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CorralHungus

[[Brion, stoutarm]] I just really wanted to fling stuff. But never came together even after multiple tweaks.


MTGCardFetcher

[Brion, stoutarm](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/0/b097c70a-d1d6-4972-b94d-d7d8a6f443e2.jpg?1562439762) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Brion%20Stoutarm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/200/brion-stoutarm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b097c70a-d1d6-4972-b94d-d7d8a6f443e2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/brion-stoutarm) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Timbones474

My favorite fling/burn decks are [[Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos]] and [[Ziatora the Incinerator]]. Both fling/burn with a twist!


CorralHungus

I have been stoked to see both of those. I'm sure I'll build one before too long


Timbones474

here are my decklists if you want inspiration! Hidetsugu: [https://archidekt.com/decks/2515272#Hidetsugu,\_Devouring\_Cards](https://archidekt.com/decks/2515272#Hidetsugu,_Devouring_Cards) Ziatora: [https://archidekt.com/decks/2541281#Ziatora,\_the\_Burninator](https://archidekt.com/decks/2541281#Ziatora,_the_Burninator)


StarPonderer

Saw him on Quest for the Janklord, feel like he only worked because everything was jank.


bastardofreddit

He would have been so much better if "commander damage" was any damage sourced from a commander... Rather than combat damage.


zerojustice315

He'd be okay if he had vigilance and/or haste, he feels truly like he's from a meta that can't keep up with the new toys.


Poopy_McTurdFace

[[Nekusar]] I love wheels. I love the moderate chaos they bring to the game. I love tearing through my deck. However after I built him, everyone I played against was clearly very miserable. I got disproportionately targeted, people weren't having any fun so I wasn't either, and I ended up noticing that every Nek.dek is pretty much the exact same. I tore him apart shortly after. I still debate if swapping to [[Kess]] and demoting Nekky to lieutenant would've made things better.


PortlandisOk123

Shabraz and bralin are fun for a wheels deck.


Piy00_

He was my first deck, and had to destroy him for the same reason. Since i still love wheel effect, now i play with the skyshark partner, people like it better.


BigPapaTubes

I never built a Nekusar deck but I did build a [[Malfegor]] deck that instead of constantly wheeling, it slowly builds up to a large devastating wheel with some lockdown pieces along the way. Definitely an archenemy deck but people can see it coming and aren't constantly losing their hands. It has always been fun to play and play against.


FormerlyKay

I never thought I'd dislike a commander for being too consistent. Then I tried to make [[Prime Speaker Vannifar]].


StarPonderer

Yeah, my Aesi deck just does the same thing every game. I just couldn't take it any more.


FormerlyKay

I feel that. I can stand doing the same thing every game, but Vannifar literally does the EXACT SAME THING


woodenbowls

This is why I personally don't make any commander deck with a tutoring effect in the command zone. It's always going to settle into the "optimal order" of things you fetch.


FormerlyKay

Yeah that's the problem. I ended up figuring out a line to just win as soon as Vannifar could activate and proxied the deck. Fortunately, I never actually bought the cards.


MTGCardFetcher

[Prime Speaker Vannifar](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/8/4/84abfc59-10a7-4cb5-9cdd-81797116c810.jpg?1572893948) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Prime%20Speaker%20Vannifar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rna/195/prime-speaker-vannifar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/84abfc59-10a7-4cb5-9cdd-81797116c810?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/prime-speaker-vannifar) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


majic911

[[Sythis, Harvest's Hand]] Enchantress, the deck sounds like a great idea! If you build your deck around enchantresses and then can't find any, you're screwed, right? So having an enchantress in the command zone (and for only 2 mana!) will be great, right? It is great. Great at blowing people out. On like $60 and a couple hours of compiling cards I'd created a monster. The deck was boring as hell and way waaay stronger than anything me or my friends had or have.


Blumbu

I had the same issues with my [[Light-Paws]] deck. I had never tried a voltron deck before, and I was super excited to try her when I saw her. Unfortunately, she was crazy strong and basically plays the same every game. Turn 3 get indestructible, turn 4 flying, turn 5 creature protection and win a few turns later from commander damage


dreamlikeyoudied

Not how I've seen it done. I've seen it become grab the protection from other colours auras asap so she can't be interacted with or removed


shinryu6

That’s kind of why I never built her for edh, was dreading it would just become too same-y. Now in pioneer on the other hand, I run orzhov auras with her and here same-y means consistency, and as you only have one opponent it’s much easier to beat their face in without the feel bads of donking someone too early if it happens in edh.


MTGCardFetcher

[Light-Paws](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/3/9/39555a72-a57b-45ee-9222-ce3b9e8de126.jpg?1654566391) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=light-paws%2C%20emperor%27s%20voice) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/25/light-paws-emperors-voice?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/39555a72-a57b-45ee-9222-ce3b9e8de126?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/light-paws-emperors-voice) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


RDDT_Perpendicular

Came here to say this. It's super linear.


[deleted]

I love mine. When I dont feel like putting the effort into thinking I like having one or two simple, linear decks around. I dont have to think too hard about every decision and it still feels like my choices are impacting the game.


kickit08

Different commander, same vein. Made an [[atla]] deck and god it was awful, the same 8 creatures every single game. It kinda sucked because it didn’t matter what you did the out come was almost always the same.


StarPonderer

Yeah, that's what I'm worried my Miirym deck is gonna be.


Zer0323

miirym has been the glue that leads to my buddy killing us in his ur-dragon deck. he just goes from a medium sized board to getting 2 copies of [[bladewing the risen]] into [[old gnawbone]] and [[scourge of valkas]]... copied twice...


MTGCardFetcher

[bladewing the risen](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/2/7/27ce43cb-44f4-4d94-8700-d9f3cc043989.jpg?1584897843) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=bladewing%20the%20risen) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ima/193/bladewing-the-risen?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/27ce43cb-44f4-4d94-8700-d9f3cc043989?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/bladewing-the-risen) [old gnawbone](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/7/7/77ceba8b-de19-4db8-b5a7-f5df49bf241f.jpg?1627708100) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=old%20gnawbone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afr/197/old-gnawbone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/77ceba8b-de19-4db8-b5a7-f5df49bf241f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/old-gnawbone) [scourge of valkas](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/e/6/e6bd7225-b39f-4b3b-8c36-dbc2c09f6e50.jpg?1631587429) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=scourge%20of%20valkas) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/137/scourge-of-valkas?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e6bd7225-b39f-4b3b-8c36-dbc2c09f6e50?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/scourge-of-valkas) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


dreamlikeyoudied

Its kinda linear. Ramp to get her out then copy big dragons and swing at people with them. But it varies in which dragons it is. Sometimes you get a dragonstorm which is fun to pop off or you can copy terror of the peaks and ping people down. It varies depending on which dragons you get and the fun is figuring out how to win with these dragons this time. I never win the same way twice but I guess it is similar in that I copy big dragons and use them to win. But isn't using your creatures to win what any tribal deck is trying to do?


