You are over optimizing your Commander Decks

[@djnewellmit]

I loved your phrase, "your curve does not matter if you are curving into losing."

[@ticomtg]

Pretty proud of it lol. Always tell new players it doesn't matter if you win at 40, 39, or 1 life.

[@metalblizzard6024]

As a casual player that teaches new players at my lgs... 100% this. Overoptimization even in casual is nuts. I always tell folks that i play casual for synergy or theme...

[@ticomtg]

Yes, the way to learn to play better magic is by having your deck churn. Have and make multiple and choose the best choices. 🫡

[@stencil25]

I agree. Optimised cards will likely be able to contribute to the game, but more synergistic cards will contribute to winning,

[@ticomtg]

Great way to put it

[@jean-paulbascelli1078]

Synergy is ok. Some generic Power matters as well. If you play this game just focusing on synergies and ignoring power, you will lose games because of it eventually. It has to happen at some point in your play career by virtue of playing mtg. Now, you can say you don't care et, and that is ok, but you're uncaring attitude isn't going to make others feel bad or play the way you want. I'm mostly a casual edh player, and I don't play cards like cyclonic rift, demonic tutor etc but I know some folks do, and nothing I say will change it for the most part. I can opt out playing with those players or adjust.

[@TheDetectiveJ]

True. Some cards are just so good that they outweigh the synergistic effect of another card in your deck.

[@vasylpark2149]

I actually have the exact opposite problem. I focus too much on theme and having fun that I struggle to win games. Only a handful of my decks can play at a highly tuned table.

[@eriks_trip]

This reminds me of a story from my old LGS. I once played against a guy with a Karlov lifegain deck. He was really fun to play with and against but he got tilted once or twice when it felt like his deck "didn't do anything" -- ie. he played his commander early, played some payoff effects, got boardwiped, and couldn't rebuild in time. He expressed a desire to take it apart and build something different. I asked to see his deck and it turned out he only played 15 CARDS that directly gained life on some non-combat/conditional trigger and less than half that many conditional lifegain effects like lifelinkers. That's only about 20 cards in the entire deck that did the thing his commander and all those payoff cards wanted him to do! But he was playing Damnation and Wrath of God and Swords to Plowshares... no Fumigate, no March of Wretched Sorrow, no Pristine Talisman. I think we're often so excited to build a deck that can do big splashy things that we forget that in order to do those things, we need cards to enable those big payoffs. A + B = C, but if your deck is mostly A or B you can't make C.

[@sablesalt]

What you are talking about is understanding cards value is a scale from their minimum to maximum strength and that most of the time it is the minimum that matter since it's what gets you going and when at maximum you already are winning.

[@jaceg810]

Most companion decks: What curve? I must admit that I really value synergy, but mostly because I think staples are boring, generally, if your cards are more mana efficient, you can pack in more carddraw, and thus, instead of playing less efficient cards, to say, gain life and counter a spell, you can play a soul sister and a counterspell to gain silly amount of life, and counter a spell with minimal mana held up. Absorb is very flavorful though, Although it is not even going to trigger Will, Scion of Peace most of the time, and oloro tends to hang out in the command zone, providing the lifegain triggers for free. I think that if you have a strategy like lifegain, it is important to both have payoff and gas, to use an example I am more familair with, A Lurrus/ Bjorna / Wernog artifact token deck. The most important part is to assemble some way to make artifacts, some way to sac them and a way to get value out of the process, preferably by drawing cards since I burn through them at a high rate. Most pieces need to synergize with its. For example, a synergistic piece of removal is Invasion of New Cepenna, allowing me to sac something for good removal, and turning whatever flavor of token into a win condition eventually. However, cards like Swords to plowshares are still in there, since its efficient rate means that I can afford to use clues to draw cards at a worse rate, draw into efficient cards, and continue playing the game

[@ticomtg]

Good points!

[@punkypinko2965]

100% agree. Damning Verdict is a great card. Also, Mass Calcify, if you're playing mono white, because it destroys all non-white creates. I play Damning Verdict and Mass Calcify in my mono white Giada deck. Btw, it sounds like your video cuts off at the end.

[@ticomtg]

Mass Calcify is a great one for a mono-white deck!

[@SwedeRacerDC]

Yeah, you have some great points. I almost never run rampant growth. I don't focus on having as much 2 mana ramp as possible. I want ramp that synergizes as much as possible. Great take. On a side note, I haven't played Ajani's Pridemate though in like 10 years. He was a life gain beater and nice in 60 card casual, but he rarely does anything in commander anymore. If you can make him unblockable reliably, then he's still going to help a lot. But there's so many better payoffs that he hasn't been in a deck of mine for ages. Either way, I think you should easily be able to get away with cards like this in your deck, especially if there's synergy. I think he's a low stakes beater that you could easily send at combo and control players over and over again forcing their hand on removal eventually. Not the best option, but good enough for the job that they can only chump so long.

[@ticomtg]

Yeah, I don't either there are more powerful creatures that do that effects - just felt it carried my point well.