Get Your Deck to 100 Cards | How to Make the Last Cuts for your Commander Deck

We're offering tips on how to cut those last cards for your commander deck!
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Ever have trouble cutting your commander deck down to 100 cards? There's so many awesome cards to play! We have some tips and tricks you can use when deckbuilding to help get your deck to the desired number.

[@veterangamer6382]

"Jack of all trades, master of none, is oftentimes better then a master of one" is the full quote

[@NitpickingNerds]

I KNEW IT!!!

[@erickvanpatten673]

Than**

[@nicolaslarranaga8721]

people tend to read this sentence as Jack of all trades = Master of none. It should read "Jack of all trades AND master of none[...]".

[@NitpickingNerds]

Just goes to show how ignorant joe cherries is

[@ernestlam5632]

Wow I'm 43 y.o. and never the 2nd part of this saying!

[@joshuablack3163]

That first step is to understand that you can change your 100 once you've cut it down.

[@NitpickingNerds]

True! That’s why I like writing them down, so I can still see them

[@ygaudreault]

True I always keep the rough list in my excel, that's the first place I check when I want to replace a card.

[@SirCorn]

I use decklist editors for this exact reason!

[@Droid6689]

Just make it a list of 120 and have 20 be a sideboard then keep your reluctant cuts in the sideboard till you are comfortable with the deck

[@tannenzapfen3697]

okay this helped me a lot in my current project :D i always behave like this list will be forever but my decks are changing with new cards coming out anyway

[@PeliPelaaja]

One time I was having a hard time cutting my deck, I just left it being 250 cards and asked my playgroup if it was okay to play Battle of Wits.

[@kk_33]

Instead of writing down cuts, I just put my cuts into my "Maybe" list. Then when I'm done, I look through the maybe list and cut it down to around 10-15 cards. Then I know which cards are on the edge of making the deck

[@maxmazzel]

This is exactly what I do as well. It's such a nice feature.

[@SirCorn]

I do something similar

[@Bruhecc]

Or if youre cutting physical cards, just cut all the maybe cards

[@Krunschy]

One thing I do that helps is grouping the cards in my deck by their role in the deck. I think of how big each group should be for my perfect 99 beforehand, then cut the groups down accordingly. This way I only have to decide between cards that are actually comparable. It gets a bit tricky with cards that fit multiple categories or even none, but the overview of the deck this allows for is well worth working those out.

[@NitpickingNerds]

That is a great idea on how to approach it

[@nikitajohnson9561]

I usually do this. Makes it so much easier to make cuts when I know I’m gonna want (for example) 12 ramp and 12 card advantage in the end.

[@COMMANDERPINT]

My Muay Thai coach GREG NELSON used to say... "JACK OF ALL TRADES MASTER OF NONE; OR MASTER A FEW & JACK EVERYONE!" although he was talking about combat techniques... instead of cards...but still

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hopefully he still isn't talking about jacking everyone 😂

[@sawderf741]

Fear not the man that knows 10,000 kicks but the man that practices one kick 10,000 times.

[@TopLevelJiuJitsu]

Greg is such a bad ass!

[@elliotthood1719]

My 3-step recommendations: 1. Lay it out by curve, cut it down to a lower cmc if you need. 2. Follow a guide for distribution of what you need in your deck (8-12 ramp, 2-4 board wipes, etc… obviously not all decks fit into these categories). Sort your cards and cut them down to where they fit 3. When your deck is laid out in the curve, sort them from best-worst(top-bottom) and cut the ones closer to the bottom. It’s going to hurt and you have to accept that. If you STILL need to cut cards, pool everything together and pull out the cards that you can’t NOT include. Take a shot of whiskey, and throw the rest to the side

[@badgerinthewood]

Another solid video. Completely agree with Beezy where finding the best cards is easier than finding the worst cards. I still struggle hard sometimes. I'll stare for hours. Looking at mana curve, catagorizing parts of the deck, and finding the best cards. Turns out, they are all the best cards sometimes 🤷🤗🤫