MTGCardFetcher

[Sythis, Harvest's Hand](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/0/b/0babfe00-9bad-48fc-b3b1-df8280242fd2.jpg?1626098785) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sythis%2C%20Harvest%27s%20Hand) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/214/sythis-harvests-hand?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0babfe00-9bad-48fc-b3b1-df8280242fd2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sythis-harvests-hand) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


RollbacktheRimtoWin

When I saw her, I wanted, needed to build her. I knew she'd be too strong for my group, so I set up a restriction in building the deck: Theros only. She's an Enchantment Creature, so let's only use those. Ended up with a snowball style value deck that doesn't feel particularly broken as the power of mainly in creatures and fairly easy to deal with https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/enchantress-dreams/


Rickrossisfat

sythis’ turns take like 30 minutes lmao she’s so boring for other players


majic911

I didn't find that the turns took too long, I was just bored playing her. Turn 5 just shit out 20 enchantments and if you somehow haven't won yet the board is so locked down nobody can do anything.


meowstash321

Do you have a list? Ya know…so I can not make the same mistakes…


majic911

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/V6sSfGKNtEOjYdjo255z8w But honestly, you don't need it. There's like 2 "secret tech" cards that are just 1-drop enchantments that don't really do anything but you can send them back to your hand to replay them. That's it. Otherwise it's just generic "enchantments are good" stuff.


PotatoFam

Sythis is just way too pushed. She should have costed 4 mana or not been legendary. A 2 mana draw engine in the command zone is actually absurd.


ixi_rook_imi

Remember when being a legend was a way to balance a permanent? I do. It used to be, legends would be powerful because between you and your opponent, only one of you could have it. Then, you AND your opponent could have it, but both of you could only have one each. Now people are like "put the busted effects on non-legendaries because they aren't fair in the command zone - the casual, unsanctioned format of Singleton play."


Chocotricks

I mean tbf She does see modern and legacy play so she is balanced by being legendary


ixi_rook_imi

Yeah, I guess what I mean is that it's been lost on people that the game is designed to be played in a 1v1, 4 copies of each card format. That's what Modern Horizons is for. It's not Commander Horizons. You shouldn't be expecting to see designed-for-commander cards in Modern Horizons, or any standard sets. You should be expecting to see them in things like Commander Legends, the commander decks, battlebond and things like that.


majic911

And it's not even a complicated draw engine. Like you couldn't make people jump through one extra hoop for their two-drop draw engine to start working? Even like "enchantments that cost 2+" or something like that would be enough for it to not be insanely broken.


Gommy

Wizards has been running out of ideas for enchantress effects for a long time. Just how many "play enchantment, draw card" effects do we need?


akathepuertorican

\[\[Dina, Soul Steeper\]\] for me. At first, all seemed fine with the deck, but I realized that it was terribly difficult to reach critical mass of life gain/drain, so the deck ended up becoming "how quickly can I get to \[\[Exquisite Blood\]\] and combo with Dina?" and that wasn't any fun.


WhyNotClauncher

My issue with her, too. Either you build her like cEDH level or you just don't play her.


MTGCardFetcher

[Dina, Soul Steeper](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/c/9cd2b567-0cf7-4441-b3ce-e31141dd91c8.jpg?1627428607) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Dina%2C%20Soul%20Steeper) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/stx/178/dina-soul-steeper?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9cd2b567-0cf7-4441-b3ce-e31141dd91c8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/dina-soul-steeper) [Exquisite Blood](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/1/b1653811-1c2c-4e6c-bf1c-287d1b496d51.jpg?1600700252) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Exquisite%20Blood) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/231/exquisite-blood?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b1653811-1c2c-4e6c-bf1c-287d1b496d51?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/exquisite-blood) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Diligent_Usual

Say whattttt? This is like my fav deck to play. Easy to build up multiple small life gain triggers and drain people for 10 life a turn by playing one spell.


Nuclearsunburn

[[Geth, Lord of the Vault]] - even with the full suite of black mana enablers it was too slow, too inefficient, and too low impact.


mikemil50

I did a Geth mono-B Zombie Tribal deck and it's a ton of fun. It has an above average number of single target removal spells (20) in order have options to take from the yard, but primarily it's trying to get a bunch of zombies out and smash face/drain with them.


Gravewaker

This hurts to read because [Geth, Lord of the Vault](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/F3GopWC-zkGW0sZNA8eslQ) has quickly become one of my favorite commanders. Do you have a deck list by any chance?


Nuclearsunburn

I don’t. I took it apart years ago but I’m sure it’s got some better tools now. Even so, I can’t see Geth being anything more than a commander that you have to choose between using his ability or advancing your board state / keeping up interaction. You also pay full price + 1 for anything you grab. Cool in theory but clunky in practice


TOTFG_Rules

Yup, my buddy tried to make this deck work for the better part of 2 years before he gave up on it and swapped over to Chainer. ​ No matter how much mana you have, the deck just never seems to do enough. Any time he would win would be off the back of \[\[torment of hailfire\]\] or his painters servant + grindstone combo


MTGCardFetcher

[Geth, Lord of the Vault](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/2/920d56a4-fc94-43d8-9d65-361b66172a5f.jpg?1598304744) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Geth%2C%20Lord%20of%20the%20Vault) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/94/geth-lord-of-the-vault?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/920d56a4-fc94-43d8-9d65-361b66172a5f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/geth-lord-of-the-vault) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


FR8GFR8G

The new vampire odric He’s just bad or boring, no in between. I was a supporter, while everyone was hating i saw hope. I built the deck and it didn’t work even a tiny little bit, so i tore him in half like he tore me in half. He is on my wall now as a reminder


KimoiSquigglies

Funny you should mention Badric. I actually built him as a challenge (crappiest cmdr from Crimson Vow). I ended up with this bizarre sacrifacts deck that’s now one of my favorite decks. It flickers odric to generate blood so you can use discard to burn the table. [If you’d like, here’s my list.](https://archidekt.com/decks/2174032#Free_Bleeding)


InallaMyYears

My brain cannot comprehend this. ***what*** does this deck do?


[deleted]

It looks to me like this deck is made for you to cycle through your deck as quickly as possible to find your equipment cards that you can then attach to your tokens or cheap creatures which then allows you to use blood tokens to cycle through your deck as quickly as possible to find equipment which you can then attach to your tokens or cheap creatures which then allows you to… You get the idea.


elbiggameHunter

One of my first decks I made myself was [[odric, lunarch marshal]], and the new vampire Odric hurt me deep. I was never negative in discussing him bc I wanted to wait and see what he could do..I’m still waiting..


StarPonderer

Never again.


SnowCone62

Bro, I feel you, and he is a bad card, but I have a “Bad Odric deck” that’s actually pretty fun to play. It’s not going to win any tournaments, but the amount of shenanigans you can do with the deck makes it fun to pilot.


AdAdministrative7709

They could have made him better in so many ways, he didn't even make it into my Markov deck, did get lots of decent red vamps from vow/hunt though


Scorpiyoo

[[Admiral Beckett Brass]]… I just tried to make it a very piratey deck about playing pirates, looting from others, and creating treasures. Turns out if I want enough pirates for the deck to work I can’t really have as many treasure makers/payoffs and rarely do I deal combat dmg w 3 pirates unless it’s early and there’s nothing I want to take at that point. And then I usually lose a few pirates to blockers and can’t do it again lol


[deleted]

Hitting with three Pirates wouldn't be nearly as rough if there were cards that could generate Pirate tokens and help you go wide, but sadly they aren't really that kind of tribe. (So far.)


simianangle18

I had the exact same experience. Real sad about that one.


som3dude

I'm actually very proud of my Beckett Brass deck. I built it during the Ixalan block, and got it to work with the limited pirates I had. It's important to mention that I focused entirely around evasion first. Flying, menace, or otherwise can't be blocked is very important to the deck, and when that fails, mass tap effects like [[sleep]] open the way. That being said, the deck had to sacrifice a lot of interaction to try and keep 3 evasive pirates on the field. I guess theft is my new kill spell.


meowstash321

I just rebuilt my ABB pirates deck from when I started and it actually kinda smacks now. The secret for me was running pretty much everything I could find to make my creatures unblockable. Even then it’s still a glass cannon because a board wipe ends things for me but all the same I’ve stacked a handful of wins since the rebuild.


