters to figure out what kind of deck i was building.
What i opened was a Bant deck (G/W/B) so with those three packs I had 60/100 cards for a commander deck since each pack only came with a single copy of each card in the pack. It was up to me to figure out the 40 remaining cards to tie the rest of the deck together. On the plus side, since the packs came with no artifacts, that was where my mind went to make sure i could try to build it and tie everything together. It was an incredibly fun experience when i decided to make Galadriel, Might of Valinor my commander.
Also, i found myself particularly hating werewolves
Thanks a lot for this video, I really learned a lot even though I'm already a rookie mtg commander player. Back to basics..
My wife and I play commander typically with a few friends, we both got into it together about a year ago, with the difference that I used to play when I was younger. We've obviously both grown as players, but she often gets frustrated by the slower growth she's experienced. I keep trying to figure out a way to explain there's no real linear path to becoming a "good" magic player, it just kinda happens over time, but didn't know how to really articulate that properly. Guess I can just show her this now! Thanks bud!
Also, this didn't feel worth an edit, but I do think it's funny to note, she's actually won more games than I have, she just has only won running my decks since hers still kinda don't do alot with any quickness, and I have a bad habit of trying to get too big too fast, and typically get dogpiled or wrathed then watch someone else finish the job I started lol. But yeah she just hasn't gotten there in terms of deck building yet, but is an overall (imo) better player than I am
Don't sweat it, my wife beats me 70% of the time... Still worth it though.
The deckbuilding aspect of Magic is a whole game unto itself. I think there's a lot of people that prefer gameplay to deck construction and that's completely cool. I think there's a lot of ways to explore deckbuilding and different ways will click for different people.
Thanks for sharing!
One thing I found that helped me make a jump was when a new set came out, I'd try to evaluate cards myself. Pick a format or a specific deck, pick 5 or 10 cards per color I think will be good in the format, and 5 or 10 I think were not. Not just knee-jerk "this seems good," but more "this seems good bc of this line of text, which will work well with Deck A/against strategy Y." Then, compare my thoughts to some content creators/pros, and look back later, maybe a set or 2 later or a year later, and see how right/wrong I was, and try to figure out why. Was there something I misread? Did a new card come out in the next set that changed everything? Did it not fit the meta? Did I actually get one right and call a card being good when I saw a lot of people calling it bad or overrated? Doing this really changed the way I thought about cards and improved my ability to choose what did or did not go into my deck
I like that process. It's so easy to make calls of good or bad and then never go back to them. Thanks for the response!
Your intro has no business being this lit 😂😂🔥
About to build my first commander deck. Xyris, the Writhing Storm. Its gonna be crazy to find the cards I want, but thankfully I've been playing MTG Arena for the last 2 or 3 years. I think have a good understanding of the core game, so going into a format with more people should be interesting.
That's awesome! Xyris is sweet and there's a bunch of ways to build them. Which direction were you planning to go?
@@TheFirstJake I'm thinking about going Buffs/Equipment. I got the idea from another channel's video titled "My playgroup's best deck is $20." So I just know it's a flyer and both players draw a bunch of cards. Sounds like fun! I'm open to any ideas or suggestions. 😁
I am not very far into the process yet. I just ordered the Xyris from TCGPlayer and am going to go into my LGS and see what they've got to help build it out. Figured it would be a good way to introduce myself to the store while getting information about when they have games and such.
I would recommend adding the card "invigorate"
@@Uma_and_friends that's an amazing suggestion thank you!
@@Wintercide you're very welcome
mans got straight up bars in the beginning - nice MTG rap bro
Thanks, I appreciate it.
I love your enthusiasm and attitude towards the game. I got a little sad because i thought this video was years old but I was happy to see that this video was made only 2 days ago! Looking foward to more content from you! Subbed! 🎉
Thanks a lot! I appreciate the kind words.
Very well done video my man. This is a good way of explaining the different lecels of the game. Decision making is the only part i feel needed more depth.
That's true. Good decision making is critical, but I think it's so context dependent it's hard to cover quickly. Maybe someday I'll try to chip away at that monster.
