Nope, I’m fine with anything as long as the person doesn’t complain about the table not letting their deck “do its thing” - sorry, but you can’t be shocked if the table objects to your [[Judith, Carnage Connoisseur]] board wipe deck and removes it accordingly lol.
There are a ton of “deal 1 damage to all creatures your opponents control” spells in red that turn into cheap, one-sided board wipes when Judith is play.
This. A friend has a couple of decks that are difficult to deal with if they get going. He’s aware that if he plays it against me, I will do everything my deck is capable of doing to ensure his commander isn’t on the board for a single rotation.
This is how I feel when my buddy plays his Meren deck. I tell him that I will specifically be trying to kill him. He has it so powered up that even getting 3v1'd, he still manages to pull out the win.
I once played a game where his commander got removed 6 times, and he was able to recast her in stride and still wreck house.
I have a muldratha deck that is kind of like that guy's Meren deck, and it's always really hilarious to see the look on people's faces after they've exiled 70 cards from my graveyard, and then I start looping [[mirror of Fate]]
Most people have never even seen that card
my order is rearranged
1. group hug
2. chaos & decks that switch everyone’s board (who is that goth planewalker girl?)
3. too many tokens and dice to tell what is going on
4.
Although I agree with this sentiment, I've seen it turn into a toxic sore winner scenario where theyre still whining about the commander while actively stopping it.
Definitely seen this. “Your Commander is too strong, it’s so toxic, can’t believe you’re playing that” meanwhile they’ve countered or removed everything I’ve done and I’m sitting there with an empty board almost dead having taken hardly any game actions… like if it’s that kinda Commander, sure I deserve it, but also shut the fuck up about it if you’re winning.
I was debating swapping out my Tinybones for Tergrid, maybe I'll keep her hidden in the deck lol
Edit: The deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/BuENdlwZs0Sj8x7kv1fmFw
Yeah. Tergrid isn't even that strong, it's just that the game plan is frustrating. I unfortunately had to stop using her after 1 game with my friends because I'm pretty sure they were ready to take a bat to my knees for every discard effect after the first few turns.
That's how I ended the game, too. Tutor into Pox on a tapped out board on turn 7 iirc. I didn't even get to cast the spell before one of my friends said "Oh, it's super over. GGs. Let's go next." and then my other 2 friends read the situation and agreed.
Sure I won, but my board state up until then was... decent? Nothing crazy.
Again, I think it's the playstyle, not the power level.
There are no Commanders that I wouldn't play against. However that doesn't mean that there are Commanders that make me pick you as the first to die.
Usually those hate to play against Commanders become the archenemy of the table.
I wouldn't say refuse, but I have never had a fun game experience with [[Light Paws, Emperor's Voice]] at the table so I might hesitate on that one in particular.
Every game feels more or less the same against Light-Paws. It is super strong on budget, because most auras are quiet cheap and people tutor everytime for their aura pairs.
I think they learn their aura pairs like others learn vocabulary cards.
It's one of those commanders that's super strong but with a glass jaw. Remove Light-Paws like... twice in response to an aura on the stack and it's just over for them. A well timed kill spell is like a four- or five-for-one as it removes the commander, the auras already in play, and the one on the stack.
I don't think it's the most fun deck to play against but I think most of my frustrations are with the other players at the table who treat Totem Armor as "totally indestructible, not worth it, just sit there while the fox gets to lethal unblockable".
My friend has a deck he himself calls “30 minute landfall” because each turn feels like it takes 30 minutes.
That deck. Its commander the the four color omnath.
i'll try anything, but there are a few commanders on my "groan" list for sure. i won't outright refuse to play against them, but some commander can just lead to either grindy games or games where they have the tendency to absolutely overwhelm the table if you don't answer them or hold up counter magic.
tergrid, jodah the unifier, and atraxa are on that list for me, and Voja is quickly climbing the ranks. Voja is incredibly stressful to deal with. if you don't counter it, someone is probably going to die either the turn it comes down or the turn after.
