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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Help improving my deck to deal with my friend (mtgzone.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I'm pretty new to magic, I've been playing commander for just over a month now. I pretty much exclusively play 1v1 with my friend since he's the only other person I know who plays commander and isn't a dick. I picked up the Fae dominion precon and have slightly modded it with stuff I've pulled from packs but it's still mostly the same deck.

My friend plays Mono-white angels, he runs [[Sephara, Sky's Blade]] as his commander with [[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]] in the 99 and he seems almost unbeatable since his win-con is getting out 2 cards, one of which is his commander, and he has multiple artifacts and enchantments that tutor for angels, buff his angels and let him gain life like no tomorrow, and he can summon plenty of tokens which are then made indestructible. I can deal damage early game but he always just gains it back and gets his winning combo out right before I can deal lethal damage.

As I understand, there's not a whole lot I can do within Dimir to deal with his artifacts and enchantments but some tips on improving my deck or just links to better deck lists(which stay relatively cheap) would be appreciated. I'm not married to faeries but I do enjoy black so any deck lists would ideally include black, whether mono or mixed.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/to-jmuG0s0GCFfRDLnPfgA

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for all the advice, I know I've not been playing optimally but I think I may have been getting a bit salty and blaming my deck when I seem to have enough tools to deal with the 2 main threats.

I was under the impression that because of the indestructible his creatures would survive negative counters unless they were permanent, indestructible seems a lot less daunting now as I thought my only options were to exile the big 2 or make him sac them.

Thanks for the card recommendations too, I'll definitely pick some of them up.