Best starter box for the Commander Challenge?

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

So me and a friend have been talking about this since Gavin put out the video about the Commander Challenge League, and we decided we wanted to do something similar. Since we'll only be playing against each other it won't be so much of a league as a fun challenge instead of playing the same four decks over and over (with a few tweaks between each session).

For those who don't subscribe to Good Morning Magic over on Youtube, here are the basics: Each player purchases a booster box, then builds a commander deck with only the cards of said box and of course basic lands (so it's a good idea to pick a set with a good ratio of legendary creatures), then play your deck(s) for a predetermined period (usually a week or two for a league). You are allowed to change decks between sessions if you'd like, but all the cards need to be from your initial pool. Once the predetermined pool is up, you are allowed to add the cards from six unopened boosters from any one set to your pool of cards to build from. Then you play again for the same period of time before adding another six boosters from a previously unpicked set, and so on. Each time you add six boosters they have to be from a set you haven't picked yet. All normal deckbuilding rules and banlists apply.

It seems like a fun deck building challenge, and will greatly improve our skills in that department. We've decided to stick with boosters that contain 15 cards, because those sets tend towards having enough cards to make it at least possible to build a commander deck from them.

So the question is, which booster box is the best to start with. Over the last three years, it seems like Dominaria, Theros: Beyond Death, and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths are the best choices thinking purely from a number of eligible legendary creatures and the chance of pulling at least one legendary creature. Of those, Ikoria has the best potential mana base, having no less than eleven common lands for mana fixing options, with a cycle of uncommon artifacts for three color mana fixing. War of the Spark is a potential candidate with the legendary creatures split pretty even between rare and mythic, with a lone uncommon legendary making it likely that you open at least one to build around. However, the high level of multicolor cards could make a monocolored deck problematic, it also is pretty lacking in mana fixing at common in the form of lands. Dominaria has the biggest selection of legends, with many good ones at uncommon, but is lacking in common mana fixing. Theros: Beyond Death is also quite lacking in common mana fixing options, but also has a high number of good build around me uncommon legendaries (including Eutropia the Twice-Favored, one of my personal favorites), but again, is pretty lacking in common mana fixing (which is not really an issue with a monocolored deck to be fair). Of the ones from the last three years, it appears that Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths has the best Legendary to Manafixing ratio.

But the question remains: Which set, in all of MTG, would be the best to start with (within reason, very few people can afford a box of Legends after all.)?
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Post by not-a-cube » 3 years ago

I've thought about this too, I finished at these 3 sets:

Dominaria: 43! legendary creatures with some very strong uncommon ones in tatyova and slimefoot, which you are almost guaranteed to get.

Ikoria: 22 Legendary creatures, multicolor and alot of fixing. This might just be the best color period, the companion add a lot of decent commanders in two colors, so it's almost impossible to end up in a bad way.

Core 2020: 11 Legendary creatures, with very strong 3 colored ones ate mythic (so low chance), but with golos at rare and the 3 mono colored ones are all very interesting. But considering the rest of the set isn't super powerfull, you'd start of lower on the power scale.

Best is probably Ikoria: Lot's of multicolored creatures at rare (companions) and good fixing. Also one of the latest sets, which means it gets access to pretty decent removal/interaction.

Not a big fan of theros, because a lot of the easy to get legendaries are mono color, so your initial deck won't have many options.
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Post by Ginuqu » 3 years ago

I agree that Dominaria's a strong choice! both because it's suffuse with legendaries but also in a sealed environment with lower overall power level, Sagas become something magical. Most of them offer more power than their mana cost suggests and you'll have the time to see them unfurl.

It's a shame Dissension only has six legends in it because it's so pushed towards providing an immediately solid deck, with its high power level, cantrips everywhere and lots of multicoloured goodies in the three pairs it's built around. Plus it's got signets, bouncelands and shocks AND the cute blue/green rampant growth faerie. This is one of my favourite sets both in terms of individual cards and it being the home of the Rakdos Cult!
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

not-a-cube wrote:
3 years ago
I've thought about this too, I finished at these 3 sets:

Dominaria: 43! legendary creatures with some very strong uncommon ones in tatyova and slimefoot, which you are almost guaranteed to get.

Ikoria: 22 Legendary creatures, multicolor and alot of fixing. This might just be the best color period, the companion add a lot of decent commanders in two colors, so it's almost impossible to end up in a bad way.