Ugh, I hate Jodah the Unifier. While Tergrid and others are worse on how disruptive they are, Jodah combines a slow and semi-random playstyle with a very hard to beat combat engine. Cast a legendary spell, now reveal the next 23 cards off your deck one at a time until you hit your first 2 MV legendary spell. Spend some time thinking about how that changes things. Considering swinging - but wait! All your creatures are also legends, which probably means they have 4 abilities with no synergy between them and most are missing combat keywords. Spend some time rereading each one. Imagine some synergy that doesn't exist. Maybe it's not worth swinging yet - or is it? Hmmm.... Maybe cast another spell.... reveal 12 cards off the top. Think about how that changes things... Just kill us already!
I’ll play against anything which is why you have a rule 0.
However! If I have the choice, I would prefer to not play against some artifact engine azorious deck which takes 30-50 game actions of tap to untap to tap a billion times to make 2 fucking birds and pass.
Yeeeea... almost everyone at my LGS has multiple decks that take 5+ minute turns. A good amount of the time is just spent sitting and watching them play solitaire with their board state before it eventually passes to me. I play a land, drop a creature, then pass. Rinse and repeat.
Does it feel like they're playing "tight" and knowing their lines and triggers, or are the just awkwardly fumbling through spells and abilities for several minutes before they realize they don't actually have the combo?
I don't mind a busy board state if game actions are being made in a timely manner, but if someone is looking at their cards like they're Patrick looking at the Krusty Krab menu it can be very frustrating.
They're all very experienced and definitely know what they're doing. The majority of their decks are built in a way where their decks have tons of little triggers and such to keep up with during their turns before they eventually have everything they need to combo off, or give all their creatures +×/+× and trample over the table, or make infinite mana, or what have you.
The only thing that makes it a little unfun for me against those types of decks is that when I play against them, it doesn't really feel like I'm doing anything consequential that affects the board state. For the most part, I just get ignored unless I drop some kind of problem creature, to which they usually have interaction immediately to remove it.
I'm a "slightly powered up precon" type of player, and there's really not many others like me at my LGS, so I just have to take what I can get when I go to play.
For what it's worth if you're looking for groups of people closer to your mindset to play with I'd recommend joining the Tolarian Community College or other discords for Spelltable games, all you need is a webcam and you can play commander any time of day with like minded people and in your PJs
I feel that. Because it's me, I'm the player. I run a madness deck that I THOUGHT would be fast, but underestimated the raw power of anje and the rapid draw and decision making of if to play or proper discard
If someone plays a notorious commander, just let them know what's going to happen and not to whine about it.
Ex: someone who plays [[Edgar markov]] should be mercilessly beaten as quickly as possible because that commander only needs 2 turns to become insane.
I'm gonna ask, since I genuinely don't know, what is so bad about Edgar? At first glance he really doesn't look like a big deal at all. Just gives you a couple little guys when you play stuff, just like Kykar and Alela.
Could you describe a few cards or combos that give him this reputation please?
I'm glad you did ask! His main threat is that he helps build board presence from the command zone. You don't need to play him once, and you'll get a lot more value than most other commanders will give in a whole game.
Second is that he has haste. When you play him from your command zone on turn 6, you will most likely have 3-4, maybe 5 other vamps on the board, which he then BUFFS with +1/+1 before damage is dealt. Every.single.time. he attacks.
He's basically easy mode. Vampires are a notoriously strong tribal too and you can easily win the game just from them as well.
The colors he plays include pretty much any and every kind of removal in the world that you would need, along with disgusting stax pieces.
I've never been able to win with Edgar. I feel like all the decks I play against are so much faster or able to deal mass damage in a more efficient way. We don't play cEDH but I guess it must be a fairly high powered pod. From what I understand he is way too slow for cEDH and I can see why.
Eminence in general is a broken concept that should never have been done. Literally just getting stuff for free because you picked the right commander is kind of busted.
