The simplest path between two points is a straight line, and as such to that end, the answer is simply to build a better deck, and learn to improve your own abilities. Learning comes with time, I suggest rather than obsessing over the L, to simply make the L work for you. A loss doesn't feel like a loss if you learn something, no? Because learning is the single greatest thing we can do in a given day - Magic related or otherwise.
Please enjoy our latest video. It's the inaugural episode of a podcast-styled series called, Deep Discussions: Kaalia of the Vast. I join up with The Tryhards to do a Kaalia focus discussion. This first episode is on the common pitfalls experienced by new players to the commander, with an aim for a weekly release. Enjoy!
So far, we have been playing with the commander life-wheels and used D20 to signal commander damage - while command tax was usually displayed by a d6. Now I'd like to upgrade our life/ tax / poison / storm / and so on counting to a tablet - but I realized our tablet is too old. Now, before I put the effort in researching tablets to go with the mtg life counter app - maybe someone can suggest something?
- Big Screen
- Long Battery life
- Fast enough to run the app
- Reasonable priced
- Whatever I forgot.
Onn branded (a Walmart in house brand) has a 8in tab for ~$59 and a 10.1 in for $79. There's also a 7in version of these running AndroidGO (a slimmed reskin of the Android OS for function, with slightly worse specs) for $40 if you can find it. Check your local stores for listings as not all Walmarts carry the same products on the floor. These tabs last ~5.5hrs (the 7in one lasting about 4hrs), which is more than enough for a game or two of commander. Otherwise they do come with an AC adapter you can plug into the wall.
If you have some kind of aversion to Walmart's unbranded electronics, you can also look into LG and Samsung, these are starting at $149 and are going up - Samsung's top tablet model for the current year, which to it's credit is boasting stats and hardware at least equal to, and in some cases greater than - Chromebook laptops. These top models, with all the bells and whistles, are running you just above $300 out the door.
Lastly, if you have a flagship phone (mine is an s8+ I got on launch day) those typically have good, long lasting battery life. I use MTG Tracker on mine, and it is a beautiful interface with no ads, and has paid functionality (I don't use it, but others might care for those services). This you can find on the Google Play Store, though I don't have any idea if it's on the App Store because I refuse to use any iOS products. If you have an aversion to Google products, then instead of the Play Store, you can find MTG Familiar on the F-Droid repo, which is a fully free and open source program and is a great life tracker app. Being open source and free of course, means there's never any intrusions or awful screen covering ads, or developers trying to shill their patreons or whatever at you.
starting at 100% battery, it should last several hours, especially if you have the brightness down and airplane mode on so it's not wasting battery sending and receiving wifi and roaming signals.
Oof, this is great advice. We forget just how frequently devices are phoning home and constantly searching for wifi, airplane mode is a terrific suggestion to preserve battery life. And also a great way to not get distracted with any obnoxious interruptions in random texts or discord servers during your game. Quality.
So I made a update to the main list and primer as a whole today. Not sure it belongs here, since it switches the deck to multiplayer now that no one plays 1v1 commander as it's a busted and horribly unbalanced format.
i thought this was about people like me that activate crypt rats or similar 0 cost abilities in the middle of someone's combo to maybe make them misclick..................................
I think they have created a new reserve list on these cards. Have you seen the prices of these cards after they were banned? Some of them are reserve list before, but Crusade has shot up.
Which really makes no sense now that the cards are not legal anywhere. You can't even purchase them on retailers such as TCGPlayer. You can't play them in any format. Even if you wanted crusade, you'd obviously play Honor of the Pure nowadays as it's strictly better. Glorious Anthem for the second copy of the effect...
Like, if people want to scoop these up to "spec" on them, it's their money...seems like a shaky investment, for overall low RoR - just go to Vanguard and dive into some low-cost index funds ffs, if that's really your end game. Or buy into other RL cards that will have demand.
1) companion cards come from the command zone, which is a defined zone inside the game. This goes to whomever is trying to argue this mechanic is like a wish or somehow out of the game. You're simply not correct. Stop.
They don't come from the command zone, unless they are your commander. You cast them from your sideboard or from your collection.
None of these rulings mention the Command Zone for companions. Where did you get this idea?
That's only in constructed formats. Commander doesn't follow all these rules, and if it were to not grand companion to commander decks, Sheldon and the RC would have said otherwise by now, rather than banning one card. Pretty basic stuff.
1) companion cards come from the command zone, which is a defined zone inside the game. This goes to whomever is trying to argue this mechanic is like a wish or somehow out of the game. You're simply not correct. Stop.
