A rule I always like to follow when building a commander deck, regardless of budget, is 'if the deck includes an infinite/game-winning combo in it, the combo MUST include the commander of the deck.' That way if I do decide to include some fun loops they all feel very deck specific and can't just be jammed anywhere.

Here are my 5 rules: 1. Build to the deck you want, not the deck that's "meta". Yes, maybe Energy Counters aren't as powerful as some other decks, but I think it's a fun concept and honestly it *does* work. 2. Don't be afraid to start over. Maybe you didn't realize you'd need more mana, or maybe you locked yourself into too tight of deckbuilding like I did with my WUBRG elementals deck (Horde of Notions as the commander, but Jegantha as Companion). 3. Mono-color isn't scary. This is one that I want to slap into people's brains. Everyone seems to think that mono colored decks are bad or scary. The thing is? you just haven't been building them right. You need the right Commander. Not every mono colored legendary is going to work. Look at what your color does well, and find something that does that well. 4. 35 lands minimum. Unless the deck requires less (I've managed, through careful testing, to get Goblins down to 30) you want 35 lands at a minimum. This gives you an approximate 1 land per 3 cards drawn on average. 5. Don't be afraid to experiment. Yes a mono-green spirit deck headed by Iname, Life Aspect isn't popular. Maybe that's because people overlook her. Prove them wrong!

The thing with your land counts is that if you look at the odds of drawing a land you're on par with what an aggro deck runs in other formats. That's really light when combo and midrange decks dominate commander. And if you have enough card draw to hit the lands, you have enough card draw that you're not going to be in a situation where you're getting screwed by topdecking a land. Instead, hitting every land drop means you can us that card advantage to double spell or even triple spell.

I tend to be the primary target because of the commanders I play but its actually made me a much better deck builder. It forced me to build my decks to be more resilient so that I can play thru being the primary target

You're right, I think you're crazy having 33/34 lands as your standard! My sweet spot has been 37, as I've found that lets me hit lands every turn of the game. I suppose it depends how you build decks, but generally speaking a deck is going to be able to utilise having more mana, so having that accessible is important. Gives you much more staying power and influence in the late game where you have 10 mana on turn 10 as opposed to 7.

So, two things. For one, I do also play very few lands in some of my decks, but that's because those decks are built to work on low land bases, either through super low curves or a lot of card draw/cantrips. I do actually think it's very important to make your land drops every turn for as long as you can in your average deck. So I do think in general if you're playing sub 35 lands, you wanna have your deck be built for it, in my case mostly by having enough card selection that you still hit your drops. If there's one thing I've learned in commander over the years it's that hitting your land drops is one of the best things to do to win mid to long games. Also, adding to that, I never cut lands for ramp. Hitting land drops and ramping are two different things. If I topdeck a Rampant Growth for turn without having a land in hand, that's two wasted mana. And secondly, I kind of understand your patron's attitude of leaning into your colour's strengths. Yes, versatility is nice, but you will always have weak spots unless you're playing like 5c, and at a certain points you just have to pick your battles. And some decks do that by being hyperefficient with their removal, which Feed the Swarm isn't really. Not saying it's a bad card, just saying that I can see why it wouldn't be an autoinclude, depending on your deck.

Love to watch Your videos. They are concrete, well-created and focused on the topic. Thank You.

Comments per rule: 1- Play whatever commander U want to play, but be warned that Some are more hated than others and draw attention as such... 2- I put 3 pieces of non-creature removal, 3 of creature removal, and 2-3 boardwipes. I know I need to put in more 3- At least 1 graveyard hate per deck (bojuka bog is auto-include in every black deck for example) 4- Land count is more tricky. It depends on the mana curve, but I play 33-36 lands. Usually if I play 36 its because the deck doesn't include green. The best ramp is mana tutoring (agree No more than sol ring and arcane in green) which is green, followed by Cost reduction (more cumulative), and then the rocks. But I do put 9-11 ramp cards in every deck. 5- the versatility depends on the commander a lot of the time, BUT if Ur commander could have more than 1 strategy, try to use either unorthodox strats, or focus Heavily on a strong strategy to prevent the opponents from stopping U Awesome content as always, thank you for the great videos 👍🏻

Alternatively, if you know you absolutely need your commander out to function properly, make sure you pack enough spells to protect the commander or bring it back without commander tax.

