Why I Took Apart My Favorite Deck (And Fell In Love With a New One) | Magic: the Gathering

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[@benoitbusque8410]

"Threw in the cards that I like" produces an edh experience unlike any other

[@TK-zd7ym]

I couldn't take my Meren deck apart, I feel like I'd be losing a friend that all of my friends hate.

[@ak2298]

I can relate, and I think its nice to have 1-2 really tough decks for my playgroup : ) I mean I even like it if I play against a bonkers deck, for the challenge ^^

[@majinshinsa]

I am rebuilding another copy of Meren that is the stock precon so that I have a known power level of Meren that can be played in Precon level games but I can't take her apart. She's what got me into the format and losing her would take me out lol

[@murphyspell7125]

I feel this. I think I'm just going to keep my Meren alive AND build Baba.

[@BrodyTwice]

Joey is my people. The way Joey describes his love of reanimation sounds like me trying to explain my play style. One day I'll get a game with Joey and we will reanimate our way to the 1 and 2 position

[@MrPhyCycle]

There's a little Joey inside all of us. Wait, that came out wrong.

[@jamesbelliston4444]

I've now seen like 4 videos with joey and I want to be his best friend his pure joy he gets from playing the game genuinely warms my cold dead heart. Joey you are a joy and continue the good work.

[@eskimoprime09]

"I wanted my opponents to still be able to do the thing, but I wanted to best them even when they were got to do the thing." Holy cow, all of my thoughts in one sentence.

[@SuperRamdomdude]

Love this series. You guys have become my go-to for the most in-depth deck building content, both in the mechanics and synergies of the decks and how it all fits in the spirit of commander.

[@kovala]

I really enjoy these existential ponderings about commander. I love hearing why people feel the way they do about the decks they build. Commander is such an self-expressive format, so hearing a person talk about their deck is like getting a window into their soul.

[@sebastien7330]

Great episode of this mini series where you talk about your commander decks and your personal thoughts on your deck brewers journey, I absolutely love it !

[@robdoyle5660]

I've only ever netdecked 2 EDH decks before... funnily enough those would be Matt's Valduk and Dana's Vela... but now I HAVE to try this Baba deck. You guys are the best EDH podcast out there. Thanks!

[@connormoore4767]

I had no idea Joey was gay, but hearing that someone in the community feels comfortable enough to easily express that to us (I my eyes) shows just how amazing this community is

[@murphyspell7125]

Times are changing...

[@skillganon606]

I knew he looked too put together for a nerd, good for him.

[@seayeo]

Also checkout Nitpicking Nerds for more representation. And if you're into Warhammer, Eons of Battle.

[@101stumphead]

@@seayeo they're gay? Thats cool

[@seayeo]

@@101stumphead On Nitpicking Nerds, Joe is gay but not Beezy. It comes up occasionally during side chatter.

[@holdyourfire74]

The excitement and pure joy Joey has when talking about this deck is infectious! I'm a graveyard/aristocrat lover too, and people always groan when I play Meren. So maybe a change is in order for me too.

[@PieShapedPiper]

I was perusing your deck lists just last week and immediately wanted to build this baby. Really nice to hear you talk about what went into building it

[@mtgexplainers]

Baba Lysaga has been one of my all time favorite new commanders and glad you've highlighted her here!

[@Julio1jpg]

Hey! Good to see you commenting around here :) Waiting for more of your interestimg videos!

[@mtgexplainers]

@@Julio1jpg Thanks for the comment! I do currently have some content in the works to get back into the swing of things after this current break :D

[@TRU3OGR3]

Baby Lasagna

[@eveninghat8715]

This is really cool! Tbh I like both your Meren deck and your Baby Lasagna deck, but I'm glad you were able to make a deck that fit in with the more casual crowd and still have fun.

[@phyrexiasfinest8627]

I recently built Baba and it has been a blast. Definitely the most fun I've had with a commander in a while. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@TheStan690]

Love this video! Please make more co tent like this talking about your decks and your building process with them!!

[@graysonshipley929]

Love this episode! So cool! Also realized the new Biotransference card from the necromancer precon is also kinda bonkers here too, what a fun commander!

