Commander Social

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Now displaying: August, 2020

Commander Social is a podcast about the Magic: the Gathering variant, Commander! Your hosts Ryan, and Zack attempt to entertain you with interesting anecdotes about the game of Magic, including their experience running a Commander league.

Check Us Out on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/commandersocial

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial/

Contact us on Twitter @commandersocial
Ryan - @greenegeek
Zack - @z4ck38

Email: cast@commandersocial.com

Pregame Scenarios - Ep 61 0

Aug 26, 2020

Patreon
1. Patreon Contest - Most unique deck you’ve seen out in the wild - 2 Double Masters packs
1. Ryan - @greenegeek
2. Zack - @z4ck38
3. Together - @commandersocial
4. Twitter contest - Most unique deck you’ve seen out in the wild - 1 Double Masters pack
You can find us on Twitter
1. Mike Condon for audio engineering and the Rolodex
Thanks
1. https://store.mothershipatx.com
2. SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
3. SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
  1. spelltable.com
  2. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
4. Thursday nights come play at mothership!
Our LGS has setup an online store!
1. @MothershipGames - 8:15, 48:58
2. @SpellTable - 8:52
3. @edhrec - 45:02
Ep 61 Community Spotlight:
1. The idea: We each take 2 decks from our stable, and the other co-host comes up with 3 “interesting” commanders to play a game with. We go through our thought process about coming up with an initial plan.
2. Disclaimer: This is in a vacuum. Initial plans can give us a place to start talking about strategy, but even good plans need to be adjusted, and most initial plans can probably go out the window quite quickly, but it’s probably worth talking about having a plan in general, and how this can apply later in the game when you reassess..
  1. Zack details the high level version of how Deck 1 works, and how it tends to win AND lose games. (Mention there is a link to the deck in our stables)
  2. 1. Any notable/important cards in your deck?
  3. Ryan reveals the 3 SECRET opponents!
  4. Initial thoughts
  5. Which person do you think you should take out first?
    1. What about your deck makes this a good idea? Silver Bullets?
  6. Which person do you think you’d have the best chance against in a heads-up scenario?
  7. Anyone you think might make a great early game ally?
    1. Any cards/typical effects these decks tend to run, that might be problematic for Zack’s deck?
  8. Ryan, why did you pick these 3 particular commanders?
3. Zack Deck 1 - Niv-Mizzet
  1. Ryan details the high level version of how Deck 1 works, and how it tends to win AND lose games. (Mention there is a link to the deck in our stables)
  2. 1. Any notable/important cards in your deck?
  3. Zack reveals the 3 SECRET opponents!Initial thoughts
  4. Which person do you think you should take out first?
  5. Which person do you think you’d have the best chance against in a heads-up scenario?
    1. Anyone you think might make a great early game ally?
  6. What about your deck makes this a good idea? Silver Bullets?
    1. Any cards/typical effects these decks tend to run, that might be problematic for Ryan’s deck?
  7. Zack, why did you pick these 3 particular commanders?
4. Ryan Deck 1 - Gonti, Lord of Luxury
  1. AudienceLand, what did you think of this? Was it interesting? Useful? Entertaining at least? Do you do any sort of pre-game analysis?
5. Summary
Main Topic - Pre-game Scenarios
Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/commandersocial
2. You can check us out at commandersocial.com
3. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/CommanderSocial
4. You can email us directly at cast@commandersocial.com
5. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial
6. On twitter @commandersocial
  1. twitch.tv/greenegeek
7. Ryan individually @greenegeek
8. Zack individually @z4ck38
Contact Info
© Copyright 2020 Leaky Dinghy, LLC

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Level Up: Learning From Mistakes - Ep 60 0

