Stopping the Opponent from Winning | The Command Zone 345 | Magic: The Gathering Commander EDH

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Show Notes:
MTG artist (and avid Commander player) Jesper Ejsing joins the show to talk about how to secure victory by preventing, blocking, or otherwise stopping your opponents from winning.
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What we talked about during THE END STEP:
Bird Watching:
en.wikipedia.o...
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Where to find our guest online:
Jesper Ejsing
www.jesperejsin...
Instagram: @jesper_ejsing
Get a copy of Jesper's artbook "Elsewhere"
caurette.com/en...
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Commander/EDH Official Rules, Banlist, and more:
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[@teamrulerman1]

“Take away their will to live” Jesper went from 0 to Bond villain REAL quick

[@YBladeY]

He seems to play with the Competitive Meta

[@ecos889]

I just get that when playing high and your against 3 other stax decks.

[@BoatNectar]

Anytime someone beats me like this I go eat a tasty bratwurst and wash my hands. Really get a good lather up, you can't be too clean

[@NJKoopmeiners]

Veektor his deck isn’t nowhere close to a competitive meta deck.

[@NJKoopmeiners]

Junbo Commander why did you take the picture and name of Jumbo Commander? It’s a little bit creepy.

[@moxopal675]

there is a saying about hate bear decks and stacks decks that i feel like it fits here. "pretend the every deck is a car. your opponents have formula 1 cars and nascar cars while you have a tractor. So what you do is cover the whole track in manure so that all the super fast cars either slow down or lose control while not effecting your tractor"

[@filippodardi2180]

I don't know where you get your sayings, but I want in.

[@rhythmandblues_alibi]

Omg I love it!

[@TopLevelJiuJitsu]

From now on, as I pull out my Zur deck, I will tell my opponents they are about to run a race in shit.

[@PlayingWithPowerMTG]

A lot of these principles are used in CEDH deckbuilding and playstyle as well. Fantastic episode!

[@danielaserkoff7746]

Hello Playing with Power! I love your videos

[@somedudeontheinterwebs45]

Sup PWP! Glad to see you here.

[@PlayingWithPowerMTG]

@@somedudeontheinterwebs45 Hi! Thanks! I've always loved the Command Zone! I watch all of their episodes.

[@PlayingWithPowerMTG]

@@danielaserkoff7746 Thanks! We really appreciate it!

[@uZIRaINoP]

I was wondering with just how good Jespers deck was

[@harveydc5733]

Hearing Josh say "all 25 of my commander decks" made me think its be great if Josh and Jimmy did a video tour of their respective decks like the one dj from jumbo commander did? Just a sweet thought

[@michaelgierusz5754]

I love when DJ does the deck videos

[@harveydc5733]

@@michaelgierusz5754 yeah is nice to get insight into what they currently play outside of their content

[@unwucht1529]

I would love to see their collection of decks. And seeing 25 copies of vedalken orrery in them :P

[@MTGMuddstah]

That would be awesome!

[@BoatNectar]

@@michaelgierusz5754 thanks brah

[@Takermania70]

I definitely think this episode could have been called "An intro to CEDH with Jesper Ejsing"

[@Crazymachin3gun]

I feel like jesper is one the very edge of teir 2.5 cedh level playstyle

[@paulmcclain642]

I would say Jesper is pretty solidly in the top casual power level. I guarantee his deck can hang with cEDH, but it’s not quite like cEDH stax decks that lock the table on turn 2-4

[@dillonp618]

I'll use Ultra pro playmats, but I'll never use Ultra pro sleeves. Dragonsheild sleeves are the best. I've only ever had 2 dragonsheild sleeves break in my 4 years on playing

[@thevorhandener5280]

Iv never had a katana sleeve break

[@jonlamoreaux1889]

Dragon shields are aaaammmmaaaazing

[@sunstrid3r44]

I have both dragon shield matte and ultra pro eclipse and i think they are both amazing, i hate standard/old ultra pro sleeves, they were really bad, but the eclipse is good I do prefer the dragon shield matte tho, the back of the sleeve is harder/stronger and the front is clear But ngl i will try the new ultra pro when i have a chance

[@dorsalfin22]

I like Dragon shield more but I use eclipse for 2 reasons: they're not as thick and can fit into smaller boxes which saves me a HUGE amount of space, and because Dragon shield sleeves are about 2 mm to tall and get that wavy warbled look on top that is not appealing.

[@comradecameron3726]

@@dorsalfin22 tbh I don’t care about the waves on the top. Though I still use eclipse because I can find them easier than dragonshields infinite variety.

[@thibautsome3082]

The Command Zone : Previous Video : How to make your deck more unique. Current video : What cEDH interactions staples you should include in your decks ^^. I'm a bit sarcastic, because I really love your content guys and i'm convince everyone should had more interactions to have more fun in the casual environment.

