I feel like josh and jimmy are part of the reason why vedalken orrery is so expensive XD

Bojuka. Bog. It's a land, it enters tapped, it taps for black mana, and when it enters the battlefield, you get to exile someone's graveyard. Virtually every commander deck runs graveyard recursion or interaction in some form, and hey, if they don't, you can just play this and it will make you black mana. It's also a common from a relatively recent set, so it's only $1.

Full list: Sensei's Divining Top Strip Mine Solemn Simulacrum Lightning Greaves Maze of Ith Shock Lands Fellwar Stone / Signets Fetchlands Vedalken Orrery Sword of Feast and Famine Ancient Tomb Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx Path to exile / Swords to Plowshares Elspeth, Sun's Champion Cyclonic Rift Rhystic Study Demonic Tutor Phyrexian Arena Vandalblast Chaos Warp Eternal Witness Cultivate / Kodama's Reach / Rampant Growth / Farseek Aura Shards Supreme Veredict Mana Crypt Gaea's Cradle Cabal Coffers / Urborg, Tob of Yawgmoth

"Fellwar Stone and the Signets" would be a great ...... Rock band. Hehehehe

Josh, does Sriracha know you're cheating on them?

Burnished Hart, Reality Shift, Mother of Runes, Dystopia, Nev's Disk, Oblivion Stone, Capsize, Wash Out, Chain Reaction, Duplicant, Steel Hellkite, Crib Swap, Authority of the Consuls, Pernicious Deed, Reclamation Sage, Harmonize, Wood Elves, Sakura Tribe Elder, Fleshbag Marauder, Mulldrifter, Explosive Vegetation, Arcane Denial, Merciless Eviction, Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Forbid, Rakdos Charm.

I was starting to get the shakes, been binging old episodes from when you first started. You guys have improved so much in terms of quality

Ive only just recently gotten into watch your stuff, but now I can't stop. Keep up the great work guys.

Beast Within and Krosan Grip definitely should've been mentioned for Green. Also Skullclamp and Reliquary Tower for colorless. Chromatic Lantern for most multicolor decks.

You guys should do an updated version of this list

I like all of the cards talked about on your list. Well done and thought out. A few staples I like that weren't mentioned are Terminus, Black sun's zenith, merciless eviction, duplicant, spine of ish sah, swan song, evacuation, sudden spoiling, triumph of the hordes, blasphemous act, song of the dryads, dig through time and elixir of imortality.

I found this video very helpful even for someone that has been playing MTG as a kid and just returning to the game and coming to find a new love for EDH, you guys are awesome keep it up

"Teferi's protection might one day be better than Elspeth." I know hindsight is 20/20, but damn was that a miscalculation

I always recommend to new EDH players to pick up one or more of whatever Commander deck is current. Even if they don't use the whole deck, these decks come stocked full of staples. I personally buy all of the decks when they come out and inevitably not only do I end up with a TON of usable staples, but some of the cards end up being worth a truckload of money (True-Name Nemesis, Teferi's Protection, etc) that can recoup the cost of buying all of the decks.

I like to come back to these old episodes to see how much Commander has changed

i've been wanting to play with you guys for 2 years since i first caught viewing of your show!! gonna try to get it in around 11am Pacific standard time!. You guys are awesome and have done so much for this format. Even if i don't get picked... I still feel so grateful. thanks.

Sakura-Tribe Elder instead of (or togehter with) Rampant Growth, for the same reason as Eternal Witness over Regrowth I would say

My dad started playing in 4th edition and I recognize a lot of these from my collection

Maze of Ith can also be used as the Reconnaissance (W Enchantment) activated effect. Deal damage with a creature and then at the end of combat, untap it.

One thing I do, I put a piece of paper in my sleeve for decks that share cards, but it only works with two decks. But I like the way you guys have presented, seems MUCH better.

