Congrats everyone! We welcomed our 1,000th subscriber last week to MTGZone! A huge thank-you to everyone here for browsing and contributing—this is a wonderful place already and will only get better.
To celebrate this awesome milestone, we're giving away 1 LTR collector booster and 2 LTR set boosters to one lucky community member!
Add a comment to this post with 1 thing you'd like to share about the game. Anything! Favorite deck, an MTG story, a streamer you like, your pet card, suggestion for the site.
We'll leave this up for 2 weeks and at noon eastern on August 7th we'll pick a random member from the comments here. I'll reach out via DM for an address and once confirmed will post here!
Some fun facts for reading this far:
Our first post was on June 9th, a bit over 6 weeks ago. Since then we've had a total of 304 (mostly spoiler!) posts.
You've upvoted these posts 2,439 times and downvoted them only 42 times.
You've also made 1,098 comments, upvoting them 2,240 times and downvoting them only 9 times!
We have 409 registered users at this instance now!
Thanks again to everyone, can't wait to celebrate 5,000! As always please DM me or mike with any questions or suggestions or if you're interested in getting involved, or find us at Mastodon.
Updates:
[12:00pm] It's noon Eastern! I locked the thread and will get all of the unique usernames here to run the drawing!
[1:46pm] Apologies for the delay! We have a winner: @kaiyo@lemmy.world! I sent them a message now to verify and once I get a reply I'll make the official announcement post with drawing video. Stay tuned!
@andrew
I immensely dislike WotC's focus on commander over all other formats. EDH is not interesting to me anymore, every set has new staple or busted commander to chase.
Additionally the color pie is slowly being eroded for the sake of the only format with the "color identity" restriction. All the other formats now need to live in a world where any color can get any effect.
Fortunately limited is still good most of the time, except when they print sets that cost $75 to draft once.
Agreed on all 3 points, particularly your first on their commander focus. I've never considered the color pie corruption via Commander too but that makes a ton of sense.
I think when they started printing directly to Commander—as opposed to letting cards printed for standard sets trickle down naturally to Commander--they introduced immense issues to both Commander and regular formats. It's a format designed for 4 players and an eternal one that they need to now "rotate" with increasingly powerful cards. Not only does this corrupt the spirit of Commander (finding new uses for cards that never got played elsewhere), it cannot work with 2-player constructed formats and has caused a ton of issues there.
I just wish they'd go back to only designing cards for Standard and limited, and let the eternal formats (Commander included) get them naturally. Sadly it just is never going to happen, it's too big a cash cow.
Going through the 10 cent bin at a local comic book store to make decks with friends to play that day when you're a poor high schooler.. miss those days.
As an extremely casual commander player, I always feel like a noob even though technically I've been playing MTG for over half a decade at this point. My commander decks have all been precons and I've mostly just got cards through drafting with my friends, but this year I've been trying to build my own deck from scratch and it's... exciting but frustrating.
Does anyone have any tips for taking a (commander) deck from the "theoretical pile of cards" stage to a functioning deck? By that I mean, I've done the preliminary research (scryfall searches, EDHREC most used cards for the commander, etc) to find possible cards, and I've read some high level theory stuff about deck building (ramping, threats, etc) to categorize my possible cards... But can't really find any articles/videos showing workflows to actually build the deck.
Currently I'm trying to use tags on Moxfield but it's mostly a confusing mess as I try to trim down ~200 possibilities into a lean, functioning deck.
I think your question would make a really good post of it's own, but my best suggestion would be to write down the mana curve you want first and build your deck to fit cards into that curve. Say you want 10 1cc spells, 20 2cc spells, 25 3cc spells, and 10 4+cc spells with 35 lands. There are so many possible cards you can include in your commander deck that I think it's better to choose them based on a structured mana curve you want. That way your deck won't fall apart while you play it, and you have a clear system for how to swap/upgrade/replace cards in your deck.
This doesn't directly answer your question on paring the big pool down, but I bookmarked this a while ago that had a pretty good overview of EDH deckbuilding basics that might help, including numbers on how many of each category to go with: https://www.archidekt.com/decks/1048638#EDH__Deck_Template_(read_description_at_bottom) (and original source). It links to a separate guide on lands too which is helpful.