[@NitpickingNerds]

Yeah worst case scenario you might end up with 5 or so pesky extra cards after you cut most of them but you can always test them in gameplay or even just play 105 for a few games if nobody cares about that

[@yumyumeatemup]

Hardest thing i found when building my Athreos, God of Passage deck was balancing the mana curve. You got like 30, 1 black mana Shadow Born Apostles, and then 4 or 6 really good (but really expensive) 7 and 8 cost demons. First i balanced my deck with how consistently i wanted to draw lands with how consistently i needed to draw SBAs. Then i filled in the middle with a mixture of sac outlets, removal, ramp and draw. A lot of play testing took place to get a good overall balance but def worth the trial and error.

[@jamesroberts5551]

re: 4:09 Enchantresses, totally agree. I've been playing Bant enchantments (Estrid) as my main deck since the 2018 precon. My first upgrade was adding all the enchantresses, but eventually I pulled it back to just the enchantress enchantments: Enchantress's Presence and Eidolon of Blossoms. Later on I added Setessan Champion because it also synergizes with the "go tall" theme. This particular deck also has a lot of recursion, so it supplements with card advantage from the graveyard; YMMV.

[@MegaKoga]

This literally made cuts easier for me. Looking top down made it SO much easier.

[@jonklaus1466]

Sweats playing Bosh the Iron Golem as my commander with absurd CMC artifacts.

[@gustavgans403]

Man you guys are currently my favourite EDH - channel atm fore shure!

[@rodgerlang884]

Listening to that section on mana curve and then looking at the start of the Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck I’m building just made me shake my head. Average CMC in there is much higher.....

[@golgariguy]

Amen to this. Is so easy to make cuts if you know clearly what the plan of your deck is! Regarding keeping track of what you have cut, both online and with physical card, I keep a maybeboard with all the cards I cut from the deck or I would like to try in the deck.

[@Habeev07]

I NEED THIS VIDEO SO BADLY. EPIC TIMING!

[@DanG626]

Great advice with the topdown approach! Yes I find it much easier to find the best and ignore the rest

[@auroralee]

I have a list of 176 nonland cards for the new Liesa, Shroud of Dusk I've been staring at all day, and it's kind of freaking me out. Thank you for the help here to cut this ridiculous pile down to size.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hopefully you can get it down to 100 real quick!

[@auroralee]

@@NitpickingNerds I mean I've got until Commander Legends drops, so it'll *probably* be trimmed down by then. Probably... I have some painful, but necessary separation ahead from quite a few pet cards of mine before then.

[@NitpickingNerds]

I have cut so many pet cards it resulted in another deck before 😂

[@Jerhevon]

Ages back I found another way online, 8x8 Theory. The focus of which is cut a pile of cards to 100 fast as possible. At which point you have a deck you can shuffle, goldfish, and have a context to compare cards in. How's it work? Grab a commander, grab 35 lands, and then make 8 piles of 8 cards each. For instance 8 removal, 8 ramp, 8 draw, etc. First shuffle doesn't matter which 8 ramp spells, just that you have them. And once you start goldfishing, doesn't matter that you adjust it to 6 ramp or 10 ramp cards. I've especially found this useful for decks that are A+B strategies. Like my Naya Changelings list where I need some number of changelings, but I also need some number of lords to make the changelings into viable cards. See also Vadrok Mutate where I need to balance creatures to mutate with/onto and non-creatures to recast. Or Syr Gwyn which needs to balance creature counts vs equipment.

[@Ulim151]

I sometimes go well into 300 cards. Its so hard for me to cut cards.