Best magic channel out there! Love this guy's content!!

36-37 lands is definitely the sweet spot which I run in most of my decks. I find I usually have a good hand from the 1st draw (no mulligan) compared to my counterparts! Even my extremely tuned tier 1 decks still have a minimum of 35 lands. 40-41 for a lands matter style deck!

That Rayne deck you made - brilliant last night. Was able to keep a low enough profile to bury two opponents with far flashier decks - Blinky and Red copy critters. Had both the cats on the ropes making bad plays with the avalanche of blue enchantments and purposeful commander kills comboed with the blue bricking enchantments. Got so bad at one point that one player dropped a Stasis in the teeth of an active Vodalian Illusionist. Road under the radar last night to nab an unlikely win using many of the principles you espouse in your videos. Thanks for the tips Demo!

One thing I always try to keep in mind when building my commander decks is that the power level of the deck I'm building doesn't really matter. For example, I never run mother of runes unless I have specific reasons to because that card's annoying and I don't need to have the power level boost that it gives me. I usually only run Sol Ring in decks with more of a focus on mana rocks like my Kozilek deck, only mainly run hatebears in decks that are meant to have a lot of them, etc. Overall I'd say it's made my decks more well-rounded and balanced and realizing that it isn't a bad thing for my decks to be a bit weaker really changed the way I build decks.

the most important thing to add in a deck that I and my friends forgotten an embarrassing amount of times, add a win-con, just slot a triumph of the hoards or omniscience or something, just add another win con

I just started playing commander, never played it, been playing modern for 10 years. Your videos are straight to the point and very insightful, spitting all facts, i love it!

It’s refreshing to hear someone else share my view on the land count.

Resiliency, synergy, and fun are my deck building values!

One aspect of the deck to factor in when determining the mana curve is deck interaction, ie. A blue deck with a low curve still needs untapped mana to be efficient. Also, interaction of the Commander with activated abilities, Yuriko, Kenrith, Breya, Najeela, etc...

My lands rule: 30 + the mana to cast my commander + the number of my commander's colors For example, my Ezuri deck has 36 (30 + simic + 4 to cast) My Hazoret has 35 (30 + red + 4 to cast) I think the most lands I have in a deck is 40, with Scion of the Ur Dragon (10 + uber + 5)

Great video. I 100% agree with the underwhelming commander strategy. I have huge problems at the table when I'm playing my Ravos and Sakashima Deck even though it's build about the grandeur ability. Without the rule zero conversation I become a target for sure. Same with my Ardenn and Silas Deck that's build around spykit. I even considered changing commanders for that reason.

I built a practice deck that was literally phylanth world sculpture and 99 basics. It has become one of my best decks and now that I’ve tweaked it to actually Having interaction and draw it wins way more than it should. It’s just funny how simple it is and everyone just ignores you until its too late!

Great video, lots of solid advice. I myself tell people that the land count is 100 percent subjective and there is no absolute number you must reach. Shoot, I have a yuriko deck that has 22 lands and a landfall deck with only 30 lands. But I love that you keep the number relatively low. Too many people keep saying that it should automatically be 40.

You mentioned Atraxa Voltron as odd, it was literally my first thought with those keywords and that proliferate ability. If you want one that's odd, I'm considering making an Atraxa Saga deck

Interesting ideas I'll have to test them out!