Core 2020: 11 Legendary creatures, with very strong 3 colored ones ate mythic (so low chance), but with golos at rare and the 3 mono colored ones are all very interesting. But considering the rest of the set isn't super powerfull, you'd start of lower on the power scale.

Best is probably Ikoria: Lot's of multicolored creatures at rare (companions) and good fixing. Also one of the latest sets, which means it gets access to pretty decent removal/interaction.

Not a big fan of theros, because a lot of the easy to get legendaries are mono color, so your initial deck won't have many options.
See that is my thinking as well, start with Ikoria, then add boosters from the other sets as time goes by. Theros although it has a fair number of legendary creatures, including at uncommon. Most of them are monocolor, and there are only a limited number of monocolored cards (and artifacts), so you could end up with being forced to make a deck consisting of 50+ lands. Ikoria on the other hand, nearly doesn't have any monocolored legendary creatures at all, with most being two color (except the mythic wedge legends), allowing for greater flexibility in deck creation. It is also the set with the best color fixing short of Guilds and Allegiance (But those two are nonstarters due to the low number of legendary creatures in each, seven and eight respectively, half of which are mythic giving low chance to pull one). Dominaria has the most legends, but outside of the uncommon cycle, most are monocolor, and it has really poor mana fixing at common, outside of two artifacts and a couple of green spells. Ikoria has a full 10 card common dual land cycle *and* evolving wilds at common. But even with that, if you are running a tricolor deck because you got lucky and pulled one of the mythic beasts, you're still looking at 34-36 basics for a 40 land mana base.
On the other hand, if you pull the five color legendary in Ikoria (and there is one, it taps for each of the five colors, and is rare), then you are set when it comes to mana.
Ginuqu wrote:
3 years ago
I agree that Dominaria's a strong choice! both because it's suffuse with legendaries but also in a sealed environment with lower overall power level, Sagas become something magical. Most of them offer more power than their mana cost suggests and you'll have the time to see them unfurl.

It's a shame Dissension only has six legends in it because it's so pushed towards providing an immediately solid deck, with its high power level, cantrips everywhere and lots of multicoloured goodies in the three pairs it's built around. Plus it's got signets, bouncelands and shocks AND the cute blue/green rampant growth faerie. This is one of my favourite sets both in terms of individual cards and it being the home of the Rakdos Cult!
Dominaria is a strong choice, due to the uncommon two color legendaries all but guarantees that you'll be able to get a solid two color deck (And if you open Jodah, you're in luck), it however falls flat due to the lack of good common color fixing lands. The only land based color fixing in the set is the rare duals. Outside of that, you have to rely on two common artifacts (one of which is pretty bad) and green for color fixing, which severely limits deckbuilding options. Also doesn't help that most of the legends outside of the uncommon cycle are monocolor, and very specialized (Like Marwyn, who is awesome in an elf deck, but not so much when you are stuck with only the elves in Dominaria).
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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

I'd probably go with Dominaria, but that may just be due to fond memories of the limited environment. That said, easy access to multicolor legends seems like a massive bonus, and there are a lot of strong options, even at uncommon (coughcoughtatyovacoughcough). I'd also say that Dominaria sealed plays similarly to many EDH decks - lots of card advantage and grindy value engines. The legendary spells are also pretty sweet. A bit lacking in fixing... but I also won a sealed league with a 4c deck off the back of 3x Skittering Surveyor, so it's definitely manageable.

On a similar note, any of the recent Ravnica sets seem like reasonable picks - again, multicolor legends are good. Ravnica also comes with a guildgate in the land slot in every pack, which would take care of most mana fixing issues pretty much by itself (well, depending on whether or not you're held to singleton, I suppose). Going back to RTR block, I'll call out Extort as being very strong in multiplayer, although I don't know if I would want to use that as the initial box.

I haven't really played any Ikoria, but I could also see it working. Three color may make the manabase more complicated though.

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Mookie wrote:
3 years ago
I'd probably go with Dominaria, but that may just be due to fond memories of the limited environment. That said, easy access to multicolor legends seems like a massive bonus, and there are a lot of strong options, even at uncommon (coughcoughtatyovacoughcough). I'd also say that Dominaria sealed plays similarly to many EDH decks - lots of card advantage and grindy value engines. The legendary spells are also pretty sweet. A bit lacking in fixing... but I also won a sealed league with a 4c deck off the back of 3x Skittering Surveyor, so it's definitely manageable.

