Extremely Linear Commanders | EDHRECast 214

[@tfc_mtg]

Thank y'all so much for the shout-out! It was a blast having you on the show. My most linear deck is Light-Paws, similar to Sisay in that having a tutor in the command zone makes things very linear, but still a ton of fun!

[@thedark1owns]

Do you have a list available?

[@tfc_mtg]

@@thedark1owns I do! www.moxfield.com/decks/Ynb_8B7kbkWce_2icfFtiw

[@chaffenbake]

At first I didn't see the Buzz around Matt's intro joke, but it ended up really sticking the Landing

[@joshuamunster7008]

Now that's a "Bee" grade joke

[@olivierdebilde4292]

You did put the Neil on it

[@JuQmadrid]

Arcades, The Strategist decks are super linear as you run 35+ mostly interchangeable walls, but it doesn't really feel repetitive to me.

[@SSolemn]

Mine doesn't have any spot removal and just 3 board wipes. It is fully defensive and with 40 creatures. It has been very different each time I play it xD

[@SSolemn]

@@nathanmoore3866 and wave of reckoning hehe

[@evilkniefel]

Oh, lemme tell you about the most linear commander and my lord and saviour Gyruda, Doom of Depths. Playline goes like this: Ramp -> Gyruda -> Trigger -> Hit Clone, clones Gyruda -> Repeat. Works like a charm. Always the same, always fun. But beware on casual tables: "While it is not competitive it still is strong!" Crushes casual decks like there is no tomorrow. Be mindful of your fellow players. EDIT: And just to be clear. You do nothing else. Only Gyruda triggers. It is the most optimal and most powerful line the deck offers. Trigger Gyruda, hitting clones, milling people, over and over and over and over and over [...] and over again. Slamming krakens on the board like it's nobodies bussiness. You can win by throwing those krakens at people or mill everybody out. Whatever floats your boat as long as its Gyruda trigger related.

[@elliotthood1719]

Can confirm. Had a gyruda deck in the past, where it was the companion, and the commanders were partnered sakashima and Tormod, to let your gyruda clones stick around as nonlegendary

[@dantebeleren]

I had Gyruda Companioned with Muldrotha and can confirm that it was disgusting. Especially so if you hit an East Tree Kodama

[@salomaogabriel5264]

Hahaha this seems really fun, I might teu buildind a deck like that

[@evilkniefel]

​@@salomaogabriel5264 atm there are 14 good clones. also including a few flicker and some reanimator effects, the deck can become really consistent. add in nightmare shepard and panharmonicon u will mill everybody out starting with one trigger. I run 37 lands and 16 ramp pieces to ramp out gyruda consistently. the ramp and the mill also enables rise of the dark realms and finale of eternity as alternate wincons. set up this way the deck has alot of variance but it can win turn 5 the earliest and will win turn 8 the latest. may very depending on how much interaction your playgroup runs. to deal with small critters run massacre wurm. if you are ever in a pinch or cannot win a board try kaderekt leviathan. since you will mill away most of your spells, only run the most efficient and necessary ones. EDIT: Ofc self mill synergistic spells are awesome (like treasure cruise or vision of beyond) and flood of tears can be really awesome. torrential gearhulk is really good tech, since he can flashback flicker spells. there are currently three clones that remove the legendary effect. since the deck triggers all over the place you hit them pretty consistently and can start to copy those instead of the og gyruda to amass a board of krakens.

[@salomaogabriel5264]

@@evilkniefel Man thank you so much for the tips! This will really help me out a ton :))

[@vantharion]

My Kethis list is super variable. Kethis' activated ability, the 70 legends I run, and the 0 tutors force games to play out very differently.

[@Brisk83]

I built a Reki deck inspired by Dana Roach and have been having a blast. So much so that I kind of want to build another Legendary matters deck. Would love to know more about your list!

[@sammyiel9626]

That's true but you could do the same strategy with a few other commanders. The only true variant commanders are the partners really. But Kethis is really fucking random. Love me that commander

[@zackkelley2940]

Similitude IS an actual word. As defined by Meriam-Webster AND Oxford 'the quality or state of being similar to something.'.