I think control is a good place to learn the intricacies of Magic: rules, meta, and theory. Because control completely relies on thinking about that stuff on every turn.
Plus it allows you to focus on the rules of the game instead of having friends. I do agree though.
Or you could just play mono red, not care about any of that and just play all the cards you can, swing with everything every turn and it basically doesn't matter which cards you choose, you just do what you can and get a 50% winrate
Good point. I'm pretty sure I've played against you 1,452 times on MTGA!
@@bencheevers6693 a very compelling argument... I'll mill 4.
@@goosewithagibus Is that where I look at the top card of my library and put it in my hand or in exile? Either way swing with the team
@ Jake
Another great vid in my opinion……definitely material there to flesh out the steps into a deep dive series if you want.
One step I would add is ‘know your opponent(s)’.
Personally I love the challenge of commander since it is rare that any one deck has enough resources at its disposal to stop the other 3 so the strategies I have evolved are more so playing mental judo with my opponents than managing my own decks resources, which is almost second nature aka I rarely have to put much effort into my decks plan of execution.
I believe I am true dimir player who uses subversion, manipulation and diversionary tactics like a weapon to clench more wins than my own deck’s power persea.
It’s ultimately a battle of resources in my opinion and generally my goal is to get my opponents to expend theirs on each other.
Another key factor is timing. Just bc you can make a play on turn 6 doesn’t mean you should……for example I find that often it’s better to wait until one of your opponents tries to make an explosive play then after the other opponents use their resources to stop that play on say turn 8 then, THEN I swing for the fences.
And if you are really cunning then you have been enabling that said player who is the least threatening to you to make that particular play by subtlety suppressing the other opponents reactions to allow the player you want to pull ahead to do so.
Lastly, in regards to knowing your deck and timing it’s also best to understand the speed of your deck.
Aka I generally use midrange decks BUT sometimes a midrange deck can get an aggro hand where you have 3 pieces of land 2 pieces of ramp, 1 power card and 1 piece of synergy/interaction.
Problem being if you then play your midrange deck like an aggro deck chances are your opponents will see you as an aggro threat and obliterate your board state and since you have a midrange deck chances are you’ll likely never recover from that.
Or I guess I should say ‘know your resources’ obviously this is all much less applicable to 1v1 formats but some of it still has great merit.
Let me know what you think.
Ps also in regard to knowing your opponents I encourage players to play with as many new opponents as possible which will quickly pay off if you find the art of mental chess thrilling.
You will assimilate and refine your own tactics and strategies much faster which you can then import back into to your local pods in my opinion.
Absolutely, though I would caution leaning too hard on personalities of players in actual gameplay. I think too often that leads to gameplay decisions based on spite and out-of-game actions. Understanding different players' propensity for certain styles of play definitely can help you predict what information they know that you don't.
To your second point, I think I generally agree on all points. There have definitely been times when slow-rolling an aggro deck or overextending with a control deck was the right call. This is the type of thing that is hard to codify and will be different in every game you play.
In addition to your last point regarding opponents I also encourage players to swap decks and play a second game. It's really helpful to see other people wrestle with the same decision making.
@@TheFirstJake agree to all minus the first point….. I suppose a better way to word it is sort of a diluted king-making strategy? My decisions are based on the decks and gameplay feedback. I lean towards “fortifying” the player that is the least threatening to my deck and in the process sort of “creating a false perception” of a threat to the table in order to attrit the tables available resources to the point that when I strike there is a high probability I’ll either be unopposed or the level of resistance is negligible.
I do sometimes play more than 1 session depending on how long the previous game took.
Then I often downplay the previous victory but if some are not convinced then that’s fine too.
My preferred deck type for commander generally consists of 2-color bottom up midrange builds with several wincons so I’ll also try to overemphasize my commander just to use up opponent resources when the deck is built to win and function off the 99.
My commanders are generally used as engine accelerators up until turn 5 or 6 then I generally can take it or leave it.
