Commander Social

Categories

Now displaying: October, 2021

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

Let’s Talk About Blue - Ep115 0

Oct 27, 2021

Patreon

1. Patreon Contest - Now that it’s been out for a few weeks, what are your favorite commander-centric card from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
2. 1. Prize - Midnight Hunt Collector booster
store.commandersocial.com

You can find us on Twitter

1. Ryan - @greenegeek
2. Zack - @z4ck38
3. Together - @commandersocial
1. https://store.mothershipatx.com
2. SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
3. SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
  1. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
4. Thursday nights come play at mothership!
Our LGS has setup an online store!

Ep 115 Community Spotlight:

@MothershipGames - 5:37
@LennyWooley - 8:13
@MtgProphet - 20:04
@edhrec - 32:41
@TheTokenOtaku - 46:59

Main Topic - A Case for Blue

Disclaimer: There is no right or wrong here. Everyone has feelings, and all feelings are valid. This is an attempt to encourage discussion.
1. Lenny - It feels like blue players always have a trick up their sleeve.
2. 1. And this is one of the most legitimate criticisms of Blue, I’ve ever heard, and it’s also one of the reasons I love blue! With so many cards available at instant speed, Blue gets the longest amount of time to make decisions, and gets to have the most information available when they make said decisions.
  1. I think this one is somewhat related to the point above. Specifically, that Blue players can leave up interaction mana, and then if nothing needs interacting, they can draw some cards, or with a lot of things having flash, they can commit resources to the board, and then untap with protection, and the creatures have pseudo-haste.
  2. I think this is one of the things that gets people to say “Kill the blue mage first”, and maybe that’s valid. It’s also a real point that blue players can often “not look too scary until it’s too late” This is kind of a good reason to play Blue :)
3. Blue decks tend to sneak by and win out of nowhere.
  1. This one upsets people a lot, and I definitely understand it sometimes, like in the case of Blatant Thievery and Expropriate, where the opposing players have invested cards and mana into the permanent. Something like Thada Adel, Acquisitor often gets the same type of reactions, and that one feels less true to me.
  2. I think I’d rather clone than steal
4. Thievery
  1. feel bad and can cause people to feel afraid to make big plays
  2. I’ve heard of playgroups that rule 0 ban ALL counterspells
    1. Don’t get me started on Brawl on Arena, in 1-1 counterspells do feel pretty bad :(
    2. Sometimes a combo would be able to win at “instant speed” and so even normal removal won’t cut it.
    3. Prophet’s example of Craterhoof and Dockside
      1. Have much stricter timing when compared to traditional removal
      2. You need to know when a creature is going to be pointed at you when it’s on the stack, with traditional removal, you can wait until someone *actually* attacks you.
      3. 1-for-1 cards don’t scale in Commander. A deck with 30 counterspells in it is probably NOT very good.
      4. I honestly think Propaganda is much more annoying than Counterspells.
      5. Counterspells can be teamed up on. Although this does kinda stink for the person to the left of the Counterspeller. (But it’s also much more tempting for a Blue mage to let spells of player on their left resolve).
    4. I think Counterspells are actually kinda bad in Commander (Free ones are the exception here).
      1. My Blue Braid’s deck has 6 counterspells, but 2 are situational
      2. My Morph deck has 2 counterspells
      3. Nymris deck has 9, that might be too many… (Many of them cost 5 or more mana)
      4. Mono blue wizards has 5, but they are pretty situational and/or versatile, Kheru Spellsnatcher, Mystic Confluence
    5. Counterspells in my decks (I do love Draining Whelk)
  3. This is tricky, because Counterspells can certainly cause feel bads, but they can also be heroes
5. Counterspells
  1. 32/100 cards are blue (or have blue in their color identity). This is roughly ⅓ when it, if everything was equal, it should be ⅕ or less (due to artifacts and lands), so the math definitely points to blue being Salt inducing.
    1. Yeah, these can be rage-inducing. Also, these are the kinda effects that lead people to team up on a player, and I tend not to run them too too often (I am guilty of Expropriate AND Time Stretch in the same deck though)
    2. Comparison to Sword of Feast and Famine
  2. Extra turns
6. Blue wincons can be salt inducing. (iw. Control, combo, or extra turns)
It feels like we’ve been hearing more and more players say they don’t care to play or play against blue, so we took to our patrons to find out some reasons people aren’t down with one of our favorite colors.
1. White - Stax / MLD
2. Green - Ramp
3. Black - Tutors and discard effects
4. Red - Wheels and other chaos type effects
5. Basically, the rule zero talk needs to be in full-effect here. It really matters when you’re BUILDING the deck.
Thinking about the given answers playing blue seems like it could be a feels bad, but when you look at the other colors they have mechanics that can cause the same kind of feelings
1. Fact or Fiction
2. Illusionist's Gambit and Aetherize - Protection from being attacked
3. Wrong Turn
4. Plagiarize
  1. These are sooo blue, and soooo fun, and perfect 75% cards
5. Clones - Phantasmal Image
6. Can change color, land words, and creature types
7. Supplant Form
8. Spellweaver Volute
9. Sudden Substitution
10. Rite of Replication
11. Clone Legion
12. Faerie Artisans
13. Bident of Thassa
Does blue have things other to offer than counters, combos, or extra turns that aren’t oppressive?
1. Zack
2. 1. Artifact synergies!
  2. Zack wings it
  1. Blue lets me feel smart. People like to feel smart.
  2. I like having as much info as possible when making a decision, and Blue let’s me do that. I mean, come on, Flash!
  3. Blue can “Fly under the Radar”. At the same time, when someone attacks you or messes with your stuff, you as a blue player should try and understand this, and take it as the compliment it is (and yeah, be honest with yourself). Also, realize that sometimes you won’t have anything going on, but THEY don’t know that, and so you might have some unfun games when that happens.
3. Ryan
Why do we like blue?