[@holdyourfire74]

I played that Acererak deck for a while. It was fun, but it mostly durdled so I kind of lost interest after a while. I could've probably optimized it, but again lost interest. However I've built Thantis the Warweaver twice and loved playing with it. Making everyone attack every turn really mixes it up. Combine it with goad (so they can't attack me) and boast effects (if I'm attacking I want extra value too) and games are so fun. I didn't win much with it. Even with goad I still got targeted a lot since I was mucking up their plans. But it was still fun. May even go for a third build now that I'm thinking of it.

[@okgut2033]

Take instandspeed buffs for "target creature". If you get a 1/1 an enermie uses to attack another player and buff him to be lethal you earn my respect :)

[@TheScharkyscharky]

Just have build a narset deck after some time of thinking about how to do it a fun way (no extra turns/combats). Ended up as a Dragon's Approach Life burn deck.cant wait to get it to the table

[@okgut2033]

My first thought was Grouphug. Make narset grouphug and give the extraturns to the enrmies. But otherwise yeah "spellslingers" should be fine with her

[@TheScharkyscharky]

@@okgut2033 my other idea was kinda voltron aura to make her super saiyan ( her dress looks like goku ). Enchantment strats have also always nice value. Another thought was a prowess style monk theme. Try to play as many " Creatures you Control get +x+x until end of turn " etc. But this one would be kinda risky because you dont knoe how strong your attackers will become . Depends on the topdecksnof narset triggers

[@richardpitt8177]

One way to stop a deck with a common theme (like tokens, +1 counters etc) being linear is to build a deck that works with different commanders at the helm and rotate them. I made a tokens deck that works with either Jetmir, Jinnie, Kitt Kanto or Phabine as the commander. They’re all in the deck anyway but it plays very differently depending on who is on boss duties. It varies the power level too. I used to also do this with a Prime Speaker Zegana and Pir/Tooth deck.

[@TheIndianaJonas]

I've been playing Phantom Steed on my Yarok since it's release, it is a house, it has so much potential and hidden interactions, you can use it as a pseudo "mass" blink, with a Conjurer's Closet, or Thassa, or any other blink effect really, it leads to so many triggering, and you can also reset the targets as you're developing your board and casting stuff with more powerful ETBs. Also, as mentioned, it works as protection, which is incredible.

[@Djinnistorm]

That Ramos deck described at 45:22 actually sounds fun as heck, I'd love to know what one of those looks like. Every "charm" in the game plus some ramp and a few big bomb spells? I guess I should see what edhrec has to say :P

[@Turkin4tor]

Sultai Sidisi is one of my favorite decks because of the variance. Living Death always gets something different

[@yodabuddy2112]

In defense to rat colony and apostles, there is also the syr konrad combo where you get all your creatures in your graveyard, then with surgical extraction remove them from your graveyard and deal a lot of damage. My build also splashes in white with Lurrus as the commander, with Bola's Citadel and Children of Korlis as another way to get out rats

[@TrueTgirl]

Jetmir reminds me of how the last game I've actually played recently ended. I have him in my Jinnie Fay deck and uh.... dropping him onto a board of 17 creatures then swinging felt a lot like what I imagine craterhoof must feel like. Incidentally, that deck is one of the less linear I have now bc it focuses on stuff like clues, food, and treasure (mostly that last one) and the ability choose if I want creatures or a different resource when I make them. No 2 games I have played with that deck have felt remotely similar in execution but all have been great fun lol.

[@JangleSam]

I agree on the Nature's Claim call. Unless your deck is built towards a win that doesn't care about life totals (such as a Fynn the Fangbearer or any kind of infect deck), Nature's Claim is not the best choice you can make. Take the versatility of a Return to Nature, or the split second of Krosan Grip over the one mana spell that still puts you a little further away from knocking out that one opponent.

[@herzerj.5045]

Well your opponents have 120 life or 124 life doesnt seem to be such a difference.

[@JangleSam]

Sure, but it also puts the individual opponent you target 10% further away from defeat. That's a big chunk.

[@Okagesan]

I have giggle fits about ya'll's chemistry. I look forward to every episode.

