Thanks so much everyone! This is very insightful and has given me lots to think about. A final few questions if I may before I jump in. [...] 1) Etiquette. I'm cool with the rules and the general guidance on not being a dick. I think I can manage that. Are there any other unspoken rules about thing...

Cards like emrakul, grislebrand, prime time, paradox engine, sylvan primordial, etc. are more the wheelhouse of the banlist because they were widely played at casual tables before they were banned, because they "look fun". Are you attacking me? lol I seriously can't believe Paradox Engine...

it should be banned because its an unfun, bad card. If we went with that logic, Winter Orb , Armageddon , and the mass Chaos Warp spell that I can't remember the name of for the life of me would be banned too, as well as Worldfire remaining banned. Yeah, it sucks when it gets pulled off, but genera...

Imp's Mischief : hm, very interesting. I love redirect cards in general, as they get around just about every 'can't be countered' effect. That this is in black is one of the reasons I think so many people don't see it coming; everyone© knows about Redirect or Wild Ricochet , but those are expected,...

Illegal now, but I love the logic bomb you could pull on someone with this and Frankie Peanuts:
First upkeep: "Will you answer the next question with the same answer as this one?"
Second upkeep: "Do you concede the game?"

Well, s***. There goes another otherwise good idea. Thanks again!

So, as always, I'm trying to figure out ways to make my EDH/Commander decks work in diverse ways, and a thought occurred to me to try using Merieke Ri Berit while utilizing the 'Swords of'(for these purposes, let's say BaM ). Question is, if I utilize Merieke to steal a creature, equip that creature...

I see a number of ways this 'works', but I'm only concerned with one aspect. Try as I might, I did not see a topic that discussed this particular instance; most topics centered around legendaries, and Myriad Landscape ...not what I need. Setup: My thought is to use Blade of Selves equipped to, in th...

I thought I was the only one who loved the intricacies and strategizing of working around mana burn. Cryo, onering...I love you guys for these words, and I wholeheartedly would endorse a return to it. :D When paper games start up again here(hopefully soon), I will be extremely curious to see how muc...

... Lieutenant Kirtar is a NASTY surprise for your opponents, and using Rishkar and Marchesa or other means to bounce him back to your battlefield will slow creature decks down considerably. This is an interesting option. One of the weaknesses that I've found in my build has been early aggressive p...

From the perspective of working with original Sisay , I feel I can help you a bit more with some of these cards, even with the limitation I have of working with G/W: Because both Sisays allow you to search for legendary PERMANENTS(and OG Sisay allows you even to search for legendary SPELLS), you may...

Well, ****. Thought I had a slick idea here, given that morphs can flip just about any time. Oh well.

So, I've been thinking about switching out some cards in my Kadena deck, one of which is Angry Garruk . A devious idea came to mind that I want to double check if it can work, and how I have to do it to make it work if possible. So let's say I have a Morph(2/2) on the field. I drop Angry Garruk, and...

Leovold, Emissary of Trest Oh, where to begin from a casual(my) standpoint? So, he's quick to get out(one of the first commanders usually). Not necessarily a bad thing, but playing the right general, you notice a dynamic change around the table when you drop yours(for instance, I notice a HUGE halt...

Amulet of Vigor + Army of the Damned = "Mama!" Really only play it in my zombie tribal deck, where I have a number of ETBT lands and stuff like the aforementioned AotD. It's great to have an explosive start with it, or to get that last little nitro push over the finish line too, though. I...

I know it was just an example, but using 'ante cards' was probably one of the worst examples. While Contract from Below essentially becomes another tutor no matter what is done with ante, cards like Tempest Efreet and Timmerian Fiends becomes close to...well, Blatant Thievery IRL. lol 10 life does s...

First decklist I'm posting here after the exodus from Salvation...the rest may follow eventually, but for now, here we are. Hope this is the right place to ask for help, since I have a decklist. :) Some quick background: I take a great deal of pride in building my decks without looking at others too...

Of my two LGS', one does FNM Commander. The unfortunate reality is that that LGS has long established its atmosphere as being extremely toxic. The mindset of it and the people who go there has always been 'win at any cost', and I can't bring myself to go back there to see if it's changed. They list ...

Sphere of Safety lulz

They've done all the calculations and get ready to swing...and suddenly you tack on an extra 1 per critter.

Other than that, yeah...seems bad.

I use the counterspells in my group that work, to answer OP's question. I haven't run into many people who run stuff like what ISBPathfinder mentioned, which is a huge surprise, considering how prevalent counters are, on average per pod(by this, I mean all decks combined will run a reasonable number...

... With that said, the reason tutors are such a problem is that Wizards has printed almost no real punishment cards for them, and very little tutor hate in general. Ob Nixilis is the only card I can think of which actually punishes a player for tutoring instead of just stopping them from doing it,...