Decks that Surprised Us | EDHRECast 299

[@Crypt4l]

18:24 No, I don't have a problem! I can take apart any number of my 50 decks at any point in time! You have a problem!

[@404clichE]

PogMatt needs to be an emote for the EDHREC Twitch channel and Patron Discord!

[@TarrenSky]

I'm so glad Faldorn got a shout out here. I fell in love with this commander as soon as I played the precon for the first time. I've heavily edited it since then and it's become my favorite commander deck to play. Ever. They way it generates card advantage and advances its game-plan at the same time is addicting. Plus it's developed a tendency to pop off at completely random, so that kind of chaos is always exciting.

[@valun360]

The deck that surprised me the most was a Selesnya aristocrats headed by Palukranos Reborn. Seeing a deck designed around playing and recurring hydras for x=0 was super cool.

[@alexchorel-campanozzi8275]

same thing happened to me!

[@Kaxxaa]

I built a similar deck with Zaxara at the helm, new Polukranos would be amazing in that if it wasn’t white

[@Klaritsa]

I built polukranos recently and it's so fun 😊

[@rlotts6607]

“Banging really hard on that drum in a way that made it really difficult for you to match that beat” what a beautiful way to phrase that

[@罪のアリス]

I received a Faldorn precon as part of my compensation for MtG market research. It ended up wolfing the entire table and quickly too. That is a mean deck and I am glad it's getting some love.

[@Scott_L_Jeffrey]

Im just glad i wasnt the only one saying "Murders at Markov Manor" 😂

[@JonReid01]

Every time lol

[@stratavosstuff7575]

technically there were multiple murders, so you're not wrong.

[@TeaHauss]

Crazy how you mentioned both ellivere and hakbal cause they were christmas gifts that shocked me how powerful they were out of the box

[@Wojtek36762]

Strong agreement on Hakbal being a great deck that doesn’t need Vorel. A cheap and easy replacement I haven’t seen other people using or on the page is Grey Harbor Merfolk, the 1U 0/3 that’s unblockable and gets +2/+0 if you control your commander.

[@Dragon_Fyre]

I always love the Closed Captioning on KZbin, especially for MTG videos. Hawk ball and the Hummer folk… 😂

[@fidibus4290]

Hakbal, Ellivere and Faldorn are 3 of my favourite decks lol. I also really like the LotR Fordo&Sam Precon deck. Between LotR and Eldraine, food got buffed really hard in 2023.

[@michaelsaldana4103]

I have a 50 land Fladorn deck using all the impulse and extra land play stuff. Turns sometimes go a bit because you make a circle of playing lands and casting spells to play more lands to cast more spells. There is a lot of impulse/land play/regrowth effects.

[@JonReid01]

Sounds awesome do you have a list?

[@xaropevic7918]

Didn't watch yet, but I've seen Quintorius, field historian which is a commander that seems really fun to build because there are so many ways to build around it

[@Werewolfoverlord12]

As someone playing a Quint deck with all versions of him, it is. :) Lost Caves was massive boost for mine cause it was descending anyway might as well get rewarded more for it, and laelia the blade reforged is monstrous with how discover works.

[@mortycremwatch]

@@Werewolfoverlord12have been thinking about building Quintorious. Do you have a list online anywhere you would be willing to share? Thank you!

[@Werewolfoverlord12]

@@mortycremwatch I do but haven't had a chance to update it yet. I will share it when I do though.

[@Werewolfoverlord12]

​@@mortycremwatchi finally had a chance to update my quintorius deck, but cant seem to directly link it here. Its on moxfield under Ancients Vengence user name same as here. Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions. Given it could be playing other cards so... *shrug*

[@Mr111Rose]

The deck that surprised me the most was my Massacre Girl Vehicles. At first I thought it'll be silly brew, but it was my favorite deck of the year. And my play group love that deck too, and this is real Surprise.

[@gehtdichnixan2499]

Brooooo.... I made the same and thought I would be the only one in the world😂 my base was the necron dynastie precon

[@jordanferreri5377]

The Faldorn deck is my favorite deck to play hands down! upgraded it’s a force at the table.