[@Badassest]

I love my reality chip deck- its not designed to win because it built to be clone/copy chaos! Whatever you bring to the table is what im playing with;)

[@olvynchuru1663]

One other, less powerful way to use Jetmir is to use him just for the vigilance ability if you control three or more creatures. Then you'd run a bunch of creatures that really benefit from having vigilance (for example, exert creatures like Glorybringer and Combat Celebrant, as well as creatures with tap abilities). And as for Narset, there's got to be some way to use Narset other than just an extra turn/extra combat phase deck. The card is too open-ended for that to be the only option.

[@vasylpark2149]

I have a Ayara first of Locthwain deck. The deck pretty much plays the same way each game. play Ayara and play creature based creature removal, clear the board and keep playing creatures until everyone is dead.

[@bladetb3934]

I have several of the decks you guys mentioned. I have a Kadena, Feather, Oloro, Gavi. I like a linearity of my deck so I can know if I'm playing optimally or not. I know what the deck does so I don't need to spend time thinking about what I can do and more about how I can solve what's going on in the game.

[@jk6975]

AHAHA The reaction of Joey from Dana joke was hilarious. I hope to see more of them. It's like Dana threw a grenade into the room and walked out.

[@dantebeleren]

I don't suppose you guys could do an episode on the progenitors of the format, Elder Dragons? The OG 5 would be cool to look at specifically, but with the remakes, Tarkir, and Strixhaven Elders (plus Piru) you have a lot you could look at.

[@MTGJosh]

Similitude is a beautiful word, thanks!

[@jamesgivvines4069]

Chulane and Silver Overlord are other commanders that play basically the same each time.

[@TaIathar]

I think it'd be nice to have an episode where you guys go over all your previous "Challenge the Stats" sections and see if people are actually changing the things being suggested. It would be nice to have an entire episode of that. I know you did something similar recently, but I feel like that episode went off-topic a bit too much and not a lot of stats got looked at (at least on-screen).

[@ToxicAtom]

I love how Matt goes over the Challenge the Stats tip that says "You're playing so many creatures that already have haste naturally, there's no need to play anything that grants haste, let alone ones that need to be in the graveyard to work" and goes "You're right, it's much better to play haste enablers that need to be on the battlefield instead!" His heart is in the right place, but I think the point went just a little over his head. Thankfully Joey swooped in to reinforce the point.

[@ThisIsACommanderChannel]

I actually like to build popular and linear Commanders but build them in a way that most people don't. My Feather deck is creature token, spell slinger, Voltron, and then recently I built Jetmir but it is activated ability tribal and bit takes advantage of the Vigilance they get so I can be aggro and attack but also still use their abilities for some tricks.

[@Hyuuga2109]

Glad to see Feather mentioned here. I ended up realising that I didn't feel like playing the deck anymore after a certain point. I plan on converting it into a Ken, Burning Brawler deck, to hopefully take a new approach to Boros spellslinger and make it enjoyable to play once again.

[@skruffytiger2002]

Feather does have staples that you MUST have to really make her hum, but I've built three very different decks with her; the classic cantrips, Arcane/Spirits, and self-burn

[@Ryadic]

Yo, Rich Eisen is amazing. The whole crew on Sportscenter in the 90s are absolute legends.

[@karolkurzawa3246]

This is very good topic. I made 2 decks that I disband because game play was always the same and boring. It was Emiel and Sythis. All the games feels like the same. Ramp + card draw engine and beat opponents with something big. I think that You didn't mention one commander that was released quite recently but also in my opinion is boring. 'Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice'. And I didn't feel like my Feather has such linear game play. But everybody might have different xp. :) PS: I always enjoy your dad jokes ;D

[@herzerj.5045]

Also the constant tutoring of Light Paws is very time consuming. I think with some sort of cascade Light Paws would be weaker but more fun to play.

