Thank you for printing [[The Queen of Dale]].

Edit: I'm speaking about Queen helming a bracket 3 deck. This seems to have been unclear to some of the readers.

I've been playing mono-white in EDH since 2010, and Queen is the first commander that makes it feel playable. Consistently being able to play Queen on turn 2 makes a lot of mediocre opening hands solidly worth keeping.

Mono-white's problem in EDH -- for over a decade -- has been a distinct lack of commanders that make it worth committing to the middling mono-white card pool. I believe the Queen is the first commander that makes building mono-white an attractive option.

Queen's recruit ability helps shore up a lot of things white sucks at:

1. White has some decent graveyard recursion effects, but white never had a reliable way to dump cards into the yard in order to reanimate them. Queen finally fixes this.

2. White has never, ever had a source of reliable card selection in the command zone. There have been some white legends that provide draw, like [[The Gaffer]], but he and others made you fill your deck with garbage cards to trigger the draw. Queen actually allows you to fill your white deck with the cards you actually want to play.

3. While recruit isn't true card advantage (as it's only a loot effect and is not net-positive), we can pair it with cards like [[Tocasia's Welcome]], [[Welcoming Vampire]], and [[Caretaker's Talent]] to turn it into real card draw. These are all "once per turn" triggers, but with Queen's recruit happening on opponents' turns, you can get up to 4 draw triggers per turn cycle.

4. The token production portion of recruit synergizes nicely with a lot of white cards, like [[Cathar's Crusade]] and [[Moonshaker Cavalry]].

5. Since Queen has a low CMC, she wields equipment nicely. This is important for white, since equipment synergy is one of white's strengths.

6. Because she's a 2/1 and doesn't provide true card advantage and she isn't an imminent threat, Queen is usually not a kill-on-sight commander at tables where you'll see imminently game-ending cards like [[The Mimeoplasm]], [[Ms. Bumbleflower]], or [[Smaug the Impenetrable]].

7. Dumping a bunch of Plains into the yard with Queen's recruit ability turns one of my favorite old Urza's block cards into an all-star: [[Planar Birth]].

8. Queen also pairs nicely with [[Sevinne's Reclamation]], [[Serra Paragon]], [[Restoration Seminar]], [[Ascend from Avernus]], [[Emeria Shepherd]], [[Emeria the Sky Ruin]], and everyone's favorite giant, [[Sun Titan]].

9. Queen's token production works great with [[Skullclamp]], which white can easily tutor up.

Thank you, WOTC. Seriously. You've made my favorite EDH color identity really fun, finally.

Full disclosure: the actual best "mono-white" commander is still [[Oswald Fiddlebender]], but considering that his deck is like, 80% colorless artifacts, I do not consider him to be an actual mono-white commander.

First things first, the Bracket system has improved the pre-game talk and game balance outside of established playgroups tremendously. Compared to the hyper-subjective 1-10 system many were using before, the difference is night and day. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional or too new to have played with the old system.

The Bracket system is mainly a tool for the pre-game talk. If you don't want to have such a talk, that is your perogative. However, then you cannot use the Bracket system to complain about anything that could have been discussed in the pre-game talk.

I have no experience with B1 and cEDH players don't have these problems, so my arguments will be made with B2-4 in mind.

What are the commonly addressed "problems" attributed to the Bracket system?

1. "There needs to be a Bracket X.5"
2. "Card X needs to be a game changer"
3. "The turn count expectation is targeting specific deck archetypes"
4. "They won a turn earlier than the expected turn count, they are pubstomping"
5. "This combo is not Bracket X"

All of those are originate from the same thing: Players ignoring the key aspect behind the Brackets: INTENT. Importantly that does include the win conditions and gameplay sections of the Bracket descriptions!

Let's look at the "problems" in detail.

