Commander Challenge Runs

[DirkGently]

After months of not really having anywhere to play, I've joined a local group of casual players. Power levels are quite low, seems like mostly precons and slightly upgraded precons. My usual strategy for building commander decks - take a weird, off-meta idea and then try to make it as strong as possible while keeping its identity - tends to end up with decks somewhere around the 7-8 band in terms of power, which is probably going to be significantly too high for this meta. I can just play my own precons against them and obviously that keeps things balanced, but I do enjoy building decks and would like to be able to still do that without running over anyone or creating an arms race.

So I'm trying to think of ways to build decks that keeps things around a 5-6 level while still being fun to build. I don't really want to go with "just don't include powerful cards" because (1) that's sort of a nebulous distinction (2) context can have a pretty big impact on how powerful a card is and (3) I like getting to play with my sweet cards. So I'm thinking more along the lines of a relatively clear distinction that makes deckbuilding a lot weaker - a challenge run, if you will. Here are a few other ideas I've come up with, though.

-Card type restrictions - i.e. my 98 land deck.
-Companion decks
-Art restrictions i.e. armchair tribal (though this is a bit annoying since I'm not going to purchase a new copy of any cards to fit art rules, but it also ruins the aesthetic of the deck to have the other art)
-Building around particularly weak commanders - Reveka, Wizard Savant, Pang Tong, "Young Phoenix", etc. (this is kinda nebulous what constitutes weak though)

Any other ideas? To be clear, the restrictions should be things that are fairly obvious whether they've been met in the decklist. I especially like if there's some justification for doing it, even if it's flimsy (i.e. companion restrictions give you a companion, guaranteed hits on Thrasios, Triton Hero with 98 lands).

[pokken]

I just started trying to get trashmander going in my meta. I'm going like...beyond the worst trash I could imagine. My deck has Erg Raiders in it and it's not tribal warriors.

What I'd suggest is just play like, horrendous cards, but with a good curve and some removal, so your deck "plays" stuff but it doesn't do much.

This deck I'm working on is Orzhov midrange with Selenia, Dark Angel and all the cards are tempest and older and none can be good. Best card in the pile so far is probably Hypnotic Specter.

[Treamayne]

Have you considered perusing the Variant subforum?
- Something like Rainbow Stairwell Commander is a hefty deckbuilding challenge, while simultaneously limiting "staples" (since you can only have 1 card of each CI/MV).
- Tribal (with the tribal rules) can be interesting when you avoid the large tribes.
- Peasant/Pauper EDH is a different type of challenge (maybe even do 1 deck "each way" - since some versions of the rules allow anything that has ever been printed at Common; but some say cards are disallowed if they were ever printed above Common). IIRC - Pauper is based on card rarity, Peasant is based on card value (at time of building); but since these aren't my preferred variant formats, I'm not positive.
- Star: Not sure how may are in the meta you are describing, but you could try to build five decks forStar. You build all five decks (so you can try to balance them against each other) and then they could get experience playing more advanced builds while trying something new.

[Mookie]

That plan - choose a janky strategy, then optimize it - is pretty similar to how I've built most of my recent decks. Some restrictions I've applied to my own decks:

• Kess: all cards must be 'villainous'.
• Brago: no keeping a decklist
• Tatyova: no buying/trading for cards for the deck
• Tasigur: no mono-blue cards, no artifacts
• Animar: Primal Surge
• Zedruu: Proteus Staff (no creatures)

I also have a general restriction of 'not buying cards that cost more than $2-$3' that I apply to all of my decks.

Some suggestions for other potential restrictions:

• Not using cards on the commander's EDHREC page
• Building around an alternate win condition (i.e. Biovisionary, Barren Glory)
• Building around a 'not good in commander' strategy (i.e. burn, mill, lifegain)
• Building around a goal other than winning (i.e. 'making a 100/100 hydra' or 'control a permanent with all permanent types')

[Ruiner]

Do you enjoy tribal decks at all?

Picking a not so greatly supported tribe and going all in on that could be an easy angle to take. Not saying go for crab tribal, but something with a decent card pool that still isn't like Elves or Goblins. Maybe pick a tribe with a good size cardpool but lower power and go all in on character/theme.

