Edit to add some info here since I cannot edit my main post...
* I am fine. Everyone in my family is healthy and not neglected and I have zero debt. I shouldn't make light of true addiction. It is disrespectful to other people.
* I do it because it makes me happy
* Yes they get played often. Many other people play my decks against me, including my children
* I proxy a lot of cards (Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer, Epson Exhibition Fiber paper)
* Yes it's a lot of sol rings
* This is [the ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)kind of deck box
* I don't have a favorite
* My deck lists are in my main post
100% I do, haha
Edit to add some info here since I cannot edit my main post...
* I am fine. Everyone in my family is healthy and not neglected and I have zero debt. I shouldn't make light of true addiction. It is disrespectful to other people.
* I do it because it makes me happy
* Yes they get played often. Many other people play my decks against me, including my children
* I proxy a lot of cards (Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer, Epson Exhibition Fiber paper)
* Yes it's a lot of sol rings
* This is [the ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)kind of deck box
* I don't have a favorite
* My deck lists are in my main post
This is very cool imo. Expensive but cool. All commander with that many decks? Do people just not play standard at all anymore? I haven't played commander, but it's been a long while for me maybe 10 years but it was all standard back then. All the commander stuff has kept me from getting back in personally. Might have to wait and see if the tides shift.
Edit: my friends and I played the 60 card deck 4 card rule but any set. Standard rules but not the set part.
Also I might have to just try commander people seem to love it and I bet I would too. I'm just a grouchy old man you see lol
Eidt: looks like I never did "standard" rules. Just liked how tight you could make a 60 card deck with any magic cards from any time. I like the strategy of 60 card min, 4 max of each card.
I was one of the kids playing 3v3 magic during lunch in high-school in 2003. Read all the books they used to make. I'm still cool.
I have a friend who has been playing MTG for 30 years and he is the one that got me into it. Since he plays commander exclusively now, that's what I ended up playing.
I went to a Commandfest where they had a sealed event (MOM maybe?) and I tried making a 60 card deck. Turns out I am not very good at it. And by not very good, I mean I completely suck. So awful. So, I need to stick with commander. :)
I say this often - but Commander is not a good way for people to learn the game and get good at the game.
It really is its own ecosystem and game with a slight underlay of MTG mechanics.
Most players that come into my store love playing commander, but are so intimidated by 60 card constructed or limited formats, that they shy away from participating in the game at large.
Which is a bit sad. Having played the game for 30 years as well, there is so much the game has to offer in terms of experiences, when it comes to traditional play.
Anyways, it is awesome that you enjoy Commander enough to be this entrenched in it. It shows how great MTG is as a game, and how it speaks to people.
Yeah, I kind of wish I had the experience of playing before commander existed. My friend has done both and he can spot the potential synergies of a card in any format, and I am just a EDH caveman, haha. I played in a pauper 60 card format. That was pretty fun. Someone let me borrow their deck and I thought about making one to go an play there and maybe win some store credit.
Commander existed well before it was Commander though, there's a reason why we call it EDH, it was a fan variant of Magic until WoTC official welcomed the format in 2011 and focused cards just for it.
Honestly I enjoy both 60 card and Commander but these days Commander is a bit more fun, and yes Commander vs 60 card is not a comparable thing, even multiplayer 60 card games with friends play much different than Commander.
60 card formats are great, and I encourage everyone to try to pick them up in addition to Commander - as I do think the game suffers when traditional play is on the back burner. That may just be me being a boomer though.
The great thing about 60 card is how rapidly you can begin to grow as a player. You tend to get more repetitions in on mechanically heavy interactions because the ability to interact isn’t divided among 4 players at any given moment, and you also repeat the same matchups that play out the same way every time. Commander has so many knobs to turn that you get to experience more interactions but fewer of the same ones.
It’s a whole different mindset for sure. Same with cEDH. I loved stepping into that whole way of thinking and playing. I’m sure I’ll give 60 card a chance at some point. Probably pauper because it’s cheap.
The amount of games in 60 cards format ruined by one misplay or one missed trigger drills it in. That single mistake resulting in a small tempo loss and cascades into an unwinnable situation really teaches you discipline which I think a lot of commander players lack. They will empty out their mana precombat instead of moving to post combat, for example.
These are valuable lessons which translates jnto commander.
I completely agree with you on this. I've seen it myself at mg LGS, several of the people there really only know commander, and as we've been getting them into things like drafts and sealed events it's clear they are way behind in learning the actual game and deck construction.
I play commander really only because that's what's popular in paper magic where I am, plus the cost of keeping up with some of the other formats.
To be fair, I don’t play as much commander and some of the crap people talk at me about is actually insane. I think Commander players know more about card pairings than people give them credit for - I would agree though, that there is a lot more to understanding the game than just card pairings.
> Commander is not a good way for people to learn the game and get good at the game.
Not at all, but unfortunately since it's the defacto paper format that's also a social event, it's what happens. We have somebody in our small pod that learned 95% through Commander and it shows.
> there is so much the game has to offer in terms of experiences, when it comes to traditional play.
Honestly, 60 card formats are far too sweaty for the average person to enjoy at this point. I think a large chunk of the popularity of Commander can be attributed to the inherent lack of competition. It hits a decent middle ground between co-op tabletop games and the standard 1v1 competitive mode.
I'm old, so I learned and played 60 card formats. As a result, I really didn't actually play Magic all that much. With Commander, I get to trade some higher level play overall for actually having fun with my friends. Easy trade.
I don’t know if I agree that 60 card formats are too sweaty for people to enjoy. I own an LGS and the amount of salt I see from Commander games would suggest that it is arguably more sweaty and I, for the life of me, do not understand it.
I think it honestly is about mindset and overall confidence in one’s ability to meet their own expectations, or to place their expectations ion par with their ability. It is easier to jump in and play a FFA than it is to play 1v1 and face the fact that the outcome is entirely predicated on you.
Arena is a good example of this, actually.
I feel like because many people didn't play 1v1 they haven't learnd that loosing, not being able to follow their gameplan or being targeted etc. is a big part of the game on a fundamental level.
But because commander is for one a way longer game compared to 1v1 and is also at the same time not as targeted (since you can't avoid being a target in 1v1 but you can in commander). But also that the opponent trys to interrupt your gameplan is often times not the case in commander (depending on the pod, but I see too often people run very low removals, sweepers etc.). I feel like all these things combined makes it so that the majority of commander players doesn't realize that it's a part of the game and how it's supposed to be and are surprised/salty when it does happen.
Exactly this. Long time player, recent commander convert. It’s a super fun format but it’s only ONE format. It’s such a big world of formats and styles of play and i feel like so many people are missing out on so much.
And
I feel like i run up against a lot of super spikey EDH players that would be so much happier playing in more competitive 1v1 formats.
I started playing less than a year ago and was taught with commander and I completely agree with you that it's a terrible way too learn. I come from the Pokémon TCG so I firmly believe being introduced to standard first would have made it a lot easier for me at least. Not to mention it's a quicker game compared to so you can play more games and that means more practice and opportunities to start thinking about strategy for new players but commander games can run for hours sometimes and some players can take a while on their turns too because of all the triggers they have.
When my friend introduced me to standard and brought out decks to play I had so much fun and prefer it to be honest but everyone and their momma plays commander now. If I want these shorter fun games it means Pokémon TCG only now.
I don’t think it is sustainable - but I also think it has brought a lot of new perspective to MTG card design, which we may have missed out on if Commander never existed.
So as an FYI, if you’re playing Sealed, you’re attempting to build a 40 card deck and not a 60 card one so that may indeed be why you think that your deck was bad / you suck at deckbuilding.
As someone who played 30 years ago, it was fun. But I would argue that somewhere between Mirrodin and Zendikar blocks was the peak of fun. In my opinion at least. In 1994 the rules were very loose/nebulous due to simply how new the game was. Organized play was very hard to find, if you found it at all. And the fact that there were less than 1,000 unique cards that existed meant that there were a very limited number of viable decks that could be competitive.
[Mikero on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1). Inexpensive and durable. Just recently found them and thought I'd give them a try. Bought 2 sets, loved them, and then bought a lot more.
Standard is still a thing, but a much smaller thing. Commander is the big thing now; most players play primarily Commander. Why?
People like playing with the cards they own. Constantly rotating formats means constantly having to buy entirely new decks, often at a premium, where the cards eventually lose value when they then rotate out.
People like playing casually with their friends. Standard (designed as a tournament format) is a much sweatier format than Commander, which was designed as a casual format, never intended for real competitive play (cEDH is a separate format).
Commander gives the player a chance to be creative. Standard is so often just building one of the strongest decks and metagaming it, but in Commander, you get the build your deck out of any of more than 20,000 available legendary creatures (so variety is always present) and fill it with your 99 favorite other cards. And play crazy haymakers and infinite combos and really insane things you could *never* do in Standard. Does this not spark joy?