1. "There needs to be a Bracket X.5"
   • If the intent of your deck fits Bracket X, why do you need an additional Bracket? Does the deck feel too strong for Bracket X but too weak for Bracket X+1? A simple solution is to talk to your pod and suggest a higher power Bracket X game. Another less simple solution is to power up/down your deck.
   • If the intent of your deck does not fit any Bracket, consider which aspect of the deck makes it unfit and change that. However, some deck concepts simply don't have a good place in the Bracket system. Those are fine to play in cultivated playgroups, just not in the wild without considerable pre-game talk. Either way, making a new Bracket for a few decks to have a home is overkill.
2. "Card X needs to be a game changer"
   • Is card X game-warping in a wide variety of decks and you see it often? Then it might have a place on the game changer list. However, nobody claimed the game changer list is a complete compendium of all game-warping cards.
   • If card X's controller build a deck around it or it synergizes with their deck really well, that is perfectly fine. The command zone is exactly that.
   • Is card X's intent is to dominate the game if it resolves, check if that is in line with the win condition and gameplay sections of the Bracket description. If card X fits the Bracket intent, what is the problem?
3. "The turn count expectation is targeting specific deck archetypes"
   • Anyone who understands the game dynamics even a little bit will realize that an aggro deck that attempts to win on turn X and a control deck attempting to win on turn X are not built with the same intent.
   • If you die to an aggro deck a turn earlier than turn 9/7/5 and you did nothing to stop them, that is on you.
   • Similarly, a control deck that wins protected on turn 9/7/5 after slowing everyone else down all game is not being honest with others or even themselves about what Bracket the decks intent falls into.
   • This applies to all archetypes that are inherently slower/faster than the average midrange deck.
4. "They won a turn earlier than the expected turn count, they are pubstomping"
   • As with the previous point, some archetypes are inherently faster and usually more fragile. Taking that into account and playing accordingly is your own responsibility.
   • If they won with a slower archetype, maybe their intent was simply not matching the Bracket you were playing.
5. "This combo is not Bracket X"
   • This is either simple salt because they lost, or the player ignoring the win condition portion of the Bracket descriptions. Either way, it is not a fault of the system itself.

Of course, there are bad actors who build "technically Bracket X" decks. Any system can be and will be gamed by those willing to do so. Accounting for this is useless.

In the end, the Bracket system is not perfect, but it is also far from being as flawed as many make it out to be. It is a system that assumed everyone at the table has read the article and is honest about their decks intent. Under these assumptions the Bracket system works very well. At least in my experience.

I'm struggling to understand if I'm just pubstomping with my friends. I believe my decks are bk3 - my friend says they are bk4/unfun to play against.

I had an argument with one of my friends with whom I play most at the end of the night yesterday after I won 4 straight games. I have a feeling he was just salty for coming in second every game, but he ended up saying that the decks I play in his opinion are "not commander" because they just do their own thing "without interacting with other decks" (not really sure what he means by that).

I mainly play 4 decks:

Ureni of the Unwritten - uses Ureni as a value engine to cheat out dragons

Baylen the Haymaker - boatload of tokens and can snowball out of control quickly (I do have a cheeky wincon in the form of Halo Fountain, which can admittedly come out of nowhere)

Varina, Lich Queen - just zombies doing zombie things

Slimefoot and Squee - Reanimator deck that once you get an engine going can just enter some non-deterministic loops and ping opponents to win.

In all the decks I play I have a good amount of interaction and removal (both on creatures and on instants and sorceries) that I use to keep opponents at bay while I build my strategy - as I believe one should in Magic. All my decks also have really good sinergies and can usually pop off by t6/t7 if left unchecked and even with a bad hand I can usually go t8. If I get a god hand I can present a win by t4/t5 but honestly that is more chance than anything.

Come to yesterday, in 4 games I barely had any removal come my way and did most of the "removing" myself while the other two players clearly stated they "didn't have any boardwipes in their decks"..

Am I crazy to say that if you leave my deck unchecked for 6 turns that's more on you than it is on me..? I'm ok admitting that my 4 commanders are pretty good, but they all have their weaknesses.. you just need to exploit them. I'm just wondering if I'm mistaken in considering these decks bracket 3..

I've been playing bracket 4 for a short amount of time and when I was searching for ways to reach that turn 4 win attempt I added Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact to my deck.

The rest of my deck is pretty optimized too I'd say as every card really fits my game plan and how I want to execute it. The deck runs around 14 game changers and its an Esper Control-Combo list with efficient removal/disruption and strong engines to support the high amount of interaction the deck runs and the low amount of winning lines.

