I train folks in Behavioral Management and Crisis Intervention and it's amazing how much the same scaffolding can overlay all social situations, from a youth in crisis, to sitting at a Magic table. Love this kind of stuff.

Joey harnessing his best Duke Devlin for the thumbnail

I love these solo Joey videos. He's making you a better human under the guise of making you a better magic player. ❤

That was one of the most insightful, erudite talks that you’ve ever given Joey. Thank you for being you, and keep them coming :-)

The ONLY bad games of commander I've experienced over the years have been one of two experiences. Somebody plays a deck that goes solitaire and a 15 minute turn ensues where every opponent gets angry, frustrated, resigned or annoyed as the oblivious player "does their thing." I've learned over the years to interact with the opponents to come to a unanimous decision of "conceding," declaring that person a winner and then we play for second place with only three of us. This normally sends the appropriate message to the solitaire player while allowing the rest of us to still enjoy a game of magic. That person also then gets to feel what it's like to sit on the sidelines doing nothing as other people have fun. The second instance where I don't enjoy games is always when I'm just getting horrible strings of cards (all lands or no lands) and I get over run without ever actually "playing" my deck. It's nobody's fault, it's just unfortunate, so I can deal with those far better and tend to forget about them by day's end. Funnily enough, it seems to be the truly experienced players that always have the solitaire decks and are most proud of those decks; the very people that should know better by that point. I've also seen most novice players are introduced to aggro creatures decks, but as they progress they branch out and mostly leave that behind. They still have those cherished decks and whip them out, but they don't get played as much...... until they do. The experienced player will all of a sudden find new card to make those decks more viable and powerful again, at which point that becomes their favorite again for a while. Thanks Joey, for you and the entire cast at EDHREC, for all you. Cheers.

The Magic community - the world, even - is better off WITH EDHREC. It's job isn't to build the best deck for every individual, or even the best deck possible. It gives a ton of great information for someone who wants to play commander and helps establish a starting point for a playable deck. Making it good, or personalized is up to every individual. Keep going, Joey! You're doing great, and much appreciated!

I'm still not sure if it's burnout or I've just moved on ,but it's been MONTHS since I've played. It feels like I 'devolved' in a way. Product fatigue really got to me and made each new release give less and less of that 'happy brain chemical' after every product that was pushed out 3-4 weeks after the next. I really hope I can loop back around to being in awe of the game again like you said.

The idea that edhrec is responsible for homogeneity is shortsighted. Citing a discussion that happened on THIS CHANNEL, Dana accurately commented that players like the illusion of a challenge, which applies to both deck building and gameplay. People don't often want to fully build a deck from scratch, they want to take a standard version and sometimes see if they can make improvements without a guide.

It would be great for edh if another format would take a major jump in popularity. If standard was still the main focus, I believe edh would have a chance to breathe.

As a relatively new Commander player, I built the First sliver after modifying the Commander Masters sliver pre-con because I wanted something that could keep me up with my playgroup. At first I was so excited about unlimited power and abilities, but it's like you said, eventually you get bored of just doing the same thing over and over ie casting the most expensive sliver you can and seeing what cascades. On the other hand, I also built Trostani Selesnya's voice as a lifegain token deck, something different seems to happen with it every time and gives me a lot of cool stories to tell, and it feels like it's more down to the choices I make - anyway cool video btw, nice concept PS - EDHREC has been incredibly useful to me as a new player, thanks a lot

This was phenomenal, thank you Joey!

Absolutely LOVED this! I started as an old fart who just wanted to play my Rebels from Mercadian Masques who then ended up as an intimidating Spike who had Blue in the color identity to counter stuff. After a decade of Commander experience, I now walk into my LGS' Commander League Sundays with a case housing 9 of my 21 decks, all ranging in different power levels and intricacies. There's a new player in our league who just started playing MtG a handful of months ago and his Tom Bombadil is SO MUCH FUN to watch! The old me would have been critiquing or analyzing, but now I just love watching the factory churn and smile whenever I get 'Saga Cascaded' out of my strategies. Thanks for this great introspection and inspiration!

Thanks for your videos joey! I am fairly new to commander but you and the boys helped me avoid some early speed bumps and figure out what I want out of commander. Yall's insights and experiences are very valuable

An absolutely phenomenal video Joey. I appreciate your insights into this format we both share and love. I love this kind of content because it's extremely helpful to so many. Thank you so much for all you do.

I was thinking about this exact evolution a few days before this video dropped. It’s super gratifying to have this exact thought process expressed for me awesome job, as always, Joey!