[@picharellano]

I play Sara Jane with the third doctor instead of the sixth and is very fun to see the table attacking me not realizing the doctor is a 15/15 because of all the clues 😂😂

[@jemm113]

Yeah, with his strategy of “clues matters” I’m surprised the third doctor wasn’t the deck’s commander 🤔

[@picharellano]

@@jemm113 I guess they decided to go with the most recognizable faces, fourth is way more popular from the original series. But yes, third and sixth are way better

[@Karste1n]

The idea of a deck that scales with the group sounds amazing

[@richardjohnson8991]

I built Slogurk on a new set, new commander kind of whim and it was one of my favorite decks of all time. Last year, and still into this year, I've been building and editing The Mycotyrant on observation that the deck would have a lot of similarities to Slogurk. This might be my second favorite deck of all time. I love self mill and reanimator, I love go wide and tall, I looooove aristocrats and this deck does ALL of it. What an absolutely incredible commander and good excuse for a gitrog combo

[@webbc99]

Actual challenge the stats for Hakbal - Danny Pink should be in every Hakbal list, it's currently in less than 10%. Every time you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature for the first time each turn, draw a card. So every time you go to combat, you could be drawing one card for every creature on board that is exploring. Crazy value.

[@SupaFro]

It took me a long time to realize we weren't going to Edgar Markovs mansion.. I was so sad

[@bryankopkin6869]

19:59 I was REALLY hoping Matt would be like “You know what else I want to do for the novelty of it? Challenge the stats!”

[@Smaul002]

Burakos//Folk Hero is so much fun. You never know what combination of party members you’re going to get. Casting a huge Debt to the Deathless is also very fun.

[@Smaul002]

@@Haaskeer honestly, the hardest part is finding cuts for new cards. I try to include party members that provide some kind of disruption or protection

[@failfurby]

Faldorn has been my main deck since I got the precon, and I have been upgrading and updating it regularly. It is SO MUCH FUN to play and watch people react to it just going off and pumping out Wolf tokens and value.

[@facelessgames94]

Shout out to Roco, Street Chef. A deck i had very little hope in, yet keeps defying my initial expectations time and time again. A versatile commander, paving the way for multiple play styles, is great for accesibillity and upgradability. A handful of chaotic cards, such as possibility storm and knowledge pool, work very well in the deck, which is great if you want to scratch a certain itch. Seriously, too good. Life gain, anti control deck, big creature, combos for days, artifact synergies, token synergies. Highly recommend

[@CardCupboard]

Vorel and the double counters, you can if you want go full on Ixalan tribal, (only cards from the plane of Ixalan) in which case, The Millennium Calendar is a fun and thematic alternative win con for Merfolk to go for. The Millennium Calendar actually synergises with Merfolk really well, and in this case Vorel is awesome as he allows you to double the counters on the calendar, there are also a few Merfolk that let you tap or untap things, again which helps you get to 1000 on the Millennium.

[@EDZ1LLA]

With the Wilds Of Eldraine precons and the Lost Caverns precons the bar has really been raised for what to expect from a normal set precon. I think the Murders at Karlov Manor precons will either set this new standard in stone or cement it as just a lucky run. Really excited to see how they turn out.

[@patdion1161]

I made a Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon deck and it's the first time I've made a deck that just works right away! It's consistent and I'm impressed at the win rate!

[@ylygylygynda]

Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat goes straight to my Saruman Orc Army deck. Thank you!

[@penguinbomb77]

I have a Rilsa deck, it's a blast getting through the Undercity twice in a turn

[@multimillionairemax]

Been waiting! Best part of most Fridays 🎉😊

[@Kaishen021]

It was neat getting back into Magic back in 2023 as a Transformers fan. I actually bought a Brother's War gift bundle and pulled Ultra Magnus and spontaneously built him, and I limited myself to less than $2.50 for new cards for it. The thing competes quite nicely against my friend's Ur Dragon. Could I make it even better with Darksteel/Blightsteel Colossus? Yes, but I refuse to out of principle. Did I semi-break that rule when I pulled Carn, Legacy Reforged? Yes.

[@emiliomahiasallendes2602]

Thanks for reading my challenge ❤

[@braddtheodd3390]

Quintorius! My boy getting a Shout-out! XD I'm so proud!

[@Chaoslorden]

Council of four is an excellent intro commander as you can put just about anything into the deck and it balances out pretty well. I have a pretty aggressive version with less control in it and it always becomes arch enemy as the other people fuels me with their action. I have that one in a bundle box together with a Karlach + tokens deck. Both are super fun to play. I love the baldurs gate setting and I think the set is amazing.