Aug 19, 2020

Patreon
1. Patreon Contest - Most unique deck you’ve seen out in the wild - 2 Double Masters packs
1. Ryan - @greenegeek
2. Zack - @z4ck38
3. Together - @commandersocial
4. Twitter contest - Most unique deck you’ve seen out in the wild - 1 Double Masters pack
You can find us on Twitter
1. Mike Condon for audio engineering and serial cable to hook up printer
Thanks
1. https://store.mothershipatx.com
2. SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
3. SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
  1. spelltable.com
  2. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
4. Thursday nights come play at mothership!
Our LGS has setup an online store!
1. @BentzMr - 2:26
2. @MothershipGames - 7:07, 52:02
Ep 60 Community Spotlight:
1. Disclaimer: Commander is a SOCIAL game, winning isn’t everything, so watch with care how far you go down the competitive path.
2. 1. That being said, winning IS fun. And I’m sure there are lots of folks out there that would like to get better at Commander.
  2. It’s so much easier to make an episode about building better decks, it’s much harder to make an episode about how to help folks get better.
  1. Step 1: Admit that you are making mistakes.
  2. 1. It’s going to be hard to fix mistakes if you aren’t making any.
    2. It’s also MUCH harder to identify some types of mistakes in Commander vs Limited or Standard/Modern. This is because the consequences of making a mistake in a 1v1 game happen quite quickly after you make them, and often lead to the game being over.
      1. Changing the way you think about variance may also help. Think about what information you had instead of complaining about why you didn’t win.
      2. My opponent had the exact spell they needed to win! (Did they tutor one or more times that game?)
        
        I just needed one more turn! (Did you fail to realize an opponent was just a card away from a combo?)
        
        I got mana screwed/flooded! (Are you playing enough lands in your deck? How about ramp? Should you have mulliganed?)
        
        Everyone ganged up on me! (Were you playing Atraxa? Did you get off to an early lead?)
    3. Your first instinct should be to avoid blaming a loss on variance. This is not to say that variance doesn’t happen, and often-times variance does lead to bad times for you, but it your first instinct is to blame variance (Blame Variance!), then you may take the easy way out, and not really take the time to think about how you played that game
    1. Think about the things you played, and how folks responded.
    2. Did you make a play that aligned the whole table against you? Could/should you have waited to play it till later?
    3. Did you misidentify the biggest threat at the table?
    4. Did you leave a problematic permanent on the table for too long, hoping someone else would take care of it?
    5. Did you fail to realize that two of your opponents were going to team up, and 1-2 punch away your pillow fort?
    6. Did you take out the wrong player, when you had your chance to kill any of your 3 opponents?
    7. Should you have mulliganed?
      1. Ask them if they noticed any misplays on your part.
      2. Ask them what cards they had in their hand at the end of the game.
    8. It really helps if you can talk with your opponents after the game, especially if they are people you think play well!
  3. Think about your game, immediately after you play it. Reflect on how the game went.
    1. Sequencing!
    2. 1. Can be something as basic as playing your lands in the wrong order. Or tapping your lands incorrectly.
      2. Sometimes this is obvious, sometimes it’s not. Like sometimes you might not notice that there was a better way to sequence things, but sometimes you might not even think about sequencing things
      3. Honestly, this is one of harder things in Commander, because board states get so cluttered, so quickly. And you may forget you need to take out that Blind Obedience before you cast your Hasty creature.
      1. I think this is sometimes tricky for newer players, especially when playing against new opponents, or decks in an unknown meta.
      2. This can also include playing a card that is going to scare the other players into attacking you, thinking that it’s less scary than what some other opponent already has going on. An example could be playing Aura Shards, and not knowing that one of your opponents has 3 very important enchantment/artifacts in hand. You may not know this is a likely scenario, unless you’ve played against that player’s deck more than 1 time before.
    3. Incorrectly assessing threats
      1. Forgetting that your opponent played a Sylvan Safekeeper on turn 2.
      2. Not doing the math on how much damage you were going to take from 2 of your opponents having a Zulaport Cutthroat in play before you cast a board wipe
    4. Failing to notice an onboard trick
      1. These are not the droids you are looking for (or not hitting your saving throw versus a savvy political opponent
        