[@shavedata5436]

people are sleeping on janky-looking cedh staples

[@jonlamoreaux1889]

They aren't janky, they are cedh staples because they are the most efficient at either getting your own strategy going or stopping your opponents

[@shavedata5436]

@@jonlamoreaux1889 indeed; janky *looking* . chain of vapor doesn't seem competitive to your average casual player at first glance.

[@Slattstudio]

This is pretty much the opposite of how I like to play, but that's what playgroups are for!

[@juanzuniga3792]

It seems he wants to play cEDH.

[@Crazy0101]

Yup they should have named the video "How to get your deck to cEDH level"

[@unwucht1529]

Josh's level of annoyance regarding Blood Moon seems to be great resemblence of his decklists :P

[@CorsairJoshua]

Jesper is my hero. Man is just at the commander table to make his opponents WORK for it.

[@BigPimpin321100]

Lot of great information in this podcast; listening to jesper talk about his rationale for deckbuilding was wonderful. Part of being a better deck builder is knowing how your opponents play and planning for it. Being able to even the playing field and narrow their routes to winning with a single card is a powerful thing!

[@BigPimpin321100]

Also, as someone who plays many graveyard decks and loves red; I think Blood Moon is totally fair when other people are dropping Rest in Peace on me!

[@ShinkuDragon]

i need Josh to sign me a blood moon, just so if i ever play him i can say "i've got a card with your name on it" as i play it

[@sethlennberg4516]

Blood Moon? Have you heard of contamination.

[@hoppeltrottel7484]

Josh about dying to commander damage: "It's theoretically possible, but it actually never happens." I beg to differ. I have an Akroma, Angel of Wrath voltron EDH deck, and she usually starts one-hitting people between turns 7 - 9. The record so far has been 48 points of damage in a single attack. =) With all the enchantment and equipment tutors white has access to, plus some potent protection and recursion spells, the deck is very consistent and resilient. Don't hate on mono white, it definitely has its strengths!

[@josephwragg6723]

I was once playing against a Bruna, Light of Alabaster enchantment deck. Got hit by a 128/128 with flying, trample, first strike, lifelink and hexproof. Its what happens when you have Nylea's colossus on the battlefield. Needless to say, he domed everyone.

[@peeratv1288]

Im surprised your commander doesnt get counterspelled when you play it for 8 mana

[@hoppeltrottel7484]

@@peeratv1288 That happens, and has actually cost me a game just a few weeks ago. 😅 But countermagic isn't that abundant in my playgroup to be a problem. Which I am grateful for, because Cavern of Souls is still a brutally expensive card... 😶

[@hoppeltrottel7484]

@The Dawg I like deckbuilding challenges. ^^ I also have a Basandra, Battle Seraph deck... 😉

[@flusterfluff]

Hatebears is Stax Lite. Those are still stax pieces. That's still Tymna/Thras.

[@rhozpogi]

basicly hate bears are part of stax deck, if its slow opponent is part of stax archetype.

[@BoatNectar]

@@rhozpogi Counterspells slow me down like crazy, and THAT SAME PERSON beast within-ed my stuff once. Never played with them again. I don't do stax. It's just rude to put someone back by destroying their stuff

[@NJKoopmeiners]

Junbo Commander but it is not rude to get ahead of others by cheating on the one land per turn rule by ramping? You are not only a weird imposter, but also a very whiny solitair player that only want to get ahead of people on his terms.

[@BoatNectar]

@@NJKoopmeiners are you kidding? The game is meant to be played, not countered. It's simply rude. I wouldn't imagine cedh players would understand. But like I always say, keep on truckin'!

[@rhozpogi]

@@BoatNectar thats how the game works, ur suppose to interact with others. U dont have to be cedh player to interact or u might aswell play by urself if u dont want others to stop u. U seem very petty.

[@jaywinner328]

I become a bigger fan of Jesper with every video. Long live Blood Moon.

[@paodequeijo7231]

Seems to me YOU guys don't know what a stax deck is. Take a look at the Blood Pod cEDH deck. That deck doesn't run Stasis (it's not even blue) neither Winter Orb and is still considered a stax deck, and a very good at it too. Take it from and old mtgsalvation post: stax is a term used to describe a deck strategy that mostly relies on resource denial, taxing effects, disruption, and sacrifice enablers to potentially lock down opponents and make it difficult to cast spells, play creatures, attack, breath, sleep, and/or have any kind of reliable board state. Jasper's deck is that. A deck that makes it harder for the other players to play their games. He doesn't use the full locks but is extremely heavy on the taxing part. You don't have to be running complete lock down cards to be a stax deck. His game plan is also compatible with the one of a stax deck. He wants to slow others down or shut off their win conditions so he can establish his own board and reach the inevitable point in the game where he has just generated too much card advantage/completely shut off opponents/comboed to guarantee the victory. So you can say all you want about what a stax deck is or is not, but I was not convinced and still think Jasper's deck is a stax deck. And a nicely built one. I need an edit here On a completely unrelated note, Marath was my first commander and the one I always wanted to make work the most. I ended up with an Academy Rector in my deck but to do more degenerate things such as getting a Nature's Revolt with Elesh Norn on the battlefield. Another great thing of the great beast is giving him deathtouch (either Peddler or Basilisk Collar) and your oponents simply can't play any more creatures since Marath can one shot them! Edit 2 Path to Exile x Anguished Unmaking for me depends entirely on power level of the deck. Anguished for lower level table, Path for higher level tables. In a cEDH game I'm not even sure I'd run any of those. Last edit Blood Moon is a stax card for me