[@AB-qp2tm]

You have a link? I'm going to brew this guy and azorious agro is the way to go

[@dirtyfrench2926]

I recently built Eowyn Shieldmaiden and it's doing a lot better than I thought it would. 2 turns after getting my creatures wiped I enter the turn with only Eowyn and a Court of Vantress that copied my opponent's Roaming Throne at that time. I proceed to play Cathar's Crusade then Anim Pakal who gets a counter. I enter combat, make 4 hastey trampling 2/2's, draw 2 cards, and everyone gets 4x counters. I attack with the 4 tokens, Anim triggers and makes 6 gnomes, everything gets 6 counters, Anim triggers again and I make 13 more gnomes. All 3 of my opponents died that turn to 4x 25/25 trampling tokens that entered at the beginning of combat. I've never had a recovery from a boardwipe quite that fast before.

[@AnMagicCard]

@36:20 was expecting a semi-truck pun here.

[@ardentdino7299]

I budget upgraded faldorn replaced maybe 10-12 cards for around 20-25 bucks and the deck slaps, helps also that in the deck you have Jeska's Will which works amazing with Faldorn and the deck comes with Passionate Archeologist which is in my opinion the best card in the deck and it is a mayor player in all impulse deck. A friend has an upgraded Prosper deck and he always tutors for the Passionate Archeologist which in Prosper is a must kill on sight enchantment.

[@famousstranger8468]

Also works in etali primal conqueror

[@ardentdino7299]

@@famousstranger8468 didn't even think about Etali but you are a 100% right, I do run both the Etalis in Faldorn, I just forgot because I played against the new Etali deck myb one or twice.

[@famousstranger8468]

@ardentdino7299 I played falforn and hated it and I was like this deck is not fun I built etali just before christmas using mostly the precon added more ramp & keeper of secrets & this deck is just straight fire

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Did The "FLood Of Mars" make "Carpet of Flowers" even more monstrous for Green-Blue decks ? 2Whenever the Flood of Mars attacks put a flood counter on another target creature or land. Creature = if becomes a copy of Flood of MArs (your own in this strategy), and if it's a LAND = it becomes an island in addition to its other types = so now Carpet of flowers getrs +1 to you ;) EVERY time a Flood makes a land of your opponent island in addition ;( now you won'T have to worry - your opponent WILL have islands wether they want it or not

[@RagdorUltron]

A deck that disappointed me this year was Tawnos the Toy maker. I tried for a couple of months to get this commander to be playable in my play group but it ended up not working.

[@chall3ng33v3rything]

That’s a shame man. I made mine a mutate deck. It’s a bit timmy but man it’s some of the most fun I’ve had in a while. What direction did you take yours?

[@Werewolfoverlord12]

I saw him and am working on mine. I'm also hoping that set with small forest creatures will give us more to work with. Tawnos really feels like he needed white to give him more to work with?

[@RagdorUltron]

@@chall3ng33v3rything I had some mutate and other tribal synergy's. Mutate does work pretty well. I play in a pretty high powered play group and he was just a little too over costed with no protection.

[@TheGreaterThanTwo]

Joey thank you for correcting Matt on "ojer axonil"'s pronunciation; that one drives me crazy, and that was well -navigated

[@WumboWings96]

Omg the Livaan mention for Ojer Axonil synergy is something I learned not that long ago and yeah, I don’t get why people aren’t pairing them together.

[@dantebeleren]

General tip for Tasha: Build the Arena version with a proxy. It has no Arena exclusive/reliant abilities,and is MUCH more functional without being oppressive.

[@lokumo13]

As a Vadrik storm player, I agree with the challange regarding Livaan. Since Ojer, like Vadrik, would prefer to grow in power as you cast spells. Also, a 1/3 body works is pretty decent.

[@ArmadilloAl]

I just took my Vorel deck apart this week, so I know what you mean about Magic moving on. I'm gonna miss that deck.

[@davidrosenberg9615]

Joey, if your Sarah and Sixth deck doesn't cast sixth, then why not put the Third Doctor in the command zone? It does almost exactly what you want.

