You own way too many EDH Decks... | DeckDriverMTG

Do you catch yourself pulling up to your LGS with 15+ decks, looking to play some games and then never playing all of them? Are there decks you've gone multiple months without playing? YOU my friend might have WAY too many decks in your line up! In this video I talk about how I went about fixing this problem and how you can solve it yourself!

[@deckdriverMTG]

The true heroes are the players with a single "slime against humanity" deck

[@cmgeorge1332]

I am in fact that hero. Tasigur slimes is all you need 😇

[@devilproducoes5990]

Your moxfield nick?

[@cmgeorge1332]

@@devilproducoes5990 Mine is Cmgeorge20

[@z33pys5]

​@@cmgeorge1332Never thought of Tasigur! Do you have a decklist?

[@cmgeorge1332]

@@z33pys5 yeah it's on my moxfield, my user name is Cmgeorge20

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

Damn I haven't even started the video and I feel personally called out lol

[@deckdriverMTG]

Hahahah no worries, you really can have as many decks as you want! These are just my thoughts on it!

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

Dito! 😂

[@nonebusiness9179]

I had too many decks. Found myself playing some more than others but couldn’t bring myself to snuff any of my children. So I put every deck into a 200 count cardboard storage box. I marked the name of the deck on the bottom so I could limp them into categories but select a subcategory at random. This allowed me to bring a randomized group of decks from a certain category each play night. It forced me to actually play the decks which then allowed me to see that they needed work, or weren’t as fun as I was thinking in the abstract (absent actual play) and I would either decide I do like the deck and put the effort into it or I would take it apart. So I can build two more to take its place.

[@derpderpson8796]

Without having watched the video yet: I have like 1 Main Deck, my evergreen. And like 20 other decks. I just love brewing too much, eventually I will be able to play each, its not a race :D Sometimes I play a deck 3 times, then disassemble it to create another one. Just one remark: I mainly brew with the cards I got, not cards I dont own.

[@TheAlmightyPillock]

I own 80 commander decks, I have been playing Commander for 12 years. I keep all my comamnders in a stack, I take the three off the top and bring those to the store, and last weeks go on the bottom. If I made a new deck, it gets added as one of the three. The rotation is roughly one powerful, one mid, and one testing deck. I also run budget decks, spending no more than £2.50 per card, this way it keeps the cost down. The challenge is often remember enough about the decks enough to know when new cards come out what to upgrade. But yes, it is a shame when I don't get to play a deck for almost a year :), however, I love getting to come across a deck I have not played in a while. Sometimes if I have made recent changes to a deck it will get shifted forwards in the rotation. I love all my decks bar one, which was made as a goodstuff deck to use up some powerful cards I hard lying around that never fit my more nich decks.

[@noobtuber10]

I like that system having them in a pile, as someone with also around the same amount i might start doing that

[@wgault98]

I'm someone who can't handle playing the same deck twice. They say variety is the spice of life. Due to scheduling conflicts, I only play commander once every couple months for 2 to 3 games each session. Being a brewer at heart, I have 13 decks or so with varying vibes, despite being an esper heavy mage. Having started to log my games, I have found that, without trying, so far this year, I've used every deck in my arsenal at least once, not seeming to have any favorites. I'd love to carry around less cardboard and have resolved myself to finish up the last two decks im working on and not go past 15 total. Everyone has a number they can live with I'm hoping 15 is mine for my wallets sake.

[@halihalo21]

2-3 games every couple months? Do you even play magic? For me it has to be like every week because otherwise the time between games is so long that im not able to fix my missplays and im a tryhard.

[@nickw7235]

I love all 20 of my decks. I legit roll a D20 to decide which I’m playing with and never question the roll.

[@hieronymusflex3537]

Are all 20 of your decks the exact same power level?

[@rudixy7808]

Doesn’t matter, fate decides the fate of my enemies

[@hieronymusflex3537]

@rudixy7808 Fair enough! I like your approach, but carrying around 2000 cards every time I go to the LGS just sounds like a chore.

[@dadofgio]

Same, but i only have 6 decks so d6

[@MrPacoGuapo]

Love the approach, excellent flavor

[@SaltySparrow]

I just build stuff on archedekt and pretend lmao. Building is more fun than playing sometimes.

[@siebz100]

That's so real. It's so much fun building decks, and honestly I do this so me and some buds can play commander on Tabletop Sim since they live so far away

[@FirstnameLastname-ok1yz]

I think I spend more time crafting and drawing random hands imagining hypothetical turns than playing due to scheduling. If you have a pod of 4 understanding cheap leftists and you can always proxy 60 cards. If it's for 1 game. Or craft your own cards...

[@edhdeckbuilding]

my older decks i only play like 2 or 3 times a year. i've already played them a ton.

[@Belena711]

It's weird seeing a comment from you in another channel I follow. 😂 Worlds colliding.

[@D-Boy22]

I have 27 EDH decks that I accumulated over 8 years of playing magic. I like to pass my decks around when someone is looking for something of a certain playstyle and power level. Although, I have about 8 preferred decks that I play more consistently over the others. Some are experiments that I don't intend to play much. I think there's nothing unusual to have a lot of decks, you just have to expect to play a certain number of them a lot more than some others. Diversity kept me from burning out from the game and for real, I think it's a better alternative than holding a lot of cards in a binder. These decks are often modified and sometimes deconstructed to build another one. Keeps me busy.

[@deckdriverMTG]

Wow! I do really like the idea of having extra decks to lend to other players or new players!