2) I sure would love to be able to cast Burning Wish in commander with a wishboard. That'd be fantastic. But I also understand it's not going to change officially. Wishing otherwise is pointless.
So I did a little thing in a similar vein to that of the white border Kaalia. I theorized the deck in a pre-modern time and built from there. There's some more info about the thought process in the link that follows. Hope everyone finds it as interesting as I did putting it together.
It actually, is, yes. I came across it in the Kaalia discord. I'm still theory crafting it in a wishclaw talisman brew with Gerrard/2nd Sunrise and shallow graves. Welders and memory jars of course.
It's spicy. But a bit overwhelming, so I'm taking my time before I introduce it to the primer.
So over the past week and a half, I've stumbled onto a breakthrough with this commander that brings her up to the cDH levels, no it's not STAX or prison. It's combo, and it revolves around Razaketh, the Foulblooded...
Some day I'm going to get around to combining this primer with my Zenith Kaalia primer to make this a total hub for all things Kaalia in general. Idk if this is something that carries any real genuine interest though in this era of social media killing traditional forums.
Kaalia is where I see this shining most, but I don't think it's good enough at the seven slot. He already has double strike, so on the one trigger he's only buffing Kaalia, which isn't enough...but if you have one other angel, demon, or dragon out, consistently when you drop this, that just might push it over the edge.
Interestingly, I think this thing's value is in a blink shell. Ironically, new Kaalia comes to mind since you have Astral Slide to repeat it, and Heartless Summoning to cheat it faster...
a lot of the more busted cards that have become staples in every single deck of whatever color(s) were designed with edh in mind. it turned the format into a nuclear arms race and i think thats actually where the problem lies as a whole. why its shifted so heavily away from battlecruiser style magic.
Imagine thinking an eternal format where games are determined by mana superiority instead of any other type of metric wasn't already doomed to become an arms race. It's always been this way, you just never realized it.
personally, i do really miss the days where nothing was designed with commander in mind. where we had to scour databases and collections to find neat synergies and old cards rather than just shove whatever new hotness from whatever new set into every deck.
Times change, formats evolve for the times, stop being a hipster and listen to the words of one Paul Levesque;
"In life, really, you have only two choices. To adapt...or perish."
The real problem with EDH / Commander lies in players essentially running "playsets" of functionally identical cards in their decks to where they greatly minimize their chances of drawing bad cards whether it's through deck thinning or from search abilities. The Singleton aspect of the format is really just an illusion to get players thinking that the odds of someone at the table being able to combo off on turn 5 or earlier isn't likely when it actually is. When it does happen someone at the table is likely to get salty about it unless the pod proceeds to scoop phase. This is a part of the reason why Fetchlands became a problem in Standard and Modern because they made mana bases far too consistent in combination with the Shocklands.
Man, get the hell outta here with this "blame fetchlands" bull*****. This isn't 1996 anymore, we're not fixing our mana with painlands and city of brass. And shaming the use of functional reprints? Why? Like we should be jamming rend flesh and devour in shadow as go to removals a near decade latre, times have to change to keep players invested. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking how blessed I am that I'm given more powerful cards to play so I have to put fewer questionable cards in my decks. I can't with this idea, what the hell. If you want to live in the nostalgia days, go build a white border deck. I know I have - and it's still consistent enough, if you know where to look.
https://youtu.be/CJMLeE3loW0
Onn branded (a Walmart in house brand) has a 8in tab for ~$59 and a 10.1 in for $79. There's also a 7in version of these running AndroidGO (a slimmed reskin of the Android OS for function, with slightly worse specs) for $40 if you can find it. Check your local stores for listings as not all Walmarts carry the same products on the floor. These tabs last ~5.5hrs (the 7in one lasting about 4hrs), which is more than enough for a game or two of commander. Otherwise they do come with an AC adapter you can plug into the wall.
If you have some kind of aversion to Walmart's unbranded electronics, you can also look into LG and Samsung, these are starting at $149 and are going up - Samsung's top tablet model for the current year, which to it's credit is boasting stats and hardware at least equal to, and in some cases greater than - Chromebook laptops. These top models, with all the bells and whistles, are running you just above $300 out the door.
Lastly, if you have a flagship phone (mine is an s8+ I got on launch day) those typically have good, long lasting battery life. I use MTG Tracker on mine, and it is a beautiful interface with no ads, and has paid functionality (I don't use it, but others might care for those services). This you can find on the Google Play Store, though I don't have any idea if it's on the App Store because I refuse to use any iOS products. If you have an aversion to Google products, then instead of the Play Store, you can find MTG Familiar on the F-Droid repo, which is a fully free and open source program and is a great life tracker app. Being open source and free of course, means there's never any intrusions or awful screen covering ads, or developers trying to shill their patreons or whatever at you.
