Still another rekative newcomer question, sorry!
I’ve finally started finding my footing in draft a little bit, and I’ve found some cool unofficial formats that I’ve enjoyed deck building for, but this is something that’s stuck in my craw a little bit for a while and I’m curious what my options are.
My friends all play EDH, so if I want a casual game I have to play that. They have a number of decks I’ve been able to borrow, and I did buy a precon I saw at a toy show (Prosper, Tome Bound – Planar Portal), but so far, I’ve just not really found the fun, and I’m wondering what I’m missing.
The main problem is that during each of these games, I wind up mostly sitting there waiting to play the game. Not just hecause of long turn times (although when someone has a lot of triggers, that is a factor), but also due to my commander getting instantly removed, or having little in hand to play, or someone having only flyers and my not having any kind of protection or removal in hand…ever. Maybe my luck is phenomenally bad, but I mostly sit there with a near empty board after a couple board wipes or targeted removal or just…well I assume my precon must just be kind of bad because i wind up with a bunch of treasure tokens and nothing to spend them on. In short, for almost any game, my turns have been draw > land > pass, with an occasional play > removed/countered > pass. I’ve thought about trying to buy a different precon or maybe finding a budget deck list on edhrec and buying that, but I’m hesitant to spend more money on a format I haven’t really enjoyed or even gotten to actually play in so far.
So I guess I’m looking for advice. Have I just been playing the wrong decks? Is it because I’m bad at the game (Only about 2 years in, so this seems plausible)? Is it something else? What do I have to do to enjoy it?
What I’ve been enjoying is Primordial. I got the group to try it but I can tell it’s not going to replace or even really augment EDH as their social format. But I dont want to be completely locked out of the social angle with my friends, so I’m determined to find a way to have fun with commander and get into it with them.
It sounds to me like your group is playing at a fairly high power level. I’ve been at tables with the exact opposite experience, where I put down some rabid commander and the whole table just ignores me as I go off & wincon. I’ve also had the exact experience you’re describing. To put it simply, each group plays at different power levels. You might start by simply asking them what power level they think they’re playing at, based on the new bracket system. It sounds like you are bringing a bracket 2 deck to a bracket 4 table. (You’re bringing a knife to a gunfight).
As for the price, it sounds like you haven’t found exactly what you want to play yet. I would seriously look into proxies. Get yourself a box or two of sleeves, and just start printing out cards to try them out. Once you find your niche, then you can start actually buying cards.
In general, I love Commander because it’s 2 games in one, there’s the deck building game and then the social play game. For the deckbuilding, you might try watching some Podcasts. The Command Zone just did a long podcast about deckbuilding, it’s not a bad place to start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSNV6224cHg
The social angle is very much a piece of the game - specifically table politics & threat assessment. Being able to put down a Commander who flies just under the radar, while keeping the heat on the other guy is part of the strategy. “OMG, look at what his Commander does, guys, he’s going to go off next turn if we don’t all team up & stop him”. Or not, some people enjoy being the table villain. But based on your question, I would certainly play around with some purposely shitty commanders and see if your group is actually targeting your commander, or is just targeting you (in which case, find better friends).
I’ve been thinking about your comment and I started to wonder if maybe the politics is what’s actually keeping me from enjoying the format. I’ve tried some of that but I get swung at anyway, often because I’m the least dangerous/easiest to attack at any given moment (no blockers, no reach, etc). Even as much as I point to the Muldrotha and say “hey I’ve played that deck and none of you have targeted that player, it could get wild” it never seems to work. If I’m bad at the political game, maybe the rest of the game just kind of crumbles around me? I hear these stories of people “not looking like a threat” but when i try to do the same I think it looks more like I’m a soft target.