20 More Unplayable Commander Cards | Cards to Cut From Your Commander Decks to Power Them Up

[@gravetitan1321]

Yes... YES! Supply my Anti-Nitpicking-Nerds deck with even MORE auto-includes.

[@NitpickingNerds]

So much power!!!

[@lunarlight3131]

we cower at your power grave titan. please don't hurt us..

[@TheMystcast]

I mean grave titan does see play from where I am at and it goes crazy. Super casual setting too. We are not trying to outpace and end the game by turn 5, its boring that way.

[@lunarlight3131]

@@TheMystcast it is, but seeing a grave titan hit the field instead of at least a maul splicer is a little disheartening.

[@NitpickingNerds]

@@lunarlight3131 Grave Titan is a filthy casual lol 😝

[@austinkaukl8580]

Imagine not having power and toughness six, not having death touch, and not creating two 2/2s

[@NitpickingNerds]

I can't

[@thechefhans739]

Thanks for the advice! Can’t wait to put all these cards in my next deck

[@NitpickingNerds]

A bold move!

[@vanillabean3827]

I feel like propaganda/ghostly prison were done a bit dirty, and I must respectfully disagree. The low mana cost means they come out early, and if you have at least one aggro or token deck out on the table, that person isn’t going to want to swing at you for a long time. Yes, it’s not good at all in metas that win through combo, those decks are not what these cards are designed to stop. But in metas with Rhys, Zada, Chatterfang, Brudiclad, Gruul Omnath, Thalisse, Krenko, Adrix and Nev, Alela or any number of go wide token decks which are popular in commander, Prop/Prison really shine. I have to agree, though, it’s very cuttable at a point and if it’s not a meta-thing, it’s not an auto include. I just wanted to contribute to the discussion though, love your content!

[@NitpickingNerds]

You allowed to disagree! You make good points.

[@34Vilend]

I agree, but I’ve noticed in my decks when I’ve cut it, the deck does run better. A more offensive card vs Propaganda tends to yield better results for me so far. Besides, I’ve got 40 life. Plenty of hits can be taken.

[@ssxecho]

Thanks NN, my Locust God finds it fun to sometimes being able to win by attacking since you've adviced your audience =) I was getiing bored comboing them to death !

[@mjvane46]

@@34Vilend i also agree. My thing is, its fine to buy time, but you cant get too comfy behind it. If someone wants you dead it costs 1 mana to remove and you need to make decisions with that in mind

[@Late_Night_Mega]

I find that Ghostly Prison and Propaganda work best in decks with low creature counts where I'm trying to set stuff up. When I'm playing a deck with lots of creatures the creatures can do the defending, so I don't need these to prevent attacks. What gets me is when the nitpicking nerds say there isn't much attacking going on, and as soon as you play Ghostly Prison, your opponent will just tutor for their combo and win without attacking. Not sure what format they're playing, but sounds like cEDH or very borderline cEDH to me.

[@Adjacent_2]

Beezy: "distinctify" Distinguish: "what am I, a joke to you?"

[@chachi_arcola]

Distinctify is my new favorite removal spell

[@kevinj4002]

Bitterblossom has been extremely underwhelming in my experience.

[@Adjacent_2]

@@kevinj4002 good point, it has a bit of the Phyrexian Arena issue, takes a whole turn cycle just to give you one 1/1 flyer. It has a lot of upsides, but it's pretty slow

[@c.r.bledsoe9322]

In my personal opinion village rights is fantastic in the right shell. For both reanimator and token decks it is a fantastic draw spell. I'm really not sure why this card is bad to yall, unless of course you've tried it in non sacrifice decks.

[@emilysmith2965]

They explained this… it’s better to have creatures that interact with more creatures and hit critical mass. There are early turns where the card will be dead. Even when it’s not dead, it’s not like any of your reanimate dudes can go find this.

[@zexionfan15]

I would like to add one thing to the Grave Titan discussion - the "alternative" cards are better for a general black deck, but if your deck is actively going for Zombie Tribal in some way (like Scarab God or something), it's hard to keep pace with the benefits of the 2/2 tokens being zombies. Easy to boost with things like Undead Warchief in a more traditional Zombie tribal, and making 2 of them every turn in decks that simply look for how many you have in play like in Scarab God. It's not a great generic splash card in every black deck anymore, but it still has a niche in specific builds that it synergizes with more directly.

[@elipetrou9308]

Eh, I suppose, it’s just not great though for 6

[@ChadZeluff]

I choose Grave Titan in Gonti, where I run the Altar/Deathmantle combo. I choose Grave Titan over the alternatives NN mentioned because reanimating him early happens more often than assembling the infinite combo, and the others are poor reanimation targets.

[@elipetrou9308]

@@ChadZeluff but then just reanimate razuketh or something

[@owentucker6215]

I agree, in a singleton format like commander, something that produces this many zombie tokens will be a pretty easy include in any deck that utilizes zombie tokens, regardless of its absolute power level.

[@astuteanansi4935]

I feel like GT would've been better if it had literally almost anything but Deathtouch, how often does a 6/6 need deathtouch?!

[@againstthegrain4164]

No, not Grave Titan he’s the best.

[@lunarlight3131]

speaking of the man, where is he? i saw him post on another video but i feel he started hiding again

[@NitpickingNerds]

He already commented! He is the worst lol 😝

[@sweetandsaltyminx7310]

I'm starting to think every game you guys play ends on turn 5 lol.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Nope our games ranges from turn 5 to turn 12

[@sweetandsaltyminx7310]

@@NitpickingNerds I am highly dubious of this claim 🤔

[@NitpickingNerds]

@@sweetandsaltyminx7310 in video like this we are talking about the high power decks but our decks range from 6 to 9

[@sweetandsaltyminx7310]

@@NitpickingNerds I know, I'm very familiar with your content. Also 6 to 9 😏

[@NitpickingNerds]

Nice!