For example, I've got a BW cleric deck that has no non-clerics in it and has a number of white and black theft effects to "convert others to the congregation". Non creature cards are almost exclusively other church/faith/religion oriented cards like Tithe, Rebuff the Wicked, etc.,. It is pretty terrible but can durdle and has good interaction options, since clerics have lots of utility but no real powerhouses. It has some expensive cards like Tithe and Preacher but that doesn't make it a scary deck at all. Definitely one of my decks I play when I just want to goof off and challenge myself to see how well I can do with lower power (even in higher power games).

[PrimevalCommander]

I've done a few modest restrictions that I enjoyed.

Talrand, Sky Summoner no creatures, drake beatdown. Couldn't bear to play mono-U without some restriction. The deck is not optimized to the max either.
Adun Oakenshield all permanents Primal Surge with 48 creatures. This one was fun in low power games. My playgroup outpaced it so it got retired.
Sefris of the Hidden Ways $100 budget reanimator deck. This is my latest deck, still under testing, but the budget was surprisingly easy to achieve. Lots of dirt cheap looters and over costed fattys that like to be pitched to the graveyard. Stupid Mindleech Mass went from $0.50 to $10.00 in a couple weeks pushing it out of the deck.

Bad Tribe tribal is another good one if you are drawn to any particular one. I've seen Giant tribal decks online that look fun actually. Spirit tribal may be decently powerful now but still restrictive enough. A buddy has Bird Tribal and it works at a modest power level.

[Sinis]

I tend to consider my decks somewhat low-power. If I'm intentionally building weak, I have a kind of checklist:

1. Fewer colours is better. It's hard to make a weak 5 colour deck, because even the middle of the pack from all 5 colours is pretty good. However, if you're playing mono colour (not green), it's probably going to be a lot weaker.
2. Less interaction. If you're playing against a bunch of weaker decks, it might not be necessary to have 15+ pieces of interaction. You could get away with a lot less, because they're probably going to play stuff that doesn't demand an answer. Proactive lists are usually more fun to play against if they have...
3. Soft wincons. This is definitely my jam. Your Hydra Omnivores, Abyssal Persecutors, etc. Just, kind of timmy stuff? My rule here is that it must admit a reasonable window for and reasonable method of interaction.
4. No 'gotchas'. Players with weaker decks have a tendency to hate being on the bad end of a Massacre Wurm after they go through the effort of making a bunch of tokens (that will typically require more effort than someone just playing Avenger of Zendikar or something). Similarly, if they take a long time to equip a bunch of jank, losing to Deflecting Palm feels pretty bad. In those cases, a Fog might be better.
5. Nothing that requires narrow answers. IME, low-power players find things like Constant Mists incredibly frustrating to play against.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I can speak to the fun of PDH! I have a scarland Thrinax pdh list that runs Korvold as an alternate commader if I'm facing regular decks. It's a solid 8 within a pdh pod and a decent 6 with Korvold at the helm. It's really fun to build the most optimal list when all your cards are limited to commons.

[materpillar]

I've got a handful of ways to do this.

1) Easily disruptable 4+ card combos winconditions that don't actually just win when assembled. I just built The Prismatic Piper/Sakashima of a Thousand Faces germ tribal to fill this low power niche. It's goal is Yorion, Sky Nomad+Sakashima of a Thousand Faces+a living weapon+a toughness boost. My powerful4 card combo allows me to spit out a germ token per equipment per player turn. Got 'em!

2) Have your general be an OG Elder Dragon and your deck's game plan be to kill people with said dragon.

3) Have your goal when piloting the deck be something that isn't to "win" the game. For example, with Tivadar of Thorn my goal isn't to be the last player standing, it is for him to kill as many goblins as physically possible.

3) Draft chaff deck. I'm a fan of throwing together an EDH deck out of my last couple of sealed pools and draft decks. This only works if you do those events with some regularity and keep all the commons.

4) Bulk box only. If your LGS has a 5 rares for $1 box. Go in with $13 bucks and throw together a deck on the spot using only what you can scrounge together out of the box.

