I have to begin by saying that this is not an attack on the bracket system. I think brackets are a great tool and use it often when I play. With that being said, I do think the brackets should be used more as a guideline to be explored than strict rules that have to be followed. Everything on the gamechanger list is there for a reason but some cards are more flexible than others. I think that with some responsible deckbuilding a lot of the gamechangers can feel totally fine to play against. This doesn't mean that they shouldn't be gamechangers but it is an interesting thought to examine. Here is my list of possible bracket 2 candidates:

[[Thassa's Oracle]]

Thoracle is a really strong card and can enable some extremely quick wins and is the poster child of 2 card combos so it is understandable why it is a gamechanger. It is also pretty easy to play fairly. A merfolk deck could totally use this as a cheap body with card selection on top and once in a blue moon they might win because the game was super grindy and they ahd 20 devotion.

[[Ad Nauseam]]

Ad nauseam is a very strong card that in the right deck can win the game on the spot. But it also scales with the rest of your deck. In a deck with an extremely low curve and filled with fast mana this can easily draw 20+ cards and give you all the mana that you need to combo off. In a deck that has 8+ mana cards and no fast mana or combos this becomes a lot less powerful. It would still be a very strong card but seeing people playing blackjack with their life is fun so I wouldn't mind it in bracket 2.

[[Crop rotation]]

Crop rot is a really good card and is also a pet card of mine. The reason I love it so much is also the reason I think it is fine in bracket 2, it is very easy to customize. If you wanted to you could make it into the ultimate charm with 5+ powerful modes but you could also just use it as manafixing. I have a friend that uses it to fetch [[yavimaya cradle of growth]] and I struggle to imagine that is too much for bracket 2.

[[Narset paret of veils]]

It feels like narset is mostly on the list because it is insanely powerful with wheel effects. Without wheels this is just a planeswalker that might sabotage some decks and will likely die within a turn cycle. I could see some players finding her annoying but personally she is fine.

[[Gamble]]

I get why this is a gamechanger, it is the most mana efficient tutor and can get any card. The discard effect can also be easily mitigated with cards like [[underworld breach]]. It is also a really fun card. It is always an exciting moment when someone plays gamble and you have to guess if the card they discarded was what they were looking for. I know there are other less mana efficient options but gamble is just so iconic and mana efficient tutors are not that bad if the tutor targets are big stupid idiots imo.

Final words

That concludes my list of gamechangers that I wouldn't mind facing in bracket 2. It is by no means exhaustive and there are probably some cards that I missed. I am not advocating for these to be removed from the GC list either. Some cards are very easy to break and it is good that people treat them with respect. This post was largely a thought exercise so I would love to hear your opinion on it. What gamechangers do you think would be fine in bracket 2 if built around carefully?

[[Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage]] is the guy

With only 48 decks I think this guy is being a little overlooked from FRA's roster, I'm wondering if this is a good sidegrade-to-better [[Torbran, Thane of Red Fell]]

Well yes, that 1 extra instead of 2 is pretty important, But

-Half the mana cost, enters turn 2 for sure, less of a need for ramp packages, easier to recast

-Prowess can make him grow quite big

-Torbran's +2 and costing 4 mana makes him a big target for removal, but +1 costing 2 mana? not as much

Idk I really wanted some input if i'm cooking or if my idea is DOA

Hi everybody i recently got into MTG a couple months ago when i got the tidus and pantlaza precons, i liked their gameplay and upraded them, then i build a couple grixis decks which is basic i know but i liked all the UB grixis commanders(i have a kefka,azula and doom decks)

I want to try all color pairings and so i wanna ask for people to share me their favorite color combination and their commander(basically why you fell in love with the color) Not optimal but i would try them on edhplay so budget is not an issue but i prefer to keep them on Br3 Thank you y’all

Hi! I just got into magic with my friends, playing with the foundation starter kit and the precons, but we've all started to make our own decks, and I decided to try my hand at making my own. I tried to make an Smaug the Impenetrable commander deck, but I've run into an few problems.