[@p1k4nurxp13sr]

I HIGHLY disagree with the exclusions of the cheap interaction spells. Usually, when powering up decks, the biggest thing that happens is the lowering of the mana curve and average CMC, so these cards all become much more efficient and much less narrow. In addition, the disparity between colors gets magnified, and because permission gets so much better, R/x decks that lack blue want all the permission they can get.

[@emilysmith2965]

This was specifically addressed… it’s not that the cards can’t sometimes be good, it’s that the deck suffers overall when answers are narrow and cheap instead of being versatile but a little more expensive. Your mono-red Goblin deck is going to benefit a lot more from Chaos Warp and/or Wild Magic Surge than Pyroblast. That is just real.

[@dee-wreck]

I enjoy Fork & Reverberates in my Kess deck. Flashback a spell and copy it, and copy another spell on the following turn. Really nice when you want to Hellfire Torment for X-2.

[@orangelion94]

Exile is important for merciless eviction though, the fact that it is exile and not destroy is super important too

[@zappernapper]

I mean, if Gods and graveyard decks weren't a thing... But yeah, sometimes I NEED to permanently get rid of a few things on the table at once, and there aren't loads of options.

[@JustRightPinedo]

Yeah if you have a Muldrotha player, lots of indestructible and/or other recursion in your pod. But they also just printed Farewell, which confirms that’s what I’m saying to merciless now.

[@V2ULTRAKill]

@@zappernapper i mean tormods crypt is a better exile toy 100% of the time

[@V2ULTRAKill]

@@JustRightPinedo rest in peace or tomods crypt > merciless eviction

[@JustRightPinedo]

@@V2ULTRAKill yes 100% for just removing the yard; but I don't think they're quite the same slot (graveyard hate vs board wipe) sometimes you are completely overpowered on the board state, and your opponent(s) have resilient ways to get things back from the yard...the point here I'd say is that exiling removal is best.

[@bch9124]

The conspiracy theorist in me believes that the Nitpicking Nerds are listing cards in this video to pad their anti-NPN EDH deck for their Kickstarter stretch goal. 😎

[@NitpickingNerds]

They do coincide, but we wanted to post a sequel where we state our positions more clearly than last time since that video continues to pick up steam 👍🏻

[@sw33tshar3]

"Worse than Moss Diamond" Is probably the biggest insult you can make towards a card

[@NitpickingNerds]

I really went after their lives with that 😂

[@MoonlitRose101]

To add onto the merciless eviction: We just got a straight upgrade to it in the new Kamigawa set with Farewell. Sure, it doesn't hit planeswalkers, bit it DOES hit graveyards, which is arguably better

[@darthsion8821]

I think merciless eviction could work great if you know that your opponent's decks are full of indestructible or "on death" effects

[@riverswater5688]

Exactly!!!

[@nissama7885]

Which is why my Edgar deck keeps Merciless Eviction in it becauae it just makes the sheirei deck, other graveyard decks, and even my own Meren deck jsst try if it goes off which usually it does

[@jokerES2]

This is exactly it. Exile vs. Destroy is meta-dependent. Lots of indestructible creatures, for example, make Merciless far better. I still would not play it unless there are problematic graveyard decks, but it has a place in more decks than most of these cards.

[@MaxPwnzer]

Just about every white deck in my LGS plays Avacyn, Angel of Hope. Thus I keep Merciless Eviction in my Edgar deck, so I look at their indestructible and if I can't take control of her, I permanently delete their board.

[@elipetrou9308]

But they can just sac it, otherwise they built poorly probably

[@crawdaddy2004]

“Enchantment is rarely the prominent creature type.” 😂 You corrected yourself, but it still made me giggle.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Lol 😂 damn it!

[@zackkelley2940]

There are enchantment creatures and they are decidedly rare. So TECHNICALLY still correct^^

[@crawdaddy2004]

@@zackkelley2940 That’s a super type, though.

[@archibaldtuttle9019]

I'm glad you gave a disclaimer for Chain of Vapor. It's one of the few pre-Lorwyn cards that I latched on to for taking care of planeswalkers in every meta. The cost to copy makes it actually tempting when your opponents see you as a threat, and that interplay makes me believe it's a fair card to use as well when players are looking to be casual

[@NitpickingNerds]

It’s a cool design no doubt

[@Mithrandork]

Gilded Lotus is also good if your commander is 6+ cmc which in and of itself isn't great but if you're hellbent on running Avacyn as your commander Gilded Lotus pushing you to 8 from 5 looks a lot better

[@zotmaster]

Yeah, I run one in Avacyn, Kumano, and Piru. They need to come out, and I'm willing to take a tempo hit to do it.

[@spane81]

Gilded lotus is also a beast in my orvar deck. And i play it in my kozilek and my sen triplets deck where it would be honestly hard to replace. That's a general problem with these typ of videos because several cards are playable or even really good in certain decks. So no gilded lotus isn't even close to unplayable for probably a lot of decks so it's honestly a bad entry for this list.

[@dhantefranklin336]

Mudrotha staple. Really helps you play cards from grave the turn she enters the board.

[@adamhall1340]

Can't tell you how many times I've been extremely pleased to top deck my merciless eviction. As a late game option it barely can get any better, especially on a budget.

[@spane81]

It has good versatility and i think the fact that it exiles is really underrated. Great card overall and in commander i can afford my wrath to be at 6 mana. I honestly don't see where this would be unplayable outside a cedh setting.