Episode #199, hmmm, seems like that’s close to something special

I don't like watching your videos anymore. Each one ends up costing me about hundred bucks in new cards.

I use to solely only buy from the commons and uncommons box/ buying packs when I was in high school. Spendy to me these day is about 10$ and up, I think the most expensive card I've spent actual money on is a promo Lili

1:15:56 Fellwar Stone and the Signets, sounds like a band name, will be playing at your local LGS this Friday and Saturday. Tickets available through your local ticket retailers. lol :D

So when do those Relic Tokens come out? I still can't find an official release date anywhere.

I say chromatic lantern. It's going up in price and it makes your lands into command towers. Good card

An alternative to Vincent's system could also be making a proxy of expansive cards you already own, sleeve them and include them into every deck you want if your playgroup is ok with this process.

Hey guys, love the content. I just wanted to mention what I do for using multiple expensive cards across multiple decks. I print proxies of interesting altered art from online, I slide them in front of a bulk common card. It works great (I did make sure that my play group was OK with it before doing so.) I highly recommend this. For one you get to play all of your good cards without unsleeving or switching decks. 2. There are some really cool artwork alters online that you get to play with. Finally, I keep my alters in my commander staple binder for when I build decks. Just an idea similar to what you mentioned. Keep up the great content!

I do something like Vinny's system for double-sided cards. Doing that for proxies is brilliant.

1:15:44 LIST. = )

Thanks for tips, I actually have most of the staples for Blue, White and Red with a little of Black and Green, I keep them in a shared container so I can brew easily

This is a great topic actually, because Commander draws in a lot of new players and it can be really discouraging to try to get all the expensive high value cards simply because you don't know about the alternatives. I just wanna expand on the green part and the artifact part of the convo. Its nice to start with green as a color while learning because you can splice it into any deck and fix your mana pretty easily, which can be really annoying if you're starting out if you haven't figured out the right amount of lands, or the ratio of basic to non-basics, and which colors, and when to ramp vs draw cards vs put a threat out on the board. Getting at least the mana situation down, makes magic fun fast so getting to know green early on in your growing collection is a good idea. Also one of the best abilities Green cards add is Hexproof, with cards like Ascetism and regeneration like effects, so it makes magic more forgiving. On to Colourless! Every Commander deck needs something that pacifies commanders. Every colour and deck will have more synergistic or cost efficient ways to deal with enemy commanders than a colourless card but when you're staring out your collection, you still need something and I'd recommend Helm of Possession or Ugin. Now the reason I say Pacify is because if you just kill the Commander they will eventually replay it. It has to be something like Suppression Bonds or Lingify that replaces or adds to this slot in the deck which is amoung but separate from generic spot removal. You need this sort of thing for God's and Preators and Planeswalkers as they kind of the pinnacle powerhouse cards of the mtg multiverse Commander Support artifacts are important. Your commander is the cornerstone of your deck and a lightning rod for removal spells. I would start by grabbing and run both the Lightning Greeves and Swiftfoots in every deck. But, I would also grab Wispersilk Cloak and Hammer of Nazzan because many of your decks will rely on your commander or something else attacking at some point. Another pair that should go in every deck is Semblance Anvil and God Pharaoh's Statue, these decrease and increase the cost of spells for you and opponents respectively and are kinda cheap to buy for what they do. And if you wanna put a little more money in, Aether Vial makes every deck better and I would say is sometimes even better than Sol Ring. Drawing is important. Skullclamp and Key to the City are the cheapest versatile and I would say are staples worth owing and running most if not all the time. Not as good as Sensei's Divining Top most of the time but different enough that having all 3 in is really useful as they don't get in each other's way but help find all the other things you might need. Furthermore the Top is mostly for correcting draws which is different. Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Darksteel Pendant are also good for that and I personally like them better And Lastly I would grab a Soul Foundry and run it in every Deck. The meta is very ETB focused, so reusing your strong cards is often better that covering for a weakness to certain strategies. With that in mind, there are certain things that happen every game that can be taken advantage of; every game creatures die, lands are played, players cast spells. Trailblazer Boots, Blackblade Reforged, Grimoire of the Dead, and any of the Altars , Monuments and Medallions could be used comfortably in most decks Colourless has any interesting role in the game because it can round out any colour's weaknesses, so if you find yourself playing white a lot I would buy the colourless draw and ramp spells as 'your' staple cards if you know what I mean. If you're playing green a lot I would grab the colourless cards that destroy stuff. If you like the more combat-focused red commanders, its useful to have a Fire Shrieker or a Grafted Exoskeleton. These go in any deck that wants to fight stuff. To Sum up: Helm of Possession, (Ugin), Swiftfoot Boots, Semblance Anvil, God-Pharaoh's Statue, (Aeher Vial), Skull-Clamp, Key to the City and Soul Foundry are things I would add to what Josh and Jimmy suggested as staples for literally any and every deck. But for a collection and as runable value cards any decks (stylistic choice I guess) I would grab Wispersilk Cloak, Hammer of Nazzan, Trailblazer Boots, Grimoire of the Dead, Fireshrieker, Grafted Exoskeleton , Blackblade Reforged, Grimoire of the Dead and a Altar of the Brood, Altar of Dementia, and Phyrexian Altar/Ashnod's Altar. I would only start adding these to round out mostly finished decks and before focusing too much on a more particular solution because again these are nice placeholder or just extra value cards. Kinda like Aura Shards or Veldakin Orrary, they might not play into the core strategy but you won't regret drawing them or casting them. Honourable Mention: My favourite Colourless card is Azor's Gateway and a personal staple in every deck

