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The TRICK YOU NEED, What I learned building 1000 commander decks — Transcript

by DefCat MTG · 2,842 words · 385 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00What does someone who's been paid to
0:01make a thousand Commander decks learn?
0:03Well, like the famous Thomas Edison,
0:05they learn 999 ways on how not to build
0:08a Commander deck. So today, I'm giving
0:10you my instant reaction to finishing my
0:121000th Commander deck. Then after
0:14analyzing my first deck and my 1000th
0:16deck, I realized the three major things
0:19that have changed about how I build them
0:21to make my patrons happy who pay me to
0:23build these for them on Patreon. And the
0:25thing that separates me from anyone else
0:27who has a overly verbose amount of magic
0:29decks, I built every single one of these
0:31decks in paper with real cards. And I
0:34did all that by not spending a bunch of
0:35money, but I genuinely got to sit down
0:37and play with these things. And oh my
0:39gosh, now whenever I look at any
0:41Commander deck ever that anyone sends
0:43me, I see these three things and they
0:45are always wrong. And these are things
0:47you can't just teach. Like they're
0:48things that genuinely take so much time
0:50to understand and it's going to be
0:51different for everyone, but I'm really
0:53hoping I can communicate this to you.
0:55But if by the end of the video, you
0:56already knew these three things, I hope
0:58you're getting paid to make your decks.
0:59But judging by the comments on most of
1:01my videos, I doubt it. Now, as I said,
1:04I'm not rich, but I still made all of
1:06these in paper. I had to make an insane
1:08system to collect cards and organize
1:11them and it took me over 400 hours of
1:12engineering with two of my closest
1:14friends. We made a system that organized
1:16every single deck I ever had using an
1:19app so I never have to own more than one
1:21copy of a magic card. Literally, I sold
1:24all my extra Soul Rings, all my extra
1:25fetches, shocklands, staples,
1:27everything. I only need one of each and
1:29I can still keep all of my decks. So if
1:31that interests you and you want to save
1:32money, my project comes out next Monday
1:35on Kickstarter. Please go follow it.
1:37Seriously, go in the description. This
1:38took us ages. But let's get into the
1:40lessons. Lesson number one. Over 400 of
1:44my submissions asked me to make bracket
1:46three lists that are powerful but don't
1:49use popular spells or staples. That
1:52means they want bracket three, they want
1:53it to be really good, but they barely
1:55even want me to include Soul Ring, let
1:57alone a game changer. And they want it
1:59to be extremely unique, whether that be
2:01the theme or the cards used that are
2:03strong yet not staples. So many people
2:06believe this means you have to go out
2:07and search a unique commander that has
2:09very specific cards that make it totally
2:11cracked that no one would know of. A
2:12prime example of this is the card
2:14Tiamat. It uses a card called Dream
2:17Halls, which combos with it. Barely
2:20anyone knows what Dream Halls is. It's
2:22extremely powerful with Tiamat and it
2:24makes it feel strong without using
2:25staples and it feels unique. And while
2:27that's true and almost every commander
2:29does have something special like that
2:30you can find, that's not filling your
2:32whole deck. The real secret to making a
2:35commander deck way stronger without
2:37using all these things that I see no one
2:39do is something called skipping the
2:41third card. The 1,000th deck that I made
2:44for someone was a Dr. Doom upgraded
2:47precon. They gave me $200 to upgrade the
2:49Doom precon and try to make something
2:52that was better yet not filled with a
2:54bunch of staples. They didn't want to
2:55see $200 get pumped into your Rhystic
2:57Study. Now, Dr. Doom, King of Latveria,
3:00says that at the beginning of combat on
3:02your turn, target villain you control
3:04gains menace until end of turn and it
3:06connives. The regular play pattern is
3:07that you cast your Doom, you give Dr.
3:10Doom connive, then you discard a villain
3:13from your hand and then you reanimate
3:15it. Or discard cards that you want in
3:17your graveyard such as Past in Flames.
3:20And then, as a result, everyone ends up
3:23playing this deck and running into the
3:24same exact problem. I need a ton of
3:27reanimation cards and I need a ton of
3:29villains, which leaves me almost no
3:31amount of cards for interaction and a
3:33very slim amount for mana production.
3:35And oh my gosh, what about the fun cards
3:37or the enchantments or more lands? What
3:39do I do? At the end of the day, you
3:41needed Dr. Doom, a villain to discard,
3:44and a reanimation spell. It's time to
3:46start skipping the third card and stop
3:48being so dang reliant on your commander.
3:50What you actually wanted was the Green
3:53Goblin. The Green Goblin says, "Spells
3:55you cast from your graveyard cost two
3:56less to cast and each nonland card in
3:59your graveyard has mayhem." That means
4:01you can now discard any card from your
4:03hand. It doesn't need to just be a
4:06villain. And now those cards cost two
4:08less to cast and can be cast from your
4:10graveyard. So many people go into a
4:12commander deck and figure out a way to
4:14abuse the commander's main mechanic and
4:17then they build all their cards around
4:19it. They build a strategy. And aiming
4:21for a strategy makes you disregard
4:24almost completely a so many cards that
4:27are strategy completely on their own.