Glancing at your restrictions I don't think they're remotely close harsh enough. You're going to be able to build a 7-8 out of restrictive art decks or companions pretty easily. You're pretty creative in deckbuilding, I'm guessing you need to kneecap yourself a lot more to hit precon level. From what I've seen of your decks I bet you could make a PDH deck that smashes precons.

[DirkGently]

Played some the past couple nights. Lots of drinking lol. Even with precons I might be kinda op from clean play, so I'll really need to nerf my decks p hard.

Will respond to other ideas when I'm home and at my pc

I can speak to the fun of PDH! I have a scarland Thrinax pdh list that runs Korvold as an alternate commader if I'm facing regular decks. It's a solid 8 within a pdh pod and a decent 6 with Korvold at the helm. It's really fun to build the most optimal list when all your cards are limited to commons.

Ooh, I do love pdh, kinda forgot about it. Probably need to start with a legend instead of an uncommon, though, I don't wanna explain pdh plus then it could seem like I'm rubbing it in their face if I win (same for brawl). Better to just play a legal commander deck that happens to be pauper (except commander) and just shut up about it.

[Ulka]

I've had a grand time with Peasant EDH where its just commons and Uncommon in the deck, given we have gotten some very fun uncommon legends in the past I think its a great time. Ive build Zada, Hedron Grinder in peasant along with Tormod, the Desecrator and Prava of the Steel Legion Dredge Zombie combo.

Additionally I've done dollar commander where you have to have all cards under a dollar at time of building or even just 50 buck commander decks. Budget limiting is a great time because it keeps things from getting stale.

Additionally I've done a Random deck archetype + random commander pairing before which lead to Zedruu the Buffhearted where I do aura voltron with Zedruu.

How I see it is you have near unlimited brewing potential here in the opposite way the an arms race limits the deck building as you get in higher power groups.

More specific deck ideas I can think of to try to abuse Spy Kit as much as you can. or focus a whole deck around Wild Research.

[Dunharrow]

Great ideas here. I personally like the budgetary limitations/peasant or pauper.

Whatever you go with I would add a stipulation of 'no tutors other than basic land tutors'. Or only very restricted tutors like Trophy Mage. IMO tutors bump up power level of any deck, even bad tutors.

[DirkGently]

Ok I'll run through them and give my thoughts.

-lol erg raiders is hilarious. As I said, though, playing "bad cards only" is too nebulous for how I like to build. I do like the idea of being restricted by sets, though.

-rainbow stairwell style is interesting. Although doesn't that kinda force you to play 5c? Hard for me to be sure about how strong it'd be but it seems like it could still be too strong pretty easily.

-"bad tribal" decks I'm not huge on. They can be funny conceptually but then you kinda just rely on the same cards for every bad tribe in order to get synergy (i.e. Coat of Arms). Plus it's just not really my style of deck. I could be talked into it with the right deck but at face value I don't think it's my thing.

-peasant/pauper I already touched on, but yeah I like those a lot. Not sure about how my power levels will shake out but I think it should be reasonable especially with all commons and a not-insane commander.

-building 5 decks sounds kinda exhausting plus idk that they'd want to play my decks instead of their own. Kinda presumptuous considering I just joined I think.

-villainous only seems too nebulous and probably too powerful.

-"no keeping a decklist" I'm not sure what this means?

-no buying/trading - I've already got all the cards so that wouldn't really do anything for me.

-"no blue/artifacts" is too lax. I can easily build a monocolor list that would obliterate this meta in any color.

-I don't really like Primal Surge as a strat because then you just have an "i win" button in the deck. I don't like uninteractive wincons. Running no instants/sorceries outside of that is a fine restriction although not enough on its own.

-no creatures is way too easy. Half my decks are pretty much creatureless anyway lol. Stacking the deck with proteus staff is also not a wincon I want to run. Although I do think it'd be funny to try to make an Umori, the Collector deck that isn't creatures. I think you can do either planewalkers or enchantments...I don't think there's an artifact option.

-"no cards from EDHrec" is interesting. Might be kinda frustrating? I'd have to think about it. A good off-meta idea (i.e. my sorrow's path Golos) can pretty easily solve that sort of thing.