Main topic 11:01

14:00 Yep, OR you could just print out proxies so you can play with multiple copies of the same card, especially if you're playing with friends, then multiple people can play with the same card!

I was going to start playing commander after buying a precon deck, but didn't know which cards buy at the beginning . This video is a lifesaver. Thanks guys!.

Krosan Grip and Acidic Slime are two cards I don't see very often anymore, yet they are so good! More love to these cards!

People if you want a really versatile card that is extremely cheap. Get yourself a trading post it is 50 cents. It allows you to draw, gain life, recure artifacts, and create tokens. I don't know of many cards that are as versatile as trading post it does just about everything a edh deck wants to do and no player tends to look at it and go that needs to go.

I would love to see one of these for 2019

I think it's great to go tgrough the best case scenarios or great opening hands just so you can make sure you do them right and go through them faster.

I would have also mentioned Thought Vessel and Mind Stone for the mana ramp section, those are both usually auto includes in all of my decks that use mana rocks.

I am very surprised you didn't talk about Sylvan Library. Not all that expensive and if you are even close to green you NEED to play this.

No command tower? No bojuka bog to kill gys? Sylvan library, burgeoning and exploration could definitely be somewhere in the ''top'' i believe.

Another card for mana fixing in a 3+ color deck is Chromatic Lantern. It's a 3 mana mana rock that taps for one of any color and gives your lands the ability to tap for one of any color. I love it in esper and grixis because it keeps my opponents on their toes, and always leaves me with blue mana for some sort of counterspell if they try to blow it up.

@ Jimmy One card that I'm surprised I haven't seen you play is Aftershock. It is super versatile spot removal In red. I personally love having a few of these spot removal cards that also hit lands.

Ponder for blue, it's a one cost card that lets you set up your next three draws or shuffle away those cards if they aren't good for the situation and then you get to draw. That is a hell of a lot of value for 1 blue mana

Have you forget Beast Within?

Great video again!!! Would love to see an episode in which you show us the commander decks each of you has and give us a quick breakdown...or the top 5 of your decks if you will... Would really appreciate it :)

I wish I could give a second thumbs up for opening with the Rolling Stones cover! You guys are great.