[@luca7009]

I LOVE these personal commander stories! Keep it up ❤

[@cratuss2661]

i took my *jarad-graveyard-power-and-toughness* deck apart and made *combo-meren* out of it. people hated it, so i made a *super-selfmill-grist* deck out of it with a lot of insects.. it was not a fun deck and very slow. BUT NOW... i think i'm finally at home... *i found my dream golgari commander thanks to you.* played it first time today and i love it!!!!!!!

[@PrimeEnLightenedShadow]

"... she's fun, interactive, *very powerful, but very stoppable*..." So glad to hear I'm not the only one that understands how Commander is SUPPOSED to be! Seriously, WAY more decks need to be built like this, and WAY more cards (in the command zone or not) need to be designed like this! We don't need another Korvold, we don't need another Nyxbloom Ancient, we don't need infinite combos, we don't need games ending before the REAL game begins. What we need is for Commander to become MORE balanced, NOT LESS!!!!!

[@soleo2783]

I was with you until nyxbloom ancient

[@jasonhart543]

Love this video, Joey. The flow from introspection about multi-player enjoyment & self-critique to a specific new deck tech. For me, the biggest take-apart-&-pivot-to-something-similar was my mono-red Homura deck. It started out with just my fav red cards, & creative sac outlets for Homura. But as my group's power level went up, it didn't scale well. I pushed it toward red burn-recursion, but there just aren't enough key pieces yet. So I transitioned to Jaxis - which keeps my love of mono-red, but gives me more interesting lines of play. The same unpredictable ebb and flow, but a more cohesive core.

[@PartZebra]

So happy to see this video; been wanting to build Baba Lysaga for aaaaages!

[@soulthrone]

My first video of yours which I discovered from the professor and I loved this video! It's nice to find a new magic show to watch.

[@ChrisDavis-tt1dj]

Great episode! I feel the same way about my vehicle deck. Started out as Depala, then Golos, then, then Teshar, then Jhoira, and finally Shorikai. Vehicles are so wacky and different and I love it.

[@LTJ]

Great vid Joey. Love my Baba deck. Its only a few months old and is slowly developing. So much fun to play. Draw lots of cards, sac multiple stuff (and looking clever doing it) and even get the occasional win.

[@Naren25]

Love this deck, love your infectious energy!

[@DylanBU41]

Joey - i get this reaction with the new braids too, it's so fun to get that ooh and ahh each time you sit down.

[@timc0212]

This is a really good video by Joey, I enjoyed listening to this perspective

[@soulthrone]

It's also nice to see that you can love a deck this much. And I learned about the liquid metal torch and reclamation sage and by gosh I love it!

[@meeerrpe5080]

I love this video! I've only taken apart one deck so far and it was my first deck ever. It was a equipments-focused voltron-y deck that I ended up not vibing with at all. Luckily, my second and third decks ended up being staples I continue to love to this day. As for that first deck, while some of it sits in my trade binder, a good portion of it I gave to my older brother when he built his own equipments deck (that he loves to pilot).

[@Aztecdragon137]

I love this kind of video where you talk about your favorite cards. I also change my marien deck into a Nethroi, Apex of Death cause I like the move mass reanimated effect

[@andrewpeli9019]

Baba Lysaga is great commander design. It has so much room for creativity. I hope Wizards takes note and uses this card as a template for what an interesting commander is supposed to be.

[@aidanschauer1581]

Lololol “snac-rificed”. Solid gold performance here🎉

[@DarthAlgar5]

It’s literally a crime this channel has less than 1 million subs. Such great content

[@medioxcore]

people de-tuning their decks, or building sub-optimally, to keep things fun is so fucking cool! it's easy to build the best deck you're capable of building. it's easy to throw in super powerful cards, or look up ridiculous combos, or drop crazy money to turn your deck into a weapon. but it is so much more interesting to see decks that have prioritized fun, or cool interactions, or silly themes. it's just something you don't really see in other forms of competition, and really is unique to casual commander. i love it.

[@rynebillings2226]

Always love hearing Joey's philosophy on deckbuilding and the overall game. He has such a radically different playstyle from me, but his mindset is something I related to hard.