[@quinnmclaughlin2542]

overall I agree with you, but IMO there are two different types of stax: soft stax and hard stax. soft stax is hatebears, increasing the difficulty of going off for your opponents. it's what I'd call Jesper's deck. then there's the hard stax, the Smokestacks, Stasis, Winter Orb, Static Orb type effects. hard resource denial and trying to fully stop your opponents from doing anything close to impactful. a good example would be the most competitive Derevi decks.

[@drongobrat6471]

Your opponents can't win if they don't want to play with you. Play land destruction.

[@yeschese]

Mono white with Armageddon is my go-to for making someone hate me

[@peeratv1288]

Acid rain is clearly the play here

[@hoppeltrottel7484]

May I advise to make Avacyn, Angel of Hope your commander? Add fast mana and every board wipe you have + Worldslayer, and you'll never have opponents again. 😜

[@Jackdawfool]

I like to Gae's Balance into global ruin and play the black bringer and the white bringers out and trigger infinite turns or some such other nonsense since they banned coalition victory

[@arunchebrolu1113]

I'm reporting this comment

[@zoopdoop_games]

Josh's anger towards blood moon just enforces my love for any red deck to have blood moon

[@unbanrofellos5786]

Blood moon > people who play 4+ colors

[@MichaelJohnMAGA]

If they're letting the Blood Moon resolve, that's kinda on them lmao.

[@bobby45825]

Fires of Invention > What's Blood Moon?

[@DonWanri]

I'm surprised that he's so salty about it, specially the moment when he braggs about the number of answers in his deck. He's usually more nuanced.

[@TheBuspus]

DonWanri seemed offended that jesper was just saying “play more answers”, loved the salt haha

[@marioquezada4036]

Jesper gently explaining how to play cEDH, and yeah the name of the original deck is trasios / tymna hate bears.

[@NoGloveNoLove32]

They should hire Mitch so when Josh and Jimmy suggest the expensive cards, Mitch can suggest some budget versions

[@deltadaddy94]

Then those cards won’t be cheap anymore. Due to people running to buy them

[@ancientswordrage]

@@deltadaddy94 the Wayfarer's Bauble effect

[@bigmacmm5]

@@ancientswordrage that's completely mitch's fault too! Haha.

[@gmpd4191]

Says we don’t know what Stax is but EDHrec’s stax page is literally Jespers deck. Stax is more than stasis, winter orb and smokestack.

[@hewhogoesbymanynames]

The premier cEDH stax deck (blood pod) is a hate bears deck, with no smokestack or stasis/winter orb effects.

[@dmgengar]

Detora effect: "Whenever you see a deck with a lot of hate cards, performing good, put as many as you can of them into your deck, then shuffle your library"

[@jaydub5515]

Oh Melissa... I think she's sexy... It's her brain

[@Onattamato]

@@jaydub5515 I would let her hatebears resolve, if you know what I mean.

[@jaydub5515]

If she's a hatebear, then I'm a 1/3 defender. She can attack me all night long!

[@ronnybingham9007]

I have to admit, hearing josh being salty about bloodmoon feels a bit ironic when he was against Iona being banned - they really kind of do the same thing, it's just that josh rarely plays mono-colored decks, but plays almost no basics - pretty sure that's irony, or something similar that I can't remember the name of

[@laurenswindlehurst8484]

Hypocritical I think is the word you’re looking for? I ageee with you

[@masonbaker1677]

Well to be fair, there's definitely a difference between being salty about a card and wanting a card banned. But I get what you mean

[@Deathkeeper43]

Exactly! The logic is so flawed

[@aidennoir597]

Disliking a card is not the same as wanting it banned. I doubt Josh would ever fight for banning Blood Moon.

[@eric0967]

josh doesnt want bloodmoon banned. not liking a card and not banning a card are very different.

[@markbost6915]

Lol Jesper is giving away all of our CEDH secrets. My boi chain of vapor gettin some respect hell yeah

[@Farycane]

Topic starts: 7:28 What you miss: Animation of the New Playmat art, some ads

[@somedudeontheinterwebs45]

Doing God’s work keep it up

[@DivinePenguin00]

Video starts @ 7:30

[@PrimeEnLightenedShadow]

These comments never get enough love.

[@bluevader13]

Thanks! I don't like watching 7 minutes of ads...