35 lands is a solid middle ground for me. I typically try to base it off how the mana curve looks like in the deck. Same with mana rocks. 3 is usually the most I'll put in a single deck. I've started trying to be less obvious with some new decks. Made a quintorius graveyard deck and it's insanely fun

I agree with you with the feed the swarm card comment, it’s a very useful black enchantment removal; especially with tutors

I always aim to have between 33 and 40 lands, depending on how tight the mana curve is. If the deck stabilizes around 2 or 3 lands, 33 is fine. But if the deck has a super expensive commander or its win con is a pricey spell/creature, you need to be hitting those land drops every turn. I personally end up with 34-37 lands most of the time, just so I can guarantee I don't miss land drops even if I shuffle poorly. 33 lands is just a bit too tight for my liking and really relies on you shuffling perfectly to keep you lands spaced out.

Funny you mention Feather Blink, as I'm working on making a Blink deck for each White/x color combination, and Feather was my choice for Boros, and it works wonderfully

I agree partly about the mana rocks. Sol ring and arcane signet are the only mana rocks I include in my green decks and I can easily see someone wanting to run mana crypt. I do understand where you’re coming from for sure! Taking out sol ring just sounds silly to me

My Atraxa Saga deck is LIT! I also did Chulane Merfolk and people didn’t think it would be good until it was too late. I like taking powerful commanders and doing a weird twist! You gotta try Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs Superfriends!

So true, I've been down playing my lands a bit and though with mana rocks, adding different ones that do the same thing up to a point, but always try to have a secondary on the card. Like Mind stone, or Cultivator's Caravan. As for Obvious commanders, I do the same, either try to down play them, or don't play them at all, OR Play them so my opponents HAVE to waste a spell or two against it. I will then have back ups. For example, for Arcades, the Strategist(such a fun deck) I put in High Alert, then Rasaad yn Bashir and Belligerent Brontodon for a few of my non defender creatures like Charix, the Raging Isle and Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive. To be able to attack with a big defense and block and deal damage with Defense.

I have been recently trying to make a spell shapers themed deck and was wondering what strategy/which commander you would choose and how your deck building rules would come into play for it.

I think your land perspective is interesting considering your take on trying to look more inconspicuous. I’m going to have to pay more specific attention to how you balance that in your gameplay videos. I have 7 decks and 5 of them have 37 lands. The main reason is I play at some LGS’ where people expect the mulligan rule to be in full effect. If I only played with my two personal play groups where we allow a mulligan to 7 every time I might play fewer lands. The other 2 decks have 33 lands. One is a stronger than average grixis deck with a low curve and ramp in the form of rocks. Even with a low curve my win conditions are direct damage x spells or mana intensive combos that I also want to be able to protect. Since the end of the game comes sooner I really need to be ramping to get there as fast as the deck possibly can to close the time my opponents have to stop me. I don’t consider ramp and hitting land drops to be the same thing, hitting a land drop every turn keeps you on tempo for free, ramp can help you catch up for the cost of typically 2 or 3 (or more) mana, which can put you behind in tempo itself. Ramping ahead feels worth the cost to me, but can get the attention of your opponents where hitting every land drop seems normal (I guess it depends on your opponents). I do think my personal play style emphasizes tempo more than the average person though, even for lower powered decks and I have a bias against very long games (2 1/2 + hours), but that bias is shared by a lot of players. I do agree that its not always necessary to hit land drops every turn late game, but I think that those decks are in the minority and its easy to find reasons to require hitting them. The other one I have with 33 lands is Kamiz who can easily filter through my deck, it gives me a lot of card advantage and I don’t want to ever be mana flooded so I can make sure I can take advantage of the Connive ability. I think thats the only deck where I’ve actually thought to myself that I had more than enough lands. Having a lot of card draw or card advantage is one of the few elements that I think has a large effect on the land count, since seeing more cards ups your probability of finding them in your deck.

I proxy my decks, so I can easy build $500+ ones, but I find that so boring. I don’t want to include every stable and all the cards EDHREC tells me. I put budget restrictions on them, and have the most fun w the $25-50 range!

One person in my playgroup recently had the same experience you had with Narset, but with Orvar, the All-Form.