Summary
1. How do you feel about Blue? Is it worth going out of your comfort zone to give Blue a try?

Wrap it up

Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Title - Trap Sport
2. By - jorikbasov
3. https://pixabay.com/music/future-bass-trap-sport-4348/
Commander Social 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

Friends Forever - Ep114 0

Oct 20, 2021

Patreon

1. Patreon Contest - Now that it’s been out for a few weeks, what are your favorite commander-centric card from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
2. 1. Prize - Midnight Hunt Collector booster
store.commandersocial.com

You can find us on Twitter

Ryan - @greenegeek
Zack - @z4ck38
Together - @commandersocial

What’s been going on in your personal life?

1. Zack - excited to watch succession this week
  1. https://www.amazon.com/DC-SUPER-HEROES-FIRST-POWER/dp/1941367038
2. Ryan - V read My First Book of Girl Power
1. https://store.mothershipatx.com
2. SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
3. SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
  1. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
4. Thursday nights come play at mothership!
Our LGS has setup an online store!

Ep 114 Community Spotlight:

@MothershipGames - 7:29
@scryfall - 8:14

Main Topic - Stranger Things Secret Lair

Scryfall list: https://scryfall.com/@z4ck38/decks/36122d43-c286-48e9-a505-a6f06ebda23d
1. Also, there was an easter egg in one of our show notes
What is Stranger Things?
The Stranger Things Secret Lair is available from October 18th to November 15th, 2021.
Official Release Date: January 28, 2022
Price $39.99 for non-foil and $49.99 for foil
Eight Mechanically Unique cards and a clue token
Universes Beyond - Cards from this secret lair will have in-multiverse version added to the list cards featured in set booster of New Capenna
1. Cards
2. 1. Chief Jim Hopper 
  2. Dustin, Gadget Genius 
  3. Eleven, the Mage 
  4. Lucas, the Sharpshooter 
  5. Max, the Daredevil 
  6. Mike, the Dungeon Master 
  7. Mind Flayer, the Shadow 
  8. Will the Wise 
  9. Clue Token 
  1. You can have two commanders if they both have friends forever
3. Friends Forever
4. Discuss what we would build
Secret Lair x Stranger Things - https://secretlair.wizards.com/us/product/687521/secret-lair-x-stranger-things
1. What do you think about the Stranger Things secret lair? Is there anything we missed? Are you already thinking of ideas for decks with the cards at the helm? Do you think it’s something you’ll buy? Let us know
Summary

Wrap it up

Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Title - Trap Sport
2. By - jorikbasov
3. https://pixabay.com/music/future-bass-trap-sport-4348/
Commander Social 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 2021 Leaky Dinghy, LLC

Download this Episode

Deck Tech: Temur Good Stuff - Ep113 0

Oct 13, 2021

Patreon

1. Patreon Contest - Now that it’s been out for a few weeks, what are your favorite commander-centric card from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
2. 1. Prize - Midnight Hunt Collector booster
store.commandersocial.com

You can find us on Twitter

Ryan - @greenegeek
Zack - @z4ck38
Together - @commandersocial

Our LGS has setup an online store!

https://store.mothershipatx.com
SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
1. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
Thursday nights come play at mothership!