[@nathanielgallimore8928]

Jesper : "And I play Cyclonic Rift" Josh : "Who doesn't" Me who will never run it : "I feel personally attacked"

[@Crazy0101]

Same :/

[@ancientswordrage]

Too expensive for me, and too 'obvious'

[@timtauber5557]

Nathaniel Gallimore Cyclonic rift is a life saver, good fun for all, at least you can lessen the blow by playing mana flare effects and howling mine effects, allowing opponents to recover more quickly. As long as your pillow fort deck can handle the aggro, cyclonic rift is just a safety net similar to Teferi's protection. At least that's the way I see it. No harm no foul.

[@nathanielgallimore8928]

@@timtauber5557 The reason I'm not a fan is that it is instant. If it was sorcery speed and you managed to give it flash then I say hats off to you. With the Tefrri's protection argument I don't see them as the same one stops you and your stuff from being targeted gaining no one advantage or disadvantage bar the cards on the stack. Rift however sets 3 out of 4 back dealing a massive swing in one player favour. I respect people want to play it and I won't stop them I just choose not to run it because it gives me no joy outside forking my opponents copy and countering the original

[@timtauber5557]

Nathaniel Gallimore Fair enough. I just see it as another way to prevent craterhoof behemoth from killing everyone or some similar calamity

[@jpickens189]

Stax is any (generally symmetrical) effect that, through deckbuilding, gives it's deck an advantage over other decks. A deck that stops other players completely is a lock down deck, or a deck with a lock. There exist polite and impolite versions of each of these strategies.

[@Nosferat_AN]

Josh: “you rarely ever see someone die from commander damage” Comment Section Voltron Players: *so you have chosen, death*

[@robotactics6635]

I win quite often with my Gishath deck, and its well over 60% of those wins are commander damage.

[@nicolechansawang4054]

Talk about blood blood moon more, I need to live vicariously through someone playing it. My playgroup promises my obliteration if I play the one I picked up from 2xm.

[@ghostanbu1099]

For the record there is nothing wrong with Jesper playing Stax/Hate Bears. There was an episode of Extra Turns with Kyle and DJ that had a noticable higher power level but that episode was a lot of fun to watch because everyone had an explosive turn. In that episode Kyle starts to go off and the table collectively target him and pitch in to take him out. That is the good threat assessment we have come to expect from GKs and ETs. Again Jesper seems like a great guy and he's a great artist but the ET episode was not fun to watch imo.

[@angeltoink]

Felt a poor threat assessment and gave Jesper a chance to win. He was playing partner commanders that focuses value. Maybe they wanted him to win, since this is his first time.

[@THEChallisMiles]

This week on the Command Zone: Jimmy and Josh talk about cEDH staples so their prices can skyrocket 😂

[@mattatlas8895]

Josh's salt is delisious

[@joshuamartin1211]

Not much of a fan of how Jesper plays Magic but he seems like a genuine blast to play with. Such a fun episode with a really fun guy.

[@SpikeyMoth]

I love jesper’s accent it’s very interesting to listen to

[@chaseande212]

While talking about playing at flash speed they never seem to mention leyline of anticipation, which can be better than veldalken orrery?

[@zachevans2220]

Josh has stated before that he always talks about the Orrery because it can go in literally any deck, & that he is aware Leyline is a thing.

[@miguelisaac6946]

One of the most useful topics for people that wants to become more into powerful commander style thank you guys for everything

[@johndunbar6063]

Great video. You guys brought up decimate and that made me remember when I deflecting swatted a decimate. The look on that players face was priceless lol

[@jovismarshall]

hate bear = stax as stax is 'Stack'ing 'slow' and 'tax' effects. the efects mentioned at 12:20 are slow effects hate bears are tax effects, even thogh the bear deck has no slow efects its still stax

[@shavedata5436]

stax = smokestacks = the literal card smokestacks = the literal combination of cards mentioned in the video. hatebears is different.

[@Small_Panda]

@josh hate bears is a stax deck it's just not a heavy stax deck, you are right in that it doesn't have winter orb and stasis. Those cards are the go to cards when you look at stax, but Stax is a term used to describe a deck strategy that mostly relies on resource denial, taxing effects, disruption, and sacrifice enablers to potentially lock down opponents and make it difficult to cast spells, play creatures, attack, ... etc. Just because he doesn't go 100% stax doesn't mean his deck isn't a stax deck, death and taxes is a stax deck that doesn't run winter orb or stasis. So just because you are able to play your spells doesn't mean that he didn't play stax.

[@Small_Panda]

The main thing here is Josh you don't know what stax is because the general concept of stax in commander is super negative, but almost all players play some form of stax cards the largest being rhystic study it doesn't stop your opponents from playing but it is putting a tax on them for your advantage. Jesper literally played Thorn of Amethyst that is a stax card. Stax just get's a bad rep because people think stax is only stasis, winter orb, no one plays the game. That is stax as well and that's hard stax effects but you can have light stax effects.

[@jagmasta2049]

Nah, no way. Anguished Unmaking is not too high a cmc for what it does. No way. Really sounds like he's getting way to close to CEDH honestly. Which is fine, CEDH has nothing wrong with it, but wow, not sure if CEDH and EDH should be played at the same table.

