How to Optimize Your Commander Deck | EDH | Optimization Guide | Magic the Gathering | Commander

[@weekendwarlord3984]

Mitch: “don’t get too attached to pet cards; optimize for your deck.” Also Mitch: “First up is Wayfarer’s Bauble”

[@dyciefisk2535]

I mean, it's the same costs of expedition map, but it actually ramps you. In any colour as well, so best to use it in decks that don't already have access to green.

[@Basap1zti23]

@@dyciefisk2535 Yeah, but expedition map tutors ANY land, so finding a Gaea's cradle or a Cabal Coffers its better. That cards are expensive as fuck tough.

[@weedAndTransRights]

@@DaedricSheep wayfarer’s bauble is more expensive than arcane signet and sol ring

[@rileynassour6851]

That didn’t age well

[@ScottieC2112]

Goodbye Wayfarer's Bauble: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKvbdGiMgcarh6M

[@Nokus416]

TL;DR- Car with wheels, sauce, HEMI, V8, Grand Master Chess. Got it.

[@johnbuscher]

That’s not an LS. LS always wins.

[@Discollama217]

Is this a cognitive test? I think Mitch may have done better than anyone has ever seen before. I'm amazed, how did he do that? Almost no one does that!

[@caseywellington4761]

😂😂😂

[@MufasaTheMan]

@@Discollama217 I get it

[@cubachu]

I drive a v8 hemi a fridge full of different sauces and I am pretty good at chess..... why do I still struggle with magic then

[@alecolson8360]

Nobody: Mitch: so let's say you're in an alternate dimension where you have two friend groups

[@ggpt9641]

11:52-12:31 for the ad you've all been waiting for. Also timestamps below. 0:00-1:25 Introduction. 1:26-3:13 What is Optimization? 3:14-4:14 Optimization Vs Purpose 4:15-6:49 Why Optimize? 6:50-7:30 Personalized Deck 7:31-8:12 How to Optimize 8:13-11:29 Consistency 11:30-12:32 Look for Synergies 12:33-14:52 Optimizing for your Meta 14:53-16:23 Optimizing for your playstyle 16:24-19:40 Optimizing for your budget 19:41-22:25 Complete Optimization/End.

[@WayfarersBauble]

As Mitch so helpfully points out at 11:51...do you know what has great synergies and should be reprinted? Me! As of this posting, my lowest TCGPlayer market price is $3.24 for my Commander 2013 printing. You heard the man. Reprint me!

[@PraetorGix]

Mr Bauble I'm starting to enjoy your comment's on Mitch's videos quite a lot. Hope to see you reprinted soon!

[@billygibson9393]

Explain these synergies how it tactically gives me advantages

[@runlikeachiken]

Just wanted for Mitch to like my comment, that would really make my day. Keep up the good content Mitch!

[@giffs7972]

Despite the amount of mtg podcasts I listen to, I still love watching these kind of episodes

[@loganator326]

This definitely helps when your primary deck building strategy is throwing a bunch of cards you think work for your deck and then trimming the fat afterwards

[@jakeapplegate6642]

Is there any other way?

[@UNANTASTBarrr]

@@damnjekyll well kids that google:TOP META DECKS CEDH and then copy paste decks without understanding them! thats how it works!

[@BrimstoneMwG]

I was really hoping they were going to say "If you find yourself playing Cultivate in every green deck you have, maybe in your next deck, try something new! Like Kodama's Reach."

[@hubris_ssb]

Mitch deserves a raise for that Wayfarer's Bauble plug

[@Ktwitch88]

I love these kinds of tutorials!

[@shamtactics4712]

I agree

[@rallyrobb943]

My girl just saw my deck for the first time sense you optimised it for me. Can't thank you enough!!! 🖖🙃

[@iwannasmoovie8178]

Chefs kiss to this topic great episode

[@oom-3262]

Alek: Says something Mitch: *agrees aggresively*

[@LICHGOD666]

Mitch between you and the Professor I've learned so much more about EDH! I'm grateful! 🎃

[@RideDatDonkey97]

I like the car analogy. Thats basically what I did when I started playing Commander. Some of my decks came from this channel (Gishath was my first deck) and other decks were precons but I've changed an edited those decks so they are more my own versions now. I've mostly started making my own decks from the ground up now

[@beaureynolds4267]

Next time I'm tuning a deck I'm going to think to myself, "coulda' had a V8." Also great point about cards like doubling season just being an assist card. If you don't have anything to double, it's just Season.