[@edschramm6757]

Yea... Cutting is always a problem for me

[@MareczqZglos]

Great - we shoud talk more abaut lower number of lands in EDH... When I build a deck, i look at it - and thinks what i can do to make it working with max. 34 lands. Ther are dekecs where I like to go to 30-31 lands... For example elf-ball... you have so many mana sources... you dont want to drow more then 4-5 lands ... you really dont need more (you need specyfic land to combo - but that diffrent story). On top of that you must look how many tutors You have... For every 3-4 tutors i cut 1 land... becose Tutors = You really play smaller deck ;) Generaly on Green-Decks i play max 34 lands (exepts decks that care abaut lands )... You have so many great ramps, you dont need more lands ;) For sure with some Blue Control that do not ramp with out artifacts i would still play 36-37 lands... But i dont like this type of decks, and i so far never build one ;P

[@josvaniwaarden718]

Damn bois, content keeps comin’ ! Yassss love it

[@NitpickingNerds]

We love being able to pump out BUHBUHBUHBUHBONUS content!

[@danielzitnik4247]

9:43 the hate on Grave Titan continues! Kidding aside, great video. A few things I'd add to the mix: Be mindful of your deck pivoting if you start fleshing out a minor theme. I'm not saying fight it or lean into it, but just be mindful of it. I've had decks that started out one way and ended up with a different Commander altogether. This can make cuts much easier once you stop fighting with yourself over what's important to the goal(s) of your deck. As for running fewer lands, completely agree. One big thing people overlook is how card draw interacts with how many lands you should play. Typically any non-Landfall deck can run fewer lands if the deck is heavy on card draw since you can only play 1 land a turn and you'll likely draw into one if you're churning through your deck. Cheers.

[@deadNdivine12]

I like playing Farseek in my Sisay, Captain of the Weatherlight deck. Fixes mana pretty damn good. Hahah

[@LordZanba]

Even though it is tough to cut cards, one thing I like to do is "reserve" 1-5 deck slots (essentially acting like I am building a 94-98 card deck). When I am done, I use those free spots to include cards I really want to play, cards I think are fun/funny/cool, or cards that synergize with a sub-strategy I may have otherwise cut. It is fun to try and optimize your own deck, but I think it is important to not neglect the other ways and reasons you enjoy the game. Alternatively, as some have suggested, make a "sideboard" of cards you considered but could not find the space. If you want to keep playing your Commander but seek something different, swapping some cards every few games can help keep things fresh for you and your playgroup, as well as allow for the ability to adjust the power level of your deck to be more in line with those of others.

[@kyuuketsukikun420]

Also you can use average cmc, just take any cards that need changes and what the difference is then change the average cmc by +/- .01 per pip.

[@HexproofAnarchist]

I've really been enjoying your guy's content! I only discovered your channel like a week ago, and I wish I had found it much earlier lol.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hey on the plus side you have like a backlog of like 300 videos to check out!

[@HexproofAnarchist]

@@NitpickingNerds Absolutely! I'm loving going through your tier lists right now.

[@Tera_GX]

I want to see you guys tackle low-power flavorful decks. I've been stuck on cutting down a "villain" deck that has some cards required for flavor, but building up commander synergy has left no room for synergy for a couple core flavor cards.

[@vvalmart]

Thank u guys great video been binge watching the channel

[@fatbeard8072]

Ya, all true, wish I knew when I first started about a year ago. I usually go 36 lands, then about 10 mana rocks, add my combo's/theme's for the deck, then I cut back from there from mana and dorks if needed.

[@zackoostrom9636]

You had me at “bonus”!! Thx

[@SittonSpin]

If you play good enough mana rocks you can cut down on lands too. I have a couple cedh decks that end off on 27-29 lands because you only need to see a couple and then you pop off. But normally I start with 35 and I've found my sweet spot with decent rocks is 33-35

[@SadDogofShimano]

Your videos are super useful guys! Thanks a lot for the tips!

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hope they can help next time you're staring down a pile of cards :D

[@SadDogofShimano]

@@NitpickingNerds yeah that's for sure!I'm building Keranos right now and I have like 70/80 cards to cut, it's a nightmare 😂

[@streetsurfer24]

this was a really good one!