-burn, mill, and lifegain can be made pretty strong, or at least too strong for this application. With additional restrictions, though, it could be fun.

-"Goal other than winning" is antithetical to how I play the game and to how I want my opponents to play. Competition is what makes the game fun.

-No creatures is how i'd build talrand by default lol. Definitely way too strong.

-budget is too nebulous. I guess I could set a fixed price that I can't go beyond (per card or in total) but then it seems kinda arbitrary. Plus prices move around. And it means I can never run a lot of my fun cards. I get it works for other people but I don't really like it. Plus with budget alone I think I could pretty easily wreck unless it was really really low. Focusing on rarity is a lot less nebulous imo, I like it a lot more.

-Idk that running fewer answers is going to make the deck much weaker in this meta. As you say, it's not really necessary anyway.

-soft wincons seems too nebulous. I think by some definitions I already basically do that for most of my decks.

-gotchas and hard-to-interact-withs seem like kinda rules of thumb for playing vs new players, not so much like a challenge run per se. Way too nebulous for one thing.

-OG elder dragons are neat to look at but they're all pretty boring to actually play. And too easy as a standalone restriction.

-I do have 6 prereleases worth of kamigawa sitting on my table. Kind of a more restrictive version of block/set constructed? Could be fun, although I think set constructed might be more fun.

-chaff box deck requires me going into town and digging through a huge unsorted box...sounds miserable tbh lol.

-I agree that companions as the only restriction can be pretty strong, but it's maybe a fun part of a multi-part restriction. I think art restrictions could be really difficult, it just depends on what the restriction is. PDH maaaaybe, I've played some of them in open settings and they've generally gotten wrecked (which is good in this context). But I'll take the compliment lol.

-I dunno that I like the idea of an archetype that doesn't fit the commander. How do you decide on how to combine them "randomly"?

-I'm not going to exclude tutors. Many decks can work fine without them, but some really fun deck concepts require tutors to work. I'm certainly not running any combos or anything, so I don't think tutors represent a problem.

[Treamayne]

-rainbow stairwell style is interesting. Although doesn't that kinda force you to play 5c? Hard for me to be sure about how strong it'd be but it seems like it could still be too strong pretty easily.

Technically, yes; though there can also be mitigating factors.

For example, the deck I added to the Variant thread is not just RS, but also tribal Elemental with a ManLand Focus (it uses the Celestial Colonnade cycle for it's nonbasics).

You can also apply the same concept to 3 color decks:

SPOILER

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9 of each basic
Common cycle in CI
Uncommon cycle in CI
Rare cycle in CI
Seven additional lands of choice/theme

Then, instead of 1-8 for seven categories (CGWUBRG) it would be CMC 1-7 for colorless, each color, each pair and 3-color

Example - RWU RS Style

CMC 1-7 (or 0-6, 2-8, whichever scale of seven can be supported by the colors)
7 R
7 RW
7 W
7 WU
7 U
7 UR
7 RWU
7 C
27 Basics
3 Common Cycle
3 Uncommon Cycle
3 Rare Cycle
7 "Wildcard" Lands
-----
99

-"bad tribal" decks I'm not huge on. They can be funny conceptually but then you kinda just rely on the same cards for every bad tribe in order to get synergy (i.e. Coat of Arms). Plus it's just not really my style of deck. I could be talked into it with the right deck but at face value I don't think it's my thing.

I know other's posed the "bad" part, but I don't know that it would have to be a "bad" tribe - just probably not one with hundreds of support cards (elves, goblins, zombies, etc.)

For example:
Here is a Monk deck - focusing on Prowess triggers (via Buyback/Rebound)

SPOILER

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Monk Prowess

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

General

1 Zedruu the Greathearted

Creatures (29)

1 Monastery Swiftspear

1 Pride Guardian

1 Abbot of Keral Keep

1 Enlightened Ascetic

1 Jeskai Elder

1 Jeskai Sage

1 Serene Master

1 Soltari Monk

1 Acolyte of the Inferno

1 Mantis Rider

1 Monastery Mentor

1 Monk Idealist

1 Reliquary Monk

1 Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest

1 Zephyr Scribe

1 Bloodfire Enforcers

1 Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker

1 Lotus-Eye Mystics

1 Mistfire Adept

1 Rhox Faithmender

1 Siani, Eye of the Storm

1 Taigam, Ojutai Master

1 Dragon-Style Twins

1 Elsha of the Infinite

1 Geist-Honored Monk

1 Strongarm Monk

1 Whirlwind Adept

1 Homura, Human Ascendant // Homura's Essence

1 Sage-Eye Avengers

Planeswalkers (2)

