Decks vs the Data: Lessons from Matt's Decks | EDHRECast 248

A deck can tell you a lot about the person who built it! Matt walks us through the origins of one of his favorite lists, how it differs from the average data, and the important deckbuilding lessons that were learned along the way.
Want access to exclusive content, the Challenge the Stats spreadsheet, EDHRECast Discord, and more? Support the cast on Patreon! / edhrecast
Want to see the decks we play? Check them out here: edhrec.com/art...
Check out the EDHREC collection at Coalesce and use code 'EDHREC' for 10% off! www.coalesceap...
Check out EDHREC's WhatNot stream: www.whatnot.com...
Follow the cast on Twitter:
@EDHRECast
@JosephMSchultz
@danaroach
@mathimus55
General: bit.ly/EDHRECast
Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/EDHRECa...
Spotify: bit.ly/EDHRECa...
Google Podcasts: bit.ly/EDHRECa...
Get 20% off your first purchase at tommyjohn.com/EDH

[@Dynoboot]

On that challenge the stats: Myriad Landscape should also not go into colorless decks, because you can't fetch more than one Wastes with it. A Wastes is a basic land without a land type, so you can't fetch a second one because there's no land that shares a land type.

[@andrewpeli9019]

"OK, so you didn't get to cheat into play a 5 drop off your Rishkar's Expertise, but how many cards did you get to draw?" -Someone Addicted To Rishkar's Expertise

[@maxducoudray]

Given EDH's origins as a bunch of Judges getting off on rules interactions, this deck embodies the spirit of Commander like few others.

[@SoundzCool]

I smile every time someone nabs the ability to segue into challenge the stats from Joey, even if he is an incredibly wholesome individual.

[@serafimb2319]

Segue

[@scottricks1676]

I wanna be friends with the lot :)

[@andrewsparkes6275]

As I've said before, Joey the Podcaster is wholesome af. Joey the Player is a horrible, horrible human being :-p

[@RedViking007]

Matt mentioned Shamanic Revelation was great in his deck, and if so, he should look into Collective Unconscious. 6 mana is steep, but that kind of reload with his mana production should be pretty potent

[@matthoward6130]

Krosan Verge is the obvious replacment for Landscape. It can get 2 shocks or 2 triomes

[@mthlay15]

Darn. How come I didn't think that? I'm building a Kathril deck and cut Krosan Verge. I'm now thinking I should put it back

[@tanelorn6102]

I imagine Joey's brewing process involves staring lovingly at a pile of potential cards and then determining which ones he'd like to see the most in his graveyard. Matt examines his pile of cards and then turns them all sideways before making his selections. Dana arches an eyebrow critically at his pile before removing the basics and ranking them gereocratically for selection.

[@EDHRECast]

We feel both called out and seen 😂

[@styfen]

I believe Dana's process also includes scrutinising the printing date of each card.

[@JabeLincoln]

Love these deck 'reviews' and seeing the thought process between selecting or not selecting certain cards in your decks. Please do more!

[@CDekar]

So as to the lore, Raggadragga is from the D&D module Descent into Avernus. He's a wearboar warlord in Avernus (the first layer of hell) that operates a "biker gang," though it runs on infernal machines, which are like soul-powered Mad Max vehicles and is one of your first encounters in hell. However, it is a fairly brief encounter, so it's weird that he got his own card. I'm not sure what his ability is supposed to reflect. More important characters in the module include Lulu, Duke Ravengard, Zariel,and even Mahadi.

[@serafimb2319]

Thank you!

[@leonardoconde8930]

My party fought him and won, 5 PCs VS 11 npcs, 2 PCs dead, 4 vehicles destroyed (2 of ours and 2 of theirs), we did revivify our cleric after, but we still had heavy losses.

[@ryangallagher2190]

It may be because he might appear in Baldur's Gate 3 somehow, somewhere, since it follows the events of Avernus

[@jacquesdespadas]

This might be the first time I've ever been tempted to net deck.

[@bushidoman96]

I love these unique, outside the box builds. I built Grismold using a bunch of Scions and Spawns, and it's a blast.