I try to emphasize resilience and flexibility. For example in one of my zombie deck builds I can use the tried and true bolas’s citadel, aetherflux resevoir, sensei’s top combo but if someone removes a piece nbd bc I can use grave crawler + phyrexian altar + aetherflux resevoir or rooftop storm + sedraxis alchemist + aetherflux resevoir or grave crawler + the altar + vengeful dead or vengeful dead+ tombstone stairwell etc….many overlapping and interchangeable layers etc….
I also try to add/build high synergy “modular combos” with interchangeable pieces making it very difficult to truly shut the deck down outside of a true stax deck but I’ll often feign that I’m crippled then make another explosive play.
I have many flavors of misdirection I’ve honed through games of commander but my deck isn’t invincible however there are several deck types that simply out accelerate or oppress mine 9/10 times.
Many players sort of “show their hands” or reveal what their deck intends to do way too soon in my opinion.
Some decent stuff here. I do think a greater emphasis on learning how the game actually works vs learning how the game *plays* is important. There are entire swaths of the player base, new *and* old, that don't know the difference.
Exactly. I like to make the distinction between structural rules and mechanical rules as well. I will add though that if you're having fun with the game, it's fine to ignore all distinctions and just enjoy playing.
That experience thing is real. I remember during my first month of magic, I built a gruul lorwyn elf deck. Challenged my buddy at the store. He completely destroys me. Then we swap decks. He does it again.
Fast forward 10 years and my newb friends challenged me to a 2v1. They showed up with their decks and i threw one together from their trash. They didn't stand a chance
Self reflection and growing as a person?
Man, if only this could work for other things too
It works pretty well in funhouse mirrors too!
Thanks to this video, I now know that I'm in an amorphous point in every stage except going pro.
It’s important to have approximate knowledge of many things.
Hey man! First time viewer, and just wanna say: keep it up! Really liked those transition styles, and I'm sure that if you keep pouring a lot of passion into the channel you can get somewhere really cool! Lots of love
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate the compliment.
Moving away from tribal is the first step to get better in my opinion.
Hi Jake, Well done with this video.
Thanks!
I started with a dual deck pack back in portal 😂👍
Ah the good old days, back when Wood Elves was at rare. I started with a tournament pack in Mercadian Masques.
Crazy good video, Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
I'm a minute into the video and your subscriber count compared to production value is nuts, easy sub
Thanks a lot! Still working to improve.
As a new player this was super helpful step by step on improving thank you! Do you have any videos on how to build commander decks? I always get overwhelmed and intimidated even trying to start
Glad to hear it! I intend to make that video soon, but not yet. Fortunately, commander is the one format with great preconstructed decks! Whatever strategy you’re looking for, there’s probably a precon that gets you 75% of the way there. Did you have a commander/archetype/gimmick in mind?
I got the eldrazi incursion precon because it looked cool haha 😅 gonna play my first game tonight! Looking forward to watching more videos from you!
@@ryerye0195 oh man that’s a mean one! I don’t think you need to make many changes right off the box. Thanks for the support!
@@TheFirstJake won my very first game last night! Lost the other two but still had a ton of fun! Definitely can’t wait to see a video about building decks, excited to learn and have even more fun!
As a person who started out with an old school starter, I don't agree with everything.
For example, I used to do a lot of pre-release events. I think that it's good at times to know the cards in the set ahead of time, at least at the common level. It helps when playing, as the more research and knowledge you have. The better understanding of possible outcomes.
I have even used deception in a game. Such as start looking at a card and acting as if I am going to tap lands. Attacking and looking at my hand as if I had something. But this also depends on your opponent and understanding them.
I think it's great that you don't have a bunch of distractions in your video you get right to the point in your delivery is great keep going you can only improve. I really loved what you said about some people playing for 6 months can be better than some playing for 10-20 years. I think some pros get caught up too much in making sure they get all the lingo in magic right, rather than the core concepts, or say certain colors just "suck", well anything can be amazing if you build it right and try to know who you're playing against. I had heard more than a few times that orzhov isn't a very good combination for whatever reasons. I'm happy to say that I have a very good pain gain and drain deck thats black/white. Great job man! Also I'm wondering did you happen to get the shirt you're wearing off of Etsy? If so I must have purchased it from the same person i got a faerie shirt haha
Thanks a lot! My only advice for the Orzhov deck is to make sure you have a couple options to close out the game quickly once you get people down to a manageable level. Nobody is going to let you slowly 1-2 damage them out of the game without teaming up on you. The shirt was a present from my wife so I have no idea.