I used to run 35 as my base land count in pretty much all my decks unless the curve was really low or really high, but I watched an episode of The Command Zone where they broke down the math and percentages of getting a 3 land opener between first draw and free mulligan. Convinced me to put 1-2 more lands in all but my leanest decks

Are fetch lands comparable to mdfc lands? Should I add more lands when playing (multiple) fetches?

thanks for the info :)

I only do 33 landz in a deck 🤘🏻 Great video as alwayz!

Graveyard hate is a weakness of my decks. I always find myself taking out the Scavenging Oozes, et al, as I trim down. A lot of your rules are counter-cultural to the popular wisdom of EDH deck builders at large. It's probably one reason why your decks are effective. Thanks for the video. I always learn something.

I have decks like henzie that have really high cmc creatures that i might want to cast normally at some point, so having 37 lands is a must. At the same time in that deck i also hate not drawing gas, so i include ramp that gets lands out of the deck (only rocks are sol ring and arcane signet) and abundance.

I agree, i start every deck with 33 lands. Depending on the strength of the deck and the commander I may add or remove a couple. On a erage I use 33 and I do just fine.

I recently found your channel and love it. Been looking for someone who goes deep into the card pool. I see many others have already commented about the # of lands you play. Not only do you say you play 34 but you also say you don't play a lot of rocks. I find it hard to believe you don't have many games were you are stuck at two lands or three. I used to play no more than 35 lands but have recently gone up to 36 and sometimes 37. I find I am much more consistent now. I get playing 34 or less in a heavy rock deck...like cEDH deck lists run a ton of fast rocks so the land count can be low. But in a casual deck? I just don't see how it works unless your average cmc is 3 or less (which doesn't sound very casual).

often times if the game runs long the person with the most lands win. unless they get completely flooded. so yes I do thing a land every turn is necessary up to 8-9 turns. if your playing proper removal or control you can often go that long in a game

So if you are only putting in 33/34 land, how much mana ramp/rocks/dorks do you add as a baseline? Meaning before tweaking in relation to what your specific commander and deck synergy/goals are? Thanks!!

Thankfully a bunch of cards in my Yurlok deck either protect him or deal burn damage based on untapped lands or whatever regardless of whether Yurlok's on the table or not. But when I first started playing it I ran into that monolith commander damage you mentioned, yeah.

rule no.1 for deckbuilding: figure out what the deck's trying to do. In my playgroup there are some people whos played long enough they don't build decks to necessarily win, just to have fun, and maybe that's enough. But if your deck is trying to win, figure out what they are and put them in. It's very obvious i know, but its sometimes looked over.

I know this is a bit of a tough question to answer, but how many interaction cards do you recommend for a deck? I say interaction, because I tend to consider protective cards like removal, provided you have enough removal itself. Also regarding lands, what do you think of the recent 'controversy' (discussion) started by Sam Black, saying decks really want 41+ lands to make sure you're hitting your first 4 land drops consistently?

I got like 40-ish lands in my Windgrace deck, I like that deck because it's focused on all sorts of powerful lands in that deck. I usually win with Field of the Dead.

Whenever I finish a deck I ask myself: "Would I enjoy playing against this deck?" If the answer is no, I usually tweek it till it feels better. I am a life long green player and the only mana rocks I use in green are utility rocks that add something else to the deck. Strix stadium, midnight clock, etc.

I ran into your Narset problem A LOT in the beginning (I still kinda do, but I used to a lot more). I would just use Commanders I happen to have because I liked the color combo, not because I built their famous net deck versions. People would target me first and I was all "Guys! I only have like six rares in here! Ease up!"

