How Matt Brews Aggro Decks | EDHRECast 333

Matt shares his EDH history & tips for building combat decks (even when you're not playing aggro colors!)
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[@spiralshadow]

Omfg the "forcing the introverts to play along rather than doing parallel play by themselves" bit absolutely leveled me 😭 I've never been more called out in my life

[@chasm9557]

I just want to hide at a corner of the table and quietly drain everyone with my Blood Artist effects. Leave me out of combat, it's scarry.

[@danaroach29]

I hope it didn’t come across too harshly 😅

[@Dog_Lance99]

In my experience, I actually see the opposite. My regular pod of friends are mostly combo-shenanigan solitaire decks while I (the big introvert) always swings for combat wins through big trample, commander damage evasion, or go wide. 😅

[@jasonritner9662]

​@danaroach29 nah, it's probably one of the funniest and possibly most true observations of Magic players I've heard and now I'm going to be checking it in my head for the rest of time. Is it 100% true? Nah. But is that the tendency of the players? I'd wager so.

[@Nazghallion]

@@danaroach29 as an introvert who body doubles a lot…. It was hilarious fella 5 star observation

[@EverythingAllEverywhereOnce]

Sorceries are red Instants are blue Ovika’s a nightmare And so are you

[@EDHRECast]

Unironically LOVE this ❤️

[@MomirsLabTech]

I really feel like the last line of this should be "and goblin kill you"

[@EverythingAllEverywhereOnce]

@@MomirsLabTech dropped the ball sorry momir

[@MomirsLabTech]

Can we get a "How Joey brews Reanimator Decks" next?

[@chasm9557]

We also need a "How Dana Brews Hipster Decks" to complete the series. I'd love to know how Dana finds all the long-forgotten and interesting cards that fit into whatever he's brewing.

[@danaroach29]

It’s coming.

[@danaroach29]

@@chasm9557 its in the hopper

[@brendans1983]

​​@@chasm9557 Dana doesn't find cards, he remembers them 🍻

[@patches.742]

@@danaroach29unreal, will watch guaranteed

[@drewclark8799]

I appreciated the Undertale mention. I also did the "right" things from the start, since the game said more than once to talk your way through fights. Watching my wife play it is how I got to watch a lot of the intended interactions.

[@XerexB]

As a dedicated black player, i have never been so offended by a true statement than when matt replied “does black win through combat?”

[@jerensteinbear]

Black aggro is self mill and reanimator, if you get your powerful creatures into the graveyard fast enough you can get the right onto the board to start swinging

[@Syncopiia]

Cards that I like for Muerra are cards that consistently add mana like Frontier Siege and Hulking Raptor. They both fulfill and facilitate the expend triggers.

[@mercurialtim3021]

I've been playing Magic off and on for more than a decade. I just built a mono green deck for the first time. Their point about trying new things really hit home for me.

[@janmelantu7490]

LGS player: “do you know who Matt Morgan is?” Matt, in Obi-Wan’s voice: “well of course I know him, he’s me”

[@tortle1055]

Personally it made me think of all the Tony hawk interactions out there

[@hanschristopherson8056]

Joey was offended by the notion that black can’t win through combat 😂

[@EDHRECast]

Joey was like YO I HAVE SOME IDEAS :D

[@EDHRECast]

We should have phrased that differently, too. It's more that black doesn't have the clear, focused win-con type cards for combat damage like the other colors do with things like overruns, True Conviction, etc.

[@travis_approved]

@@EDHRECastI could see like an “onslaught of the zombie hoard” hard that buffs zombies based on the number of zombies so maybe one day we will see it!

[@jacquesdespadas]

Everyone in Commanderland needs to hear the part about playing the cards you love. I am first and forever a Naya guy, and I will never not love Nacatl War-Pride, Sunbird’s Invocation, and True Conviction-among many other high cmc, oft-maligned cards. I have built decks for Gahiji, Marath, Mayael, Rienne, and Kelith + Tana the Blood-Sower, just to explore the nuances of Naya. My latest obsession is enchantress, with a heavy focus on the “do-nothing” cards that people like to talk smack about. There might be easier ways to churn through your deck, but there’s a special kind of satisfaction when Sunbird’s and Mana Reflection and Elemental Bond are getting you there. As for Black aggro: the best I have is Anikthea turning my enchantments into (hopefully multiple) 3/3 Black zombies with Menace. (A good place for Legion Loyalty and Song of the Worldsoul, btw.)