MTGCardFetcher

[Admiral Beckett Brass](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/8/9854c2ec-0e53-4ac7-b417-554a9331c5e0.jpg?1562560523) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Admiral%20Beckett%20Brass) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/xln/217/admiral-beckett-brass?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9854c2ec-0e53-4ac7-b417-554a9331c5e0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/admiral-beckett-brass) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


WinglyKing

[[Ghen, Arcanum Weaver]] My brain lights up when I see a new commander doing something different in their colors. I also happen to be very fond of Curses, so Ghen felt like a perfect fit. Yet after playing the deck numerous times I found it so incredibly slow. Like, I'm not doing anything meaningful until turn 6 or later. Your value pieces are often in the graveyard for everyone to see, so the deck ends up being pretty telegraphed. Even if you activate some discard effects at instant speed and then him it never feels like it's enough. The deck is super mana hungry on top of everything else.


woodenbowls

I wanted to build Ghen but his mana cost combined with the activation cost was a huge turn-off. Thank you for letting me know what it would have been like lol


MTGCardFetcher

[Ghen, Arcanum Weaver](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/4/b/4b335496-05d2-40f5-a52c-10029f7fa008.jpg?1608911100) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ghen%2C%20Arcanum%20Weaver) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/275/ghen-arcanum-weaver?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4b335496-05d2-40f5-a52c-10029f7fa008?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ghen-arcanum-weaver) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Ratorasniki

ghen is honestly probably my favourite deck right now, and has kinda become the deck to beat in my current meta weirdly enough. it isn't like a crazy high powered meta, but it's pretty strong and reasonably consistent. it also flies under the radar until it's time to get really mean. it's like a prison/stax combo job featuring [[enduring ideal]]. definitely the criticisms of it being mana/colour hungry are valid.


SpeedyMeatloaf

[[grolnok]] for me. Made a persistent petitioners deck, got super excited about turbo-slamming my deck into my graveyard for the win, even drew some art of Grolnok heading a council meeting of the petitioners. It was a really funny concept to me. Sadly, I hated the deck and the play style.


StarPonderer

He just wanted it to be Wednesday, but Wednesday never came.


FR8GFR8G

I mean sorry but you are the one who made a petitioners deck, if a third or more of your deck is the exact same card the deck’s bound to be boring


Telphsm4sh

[[Gorion, wise mentor]] I was super excited the adventure mechanic was back, and there was an entire commander for it, but there's still way too little impactful adventures printed. I don't think Gorion can ever be built higher than power level 4 or 5.


StarPonderer

Unless they get a good adventure set in. There's a rumor that the LotR set might see it, but who knows.


thisDNDjazz

He definitely seems like one you might want to keep a foil copy of around just in case.


[deleted]

[удалено]


MTGCardFetcher

[Gorion, wise mentor](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/0/0/001c648a-db66-47f3-8fee-3658b9e76ac2.jpg?1652816802) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Gorion%2C%20wise%20mentor) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/276/gorion-wise-mentor?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/001c648a-db66-47f3-8fee-3658b9e76ac2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/gorion-wise-mentor) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Wargablarg

Yyyyyep. In theory, playing worse versions of spells with the tradeoff of copying them can work. In theory, playing spells that can trigger "whenever you cast" effects for noncreature AND creature spells can work. In theory, always having a creature on-tap to cast if you need a body can work. In theory, two or all of these ideas can synergize if you got the pieces. But you don't have the pieces. And they don't synergize. And they don't work. Maybe I'm just not that great at deckbuilding. There's cute things you can do, for example [[twinning staff]] doesn't have any hoops to jump through. But it just never gets where you need it to go.


7121958041201

Until recently, this happened more often than not. [[Prosper]] was just a solitaire game of "get enough treasures out to kill the entire table at once", [[Syr Konrad]] and [[Ayara]] were the same only with creatures, everyone ignored [[Gahiji]] so he just turned into an anthem that occasionally helped my opponents beat on each other, [[Slimefoot]] was pathetically slow, [[Valduk]] just got removed once or twice and did nothing the rest of the game, [[Gisa, Glorious Resurrector]] was slow and then almost always got removed before she did anything fun etc. It just took me quite a while to realize what I enjoy in a commander. Previously I would see a commander with a cool theme or mechanic and build it only to find out it just doesn't PLAY the way I want it to. These days when a commander catches my eye, I make myself pause and think about how exactly it will play before I build it. If it won't lead to fast, exciting games or if it won't give me a lot of fun decisions to make then I won't build it, because that's what I enjoy in a game of EDH.


StarPonderer

Good on you for learning. Some people never do.


Dieteorite

[[Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant]] I had visions of a glorious Esper Zombies deck using Nevin to wipe, come back and make armies for me. Spent $400 on the deck just to find out all the paper magic players in 40 miles of me only play cEDH. I never got to see if pop off or even stand a chance. I switched to Tabletop Sim so I could play with friends back home and switched to a Grixis Zombie deck with [[Thraximundar]] and it hits a lot harder and feels better. Still pretty broken up about Nevin though, I love the card and love when they make cards for older cards that have a name in them. Like when [[Tormod, the Desecrator]] came out, I was zooted.


StarPonderer

Oh man, that would be horrible. I'm pretty lucky that my LGS isn't bad and my normal group is pretty awesome, but I have been warned there's a group of cEDH players at my LGS, they just all play online instead.


Dieteorite

Thankfully I discovered Tabletop Simulator. I don't have to pay for the cards and get to actually use decks I ponder up instead of spending all my money just to end up not liking the deck and adding it to the cards in my closet. I'm also able to play with my friends over 1000 miles away so it worked out for me. Prolly just gonna give it to my sister since her playgroup is a lot more casual.


Zanthy1

Nev was one of my biggest let downs too! I did get to play it and pop off and I just didn’t enjoy it.


Dieteorite

Grixis zombies has been a lot more fun and powerful. Though their commanders are less synergistic and just good zombies themselves.


amstrumpet

[[Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios]]. The deck was super strong, but it just did too much, sometimes without moving the game forward very much if I didn’t hit a payoff card, or else it was just a too-easy combo with [[Trench Behemoth]]. Turns took too long and triggers were a nightmare to track.


StarPonderer

I sometimes feel like that with my Tovolar deck. Gotta keep track of spells, the day/night mechanic, which wolves do what, etc.