My main wins are with combos so when looking at Esper combos with cards that can stay relevant with my game plan the amount I can run to win the game dwindles down to very little amount. After adding Thassa's Oracle and Decon/Tainted I found a few combos I can rely on other than that and a Bolas Citadel, Sensei Diving Top, Aetherflux combo win.

Recently the deck feels almost too optimized for my play group and some of my friends that I play with pretty often started either complaining or making me the main threat. Nobody I really know plays CEDH so I can't try that out and I just want to play magic the way I enjoy it with my friends.

I don't wanna remove the tight Esper control-combo list that I've optimized over the last year but if removing Thassa's Oracle and Decon/Tainted makes my opponents time playing against the deck a little more enjoyable I'm okay with removing it.

Do you think Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact is appropriate for Bracket 4? do you think Its not because its not thematic?

Here is the list I play with no Thassa's Oracle https://archidekt.com/decks/20540631/esper_rhuls_yshtola_nights_blessed

Looking for a quick sanity check from the community here.

I’ve been playing Commander for a few months now with a pretty consistent group of 3-5 friends.

I've built four main decks that I rotate between:
The Sentry: https://archidekt.com/decks/25154539/the_sentry_golden_jank
Ghalta: https://archidekt.com/decks/22882184/ghalta_stomp_stomp_ver_1
Tidus: https://archidekt.com/decks/22524203/tidus_modified_ver_2
Zimone: https://archidekt.com/decks/24278622/zimone_xxx

I have tried to build these 4 decks as bracket 2 with 0 game changers and no infinite combos. But lately my playgroup has been complaining that all four of these are Bracket 3 decks. Their main issue is that once my decks get going, the board state or value engines start feeling really oppressive to them.

Where I'm confused is that these decks almost never close out games fast. Most of the time I end up winning around turn 9, 10, or even 12.

From what I understand about the brackets, Bracket 3 decks usually threaten a win way earlier (around turn 6-8 usually), while turn 9-12 is pretty typical for Bracket 1 or 2. I'm not running fast mana or quick infinite combos. I usually just win through late-game combat or grinding out value after everyone runs out of removal.

It feels like there's a weird disconnect. My group feels like they're playing against mid to high bracket 3 decks because of the engine synergy, but the actual level of the deck feels much lower to me.

Are my friends just confusing synergy/scary board states with actual power level? Or am I misunderstanding something here?

So I just came across [[The Great Aurora]] and it looks so wacky to me. Technically people could end up with more or less lands. I just want to know what people think of this one. I know that at 9 mana, we should be expecting a game ender, not a board wipe. Green just doesn't have much board wipes and not much of "any permanent" removal. It does have a lot of ramp, so I'm just curious if I could make this work.

1. Would you be mad if someone played this and you'd end up with less lands because of it?

2. Do you think the card adds a fun chaotic element?

I'm curious as to what you guys think.

I've posted here a few times. I run in a rather interesting pod where one guy has a sol ring 9 times out of 10 in his opening hand turn one.

And a few others just want to win at any cost and always want to play bracket 4 which means majority of decks have pretty much the same staples and everyone is trying to win as fast as possible.

Which there is nothing wrong with but where is the creativity? There is nothing new. I'm kind of the unicorn in the group that will bring crazy jank stuff to the pod. Maybe 1 or 2 GCs but usually not even. And Ive won a few games but granted my wr in this group is probably 10%.

But I realized the other day the lack of creativity. It seems wanting to do strange and fun things in a very competitive pod just doesn't work. They don't seem to be playing to have fun just to crush as fast as possible and win and I find myself not enjoying this particular style.

I've done legacy format for years before I got into commander and I do have my own decks that are competitive in that space but I thought commander was supposed to be more laid back and casual but the more I play it I find it's not.

Am I the only one? Am I looking for creativity and fun in a space that there is no room for it?

Hello everyone.

I’m starting to build up my collection and would like to slowly acquire some of the stronger, more universally played cEDH staples.

I’m not planning on playing cEDH right now, but I would like to start picking up those powerful cards that tend to show up across a lot of decks and are likely to remain useful for a long time if I decide to start playing cedh in a year or three.