Ep 113 Community Spotlight:

@MicahMTG - 1:17
@MothershipGames - 10:36
@BaxaArt - 26:28
@Cathaoir1 - 34:58
@MtgProphet - 52:13
@case_vickers - 52:13

Main Topic - Good Stuff Decks

https://scryfall.com/@z4ck38/decks/3f2909e3-b5e3-4df4-8e1a-cce0e4668f3f?as=list&with=usd
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/Tp-BkNswLUeSItt6Wkn3Fw
1. A good stuff deck is a deck full of cards you want to play. Oftentimes these cards seem fun, but never seem to make the cut in other decks.
A quick recap: What’s a good stuff deck
1. Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix
2. Jeska, Thrice Reborn (True story, she’s been reborn three times, so including her original birth, she’s been born four times.)
3. Deck Origin Story: Temur is my favorite 3 color combination, and I just felt like I needed a Temur deck. I had bought a Jeska, just because the super fancy version wasn’t super pricey ($10) and I knew it was seeing some play in cEDH, so I just wanted to have one, because I really like the partner mechanic. So, I had two choices, Thrasios, or Kydele. I was worried that Thrasios might make the deck seem more powerful than it really was, and I didn’t want to draw too much aggro.
Meet out Commanders:
1. Archetype of Imagination
  1. On the DL are you just playing this card for the back, Harnfel, Horn of Bounty?
2. Birgi, God of Storytelling
3. Endurance
  1. Only four artifacts in the the deck!
4. Galazeth Prismari
5. Kruphix, God of Horizons
6. Maelstrom Wanderer
7. Mystic Snake
8. Stormbreath Dragon
9. Vizier of Tumbling Sands
Creatures:
1. Cathartic Reunion
2. Khorvath’s Fury
3. Rishkar’s Expertise
4. Surge to Victory
Sorceries
1. Berserk
2. Electrodominance
3. Prismari Command (These were just in a pile on my desk, because I had ordered them, these are the types of cards I never seem to be able to find room for)
4. Quandrix Command
5. Veil of Summer
Instants
1. Bident of Thassa
2. Crucible of Worlds
Artifacts
1. Rhythm of the Wild
2. Sylvan Library
3. Underworld Breach
Enchantments
1. All the fetches possible!
Lands
1. I’ve played the deck 2 times: Shoutout to Prophet and Case!
2. The first game, my deck was pretty slow, and Prophet did some absolutely disgusting things with Valakut Exploration and Nahiri’s Lithoforming, along with Amulet of Vigor
3. Game 2, I got off to a faster start with Turn one Birds of Paradise, and turn two Sylvan Library. Got Seedborn Muse and Alchemist’s Refuge going, and then played an instant speed Archetype of Imagination, And got to live the Magic Christmas Land of Surge of Victory targeting Blasphemous act!
Playing the deck
1. It was really fun playing this Good Stuff deck! It definitely didn’t really have a plan, it just kinda played a lot of really fun cards. It really did remind me of playing in the earlier days of the Commander format.
Summary

Wrap it up

Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Title - Trap Sport
2. By - jorikbasov
3. https://pixabay.com/music/future-bass-trap-sport-4348/
Commander Social 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

Good Stuff Decks - Ep112 0

Oct 6, 2021

Patreon

1. Patreon Contest - Now that it’s been out for a few weeks, what are your favorite commander-centric card from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
2. 1. Prize - Midnight Hunt Collector booster
store.commandersocial.com

You can find us on Twitter

Ryan - @greenegeek
Zack - @z4ck38
Together - @commandersocial

Our LGS has setup an online store!

https://store.mothershipatx.com
SOCIALSHIP - free shipping on orders of $50 or more
SOCIAL10 - 10% off in stock MTG singles
1. https://discord.gg/MMXQJqf
Thursday nights come play at mothership!