First off, my deck is an bit over the limit (around 130 cards right now), but I don't really understand how or what to cut from the deck. I've also not really sure if the synergy I have in mind shines through- My buddy told me that bracket 2 (the one that we play in) is supposed to have an theme, and my deck is built around doing damage to Smaug, and then getting treasure tokens and using that to either do damage to everyone by sacing them, or use an alt wincon that lets me win if I have so many treasures. However, I'm not sure if the cards I found really work with this kind of idea, or if they detract from it.

Also, I don't know how to add ramp/card draw aspects. I know that they're really important, and they were in the angel precon that I have, but I don't know if the cards I have added are the correct cards for the deck that I have built.

I'm also an bit confused about ramping- do I really need as many lands, or can I cut some because I'm supposed to making so many treasures that I should have like infinite mana. I'm also an bit lost with finding cards- most of the cards that I have in my deck right now are ones that googled fit in with Smaug, and I was wondering how people figure out what cards fit together and work well with one another. Is it just experience?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! (Budget isn't an concern because we all proxy.)

https://archidekt.com/decks/27433178/smaug_the_king

Does your pod personally follow the ban list? If so, then why? I understand the reason why there’s a need for bans in tournament play. The point of the bracket system is for a pre-game conversation. That conversation typically includes strong cards in your deck or game winning combos. What harm would there be if you said “Nadu is in the 99, it’s not a combo piece, just a way to get a little extra draw” or “I have primeval Titan in the 99 but no problematic lands, just basics“

I’ve been trying to do it myself and it’s driving me insane. Both the main sets, the commander decks with reprints, all the secret lair drops, and other random releases I can’t even think of right now. Scene cards? I’m sure there’s more. Please someone save me.

I've had this idea floating in my brain space for a bit now. There are a bunch of cards like [[Back to Nature]], [[Filter Out]], and [[The Battle of Bywater]] that are absurdly efficient for what they do but obviously hit your own deck hard if you run those respective card types in any meaningful capacity. I've been chasing the dragon of a deck that essentially runs no other permanent types except lands and small creatures and uses that type asymmetry to its advantage. This is my best attempt:

https://archidekt.com/decks/27327487

The gameplan is to use [[Rigo]] and a metric crapton of tiny evasive creatures to reliably draw through the deck while applying micro-pressure. We're not the major threat in terms of ending the game because we don't build any exponential engines and don't present lethal threat early. We have a ridiculous pile of interaction that we can throw out willy-nilly from the early turns onwards, aiming to shut down draw engines and prevent runaway games. The goal is to eventually either slowly build up a board of evasive creatures or recur all of them at once with a card like [[Ascend from Avernus]] or [[Raise the Past]] and then end the game with a classic massive board buff like [[Preposterous Proportions]]. In practice it's worked out fairly well, being able to protect itself and stay alive throughout the game with a commander that protects itself.

That said, I feel like there must be more interesting cards out there for the game-ending/interaction suite. Obviously [[Craterhoof]] works just fine but is there anything that I'm missing that does the work more efficiently or with a bit more pizazz? Similarly with the interaction: [[Path to Exile]] and [[Negate]] and the like are always useful but I feel like there must be more interesting tech out there.

What cards would you recommend for a deck without anything other than small creatures and lands on the board?

Cant wait to make a deck with [[the unluckiets planeswalker]], featuring [[curse of vengeance]] on myself. then I can control its speed by slinging a bunch of exile the top cards and red mana when cast spell cards. After that just burst him when the first dude is about to die and boom. a ton of life and card advantage!

Hallooo! After a few days of play testing and scouring scryfall, I recently completed a colorless eldrazi deck with a budget of $30. its main game plan is to ramp as best as possible in colorless and then play eldrazi (for $30) and plays just about as good as you would expect.