Love this style of video, looking forward to more

I'm pretty new to magic and commander. The way I've been using EDH rec is I pull all of the cards listed for a given commander/archetype/any other filters I add. Then from those 200ish (not counting lands) cards I filter down to my own version of the deck. I feel like I usually end up with something that really sings rather than copying an EDH average deck which you all often highlight can accidentally include only half of specific combos or mix several strategies.

This was amazing Joey. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

You are unreasonably reasonable with your approach to commander and I love it

Such a great insight. I thought I'd always be a simic Big sea monsters only commander player, but have since branched out. Now i have 6 "complete" paper decks, 3 being built online, and a few ideas on the backburner. Every single time, I go through this same exact cycle. Great vid

Very articulate. Looking forward to more.

A + Joey! This is the type of introspection that comes with going through the "phases" of the deck building journey. When it comes down to it, remember to be respectful of others.

Thank you for this. It's really good to hear a conversation about the people part of the people of mtg.

Great video, I really appreciated your perspectives. I think the last couple stages are an endless cycle of falling in and out of love with different decks and different builds 😂👌

That value judgment section of the video was some of the most insightful Magic content I have ever heard, truly. The level of honesty makes it feel like the social MTG version of therapy.

Fantastic video, and a glorious thumbnail

I could listen to you all day, Joey

This was a great video, thank you

Well said, Joey! I think that many of us don't realize that we go through these phases of the game, for any kind of game. We think it's a problem with ourselves, but it has more to do with our interest in the specific sort of activity or locale.

As soon as I built my chaos deck, I realized I never want to build a deck with staples or recognized powerful cards again. For me, playing a Winged Boots instead of a Swiftfoot Boots is so much more fun. Ward 4 is pretty close to hexproof and although it's not haste, I can wait a turn to use my commander.

This video has really helped me. I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to get out of my commander decks. I’ve let some competitive decks stagnate and yet I’ve felt frustrated when my other themed decks get ran over. Now I know that I’m just trying to find a deck where my decisions matter and not one that’s on autopilot. Now to find a commander that’s a mini puzzle 🧩 but yet somewhat competitive. Thankfully there’s a website for that 😏

Seton, Krosan protector has been my love affair over the last roughly 10 years. Druids don't come often, so upgrades are rare, but in my eyes going back to the older sets brings out more creativity for me

Good sir, Our playgroup here is on the verge of various concerns including stale play and power creep, and you have no idea how thankful I am to you for summing up everything and plausibly even giving a solution to what we've been facing. Keep doing what you guys are doing. PS: sorry can't join your patreon due to financial gaps in this country but know that I'm bringing my small play group to subscribe.

I know this sentiment has been expressed here already but I just wanted to say I think you hit the nail on the head with this Joey. I’ve seen myself as a veteran player go through these motions and my friends who have only recently started their mtg journey going through a different phase than myself and this perfectly summarized those different stages commander players move through. What an amazing and insightful video, you clearly know what you are talking about when it comes to commander 😁

I don't watch this channel often, but this was pretty cool!

Joey lives in my head i swear i was just talking to my friend about my commander journey

Great video. Just returned to mtg after 3 years brake. So many new commanders. Ah, the joy of exploring

Joey, this is one of your finest videos. I've struggled through periods of disenfranchisement, and it's not just new product fatigue. It's important to recognize when you're letting your play get stale, and if you don't have the time or energy to build something that excites you, to consider stepping away for a bit. One of the other fascinating things about these cycles is that when a whole playgroup is going through the various stages that may be out of sync with where I'm at, I'm learning to enjoy seeing what makes them excited. I've always been pretty spikey but sometimes it's great to make suboptimal plays so that I get to see how others work through their combos, or show off a bunch of cards I've never seen. Thankfully I'm on an upswing in play, and our group has doubled in size this year. It's a shame to hear people blaming the site for their dissatisfaction. EDHRec helps me build phase 1 of a new deck concept, to know I've put together something that works. But as Dana and Matt's challenge the stats segment shows, the masses aren't always right. I love tuning afterwards with a scryfall deep dive once I've learned what I like and dislike about the core cards. Keep up the great content!!

Dude, Joey’s got bars. Great video!