[@randyvalentine134]

Yeah I completely agree, the ability to exile any permanent type can make it a completely flexible boardwipe . And the exile stops things like heroic intervention, graveyard shenanigans ect. It’s a very powerful boardwipe

[@myzri7609]

Moral of the story, CMC is important and efficiency is key.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Yes and yes

[@boonsaplenty3924]

*given the conditions and play style advocated by the Nerds in this video, but not necessarily for every play group

[@timtauber5557]

You guys are great, the only critique you should ever pay attention to is the kind that illuminates an oversight or obvious error, as well as those that are intended to make your videos improve.

[@datoxic]

Love that y'all really listen to the community and adjust your content based on feedback. I didn't have any problems with the last installment of this video but I appreciate how much effort y'all put in.

[@mediocritysbest6220]

Red blast and pyro blast is amazing in any non blue deck. It works at any level

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

My only hesitation with a list like this is that you (a) are assuming these cards will never be needed to reach a critical mass of a desired effect and (b) you are potentially boxing your (and more critically, your viewers') thinking in a way that will cause you to miss that the card is circumstantially superior to competing picks in a given deck. Until all commanders with rules text are banned, or until there are ten or more superior alternatives to your suggestions in the same color identity with the same card type, I respectfully disagree with each pick.

[@MajorLeeAwesome]

Aetherspouts is really situational, but it outperforms the others in one area: into the library. They will have to redraw their entire boardstate if you play it right.

[@astuteanansi4935]

It's almost a one-sided exile wrath, but the high cost does make it hard to balance out with trying to do other things on your turn, blue is not exactly famous for big mana. It's also super predictable but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you can keep your opponent from attacking into you with just the *threat* of an Aetherspout that you might not even have, that sounds like a win to me

[@macanerodeldesierto]

I don't get how people still get upset at someone's opinion. You guys can say cards suck. People need to chill.

[@jonathanheld8152]

Now- respectfully- I think victimize is a card that you’re using wrong if it doesn’t make the cut. It isn’t an autoinclude in just any reanimating deck, but Sidisi Brood Tyrant, and other token+reanimate theme archetypes have made this card a bomb. 3 mana for 2 bodies is really really powerful. Sacrificing a creature can be tough- but not if you play tokens into the ‘incidental’ game plan. Many commanders or common archetypes can make them, like Edgar Markov, Sidisi, Rotcleaver, etc. perhaps that’s too narrow for your point- but in my experience it’s always been an amazing card

[@nickhughes8179]

I loved Victimize in my Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck. A counter for Meren, a death trigger like Viridian Emissary or Veteran Explorer, or Thragtusk, and 2 value targets with etb triggers to reanimate. It swung games.

[@demolisherman1763]

uM aKtOoElLy if you play this incredibly specific and niche deck then these cards are really good

[@NitpickingNerds]

Yes

[@gamermancrygamer9461]

Y'all are just using Victimize wrong. Run bigger creatures. In a dedicated reanimator shell it's incredible cause you can just get back 12-20 mana worth of stuff, and that probably wins the game a lot of the time.

[@ThaGlizzard]

Talk about how good enchantments like rhystic and smothering are, then proceed to say who’s gonna have a enchantment for decimate to target? You have 3 opponent’s and you’re playing in high power EDH you really don’t think someone is gonna have a good enchantment out on curve?

[@justinanderson2631]

Funny thing is days ago prior to this video I started slotting Sheoldred into more of my decks. (Muldrotha and Extus "Ball Lightning Aristocrats") and I put Sheoldred over Butcher of Malakir (In Extus). Sheoldred definitely is a removal magnet and doesn't usually exist the next turn rotation and is expensive..but in commander you also need "win more" cards because if you have a lead but can't close out a game; you're probably going to lose! Sheoldred definitely closes the game out.

[@kirkheisterkamp6988]

The thing that makes victimize good in my opinion is that it gets back two targets instead of one which is critical. Because it can hit 2 targets, you can use something like eternal witness/timeless witness/archaeomancer to create a self sustaining loop of reanimation

[@KentRPG]

Chain of Vapor is also good protection for keeping creatures out of GY and CZ, it's a diverse card in the right decks.

[@Twineandribbon]

You know I totally agree with your take on red elemental blast but as a mardu player I can actually not even remember a single time I've played a game of commander without a really hyper competitive blue player at the table. I put the two red counters in when I was playing at a cedh meta, just to try to keep up even though I wasn't playing cedh, but even afterwards they are probably among the most high performing cards in my deck. I know my experience is limited but it Feels like I can always count on someone to play blue and then try to cyclonic rift or counter a crucial spell.

[@loquicola]

I respectfully disagree with your take on red elemental blast/pyroblast. Blue is such a prominent color in commander that situational cards like those mentioned above are a really great piece of interaction in any deck with an identity of three or less colors, excluding blue obviously; in addition to all the other interaction/removal pieces you want to include, not in their stead, mind you. They wanna counter your combo/win, just say no. They wanna cyclonic rift, just say no. It's also a removal piece, not just a counter. It can be a death card in 1/20 games of commander, yes; but I think it pulls its own weight, and some more, the rest of the time that I just don't think it deserves the title of an unplayable card in a meta with at least a power level above 3; that's just way to narrow for you consider it a standard, in my opinion.

[@Knightfall8]

"i play four or fewer six-drops in all my decks" *me, a sphinx tribal player* >__>

[@NitpickingNerds]

What’s the average cmc of a Sphinx?

[@Jenova_Rose_7]

*sweats nervously in Lyra Dawnbringer angel tribal* 😅

[@Knightfall8]

@@NitpickingNerds not taking changeling and clones into account, most sphinxes are 5-7MV (or cmc for us old fogies)

[@Indy94445]

Most of the picks in this video basically boil down to the fact, the cards were good at one point in time, and options in certain colors were limited, but due to power creep are now outdated.

