this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Commander
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Commander format discussion
Also called EDH or Elder Dragon Highlander, Commander is Magic's most popular format and all about picking your hero and building a deck around them. In this casual, multiplayer format, you choose a legendary creature to serve as your commander and build the rest of your 100 card deck around their color identity and unique abilities. Players are only allowed one of each card in their deck, with the exception of basic lands, but they can use cards from throughout Magic's history.
Commander combines the command zone, color identity, singleton deckbuilding, multiplayer strategies, and the entire MtG cardpool for one of the most exciting and fresh ways to play.
Read more at Commander's official website.
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Here is some general advice that will get you started and then you can keep making adjustments from there. First off, especially in 1v1 you want to know which deck is the aggressor and which deck is playing more of control. Normally fae play a weird mix of both which is considered tempo, but for the sake of this post let's label your friend as the aggressive deck and you as the control deck.
Next is knowing threat assessment. Since the two angels you mentioned seem to be the combo you have problems with we will focus on that. A simple start is counter magic. You play a land, pass turn style where you are constantly holding up counter magic for the specific threats, or enablers that would get those threats. You will also play a lot of instant speed spells to take advantage of turns he either plays nothing or nothing you want to counter. These would be creatures with flash and instant speed card draw.
You won't always have counter magic available and sometimes threats get through so your next option is removal.
Since your problem seems to be indestructible creatures there are two things to do. First are exile spells, and second are spells that give -×/-×. If a creature has 0 base toughness it dies, indestructible or not. Cards like [[tragic slip]] for single target or [[toxic deluge]] for board wipes. Honorable mention is a card like [[killing wave]] that will make him sacrifice his creatures.
Thanks a ton mate. I played a game against him yesterday and took your advice, I added a few -X/-X spells to my deck and held up my counter magic/bounce spells for when he got close to having enough mana for the big threats while building up my board a bit early-game. He got his killer combo out but I immediately bounced them and whenever he tried to build his board I either countered, killed or bounced his stuff. I ended up winning with 40 health. He didn't seem best pleased lol.
It does get a wee bit same-y but it's not too bad. I'm going to my first commander night at my local game store tomorrow, hopefully the people won't be too bad.
I will. Frankly, even if I do get stomped it'll still be nice to see another play-style than my "counter shit and chip away with a horde of faeries" or my mate's "make everything invincible then shit on you" strategy.
That's awesome! Glad it was helpful even if it was generic advice. Don't be surprised if your friend starts coming back with some new techs to counter your play style. You have started the arms race in a very small meta lol.
Yeah, he's started doing it already lol He's been looking at better commanders and upgrading a bunch of stuff specifically to counter me lol. I suppose I'll just have to keep up by doing some upgrading of my own.
That's exactly what it. I don't want to win all the time, ideally every game could go either way because that's the kinda games I enjoy most but since he's upgrading his deck I have to try to stay on par by upgrading my own or I'll just constantly lose and that's no fun either.
I don't have the money to build a whole other deck from scratch but when I do I've been considering a mono-black vampire/zombie deck to shake it up a bit so I don't get tired of the faeries. Also, just because they're cool af.
Teching your deck doesn't mean who has more money. Not sure why this other person keeps coming here being negative about 1on1 and all that. Teching just means building for the meta and your case the meta is just each other. They might just start playing more hexproof and uncoutnerable creatures, or spells that give protection from a color. That doesn't mean buying more cards or more money. It just means they might start playing cards that are more pointed at beating specific cards you play. Those kinds of cards wouldn't be as playable against a larger field of decks but works since it's you vs them.