I greatly appreciate this video. Very well done! First off, been a fan, I just don't comment often. I use EDHREC only to check the commander lists when I think of a deck that needs a commander, and not the other way around. I tend to enjoy searching Gatherer or ManaBox for specific cards I plan to use in said deck. Got a little off track there. I wanted to say I started playing Magic in Darksteel, then built my first commander deck in Innistrad (Grimgrin). Your video was mostly spot on with my experiences too. Just I didn't branch out in the same way. I never built a deck that could be considered power 9 or higher. This lead to me getting sandbagged at the local shops in high power games. Still doesn't make me want to build something that optimal. Instead I built 88 decks in all directions! (My goal is 120.) My strength at the table is catching my opponents off guard with decks they've never seen before.

Really liked the stuff on EDHrec, as a guy super new to magic frankly it’s been such a beautiful resource to make decks that still feel like they are mine but aren’t making mistakes either, I still gotta use my brain but I’m not sorting through 20 years of cards to find what works!

At around 20:26 you mention new players analyzing the game after losing to a combo. That exact thing helped me so much when I was a new player. I highly recommend The Spike Feeders series “Better Know a Combo,” especially if you aren’t yet clear on specific Magic rules like priority. It really helps you to understand and recognize combos before they happen, and when is your best point of interaction.

Golos was my brutally efficient deck land evolved from my lands deck. And Jhoira Weatherlight Captain. Both took so long to resolve a turn, and God forbid I get instant speed casting going in either deck.

I played magic back in 2014-2015, but I didn't have people to play with. Then, last summer, a guy I worked with, who is now my best friend, introduced me to the commander. I got sucked in immediately, he added me into his pod, and I've loved it ever since, and even though I started with golgari life strategy; I've changed to enjoy the building aspect of it, I have only 8 color combos I'm missing deck wise. I just love the way different colors interact and the many different ways they do. I think that's what I truly love about magic, how old it is, and the wide range of things it can do.

I’m definitely still in my awe phase! Being a newer player (only been playing for 10 months) to magic and EDH everything is still amazing and new and incredible. Seeing everyone’s commanders I’ve never heard of and the combos and directions people take their decks it’s so fascinating, I just wish I could play more games. I have yet to drop by a LGS and play.

Joey's View on Commander game, Love it🎉

The key to enjoy the game boils down to having decks of all power levels available. My cEDH decks have proxies for the most expensive cards. I have 3 cEDH decks, a high powered one and need to eventually make two more so I can achieve a good balance between competitive and janky fun whenever needed. Great commentary, Joey.

I’ve never really gotten to a point that I de-power decks. I will always try to optimize a deck for what it’s intended to do. The way I have managed to make less powerful decks is by INTENDING to do sillier things. 😂

this is a very enlightening video and helps to frame my own experience. I have a fairly major caviet, though. That caviet is the constant push and pull I have with salt; what makes me salty vs. the other individual members of my playgroup. I don't think I've ever felt before like I found a playgroup that I've well and truly felt completely cohesive with, weather that being the feeling of being outclassed and refusing to put fourth the nesessary money to optimize decks, or trying to go down to more casual level groups and getting focused down even when I am indeed playing absolute jank... and that's the thing; often times, the decks I feel like I have the most fun playing are ones that my friends often consider to be way too powerful, or that the very threat of me feeling comfortable piloting them will get me focused down. I feel it manifested the hardest in my girlfriend, who is extremely anti-combo, and thus she started playing decks that are basically all interaction and stax to avoid getting blown out by some of my more Timmy-ish friends or by the rube goldberg combos or strong synergies I tend to set up with my decks. She loses and gets salty and then quits for months and it's... heartbreaking because I love her and I love magic and at the same time trying to play with her is an incredible killjoy. and yeah, like... I try to play mill, make people salty. I try and play a really jank superfriends deck, make people salty. I play clones, salt. Reanimator, salt. I've even gotten salt thrown at me for playing tribal stuff where i win through combat. Save for... I dunno, maybe trying to put together Group Hug, I don't know what to do. I feel like i can't play the sort of sorts of synergy I like playing without either wandering into a game that's more cutthroat than I'm built to handle, or I get angry glares when I've assembled some sort of 5-card synergy that tips me over the edge of winning. It feels deeply demoralizing.