[@NitpickingNerds]

"Outdated" feels right for most of these

[@yoshisalaverry5502]

I think you sort of ignore Pyroblast and REB's other mode of "one mana Vindicate target blue permanent," which is often pretty sweet.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Still not quite what I want from my cards

[@yoshisalaverry5502]

@Volrath Who is "they"? The likelihood that at least one of your opponents in a "high power" game is playing blue is very high. Also many of red's best card filtering spells require a discard so it's often no issue to get rid of dead cards.

[@ChannelJjordo]

Decimate is pretty interesting in my Xenagos deck because I can always target my indestructible commander as the enchantment if I need to - making it a very reliable 3 for 1. I find I consistently hit at least 2 relevant game pieces (plus nuking a land for free) which is cool but honestly I'm a lot more tripped up by the sorcery speed. I kinda like it though coz of how niche-ly good it is in that deck.

[@Orkinetxegar]

I think that pyroblast and red elemental blast are great. You have 3 oponets and most of the time somebody will be playing blue, so you can use them to destroy their commander, counter their counter or cyclonic and is the best enchantment removal in red. Also the same is true for golbin king or pearl trident, and in red you have blood moon.

[@strattaravar]

In Garruk's Wake really made me think about how a lot of these are playable in a Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign deck, where the actual mana value of the card doesn't matter that much since you're never going to be casting them from your hand. For IGW in particular, it's one that I will load on top of my deck with like a Scroll Rack or a Brainstorm or a Tutor of some kind and then wipe the enemy boards while swinging in with a bunch of creatures.

[@rileypowell5354]

I think flusterstorm is great in general. You guys should try playing it, you'd be amazed how often it's basically a second swan song

[@newtonalexanderbednasch3981]

I like how I at least five times thought 'Wow, that's a cool card, I want it in my deck' and THEN remembered what you were trying to tell me with this video.

[@daltooinewestwood6380]

Your opinion on sheoldred is stupid. Nobody ever hard casts sheoldred, and nobody ever plays her unless the deck is designed around that strategy. She is insanely good if you play her right

[@JD-gk7eh]

I think the correct way to view Gilded Lotus in current Magic is as a color filter. If you have ways to make a lot of colorless mana (e.g., Kydele + lots of card draw or some Ashnod's Altar nonsense), then Lotus serves you well. Not a lot of decks need or want that effect (again, lots of colorless mana) and that places the card appropriately.

[@Lv5SuperTuba]

I appreciate the hustle guys, can't wait for the game-play vids!

[@Nr4747]

Village Rites and its very similar versions are actually incredible in Extus aristocrats decks because you have to sac the creature as part of the cost, meaning you can get the same creature you just sacced back with the magecraft trigger.

[@KingOfGames15222]

I feel confused about the power level you guys are trying to convey. On one note you guys tell me to take out the cheap fast interaction (REB, Pyroblast, Flusterstorm,etc.) which are useful from highmid+, but later you explain not to play gilded lotus because if you want to play higher level pods the card is not that good, I agree with that point, but I find it confusing that you guys are telling us to take out the higher power cards since the people i'm playing against aren't high power, but also saying i should take out cards to become high powered.

[@golgariguy]

Interesting picks and opinions! Temple of the False god is good in decks with a *lot* of lands and ramp, like 40 lands and 12 ramp spells.

[@drakko95]

TL;DR: A lot better than last time. Still needs work. Cutting out a lot of the joking was a good call. Still, I feel like the tone needs more work, not the content of the video, so much as the way that you two present it to your audience. You're already front-loading negativity with the title, and the general vibe I get from it isn't friendly. Honest, sure, but not necessarily what I'd call a "welcome" criticism, if that makes sense. That being said, the criteria you listed at the start was a good addition, and I liked the comparisons to other cards in the context of "Why play this card, when X card exists, and it does the job better?" If I were to make recommendations, I'd cut (See what I did there?) the "Unplayable" part out. At best it's negative, and at worst divisive/possibly clickbait. Saying to cut these cards to power up decks gets the point across just fine without the extra baggage. I'd also work on the tone of voice. It sounds nitpicky, I know, but even I catch myself doing the same thing where I talk about something I'm passionate about, and when I see something I personally see as "wrong" in a general sense, I tend to get into a tone of voice that in retrospect makes me sound like I'm coming at them with the attitude of "How dare you?". That's the vibe I got in some parts of the video, anyway, not all of it. Overall, though, I'd say it's definitely an improvement from the last video, and I hope to see even further improvements in the next video (if there is one). Keep up the good work, and I hope my wall of text wasn't too much lol

[@NitpickingNerds]

Thanks Karl, this is literally the perfect example of constructive criticism! Not sure if we'll do another one of these in general, but we wanted to at least come back to the topic and try to improve upon it as best we could :)

[@mahonkhoshzaban2703]

Privileged Position being bad? Clearly you haven't made your board completely uninteractable with a mix of Avacyn, Privileged Position, Shalai, Sterling Grove, and then Sigarda to top it off, with a Teferi's protecc in hand alongside that new spirit knight in case they play cyclonic rift or toxic deluge (yes, I have done this and it's amazing to see people go beet red over being unable to remove literally anything)

[@ryankoulos4614]

Decimate does not have to hit all 4 that got a ruling change in 2004

[@user-fd2co5xr7k]

This series is so underrated. I do not want to be wasting my money or commander time on bad cards

[@aidwin85]

REB and Pyroblast are always good to me. There's always a blue player and I don't think I've ever had it as a dead card. And since it's red, you can discard it to fuel Thrill of Possibility or Faithless Looting if you're not playing against blue.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Another problem with REB is the opportunity cost. It can hit blue permanents, but was that the best permanent in play? Could another removal spell have worked generally better in that slot? It's hard to say

[@mor4261]

Personally, I don't like to analyze cards as playable or unplayable, but rather, 'can I make this card work?' I guess that's the fun aspect which is talked about in the disclaimer. I think this video is more geared to format staples, many of which I get tired of seeing every game anyway.