[@hoppeltrottel7484]

No, they shouldn't. Even if you have a focused or optimized casual deck, playing against a tuned cEDH deck would be like fighting a main battle tank with a softair gun... I recently watched some guy on YT slaughtering Glissa, the Traitor with Arcum Dagsson. They played two consecutive games, and Glissa had to concede after just a few turns in both.

[@microafro1979]

Jesper is absolutely delightful. I love the idea of using Abrade instead of Vandalblast as a more generally versatile and usable card in a given situation.

[@emptysheetofpaper9420]

The size of that absolute pile of *salt* outro from Josh for Jesper.

[@izamito]

I had quite a few of commander damage wins the last few times I played. Mostly because I am quite in love with my Rielle deck; which I build in a funky spellslinger, carddraw, voltron deck.

[@mvargasmoran]

1:00:20 Josh is talking about "The art of war" Focus on what's weak, not the strong. so never try to be taller than your tall enemy.

[@trizmisce]

guys you are reinventing the wheel here, you are just rediscovering cEDH at this point. if you want to play cEDH then just do so

[@Feyamius]

THIS

[@NJKoopmeiners]

Why is running hatebears and efficient interaction immediately the same as cEDH? So in regular EDH you shouldn’t run efficient spells or interaction? Or abrupt your opponents gameplans? Competitive EDH is about running the absolute most efficient decks and gameplans, not just some interaction or mana-efficient cards. That’s something completely different than just building decks that have interaction, hatebears/stax pieces and efficiency. It is all about power levels, something can be janky and a 5 powerlevel, while still be a hatebear deck. A deck can have interaction and efficiency, but with a janky gameplan and still not rise above a 4 powerlevel. So personally I really don’t see what your comment has to do with this CommandZone episode.

[@NJKoopmeiners]

Mathew R I don’t have a hatebears deck. I am just tired of the immense salt people put out when it comes to counters, stax or even any form of interaction. I love this game for its depth and true diversity, which I think is lost when people get whiny when they are not always allowed to follow the gameplan they have or just put out creatures. Anyway, back to the original point, I disagree with you Matthew that he is running a cEDH deck without the usual wincons. It really is nowhere near a cEDH deck, even though it uses popular cEDH commanders and a couple of cEDH cards. A cEDH deck is completely optimized to do what it does best, in a meta with other decks that are as optimized. Meaning it should run like clockwork and every piece is meticulously considered for its worth within the gameplan and its worth against the gameplay of other decks in the top cEDH meta. Jespers deck is nothing like that.

[@somedudeontheinterwebs45]

Mathew imagine being this ignorant. As someone who has never played cEDH I can tell you that jespers deck was terrible. Mystic snake???? Captain Sisay???? Why are these cards here, few if any win cons, and don’t even get me started on that terrible excuse for a counterspell called arcane denial. Cedh decks either win on turn 13 when everyone’s staxxed out of the game or turn 1. Jespers deck sucked, but you could learn from that extra turns episode to ALWAYS have a good amount of interaction, otherwise you’re just playing 4 man solitaire.

[@somedudeontheinterwebs45]

Mathew also, it’s “””casual”””” players like you who are so readily, incredibly toxic to any deck that is above chair tribal powerlevel(god forbid a counterspell oh no!!!) that ruins edh for everyone else.

[@mocke0609]

This video really highlights what all us cedh players have been preaching when speaking specifically about small optimisations regarding certain slots in a deck and deck construction techniques. Eagerly awaiting to see communities develop. Shows like this is a great way to show what people should be playing without making someone feel stupid for not running some of the mentioned improvements. Good job The Command Zone ^^

[@PedroFigs]

That episode with Melissa Del Tera was what made me play commander for the first time. I couldn't thank you guys more!

[@twitchster77]

I play no basic lands in my 5 color cEDH deck. I finally ran against a deck running Blood Moon. I played 2 games where Moon hit the table within the first few turns. I'm super happy to discover my deck can combo through it just fine!

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

This reminds me. The last weekend I googled responses to Cylonic Rift as my dragon deck is currently helpless against it. Plenty of fascinating and affordable cards I never heard of, but I will definitely get a Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast. Most decks running blue will have a commander vulnerable to it, and the cost efficiency and effect is so good that I am willing to have a potentially dead card in the deck.