I've built decks with 33/34 lands and they have worked nicely, albeit I only do it when the mana curve is fairly low. It depends a lot on what you're building, but cutting a couple lands to get a cheap spell that's going to make you draw or some ramp, can work well. Just be sure to test it by yourself before playing with someone to see how it runs

I love monolith commanders - Even not playing infinite combats, Avacyn or Master of Cruelties Kaalia is still Kill on Sight, but she's still my favorite deck. Find ways to protect her and find ways to work around her not being on the field, that's part of the fun of the deck. This is commander, I want my deck to reflect my commander - is that a bit more fragile? Sure, but the payoff is so much fun

Mana rocks depend, I like to include guild signets, especially if I am running 3+ colors, just because the sooner you can get those colours online the better. Granted I play a lot of red and black so there isn't really much land ramp to lean on anyways.

I struggle with how many cards (percentage of deck) is removal on average, while allowing my theme to kick. You have a figure to try? I agree on ya mana rocks, but mardu am relying on them alot.

Does your 33-34 land rule account for utility lands which don't actually tap for mana like Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, Eye of Ugin, et al.?

Great rules, especially for me, new to the format. For people watching: put vid on 2× speed. Especially in beginning, helps vid to 10mins. ;)

One of my favorite decks is an Imoti/keruga deck. My playgroup has adapted to kill imoti on sight, because otherwise I storm off with cascades. This deck can generate two lands each turn, though, so the last game that we played I ended up casting her 3 times before she stuck around, and then won the turn after.

Feed The Swarm is absolutely a staple in Black or Dimir or Rakdos

I know it depends, but about how much are you thinking when you say too much or too little removal?

Demo has some wild ideas. I wholeheartedly agree on having enough removal for all kinds of problems to not get locked out or snowballed too fast. That way you get to play most magic. My resource game however is very different. To consistently play magic you need cards and mana. I value land drops and a steady flow of resources over anything. I want to always be able to recast my commander, always have cards in hand to play and avoid getting mana screwed early game. I play creature based decks and expect the board to get reset a few times and prepare for that starting from deckbuilding. Demo looks to get ignored to play his cards, I'm usually on the forefront of flooding the board and applying pressure from the start. That way I get to play a lot of magic. You're almost bound to lose your first creatures so gotta make them count, accruing value or getting to team up early with other aggressive strategies to push damage.

About your experience with Narset, I think that things are taking a positive shift nowadays. Like a D&D Session Zero, at least at my LGS, every game seems to start out with a brief conversation about Power Level and where everyone estimates their deck falls on that scale, and it always ends with an agreement to play at the same more or less accepted level of play. Often people will put away their world ending hate deck if everyone else is playing more casual. So I think even if someone has a potentially crippling commander, people are more likely to ask how strong the deck is before making assumptions.

When I try to play less than 35 lands I always struggles to lay. how many ramp do you play @EDH Deckbuilding

33/34? Dude😱 i run 37, because math says, i draw 3 lands by turn 3(a bit simplified🙈) Do you have realy low curves/only chesp ramp? Aren't you mana screwed often? Nice Video!

The rule I have for lands is,I put as many as I think I may need. If I need to hit 6 land drops fairly early on then I'll have around 34-36 but for my atla palani I only ever need 4 lands so I have 30 lands +ramp+mana rocks. It all just depends on what deck it is for me

These are good rules which I follow (mostly) myself. Only I usually stick too 35-36 lands because it feels more comfortable too me. Also I have a green deck that does use mana rocks instead of ramp spells, but that's because my tayam deck is build around 88% 3 mana value permanents and only has 1 single spell (primal surge).

I am currently running 29 lands in my Brago, King Eternal deck for 3 main reasons. 1: I have a lot of 1-3cmc cards that tutor lands/mana rocks 2: I am running an absurd amount of ramp/land comeback cards. Yes, every now and then I have to mulligan but you can have that happen in 30+ land decks. 3: I have a lot of 1 mana scry/draw cards.

In the video you suggest not to focus on one thing, to make the deck more versatile. How would I do that with my Tinybones, Trinket Thief deck?

