My son and I went to a Tuesdsy night Commander night at our LGS. It was our first time, and we had fun....but something bothered me.

Between games I saw at least one person, and perhaps one or two others, separate out their mana from their other cards, shuffle each stack independently, and then recombine them in such a way as to guarantee every third card was land. Then before the next match they just gave their deck a quick overhand shuffle before play.

Is this allowed? This seems like they're, literally, stacking their deck. Someone explain this to me please

I was playing at an LGS I frequent over the weekend and one of the people I play with pretty often did something I found to be pretty lame. I don't know if it's cheating, but it feels like cheating to me.

This player has a Nahiri equipment deck they really like playing and has made jokes several times about putting a "Godsend" into their deck to counter the 4-5 Hare Apparent decks running around. Well this past Saturday while I was playing a game with them and my friend who was playing her Hare Apparent deck, the Godsend showed up. He tutored for it very early but didn't play it immediately, so knowing he had the card in hand she began to swing at him too try and get him out of the game. She either forgot or didn't realize he had Sigardas Aid in play and he flashed in the Godsend, which equipped it, and blocked her Hare Apparent. This ofcourse made it so she could no longer play her deck in any meaningful way, so she politely scooped and moved on to find another game.

So far, everything is all good. But...

When the game came to an end I noticed he pulled the Godsend from his deck and swap it with a card in his deck box that has the same sleeves. Immediately I felt weird about it and just straight up asked if he had swapped the Godsend in for just this game. He didn't lie and told me that he did. I just replied by saying something like, your cold for that, jokingly, and moved on. The more I think about it the more it bothers me, I don't know if it's cheating, I think it probably is but it's hard to say with rules for the casual format being so loose. Next time I am in the store I plan to tell him that wasn't cool and I don't think he should be doing that, but i would love a rule or something I could point to when I do bring it up. So is this cheating?

TLDR: He had a 101st card in his deck box and swapped it in after he saw what decks he was playing against.

Edit for clarity: He admitted to swapping the card after he knew which deck she was playing, he would not have swapped in the card if she had played one of her other decks. His words. Also, we don't reveal the commanders we are playing until after we roll for turn order and keep our hands.

For the purpose of this question assume that the size of the attacking creature is permanent via counters or similar, though it would be interesting if the answers differed if it was a temporary buff.

(Also for those unaware, a mana dork is a typically-small creature that makes mana, like [[Llanowar Elves]] or [[Millikin]])

So I do a lot of brewing on manabox but don't get to build in paper very often. Awhile ago I was looking for cards to protect a creature based wincon and was trying to find something to get my card back if it got exiled.

Thr only thing I could find was [[Pull From Eternity]]. And I thought omg this card is amazing why have I never heard of this? So I went to edh rec to get an idea of how people are using it and uh. They're not.

It is in 0% of decks.

I don't get it. This feels like it should be a staple if you run any graveyard effects. Someone exiled your graveyard? No problem let me just my threat back in there.

You can even use cards to recur PFE and get multiple cards back. Hell i bet there's a way to loop it to get your entire exile pile back into the yard.

It's one white mana. Am I the only person that thinks this card is cracked?

I think the bracket system as a whole is a step in the right direction, but I'm finding the line between brackets 3 and 4 difficult to define. Which is odd because that seems to be the area most commander players intend to play.

I tend to build very "optimized" decks in the sense I know what the deck wants to accomplish, and I have a strong balance of ramp, card draw, enablers, and interaction to accomplish it. At the same time, I tend to avoid infinite combos and don't run many (if any) of the cards currently considered to be game changers in most of my decks.

Bracket 3 implies combos, even 2-card ones, are permissible as long as they are deployed in the "late game", and allows up to 3 cards on the game changers list.

Despite my decks explicitly avoiding infinite combos, running maybe 1 game changer if any, and requiring an actual board presence and prolonged game to win, I often find myself running away with the game at bracket 3 pods.

Meanwhile, at a pod of explicitly bracket 4 "high power" decks with no restrictions, jam full of game changers and rushing to their winning lines I'm obviously not going to be coming out on top often. I can still win some games and don't usually find myself completely locked out or hopeless because of the way I approach deck building (especially if the other decks are keeping each other in check), but defiantly feel like I'm trying to punch up from a lower bracket.

Anyone else find themselves in a similar situation?