[@Bggujh]

First Response to Blood Moon: I love it, if you don't build your decks around mana rocks and basic lands, even in a 4c/5c deck, that's just back deck design. Either build it faster, or build a little slower with a greater attention to detail. I don't care what you say, red mana can be used to cast mana rocks, and if you are always stuck in that Blood Moon situation, just run Chromatic Lantern and then ways to get said lantern for cheap. Response to Preventing myself from Losing the game: Just build more utility. They gave the example of Decimate, but they didn't talk about charms. Rakdos Charm for Example, exiles a graveyard, or destroys and artifact, or destroys a token strategy. Big ol Utility. In my personal belief, I will take utility over mana efficiency any day. If I have to choose between Nature's Claim and Rakdos Charm, I'm taking the Charm. If I have to choose between Kolaghan's Command and a Path to Exile, I'm taking the Command. I just love utility and it's how I am always the Elephant in the Room at my LGS or even my local playgroups. Use cards that do more than one thing, and if you don't have a way to deal with something, you are wrong because artifacts exist. Play something less efficient to play the same game. If you are in red and you can't destroy enchantments, play Liquimetal Coating and turn those things into artifacts and Smash them to Smithereens. Play Unstable Obelisk, Meteor Golem, Universal Solvent, Lux Cannon, Argentum Armor, Ugin in all forms, just get creative and make it happen. Just because you have to dedicate a slot in your deck to deal with a specific thing, just like they stated in the video, play narrow answers, and card draw to draw those answers. Also, for you aggressive players out there, play War Cadence for crying out loud and stop complaining about unfavorable attacks, just pay 5 and go, and if 5 is too much, then you need to re-evaluate your deck, or you're playing edgar markov with tribal 1-2 drops. If you need to find an answer for something, either play another color, or dig deeper into answers, and most of all, build more utility. Find the silver bullet answer and make other people go home. Someone plays Blood Moon, I played unstable obelisk the turn prior so I will just destroy it before my next turn. My opponent just played a platinum angel and a darksteel forge, just play a rebuild, or a Hurkyl's Recall, or literally anything that exiles an artifact. Play the slow utility game to come out on top, it's how my turn 3 playgroups turned into a turn 15 grindfest of failed winning attempt after failed winning attempt. Just do the research, find more utility, jam pack more into your deck and go crazy.

[@NJKoopmeiners]

I feel like people that complain about Blood Moon or hatebears always play Green and Blue in their decks and say: “Red and White are the weakest colors in Commander”. Sure, those colors need work, but they are made weaker if their anti-thesis to Green and Blue (preventing people to get ahead on ramp or card draw) is negated because people get salty over it.

[@seow5872]

i play all hate walkers in my sisay, weatherlight captain deck, and almost all hate legends and i can tutor for the perfect silver bullet against every deck i play against

[@goldenbroitj1]

Congrats Jimmy on your big role in Mulan. My son watches you on Parker plays and I watch you here. You will go far.

[@williamtaylor8919]

1:11:45 "I play more answers than probably anybody you know" - Josh is being so salty here for no good reason. No, you don't play more answers than the cEDH experts playing handfuls of Mental Missteps, Force of Wills, Pact of Negations, Swan Songs. It sounds like he needs a combination of A: More Basics, B: More interaction on the stack, C: More colored mana from artifacts and creatures, which Blood Moon doesn't affect.

[@BinJim31X24]

Love that midroll Kozelek bit. I loled hard

[@christianhova]

I say even if you know you are going to lose, make every possible effort to make it more difficult for your opponents to win, you might even end up winning.

[@diggerdog9205]

Never surrender!!

[@NicolasandDad]

You have to do everything you can to make 1 player win... so it’s faster to shuffle up and then get your revenge

[@benjamincarter6095]

Seems like this episode could have been named, "How to play better, lessons learned from cEDH."

[@stewartz6038]

Wize words of Jimmy: "Cards that say you win the game on them are ways to win"

[@MTG_Brewzl]

Jesper is such a great guy. Really good episode!

[@malouqvastor4455]

For the last category, high market and other sac outlets turn your hate bears into removal. Soooooooo good.

[@Shiftcor]

I've ended up dropping vandalblasts in a lot of my decks for shenanigans. For me, the re-curability that also filled the grave for incidental devles or emrakuls ends up being worth the mana cost and speed of play.

[@skykur]

I met josh in real life at a magic fest. Probably why we didnt hit it off XD he could tell i was a blood moon "enthusiast"

[@Titanreaver616]

I think stax effects should be played way more often, inclusive of stasis locks and actual smoke stacks. Playing through Humility and Tanglewire like effects are to me some of them best games. Also I enjoy playing them, Armageddon is probably the card I have cast more than any other in my life across all formats. I understand some people don't like it, but I hate chaos more than anything else, and I still am fine to let my friends play it every now and again, the same should be true for true stax. I personally don't think anyone should get upset by hate bears, or blood moon (card is great) they are fun and bring the game to a level playing field.

[@Ganondorf5]

Manarocks dont care about Blood Moon, its players fault for playing overloaded nonbasics lands. So Blood Moon is fine.

[@Sydewinder_AoM]

All about bloodmoon combo with vandalblast. All those expensive lands and mana rocks mean nothing when they are disabled by 2 cards valued at 30 bucks 🤣🤣

[@Ent229]

Indeed. Also just run more basics. I run 16, 24, or 32 basics in my 3 color decks. Basic lands are really powerful lands in commander.

[@Small_Panda]

Also any deck that would care about blood moon should be able to answer blood moon, only black and red lack a way to actively interact with enchantments. So if you are two colors you shouldn't hurt for color that much even more so when red IS one of your colors.