16:30 and here i am witth one of my decks being mono-green with a complete changable commander xD (i mean some of them will probably run better then others but having Melt Titania, both Rhonas, the commanders from commander collection green as well as the older green Praetor in it works pretty well for me :3)

The comments show how different playgroups behave and cultivate the game which I find very interesting. But besides that in all of what Demo said lets thank him for beeing such a mountain of creativity where media seems to get more and more stale these days. Cheers Demo and all great minds which bring not the bought power but the fun to the table 🍻

33 lands is what I do as well. Of course I also run upwards of 14 "Ramp" spells, whether that be mana rocks or actual green ramp or mana dorks. Depending on the deck and commander that number can be closer to 20 (Koma for instance where all that matters is getting ramped up to my Commander). Also I completely disagree with the last rule. If your strategy can't stand up to people knowing how your deck works, its a bad strategy. Sure decks like that can work, once, when you surprise a new playgroup with your random combo win in a deck that didn't telegraph it but most people have fairly regular groups they play with. Once your strategy is spoiled, now what? You gonna tear the deck down and build something else? There is a difference between strategy and tactics. Your deck should be able to stand up to having it strategy known and be able to win off its tactics anyway.

Great video, hard disagree with the land counts though. I find decks with a low land count you either durdle (which can sometimes let you take games by surprise) or you spike hard. Even when I win off a durdle, it feels undeserved.

Yeah, with my heliod ballista deck, i have 5 tutors in it, but i never use them to get the ballista, and this confuses my opponents every time, i usually chase after the soul sisters or the rune sisters

I think commander has evolved past getting focused for playing cyclonic rift, or blue, or running Rhystic study. Most people play them now and having good threat assessment is key.

I always split the difference with lands and ramp. For instance, if I run 37 lands, I make sure to play at least 13 pieces of ramp. And I always hold off on fast mana until it can be 100% useful and not just sit there being cast "just because you can". Lands are always highly suggestive and also depend upon your commander/strategy.

A commander deck I really wanna build is a burn focused deck using Krark and Vial Smasher. I do feel that Vial Smasher is a bit of a monolith but the nice thing about it is that you dont absolutely need it to win. But one of the things I love about this combo is the flexibility I get from also having Krark, with a little bit of RNG luck I can get some devastating effects on the table to happen twice, giving me strong options with other cards like tokens sorcery/instances with deathtouch, or being able to search 2 cards cause tutors. And on opponents turns I become a menace cause I can cast something like lightning bolt, ok cool I get to deal 7 damage total if I get lucky with Krark and Vial Smasher gives me the additional 1 damage to someone random. Do this every turn and it becomes a very strong idea. But I'd need to figure out how to build such a deck first

one of my rules is if a land enters tapped it's upside schould be good enough to justify it, otherwise a basic could do the same job. the other one is for the most time incrimental gain outweighs instant gains so cards that do something every turn than rather just one and done.

Agree with so much except the land thing. I never play less than 36 lands and even that is probably not enough.

My favorite deck I built was this janky mono blue color change deck using llawan Cephalid Empress. it doesn't do much beyond sit there and annoy people. and my favorite move i did was watching an opponent use Sanguine bond and Exquisite blood for a combo then intending to start it off with a Grey Merchant of Asphodel. only for me to change the required devotion to green and causing him to lose the next turn instead of win. Just all around weird fun.

IIRC when the Command Zone looked at the games they had recorded in some kind of data episode, having the most lands in play/the most mana available at the end of the game was one of the bigger correlations with winning. Going first actually as well. I don't think that's the definitive word on what wins commander games, but it's interesting to consider. Wish more data like that was available but it's not really easy to collect in a global sense. I do think 34 lands and few rocks/ramp is not ideal. You may not need 37 lands in every deck nor 10+ rocks. But a friend of mine plays Dihada Binder of Wills. When he gets her out on turn 3 with a 2 cmc rock, then -2s and hits say 1 legend in 4 cards he gets 3 treasure. Playing a land on T4 gets him 8 mana on turn 4. He can drop some huge impactful card or surge ahead with several medium plays. When your next turn is "4 drop, pass" they leave you in the dust. So hitting those first 6 lands and getting some additional ramp, is pretty important in my experience from my playgroup and what I see elsewhere. Not that you're incorrect in your own playgroup. Just my own experience of commander.