On a similar note, any of the recent Ravnica sets seem like reasonable picks - again, multicolor legends are good. Ravnica also comes with a guildgate in the land slot in every pack, which would take care of most mana fixing issues pretty much by itself (well, depending on whether or not you're held to singleton, I suppose). Going back to RTR block, I'll call out Extort as being very strong in multiplayer, although I don't know if I would want to use that as the initial box.

I haven't really played any Ikoria, but I could also see it working. Three color may make the manabase more complicated though.
All standard EDH/Commander rules apply, that means that outside of Basic Lands, only one of each card unless the specific card says otherwise.

As for Ikoria, the manabase is not really an issue for three color in the set (or five color if you are lucky and pull Jegantha, the Wellspring), due to the Tarkir refuges being in the set at common, as well as Evolving Wilds. The reason I'll personally be going with Ikoria is the large number of multicolored legends combined with the accessible and solid mana fixing in the set. But Dominaria is definitely a strong contender due to the accessible and strong legends at uncommon (Like Tatyova). The lack of easy access to mana fixing outside of green however, pulls it down the list significantly.
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

And the Ikoria box is in, opened, and.... Only six viable legends, and only one of those is a legendary beast, and it was unfortunately not the one I really wanted (not that I expected to get any).

The six viable legends are:

Brokkos, Apex of Forever (foil alt art)
Gyruda, Doom of Depths
Keruga, the Macrosage
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Rielle, the Everwise
Yorion, Sky Nomad

There were also two monocolored legendary creatures, but as they would lead to decks with 70+ lands due to the restrictions, I've opted not to count them as viable, yet.

Of those I am leaning towards Brokkos as it gives me the most options, unfortunately I didn't open a Thornwood Falls among the lands, so I'll be one dual land short. On the other hand, I can run Keruga maindeck, and since a lot of the creatures in Brokkos's colors are large anyway, it should net me a decent amount of cards if I draw it. Brokkos also has the advantage of being playable from the graveyard as long as you have a target for it's mutate ability. Both green and black have decent removal in Ikoria, allowing me to cover just about anything I should encounter, and blue to counter the spells that would annoy me. So I think I can build a decent commander deck from what I got.
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Post by Legend » 3 years ago

LEGENDS. It has 55 legendary creatures plus Moat, The Abyss, Nether Void, Mana Drain, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and a host of other good stuffs! DOMINARIA would be my second choice.
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Post by duducrash » 3 years ago

I think it has to be Dominaria.

Lets pretend you don't get a multicolored one on other sets, in that scenario you would end up running bad artifcats and extra basics just to hit the 99

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Legend wrote:
3 years ago
LEGENDS. It has 55 legendary creatures plus Moat, The Abyss, Nether Void, Mana Drain, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and a host of other good stuffs! DOMINARIA would be my second choice.
Problem is that nearly nobody can afford a box of legends these days, it's basically to friggin' expensive. Also most of the legendary creatures in it are, well, really, really bad. While the power level of the remaining cards are all over the place.
duducrash wrote:
3 years ago
I think it has to be Dominaria.

Lets pretend you don't get a multicolored one on other sets, in that scenario you would end up running bad artifcats and extra basics just to hit the 99
The issue with Dominaria is the lack of good mana fixing, and if you do get unlucky and don't get any multicolored legends in the set (extremely unlikely due to the uncommon cycle, but technically possible), you end up with a deck consisting of around 60+ basic lands. Which really, really sucks.

In the end I went with Ikoria because of the affordable sets available to me, it had the best multicolor legendary to mana fixing ratio, with the cycle of Tarkir refuges at common. as well as Farfinder also at common, which is able to go in any deck. As I mentioned earlier, I ended up with six viable legends, and ended up going with Brokkos as it was the only three color legend among them. On the flip side, I managed not to open any Thornwood Falls, so I'll be lacking a dual land when building the deck, but between Farfinder and green's color fixing, it shouldn't be an issue. I'll also be able to stick Koruga and Gyruda into the deck for additional shenanigans.