1 Narset Transcendent

1 Ral, Storm Conduit

Artifacts (9)

1 Elixir of Immortality

1 Arcane Signet

1 Thought Vessel

1 Commander's Sphere

1 Crown of Doom

1 Memory Crystal

1 Pendant of Prosperity

1 Ghirapur Orrery

1 Coveted Jewel

Enchantment (5)

1 Myth Realized

1 Spirit Loop

1 Skywise Teachings

1 Thousand-Year Storm

1 Cast Through Time

Instants (5)

1 Whispers of the Muse

1 Capsize

1 Channeled Force

1 Fury Storm

1 Sudden Substitution

Sorceries (9)

1 Mystic Speculation

1 Seething Anger

1 Gift of Estates

1 Haze of Rage

1 Day's Undoing

1 Harsh Mercy

1 Distant Melody

1 Echo Storm

1 Khorvath's Fury

Land (40)

3 Mountain

5 Plains

4 Island

1 Cavern of Souls

1 Clifftop Retreat

1 Command Tower

1 Contested War Zone

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Fabled Passage

1 Fiery Islet

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Homeward Path

1 Kor Haven

1 Mirrorpool

1 Mistveil Plains

1 Mystic Monastery

1 Mystic Sanctuary

1 Nimbus Maze

1 Opal Palace

1 Rainbow Vale

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue's Passage

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Sea of Clouds

1 Steam Vents

1 Sulfur Falls

1 Sunbaked Canyon

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Thespian's Stage

Approximate Total Cost:

Sure, it has some tribal "staples" (Harsh Mercy, Distant Melody) but it's not just a pile of creatures/tokens capped with Coat of Arms/Door of Destinies. The key, IMO, is finding a tribe with something "unique" to them and following that down the rabbit hole. Another example, my Mono-W Griffin deck, inspired by Mtenda Griffin - is an Enduring Renewal Griffin deck. . .

[Mookie]

To elaborate on some of the things I mentioned...

-villainous only seems too nebulous and probably too powerful.

My Kess deck's goal is 'act like a supervillain'. I run a lot of cards like Captive Audience and Sadistic Sacrament that are more about the feeling they invoke - my opponents' despair - than their actual ability to win. You could take that idea and go in a different direction - maybe you want to build a deck that makes your opponents feel happy, or confused, or some other emotion.

-"no keeping a decklist" I'm not sure what this means?

Literally what it means - I don't have a written record of what is in the deck, and generally don't keep track of the changes I make to it. Not really a deckbuilding restriction, but the initial goal of the deck was to have something I could swap cards in and out of without caring about card ratios or having enough of a particular effect.

-no buying/trading - I've already got all the cards so that wouldn't really do anything for me.

My Tatyova deck is built (almost) entirely from cards I have cut from my other decks. As a result, it's missing staples like Exploration and Burgeoning because they haven't been cut from the decks that are running them. On the other hand, I get to keep playing with cards I think are cool, but don't quite make the cut in my other, more polished decks anymore.

-"no blue/artifacts" is too lax. I can easily build a monocolor list that would obliterate this meta in any color.

My Tasigur deck was originally Sisters of Stone Death, and when switching commanders, I decided to avoid adding blue cards to the deck (minus Villainous Wealth) because I didn't think the deck needed them. To flip in the opposite direction, you could take a commander you think is reasonable and cut a color except the lands you need to cast your commander - monocolor Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is obviously a thing, but consider something like monoblue Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver (with no black zombie support), or mono-black Prosper, Tome-Bound focused on Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Praetor's Grasp effects.

-I don't really like Primal Surge as a strat because then you just have an "i win" button in the deck. I don't like uninteractive wincons. Running no instants/sorceries outside of that is a fine restriction although not enough on its own.