[@comissarioigordon]

Spectacular content, Joey! Thanks! Two moments when you describe exactly my philosophy while playing EDH: “I wanted my opponents to still be able to to the thing, but I wanted to best them even when they got to do the thing.” / "Build decks you would enjoy losing to."

[@alarsenault4758]

Love it, I overlooked this Commander when I opened it in my pack........now building. I really like Old Rutstein's ability to keep feeding the graveyard AND putting something on the board

[@studybug614]

I am now very grateful for you getting that pack because I have been trying to remember Kruphix for days! Thank you so much. Uh, also, the rest of the video was good too.

[@dumbdom4videos436]

Oh my god Joey. This is how I feel about my Nevinyraal deck. Its definitely impacted how I build decks now.

[@GethIng001]

My first commander deck was a bloated Angel, Human, Solder trible beck with Aurelia, the Warleader at the helm. That eventually morphed into a clunky Solder Battalion deck with Aurelia still at the helm. The thing was, in both cases, I was winning more with just Aurelia than the go-wide strategy I wanted. So, I split that deck into two. I now have an "Exulted Aurelia" deck and a Tajic, Blade of the Legion battalion deck. The Aurelia deck is a voltron deck where I build a supporting army and at least one mass Exulted effect (like Sublime Angel) and go out swinging. There is an Angel tribal sub-theme, but all angel cards are in survice of the central attack strategy with only one creature at a time (namely Aurilea). I'm still tooling with my Tajic deck. Its "power level" is too low for my LGSs, so im going to need to power it up, but I don't expect it to be as big a powerhouse as its sibling. I tend to favor some mix of go wide and token strat with my decks; however, I do have fun quietly building my backup singers to exult Voltron at least one opponent in one turn (and two combats, thanks to Aurelia herself). Anyway, I know im a bit late to this conversation, but I wanted to share my story in this vain. I am willing and able to provide *current* deck lists if desired.

[@lewish1248]

I never thought about multi-type matters as a play space, that’s really cool! I had a Selenia life swap deck but saw a Vilis list that looks more streamlined so I’ll be doing that soon!

[@lightfut]

And he didn't even mention the commander level up thing he does with the different versions of the card, which I think is a super fun usage of all the printings they roll out of these cards.

[@murphyspell7125]

Razor's edge thinking here...I like the idea of using the different arts for different castings of the commander, but I feel this is playing into the greed of Hasbro that is becoming detrimental to our game in general.

[@danielbufton7471]

It seems like you've nailed the (in my opinion) ideal power level and variability of a deck here. My Anje, Maid of Dishonor blood tokens deck I accidentally did the same thing with. I wanted to build it as strong as I could, but it came out middling power, but with so many different ways of interacting with its own pieces and so many different ways of doing cool stuff. I had been intending to build Meren eventually because I like the stuff she does a lot, but you've sold me on building the Baba Lysaga I have buried in my collection somewhere instead.

[@gregorycole6018]

I love this video. I specially took apart my Prava/Nadier deck and made it a part of my Jan Jenson deck. I specifically make a part of other decks to another deck.

[@groadytoady4292]

I also found a similar new love from the same set with Raggadragga. I was able to combine ramping out and hydra tribal to make home a true deck I realized I had been yearning to have for years. It's always fun when you can take the best parts of two or three decks and combine them to be a legitimately fun deck with all your favorites!

[@mrTjstephens1]

Joey keep on being your fabulous Necromancer enthusiast self! I first got introduced to commander in a local budget league now my deck building has never been great i suffer from Shivam's delema of not being able to parse down my cards to 100. The deck i had started as Acendant Evancar it didn't do anything so i switched it to Chainer dementia master and started to refine what i was doing for 35 dollars. It worked out well

[@fumin2689]

Perfect deck tech for a perfect deck. Thanks

[@elbiggamehunter]

This is great content Joey. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I personally find myself wanting to play cool and interesting decks more and more. Like, I wanna win, but I want to win in style.