[@silentmayan5427]

I took Mitch's Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose deck he made a video for. I slipped Aetherflux reservoir and Bolas' Citadel and they both have a very big effect and both fit well with the deck's goal. The deck has plenty of cards that gain me life for casting spells which makes bolas' essentially free and then triggers the other half of my card that deal damage when I gain life. Or I have a ton of life and can bop someone for 50 with Aetherflux, then I can swap life with Soul Conduit or Magus of the Mirror with another player to raise my life and deal more damage to someone.

[@evanragland4930]

Good follow up to this video would be: good, better, best options of specific mechanics for each color. In other words, good option for card draw for blue, better option for card draw for blue, best option for card draw for blue. Same thing for each other color and then look into some other key mechanics like mana ramp, token generator, sacrifice outlets, board wipes, counter spells, etc. That would help new EDH players like me. Great Content as always!!!

[@lordvojtas7524]

Love these kind of videos! I have a Noyan Dar deck myself And must say Its one od the meaneast decks in my Collection took Somr inspiration from the decklist but i must agree smacking people with Lands as a wincon is one od the best feelings! Keep up the great work Mitch!

[@bryankopkin6869]

One simple tip that I love to follow is this: Play test ALOT. During gameplay, remember the cards that have a tendency to sit in your hand with no use. These are the cards that you should replace! Also, making your manabase better is always super helpful. Taplands arent very fast.

[@dariocampanella7992]

Funny how wizard keep on selling 3colors deck with taplands...also rare lands are insult to players. #uncommontheshocklands

[@Kurse_of_Kall]

@@dariocampanella7992 In the same vein, as a wise man once said, "reprint fetchlands you cowards!"

[@AgentPedestrian]

I'll listen to the rest ofc but I'm still proud of when I finally optimized my cat tribal. Culling all the equipment cards was harsh but required to make room for the token go in for the kill fast kinda thing I wanted to do On the positive side I now have an entirely new deck for the equipment cats!

[@sindividual]

Here for the best optimizing advice on the Tube! Keep up the good work Mitch!

[@calebmullins2199]

Loved seeing you talk more freely Mitch!

[@kriptonite981]

Woo!!! More Commander's Quarters!!!

[@ethangarvey674]

I realize this is more about optimizing existing decks, but I think looking at building a deck from scratch can provide insight. The early stuff we can gloss over, namely picking the commander, picking a strategy, and pooling cards together. Everyone has their own ratios for their categories, but I typically shoot for 10-15 card advantage, 8-12 ramp, 15-25 synergy generation, 8-20 synergy payoff, 5-10 removal, 1-5 board wipe, 1-5 protection, and then 33-38 lands. When it comes to optimizing, you have to kind of get a feel for how often certain cards are dead in your hand, have less impact than you'd like, or if you are too slow on removal, protecting yourself, running out of cards, etc. to figure out how the categories need to be stretched for your specific deck. Most of the cuts I make after building a deck are cards that I look at and have very little good to say about after all the games I've played with it. The main thing for me is that it is very hard to optimize a deck when you haven't learned to pilot it and gotten a feel for its weaknesses.

[@noahmurtha4036]

This reminds me a lot of what I did when I started to optimize my Ephara deck to be more around just drawing cards lol. Having creatures that do something relevant when they etb is great. The adventure cards are HUGE in the deck too. I’m foiling it out which has also limited my options since some of the better cards for the deck don’t exist in foil but I love the deck and it’s the one that’ll stick around for the long haul. My playgroup loves it too since they never see the win coming 😂

[@reedeek1473]

As a new person in deckbuilding, I love those podcasts!