[@jameskelly2559]

This is so tough to do. Thanks for the help.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Love you James sorry the discord wasn’t all you hoped

[@incogneat0901]

I have never finished building a deck yet lmao, I only stop tweaking them for long enough to play

[@vanmccalister3345]

Nailed it! I hardly ever play the same iteration twice, which is probably a bad thing...

[@GumballMachinery]

I have this same problem in modern/pioneer. I always know what to put in from the sideboard after game one, but can never decide what to take out.

[@stephentaylor451]

I like my curve as close to 3 as possible, or below if applicable. No less than 36 lands, just to keep draw consistency

[@patricklynch4074]

I first put all the effects and things-to-do i can find that i want. Then i separate all cards into piles based on what they do. Then i order those piles by mana cost to cut cards that do the same thing but for more mana. A lot of the time i end up cutting good cards that are just 1 mana more than a card that does the same thing. I wouldnt have thought to cut the good card, i just had to see that it was the same effect for more mana

[@krunchyapples]

I always have the hardest time trying to cut down my decks because even though I know what I want it to do I always end up overwhelming myself trying to think about covering every possible contingency so by the end of it I usually end up with about 250 cards to cut down to 100. I'm also guilty of trying to fit in too much redundancy and win cons

[@obadijahparks]

This is the greatest challenge ever!

[@tulliodesantis4290]

I enjoy picking a theme, building a huge deck around that theme, then looking what gameplay strategy accidentally emerged and cut accordingly.

[@Slim3398]

Finally someone said it! You can run 32-36 lands and be fine! Lower the curve !

[@ecos889]

I run a 30 land deck and I never have issues, that is mainly because I run a bunch of zero mana rocks, which are basically extra land drops

[@playthefightriff4857]

Hi, love the content! Has there been any thought to uploading this audio to podcast apps? It would be nice to be able to listen while out on runs without using up the battery and data from youtube. Think about it!

[@James-fq3yz]

I'm gonna need that lands video

[@moreparmesan5261]

Looks like beezy took a cheesy before the show. Take a deuce before you cut to the scoop. Nice video guys!

[@TermsOfServiceWTF]

These nerds are awesome!

[@MTG69]

Has Under Armour approached you guys yet for producing NN EDH survival gear, if not, they should.

[@safertobeanonymous2224]

Finally someone who agrees with me! 35 lands 10 ramp I hate late flood more then I hate a slow start from missing a land drop.

[@damonhymer5960]

So much easier once you decide what you’re trying to do. My buddies often try and do many things, and it ruins everything for them

[@julianpeck1812]

I’m facing this problem rightttttt now for a Nicol Bolas, The Ravager build upgrade!

[@NitpickingNerds]

Let us know if this helps!

[@andrewtnp3555]

Any chance joe could show his omnath locus of creation list plz

[@ryanduffy45]

Haha you guys are great. You can compete with the Command Zone, just stay diligent!

[@NitpickingNerds]

We are mono-diligence splashing for patience

[@shauncaley7777]

For me the problem is new cards. I have several well tuned edh decks. For example my elves. I wont touch them for a while but when I see a new card from a new set I pick them up and tuck them in my binder. So I have the recent mana stuff like nyxbloom ancient and leyline and a manareflection plus a load of new bodies. But sitting down to make the cuts from the well tuned deck to add them does not motivate me to take the deck apart and add new toys. First world problems hey lol.

[@sinanisik7415]

Are you mind readers? Its scary how perfectly this is timed with me struggling with cutting down my first custom commander deck

[@tommieboi707]

My main deck is an ur dragon tribal deck. It is impossible for me to get my average cmc deck below 5-6. But I use a lot of mana rocks and mana dorks to get the dragons out faster.

[@TheDougWay]

This makes me think I need to cut all my removal spells, board wipes, and counterspells from most of my decks as they aren't really the theme in most of them.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Then you will have tons of spots open

[@palisage]

Can you do a video on the calculator?

[@derekedgar1676]

Most of my lists start at about 250 and I wish you were able to go over 100 in commander and still be able to shuffle it easy.

