How to Improve Your Commander Deck

[@henrye3935]

Remember, if you did not play a land on the same turn you ramped, then you didn't ramp. You paid for your land drop. Play more lands, people.

[@GrayVMhan]

Kodama's reach is goated

[@william4996]

NO

[@longdangley]

N o

[@BingbongRecto]

39 lands should be the average tbh

[@IvanKolyada]

The most based statement on the ramp. Repeating same to the 30 land “ramp decks” players all the time.

[@underscore_5450]

My current deckbuilding philosophy that's really helped me (and I really recommend to anyone struggling with lands) is to start with 40 slots for lands. I know, it seems like a lot but it really helps when it comes to cutting down which cards you want to fit in your deck. Having to pick between an extra land or a flashy spell will help you decide how neccessary that card is for you deck. I usually end up around 36 or 37 lands but having to cut those lands helps me seperate cards I want in the deck from cards I need in the deck. Also keep in mind that you don't just need to hit your average cmc or the cmc of your commander. More mana means more cards you can play per turn as well.

[@Nova7l7]

This is exactly how I start brewing nowadays. If using like Moxfield or Archidekt I usually just throw in 40 of a basic just temporarily and then can cut down later if needed.

[@fairygoodmuller8065]

i tend to start at 36 wastes and think about what sort of ramp i want

[@Nr4747]

I rarely run below 40 lands because the games in our playgroup tend to be very "battle cruiser-y" and often last longer than 10 turns (with a good amount of board wipes in between). In those games, simply consistently hitting your land drops is often times essentially as good as getting ramp out early because you often don't even want to be the first player to overextend into a board wipe. Of course, this isn't true for every deck, especially not for landfall decks or very high mana value commanders, but I'd say it's true enough for most decks.

[@StoneSourFanBoy]

To add to what you said, if people want to know how many lands they need during a game to really play, take you average mana cost, then double it, and you'll have the number of land you NEED to reach every game for it to feel nice :)

[@emiltronier771]

I tend to aim for 40 lands to begin with, and trying to find space for the spell / land cards if I go below 40 to begin with

[@amphilochusofmallus5070]

"It's either really powerful or just spins it's wheels." And you've just gone and described every deck I have ever built up to this point lol

[@dreamcream3738]

Thats Chaos in a nutshell

[@cw5948]

That’s a sign you play too many win more cards. Good deck builders take this into account.

[@MageSkeleton]

i expected this to be a conversation about making your deck more consistent without it being so much more consistent that your playing in "competitive" territory. And while it was a bit of that, it was a good discussion of identifying play mistakes and recognizing if you have enough interaction in your deck.

[@sablesalt]

Consistency isn't what makes a deck competitive, your deck is a strong as the cards you get in any given game

[@JEL625]

​@@sablesalt in any TCG consistency is king while the output/endboard is queen. Consistency alone doesnt make you competitive but its a massive advantage to know what resources you have access to or are likely to gain access to at any given moment.

[@sablesalt]

@@JEL625 I am very aware as I come from the most consistent of the big card games so much so that it has a hard limit on how fast you can win because you can very easily pick up and play all the cards in your entire deck turn 1. Glad to meet someone who understands very well the same. Also pro tip as someone who has played the pokémon tcg for a decade: the game is fundamentally flawed to it's core and actually trivially simple to beat players at regardless of whatever it's players tell you(the pokémon tcg playerbase is not good at the game of which they play even remotely), also don't even buy into the game to beat people for prizes as it's not actually profitable to do despite being very easy since they constantly powercreep at a level comparable to the modern horizons sets except they print creep into standard making every format effectively rotate at the same constant fast speeds

[@henrye3935]

One tip I suggest is not to play too many cards requiring another card (that isn't your commander) in order to be good. I see a lot of people jamming CEDH combos in their casual decks (a guy at my LGS has Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle in a random deck) but without all the CEDH tutors and fast mana to make it work. In that case, you'll rarely draw them together, so you just end up with two individually bad cards.

[@endersblade]

And stop freaking net-decking. I don't care if you're new to the game or the format, copying a list from the internet without knowing the cards or how to play it is just a major waste of your time and money, and everyone else's enjoyment.

[@merlintym1928]

​@@endersblade Do you hate precons too?

[@pepi560]

@@endersblade all my homies love netdecking its an amazing way to get more insight on specific commanders/archetypes/synnergies/themes/etc when you feel stuck during deckbuilding and/or coming up with a new brew

[@al8188]

@@endersblade I think "stop net-decking" altogether is a little intense, given that you can't really know what to expect in any format for any game or how to build for it without test-driving a meta deck. You're just going to lack the proper context without having knowledge of what everyone else considers good. I will say that I think I've seen enough Atraxa infect, Ur-Dragons, Yuriko "I swear its just ninjas," and Wilhelt zombie piles for a lifetime. You're not going to a grand prix based on your performance at a pickup game at the LGS, I think we can afford to take some risks in our deck choices and construction.

[@paulgiametta9471]

​@merlintym1928 I think the reason they dislike netdecking is that simply copying a deck doesn't grant understanding the deck. I disagree with stopping altogether, but the few times I would use a net deck would be only if it had a really good primer.

[@themrch4oskol206]

I hate when upgrading just means putting more expensive staples in it. At some point it will be that and when that point is reached, the deck for me is finished.

[@p0rc41music5]

yeah, also decks feel awful if your engine does nothing compared to the "good stuff". Also ppl are annoyed by the expensive staples, even tho the powerlevel of the deck is still bad lol.