The most trouble im having is in the card draw section, and actually cleaning through the deck to get to the big eldrazi. any help with this section would be much appreciated. any other help would be appreciated as well.

other notes: i already own some of the expensive cards like chronicle of victory, sol ring, pathrazer. Kozelik is in there cuz i wanted one of the cool legendary eldrazi :/

decklist: https://commandertemplate.com/decks/a2a0cdf1-ce2b-4bbf-8beb-b68306959555?fbclid=PAVERFWAU-KppleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAmZkaWQWUQVzaDCrO_n231KXRQWmTEE_VOBionNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzEyNDAyNDU3NDI4NzQxNAABp7ocOAfppYJhIf2AU7QPU9M7nIGKsu5ZHAU5Ya2qbnkOm5mlWejO0TT44DeF_aem_E6lIJE_O1Mu0ygMEx6vCjw

Hey bräuchte mal dringend Hilfe. Hab einen sehr coolen Commander gefunden und hab mal bisschen geschaut und auch ein Deck gefunden aber irgendwie fühl ich das nicht so ganz. Kenn mich aber auch ehrlich gesagt gar nicht so gut mit allen magic Karten aus und KI will ich jetzt auch nicht wirklich nutzen. Hab ihr Ideen oder Vermessungen die ihr mit mir teilen könnt. Wäre super lieb und schonmal danke im vor raus.

Decklist:

https://moxfield.com/decks/uIe78qoQtUqkj71hO7yUOA

Decklist

So generally I play in brackets 2/3, but I cracked Kefka from a pack and wanted to make a deck that I could have on hand in case the pod I am playing with at my LGS wants to move up in power level rather than me just being screwed or holding them back.

I threw this together and leaned into a wizard tribal approach. My thought process was that there would be incidental damage from spellcasting and then potentially I could close things out with combat once the board was clear. I've only played it twice, but that's not really how it went down.

Specifically, the last time I played it, I felt like I was spinning my wheels in search of a way to close out the game. I ended up winning as my opponents, one by one, not being able to recover from the discard ended up scooping (it was also the last game of the night). That's not exactly how I want the play pattern to go. I would like to be able get to a win con rather than forcing drawn out concessions.

Any advice in tightening this up? Reworking it? I don't have Thoracle and no plans to, so not that (though I do have Lab Maniac).

I'll start:

[[Skullbriar, The Walking Grave]] can be built very cheaply due to it caring about keyword counters, which generally aren't good in most other decks. Most of the power of the deck comes directly from the fact that Skullbriar is a voltron commander that starts swinging turn 2, starts powering up immediately, and disincentivizes removing it due to how little killing Skullbriar slows it down. As a result you can kinda just play whatever you want (to a certain degree) and Skullbriar will carry you through. It remains simultaneously my cheapest and highest winrate deck.

What are your favourite commanders that function well on a shoestring budget?

Well maybe, I mean I'm sure someone has thought of it before but imma throw it out there anyway.

So Ive been playing MTG since about 2002 (Onslaught block) and started playing commander around 2013 when the second set of pre-cons came out.

One thing I hear discussed in play groups every so often is how "Commander was better before pre-cons existed" and yea I could see how that might be true building and playing decks with no "Designed for commander" cards would certainly be interesting.

So this idea popped into my head while watching some commentary on the new booster changes, Pre-Commander, basically just any tournament legal card that existed before 2011 pre-con decks. And yea I know there are probably already to many commander format variants from Dual Commander to Tiny Leaders, but idk I thought this was an interesting idea.

I feel like there's something to this deck. It's extremely explosive and fun. I play a rock or a cost reducer on turn 2. I then cast [[Elsha, Threefold Master]] on turn 3. On turn 4, I start slinging a whole bunch of spells to up my prowess count and her power. I can easily make like 12-14 monks in one hit.

The deck feels like I'm missing something to close out the game when I have all these 1/1s. On turn 5, I usually have 1-2 cantrips that can get me to a prowess count of either 1 or 2, but I don't feel like that'll close out games even with all the monk tokens I made on turn 4. If y'all have experience with her, I'd love to hear anything you think I should add to close out games or to improve the deck.

Here's the deck list on Moxfield: https://moxfield.com/decks/O1hOGAQttUi9KqQ6Ls1O6w

First off, just assume I am in a pod where nobody cares what 3 game changers you run in bracket 3. There are no combination of game changers that are too powerful so no need to argue that something is too powerful for bracket 3 here. It is all good.