@@TheFirstJake Debt to deathless, wound reflection, meathook massacre, avacyn angel of hope, sanguine bond, and liesa Shroud of dusk should take care of that 👍 I had a big problem with ramp in the beginning, but I added monologue tax and mana tithe to help with that as well as a couple other cards. Divine visitation would turn all my tokens into 4/4 angels if I'm able to combine that with kaya Gheist Hunter, and a few other token generating cards that came with the pre-con. Always keeping an eye on my cards, to see what works and what doesn't. I won my first four player commander game a couple weeks ago and had some help from angel of the dire hour win some kid tried to full swing at me haha.
intro goes hard as fuck
If you told em you know what a deck is wanting to do based off of the commander then i would ask ya to explain to me Phage the Untouchable as commander. And if you were to say Torpor Orb or Platinum angel you'd be wrong as they could have
K'rrik
Netherborn Alter
Sundial of the Infinite
Witchbane Orb
Endless Whispers
Pithing Needle
Lethal Vapors
then playing Phage
That's right it's a 8 card you win combo with Phage, but be sure to name Lethal Vapors with Pithing Needle before playing Lethal Vapors otherwise they can use Lethal Vapors 0 cost activated ability to destroy it by skipping their tur. Now Sundial is only because when Endless Whispers triggers to make a delayed trigger that activates at the end of the turn you then activate Sundial just ending the turn bypassing the end step thus the next end step the delayed trigger of Whispers activates which would be on the opponents turn killing them, but with the way the stack works APNAP or active player non active player the Phage killing them trigger would come out near last as Endless will trigger to then make a delayed trigger giving Phage to the next target player ect. Witchbane Orb gives hexproof so they can't give Phage to you
Now it is debatable if this will work or if Phage will simply remain in your gave however there are some abilities or delayed triggers that do persists after it's controller leaves the game so it can easily be argued that the other person will get Phage at their end step unless Phage is somehow removed from your grave as cards you own goes into YOUR grave which is why it is a you win combo. Example if you play a card that makes two other players control each others next turn (Cruel Entertainment) the delayed trigger will resolve and they still control each others turn if you left the game as it is a immediate timed event, which again is why i for one think this combo will work with Phage and Endless Whispers winning you the game if the opponents could not close out before their end steps. Cruel Entertainment is a good example of a delayed trigger still going off and resolving after it's controller leaves the game as rule 800.4j exists
"800.4k When a player leaves the game, any continuous effects with durations that last until that player’s next turn or until a specific point in that turn will last until that turn would have begun. They neither expire immediately nor last indefinitely."
Rule 800.4k explicitly points out effects that are created by a player sticks around after the player leaves the game according to the judge blogs blogs.magicjudges.org/rules/cr800/
Now according to the fandom wiki it is rule 800.4m mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer
I would love a debate about this and or to be corrected about this preferably from a certified judge as interactions so obscure like Phage and Endless Whispers and Lethal Vapors are usually never given a single thought until they show up in something like a tournament.
Now cruel entertainment reads "Choose target player and another target player. The first player controls the second player during the second player's next turn, and the second player controls the first player during the first player's next turn." and that is confirmed to actually happen if the person choses two different people and still leaves the game and Endless Whispers says "Each creature has "When this creature dies, choose target opponent. That player puts this card from its owner's graveyard onto the battlefield under their control at the beginning of the next end step." " and thanks to APNAP it resolves before the lose the game trigger so they pick target opponent then a delayed trigger is created and they will be considered the controller of the delayed trigger since they controlled Phage at the time, so who is to say it won't act like Cruel Entertainment and still work? as the two people chosen by Cruel Entertainment do take each others turn if the caster leaves which does leaves a delayed trigger actually staying around giving grounds for the argument in the first place.