        So many times people make a deal, and get nothing out of it. Like someone promising not to attack you for two turns, when it’s obvious they weren’t planning on attacking you anyway
      2. Making a bad deal
      3. Making too many deals, and painting yourself into a corner
      4. Picking the wrong person to go to the final 2 with.
    5. Political
  4. Types of mistakes
    1. This can be a tricky thing. We are all getting together to have some social fun, so sometimes it’s not the greatest to be very strict with the rules. I know oftentimes I encourage my opponents to take stuff back
    2. You want to make sure you have a conversation about this before the game starts. It might be great to play with some stricter rules enforcement if the folks you are playing with are up for it. (It also could EASILY be NOT fun to do so).
    3. Maybe hold yourself to a higher standard? Essentially owning your mistakes. You don’t have to always do this, but it’s hard to learn from a mistake if there are NO consequences from making it. (If you’ve ever played with me, you KNOW I don’t often hold myself to a higher standard!) I think this is something especially hard to do if you’ve only ever been a casual player. Playing a lot of limited, and grinding at PTQs etc, really helps here, because you are often playing at a higher REL, and take backs aren’t an option.
  5. Take-backs?
3. How to learn from your mistakes
  1. Learning from your mistakes is CRITICAL to getting better at Commander. Two of your best tools for figuring out the mistakes you are making are “Thinking critically about games immediately after playing them” and “Talking with people who you respect, and getting their feedback”
  2. Audience land: Do you look for mistakes? Do you have any great lessons you’ve learned? We’d love to hear some of them!
4. Summary
Main Topic -Level Up: Learning From Mistakes
Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/commandersocial
2. You can check us out at commandersocial.com
3. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/CommanderSocial
4. You can email us directly at cast@commandersocial.com
5. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial
6. On twitter @commandersocial
  1. twitch.tv/greenegeek
7. Ryan individually @greenegeek
8. Zack individually @z4ck38
Contact Info
© Copyright 2020 Leaky Dinghy, LLC

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Double Masters Top 8 - Ep 59 0

Aug 12, 2020

Patreon
1. Patron of the Week - MTG Lexicon (@MTG_Lexicon)
2. Patreon Contest - Most unique deck you’ve seen out in the wild - 2 Double Masters packs
1. Ryan - @greenegeek
2. Zack - @z4ck38
3. Together - @commandersocial
4. Twitter contest - Most unique deck you’ve seen out in the wild - 1 Double Masters pack
You can find us on Twitter
1. Mike Condon for audio engineering and VCR Tape rewinder
Thanks
1. https://store.mothershipatx.com
2. SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
3. SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
  1. spelltable.com
  2. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
4. Thursday nights come play at mothership!
Our LGS has setup an online store!
1. @MTG_Lexicon - 0:56
2. @MothershipGames - 9:07, 51:49
3. @scryfall - 10:19, 12:46
4. @edhrec - 12:46
5. @CommanderReplay - 28:39
6. @TheKristenEmily - 28:39
7. @LennyWooley - 33:26
8. @chrisvondoom1 - 33:26
9. @MTGStocks - 40:46
Ep 59 Community Spotlight:
1. How did we do with our speculation?
2. 1. Here are the cards we speculated on. How did we do Zack?
  2. 1. Cabal Coffers
    2. Scroll Rack
    3. Cavern of Souls
    4. Rings of Brighthearth
    5. Sylvan Library
    6. Sensei’s Divining Top
    7. Phyrexian Altar
    8. Teferi’s Protection
  1. Define what we mean by important:
  2. 1. Cards that are often played in Commander that are getting pretty pricey. Also, cards that kinda have a unique/hard-to-replace effect (although these are often times the very cards that are pricey)
    1. Rare/Mythic sorted by edhrec relevancy:
    2. 1. https://scryfall.com/search?q=set%3A2xm+%28rarity%3Ar+OR+rarity%3Am%29&order=edhrec&dir=asc&as=grid
      1. https://scryfall.com/search?q=set%3A2xm+%28rarity%3Ar+OR+rarity%3Am%29&order=usd&as=grid
    3. Rare/Mythic sorted by price decreasing (kinda have to ignore some of the box-toppers in this search):
  3. Also, these scryfall searches are pretty cool:
  4. Zack picks over/under
  5. Zack List
  6. Ryan List
3. Top 8 most IMPORTANT reprints for Commander Secret List Style
  1. Double Masters looks like it’s got quite a few reprints for us Commander players. What cards are you most excited for? Which cards didn’t get reprinted that you wanted to see the most?
4. Summary
Main Topic -Double Masters Top 8
Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/commandersocial
2. You can check us out at commandersocial.com
3. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/CommanderSocial
4. You can email us directly at cast@commandersocial.com
5. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial
6. On twitter @commandersocial
  1. twitch.tv/greenegeek
7. Ryan individually @greenegeek
8. Zack individually @z4ck38
Contact Info