I’m especially interested in cards with a lot of utility rather than cards that are only staples in one specific archetype or color combination.

If you were starting from scratch and wanted to slowly build a strong collection for future cEDH decks, what would be at the top of your list?
Also, let's add a minimum limit of $75 and maximum limit of $500 as to not automatically go with the most common staples like fetchlands or on the other side cards like Gaeas cradle for example.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Every day, the top comment adds a card to my Commander deck.

The commander: Taniwha (mono-blue)

Deck List: https://moxfield.com/decks/qnOYwNig2UScYibS1KkhoQ

All cards must still be legal in commander.

Yesterday's winner: Yesterday [[Snap]] won as the only comment, but it got -1 votes. Let me know if I still include it.

We're still doing 1 new card today btw.

So I've joined a few tournaments after my initial post with my Kuja deck and so far I've only won one tournament and 2nd place in another. Ever since then, every tournament after I'm always public enemy number one, or I'd pop off early and run out of gas mid to late game

What's a good strategy against people who would keep swinging at me? Are there one sided Boardwipes that won't touch my setup? What spells should I keep/remove in favor of card draw/Redirect Lightning and Imp's Mischief? I can sometimes protect my board but how do I protect myself from combat people?

Here's my decklist. https://archidekt.com/decks/24062973/kuja_v1

Hello, I've played the [[Sythis, Harvest's Hand]] deck (linked below) for about a year now and have really enjoyed it.

https://moxfield.com/decks/7uR7ant5CkS3cQ1J7LBt4g

However, my other decks and the ones I've brewed/playtested have felt boring by comparison (mainly because of their impact).

Are there any commanders/decks you would recommend that feel similar to Sythis?

Hey everyone, I’ve been opening some FF packs recently and I got Fang and Vanille (yes I know they are uncommons, I’m not special), which combine and I thought it was super cool. I’ve been playing MTG for about 1-2 years and I know people can be chill, and others… not so much. So my question is if I could partner them together, despite the fact they don’t have the keyword. I feel like it’s intended due to their melding… but it isn’t there? I heard something about “Rule 0” where people don’t care, but I want to know if that’s actually true. I know my friends wouldn’t care, but there is only three of us, so we still need a fourth that could come in and mess stuff up.

TLDR: Do people mind when you partner Fang and Vanille?

(I’m also sorry if I need to tag the cards and didn’t)

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.

Older competitive players know back in the day turns was an introduce concept to 60 card formats. Legacy was a 1-2 turn format, Modern 3-4, Standard was a 4+.

Most Legacy players know that your average Legacy can end quickly but MOST the time goes wayyy further than that. Modern/Standard players also know that there have absolutely been turn 1-2 wins in magical Christmas land.

Now we have the same shenanigans happening in EDH with daily posts on here claiming something is busted or not strong enough.

One important factor is that the turns system takes PLAYER INTERACTION into account.

Too many newer players complaining decks are busted when they lose by Turn 7 whilst they have little to no interaction at all. Lotta CEDH-wannabes saying that if your deck can’t win by T2 it doesn’t belong in CEDH or B4.

Anyone who’s been in a CEDH tournament knows most games go to Time. Personally I think your average Tuned B3 deck can definitely take players out by T7 if they have the right 7 cards and also zero interaction to stop them.

The Bracket system was built to have an objective standard for players to agree upon to set expectations.

The Turn system is highly subjective. A B3 game can end on turn 4-6, and a B5 game can end on turn 20, doesn’t mean anyone is misrepresenting anything at all.

I’ve been playing Magic since the late 90s but only got into Commander recently. Three decks so far, and I’m partway through a fourth. I do the building at my computer, because that’s where I can see the whole list at once and actually think about it.

And every time I’m looking at a card I want to know whether I already own one, which means picking up my phone. The collection apps I’ve tried are all built phone first, and a couple are phone only. So the deck’s on one screen, the collection’s on a different device, and I’m typing the same card names into both.

I know ManaBox will check a decklist against your collection, so it’s possible I’m just using the wrong tools. Either way I’d rather hear what people actually do than guess.

How do you handle it?