[@NitpickingNerds]

That is completely fair. The word unplayable can be a bit extreme but if I’m building for power these cards really are unplayable IMO.

[@mor4261]

@@NitpickingNerds I totally get it. For me, it seems a shame to look at my whole collection of cards and be restricted to playing BiS cards only while 5000+ cards collect dust. I like to find power in unlikely places ^^

[@Omnivxrse]

I agree with most of this list, but victimize is actually a very solid spell. There are certainly decks that want other reanimator effects and not victimize, but in a deck where you know you will have creatures to sacrifice, you know you'll have at least two creatures worth reanimating in your graveyard, and having them enter tapped doesn't matter, victimize is actually just really good, and yes I'm talking about 7-8 power level. It's extremely worth it to pay 3 mana and sacrifice a token or a 1 or 2 drop that already served it's purpose to get back a 6 drop and an 8 drop that both probably have strong etb effects, and that's a pretty modest example... the last time I played victimize I got back an 8 drop and a 12 drop... since I sacrificed an irrelevant 1/1 token, victimize basically saved me 17 mana, which is insane. You guys are really underplaying the fact that it reanimates 2 creatures. You compared it to explosive vegetation, but explosive vegetation has like 3 or 4 strictly better options, while there is not a single card that does what victimize does and is anywhere close to being strictly better:)

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

I 100% agree with the Diamonds. They are the pinnacle of the "bad except in one or two corner cases", like slow turtle likes them, but basically nothing else does.

[@rosegarrity3720]

I think it's stupid you guys even got negative comments on the first video, these are great because they give solid, unbiased opinions on playability. I mean I guess it's hard advice but that's...kinda the point of unbiased advice. If you guys giving advice tells someone something they didn't want to hear, it's probably something they already thought themselves. Love this, glad I subbed.

[@tonydiazist]

Can you please make a video on how one should start growing their commander collection? Should you buy the commander first? Staples? Should i bother buying the bad mana rocks (budget) or save and buy better lands (fetches)If you are brand new and don't have anything should you stick to buying singles or buy boxes(modern masters or precons).

[@Naturessightsandsounds7040]

You don't need fetches buy those last.honestly having a collection is overrated just buy the cards you need for the decks you are currently trying to build is the way to go.look at the top 100 commanders on edhrec and try to find a commander and decklist that you think you might like and start buying.

[@tonydiazist]

@@Naturessightsandsounds7040 you know what you are right. Eventually the collection builds itself. I just hate that mtg market. Is so unstable. One day a card is 50 cents then when you build the deck is like 5$ so i figured hey why don't I just buy the "Staples" now and then i don't have to worry about them later when they spike or go up

[@antfayden]

This is a really good idea for a video. How to start building a commander collection. What to buy, when to buy them. Singles vs precons vs sealed. Lots of points to touch on. Seems like a decent topic to me

[@NitpickingNerds]

It is so hard to tell some where to start. I usually build decks and pick staples but overall it is dependent on too many factors for me to help.

[@tonydiazist]

@@NitpickingNerds it's ok I'm just new to commander and when doing my research theres so many ideas and commander to build and i got overwhelmed. Your video on the rating staples and these help a lot. Thanks NN

[@P3rvenc]

The heck, how is decimate bad? Is one of the strongest removals in grull, I always remove 4 permanents from my opponents with it, like, always

[@magicianofd8434]

I'd have to immensely disagree with the inclusion of Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast. Yes, if you're playing blue at all they're under powered, but otherwise there aren't a lot of other options. And they are the right level of obscurity that an opponent won't necessarily have prepared for the red green player countering their big blue control spell.

[@metalgreyfox]

Keep these up! They’re awesome. My rule of thumb: anything over 5 cmc should attempt to win the game that turn, and there’s rarely, if ever, a reason to play anything that comes in tapped.

[@TheDude8008S]

Depends if u play high end edh, more casual groups are still building a board and having fun at turn 5

[@jamesgratz4771]

Not in commander, it takes 10 years to get back to your untap step

[@sakaven]

Thank you for making this video. It's important that you make distinctions between powering up EDH and playing cEDH. Efficiency overrides power in cEDH, because there IS a meta, and there ARE projections. But in EDH, power overrides efficiency.

[@sakaven]

For example, in cEDH, Endurance is an incredible card, because it stops Breach and Thoracle for 0 mana investment in green. And it's a creature so a lot of counterspells don't hit it. But it's almost useless in EDH, where Scavenging Ooze is almost always better.

[@thrillhouse4151]

I agree with Goblin King being the worst goblin lord. The mountainwalk doesnt always matter, but giving haste like the Chieftain (or Warchief which is the best one even though it’s not a true “lord”) and the ability to do damage like the new Bandit Lord is always welcome.

[@stevesmith5883]

The whole "Don't play cEDH cards in normal commander" is super true, I have a a basically cEDH Jhoira artifact storm deck and it does better against decks of a similar power level than against a lot of lower, medium power level decks, Kambal wrecks me for example if I don't have the counter for thier commander.