[@erikwaldron6393]

0:21 I half expected to hear the Duel of the Fates theme from The Phantom Menace

[@BigDiff7]

For me, Decimate falls into a unique category with cards like Casualties of War: the purpose is set back multiple opponents' board states. Something like Nature's Claim (or a card I prefer more given how prevalent GY strategies are: Deglammer), are to quickly answer a threat. Counterspells or Krosan Grip are best for breaking up insta-win combos.

[@JohanShogun]

Jesper is hands down my favorite guest, ever, he reminds me of every player in my playgroup, everything is fair game. I also like that he’s not afraid to work the best sides of every color, the reason red or white is bad is that people don’t play to those colors good sides since they are “against the social contract”. As long as you’re nice to people and laugh and joke you fulfill the social contract.

[@jimw5691]

I feel like the general definition of stax I see is different from Josh's definition of stax 🤔

[@PaulGaither]

Well, then you are wrong. Stax =//= Tax or prison. Stax gets its name from Smoke Stack. Stax decks, going back to the 90's, are decks that try to shut you down and prevent you from playing magic. Tax and Prison decks just make things cost more to do. They often go hand in hand within decks, however, there is a difference.

[@Small_Panda]

@@PaulGaither Actually paul you are wrong not about the story. Although Stax did get it's name from Smoke Stack, the strategy is all about taxing and resource denial. So cards like thorn of amethyst, or gaddock teeg, are stax cards. They aren't hard stax cards like stasis or winter orb but they are stax cards. Josh is 100% wrong Jesper did play a stax deck but not a hard stax deck. Most people play with elements of stax like rhystic study. Tax and prison is elements of stax. Stax is often referred to as a "prison deck". Just because a card isn't stasis or winter orb doesn't make it not a stax card. mtg.gamepedia.com/Vintage_Stax_deck edhrec.com/themes/stax

[@Small_Panda]

It's because Josh doesn't know what stax is, he is using the typical edh definition which is if I can cast my spells and I'm not locked out it's not stax which is wrong.

[@PaulGaither]

@@Small_Panda - Sigh... just because what it has evolved into over the last 8 year or so doesn't change what Stax was for 15+ years. The ONLY "taxing" card that existed before was Sphere of Resistance. You linkdto the gamepedia article. Well, here is an article about "The 4 thousand dollar solution" from 2005 and inside of it are links to more of the history of Stax: www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/16300-stax-the-four-thousand-dollar-solution If you have played longer than 5 years or so, you would know why Josh and I see Stax for what it has been through the history of the game. As he said in the video, old school stax is about locking you out. Hate Bears and Prison deck are NOT stax, no matter how much younger players try to force the name. The same problem happened with "Fish". After some time, "Fish" decks no longer even had an Merfolk in them and were instead Blue White Null Rod decks running around calling themselves "Fish".

[@Small_Panda]

@@PaulGaither look at the cards in that deck they are taxing cards the definition of stax has become cards that hamper a opponent ability to play to give yourself an advantage that was the original concept of the deck.

[@tonyontilt3522]

Esper! Can we please see your Omnath, Locus of the roil list?

[@nonbo_mtg3328]

Quick story about hatebear cards; I was playing a game in my meta with my nethroi deck, and I got out a drannith magistrate on turn 2, and it absolutely CONTROLLED the game! My opponents who play pretty high level decks were just unable to answer it and ot was the best feeling to just hose their combo decks!

[@joeyklieman1730]

Missed you guys during the CommandFest Online! Interesting take on reactivity and it’s importance, but my inner Timmy says to drop big dinos and Overwhelming Stampede.

[@aegontargaryen7953]

Death to commander damage is quite common in our play group. There is Aurelia (e.g. double strike and equipment boost = 1 or 2 turn kills), Arixmethes (e.g. Berserk or Overwhelming Stampede = 1 turn kill), Gishath, Vadrok (e.g. mutate on Malignus) and more. I would also like to mention, often the threat of dying to commander damage forces players to change their game. It is a fundamental part of EDH, not to mention that it prevents endless life decks from taking over. I would have preferred if Josh and Jimmy had said "in the games we play, commander damage doesn't really matter" instead of making a general statement that simply isn't true. And by the way, Jesper's deck in the Extra Turns episode is not a cEDH deck. It just uses two commanders that are also often used in cEDH. And Jesper could have easily lost this game if the other players had focused more on him. Just a question of threat assessment in my opinion.

[@AWESMATHEGREAT]

40:56 Josh, if you don't have any Unlimited Wheels of Fortune, do you at least have Revised ones?

[@DragonmasterSK]

All my decks are value based. But Aurelia Boros wins by: a) Infect with Grafted Exoesqueleton b) Helm of The Host for Infinite Aurelias c) Commander damage with Hammer (+10+10) d) Quietus Spike + any damage doubler Instant Kill e) Avacyn + Worldslayer It doesn't win, but it destroys everyone else's board

[@lordgriselbrand4600]

Regarding blood moon- Play more basics! If Mitch from commander's quarters can play 5 color with almost all basics you can too!