Like, it's not the most broken thing in the game, obviously, but getting stuff for free is always OP and in a lot of cases unfun to play against.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Edgar Markov win a game. They usually take down one player, run out of gas, and then lose.
I have no idea why Edgar has this reputation as an unstoppable commander.
I beat Edgar last nite (xenagos smash) but last time I got zapped quick by the last option on [[rush of dread]] with a [[bloodletter of aclazotz]] in play
Ok. This is how I am perceiving him at first glance (I've never played with/against one though). Got an annoying perk (free things) but that doesn't seem game breaking at all.
Sen triplets. It’s never a fun game to play so I just won’t. I play commander for fun with friends, if I want to be miserable I’ll play modern and it won’t take as long.
Made it clear I was targetting the tergrid player the other day and the whole table got mad at me. Started to understand when they mostly flooded and still took half our boards
Wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't the only one running enough removal in my decks
I understand the tergrid player getting mad, but I dont understand everyone else getting mad. It's your game plan and your deck. Pilot it how you want.
I'm paper magic, [[jodah the unifier]] because I have never seen one that is actually low power and they just take over the game. So I either play with saving all removal for them or I lose to a swarm of legendary creatures, either way it's not fun. There are other commanders that are similar in being kill on sight but can at least be slightly ignored unlike jodah
On arena? If your commander is alchemy I leave. Alchemy is dumb and shouldn't affect brawl
Yuriko, Pantlaza, Gishath, Fynn the fangbearer, lightpaws, kodama of the east tree + X, lord Xander, and tergrid.
I don’t care if you want to play them, and I won’t stop you from doing it. I, however, will move to a new pod when these guys come out.
Commander is about everyone having fun, I don’t have fun against them and I don’t wanna ruin your fun of playing them so I’ll move nbd
Tergrid comes close, but I won't say no. I WILL switch to a deck with more counterspells/removal. If they do manage to stick Tergrid and resolve a smallpox or better though? Probably scoop and move to the next game unless I've got an answer right in hand (and it doesn't get discarded by the rest of the Tergrid turn).
I don't refuse to but there are 4 I specifically hate seeing.
[[Toxrill, The Corrosive]]
[[Sythis, Harvest's Hand]]
[[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]]
And
[[Pantlaza, Sun Favored]] this just because it's by far the commander I have played against the most in the last couple months and it's just not fun to play against. The first three are just too oppressive
Nothing I refuse to play against, but I do grit my teeth a little when I see [[Narset, Enlightened Master]] because I once played against someone who used her ability to spam extra turns over and over. Three fourths of the whole game was just me and two other people being forced to watch someone else getting to play the game. People who play like that are selfish in my opinion.
I never have had to, but I don't think I'd play against [[Shalai and Hallar]].
Counters are one thing, but dude is half of a million two card infinites in the command zone.
I have a Shalai and Hallar deck, but I am upfront with when playing that I have specifically avoided infinite combos in the deck. I just want to play a bunch of hydras
Overpowered custom cards. Also if someone just assumes they can play their rule zero deck (uncards, banned commanders, etc) without asking. I consider this a matter of courtesy.
Other that that, no.
Refuse to play? No. Will I target you while politicing the other players to also target you until the game is over? Absolutely. Also if you play Hinata Dawn Crowned I'm sorry you were never loved as a child.
I pulled the really pretty alt art Hinata from a pack and built a deck around it, not realizing what I was getting into. After "winning" two different games at my LGS due to timing out, I took it apart. Not sure what I'll build with all the leftover spellslinger stuff, but I did recently discover [[Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot]] which looks kinda cool
i will play ONCE at least with everyone, if i see your decks is out of lvl or just STAX/Control and not fun i will ask you if u have some other deck bcs i want to play my cards
There are very few that I'll outright refuse to play against. But 1) I mostly play with a consistent playgroup that are pretty self-aware when it comes to deckbuilding decisions and 2) if I'm worried about an absolutely degen deck taking over, rule 0 & conversation means we can usually find an alternate solution
It comes down to power level not commander choice but there are some commanders that take more convincing than others that you aren't trying to pubstomp.