[@BelgianBilly]

Great video! And I have a deck that went through a similar transformation. Way back I built a grixis zombie deck led by Thraximundar, it made my opponents sacrifice their boards, it had big beaters and a potential for a combo finish, but because of a smal play group I played it less and less as it was always the boogie man at the table. After a few years I took it apart, and liking the zombie tribal aspect, turned it into a mono-black zombie deck helmed by God-eternal Bontu. I like zombies and some light reanimation, but I wasn't too keen on the combo aspect. Turned out this was too big a swing in the opposite direction and I shelved it as it was way too slow, with big expensive zombies and an expensive commander, so this year when Jafar, ghoulcaller of Nephalia was released he was a perfect middle ground for the deck. He came in early, giving the deck something to do while building up mana for all the zombie lord's and high mana-value spells like grave titan, or any of the Liliana's Now it's easily one of my favorite decks to play, especially at an LGS while figuring out the tables power level.

[@nfsfreakism]

This actually reminded me of my zombie tribal deck that started out as Scarab God, became Grixis zombies with Thraximundar, and went back to Dimir with Wilhelt fulfilling the niche without being oppressive or clunky to deal with

[@anstapa6118]

I love the perspective of deck-building as a social choice.

[@pineapples1036]

Great video Joey! As a Dragonlord Ojutai player I kind of see your sentiments when my myriad of counterspells fly by the table. I've tired to keep the table's fun in mind a lot of the time but I've only been playing him for 2 years. I still enjoy the groans I hear when I play a counterspell. Maybe some day I'll get tired of it, but God it feels good to stop someone's plan only for them to stare at a dragon with hexproof lol

[@skraddypoo]

Oh man, I've had the exact same thing with Meren, and I refound that joy interestingly in a whole different setup, with the mono red Jaxis, The Troublemaker. Not graveyard, but copying creatures, swinging with abandon, them dying, and burning everyone. It's so much fun, and importantly, everyone else is enjoying it now too.

[@andli]

This is a very important topic, well presented

[@Armageddone12]

I can totally relate here Joey. Speaking from one graveyard guy to another graveyard guy, well done! Hope to see you at MTG Summit!

[@ethanwiggen3567]

Hey Joey, I loved this video,and I too recently parted ways with Meren, despite her being a deck I was going to foil out. I had the same issues, the edict creatures were too good against the voltron decks and I ended up rarely playing the deck. Im trying an approximation of your Baba list this weekend, but id love an upping the average plus some decision making commentary on the cards you chose to play and didn't choose. Keep up the great work!

[@redbirdriot]

I've got two, one that is a transformation like you described, and one that I'm thinking about turning back. When I got back into Magic, I really liked Izoni, and wanted to make that work as a graveyard/aristocrats deck. But every time I tried it out it just felt too slow, and like it was at odds with itself - it wanted creatures on the field, but also in the graveyard. So eventually I switched it over to mono-black Ayara bc I thought she looked cool, and wow did that add some speed. Suddenly the deck felt like it had a good purpose and the means to back it up - get black creatures on the board to drain your opponents, then kill them to drain some more. It's one of my favorites now. The other one is my blink deck - I've kept it as a Ranar "exile tribal" deck for a while and really loved it, but it is definitely slower to win, so I tried out the new Abdel Adrian and Candlekeep Sage combo in the command zone. And, like with Ayara, that deck is wicked fast, really hard to stop once it gets going, and can combo off pretty easily. But I'm not sure I want it to be as strong as it is right now, I kind of miss making Spirit tokens with Ranar, and doing goofy tricks with Saltskitter. So I'm thinking I'm going to go back - sometimes it's worth it to not play the most powerful commander/deck you can if it means you can play something you enjoy, and something that others will enjoy playing against. I like what you said in this video Joey, giving me a lot to consider.

[@tjsakaki6028]

Hell yeah, so relatable! I remember building Prosper, my first time playing Rakdos & it quickly became my favorite color to play but my friends felt miserable playing against it. So I went back to the drawing board and ended up falling in love with the partner pair of Toggo/Keskit! It let me make use of all the artifact aristocrat shenanigans I loved with Prosper while still being something fun to play with buds. Such a fun deck, it actually plays kind of like Joey’s Lasagna deck here so I may just need to give this old girl a whirl! Keep up the good work Joey!