[@plewcock2746]

A friend of mine built a black aggro/one drop evasive creatures deck using Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor. Like Edric, except mono black. They used deathtouch as pseudo evasion when they ran out of other options! There are pseudo overrun/anthem effects such as Wound Reflection for the late game in mono black.

[@pauldyson8098]

I've got not a dad joke, but a dad poem for Mat'Selensya: There once was a man From Cork, who got limericks And Haiku confused

[@slightly_confused_angel]

I enjoy very similar decks. My two favorites are Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn and Chishiro, the Shattered Blade. My way of scratching that itch in Black was to use Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm. Rats get super scary, super fast when they all buff each other. :D

[@TheKumaXKuma]

Maybe it's just a deja vu, but I think a challenge the stats for cryptic gateway with Myriim was done by you guys 1-2 years ago

[@danaroach29]

You might be right, if I’m being honest I forgot to check the spreadsheet first.

[@TheKumaXKuma]

@@danaroach29 Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing challenge the stats, so even if it's already been adressed those stats are criminally low. It might be good that it was mentionned again hahaha

[@BrunoCasagrandaNeves]

Regarding the introvert vs extrovert anecdotal evidence, my perception was that introverts took much more time to migrate from 60 cards to Commander. They are also the ones still involved in other TCGs, playing Legacy, playing modern, limited. Love them anyways.

[@patonnight]

I used to have a MonoBlack aggro deck, took it apart because it was too powerful for my table. Demonlord Belzenlok as commander, 50+ Swamps, all the black mana doublers and a bunch of huge beat-em-up Demons. It dealt too much flying damage way too fast. Liliana of the Dark Realms, Lashwrite and Nightmare Lash were the big finishers, although not always necessary.

[@EDHRECast]

Demonlord Belzenlok does serious work without a doubt.

[@TheTricky227]

Reanimating Archfiend of Despair and Bloodletter of Alcazotz is my black win condition :) just pair them with Exsanguinate or one wholesome all in swing

[@EDHRECast]

Yep, good point, cheating big beaters into play via things like reanimation is black's version of it.

[@resplendentobscurity]

Ive been building and playing some more aggressive decks lately, and found in inclusion of goad effects in place of SOME removal to be both fun and effective. You could play damnation and wipe the board... OR plwy disrupt decorum for the same MV and push the game to a close. Sound of drums has been great! Slap it on a huge threat, or put it on one of yours and hit someone for double damage.

[@bassfingas11]

I enjoy attacking with effects like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose for a few different reasons: 1). If your team gets through, it can be like pseudo Double Strike. 2). If your team is blocked, it can be like pseudo Unblockability. And 3). You can toss that damage around to the other players. Get your team Double Strike and maybe even Deathtouch, you're sitting pretty.

[@kholdseid6614]

I have also been playing Muerra a lot and also ran into the cost reduction non-bo, really good catch.

[@leenguyen2744]

That introvert analogy is on point. My son is an introvert and building his decks just like you said

[@atomwyrm541]

Black attack strategies are a little less traditional but I can definitely see something like a wide token strategy with enchantments out like Bastion of Remembrance and/or Dictate of Erebos. You’ll either deter your opponents from blocking or clear their board when combat happens. I’ve actually had a third party counter targeted removal coming at me because they didn’t want to sacrifice their creature. Objectively not as good at combat compared to the other colors, but I see some potential tricks.

[@madscientist2621]

I love that Dana has an old library card catalog drawer behind him. I'm assuming he uses it to store his magic cards?

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

I love Cryptic Gate in my Pantlaza deck, they're a pair made in heaven!

[@EDHRECast]

It's just a generally useful card that gets forgotten.