[@D-Boy22]

@@deckdriverMTG I know it's not something a lot of people likes. But if I know the guy at least somewhat I'm usually glad to do

[@ardinhelme687]

I can confirm that having extra decks that you can hand out is great. It makes it easy to recruit bystanders into players. Wanna play a more high power game, but Steve only builds jank? Here, borrow mine! Same with a lower power game with a wandering cEDH player. Additionally, playing other people's decks will do more to align rule 0 expectations then a million games, and, as a bonus, if they win, you get to feel like a winner too because it was your deck that won.

[@D-Boy22]

@@ardinhelme687 Very well said. It's also nice for when someone within your regular pod doesn't have many decks and is tired to play what they have. Allows them to test new play styles.

[@RMKBuriedAlive]

This! For a long time, I supplied the decks for pretty much the whole table with friends that knew how to play but didn't want to buy in and it led to me getting to play way more often.

[@dadofgio]

I have 6 decks and play d6 to choose among these major themes: 1. +1/+1 Counters (medium power) 2. Aristocrats (med) 3. Combo (high) 4. Stompy (high) 5. Control (low) 6. Go-wide (low) I have 2 in each power level so I can choose accordingly if power level matters.

[@soullessslacker]

"This is the way." okay Mandalorian lol.

[@gybisss]

I understand the idea behind this video and agree withe the time being the main issue, but i want to raise some counterpoints to few of your points: - shouldn't it be easy to track your expensive cards if you keep your deck lists online? - if you don't want to buy multiple cards for different decks, then I propose you buy one and proxy it for other decks, I have seen people do that and I plan on doing so as well I'm personally trying to make one deck for each color combination of 2 an 3 colors, but I may scrap some of them in the future

[@Pupalah]

Why buy one? Just proxy.

[@cread13]

as someone with 30 decks with more being worked on slowly your first point is a lot of work to type up every card in each deck. maybe if you started out by doing so as you built each one but then you also run into the issue of any time you update a deck in paper you then have to update it online. as for your second point i do agree its an easy solution and many friends of mine do it. personally i dont but thats just me most i see do it if they have a lot of decks im just the odd ball with 30 and no proxies

[@certanmike]

I have a proxy binder with the real cards and put proxys in my real decks and use an app to track cards

[@johnnoreau3570]

@@cread13my problem with proxies. Is nobody EVER proxies commons and uncommons. Proxies are mainly used for the super duper game breaking cards people can’t afford. So then when they take these proxies and play against you. You’re losing against fake cards because they can’t afford the real deal. I’d have no problem with proxies if it was for say like a fetch land or shock. Lands have gotten infinitely cheaper since I started 10 years ago. The case becomes “well is it okay if I play with my power nine proxies mana crypt mana vault proxies? Is it alright that I proxy this 150-200$ card that makes my deck go two card infinite?” It’s never “hey I would like to try out this deck so I proxied the commons to try it out!” I’d be more accepting of proxies if this were the case. But it’s usually not.

[@cread13]

@johnnoreau3570 I don't know if you didn't read the original point I was responding to but it's not just proxies of whatever you want to play with but proxies of cards they own but cand afford to buy dosens of copies of or want to have to switch between multiple decks. In my case I don't do it cause I either find decent alternative cards to run instead or just get another copy for the next deck. I play with people who do proxy cards so they can play there 1 copy between multiple decks and im fine with that. With what your talking about with proxies of any card I don't like that and won't play with people who do that. Magic has plenty of alternative versions of a card that you can easily find either cheaper option if the cards to expensive or just in general hard to find.

[@Sunborne187]

I have a rotational cycle for my decks: I bring 4 at a time to each game night/day, the decks that lose go to the back of the cycle and the decks that win go to the front, not to be played next, but the subsequent time after the next time.

[@certanmike]

I do this and swap them out after they get some games or one just clicks

[@treycuret]

So you play decks that win more 😂

[@Mississippi_Jack]

I think having a ton of decks is great if they don't step on each other's toes. Having 20 decks with distinct playstyles means you'll always have something you're in the mood to play, even if certain decks get more love than others.

[@dsper7640]

Disagree. I want options. I want options in all color combos except 4c. I have all different themes. Some similar most very different. Proxy expensive cards I need into others. A lot I just don't play the staples I play themed cards. Don't have any problem not playing some of my decks for extended amount of time.

[@HannibalTC]

Totally agree with your video, on the other hand I just love to brew and build different styled decks (even with similar themes, but different strats/cards) and see them in action just as much as I like playing in general. After a very long break my pod started playing again 2.5 years ago and since then I accumulated 52 decks 😅 (not counting the unmodified Universes Beyond precon sets which we use on special days for the whole pod). We manage around 20 games a month, so I obviously can't play them all in a timely manner, but for me personally it's actually refreshing to come back to a deck 3-4 months later and have some of the aha moments again. It's also fun to group decks together for a night by color identity e.g. bringing 3 Orzhov decks or 3 completely differently working tribal deck or just stack them by power level and start slow to the last game being an escalation (my group is mostly high power so it's fair, I would never pubstomp). I have all my decks on Moxfield to keep track of which cards are where and the value of the decks and also to track future cards that should go into a deck when new sets come out, but I have just played a deck recently and won't revisit it for a while. I am currently trying not to build another deck, even though I still have like 10 commanders in various stages in my future Commander folder 🙈. As they say where I come from: every crazy person is different 😂.