No arguments there - I've actually been considering cutting Primal Surge for a while. That said, finding ways to work around the restriction (i.e. running Stratus Dancer and Willbender instead of traditional countermagic) has been interesting.

-no creatures is way too easy. Half my decks are pretty much creatureless anyway lol. Stacking the deck with proteus staff is also not a wincon I want to run. Although I do think it'd be funny to try to make an Umori, the Collector deck that isn't creatures. I think you can do either planewalkers or enchantments...I don't think there's an artifact option.

One of the more amusing decks I've seen in the past was creatureless Animar, Soul of Elements, focused entirely on using its protections to enable voltron kills. There are plenty of commanders out there that can be built without creatures... but running no creatures for a commander that does care about them is somewhat more interesting. Creatureless Yeva, Nature's Herald built around instants and flash cards? Creatureless Alibou, Ancient Witness built around animating noncreature artifacts? There are definitely options out there.

-"no cards from EDHrec" is interesting. Might be kinda frustrating? I'd have to think about it. A good off-meta idea (i.e. my sorrow's path Golos) can pretty easily solve that sort of thing.

At the very least, 'no Sol Ring / Eternal Witness / other staples' will make your decks feel a bit more unique.

-burn, mill, and lifegain can be made pretty strong, or at least too strong for this application. With additional restrictions, though, it could be fun.

To expand: take a strategy or mechanic you think is bad and try to make it viable. Part of the reason why I built my Samut deck was because I noticed I almost never see creatures with tap abilities played in EDH other than mana dorks, so I wanted to build a deck around them.

-"Goal other than winning" is antithetical to how I play the game and to how I want my opponents to play. Competition is what makes the game fun.

To paraphrase, 'build casual, play competitive'. Once you are playing a game, yes, I agree you should try to win. But that doesn't apply during deckbuilding - unless you are building with a cEDH mindset of winning as often as possible, there is a ton of wiggle room in how you want to reach your ultimate goal of winning. Maybe you want to win by Flinging a Body of Research, or locking down the board with Juntu Stakes + Meishin, the Mind Cage, or milling opponents out with Grothama, All-Devouring + Pariah. Choose something silly.

[RxPhantom]

I've been cogitating on something, but I don't think there are enough cards for it, but I haven't done a deep dive. The general gist of it is cards that need specific other cards to work optimally. I've always wanted to find a place for Scepter of Empires, Crown of Empires, and Throne of Empires. There's also the three pairs of meld cards, Bogbrew Witch with her stuff, and...probably not much else? Like I said, I haven't researched it much, but I hope to do something with it some day.

I'd probably just find an interesting, odd, or esoteric commander and try to make it work. That's what I did with Lord of Tresserhorn, and the evolution of that deck has been very rewarding.

[Mookie]

I've been cogitating on something, but I don't think there are enough cards for it, but I haven't done a deep dive. The general gist of it is cards that need specific other cards to work optimally. I've always wanted to find a place for Scepter of Empires, Crown of Empires, and Throne of Empires. There's also the three pairs of meld cards, Bogbrew Witch with her stuff, and...probably not much else? Like I said, I haven't researched it much, but I hope to do something with it some day.

I'll give a shout to Urborg Panther and Sift Through Sands. Also the Behemoth's Herald cycle.

[Sinis]

I've always wanted to find a place for Scepter of Empires, Crown of Empires, and Throne of Empires.

Yes!

I've had a half-baked Dakkon Blackblade|LEG deck in my brain where I play the vertical cycle of T-Mages (Trinket Mage, etc.), Enlightened Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Whir of Invention, Fabricate, the Empires collection, as well as The Book of Vile Darkness Vecna trio, Helm of Kaldra + gear.

I'm still lost on what the rest of the deck will be. Maybe also Search for Glory and Thalia's Lancers since they can find non-empires items. Behold the Beyond is god awful, but here, it might be really kind of cute.

This idea has real 'assemble the jank cannon' vibes.

[RxPhantom]

@Mookie & @Sinis: Oh my goodness...there may actually be enough to make a fun pile of jank! Wasn't there some card that searched for Heart-Piercer Bow and Vial of Dragonfire? I could probably find it on Scryfall, but I don't wanna.