[@stfinalwrath]

Another Jhoira Weatherlight Captain player? Nice. Lol. My Jhoira does the same regardless of what power level deck I'm playing against though. The only way it struggles is if it consistently gets removed from the board, but there's a couple ways to produce infinite Mana so commander tax isn't a problem, and it's often a turn 4-6 infinite combo win. It started out as a budget commander for kicks that I spent maybe 20$ on and had the rest lying around, then rapidly became my strongest deck with a very high ceiling for combos. That card is synergy and payoff all in one. It's so strong.

[@TeaRanosaur]

I know this video is about powering up decks but for what its worth, diabolic tutor is one of the best ways to power down a deck. If you want that tutor flavor but don't want to become too powerful because of the power level of your table, diabolic tutor is the way to go.

[@Jackaroo.]

Good input

[@chachi_arcola]

Great point. Also the Transmute cards or even Beseech the Queen can get the job done

[@Late_Night_Mega]

I think Victimize can be good if you care about the sacrifice as well, like in an Orah clerics deck or a Sefris deck. For the diamond cycle, I like them in mono or 2 color decks. Once you reach 3 colors you want more stuff that makes more than 1 color, but for 2 color decks it's really easy to get those 2 colors as it is, so you're just looking for cheap ramp. And while coming in untapped is objectively better than coming in tapped, on turn 2 when you play them, what else would you be playing if it came in untapped? I don't see talismans getting used much on turn 2 immediately when they come in, maybe in your borderline cEDH playstyle it does.

[@gamermancrygamer9461]

I don't think that's necessary tbh regarding Victimize. Getting two creatures in a reanimator deck is incredible. If I can trade in my commander for Jin Gitaxias and It That Betrays on like turn 4-5, that's already busted.

[@stinkypoodog]

Victimize is one of my fave cards, and I've never been in a situation where it's bad... and then the upside is huge. Then and best case scenario can be a finisher. I like to bring back kokusho and gray merchant of asphodel

[@daltooinewestwood6380]

Finally a card we agree on. Diabolic Tutor is the weakest tutor in the game IMO

[@chrysalistening]

Hello, nit-picking Corner-Case Chris here! For Monored decks in particular, I think playing Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast is a reasonable call in blue-heavy metas. They become much closer to efficient, flexible interaction in a color that lacks that, whereas the six blue cards discussed are soft answers in a color that does not. Mono-Red often relies on all-in bursts of damage and/or resources to get ahead or combo off quickly and win, so its vulnerability to disruption is important to address even if the particular cards are narrow. Red does not grind well (staxxy Welder-style decks being a notable exception); it needs to win before it is out-valued.

[@tonydiazist]

Thanks for providing better alternatives instead of just saying "this card bad".

[@NitpickingNerds]

No problem

[@Shiek200]

HOL up... If you have an E-Witness or Archaeomancer/Ardent Elementalist in play, since the sac is part of the resolution, not the cost, the e-witness can recur the victimize effectively making it "2B: Reanimate a creature. Buyback - 0" You can do this at INSTANT speed with Saw in Half to recur any number of cards to hand too, but you lose out on the benefit of actually reanimating anything and the e-witness has to already be in play. That's not relevant to the point I was making but it's another very powerful engine I wanted to point out for people. :) (this particular loop also makes a 1/1 token every time you do it).

[@austinch2533]

I disagree with the mentality of what a cEDH really does, especially when it comes to the 1 drop interaction spells

[@jamesgratz4771]

What do you mean

[@NitpickingNerds]

Please explain 😊

[@austinch2533]

@@NitpickingNerds @Nitpicking Nerds well with a lot of the 1 mana interaction spells they can be really specific in what they do however there are several that are extremely good that should see play in most decks that can run them such as: red elemental blast/pyro blast (it allows red to run interaction with blue in the form of being able to stop a counter spell or handle a blue threat), another good spell that costs 1 is chain of vapor as it can help prevent a combo from closing out the game or can stop a powerful combat damage trigger from resolving, lastly I feel that flusterstorm is pure gas as often it ends any counter war especially when it's reserved a game ending play

[@chrismcfallan8265]

I just like running Chain of Vapor to target the second biggest threat at the table and make them sacrifice a land to continue the chain over the the player that is about to win.

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

@Volrath I play everything from silly theme decks(books with Codie or my Cars 2 vehicle deck, my niece asked for it...), all the way to hyper tuned just under cEDH, and I've never sat down at a table without at least 1 person playing blue. Even with completely random strangers, you are nearly guaranteed to see at least 1 person playing blue.

[@zackkelley2940]

Those aren't really replacements for Privileged Position. I would put forth Guardian of Faith as a better option, doubly so if you have a way to get it back in hand.

[@OriginFormeLad]

Probably no one is gonna agree with me, but "In Garruk's Wake" works phenomenal in commander as a board wipe. It has saved me many many times.

[@elipetrou9308]

Yes, it will always preform, however it is far too expensive when you could run something like tragic arrogance, it’s always gonna work but you aren’t gonna notice the times when it was dead cause of its cost. Also confirmation bias in your case. Is swap it easy especially if I’m running as naus which you should be in black

[@MPHaddock]

it works great in my kalitas, trait of ghet. one side board wipe plus gives me tons of zombies? yes please

[@elipetrou9308]

@@MPHaddock yeah it’s amazing when you cast it, but same with things like rise of the dark realms it’s very hard to cast, and half the time it’s a dead card. I’d rather cast expropriate or rise and be almost guaranteed to win instead of just setting everyone back a bit. Idk just preference I guess, that being said, in Garruks wake is such a damn cool card, I run it somethings.

[@sindur3446]

This might be a hot take, but I believe Cunning Rhetoric to be the best “Ghostly Prison” effect. People really don’t like having their cards exiled or stolen, so doing both just for being swung at is a massive deterrent compared to paying mana. The fact it also protects walkers makes it attractive for super friends decks as well.