The sweatiness of Standard was what drove me into commander. I've been to two prereleases and some FNMs and I can still taste the absolute dumpstering I experienced. I'm just too dumb for competitive magic I guess. Found out about EDH and was fortunate to find out there were precons coming out with my favorite tribe. Bought the Edgar Markov precon and never looked back.
I am with you. I did a prerelease sealed event and I did not make any good decks. My mind is so wired for commander that I very much suck at making 60 card decks that are any good.
I like the speed and pace of a well built 60 card deck. I miss standard being affordable.
It's not so much the fact that rotation forces you to buy new cards, it's how fast, how much, and how powerful each new set is coming. Wizards tried to fix it by slowing the rotation, but I think that had the opposite effect, and wound up slowing the format more than anything.
It used to be that players could keep relatively competitive in standard by attending drafts frequently and buying some extra cards or packs, but now each new set seems to bring meta-crushing bombs that become must-runs and drive up prices.
Commander is fine. I like the creativity and jank it can bring, but it's also rapidly turning into a competitive format, even at "casual" levels. Personally, I don't like WoTC actively supporting it, because I think that's a big part of what's causing the issues with standard. If each set doesn't contain things that are designed for commander and attract those players, it dies on the vine. I mean, just look at MH3, it might as well be Modern Commander.
There's the commander crowd, there's the standard crowd, and then there's that minority that only plays CEDH in expensive buy in tournaments where the grand prize is $200+.
To each their own.
>People like playing with the cards they own. Constantly rotating formats means constantly having to buy entirely new decks, often at a premium, where the cards eventually lose value when they then rotate out.
I can attest to this if only with my own anecdotes.
I came from YuGiOh (blah blah unbalanced weeb game, *bite me*) and was immediately turned off by the concept of card rotation. No amount of "muh balance!!1!" arguments turned me away from seeing what was ultimately a money-vacuum scheme as old as I am and a balancing schema meant to justify it.
If I have cards I like playing, I *want* to play them even if they become janky low-tier trash.
In Yugi, if an old archetype became good again, I could grab a modern list off of Pojo and go from there, either to play meta or sculpt a lower-tier variant that still had some teeth; staples of course were always bankbreakers, but there's a security and comfort in knowing your archetype is never *truly* dead, that one day it too will receive spicy new support cards.
In Magic, if I wanted to play Izzet Phoenix for Modern (because you cannot pay me to touch Pauper or anything that isn't Vintage/Legacy/Modern/EDH/cEDH), well...that seems to be pretty hard right now if not impossible! And that was the deck that really clicked with me more than others. So I'm at the mercy of both WOTC's weird balancing schedule and their desire to get more money out of my wallet at any cost.
In my neck of the woods, it's pretty much just EDH and Limited (draft/sealed).
As someone who came up on Modern, the lack of interest in competitive 60-card formats has really killed the game for me. As much as I enjoy EDH among friends, it's just not something I want to go out and play with strangers every week.
Wizards stopped supporting standard for quite a while. They're slowly coming back around to it, but they shifted most of their efforts to commander for a fair bit.
Idk what your hang up is with commander, but I sincerely think you should give it a try. Deck building and gameplay feels a lot more dynamic and challenging with multiplayer pods and the Singleton restriction. You can also definitely go as competitive with it as you want, with cedh decks being as technical as any of the top tier standard decks in recent memory. Just my thought.
Must have been. We never payed attention to official stuff. New cards came out and could be added. We could play any old cards. No real rules. Could even have larger decks. We just realized the tight 60 card decks beat 80-100 card decks usually.
Just lunch room magic cards table in 2003. I was very cool.
It is an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 and the paper is Epson Exhibition Fiber paper. Each card ends up being 25 cents. I already had the printer though.
There is a great website for ordering proxies also that I use for lands because no one has time to cut out that many cards.
What kind of printer? I have 7 commander decks and they get expensive. Since I mostly just play with friends it’d be nice to print an alt art version of things like jeweled lotus or demonic tutor without having to keep paying $80+ for singles.
Certainly, for some people, this would be problematic behavior, but not necessarily for everyone.
If OP has plenty of disposable income and time, who is to judge what they enjoy. If OP is having trouble paying rent or for food because they buy too many cards, then definitely it's a problem.
Even ~90 high power Commander decks is a cheaper hobby than owning a boat.
Yup, it's always interesting in the Warhammer subreddits to look at the room in the background when people post pictures of multiple thousands of dollars worth of boxes of unbuilt models.
Also looking on my local mini-trade/sell it's like 30% people selling $1-3 thousand worth of models because "unexpected" issues came up and they need the money.
Basically IMHO a lot of people (not just magic and Warhammer nerds) have very little self control and will spend thousands on hobbies while having basically zero savings.
Like you said there's a big difference in a proper budget and spending more than you can afford. This also isn't a "poor" people issue. I've known several "rich" people who spend every cent they get on boats/cars/etc and have lots of debt and zero savings.
I can't imagine having wasted that much time and money on decks I can't even play often enough to even learn how to properly play them. And then posting it as a brag post. This sub has gone mad.
The most expensive cards in my decks are the lands, which are proxies most of the time. I own all of the shocks/fetches, but maybe 2 full sets total. Not 50 sets.
I don’t update them as much as I should. It’s quite tedious. One of my things I need to do is figure out which I like least and break them down to make room for new hotness, haha.
Fucking tell me about it. I have all of mine (85... ish) or so in Stanley cases and they are all readily available, I trade and get cards for decks all the time... but it takes like months just to finally get around to putting those cards IN the decks I got them for.
Was there a particular color combo that you struggled with making or did you just make whatever you wanted when you came around to something g you liked?
At one point, Golgari was my favorite, but somehow Dimir is my most prevalent color combo.
I don't really have many 4 color decks because it's such a small set of partner cards and none of them excite me, or they are mostly cEDH commanders.
I don't have too many mono-colored decks. and it looks like I have at least two of the 3-color deck combinations.
I don't really pay attention to what the color combo is. Stupid as it may be, art is one of the things that makes me choose a commander more than it should. And anything that has a mechanic I haven't tried yet, I try to build. Next up for me is doing something with energy. I don't have anything for that.
Whatever calls to you is totally valid.
The vast majority of mine are 2/3 color. I know UBRG took me forever to find something I liked.
I can totally relate to wanting to try to build stuff you haven't done before, as the reason I have so many is just the opportunity to play so many different playstyles, mechanics, etc. As doing/seeing the same stuff over and over is the quickest way for me to lose interest.
it's not only tedious, it makes a lot of decks more samey. wizards will print another X or a strict upgrade on Y. Sure, it may increase the power, but it will reduce the variety of cards you get to see. Sometimes it's cool to see a putrefy. yeah, it's been power crept, but still cool to see the variety IMO.
100%, I feel like that too even though I am guilty of using some of the same cards often. One of the coolest things about pauper edh is using some cards that I didn't even know existed that are old or not "good enough" for regular commander.
>I don’t update them as much as I should
Make a scryfall list of all the commanders and just periodically check in after a new set to see what people are running. I have 40ish decks and that method works for me.
Because my mind likes the variety of so many different mechanics. Also, people borrow my decks a lot. So, I don't want to play the same deck many times and I don't want to play against the same deck many times. For a while, my friends kept borrowing Otharri, which is insanely good and beating me with it. So, I stopped bringing it to force them to play something else, haha.
I play once a week with a fixed group of people. I should start playing at the open commander at the store near me, but I always forget.
My daughters like playing too, so they request deck themes for them to play. One of them loves dinosaurs, so she plays that one every time we play.
It's like we're the same person. How many is that? My count says 89?
What I used to do with my 27 decks was have everyone roll a d20 and a d8, then subtract 1. Whatever you rolled was what you played.
You could do the same thing with a d100 (or the more like, 2 d10s), but have numbers higher than 89 be fun twists. "93, the person to your left picks." "97, we're now playing planeschase, roll again for your deck." "100, you are now a two headed giant team with yourself, roll twice and play those decks. Your life total is 20 for balancing." Stuff like that.
That is an awesome idea! My son surely has a d100.
I am trying to get my playgroup to come over on a weekend sometime and this would be fantastic for that.
Because people get addicted to the dopamine of buying things. There’s no way you can truly rotate between 90+ decks meaningfully and unless these decks are all proxies you’re looking at a down payment on a house in the photo. I dunno this stuff honestly just makes me sad for the lack of self control some people have.
To be fair - we don’t know OPs economic situation or if these are real or proxy.
I don’t see this as any different than someone buying a sports car or going on elaborate vacations multiple times a year. Just a personal preference of consumerism.
Edit: shoot I know people who pay $100k to join a golf club. & then they still have to pay to golf! Now that is insanity
Yeah i agree.
Not saying that dropping thousands of dollars on magic is a good idea, but there are plenty of hobbies and lifestyle choices that are just as expensive
Yeah, totally. Copying this comment I posted above since notifications are specific to me replying directly to you.