[@anynameinastorm]

I ended up on Slivers for my Raggadragga build because they're really good at efficiently giving the team mana abilities. They're also extremely aggressive on their own so they turn sideways extra hard with the boss out.

[@fairygoodmuller8065]

that's a cool idea instead of the usual 5 colour sliver piles you normally see

[@nickgizzi5891]

Matt, I see your shirt and I deeply appreciate it ✊🏿

[@mathimus55]

A buddy of mine designed them and donated the proceeds to libraries in KCMO which are wildly underfunded so I got one for all my family members

[@redbirdriot]

Just starting to watch this, but I love the idea of this - excited to hear more about each of your individual deckbuilding choices. Fantastic stuff, as always!

[@Phe0nix1986]

Awesome video. Great idea. Huge respect. Beautiful.

[@FakeDonut]

I'm definitely gonna try that! I built raggadragga with manadorks that make mana based on power and x-spells, and predictably, it got way too strong, so I'll try to build it more in this way, with scions, and I also like the idea of land creatures!

[@ty_sylicus]

I enjoyed this. Cool idea for some episodes, guys.

[@gilligan6868]

Found a new MVP for my Raggadragga deck. Cradle Clearcutter - Was angry because I kept drawing my 7+ mana spells early. Drew Clearcutter (Raggadragga already on the field). Next turn play Dawnglade Regent, target Clearcutter. Play Turntimber symbiosis, target clearcutter. Play exponential growth target clearcutter attack for 24k trample...

[@BFG93]

Yaasss! I have a similar Boar-drazi builds, and this deck is so fun and aggressive

[@rorschach1]

Raggadragga works really awesome with Cryptolith Rite and Citanul Heirophants

[@sasorispupet]

For matt’s challenge visions of phyrexia is great. I used it, outpost siege, phyrexian arena, and black market connections in my trynn and silvar deck fir the card draw, specifically outpost siege and visions of phyrexia because i wanted to increase the amount of red pips because the deck is more heavily black and white. They did their jobs well.

[@holgerdanielsen3781]

I like this deep dive!

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

This is a lot of fun. I love this kind of deck building a ton and is exactly how I like to build my own. EDHREC is a great site, but I don’t like starting there. I start on scryfall just looking for cool synergistic cards and then check the rec to see if I missed something cool.

[@Cybelenn]

If your worry about trample because of your meta may I suggest Archetype of Aggression.

[@shadowmyst9661]

My absolute favorite Commanders are Narset, Enlightened Master and Narset, Enlightened Exile. But I don’t use any Extra Turn spells and only include one Extra Combat spell (because I still need a Finisher). With both decks have a more aggressive play style using Combat Tricks to punch through my opponent’s’ defenses by pumping up my creatures and giving them Trample and/or Double Strike, and some form of evasion like Flying or Menace.

[@stachio4265]

8 other people playing Generator Servant, and by god am I one of them lol - love it in my Neheb, the Eternal deck

[@Indy94445]

cleansing wildfire could be thermokarst, molten rain replacements. It cantrips and has them search for a basic land.

[@aldorp]

When we first saw this commander we could not pronounced the name. After reading the 1001 lines of text on the card we settled on calling him "Mr. TryHard" and this has been his name ever since.

[@oldkokochen1593]

Coming in late but Generator Servant is amazing with Dargo, the Shipwrecker. He gives Dargo haste and reduces his cost by 4, which even in pauper gets him out and attacking on turn 3

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

I really like that they speak out considering what cards are worth, people should feel free not to buy all 10-20-30 dollars cards. The spirit of optimizing for fun is also so much more productive for commander than just ''building for power''. It still doesn't make sens for me to just put all the staples and all the tutors and all the combos in a deck.

[@mikepetrangelo5396]

That's because people have become brainwashed. I pulled fetch and shock lands out of my decks to prove that you can still do fun broken things without breaking the bank

[@Z-S-H]

I love you saying this because it is so true you do not NEED all the expensive stuff to both win and have fun

[@empurress77]

While i personally hate most Eldrazi cards, i appreciate the analysis of how your deck is brewed.