4:29Now many people refer to cards like this
4:31as the secret commander. But in my
4:33opinion, there's cards that are not
4:35creatures, mostly not even legendary,
4:37that can have this same effect. The idea
4:39is that it's now if this card is on your
4:41battlefield with your commander, your
4:43strategy has either changed, become more
4:45broad, more optimal, or has taken it in
4:49a completely new direction. And as a
4:50result, it's harder to lock out your
4:52game plan or be destroyed by someone,
4:54even board wiped from people because of
4:57your new found flexibility via what most
4:59people like to call secret commanders.
5:01But I don't have a word for these cards,
5:03but I put them in every dang deck. And
5:05the way to catch yourself is that once
5:07you think of a third card that you need
5:09within something, try to take a step
5:11back and find more cards that do what
5:14you want by the second card. And often
5:17time these cards are going to be higher
5:20in mana value. But the fact is now
5:23instead of having two cards in your
5:25list, you just have this one. So you now
5:27have more space for what you should have
5:29had in the first place in order to get
5:32around to playing your big mana spells.
5:34I can afford to play this four mana
5:37creature in my list instead of two, like
5:39a one mana reanimate spell and a two
5:41mana villain, because I can now replace
5:45that extra card I'm no longer running
5:47with interaction to slow my opponents
5:49down or a mana rock to speed my plan up.
5:52So if you feel like you're running out
5:54of room for the basics in your deck,
5:56good mana production and good
5:58interaction and good card draw, this is
6:01where you need to look. You need to look
6:03for the third card. But it would kind of
6:05be insane as if I made 1,000 Commander
6:09decks and I didn't get a chance to
6:12figure out how to perfect the mana
6:14curve. And boy, did I find an insane
6:17secret. So, I'll start with some new
6:19found basics that I figured out about
6:21mana production that I'm kind of shocked
6:23isn't more normalized and I feel like
6:25after this video, it's going to be
6:26everywhere cuz everyone's going to know
6:27it. If your Commander five CMC, you
6:30should be playing cards that give you
6:33mana on turn one so that you can cast a
6:35ramp spell on turn two that costs three
6:39mana. Now, obviously, green has the
6:41highest access to this, but trust me
6:43when I say this, every other color does
6:46too. If you have a five mana Commander,
6:49let's say I cast Blood Pet on turn one.
6:52On turn two, I play another land and I'm
6:54able to cast a three mana ramp spell on
6:57turn two. I'll say Basalt Monolith. That
6:59means on turn three, even without a land
7:02drop, I now have five mana to cast my
7:04Commander. And if you're in green, this
7:06is so easy. Turn one mana dork, turn two
7:10three mana ramp spell like Cultivate.
7:12That means turn three five mana. Now,
7:14that's just good math and all, but the
7:15real secret I found to perfecting the
7:18mana curve and if your Commander is
7:20three CMC, then you need to cut any
7:24three CMC card from your deck that isn't
7:26as important as your Commander because
7:28in the end of the day, when turn three
7:29rolls around and you want to cast either
7:32a Command Sphere or you want to cast
7:34Najeela, I'd hope you'd be casting
7:37Najeela. And then, it's now turn four.
7:40Do you want to cast the Command Sphere
7:42or do you want to cast the Grim Hireling
7:44in your hand? Because now you have
7:45access to cast your four mana spells,
7:47which should be better than your three
7:49mana spells because you should have
7:51wanted to cast your Commander. So,
7:52unless the three mana spell is insanely
7:55good like Jessica's Will, you should be
7:57casting your Commander. So, cut any
7:59three CMC spell in a deck with a three
8:01CMC Commander that isn't as good as your
8:04Commander or is important or is like not
8:06a win con. Clearly, keep in a win con if
8:07it's the same CMC. And on that same
8:09math, do not include two mana ramp in a
8:13three CMC commander deck. No Najeela
8:15list ever should be running any two CMC
8:19mana rocks at all. There's no point. Run
8:22exclusively one CMC mana ramp, which
8:25you're in five colors in that deck, so
8:27you should have plenty, and two mana
8:28cards that support the deck really well.
8:31Like Voice of Victory, two mana creature
8:33that makes the strategy insanely better
8:35and protects you. So that way you can go
8:37one drop past two drop to play an
8:39important piece like Voice of Victory,
8:41and then turn three your commander. Or
8:43turn one mana dork, turn two commander.
8:46That is infinitely better than turn one
8:48nothing, turn two mana rock. But that is
8:50a massive thing I see in every deck.
8:52Please check the curve of your mana
8:55production. You shouldn't have two CMC
8:58and three CMC ramp spells. You should
9:00always skip. It should be one to three
9:03to five or two to four to six and avoid
9:06your commander CMC at all costs unless
9:08it's an amazing card. Now, obviously
9:11this took a lot of cards to test.
9:12Luckily, because of the Prism system
9:14that I mentioned earlier, remember, link
9:15in the description, I was able to
9:17actually afford all these cards cuz when
9:19I sold all my extras from Prism, I had a
9:21service like Card Conduit to sell it to.