[@otterfire4712]

I find that Rielle the Everwise is a pretty great commander for this. There're a lot of surprisingly powerful spells that are deemed bad due to a high discard cost. Most stuff that you'd want are incredibly cheap in comparison to other staples. Turbulent Dreams is almost a Cyclonic Rift with its mass bounce and it lets you cycle through a significant part of your hand. Cycling Lands are fantastic as they serve double duty in the deck, sometimes getting even more milage from them. Nahiri's Wrath is a Blasphemous Act that you can control. Rites of Refusal, Forbid, and Overwhelming Denial are fantastic counter spells for cheap. Key to the City and Artful Dodge set up your commander to remove players from the table.

[@NotBer]

For me, upgrading normally starts with adding card draw/deck manipulation and interactions.

[@lynnharper308]

Same

[@Chilipotamus]

​@@p0rc41music5that's kind of the catch 22 with my Selesnya +1/+1 counters deck. A lot of my opponents think that my game plan is shot when they waste removal early on Bristly Bill or Ozolith, but I've got plenty of backup engines across my CMC, and my deck has plenty of other ways to pump and protect creatures, even if I don't start compounding my creatures power every turn. I've been pleasantly surprised with how it plays, and I am allllllmost ready to put it on ice because it's just in that sweet spot for my pods general play level.

[@SweetOddBoi]

One thing that is very important is try to make your deck able to function 100% without your commander because you're not ALWAYS gonna have them in play and if your opponents only need to remove one creature to shut you down it makes it really easy to keep you out of the game.

[@Chilipotamus]

Yeah, that's one of the things that perplexes people when I bring out my Kutzil deck. I've found that if I keep him off the field while I get my pieces set, people think I'm just chilling. I can bring him in on turn 5/6 to protect my boardstate once I've got some enhanced creatures and start swinging for card draw.

[@hexbox2182]

I will say as another great substitute for creator hoof is endraze forerunners. It comes down, immediately is a problem and is still an anthem for your creatures. Heck it gives them vigilance as well.

[@thetrinketmage]

I’ve lost to that card a bunch! It’s a great threat

[@alexc.4909]

Collector's Vault is honestly one of my pet draw engines. It draws cards, puts stuff in the graveyard, and makes treasures. I'm currently running it in a janky Teshar artifact deck i built

[@SwedishWookie]

It's so good! Recently built a Greasefang deck and after I was done I just realized how good Collectors vault would be in it and had to toss out something to make room 😅

[@vladimirilukewitsch3459]

​@@SwedishWookie I love Greasefang one of my favorite commander, I also play Collectors Vault in the deck is really good.

[@majinvegeta6364]

Thank you for taking a reasonable stance on winning the game. Some people take the "spirit of the format" or the term "social format" way too far. Liked and Subscrided

[@endersblade]

The problem is, people can't see the horse in front of the cart. Everyone thinks 'the spirit of the format' is telling people to stop trying to win. That doesn't make any sense at all. Nobody is trying to tell you to stop trying to win. What we're trying to say is to stop trying to win at the expense of everyone else's fun. Yes, be competitive, yes, try to win, but if you regularly find yourself marked as the arch-enemy, or people refuse to play with you, you're doing it wrong, and that's on YOU, not them.

[@majinvegeta6364]

@endersblade don't gaslight me. I've had many, many people tell me that it is, in fact, against the spirit of the format to try to win at all. You are the one making broad statements and baseless accusations. YOU are obviously the problem. Very uncool

[@majinvegeta6364]

@@endersblade I just saw your subscriptions. Of course you are alt-right. No wonder you are so aggro over problems that only exist in your head 🤦🤦🤦

[@Kon-F]

​@@majinvegeta6364Im pretty sure the "you" they are referring to is a hypothetical person who goes full cedh every game and is a table arch enemy who people dont want to play with. Unless youre just telling on yourself here, there's no attack here

[@majinvegeta6364]

@Kon-F I thought that might be the case, but then I saw some of his other posts. He attacks Trinket Mage and anyone else who does adhere to his very narrow interpretation of what the format should be. It's not cool.

[@gamersalsa6973]

Perfect timing with the upload, been having trouble with a couple of my decks

[@Jjk82486]

Also, my favorite tech priest, you (and Salubrious Snail) have had SUCH an influence in my Pod. I literally built a Politics, and a Stax deck because of your respective videos on those types of decks.

[@Ox7moron]

i love the emphasis on budget. Upgrading decks doesn't have to be expensive- I recently upgraded my landfall deck with a Rumbleweed instead of a Craterhoof. Both win on the spot, but one costs 10x as much money

[@Wisegerbil]

So many more commander players need to build decks like this and brew off of feel and not "well what destroys everything and wins 99% of the time" fucking loved this video!

[@adrianj8370]

I love how you actually give advice instead of talking in a circle like most other channels, Awesome video!

[@al8188]

Dawn of Hope for Heliod seems reasonable. Your list already has sources of lifelinkers that can trigger it to draw, and it can pump out lifelinkers itself if you're already on the mana sink for dudes plan. Love the practical deckbuilding advice. What people don't seem to understand about card draw that they can learn from cEDH is that situational cards are a lot less situational when you're ripping through your deck. It doesn't need to be mystic/rhystic, but "cutting space" for lands and removal feels way less like you're losing out during gameplay when you've got a full grip the entire time.

[@ykl1277]

3:24 yup the RC agreed

[@RavnArmanson]

this was great. Very accessible and relatable. Definitely going to be looking at more of your stuff

[@brendenwilson9016]

Watching this video for the first time now and hearing “you don’t need mana crypt or jeweled lotuses to make your deck good” is very funny

[@robbiehardy3228]

The tip about analyzing your games is great. I've been keeping a journal in my phone notes for my games for over a year now, and I can't even say how much it's helped. Every game I play I summarize in one or two sentences, and it's great to be able to refer to later! Great idea!