In general I think it's really helpful to set a goal at the beginning. Are you building a deck to primarily have fun and/or explore a theme, do you want to try to be competitive, etc. I tend to choose the cards that I enjoy playing over those that might be "strictly better," for instance, particularly ones that I have nostalgia for. I also tend to build around themes/tribes a lot which naturally limits the pool.
I agree with mike that this could be a whole post on its own, but something that’s helped me pare down the pile of potentials was the rough guidelines that both Prof (TCC) and Tomer (Goldfish) put out a couple of years ago, where they talk about how much ramp vs removal vs card draw you should aim for (I still try to run at least one “you win the game” card in every deck, in line with Tomer’s suggestion).
I still review my 99 with that in mind, even if I don’t always hit those exact numbers, and it’s helped make my decks play more smoothly whenever I run them, and is also really helpful when upgrading, since I know if I’m adding a new card draw engine, then my cuts should be from my existing card draw.
I'm new and I've got two decks already. I built a goblin dwarf equipment deck from scratch, and I bought a firkraag precon and I'm building treasures and more goad into it.
I played for years when I was a teenager and got back into MTG during the pandemic. Discovering commander was a complete game changer for me. I just love the way it's played lol!
I’ve only recently gotten into MTG but I jumped in hard and fast! Commander is the play style I enjoy the most and the community around it has been truly helpful and supportive when I’d ask for help in my LGS or on various forums! I say all of that to hopefully entice anyone new or curious of the game to jump in!! You won’t regret it!
Thanks for all the work you put in to keep this server running! Glad to see it growing and hope it grows even more.
I've been listening to a lot of Mark Rosewater's Drive to Work podcast lately, so here's a random fact from it: Faceless Butcher was original going to be released in a set before Torment, but when they got the art back for the card the character had a face and they had to change the name to something that made sense. They liked the name so much that they held onto it and during the making of Torment made sure to specially request art without a face.
Thanks for the giveaway! I really enjoy the cards from the LOTR set. My dad doesn't know much about Magic, but is a big LOTR fan and has had a lot of fun looking at the cards for the art and flavor text.
I've been playing since I was 6. My dad had finally thought my brother and I were old enough to learn (he had been playing since the beginning). I've always enjoyed MTG casually. Never anything too competitive, but the one thing I always enjoy seeing is how creative everyone gets when making their decks, or win cons. It blows my mind and reminds me how great the game is.
The most satisfaction I ever got from this game was building a deck entirely of artefacts and black enchantments, then using it to wipe the floor with my best friend who taught me the game. He then had to build several iterations of a deck designed to take it down, even then only maybe getting a 50/50 win/loss ratio.
There were a couple of cards that I submitted to the custom cards subreddit that were later printed almost exactly like I posted them. I mostly remember Foundation Breaker (mine was 2GG cost and 3/2) and Damn (mine was 1BB // 3WW for the costs)
Thanks for nurturing this community into what it is today, the best MTG space on the web. I would like to remind everyone, [[Norin, the wary]] is NOT a coward, he’s just a very smart warrior. I’ve always thought he might be related to Rincewind the wizzard.
It's good to see a new MTG community for after Reddit did away with decent 3rd party mobile apps. While I almost never post, I do post links from threads on this community to my friends as a means of exposed to the new community and Lemmy.
MTG has been a fun hobby I initially never thought I'd get into. My first tine playing was tabletop edh borrowing a friend's Lord Windgrace precon. Now a few years later (and a hiatus or two) I've started competing in edh tournaments, participating in and running drafts, and making my own decks. It's a fun game that I'm glad to see gaining traction (although I do wish WOTC would slow down a little).
Used to play when I was a kid and rediscovered it recently with commander. My brothers and I have been liking building up our decks with old cards that still hold value today.
Wish I got to design the LotR commander decks. I would have made one of them The Company of Thorin, dwarf tribal. Each of the 13 dwarves in the company would get a legend that buffed dwarves you control somehow (Kili would give them all reach, Fili would give them all double strike etc)
Wow, honestly it's lovely to see so much engagement with mtgzone! The one thing I'd like to share is that o absolutely love Bard class and want it to be viable in pioneer. Do it, WotC, you cowards!