[@imprisonedmike]

I really appreciate this topic. As someone who has 15+ decks I have been thinking about how some decks I don’t even play or run because I enjoy other decks more.

[@johnnoreau3570]

Same. I’ve gotta set down and take some apart. I made the Frodo Sauron’s bane with the Radabrask Boromir combo for infinite tempt triggers but much prefer the Sauron deck I’ve built with the ward sacrifice a legendary creature or artifact. Used to have a red blue pirates deck but took that apart and finally built a Krenko deck. 😅 got around 13-15 decks if we include my GFS she’s made.

[@Velochromantic]

I play two days a week 6pm-6am (24 hours a week) and I spelltable on occasion and I’d say I probably get 20 games in every week. I have over 30 precons that I regret buying, and 42 personal decks I regularly play. I never play the same deck in the same night unless it’s requested, and I normally don’t go without playing a deck for longer than a month. That being said, some get neglected, and I definitely have way too many decks, which affects the quality of new brews and old brews too. I’ve never broken down a deck but I’m starting this week. I’ve definitely found expensive cards I forgot I had in old decks. Thanks for this video and the motivation!

[@GFY60NiNe]

Been looking for a video like this for a while, I’ve felt the same way for years, being more intentional with your decisions makes them matter more. I find putting constraints and boundaries on yourself can be a very healthy thing.

[@deckdriverMTG]

Actually deck driver. I will make 30 decks you can't stop me

[@Sheldren2]

The limit is your wallet

[@fasterbuilder11]

Deck Driver: I also can't afford to spend all this money on all these decks! Me, who exclusively proxies: Am I a joke to you?

[@chillinon3263]

I am such a perfectionist that I just have 2-5 decks alive at any time, I’m constantly deconstructing and switching things up trying to find the best version of an idea I’m brewing so it’s rare I’m ever playing the same commander for more than a couple months or even weeks. Lier, Disciple of the Drowned and Jon Irenicus, Shattered One are the only commanders that have become forever decks

[@chillinon3263]

Also PROXY UP a ton because my strategy wouldn’t be sustainable in the slightest otherwise

[@christopherpatricklizares5306]

I agree on the account of just not realistically being able to play too many decks. Personally, I keep two decks active at any given time. One for casual (be it budget, powered, or otherwise) and the other for whatever cEDH deck I'm playing at the time. It's made things very efficient to both bring around when I travel and decide on what I want to bring on a given day. If I want to swap one of the decks, I'll take them apart which is fine for me since I use the same sleeves for everything and I keep all of my deckbuilding stuff sleeved up. Keeps things easy to swap.

[@robparizo4773]

I'm a big fan of the "shell" system. If you think about it most decks for example, Izzet have hundreds of interchangeable commanders that can all function off the same base deck shell (land ,artifacts, interaction, draw, combo pieces.) Or like in your video example Aristocrats. You can have a low power base shell and keep the high powered cards separated and swap them out in the low power deck 1 for 1 to change power up or down when needed.

[@Cabbage_Crusader]

I only run 2 decks: self-mill Grolnok and dragon token generation with Miirym. I’ve always considered building more, but I often find myself going back to these two and thinking how I can improve them. My friends all have at least four or five decks, and already I see that a few of them rarely see use, some decks are just so much more fun then others and they rarely play the others. I’ve gone months without seeing certain decks from them, and mind you I play magic with these guys roughly 3-4 times a week. So while I don’t exactly relate to this problem, I can see exactly what you mean, sometimes less is more.

[@patrickchristiancheca4646]

I agree, that's why I only have 3 commander decks so that I can play and use them more frequentley., thanks for posting this video., 👍💯

[@namdoolb]

I will say that diminishing returns do kick in the more decks you have, but also I will say that having more is not worse than having less. At absolute worst, when you pass a certain point it's no different. Current deck count is 21 & I'm pretty much operating a "dead man's boots" system at this point (for a new deck to be built an existing deck must be broken down). 21 is a lot, & there is a reason: I am running all of the 2 colour combinations & all of the 3 colour combinations... plus a singular mono colour deck which I love & never plan to disassemble. Split is 3 high 8 mid/high 7 mid/low 3 precon (I don't actually buy precons, but those are aimed at that level) (I don't usually go anywhere near Cedh, but on the rare occasions when pods start edging towards that, the high power decks can usually hang.) Do I have favourites? Hell yeah Are there decks I haven't played in a while? Yep, & I'm okay with that. Do I bring all my decks with me? Pretty much never. If I'm going for a Commander night I'll pre-select a number of decks (typically between 4 & 7, depending on available space) and bring those. As previously stated some decks don't get played very often. It's usually one of two reasons: either 1) for whatever reason I'm not vibing with the deck anymore (which means I'm looking to replace it in the near(ish) future, or 2) I like to break the deck out sparingly because it can be a little bit nasty (& whilst I enjoy having the deck, I don't want to expose people to it on a frequent basis). Have I got too many decks? Very possibly. Is it a problem? I don't think so.

[@BFSDean]

I don't build decks so I can play them every week. Deck building is genuinely my favorite part of the game. Also I have about 24 decks and I keep half at my LGS as community decks.

[@Aerix]

A ton of players like to laude the 32 deck challenge as this apex achievement. But there's no way those decks are all seeing regular play, frequent updates, or even getting dusted off. I remember some of the folks at edhrecast were tracking their play of their decks last year and had taken apart decks that they never reached for. These are folks where commander is their job and despite the hundreds of games they've played they still couldn't squeeze in a good number of games for all their decks. Its something I struggle with too.