[@BloodSplatterArtist]

Using non top-end cards is a good point. I have a Volo deck that is specifically built to run at a budget with non optimal cards to play against low power level pods. It swaps things like craterhoof for end raze forerunners. Every time I bring it out in its intended pod people complain that it's too powerful for the pod. Part of it is probably not correctly prioritizing Volo himself, but it's a good example of being able to stay competitive without the "best" cards.

[@RandonActs5]

My favorite thing is searching scryfall for removal/draw/finishers that are too on theme and playing cards that don't see much play.

[@jaceg810]

Argent Dais might be great carddraw in white. I currently run it in a Lurrus artifact token deck, where it doubles between: 1 Exile a token and spend 2 mana to draw two card (basically, get 2ce the value from clues) 2 Emergency removal. Do you want your opponent to draw cards? No. Is it preferable to losing and an answer to any nonland permanent? Yes. When it comes to charging the thing, you showed multiple "attack with 2 creatures" cards as carddraw you might want, and this also works if your opponents attack with 2 dudes, so if you get a bit lucky, it works every turn, if it is just you, it works every other turn.

[@thetrinketmage]

I haven’t thought about this card! I like the suggestion

[@whatever-kc5dk]

I love this card. I play it in my anim pakal deck to either sac gnomes or as emergency removal. I even made deals with other players that needed the card draw and offered me something in return. So underated and flexibel.

[@auberry8613]

Argent Dais is one of those cute cards that just randomly kill someone if they try to use thassas consultation

[@Varler_]

I currently have 23 custom-made EDH decks varying from mid-power to cEDH. I think I'm a great deck builder, but I still love watching your tips videos because you state everything so succinctly it helps me give advice to my friends on how to improve their decks. Keep it up!

[@Zeraphim2613]

Hey trinket, you should check out Sun Droplet for life gain in the draw go white control list. It's my favorite for decks that want to go long and need some life loss mitigation. It's only 2 mana for an artifact that gets counters equal to the damage you take, then every upkeep, removes a counter and gains a life. Take 4 damage, get four counters, heal that damage back after 4 players go. It's alot more resilient than people notice like ever.

[@thetrinketmage]

You know I used to play that in modern sideboards!

[@goretoriumgaming8600]

I run 32-38 lands depending on the deck, costs, ramp situation, etc. I tend to follow the rule of 9s. If i want to see a certain effect, example anthem as you mentioned, every game i include 9 ways to get that effect.

[@vengerofthelight]

In regards to improving your deck with winning in mind: I think what you're really getting at is Agency. You want to feel like your plays matter and your deck was able to do fun stuff. As it so happens, making your deck more able to provide this sense of Agency will probably also improve the winrate of the deck, but that's incidental -- not the goal. Also, I suspect there ARE people who read that and thought, "No, I just want to win more." That fine -- probably incorrect most of the time, but fine. XD

[@p0rc41music5]

THIS

[@shadowgripper]

This video does such a great job at expressing exactly how I feel about how others should go about building decks for Commander play. There's so many ways to do it. Often, critical parts of deckbuilding get overlooked because of favorites or just too much clutter.

[@drguthrie7621]

I think this has inspired me to keep notes for each of my decks and jot my feelings atterwards see what did well and what didn't what cards seemed good etc.

[@brodyderp4132]

Honestly I feel this has been the best way curve has been explained. I appreciate this!

[@BobJones-bg4ui]

I often time build my decks with budget in mind. I always try to avoid expensive cards unless it’s critical to the theme I want. For example, I cutted the Great Henge in my Green/White Creature deck for the Immortal Sun. Or, Soul of the Harvest.

[@JonNuclear]

I think where a lot of people get caught up in the 'not making your deck too good' thing is not realizing that what you wanna do most the time is to raise the floor and widen the walls more than raise the sealing. You don't need a mana crypt but you should probably make sure your color fixing and mana ramp function most the time. And you don't need a two card auto-win but you should probably have some ways to interact with most win cons your opponents might have. These things don't even really make your deck more powerful but do make it better and more so just make it so your deck is able to play more often which is what really matters. I think keeping your decks power level in check and focusing more on fun than wins is important but you're not gonna have fun if you never get to play your cards and insta-lose to half the strategies in the game.

[@Jerma985_fan]

This is great. I came in looking for some numbers. Something like how many counterspells you should run, but you're right there probably is no correct number. Just do what works. This takes time, but it's worth it.

[@camerong2239]

I think you touched on a really good point everyone knows they need things like card draw/removal but default to wanting the best version of it like the one ring or rhystic study. This results in a lot of issues like the one you mentioned by being cost prohibitive, it drastically changes how your deck performs if you happen to draw into these and I found that players tend to think their issue is solved after adding one or two of these best version of cards.

[@Magnafiend]

Since you specifically mentioned it, Patron of the Kitsune and Linden the Steadfast Queen work wonders. Patron is a bit more late game but gains you life whenever ANY creature attacks, and linden nets you life when your white creatures attack. Also if you find you're making a lot of tokens with your extra mana and kind of more going wide, suture priest does double duty of etb lifegain for your tokens as well as making the simic player across the table cry.

[@mooninites755]

There's some good advice in this video, but I would also push back on the idea that you need to have 'removal for everything'. It's kind of ironic that right after that section in the video you talked about giving your deck more focus. Often times, the two are incongruent; You cannot have a focused deck and a deck that has a silver bullet for every strategy. I think it's okay to admit your deck can't deal with every strategy and that sometimes your deck just loses because it doesn't have an answer to X or Y. You may lose that one game, but in the aggregate your deck will come out ahead by focusing on your strategy rather than always trying to jam in ways to deal with an opponent's strat. This isn't to say that you shouldn't run removal, but often times I see a lot of players make the mistake in deck-building of trying to put an answer for enchantment, artifact, creature, graveyard, etc. removal and then end up a lot of dead cards in hand; and that's assuming you draw into it/have it in hand when your opponent plays something that needs to be removed.