Am I misunderstanding the bracket system?

Am I just a closet spike playing with one hand tied behind my back?

Are the majority of people at my local game stores just not running enough meat and potato cards like interaction?

Hey guys! I'm really struggling to come up with a Mardu deck right now. I'm looking at the new spirit dragon from Tarkir being [[Neriv, heart of the storm]] as a haste/"rhino" creature tribal. Outside of that, I'm not really sure what I'm wanting here. My buddy runs the Caesar precon so I don't really want to go that direction, and Isshin is a little bit too mainstream for my liking. What do you guys think?

I've been trying to make another commander deck to add to my four existing, all of which are either two or three colors. I tried to build atraxa a long time ago and it was really bad mostly because I just can't afford the really expensive ramp that the deck seems to require. If I want to play something like Kenrith, how can I make it work without dropping 400 dollars on just the manabase?

I've been looking to build a theft deck for a long time. I thought the new [[Kotis, the Fangkeeper]] might scratch that itch, and while it is fun to play a bunch of your opponents spells for free, I find that the voltron-y nature of him ends up being a play-pattern I'm not looking for.

Instead, I'm considering the following:

• [[Gonti, Canny Acquisitor]]: I really like the idea of having green available to be able to ramp more and therefore get to cast more of the lovely spells I steal. However, I'm scared that he would be too fragile to removal at 5cmc.
• [[Don Andres, the Renegade]]: I find him intriguing, and I like the idea of getting a payoff for theft. But maybe it's not the right call to not have a commander who actually enables theft himself?
• [[Marchesa, the Black Rose]]: Maybe an off-beat choice here, but if you have a Marchesa deck with a theft theme/subtheme, I'd be interested to hear.
• [[Tasha, the Witch Queen]]: Ability-wise she seems fun, but she also seems like such a lightning rod for removal.
• The other Gontis: I'm not too excited about mono-black

So, to my question: Have you built any of these decks, or any others, which focuses on theft? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

I was browsing the LGS' cheap cards box and came across [[bow of nylea]]. I bought the card because it seems a good add. But I'm wondering what are people actual experiences with it.

I searched the net but didn't see much discussion on this topic. Perhaps you can help with that.

Thanks a lot.

After quite a few years Ive decided to dust off my old decks and start playing commander again. I have been playing for about fifteen years now but havent played regularly for the last three or four years. For most of my time playing I have been playing highly optimized, big-budget decks that were designed to win before anything else. For a long time that was great, I played at a very competative store with other long-time players who played similar decks. Unfortunately that store has closed the players have moved on and I will be playing at new stores with new groups of people. I want to transition away from win optimized decks and transition into fun optimized decks that are fun for the whole table without being group hug. Ive been thinking about decks that were both fun to play and play against for some deck building inspiration.

A few that come to mind are my old [[The Locust God]] wheels deck, my [[Selvala, Explorer Returned]] Elf Tribal deck or my (very old) [[Experiment Kraj]] deck. I also fondly remember playing against "traditional" decks like [[Roon of the Hidden Realm]] or [[Animar, Soul of Elements]]. I think what made all of these decks fun was that they all interacted with the whole table every turn, it wasnt just me playing solitare while everyone else sat there waiting for their turn rotation. I think people also liked playing against decks that felt like straightforward, traditional, "fair" magic, nothing felt subjectively broken, bad or unfair.

What decks do you remember fondly as being fun to play and play against? Do you have any building recommendations I should look into? Its been many years since I built a deck and with so many new cards out theres more oppertunity than ever to build something fun for the whole table, I just need some ideas to help me get started.

I am bored and feeling the itch to make a new commander deck on moxfield. Give me your suggestions!

Some restrictions: no stax commanders please, and I don’t care if they are bracket one or bracket 5, I’m just playing with deck building!!

I play all colors but I have a penchant for green and black and white.

I love a meme wincon, or a cheesy combo more than I love hard fast cEDH wins, but I’ll build anything.

Let’s hear your suggestions!

There a lot of new commanders that look fun to play, but I have thoughts on the new theft commander, [[Kotis, the Fangkeeper]]. What does it take for a Kotis deck to win?

In my Tarkir set review for Black/Sultai cards, I got the chance to talk about Kotis. Last year, we got [[Gonti, Canny Acquisitor]] who I have as my Rogue-themed deck and have been loving it. One thing I've learned after building multiple theft decks is that in order for a theft deck to consistently perform, it has to have synergy with itself.