I got started thinking about my game changers slot in a deck was I was working on and where I needed to make cuts to get down to 99. I was up to 4 game changers at this point so I knew at least one of them had to go:

• [[Rhystic Study]] - I like taxing opponents, and I like drawing cards
• [[Smothering Tithe]] - deck really needs the ramp, I like taxing opponents
• [[The One Ring]] - the protection is good, I like drawing cards
• [[Ancient Tomb]] - I need the ramp

I was trying to decide between The One Ring and Rhystic Study because they both served mostly the same purpose and ramp was more important to me in that deck. That's when I realized I had randomly thrown a The Theorist, Jace Beleren into the deck for no reason other than I had it.

• [[The Theorist, Jace Beleren]] - chump blockers, bounces things, draws a ton of cards, not a game changer

That really got me thinking what is better for bracket 3, Jace of Rhystic Study?

I could absolutely run both, but removing Rhystic meant I got to keep The One Ring...that seemed really good. I'm actually starting to convince myself that if I'm at my GC limit, swapping Rhystic for The Theorist might be the new way to go.

Even if I'm not, The Theorist is *really* good. Am I crazy for ditching Rhystic Study in general for The Theorist? He costs 1 more mana and doesn't tax the opponent, but the upsides feel really good. He honestly feels like a Game Changer when he lasts a turn cycle.

I saw this card being exclusive for Alchemy and it kinda broke my heart, so I talked with my table and they allowed me to do a deck with it on the command zone.

It was hard to build because I didn't have the usual tools I used for making decks (looking at moxfield for decks and EDHREC for different options), so I had to learn how to use Scryfall to search for the first time to look for what I might need. I also put a restriction on no infinites, which turned out to be pretty hard, I had to cut out all free instant speed sacrifice and haste enablers.

Still, I'm proud of the deck: it works as it should and has won 2 games already at my bracket 3 pod, maybe those were highrolls

I'm looking for input on how do you all feel this deck pilots and maybe mention cards/tips on how I should upgrade, thank you.

"Burglar's exiled swarm":

https://moxfield.com/decks/iN7kNjveCUG_IMgcy7HxJA

So I've made this moraug deck that I realllyyyy enjoy, I like it how it is buttt I'd like to make it a bracket 4. I'm unsure if he is a viable B4 commander because he's so expensive, but if you guys have any suggestions I'd really appreciate it! I feel like I need ramp but I'm new to magic and don't know of many and red isn't a uh very ramp friendly color haha

Deck list

I want to make a nostalgia deck thats annoying. Need help with card ideas. Basically i want to make a mana burn/land destruction deck.

The first deck i ever made was like mana barbs and ankh if mishra. It also had land destruction and alternate mana. It wasn't a good deck but i liked it.

I was going to use yurlock scorch thrash for my commander

Other cards i have for it are
Mana barbs
Ankh of mishra
Citadel of pain
Power surge
Zozu the punisher
Svella ice shaper (for mana)

I haven't played very seriously for a very long time. But i have a good group of commander friends and so I've gotta back in to magic. So i just want to make this nostalgia deck thats very annoying, mostly to annoy one of my friends. It doesn't have to be good and win all the time its just got to be annoying

So I'm just looking for suggestions because I've been gone so long i don't know any similar cards, or exactly how to make it work. Thanks

Hi!

I recently started playing Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader and I’m a bit obsessed with it. It contaminated the part of my brain that makes Magic decks and I started thinking about making a deck inspired by it. Specifically, by holy gunfire and demolition/explosions. [[Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot]] seems like a perfect fit, with the theme of shooting down targets and eventually winning with a big explosion.

I saw a few lists that were going for a combo win with [[Boros Reckoner]], but I don’t think that’s very appropriate for my playgroup. We play mostly around Bracket 3 without combos and often more on the aggro side, so I was looking for a control/burn - Spellslinger deck with stuff like [[Guttersnipe]] and [[Electrostatic Field]] and ending games by increasing the damage of spells like [[Grapeshot]].