[@Alice_Haukea]

This is why I like channels like yours. My exposure to real life players is fairly limited. I only play magic once a week if I'm lucky because i refuse to play online. I just prefer the in-person interactions and shuffling real cards. For someone like me who doesn't have years and years of experience in this game, I'm often overwhelmed with the sheer number of cards out there and different decks to be built. For a while I was bouncing from deck to deck far too often. But another problem that i run into still, is maintaining proper deck focus when building it. I'm currently working on a Sigarda Font of Blessings deck. I'm trying to focus on angels and life gain, but as you can imagine, the big problem is that almost all of the angels are 4 mana or greater. Suddenly my mana curve is just way too high. So then I tried doing a balance of humans for the low end and angels for the higher end. The problem then was that the life gain theme lost focus and thus lost steam. Now the current draft of the deck I'm working on keeps that same balance more or less, but I'm treating the human aspect as a Hate Bear theme with the handful of big angels as my "finishers". I'm aiming to win the game of attrition. My big angels do have Lifelink so I can grind it out hopefully. On the other end of the scale though, I'm trying to build a deck around Arvinox, the Mind Flail. I have the secret lair version and it just looks cool. This deck has a high cmc problem even worse than the angels. All the effects that this deck wants are high CMC or just one-off spells that lack long term impact. And there simply are not enough of them in mono black. So I'm left scratching my head regarding what sub theme I can go for that lowers the curve and makes the deck playable. Even if I cannot get my commander to become a creature very fast, just getting it into play asap is nice. A deck like this wants the Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus I think just to compensate for its cost and sluggish nature. The deck is still not finished yet because I just don't know what to do with it.

[@Iker888]

I just built a slower land-ramp white deck, that’s a real contender in the late game. Frankly, I’ve found the best control cards to be board wipes. No need to draw that many cards if your removal is that efficient. I found that five, along which a slew of recurable targeted removal gets me there in pretty good shape. Then I have the mana and cards to finish people off.

[@bryceduyvewaardt8136]

Argentum Masticore can be a last-ditch removal spell that’s slow but colourless. It can let you discard your least useful card in hand to destroy a nonland permanent with less than or equal MV. Also, when first brewing it helps to goldfish up to 10 times digitally up to turn 6 to get a first feel of how a deck can behave. I changed like 20 cards for a Ms Bumbleflower deck to decide on what cards to not use from the precon and what budget flash and instant spells I already have actually help it run better. Hope this helps!

[@canamrock]

Argentum Masticore in Glissa, the Traitor becomes a menace that will draw the whole table's attention. With enough card advantage, he's fine anyhow, and the protection is occasionally amazing.

[@BananaNationTV]

Life gain for your mono white control. My favorite for chip damage is Sun Droplet. This card never eats removal because it’s a 2 drop artifact that seems to do nothing most of the time and even when it gets 16+ counters most people think they can just race it down which is never the case. This card is utilized to great affect in my Queen Marchesa deck where I want people to be chipping me for damage for the monarch and I chip them back

[@starmanda88]

Literally dropped everything I was doing to watch 😂😂 love ya trinket mage!

[@thetrinketmage]

I appreciate it!

[@Kahadi]

I think an important point to make regarding subthemes in decks is that if you want a subtheme, even if it comes from shoving your favourite card in despite it not fitting the main theme, you need to try finding cards that can tie together the subtheme with the main theme. A personal example I have is what I call my Voltron Swarm deck. I was lucky, because the original idea for my deck came from wanting to build around Cathar's Crusade after I pulled it from a pack years ago. Any time a creature enters the battlefield under my control, all of my creatures get a +1/+1 counter. That right there ties together two themes. +1/+1 counters (the "Voltron" aspect) and ETBs. It doesn't matter what creature enters, everything still gets stronger. Initially, I focused more on the Swarm effects, getting everything I could find that brought out creatures for free or made tokens. Bounce, recursion, flicker/blink, paired with token generators to just flood the field with things and pump everything up. Then I started facing issues. If Cathar's Crusade didn't get out, or if it was removed, while I did have a bunch of creatures, they were all small and thus very easily removed. One board wipe and I was done for. One properly timed counterspell and my deck couldn't handle itself. It took some time, but eventually I went from mass swarm to ETBs in general, with a subtheme of +1/+1 counters. Cathar's Crusade was the perfect way to tie them together, using one to benefit the other. But by actually adding some more focus on my subtheme, I got other options, like Champion of Lambholt and Master Biomancer. Which gave rise to more options in general. I found more cards that cared about other stuff coming in, letting me benefit more from creatures that don't have built in ETB effects, more things that didn't mind staying on the battlefield. After all, what was the point of giving everything +1/+1 counters if I just kept removing them from the battlefield and bringing them back in, removing any built up counters in the process? It took years to build the deck, but eventually it led to more cards that care about +1/+1 counters on things. Abzan Battlepriest to give everything Lifelink, Ainok Bond-Kin to give them First Strike, Herald of the Secret Stream to make them unblockable. And these came together to give me more ways to win. I can strengthen one or two things to make them super powerful by focusing all of my +1/+1 counter effects on them, or I can spread my counters out better, even without Cathar's Crusade, attacking with a dozen smaller creatures that all have First Strike or that are unblockable entirely, or, if my opponent has ways of wiping out my counters, I can even go really wide and get tons of small creatures out. If a board wipe takes out reusable options for repeated ETBs, I can easily just bring back stuff that doesn't care about entering a ton, requiring fewer recursion spells to recover. I'm also a big fan of removal that can help in other ways. Bounce spells can just as easily send an opponent's creature back to their hand to protect me from a threat, at least temporarily, as they can bounce something to my hand for another ETB. Flicker/blink effects with a delayed return can also remove a threat temporarily, or protect something from a board wipe, as well as giving ETB triggers. Spells that can kill creatures, be it targeted or board wipes, also pair well with recursion effects, letting me kill my own stuff to bring it back for an ETB trigger if, in the moment, that's more useful than saving it to neutralize an opponent's threat. Similarly, my mill deck doubles as a spellslinger deck thanks to Consuming Aberration. Casting anything makes you mill, providing added benefit to cheaper or even free spells and turning even removal or other protective options into mill effects as well. I have, in the past, countered my own spells just for added triggers. I would include Storm cards, but I try doing my best to minimize the number of singles I buy just to complete a deck, instead going mostly by what I've gotten from packs, but they would fit amazingly well. All in all, subthemes can work very well if you ensure you have some cards that can make it work hand in hand with the main theme.