[@billygibson9393]

Real talk you guys are great at explaining the playing motives for the decks theme then continue adapting the ways of hitting or what all's hitting. Also how you guys convey your personalities so then their contrasting personalities then just form into a informative and just overall entertaining as their contrasting styles really make this unique from most KZbin magic deck gurus this one is with a person who knows the inner fibers of how the games vital situations are but in a like he said a chessmaster who'll be thinking about the pieces of course but really it's about the position and that's in two ways. The first is like a deck with a significant structured design with 33-40 cards associated with building up to effectively (positional in chess game but even before the matches are named the deck needs a fairly high probability for first draw that can build ramping on a few turns but then can go into the middle or end games. Tempo, momentum but also how long or. many turn. But you have a good thing going here

[@sebastianstarstuff6722]

I loved your video about Slivers. It would be great if you could make an uprading guide from the $100 one to a $500 or even $1000, but going in steps of $100 all in one video. As someone who wants to get not only into Slivers, but also into Magic as a whole, a guide on what to prioritize and gradual upgrades would be really useful. Like, not spending in x Sliver if i still don't have a mana base that would support it, etc. Keep up the good work!

[@krusk3544]

for me, that little personal touch is in my new black deck, its mostly built around the blood token mechanic from crimson vow, with a few vampire tribal support cards added to help it flow and Murder and Infernal grasp to help destroy key combo cards I know are popular in my locals

[@TheDARKNESS8030]

The optimization part, is actually my favorite part of the process. Ill spend hours a day over a few weeks. Just cutting the curves. I love seeing that almost 3+ cmc being cut 2.60+. I usually try to make my decks universaly good in any meta. But i guess I'm lucky that my main playgroup doesn't play much enchantments and artifacts. So I get to skimp out on that just alittle.

[@Kuronosa]

I LOVE the Clash mechanic.... Randomness can be very fun......oooooor you can clash with someone whose top of the deck you saw/can see from their own effects, or if you know someone is running a lower CMC deck, and you're running something with more high CMC cards...

[@RedCometNurse]

My first (and primary) deck really needs a good look to make it more focused so it is more consistent.

[@panzaggg]

Great one, make more of this kind of episodes!

[@brunt1984]

You seem to be having a good time making this one, made it even Better! Top episode.

[@jettblade]

Some good advice. Had a friend do none of that and he kept complaining why he never won or got the cards he needed. The friend doesn't play commander but never has made a deck less than 110 cards with just a vague theme. Tried to help him but he just doesn't want any help. Also I really like playing any type of card that makes my opponent go "hhhmmm. That's neat. I gotta get that." simply because I played something they haven't seen like Cream of the Crop, Long-Term Plans, or even a colorless tribal thopter commander deck. This is a great game with just a few gripes I have (control decks, Mycosyth Lattice, and Paradox Engine) Also being on the receiving end of a 12/12 flying Mountain I can attest that man-land strategies can be effective and fun. I now wanna make a deck where I can Fling mountains at people.

[@Gshadewolf14]

These videos always feel like Mitch and his friend hanging out, and we’re just kinda watching through the window XD

[@kevingarnett1255]

Loving the intro music, Mitch!

[@raimundopilotto2675]

First Step: Build a Janky EDH deck Second Step: Watch Mitch and learn a little about building a good deck. Third Step: Watch this video and start optimize your decks Fourth and Final: Realize in horror that now all your fully optimized decks belong to CEDH, and cry

[@kingfuzzy2]

Step one build a Janky deck step two add janky combos that take until at least turn 12 to pull off

[@snakeorbreak6258]

you can be cedh and jank at the same time. just ask golos extra turns.