[@Sparrow141420]

Yes Matt! Muerra is the most recent deck I built, and looking around at other folks I saw a LOT of cost reduction. I was kinda looking for cards with additional costs I could pay, but thank you for bringing up the cost reducers. Non-bo in my book.

[@BobbyBev95]

My mono-black deck is actually my most aggro deck. It’s Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor which plays like an Edric deck. I do have some drain effects that weaponize draw like Starscream and Psychosis Crawler, and my “Craterhoof” effects are Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Graaz haha

[@EDHRECast]

Great example of black's version of creature aggro.

[@CommunistKoolAidMan]

For my Endrek Sahr deck, Phyrexian Plaguelord is my combat trick. Changing the math by saccing thrulls shouldn't be underestimated.

[@EDHRECast]

Endrek Sahr is such a cool card, and it's great to see cmdrs from 10+ years ago still be very viable today.

[@stephenbradford8524]

Beating my Homelands is Great Actually drum: We need to revisit Homelands from a lore perspective. The characters and stories are super memorable. I would LOVE to see Autumn Willow with a 2024 MTG design.

[@EDHRECast]

(Dana here) I still maintain one of the largest ball-drops in the history of Magic's story was not having Nahiri's revenge on Sorin in Shadows be her opening portals to Ulgrotha to bring in Baron Sengir to take over, thus fulfilling Autumn Willow's vision of the vampires leaving via portals.

[@stephenbradford8524]

Are omenpaths portals?

[@EDHRECast]

@@stephenbradford8524 The certainly could be for story purposes.

[@Lucarioguild7]

Black does have some decent options as far as combat goes, for one they get pretty efficient creatures for their cmc just with some downside, as mentioned blocking their creatures sucks because of ways to punish you for blocking and they have easy ways of getting things back.

[@dullestpenguin4151]

I totally agree with your gravitational shift point. Concordant Crossroads is another card that should play the same way.

[@EDHRECast]

Yep, you get burned by a Crossroads played too early once and you learn to just drop it the turn you need it 🤣

[@robjmiller84]

Hell yeah, I was just recommending Starlight Spectacular to someone last night. I have it in my Cadira deck, and in explaining the win I get the bonus of teaching people about Gauss's method for arithmetic series.

[@swordman-4527]

For ovica i use dracon thrown of tarkir for a win con makes you more goblins and you can buff all of them by equiping it to ovica and now they all have +6 and trample

[@patricklynch4074]

I have a power matters zombie deck, ghoulcaller gisa, which uses a sacrificed creature's power to make 2/2 zombies... So i just stuffed it full of anthems to turn each 2/2 into an 8/8 that dies into 8 more 8/8s

[@evolutionXXVII]

Perfect timing to compare with the Salubrious Snail video that came out last night, claiming there "ain't no place for aggro here"!

[@danaroach29]

Snail makes excellent videos.

[@patricklynch4074]

What you're supposed to do is say "no, i dont know who the edrecast is, could you pull up a picture?

[@minine6508]

Thought we were gonna get a fairly measured video about how to play aggro in commander and how matt approaches the downfalls of that strategy in commander. What we got instead was a 51 minut glaze sesh 😂

[@giovannishepard653]

On the subject of black turning things sideways, repeatedly yeeting Ravenous Chupacabras into a woodchipper both keeps the board clear and gets my Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher huge. Many a game has she been dealt with and the literal next turn she was back at 21 power.

[@mfsoab]

Episode halfway to hell, yeah!

[@Alico_Reborn]

Black aggro to me is typal decks like Vampires or Zombies. Both of those types hang out very strongly in black, and have lots of lords in black. While the deck could be Mardu or Rakdos or Dimir, the main color to them is black.

