My general build-process looks something like this:
1. Decide on deck concept/commander: For example, let's say I decided to build a dino-tribal deck with Gishath as the commander.
2. Find cards for the theme using gatherer: Using the previous example, this is where I'd look on gatherer for all dino cards ever printed, and pick the ones I like for the deck.
3. Include the staples that I'm aware of: Using the previous example again, this is where I throw the green ramp staples, sol ring, blasphemous act and some generic tribal support cards in the deck.
4. build a mana-base
5. Check EDHrec for stuff I missed: At this point in the process I generally have 2-6 card slots left open. I haven't played magic for that long, so i don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the cards, so having a resource like EDHrec to check my deck with and see if there's anything really useful I missed is very helpful. In this dino deck example, EDHrec helped me find congregation at dawn, a card that works really well with Gishath and that i didn't know existed.
so tl;dr I use online resources, but generally only during the final steps of my deck creation process to help with filling the last couple of slots with stuff I like, but didn't know existed.
older more experienced players will feast on you if you don't have an in-depth knowledge of mechanics, interactions and meta. I personally love hosing netdeckers with my homebrew decks designed to take advantage of them. I'm not alone!
@OP, you should definitely ignore any comments of derision about 'net-decking' or whatever. There is no best way to build a deck for a casual variant like commander, and most people don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of every card ever printed, so using online sources for example decks and card recommendations to help you find cards that work for your deck that you never even knew existed without those sources is perfectly fine.
@OP
Despite the obvious emotional backlash to the facts I present, it would be bad advice to not acknowledge the reality of the aspects I mentioned in the EDH format, namely meta.
Meta not only relates to card selection but the mentality around their use
So regardless of the emotional reaction my statement of fact has provoked, to disregard the notion that older players will pick up on netdecking new players, and to not try to gain a better understanding of your card selection to avoid this scenario (aka to have a better playing experience) - is bad advice.
Ultimately, we all do as we please and hopefully you have some fun
The reason for my 'emotional reaction' is that I really, really dislike gate-keeping, and that's what you seem to be doing. But maybe I'm completely reading your post wrong. How would you recommend a new player builds a deck that can allow them to stand up to the older players that don't need online sources?
older more experienced players will feast on you if you don't have an in-depth knowledge of mechanics, interactions and meta. I personally love hosing netdeckers with my homebrew decks designed to take advantage of them. I'm not alone!
How is this relevant to net-decking though? Someone that knows the mechanics and ins-and-outs of the game will do better than someone who doesn't, both because they know the game better to make good plays, and because they know how to make a really good deck. Someone that decides to pick their cards from gatherer based on what looks fun won't magically make a better deck then someone who decides to head over to edhrec to see what worked for other people. Someone that reads through a primer on this forum and copies or mostly copies a deck here will probably do signifcantly better than either of the previous examples(and will probably play on a fairly even footing with someone that totally homegrew their decks by only opening packs and never even looking at the internet and used their elite knowledge and thousand of hours of playtesting to tune their deck), because they'll most likely have a fairly good understanding of their deck, even though it'd still be 'net-decking'.
@OP, you should definitely ignore any comments of derision about 'net-decking' or whatever. There is no best way to build a deck for a casual variant like commander, and most people don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of every card ever printed, so using online sources for example decks and card recommendations to help you find cards that work for your deck that you never even knew existed without those sources is perfectly fine.
as for the anti-advertisement rules, I am specifically asking for brand names and such. It would not be UN-solicited. Of course if you WORKed for such a company I would like that to be disclosed
Fair enough. I personally use ultra pro's deckbox pro 100+ (the ones with art-work because it makes it easier to remember what is in which box), and they work just fine when I double-sleeve my decks. They don't generally have much extra wiggle-room beyond that, (5-6 unsleeved tokens, generally), so maybe sleeve-type matters if these don't work for you?
Can I mention the exact brand and type of box I use on the forums, or would that fall under anti-advertisement rules?
Either way, I suggest looking for boxes that are specifically being marketed for 100+ cards. Chances are that those can hold 100 cards double-sleeved, with the '+' coming into play if you don't double-sleeve.
This is not entirely accurate. If you manage to untap the creature you used to pay a crew cost, you can then use it to pay the crew cost on another vehicle. For example, if you tap hateflayer to crew a vehicle, and then use it's untap ability you could then use it to pay another crew cost.
I'd probably play Boldwyr intimidator. It might cost a lot to play, and doesn't have a particularly good color identity for commander, but it's a pure flavor win
I mean, as long as you're not playing humans, the halberd is strictly better? It can be reattached if the creature holding it dies, albeit at a rather high cost.
Though it might be less flashy than the others, I think this one might actually see more actual use in mono-green or two-color decks because its ability is applicable in far more situations. If you want to play creatures are activate abilities on creatures for at least 6 mana, this one will get tapped for its special mode.
The other members of this cycle will mostly see use as a mana sink when you have nothing better to do with your mana. That is still a useful niche, of course, but it means that this card will more often do more than a basic land then the other members of the cycle.
Regarding green land-ramp tutors - I strongly feel that land-ramp focused decks tend to dominate most non-competitive tables. It's really kind of sad of just how little hate and negative attention this gets. The sheer volume of landramp tutors that cheat extra permenants in to play is insane compared to what other tutors do. Lands tending to be the hardest to deal with card in the game, and if you happen to run MLD you may be classified as a terrible person.