Don't forget about the talismans! They're as good or better than signets, but like a buck or so each

3:23

Yay, I LOVE the Checklist Card system!!! That's what I do too! Totally the way to go!

You guys make my day better. It's always fantastic to step away from the world and watch.

I'd place fetch lands higher on the list. If you have even the "havelands" as you call them or the bycicle lands any fetch land(even off color ones like polluted delta in animar) can fetch for every single color. Basically fetchlands become city of brass. So yeah, I think they are much much better than the others, given you have any complete cycle of fetchable dual lands. Also at least mention the abur duals for completions sake xD Other noteable includes: Chains of Vapor, Talismans, Necropotence and cards for infinite mana combos like a monolith + power artifact or lions eye diamond + auriok salvagers and stuff like that.

What about Skull clamp? Also very important especially to white players

Nice this really helped me for 6 or 12 commander decks. Thank you for all your hard work

Check card system is so cool. I always did worry about having multiple expensive staples and thats such a good idea. And it takes as much effort as pulling out token cards.

There is a staple more powerful than Sol Ring Its called Storm Crow

Merciless Eviction

Ash barrens works well in “mono” white (or any other mono color deck) because it can fund your colorless eldrazi (eldrazi displacer, kozilek, endbringer) or it can shift to fuel your white intensive spells (like any of the double white 2 drops) or it can even complete emeria. It is just insanely useful essentially as a X & colorless dual land. It is one of the most over preforming cards in my decks.

Thaumatic Compass is autoinclude in my decks. It makes sure that I don't get manascrewed and after that it turns in to Maze of Ith that CAN tap for mana if you don't need the defensive option

these cards cost so much :/

No the most powerful thing in Animar is any Morph card

I really wanna see you guys go with pauper commander, since there's an abundance of uncommon legends coming around specially in master25, i bet it will be a good start for the format :) love you guys :)

Thanks for the help, i defiantly will add a few of the these cards to the deck im making.

Ash Barrens! Pauper players rejoice!

Dear Josh & Jimmy, Listening to your podcast today about "commander staples" I was struck by something that I needed to share. You talked about the amazing benefit of running a system where you can own a single Mana Crypt, Sensei's Divining Top or any other expensive card and run that card across every single deck in your collection without having to swap it around. While your point is understandable, you are promoting something that I consider somewhat toxic for the format and for many playgroups. There are a lot of Commander players out there who build "bad" or at least "suboptimal" decks. Some of them do this because they love building silly themes into a deck or because they simply can't afford more expensive cards and don't want to proxy. Many of them build decks that are built around a commander that has a "low ceiling". By that I mean that many decks have a commander that just isn't prone to being "broken" and turned into a powerhouse. These players all deserve to be able to enjoy playing EDH with the decks they have built, whether those decks are powerful and fast, or durdly and slow. Finding fun games with both good and bad decks in a playgroup can be a huge challenge, and often involves negotiation and cooperation. You don't play your Tier 1 deck against precons or suboptimal decks and expect to have a fun, enjoyable game. If a player is in a group where everyone is on the same page, I think your suggestion about using a staples binder is absolutely fine, but you never actually discuss this negotiation. You just tell players to run Mana Crypt in all their decks because for you, it's the obvious thing you should be doing if you own just one but have lots of decks. I'm writing to ask you to at least think about how this approach can affect playgroups. When players do not have a wide range of decks to play and all of their decks are optimized with powerful cards "shared" across their collection, you are creating environments where newer players with worse decks or less spikey players with whimsical/theme/durdly decks have less and less of a chance to actually enjoy the format. The faster, more powerful, staple-bindered decks make the window in which those weaker decks can actually have a chance to play much, much narrower. If Spike's decks are now winning on average two or three turns faster, that really does create a toxic environment where the slower decks just can't compete. Those players might get to where they don't even feel like there's a point in playing. On the other hand, if the Spike were to have their "power cards" in ONLY their favorite decks and have their other decks be slower and weaker because they don't share those cards across their collection, you wind up with a situation where the Spike is able to pick a stronger deck to play at faster table and a weaker deck to play at tables where that is more appropriate to have a fun game. For most of us, EDH isn't about winning at all costs, it's about having fun games where everyone has a chance and has a good time. At a slow table, that pretty much requires that nobody is playing a fast, super-powerful deck. I want the EDH community to be one where everyone is working together to create fun games and environments that are welcoming to newer players and to players more interested in exploring deckbuilding as self-expression and as a creative outlet. There is certainly a place for strong decks and competitive play but every time you guys talk about players proxying power cards across their collection and thereby pushing up the power level of their entire collection, I really think you are hurting the community by not talking about how that affects less competitive players. If you win all the time, but lose half your playgroup, you're not really winning in the long run. There are ways to responsibly talk about how to use staples binders and how to proxy cards, but every time I've heard the topic come up on your podcast I wind up feeling disappointed in the way you treat the issue. Please think about this. A podcast about how playgroups can (and should) negotiate power levels might be an appropriate topic for you to take on. Maybe you never, ever do this, but I think these sorts of discussions should be had and staples binders should NEVER be used without a group having a discussion about it and how it will affect less competitive decks and players. Thank you for your time, - Stephen Johnson