[@JaimeAGB-pt4xl]

The higher Curve I hace is 3.67 for a Varina Lich Queen and determined 36 lands with 10 mana rocks is Ok... My other decks which are Arcades and Kalamax are less than 3... I also cut cards based with lands and higher CMC cards

[@Sir_Francis]

Coming you for Command Zone!!!

[@obadijahparks]

Top down decks are good? Didn't see that one coming.

[@Chimpey]

I cannot wait to make a Jack of All Trades deck 🤪

[@heavenbot]

I use MtG unofficial app to brainstorm for my decks, it has a really easily accessible format to add cards to the maybe list and curate it down to a full deck. It still takes me transcribing it and gold fishing in Cockatrice before I commit to rummaging through my collection, though. Great video, although I think it may be worth going in a little farther on the 1st part, it's hard figuring out a direction to focus sometimes with more open-ended commanders. #freethebug

[@Richard-yj4zr]

34-36 lands seems to be my sweet spot

[@nateholt429]

When I cut cards or swap a couple of cards around I take a picture on my fone so I can reference it later.

[@NitpickingNerds]

I actually have done that too, swapped out 3 or 4 staples for test cards and reversed them later if need be

[@PawzBrownMTG]

Great video guys stay Pawzitive and safe guys

[@NitpickingNerds]

Always!

[@brandonm3852]

I am making a Kaalia deck. Does curve matter because Kaalia gets those higher creatures out for less?

[@brandonm3852]

I have 36 lands and Maze of Ith which doesn'T tap for mana.

[@commanderpower99]

Video idea: best 5+ drops that are worth it

[@sirrzoidberg3771]

Nitpicking nerds vs Command zone Commander game would be must watch entertainment. Make it happen

[@sirrzoidberg3771]

It would also help promote this channel lol

[@PSroka]

The double Beezy feature

[@raevimati7048]

I love this, but the most important thing of all of this is best, not worst. This singularly is the best way to cut cards, at least for me, as figuring out what the worst card is is much harder than figuring out what the best card is, and figure out a number, no real science to this, just a number, you can change it anytime. Just pick the best of that number from each category (on moxfield u can add tags and thats really nice), and bam. Also, dont run 40+ lands unless your a landfall deck, im slowly decreasing from an average of 37-38, to around 35, and just putting in more deck velocity, so i see more cards, and ill get the lands anyways

[@SumNeuron]

put your cuts in the maybeboard / sideboard

[@tornadojoe87]

That's becoming a bit easier for me to do these days haha :p

[@NitpickingNerds]

Because of how awesome and helpful our videos are, no doubt

[@tornadojoe87]

@@NitpickingNerds Yeah that must be why for sure ;)

[@monomanamaniac]

So what do you guys think is the ideal average cmc for a deck? What's too high, what's too low?

[@NitpickingNerds]

The way I like to build decks, they usually end up around 3.50 and trend downward as I keep playing with them. A lot of my decks are under 3. I would say 4-4.5 feels a little too clunky for my tastes and 2 is a little too low impact unless you're super competitive

[@monomanamaniac]

@@NitpickingNerds that's not a bad place to start. I like how you this were talking about finding out your average cmc before figuring out your land base. I have decks that run the gambit, a 2.25 all the way up to a 4.5 and I find that the type of deck you're building has a lot to do with it. If you have a 4.5 landfall with 4.5 avcmc with 42 lands, you're barely going to notice it, likewise if you're in a super focused deck like Volton you could run 2.5 with 33 lands and likewise not notice it. I find that most of my decks are hovering around 3.5 but that's because I like to run a lot of ramp lol. I will say though, I'm truly not very competitive because I don't run a terribly large amount of removal (3-5 or less), so maybe I need to stop focusing so much on what my deck wants to do and look more into how to slow down my opponents lol

[@mitchellryan267]

Do you guys use proxy’s or allow your play group to use them?