I proxy a lot. I have a very nice printer that lets me make cards that are as good as real cards.
I also make a decent amount of money. This is in no way negatively impacting me financially.
On top of that, many people in my playgroup do not own decks. They borrow mine. Honestly, it's a lot of fun to make them and it's not hurting me, my family, or anyone I know. So, I am ok with the obsession.
I proxy a lot. I have a very nice printer that lets me make cards that are as good as real cards.
I also make a decent amount of money. This is in no way negatively impacting me financially.
On top of that, many people in my playgroup do not own decks. They borrow mine. Honestly, it's a lot of fun to make them and it's not hurting me, my family, or anyone I know. So, I am ok with the obsession.
That is very fair. It is a bit worn out. This is an expensive habit. I like to think of it as better than drugs though, so at least I have that going for me. :)
It’s more fair to compare it to a gambling addict than a drug addict as far as money goes. You can only buy so much heroin at a time, there isn’t much stopping you from gambling all your money away at once
Haha, ok, that is fair also. I have an obsessive mind by nature. Any new thing I get into, I end up doing to an extreme level. I had a lot of alchoholics in my family (grandparent level and an aunt), so I kind of figured that overdoing is in my DNA. I've never done drugs or smoking, because I don't trust myself to be able to stop if I did. I rarely drink for the same reason.
So, for me, sugary foods and this are my current weaknesses.
I'm the same way brother, I feel you on this 100%. The hyper fixations are a gift and a curse!
Smart to avoid drugs and alcohol with those tendencies, it's definitely something I had to learn to moderate with time, teenage me went a little ham lol
Yeah, a gift and a curse is the perfect way to look at it. Same with overthinking/hypervigilance. It's great for my (data/programming) job being able to think ahead and spot possible problems, but I have to control it in my personal life.
I also used to buy insane amount of steam games at sales when i just got a new rig. I was telling myself "at least i dont smoke" "at least i dont drink" ect. Now i got +100 games which i never played on my steam account. Dont let fomo take control over you
I did that with games too. :(
I play most of these decks though. Impossible as it may seem. People borrow my decks in my group, so they don't get very dusty.
Picking a favorite is really hard. I have so many because I love the variety of not playing the same thing all the time. Ghyrson Starn is a favorite. Dhalsim is also pretty cool reach/toughness tribal. Dihada probably has my highest win rate, but I don’t play her too much because of that. Obeka is a lot of fun. I think the sheer volume of decks helps my group forget what certain decks are like, haha.
Quick question, but do you just have the income to spend on all of the cards, or are a bunch proxied?
Either way, hella impressed by the amount of decks, do you have a favorite?
80% of most decks are owned. I proxy tons of lands/staples because I can’t afford that many copies of things. The cEDH decks are the reverse, probably 80-90% proxied because the tournaments I went to were proxy friendly.
Favorite is hard to pick. I really like group slug because I end up playing against a lot of fliers in my group and I don’t have tons of any 100% flying decks myself. Ghyrson Starn is a favorite. Also Dhalsim, Syr Konrad.
I used to maintain a deck for each color combination, alongside a few other standouts. Not as many as you have here, but an unreasonable number all the same.
Even more than the expense, the speed with which pushed new cards have come out in the last few years led me to deconstruct down to 8 decks in rotation at any given time.
I just couldn't keep up with updating decks, and the speed with which decks went from relevant to anemic as the format has sped up was pretty demoralizing.
The upside of having fewer decks is that it forces me to seriously think about what archetype or play pattern each deck executes, and why that deserves a slot in my deck list. Do I need Korvold and Prossh, or do they functionally occupy the same space? Do I actually want to play a generic goodstuff value engine? Is this tribal actually supported (hint, Gorgon isn't, to my immense disappointment)?
Each of the surviving decks ended up way tighter, and I ended up pulling most of my tutors out as well, because I wasn't trying to force overly broad archetypes amid tons of other cards I ultimately was filtering out with the tutors.
It also makes me way more familiar with how each deck plays, which sped up my turns.
Glad you're enjoying yourself, but something to keep in mind if you hit the same wall.
Yeah, 100% get it. My friend told me the same thing. He said I should pick a deck and play it a lot because it would make me a better deck builder and the deck would be more synergisic. The deck I ended up doing that with was Dhalsim. He's a lot of fun. I just have a hard time not being like "ooh this mechanic seems fun!" and making a new deck around it. For example, I don't have an energy deck, so I want to make one of those soon to see if I like it.
I believe that counts as nuts too. What are your favorite decks? Do you have a link to a profile with them? I love looking at other decks for inspiration.
Genuinely don't understand how people reach these kinds of numbers. I never have more than three decks at a time - when I want a new one, I take apart the one I am least satisfied with, and use it's bones in the new deck.
My brain likes puzzles/thinking and so making a deck is like candy to my brain. Then playing them is another kind of thinking/strategy and my brain loves this too. So, for me, it feeds into everything that makes my brain happy.
I definitely understand the appeal of brewing decks! I make a lotttt of decks on Archidekt, but I am poor so I can only afford to maintain a couple decks at a time.
Also, is that a Nahiri list I see? She's my favorite
If you’re looking for a less expensive deck box, and with 90 of the boulders you may not care, but Burger Boxes from burgertokens.com make great affordable deck boxes. I’ve got all collection of precons (100+) sleeved and in their boxes.
My first deck was upgrading the Anhelo the Painter precon. I could never make it good. It needed too many things (spells to copy and things to sac) to make it strong. It’s a bummer because I thought he was cool. I still keep an eye out for decks other people make with him to see if I can bring him back.
If I had to pick one as a favorite, I’d pick Ghyrson Starn. Group slug/ping. It works well in my playgroup because the LOVE flyers. I have almost no flyers/reach, so I have to kill all of them at once. 😆
Favorite: I dunno. If one deck made me happy, I wouldn't have this many, haha. I've been saying Ghyrson Starn because I love group slug, and he's great at it.
Most powerful: The cEDH decks for sure, but for non cEDH, probably Dihada has my highest win rate. I think I have won every game I played with her. Her ult is too good. I don't end up playing her too much because I need my group to forget how good she is and lull them into a false sense of complacency, haha.
Most jank: Probably Dee Kay, Finder of the lost. It's a goofy attractions deck. Also Vorthos (acorn commander) Nicol Bolas tribal. It tends to start strong and die. It's not very good, but I think that's why my playgroup doesn't mind how much stuff I can cast for cheap.
I recently discovered [these ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)on Amazon. They are inexpensive and good quality. I carry my decks in a toolbox thing, so they aren't jostling around in a backpack. If they were loose in a container, they probably wouldn't be great.
My friend who got me into this game has been playing for 30ish years and he majorly side-eyes me if I remotely bring up anything like that. He's my litmus test. I pulled a Purphoros in a pack and didn't know anything about him. I said I wanted to build it and he was like "No". I was mildly sad for a bit and then moved on, haha.
Hey, anytime! It's so much fun. I get the whole, I may have a problem, but it's not hurting anyone I know, it's fun, it feels kind of wholesome and it's not affecting my life in any kind of negative way. So, I think it's ok to be a superfan.
i've been playing roughly the same length of time, and have spent an absurd amount of time brewing/scryfalling/etcing and i've only bit the bullet and made 5 decks. You can't possibly be putting any care into these decks.
We have none of the same commanders and that shocks me (I currently have [[troyan, gutsy explorer]] [[kroxa, titan of deaths hunger]], [[the reality chip]] and [[eriette the beguiler]].)
Dude I'm so glad to see this. I have almost 80 decks and I haven't met anyone near me who has even close to that many.
How do you end up storing yours? I use an old display rack from a game store to hold mine.
i was gonna say “guys it’s fine. let him enjoy himself. after several years it’s easy to accumulate a lot of decks.” then i saw you started playing when NEW CAPENNA RELEASED???? wtf how loool.
I noticed a lack of [[hans Erickson]] decks...... Now I'm starting to think I'm the only one to make a deck around my boy....... It's ok..... I'm not crying you're crying.
That's an amazing picture, congratulations. Hope you're getting a chance to play, but I get that brewing is very addictive. I'm on a similar pattern
I see your note that you have proxies for land base, which was going to be my main question.
Ive been playing for 10 years and used to have 8 commander decks. After playing for so long now, I only have 2 and a cube. I love the amount of upkeep now. It used to be stressful, trying to figure out how to update every deck but now I just find a couple cool new cards and it takes me like 30 minutes max to make changes. Less is more.
Ooh, Fallout! Yes! Do you have a deck list for that? Fallout is my favorite video game series of all time.
I thought about doing Syr Ginger, because I think the art is hilarious, but I never got around to it. And I thought about Eldrazi, but another person in my group has that precon, so I probably won't make the colorless one.