Download this Episode

Sisay Shrines Deck Tech - Ep 58 0

Aug 5, 2020

Patreon
1. Thank you to all our patrons
1. Ryan - @greenegeek
2. Zack - @z4ck38
3. Together - @commandersocial
You can find us on Twitter
1. Mike Condon for audio engineering and Ship’s Wheel
Thanks
1. https://store.mothershipatx.com
2. SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
3. SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
  1. spelltable.com
  2. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
4. Thursday nights come play at mothership!
Our LGS has setup an online store!
1. @MothershipGames - 1:34, 50:36
2. @CotB1 - 2:03
3. @TheKristenEmily - 2:03
4. @SciShowKids - 3:43
5. @MBorchik - 8:30, 46:20
6. @TeneberusOne - 50:49
Ep 58 Community Spotlight:
1. Deck genesis story
2. 1. I’ve always loved the Hondens from Champions of Kamigawa.(2004)
  2. I was inspired by a patron Michael Borchik (@MBorchik) to build a Kenrith deck, specifically with a less than perfect mana base. I decided to go ahead and make it a 5-color enchantress deck, with all 5 of the Hondens in it.
    1. This solved a couple of problems the Kenrith deck had.
    2. 1. I had to run too many tutors to reliably find the shrines
      2. Kenrith didn’t really interact well with the shrines
      3. Talk about how cool Sisay is, and how she does all the things a shrine deck would want.
    3. I sent email to myself to look at Sisay in the morning. Also, I included Kethis, Enduring Renewal, Estrid’s Invocation, Mirage Mirror, Sterling Grove, Privileged Position, Fountain Watch, Teshar (this was wrong, I was thinking of Shalai, and that’s also wrong) and Captain Sisay. Many of these didn’t make the final cut.
  3. I was just planning on updating my Kenrith Deck, and adding in the 6 new Shrines, but one night I was drifting off to sleep, and I had an idea. Sisay, Weatherlight Captain!
  1. The Shrines all scale as you get more shrines, kinda like the Slivers of enchantments. This will give you inevitability if the game goes long enough, and if there aren’t many “destroy all enchantments” effects.
    1. Do this live
  2. Let’s rank the original Hondens from worst to first in Commander
    1. Do this live
  3. Let’s do the same thing with the new Sanctums
3. So, what makes this deck so cool?
  1. Protection
  2. 1. Sterling Grove
    2. Privileged Position
    3. Greater Auramancy
    4. Fountain Watch
    5. Creeping Renaissance
    1. NOTE: Technically, you do NOT need to run these, because Sanctum of Tranquil Light is a single mana, and fetchable with Sisay before she is pumped up.
    2. Sword of the Chosen
    3. Shadowspear
    4. Sword of the Animist
    5. Blackblade Reforged
    6. Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
  3. Sisay Enablers
    1. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain (gonna be nuts in this deck)
    2. Niambi, Esteemed Speaker
    3. Various Enchantresses
  4. Card Draw
    1. Jhoira's Familiar
    2. Honor-Worn Shaku
  5. Ramp
    1. Captain Sisay
    2. Primeval’s Glorious Rebirth (Discuss if Eerie Ultimatum is just better?)
    3. Urza’s Ruinous Blast
  6. Legends Matter
    1. Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage
    2. Thran Temporal Gateway
    3. Weatherlight
  7. Historic Matters
    1. Meishin, the Mind Cage
    2. Profane Procession
    3. Search for Azcanta
    4. Teferi's Ageless Insight
    5. Oath of Kaya
  8. Other cool Legendary Cards
    1. Vernal Equinox
    2. Paradox Haze (Doesn’t work with 5/6 of the new Sanctums, but really cool with 1 of the 6!)
  9. Other cards
4. Other Categories of cards
Main Topic -Sisay Shrines Deck Tech
1. What a cool deck! Full of awesome interactions, and legendary cards. Also, it’s totally on point Flavor-wise (I mean there are THREE weatherlight Captains in this list…). To audience land, what cards would you put in here? Is this the kinda deck you would play?
Summary
Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/commandersocial
2. You can check us out at commandersocial.com
3. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/CommanderSocial
4. You can email us directly at cast@commandersocial.com
5. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial
6. On twitter @commandersocial
  1. twitch.tv/greenegeek
7. Ryan individually @greenegeek
8. Zack individually @z4ck38
Contact Info

Download this Episode