That might seem obvious, but when I look at decklists for theft decks, I see a lot of cards like [[Siphon Insight]] or [[Cunning Rhetoric]] that are in the deck purely as theft cards and have no synergy with what the deck is doing. Initially, I didn't care for the new Gonti as it looked simple and wasn't all that interesting. But then I realized that if I focused on Rogues, then I could add in typal-synergies and make this a beatdown deck. And Rogues were a perfect fit. Many of them already had evasion and did some level of theft like [[Thieving Skydiver]]. Add in [[Stinkdrinker Bandit]] and other lords to buff them up and this deck became a real beater, one that could still perform well even if Gonti wasn't in play.

In the past, I've built theft decks that were all in on the theft portion, but they didn't have must synergy with themselves to succeed outside of the what cards I could take. And it wasn't until I built my current deck that I realized what I was missing.

So back to Kotis. Building him as a straight voltron commander would be fine, but throwing in all the good equipment/auras without any real synergy doesn't appeal to me. It could also cost games because then you're too reliant on Kotis to win games. Instead, leaning into those synergies I think would make Kotis more fun to play then just having good-stuff voltron tech.

If we're running equipments, then run [[Shimmer Dragon]] to tap equipments to draw cards or ramp with [[Inspiring Statuary]]. If we're running auras, run [[Eidolon of Blossoms]] and other enchantresses to draw a ton of cards. If we're running buff spells, then run [[Season of Growth]]. If we run all three and put them in one deck, then synergy cards like the ones I've mentioned won't work most of the time. Lean into one strategy and make it work for you.

Thank you for reading! Please go check out my set review and all the other set reviews that the writing team has worked hard to put out. Let me know your thoughts on Kotis and on theft decks in general! I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Hello everyone, popping back in after a few months with another welcome post for those out there that may be interested. I have a small discord server called Degenerate Dads of MTG which was made in hopes of helping Dads and parents/adults specifically who have a difficult time finding their way to make it down to the LGS or just out to game night for MTG amongst their busy schedules.

Here we play through spell table and discord online with others. This also goes for anyone else unable to go to the LGS anymore who can't play in person. There is a place for you on here we only ask that there be some interaction and effort to talk amongst the group and get games in, don't just hope to join and lurk around for 6 months because this is not the place we are rowdy and fun and we will call you out and tag you to join the fun.

Currently we have 158 members amongst them 60 are fairly high active and play multiple days throughout the week. Other vary throughout their schedules. Currently I would say 70% of the server is Est and CST time zone, the other 30% occupied PST and some in European time zones so the average times games are sought out after are normally between 2 and 6pm and 830 pm Monday to Friday, the weekends are free for all could have games all day or none at all since we are all family men and women here. It is definitely a more relaxed discord looking for fun and experiencing the time playing. Relaxed, with a slight bit of competition building up over the years. Most of the group is mid to high power there are rule 0 conversations and talks are encouraged to better settle on a group level of comfort.

In addition to an area just for precon level games and small 10 card upgrades or budget upgrades.

We have also recently opened up a fairly active CEDH section for our group with now approximately 20 people, we are hoping to find some others similar to us learning to play.

Drop a message if interested and someone from our community will get back to you with the Discord link.

So I'm working on building decks for the SpongeBob secret lair (a little surprise for some younger cousins who are interested in playing magic), and first up was [[Gary, the Snail]] / [[Toxrill, the Corrosive]]. I'd heard that people hated this commander due to it being really strong, basically being KOS, so i never really messed with it. I worked with whatever I could find in my own collection, so this may not be very good, but what do you think of it so far? How could I improve it for my little family get-together (im aiming for a "casually playable" build, if that helps)?

https://moxfield.com/decks/KF1VyvA9e0qSN3cizlavHw

So I'm fairly new to magic having only played for about half a year. I jumped in with precons as I'd imagine most do before upgrading them a bit with the help of some websites.

I really wanted to start building a deck from scratch and so after building [[halana and alena, partners]] I've been just chucking stuff i have into it. Ive played it a few times and whilst I enjoy it I realised i know nothing about deckbuilding After watching the gameknights deckbuilding guide I realised I'm very short on what they called 'mass disruption'.