I really, really, really wanted Illuna though, but alas, that was not to be.
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Post by RxPhantom » 3 years ago

Dragon's Maze gets you a guildgate in every pack! Or maybe even a shockland!
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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

RxPhantom wrote:
3 years ago
Dragon's Maze gets you a guildgate in every pack! Or maybe even a shockland!
When I opened a box of Dragon's Maze with friends, we opened zero shocklands. We did, however, get 3 copies of Emmara Tandris. So you're guaranteed to get at least a few multicolor legends, I guess.

*suppresses memory*

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Mookie wrote:
3 years ago
RxPhantom wrote:
3 years ago
Dragon's Maze gets you a guildgate in every pack! Or maybe even a shockland!
When I opened a box of Dragon's Maze with friends, we opened zero shocklands. We did, however, get 3 copies of Emmara Tandris. So you're guaranteed to get at least a few multicolor legends, I guess.

*suppresses memory*
Now, now, guild gates can help fix the mana in this variant commander format. But I wouldn't want to start with Dragons Maze, precisely because of the risk of opening Emmara Tandris. It would also be pretty hard to build a deck from the set unless you wanted more than half your deck to be land. It being a "small" set and all. It would be fine for the "add six boosters of one set" step though.

But for that step I've decided to go with Khans of Tarkir, The set is wedge based, and as my deck is built around the Alternate Art foil Brokkos I opened (making it my third Brokkos total, lol), that helps me immensely. It also has good mana fixing at common and uncommon (I am currently stuck with only three nonbasics as I neither got the right triome, or Thornwood Falls), and plenty of good common and uncommon creatures and spells. There is also a non-zero chance I open another three color legendary or a fetchland. Khans boosters are also still pretty affordable over here in Europe.

After Khans, for the second deck update, I am seriously contemplating Dominaria, but we shall see.

If anyone wants me to post my current deck list, just ask. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. My friend that went with M20 got the legend he was after, so he's going with Yarok, the Desecrated, which is funny since I am playing Brokkos, Apex of Forever, so it's going to be Sultai vs. Sultai when we play our decks. Lol.
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Post by Hawk » 3 years ago

I don't think anything can come remotely close to Dominaria, Ikoria, and Core 20 in that order. Every set with more legends has worse mana and less staples; every set with better mana or cooler staples has a real risk of yielding 0 legends in a box. For instance, War of the Spark boasts 15 legendary creatures including Mowu, Loyal Companion at uncommon - but a ton of them are mono-colored and the deck has no manafixing what so ever. Battle Bond is a bit better with all its partners and the Battle Bond lands at rare, but not a lot better. On the flipside, Khans of Tarkir boasts the gainlands at common, the trilands at uncommon, and fetches at rare for some amazing mana, arguably the best manabase you could get in this format - but with only five Commanders in the set, all mythic, you can literally lose the challenge before you begin with bad luck.

I do wonder if the next-best set is actually Zendikar Rising. With 17 legendary creatures, the Pathways at rare as some of the best dual lands ever, and MDFCs adding a lot of utility and flexibility to decks seems good. Several of those legends are sorta meh but Omnath, Locus of Creation is amazing if you get lucky.

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Hawk wrote:
3 years ago
I don't think anything can come remotely close to Dominaria, Ikoria, and Core 20 in that order. Every set with more legends has worse mana and less staples; every set with better mana or cooler staples has a real risk of yielding 0 legends in a box. For instance, War of the Spark boasts 15 legendary creatures including Mowu, Loyal Companion at uncommon - but a ton of them are mono-colored and the deck has no manafixing what so ever. Battle Bond is a bit better with all its partners and the Battle Bond lands at rare, but not a lot better. On the flipside, Khans of Tarkir boasts the gainlands at common, the trilands at uncommon, and fetches at rare for some amazing mana, arguably the best manabase you could get in this format - but with only five Commanders in the set, all mythic, you can literally lose the challenge before you begin with bad luck.