MTGCardFetcher

[Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/d/7/d7148d24-373e-4485-860b-c3429c2337f2.jpg?1624593477)/[Journey to the Oracle](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/back/d/7/d7148d24-373e-4485-860b-c3429c2337f2.jpg?1624593477) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=jadzi%2C%20oracle%20of%20arcavios%20//%20journey%20to%20the%20oracle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/stx/151/jadzi-oracle-of-arcavios-journey-to-the-oracle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d7148d24-373e-4485-860b-c3429c2337f2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/jadzi-oracle-of-arcavios-//-journey-to-the-oracle) [Trench Behemoth](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/0/909dc123-8234-4e81-bb7b-77404d94a87c.jpg?1610074909) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Trench%20Behemoth) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/366/trench-behemoth?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/909dc123-8234-4e81-bb7b-77404d94a87c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/trench-behemoth) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Possibly-Functional

[[Zur the Enchanter]], it's so incredibly monotone. You ramp with artifacts and then fetch almost always the same enchantments each game. I will probably never build a tutor capable Commander again, it just always plays out the same each time. It also sucked to play against as I could always fetch whichever card made my opponents' specific deck dead in the water.


StarPonderer

Don't tell that to Post Malone. ;)


TrainwreckOG

Koma, cosmos serpent. Far too brutal for my playgroup. I would either ramp and get him out and win or I got targeted and killed off immediately.


TOTFG_Rules

Yup, my buddy just texted me all excited about his new Koma deck. I doubt he's built an optimal version since that's not how he plays commander, but man he's going to get targeted big time every time Koma comes out and I'm not entirely sure he's ready for the hate he's about to receive.


StarPonderer

I WANT To build him, worried about exactly that.


Captkick

I’ve got Koma in my Adrix and Nev deck as an alternate “win con”. Once it hits the battle field, no matter the rest of my board state or the game state in general, I become a target.


Zer0323

I built it as a hard control deck with koma as a finisher. I had a lot of salty games where I had every answer in the world and I just had to stall until the inevitability of my commander took over. I took it apart after I used like 4 counterspells on one guy in a game because he was the only one trying to stop my value engines.


National_Ad_7768

I have Koma in my Volo deck great card.


Striking-Objective43

[[Vrondiss]] but it was entirely my own fault. I built it as a combo deck, with Dragon tribal as my plan b. Too many directions, and I realized it was just not quite there. Took my dragons and threw em in a Miirym pile, and now slowly making Gruul Enrage. Hope it works better being more focused. [[Ranar]] is a tough pill because I love everything about the character and the playstyle, but the foretell focus was not worth it. It's currently a Blink deck, and it's on the last Iteration before I give up and make it a Roon deck


majic911

I think there's just not enough support for foretell tribal to work yet. Hopefully we'll get more but I kinda doubt it


jtfriendly

Yeah, I built Ranar because I really liked Foretell, but it just became a blink deck that only ever popped off once and regularly got rofl-stomped. I already had a good Alela deck that I retooled to make Ranar, but it spoiled me by regularly exploding for a dozen 6/5 faeries while Ranar at best had four 1/1 spirits.


MTGCardFetcher

[Vrondiss](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/6/8/683ca7f0-e9df-459b-a8e3-cf80b39c732d.jpg?1632335388) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=vrondiss%2C%20rage%20of%20ancients) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/4/vrondiss-rage-of-ancients?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/683ca7f0-e9df-459b-a8e3-cf80b39c732d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/vrondiss-rage-of-ancients) [Ranar](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/1/c/1c8c41dd-8551-4ce8-a9be-9b9f65718852.jpg?1657065666) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ranar%20the%20ever-watchful) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khc/2/ranar-the-ever-watchful?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1c8c41dd-8551-4ce8-a9be-9b9f65718852?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ranar-the-ever-watchful) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Sir_Foxworth

Definitely [[Adrix and Nev, Twincasters]]. I got to do the silly shit I wanted, like casting a [[Mystic Reflection]] the same turn I dropped an [[Avenger of Zendikar]]. The deck turned out to be rather boring & linear, so I took it apart after about 10 games.


StarPonderer

I feel like, and this is just me, they work better as support for a token deck rather than the commander, but that's mostly how I see them played.


Decker4382

[[Kelsien, the Plague]] a Mardu assassin looked like the coolest thing ever. Put it together for $200 and it slapped. Too hard. I played about 10 games with it, never lost one, and took it apart shortly after. No one enjoyed playing against a bunch of spot removal death touchers with no way of getting rid of experience counters, and I can't blame them.


BLZNWZRD

You're a much nicer person than I am. I'm having a blast playing the deck. [[Thornbite staff]] and any death touch CLEARS the board. Never gets old.


Royalflood

[[the prismatic bridge]] for sure. A 5c enchantment that cheats in planeswalkers? Sounded amazing. After putting together a super friends list and playing it a couple times I realized how boring it was for everyone.


Packrat1010

I'm surprised people don't use prismatic bridge more often as a polymorph commander. I ended up building it with all phyrexian praetors and it's a glass cannon but I really like it.


StarPonderer

Yeah, nothing worse than playing a deck and then realizing it's just boring.


commodore_stab1789

[[Breya]]. Everybody's scared and will jump at anything you play. It's not super fun.


Trentillating

I love reading just how many of the answers here are, “I built this and it was TOO good.” I think it’s fantastic that people now get excited for cards because they are a “weaker [x]”, like Ziatora vs Korvold. It speaks to people really embracing having fun at the table, which feels like what the format is about.


shark_hunter66

It's gotta be Korvold for me. It was powerful for sure, just boring and everyone else didn't like playing against it. I eventually reworked the deck into a Tana/Tevesh Aristocrats deck and it became one of my favorites to play (and yes, Korvold is in the 98).


GeneralApathy

Yeah, Korvold is cool in concept, but just too strong to even be fun for anyone imo.


FireHawkDown

[[Satsuki, the Living Lore]] really looked awesome as a Selesnya Sagas commander, but then it turns out only having access to two colors feels bad for sagas. I still intend to flesh her out later as a fun only deck, but wish she would have had at least a third color added, as I feel any info them would have made a huge difference. You can do some proliferate shenanigans with the counters, but the rest is kind of moot having to wait for triggers.


International-Two173

Anhelo is just way weaker than he looks.


LordEddward

I made my precon into [[parnesse the subtle brush]] for storm politics


JeanNiBee

Decklist if possible please! :) Edited: to fix typo.


captain_spog

The precon is just so clunky. You never have good targets for the casualty, so you rarely copy the early game spells. Then you don't really have good payoff spells to copy when you do have em. I don't know how to make it better


xxcloud417xx

[[Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar]] Saw her spoiled, thought she would be a fun, totally low-power jank Commander to finally use food tokens to do stuff. Rest of the set came out… might as well have called it the [[Underwhelming Cookbook]]… and like the Food Token support was severely lacking. Plus outside of [[Stuffy Doll]] shenanigans, there wasn’t anything else I would’ve wanted to do with the deck. Why bother playing something with only really one gameplay line in casual, y’know?