I mean it's the same argument if you put in mana rocks and ramp after turn six do you really want to drop a land, rock, or ramp

I also only do 34 lands. I try to keep my curve at 3 - 4 mana and as long as I can get to 3 mana by turn 3 my decks are rolling :)

13:31 I do have a landfall deck. It’s a mono-blue one

well when Im playing a +1 +1 counter deck, I become the target after turn 3.

Personally, i like having mana through the entire game. As the game goes on i want to be able to do more in a single turn so i usually go with 40 lands/rocks minimum. My Dragon deck has 50 lands/rocks in it and it works out pretty well. I dont like being mana starved or being 6 turns in waiting for the 1 land i need to make a play. That said i have friends that only run 25-30 lands and it works for them. I guess you just have to feel out the deck and ask yourself if it needs more or can it do with less.

My favorite commander(Kaalia of the Vast) is always targeted so I play hard and fast.

Tasigur keeps my opponents guessing. Reanimator, ramp/landfall, graveyard shenanigans and x-spells all in one package

I want to run less lands, but I seem to get pretty unlucky starting hands usually. I always feel like I need to have an incredibly low mana curve to run less than even 37 lands, do your decks have a really low average cmc?

I follow your rule for lands. I started with 37-38 lands and now I play 32-34 lands

One rule I follow is “don’t be afraid to build a deck for multiple power levels” So I’ll have a side board of cards I can swap out with the 99 to increase or lower a deck’s power level depending on the table I play at, that way I can play any deck at any table theoretically. So I’m not forced into playing certain decks I can enjoy all my decks when I want.

I don't agree with everything but I do agree on your amount of lands. I max out at about 34, sometimes less. I generally count MDFCs as a full land.

37 lands in every deck and then I can adjust it from there, unless it's lands matter then I start at 40. I find often enough I struggle to get a hand with 3 lands or 2 lands with ramp at 37 lands, or the other night I had 37 but it took until a draw 10 discard 5 that I could get to my 4th land drop

33 to 34. Man you love to have fun cards to play. I approve. It can just be hard to balance

I played against a Landfall Meren deck once and it's actually pretty good

Could you describe a very unassuming commander deck that would not make you a target yet have that k.o. punch necessary in order to win, please?

Boy can I confirm that "Don't make yourself a target" axiom. Had a sealed BGate event a few weeks back and built what I thought was a solid deck (a few times). Got lucky and drew that new doubling dragon commander and enough dragons to make it work. Each time my other opponents sussed out who had the best deck and promptly got godstomped in all the matches - guess it was a reward (sarcasm) for making a good deck? Yes, don't be the obvious target.

Honestly I know it might not be popular. But in my group I play Yuriko with a mill sub theme. So cards like mindcrank. Bruvac, etc. And it might not be great but it's so much fun and my friends from time to time forget I have a mill sub theme

I actually made that Yurlok "make mana for the table and burn them" laser focus and fell on my nose with it. I was too excited to see mana burn. ^^' So I changed it to a broarder "punish everything", now it works -That deck does hate that nasty Bane of Progress tho.

I am the player who's anxious on turn 6 because I'm about to miss my land drop. If I assess that the game will last until at least turn 10, that land drop is worth 5 mana. I do assess my options at that moment, but yeah, it's usually the right play to reorient that turn around drawing cards to be able to hit that 6th land drop. (Also goes back to your first rule: spending most of your turn 6 to draw a couple cards, **by saying out loud that you just want to hit your land drop**, is very good at deflecting attention.)

The rule I have for lands in a commander deck is 30+the number of colors in the deck (not including lands with no mana ability). That always seems to be more than enough for me and I rarely ever have a need to mulligan. One of the most powerful decks I've ever played against only had 28 lands in it and it won a majority of the time because of how consistent it was.