[@chingcharles5933]

Useful consideration in optimising my various edh deck. Thks

[@MrThomasCWest]

I think the best way I optimized a deck was to just build a second deck around the same commander. I run two different Golos Decks. One has combo central, where nearly every card is part of a combo or synergizes with cards in the combos. An example would be the Infinite Squee Engine with Butcher Of Malakir. The other Golos Deck I run is an ETB madhouse style with no true end game. It is just a fun deck. Every creature and most enchantments have an ETB effect, and to get it going, I need to have Yorion, Sky Nomad on the table, then play Spark Double, copying Yorion. The result is a lot of annoyed players, especially since this combo kicks off every - and I do mean EVERY - end step. Yorion ETB, you exile everything you want exiled, you cast Spark Double, exiling Yorion, Yorion and everything else returns, you get your ETB triggers, and you exile everything with Yorion, including the Spark Double, then on your opponent's end step, everything comes back, ETB triggers and sparking Yorion, and repeating the process. Add Yarok to double those ETB triggers and people will hate you for a while. I'm actually quite proud of that deck honestly. And it took me a while to optimize it to get it to function like that.

[@kingfuzzy2]

That's one if the few folks decks I've found that I like it's also hilarious ( :

[@vladplasmius2854]

This video was pretty cool - MOAR GAMEPLAY VIDEOS!!! RAWRRRRR!! I don't know what came over me there.

[@safersephiroth943]

If I was going to take advice from someone, you’d definitely be on the list.

[@csantoro7738]

Love the vids! Keep up the great content!

[@taurincochran3398]

I've got a Krenko deck, with about 5 different strategies and ways to win. What makes that enjoyable for me,is that even I dont know what I'm going to do!🤣

[@annoyingvaper2595]

tried to play test a very budget omnath creation and i informed them that it was very weak, total cost like 30 dollars including the 22 i spent on omnath alone, then i get force of will counterspelled... 1 card 3x my deck cost. need a new play group i guess

[@pro711200]

Force of will barely increases power level. Counterspell would have done the same. Edit: sounds like your blaming the price on the card when its not super expensive to fit in 10 counterspells on a budget.

[@silenceyoufear7127]

@@pro711200 ya I have played against people who have pumped a lot of expensive cards into their deck, but are not great deck builders. They focus too much on the big flashy cards and then my somewhat optimized budget deck outpaces theirs and wins

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

indeed, some very expensive cards can be easily replaced if we are not talking cEHD. As I was playing now 20 years ago, I happen to have some FoW or Mana Drain I own in some decks ... and 85% of the time the good old way cheaper counterspell would have done the job just as well. Of course that is not to say that expensive cards with unique effects cannot spoil the experience for budget players sometimes.

[@ninjasalamMK3]

Since I am a fairly newish player, I tended to take decks from EDHRec and from others build that deck and change cards to fit my own style.

[@zoombot3033]

Mitch! I challenge you to break the bank on a optimized Ashling The Pilgrim EDH. Mono red tiny leader needs help and she hasn’t seen many recommendations aside from 99 mountains.

[@mrpoparq]

I found a couple less used 0-2 drop ramp spells for my narset deck to make sure I could get her out on turn 4 on a budget.

[@shinobihouzin]

I totally personalized my yuriko deck to have a reanimation package using unearth (for value creatures) ,animate dead , entomb, reanimate, with vilis and rakazeth , I've found that with the all the card draw from yurikos trigger I can often have my demons discarded the turn that i flipped them and hit everyone for 8 cmc , then they are back next turn to most opponents surprise :-)

[@briansterling8567]

When optimizing my decks, I make the land base more consistent and lower my average cmc

[@mahomy1000]

Finally, no getting blasted off the table turn 6 because I had the weaker deck

[@briangentry3714]

It might not have necessarily been that your deck was weaker. Several variables affect the outcome of the game. Some may not have even been in your control. Sometimes your opponents just have answers to your threats. Sometimes you get double-or triple-teamed. Sometimes you miss land drops or get color screwed. Don't get discouraged. Keep experimenting and learning and eventually you'll get the right formula for your specific brew

[@danielkuttel7867]

My first commander games where like: Put lands in a deck for 2000 Dollar, put Artefakts in the deck for 600 Dollar and after that play all tutors for 300 Dollar and you can play nearly any strategy. After i watched a match between mitch and the guys from commando zone and he dominates with his budget kenrith deck, i realized that not only money makes a deck good, more the player and his knowledge about deck synergy.