[@danielspencer4564]

In regards to the Ognis challenge, I definitely agree if you build the deck as haste tribal you don't need many haste enablers, if any at all. But my deck is a token deck, so I have some creature token makers that I suicide in to turn into treasures

[@officeguy6530]

I play Feather with blinks and Dockside Extortionist, I love it a lot~

[@armandmcconahy9786]

My Zur, the Enchanter deck is probably my most linear deck. I almost always tutor out the same enchantments in pretty much the same order. It almost always makes me the archenemy in my play group when I bring it out, which is why I don't play it often anymore.

[@CHULAKable]

my linear deck is Valduk, Keeper of the Flame. play small equips, cast valduk equip them all for 1 and do damage,. plays cards like bonesaw, shard of broken glass and blazing torch, doesnt matter what they do really just 1 to play, 1 to equip

[@Lcngopher]

A new example along the same lines as gonti or xanathar is the new tasha from commander legends battle for baldurs gat

[@SWNJim]

I retooled my Edgar Markov deck (multiple times) from aggro to combo. It has 7 tutors (one is Forerunner of the Legion) which can get 7 different pieces that can combo together. I usually end up tutoring for an answer rather than a combo piece though.

[@timtauber5557]

I built a feather deck, played it one time. It completely smashed everyone. I immediately gave the entire deck to a random newbie at the game store. He still plays it to this day with very few recent upgrades. Heh I am glad he still enjoys it. I have no idea how he is not bored to tears with it. I was bored after my first game.

[@jdogbemple1]

Finally somebody calls out Nature’s Claim overrated for casual commander. Efficiency is great if the game is over in less than 4 turns. But there are so many situations in my shop’s meta where Krosan Grip would stop somebody from going off over just Nature’s Claim.

[@thelordethan3682]

I'd argue that EDHREC is partially to blame for that, because if players are just looking for what removal to run and Nature's Claim is what shows up, then that's what they're going to know is good. Krosan Grip definitely comes up in there too, but the other 2-mana options shown in the vid just don't enter the conversation because they aren't as pushed.

[@herzerj.5045]

Well there are probably more situations, where you dont have 3 open mana and the opponent wins.

[@curiouschao1]

Funnily, my Acererak list is the exact opposite of that. My goal is complete tomb asap, then it’s just a black aggro zombies deck

[@regaleagle6533]

I made an Ognis deck right away I love him so much, played him 1 game and realized he is just bad Henzie and rebuilt the deck. Forget not playing anger in the deck and just change the deck. /shrug

[@multieyedmyr]

I have a feeling the 24 hour joke was lost on a huge portion of the audience. I’m both old AND liked punk in my teens/ early 20’s

[@thetogtube2]

Jetmir - can fully be built so many ways... in trying to build it I kept getting stuck on the direction II wanted to take it... You can play hatebears, tokens, landfall ... so while the wincon is the same the 99 can look very different.

[@thetogtube2]

... not to mention CAT tribal as well.

[@connorhamilton5707]

Landfall? How about just Lands? That's what I decided to do. Using cards like Sylvan Awakening gives you a "hasty" army out of nowhere, and lands are easy to get large amounts of. I also get to run nonland boardwipes without setting myself too far back. Halo Fountain offers a funny alternate win condition, where you get your lands drunk to win.

[@marcoottina654]

8:04 just put "Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink" and other clones creator like "Bramble Sovereign", then put "Gilraen" and other blinkers like "Angel of Condemnation" or "Distinguished Conjurer", and some payoff like "Starke of Rath" and "Humble Defector" -> voilà, a very weird token deck where everything just happen, value might pop out of thin air until synergies ecplode in a multi-mass go-wide attack

[@Zookmottin]

My Glena Theft deck is a riot. I steal all kind of stuff but never know what I'm going to end up taking.

[@yago8642]

I have a nylea keen eye deck and on the power scale I put it at around a 7 but it literally 100% depends if my opponents focuse their removal on me, if they don't I will win by turn 5/6 like 80% of the times cause it literally always plays the same, draw draw draw until you have beast whisperer / guardian proyect / skullmuncher / glimpse of nature then you gain mana for each 0 cost creature you play to then finale of devastation or craterhoof every single game LOL

[@twilightwolf90]

Man, this is almost a Proactive vs Reactive episode. Decks that want to do the same thing over and over win by overwhelming the resources of the table to deal with it. It's the same in cedh, proactive decks want to tutor Ad Nauseum, Dramatic Scepter, Thoracle, or Dockside loops and play them asap, and Reactive decks want to wait and play Tymna, Rhystic, Kraum, or even Dragon's Rage Channeler to accrew value, Null Rod, or other stax pieces to slow them down, and win when the shields are down.