[@trulydumb506]

So I have 6 decks and I haven’t built anymore. I run 1 of each mono color, and then a WUBRG deck. They all fit different power levels of niches. Emry, artifact combo - CEDH-(ish) Sheoldred, the apocalypse, Wheel / slugs - 8 Light paws, Voltron/Pillowfort - 7 Norin the wary, ETB shenanigans-6 Shizuko, Group hugs - 5 Sliver overlord, tribal - 8 I’d rather have a small collection of decks I’ve invested a lot of time in learning and playing. And my rule is, if I want to build a new one, I need to deconstruct an old one. I was considering to amend the rule to allow for one pre con deck with no changes, just for really low power tables, I’ve been defaulting to shizuko, or norin for those tables, norin has a pretty low amount of interaction, and the interaction shizuko runs usually has benefits for everyone interaction. But just because the plans are still well defined I find they can be a little overwhelming to pre con tables.

[@albertorozco3652]

What is your template to build a deck? What strategies do you use to test a deck. Thank you in advance.

[@GrumTheGud]

Me and my pod play with mostly proxied decks now - I beieve that the quality of games goes up with the amount of decks we have, and I feel no downside or remorse for not playing a proxied deck for a while.

[@Illusionmaker_MTG]

I had like 12 decks + a few ongoing brews, but over the pandemic I took apart all but one (Karona Voltron) and built just three decks (Kykar Polymorph, Lyzolda and Selvala, Explorer Returned "activated-ability-tribal") from the remains. It was one of the best decisions I made in regard to MtG and I stuck to it till this day! I find time to play all four of my decks, and the decks are able to play good at most tables that I encounter. I really enjoy every single deck and whenever something new comes up during spoiler season, I ask myself "will this be more fun than what I currently have"? So far the answer has been "no", but if it ever comes to it, I will take apart one deck, in favour of the new one. This lets me focus my recourses (money and time, to make sure that every deck gets updated) on the decks I actually enjoy and play. I also found out, that simply brewing online usually satisfies my urge for new decks - because in reality, most of the decks I would like to build would not bring me (or my playgroup) the enjoyment that I envision. Maybe I will go up to five decks one day, but the fifth deck will be a "Time Spiral block constructed" one, as this is my all-time favourite block and as such it would have a pretty interesting restriction.

[@DigitalinDaniel]

I completely agree, I try to only build decks around unique themes, vorthos, or goofy effects. But there's just too many legends being printed that do the same thing, maybe as a weaker uncommon version or a stronger mythic version but its pretty rare when we get something like the turn ending Obeka or Yurlok and even then its pretty niche or people just go for the most min-max no-surprise build. There's also a problem with WotC just railroading the effects a little too much especially on the precon-commanders. Like Kadena, Ur-Dragon, and shit like that... like huh, it's so specific I can't imagine what you've built... your Lathril is elf tribal, you don't say!!? I feel like I've played against the exact same Edgar Markov deck at least a hundred times owned by a hundred different players. xD

[@bonwaya5077]

I owned 13 commander decks at one point. I really only play 1-4 times a month and my pod is pretty low powered so we only fit 2-3 games a night. It took me a while and I am down to 3 commander decks, all of which are budget POWERhouses, really helped me control my addiction to this game better

[@zonko]

I now have 3 decks I have a good relation with that Ill never take a part. 1. Kamiz, Obscura Oculus This deck is the simplest Esper deck ever: Play creatures and attack with them. I made it as good as possible with the best attackers, yet Im still able to play it in low power due to its nature. 2. Baba Lysaga This is my fav and yes Joey inspired me. I have 51/100 cards painted with a large history and story for each card, so uts my main deck. 3. Flamewar This is my high powered near-cedh deck. This deck is so strange yet super fun. All my 1 mana pump spells become ANCESTRAL RECALLS. I wheel and deal super fast and play artifact cost reduction to ramp out quickly.

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

I was working on building a "Musketeers of LaFontaine" commander Deck. An hommage For the Fables de La Fontaine and Les Mousquetaires matchup... Led by Tom Bombadil (The Doctor, in Lord of the Rings itself!) I was working on it this spring before Blumborrow got announced. Now i have a lot of things to add! "Les Mousquetaires De LaFontaine" on Moxfield I think I dubbed it.

[@xChikyx]

I'm building ~90 decks :) All of them with different startegies Currently have ~32 decks playable. What I do is take 4 per day I go to play, and play all of them at least once. The next time, I take 4 that havent been taken out the the last 2 times I have played :)

[@fabioprieto9205]

90 decks?? Omg as a fellow brewer i respect a lot bro

[@xChikyx]

@@fabioprieto9205 yeah, or more, idk hahaha most of them are pretty janky but fun to play

[@flix6561]

I like theory crafting, building, buying, putting decks together more than actually playing so I don't mind having a ton of them. What I do tho to limit my spendings on cardboard crack and avoid redundancy is stick to ONE deck per colour combo so if I end up making say two token go wide themed decks they'll at least have different cards/play loop and I'll never have more than 32 decks. I do try to not have dupes of the same themes tho.