[@XTheCrystalBeastGuyX]

Teferi's Ageless Insight with Fluctuator and Glint-Horned Buccaneer on board turns any cycle deck with a shit ton of (2) Cycle cards into a near automatic player killing machine. My friends know that it can turn a deck from a 0 to a 100 in an instant because once you pitch your 14th card and have to discard 28, it's game over for any opponent who has 40 or less life. But if you put Curiosity on that Glint-Horn, you're drawing 3 for each discard and by the time you go to end step with 8+ cards in hand and no one can remove Glint-Horn, everyone dies. Same if you go Psychosic Crawler and Curiosity then just draw once. As long as you have more cards in your deck than player's do for life, you win.

[@Squee_666_9]

I really enjoy that ending song

[@matthewkoehler6079]

Let's see more of Alek, he's great!

[@killerbanshe3]

Recently been losing every game I've played, I'll give your tips a shot.

[@justinsmith2282]

I think it would be cool if you started a series where you rated your subscribers home brew decks

[@easyjo6638]

what a nice tutorial! I have a whish to see (if someone sees this): can you make an Atraxa, Praetors' Voice Superfriends/Plansewalker deck?

[@Fazzee45]

No that deck is annoying and you'll make everyone else feel like they aren't even playing.

[@brokensprites]

I feel like a fully optimized deck functions the majority of the time. But how do I do this in commander? How do I know what mana curve for each deck... How do I know what cards to add to give my magic flow??? Experience, wisdom and creativity. Building a deck is an art form that takes little time to understand but a lifetime to master.

[@Yourbeautiful666]

Add Blue, add black, subtract white. Optimized.

[@freedomforall1712]

"Special sauce to these wheels" Me: I can relate to that.

[@grim_blazer9120]

I know it’s a long shot but can we get an alternate win deck tech

[@jessescott727]

As a car guy i cringed at this lmaoooo but i like the enthusiasm! Anyways loved the video Mitch! It helped a lot in optimizing my yisan deck

[@daagonthebefeler7960]

Unfortunately to deal with my play group i need to run about 40 counterspells, someone always says im not playing cedh and proceeds to land fall draw himself out and win with the originality of labratory maniac by turn 5 or 6

[@elibauman7478]

When do we get the next close quarters and the next head to head

[@MeldrickCz]

Basic optimalization is simple: add ways to increase number of mana sources as it is common problem with players (Im guilty of it), second important thing is shaving staples that are neutral to your gameplan or only slightly beneficient with exeptions of the few staples that are poweful enough to stay just for its raw power (eg. sol ring, eternal witness...). Next level thinking goes against firt advice and it is basicly shaving mana sources to the pinpointed nearly "exact number" (hint look at the number of utility lands that add no colour). While you cant do wrong per se with two or three lands more with contrast to that you have 2-3 lands less, you can do best when u have as much or as few as your deck needed.

[@fabio.n4458]

more of these please!!!

[@aR0ttenBANANA]

What do you do when the deck is fully optimized and now you’re just changing cards for the sake of it?

[@orgazmo686971]

Grow from the Ashes is good - but with only 10 ramp sorceries per deck it doesn't make the cut. In decks with 20 ramp sorceries, it's a great include.

[@HECTOR8HELL8]

What would some optimization for my Karlov deck? I focus on life gain triggers to power Karlov. The back up is life drain and tokens.

[@Eternalseraph]

Last time I was this early, The Walking Dead was still relevant

[@Ibuprofen_800mg]

Another great video.

[@douglasfraga3995]

It is always fun to hit your opponents with giant indestructible flying lands that I animate countering everyone spells.

[@andersnielsen3217]

Can we get a link for that breya eggs deck?

[@marzcontemprato587]

Off-topic question: When is the next episode of close-quarters 😁

[@patrickboswell4399]

literally! I f eel like that first video represented my playgroups power level really well. I would love to see more

[@bluesight_]

good stuff!