Very insightful. I use edh rec just to see the many ways ppl build decks i havent thought of an i really just build a giant mix goodie bag of a deck with cards i own already to save money. Ill use some wonky, niche card that i havent thought to use from a casual deck, new cards from some new decks and a mixed blend of synergy thats awesome and always fun to play regardless if win or loss. The magic is all about the gathering baby

Thank you for this insight into deckbuilding ideology- for a while now, and only up until recently did I realize i had this problem, i have been constantly tweaking and tuning my decks with every new set as more and more cards come out to make my decks more and more fine tuned- but your video helped me realize that my decks dont have to be like everyone else’s or follow the latest build for me to enjoy them. Rather, because my collection has come to a critical mass of cards that most of the time, instead of buying singles every other week or so to improve my decks, relying on filling in the gaps and GOALS of what I want out of my decks by supplementing them with stuff i ALREADY HAVE, should be at my priority. Though I dont know what stage i would categorize my growth as a player with these things in mind. In any case, I will certainly be slowing if not halting altogether the constant upgrading and “get into this latest thing” ideology because honestly the constant worrying and really FOMO of new things coming in is draining me and really making my interest in actually playing my decks after building them, falter.

I've always had a rep for doing jank nonsense. I recently drew inspiration from a Mayel the Anima list you guys mentioned back in the day, where the guy had like a base deck and a big stack of different creatures to shuffle in between games. I took it a step further though, I'm using Morophon as the commander, with about 25 changelings, lands and maskwood nexus as the base deck. Then I have a pile of about 200 lords and tribal support effects that I randomly pick from between games. I love the variation it causes and I get to add to the pile continuously as new lords come out

This helped thank you

Definitely feel the reigning back the streamlined nature. I started playing with budget restrictions and limitations just to make things more interesting. Maybe add a companion to reduce options or like my new Lulu deck build with only spare cards I have on hand. I can definitely pinpoint other phases and I can even see my brother is still perfecting streamlining so it may be some time before he us quite where I'm at. Really cool to know that this is a norm rather than just things I flhave found myself doing

I’m a new player, been only playing for a few months. What got me interested in magic (besides having a few friends who have been playing for years) is giant creatures and making them bigger with counters. I soon really enjoyed playing Dinosaur tribal. I joined magic when the lost cavern of ixalan just came out and my first deck was the veloci-ramp-tor precon deck. This deck checked all the boxes that made me interested in the game. It’s interesting to hear that other specific strategies like life gain, and mill decks are what other people enjoy and got them into playing the game initially.

This is a great video, as a newer commander player of less than a year but a long time gamer I do crave the variance you speak of when I play. I purposely build my decks not to win (I am not a competitive person in general) but to enjoy playing them. If I get to play cards and do stuff I am happy whether I win or lose. I also hate playing control players or stax players who prevent a lot of game play. Those are games I do not enjoy. I have found that my decks tend to play in such a way that I get to do a lot of things or depending on how the game goes or who I play my decks do nothing heh which depends a lot on the card draw of that game.

I have been playing Magic since 1995, but started with EDH about 5 years ago. For a while my only deck was a modified Breya precon, and, because it was only deck, I felt like it had to do everything! Combos, combat, equipments for a voltron backup, direct damage, ping effects, reanimation... then I started building other decks that focused on those aspects, and it became kind of a domino effect... Now that I had a Teysa, I could take our the pingers from Breya. Then I build Wyleth, and all Voltron support got removed from Breya... and so on... This helped make each of my decks fell different from the others, and I fell like I have a more fulfilling experience playing them.

20:05 is similar to the mindset of those players who hate blue or counterspells because they are "OP" or "are cheating". Rather than putting themselves in the shoes of the person who is casting the counterspell and acknowledging all of the decision points that the control player has to evaluate with *every spell that is cast*, they are merely expressing their anger for them being denied from doing the thing they were trying to do in that current moment. I think that those who widely dismiss blue as OP or EZ Mode should dip their toe into playing a few counterspells themselves so that they realize just how many decisions those players make on a turn by turn basis. Interaction is healthy for the game, and stack-based interaction is probably the fairest form of interaction the game has to offer.

Ive been playing since Kamigawa, and like u said i took a five year break and came back right when I saw my favorite character come back.

I do not play Magic anymore because in my current location nobody knows about the game.But this video really made me reflect about how much I enjoyed playing with my commander. I opened an Innistrad booster pack on 2011 and got my copy of Geist of Saint Traft! Months later I learned about commander, and Geist was my immediate chosen one for the commander role!!! Initially it was ment for Duel Commander format, sooptimized the deck for that purpose, 1v1 games. My biggest achievement was obtaining a copy of Stone Forge MysticJudge Version on 2016, Geist helped me winning that card at a local Duel Commander Competition... what a memorable and difficult victory! Damn, I miss those years. I have adapted my commander to casual and multiplayer scenarios because I cannot simply imagine myself playing something else xD as silly as it sounds.