[@NitpickingNerds]

We play with proxies; usually it's new cards or cards we are testing out. Basically we don't proxy anything without the intent of buying

[@WillEnj0y]

@@NitpickingNerds sounds about right

[@murd3r0tica]

Thanks for the post. This info should help my Voltron deck with Grave Titan as commander. Jk, But really thanks.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Didn't you hear? Grave Titan is banned now for your own safety

[@murd3r0tica]

@@NitpickingNerds I will have to adjust ALL my decks now..

[@bluepomegranate]

Great video, but why were you both Beezy? I need answers!

[@mthlay15]

Bonus episode and bonus Beezy

[@Dreamersgate]

the worst is when you have around 120 cards that you want to use and need to cut enough to add lands.

[@kristennorth3268]

I had this going in the background when it started and had to stop and start over after that intro.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Lol we got ya

[@alexturner7759]

How do I get in the discord

[@joshcotter6079]

And like that the price for three visits spikes again

[@frontendmakers]

Hello from Portugal! Keep up with the good work! But you can be even better 😁 Strong points of your videos: 1. On point and short 2. The golden middle between super casual and cEDH content 3. I can tell you play a lot and know your %@€& 4. The simple but effective production What could be better: 1. Don't invalidate each others ideas. Make different cuts if it happens, instead of one video. Maybe use a background when showing cards sometimes while you talk and make pauses. It can help with cutting the bad parts later. 2. Be more relaxed. We are all nerds, no need to worry about what others will think. We are a magic family... I mean, community 😂 You topped the Command Zone and Commander Quarters with content and simplicity for me.. Keep up!

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hey thanks for the feedback! We're always looking to improve our friendly bickering lol

[@foxy_bl1784]

I lay all of my card out by cmc and if i have more than x5 drops i cut them. Except for my malya deck there its about cheating big cards out

[@samuelruder3117]

It’s funny watching y’all talk about drafting decks on paper… this is clearly before moxfield lol

[@patrickbartholomay6513]

Mega bonus

[@NitpickingNerds]

Super mega ultra bonus multiplier

[@outsidethegamebox6212]

"12 Enchantress is too many." Then say have enough for one in opening... that is about 12 😂

[@MTG69]

I run 75 lands in my Mana Flood deck, and then just sit there and lay lands every turn, bitch about mana flooding, and watch your videos on my phone.

[@theguy2929]

There is a way to go down even less then 100 though. There is actually a card from a old edition that if you don't play with a ante you exile it before play.

[@theguy2929]

It's a good idea for laboratory maniac decks.

[@Naozwc]

@@theguy2929 it's also banned

[@NitpickingNerds]

Ha, what card is that?

[@theguy2929]

By the way, the card is called Amulet of Qouz, it's a artifact from ice age.

[@theguy2929]

@@NitpickingNerds amulet of Qouz, ice age.

[@l33_generic37]

My enchantresses are enchantments. Eidolon of blossoms, sythis, etc. Makes my gods deck just GO. Lol

[@phamtasticbaby6124]

17:07 top kek

[@davidfortin2819]

I have 4-5 5 mana cards and most of my stuff is 1 to 2

[@liveanotheranime3526]

“Counters, tokens, and lifegain-you can’t do all that. “ Me playing Edgar Markov vampires: > : (

[@incogneat0901]

you can have my villainous wealth when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[@ecos889]

Their are some five drops that are great that exist out their Ad NAUS WINs games Force of will stops wins, for free.

[@christiangottselig2531]

Scenario: Chulane as Commander 60 - 1 drop creatures + 1 Craterhoof

[@captainfancypants8514]

Great video guys! It would be great if you could do some deckbuilding template episode. Like where to start, how many lands, how many draw, how many ramp, removal, mass removal etc. Would highly appreciate this. Thank you guys, u are great! 👌☺️

[@Sandro189]

Second... From Portugal

[@NitpickingNerds]

Hello Portugal!

[@alexmendoza9645]

Bonus content or gravy content?🤔

[@NitpickingNerds]

Actually good call