How many shuffles?

[OCPunisher]

Hello friends,

How many shuffle effects do you run in your commander deck alongside cards such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Sensei's Divining Top to ensure that you don't lock up the top X cards of your deck in addition to the crappy hand you are trying to smooth out?

[MRHblue]

Just whatever fetches and tutors would go in anyway

[pokken]

When I want to see at least one of something I try to play 10. So that's about the minimum I'd want.

That usually works out to ~5 fetches and 5-6 other tutors.

[ISBPathfinder]

I usually want to see something like 20-25+ shuffle effects or for the commander itself to have a shuffle on it. I am not really convinced that JTMS is ever good in commander to be honest but thats about when I start liking top. Jace, the Mind Sculptor in my mind is the sort of card that is good in 1v1 magic because of the fact that you can play a control game and defend him from your opponents and create a value over time game but in commander he doesn't have enough upfront value and I find him too fragile to hold his weight. You are probably better off just saving the mana and running Brainstorm.

[Dunharrow]

It isn't just fetches and Farseeks, you know.

For example, Cascade, Possibility Storm and other spells let you burn through the unwanted lands.
Scry and self mill too.

I never though of there being a minimum. Just in decks that are built around the top of your library you tend of have a huge amount of cards to help you benefit from brainstorm, top, scroll rack, etc.

[DirkGently]

Is this something people actually think/worry about?

With a full fetch suite in a 2+ color deck, that's usually plenty to shuffle a decent amount. Throw in a couple tutors and you're fine. I definitely wouldn't run anything over something else just because it shuffled.

[hyalopterouslemur]

What you're looking for are tutors, ramp, fetches, and scry. It shouldn't be that hard. You can also run Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection; that means you draw five or six cards off Sylvan Library and put two back, draw six cards off Brainstorm or Jace, the Mind Sculptor's 0 and put two back, etc. (Though for Jace, you can also use his +2.)

[pokken]

My favorite thing for enabling this that I didn't mention is land-off-the-top effects oracle, courser, druidic satchel, bolas's citadel, etc.

[3drinks]

All of them.