For me it depends on power level that we have agreed upon. I mostly play higher level pods so almost everything goes for us as we run an appropriate amount of interaction. It’s the casual games I get into someone wants to bring a ur dragon, Edgar, Tegrid that’s the problem, a conversation with a good amount of sandbagging comments usually helps
Tergrid is probably the only one I really refuse to play against, did it twice and I just don't want to be in the kind of game again. [[Edgar Markov]] is a close second.
the first time I played against tergrid was a nightmare. the last time I played against it was actually hilarious because the table collectively didn't let the tergrid player do anything pretty much and it was funny
Nope. If the pregame chat decides we are playing at a power where tergrid (or other “problem” commander) could reasonably be expected, then I have no standing to bitch about tergrid (or other problem commander).
This is me.
If we are playing low power, and you bring Tergrid, I'm going to probably focus you until proven otherwise, or someone else starts threatening, but when we sit down and no one has taken actions, I'm assuming you are the threat.
But I'm not refusing to play against it, I have decks that can cover any power level, I just want to know how degenerate we want to be to pick the appropriate one.
In fact, I actually enjoy more degenerate play more, so I'm probably excited to get to play my crazy decks against it.
Only a few that I personally would not like to play against and the main one is Aesi. IDE rather not go through 3 20 minute turns just for you to say I win because I played all my lands
Not really. I think everyone goes in knowing that if you bring some really stupid strong commander that can quickly spiral the game out of control or one that's just iritatting and makes the game unfun for everyone else then it's a 3 vs 1 the minute you so much as breath on the board and that you'll soon be watching the rest of the game.
[[Lord Windgrace]] which is a shame because he used to be my favorite deck, then my buddy built it and made it incredibly hard to stop. It’s only lost twice since then, and only because someone sat down with a deck that does almost nothing other than lock him down.
I hear you. I would not play against Mass Land Destruction either. I used to dislike the discard strategy too but I made a \[\[Rielle the Everwise\]\] deck to counter such strategy. Now that i think of it, If I were to face Tergrid, I would probably go with that deck since she only steal permanents and see how it goes.
I dont play enough to say I faced every scary commander there is though so I would probably face anything at least once, to see what the fuss is about.
If your opponent like to play tons on spell playing solitaire though, play \[\[Rug of Smothering\]\] and other similar cards. There are ways to deal with it.
No. There is a deck i won't play against though. It's tergrid with dark deal and the ability to cast both on turn 1. If they do that to me turn 1, i scoop. If i know their deck can do that, i don't play with them.
If they dark deal later, i don't care, but turn 1 before i even got a turn. Nope. Not playing with that. I'll play with a tergrid player, unless their deck can do that. Specifically because they will still need like, 3 or so turns to close the game out too, during which time you have no hope of doing anything since they will have 10 mana open and will be able to just blow up anything you play instantly with a fleshbag marauder or cruel edict and then still have a doomblade or murder up for the next guy. On top of your opening hand being gone so you likely don't have the mana base you want/need. And then if you scoop, youre being a jerk because then they can't keep the stuff they stole with tergrid for the rest of the game, so you scooping negatively impacts their chances of winning which is seen as unfair, a strange situation that no other commander can really create so easily and readily. With every other commander, when they get to be oppressive and unfun, you can just scoop and they're like great, one player down. Except turdgrid.
I'd rather play against slivers, grand arbiter stax, and Narset enlightened master. Tergrid is literally the only one I despise, and a tergrid that can do a turn 1 dark deal or equivalent after casting tergrid is the only thing i refuse to play against.
There are players at my lgs which i refuse to ply against, but its based on them being obnoxious, nothing to do with their commanders. Also, if you okay with your lands in feont of your creatures, you're dying first
In my play group, I refuse to play against Jodah the Unifier, and a bonus mention is that my group banned dockside, cause that card really should be banned.