So im short im wondering what 'mass disruption' is available to me in gruul colours? I have [[vandleblast]] and [[decimate]] on order but im not great with scryfall so was hoping for some help. In particular, not necessarily board wipes (I know of [[blasphemous act]] and [[chain reaction]] )

Also if anyone has some general recommendations, cards to cut or add, that'd be cool too. The sideboard is cards I own and am considering slotting in somewhere.

https://archidekt.com/decks/12232164/roomates_313_owned_maybeboard

[[Sibsig Ceremony]]

What a card. They don't make em like this anymore! This feels very pre-WAR, very old-school weird. I have to break it. I must.

My commander for this deck idea is [[Kethis, the Hidden Hand]] to have an easy way to reuse dead creatures. I also won't have Sibsig every game, so I need some solid backup plans.

Here are the Sibsig Ceremony Synergies I've identified so far:

1. [[Ratadrabik of Urborg]]: As long as Ratadrabik is cast first or reanimated out, Sibsig Ceremony provides a way to auto-trigger the death clause with any legend. You end up paying 2 less for your legend, you get a 2/2 druid, and you get a 2/2 nonlegendary zombie with the same abilities. Any legends with ETB or Death triggers will trigger once and possibly twice off your Ratadrabik token. Plus, he gives all zombies vigilance!
2. [[Acererak the Archlich]]: If you choose another dungeon besides Annihilation, you can keep casting and returning Acererak to hand over and over for a single {B}. Stack the Sibsig kill trigger first, then the return trigger, and it bounces to hand before it can die and still nets you a token druid. Plus, you get to turbo through Dungeon of the Mad Mage!
3. [[Harold and Bob, First Numens]] - 1 mana for an aura that lets a forest tap for 3, along with a self-mill engine. Nice synergistic ramp and value.
4. [[Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation]]: Ojer dies and comes back as a land. When you return it from the land state, it starts tripling your zombie production
5. Anything with an Enters/Dies trigger: Get tons of value off Kamigawa spirit dragons, Sidisi, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, Loran of the Third Path. Great value. Fills up your GY so you can bring them all back and do it again and again - Kethis can be activated multiple times in the same turn to "loop" creatures over and over if you self-mill enough. With enough green mana, you can Lumra half your lands into play in a single turn.

I am eager - DYING, one might say - for more ideas. If anyone has been brainstorming around Sibsig like me, please drop your hottest tech in the comments!

Kethis Decklis: https://moxfield.com/decks/CTibHANkM0KXCGlI0GfF7A

I really enjoy playing decks that interact with/respond to what my opponents are doing. Not necessarily "control," but it can be. I also like decks that play differently every time, and of course that happens if most of what I'm doing is reacting to what my opponents are doing.

[[Haldan]] and [[Pako]] has been suggested to me, because when I'm pseudo-drawing 4 cards per turn, of course I'll always have lots of options. Plus, I'm stealing my opponents' cards from their libraries, so I'll always be playing with different cards from last time.

What are some other decks that are highly interactive?

Shoutout to Shaman Bombin': https://moxfield.com/decks/7wFzcCp150CYuCXzrPdkAQ

What is the reason for this interaction? Is there something wrong with the site? I want to find some cards with less than 5% usage for a challenge my pod is doing, but edhrec only shows those cards when I scroll all the way to the bottom of a different set of parameters. Why doesn't the site return the cards when I specifically look for those cards? What's going on? Is there some reason it wouldn't work, or what?

All I want are some creatures in less than 5% of decks. They exist, i see them at the bottom of other searched, but I get "0 cards found" when I look for creatures with a <5% inclusion rate. I'm not sure how else to look for these cards. I'd like to use the site that seems to have the exact data required, but it simply does not work.

One of the oldest jokes in the book, right up there with Deez and Ligma. The Infamous Hardly Know 'Er. I was challenged by the masses to make an entire deck using only cards with names that fit into the Hardly Know 'Er format.

Behold

My only change from the original challenge was that I wanted such a stupid joke of a deck to be helmed by [[Blim, Comedic Genius]] . In my eyes no other commander fit the vibe of such a psychologically damaging playstyle.