[@twilightwolf90]

I neglected to mention free counterspells or removal under reactive decks. Whoops.

[@FallenFrost1]

38:59 I see you Miss Vanjie. 👸

[@SamuelKacerik]

I have Vaevictis all permanents deck and I am always an archenemy because it clearly says "destroy three target commanders".

[@smelltank]

I wanna rebutt the Markov linearity. It may not be optimal but I run a vampire aristocrats/warp world hybrid version of the deck and it has so many different lines weighing up whether I want to sac my tokens, go aggro with them, or save them for a nasty warp world all depending on the varying draws of the deck. It was my first deck I ever built and it's played out in wildly different (and sweet) ways each time

[@SimpleVisionVideos]

Joey with that Miss Vanjie reference omg, I appreciate that lmao.

[@olivierdebilde4292]

My Anje while not being super original either, leans more into discarding big threats and reanimate them. I think I barely use 2 to 3 madness cards.

[@FlowBerni]

If you want to play a Voltron deck without enchantments and equipments try Kathril. :)

[@shadowmyst9661]

Landfall decks really all just look the same to me. (Especially Simic…) The only Land deck I really like to play is my Desert deck because it doesn’t feel as easy as generic Landfall decks to do the thing. With Deserts I like the challenge of how to get and utilize a limited resource within the deck, and it feels more fair than generic Landfall. Also, I just love the flavor of my Desert deck (a bit dry though, and a little salty).

[@primeascendant797]

I'm a big advocate for playing black in metas wherein decks are mostly all-in with their commanders, like those mentioned here. Forced sacrifice, spot removal, discard, mass small/low mana value creature removal; black is really positioned well to fight all-in, low interaction commanders. Incidentally, these are the exact same commanders players at my LGS reach for when they feel like they need to up their power level. Play more black, people!

[@jessesandburg]

I still love my Lathril deck no matter how linear it is lol

[@nogard0497]

People tell me that my Tiamat deck is like this. You ramp, cast her, play the dragons you tutored, and you win

[@HJonesT]

Dana got that thumbs up early! Haha

[@piralos1329]

Similitude rather quite lacks verisimilitude, but this episode sure doesn't!!

[@mcandrolallendelapena6375]

7:05 as a Cat owner, I agree 10000000000%. But I still love him tho.

[@okgut2033]

I think if you play yarok, you allready choose to make things complicated. Esp cause you want to double effects and then double them and so on.

[@diegoperezsommariva2509]

Man, Jetmir has been one of the most boring matchups.

[@Crypt4l]

I disagree with the Nature's Claim pick. I think in more casual decks you still want you answers to be cheap so you can spend more mana on more expensive engine pieces, or haymakers, and still keep your interaction open.

[@williamgray2066]

Wanna say that not all Voltron is 'all in' on the Voltron plan. Sometimes a deck's strategy will intuitively make commander damage a reasonable way to take someone out. If the deck plans on attacking every turn, the general will be a part of that, and it adds up quickly. If they're at 10+, something to give double strike, Xenagod, Gisela etc can k.o. a player out of nowhere. Its not the sole focus of the deck, but it is part of the plan and a real win condition. The deck's also doing other things so it doesn't get 'samey.' Kill people with your commander! Don't let your dreams be dreams!

[@okgut2033]

My brion deck is voltron i play alot small 6/1 haste tramplers and for finish the big */ creatures. If smash dont help, brion will fling. If both bad lets reset cause my creatures are designed to do theyr thing once and die xD Is it cheap? Yes! Does it feel good to smack for your lifetotal? Yesh! Does it feel bad oneshoting a player and still needing 3turns or more for the next game? Big boom fun! Me dont care if you ded.