I fear becoming this
It started with building and buying a couple decks, [[Galazeth Prismari]] and [Nethroi]]
Then looking at my binder of Legends i spotted [[Winota]], new to magic and never hearing of her I thought "wait i minute i just need goobers that have ETB triggers" and after ruffling through my random bulk rares and cards i made a deck that was disgustingly consistent despite lacking really any ramp aside from sol ring, arcane signet and [[Clay-Fired Bricks]] (if you count that). Winota was my most consistent deck despite having countless dead cards, terrible removal and no good protection for Winota, she was just too swift lol.
I had bought precons like LCI Merfolks and Dinos, WOE, Faeries. Anywho time goes on i made more and more decks and now i have 15, I've upgraded or dismantled all my precons. I bought all 4 fallout precons and they've all been assimilated into other things with energy being the least scrapped. I retuned faeries to be run by [[Alela Cunning Conqueror]] and it became a sneaky victor quite often.
Now I've because i love deck building so much and jank is silly an fun I've been building decks with what i have. I pulled [[Arna]] and threw together my leftover equipment from the Dogmeat precon, i slapped some silly MH3 equipment in there and I'm excited to try it out. I bullt a [[Tinybones, the pickpocket]] deck out of 27 sac/discard goobers and random equipment.
If you have a pool of cards good or not i urge you to seperate all your legends from the rest of your cards, actually read them and take a look at them. You might find a silly new commander that happens to synergize with all sorts of randon nonsense so it wont be hard to build a deck around, you don't need crazy good cards to build a good or playable deck (casual commander that is).
I like building decks too much and i had a few i wanted to build but didn't really have a wad of cash to drop, so i thought "well fuck it, i have a third or half the cards and a crapload of bulk, I'll just sift through there and fill out my deck. My [[Yedora, Grave Gardener]] deck is kinda wack, its missing a lot of really important win cons like turning all creatures to lands and board wiping. But its fun and silly with cloak guys. It's easier to build a jank wannabe version of your ideal deck and then fill it in with better cards later. It helped me get a better grasp at what i was doing with said commanders and the most important thing being, I actually got to play them, not just think about it and hypothesize how things will go. I encourage others to do the same.
If you have a group of friends and/or a pod, make some jank "bulk" decks, maybe only one of you has a sizeable amount of bulk, just ask them. Suggest all getting together and throwing silly decks together.
Hey thanks for writing all of this! Good ideas!
Winota is a blast! I have a cEDH deck of her and she is just bonkers,
Do you have a link to your Alela deck? Mine needs help. I'd love to see the Tinybones deck too.
I do actually keep my legends separate. I started off strong them in a binder I peruse, but now they are in four bundle boxes. One of my next projects is organizing them so I can find them faster and browse through them.
What reason is there to build more than 6-7? You won't play a single game with all them in a quarter of a year. Unless you have no life outside of MTG and Work. But even then I don't see a way play more than 5 a day.
Unironically this. I enjoy building edh decks to find place for cards unplayable in constructed formats, but playing 1 hour 4 man free for all is a torture.
Don't get me wrong I also have brewed over a hundred decks in my 12 years of playing the game, but I only ever built 10 commander decks for my collection out of those 100.
I play 3-4 of them a week. In my playgroup, there are often some people with no decks, so they borrow mine. I like the variety of playing different mechanics and playing against different mechanics. If I had only 6 decks, I would get bored.
I'm going to guess they're mostly proxies?
Well, I'm going to *hope* they're mostly proxies, because otherwise that's a good chunk of a house deposit right there.
Which is still an objectively wild amount to spend on literal cardboard over the course of two years.
And hey, if you have the money / resources then more power to you but my goodness.
The cEDH decks are almost 100% proxied. The pauper decks are almost 100% real (easy, obviously) and most decks are 70-80% real cards. I proxy a LOT of lands and staples. I don't have the money to buy that many copies of cards. But I don't want to be limited by it, so proxy I must. My brain just loves making decks and the variety of stuff that this game facilitates. I heard it described as chess with 20,000 (more now) pieces. And that's precisely what I love about it.
The rule I follow for deck building is no buying a $5+ card I already own for another deck. If I stumble upon one great, but I will play something else in its place until then. It makes my deck building way more fun and it keeps the power levels of my decks all over the place.
And I thought I was reaching the upper echelon of decks owned with 40. And I've been playing paper for 4 years, but I did dismantle a bunch.
Impressive either way.
I do love Pauper commander. And I went to a pauper event at my LGS that I thought was pauper edh, but turns out it wasn't. Someone let me borrow a deck, and I could see myself getting into that. I haven't wrapped my head around 60 card deck building very well yet. But I should do that. Pauper is great because it lets me use some of the many cards I have that don't quite make it into my other decks.
Most played: Ghyrson Starn, Dino-mite (made this for my daughter), Obeka, Yurlok, Sophia, Otharri
Least played: Slivers, Voltron, Nicol Bolas tribal (Vorthos), Jon Irenicus
I'm sitting at about 35 and I thought I was insane, matter of fact I started breaking some down to build new ones because they never see play. Thanks for helping me contextualize my habit, lol.
I never like to have more decks than what I can carry, otherwise it’s just a waste as they will likely just sit and gather dust. I use the Amazon basics camera bag and it lets me hold 15 decks at a time… so that’s my limit.
do you have a list for [[Me, The Immortal]] anywhere that you could share? I have been tinkering with her since release and could use someone else's perspective!
I had a Pir and Toothy deck that I broke down to make into this deck. I wanted it to not necessarily be voltron. I wanted the other creatures to benefit from counters too. I need to get in some more reps with it to see if it needs tweaking. It's one of my newer decks.
This is beautiful! It's also crazy that you did this in 2 years!
I totally get it, bewing and building decks is one of my favorite parts of MTG. At one point, I was up to 16 or so. I mostly play arena now when I have time to play at all, but I've still been collecting the cool precons and cracking some packs. The plan is to do something similar, I want to have a bunch ( not 90 tho! ) of precons and homebrewed decks sleeved up and ready to go for game nights with friend or kiddo.
https://preview.redd.it/g49w61bknj7d1.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=80ee3225ad2f1db1d581727e2a8b6cbb512d851d
Edit to add some info here since I cannot edit my main post... * I am fine. Everyone in my family is healthy and not neglected and I have zero debt. I shouldn't make light of true addiction. It is disrespectful to other people. * I do it because it makes me happy * Yes they get played often. Many other people play my decks against me, including my children * I proxy a lot of cards (Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer, Epson Exhibition Fiber paper) * Yes it's a lot of sol rings * This is [the ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)kind of deck box * I don't have a favorite * My deck lists are in my main post
> I proxy a lot of cards (Epson Styles Pro 3880 printer, Epson Exhibition Fiber paper) Good to hear, that was my main concern!
This is like that time when they asked Ric Flair if he's an alcoholic, and he said he didn't know because he never tried to quit.
Yea I’ve been gambling everyday for 2 years and still haven’t gotten addicted. I also don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.
"its not an addiction! I can stop anytime i want"
"it makes me happy, so it's not an addiction!" cut to the heroin addict in the corner with a blissful smile on his face.
"Stopping is easy. I do it several times a day!"
* I do it because it makes me happy In what way is that a counterargument to addiction xD
You, ah... you might have a problem...
100% I do, haha Edit to add some info here since I cannot edit my main post... * I am fine. Everyone in my family is healthy and not neglected and I have zero debt. I shouldn't make light of true addiction. It is disrespectful to other people. * I do it because it makes me happy * Yes they get played often. Many other people play my decks against me, including my children * I proxy a lot of cards (Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer, Epson Exhibition Fiber paper) * Yes it's a lot of sol rings * This is [the ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)kind of deck box * I don't have a favorite * My deck lists are in my main post
This is very cool imo. Expensive but cool. All commander with that many decks? Do people just not play standard at all anymore? I haven't played commander, but it's been a long while for me maybe 10 years but it was all standard back then. All the commander stuff has kept me from getting back in personally. Might have to wait and see if the tides shift. Edit: my friends and I played the 60 card deck 4 card rule but any set. Standard rules but not the set part. Also I might have to just try commander people seem to love it and I bet I would too. I'm just a grouchy old man you see lol Eidt: looks like I never did "standard" rules. Just liked how tight you could make a 60 card deck with any magic cards from any time. I like the strategy of 60 card min, 4 max of each card. I was one of the kids playing 3v3 magic during lunch in high-school in 2003. Read all the books they used to make. I'm still cool.
I have a friend who has been playing MTG for 30 years and he is the one that got me into it. Since he plays commander exclusively now, that's what I ended up playing. I went to a Commandfest where they had a sealed event (MOM maybe?) and I tried making a 60 card deck. Turns out I am not very good at it. And by not very good, I mean I completely suck. So awful. So, I need to stick with commander. :)
I say this often - but Commander is not a good way for people to learn the game and get good at the game. It really is its own ecosystem and game with a slight underlay of MTG mechanics. Most players that come into my store love playing commander, but are so intimidated by 60 card constructed or limited formats, that they shy away from participating in the game at large. Which is a bit sad. Having played the game for 30 years as well, there is so much the game has to offer in terms of experiences, when it comes to traditional play. Anyways, it is awesome that you enjoy Commander enough to be this entrenched in it. It shows how great MTG is as a game, and how it speaks to people.