[@Kilbo388]

Mono black as an aggressive color is sadly very underexplored. It seems that most people think of mono black as the 'kill all the creatures' color. With decks being a mix of aristocrats and grave pacts. And many of the popular black commanders are designed around this playstyle, most recently Mahar from bloomburrow. My Junji the Midnight Sky deck is designed to play quite aggressively, and my opponents are regularly surprised and dismayed when I cast Junji early and start slamming them for big chunks of commander damage. He's almost impossible to block and becomes really scary when paired with basically any equipment. Black decks thrive in the late game, when their graveyard strategies are online and they get a big boost of mana from Cabal Coffers and similar effects. An abundance of one mana and zero mana kill spells can partially compensate for the lack of artifact and enchantment removal. A well-timed Dismember or Force of Despair can effectively fog the opponent's turn. They're highly resilient and versatile. Junji in particular loves to play at instant speed, as you can save Junji (or any other creature) from being removed with Undying Evil + Altar's Reap, or similar. These cheap black instants have gotten new versions printed in nearly every set since forever, so you can play as many redundant copies as your black heart desires. They keep the cards flowing and let you reuse your death triggers again and again. My Junji list: archidekt.com/decks/4732056/play_dead

[@elmothejunkie]

I have a zeriam, the golden wind deck, where it's a lot of tax/stax, and anthems. Turning my griffin tokens sideways is the best feeling ever

[@EDHRECast]

Zeriam is a shockingly effective deck given how cheaply it can be built.

[@TheAlienEntity]

Matt must have a different definition of aggro than me, cause they spent most of the episode talking about midrange decks

[@jordansams6240]

Hey Matt, would you happen to still have the decklist for your old Miri deck? i'm considering building her as just big stompy (kinda like you did at first) but EDHRec has all her stuff as cat tribal or voltron. So if you happen to still have that old list i'de really love seing it for ideas

[@mathimus55]

I don't have a list anymore since I just kept up with it as the changes happened, but there was a lot of Cryptolith Rite/Glaring Subdual type effects so I could reduce the heat I took until I was ready to strike

[@jordansams6240]

@mathimus55 ahhh ok, sounds good. I appreciate that info. Ill start there

[@Kjos_jax]

How could anyone watch this and not know who Dana is?

[@meownezz]

33:13 Sorceries are red Instants are blue I make tokens with Ovika And I swing at you. 🙂

[@mathimus55]

Chef's kiss

[@Kjos_jax]

The intro horns are a bit harsh... it's jolting for people who have their volume up from other vids or have headphones. Something to think about for your listeners

[@EDHRECast]

Noted!

[@jackvsparrow7040]

i have a the 'dalek emperor' deck which is in rakdos color and i focused it around taking muktiple combat. there is some downside where if someone is playing like token deck and don't mind losing some tokens it l's hard to get the benefit of getting more dalek tokens but lets say that you do get 3 dalek tokens (if there is 4 players on table) and take extra combat that just make it better cause now you have 6 tokens or 9

[@kylejones5518]

I had legion loyalty and some token doublers in my anikthea deck and had cheated it out as a token, and made 2 of them. I took it out after that game because the math had given me a headache

[@shadowmyst9661]

I like Tokens, Aristocrats, and Combat oriented decks in MTG, but Green is my least favorite color. I lean more towards Red and White with my favorite color combinations being Jeskai, Mardu, and Naya (I may not love Green but Naya gets a pass).

[@Grumbl3cakes]

I'd say the best Black wins by combat is to just make absurd amounts of mana and playing 9 drop demon Haymakers. Other than that my stream commander deck is great with combat, cheating in the biggest, splashes vampires, many of which who fly.

[@jenniferpeet2748]

"Do you know who Matt Morgan is?" "Of course I know him. He's me!" Missed opportunity, smh 😔

[@mathimus55]

This is not the Matt Morgan you're looking for

[@zach4059]

the return to earth boulders have been so hit or miss for me. more than half of the ones i tried dont close correctly theyre so warped

[@Magnafiend]

To answer the question of how to win with black aggro combat damage, Kamiz. It's legit just esper smash deck.

[@Mobius_ll]

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus? That makes things unblockable (blue) and gives things doublestrike (white)? Riiiiight

[@Magnafiend]

Yeeeeep, and it gives you an outlet for all those black on hit effects like lord of the void.