Good to see the community here grow. I've been playing on and off since Eldritch Moon and my current favorite deck is EDH [[Wort, the Raidmother]] token storm.
I'm super glad there's a good MTG community on Lemmy. I've been really liking it here.
I'm having a tremendously hard time picking my favorite art and artist in MTG. There's just so many fantastic arts. Currently the art on [[Unbound Flourishing]] is really speaking to me.
A tale of playing Magic: I don’t play very much Commander. I either end up the archenemy or I end up entirely outclassed, and I really don’t care for those extremes. Last week I played with a group that had a really great balance. I played a couple of really fun games that made me think that maybe I can have fun in Commander again, haha!
Also when anybody does anything against you, you need to REEEE and make a tantrum, scream loudly and smash the table. Then you will be a true Commander player.
So I've just casually played MTG, mostly online because it's a costy hobby and I'm a broke student. But a thing I love about the paper version is: I was travelling, staying at someones place over an hospitality network, so we don't know each other at all except of the short profile description. Suddenly he tells they are going to play MTG downstairs. I ask if I can join. They were all so incredibly welcoming! Explained how their decks worked, the cards, the plays. It's an incredible community, really looking forward to get into it once I get a job!
I was a big fan of Merchant as a streamer back when he still did mtg content. It was nice to see some gimmicky decks, and the mtg d&d streams were very nicely done.
Currently I am a big fan of making decks focused on an aesthetic or theme as opposed to just playing for efficiency.
One of my favorite commander decks is 5 color mutate. It's tons of fun and generally underrated. Commander can either be [[ramos dragon engine]], or [[cromat]]. Recently me and my partner have also been working on baldurs gate background commander decks with the anticipation of BG3 coming out. We just finished up [[Karlach, fury of Avernus]] + [[Guild Artisan]] for a mono red multiple combat + treasures deck.
I love using [[Cosima, God of the Voyage]] in a mutate deck. If you mutate her before you exile her each of the creatures mutated into her gets her delayed trigger, so you can end up netting a decent amount of card advantage.
Started playing like two months ago. Working on my first commander deck, Dragon tribal, with Miirym.
But I must confess that seeing the current products prices, even when I just buying singles, is kinda discouraging.
Welcome to our big, weird Magic family; I'm glad you're here! A *lot* of people have been unhappy with the price points for the upcoming Commander Masters release. I just want to reassure you that you absolutely do not have to buy any of that product to enjoy the game - especially Commander, which began as, and still primarily is, a casual-play format. I'm running out of space but I want to encourage you to not give up! Most of us don't spend a ton (all at once) on the game.
Thanks for building this community, and I also hope it continues to grow!
I have a lot of fond memories of Magic, from picking it up at summer camp in the early 2000s (I think we drafted RAV?), falling out of it, then rediscovering it in college while playing tabletop jank with my roommates.
I’ve gotten a few coworkers into Magic now, and built EDH decks for all of them, and we’re hoping to schedule our first game soon (probably as a Friday afternoon “team-building” meeting).
I first started playing 25 years ago and now I am trying to come back and I am having a blast playing Commander in my LGS and with my friends. I see lots of precons in my future, do you think I can still get a good deal for the Strixhaven precons or did that train leave a long time ago?
Pet card: Serra Avatar. Showing my age a bit, I remember reading a spoiler for it IN A MAGAZINE. Scry I think. It blew my mind. Still a cool card, but not the powerhouse I envisioned.
Just going to blabber on about non-sense:
I agree with other comments about disliking Wizard's focus towards Commander. I'm more of a Cube/Limited player and many of these cards just aren't conducive to my Cubing habits.
My favorite card is probably [[Painter's Servant]]. Just look at that cute little guy. Also, despite my general dislike for combo, Legacy Painter is just so much fun.
Hadn't played until recently but one of my friends got a bunch of lotr boosters and it got our friend group interested in it. Started playing a bunch of MTGA and now we're now having a little draft tourney in a couple weeks.
By far my favorite card is [[Confusion in the Ranks]]. The first time I layed my eyes upon it I just loved the mechanics of this card, and immediately started brewing a modern deck with it. Not the most competitive deck, but so much fun. Also stars some other cards that I think are awesome designs like [[Norin the Wary]] and [[Grinning Ignus]].