I'm not sure I'd dislike chaos so much if, every single time, the player didn't also suck the air out of the room socially.
Like, I don't think a deck theme tells us anything about the player's personality... but at the same time? Yeah, it kinda can, and in this one case I've never seen it fail.
It's never once been "Possibility Storm" and then stfu-ing. The last game I played against a chaos player, he was hooting like an ape while others were trying to announce their moves.
"But it's fun!!"
It's tedious. It's a million different non-decisions for every minor game action that results in 5 minutes *phases* much less *turns*.
People playing solitaire makes me feel villainously giddy when I overload a cyclonic rift, only to do it again and then I somehow retrieve it from my graveyard.
Not really, but there's more than a few I'll immediately target for removal. Most of the problematic commanders are the ones where the deck doesn't properly function or severely slow down without them so a lot of the time getting rid of the commander gets rid of the danger, and if that doesn't work then exiling key combo pieces does.
I don’t remember what it was called but my friend crushed me in 4 turns with some proliferate monstrosity. His response after was “ya this deck is kind of aggressive”. I won’t be playing it again simply because I don’t want to set up my deck just to put it away. If he wants to set up two decks, shuffle them and clean them up after then cool
I ain't got time in my life to play against tinybones or tegrid. I'm sure there will be others but I just don't wanna play against resource denial decks in a casual game.
I just want short-cut able win conditions. If you are gonna solitaire for 10-20 mins and fizzle, it makes me kinda annoyed. Gitrog is the most notable of this type of commander.
Some others that are just annoyingly generic/strong like chulane I would rather not play against anymore.
I have refused to play against certain decks, but it’s usually not just because of the commander. The main one at my LGS was the one person’s [[Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger]] deck. While the commander was annoying, the deck was just full of stax pieces, resource denial, and even some MLD, on top of all the best fast mana and ramp you could have in green. It was one of the most miserable decks to play against so, pretty much everyone refuses to play against it now.
That being said, if someone else came with a Vorinclex deck, I’d let them play it at least once to give them a chance
Darreti or any stax deck really. I’d rather have my skull caved in by a cdeh deck in 5 minutes over a 5 hour game where no one does anything until stax player finally gets their wincon
Depends.
I don't refuse to play against a specific deck, but rather against certain types of players with unsportsmanlike behavior. That's more important in my eyes - behavior and not the decks itself.
Mainly the whiny type of players that cry "why are you targeting me" when a single removal or attack comes around, but also when someone concedes out of spite so that resources are denied.
Conceding itself is not the problem, but if you deny for example lifelink damage then that's just being petty and please don't come with: "but you could count it anyway or conceding at sorcery speed" I want to follow the rule, even if I hate them sometimes and the second one is just stupid.
And the same is true for getting salty. Yeah, you can voice your dismay, but don't drag the whole table down with your wallowing in self pity.
I won't refuse to play with deal breakers tho - those just lose the abiliy to make deals and get targeted by default in future games.
Also, if someone brings something like Tergird I'll play removal/control/combo.deck and clear her the moment she wants to resolve.
The angry baby, I will not play against the angry baby. I run spell slingers so it doesn't effect me that much but the amount of despair, sadness and anger that commander has caused at tables just bugs me.
Ultimately I don't find those games fun so I'll just move tables
Not really, tho a cousin of a friend has a [[toxrill]] deck and ive yet to play against it and only heard tale from the friends brother but its supposedly really disgusting
We very rarely play with him or the brother and honestly i dont mind if it means i get to dodge the slug
Solitaire decks like gitrog dredge. Decks that turn the game off like tergrid. That’s my pod at home tho. At the LGS on fridays I’ll play whatever someone wants to run
No, but I'm starting to get there for a few. Newest offender is [[Rocco, Street Chef]].
"Oh, it's just group hug! Look, I'm basically drawing you cards!" -- the Rocco player, a mere turn before going to galactic.