As it is a delayed effect that lasts till a specific point in the turn the beginning of the end step. Again i am willing to be debated or accept if a certified judge tells me i am wrong as i am genuinely wanting to learn how the game works here since searching for complex interactions like these and finding examples of delayed triggers sticking around is exciting when you find out there is a chance it might work but you need a judges clarification or confirmation
And i do hate how nerdy i sound in this when discussing learning how the game rules work such as the complexity of Panglacial Wurm and Selvala heart of the wilds that can actually result in "legal" cheating as you can cast Panglacial Wurm during your search of a different card as in during a spells resolution so when a rewind happens due to a rules violation you will have a advantage, the Panglacial wurm situation might result in you getting a warning by the judge as it is still cheating even if accidental
I need to stop talking now as rules complexities and unique situations will make me ramble out too much too easily lol
Neat. Now i know how that deck works and i am a better magic player. Thanks!
@@TheFirstJake well to be fair the version of a Phage deck i built is a attempt to bridge the gap between High power and Competitive EDH as i was trying to make the Strongest Phage the Untouchable deck, but i never got a chance to test it yet as i gold fish a lot trying to see how consistent it could potentially be and adjust it from there.
Mono black decks that don't run K'rrik as the commander are really hard to pull off because mana, however i do not know how to classify this deck as it is like a adaptive storm or control type of deck as you can just tutor K'rrik and win right off the bat with Aetherflux as storm without even needing the Phage wincon
You can even play it more controly as believe it or not there are counter spells in Black but they are conditional such as Thrull Wizard only targeting Black Spells and Deathgrip only targeting Green spells however you also have access to Painter's Servant meaning counter whatever you like but Deathgrip is a better option to pair it with as it flat out counters the spell while Thrull Wizard is more so a tax piece.
Also as you already know Pithing Needle and Lethal Vapors are stax cards but you don't actually have to use them for the Phage combo. Example if someone has a Najeela you can just Pithing Needle naming her to turn off her WUBERG ability since it is a activated ability.
If i include any Stax cards in any of my decks i prefer them to be Modal as in they have more than 1 purpose, with a exception to some like Conqueror's Flail that makes it where my opponents can't cast spells during MY turn over say a Defense Grid which affects everyone during someone else's turn making their spells cost 3 more pretty much. There are also just great value stax cards that any deck could run such as Karn the Great Creator since it shuts off all artifacts YOUR opponents control pretty much and it is colorless, which for a higher power game alone not just competitive there are a lot of artifact ramp meaning you gained resource advantage over them just for having Karn out. But you can also start getting rid of their rocks slowly by using Karn's +1 ability and turning their artifacts into creatures whose power and toughness are equal to mana cost so he can be a effective removal as well.
Now i do Have Defense Grid in the deck but i don't need to worry about it's downside as i have Deathgrip and Painter's Servant so a counter spell on a stick so no worrying about paying 3 extra mana for counter spells from me. Now i do have Torpor Orb in the deck as well to turn off ETB's but that's not really for Phage however if i wanted to hard cast her i could, i also have artifact removal in black i know it's rare as to my knowledge only 3 in existence and less for enchantment removal but anyways if i wanted to get Phage out get rid of Torpor Orb and on a later turn play Lethal Vapors to have it work i could. With the best thing about Vapors being if in higher power of play you might lose the game if you skip your turn as if it is a competitive deck turn 3 or 4 win so you might not need the needle.
There are even cheap costing creatures to act as sac fodders for the rituals for fast mana pretty much acting as a storm outlet as well. Like this deck was built to deal with just about anything that would be thrown at it.
Can you see how i lost track of the decks identity? Is it a control deck? Is it a Storm deck? or what? I honestly don't know what this deck is anymore but it can easily Pivot into storm or control to match the Pilot's playstyle or if ya really wanted Turbo with K'rrik because Black is best at card draw and tutors. The worst part is i know of cards that could make the deck better but i don't know what cards to cut
Cards that could make the deck better are Crucible of Worlds, Lake of the Dead, and Gate to Phyrexia but i would have to find 3 cards to cut which is the hard part. Lake of the dead allows me to sac a land to add 4 black mana to my pool so in total without mana doublers i have 5 mana per turn off of 1 land as with Crucible of Worlds i can play lands from my grave, and gate to Phyrexia allows me to sac a creature to destroy target artifact and can only be activated during my upkeep.