[@ivorymantis1026]

There isn't enough 2CMC "Permanent" style removal abilities. Stuff like Beast Within isn't the best but it's a "destroy target permanent" spell which honestly makes it worth it's weight in gold over "destroy target creature". Merciless Eviction is no Farewell, but at the same time most the other modal style mass removal cards are a blanket effect and they also don't exile. You need to exile cards in commander. Destroy effects are a suggestion against most deck archetypes with how many recursion effects there are. Village Rites is an instant speed card though, so at any time you can cast it on a creature you own _while_ an opponent is trying to remove it. If you have no other options, you're at least nesting it safely in the graveyard (instead of per say getting Swords to Plowshares) and netting two cards off of it. If you're in black, you'll get it back. I've always loved the copy spell effects... you can either hold priority and cast it on something of yours you enjoy or you can hijack someone else's removal and target something you want gone, or take someone's faceblast and use it to further nuke the player or hit someone/something else. Hell, you can even use it to steal tutors.

[@dr.lemonade242]

Some things that can dramatically affect a game of Commander that EDH KZbinrs never talk about is shuffling and the quality of your sleeves. Just by improving your shuffling skill and the quality of your sleeves, your opening hands and overall win percentage can improve dramatically. It's not the most exciting thing to discuss, but you guys are probably the only ones that would consider it.

[@LeoBHD]

So these are perfect for powering down my decks. Thanks 👍

[@sothisis1962]

Assuming you don’t ramp or or anything. But excluding the tap for one color which may not always matter anyway. A two drop that comes in tapped and a three drop that doesn’t mean the same thing you’re waiting a turn rotation

[@carterseward9035]

The amount of people defending non efficient cards in a video that strictly was stated about not caring about budget, is astounding. I could cast toxic deluge and a grim tutor for the price of merciless eviction. And grim tutor is bad… I could fire off the toxic and hold priority to teferi protection for merciless eviction mana… and create a 2 for X scenario… they specifically said budget doesn’t matter and we are looking for more efficient cards than the cards they are reviewing. There is 0 argument for merciless over toxic other than “death triggers” and at that early in the game, I doubt there are many death triggers we care about other than like academy rector? Or maybe a cheated in protean hulk-esk ability, where my opponent strictly wants the dude to die.

[@Redragonclaws]

I won my first game with my treefolk 🌲 tribal deck last week (and first game of commander!). The deck would be very low power by these standards, but thankfully the playgroup is more relaxed

[@NitpickingNerds]

There is nothing wrong with playing any power level. Gratz on your 1st win!!!

[@NitpickingNerds]

That sounds like fun!

[@jameskelly6149]

Treefolk is a brilliant, fun tribe and hey- congrats!

[@RazgrizAce67]

I think I agree with almost all your evaluations except for Victimize. In a deck that wants it, it acts like a 3-for-1 where you reanimate two creatures and typically get a death trigger on the sacrificed creature.

[@Dreznin]

Fork-type spells are playable due to how often you see extra turn and large one-sided effect spells played in the format. For two mana, you get to say, "yep, me too," or if you're the one playing the big spell it's literally a 2-mana dupe. If they were limited only to spells that you controlled, they'd be unplayable, but the fact that you can use them to benefit off an opponent or to turn the tables on an opponent who thinks they're going to pull off an overloaded Rift on you is what makes them still worth a slot outside of cEDH.

[@NotALoli_]

Sheoldred in a mono black deck is good if you can cheat it into play with victimize or an early cabal ritual. She’s good early game (in my opinion and with my experience of course, play group meta does affect this) when there’s the risk of early threats like magnus of the wheel and what not. Ofc I don’t expect her to pull her weight late game but then again I’m playing mono black with a discard theme so :/

[@NitpickingNerds]

There are just better threats to cheat out early. Razaketh will win you the game

[@NotALoli_]

@@NitpickingNerds True but sometimes it’s not about winning, it’s about sending a message. Plus she can cheat out Razaketh :)

[@jamesgratz4771]

Shoeldred is a house in one v one.

[@NitpickingNerds]

@@NotALoli_ can’t argue with that

[@stfinalwrath]

Cards like In Garruks Wake and Sheoldred I can see the argument for, when looking at multicolored decks. There are absolutely better options in most other color combinations than those two cards. If it is a mono black deck however, 7-9 Mana is literally nothing, especially if your commander is K'rrik, where life is a resource and those spells basically become 5-7 Mana and a small portion of life you get back on the K'rrik swing back. With cards like nyx lotus, crypt ghast, and urborg/cabal coffees, magus of the coffers and crypt of agadeem those two cards are very much playable. Just depends on how many colors your dipping into honestly. I don't think I've had a match where I haven't won from casting an In Garruks Wake, and at least in my playgroups meta, you have to be very careful about what creatures you pick off with your removal or when you cast board wipes because you'll miss the combo creatures or you'll hit the "bait" like Sheoldred, and lose to a razaketh the following turn. For the average deck though they probably aren't going to be as good as they are in groups like the one I play in, so they'd be better off with a damnation or toxic deluge. Ruinous ultimatum is a terrible comparison however, because you're reaching into other colors that the person may not be running, so it's not a valid one for one comparison if they're not running Mardu or 4-5 color specifically. I can jam with a majority of what y'all discuss and can agree with a lot of the points y'all make, but comparing cards of different colors to each other just aren't very good comparisons. Just a couple thoughts I had. I'm not trying to sound argumentative or like I'm saying "you can't do that!" or anything like that, so hopefully it doesn't come across that way. Determining tone and intent through text is not remotely viable lol..

[@allenmeza6786]

I just want to say that y'all are an amazing channel and I genuinely foresee y'all hitting a million subscribers within the next two years. Y'all are great and y'all have helped me my budding mtg experience. Keep up the amazing work!