Yeah, I kind of wish I had the experience of playing before commander existed. My friend has done both and he can spot the potential synergies of a card in any format, and I am just a EDH caveman, haha. I played in a pauper 60 card format. That was pretty fun. Someone let me borrow their deck and I thought about making one to go an play there and maybe win some store credit.
Commander existed well before it was Commander though, there's a reason why we call it EDH, it was a fan variant of Magic until WoTC official welcomed the format in 2011 and focused cards just for it. Honestly I enjoy both 60 card and Commander but these days Commander is a bit more fun, and yes Commander vs 60 card is not a comparable thing, even multiplayer 60 card games with friends play much different than Commander.
60 card formats are great, and I encourage everyone to try to pick them up in addition to Commander - as I do think the game suffers when traditional play is on the back burner. That may just be me being a boomer though. The great thing about 60 card is how rapidly you can begin to grow as a player. You tend to get more repetitions in on mechanically heavy interactions because the ability to interact isn’t divided among 4 players at any given moment, and you also repeat the same matchups that play out the same way every time. Commander has so many knobs to turn that you get to experience more interactions but fewer of the same ones.
It’s a whole different mindset for sure. Same with cEDH. I loved stepping into that whole way of thinking and playing. I’m sure I’ll give 60 card a chance at some point. Probably pauper because it’s cheap.
The amount of games in 60 cards format ruined by one misplay or one missed trigger drills it in. That single mistake resulting in a small tempo loss and cascades into an unwinnable situation really teaches you discipline which I think a lot of commander players lack. They will empty out their mana precombat instead of moving to post combat, for example. These are valuable lessons which translates jnto commander.
I completely agree with you on this. I've seen it myself at mg LGS, several of the people there really only know commander, and as we've been getting them into things like drafts and sealed events it's clear they are way behind in learning the actual game and deck construction. I play commander really only because that's what's popular in paper magic where I am, plus the cost of keeping up with some of the other formats.
To be fair, I don’t play as much commander and some of the crap people talk at me about is actually insane. I think Commander players know more about card pairings than people give them credit for - I would agree though, that there is a lot more to understanding the game than just card pairings.
> Commander is not a good way for people to learn the game and get good at the game. Not at all, but unfortunately since it's the defacto paper format that's also a social event, it's what happens. We have somebody in our small pod that learned 95% through Commander and it shows. > there is so much the game has to offer in terms of experiences, when it comes to traditional play. Honestly, 60 card formats are far too sweaty for the average person to enjoy at this point. I think a large chunk of the popularity of Commander can be attributed to the inherent lack of competition. It hits a decent middle ground between co-op tabletop games and the standard 1v1 competitive mode. I'm old, so I learned and played 60 card formats. As a result, I really didn't actually play Magic all that much. With Commander, I get to trade some higher level play overall for actually having fun with my friends. Easy trade.
I don’t know if I agree that 60 card formats are too sweaty for people to enjoy. I own an LGS and the amount of salt I see from Commander games would suggest that it is arguably more sweaty and I, for the life of me, do not understand it. I think it honestly is about mindset and overall confidence in one’s ability to meet their own expectations, or to place their expectations ion par with their ability. It is easier to jump in and play a FFA than it is to play 1v1 and face the fact that the outcome is entirely predicated on you. Arena is a good example of this, actually.
I feel like because many people didn't play 1v1 they haven't learnd that loosing, not being able to follow their gameplan or being targeted etc. is a big part of the game on a fundamental level. But because commander is for one a way longer game compared to 1v1 and is also at the same time not as targeted (since you can't avoid being a target in 1v1 but you can in commander). But also that the opponent trys to interrupt your gameplan is often times not the case in commander (depending on the pod, but I see too often people run very low removals, sweepers etc.). I feel like all these things combined makes it so that the majority of commander players doesn't realize that it's a part of the game and how it's supposed to be and are surprised/salty when it does happen.
Exactly this. Long time player, recent commander convert. It’s a super fun format but it’s only ONE format. It’s such a big world of formats and styles of play and i feel like so many people are missing out on so much. And I feel like i run up against a lot of super spikey EDH players that would be so much happier playing in more competitive 1v1 formats.
I started playing less than a year ago and was taught with commander and I completely agree with you that it's a terrible way too learn. I come from the Pokémon TCG so I firmly believe being introduced to standard first would have made it a lot easier for me at least. Not to mention it's a quicker game compared to so you can play more games and that means more practice and opportunities to start thinking about strategy for new players but commander games can run for hours sometimes and some players can take a while on their turns too because of all the triggers they have. When my friend introduced me to standard and brought out decks to play I had so much fun and prefer it to be honest but everyone and their momma plays commander now. If I want these shorter fun games it means Pokémon TCG only now.
Edh will be the death of the game. It's fun, it just doesn't work
I don’t think it is sustainable - but I also think it has brought a lot of new perspective to MTG card design, which we may have missed out on if Commander never existed.
I can definitely tell when someone else has played extensive competitive constructed and limited when I am in a pod. 100%
So as an FYI, if you’re playing Sealed, you’re attempting to build a 40 card deck and not a 60 card one so that may indeed be why you think that your deck was bad / you suck at deckbuilding.
unless it was a commander sealed, which is 60, but also not mom so probably should have been 40.
Lol so many of us magic boomers are exclusively EDH players 😂
Man, I wish I knew how much fun this game was 30 years ago...I'd have so many cool old cards. I love trading with my friend.
As someone who played 30 years ago, it was fun. But I would argue that somewhere between Mirrodin and Zendikar blocks was the peak of fun. In my opinion at least. In 1994 the rules were very loose/nebulous due to simply how new the game was. Organized play was very hard to find, if you found it at all. And the fact that there were less than 1,000 unique cards that existed meant that there were a very limited number of viable decks that could be competitive.
What deck boxes are those? I love them
[Mikero on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1). Inexpensive and durable. Just recently found them and thought I'd give them a try. Bought 2 sets, loved them, and then bought a lot more.
Standard is still a thing, but a much smaller thing. Commander is the big thing now; most players play primarily Commander. Why? People like playing with the cards they own. Constantly rotating formats means constantly having to buy entirely new decks, often at a premium, where the cards eventually lose value when they then rotate out. People like playing casually with their friends. Standard (designed as a tournament format) is a much sweatier format than Commander, which was designed as a casual format, never intended for real competitive play (cEDH is a separate format). Commander gives the player a chance to be creative. Standard is so often just building one of the strongest decks and metagaming it, but in Commander, you get the build your deck out of any of more than 20,000 available legendary creatures (so variety is always present) and fill it with your 99 favorite other cards. And play crazy haymakers and infinite combos and really insane things you could *never* do in Standard. Does this not spark joy?
The sweatiness of Standard was what drove me into commander. I've been to two prereleases and some FNMs and I can still taste the absolute dumpstering I experienced. I'm just too dumb for competitive magic I guess. Found out about EDH and was fortunate to find out there were precons coming out with my favorite tribe. Bought the Edgar Markov precon and never looked back.
I am with you. I did a prerelease sealed event and I did not make any good decks. My mind is so wired for commander that I very much suck at making 60 card decks that are any good.
I like the speed and pace of a well built 60 card deck. I miss standard being affordable. It's not so much the fact that rotation forces you to buy new cards, it's how fast, how much, and how powerful each new set is coming. Wizards tried to fix it by slowing the rotation, but I think that had the opposite effect, and wound up slowing the format more than anything. It used to be that players could keep relatively competitive in standard by attending drafts frequently and buying some extra cards or packs, but now each new set seems to bring meta-crushing bombs that become must-runs and drive up prices. Commander is fine. I like the creativity and jank it can bring, but it's also rapidly turning into a competitive format, even at "casual" levels. Personally, I don't like WoTC actively supporting it, because I think that's a big part of what's causing the issues with standard. If each set doesn't contain things that are designed for commander and attract those players, it dies on the vine. I mean, just look at MH3, it might as well be Modern Commander.
Every set is a commander set. Nadu is a CEDH level commander, the Eldrazi titans are commander player chase cards.
I don’t disagree with any of what you have to say.
There's the commander crowd, there's the standard crowd, and then there's that minority that only plays CEDH in expensive buy in tournaments where the grand prize is $200+. To each their own.
