HOW TO MAKE CUTS TO A COMMANDER DECK

Ethanol is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid that acts as a central nervous system depressant. Ethanol can impair different types of memory.

Volatile, flammable and colourless….maybe just one more drink….

A hangover is the experience of various unpleasant physiological and psychological effects following consumption of ethanol. Wikipedia.

It was a wild night of cards.

There was also a bottle of Vodka too…

I must of got to at least Storm Count 10. Your Storm Count goes up with each drink you have by the way. Tendrils at ten and Grapeshot at 20.

A lot of Storm players try to go off as soon as possible. Don’t. Take it slow first, build up counters on Ascension then you can go crazy. Also remember you can take a break then Past in Flames for the win.

Please combo responsibly.

I wasn’t very responsible that night. We had lot’s of Tibalt Bets on games of Modern. Bets which I sadly lost. Never bet against Craig with Geist of St Traft. Never bet when Dark Rum is on the line.

Anyway in the midst of all this drinking were numerous games of EDH, Modern and Trading.

Ima love EDH.

In my drunken state I traded for a “Re-awakening of the light, Of-Nikushirisu”(lit translation from Japanese).

I excitedly flicked through my Karador EDH deck to see what cuts to make so I could add O.B Nix to the team.

Oh Dear.

What. To. Cut?!?!?!

I sat their dumbfounded from both alcohol and the distress of actually having to cut a card from my beloved EDH deck. It was like asking a parent which child they love the least (the one that plays Blue obviously).

For reference here is the current list.

I say my current list as actually cannot remember what I cut (cut out my memory lolz :P).

Anyway inspired by the clues and mystery from the new set, here’s the process I would have done to make the cut.

Ima be. Ima be. Ima Ima Ima be. Ima be makin’ dem cuts….

Strictly Better:

Wizards just keep printing better and better cards. Sometimes I just look in the mirror and think what I am I still doing playing this card game.  Banefire is an upgrade to Fireball.  Tri-Colour tap lands are an upgrade to Dual Colour tap lands. Storm Crow is an upgrade Snapcaster Mage. These are the easiest cuts to identify. Sometimes the new card will cost less, be more efficient and be able to make knives and stabbing weapons. Though whilst the T-1000 is better the T-800 has style. Just ask yourself which one you want more.

You know what the right choice is.

What is Ob Nixilis Re-Ignited an upgrade to? His creature versions? Hmm sadly I’ve never played those in my EDH deck so the mystery continues…

Synergy:

Did you choose style? Good, check out Dan’s article on why you shouldn’t always choose strictly better. A point to consider on cuts is which of your current 99 synergizes the least with the other cards in your deck. To do this consider your game plan, if you have built around a theme or your general this will make it easier. If not look through your cardboard stack and identify which cards go together.  Do you have a lot of graveyard shenanigans going on? Are all your creatures zombies? What about your mana curve? Cut accordingly. You wouldn’t put Delver in a deck without enough instants or sorceries (Delver in EDH -believe it).

I personally need some sort detective pin board thing going on to make a deck analysis. I need pages of reports. I need a statistical break down on which cards would make the best chat up lines.

Calling myself “Fleshbag Marauder” on Tinder has been a real success.

Hmmm this rings a bell. I cut it because it wasn’t synergizing with anything in the deck…

Foil:

Do I need to say more? If it ain’t foil it ain’t me. There is a reason you spent money / over traded for that piece of cardboard. Get it in a deck. Cut the first non foil you see. Job done. If you happen to have an all foil EDH deck, firstly, congrats and secondly, congrats.

Well the O.B. Nix I got isn’t foil, so I wouldn’t have been a foil card. This narrows it down somewhat…

Fun:

If you’re looking to make cuts, you probably whittled it down to a small pile. Time for the fun assessment. Have you played a card one to many times? If the sparkle has gone? Maybe it is time to move on. Consider your playgroup, is there a card they all groan at?

Winning is fun but fun is always winning.

There was a time when I used to listen to Carly Rae Jepson The Youngblood Brass Band incessantly.  A bunch of us, oh go on then a Squadron of us, went to go see them live one time and they were incredible.

When they played, it hit you with a wall of sound. I blasted out their music non stop for a week before my girlfriend started complaining. Luckily my ear drums were so damaged I couldn’t hear her complaints. When she pointed out that it was all I had listened to for the past seven days, listening to them stopped being fun. It is not to say that they weren’t awesome, they still are, though the Magic had worn off.

New cards means new lines of play, new ridiculous game states, new sweet foils to trade for. Variety is the spice of life, it can be hard to move on though you’ll never experience new things if you don’t.

Think I’m on the right track, it definitely wasn’t fun to play…

Underwhelming:

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, not studying hard enough, getting out of bed, not using protection…..and playing Gifts Ungiven. Gifts is one of those things that seems super sweet but never really works out. Like a horrible relationship you want to make work but can’t  <sigh one day cyborg anime love will be legal>.

EOT, Gifts for 3 guff cards and some witty banter.

The majority of the times I have used Gifts in Modern it has been underwhelming. Apart from that time I boarded out the whole Gifts Package and sided in Twin cards and killed someone with the combo. Actually there was another time when I played Gifts and as my opponent reached out for the cards, I looked him in the eye and said “do you even Gift Bro?”
The store erupted with laughter.

I kind of lost track though Gifts is a bad card.

Back to EDH, look at that cut pile again, which ones have let you down in the past? Another way is to play some games and and consider if your potential cut cards would be better as your new kid on the block.

Sidenote: Now I always bag up. Call me Ultra Pro. I was talking about mtg by the way get your mind out of the gutter.

I’ve figured it out! Yes it was a card that was underwhelming! I thought it would play well with the rest of the deck though never seemed to live up to the hype…

Great stuff Remembering Chris though that wraps it up for this article. Real life Chris is still recovering from one stinker of a hangover and needs to eat more Apple Pie and Custard to make it go away. What’s that? You readers actually want to know the card I cut? Me too. However I literally cannot remember.

Does it matter? The real discovery here is how to go about making cuts to your beloved EDH decks.

Now Daddy is very is tired at the moment, so go play with your EDH decks and make him proud.

 

Much Love.

Chris.

 

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