I started playing MTG as an aggro player. Boros aggro and Burn/RDW were where I lived back in the day. Then I took a LONG break because the Standard/Type 1 rat-race broke my spirits. A couple years ago, my brother gave me the Galea, Kindler of Hope precon and... I kinda got into it. Over time I turned it into a semi-Voltron deck and that started me on my current Commander obsession. Prosper was my brother's deck of choice and seeing all the shenanigans it could pull off was so interesting to watch. Then, Faldorn came out, and I fell in love with it instantly. It is now, by FAR, my most upgraded and most played deck. Anowon, Mishra, and the Tyrranids have also joined my growing deck collection and I love having so many different decks that play and win so many unique ways.

I've been playing magic and commander for about a year, so I'll put my experience here to see how close it is to your explanation. I started with the game night set 2019 that one of my friends bought. That's how I learned the rules of Magic. My friends quickly started playing commander and I didn't like the format at all. We had drafted forgotten realms and I made an equipment deck from that, but 100 cards was just too overwhelming and the rules were hard. So I started playing arena. This really helped understanding the rules. I started playing standard and historic and I liked it, I especially liked gaining life. So, I bought the Witherbloom Witchcraft precon, played a match and hated it. But the second game, Dina entered the game and she started draining my opponents. I didn't win, but it felt like I did something. So I changed the deck and finally started to like commander. After a while I wanted to try something else, but wasn't comfortable changing colors. I really liked scurry oak, so when I found Chatterfang, it was love at first sight. I really loved the quirkiness of that deck, but I wanted a deck that could win. That's when I build a Niv-Mizzet deck. It was just too strong, so I didn't play it a lot. I really liked building decks and made some more. Then I made it my goal to have a deck in every color combination. I started building budget decks and now after a year, I have 13 commander decks and I just roll a dice. All decks are really different so it's always a surprise. You talk here about putting a lot of tutors in decks. I didn't have a lot of money to put into my decks, so I haven't really used tutors, like ever. I'm currently working on a Bilbo deck that I've put about 200 bucks into. That deck has cards that I would've never thought I'd ever buy a year ago because of the price. You say that some people complain about EDHrec building a deck for you, but for me it really helped finding cards through the thousands of existing ones. Now I still look at it for inspiration, but now I add other interesting cards to the decks. You told about the deck you took apart. I bought the Lathril precon because I loved the colors. But I just didn't like the way it played out. Make elves, make more elves. Have my opponents destroyed the elves? Make more elves. So I also took that one apart. The biggest problem I currently have with commander, is the new cards that release and I want to add to all of my decks. I've absolutely fallen in love with MtG and I'm always in awe how my opponent were able to best me this time. Thanks for the video Joey and may your new decks bring joy to you and your opponents!

For my new Blood Rites deck, I keep sidegrading it and loving every update. A few stronger on theme cards, and a good stuff gets replaced by cards worth a dollar, that fit the conquistador theme.

Love these kinds of episodes! I am at a stage that I want to try ao many things but I can't because I don't have much time and if I have the people of my playgroup don't xD Already looked on the Internet for single player EDH xD

Shalai is myq very first commander. I fell in love with the protection it granted to the rest of my board and to me. A true guardian angel if you will😅. Yet, the deck has evolved since I first built it. It's been Tokens, +1+1 Counters, Stompy, Elves, Saproolings and currently its an Enchantments, Tokens deck that is able to use the mana to get Shalais ability the range so she pumps up my entire team. I hadn't brought it to locals for about a year and when I did, It won me the game against the whole table. I think it's not only cuz I know the deck very well, but I understood the capability and range of things it could do better than my opponents. It survived several board wipes and resets. Everyone was excited and congratulated me for piloting it so flawlessly. I was very proud of it. Even though I don't use it as often, it's definitely one of my favourite decks and I'll never get rid of her as the Commander

I won a pod tonight, all playing high power tribal decks and i was playing mono red mill,suuuuuuper fun game

There is a card I pulled from a chaos draft the other day that I am wanting to brew a deck around because it just sounds fun. I am also working on optimizing a curb stomp life drain deck at the same time. The card is flick a coin. it is a low power instant the just does 1 damage to a player. The art on the card is someone flicking a coin like a paper football. It would not be a powerful deck but now I'm on the lookout for more cards that bring that same same cheeky fun energy to the table. I have only been playing commander for two months but I am already seeing this cycle. When my friend group gets together to play we play the game of pick a deck box and that is what we will play for that round. after that the deck gets put to the side and we play something else. it is a good way to have variance when you have several decks, and they only get played once a night.