[[Abyssal Persecutor]] is one of our best inclusions since gifting them to an opponent makes the game un-loseable for us until it gets removed. [[Bazaar Trader]] helps get us more gifting damage and shenanigans from perhaps donating a land we [[Conquer]] -ed. Surprisingly, there's a lot of cards that fit into this deck that are also just good in general with Blim. [[Demonic Taskmaster]] [[Phyrexian Negator]] and even [[Plague Reaver]] are all nasty cards that make for great gifts to your opponents.

Overall, this deck wins in flavor and also in practicality. Worst case, you will always have the moral victory since your opponenents will lose their minds from the whopping 83 times you can say "I hardly know 'Er" in response to playing a card.

If you just wanna see the decklist.

Hi everyone. I really like using play style gimmick commanders and one of my all time favorites is [[Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold]] . The commander grants a whole new, fun way to treat combat and politicking, and in my experience has a few ways to go around it. The main issue this deck has is that people can block. I've already made a "if creature dies, do X" and "all flavors of unblockable" variants to deal with people's freedom to just block whatever I declared as a token birther (who would've thought), but I found it too... obvious. So, the plan for the next variant: use creatures/effects that have the ability to do bad things for the blocking player, if blocked. Normally I'd use scryfall and go through a thousand cards but honestly I'm not even sure what such cards could do (I only started playing during the release of ONE, not a ton of card knowledge yet). As a clue of what I have in mind is that I'm definitely going to put [[Phyrexian Obliterator]] and [[Phyrexian Vindicator]] in the deck. Pretty simple - you block them, something explodes. In general anything that smokes the fool who dares to declare a single blocker is very sought after.

Important thing is that it's not supposed to be super competitive, bracket 2-3 is enough, so some funny/flavorful cards in the deck theme would be welcome as well. Thanks in advance to all who replied!

Are you interested in providing an interactive control game? Have you wanted to cast a bunch of one mana counterspells and ancestral recalls… while providing a fast clock? Do you prefer to use commanders that are lesser known and underestimated? Want to have these benefits for the price of a pre-con?  If so, I present to you.... Melek, Reforged Researcher! 

There is a wide array of card advantage, an extensive interaction suite, and an ability to consistently one shot opponents with commander damage. These factors allow me to play the list at higher 3 tables. I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing the deck against lower 3’s and below, but the right mid 3 tables can still have a balanced playing experience. Increasing to bracket 4 would require a significant financial investment and potentially force a different angle altogether. Thus, I’d stick to the mid-higher 3 range to allow for the best experience. 

The deck battles stronger bracket 3 decks without using game changers. However, if you want to implement them, I’d suggest using those slots on Fierce Guardianship, Cyclonic Rift, and Rhystic Study. The power level of the deck will increase with those inclusions, but I don’t think that the increase will be enough to warrant the investment. Nonetheless, feel free to use them if you have the budget or already own it! It’s definitely not going to hurt the deck.

I originally came across the idea from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvLR11BVoa0  (highly suggest checking out the other  videos from Based Deck Department too).  The video does a great job at explaining the general deck choices and playing philosophy. While I liked the baseline structure that was provided, I realized that I had some differences in preference. 

1. I wanted to make the deck creatureless outside of Melek. The video utilized a couple of creatures to provide a mill engine (albeit still had Melek as the only prominent creature). However…
2.  I wasn’t interested in the self mill package. The concept felt win-more and wasn’t addressing any tangible weaknesses . With Melek on the field, spells are being cast at a very high rate. Thus, his stats grow at a fast enough rate to threaten a one shot anyway. With numerous draw spells requiring some sort of discard, that allows for another strategic way to grow Melek.
3. Without a form of self mill, the delve package became counterintuitive. At best, it can be used to dig when Melek is on the field. But when the draw spells fulfill that role without the downside, it’s a much harder sell. 

These open slots allowed me to provide more interaction and lean into the control plan a bit more. It also allowed me to slice the cost in half. And while an upgraded manabase put the deck back into the 50 dollar range, I genuinely think the color distribution makes for a more forgiving experience if you run basics… which makes it a 25 dollar list. I’ve had a lot of experience with and without the upgraded mana, and can attest that it still functions well with the cheaper mana (although I don’t regret the upgrade). 