Considering the binder system. I also do this and I think using a binder seems a bit complicated. What I do is to just have a deckbox with all the "staple binder" cards. Each of my decks then contains an index card i.e. some card with a piece of paper on top in a red sleeve - the paper reads what I have to put into the deck and how many cards I need overall (good to crosscheck). So instead of taking a card in and out of a binder, you just have a deckbox where you have to look for the cards, which I think is much faster (ideally you put some order to the cards in the box as well).

You should be running in the Esper, Sultai, or Grixis format. Considering that, here are some certain staples I think could be added to this list. Elixir of Immortality - artifact worn powerstone - artifact darksteel ingot - artifact reliquary tower - land Halimar depths - blue lim-duls vault - BU bojuka bog - B land evolving wilds/terramorphic expanse - land(s) command tower - land exotic orchard - land Temples - land(s)

Don't play Rampant Growth in EDH. Play Nature's Lore instead. It's better because it searches for shocks and duals instead of basics and the land comes in untapped!

My playgroup will let you make proxies of cards you already own or are far too expensive to buy, as with everything common sense comes into play

Loved this episode!!! Definitely will pick up these cards

I agree about the top being a staple. There are so many things it can do, there are infinites, it has the option to give you card advantage, its just so strong

First thing I think of Commander Staples is Soul Ring :p

I’m a blue player and I honestly think Cyclonic Rift should be banned, simply because it is literally the most powerful blue card. I have never not seen it go down and the player loose. It’s that powerful. It’s a one card win con.

heard about the pushback for the sending in the videos was so excited then realized i missed it by a day....you are spared from my decks for another year Game Knights....

Here's a fun and little known interaction you can do with Maze of Ith. For those unaware, there is a step before your 2nd main phase called end of combat (much like the end step of your turn) Since its still combat during this step, creatures that attacked are still "attacking", which means that after damage is dealt, you can maze of ith YOUR OWN ATTACKING CREATURE to give it pseudo-vigilance! Isn't that cool? Have fun maze-ing, fellow planeswalkers

Vedalken Orrery is decent in my decks due only to the fact that it allows me to reanimate Eldrazi Titans due to boosting traditional reanimate to instant speed so that one can respond to a shuffle trigger. This being said, Orrey doesn't go into all decks. It's decent

I print high quality proxies and put them in my decks, then buy one copy and put it in hard plastic to present to nay-sayers.

I've found that smothering tithe and rhystic study are 2 of the most important functional cards in my decks. Huge upgrades to own.