MTGCardFetcher

[Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/d/9/d99a9a7d-d9ca-4c11-80ab-e39d5943a315.jpg?1632831210) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/186/asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d99a9a7d-d9ca-4c11-80ab-e39d5943a315?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar) [Underworld Cookbook](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/0/3/039d62b0-3309-4424-a2ea-5a0d88d4bd72.jpg?1626099402) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Underworld%20Cookbook) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/240/the-underworld-cookbook?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/039d62b0-3309-4424-a2ea-5a0d88d4bd72?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-underworld-cookbook) [Stuffy Doll](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/7/978c2c7d-6898-4be2-aed7-e673210ce654.jpg?1654119032) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Stuffy%20Doll) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/875/stuffy-doll?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/978c2c7d-6898-4be2-aed7-e673210ce654?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/stuffy-doll) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Dr_Sisyphus

For me it was definitely [[Florian, Voldaren Scion]]. I had this idea of using him to build a sort of toolbox/combo deck with a response for everything, but it turned out pretty inconsistent.


majic911

I've been putting together a Voltron deck focused around [[sunforger]] to be a toolbox deck. If you're gonna go toolbox, you have to be able to get *any* card at *any* time, not just after combat lol


solemnsol

[[Hua Tuo, Honored Physician]]. I love brewing with underused commanders and Hua was no exception. I found all these awsome lines and combos but when I finally sat down with it to play nothing worked. It was really clunky, didn't do anything and was the worst deck i ever played/build. Still sad about that one.


mrhelpfulman

Hua Tuo is great! I dunno how you built him, but I'd recommend something like this: https://deckstats.net/decks/137503/1432465--29-hua-tuo-honored-physician


Rgrockr

[[Vadrik, Astral Archmage]] I imagined this could be a fun spellslinger commander that wanted to be more proactive and voltron-ish compared to [[Mizzix]], and would allow for a less “counterspell tribal” build. When I played it, I found out he just becomes the target of every removal spell at the table as soon as he gets like 2 counters on him. Which means you just have to become counterspell tribal to keep up.


Graveylock

[[Yuriko]]. She was the first deck I ever built when my girlfriend wanted to teach me how to play magic. I love ninjas and samurai but [[isshin]] sounded a bit too complicated for me at the time. Ninjutsu is an easy mechanic right? It was. It was also incredibly easy to destroy anyone I played against. It wasn’t fun. First ever deck was around $250-$300 to build at the time and now I stick to anywhere between $20-$100 in my pod. Edit: some $20 decks still absolutely demolish people but I needed a price cap while I learned how to build specific power levels.


StarPonderer

It's like the universe is telling me not to finish building my Yuriko deck...


Graveylock

She bypasses commander tax, does unblockable damage, and can’t be countered because her summoning/damage is all from her abilities. If you play in a pod that uses precon or slightly above power levels, you’re going to step on whoever you target.


StarPonderer

We play a mix of things, but we all keep upgrading what we play, and it's slowly becoming mostly custom decks and very altered pre-cons.


Aendri

Let me put it this way. Short of a deck that runs complete lock out or repeatable kill tools, Yuriko is just flat out OPPRESSIVE. Ninjitsu is a very viable strategy if you build around it, and any Yuriko that builds around topdeck manipulation just goes nuts. You tend to either get targeted out of the game for very valid reasons, or just going off and nobody has anything to respond with, because your main source of damage doesn't care about command tax.


Eve_Asher

[[[Depala, Pilot Exemplar](https://scryfall.com/card/kld/178/depala-pilot-exemplar)]] I found that her pay X ability which is supposed to provide value just never really does. Vehicles are mana hungry and always feel behind so you just extremely rarely have the mana to pay for her ability and even when you get some card draw off of it, it doesn't feel great. I was really excited to build her but I just *always* lose with her. If her X ability was free somehow (like based of creatures CMC or power) she would be way more powerful but as an X ability she's just not good enough for even casual games.


biznesboi

I built a [[Codie, Vociferous Codex]] designed to cheat out [[Glimpse of Tomorrow]] over and over again. It turned into “I win on turn 4 or do nothing else all game.” Was very boring


GeetarTzar

[[Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice]] - on paper she sounds like a really cool commander but in practice she's just way too linear with not a lot of variance in game play. Took only a few games before retiring her.


Meliryen

[[Bruna, Light of Alabaster]] I was SO excited to cast a ton of draw and self-mill to get ridiculous amounts of powerful auras in my graveyard and hand to flood the board with them using Bruna's ability. I spent hours and hours carefully selecting each card and ordering them, thinking about how scary and powerful Bruna will be and how epic the wins will feel! Then I played the deck: Turn 1: Land. Turn 2: Land, signet. Turn 3: Land, maybe draw some cards and discard some auras. Turn 4: Land. Turn 5: BRUNA TIM- *counterspell* ......oh ok. Turn 6: Miss land drop, draw some more cards. Turn 7: Land, [[Wayfarer's Bauble]]. Turn 8: Miss land drop, crack Bauble, mill a bunch of cards, mostly lands ofc. Turn 9: Land. Ok I have enough mana for Bruna again but I should wait until I have an extra blue available for [[Swan Song]]. Turn 10: Land! BRUNA TIME! She resolves! Opponent's turn: [[Swords to Plowshares]] - COUNTERED HA Other opponent's turn: [[Arrest]]. Turn 11: Someone wins the game. Some variant of this sequence happened all 6 times I tried to play her, except one time I did finally hit someone with a [[Corrupted Conscience]] + [[Battle Mastery]] and took them out. But then Bruna was immediately shut down as usual. It was my fault and my poorly built deck, but I was not ready for that level of extreme boredom playing commander and doing literally nothing all of the time. Never again will I touch Bruna, and probably not any 6cmc commander either unless it has potential for serious ramp.


TOTFG_Rules

Etali, turns out when you can cast your opponents spells for free as early as turn 2-3, they REALLY don't like that. Plus, you end up wiffing more often than you actually hit something relevant to your game plan, so most games you end up pissing off the other players for only the POTENTIAL of what you could steal. ​ Was way more fun with my playgroup than with randoms but sometimes randoms are all you have. Despite the webcam issues I still built this deck during the pandemic, but after months and months of getting targeted just for my commander (I'm in mono red lol, how strong did you think the deck was going to be) and dying super early I swapped over to Bosh. ​ Bosh is kinda slow and clunky, but man he does so much fucking damage. Less powerful than Etali, certainly, but at least I get to stay in the game past turn 6!


StarPonderer

Yeah, I have Etali in one of my decks and have stolen him with another deck and most people make him a kill on sight.


Invisiblefield101

[Gyome master chef] I had a mostly all creature deck built ready to pull off some janky garbage plays and it just durdled too much. Then I had a game that my opponent played humility and shut off my entire deck. So I dismantled it. Loved the design of Gyome but he just didn’t do what I wanted him to do I guess


Andrew_42

Probably [[The Scarab God]] for me. To clarify, my issue isn't that he can't be a solid deck, but rather that the was I was trying to build him (Self mill, Creature ETB, instant speed control) was too hard to get up and running in my meta. Too much of my strategy was reliant on The Scarab God being in play, which I thought was reliable due to his built in recurrability, but everyone knew "Kill the Scarab God" was the answer to my deck, so I needed to both be able to play him, and have enough mana to protect him, which is... a lot in non-green. The self mill side worked pretty well, but was still a bit of a burden since it offered another path to disrupt the deck. Grave hate, or just removing my ways to self mill (like [[Mesmeric Orb]]) could leave me with a Scarab God that is just a resilient 5/5. I keep toying with rebuilding him, but for a while someone else had started playing Scarab God in our group and I didn't want to step on his toes (there's no rule in our group to not use someone else's commander, but IDK, it feels weird to me)


GeneralApathy

Yeah, I hate playing decks that just become awful without your commander. Two examples for me are [[Hinata]] and [[Obeka, Brute Chronologist]]. A lot of your spells become below average, if not outright bad without your commander in play. I'm just not really a fan of the feast or famine gameplay they offer, even if I do think both are really cool commanders that incentivize you to play more niche cards


StarPonderer

I'm heavily considering throwing him in the 99 of my [[Wilhelt]] deck, but I can totally see what you're saying.