[@saleen12]

I had this problem also so I sleeved all my cards in the same color and broke them down. All the lists live in moxfield and I can throw them together whenever but now I have access to my full library for new builds and I end up building 3-6 new decks a week to play once or twice and move on. I love playing fresh decks over playing the same thing over and over

[@Grumbl3cakes]

45 decks and counting! The way I see it, if I make enough kindred decks, I get something new with EVERY new set! Still waiting for a centaur commander that cares about centaur

[@seanedgar164]

I've had 50 at one point. I don't feel the need to use every deck every week. I'm more attached to the commander or the jank within

[@starvingboyinafrica9463]

Tribal*

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

​@@seanedgar164Yeah, sitting on 80 rn, with a graveyard of some 150 decks that I've scrappee, mainly because I'm attached to them, and it's easy enough to cycle through my decks as I track games, in the interest of becoming both a better brewer, player and opponent.

[@666cashley]

​@@starvingboyinafrica9463whoa. That's culturally insensitive. You meant *typal

[@starvingboyinafrica9463]

@@666cashley trigger

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

I own all the Doctor Who Univere s Beyond decks, but disassembled them... built a homebrew mono-blue CEDH Octavia control deck. and the DogMeat Fallout commander deck is my current main EDH. As for 60 cards standards for pioneer ; a Gruul precon, and a homebrew selesnya For open 60cards games (no format) i have : 2 Lords of the Ring precons and a teferi precon

[@agentkhaine2204]

Yes. I have 32 casual decks, one for each color combination. Where this goes from “too much” to “that’s it?” is: * there are only roughly 550~ unique cards across 32 decks * deck strategies are shared with a similar deckbuilding process and card pool * I move cards between decks to avoid buying multiple key cards, and in places where possible, I use proxies to avoid switching. The original cards are kept in a box sorted by color, cmc, then alphabetical order to show that I own the card in question. Making graphs in Excel and playtesting on Moxfield for six months or more before sleeving up the deck, I’ve come to tables where I know more about a deck I haven’t even shuffled than opponents know and can explain about their own. My decks aren’t being made or replaced by FOMO from hot, new commanders.

[@jwarner1469]

I have about 8 decks. And are split kind of like yours. I have a few high power decks, some mid-high power are built around pet cards, and a few low-midrange decks that are janky or built around extreme restrictions. But I also make sure I have a good spread of archetypes that I actually like to play, which has also helped me recognize which archetypes that I do or don't enjoy.

[@mathieudufresne1279]

I completely agree. I have 4 very different go-to decks (always ready to go) plus 6 on the side that are half built on paper but have a full decklist online. They mostly share a similar core for the utilities , I build and rebuild one or 2 those the night before I go for a game depending on the pod or the type of deck I feel like playing that day.

[@AnonYmousPeRsOnAAAAA]

So you’re telling me to make 10 aristocrat decks? Mission received.

[@SeekerOf7ruth]

For my perspective I build decks for a semi-Chromatic Challenge (ignoring 4-color and WUBRG), and I focus on making the decks a 3/3 or 4/3 off of the EDH Multiverse guidelines while ignoring janky and cEDH. Make sure the deck is tuned enough that it could at least hang around with a cEDH deck, but also hold back while playing against a lower power pod. I also never take more than three decks with me to a game night while making sure at least one of them is something different. Having said all that, there are some of my decks where I see cards that I forgot were in there, or I haven't piloted them quite as much and have forgot what could be helping in certain situations. I just roll with it though. I either get to see something 'new' again and get excited, or I can keep moxfield on hand to help skim for a card to search for (so long as my opponents are okay about it).

[@worldmedic3187]

I have done this for years now. 9 decks are my limit. If I want to make a new one an old one that lost too many times or became boring must be taken out. What I like doing is putting my list online so I have a reference for later to make it again

[@Th3_Raven]

I like keeping my decklists all sorted out and if I have a lot of overlap between two decks I'll have them in the same sleeves so I can freely move cards between the two decks if need be. I also only have like 5 commander decks and go through phases of theory crafting decks on deckstats and then not actually building them lol.

[@TheGreatBryan25]

I think there is absolutely an upper limit to how many decks you can play effectively. When I was learning my play style I had 16 decks and more on Moxfield. Something I noticed was I started losing more, even with my high powered decks, because the more decks you have to remember (combo lines, play patterns, etc.) the less effectively you can play them. Now, I have ten decks, a few which are reserved for low-power games, and I perform better with the decks I play more often, and because I have fewer decks that I must play everytime my group gets together, I play better.

[@blazetrinity9462]

I totally agree, too many decks, not enough time to play at all, so why even build them. I personally only stick to 5 decks (oloro, atraxa, windgrace, orvar, urabrask), and I have been playing for more than 10 years now. Every new set, I just look at the lists of potential cards to improve the decks, instead of building a new one every time. I also find it more rewarding to fully master these 5 decks, even now, I am still discovering interactions between cards in the decks that I never thought of when building it, being able to learn the deck that way had really made me improve as a player. These 5 decks are all high powered, I just try hold back when I meet new players on the table, I don't really adjust the decks for other players, I just adjust my play patterns.

[@gembish1681]

I'm at 4 irl decks two years into the game and although I like brewing, I'm not eager to build more beyond maybe 1 or 2 more this year if at all. Paper decks are an investment to me and 4 feels like the magic number rn for a range of playstyles and power levels. I got: Low Power - Rakdos Goblins High Power - Sultai Mill, Slivers Jank - Dimir Exile

[@surplusvalue5497]

Only just built my 2nd deck. Can't wait to play it

[@dittmar104]

Another thing is you can have one deck that’s good for two or more commanders. For example maybe you’ve got a brutal Niv-Mizzet deck focused round cheap instant and draw cards with a few infinite combos, you can play that deck with the locust god, or Rielle and they won’t be as powerful but the deck will still play pretty good. They already teach us this in the precons, you can use the alternative commanders just fine, some are better. A good way of depowering a deck is swapping from a value engine commander to a pay off commander. You’ve probably already got one in a value engine deck if you can just sub in.