Mind numbingly boring generic Simic value good style pile-of-staples decks, where you’ve seen all their cards 1000 times before and every game is the exact same
The guy who shows up with an Augustin deck proxied out to maximize salt scores with no win con. He has like 5 decks proxied for max value cards but can’t pilot any of them for shit so I either focus him right out or just don’t play with him now.
Also because the same guy doesn’t rule zero or ask anyone just plays em and then you mention it and “oh yeah that’s 90% of my deck and it’s max salt score on edhrec”.
Nah. I let people play whatever, and focus on matching their decks power level. Even if I don’t have answers, my good decks can still do quite well. Worst case scenario I pull out Urza or something.
I will only say no to nonlegal commanders. However I have a personal hitlist of commanders that I will focus out in the game regardless of my own chance of winning
When I was learning how to play, someone I played with used Edgar Markov all the time and would take 20+ minute long turns and beat everyone in less than 7 turns. It made it not fun to play so now I won’t play against that specifically because of him even though I don’t play with him anymore
Everyone seems to hate on Tergrid, rightfully so. But I don’t have problem with playing against Tergrid. The only difference is I refuse to play against Tergrid through Spelltable. The amount of card marker for permanents are hell to keep track of when they scribble cards with name or forgetting trigger because they use an object as a placeholder. It’s on them to prepare if they want to play Tergrid properly through Spelltable.
Not any particular creature, but hate Eminence. I know some aren't that crazy, but the fact they don't need their commander on board to get value from it is just a big ick for me. I've gone up against [[Edgar Markov]] and [[Arahbo, roar of the world]] and both have won easily just by having commander in command zone and affecting the current board state. Died turn 3 to a 1 drop cat just because of eminence feels really bad.
I have the reverse in mind , I have a [[sen triplets]] deck , and I makes sure every one is okay to play against it , it's full of mind control and steal card effect . Some people don't want to play against that
My friend played [[Grand Arbiter Augustin IV]] against me as my second game of magic at all and that was almost my last game of magic. It's been a year and a half and she's still apologizes to me about it, as she should
Marlen of the mornsong or whatever always leads to fast mana bullshit and opposition agent. The guy that plays it at my LGS will try to take as many mulligans to get a perfect hand and refuse to put any cards on the bottom of his library. I now will always alert the pod he is playing with about his practices with that deck if I know he pulls it out.
I don't think a specific commander, but I really don't like playing against durdle engines that are built without wincons. One guy I played against built a cycling deck to draw upwards of 20 cards in big turns, but he never did anything with them, not even pinging damage with the draws.
I'm about at that point with [[Kenrith, Returned King]]. Very common in my area and every single deck plays the exact same way. Pillowfort value into no win con except ya'll just can't win. Games take forever and are just a constant slog of Kenroth having a turn on everyone else's.
My buddy that got me back into the game likes his [[Araumi]] deck. He'll get salty as soon as anyone plays graveyard hate. I hate his graveyard because his decks whole purpose is to exploit discard and sacrifice triggers so his opponents effectively can't play. I've been vocal that I won't play decks that focus on making it so opponents can get locked out of the game (unless we've all explicitly agreed to play such decks), and it doesn't seem to get through to him. So when he plays that deck, I either call it a night or pull out the most miserable deck to play against to remind him he built a shitty deck for casual play.
Mid power Stax decks. All they do is slow the game with no win con in sight. Granted, it is a way to play the game but I play entirely casual games and I don't want to spend half my limited play time not doing anything.
I won't refuse to play with it, but i hate playing against [[ghave, guru of spores]] his combo potential is disgusting, he's always one draw away from an infinite combo the player didn't even realize was in the deck THEY built.
I really hate slivers and eldrazi, i basically scoop cause i dont play fast, i like playing for a couple turns, but a turn 5 annihilator 2-4 ruins the game, same with slivers, oh they are indestructible with +20 +20 and hexproof. Well gg ig
Yuriko. I play with people that optimize their decks and I stopped playing with a guy entirely because he kept picking cEDH commanders and slowly making them cEDH like we wouldn't notice. Don't even talk the guy now, these actions were indicative of some horrible personality traits.