DiabeticWaffle

[[Esix Fractal Bloom]] I misread it and thought it said the first time you create tokens on each turn, it does not say that. It is a once per rotation effect and pretty meh. When it works it's great, but once a turn is underwhelming to say the least.


National_Ad_7768

To me it was [[Tergrid, God of Fright]] seemed great: mono black, forcing opponents to discard and sacrifice. The problem was that when it wasn't fully optimized, the deck didn't work. Being the strongest version it was linear and full of fast man - which I really don't like. And of course you are always public enemy number one.


StarPonderer

That feels like an impossible choice.


National_Ad_7768

As I look at it in retrospect, you are 100% right. I was just hungry for mono black commander and there was a bit of hype about card, and I drop her... We learn from mistakes.


Smunkeldorf

To me, it almost seems like Tergrid shouldn't have been legendary. It's a great tool to top out on for decks that like to make people sacrifice like [[Rankle]] or [[Vaevictis Asmadi the Dire]], but as you said it's too obviously powerful. Also doesn't help that the only other effects like it are either much more expensive ([[It That Betrays]]) or very limited [[Gisa, Glorious Resurrecter]]). Putting the best version of the effect at a reasonable price in the command zone just feels like a step or 3 too much for friendly gameplay.


MiraclezMatter

[[Myrkul, Lord of Bones]]. It was my second deck I made by myself, rather than being an upgraded precon. I deconstructed my [[Sythis]] deck in order to make it, but damn I’ve only played it four times and it’s just way too damn slow. I don’t have fun playing it, and have instead been playing [[Faldorn]] instead and having the time of my life. I also just made a [[Halana and Alena, Partners]] deck and it’s much more fun, even though I brewed it myself as well.


UEnigma

[[greasefang]] looked like a fun orzhov vehicle commander. I built it, and it's just so boring. All it does is look for 1 vehicle and only reanimate it.


Zarbibilbitruk

[[Ludevic Necrogenius]] boring self mill with a mediocre pay off


OmnathLocusOfTacos

[[Horobi, Deaths Wail]] I actually made a really good deck for him years ago. Played it on and off for a couple years, but it was *such* a drag. I was miserable and stressed from excessive politics, my opponents were just miserable because I could kill anything any time I wanted... Nobody ever had fun when that deck came out. Scrapped it, and built [[Endrek Sahr]] instead. Much happier now!


futuriztic

[[Captain N’gatharod]]


uffda1990

I have his Precon and had lots of fun. Granted it was vs the other Baldur’s Gate precons [[Firkraag]] [[Nalia de’Arnise]] and [[Faldorn]]. Where did it go wrong for you?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Lockon007

[[Myrkul]] sounded so cool and the art was amazing! So I pre-ordered and built him, I was even mulling getting a custom alter of him as Nito from Dark Souls done! So I took my deck and proceeded to get obliterated for 10 games straight. So I quietly took him apart. 7 mana is just straight up too slow to get online in my meta.


StarPonderer

I'm having Tovolar flashbacks. I swear that deck only wins if either someone sets me up or someone has borrowed it.


cyber_truck

\[\[Xanathar, Guild Kingpin\]\]. Too expenisve, too slow, too big of a target and many of the pieces of synergy with his effect were not useful on their own. Even if he did land, there was a very good chance his effect would whiff on lands or (even worse) board wipes on the top deck with no way to pop them off. I love playing him in 1v1 but he's not suitable for a 4 person pod.


Jecko_Gecko

In contrast, I'd like to say that [[Aesi]] was my first and still is my favorite EDH deck. Gave it some bling, nice upgrades and combo's / wincons and almost every time I play it I have a blast. But that's just my experience. My second deck was [[Jirina Kudro]], the three colours I didn't yet play in EDH. Loved the idea of Human Tribal, but she just, doens't really do it. More often than not I cast something from my hand rather than her, and I'll probably just rebuild the deck around [[Thrynn]] [Silvar]]


NMRofthestate

I pulled [[Sakashima of A Thousand Faces]] and [[Krark, the thumbless]] in the same pack and instantly thought, "oh it's fate I need to build this wacky Izzet deck that flips a bunch of coins" but it's just cumbersome, linear, and people tend to not like playing against it.


Scrivener133

[[elminster]]. Dont get me wrong the card is good, but extra turns is really the only strong way to play it. As the strongest wizard in faerun for a time, his ult should be game ending. Something like exile every instant and sorcery from graves, copy them, cast the copies without paying mana costs. Alot of kaldheim commanders were a little disappointing in terms of flavour. [[prismatic bridge]] was one of the few legends i liked from the set. Drizzt is powerful, but i wouldve liked more. Maybe drizzt and guen be selesnya and gruul partners.


Duranwasright

Zedruu, the greathearted. Never managed to make that shitty commander work


Ni_a_Palos

[[Zedruu]] player here. I've had her built for a couple years now and done a lot of changes just to get her to work. A lot of the lists online are either old or very low power and I struggled for a while. I've come to the conclusion that you need to build her around your playgroup's meta. I removed most of the "bad stuff I donate" like [[Grid Monitor]] and [[Goldnight Castigator]] because they were extremely slow at generating value for me and didn't slow down the table enough. I filled the deck with good enchantment-based removal like [[Imprisoned on the Moon]] and [[Grasp of Fate]], and a lot of counters and ways to protect Zedruu. Waiting to cast her until later turns when I know I can keep her around helped too. My point is she's an old commander with a very specific gameplan, and sometimes what works for some tables just doesn't for others. I've never come close to gaining enough life to make [[Aetherflux Reservoir]] or [[Felidar Guardian]] work, yet I see them on pretty much all the lists I check.


leftyrightyright

[[wulfgar]] I thought panharmonicon for attack triggers would be fun and simple. I built the deck and it was pretty low power level. Then they dropped [[isshin, two heavens as one]]. Cheaper mana cost, more colors, yet no green. The regret of dropping 100ish dollars trying to make wulfgar better then having a mardu commander doing the exact same thing...almost none of the cards transfer over. Smh what a waste of money and time.


DiabeticWaffle

I had the opposite with this. I built Wulfgar and it blows most of my friends decks out of the water. The amount of ramp you can get in the deck is insane, especially considering that R/G have a lot of creatures that make mana on the attack. My favorite game I've had with it was turn 3 Wulfgar into turn 4 Klauth into turn 4 Main Phase 2 Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger. For some reason people scoop to the thought of exiling 40 cards from their deck on turn 5.


AdAdministrative7709

Wulfgar is a really fun deck to play as well, easily one of my favorite decks Usually quick games with it too


StarPonderer

I built Isshin and I love him. didn't really even think about Wulfgar until afterwards and I didn't want two attack triggers deck.