[@chadweidenfeller8670]

I currently have 31 decks. I am going to be taking one of the decks apart to keep it at 30. The box I have to transport all of them, comfortably holds 30 deck boxes, my playmats, dice, and counters all together. Mind you it is a bit heavy to lug around. My brother-in-law has 22 active decks. With a few still in the brew stages. And I definitely agree, in a single week, I am for sure not able to play all of my decks. To me that is okay. I have the option of playing so many different styles of games. Different power levels of the same style of deck. Recently we have started making token cards for each deck. Each token displays the commander, and the most basic description of what the decks game plan is. These tokens are then shuffled, and drawn to see what deck we are playing. Sometimes I end up playing his decks, and he plays mine. But this allows both of us not to just pick our favorite deck and just auto pilot the deck. Makes it a new puzzle every single game. Where you have to piece together the win.

[@BetterCallKahl]

I have completed the 32 challenge now all must suffer as I roll dice to figure out what to play.

[@Timbuktu-qt2lj]

Thanks for making this video, I’ve been having similar thoughts about the number of decks I have but don’t have time to play.

[@yihan2604]

I actually built 45 paper decks over the past 1 year of returning to playing magic because I just love deckbuilding. Tough on the budget, but like some have mentioned; the benefits are: 1) Being able to play with different pods and match their power levels, from precon - CEDH. makes for a better play experience for all. 2) Diversity enriches my play experience. If i kept to the same few decks I probably will lose interest very quickly. But with my decks, I can play anything from tribal, politics, control, jank, snowball-ish type decks, graveyard, combo, etc. It has kept me interested in the game so far. 3) I also built 2 community decks and put it in my LGS for anyone who is new to the game to pick up and play. I lend out my other decks for anyone who wants to balance their own power levels with the pod. I have this guy who only has CEDH and High decks - I lend him quite often to balance things out. 4) Last of all, my LGS has a locker service that I keep most of my decks in. Saves me the trouble of bringing it in all the time. Great business idea for LGS-es for extra revenue :)

[@undyinglight]

What are your 10 decks that you play?

[@Jwhiz24]

yep i have one of those stanley cases that holds up to a dozen decks. i dont let myself build more than i can fit in there.

[@VinceOfAllTrades]

I've always had this desire to have constructed decks in every color combo, just for funsies. Even though I don't like all of my current 15ish constructed decks, some other players do like them, so I'll bring them as loaner decks in case someone wants to try it or if someone new happens to show up. It gives me the advantage of knowing what I'm up against and them the advantage of getting to play a nice deck without having to buy it.

[@ThatWeirdAtom]

I was already considering reducing how many decks I have just to concentrate the power of my decks in fewer of them

[@Robert-vk7je]

Do you realise how bad it would be for Hasbro and Wotc, if we stopped building more and more decks?

[@SSolemn]

I mostly use cards I already have, and If not I buy/trade singles 👍🏼✨

[@RoachDoggggJR]

I personally just don't really care if I don't play a commander for awhile, I like the variety. I'm constantly breaking down & rebuilding decks, honestly the deck building is a much bigger part of the hobby for me. I like that I can turn up to my pod with something new every week to keep things fresh at the table

[@c.r.bledsoe9322]

I completely agree, i have 11 decks right now and i honestly feel like thats too many sometimes. Meanwhile i know people with 25+ decks together at one time, and they have some decks that have only gotten played once. Personally if i get bored of a strategy i just convert it too a new deck. Still keeps my collection fresh, but i never feel overwhelmed by choices.

[@JillTGear]

Despite the fact this video is a day old (as of this comment), I felt like this video was astral projected to me from the future. At some point I realized that I spent so much on sleeves, boxes, and individual decks, that I could have gotten into other formats. Which is whatI did (pauper, legacy). So I’ve since downsized to 2 decks that I still barely play.

[@matthewhutchings9184]

Three weeks ago I had 69 decks. I had 68 and wanted to stop but my buddies told me I had to make one more. I enjoy throwing together budget decks and selling them off to someone to make upgrades on

[@ry7hym]

5:35 I feel like this is one of the problems for me, I don’t play that much anymore so even the 11 decks that I have is too much. And I am hesitant to take my old decks apart because I have so much nostalgia to them. Maybe I need to get over it and just take some apart Some of those I am even only hesitant to take apart just because I regret buying the cards for it

[@curtissearle6462]

I have 5 decks that I've really grown attached to over the years and then I have like 2 flex decks that I'm just throwing random ideas together that I have and trying them out from my collection or just picking up a few things to get them off the ground it's been working well for me!