Oof, this is great advice. We forget just how frequently devices are phoning home and constantly searching for wifi, airplane mode is a terrific suggestion to preserve battery life. And also a great way to not get distracted with any obnoxious interruptions in random texts or discord servers during your game. Quality.
Which really makes no sense now that the cards are not legal anywhere. You can't even purchase them on retailers such as TCGPlayer. You can't play them in any format. Even if you wanted crusade, you'd obviously play Honor of the Pure nowadays as it's strictly better. Glorious Anthem for the second copy of the effect...
Like, if people want to scoop these up to "spec" on them, it's their money...seems like a shaky investment, for overall low RoR - just go to Vanguard and dive into some low-cost index funds ffs, if that's really your end game. Or buy into other RL cards that will have demand.
That's only in constructed formats. Commander doesn't follow all these rules, and if it were to not grand companion to commander decks, Sheldon and the RC would have said otherwise by now, rather than banning one card. Pretty basic stuff.
1) companion cards come from the command zone, which is a defined zone inside the game. This goes to whomever is trying to argue this mechanic is like a wish or somehow out of the game. You're simply not correct. Stop.
2) I sure would love to be able to cast Burning Wish in commander with a wishboard. That'd be fantastic. But I also understand it's not going to change officially. Wishing otherwise is pointless.
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-vast-pre-modern/
I liked it, honestly. And it also doesn't sting to get countered like cathartic does.
1x Arid Mesa
1x Badlands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Canyon Slough
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Flooded Strand
1x Gemstone Caverns
1x Glimmervoid
1x Godless Shrine
1x Great Furnace
1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
1x Marsh Flats
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Plateau
1x Polluted Delta
1x Prismatic Vista
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Scrubland
1x Smoldering Marsh
1x Snow-Covered Mountain
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Spire of Industry
1x Strip Mine
1x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Aurelia's Fury
1x Corpse Dance
1x Dismember
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Fire Covenant
1x Flame Sweep
1x Insidious Dreams
1x Orim's Chant
1x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Second Sunrise
1x Shallow Grave
1x Silence
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Thrill of Possibility
1x Through the Breach
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Cut / Ribbons
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Grim Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
1x Kuldotha Rebirth
1x Night's Whisper
1x Ransack the Lab
1x Sevinne's Reclamation
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Animate Dead
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Land TaxIT
1x Necromancy
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Sneak Attack
1x Underworld Breach
1x Kaalia of the Vast
1x Angel of Despair
1x Bogardan Hellkite
1x Demonlord Belzenlok
1x Dockside Extortionist
1x Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero
1x Goblin Welder
1x Grand Abolisher
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Shivan Hellkite
1x Simian Spirit Guide
1x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Arcane Signet
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Sol Ring
1x Talisman of Conviction
1x Talisman of Hierarchy
1x Talisman of Indulgence
1x Wishclaw Talisman
Deckstats: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-vast-cdh/
It's spicy. But a bit overwhelming, so I'm taking my time before I introduce it to the primer.
Kaalia is where I see this shining most, but I don't think it's good enough at the seven slot. He already has double strike, so on the one trigger he's only buffing Kaalia, which isn't enough...but if you have one other angel, demon, or dragon out, consistently when you drop this, that just might push it over the edge.
Interestingly, I think this thing's value is in a blink shell. Ironically, new Kaalia comes to mind since you have Astral Slide to repeat it, and Heartless Summoning to cheat it faster...
Imagine thinking an eternal format where games are determined by mana superiority instead of any other type of metric wasn't already doomed to become an arms race. It's always been this way, you just never realized it.
Times change, formats evolve for the times, stop being a hipster and listen to the words of one Paul Levesque;
"In life, really, you have only two choices. To adapt...or perish."
Man, get the hell outta here with this "blame fetchlands" bull*****. This isn't 1996 anymore, we're not fixing our mana with painlands and city of brass. And shaming the use of functional reprints? Why? Like we should be jamming rend flesh and devour in shadow as go to removals a near decade latre, times have to change to keep players invested. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking how blessed I am that I'm given more powerful cards to play so I have to put fewer questionable cards in my decks. I can't with this idea, what the hell. If you want to live in the nostalgia days, go build a white border deck. I know I have - and it's still consistent enough, if you know where to look.