I feel like a stage I experienced was when I first started I was trying to find a specific play style I liked the most. At first I thought my thing was tribal decks, started with Eldrazi, then mutate, dragons, sliver,etc until I realized the thing I REALLY was enjoying wasnt the big creatures and tribes but the combos that were woven into each so I started trying different combo decks but still didnt really get what i was looking for, finally I hit a combo deck that won off a gravecrawler combo which is when I finally found my style was reanimator. While I do dabble in other stuff almost everything I build has some amount of reanimate in it whether as a wincon, added resilience, or something else that makes it work, reanimate is by far my favorite way to play magic

My favorite but by far not most powerful deck in my arsenal is Sefris as a dungeon crawler deck. Admittedly it can potentially lead to long turns but all the different routes you can take this to maximize the value of dungeons is hella fun

To your point of people taking breaks from Magic then playing it again, I took a 10 year long hiatus from Magic: the Gathering then started playing again somewhat recently. My dad stopped playing in the 90s around the time Fourth Edition was released and recently got back into the game via Magic: the Gathering Arena, both of my friends who I grew up with who played the game when we were kids got back into the game recently

i never thought i would get burnt out on green ramp and searching my library, that really changed my decks

Incredible content, which is no surprise. Something I’ve started taking a liking to is creating my own custom commanders to scratch my “uniqueness” itch. One custom card, 99 mtg ogs. If other players don’t like it, I’m happy to grab another deck. Though it seems the majority are intrigued by and enjoy playing against something new.

I very much feel the need for variance and uniqueness. It's why I decided I would build a commander deck for every colour combination. When I go out, I pick up a few decks at random and I choose what to play based on what gets pulled out. It helps that my decks are generally pretty close in power level, with one or two exceptions. And then they are played one time for the evening and go away - my playgroups, at least, are comfortable with this.

My evolution has definitely gone towards lower cmc, more ramp, more draw. This is something every creator talks about, but that i kind of ignored. I was still hitting quotas of like 10 each, but you just don't always realize how much you need until you play or test more. It's not really even about optimization and trying to make my decks as powerful as possible. Early on I just would fall in love with all the big haymakers and had trouble cutting the sweet bombs that went with a particular commander. What I found is that I rarely got to actually do the thing. Playing and testing more helped me realize what cards got stuck in my hand that I thought would be awesome. I end up cutting those to add more veggies (hopefully synergistic and not just staples) that make the deck really do what I want.

I traversed all colors and the absense of all colors in my 25 years of playing magic.. xD I love every color and strategy but there is one keyword which always will get me excited when playing Magic which is "Flash" I ended up building a Kyodai 5 color Flash EDH and that deck is always special for me to play! :)

7:15- 7:41 THIS is so true. People need to take the time to ask themselves WHY they built the deck that way and less time just acting superior with the, ''Oh your playing that colour why don't you add this?'' I am here to play a game have fun and maybe win. I have played EDH since it started and CEDH also and have reached a conclusion that CEDH should be considered it's own format especially now a days with how big the format is. I love EDHREC, I always get ideas. Shout out to FBLTHP the Lost my favorite commander :P

My husband introduced me to Magic almost two months ago, and it was Commander specifically. I'm very new to the game, but I've already learned a few things such as I'd never want to play a deck that's too oppressive to other players, nor would I enjoy playing against one. One deck I have, the Hakbal merfolk deck from the Ixalan precon set, is a little too linear of a play style for me, so I want to tweak it a bit to be a bit more playful, so to speak. Right now I think I'll be happiest playing and playing against power levels between 5-7. I define that as casual (5) to a more streamlined deck, which I'd categorize precons like the Hakbal deck (7) to be. Commander is challenging, like solving a bunch of mini puzzles, but I find it fun. I'm looking forward to trying out different play styles to see which I enjoy the most. =)

My all time favorite deck I've built is King Macar. I've only ever seen 1 other player with the commander in the wild and very few videos on him. On top of all of that none have been exactly the same or like how I built it. I definitely skewed more towards the optimized side but it's the first deck that I felt proud of, that it was MY deck

I really liked this. My last deck is in that "Totally Novel" category. Its a Lands deck with a total of 4 creatures that I wish where enchantments cause rule zero I say "If I attack with my creatures cards I forfeit". I win with attacking with lands or a wincon on the lands. The rest of the deck just gets lands into play or untaps lands or turns lands into creatures etc. It really hit the spot cause I desperately needed something new.