[@davidrosenberg9615]

@@mn6334 I mean, any answer where he's picking one he'll actually cast. I just figured Third *did the thing* he was describing. And if you're sticking either of those cards, you're likely winning anyhoo.

[@QuestionMarc]

Hey Joey! What do you think about using The Third Doctor instead of The Sixth Doctor alongside Sarah Jane Smith? He is a little easier to cast, makes an artifact token, and can potentially get very large if you make lots of Clues etc!

[@VincentWolfeye]

Much seguay, very challange had me in tears 😂

[@rockon1793]

Rise and shine works great in mono blue vehicles!

[@spakes9280]

I would like to challenge the stats for "Zephyr Stinger" in "Blue, loyal Raptor"+"Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer" decks. It is an awesome way to get flying counters

[@Lazydino59]

I bought an ellivere precon to get back into magic and added $10 of cards they had at the store I wanted (mesa enchantress, revoke existence, etc.) and literally went 15-0 with the deck. Didn’t lose an edh game the entire month of October with a $50 deck against (mostly) tuned higher-powered casual decks

[@adarklight505]

36:21 Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader is, in fact, a semi-permanent >.

[@amphetamean66X]

Someone in my group plays Chainer and yes it plays the same each time but it's fun for your opponents to challenge it. It's a really good deck. What I recommend is add a few other Legendary creatures in it that run similar but different and when you're bored with Chainer try it with the other commander. I build most of my decks this way so that when i bring one deck I'm really bringing 3+ decks.

[@jasonwhisnant5457]

ManaCurves! I played against you! Good time!

[@afifthofjackgaming]

I built slicer, just to make ppl to attack. At my lgs ppl tend to play battleship magic and not to attack. As for my budget deck my thrun breaker of silence definally slaps.. and is resilient as no other.

[@screwthisin]

Marston, you're a rockstar

[@pelgrim4386]

Hey! could you maybe do an upping the average on Najal, the storm runner or Gavi, Nest warden?

[@famousstranger8468]

Vorel is amazing with the millenium calender

[@Nose4a2]

My deck that most exceeded my expectations was Zedruu. Everyone is shockingly ill equipped to deal with enchantments and donated cards

[@Neuverfleischer]

I only just realized there wasn't a Markov Manor on Ravnica...

[@elmothejunkie]

I have a Wilson/Far traveler deck that is a dungeon/party deck. And it is soo unassuming, until I am getting 200+ dungeon/initiative triggers in an endstep

[@sasorispupet]

i kept vorel in hakbal just because it doubles the amount of counters on ANY perminant and Simic Acendancy comes in the deck, which i kept in. it hasn't happened yet, but in my oppinion there's plenty of other merfolk which are kind of "Meh." that im fine keeping Vorel in, especially since you can go wide and go tall, meaning i can make an opponent with a single target removal spell pick between killing my commander or killing a 30/30 creature, potentially with islandwalk.

[@e6staffsargeify]

It wasn't hard fore to take apart decks and I'm glad. Sometimes I just wanna see what it can do, do it then I'm good on the deck

[@MikhailHudon_ZerithFarron]

I was wondering if there's a way to see how often 2 particular cards are together in all lists

[@jonart8433]

I have a 5 color Omnath deck that is a Godzilla and Transformer deck and it slaps. Everyone loves the deck and I always do cool things with it. My favorite is mutating onto the Transformers when they are in their vehicle forms so when my turn ends it is no longer a creature and it is harder for them to interact with. Fire deck

[@chall3ng33v3rything]

That’s badass man!

[@Thunderbeerd]

What? It's not Markov Manor?

[@dragonmz5274]

Optimus Prime is EACH end step!?

[@mfitkin]

Matt try Ultra Magnus for your artifact creature deck

[@reaumwingblade5783]

Alibou is probably one of my most cracked artifact decks. can she bean them in the face for 100? I mean, yeah. but ahe also smooths out my draws and digs for the ten-card rube goldberg combo that quickly shambles together to assemble a win. Oh yeah and haste, haste good.

[@Redwud3381]

One of my decks that is disappointing to me is my Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp deck, which is what I did with the Lorehold precon. I just want to have an army of modular creatures.

[@gamereyemd7264]

Just like Matt's experience with Alibou, I tried to make The Swarmlord (Tyranids 40k) work as a swarmy, +1/+1 deck, but man, I can't get it to work and got disappointed that I had to let it go coz I can't make it work for what expectations I had for it.