[@ippy6791]

You should do a video about cEdh :)

[@nickleewright]

Mitch... I'm curios if you upgrade your decks when new cards come out. When you do so and you notice that cards in the deck have gone up quite a bit, how do you still call it a budget deck or do you?

[@nickleewright]

I'm also thinking that the new card would be super cheap.

[@lordgriselbrand4600]

He probably doesn't ever upgrade as soon as new cards come out. Standard cards tend to get cheaper after 30-60 days (allocation period, not enough supply to go around), and they tend to drop alot more after they rotate out of standard

[@nickleewright]

@@lordgriselbrand4600 didn't mean nessisarry right away but newer cards that may be super cheap. I mean it starts off as being budget but what happens when he goes to upgrade (with cheap budget cards) and finds that several cards in the deck that used to be $2 or less are suddenly $10 cards. Does he still call it a budget deck?

[@meatshild16]

Good to see the old smiling mitch back talking about acctually playing commander. I was concerned that we were going to lose u to all the Cynicism from WOTC

[@dougystyle79]

Absolutely...

[@sewykik5004]

i think theres also something to be said about over-optimization. if your deck is balanced for your playgroup, and youre having fun with it, theres no need to push it further- all it does is force everyone else to optimize and can make the games boring

[@JamDonut11]

Is it possible that you can try to make a competitive budget commander deck? It's fine if you bump up the prices to around 75-100$ since cEDH is a more expensive format. I just don't want to spend all my money on 100 pieces of cardboard

[@lordgriselbrand4600]

most cedh groups and discords are proxy friendly. Save your $

[@JamDonut11]

@@lordgriselbrand4600 well, if i'm going cEDH, then my choice is my LGS, which you have to use actual cards.

[@SwiftDavid1489]

Nice!

[@kristennorth3268]

Loving the subliminal sweatshirt. A video on goldfishing and similar testing would be helpful.

[@mauimallard154]

I'm sorry, whats the name of the guest? I would love to follow him too

[@IVISMiLESIVI]

Yo dudes I get what you're saying...but I really need that colossal hammer in my deck. The art on it looks sweet and my creature gets +10/+10...

[@shamtactics4712]

Hey mercy store idea take the two sticker arts and make a flip coin for the store.

[@shamtactics4712]

Sorry it autocorrected Mitch to Mercy.

[@Eddyb1e]

*slaps top of commander deck, "This *Wayfarer's Bauble* can fit so many Hemi's in it!"

[@johanandersson8252]

Don’t you mean Wayfarer’s Bauble

[@Eddyb1e]

@@johanandersson8252 I must now edit. =)

[@kandjar]

16:05 "You play Culvivate in 5 out of my 6 decks" Next deck I'll change, I'm, gonna play Kodama's Reach!!

[@mizt_strider8003]

Anyone know a discord where I can get extra voices for the deck I'm brewing?

[@alecolson8360]

This is helpful

[@darkokoroshi5883]

my jhoira wetherlight captan 30 lands, 16 non-artifact cards, 53 artifacts. I beat a super optimized krenko player 1-on-1 4 out of 5 times edit: 1st game, he plays first, mountin>sol ring + smile. me, island> mana cript (he has it too)> copy of mana cript> signet. While some cards are banned 1-on-1, we were waiting for the rest of our group :)

[@psy_p]

Mitch: don't gamble! Red players: why can't we play tutors like ever other color?

[@kingfuzzy2]

Red has tutors more than white in fact

[@psy_p]

@@kingfuzzy2 not really. It's 68 x 30 in white's favor.

[@jonathonmenth3901]

Yay!

[@soulanski]

I don’t have a pet card that is in too many decks! (i say as i look upon my glorious collection of living deaths in every deck that has black in it)

[@CrimsonHiroX07]

How many options would you like for your deck? Yes. How many win conditions do you have? Also Yes.

[@thomasdawicki141]

When will Mitch return as Magic the Noah’s intern?

[@grosseilecontenderleague]

I play CEDH and all my friends play edh, and I only play with those friends, so i stomp on them every game.