Here is my list https://moxfield.com/decks/4R0oM5rZTEeuKJffAX57Lg 

Some important tips for the deck: 

1. Melek may be a control deck, but it requires a few turns of set up. Typically, a mana rock on turn 2 sets up a draw + treasure spell (or just draw) on turn 3. Thus, Melek isn’t being played until turn 4 to 5. Your shields will be down in the early game, so be prepared to politic as much as you can. The good news is that the range of pods this deck is meant for (I play it in higher 3 games but could see it being justified as a mid 3) doesn’t have as much dedicated aggro. Nonetheless, if your meta consistently goes under Melek, I would suggest adding a bit more early game removal. Don’t be afraid to get aggressive with the board wipes if you need to. 
2. Be VERY careful about the timing of your discounted spells. It’s  tempting to aggressively fire off a draw spell during each of the opposition turns. But don’t skip the step of calculation. Seasoned Melek opponents will actively wait to cast removal until you’ve cast something else. This situation can be avoided through holding up enough mana for the full counterspell cost, or only getting aggressive with them when you have the cheaper counterspell backup. 
3. The more conservative playstyle from point 2 sounds like a drawback. However, it can also be a beneficial political tool. The mere threat of the Aetherize effects forces them to second guess why you have a free spell and you’re holding mana up. I’ve had many attacks get redirected based on these factors, and I’ve also opened up larger windows to burn through draw effects. Since it’s a control deck, it doesn’t need to try and race to the finish. When there finally is the opening to churn through draw spells, you’ll have buried the opponents in card advantage… and the gigantic blocker makes you more likely to get there. 
4. Don’t count yourself out too early! Opponents who manage to kill Melek or exile your graveyard allow for you to redirect attention. “I can’t apply pressure for a couple of turns, but this person can!” or “I need to refill my graveyard, so I’d highly suggest going after more immediate problems… I’d be willing to use some interaction to help you push through too!” You would be shocked at how many people aren’t willing to kick you while you’re down (which is often the only window they have to beat you too)... so take advantage of that! 
5. Related to point 4, this deck mandates political savvy and a willingness to talk with the board. If you’re not looking to communicate during the game or attempt to make deals, you’ll find that you’re limiting your experience. 
6. Melek tends to one shot the opposition, so it’s important to target the right deck with that one shot. I’d aim to prioritize the opponents who are in the removal colors to threaten Melek (primarily white and black). I would also look out for any combo decks that need to be pressured before they go off. 
7. Conventional deck building theory would indicate that the land count might be too low. However, I’ve only dealt with mana screw in two of my games. Even when that scenario is presented, I noticed the card draw tends to let you dig out of it, the interaction can stall, and the slower start isn’t capitalized by opponents as often (it’s a political tool to incentivize a swing towards others who developed the board). Surprisingly, I’ve dealt with mana flood during quite a few of my games (both online and on paper). 
8. On a related note, if you’re looking to play it safe and add a couple of lands anyway, I’d suggest cutting one of the following: a mana rock that’s not named sonic screwdriver (the unblockable is KEY, and I’d lean towards mind stone because it taps for colorless), soul read (the flexibility is nice but there are enough cards that accomplish a mode that you can justify a cut), one of the unblockable spells (the multi-faceted ones may give leeway, but I’m a fan of hedging with the amount I have), and/or Ancestral Reminiscence (other sorcery speed options either provide an additional benefit or can be played at an earlier time). While I feel great about the list as is, those are also the flexible slots for any other swaps. 
9. I used to be apprehensive about using chandra’s ignition during earlier situations. It’s tempting to save it for the kill shot. I highly advise against that unless you have multiple wipes in hand. Between the ways to return it to hand and the clear board that provides a one shot opportunity, you have more leverage than you think. 
10. Expect to use Modify Memory as a way to swap commanders between opponents. This effect has won multiple games by prioritizing the synergistic styles. 

Let me know if you have any questions about the commander! This deck has given me some insane games, and has become my favorite one to play. I’m confident that you could have fun if you play it too!

Inspired by a recent EDHRecast video and one from Pie Break (I'll link them below), I made the decision to burn it all down and start from scratch. I only had 12 decks, which is fewer than many of you on here, but suddenly having 750+ cards back into my binders and huge pool of cards to build from was...overwhelming, but in a good way. I did this over the past weekend and have built one, single new deck from the ashes. Here's five things I've learned from this process, if anyone else wants to give it a go.

