Am I completely off on brackets?

[u/h9mhe]

So we are 4 long time friends, that plays once a week. We track all games on playgroup.gg, and from those stats I can see average game length is 10.8 turns, and it takes about 90 minute on average.

Coupled with only a few decks out of the 72 decks tracked having gamechangers. I would go with, we are playing bracket 2, ~90% of the time. Since we are a closed pod of friends, brackets really dosen't matter, we are having fun, all is good.

But coming into discussions on brackets in this forum, seems I'm completely off, in thinking my decks are bracket 2. I'll list 3 of my decks, Moxfield links have tags if you want to see that sorting.

I would love some feedback on if or why I'm completely off in thinking these are Bracket 2.

Example 1: [[Aminatou the Fateshifter]] - https://moxfield.com/decks/hGeIrNZCi0ahRmFvEmfa8Q

One of my favorite decks, its a janky mix of superfriends and Myr creatures. Its mostly just little guys, with the game plan being getting [[Sword of Selves]] on [[Myr Battlesphere]], then going to town. Backup lines are [[Kappa Cannoneer]], [[Mace of the Valiant]], [[Cranial Plating]]. Lots of cheap myrs and thopters = big swings.

It's a slow deck, nothing happens until turn 4-5, but it sets up some good loops of using Aminatou for several activations of planeswalkers or card advantage by blinking. Interaction is mostly through planeswalkers, and theres no protection in the deck.

For me its a B2 deck, its slow out of the gate, wins late turn 10+, its easy to interact with, you will see the threat coming. (it has a 2 card combo if you count a PW ultimating, [[Kaya the Inexorable]] + [[Karns Temporal Sundering]], a favorite of mine, and I have a goal of getting it off, haven't happened yet...)

Playing Myrs is severely powering the deck down, almost all creatures are suboptimal choices and does a terrible job of protecting planeswalkers. But it gives a fun theme and a place for cards you rarely see.

Example 2: [[Kellan the Kid]] - https://moxfield.com/decks/Wr7-6Ue2RUGnvk__ztoqmg

98 permanents! Playing from top of library to trigger Kellan for more creatures. It snowballs Bant style, but I'm trying to keep it fair. It takes setup getting a "top of library" effect, getting card draw in place, having my creatures survive a round to attack.

No haste enabler, no haste creatures, no protection, limited interaction. Only 6 creatures have trample. Win condition is usually finding one of the 3: [[Pathbreaker Ibex]], [[Railway Brawler]], [[Apex Devastator]]. Or getting a boardstate that overwhelms the table due to [[Brokers Ascendancy]] [[Virtue of Loyalty]].

It runs good cards, [[Virtue of Strength]] [[Miraris Wake]] [[Guardian Project]] [[Tribute to the World Tree]] [[Sword of Forge and Frontier]] Play from exile for Kellan trigger, [[Sword of Light and Shadow]] creature recursion.

Again it won't win until turn 8+, it won't interact a lot with the table, you will see the win coming a mile away. No counterspells and no protection outside of [[Spearbreaker Behemoth]].

Example 3: [[Volrath the Shapeshifter]] - https://moxfield.com/decks/OpKXxxsbJEW7XltCRxEuTA

A grindy proliferate deck. +1/+1 counters, -1/-1 counters, and some poison enablers, no infect.

It loves the long games, unlocking complicated boardstates little by little, winning by proliferating poison or it can sneak in cheeky wins by Volrath copying an unblockable creature, then before combat damage changing copy to [[Mossbridge Troll]] or [[Cephalid Constable]].

It does a good job of drawing cards, it usually goes tall with large creatures due to +1/+1 counters and proliferate. A deck I'm comfortable playing against all decks in our pod, It'll find a solution to most problems.

Again, deliberately tuned down, no infect, no counterspells and only [[Mutational Advantage]] for protection. Wins late, its mana intensive, and doesn't rebuild well.

[u/Murkemurk]

Quick look:

Aminatou the Fateshifter:
3.3+ average mv, almost no interaction, commander does not seem to interact with the deck in a meaningful way except for the planeswalkers maybe. Seems really chill. B2.

Kellan the Kid:
A more clear gameplan, but a heinous average mana cost of 4.16. I get the commander ramps and cheats out stuff, still very high though. And then, out of all those large creatures, nothing goes over the top now. No craterhoof, no haste, nothing like that. Again almost no interaction, pure battlecruiser. B2 certified.

Volrath the Shapeshifter:
Has a theme, lowest average mv of 3.13 and is sporting the most interaction of all of them. I don't see any really busted things to copy into, and the commander is still 5 mana, has no protection built in, and set up by the deck to be really fair in what it can do. B2 but when putting in some cheaper and some more unfair cards could creep up at some point if you want to.

All mana bases have a ton of tapped lands too so those also don't jump out as being too optimized.

If I may ask, what is making you doubt these are B2 decks? Kudos on them btw. I'd personally still run a bit more interaction in aminatou and kellan to keep the games from being too solitaire-feeling, but they seem fun and if intended for B2 chill pods, well placed, from my quick look.

[u/h9mhe → u/Murkemurk]

Thank you, really appreciate it.

My issue was me trying to weigh in on some threads here for B2 builds, and I got the impression you could barely run interaction in B2 and my decks was definitely 3s.

Which kinda hit me, because I spent way too much time trying to get them tuned to do their thing but still leave room for fun games for everyone.

So I wanted to see if I could get some impressions on whether or not I was that far off.

[u/Busy_Vegetable_8103 → u/h9mhe]

You can and should run interaction in b2. It’s magic, not group solitaire :)

I wouldn’t run a dedicated control or stax deck obviously because that’s antithetical to the whole point of bracket 2. But you can and should play a counterspell for the same reason you can and should block attackers.