I do wonder if the next-best set is actually Zendikar Rising. With 17 legendary creatures, the Pathways at rare as some of the best dual lands ever, and MDFCs adding a lot of utility and flexibility to decks seems good. Several of those legends are sorta meh but Omnath, Locus of Creation is amazing if you get lucky.
Of the list I compiled of sets released over the last three years (Dominaria forward), Zen Rising got rated second. As good as it is (and it is really friggin good), the sheer amount of mana fixing in Ikoria combined with the huge number of multicolor legends beat it by a longshot. There are eleven common lands, multiple land fetching spells at common and uncommon (one colorless), five uncommon manarocks, five tri-lands, an uncommon land fetch, and 21 eligible legends (all but two of which are multicolor) in Ikoria. Zen Rising has 17 eligible legends (five of which are monocolor), but has far better mana fixing than Dominaria. Dominaria has the most legends, but barely any colorfixing, making it third. And while it is still viable to make a two or three color deck with only basic lands, some way to fix color is generally needed, which Ikoria has in spades. Even Cycling helps in this regard as it removes a dead card from your hand and might give you a land that produces the color you need.

Now, since I already went with Ikoria as my "starter" box, I decided to go with Khans of Tarkir for my first six boosters when it is time for that, since it is also a Wedge based set, thus giving me a decent chance to get multiple cards I can use in my Brokkos deck, or if I am really lucky, another legend to build a fun deck around. After that, I'll likely go either Zen Rising, Dominaria, or War of the Spark, all are good choices for adding six boosters worth of cards to your cardpool for different reasons. Zen, as you mentioned have the MDFC cards, which add flexibility. Dominaria has a decent selection of uncommon legends and good utility spells, and War of the Spark has a guaranteed planeswalker in every pack, which is helpful, as well as a lot of interesting cards to add to your pool. (Get an early army token, then mutate onto it sounds like fun, and proliferate.)
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Post by Hawk » 3 years ago

I wonder if Kaldheim is the new king.

Legendaries: 33 legendary creatures, including a cycle of guild uncommons. That's less than Dominaria, but significantly more than Ikoria. Most of the rest of the legends are monocolored which is a bit of a damper, but you are still close to guaranteed to nab an uncommon (or two or five) and while none of them are quite Tatyova levels, they all seem very reasonable and fun. Also, I think the most exciting non-uncommon commander (Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff) is only rare and not mythic, which is extra helpful.

Fixing: A cycle of common snow duals plus Shimmerdrift Vale make for slow, but reliable, fixing for any deck. Also helpful is Replicating Ring at uncommon, and a little extra boost to Azorius, Golgari, Simic, and Rakdos with their pathways at rare. I'd put this at around even to Ikoria.

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Hawk wrote:
3 years ago
I wonder if Kaldheim is the new king.

Legendaries: 33 legendary creatures, including a cycle of guild uncommons. That's less than Dominaria, but significantly more than Ikoria. Most of the rest of the legends are monocolored which is a bit of a damper, but you are still close to guaranteed to nab an uncommon (or two or five) and while none of them are quite Tatyova levels, they all seem very reasonable and fun. Also, I think the most exciting non-uncommon commander (Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff) is only rare and not mythic, which is extra helpful.

Fixing: A cycle of common snow duals plus Shimmerdrift Vale make for slow, but reliable, fixing for any deck. Also helpful is Replicating Ring at uncommon, and a little extra boost to Azorius, Golgari, Simic, and Rakdos with their pathways at rare. I'd put this at around even to Ikoria.
Kaldheim seems like it's a good starter box for the sheer number of dual (or more) colored legendary cards in the set, and the sheer number of mana fixing cards. The set has more lands than friggin' Zendikar, lots of multicolor cards (including two full two color cycles of sagas), and fun mechanics.

As a booster set (adding six boosters) it is a lot less desirable due to the snow mechanic. There would simply not be enough snow lands in six boosters for it to be viable. Still, common duals do bring it up a bit, even though they are snow. You just can't rely upon cards that require snow mana or have an added effect when you control additional snow cards.
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Post by Moonlighter » 2 years ago

Curious to hear how this is going for you @Krishnath. Me and some friends are going to give this a shot, and you've persuaded me to start with Ikoria, as well as the fact that A) I don't own any cards from it and didn't draft it, and B) None of the legends sit clearly in archetypes I like to play. How much were you able to build around your commander's theme?
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Post by Hawk » 2 years ago

Shame that AitFR seems like it'll be really bad for this. 27 Legendary creatures is pretty good (more than Ikoria or Strixhaven, but still less than Kaldheim or Dominaria), and that list does include 10 uncommon guild legends that give clear mechanical direction. But about a third of those are monocolor, and the mana is terrible with only Evolving Wilds and Temple of the Dragon Queen for fixing lands. There's not even a manalith-type rock in sight. I guess there's lots of Treasure? Also not awesome for adding to decks, given how parasitic Venture and the "roll a d20" payoffs are. Not that I was mega excited to try this format, but I do keep coming back to it...maybe it'd be better to hop back to Strixhaven if I were to do it.