[@sanguinelupas2104]

Your feelings towards baba lysaga with your old meren deck is exactly how i was when Old Stickfingers came out, and i instantly fell in love with him and i altered my meren deck to fit more for him and i never regretted it

[@dariusmuhammad4728]

Joey i am on a similar journey with changing my meren deck to a baba lysaga deck Times playing with her just started getting stall to me i try changing it up some to make it fresh but it hasn't done anything for me and still feels like any other meren deck, when i first saw baba i instantly fell in love and wanted to brew around it i got most of the key pieces and im just waiting on the commander myself so ur video has inspired me to go along with this thanks u man

[@tayshope8406]

Well God dangit. I guess I'm building this now. It looks like so much fun!

[@MrPinkpanzer]

Great video. I've taken apart most of my decks. Some didn't end up doing the thing, some were not appropriate for the power level I wanted to only at, and some I just didn't enjoy as much as I hoped. But there are a couple of decks I'm still excited to tinker with and play years later. My number 1 is Ghalta. I find that my opponents have a tough time arguing that attacking with big green doofuses is unfair or unexpected. I toned down the deck and got rid of cards like natural order and craterhoof, but wizards has printed so many great green mythics that the deck can still be strong and fun to play. I first decided to build the deck after watching Jon Suarez play it on commander vs and have loved it ever since.

[@miguelmora7564]

Joey, I am right there with you. I want to re-animate anything and everything. I love milling myself and putting awesome creatures in the graveyard only. tobring them back, it's awesome! But more than how much I love and want that experience, I want all of my friends and people I play with to have a good time. So I actually did the exact same thing and built Baby Lasagna as well! One of my favorite decks by far!!! I did put my Meren in my deck, as I also took apart Meren to build her, lol! I love Meren so much, and I didn't want the International Women's Day art to go to waste! I am now looking to build Mimeoplasm but asking my friends if they would tell me what their favorite green, blue, and black creatures are, and making the deck out of their favorite things! No need to worry on the reanimator though, I built Raffine to do that... haha! Thanks for the vid, it was awesome!

[@vicenteiiporciuncula1158]

This resonates so much with me. Thank you for this kind of content! I recently watched UTA Jodah, and the reco on Prosper (and Laelia), Sisay and Esior stuck to me, mostly because I have a Prosper (with Laelia), Sisay, and Esior (partnering with Ardenn) EDH decks. Makes me want to unify them under Jodah. Now I am looking at current and past decks, and wondering if I can make a Jodah Commandmer Commander deck of past commanders (reminsicent to Joey's Commander Commander deck). Then, after watching this video, my mind goes to my Feather bilnk deck, which plays similarly to said Meren, recurring blink and defensive spells, making it both difficult and boring for opponents. Now I wonder who my own Baby Lasagna will be... Thanks again, Joey, and more power, even if my wallet shudders at your deck techs that make me want to build each and every UTA deck!

[@tisseurdereves6414]

Excellent video. This sets a great example on so many points: - don't blind yourself - don't get overly attached for the wrong reasons - don't hesitate to try new venues - be creative - expect the unexpected from future sets I've churned through a lot of decks since I started playing Commander, ages ago. I currently have 56 built and ready to go, with 4 potential lists as work in progress. But I also have 42 other decks that I have dismantled over the years, and countless tweaks to tone down most of them to a more relaxed and casual level. Most of the takedowns were due to their sheer clunkiness (Sarevok, Greven-rat colony tribal, Tivit with bajillion votes, Rakdos Lord of Riots with Hidetsugu as a secret Commander and wincon...), others because they were not as enjoyable as I thought they would be (Galea auras, Darien, Lathril, Phylath, Perrie and his countless types of counters that are a nightmare to follow...), others still because of the repetitive game plan or the hate they drew around the table (Kalamax extra turns, Tergrid, Torbran...) A couple were also just beheaded by a single ban (I miss you, Golos Gates and Golos God of Gods). I've gone so far as to keep track of stats with a spreadsheet: rate of win/losses, and deliberate passes on a deck when deciding what to play. "Among all of the lesser played, you, I don't want this time? First pass in a row? Fine. Second ? Erm. Third? Strike, you're out." Others I've taken great care not to overplay so I don't get sick of them too fast. Granted, given the variety I have, most of them have only been taken out for 2-3 games tops. But I love brewing so much and trying new ideas that it doesn't bother me too much. I don't build to fine tune game after game, I build to have fun and show something unexpected to the table (or myself).