[@RobbyRobRob42]

I know not everyone feels the same as I do, but I feel 20 is still a manageable number. That’s all without playing cEDH. I have multiple decks that play at every level aside from hyper competitive. My limiting factor is color combination, I have all of the three colors, most of the guilds, and a consistent 5-color deck. This limitation has kept me from building out of control and really makes me think about the commander and that of deck that I play. While I may have certain themes that cross over each one is built in a unique way that better fits into a niche that makes me ready for almost any table I sit down to. Sure I have some decks that see a lot more play than others the ones that don’t see as much are just strategies that only match certain pods. If and when I start to feel a deck has hit its wall of not seeing play in too long I will reevaluate whether it still has a place in my cases and will start looking for replacements, but if I have sleeves then I’ll have a deck to fill them. I also tend to be the most experienced player at the table and will always lend out builds to newer players to experience different types of play styles that their precons or “safety net” easier commanders haven’t let them experience yet

[@lordrock0redb444]

Recently been doing this cuz I’ve been having the not been able to play all of my decks problem lol this just reaffirmed me

[@theofficialchannel4368]

I have one izzet spellslinger, but everytime another izzet spellslinger commanders comes around i have to tell myself "do i really want to buy the same cards over and over?". So I just stick with upgrades mostly now 😂

[@Zjivarra]

4-8 commander decks is best. You can run 2 entire pods and provide a deck to each player. Just make sure they play well against each other. The correct question though is “How many cubes should you have?” because limited and draft is king 😎

[@martinolsen7183]

My biggest “problem” is that i play in a meta where proxy is 100% legal, everything goes. And everyone proxies. So i find myself building new decks and not taking old ones apart since i dont need the cards in them, since most of them are proxies. So no money factor and no “i need this card in another deck”-factor. Im only limited in my amount of sleeves (and time lol). How do you tackle that?

[@Vilegorico]

I have 7 decks, and only play 4 or so hours of games a week. I still feel like I can't play them all.

[@danielelaudaz8551]

My strategy is: - Have a single card pool to choose for all decks. (One max 2 of each card except for colourless staples like Sol Ring). - Build 4 decks so that their colour pairs don't overlap (maximise the use of the card pool). E.g. Deck 1: Mardu (Disables, Orzhov, Boros and Rakdos). Deck 2: Bant (Disables, Azorius, Selesnya, Simic) Deck 3: Golgari Deck 4: Gruul Deck 5: Any out of the box precon. - Play them during a whole month (3-4 weeks). That guarantees at least 3 games with each deck. - Rank and retire the deck. (Note: If the deck over/under performs I retire it early and replace with a different one.) - Dont go back to old decks unless I have already done a full rotation with all the colour combinations. Then when I have finished the rotation and I go back and revise/update old decks by their subjective ranking: - How fun was it for me to play? - How consistent the strategy was? - How fun was it for my opponents? Then permanently retire the decks that didn't click. Having a 16+ years cardpool really helps though.

[@franzjacobhernandez186]

I go to edh nights 2-3 times a week and currently own about 50 decks. I used to own around 10 decks like DeckDriver and move cards between them, but then I learned about proxies. Now I make 1-2 decks a month and just spend money on sleeves and deck boxes. The only real limit is storage for all the decks. Once my bookshelf at home is full I think I maybe might stop building, but I also might just buy another bookshelf

[@_Axel_G_]

the best thing to do would be keeping 2-3 decks or few more if they don't share colors and if you want to play new stuff dismantle the one that shares the most cards with the new one

[@vakuzar]

I have 1 of each color, 1 colorless, and 1 five color. Each plays super different and have a lot of color staples I don't play in any other decks. Super Super fun

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Anyone playing Pauper Commander ? Only the commander/companion can be Non-Common... Is this already a thing or am i dremaing it up cuz your video got me thinking of the lineup of decks i wanna build now. Been getting cards since january, got started at christmas because of gifts : 2 dumb packs of Doctor Who Universe Beyond... changed my life. I had a promise : to not play MTG cuz it's too big and I'm a somewhat completionist with passions...in The Doctor's I changed the terms of my promise. Life hobbies + MTG.

[@noahevans7096]

Deck Driver MTG, I'd be curious to know how you decide when to take apart a particular deck?

[@noahevans7096]

There are many videos on deck building, but very few - if any - about when to take a deck apart, why to take it apart, etc.

[@pyromaniarules]

Man am I being called out, with my like 50 decks that are either precon or built by me and are still together or being taken apart for other decks. I was considering lowering mine to 30 and now after watching this I might have to go even lower 😂

[@zpinkerton7946]

I keep 6 decks, one for each number of colors of mana. Before a pod, because everyone is playing a 7 every time no matter who or what is being brought, I just roll a d6, subtract 1, and play whichever number of colors I roll.

[@SSolemn]

my limit is 15, I always have between 10 to 15 and with time some of them become staples of my rotation 🧚✨ I choose 3 or 4 to play each week, and we have an average of 3-5 plays a week. Also, 8 of my decks have more than 2 years with me, and I just upgrade cards in them if a good option appear or if I wamt to bling them further

[@Lowelo860]

For edh i got only 7 at the moment. I have a rule that no deck can be too similar to each other or the same color combos. Helps keep them all feel different and fresh. I also will never go over 10 for me. And im very very picky for edh generals .

[@Ghost-Toast819]

I find myself making a deck on moxfield to save the build somewhere and then I tear them apart when I get bored and make my a better more interesting deck

[@caiocapasso]

What I have thinking on doing to reduce the amount of decks and themes, is to brew my decks with "power level sideboards". Meaning: the deck has the same 30-40 staples + 35ish lands as the core deck, but then also build and carry with it another 50-60 cards that I can swap in with different power levels in mind: casual, high power, or cEDH. So the same core Shorikai deck can be a casual vehicles deck, or a cut-throat Humility/isorev/hullbreach horror cEDH deck.