[@jayishikawa4150]

That’s crazy, I legit just found sunforger existed 3 days ago and got it yesterday. Thanks for the content!

[@GuruSensha]

First build of my Gate deck was more focused on Landfall triggers but then i dicoverd the power of makeing Mana with Baldusgate untap it and doing it again. Now im addicted to winning the game out of no ware

[@dalesmith4015]

Well of lost dreams is my go to for carddraw in white. It’s a 4 generic that says when you gain life you can pay up to that amount in mana and draw that many cards. If you’re adding life gain, you should reasonably be gaining life which will trigger this effect and allow you to spend mana to draw a large sum of cards

[@gambadrawing5669]

Can I just say that I appreciate the thumbnail cause Heliod the Sun God is literally the commander of my first commander deck

[@papernes]

Love deck building theory. Hate playing commander, but love building enough to have near 30 decks on moxfield. Haven’t updated several in a couple years though. I could talk about theory crafting for hours.

[@JohnSmith-vk9ds]

A quick note on check lands is that their effectiveness decreases significantly in three-plus color decks unless your deck can reliably enable Domain. This is sometimes done through basic landfetching, but usually involves the much more expensive multi-land cards such as the original duals, Shock lands, Triomes, the aforementioned Tango lands, or the steadily increasing-in-price Surveil lands from Murders at Karlov Manor. Some excellent and relatively cheap mana fixing options for decks with this many colors are the filter lands, especially the ones originally from the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block that are usually under $5 each due to recent reprints, and the Pathways originally from Zendikar rising. Lair lands are also a frequently overlooked option that can allow you to stay on curve by returning a land after you've tapped it for mana, and also can offer synergy with rainbow lands that utilize counters (like Gemstone Mine) or have ETB effects.

[@IBN5100SG]

I am in the process of upgrading my decks after seeing that some of my old-time favorites started to have trouble catching up to newer, more balanced ones (sometimes even precons, which are a lot more well constructed these day than in the times of old) and I agree with everything said here. Starting with my mana base, draw and removal over finishers and pet cards is the key part of my current upgrade process. I'd just add one point to this, and that's using multi-purpose cards that on a budget can fill in more than one role that the deck is lacking. They won't do everything as well as dedicated options, but serve a purpose, as they make it easier to draw into what you need. For example a Lorehold Command is a few cents, but is creatures, card draw and protection. If you want a creature that hits enchantments and artifacts and mana value is less of a concern, remember about good old Acidic Slime, as it also hits lands and has Deathtouch. I've seen it way too many times, and also fallen victim of this myself when deck building, when with time it is easy to start accumulating very narrow synergy cards over more universal ones. Both are fine, but there should be a balance.

[@s-sy7yc]

First watch and instant sub. You have a calm and concise way to explain, very good! Thanks for the tipps, will appreciate them

[@thetrinketmage]

Thanks for subscribing I hope you like my other stuff too

[@ashblakey8658]

When I’m building commander decks I’ll first start with focusing on what each colour strength is, I will then decide what I want the deck to be. As an example I’ve just recently built a temur creature deck which uses surrak dragonclaw as the commander. His ability is great as it means my creatures actually hit the board and I can potentially get my opponents to ‘waste’ removal on my less important creatures as well as achieving any ‘ETB’ triggers I may have. The blue focuses on control (counter spells, icefall regent etc) the green focuses on the ramp and heavy hitters and finally red focuses on dealing pure damage (to remove opponents cards such as mana accelerant creatures and dealing damage directly to the opponent(s) I run 33 lands in all my decks and that seems to be the sweet spot for me as I hardly ever have mana issues, the only time I’d consider increasing this would be in something like a landfall deck.

[@ne0ns0wl46]

I run like 34 lands on average, and it works most of the time. Every 3 cards i draw should have 1 land, so most of the time i start with a 2-3 land draw. And then you have other ramp cards and mana rocks. An issue not many people talk about is that, after each play, your lands are getting closer and closer together in distribution. After 10 matches you'll have like half of your lands in one half of the deck. My suggestions for people is to de-clump your deck regulary. Lay out every land and distribute the rest of your cards equally on those lands. This way your land distribution isn't shitty, even after you shuffle it a dozen of times. And for quick de-clumps after each match to keep a good distribution, you can do the same with the cards you have drawn/played. Since the lands you have played are layed out anyways, you can quickly distribute your hand and graveyard on these.

[@AptMatrix]

I have a custom built green red landfall deck that i played pylath world sculpture as in command, but found that in my matches i didn't have anything to deal with anything with flying, and the people i play with run mainly flying decks, so i was able to swap out a few creatures that i never used for some with reach, as well as added some instants and sorceries that take out flying. it improved my deck alot with such a simple fix and gave me a better chance at winning as well as made the deck more fun. Recently tho, i bought the upgrades unleashed pre-con and did a bit of customization by combining what i needed to build a pretty powerful deck that finally allowed me to keep up with my two friends (till one of them got mothman). it is now a red green, voltron deck with some landfall features, using chishiro the shattered blade in command

[@HyotumReal]

I think my favorite deck that I’ve made that has had the most consistency is my Sauron lord of the rings deck, he’s a big body but he typically doesn’t get removed because you just need to worry about his cast trigger or graveyard hate. And instead of mill, I did a discard deck, focusing on looting effects and madness, with one of the core pieces being bonemiser. On average I typically run through just under half my deck during a whole game. Its mana is also fairly consistent.