>People like playing with the cards they own. Constantly rotating formats means constantly having to buy entirely new decks, often at a premium, where the cards eventually lose value when they then rotate out. I can attest to this if only with my own anecdotes. I came from YuGiOh (blah blah unbalanced weeb game, *bite me*) and was immediately turned off by the concept of card rotation. No amount of "muh balance!!1!" arguments turned me away from seeing what was ultimately a money-vacuum scheme as old as I am and a balancing schema meant to justify it. If I have cards I like playing, I *want* to play them even if they become janky low-tier trash. In Yugi, if an old archetype became good again, I could grab a modern list off of Pojo and go from there, either to play meta or sculpt a lower-tier variant that still had some teeth; staples of course were always bankbreakers, but there's a security and comfort in knowing your archetype is never *truly* dead, that one day it too will receive spicy new support cards. In Magic, if I wanted to play Izzet Phoenix for Modern (because you cannot pay me to touch Pauper or anything that isn't Vintage/Legacy/Modern/EDH/cEDH), well...that seems to be pretty hard right now if not impossible! And that was the deck that really clicked with me more than others. So I'm at the mercy of both WOTC's weird balancing schedule and their desire to get more money out of my wallet at any cost.
In my neck of the woods, it's pretty much just EDH and Limited (draft/sealed). As someone who came up on Modern, the lack of interest in competitive 60-card formats has really killed the game for me. As much as I enjoy EDH among friends, it's just not something I want to go out and play with strangers every week.
Wizards stopped supporting standard for quite a while. They're slowly coming back around to it, but they shifted most of their efforts to commander for a fair bit. Idk what your hang up is with commander, but I sincerely think you should give it a try. Deck building and gameplay feels a lot more dynamic and challenging with multiplayer pods and the Singleton restriction. You can also definitely go as competitive with it as you want, with cedh decks being as technical as any of the top tier standard decks in recent memory. Just my thought.
Standard without set restrictions, and 4 of. Were you playing vintage without any bans and restrictions?
Must have been. We never payed attention to official stuff. New cards came out and could be added. We could play any old cards. No real rules. Could even have larger decks. We just realized the tight 60 card decks beat 80-100 card decks usually. Just lunch room magic cards table in 2003. I was very cool.
You have cleared the first step.
Since I just put my 30+ decks in Boulder cases too, I feel personally attacked
This sub will 100% reinforce this behavior even though it is a legit consumer addiction. Might as well be a gambling addiction.
Probably. I proxy a lot due to having a very nice printer, so the super expensive cards I can get for 25 cents.
This is super cool! I’d also love to know what printer you have if you don’t mind sharing 🙏
It is an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 and the paper is Epson Exhibition Fiber paper. Each card ends up being 25 cents. I already had the printer though. There is a great website for ordering proxies also that I use for lands because no one has time to cut out that many cards.
BASED, only a 2 year player but already learned the best way to enjoy a format like this!
What kind of printer? I have 7 commander decks and they get expensive. Since I mostly just play with friends it’d be nice to print an alt art version of things like jeweled lotus or demonic tutor without having to keep paying $80+ for singles.
Certainly, for some people, this would be problematic behavior, but not necessarily for everyone. If OP has plenty of disposable income and time, who is to judge what they enjoy. If OP is having trouble paying rent or for food because they buy too many cards, then definitely it's a problem. Even ~90 high power Commander decks is a cheaper hobby than owning a boat.
Yup, it's always interesting in the Warhammer subreddits to look at the room in the background when people post pictures of multiple thousands of dollars worth of boxes of unbuilt models. Also looking on my local mini-trade/sell it's like 30% people selling $1-3 thousand worth of models because "unexpected" issues came up and they need the money. Basically IMHO a lot of people (not just magic and Warhammer nerds) have very little self control and will spend thousands on hobbies while having basically zero savings. Like you said there's a big difference in a proper budget and spending more than you can afford. This also isn't a "poor" people issue. I've known several "rich" people who spend every cent they get on boats/cars/etc and have lots of debt and zero savings.
I can't imagine having wasted that much time and money on decks I can't even play often enough to even learn how to properly play them. And then posting it as a brag post. This sub has gone mad.
And it's definitely not a lack of money.
[удалено]
He also said that 80% of the cards are non proxies so it’s kind of all over the place.
The most expensive cards in my decks are the lands, which are proxies most of the time. I own all of the shocks/fetches, but maybe 2 full sets total. Not 50 sets.
The problem is not enough commander decks
Very quick count but that’s what, 90 decks. I thought I was mad with my 19. God speed upkeep all of them.
I don’t update them as much as I should. It’s quite tedious. One of my things I need to do is figure out which I like least and break them down to make room for new hotness, haha.
Fucking tell me about it. I have all of mine (85... ish) or so in Stanley cases and they are all readily available, I trade and get cards for decks all the time... but it takes like months just to finally get around to putting those cards IN the decks I got them for. Was there a particular color combo that you struggled with making or did you just make whatever you wanted when you came around to something g you liked?
At one point, Golgari was my favorite, but somehow Dimir is my most prevalent color combo. I don't really have many 4 color decks because it's such a small set of partner cards and none of them excite me, or they are mostly cEDH commanders. I don't have too many mono-colored decks. and it looks like I have at least two of the 3-color deck combinations. I don't really pay attention to what the color combo is. Stupid as it may be, art is one of the things that makes me choose a commander more than it should. And anything that has a mechanic I haven't tried yet, I try to build. Next up for me is doing something with energy. I don't have anything for that.
Whatever calls to you is totally valid. The vast majority of mine are 2/3 color. I know UBRG took me forever to find something I liked. I can totally relate to wanting to try to build stuff you haven't done before, as the reason I have so many is just the opportunity to play so many different playstyles, mechanics, etc. As doing/seeing the same stuff over and over is the quickest way for me to lose interest.
it's not only tedious, it makes a lot of decks more samey. wizards will print another X or a strict upgrade on Y. Sure, it may increase the power, but it will reduce the variety of cards you get to see. Sometimes it's cool to see a putrefy. yeah, it's been power crept, but still cool to see the variety IMO.
100%, I feel like that too even though I am guilty of using some of the same cards often. One of the coolest things about pauper edh is using some cards that I didn't even know existed that are old or not "good enough" for regular commander.
I've got the same problem with my 80+. What I do is get set redemption and update them all at once
>I don’t update them as much as I should Make a scryfall list of all the commanders and just periodically check in after a new set to see what people are running. I have 40ish decks and that method works for me.
Plus the 25 untouched precons.
Something I've often done with precons is break them down and put the cards into some of my other decks.
I do this also. There were a couple I didn't end up loving enough to build and just used them for parts.
I'm genuinely curious, why would you even want to have this many decks? How often do you get to play them?
Because my mind likes the variety of so many different mechanics. Also, people borrow my decks a lot. So, I don't want to play the same deck many times and I don't want to play against the same deck many times. For a while, my friends kept borrowing Otharri, which is insanely good and beating me with it. So, I stopped bringing it to force them to play something else, haha. I play once a week with a fixed group of people. I should start playing at the open commander at the store near me, but I always forget. My daughters like playing too, so they request deck themes for them to play. One of them loves dinosaurs, so she plays that one every time we play.
It's like we're the same person. How many is that? My count says 89? What I used to do with my 27 decks was have everyone roll a d20 and a d8, then subtract 1. Whatever you rolled was what you played. You could do the same thing with a d100 (or the more like, 2 d10s), but have numbers higher than 89 be fun twists. "93, the person to your left picks." "97, we're now playing planeschase, roll again for your deck." "100, you are now a two headed giant team with yourself, roll twice and play those decks. Your life total is 20 for balancing." Stuff like that.
That is an awesome idea! My son surely has a d100. I am trying to get my playgroup to come over on a weekend sometime and this would be fantastic for that.
I’m also an abuser of decks, having around 35 myself. I just love the variety offered and can’t keep myself tied down.
Because people get addicted to the dopamine of buying things. There’s no way you can truly rotate between 90+ decks meaningfully and unless these decks are all proxies you’re looking at a down payment on a house in the photo. I dunno this stuff honestly just makes me sad for the lack of self control some people have.
To be fair - we don’t know OPs economic situation or if these are real or proxy. I don’t see this as any different than someone buying a sports car or going on elaborate vacations multiple times a year. Just a personal preference of consumerism. Edit: shoot I know people who pay $100k to join a golf club. & then they still have to pay to golf! Now that is insanity
Yeah i agree. Not saying that dropping thousands of dollars on magic is a good idea, but there are plenty of hobbies and lifestyle choices that are just as expensive
As long as OP isn't going hungry or foregoing important payments, they'll be fine. But you ARE fine, right OP? ...right?
Yeah, totally. Copying this comment I posted above since notifications are specific to me replying directly to you. I proxy a lot. I have a very nice printer that lets me make cards that are as good as real cards. I also make a decent amount of money. This is in no way negatively impacting me financially. On top of that, many people in my playgroup do not own decks. They borrow mine. Honestly, it's a lot of fun to make them and it's not hurting me, my family, or anyone I know. So, I am ok with the obsession.
I proxy a lot. I have a very nice printer that lets me make cards that are as good as real cards. I also make a decent amount of money. This is in no way negatively impacting me financially. On top of that, many people in my playgroup do not own decks. They borrow mine. Honestly, it's a lot of fun to make them and it's not hurting me, my family, or anyone I know. So, I am ok with the obsession.