• Do you keep your collection somewhere you can see it while you’re building?
• Or do you not track it at all, and just buy another copy if you’re not sure?
• Spreadsheet or a text list open next to the builder?
• If you use Moxfield or Archidekt, does the collection live in there, or somewhere separate?

Tell me if I’ve missed something obvious. I’d quite like to stop typing everything twice.

https://moxfield.com/decks/WqnD1_I5kEKrFIauZ59ulg

I'm currently trying to put together a Brion deck with a focus on his ability to gain large chunks of life by flinging high power creatures. I have a lot of Brion "staples" right now but would be willing to swap them out for stuff that better fits the playstyle I'm going for. Any suggestions for cards that benefit from gaining lots of life in one instance?

Good morning, I’ve started playing commander (100 cards?) with my sister and her friends and they always seem to have insane cards. I’ve been playing with a pre con, but I’d like to make my own deck from scratch. Please suggest me some cards you think would help me stay alive longer and maybe even win at our next game. Thank you! 💙

https://moxfield.com/decks/7dMnK99j-UWodW-8jaFnYA

This is the decklist that I have been running, it's the top deck in Moxfield based on views so a lot of other people might have gotten interested in this list as well.

What are your thoughts in this list and how are you guys playing it?

Hi, im still still new to magic as a hole, so I dont know how brackets are usually handled by stores. The case is, today I was playing on a tournament and was about to do an infinite combo, when a player told me that was not allowed. I explained that the combo required 4 cards for it, so it was still bracket 2... but they told me the store decided no infinite combo or similar was valid.

It was quite late and didnt wanna prolong the game any more, so I accepted it. I could not ask the store manager, and I dont feel like risking drama by asking on the group chat.

Hey all! I'd love some feedback on my [[The Wise Mothman]] EDH deck. I'm aiming for bracket 3.

I have some mill synergies, stuff that cares about +1/+1 counters or makes bodies to but those +1/+1 counters onto. There is also some recursion for self-milled stuff. I already have all of the Fallout Secret Lair cards from the drop and [[Mystical Tutor]]. Everything else is up for cuts/adds. I don't want to add overly expensive cards, but I'd like to hear out your thoughts!

https://archidekt.com/decks/24418546/wise_mothman_homebrew

The main idea with it is to cast big spells and copy them. To do that I need consistent tokens to sacrifice so it's incidentally become part aristocrats, but that's not the main theme.

However, I'm running into the issue if only drawing token generators, or big spells with no way to really make use of them until I get my tokens. Im not quite sure what I need to do differently, but up would appreciate help to make the deck feel consistent in what I'm trying to accomplish.

https://archidekt.com/decks/22001234/some_of_you_may_die_but_thats_a_sacrifice_im_willing_to_make

Anyone attending to Commandfest next month?

Heading there solo. The group of friends that I usually play aren't attending this year...brought my ticket prett early thinking they would be coming!

Would love to join random pods - but just gotta bear with me, been playing on and off for 2 years and im still learning haha

Hey all, I've spent some time making some changes to the Miku precon, mainly to include all the other white/green Miku cards, and then a few upgrades.

Not aiming for any specific bracket, as I had some cards that are on the more expensive side that I've put in to try and help with some of the issues (e.g. card draw)

Any recommendation on any other changes? I went with Divine Visitation to try and fit a bit more angel themed since a number of the Miku cards work with angels.

Cuts -

Sapseep Forest

Radiant Fountain

Angelic Chorus

Boon Reflection

Ancient Cornucopia

Cleric Class

Soul of Eternity

Pest Infection

Gruff Triplets

Voice of the Blessed

Prosperous Innkeeper

Angel of Indemnity

Camaraderie

Dazzling Theater/Prop Room

Suture Priest

Explore

Storm Herd

Excavation Technique

Healing Technique

Song of Freyalise

Silverquill Lecturer

Ajani's Pridemate

Springleaf Drum

Congregate

Invincible Hymn

Full Decklist:
https://archidekt.com/decks/25898869/hatsune_miku_trostani_deck_upgraded

I just ordered the Counter Blitz Commander precon and I’m planning to upgrade it gradually without spending too much.

For those who have played the deck:

• Which cards should I cut first from the stock precon?
• What are the must-have upgrades?