[@marshmellow9834]

this was really helpful since i wanna upgrade a deck i have that i think has to many subthemse and not enopugh draw so I really appricat it man thannk you!

[@MCC17011]

Great advice all around, especially with budget options. I'll add that "powerful cards" are often such because of the sub-format they are played in. Lotus Petal is a great example, where in cEDH or very aggressive decks it is great, but I've seen newer players hear that it's "strong" and put it in their middling gruul dragon deck. Similar to mana crypt, if you are playing a deck or power level that goes into the late game you sometimes will be heavily paying for that extra mana, and at the same time your early turns may not be that precious that ramping normally will achieve a similar effect. Finally and this is mostly a personal peeve, if you are proxying do not use that as an excuse to power up your deck with cards your playgroups don't use. Even if your deck isn't pubstomping it will often be misinterpreted as such, draw agro, and potentially serve as a crutch vs general improvements to the deck.

[@sonicbelmont300]

If you're consistently making tokens in Heliod, I'd definitely recommend adding Staff of the Storyteller. It came in the Neyali precon and i underestimated it at first, but it gives me so much card advantage that it often gets targeted over my commander. It looks like a really fun deck btw, I hope you're able to get it running smoothly!

[@thetrinketmage]

I’ve never even heard of this card!! That’s a great find thanks!

[@LaBlueSkuld]

One thing that I do to improve my decks is for ones that I've had for a while... I do a blind rebuild. I go to Archidekt, create a brand new deck and build the same Commander from the ground up without referencing the original. Because sometimes over a few months or years of "upgrading" the deck with shiny new tools that I made 1 for 1 swaps over I may have lost sight of the original scope of the deck and inadvertently gave it a glaring weakness.

[@Tensan_17]

Some card draw cards I have in my mono-white deck are Mangara, The Diplomat, Norn's Decree, and Smuggler's Share. It leans control-ly also, and I find these can help keep people in check while drawing you cards

[@jolteon345]

The biggest upgrading tip is to keep your meta in mind. It's one thing to take advantage of a meta that mildly lacks removal. It's another thing to start an arms race if that's not the experience that you, and your playgroup, want. So many people go over the top with upgrading decks and end up either starting an arms race or overtaking the playgroup. I'll keep slowly feeling out my decks against my primary playgroup to figure out what needs to be taken out. Maybe it's the Rhystic Study/Smothering Tithe because that creates a slower and unfun experience, maybe it's a wincon that is too consistent. I'll also keep variance in mind, if my deck has 24 creatures and I draw 1 I got unlucky, and if I happen to be in mono-black with my card draw costing life in the process while getting drained throughout the game, I just got hosed and need to turn my card draw into damage.

[@DecksByDibble]

My friends like to upgrade their decks with big flashy value pieces which don't support their deck's gameplan. My personal favorite way to improve the strength of my decks is to take the best cards (usually something that synergizes really well with my commander) and just look for more cards that do similar things. Even if it's not as good, having an extra version of the best card in your deck really boosts consistency and overall power.

[@JohnSmith-vk9ds]

Tocasia's Welcome is excellent card draw in mono-white that focuses on tokens, getting you one card every turn a creature with CMC 3 or less enters under your control. Esper Sentinel is also mono white and probably one of the best card draws in all of Magic, essentially functioning as a 1-drop Rhystic Study for non-creature spells--which explains it's ridiculous price.

[@mangomusli572]

Dont know how often you make tokens in your Heliod deck, but some cards you could consider are: welcoming vampire, idol of oblivion, tocasias welcome, skullclamp, caretakers talent, staff of the storyteller, rumor gatherer.

[@HarlowAshensky]

For removal, I started looking at filtering my scryfall searches for removal attached to creatures/gameplans that I could benefit from passively, without spending extra mana. In my +1/+1 counters deck, I’ve slotted in Urborg Scavengers and Greyhost reinforcements because I can double them with my commander Arna Kennerud. So a 3 mana urborg, on it’s first attack, becomes a 6/6, and has removed two graveyard cards from an opponent’s artifact reanimation deck. Greyhost can become an 8/8 if there’s a few creatures in a yard but clear the entire yard. These also are great to draw mid or late game too. Arna cares about board presence early, so establishing before she drops is crucial. They’ve performed better than lion sash for me, so I can spend my mana elsewhere on card draw. These just grow with my gameplan :) nothing is stopping me from recurring them myself either~

[@guildpact2056]

this was just great! thank you trinket!

[@project_swift]

That's an entertaining "bad deck" choice with your Heliod example. A Heliod draw + go control deck did a rampage through the European cEDH circut about 3 years ago.

[@evanbutler4347]

Considered heliod. All Tocasia's welcome, mentor of the meek like effects seem really good for pumping out 2/1s they are all once per turn, but if you had the mana, cpuld get a new hand with 2 of those effects out and 8 mana or so!

[@Iker888]

I just built a slower land-ramp white deck, that’s a real contender in the late game. Frankly, I’ve found the best control cards to be board wipes. No need to draw that many cards if your removal is that efficient. I found that five, along which a slew of recurable targeted removal gets me there in pretty good shape. Then I have the mana and cards to finish people off. Also as a draw option I’m quite happy with Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield.