Also in the odds case of someone exiling my cards never fear i have planned for that as well because Mirror of Fate and Elixir of Immortality essentially allows me to play my entire deck from exile meaning if i have enough mana i just win on the spot as K'rrik and Aetherflux Reservoir are still in the deck causing that specific combo to break even though it was already infinite. So by turn 12 the deck is literally unbeatable if the game ever gets that long
TLDR: This deck is a skill issue for both sides as if ya don't know how to play against it ya lose and if ya don't know how to play it ya lose, in other words i don't know why i like making double edge sword decks
This video is awesome!
Thanks a lot!
Good stuff
Appreciate it!
My advice for new players is to read the definition of “draw” in the comprehensive rules, then read what the Explore mechanic does and recognize it is not considered “drawing” a card, and then decide if they are comfortable with a game that introduces such unnecessary complexity and ambiguity. If they are, then I recommend the dive head first into Magic. But, if like most people, they recognize that a game designing mechanics specifically to subvert the rules is utter bullshit, then I suggest they spend their time and their money on more worthy endeavours.
I'm always looking for new games to try out. What would you suggest?
Aside from Android Netrunner, there isn't much out there better than Magic.
#commanderRuinedMTG
Those darn Magic players, they ruined Magic.
I only tutor my own sol ring...
like just for the amount of times u probably massed up this intro.
Practice makes perfect!
I actually disagree with this "decks" isnt necessary learn what makes good cards good, and understanding the rules is what makes you better
Recognizing good cards and knowing the rules without knowing how to build good decks leaves you with very expensive terrible piles. I play against them all the time and it always hurts a little.
Let me rephrase this for ya. Knowing the decks is necessary because you know how YOUR deck works and all the lines/interactions in your deck which does falls into understanding the rules as you have to know how the cards interact with each other, which in turn after building a certain number of decks and knowing how they work you will actually be a way better player as know how the cards interact with each other can actually help you turn bad cards into good cards
Which really what you suggest "learn what makes good cards good" is pretty much the same thing as learning how the deck works or knowing the deck, as you have to recognize WHY something is good and hopefully that leads you into turning bad cards into good cards because of interactions and understanding "What makes a good card good?" as there are so many variables that could play into it even what format you are playing in will determine if a card is good or bad
A card being good or bad is not objective it is subjective especially when you start getting into higher tiers of power when you have about literally 27k unique cards to play around with and a very small number in comparison that are banned depending on the format. It's not that easy to evaluate a card as you can always find a use for it in a deck or build a deck around it
Part of the fun of magic is figuring out what insane combos or synergies you can pull off or is possible as there is a nigh endless amount of them and you can really turn terrible cards into really great cards or at least usable cards, Battle of Wits in Commander is a great example as you can turn it into a creature (Opalescence, Zur eternal schemer and Starfield of Nyx turns Enchantments into creatures) and actually say you won with Battle of Wits as you have to be witty to win with Battle of Wits in a format with a hard deck limit
Alternatively you could turn enchantments into artifacts then play a card that turns artifacts into creatures to get around that as well if you want the deck in Simic colors but this type of deck would be more so on the Enchantress side
I refuse.
I pitch Polar Kraken to Force of Will your refusal.
@@TheFirstJake Scoop
@@amazinghayes1 You know what, I actually have to go after this round. I'll concede games 2 and 3. Good luck in the rest of the tournament.
It's pretty simple...spend more money.
Eh proxy what you need. You can only buy so much fun.
@@TheFirstJake True. Good alternative for paper Magic. Online Magic, on the other hand, better crack open the wallet. ;)
NGL I clicked because you look like a Wizard
This is such a truly helpful guide. Thank you 🧙🏼♂️🫕🕊
Glad it was helpful!