[@jcstaff1007]

I think i have 10 ready to go but am building more. Although bc im a budget player, most of my decks are under 75$ which is roughly my monthly budget for magic. I do have two i kinda splurged on but part of that was I got gifted a case of Double Masters 2020 for my birthday and it ups the price for them. Them being the outliers, my wallet is mostly fine. Even including sleeves and deck boxes im usually not breaking the bank. But one thing u are right about is time. I can’t increase the amount of time i play. So i did tear down my stax-y decks and theft decks. (They’re disassembled but still currently unplayable) bc they take away time I or anyone else can play magic via tedium. I’ve been leaning towards aggro and away from control/ value engines so I can (hopefully) get in more games. And so far it’s been working. My deck building philosophy of budget + aggro has been giving me a decent experience and i think that helps more than having less variety to play. But to each their own.

[@origaminosferatu3357]

Having played for about 10-15 years at this point, this is basically my strategy. I have about ten decks I regulalrly play - and try my best to deconstruct a deck or two if I want to build a new one. I've had my current roster for the past year or so, so maybe it's time for a change. Having said that, I also live abroad so have just as many decks at home, some of which I'd happily dissolve and others that are forever decks; these are mainly the first 2 decks I ever built or ones I particularly like/fill a particular niche.

[@lokumo13]

Verbatim my scenario with the Thursdays 5-10pm games. I own 40 in paper decks. MidPower to HighPower for the most part, and some cEDH. On Moxfield I have 400 decks. Of those 400, 40 are in the work bench, 110 in the potential future builds. Since I proxy 100%, the money isn't an issue. A deck costs me around $20-30 tops to print. I definitely try to avoid having multiple decks that use the same subtype. I've been using a wheel of fortune app that determines the 5 decks I bring with me to my LGS every Thursday. I try to avoid repeats, and make slight adjustments only if the wheel picked all high power decks. The 6th deck I bring with is almost always cEDH, or a budget deck, depending on how many people from my usual pod shows up.

[@simonboucher5170]

I have 20 decks and it's true that i don't play them all nearly enough. Nonetheless, their archetypes are different enought that destroying the decks in question xould not really give me access to good cards for other deck. I also try to always make a combination of color that i do not already have. And it's always fun to sometimes be like "hey i haven't used this deck for a while now i'm excited to play it today, let's go"

[@Smaul002]

I personally have very few decks because I only enjoy playing certain color combos. - Gruul - Orzhov - Jeskai

[@sunwarrior25]

Oh jeeze. I need to pare my collection down. Is 40+ too many?

[@noobtuber10]

Spelltable is a hell of a drug, i get in atleast a game or two a night, 60+ decks atm

[@mibbzx1493]

I have 20 decks, that im always constantly changing always temper and improve. I actually play all of them because i like to have a deck for any scenario. 20 deck is actually a good amount. Because you have the versatility to adapt to most matchup. Also its good to have extra decks incase other ppl wanted to play or get into magic. I have a big family so its a “better to be safe than sorry” approach to the game. but i think its more fun to be a swift army knife than to constantly be playing the same deck and doing the same thing over and over like that Go-shintai type thing. I prefer like impulse draw or decks that dont play the same and play different every single time.

[@KeeganMcKinney]

I currently own six Commander decks and I typically get to play 3 - 4 of them per week.

[@TheLuckySpades]

Here I am with 2 Chatterfang decks I noticed that my Chatterfang deck went from being about making Squirrels to swarm the board had a growing subtheme of combo, each tutor was cutting out stuff I put in to go very wide and the combos got more redundancy I really like the combo aspect, especially since I realized a lot of them while playing the deck, but noticed I was kinda pulling in two directions when tuning the deck So I split the deck, I had a handful of the important and expensive cards twice, so those, and proxied the rest, now I got a combo Squirrel and an overrun Squirrel deck, both see play and I love both (I do have to make sure tk tell people that one of them contains no combos at all when seitching so they don't target me as badly when the bloodartist hits the board)

[@91mattmac]

I appreciate the take but I don’t think a person needs to limit themselves on how many decks they have. Issue I find with having to many is as you said I’m not able to play with them enough/at all, not because of time but because of power levels at my LGS, even after discussing power levels, always the same one or two people seem to “misjudge” their deck. I play the same few decks simply because they’re the only ones I’ve got that can sit down at the table and to be frank, it’s getting boring. It feels like skill based matchmaking where you have to use the meta or else there’s no point in even trying. I miss the old days where you could play “bad cards” and not have to sit through 40 minute turn cycles after turn 2.

[@nk8244]

I have about 4 decks i play consistently and a precon i keep handy, but i have a bunch of back burner decks of decks ive played and took half apart for cards, and decks that are just cards i had lying around and wanted to try the commander out. I dont really commit to any deck that isnt dont consistently play and even then if i consistently play it i know i might eventually get sick of it.

[@trollingsoul3386]

i just enjoy a little upgraded precon but idk why would people play hardcore like room for a failed card is best bcs it leaves u in place where u are like will i get what i need and i believe thats the best feeling ever.

[@marceloquejinho]

My problem is like this: I own something like 14 commander decks and I've been meaning to dismantle some of them. Lazav, Dimir Mastermind Sliver Hivelord Grixis Marchesa infect If I dismantle Lazav, I'd be left with 40-ish mill related cards. If I dismantle slivers, 40-ish sliver cards. Marchesa, 40-ish infect cards. Than I think, I'd better just keep these cards stacked together in a deck box and leave them for a kick then to dismantle and have piles os thematic cards in a shoe box 😅😅