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Post by Moonlighter » 2 years ago

Okay. It took a while due to some of my group's finances and whatnot, but we got started.

I asked @Kelzam in a PM about their experience of it, and they had some solid advice. One of the most notable was this:
Kelzam wrote: It was a lot of fun, although there are sets that should definitely be considered to be banned as the first box: mainly Ikoria and Dominaria. The generally high power level of these sets tend to eclipse almost any other set in recent memory and skew towards unbalanced games.
Now no one in my group bought a Dominaria box, but I'd already purchased my Ikoria box by this point, and I will say, without reservation, that this was 100% how this played out.

My playgroup consists of me and three other players of varied experience levels. I got a Friend into Commander (his first deck was just Child of Alara filled with all his 'cool cards' - he played with us right before the pandemic shut everything down), and over the quarantine he's gone completely nuts - kitting at least a dozens decks out with his partner. He bought a box of Zendikar Rising. My Son has been playing for a long time, and he's a pretty conservative player who knows what his cards do - but he'll tell you he's more into the collectible side of the game than the card side of it. My son bought a box of m20. The last guy is a friend of my son who has primarily played precons or loaned decks (although he's now a proud owner of his very own Mikaeus, the Unhallowed deck). Son's Friend picked Kaldheim.
Krishnath wrote:
3 years ago
Kaldheim seems like it's a good starter box for the sheer number of dual (or more) colored legendary cards in the set, and the sheer number of mana fixing cards. The set has more lands than friggin' Zendikar, lots of multicolor cards (including two full two color cycles of sagas), and fun mechanics.
This is also 100% true.

We popped our packs. Friend pulled a pile of dual-colored legends from ZR, and ended up building Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager. He found enough +1/+1 synergy to aim for it. Son pulled Golos, Tireless Pilgrim (and a Field of the Dead), but ended up building Kaalia, Zenith Seeker. He made this choice because in his mind 5 colors was overextending, and he had enough demons and angels and whatnot to take advantage of it. Son's Friend pulled a pile of wild stuff, like Valki and a bunch of the dual-colored legends, but ended up, without advice, building Svella, Ice Shaper - this ended up serving him really well. I pulled and built Jegantha, the Wellspring, because even though I pulled Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Illuna, Apex of Wishes, I felt that 5c would increase the overall deck quality, and also my commander gave me some multicolor mana fixing.

Both Friend and Son worked hard to build synergies into their decks, where Son's Friend and I basically built goodstuff tribal. I specifically aimed for using as many single-pip multicolor cards as I could, simply because I could strap on a pair of Jeggings and get to work. I held to subthemes of mutate, cycling for card draw, and evasion on my creatures (trample, primarily, and flying, secondarily). I was able to build a fairly sizable and efficient removal package (I pared it down to 8 from 16 in the initial pile) with a focus on efficiency. I was able to use some meta knowledge to note that I wasn't likely to see a lot of indestructible creatures, so I was fine with direct damage where necessary, etc, although Ikoria has some cheap exile effects to back that up anyway. I stacked both green cards and green mana (I pulled two triomes and 8 of the life-duals), so that I could reliably ramp and cast Jegantha.

In game one - both Friend and Son got mana screwed. Son's Friend popped Svella and started ramping. I put down Jegs and hosed everyone with an incredible board state and Obosh, the Preypiercer for extra hurts. I won. In game two, it was a lot more balanced, and despite early aggression and Son building a decent drain package, I ended up mutating Illuna, Apex of Wishes onto a Crystalline Giant with Hexproof. By the time it had hexproof, deathtouch, and first strike, there wasn't much anyone could do to me. That said, Svella ran out of cards, but had mana, and just kept pumping value with the second ability. It was a really well built deck that took full advantage of the commander! I was able to pull off some fairly complex lines of play involving using a Lore Drakkis, cheap mutate cards, and Mythos of Brokkos to tutor and recycle whatever the hell I needed (such as killing a Scute Swarm that was about to get out of hand with a Blazing Volley I'd dropped in the GY with MoB). Mass re-use of Fiend Artisan was also solid in game two because Son killed Jegantha (to try and stop me from repeating my game one victory).

