Commander Deck

 Well, my wife has been encouraging me to get out more so I reached out to a member of a commander playgroup ( commander is a way of playing Magic is that basically unique in that it is a multiplayer format rather than a one on one format) that I hadn't participated in for quite awhile. They are still playing and it just so happened that I reached out on Saturday and they play on Sundays. So I decided I wanted to brew up a commander deck. I had mentioned to my wife having some good cards for a mono-black deck. I have like 10 precons (decks built by the company that makes Magic and sold as one whole) but those decks just don't measure up to the creative deckbuilding of the guys in this playgroup.

So basically I had some good cards like Sheoldred the Apocalypse that I had bought for standard deck that I wanted to make but never finished. There were a few in that class like Phyrexian Fleshgorger and some others. So then I also had this Witherbloom Strixhaven commander deck that is black and green. Basically that deck was pretty weak even after the guy who sold it to me helped me to upgrade it. So basically even given that when I play with the twins we just play precons, this witherbloom deck is really too weak to compete so we never use it. So I decided to tear it down and strip the black cards out of it. It does have some good cards in it. So that is another chunk of the cards in my commander deck. I didn't use every card from either the standard or the witherbloom commander deck. Then the rest of the cards are a selection from the other cards I own. Starting with mythic rares like Liliana of the Veil, and then into some good rares, etc.

So, as far as theme goes it is trying to play with life gain and loss. So there are some mechanics that gain me life and some mechanics that drain life from opponents when I gain life. Sheoldred is my commander so that is some life gain right there... The other commander I was considering was Vito but chatgpt thought vito might be more salt inducing (causing opponents to get upset at the play style). Which is funny because Sheoldred is pretty salt inducing from what I know.

Another thing to consider is that I own a copy of Exquisite Blood. This is powerful card that creates an infinite game winning loop when paired with Vito or Sanguine Bond (both of which are in my deck) and maybe a few others. So I bought this card specifically because of this combo but the problem is that this playgroup kind of frowns on infinite combos. So at first I left it in with the rationalization that I don't have cards that allow me to search for a card I want in my deck so it probably wouldn't be in my hand or on the board at the same time as the other combo pieces. But after more thought I just didnt' want to be in a situation where my only legitimate play was to play the infinite combo. So what I did is that I took Exquisite Blood with me but not in the deck. And then I asked Eric about how people would feel about that card and he seemed to say basically what I thought. Combos good, infinite combos bad...

So that is just part of playing with real people. To some extent you have to be a good sport and recognize that a commander group like this is primarily a social and casual kind of deal. And basically I am just kind of trying to reconnect with some real people and get out of the house etc. So my priority here isn't to win but to play nice with the etiquette of the play group. So anyways, both Eric and Jeff were fine with Sheoldred as my commander.

So, anyways here is the deck.

 

 

 

 

So anyways, I went down there and it just happened that Eric was the only other person to show up (at first). So I played two games with him just the two of us. I have mentioned Eric in this blog before. He is a pretty cool guy with a cool dog and a somewhat mysterious job that is in the games industry and involves a lot of travel. He is the resident brewmaster. By that I mean he spends a lot of his free time building new decks for a variety of ideas. Most of the time he is not interested primarily in creating powerful decks although his decks are usually pretty good. He is like to create decks with themes.

The first game I didn't draw enough lands (these are the cards that give you the energy to cast spells). So although I was able to get some cheap creatures out and do some serious damage to his life total I was kind of just stuck with my more expensive spells just sitting in my hand and I so I wasn't really able to interact with what he was doing on his side of the board. So he had some mana trouble at first but eventually he got his engine going and there wasn't a lot to do so pretty soon he killed me.

The third games was a more back and forth affair but I was able to pull off a win which I felt pretty happy about. This one I got out Sanguine bond in conjunction with sheoldred so I got some of my life gain / drain combo working although it was a somewhat slow process kind of pinging away at him. But in the end it was enough for the win.

So then Jeff showed up part way through. I have only played with a Jeff a couple of times quite a while ago. He is a nice guy also. So anyways, then we played a three person game. In this game I got Liliana out early and the whole ability to make everybody discard a card really worked to kind of sabotage eric. I also got out my ob nixilis planeswalker and in conjuction with sheoldreds ability it meant that I could add loyalty counters to him while drawing cards with the "downside" being that I gain one life. (basically his ability is that I should lose one life to draw a card, but sheoldred says you gain two life when you draw a card.) So that worked to some extent and Eric died before too long. so it was just me and jeff. But what it came down to was that I needed a boardwipe (a card that would kill all the creatures on the board) because jeff had more creatures than me, but most of my removal cards were more targeted to just one creature. Both board wipes and targeted removal are good. They are just better in different situations. So anyways, in the end jeff overpowered me.

So overall I am pretty happy with how my deck performed. This is really the first time I have brewed and actually built a commander deck, not to mention actually getting to play it. (commander decks are more intimidating to brew because they contain 100 cards, most of which have to be unique, whereas other constructed formats usually feature 60 card decks where you allowed to have as many as four copies of each card in the deck). I also brewed it this weekend with just cards that I already owned which also feels good.

I asked Eric and Jeff for feedback. They both mentioned feeling I need more card draw. They disagreed in that Jeff felt I should have more protection for my commander like an equipment that give hexproof or something like that. Eric disagreed and felt that might push the deck to the point where it is too unfun to play against.

So overall pretty satisfactory experience!