Ancestral statue comboes with solemn simulacrum in animar if you have panharmonicon out. SS triggers twice, getting you 2 lands. Then you can play AS targeting SS and AS, repeating until no more lands are in your deck, and making animar huge. And if you have vedalken orrery out you can do this all in the middle of combat to pump an animar to be a million/million at instant speed.

I would disagree heavily with top being number 1. I have it in nearly no decks, the one and only deck i run it in is my heavy tempo control deck that plays counter balance fetch shuffle effects and coursier effects that allow me to play off the top of my deck. If you lack shuffle or deck manipulation is is a horribly offal card. It would have been better to cast any of the blue cantrips. Is top a good card of course but is it number one in colorless no way no how. Also if you want the best bang for your buck a great card is burnished hart. It is a creature that ramps you two lands for a total of 6 mana. That can be spread between multiple turns it is both a creature and artifact and allows you a sacrifice trigger. I would also highly recommend trading post is huge versatility is near impossible to be. It has life gain, card draw, token creation, and artifact recursion. It litterally is everything you want in a deck by itself. Also it's like 50 cents. That's two quarters, it highly affordable and I have been playing it in a run of decks due to it flying well under the radar and netting so much value.

blerbs, staples episodes are essentially an episode that should be called: how to ensure that your meta gets super boring and repetitive. JANK IT PEOPLE! JANK COMMANDER GAMES ARE THE REAL FUN!

Thanks for clearing that for me Jimmy- I was thinking off-color fetches were off-limits. You guys did not mention the Panorama cycle for fetchlands.

My favorite thing to do is turn 3 rhystic study followed by a turn 4 copy enchantment for up to 2 cards per opponents' spell

Necropotence is >>> phyrexian arena

No command tower??

Sylvan libary for green and mono green or general non-blue green combination can be amazing and it is almost top like or brainstorm at your upkeep

A card I've recently discovered the full potential of in Black is Vampire Hexmage. BB for a 2/1 Vampire Shaman with First Strike. You can Sac her to remove all counters from target permanent. It can kill Planeswalkers, slow down any +1/+1 counter base strat, shut down the counter lands, etc. I stopped an early Tanglewire in an Atraxa deck to secure my win

Please don't call Sad Robot "SS." It's just not a good name for it.

Sim-You-Lack-Rum

I've been playing Animar Morph for several years, its amazing.

1:15:55 Fellwar Stone and the Signets. New band name, called it!

I've told you all before: 👏Vedalken 👏 Orrery 👏 is 👏 a 👏 bad 👏 Magic 👏 card! 👏 Don't just go jamming it in decks.

Instead of Eternal Witness, I would get Skullwinder. It will get you a card from your graveyard (same as Eternal Witness), however it cost (2)(G). Which is easier to cast, plus it has deathtouch and is a 1/3 instead of Eternal Witness 2/1. Sure you have to give an opponent a card from their graveyard too. But you can use that as a political advantage. And it cost like 30 cents instead of 7 dollars

Based on the cards that Ive put into my decks, here's a couple of colorless picks I think you missed- Ashnod's altar Scroll rack Library of Leng Mishra's factory Command tower/sphere Prophetic prism/chromatic lantern Basalt/grim monolith Burnished Hart Howling mine Jitte Sword of the animist Mask of memory

For the End Step! I HIGHLY recommend Annihilation!! It was such a fun watch!

Hot take: Vedalken Orrey is not good. Slow, vulnerable and negligible benefit.

So no Dark Steel Plate? No Scroll Rack? No Sylvan Library? Those are considered staples.

I’m a high schooler who doesn’t have much money to spend on magic, and I’ve been using that checklist system for the past couple of months. It works great and it’s the reason why I’ve been able to build so many decks. Although instead of putting in a checklist card, I just put in some other card. This way if I don’t have access to my deckbox or binder of staples I still have a complete (but less powerful) deck

I play mono-Black commander and for that I would say that Black Market is a Mono-black staple and Crypt ghast is a staple for mono Black or black and other color.