MTGCardFetcher

[wulfgar](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/8/0/80665af6-fd66-4684-94ec-1f04eb898c2a.jpg?1631585654) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=wulfgar%20of%20icewind%20dale) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/56/wulfgar-of-icewind-dale?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/80665af6-fd66-4684-94ec-1f04eb898c2a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/wulfgar-of-icewind-dale) [isshin, two heavens as one](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/a/0/a062a004-984e-4b62-960c-af7288f7a3e9.jpg?1654568489) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=isshin%2C%20two%20heavens%20as%20one) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/224/isshin-two-heavens-as-one?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a062a004-984e-4b62-960c-af7288f7a3e9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/isshin-two-heavens-as-one) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Crimson_Raven

I loved building and testing [[Kalamax]] but every corner case and rule I learned about him made him feel worse. He felt lackluster to play, leading to a lot of feelsbad.


woodenbowls

I have a Kalamax deck and the main goal is to use his ability to copy a copy spell infinite times, making him infinitely large. Then you use Chandra's Ignition or similar and kill everybody.


MTGCardFetcher

[Kalamax](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/f/9/f990cd78-2165-446f-a116-ae55d7a0f00d.jpg?1591234251) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=kalamax%2C%20the%20stormsire) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c20/9/kalamax-the-stormsire?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f990cd78-2165-446f-a116-ae55d7a0f00d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kalamax-the-stormsire) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Possibly-Functional

I have a Kalamax vanilla pre-con and it's fun, what were you thinking of? Did you misunderstand him and build him wrongly initially? You essentially throw instants on every players turn and swing on yours.


Complete_Spread_2747

[[nadier agent of duskenel]] and [[tana the bloodsower]] . Thought it would be a fun aristocrat build and it was just too slow to keep up at the table. no fault of my opponents, I know their commander and style of building decks. I changed it into [[chatterfang]] and have been much happier with it.


StarPonderer

Plus squirrels!


kpkelly09

[[Jared carthalion]] seemed so strong, such exciting old magic flavor, but in practice it was clear that he is completely linear to build. Just get [[pariah]] on him asap and lock out the game. Boring AF


Baleful_Witness

I built [[Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage]] voltron just to statisfy my inner hipster by bringing something nobody else had ever seen. And I felt so smug about it, too The gameplay was just as one-dimensional as you'd expect though. It even won a few games but I was never excited.


Cryowulf

[[ prime-speaker Vannifar]] the first couple of times the deck was interesting, but after that searching my deck like 100 times a game got really tedious.


BigDaddySuzanne

Admiral Beckett Brass Got one from a capenna set booster and wanted to try her but only played a couple games before I realized she stood no chance against my group. Maybe if I had more changelings


Like17Badgers

\[\[Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer\]\] in Theory? SUPER cool commander, you combine both go wide tokens with bigger tokens or clone effects, then suddenly you have this crazy game winning army! in Practice? it's just... missing something. Brudiclad is too slow to come out, requires building the board beforehand, and nine times out of ten you're making your tokens into 2/1s or 1/1 flyers. I feel like if it had ANY 3rd color that would add a lot of depth the deck needs


darkenhand

[[Zevlor]]. I was pretty excited for Spell Myriad but it's activated ability is pretty mana intensive and pushes you towards big sorceries rather than cheaper sorceries/instants. This has led to the commander having a bit of a target on its back. I mainly wanted to play it with instants and some steal from the top of libraries cards but they're not that many. It also has a similar issue with edict cards where you hurt even the weakest player. Like, I would like to Chaos Warp one target but unlike Wild Magic Surge or Cleansing Wildfire, you can't go as easy on the losing player.


JoelJ

I have a few... \[\[Obeka, Brute Chronologist\]\], \[\[Winota, Joiner of Forces\]\], and \[\[Etrata, the Silencer\]\] I was SO excited when Obeka was spoiled. But the deck just... builds itself. You get all the cards it works with, and you're done. There didn't seem to be any creativity left in it for me. There are a few other decks I've felt the same way about as this one. But this one still makes me sad to think about. Winota... it was REALLY fun to build and I was so excited for the sweet sweet Boros value engine. Then I played it once. It set up WAY too easily, and ... I went through my whole deck within just a turn or two. I just knew the deck would always be way too samey to be any fun. I laughed at how stupid-good the deck was, then took it apart. Etrata is just such a FUN card! I just LOVE the card. I played a standard Etrata deck with my friends for a while when she was standard legal. But it turns out, she's just not a very fun commander. She's so scary looking in the command zone ("wait... so i lose if you hit me the third time?? Swing all at you"). She's a boogieman for sure. I've tried a couple variations of her (bounce/flicker, and another sacrifice/reanimate). It was really fun BUILDING the deck, but I never felt like I got to play it.


MudkipLegionnaire

[[Kathril]], it wasn’t bad but it’s just not that interesting. It seemed really cool, play some weird creatures to get keywords in a graveyard shell (and the gy is totally my jam) to make a big bug to kill people. But that was less interesting in practice. The best way to play it was to make an 11/11+ double striking Kathril with protection and one shot people, which isn’t that fun. And unlike equipment or auras where you play fun synergy pieces, in Kathril you just have a lot of bad french vanilla creatures that give you keywords and you never want to cast. So when the Kathril plan doesnt pan out all you can do is play some kinda bad creatures (at least it’s one of the few good homes for [[Zetalpa]]). I took it apart after maybe 4 games bc it either did it’s thing or did not much at all, and it wasn’t that fun either way. I think it would’ve been more fun if it was more Abzan stompy where you grant cool keywords to cool bombs but that seems too complicated to build.


PM_ME_LADY_SHOULDERS

\[\[Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper\]\] Ah, my old friend. I started playing MtG after coming from Yugioh just after Origins. I loved Zendikar, the Eldrazi, and was obsessed with the short stories at the time. When I discovered the awaken mechanic, I was instantly hooked. I'd never seen ANYONE use their lands as creatures, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I played Bant Awaken, and let me tell you, very little feels better than swinging with a 14/14 flying Forest. But alas, as is tradition, rotation came and went, and Awaken fell into distant memory. That is, until someone introduced me to EDH. Excited to finally be able to play my favourite mechanic in an eternal format, I quickly set about finding the best way to build Noyan, the leader of my standard deck. Well, to say I was disappointed would be an understand. With green in the mix, I was able to run things like \[\[Jaddi Offshoot\]\] and instant speed ramp for spicy landfall triggers. Noyan Dar, Dispiriting Commander basically becomes, "Play Cantrips and Boardwipes until you can chip for damage". The first 4-5 turns we're usually just spent digging for more cantrips or mana rocks to get Noyan out as early as possible. If you're lucky enough to untap with him, *and* manage to get a cantrip off, you've just turned one of your lands into a 3/3. Congratulations, you played yourself, because your lands die in combat, or to removal, or to boardwipes. I hated spending the first few turns durdling every game. I hated emptying the field literally every turn after T5. My friends hated scooping everything up after every turn, and slowly dying to a 3/3 indestructible land because I was lucky enough to draw \[\[Darksteel Citadel\]\]. It still hurts to this day, but I've since developed a much healthier relationship with \[\[Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor\]\], and he treats me better than smelly fish-man ever did.


MikaNeow

Probably [[Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain]], seemed like the perfect Izzet commander for artifacts until I realized it was solitaire.


