By Jason Alt, Posted on February 13, 2014 Original Articlecall them 75% decks, Meaning they are 75% of the way to an optimal build and just good enough to beat a deck built to be 100% optimal if I play tight and get lucky.
-Robert McEachern, December 7, 2015 Original Article" 75%" Deck building" is going to be a term that is new to a lot of readers. To me, it sums up the philosophy I've had for the format for years, simply being given a name. Basically, a 75% EDH deck is a deck that is built optimally, but purposely avoids being built for a 100% flawless game. Sometimes it's for the sake of fun, sometimes it's for the sake of budget. In my experience most 75% decks will be able to play in a competitive environment with little to no trouble, while playing casual games without feeling too strong or too weak. This leads to what I feel is a generally more enjoyable experience to everyone in the game.
To be sure I understood the concept of 75% commander decks I did a little research on the subject. These quotes are taken from articles found at the top of a google search. The articles are old, from many years ago. I'm assuming they are some of the first publications on the subject.
I never looked at a commander deck under the lens of percent optimized. In the past couple of years I have noticed the tag and concept used quite frequently on this forum and MTGS. My opinion on the subject is that it fine for the format, I have no issue with anyone using the tag or deck building philosophy, nor do I think anything bad or negative about the subject.
My question, and point of this discussion, is how is the concept is applied to particular decks and commanders? I will now list a few questions and ideas I've had in the hope that the members of the forum can help me broaden my understanding of the concept.
1. Can certain commanders ever be 75%? Zur the Enchanter, Edgar Markov, or Thrasios, Triton Hero for example.
2. When one builds a 75% commander deck where do the percentage points come from? How much of this is felt through intuition and how much is calculated mathematically?
3. Is there any sort of metric that can be applied universally? For instance, purposely not running Dual Lands. Or choosing to run Diabolic Tutor over Demonic Tutor vs running no tutors.
4. If applying 75% literally, does that mean I can run 74 optimal cards and then 25 fun/pet/non-optimal cards and then have successfully built in that fashion? Could I then tune up or down percentage points to fit my meta appropriately?