[@jamescalvert4471]

As somone who ran Curse of Strahd in DnD, hearing you ALSO call her Lasagna both crushes me, and brings a smile. No matter the game, she is doomed to this fate. Sacrifice your heart out, from one Blood Artist to another.

[@TK-zd7ym]

Great video Joey, you may have convinced me to build Baby Lasagna :)

[@Sinistra359]

Yooo what a coincidence! Just tore apart my Meren deck the other day!

[@somethingfishy9046]

Did you say "snacrifice"?! Joey, you are just my favorite!

[@ELFudgeOreos]

Reading all the other comments about Joey's enthusiasm, I 100% agree. I'm a chronic brewer so hearing someone talk about that moment where you're excited to brew and watch your lil baby pop off was gratifying

[@frandynamo2143]

Great episode and story. Meren is not a commander I've actually had to play against much as nobody in my playgroup has her so only seen her a few times online but boy is she a machine when she gets going and once, she does she can be hard to keep up with / stop. For all the reasons you listed I totally get why you would dismantle her. For me the one that got away was Bruna, Light of Alabaster. I love Innastrad and I love angels and she was my first commander that I built myself. Pretty simple deck construction but she felt fun, unique and could do some crazy things given the chance. The main issues I ended up having was that her only line to win was voltron and that ended up being less fun for me and my opponents. I could get her out and buff her up and kill one person only for her to be removed by someone else after and then that one person would be out the game so suddenly (sometimes in one combat) and I could struggle to rebuild as she has a distinct lack of haste in her colours and has high CMC so it can be slow and very predictable. As things are now she got demoted to "plan B-runa" in my bant Rafiq voltron aura deck. Which honestly can have similar issues but I focus less on just Rafiq being the win con in that deck. I don't think it was a perfect breakup and new match up like yours was with Baby Lasagne but it's been a step in the right direction for me. I think. lol

[@thedoctajon]

I'm fairly new to commander. I built my first deck around a Nissa Resurgent Animist. It was the first expensive card i ever pulled so it felt natural to do so. I cannibalized all my fallout precons to make the deck, but in the end i had too few elves/elementals to search for, and nothing to spend the excess mana on. Fast-forward to now, i re-made it with Bonny Pall at the helm, and added a bunch of big creatures and some bounce spells so i can keep making oxen tokens when Bonny enters. I enjoy it much more 🎉

[@TruthlessHero]

This is very relatable. I run an aristocrat themed Chatterfang, Squirrel General deck that just gets groans when I pull it out. But I love playing from the graveyard, and didn't think I would find anything that gave me that level of enjoyment without evoking eye rolls when tabled it. Enter Bane, Lord of Darkness. Politics and fun graveyard shenanigans come together to form a very odd style of gameplay, and way lower sodium content than Squirrelpocalypse. Love the contwnt, keep up the great work.

[@yoshinoritoyama6802]

Best edh channel and content!

[@alfascorpi]

I took apart Ur dragon to make Miirym, and Riku of two reflections to reuse a lot of it in Esix, I love that one!

[@davidchapman7350]

Love the passion with which you talk about your layered noodles with cheese and meatsauce ;) Haven't taken anything apart yet, will say however that there's 3 decks that I can think of that I'm this passionate about: - Obeka, Brute Chronologist: It started basically with your Upping the Average deck list, but has since evolved a little bit. I've found that making multiple copies of Balor to send at opponents is just devastating, and overall I enjoy how janky the deck appears to be until the cloning engine is online (i.e. the various ways I get to copy my creatures, and good targets available). I pulled off the dreaded Hivemind / Final Fortune combo twice, and boy the looks on other players' faces once they realize what's happening. - Ayesha Tanaka, Armorer: For some reason I've seen like no lists of this one, so I created my own list. I took what little I saw on EDHREC and made it my type of spicy. It can be incredible fun swinging in with a commander who just grabs more and more artifacts out of my deck with each attack, and ends up becoming nigh unkillable and possibly literally unblockable. I once got boardwiped with a Farewell, losing 15 permanents and only leaving me with 6 lands. Within 2 turn cycles I had recovered enough to swing in for almost lethal commander damage in 1 turn, and the game remained fun despite the inevitable loss after the boardwipe. - Esix, Fractal Bloom: Ever since you guys revealed the submission for your Esix challenge (adding Mercurial Transformation because it allows you to turn almost anything into a creature), I've fallen more and more in love with the idea of a commander who frankly just has exponential growth potential. I've now build my Esix deck, drawing inspiration from EDHREC as well as the various "Adrix and Nev" lists out there, and today is going to be the first day I play this for real. I've playtested already a bit, and so far I am happy. Playing a Lord of Change only to copy it with a multi-token creator (other than your usual suspects, how about Ethereal Investigator with his 3 Clue tokens?) and drawing between 9 and 20 cards just feels INSANE. And I've added as many creature lands as feasible so I could make token copies of my mana base too. Overall the pieces I had to buy (about 65 cards, since I had most of the budget mana base and a few others) ran me only $110, total cost (as originally built, without the more expensive cards that I did have lying around) was $150.