I would love to play a game with you sometime. you just seem so down to earth and accepting of all stages of magic players. I’m relatively new and only recently started playing at my LGS😅 it’s funny when I go there and play people who have seen my deck a thousand times before bc they’re a long time vet

For me MTG Commander is a circle, every now and than i go back to the beginning... i played surrak dragonclaw 6 years ago and last week i built him again. just love him =)

I often build decks around a play experience. This means I end up with decks that are pretty pushed, featuring both powerful cards in the 99 and an impactful Commander, but other decks are 99 driven and feature plenty of jank. Some decks feature lots of fancy versions and lots of old cards, but I also have decks that I just dumped all the best pieces for a simic landfall combo deck (it's 45 lands and a bunch of combo pieces, winning anywhere from turn 3 on a lucky draw to turn 30-something when I refuse to draw any variations of a certain piece), each of my decks (to an extent) provides it's own experience. At this point I include Vorthos/RP elements, it's a different game when your deck has that type of cohesion, it's a lot more fun to play a deck that has a theme going on. At this point I think it'll bother me if I don't have some RP stuff in a deck. Power Creep has been intense since War of the Spark, but I do agree that WotC has made an effort to support niche strategies much more than previously, and many of the more niche cards don't spike especially hard (One with the Kami is a great card in certain decks, but nobody uses it), but I wouldn't say WotC has stopped printing stupidly pushed stuff, ymmv. I also agree that the niche emphasis has allowed for lots of unique decks that feature high synergy cards (by EDHREC's definition), and this is a good thing. I think at this point power level discussion need to be standardized (and them happening should be a given), but that's not a new thing. I feel like there are tons of incredibly pushed Commanders that have come out in just the last few years, it's become harder to run actively slept on stuff if WotC hasn't supported your strategy. I think people are getting closer to being able to evaluate a deck list with a program that will give useful feedback, the challenge is programming in literally endless synergies. Maybe someday Magic players will make their own crowd source program like that, but it really sounds like a job for AI (if that ever starts doing things others than bad collages).

I am one of those return players and its been great! I (36/M) used to play in middle and high school, after like 20 years I came back and the game is quite a bit more fun with adult money to back it...

I’ve been through those stages in a very short time. I’ve been playing EDH for about a year (used to play standard) and I’m on my 6th deck, and I just found the one that makes the experience consistently amazing for me. Tasha, the Witch Queen centered around spell theft is so much fun, it scales to the power level of the table real well, it never plays the same way, even against the same decks, it remains entertaining and interactive, and never is the pubstomper due to its nature. The hard thing is that the natural thought when you find a perfect deck is to… optimize it! And that’s the struggle I’m dealing with, I want to tinker with it, make it do it’s thing better when I get some leeway to spend on mtg, but doing so would ruin the whole thing… it’s the casual pet deck paradox.

I used to, and maybe will again... had a bunch of decks that I would use the similar strategy in, but it was essentially a 20 side board for those decks. It would transform the decks. An example would be my Yuriko ninja deck, would be quite optimized and strong. But swapping out the commander and 19 other cards, I spliced in red and had Sakashima and Vail Smasher, for a more random burn damage deck. I took out all the evasive ninjas and just added in a bunch of clone effects. So if I won my game with Yuriko, and scratched that itch, I'd then swap him out to the more fun version for the rest of the night. And I did the same with a bunch of other commanders.

I went towards cedh and stayed mostly with that. People are just much more friendly on average. The worst early realization was, that I could not fetch my Brainstorm cards away while keeping my Manadrain up. I just had to have og duals afterwards.

When I first found edhrec, it was great because I found so many new cards and synergies I never knew about. Then I started to use it almost exclusively and go only with the most optimal cards, and if I didn't have a bunch of the staples, I wouldn't build the deck, and it started to get demoralizing because I wanted so many decks but I was like "it'll be suboptimal unless I spend $300 so why even do it," And I burned out on it and my decks. After a while, I decided to just start throwing decks together with my cards, and now I use edhrec to get a few ideas, but I purposefully leave out a lot of the staples and ultra powerful cards when I build decks now, and the game is feeling fun and fresh again. I just got the Fae Dominion precon and put in a few budget upgrades, the most expensive one being Bitterblossom (because it's faeries and if you don't have Bitterblossom what are you even doing) but I didn't put in any of the crazy blue counters or rhystic study or anything like that, and this deck is fun and exciting to play, and it fits nicely into my deck box beside my cEDH Selvala deck and my ultra janky group hug deck.

