The Jank is Strong With This One...

[Boros_Blendo]

I'll admit: creating Commander decks is something I struggle with. 100 cards that all synergize...<shudder> So I make a LOT of mistakes. My friends make better Commander decks, faster.

Whether 60 cards, or 100 singleton, I can accept an ill-defined amount of janky stuff in my decks if they increase the fun-factor, at least until I figure out what to do with those card slots to sub in stuff that works better. At some point (again ill-defined) the jank definitely gets too much. Sometimes it's because I keep getting my butt handed to me by friends, or mana is just too wonky to keep going, or the "fun" card just doesn't fit in with the rest.

So that this doesn't get tl;dr, what level of jank will you accept, do you actually seek to build in a level of jank, and when does it get too much?

[Treamayne]

what level of jank will you accept?

First, please define what you mean by "jank" - is that what you would call this (admittedly old) example deck?
(Labelled "example" at the bottom of the post)

do you actually seek to build in a level of jank?

Depends on the answer above. I seek to build decks that I find fun and interesting, using personal deck limitations that help me naturally avoid "Good Stuff" (except when on theme - Like Craterhoof to me is only allowed in Beast Tribal - that's where it belongs). If that fits your definition of jank, then so be it.

When I think of "jank" I think of Rube Goldberg styll combos and overly complicated series of triggers (not just any '5' or less is Jank). But I feel like that is not the most accepted "definition."

when does it get too much?

This is not possible

[Mookie]

When finding cards to cut, I ask myself one simple question: 'does this bring me joy?' If yes, it stays. If no, it goes. I'll keep pet cards if I think they're fun to cast... but if I find myself disappointed when they do nothing, or they rot in hand, or even if they win the game on the spot in an anticlimactic fashion, then I'm willing to be ruthless in my quest to optimize for fun.

The other thing I'll note is that if you like a card but think it is bad, you can make it good yourself. There are plenty of interesting build-arounds that are bad in a vacuum, but good in context. My Thada deck is running Psychic Surgery, my Samut deck runs Humble Defector, and Teysa runs Angel of Glory's Rise - I don't think any of those are particularly strong cards, but I've leaned in and made them good (well, maybe not Psychic Surgery, but it still generates great stories occasionally). I view deckbuilding as a form of art - you don't need to paint inside the lines, and there are plenty of ways to support pretty much any vision you may have.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

For me it's less about the jank and more about the strategy. Some strategies require some really niche-ass jank, the kind of cardboard that you buy to play in one deck and likely never again afterwards. Other strategies have little room for fluff without unbalancing the gameplan.

For example, I am in the process of building a 5C lands deck constructed to tutor and abuse Reality Scramble. A few months ago, I made a Dr Who deck around combining Immovable Rod and Clock of Omens with artifact tokens to turbo through dungeons at lightning speed. Those decks are somewhat janky in concept, but I love optimizing the hell out of a dumb idea. No more jank included than is required.

[Dunadain]

Yeah, I'm not sure what you mean by Jank. Some of my decks are clearly bad, but I still wouldn't label any of the cards as jank, I put them in with careful thought.

In my mind, non of my decks run any Jank, if I did think a card was jank, I'd cut it.

[duducrash]

When finding cards to cut, I ask myself one simple question: 'does this bring me joy?'

@Mookie , the Marie Kondo of jank.

[krakked]

Okay, I'm going to assume jank is being used as cards that don't have to do with synergies or direct interaction, and do their own odd little thing.
I like putting jank that not only shut down certain strategies, but also makes the game wacky and crazy. The best one that comes to mind is the Bubble Matrix I have in my tinybones deck.
It hates on beatdown strategies, changes the state of the entire board, and since its not a deck with a lot of big creatures, it also buys me time to do what my deck wants to do.
Not to mention it's also just a fun card to play.
Another example that does around the same is Naked Singularity . I actually have not gotten it yet, but it seems very fun to play.

[Boros_Blendo]

Hi all, I apologize I had to work, and couldn't get back immediately. To start, the dictionary defines janky as "of extremely poor or unreliable quality". While that can certainly apply, I know a lot of Standard players have used the term to mean more along the lines of suboptimal. Cards for whimsy, extremely vorthos cards that have no purpose other than being theme related, cards in there for "does this bring me joy", all of these can fit. I know Dunadain doesn't consider his stuff as jank because it's very intentional. So, it means what most anyone defines for themselves. That was part of the thread's idea here.

Some examples of janky I've had: an entire 60 card deck that only featured cards drawn by Quinton Hoover back about Ice Age block...terrible, but I loved it. I currently have a blue 61 card deck that is pure aggro (not Faeries or Merfolk, either), going quite against normal competitive blue archetypes because I hate competitive blue archetypes. There are many suboptimal choices being made, but still some really strong cards included are Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration, Sleep, and Boomerang among others. Some older, but still quite effective cards are Psionic Blast and Serendib Efreet, while a two-card synergy is Cloud of Faeries and Illusory Angel or Ninja of the Deep Hours. Nothing about the deck allows it to be more than a 1v1, which many would consider very janky, yet it effectively powers through a lot of duel games. This deck for me illustrates what I was getting at by holding places in the list until I figured out better stuff. The list has settled out now for a bit to see how this version goes. The next iteration could well take out the Efreets, as there are very effective aggro flyers to replace it...I just love the card.

A Commander example is my Hazezon Tamar - Defenders of Dune deck posted here about a week ago. It has one card, Desert Nomads, a thoroughly janky card that is in there only because it has desertwalk and the art...seriously. It's a vorthos card for pure theme, but is in all metrics probably a pure dead slot and also the least likely card to ever be removed at the same time. For what it's worth, Desert is also in there.