[@1notdeadfred]

10:40 I both agree and disagree with this stance. You should absolutely know your type. However, it's worthwhile to experiment with other styles of decks, even if you find you don't like them. The reason why is twofold: 1) Makes it clear that particular style isn't your jam. 2) Helps you better understand how to play against decks of that style. I have experimented a lot with aristocrats and figured out that I just don't like how delicate a balance it has to play, but I now know much better how to punish my brother when he whips out Teysa Kalov's DLC (it's called that because it nickels and dimes you to death over time) or Erebos, God of the Dead. I know what pieces absolutely cannot stay on the board.

[@Zeraphim2613]

I have found that in my Ratadrabik deck, which is mostly black, ive come to understand that the way black wins in combat is by the "relentless assault" approach. You kill one of my blockers? Actually you didnt because it dies and comes right back due to persist/undying effects. You wipe my board before i move to combat? Ok, well let me just mass reanimate it all and now its worse because no one has blockers but me. Essentially, your board should pretty much never truely stop growing. If they try to kill your stuff, let em. If they want to exile it? You kill it before they can, then bring it back! Haha

[@violetto3219]

is joey in the room with us

[@AseAPS]

Okay, I'm an extrovert, and I play combo a lot. I think high power combo games are more interactive than you're giving them credit for. Combos normally take up a lot less deck space. This leaves way more room for interaction and politics - two of the strongest things in EDH. I have a 4 color high power toolbox deck that lets me combo when I think is a good time for it, but it is extremely interactive and great at finding interesting solutions to problems. Point is I disagree.

[@UGdisasterarea42]

I'm an introvert who plays both stompy and combo. I feel like combo can actually push you to interact more, both with cards and without. You have to politic to try and steer the other players to keep heat off of you before you combo, and you have to have removal to make sure that the board is clear for you to go off. Stompy for me can actually be less interactive for me, I get to play a thing and go "Colossal Dreadmaw? Okay, go to combat" and just watch the table for the other players' turns

[@willkarantonis1482]

Finally!

[@meant09]

Black wins in Aggro by killing removing opponents problematic creatures, punishing them for messing with your wide board (syr konrad) or one of my pet cards (quick rebuild) of rise of the dread marn

[@Byteside546]

Of the top 15 color combinations, black is in 11 of them. magic has plenty of ways to stop damage but very few ways to stop loss of life, and I think EDH players navigate towards the easy aristocrat and reanimating playstyle

[@EDHRECast]

Yeah, we should have more clearly phrased it that black lacks the clear combat win-con cards like overruns in green or white's True Convicion/Cathars' Crusade style enchantments. We've all also got black decks that win turning stuff sideways. It just doesn't really do it with a single card to roll things over the top.

[@Byteside546]

Starts @2:52

[@CHAREDot9]

Black aggro players play coat of arms ig

[@user-tl4ze2vq9i]

Well I'm quite the extrovert. And yet my favorite play style in commander is hard control

[@quayo90]

Did you guys decide Joey talked about himself enough this week so you benched him😂😂

[@TheNewRidore]

The introvert extrovert analogy feels anecdotal and almost forced. Also from my experience quite contrary to what I personally have seen from current and former playgroup members. I'm a spellslinger/storm/combo type player and am actually quite extroverted meanwhile one of my friends used to play a lot of aggro decks whether they be voltron stompy or tokens and he was quite introverted. My brother is also introverted and he leans more towards mono green stompy and dragons.

[@spiralshadow]

>Criticism is that it's anecdotal >Dana literally says that's just been his experience, admitting it's anecdotal >Your counterpoint is also anecdotal ???

[@treycuret]

I'm 11 minutes in, do they ever start talking about how Matt builds aggro decks? 14:03 Main topic starts. What an absolute joke. 16:15 They get off topic and start talking about being recognized. I'm off it. This podcast is so whack.

[@unusuallycloudy]

For an hour long video, there was surprisingly little advice

[@dungensAreDragons]

The absence of the supposed dad-jokes has increased my enjoyment by an uncountable amount. Never go back to it

[@winkproductions1]

What a weird thing to have an issue with

[@EDHRECast]

Maybe they felt too pun-ishing :P

[@khfan22100]

Okay I am so confused, why was a high school class having their students read Blood Meridian? Don't get me wrong, it's a good book but that book is insanely inappropriate for children, even for high school students.