I'm going to go through and clean mine up a bit, and I know that Friend is going to build a different commander instead. I think Son is going to rebuild into Golos/Field of the Dead, and I'm a little scared of that! After we play again, we'll add 6 packs. Maybe I'll aim for Ixalan, because that'll bring some multi-pip value town, but I"m not sure!
Playing EDH: Alesha Who Smiles at Death; Baba Lysaga, Night Witch; Emiel the Blessed; Breena, the Demagogue; Xenagos, God of Revels; Seton, Krosan Protector; Phelddagrif.

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Post by Krishnath » 2 years ago

Moonlighter wrote:
2 years ago
Curious to hear how this is going for you @Krishnath. Me and some friends are going to give this a shot, and you've persuaded me to start with Ikoria, as well as the fact that A) I don't own any cards from it and didn't draft it, and B) None of the legends sit clearly in archetypes I like to play. How much were you able to build around your commander's theme?
It's been pretty fun, although a lot of LGS's around here have stopped selling loose boosters, which has made it a bit hard to get the boosters needed. That and one of my friends having a rather tight budget at the moment has meant we had to put it on ice temporarily. That said, it's incredibly fun to play, and quite a challenge when it comes to building decks.
Hawk wrote:
2 years ago
Shame that AitFR seems like it'll be really bad for this. 27 Legendary creatures is pretty good (more than Ikoria or Strixhaven, but still less than Kaldheim or Dominaria), and that list does include 10 uncommon guild legends that give clear mechanical direction. But about a third of those are monocolor, and the mana is terrible with only Evolving Wilds and Temple of the Dragon Queen for fixing lands. There's not even a manalith-type rock in sight. I guess there's lots of Treasure? Also not awesome for adding to decks, given how parasitic Venture and the "roll a d20" payoffs are. Not that I was mega excited to try this format, but I do keep coming back to it...maybe it'd be better to hop back to Strixhaven if I were to do it.
Strixhaven seems great for this, between the cycle of uncommon legendaries, the double sided legends, and the elder dragons there is a decent selections of legends to build around. And there is a decent amount of color fixing in the land department as well, with Archway Commons and the Campus's at common, and the Snarls and Hall of Oracles at rare. You'll have to rely a lot on basics, but that is part of the charm of the format, and it is likely the different "bonus boosters" will help with the mana selection over time.
Both blue and red have a number of cards that help with mana smoothing by making treasure tokens. And the common colorless spell Environmental Sciences can go in any deck and fetches a basic land, helping a bit with mana smoothing. There is also a common Mana rock in the form of Letter of Acceptance.

So, while not the best starter box, Strixhaven is pretty much guaranteed to give you at least one two color legend to build around, and several colorless cards that are really useful (including flexible removal).
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Post by Moonlighter » 2 years ago

I'm really enjoying this. I had put a lot of thought into grabbing Ikoria. My Friend had initially picked Eldraine, and I thought "That seems like a bad choice." Then, two days before we got started, he asked a few clarifying questions, and then bought his ZenRising pack. When he and his partner opened ToE, he pulled a Grumgully, the Generous and a Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig - so he was glad he made the switch, as both of those would not have worked out well, haha.

The next 6 packs is something I'm really curious about. My deck is pretty solid, broadly. I feel like this style of playing gives you a deck that's way more effective than a precon (generally when we play precons we find the lack of resiliency to be the biggest problem). I'm not sure what else I want to add. Is my goal just to identify a clearer theme and aim for that? Should I focus on a set that increases overall efficiency? It's hard to say! I'm pretty excited, though.
Playing EDH: Alesha Who Smiles at Death; Baba Lysaga, Night Witch; Emiel the Blessed; Breena, the Demagogue; Xenagos, God of Revels; Seton, Krosan Protector; Phelddagrif.

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Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

Nah. What you ought to try is the "pack to power" challenge but to build a commander deck instead of ending at a piece of power. Buy one pack, and trade up into a full commander deck. Doesn't need to be high end cDH with monoliths and stuff, just that you started with a pack and built your whole deck for the price of a pack.

Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
WBRKaalia HQ

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