I just started playing magic 1 year ago. The first deck i built was an ur dragon deck. The next deck was a ghired populate/token deck. After that i built a liesa angel/aristocrat deck. I currently have 10 custom decks that do different things for the most part. Its fun and i pick a different deck to play depending on how i feel that day

I only got into commander this year, it was pretty difficult to set up a deck out of the cards I'd collected. Eventually I started picking up clearance precons because I work at Walmart and they were only just above 30$ while newer precons start at 50$+ Since getting into commander i now have 5 precons 4 of them edited, a white/red home made commander and my black red blue pirate commander. One of the 4 edited commander's shares a 13 card sideboard with my white/red commander, not exactly a sideboard as most know them, its more like 13 white theme cards that fit both decks well.

Not sure if my experience is part of the loop of not, but my entirely anecdotal and unverified addition to this loop would be that after multiple burnout phases over the course of playing commander for more than 10 years now many of my friends that play magic have also found other more permanent game hobbies that we all tend to enjoy and utilize to break up the commander experience. We've universally started to enjoy the craterhoofs, infinite turns and mill out combos more even if we've done them 100 times when game nights only occasionally include magic. There was a moment for most of the people I've played with where the realization that magic was taking up too much time and becoming too much the center of our hobby hours. This was something that was truly liberating but I do feel like it is part of the loop described in the videos and interest in the game itself waxes and wanes throughout the course of it's play.

1: just summon big creatures to hit people with. 2: tune your decks to as powerful as they can be, try to combo out. 3: summon big creatures to hit people with.

I agree with Joey for the most part, only I dont mind so much for uniek decks that not a lot of people have but do care that my deck is versatile and a bit difficult to pilot. I would never build a Zacama or Koma deck. I would put them in the 99 as a finisher but as a commander they are way to easy to build arround. That is also why I dont use a lot of tutors. I want my decks to preform different every time. But that also got me hooked on deck building.

When I started playing I built Rafiq of the many because shards was the set I started playing. Then I built zegana and played very control heavy decks. Now, years later, I play a lot of different combat based decks. I don't even run a lot of counter spells anymore.

Super cool video! An infography would have been perfect for it :)

Another thing I noticed: When you are at 20+ Decks and you have a little less free time as you had before, then Decks that are one-trick-ponies aren't a Dealbreaker anymore, because you only expect to play it once a month anyway and when you actually do play it, then you want it to do its thing. ^^

My favorite commander deck is my Yawgmoth Thran Physician/27 shadowborn apostle deck. Just wanted to tell someone. Playing a card like shadowborn apostle that completely breaks the rules is just so fun for me for some reason.

On your Baby Lasagna love, finding your signature decks is so lovely. My most played deck would be my Delina, Wild Mage deck, she’s a wild time whose gameplan feels unique every single time. It’s a self board warping cascade deck, it’s a devotion deck, it’s an anti-typal descendant’s fury deck, it’s a chaos deck, she does so much yet I don’t run infinites cause I wanna win in silly ways like flickering things with Changeling Berserker of all things. I’m so happy with how she plays, she doesn’t run the top tier cards and stereotypical best red cards, she’s casual fun in the best way, and I hope many people get to find their beloved decks that just fill them with joy, something that feels like your own, yknow? Lil ramble but ye:)

My current favorite deck is my Grist deck which has gone through many iterations. First it was full insects even the mid ones, then it tried to become a burn deck through Grist itself, but now its become a weird mix of a lot strategies. Except +1+1 effects, I find that win con route to be boring. Even the way Ive used Grist has changed throughout the journey. First I kept using the stronger ability which allowed me to destroy creatures but now I love being peaceful and just growing my bug army with its other abilities.

great content, as always. I just missed one specific feeling that pops up now and then at my "commander wheel": the FOMO with lots of new cards showing up every single month. Sometimes life gets messier and you need to focus your attention forgetting your hobbies and then, when you come back, there's a thousand new cards that you've missed and your playgroup haven't. So you feel a little bit behind and overwhelmed - like playing commander has also become a hard chore that consumes your time to keep up. does anybody feel the same?

I love two color combinations and my goal is to build one edh deck for each guild and each with a different strategy, so far I have completed 8 and this allows me to reach out for a specific strategy I want to play depending on my mood and also allows me to play different cards in each deck so that they do not feel samey and I have always a variety in choice that keeps me interested in the decks and games and upgrade them as sets come out. Now I am only missing my Gruul and my Izzet decks as I have yet to find a commander in these colors that really speaks to me