[@DraXCore]

I have recently been trying to upgrade my umbris deck from just a pile of Horror's and nightmares to a deck that will actually end the game. I had no evasion for him so I have been slapping a couple of this cards for it. Will never remove my sadistic sacrament from the deck. Kick it and remove 15 lands and watch them realize why

[@samanthalechat]

I would lean into white strengths.Which is small creatures entering the field a lot or consistently. So these may be obvious but I would add welcoming vampire, Mentor of the meek, Rumor gatherer and Tocasia's Welcome for consistent card draw.

[@8bit_outcast708]

The low lands package is best suited for CEDH, but a lot of people copy that blueprint for their none CEDH without understanding why the CEDH deck does what it does. Most CEDH decks run super low average CMC like 2 and below, with tons of fast mana, and tons of options that carry them to victory. 37 lands, about 8-12 pieces of ramp, 7-11 spot removal, 2-3 board wipes, and 8-12 card advantage pieces. A solid blueprint for your average EDH deck. Synergy is also key

[@Moeru_Gatsu]

10:00 got that on a myr deck where my commander was removed over and over, i got artifacts to protect him, now it's all good

[@laurentrobitaille2204]

Tocasia’s Welcome might be an interesting to your Helios deck. Even though Tocasia’s Welcome triggers only once each turn, you can create tokens off Helios during your opponents’ turns, softening the once per turn restriction.

[@dac314]

I have been considering starting a Book of Grudges as it were...perhaps after this I will. It's a good idea just to see the matchups, who is winning consistently, etc.

[@izaiahsundquist6877]

When adding cards to my decks in certain slots like protection, ramp, card draw, removal, etc, I like to use synergistic versions of those cards even if they could be seen as the worst option. For example with removal, if I'm playing a deck with big creatures that has red or black, I may prefer wraths that deal a controlled amount of damage to all creatures while leaving my fatties alive such as Cataclysmic Prospecting or Bane of the Living.

[@Flava_Dave]

If your taking a lot of chip damage in that mono white deck you could try to take advantage of it while also having a little bit of lifegain with Sun Droplet. Then if you wanna combo that you can throw in a Lux Artillery to ping everyone for 10 damage at the end of your turns and you don't even need to worry about the first part of the card. I find it can also deter players from even hitting you as they don't want to charge your sun droplet thus setting off Lux. I'm still rather new to magic so I could be missing something big with the interaction but it's been fun to use in my Black/White lifegain deck

[@sunbro7853]

I have an Abdel/Master Chef deck that semi-regularly runs out of resources because it wants to power as many small permanents onto the board as possible before he comes out to make as many soldiers as I can. He would send them all away and I’d have like 2 lands in hand. Then it would be a few turns before I’d actually see another useful card to blink him and draw/get more resources. I’m changing the deck to have an enchantress backbone now and in such a way that it won’t need him to actually win the game. I was fishbowling last night and got a hand of Utopia Sprawl, Satyr Enchantress and Spirited Companion. So t1, sprawl, t2 satyr, t3, SC, into draw two draw another enchantment, play that, satyr draws, then the enchantment draws on etb. Sometimes a deck needs a big change up to few right.

[@TheMaskedNinja_]

Timing on this video was perfect trying to make a no creature child of alara deck right now and it's gonna need a lot balancing

[@maxpelletier2237]

I have a 33 lands Treefolk deck with NO mana rocks. Not even a solring. But it's FULL of ramp spells and creatures. I never get manascrewed. I even end up with them all on the board sometimes. I also run a 33 lands cantrip oriented deck. So I always draw and draw. Otherwise, 35 lands is my Goto, with ~10 mix of mana rocks and ramp. The biggest improvement i've made was to convert the manabase to lands that don't come into play tapped.

[@peterd8251]

I've been taking notes on my games all year and it's led to some great insights! I noticed my Pantlaza deck was winning way too often (>60%), and almost always with Overwhelming Stampede and Akroma's will. So I replaced those cards with some similar lower-power versions, Overwhelming Encounter and Unbreakable Formation. I may swap them back eventually if the power in my meta increases, but it's nice to be able to notice things like that. Another thing I noticed is that, I've upped my land count a lot and it has felt great! I usually run 38-40 lands now and it has helped a ton with hitting land drops all game and rebuilding when I get behind. Then again, all my decks contain green, because I just love putting lands into play. Edit: 60%

[@thetrinketmage]

I’ve also been recording some stats! Got a video planned about it

[@peterd8251]

@@thetrinketmage nice, I'll be looking out for it!

[@thetrinketmage]

@@peterd8251 it’s gonna be a long while! I need a lot more stats before I make it

[@bullethail3875]

So the thing is that recently I rebuilt my Jolene treasure deck and now it's SO good at generating treasures that I outpace my own deck's ability to keep the momentum going with those treasures. The issue I've run into is that I do not have enough card draw to keep up and get the win cons reliably enough to take advantage of said abundance of treasures.

[@joshrivet4011]

If you don't already have it, River Kelpie is a good draw engine in a graveyard recursion deck. It's a bit pricey at 3UU, but if you're already cheating things out of the graveyard, it's only the cost of binning and rezzing it.

[@Prowl76]

In my playgroup, graveyard recursion and utility lands are very popular so I make sure to include Unlicensed Hearse, Demolition Field, Field of Ruin, and Ghost Quarter in every deck I make. Don't underestimate the usefulness of non basic land destruction to get rid of those pesky Cabal Coffers and Maze of Iths.

[@loganricard8713]

Always love it when you drop a new video

[@jacobpourchot6294]

I made a Dogmeat voltron equipment deck because I love fallout, and it got me back into magic. I could get a big creature out on the board and maybe take out one player. Only if they didn't have blockers. So, I added ways to get around blockers. Well, then I would swing and not have a big enough blocker. I played 20+ games and never won. I had to come terms with the fact that Dogmeat was my pet card and it wasn't working. So I went back to the drawing board, and I took my equipment out of Dogmeat and created a Boros equipment deck around Eivor Battle Ready. The deck is the same vibe. It's way more fun and actually has a chance to win games. Take an inventory, make changes when necessary, and most importantly, have fun.