Main Topic - Good Stuff Decks

NOT TO DISCUSS ON AIR, Zack, here is a place for you to add specific cards you may want to talk about:
1. https://scryfall.com/@greenegeek/decks/2b49ca90-c2d8-4ee2-b6ea-643d91f79849
1. I like powerful decks too! It’s good to have a range of different options, and I think a GoodStuff option might be great deck to have in your arsenal
Disclaimer: Everyone interacts with Magic differently, this may not be a way that you want to build and/or play decks. No one is wrong! These are just some alternative thoughts, that may lead people to broaden their horizons, and may lead folks to seek out new experiences.
1. Pretty much how Zack builds all of his decks
2. To me, it’s a deck where you are just playing awesome cards you already own, without paying particular attention to synergy with your Commander(s)
What exactly is a good stuff deck?
1. Build
2. 1. You know how you have those perennial *almost* good enough cards to make your deck? This is the place to play them
  2. You can think of this as a deck made almost entirely out of Flex spots.
    1. I had a Riku of Two Reflections deck, that just had fun cards. What’s better than 1 Simic Sky Swollower? TWO!
    2. I had a Keranos, God of Storms deck, man Hypersonic Dragon is just a sweet Magic Card
    3. Ertai the corrupted. Played things like biterblossom, the guile and dovescape combo, it had phyrexian arena
  3. I think back to when I first started playing Commander (Back in my day it was called EDH gosh darnit!). But seriously, I had decks that were just full of fun/cool cards
    1. This may be harder for newer players to do, as they don’t have as deep of a collection to comb through.
    2. It’s also just generally fun to look at Magic cards, and think of the wildest Magical Christmas Land scenarios!
  4. When I build decks like this, I tend to just thumb through a TON of cards, and just set cards aside that I like, or that make me smile, or remember some silly thing that happened in a kitchen table game, back in the day
    1. When I build a “good stuff” deck, I tend to eschew my typical form of spreadsheet building, which makes sure that I have all of the normal stuff, in the correct ratios, Ramp, Card Draw, Removal etc etc. This tends to lead me towards building less optimized decks.
  5. This is not to say that you shouldn’t build with intention, far from it! For example, you absolutely want to make sure that you have ways of ending games of Magic.
  6. It might be hard to build a tribal deck for this kind of thought experiment, because there will just be so many baked-in synergies. That being said, if it’s a very off-the-wall tribe, you can probably make it work.
    1. I am GLAD we’re getting lots of cards! I just sometimes think back to the days at the beginning of the format, where there were a LOT less Commanders to choose from, and oftentimes the decks felt more personal. I see new folks on Twitter experiencing Commander for the first time, and I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous. It’s pretty much impossible to unlearn knowledge gained through years of playing Commander, but I think it is possible to kinda recapture some of that nostalgia by making “good stuff” decks.
    2. Zack is also happy getting a lot of new commander cards. I remember when all i looked for in sets were commander cards and modern cards when i first started playing and it felt like you got maybe 1-2 commander cards a set.
  7. We have been getting a LOT of cards designed specifically for Commander, and I think a side-effect of this is that we are seeing a general power creep, or maybe even staple creep in the format.
  1. I like to think of it as smooth jazz
  2. You probably won’t have as much of a good time playing a GoodStuff deck against hyper-tuned decks. This is just a more specific case of “Have the rule Zero” talk. It might be really cool to get your playgroup together and talk about making some decks like this to play against each other. We know this isn’t possible for folks that don’t have a consistent playgroup. It also might be really cool to have a GoodStuff deck to play against newer players, if you’re lucky enough to find some to play against (It’s seriously cool to watch folks discover stuff! Like they pick up one of your cards, and their eyes just go wide, imagining stuff)
  3. It’s also super hard to do this when folks have drastically differently sized collections. You could do a budget limit, to try and get the decks to come out more equivalent, but even that is hard.
  4. It’s really fun to play against these kinds of decks, because you get to see so many infrequently played cards. You’ll get to have more of the, “wait, what does that card do?” moments
  5. You’ll probably get into a lot of “Novel” board states with decks like these (Although Commander does tend to bring about Novel stuff all the time, so maybe this isn’t as huge a boon to building a GoodStuff deck)
  6. You also probably need to set your expectations a little lower, when playing a deck like this. It’s not going to function like a well-oiled machine, and it’s probably going to play drastically different from game-to-game. This can be a good thing, if you’re just wanting to see what cool stuff can happen.
3. Play
  1. My Gonti, Lord of Luxury deck is one that I just threw together out of cards I already had. It’s seriously fun to play, and it’s just super different every time I play it (this is also helped out by the fact that I’m casting OPC from different decks each time I play it)
  2. Breena
4. Some of my favorite decks are like this
  1. Decks that aren’t designed to do a specific thing, end up doing very different things, and I think that can be a good thing, and a fun experience.
  2. Folks out in audience land, what is your take on this idea? Do you have decks like this? Do you ever yearn to recapture that new player experience?
5. Summary
Why would you want to build/play a good stuff deck?

Wrap it up

Keep it Social!
1. Komiku - Battle of Pogs
2. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Zack Gets it Together Theme
1. Title - Trap Sport
2. By - jorikbasov
3. https://pixabay.com/music/future-bass-trap-sport-4348/
Commander Social 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