[@trueno717]

No worries Josh about the Blood Moon! I’ll just play back to basics!

[@MrGorillafist]

7:30 to get to the good stuff!

[@benjaminschomburg7746]

In defense of commander damage as a wincon, I was at a commander table this week where the winning player killed three opponents with Yargle commander damage over two turns, which was pretty cool :)

[@andrewpierson5991]

I think the closest enchantment to Blood Moon is a little card called Contamination.

[@brianray3956]

I didn't realize that Jesper drew Slippery Bogle.

[@tortle1055]

Most of the cards Jesper suggested are competitive commander staples... interesting

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

The fun with Decimate is when you hit multiple mana sources at once and cripple the player with the strongest deck. I have won games because ofthat card.

[@ygaudreault]

Last week, I casted a 25 for 1 autere command, artifacts and low cost creatures. That was great.

[@mafuuru]

Sorry Josh, sometimes you just have to admit you're wrong. Jesper played a deck that was way above the table power level, and it was stax, and no everyone did not have a chance at winning, and threat assessment was way off, you guys just bullied Ashleen and let Jesper have his way.

[@somedudeontheinterwebs45]

Threat assessment was very poor. Everyone knew Jesper liked strong EDH decks and should have tuned their decks accordingly. Instead Josh brought red/black voltron???? And jimmy was playing marchesa, who didn't even get on the board that game???? Very poor commander and deck choices from each party.

[@BirdmanG07]

One guy played blood moon, I was playing Atraxa. Other guy in the pod was getting screwed by it but I didn’t care it was on the board. I didn’t mind it (in that game). PS Jesper is great.

[@celestiaciano8985]

Do you send stuff to Brazil? I'm really curious about it.

[@Crazy0101]

So Jesper way of having fun was to turn his decks into cEDH. That's fine don't get me wrong but the most important thing is to talk to your meta group and match your decks to have even games most of the time.

[@Yakiro255]

I just wish there were more budget versions of wheel of fortune

[@ShuffleYourLibrary]

Do more with artists! Jesper was AWESOME

[@khrisbell548]

Careful, Josh. That much salt will give you high cholesterol lol.

[@michaelloftis2349]

“You’re a bad person” had me dyyyying of laugher. Great episode

[@isaiahwelch8066]

The question becomes: What is the situation? Are you in a race, or are you disrupting a winning combo? Because tactical context is everything. And, what about Annul? You could hold up one blue mana to counter the artifact or enchantment, and never let the card in question hit the table. Both cards have the same power level.

[@WTF-Cubing]

Ashlen: “Wanna get in a quick game?” Jimmy: “Sure! What deck is that?” Ashlen: “Kozilek!” Jimmy: “...Actually, you know what? I just remembered I have something to take care of... far away from here.” Haven’t laughed that hard since grade school 😂

[@fenixmeaney6170]

All this hate for blood moon... Y'all are playing nonbasics?

[@bradleyhoward9638]

Yeah because playing basics in nongreen, multicolor decks sucks. Cedh needs basics because you have to play around blood moon but nobody else wants to build a deck that has to deal with crappy basics. You can't play whatever spells you want because color intensity is not cohesive with basics.

[@SovereignwindVODs]

I was thinking about making a jeskai deck and including both blood moon and back to basics. Seeing how much Josh hates those cards just bumped them from maybes to definitely in the deck.

[@DMBlade4]

On being more reactive versus a board state player - I notice many people don't run enough removal and interaction. They just want to pump out spells that help them and they don't often have answers to big threats. This a huge deck building mistake a lot of people make and it leads to a lot of uncontested wins by players who are more prepared to deal with threats

[@lucasfragassi2176]

Have you ever scene the card Corps harvester? And could you give some feedback?

[@blaketfg9374]

This is about Voltron decks( i just watched dj trying to convince josh that voltron can be viable)I know this is late but i don't see people with these with Voltron decks, sword of fire and ice/truth and justice/body and mind. They all give a creature protection from blue and another color(white, green, red) they cost 3 and equip for 2. They make you immune to blue white green and red then you can get the black swords, sword of fear and famine/light and shadow/sinew and steel, that all have black and another element(green, white, red) which all help you with protection from most spells. Protection from cyclonic rift and any colored bored wipes but you are weak to equipment destruction so that's what you keep counters for. You don't have to worry about wipes anymore just equipment destruction but you can maybe go with darksteel forge and if you are okay with having other creatures or maybe want to run mono blue you can use padeem, consul of innovation to give all artifacts hexproof. Also i forgot to mention the swords keep creatures of those colors blocking you. So you and all your items are essentially invincible and no creatures spells or anything can touch your Voltron creature and just go in and one shot opponents. Let me know what you think. I know you have to put more money in it to make it viable, being better with tutors but i think this can be really good