Most Stable Commanders | EDHRECast 183

These commanders have barely aged a day! This week we're digging into the data to talk about the commanders whose deck data has remained the most consistent over time.

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Special thanks to @The Command Zone for post-production work on the podcast, and for bringing it to a whole new level!

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[sweetandsaltyminx]

"But it's $20 so I'm not going to get it juuuust yet." Famous last words about Meathook Massacre

[camfunme]

For all formats, not just commander, the more cards that exist in that pool, the more options are available for any given strategy but the lower the percentage of those cards will be playable or optimal for that strategy. Each time more cards get added, the strategy gets more efficient and newer cards have to be that much better at that specific strategy to compete. This is why Modern gets faster, this is why Arcades now only considers 1-2 mana defenders, this is why 3 cmc mana rocks aren't ubiquitous anymore. Arcane Signet bumped off hundreds of different cards in the format from hundreds of different strategies. Each new set isn't going to print a new card that can compete with or is better than each card in each strategy that exists, if it did that would be most heinous power creep, and there'd be outcry that we don't get to play with any old good cards anymore.
TLDR: Optimal decks + more cards = less choice.

In my opinion new cards should be devoted to new strategies and old decks should remain relatively stable, it avoids power-creep and allows me to play with my old fun cards for the longest time before they become to inefficient to be fun. For those who say: "why not just run your inefficient 'pet' cards, or a suboptimal deck to have fun", while I will sometimes, you have to get everyone to agree to do that, otherwise you're playing what was a 8 and is now a 6 against other decks that are still 8's, and your fun cards aren't fun when you don't get to play them before you die, or they hit the table and don't affect the board at all.

[cagin]

Dana's Sorin joke last time forced Matt to pay 2 to add a level up counter today. Lovin' it!🤭

[ToxicAtom]

what's interesting is the #2 and the #1 cards were the face commanders for two different 2019 precons, which there were only 4 of, meaning that half of those precons are just set in stone for the most part.

[screwthisin]

Matt's grave jokes is like the electricity puns from an earlier episode.

[odysseuslost]

Feather is my pet deck and I am constantly updating it. It is true that the "draw a card" cantrips tend not to get better (because you can't really go lower than 1 mana), but I find that there are a ton of support cards for this deck that have been printed only in the last two years. I looked through my list and found that I have over 20 cards all of which have been printed after War of the Spark (which coincidentally came out almost exactly two years ago). Those are: Ephemerate
, Fists of Flame, Jeska's Will, Valakut Awakening, Showdown of the Skalds, Birgi, God of Storytelling, Storm-kiln Artist, Needleverge Pathway, Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage, Talisman of Conviction, Ardent Elementalist, Shatterskull Smashing, Tibalt's Trickery, Skyclave Apparition, Vanquish the Horde, Sejiri Shelter, Deflecting Swat, Unleash Fury, and Blacksmith's Skill, Archaeomancer's Map, Alpine Medow and Spectator Seating.
Admittedly, I am a bit of a madman when it comes to Feather, but I am always excited when spoilers start coming and I get to start planning out what additions might be able to be made. I can see why Feather is a stable commander, but I think there is always a bunch of room for innovation and a lot of different ways Feather can be played which is part of the reason she is so popular.

[pauldyson]

That Hall of the Bandit Lord tech made for the best CTS yet.

[Timby_]

Released JUST before my flight, king! Downloading on Spotify now lol

[RollieB]

On my Anje deck I try to use some newer cards just to test out but it gets in the way of the deck and removed.
But Anje was happy for MH2, Jeska's Will, and Underworld Breach.

[stephenbradford]

No lie - I would buy Fallen Empires: Remastered.

[jundsheep]

I actually own a Rakdos, LoR deck. It’s my first deck I ever made. I filled it with a couple of Eldrazi I had laying around from BFZ. The rest of the deck is just full of good red, black, and Rakdos colored creatures.

[TheStephenation]

It's strange to see saprolings portrayed as something that stopped existing in the mid-90's, since almost all relevant saproling-based cards are much newer than that. Yeah, Verdant Force and Aura Mutation are a bit old (and have been reprinted). But stuff like Tendershoot Dryad, Sporemound, Fungal Sprouting, and Sprout Swarm are all Modern cards. Even Night Soil has been reprinted in a Commander product. Not only would a typical saproling deck in EDH mostly be using newer cards, but it's actually tough to construct one using only the older cards, because there are too few of them and most of them are not good.

[dominicmetzger]

I play my Rhys deck often and the cost is still pretty extreme due to no reprints of token doublers.

[danielbernard]

At it's most competitive level (sparing no expense), is a more classic Brago blink/control/countermagic build considered to be superior to a Brago Stax shell? I am an old prison player, and I basically have all of the old Stax components on hand from other decks. Thanks in advance, great video!

[suekonzak]

Okay, like, there is definitely an argument there for kadenna, but I honestly think most of the morph pieces are staying. Because on top of the ones mentioned, we have to respect Grim Haruspex, thieving amalgam, stratus dancer, silumgar assassin, gift of doom, bane of the living, spell snatcher, and vesuvan shapeshifter. then most of the support pieces are less staples and more welded in. Layline, ugin, trail, all the manifest support pieces, and the like 8 morphs that flip to kill or disenchant

[draconic]

Could the most "stable" commanders also be called the least supported commanders that people still like?

[Krokar]

Yedora, Mono Green Aristocrats is my fav new deck to come out in years, only after Yawgmoth.

[SWNJim]

My least changing is probably my Karona Voltron deck. Unless new vow or impetus cards are created, there’s very little opportunity to add cards better than the auras and equipment that I have now.

[screwthisin]

Joey, if a Tovolar werewolf player were to ask to play a game, were they going to ask if you want to play a game of nighttime daytime?

[juuuurgenful]

Is it possible to see the full list anywhere? Is it a function for us common folk to find stuff like this?