[@damienpeters6004]

I usually try to run roughly 10 ramp, 10 draw, and 10 removal / counters in every deck, 35-38 lands, and put the rest into core strategy. Additionally, I try to make the three essentials work best with the strategy as I can. For instance, I have an Inniaz flyers deck. I could run Wrath of God as a board wipe, but instead I run Kirtar's Wrath. Two more mana is steep, but the vast majority of the time I also get two of the three flyers necessary to begin using Inniaz's ability shortly after. That sort of thing gives me pretty consistent decks regardless of power level or price point.

[@raymondcarter4335]

Mind’s Eye is the best card draw 😂 Phial of Galadriel is my favorite mana rock. If you find your hand empty a lot, add it to the deck.

[@bobbyjoegree]

I like Firemane Commando for the Heliod deck, it has the draw and also provides incentive for opponents not to attack you, which is nice for the slower deck.

[@zidaryn]

The thing I struggle with is creature removal and recovering from board wipes. I also need more card draw. I'm playing a mono-green Elf deck with 'Ezuri, Renegade Leader' as the commander. The idea is to spam out elves to generate mana. Then use Ezuri's Overrun ability multiple times to swing for big damage.

[@zkow1645]

The problem I have with my deckbuilding in my play group is that my decks are too good, so I try to make worse ones to keep play fair, but it still ends up being too strong.

[@towelguy]

mulligans is also an important part on the game experience in commander many people are lax about it while others just use london, but even then I'd say paying attention on you having enough mana to play in your opener is more important than having the cool cards, you always have your commander to play my golden rule is having 3 lands in my opener being able to play is fun after all

[@scottmcallister6583]

Heliod list looks cool. Have you thought about adding more board wipes instead of more life gain? White is really good at breaking parity on board wipes, your commander already has indestructible, and it looks like most of your permanents are non-creature anyway. You're not going to out draw other colors, but you can at least get advantage by blowing more of their things up than what you're blowing up on your side of the field.

[@thetrinketmage]

I usually end up with too many board wipes in hand as is. Because of pillow fort cards I often want creatures to attack other players

[@cornxx3]

I casted an overwhelming stampede with a Malignus on board at 21/21. Had just 5 creatures total to attack with, added an additional 105 damage w/trample to the attack. Game ender for sure! Have never been lucky enough to have my own cratherhoof, so i make do with other cards.

[@S6Photon]

First line: Do you have a deck? Me: YES!

[@Spencer4686]

Archivist of Ogham if your in higher power circles lots of tutors etc gains life draws cards 2 things your looking for also the extra creature can be used to chump block Obviously in white you also have esper sentinel and then ranger captain or recruiter if the guard if you wanna take there. Phyrexian vindicator and guilty conscience is also a great combo to finish games. Once again enchantment and creature so could help your game plan. Your running opal essence so would definitely recommend parralax wave. Karmic justic helps people leave your stuff alone if you get targeted. You could also run the Heliod sun crowed to give life link and also combo potential with walking balista etc Lastly alseid of life's bounty enchantment creature that can protect your stuff. Oh also you could run settle the wreckage if your are leaving mana open to make tokens as you need. Hope that helps always like a good brew enjoy 👍👌

[@lloydnoid6506]

I always go with 38 lands, almost religiously. I get mana screwed and mana flooded at seemingly identical rates, so it feels like a good balance.

[@majinvegeta6364]

Super hottest of hot takes: The "Spirit of the Format" is kind of like the "Holy Spirit" in that it is supposed to teach us that we should all just get along, but becomes dangerous in the hands of fanatics.

[@thetrinketmage]

Wow that’s a really interesting take

[@brendans1983]

And this is why I play cedh, everyone is a nihilist 🤘

[@majinvegeta6364]

@brendans1983 the cEDH community is so much more chill. Personally, I can only play at that level in small doses. I just get tired of people telling me that there's no place for mid to high power decks in casual commander. Where did the concept EDH being a format exclusively for theme decks come from?

[@V2ULTRAKill]

​@@majinvegeta6364 fair I ended up playing cEDH just because i like the way the decks cook

[@majinvegeta6364]

@V2ULTRAKill my biggest thing with cEDH is that there are only around 50 viable decks. Mid to high power EDH has thousands of different options and play styles for me to explore. That said, the community is 10/10. It completely dispels the myth that trying to win makes people angry and miserable. Whereas casual EDH players bring salt by the truckload.

[@leopardbunny]

In a Storm deck or certain similar spellslinger decks, you may actually want to forego traditional counterspells in favor of targeted removal. It may sound blasphemous to say, but I've frequently run into issues with my Stella Lee deck where I'd hit a counterspell, only for it to remain in exile, either due to poor timing or having no valid targets. A face-up counterspell also removes the surprise factor and makes it much easier to play around, especially for counterspells with limited targets. But what's worse is hitting a counterspell off an effect that would require you to cast it, as it fizzles at best, while at worst it can counter your own spell as it'd be the only legal target, such as off of an Arcane Bombardment trigger. If you're going to run stack interaction, you may want to consider more flexible effects such as Mystic Confluence, Cryptic Command, or perhaps something more like Deflecting Swat that could automatically disrupt an opponent's triggered ability rather than your own spell, and at the least is an optional effect.

[@srdbadchad1926]

You probably have it but outlaw medic is the first card I think of for your Helirod deck. It has lifegain and draws once when it dies.

[@devinengberg6916]

Try staff of the storyteller in your heliod deck if you don’t already have it.