[@1973mckenzie]

Shop smart, Shop S-Mart! Love the reference, Hail to the King Baby!

[@vlasicfilip]

Another Baeloth pick I run in this deck is the best rare from Kamigawa : Neon Dynasty, Eiganjo Uprising. And I'm thinking about sticking in Harmonic Prodigy to double up on the treasure tokens.

[@user-ep8ns6hg4q]

I can't wait for Raggadragga to be available on MTGO, would love to build a manland deck outta him.

[@ingolf82]

Spine of Ish Sah = golden in Raggadragga. it goes infinite with a mana dork that tps for power like Marwyn the nurturer. so good. you just have it destroy itself with its trigger to get it back to hand. Hey! Lanowar Loamspeaker would be great in your Babalysaga deck Joey, turn a land into a 3/3, now it is 2 card types :) I just put awaken the woods into my Raggadragga deck. very good card. I put it in 2 decks so far, Raggadragga and Esix, Fractal bloom. you pump a bunch of mana into the X, with some scary non-legendary creature out, either on your side of the board or one of your opponents and you turn all those cute 1/1 dryad land creatures into copies of that scary creature, I love it. Here in Europe, you can get a copy of awaken the woods for just under 11 €, which is great, you get one under 10 if you don't mind it being Italian or Spanish.

[@jefferymuter4659]

I always enjoy running into a commander and feel like everyone else is brewing badly. Or, a cedh commander where you dont want to play cedh. Yoy get to do the research for EDHrec pretty much. I fell in love with The Ever-Changing Dane recently, and realized my play style was completely different than the norm on EDHrec. With only 200 decks for the algorithm to choose from, theres a huge limitation on the potential. Instead of focusing on reanimation or theft, I went down a, almost spell-slinger/politics/theft&reanimation route that is incredibly different from any other list. And a lot of it came from research. Looking at orzhov reanimator decks, then dimir reanimator. Playtesting, asking people what they think about a,b,c then hearing them spin off about cards ive never heard of. These are the brew experiences I love.

[@SaltySparrow]

In standard I did a G/W Tokens deck with Nest Invader, Predator and Eldrazi Monument and it consistently won FNM. Spawn OP.

[@hiei990]

Remember! Visions of Phyrexia creates a Powerstone turn 1 because you don’t need to exile something with it, you just need to *not play something from exile*.

[@Ghaz013]

Soul Guide Lantern was the best card printed in 2020. @47:00

[@JuQmadrid]

I'm a bit disappointed with Dana not pointing out that poultrygheist was an Unglued card.

[@brendand3765]

I have a creature land Raggadragga deck, love it.

[@richardthomas7925]

Idol of oblivion is underrated and possibly good for this deck

[@Karste1n]

Not me running to build a Raggadragga deck after this

[@pauldyson8098]

All hail Mat'selesnya. For real, though, Joey and Dana and sundry: we should just call him Mat'selesnya.

[@zchwen]

I wonder how good/bad Gruesome slaughter would be in a deck like this.

[@benhobson3084]

I'm honestly surprised that "Ashaya, Soul of the World" isn't on Matt's list. Turning your non-token creatures into forests gives them all a mana ability.

[@okgut2033]

I think its cause he wanna still be in budget and flavour.

[@calwilson3155]

Generator Servant is like the red STE

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

Generator servent is mvp in my friend etali deck!

[@mercadonathedrawmartinezro1660]

I play generator servant and its bunkers

[@damianjuarez5932]

Is that a black lotus in Dana's background?!

[@trevorwilliams5144]

I am one of 8 who plays generator servant in the right deck

[@stevo0109]

The way the kids use “bricked up” in todays age made me horrified about “52 card brick up”

[@MasterP86]

I personally never understood the hipster mindset, i couldnt care less if everyone in the store have the same deck as long as i like it.

[@dakillaklown715]

Cryptolith rite?