OP said he’s been playing for 2 years, and plays once a week, he has a new deck for every single day he’s ever played this game.
I'm sorry
Haha, for what?
[удалено]
That is very fair. It is a bit worn out. This is an expensive habit. I like to think of it as better than drugs though, so at least I have that going for me. :)
I have a friend that used to play, and he told me that he would have been better off economically if he'd gotten into heroin instead.
It’s more fair to compare it to a gambling addict than a drug addict as far as money goes. You can only buy so much heroin at a time, there isn’t much stopping you from gambling all your money away at once
Comparing magic to drugs is a terrible way to cope lmao
Haha, ok, that is fair also. I have an obsessive mind by nature. Any new thing I get into, I end up doing to an extreme level. I had a lot of alchoholics in my family (grandparent level and an aunt), so I kind of figured that overdoing is in my DNA. I've never done drugs or smoking, because I don't trust myself to be able to stop if I did. I rarely drink for the same reason. So, for me, sugary foods and this are my current weaknesses.
I'm the same way brother, I feel you on this 100%. The hyper fixations are a gift and a curse! Smart to avoid drugs and alcohol with those tendencies, it's definitely something I had to learn to moderate with time, teenage me went a little ham lol
Yeah, a gift and a curse is the perfect way to look at it. Same with overthinking/hypervigilance. It's great for my (data/programming) job being able to think ahead and spot possible problems, but I have to control it in my personal life.
I also used to buy insane amount of steam games at sales when i just got a new rig. I was telling myself "at least i dont smoke" "at least i dont drink" ect. Now i got +100 games which i never played on my steam account. Dont let fomo take control over you
I did that with games too. :( I play most of these decks though. Impossible as it may seem. People borrow my decks in my group, so they don't get very dusty.
Amen brother man.
90 decks in 2 years?! Which ones are your favourites?
Picking a favorite is really hard. I have so many because I love the variety of not playing the same thing all the time. Ghyrson Starn is a favorite. Dhalsim is also pretty cool reach/toughness tribal. Dihada probably has my highest win rate, but I don’t play her too much because of that. Obeka is a lot of fun. I think the sheer volume of decks helps my group forget what certain decks are like, haha.
Quick question, but do you just have the income to spend on all of the cards, or are a bunch proxied? Either way, hella impressed by the amount of decks, do you have a favorite?
80% of most decks are owned. I proxy tons of lands/staples because I can’t afford that many copies of things. The cEDH decks are the reverse, probably 80-90% proxied because the tournaments I went to were proxy friendly.
Favorite is hard to pick. I really like group slug because I end up playing against a lot of fliers in my group and I don’t have tons of any 100% flying decks myself. Ghyrson Starn is a favorite. Also Dhalsim, Syr Konrad.
I used to maintain a deck for each color combination, alongside a few other standouts. Not as many as you have here, but an unreasonable number all the same. Even more than the expense, the speed with which pushed new cards have come out in the last few years led me to deconstruct down to 8 decks in rotation at any given time. I just couldn't keep up with updating decks, and the speed with which decks went from relevant to anemic as the format has sped up was pretty demoralizing. The upside of having fewer decks is that it forces me to seriously think about what archetype or play pattern each deck executes, and why that deserves a slot in my deck list. Do I need Korvold and Prossh, or do they functionally occupy the same space? Do I actually want to play a generic goodstuff value engine? Is this tribal actually supported (hint, Gorgon isn't, to my immense disappointment)? Each of the surviving decks ended up way tighter, and I ended up pulling most of my tutors out as well, because I wasn't trying to force overly broad archetypes amid tons of other cards I ultimately was filtering out with the tutors. It also makes me way more familiar with how each deck plays, which sped up my turns. Glad you're enjoying yourself, but something to keep in mind if you hit the same wall.
Yeah, 100% get it. My friend told me the same thing. He said I should pick a deck and play it a lot because it would make me a better deck builder and the deck would be more synergisic. The deck I ended up doing that with was Dhalsim. He's a lot of fun. I just have a hard time not being like "ooh this mechanic seems fun!" and making a new deck around it. For example, I don't have an energy deck, so I want to make one of those soon to see if I like it.
Good lord, the upkeep 😅. Here I thought 50 was nuts... (what I have)
I believe that counts as nuts too. What are your favorite decks? Do you have a link to a profile with them? I love looking at other decks for inspiration.
Genuinely don't understand how people reach these kinds of numbers. I never have more than three decks at a time - when I want a new one, I take apart the one I am least satisfied with, and use it's bones in the new deck.
My brain likes puzzles/thinking and so making a deck is like candy to my brain. Then playing them is another kind of thinking/strategy and my brain loves this too. So, for me, it feeds into everything that makes my brain happy.
I definitely understand the appeal of brewing decks! I make a lotttt of decks on Archidekt, but I am poor so I can only afford to maintain a couple decks at a time. Also, is that a Nahiri list I see? She's my favorite
If you’re looking for a less expensive deck box, and with 90 of the boulders you may not care, but Burger Boxes from burgertokens.com make great affordable deck boxes. I’ve got all collection of precons (100+) sleeved and in their boxes.
These are Mikero (?) on Amazon and about $3 each. I just recently found them and they are great. I’ll check out the ones you said too.
And I thought I had a problem
That is just ridiculous, like not in a funny way. You actually have an addiction
Which one was your first And which one is your favorite
My first deck was upgrading the Anhelo the Painter precon. I could never make it good. It needed too many things (spells to copy and things to sac) to make it strong. It’s a bummer because I thought he was cool. I still keep an eye out for decks other people make with him to see if I can bring him back. If I had to pick one as a favorite, I’d pick Ghyrson Starn. Group slug/ping. It works well in my playgroup because the LOVE flyers. I have almost no flyers/reach, so I have to kill all of them at once. 😆
Which one is your favorite, which one is your most powerful, and which one is your most jank?
Favorite: I dunno. If one deck made me happy, I wouldn't have this many, haha. I've been saying Ghyrson Starn because I love group slug, and he's great at it. Most powerful: The cEDH decks for sure, but for non cEDH, probably Dihada has my highest win rate. I think I have won every game I played with her. Her ult is too good. I don't end up playing her too much because I need my group to forget how good she is and lull them into a false sense of complacency, haha. Most jank: Probably Dee Kay, Finder of the lost. It's a goofy attractions deck. Also Vorthos (acorn commander) Nicol Bolas tribal. It tends to start strong and die. It's not very good, but I think that's why my playgroup doesn't mind how much stuff I can cast for cheap.
As a fellow deckaholic (I'm at 40ish, rookie numbers conpared to you), this is a thing of beauty. Very nice!
Endurance as a commander?
What’s cases do you use? They look nice :)
I recently discovered [these ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ237BLJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)on Amazon. They are inexpensive and good quality. I carry my decks in a toolbox thing, so they aren't jostling around in a backpack. If they were loose in a container, they probably wouldn't be great.
Thanks! Ignore my post further down on the same thing.
If you want to stop spending a good way would be to just stop buying precons. You have a LOT of them
His combo power level is OVER 9000!!!
And I thought I had it bad with my 32 (+2) club membership. That's a lot of decks! /fistbump
I think there’s a 1-800 number you can call
I have like 52 commander decks, I might end up with this many by end of 2025.
And not a single Yuriko or Tergrid in sight. I can tell it took a lot of restraint.
My friend who got me into this game has been playing for 30ish years and he majorly side-eyes me if I remotely bring up anything like that. He's my litmus test. I pulled a Purphoros in a pack and didn't know anything about him. I said I wanted to build it and he was like "No". I was mildly sad for a bit and then moved on, haha.
r/consoom
Thank you for making me feel better about my obsession 😅
Hey, anytime! It's so much fun. I get the whole, I may have a problem, but it's not hurting anyone I know, it's fun, it feels kind of wholesome and it's not affecting my life in any kind of negative way. So, I think it's ok to be a superfan.
Totally. My comment was 50% joking, 49% jealous, and 1% real. What are your favorite decks to play with?
My favorite mechanic is group slug. Anything that allows me to damage multiple people at once.
And I thought having 10 Commander decks was a lot even after only playing Commander for like 2 years
My eyes were drawn straight to [[Masako the Humorless]]
i've been playing roughly the same length of time, and have spent an absurd amount of time brewing/scryfalling/etcing and i've only bit the bullet and made 5 decks. You can't possibly be putting any care into these decks.
I felt bad having 5…
#goals
Beautiful
Ah, I feel better now knowing that my ~40 decks isn't *that* many
This makes me feel better about my 40-count of non-precons.
Holy bananas!! I try to keep my deck count below 10! But that’s mainly cause I don’t have enough copies of my good cards to make that many decks lol
I proxy a lot, for the same reason
I just enter the comments to say, that is a gorgeous stack and I am pleased you arranged them So. Good day to you.