[@Stevie28]

Great Joey I think now I have to rebuild my deck too. I have the same feeling about meren atm. I don't get to play her so often anymore...

[@sleepyracoon4811]

Late to the party but I went through the same process with my Izoni Thousand Eyed list. She is my 1st EDH deck ever and had a strong aristocrat theme with cards like Zulaport Cutthroat, Savra, Butcher of Malakir etc. During quarantine, I went against a pod of complete strangers via Spelltable and one of them was running a Voltron deck. I've never felt so bad playing a card game. It just wasn't what I wanted to do. I still have Izoni as the commander but it's all about self-mill now ! Nyx Weaver, Satyr Wayfinder, Cemetery Tampering into playing Splinterfright, Jarad or Lhurgoyf is all I want to do. My favorite is playing an Embodiment of Agonies followed by players asking me why I'm putting so many counters on it. It's my oldest and my favorite deck. I can't imagine going at my lgs or an event without Izoni and her army of bugs. I was also really tempted to include Baba Lysaga when I first saw her card ! I'm sure she would have a blast as a member of the Golgari Swarm :D.

[@teddytanalski3926]

@Joey I built baba after seeing this video with ur list for the most part. A blast to play! I also added gyome, master chef and braids, arisen nightmare! They r fun and work in tandom with most of the theme. Another card I realized to be good in there recently is titania's song. The deck typically has a slu of food,clues and/or treasures laying around...especially if the academy manufacturer hits. Titania's song will turn those into creatures killing them and all ur opponents artifact tokens at the same time. Which in turn will trigger your syr conrad, blood artist, poison tip archer and other aristocrats! And then u can sac the song to baba and continue going to work! I have yet to playtest this for consistency,but I think It could be a neat interaction. Also running manglehorn can help keep ur opponents from sacing there treasures in response to this interaction!

[@Zeromus5555]

Good call. I think a lot of players don't take into account the other players at the table nearly enough. Commander IS a social format. It's supposed to be fun, for everyone. Stax, Discard, mill, land destruction, etc are generally pretty frowned upon. But the thing all players need to do more of is properly gage their decks and card choices and what cards, if any, are producing groans of displeasure amongst your play group. Everyone plays to win, but it should never be at the cost of everyone having fun.

[@gn0s1s]

I think it sounds more like a power level mismatch, than a playstyle issue. He built an 7ish meren but wants to play battlecruiser, so he changed commander and tuned them to more of a 5. Also wouldnt say those playstyles are "generally frowned upon" more so that they are higher power level play styles.. Cutting those play styles out create imbalances... then a stompy jodah just runs out of control...Again he s talking about card selection, but its clear it s about the power levels he s encountering.

[@Bladezeromus]

Sometimes, that's just the way it's got to be. You've got to win at some point, 2hr long commander games are for KZbin channels.

[@michaelogara9056]

Honestly this made me think about my own Maren deck and made me push it to CEDH and I loved doing that and now I'm gonna build this as my fun deck

[@claramonti3889]

my first build was a kodama of the east tree/yoshimaru deck. it played classic selesnya stuff, and just tried to pump Yoshi to be massive. When DMU dropped, i disassembled it and a couple others i had to build the first draft of my Jodah deck, which has now become one of my favorite to pilot(second only to Arcades).