[@ilkkaheiskanen8350]

challenge the stats, myriad landscape works just fine if you are using snow lands a bunch as ''snow'' is a land type and will be shared no matter the color

[@EDHRECast]

This is not accurate. Snow is a supertype, not a land type. You can fetch a snow island and regular island, but you cannot fetch a snow island and a snow plains, because they do not share a land type. (This is also why Myriad Landscape does not work with Wastes, because Wastes do not have a land type.)

[@mrzeringue]

On Dana's challenge about Myriad Landscape in Niv-Mizzet Reborn. If you have snow basics, you can use Myriad Landscape to get two snow lands of different colors as they share the snow type and still get access to two different colors.

[@serafimb2319]

You almost got me there, had to read the card again. But no, that's unfortunately not how it works :/ The card says "land type". And snow is not a land type, i think it's called a supertype.

[@thunderpup7899]

I'm curious, what do you gentlemen think of proxies.

[@michaelcollins4534]

I don't speak for them, but my playgroup really only like to proxy cards under $50 and expensive cards we actually own. Helps to keep our format from being powercrept by expensive overpowered staples (unless you fork out the money to do so), and lowers the risk of damaging or getting stolen your very expensive cards.

[@danaroach29]

I have two thoughts on proxies. First, I understand that the cost of playing this game is insane, and proxies might be the only way a lot of folks can actually enjoy it. Second, it's been my experience that probably 90% of people who use proxies for more than "I ordered this Extraplanar Lens but it hasn't shown up yet so I'm using this proxy for now" are TERRIBLE at using them. I'd dare say that almost every blatant power mismatch game I've ever played has been against someone proxying with zero self control or restraint. So while I'm fine with proxies, I'm almost invariably wind up regretting being fine with proxies.

[@danaroach29]

I'll also note that some of the most absurd power mismatches I've ever played have been against very pro-proxy Magic content creators whose brand is almost entirely telling you proxies are amazing and nothing bad every happens from using them.

[@michaelcollins4534]

@@danaroach29 this sums up pretty well my personal problem with proxies, usually only one person is fine doing it, and they're going to put in a ton of really overpowered cards (like crypt or gaea's cradle) and not to do anything actually fun. It just serves to power creep the format in a way that is not fun for myself. Also support your lgs and actually buy cards instead of printing them

[@jonathanjenson2986]

I know I was not asked but I got few thoughts to add, First high power to cEDH I don't care if you proxy the expensive cards I want to play you not your wallet, Second the more casual the intent behind the game is don't proxy unless you own it, Third if your playtesting before buying thats fine but only for a limited time. Bonus round don't proxy cards like cultivate or other super cheap cards that are reprinted so often. Those are my thoughts some in my playgroup disagree but understand others 100% agree.

[@vavakxnonexus]

Is there a place where the gang talk about sideboards in commander? I feel like I've heard negative comments come up about it a few times, and I'm not really sure what the issue there is - it seems like it's in the same camp as tutoring in terms of effect on the game, except without the disadvantage of having to dig through your entire library for one card.

[@Slit-throat]

And just like that I need a raggadragga deck

[@jameskirkland6916]

If you run 1 of each basic and snow basic it gives myriad landscape a ton of utility and can sometimes mean a 5 color list can still slam blood moon. Also works very well for tainted pact.

[@grantmurdock7385]

The thing I find tough about Visions of Phyrexia is that exile decks don't specifically like it - you're probably casting from exile in other ways. And while Powerstones are good for activated abilities and Artifacts, it's best fit in something like Chiss-Goria. Hit or miss.

[@yodabuddy2112]

This deck reminds me of my thopter tribal deck. It isn't as powerful as it could be mostly because it is also my planeschase meme deck

[@dominicsandoval2214]

I'd like to suggest: cryptolith rite

[@timothysmith2308]

My temur mutate has adopted this engine too. It makes the deck now have a board and plenty of mana to do all the mutating I want. The spawns and scions come in very clutch through the game.

[@thrasherftw]

Who do you run as commander?

[@timothysmith2308]

@@thrasherftw ghidorah (illuna, apex of wishes)

[@ss5gogetunks]

this is inspiring me to make a raggadragga deck lol

[@Alice-rz6zi]

whys joey doing the ad reads so much slower

[@ColbySwift83]

I love this new format