Mass land-ramp decks tend to plaque casual tables and green/blue/x casual ramp decks are, imo, the worst. I have a typical ramp bant deck and it feels like every win was never deserved. I honestly feel that they are the catalyst for most issues in the format. To answer a deck that can consistently put 8 lands into play around turn 5 to 6, you have to make a quicker deck full of fast mana (which people complain about), and a fast combo win (which people complain about), and the tutors to get these parts (which people complain about).
That's not really my experience in my local meta. There are a couple of fairly fast-ramping decks, but there's also a bunch of non-ramp decks. One player mostly plays control decks, another one has a mono-black deck, and neither of these players tend to be out-performed by those that do bring ramping decks to the table, and they don't run fast-combo wins or anything like that.
I like these lands. It seems like they should be in pretty much every EDH deck that shares the color.
Maybe not in 4-5 colour manabases as those are often light on basics (and their bonus isn't good enough IMHO to be worth coming into play tapped), but I'd definitely run these in all mono, two and three color decks if they aren't too expensive.
Hmmm, interesting tool for a mill deck. Donate it to your opponent once it has some counters, then proliferate and double them to the point that they have to draw more than their deck allows.
I mean, this is completely impractical as a win-con, but imagine the look on their face if you pull it off
1. Decide on deck concept/commander: For example, let's say I decided to build a dino-tribal deck with Gishath as the commander.
2. Find cards for the theme using gatherer: Using the previous example, this is where I'd look on gatherer for all dino cards ever printed, and pick the ones I like for the deck.
3. Include the staples that I'm aware of: Using the previous example again, this is where I throw the green ramp staples, sol ring, blasphemous act and some generic tribal support cards in the deck.
4. build a mana-base
5. Check EDHrec for stuff I missed: At this point in the process I generally have 2-6 card slots left open. I haven't played magic for that long, so i don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the cards, so having a resource like EDHrec to check my deck with and see if there's anything really useful I missed is very helpful. In this dino deck example, EDHrec helped me find congregation at dawn, a card that works really well with Gishath and that i didn't know existed.
so tl;dr I use online resources, but generally only during the final steps of my deck creation process to help with filling the last couple of slots with stuff I like, but didn't know existed.
The reason for my 'emotional reaction' is that I really, really dislike gate-keeping, and that's what you seem to be doing. But maybe I'm completely reading your post wrong. How would you recommend a new player builds a deck that can allow them to stand up to the older players that don't need online sources?
How is this relevant to net-decking though? Someone that knows the mechanics and ins-and-outs of the game will do better than someone who doesn't, both because they know the game better to make good plays, and because they know how to make a really good deck. Someone that decides to pick their cards from gatherer based on what looks fun won't magically make a better deck then someone who decides to head over to edhrec to see what worked for other people. Someone that reads through a primer on this forum and copies or mostly copies a deck here will probably do signifcantly better than either of the previous examples(and will probably play on a fairly even footing with someone that totally homegrew their decks by only opening packs and never even looking at the internet and used their elite knowledge and thousand of hours of playtesting to tune their deck), because they'll most likely have a fairly good understanding of their deck, even though it'd still be 'net-decking'.
@OP, you should definitely ignore any comments of derision about 'net-decking' or whatever. There is no best way to build a deck for a casual variant like commander, and most people don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of every card ever printed, so using online sources for example decks and card recommendations to help you find cards that work for your deck that you never even knew existed without those sources is perfectly fine.
Fair enough. I personally use ultra pro's deckbox pro 100+ (the ones with art-work because it makes it easier to remember what is in which box), and they work just fine when I double-sleeve my decks. They don't generally have much extra wiggle-room beyond that, (5-6 unsleeved tokens, generally), so maybe sleeve-type matters if these don't work for you?
Either way, I suggest looking for boxes that are specifically being marketed for 100+ cards. Chances are that those can hold 100 cards double-sleeved, with the '+' coming into play if you don't double-sleeve.
This is not entirely accurate. If you manage to untap the creature you used to pay a crew cost, you can then use it to pay the crew cost on another vehicle. For example, if you tap hateflayer to crew a vehicle, and then use it's untap ability you could then use it to pay another crew cost.
I mean, as long as you're not playing humans, the halberd is strictly better? It can be reattached if the creature holding it dies, albeit at a rather high cost.
The other members of this cycle will mostly see use as a mana sink when you have nothing better to do with your mana. That is still a useful niche, of course, but it means that this card will more often do more than a basic land then the other members of the cycle.
That's not really my experience in my local meta. There are a couple of fairly fast-ramping decks, but there's also a bunch of non-ramp decks. One player mostly plays control decks, another one has a mono-black deck, and neither of these players tend to be out-performed by those that do bring ramping decks to the table, and they don't run fast-combo wins or anything like that.
Maybe not in 4-5 colour manabases as those are often light on basics (and their bonus isn't good enough IMHO to be worth coming into play tapped), but I'd definitely run these in all mono, two and three color decks if they aren't too expensive.
I mean, this is completely impractical as a win-con, but imagine the look on their face if you pull it off