[@jordansams6240]

I actually just bought a few copies of deglamer and unravel the aether to try out just because dana wont stop talking about it lol

[@YokoBeLoco]

I think they should have made eminence only come online if you've cast your commander this game.

[@k9commander]

Narset is not a linear commander. She just happens to be built by linear players. There are players who DON'T built it with extra turns.

[@brock_soder1278]

Exactly, you can build that deck in so many different ways. It doesn’t have to be a turns deck.

[@herzerj.5045]

@@brock_soder1278 But people will hate her out because of fear.

[@brock_soder1278]

@@herzerj.5045 You’re right, but that still doesn’t make her linear

[@fernandob2275]

Spoiler alert: The only people butt-hurt about the twitter buyout were the ones that knew all along it was a one sided platform. Great mtg content guys.

[@thecasualplateau]

❤️

[@chadanenberg6454]

I love muldrotha landfall deck but it is semi linear

[@wbw911]

Phantom Steel abusing Acidic Slime lol

[@Lastplace_27]

I love how corny all of you are and I love watching the videos you put up

[@AJ-gn7xp]

Bro please make a Ghired, Conclave Exile video.

[@timtauber5557]

24, 24 hours ago…. Hmm sounds vaguely familiar.

[@microdog]

Content: @4:38

[@Brisk83]

Content @ 0:00 the dad jokes are the content.

[@icehearteddragon]

How did you not include Tergrid??

[@lanesteele240]

I love my feather. Deck. It has tons of white hate bears that make my friends hate my feather deck

[@joefjunior]

All words are made up, Matt.

[@HydroponicTricks]

Naahhh you guys are wrong with narset. I built her as a voltron deck and she kicks ass. I have 1 extra turn spell as not to be a douche.

[@cameronrobertson9800]

Saying muldrotha is less repetitive than feather is just wrong. A good feather player will not just being doing the same thing turns 4-8

[@ghost64626]

Nope, play Jetmir as Naya stax. EZ GG

[@styfen]

I'm totally with Dana on that one. Elon Musk is a tick on the back of humanity. May he remain alone.

[@alex.sanders]

GREAT way to keep the EDH content light and fun, congratulations.

[@borneof3954]

Haven't watched the video yet but this comment is a wild preview of the content lol

[@JDPower-ej3rx]

Why do people care so much about Elon Musk? He's not the devil and he's also not some hero because he's rich. People care way too much about the dude

[@lanesteele240]

Just a quick question. Do you have green pink or blue hair?

[@fernandob2275]

I think it’s because he’s mildly autistic and most people can relate

[@davidhowell1415]

Your entire review of narset was contradictory to itself. “ I only build it extra turns “ then build it different, if you play cedh yes expect the same game every time If you play mids you can build your spell base different because every one isn’t going to win turn 4 Cedh is like modern mids is like fnm

[@okgut2033]

I understand both points. My first impulse with narset would be the same, build extra turns so i can do more of the stuff i allready wanted to do. But they gave narset up, cause the other stuff that seem fun to build with her, didnt apeal anymore. Dont really know if they just dont wanted to try other things out or if they did, it still under/uberperformed.

[@AlexOvTheAbyss]

"Cats are always demons" - Yep, that settles it. Joey has no sense of humor. :P

[@troylambert1601]

3 mana rocks are bad, 3 mana utility artifacts that also tap for mana can be ok, but do not count them as ramp. at 3 mana you don't recover tempo until turn 6, and at 37 lands in a deck you go from 98% on turn 2 to play your ramp to 79 % on turn 3 to play your ramp. do not play 3 mana rocks for the ramp.

[@okgut2033]

Thats poopers! You can choose on what power you wanna play. Otherwise we would all go cedh and forget about everything else.

[@Oopsall]

Elon musk slander, I'm here for it

[@davidhowell1415]

16:20 shelter looks like a lady releasing her self on the floor, the “ strap “ is even in the actual location. But but but shrexually explicit card art is bad right? No card before this shows a female taking a dump

[@davidhowell1415]

If it’s a male okay cool it’s still a picture of someone taking a dump, read the flavor text

[@Wiedadafuq]

Playing regular against Zur is ultra tilting