[Mookie]

@Mookie & @Sinis: Oh my goodness...there may actually be enough to make a fun pile of jank! Wasn't there some card that searched for Heart-Piercer Bow and Vial of Dragonfire? I could probably find it on Scryfall, but I don't wanna.

Renowned Weaponsmith

[Sinis]

@Mookie & @Sinis: Oh my goodness...there may actually be enough to make a fun pile of jank!

There's 100% a deck in here. It's just going to be atrociously awful, and I'm not sure there's enough search or tempo in the universe to make it really go. I mean, given that a lot of the pieces cost between 2-4, even something like Dark Petition could be good here. Also, no T-Mage can find the 4-cost Kaldra pieces.

But, let's not kid ourselves; you could assemble Vecna, and then it might just get bounced or swordsed or something.

[Treamayne]

I'll give a shout to Urborg Panther and Sift Through Sands. Also the Behemoth's Herald cycle.

While they don't name specific cards, I'd shout out the original Voltron - Tin-Wing Chimera and friends. They don't name each other, but you need all four to assemble the 8/8 flying trample first strike vigilance chimera they are meant to become. . .

[RxPhantom]

@Sinis: the only option, it seems, is to make it a 5-color deck, and maybe the necessary critical mass of tutors it would require could keep the power level in check. OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH....I just had an idea while I was typing this! What about all the partners with creatures!? Like Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend! Now we're cooking with gas!

[DirkGently]

Creatureless Alibou, Ancient Witness built around animating noncreature artifacts? There are definitely options out there.

I'm open to that sort of idea but I'd want a reason why I'd build it that way. Could do like Alibou with a ton of board wipes and artifacts that become creatures, but mass board wipes (while it's one of my fav strats) isn't something I expect will be enjoyable for this meta.

At the very least, 'no Sol Ring / Eternal Witness / other staples' will make your decks feel a bit more unique.

Eh, I don't usually have trouble making my decks unique (at least in my eyes).

Oh god how would the manabase even work? No basics or good fixing lands?

To expand: take a strategy or mechanic you think is bad and try to make it viable. Part of the reason why I built my Samut deck was because I noticed I almost never see creatures with tap abilities played in EDH other than mana dorks, so I wanted to build a deck around them.

If I build max-power tap-ability-tribal I'll obliterate this meta. My goal is to build a deck so bad that winning is a legit challenge even in a meta of precons played badly.

You did remind me of a particular bad mechanic I thought would be funny to build around though - Johan helming exert tribal. I'd probably have to include all of them for it to make sense, including the absolutely trash ones that were barely limited playable. Which unfortunately I don't think I have most of them because they're crap.

To paraphrase, 'build casual, play competitive'.

I was responding to materpillar who said "Have your goal when piloting the deck be something that isn't to "win" the game"

What you're describing sounds like the way I build most of my decks.

I've been cogitating on something, but I don't think there are enough cards for it, but I haven't done a deep dive. The general gist of it is cards that need specific other cards to work optimally. I've always wanted to find a place for Scepter of Empires, Crown of Empires, and Throne of Empires. There's also the three pairs of meld cards, Bogbrew Witch with her stuff, and...probably not much else? Like I said, I haven't researched it much, but I hope to do something with it some day.

I'd probably just find an interesting, odd, or esoteric commander and try to make it work. That's what I did with Lord of Tresserhorn, and the evolution of that deck has been very rewarding.

Cute idea, I'd have to buy a lot of specific cards that I'd never use again though.

I've mused in the past about building a deck full of infinite combos...which are all missing one piece. And then a bunch of theft so you're waiting for an opponent to help you enable your combo by playing a missing piece.

[Mookie]

You did remind me of a particular bad mechanic I thought would be funny to build around though - Johan helming exert tribal. I'd probably have to include all of them for it to make sense, including the absolutely trash ones that were barely limited playable. Which unfortunately I don't think I have most of them because they're crap.

Hilariously, Johan was my original pick for tap ability tribal, to make use of Reconnaissance.... and then Samut was previewed roughly a week after I had the idea, at which point in time I immediately switched plans.