What I’m mostly worried about is card draw. Taii Wakeen, in theory, makes you draw, but I don’t know how consistently it will work, and in general Boros seems pretty poor on that front.

Do you have a deck that goes more in that direction?

Thank you for your help!

https://moxfield.com/decks/EcYeV-EETkmT0MSQbcYr5w

This is a deck of a friend of mine. He insists it isn't bracket 4 but the website we're using to play Commander on thinks it is, and the rest of our pod is in agreement.

But people and websites can be mistaken so I'm here asking the court of public opinion.

For the record I don't think there's anything wrong with having a bracket 4, but I do think people should own it if they make something strong and not undersell it.

https://moxfield.com/decks/A0GhAdkpznOeBJMdj9tuNA

I've been working on this guy for months going back and forth on how to build him. I find that I don't like a lot of ways others have built him because they tend to build around abusing ETB/LTBs with his copy ability. This, to me, is incredibly boring because it stops working when Mishra gets blowed up so I'm looking for another way to build him. (Also, when you just copy ETB/LTB it feels like 'durdly value town' and I absolutely HATE playing that way; I want a clear objective and everything in the deck pushes towards that objective).

I stuck with energy because [[Gonti's Aether Heart]] is a viable wincon with Mishra and is one of the best energy engines in the game anyway. It also, funny enough, combos with several other cards so you can pull some shenanigans to win the game with a combo without Mishra in play ([[Whirler Virtuoso]] + [[Gonti's Aether Heart]] make a combo with several other cards to generate infinite thopters and some combos generate infinite thopters and infinite energy so you don't need a haste enabler; just exile Gonti's for an extra turn and swing for game).

Has anyone else built him using a similar method? I'm still playtesting/messing with it and want to increase card velocity.

NOTE: I am also looking for ideas on how to make this deck work without Gonti's. My goal with this is B2/B3 range without GCs, so any input is appreciated. (I know 'no chaining extra turns' is against the bracket rules by my playgroup is mostly fine with infinite turns specifically, because you can just show 'Okay, I'll take infinite turns until I draw X, Y and Z and then I can close the game with those' and then everyone just scoops).

Just picked up a full art version of this elder Sphinx. I want to build a deck around all five of the hex Haven sphinxes. Unfortunately I'm struggling to see the value. Obviously you are ramping but best case scenario with a perfect hand and board set you are ramping 12 to 15 Mana assuming that you make it through a whole turn cycle. That's great, but realistically we're playing green, ramping that big isn't usually a problem and there are other cards that can do it better for less. By the time we were able to get out our commander we are going to be facing an amount of removal. So the question is what spell would you cast in WG that will win you the game while applying reasonable deck building restrictions (no tutors, no game changers, no infinites, no instant wins, total deck <$200).

What the deck needs

- Consistent life gain on and off turn

Solution: soul sister effect, lifegain instants, life linkers

- Ramping into Kwia

Solution: focus on 1, 2, and mana ramp

- Finishing the game

Solution: ???

Thoughts so far for finishers

- xspells like [[Entreat the Angels]]

- hydras

- ghalta variations

- overrun effects

I was talking to my pod and one member was saying how they had finished the 32 decks challenge and one of their decks was a Yidris deck. Now I’ve seen a few Yidris decks and I asked “so how did you build them?” And their response was “I didn’t want to make him as getting a lot of Cascade trigger or do do Cascade for bit cards since he seems far too efficient for that so I built him as focusing on casting only two spells per turn.” So I went “isn’t that basically using him in the wrong niche, especially without white.” And they said “yeah but I found a way to use him sub-optimally and make him comparatively suck.”

And then most other people posted “based”, “that’s so cool if you,” or something similar. And like, why? Is there something of an achievement considered in running a bad deck? I can get making a weird strategy work like the time I tried to make Terra Wizard Tribal a thing but this is outright going “I’m not going to use my commander’s strength since it seems too good.”

Or is the idea of making bad decks in a world of power creep and optimization the laudable thing? Is it just going against the grain? What is it?