[@thriftypsgr]

Top 2 precons of the year. Merfolk and Ellivere

[@Thoughtmage100]

The segment about Faldorn reminded me of how satisfying it is to play my Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival deck. Its Boros Prosper and I love it.

[@sandwichboy1268]

Taking apart commander decks is easy. Taking apart pauper decks is a real challenge. (There's not anything expensive in there that I want to take them apart for)

[@joshxcaron]

I got tasha to work but i almost completely play based on the ways to create 3/3 demons

[@MikeConstantinou]

Is there a link to the Rilsa Rael, Kingpin deck?

[@EDHRECast]

Follow the decklist link in the video description, Joey has bonus family lists there! 👍

[@teradul2480]

Wait, Joey's introduction for Matt is... kinda right, isn't it?

[@scotthasty9696]

My wife name is kayla so I built a Kayla queen of .... boros deck/stax,combo deck and have loved it ever since. Even ordered custom sleeves with our picture on them. Then built a urza deck to go with it lol

[@tiptop_flipflop]

So happy to see my girl Livaan in Challenge the Stats!

[@Screamie3D]

Joey you should check out Monoblack burakos with Haunted one as your background its really powerful and a ton of fun.

[@thriftypsgr]

The guys at my LGS said that Precons are not a joke or to be taken lightly

[@IneptCardCollector]

Oh cool, Matt is a blue main for life!

[@Coffee_break514]

I see Matt in the thumbnail I press play

[@nielsmandemakers720]

I used to play Vorel with tangle wire and Smokestack, people did not like it XD

[@TheKumaXKuma]

We end the week with a killer joke once again

[@chrispydesign585]

I NEED that Rilsa Rael decklist

[@mn6334]

If you go into the "decks we play" link in thr description Joey has a link to his family's decklists and it looks like it's in there.

[@chrispydesign585]

@@mn6334 thanks!

[@andrueurbane7361]

Chainer isn't restricted to your graveyard. You can build a deck that entirely kills and then takes other people's stuff. It can be built to scale with the table nicely. For life gain, go the instant/sorcery route so you aren't tempted to loop your own stuff.

[@Renegadetothe64th]

Oh cool, almost at the 300th episode

[@brycematthew3115]

On the 6th doctor + Sarah Jane, the doctors are just overall not that good, overcosted effects that are hard to want to play. Sarah Jane's effect is small but she's 2 mana so she's way more playable than basically all doctors.

[@jessesandburg]

Ardenn kediss always slaps. Even a budget deck will crap on people!

[@blemski]

I wanted to make gimbal work so bad since he is obviously the weakest precon from MoM and probably 2023. The only way he ever wins is with a rise and shine or cyber drive awakener turning all those artifact tokens into creatures with trample from gimbal.

[@pauldyson8098]

Have a Livaan deck. Can confirm: she's a house.

[@UrielColeridge]

Anje madness with Passionate Archaeologist and similar was strong without being too repetitive, but I eventually tired of it.

[@orpheos9]

It kind of surprises me that it’s taken that long for Joey to get a reanimated deck that is more about reanimating certain things over and over. I feel like that’s more common than the ones trying to reanimate random big/sweet things.

[@lokumo13]

@Matt, there Ellivere sees some fringe cEDH play!

[@gehtdichnixan2499]

John Marston was just and simple the best Game Charakter ever for me. Kinda miss him

[@mrTjstephens1]

Chainer can repetitive and samey however the other way to use him is to steal other peoples cards from their graveyards. So yes grey merchant can be the wincon however you can also play other people's cardboard. If you make it a Mono black you did this to yourself. You are restricted to creatures but with how powerful creatures are its quite good at using other peoples card board.

[@deadNdivine12]

Kurders at Marlov Kanor

[@rixaxeno7167]

ah yes, Dexpectations

[@TepaCu]

Joey you would like playing Flesh and Blood if ya like the turn by turn puzzle

[@CHAREDot9]

Optimus prime - “semi-permanent way” +1

[@InstaGator590]

The deck that has blown me away is Comissar Severina Raine. Holy crap can it slap. Its orzhov aristocrats on meth. Its not uncommon to be closing out players on turn 5.