It's interesting - back at the places I've played in the US, when someone said they had a cEDH deck, it meant a tiered competitive decklist. Whereas I've seen way more people claiming to play "cEDH" in NZ, but hardly ever do I see an actual tiered list. Usually I think they just mean "this is the deck that my casual group doesn't like me playing".toctheyounger wrote: ↑1 year agoFair I guess. DEN just seems wildly overcosted in today's commander scene. Unless you're cheating it's cost with reanimation or discount or what have you, you're waiting a long ass time to get that value or combo going. I get why it's still run, it's just a bit of a remnant of a bygone era to me. I get why it's gross though, in casual there's very little that can interact with it meaningfully, and in competitive it just isn't a good rate or efficient enough. In the only home it has its a constant thorn in the side.
Anyway I agree that DEN isn't really viable in a true cEDH meta, but he's definitely a plague in the casual one - you've been playing a fun game and then suddenly it's "drake, DEN, start drawing my deck while everyone sighs and scoops". (Or, more typically. them: "drake, DEN, okay everybody I win the game" everyone else:*starts to pick up cards* me:"sorry, excuse me, do you mind just doing it one step at a time because I am a moron and don't see what's happening?" them: "of course no problem I will show you how I win the game, I play drake and untap my lands, then I play DEN, then I soulbond them, then I activate the ability to blink drake, then it reenters, then I untap my lands and soulbond..." me:"in response to those triggers and while you're fully tapped out, STP the DEN." everyone else:*tries to remember what their board state was*)
I'm just surprised it's you saying DEN is too slow for the current meta, when hardly anyone I've seen playing "cEDH" in NZ has been playing at a power level high enough to exclude DEN combo. Last time we played, Jon told me about his epic victory over the apparent-local-terror of Albany, a goblin tribal "cEDH" Vial Smasher the Fierce deck that "never loses", with his own "cEDH" Krenko deck (he is currently running Goblin Swine-Rider because he needed 1 drop goblins lmao). Granted, his Krenko deck does obliterate my set-commander decks in 1v1, but that's a pretty low bar.
Maybe the meta is higher powered in East Auckland?