[@alfascorpi]

I will try this, I have a Meren too I hardly grab along, seems a fun commander

[@Fearthelettuce]

Alright, you sold me. I've been eyeing Baby L since she came out.... and have a half put together Gitrog deck that I haven't found a way to turn into fun jank. One card that I think is SO slept on is Shigeki, Jukai Visionary. I run this in all my GY decks (well, really all my decks with green) but it is amazing here being an enchantment creature.

[@michellemoore7829]

I turned my orzhov Teysa aristocrats deck into a back ground sub themed Silvar deck that's ton of fun, just one of the most adaptive decks i've played can easily move between voltron, go wide and aristocrats at will, absolutely inspired by the commander commander deck. Is absolutely hillarious to win with a massive glorified hill giant doing commander damage with Cultist of the absolute.

[@RyokoYoichi]

I was planning on took apart my first deck, Yuriko. I was hesitant but I kinda want to do it now. Just need to find the next deck

[@SparkBlazeWarriors]

I really love the idea of what I now call “deck of Theseus”, the deck you’ve had forever but in a nearly unrecognizable form because it’s changed so much. I think my now Shorikai deck has had the most big changes? It went from a Breya precon to Azorius vehicles lol. The Breya precon deck was upgraded but kinda got sidelined for being too similar to my own Meren deck. It then got revamped as Sydri vehicles with Parhelion II as a secret commander, and has since been helmed by Alela and Rebbec/Silas before Shorikai. I actually thought about going Azorius before ND bc Black wasn’t doing a ton for me and so the timing of Shorikai couldn’t be more perfect.

[@TheYGOMusketeer]

I was making a BG land creatures custom commander and someone suggested Baba! Land Creatures are my jam in EDH, so I’m definitely going to give her a try 😊

[@skillganon606]

Keep your friendly neighborhood gitrogg monster in mind. Just don't be like me and build a deck around sacing lands to draw cards and forget that you need a way to win.

[@golgariguy]

Meren is also my favorite deck, and I'm never taking it apart 😬 But I appreciate your reasoning! I also keep Meren for higher power games, as you do with Titania and Konrad.

[@Zeromus5555]

I just recently built Mimeoplasm and I absolutely love it. There's just something about playing from the yard, not to mention your opponents.

[@rabidcabbage7230]

I'd love to see a video with you playing this deck

[@drognnarthorellan2211]

Always loved simic merfolk simic ascendancy for the Alt wincon. Build the mono white light paws Auras. Consistency of turn 4 1 shot commander damage of 26 or more. Without shenanigans just pretty and efficient

[@Teedo_]

I feel just about the same way with my Gisa&Geralf deck. Used to be a mass-type zombie deck, but that got boring quickl and so I recently converted it into more and more of a recursion theme. Prized amalgam is pure joy with altar of dementia and a few lords

[@hamsamich9]

I recently put together a Slimefoot and Squee deck. I've really been enjoying it so far.

[@chaobell]

Picked a copy of her up on a whim at a game store, best decision ever. My build is similar, but instead of winning through sacrifice triggers, I focus on board flooding, then winning with a cradle and finale of devastation. Using the couple budget tutors in the deck and Lysaga's insane card draw ability allows me to hit this combo pretty reliably and it is the most rewarding thing ever to finale of devastation a marionette master and swing for 200+ damage.

[@toms1782]

This is how I felt when the new 40k commander came out for X tribal, smashing my favorite hydra cards with some new tyranid and splash in some of my favorite x spells. No over powered but competitive and fun, loving it!!!

[@CubbyTv24]

I also love my Baba deck. Joey, we build a lot of the same decks. Baba, Lynde, Yennett, ect.

[@Mulletdog1]

The way you talk About this deck reminded me of when I play my Osgir deck. It has a lot of resilience, and I’m constantly surprised how creative I get to be in multiple board scenarios. You’d think Bronze guardian would be just good as a Timmy card, but it is so strong with altar of dementia because I can use it to fill my yard for wake the past, or just mill my opponent. I wasn’t even the person who discovered this, someone playing hellkite tyrant Taught me that lesson 😂

[@nightbane727]

i get your passion for your deck i have a kardur doomscourge deck that is affectionately referred to as "second place" it can win but its usually guaranteed to get at least second place lol