[@MrCannibalMan]

The reason I think Gravy boy deserves some recognition isn't that he's the best at what he does number of body wise, mana wise or power wise, but he does all three things well enough that you'll want him in multiple situations. Either as an enabler, a beat stick or a big midgame threat. I think he's best thought of as a modal card. Modal cards often don't have the most efficient per mana cost effect but usually have enough desirable effects rolled into one card that it is worth playing over other alternatives. I see the Gravy Boy like that, good enough at multiple things without being the best choice in necessarily all of them. Not all decks need him, but if you have the ramp and need a flexible enabler that can also run away on its own, you might just want some gravy for your biscuits.

[@astuteanansi4935]

I feel like Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, Guttural Response, etc. are worth it in some nonblue decks that need to protect their big plays. Not for the efficiency, but simply because nonblue decks simply don't *have* any better protections. Most decks run some way of protecting their key pieces that are already on the board, but very few things answer a counterspell other than another counterspell. Master of the Pearl Trident is not bad because there are a lot of ways to turn opponents' lands into islands Assemble the Legion is bad in most situations, I think it's a monster in Awaken the Blood Avatar decks though, consistent fodder to let you beat the Avatar's commander tax

[@HomeCookinMTG]

I see your point on assemble the Legion, Though I’m still a fan of the card in my grindy opposition deck. Edit: Oh and a land that does a decent ancient tomb/City of traders impersonation is Crystal Vein

[@jameskelly6149]

Great content as ever- you two boys know your stuff. I must say though, Ghostly Prison slays in my Selesnya Enchantress deck. It hasn't been beaten in like 3 years.

[@senojnomis]

I like the videos but I’m not a big fan of min-maxing Commander, at least in my pod it’s about adding jank and flavour for our format, and trying to create fun moments rather than winning games and being competitive. To each their own and it is fun to optimise decks, but I find that when you actually bring them to the table and everyone’s playing homogenised decks with 20-40% the same cards, it becomes Commander ‘Standard’, which is something to get away from rather than closer to...

[@EulogyfortheAngels]

Decks with moderate/heavy recursion laugh at ‘destroy’ effects - if anything it’s beneficial to them because the board-wipe variants aren’t actually symmetrical against decks like reanimator. Merciless Eviction’s value is actively ignored in this critique of it. Insidious Dreams is an excellent, versatile 4 mana tutor that people don’t seem to know about. It’s card disadvantage, but that’s fine if the thing(s) you’re tutoring are game-breaking (or playing reanimator and pitching creatures). Instant speed is also amazing for this type of effect because you can wait a full turn of more board information before making the critical tutor choices. I suppose this falls into the “contextually good” rather than “generally good”, though.

[@V2ULTRAKill]

Ok but instead of merciless eviction Run wrath and rest in peace instead There you go, now youve ruined reanimate with better cards

[@posajnejkwahb]

I'm gonna have to strongly disagree on Decimate due to your argument that it has the potential to be a 'dead card'. Dockside Extortionist has the potential to be a dead card - does that make it unplayable? Like I get where you're coming from but the real question is just 'is there an enchantment or not?'. Enchantments are a pretty popular permanent type and there's quite a few enchantment staples where I play. And it's not like you should be valuing removal on it's castability - sure, you can always cast your Chaos Warp, but should you always play it on curve or when you draw it? No, it's gonna sit in your hand until you need it or when there is enough of a momentum swing to cast it. The flexibility is also understated, if someone is running away with the game, you can target them with multiple targets or spread it around and usually draw a minimum amount of ire from the board. If there's no enchantment you can't run it as clutch spot removal, but you shouldn't anyway, that should be a Swords. Maybe in your meta a 4 for 1 for 4 isn't good enough, or no one plays enchantments, but the argument is shaky.

[@kovala]

Does anyone else love when Beezy always gives the crazy eyes before the opening title?

[@NitpickingNerds]

It’s been my own little inside thing 😂

[@SnuggyDabbins]

I have made a yannet deck. Sheoldred, in garruks wake, expropriate, emrakul, and many other odd mana valued cards for free have been really great and I've been playing the deck in much higher teir games like 8 or 9s. Winning at a decent rate. Scroll rack and sensei's divining top really help fix the top of the deck even brainstorm has been an all star.

[@SnuggyDabbins]

Other than all that. I haven't found many places to put these cards. Other than reverberate effects they have been incredibly effective in the salt lake utah area.

[@polruiz6587]

Pyro and red elemental blast are underplayed as hell, it's close to impossible to sit on a random table and not face at least 2 blue players

[@justwantawholename]

I've always found cEDH a weird term. It probably has to do with the format never being properly balanced, but it's not like we go around saying cStandard, cModern or cPioneer. If I sit down with some who pulls a top tier standard deck I'm not going to say they're playing the wrong format. It can be especially frustrating because power ratings are so subjective in the first place. So now you're in a very specific awkward situation when trying to describe overrated card. Might have been easier to call this an overrated card list?

[@V2ULTRAKill]

Modern pioneer and standard are designed as tournament competitive formats Edh isnt hence cedh

[@daltooinewestwood6380]

I wish I could be a fly on the wall to see one of you up against a Shrines or Esper Stax deck and really wish you had a Merciless eviction

[@MARACH123456]

Lol these are so ridiculous. MAYBE at power lvl 9 and 10 these would be "unplayable." But at lvl 6? Come on guys. This is just click baiting people and then attacking some pretty common and very useful cards. My play group plays around the 7 or 8 lvl and grave titan helped me hold my board state until I cast my rise of the dark realms to win. CEDH you are right but Grave Titan IS a good card in commander in any casual setting.