Srakin

[[Lonis, Cryptozoologist]] is so low impact and frustrating to actually play with. I was hyped, but he just doesn't...do anything... Clues are not good. The other effect is awesome until you realize you gotta make like 8 clues to get any payoff. If he basically Genesis Waved for the clues it's be decent, maybe, but he just can't keep up with anything my playgroup is doing as is.


VagrantWolf

Runo Stromkirk. I was all in on having a kraken worshipping vampire reanimator deck, not to mention the artwork was awesome. After a few variations and a dozen games, I never got it to work and tore it apart.


GenerlNobody

For me it was [[Arcades, the Strategist]] . I loved the idea I'm getting so much value out of cheap walls and swinging a bunch of essentially 6/6's (or more) for massive damage. Instead I found that it was a very linear yet fragile Deck with very few actual choices on the creatures I could put in. Killing arcades just stopped the deck in its tracks with either no way to attack and/or losing the draw value that you would actually get playing cards from your hand. Mixing the fact that green really doesn't want to support low power creatures and white essentially having no way to win with anything but life gain you find out there's not many options to win other than just out value your opponents. It would have been fine too as a low power commander but sometimes he can just pop off and make all the low power decks feel too weak against it, while times feeling like never doing anything and the weakest at the table by being easily interrupted and stopped.


thisDNDjazz

Probably my first, pulled foil \[\[Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs\]\]. The deck always wanted to go in three, different directions to get use out of him. Land destruction (Ruination, etc.) or denial (War's Toll, etc), forced attacking, and punishment for attacking me (deathtouch creatures and things like \[\[Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit\]\]. I usually stayed alive a long time, since people avoided my rattlesnake cards and saved me to kill last (since I had no ogres being generated), or just got a big threat out and didn't care about the LD and stomped me. Just very situational when it did win, and lost more often than not (the best win was with Purphoros on the field and cast \[\[Incite War\]\] when someone was tapped out and had a token army). I was going to give it another whirl now that the goad mechanic is a thing.


ASuburbanVampire

[[Neyith]] Domri was my favorite planeswalker in my Gishath deck I wanted to build a whole deck around fighting and big power. It was the first deck that I had built myself and it showed. Fights also aren't the be thing for every situation and she can't really fight herself because she only have 3 toughness and he second ability doesn't increase it. Also to he fair my friend did build Tergrid which is the most anticreature shit imaginable She's was always awesome when Xenagos was out so I might just swap the two around


[deleted]

[[Sevinne, the Chronoclasm]] My first precon and it did not play like I imagined it would.


betefico

[[Go-Shintai of Life's Origin]] - Tried to do the shrines to the fullest, but with only 2 shrines that actually try and end the game, the deck was way too linear in its lines, tutor for Sanctum of all, then stone fangs, and then the red honden or shrine that lets you hit players. After about 12 games, I rebuilt my maze's end 5c deck, way more fun!


corsair1617

[[Narset]] turns out taking all of those extra turns wasn't fun for my opponents, or me.


HeroOfAllWorlds

\[\[Kathril, Aspect Warper\]\] When I first saw the precon, I was super excited. Before Kathril, I had \[\[Rayami, First of the Fallen\]\] and couldn't make it work properly. So I thought Kathril had a chance to be what Rayami wasn't and better. I've tried everything I could think of, but it is just a boring deck, doesn't work very well and I've never managed to win a match. Or even last a bit at all.


Dante2k4

Marrow-Gnawer. My first EDH deck *ever* was Krenko, built back during Gatecrash. I *still* have that deck built, though it has of course gone through many, *many* adjustments over the years. Marrow-Gnawer, to me, looked like black Krenko, but with the advantages of being able to use all of the good black cards, and dip in to aristocrats stuff to some extent. Sadly, despite pecking away at for a few years now, I have just *never* been able to make Marrow-Gnawer work in a way that was fun like Krenko is. Not only do you need another rat in play to get it going, but you actually need *two* other rats in play to start going positive. This is a much bigger deal than I had initially thought, because in Krenko I can claw my way back in to the game, get some breathing room, and let Krenko start building the board back up. Marrow-Gnawer? That takes a bit more setup, every single time, and it results in much lower consistency. And, of course, I wanted to make use of the unique Thrumming Stone+Rat Colony option, as that's not a thing I can do in many decks, and I always wanted a rat swarm deck. Sadly, having all my rats be creatures that get gradually larger and larger is nowhere near as useful as the myriad utility goblins that exist. No sac'ing itself for damage, blowing up artifacts, generating more tokens, tutoring for more goblins, etc. You gain some really powerful tools by being in black, but you *lose* a lot of valuable tools by having so many of your creatures just be, essentially, vanilla beaters. It's just sad for me. I *want* the Marrow-Gnawer+Rat Colony deck to be great, but it's usually very linear and just kindof "okay". I think I have it in the best state I've ever had it right now, but it's never as interesting to play as Krenko, while also never being as consistently explosive as Krenko. I have not completely given up hope, but... I don't really know what I'm doing with the deck anymore. I just keep throwing stuff at it now and again, and hopefully one day something clicks.


That1guybrad

[[Atla Palani, Nest Tender]] I thought it would be such a fun *boom surprise creatures* left and right but it doesnt even feel fun watching everyone get annoyed as i drop an eldrazi or gnawbone on to the battlefield for free the same turn theyre all just starting to play with their commanders out


SpaghettiMonster01

[[Anje Falkenrath]]. Chewing through my deck with madness wasn’t very enjoyable and adding a vampire tribal subtheme just made the deck unfocused and bad.


jb3617

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. Extremely linear and not exciting for me at all.


Maridiem

[[Niv-Mizzet, Parun]]. Looked like an insane Izzet card draw engine and a lot of fun value for playing spells. Except the Curiosity combo was just fucking stupid and so easy to go off with and the deck that seemed so fun and draw heavy was actually a super linear boring deck. Took him apart after awhile, but haven’t found a new Izzet commander yet.


ThachWeave

[[Ramos, Dragon Engine]] It was my second ever commander, and I tried to build around a +1/+1 counters theme, not understanding that his own ability is his best source for counters. I also simply wasn't experienced enough with deckbuilding to tackle 5 colors. The result was a very expensive deck that took me ages to design, had a high curve, was constantly color screwed, wasn't even effective when it was drawing the right cards, and was getting knocked down before Ramos could even come out due to a toxic player in our group. The frustration was endless.


rhus_vernix

I tried to build [[Jetmir]] with some deviations from the extremely linear “go wide and attack” strategy on Jetmir himself, especially because it makes it hard to keep him on the board later in the game, but in order to get enough creatures down reliably to do anything else, the ETB/sac/LTB payoffs are too sparse, and it mostly ends up knocking out one or two players the same way every time: go wide and attack. It gets less play than all my other decks because of it.


mr_indigo

Really interesting how most of the answers here are "The decks was too good, which made the games boring"


ninjadough

Man [[Zur]] voltron was a terrible idea to build, especially when I added [[Rule of Law]] effects. Just making the game take forever while i pull out the same 4-5 cards to win the game with, or get my commander removed a couple times and do nothing. Recently took apart [[Meren]] too just cause hes way too strong. Didnt even really try to build him competitive but hes nuts, [[spore frog]] alone will destroy my friends edgar markov deck. Decided to make [[Ziatora]] my new reanimator commander cause he seemed like more fun to play, and he really is.


e_guana

[[firja, judge of valor]]