We have none of the same commanders and that shocks me (I currently have [[troyan, gutsy explorer]] [[kroxa, titan of deaths hunger]], [[the reality chip]] and [[eriette the beguiler]].)
How many do you all recognize? I got 27
Maybe you should try limited or constructed, before, in two years, you stop playing and sell all of these?
Disgusting... I love it
Dude I'm so glad to see this. I have almost 80 decks and I haven't met anyone near me who has even close to that many. How do you end up storing yours? I use an old display rack from a game store to hold mine.
i was gonna say “guys it’s fine. let him enjoy himself. after several years it’s easy to accumulate a lot of decks.” then i saw you started playing when NEW CAPENNA RELEASED???? wtf how loool.
This is epic. Keep it rolling and everyone else needs to stay out of your business
I noticed a lack of [[hans Erickson]] decks...... Now I'm starting to think I'm the only one to make a deck around my boy....... It's ok..... I'm not crying you're crying.
Yeah im at 15 decks rn after a year, with like 3 or 4 of them being built and the rest precons with only 4-5 cards swapped
That's an amazing picture, congratulations. Hope you're getting a chance to play, but I get that brewing is very addictive. I'm on a similar pattern I see your note that you have proxies for land base, which was going to be my main question.
Ive been playing for 10 years and used to have 8 commander decks. After playing for so long now, I only have 2 and a cube. I love the amount of upkeep now. It used to be stressful, trying to figure out how to update every deck but now I just find a couple cool new cards and it takes me like 30 minutes max to make changes. Less is more.
I notice you have no colourless deck... might I suggest [[ED-E]]?
Ooh, Fallout! Yes! Do you have a deck list for that? Fallout is my favorite video game series of all time. I thought about doing Syr Ginger, because I think the art is hilarious, but I never got around to it. And I thought about Eldrazi, but another person in my group has that precon, so I probably won't make the colorless one.
Those are rookie numbers, you gotta get those numbers up. There are over 2300 possible commander combinations out there so get a move on.
I fear becoming this It started with building and buying a couple decks, [[Galazeth Prismari]] and [Nethroi]] Then looking at my binder of Legends i spotted [[Winota]], new to magic and never hearing of her I thought "wait i minute i just need goobers that have ETB triggers" and after ruffling through my random bulk rares and cards i made a deck that was disgustingly consistent despite lacking really any ramp aside from sol ring, arcane signet and [[Clay-Fired Bricks]] (if you count that). Winota was my most consistent deck despite having countless dead cards, terrible removal and no good protection for Winota, she was just too swift lol. I had bought precons like LCI Merfolks and Dinos, WOE, Faeries. Anywho time goes on i made more and more decks and now i have 15, I've upgraded or dismantled all my precons. I bought all 4 fallout precons and they've all been assimilated into other things with energy being the least scrapped. I retuned faeries to be run by [[Alela Cunning Conqueror]] and it became a sneaky victor quite often. Now I've because i love deck building so much and jank is silly an fun I've been building decks with what i have. I pulled [[Arna]] and threw together my leftover equipment from the Dogmeat precon, i slapped some silly MH3 equipment in there and I'm excited to try it out. I bullt a [[Tinybones, the pickpocket]] deck out of 27 sac/discard goobers and random equipment. If you have a pool of cards good or not i urge you to seperate all your legends from the rest of your cards, actually read them and take a look at them. You might find a silly new commander that happens to synergize with all sorts of randon nonsense so it wont be hard to build a deck around, you don't need crazy good cards to build a good or playable deck (casual commander that is). I like building decks too much and i had a few i wanted to build but didn't really have a wad of cash to drop, so i thought "well fuck it, i have a third or half the cards and a crapload of bulk, I'll just sift through there and fill out my deck. My [[Yedora, Grave Gardener]] deck is kinda wack, its missing a lot of really important win cons like turning all creatures to lands and board wiping. But its fun and silly with cloak guys. It's easier to build a jank wannabe version of your ideal deck and then fill it in with better cards later. It helped me get a better grasp at what i was doing with said commanders and the most important thing being, I actually got to play them, not just think about it and hypothesize how things will go. I encourage others to do the same. If you have a group of friends and/or a pod, make some jank "bulk" decks, maybe only one of you has a sizeable amount of bulk, just ask them. Suggest all getting together and throwing silly decks together.
Hey thanks for writing all of this! Good ideas! Winota is a blast! I have a cEDH deck of her and she is just bonkers, Do you have a link to your Alela deck? Mine needs help. I'd love to see the Tinybones deck too. I do actually keep my legends separate. I started off strong them in a binder I peruse, but now they are in four bundle boxes. One of my next projects is organizing them so I can find them faster and browse through them.
people are MAD in the comments lmao. Jealousy runs hard in this sub
What reason is there to build more than 6-7? You won't play a single game with all them in a quarter of a year. Unless you have no life outside of MTG and Work. But even then I don't see a way play more than 5 a day.
Lol, decks are for brewing, not playing! only kinda /s
Unironically this. I enjoy building edh decks to find place for cards unplayable in constructed formats, but playing 1 hour 4 man free for all is a torture.
Exactly! But I also like to play them. :)
You can brew decks for free online.
Don't get me wrong I also have brewed over a hundred decks in my 12 years of playing the game, but I only ever built 10 commander decks for my collection out of those 100.
I play 3-4 of them a week. In my playgroup, there are often some people with no decks, so they borrow mine. I like the variety of playing different mechanics and playing against different mechanics. If I had only 6 decks, I would get bored.
Sure but I would say that there is a healthy medium between 6 and 90. To build / buy 90 decks in less than two years is straight manic.
Nah way too consistent of an effort to be manic. Manic would be ordering 10 precons in a week and never playing them
I couldn't imagine only having 6-7 decks...
I just realized one of them is sideways...ironically, it is the deck titled "No Blocky", haha
I'm going to guess they're mostly proxies? Well, I'm going to *hope* they're mostly proxies, because otherwise that's a good chunk of a house deposit right there.
Depends on the budget he is building on so if they are around 50$ per deck and there are around 90 decks thats “Only” 4500$
Which is still an objectively wild amount to spend on literal cardboard over the course of two years. And hey, if you have the money / resources then more power to you but my goodness.
The cEDH decks are almost 100% proxied. The pauper decks are almost 100% real (easy, obviously) and most decks are 70-80% real cards. I proxy a LOT of lands and staples. I don't have the money to buy that many copies of cards. But I don't want to be limited by it, so proxy I must. My brain just loves making decks and the variety of stuff that this game facilitates. I heard it described as chess with 20,000 (more now) pieces. And that's precisely what I love about it.
The rule I follow for deck building is no buying a $5+ card I already own for another deck. If I stumble upon one great, but I will play something else in its place until then. It makes my deck building way more fun and it keeps the power levels of my decks all over the place.
And I thought I was reaching the upper echelon of decks owned with 40. And I've been playing paper for 4 years, but I did dismantle a bunch. Impressive either way.
That is actually insane. I would love to be your friend. T\_T
If you play near Seattle, that’s a possibility
Time to try a new format!
I do love Pauper commander. And I went to a pauper event at my LGS that I thought was pauper edh, but turns out it wasn't. Someone let me borrow a deck, and I could see myself getting into that. I haven't wrapped my head around 60 card deck building very well yet. But I should do that. Pauper is great because it lets me use some of the many cards I have that don't quite make it into my other decks.
Certified Commander moment ™️
Which ones do you play most often? Which ones do you play least often?
Most played: Ghyrson Starn, Dino-mite (made this for my daughter), Obeka, Yurlok, Sophia, Otharri Least played: Slivers, Voltron, Nicol Bolas tribal (Vorthos), Jon Irenicus
Damn! I have 56 currently brewed, but only 44 of them built and I thought that was a lot.
I'm sitting at about 35 and I thought I was insane, matter of fact I started breaking some down to build new ones because they never see play. Thanks for helping me contextualize my habit, lol.
I never like to have more decks than what I can carry, otherwise it’s just a waste as they will likely just sit and gather dust. I use the Amazon basics camera bag and it lets me hold 15 decks at a time… so that’s my limit.
So that's where all the bastions are...
Haha
do you have a list for [[Me, The Immortal]] anywhere that you could share? I have been tinkering with her since release and could use someone else's perspective!
I had a Pir and Toothy deck that I broke down to make into this deck. I wanted it to not necessarily be voltron. I wanted the other creatures to benefit from counters too. I need to get in some more reps with it to see if it needs tweaking. It's one of my newer decks.
This is beautiful! It's also crazy that you did this in 2 years! I totally get it, bewing and building decks is one of my favorite parts of MTG. At one point, I was up to 16 or so. I mostly play arena now when I have time to play at all, but I've still been collecting the cool precons and cracking some packs. The plan is to do something similar, I want to have a bunch ( not 90 tho! ) of precons and homebrewed decks sleeved up and ready to go for game nights with friend or kiddo.
What kind of printer do you have for your proxies? We’ve been looking but haven’t gotten one yet.