9:23I took every extra card that I had and
9:25sold it to Card Conduit very easily. All
9:28I had to do was send them the list of my
9:30cards. They gave me an estimation on its
9:32value. I liked the value, it was great.
9:35I boxed it all up, sent it to them, and
9:37I got thousands of dollars back from So
9:39if you want the easiest way to get money
9:41for your cards, go to Card Conduit, my
9:43link in my description, and use code
9:45Defcat to get 10% off the processing
9:47fees. Thank you again to Card Conduit
9:49for sponsoring this chan- This third
9:51secret was something I was thinking,
9:53honestly, I should keep for myself. But
9:55if I truly want to be an amazing deck
9:56builder, I really shouldn't have to pull
9:58back any of my secrets because who can
10:01really perform as best as I? If I can
10:03tell everyone my secrets and now I'm not
10:05the premier deck builder, then I should
10:07have never been the premier deck builder
10:08to begin with. Now, so many people have
10:11attempted this strategy I'm about to
10:12talk about and done a terrible job and
10:14you know its name. They call it building
10:17a commander deck backwards. That's where
10:19you start with the win con and end with
10:22the commander. Now, this strategy is
10:24still wrong and I disagree with it.
10:25Something I ask the people that ask me
10:28to make them decks is what is your
10:30favorite mechanic to do? For example, I
10:33love surveil. The process of deciding to
10:36put a card and leave it on top library
10:38or put it into the graveyard is one of
10:40my favorite parts of the game in
10:41general. The problem is so many people
10:43figure out their favorite mechanic and
10:45then they realize I'm just going to
10:46maximize on that mechanic and do as much
10:49as that mechanic as possible and now the
10:51deck's boring. So, how did I make
10:53reverse landfall, the deck that wins by
10:57putting lands back in your hand? It was
10:59a process that I like to call using a
11:02card wrong. Now, this entire idea was
11:04inspired by someone and I want to shout
11:06them out. They're a a group called
11:08Critical EDH. Specifically, they made a
11:11deck called Wrong Side. It was meant to
11:13utilize what was at the time the most
11:15powerful strategy in all of competitive
11:17commander called Rograkh Silas or Rog
11:20Sai, where you built a deck with the
11:22lowest CMC possible to win the game with
11:25the card called Ad Nauseam. Ad Nauseam
11:28has you lose life based on the CMC of
11:30the card that is drawn during the
11:32process of the resolution of the card.
11:34So, you want the lowest CMC possible to
11:36draw as many cards. But, instead these
11:38people put in massive eight, nine, 10
11:40mana spells cuz they leverage something
11:42different and unique about the
11:44commander. This gives you the element of
11:46surprise in a game which we all know how
11:48valuable it is. It makes people not know
11:50how to counter your strategy. It catches
11:52people off guard. It makes the deck more
11:54fun and it opens up opportunities to use
11:56nuts o cards like commandeer. This
11:59massive blue card that allows you to
12:02steal any card on the stack. The thought
12:04process is that every single commander
12:06you play has possibly an intended
12:09mechanic that's very easy to spot, but
12:12it's important you look at all the ways
12:14that mechanic can be used. Any commander
12:17that uses discarding as a part of its
12:20mechanic can be used in so many ways
12:23other than reanimation. There are cards
12:25that generate things when you discard,
12:27untap things, add minus one minus one
12:29counters to people when you discard.
12:31There's so many things that are
12:32triggered off of something entering the
12:34graveyard. So, the first thing I do when
12:36starting to build a deck for someone is
12:37I look at the mechanic and I write down
12:40all the ways that I can think of off the
12:42top of my head that that can be used.
12:45And I went a little bit further, like
12:46when I got the AC list going and I was
12:49building reverse landfall, I went,
12:50"Okay, what can you do with a ton of
12:52lands in the battlefield?" And I was
12:53like, "Oh my gosh, there's things in
12:56this game that care about how many lands
12:58you can return from your battlefield to
13:00your hand and do something huge." And it
13:02literally made me famous. So, trust me,
13:04it's worth looking into a mechanic.
13:07Literally take 10 minutes of just
13:10pencil, paper, and looking at the card.
13:13Don't even use the internet. Use your
13:14brain as best as you can. And maybe even
13:17if you can't understand like the vast
13:20knowledge of cards or like not that you
13:22can't understand that you don't have it,
13:23think of something and then search for
13:25it on Scryfall. Like, "Okay, if you cool
13:27if you could do this, does that exist?"
13:29Probably does. So, I implore you, use
13:33Secret Commanders, do my mana curve
13:35style, and I highly suggest for every
13:39single mechanic that's possible with the
13:41core mechanic of your deck. Stick around
13:42for next Monday, it's the start of the
13:44daily show, and I'm going to give you
13:46more insanely helpful tips on how to
13:49become a commander master. And as per
13:51usual, I hope you're in jobs you enjoy,
13:53I hope you're in relationships with
13:54people that love you, and I hope you're
13:56looking forward to the next day of your
13:57life. If you're not, I'm praying for
14:00you.
14:00Thank you for watching and amen.

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