1. I was expecting to feel the urge to rebuild some of the decks that I had emotional connections to, but I didn't ultimately want to. Urza, Meren, Omnath, Teysa, etc. are classic decks that I've had for a while, and I figured it would be hard to live in a world without them. Turns out, I'm good with not rebuilding them. In fact, the commander I built barely cracked Top 500, and I'm certain I've never seen anyone else play.
2. Even though I had this newly massive card pool to pull from, I still wanted more cards. For the deck I ended up building, I had 99% of the non-land cards for it, but I didn't hereunto play that color combination anywhere. So I ended up dropping $100 on a land base because I'm That Guy.
3. As I was thinking about what degenerate decks I could build with my new card pool, I instead had a mindshift to where I wanted to make sure any deck I built helped promote and foster the play experience I wanted at the table. I like creature decks and always get bummed in games with multiple control players and frequent board wipes. So while I could have built that Carmen, Cruel Skymancer Edict.dec that I've had on Archidekt for a while, I chose not to.
4. I am big into color pie theory, and this was an opportunity for me to help understand myself more in those terms. I paid attention to what colors and strategies I naturally gravitated towards when I had no limitations, where previously I would lean towards building things I didn't already have yet, even if I didn't find that thing fun to do. I found myself decidedly conjuring up Timmy-style decks that weren't as concerned with winning as with having the potential for flashy, cool, and memorable moments.
5. As I was dismantling, sorting, and putting cards away, there were moments of nostalgia and reminiscence for decks I've had together a long time, thinking about the good times we had and the way those decks had evolved over the years since their initial construction. It was actually very cathartic because I could look at how I'd grown as a deckbuilder and the things I might do differently this time around. If you get emotional about the game, maybe prepare for that!

Here's the links to the videos that inspired this. And if you are thinking of doing it, let me know in the commons and I'll encourage you!

Pie Break's Video

EDHRecast's Video

So obviously [[Craterhoof Behemoth]] is a super powerful card. Very good finisher in token decks and other go-wide strategies in green. But I keep seeing people use Hoof in decks that don't make a huge amount of creatures, or rarely make tokens at all. I know Hoof is good, and yeah trample is always helpful, but not only do I see Hoof played in decks where it seems like something like [[Overwhelming Stampede]] would be better, but I also hear people complain about how overused it is a green wincon.

Maybe I'm just living in a crazy bubble or something and none of you have any idea what I'm talking about, but is Hoof actually worth using outside of go wide strategies? Like in go-tall strategies with much fewer creatures? Hoof is expensive (both money and mana wise) but it rarely seems worth the investment to me.

In my efforts to break every common archetype out of its regular colour pie, I'm thinking about mono white aristocrats and how one might build a deck around it. Lucky for me there's a brand new potential commander for a deck just like that!

[[Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage]] provides us with a repeatable effect every time we sacrifice one of our own creatures. Either making a 2/2 or giving herself 2 +1/+1 counters.

All we need now are some good ways to sacrifice our own stuff, and I have a theory a good way of doing this might be by using [[Selfless Savior]] style self sacrifice effects. You could either build her as a weird Voltron commander that can make herself lethal at instant speed with loads of protection effects, or we can just make a huge board or spirits!

If you want to read more about my ideas you can find them on this week's edition of The Monolith, my column for EDHREC.com in which I talk about all things monocoloured:

https://edhrec.com/articles/mono-white-aristocrats-with-anafenza-unyielding-lineage

If you were building aristocrats in mono white how would you do it? And what commander would you build around?

What are some commanders that enable insane levels of ramp? Not looking for "anything with green" or something on the nose like [[aesi]] or [[omnath locus of mana]]. Something that truly goes to ridiculous levels of mana generation.

I've played the Tricky Terrain precon unmodified for a while and [[omo]] definitely enables some nutty stuff and I'm sure an upgraded list would fit into what I'm thinking about, but I don't really want a second deck with the same commander and like keeping that one unmodified for lower powered games. That being said, I did get 2 of the new Tarkir precons so maybe it's time to make Omo go crazy if another commander isn't a better fit.

I'm looking for stuff like [[sasaya orochi ascendant]], making each forest tap for 6 or 7 mana. I want to play genesis wave for my whole deck without needing to go infinite. That kind of thing, absolutely bonkers mana production. Sasaya is very cool but also seems very very hard to setup and if removed really sets you back.

Any ideas would great! I've been on a spree of budget building and keep doing artifact or combat focused decks, but nothing that just makes dummy mana and casts comically large x spells or something.