That’s awesome! The deck is super fun. It’s got some crazy value plays.

This is actually one of the things that prompted me rethinking mana base. I was out of gas and drew a gilded lotus. Depending on the build, you only ever needed so much.

@TheFirstJake like I get that for 5 mana or less commanders, but when you are running 7, 8, or +9 mana commanders? Two or three mana cost ramp spells just isn't going to cut it. It really is about knowing your deck's needs.

​@@majinvegeta6364yeah I run quite a few explosive vegetation cards in my flip vorinclex deck just because I want to hit 8 mana as early as I can, with vorin smoothing out the drawing of those by acting as "card draw" himself

@winter945 that's another good example. I have over 50 commander decks, and I put in a lot more work into tuning them than I do playing because, for me, building the decks is the most fun part of the game. I had stripped my mana ramp down to the most efficient options I could afford. I found that in testing only having cheap mana ramp that produced smaller benefits didn't generate nearly enough tempo advantage for some mana intensive commanders. At first, I just expanded the number of ramp cards I had in the deck from 10 to 15, but that still wasn't enough to make the deck function as reliably more efficient strategies. What changed things for my admittedly casual Rith the Awakener, Borborygmos Enraged, and The Scarab God decks was running effectively two separate stages of ramp, one set of 10 fast and cheap spells and a second set of 5 to 10 mid-range ramp spells to power me through to my endgame around turns 4 and 5. Those changes made them much better equipped to keep up with the other players at the table because being only one turn behind makes it much easier to get back into the game than being 3 or 4 turns away from doing the thing.

Thank you for the kind words! Welcome!

Yeah there's no hard rule. As long as you're able to ramp while still having ways of using the mana without getting run over by the rest of the table it's all good.

My list is super out of date. I'll update it when I'm off work and drop a link.

I was just saying last night that Krosan Verge is one of my favorite lands that doesn't see nearly enough play. The reality is the fact that it enters tapped and then takes effectively 3 mana to put 2 more mana into play tapped makes it TERRIBLE to draw mid-game. I'd like to think of it this way: Treat each comes into play tapped action as costing 1 mana. Verge comes into play tapped: 1 mana Tap Verge + 2 mana to search: 3 mana Put two lands into play tapped: 2 mana You've effectively payed 6 mana over the course of 2 turns to get + 1 mana Skyshroud Claim is almost always better and even that isn't played very often. I do use Krosan Verge in my Necrobloom deck as it ticks most of the boxes (sac, search, color fixing) and in most of my 5 color decks as it single handedly finds whatever 4 colors you're missing which is ridiculous (Haunted Mire + Idyllic Beachfront and similar). I'd say try it out, but I have been disappointed by the card on several occasions.

@@TheFirstJake what about the creature Krosan Wayfarer, though? One green mana 1/1 with "sacrifice krosan wayfarer: you may play a land from your hand."

Oh gotcha, I misread your comment the first time. Wayfarer is pretty bad. There are cases when it's useful and like you said you can get ahead if you have it turn 1 with a land in your hand, but it's still causing you to lose card advantage in the best case. You are essentially trading 2 cards in hand for 1 land in play. I'd consider it's usefulness across the flow of a game. Turn 1 it's essentially a chrome mox. Turn 2, it's probably closer to a coldsteel heart. Any turn after you exhaust the lands in your hand, it's just a woodland druid. At least it draws a card with Gilt-Leaf Archdruid.

@@TheFirstJake thanks for the feedback! I really enjoy throwing him in my decks, but I'll have to look over it again. I really enjoy your videos, man. The slow/calm pacing is really nice and different than other channels :)

Thanks so much. To be clear, pet cards are pet cards and if you like the Wayfarer, keep it in. I will absolutely fight to the death that Horned Kavu deserves a slot even though it’s terrible.

Well now I can't not hear it...

Agreed. What frustrates me most is the "limit 2" that they put on it. It's like wrapping some caution tape around a trampoline and thinking "yeah, that'll keep the kids off" as they all find a way to climb in anyways. Peak ineffectual design.

Every time I think of Nadu I am impressed at just how thoroughly awful the design is. It totally feels like a fake card.