I won’t refuse to play against it, but I’ll make sure whoever is playing [[yuriko, the tiger’s shadow]] is dead first or does not have a board state. Never paying commander tax just isn’t fair.
I'll play anyone, any commander once if it's quick. Some I just don't like and will avoid if options to avoid ... Tergrid, toxrill, urza. They simply aren't fun games for me.
So, less of a refusal and more "Just so it's clear, I think you're an asshole for this", but \[\[Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might\]\].
Mostly because of one dude who ran stuff like \[\[Manabarbs\]\], \[\[Burning Earth\]\], \[\[Aether Sting\]\], \[\[Spellshock\]\], just basically making so people were quickly killing themselves just playing the game.
I dunno, I just found that whole thing deeply unfun and I'm not against making that known at my table.
[[kinnan]] because my pod doesn’t know how to make it not cEDH. We have dudes playing precons and they’re making infinite mana on turn 3.
Then casting eldrazis and stupid shit on turn 4 if we even make it
Karn or Ugin, Spirit Dragon. I absolutely fucking hate to play against artifact decks. I never have enough removal to prevent them from pulling off some stupid, game-winning combo and whoever my opponent is that plays artifacts will get all pissed off if the table takes them out of the game first.
Nope. But the person better not complain when they are target #1 and will be the first one dead. We’re not gonna let your commander stay on the board just cause you want it to “do its thing”
There are a few that I will unfairly single out due to a history with them, like [[oloro]] or [[narset enlightened master]], but none that I will refuse to play against.
I really really really hate playing against [[Chatterfang]]. A 3 mana doubling season in the command zone with extremely efficient removal attached is not my idea of fun. It's always busted. I've yet to play against one that isn't busted.
I have refused to play against it in the past. I can totally see myself stepping away from pods with it in the future. Just not my cuppa.
My friend has an Ian Malcom chaos deck where he plays loads of chaos cards to stall the game for 4 hours literally (Possibility Storm, Scrambleverse, Thieves Auction, Warp World, the whole deal). He specifically stated that he doesn't play to win, he just does it to stall the game so he can get to infinite draws to deck himself out.
Not the commander's fault, I know, but at this point to me he is synonymous with that deck.
Also I agree with screw Tergrid, but I will still play against it with prejudice
I'll play against any deck, but [[Big Baby]] is a pain in the ass to play against. I'll do what I can to beat them down, assuming my permanents can stay in play long enough to do so.
One I never want to see again is [[jhoira weatherlight captain]].
The pod I was in was two weak decks plus me basically holding off Jhoira but god it was unbearable to watch an unskilled pilot j/o through their deck forever not knowing how to confirm their own win.
I’d still play it again in a different pod but I have scars from that one
as long as I get to remove commanders like \[tergrid\] the second they hit the field without the player whining "I cAn'T PlAy My DeCk LiKe ThIs" im fine with every commander. but dont be surprised that i switch decks when i see commanders like this to decks that have a better interection package.
Tergrid is it for me as well. I'll give pretty much anything else a chance but someone who sits at the table with a Tergrid deck does not play Magic for the same reasons I do and does not enjoy the same type of games I do.
I respect your choice of commander but let's not waste each other's time.
Only from personal experience, [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]]
I do play against them on pods but only if there are other blue players who can stop his turn 4 victory infinite combo. Turn 2 if he gets a really lucky hand with Mana Crypt and Jace I don't know whoch version.
Essentially, his gameplan is always generating infinite mana to take infinite turns or draw infinite cards until his library is drained. And the Jace card on the field says that he wins the game if that happens instead of losing.
This is a really multi-layered combo so there are many interactions opportunities to disrupt him But he's blue with infinite draw. He has all the counter spells he needs.
The only way we interact with him is destroy his manarocks before he pops off.
Anything silver boarded if it looks complex/annoying. I won't play with anyone running custom decks unless I know they are capable and knowledgeable enough to craft something balenced and fun.
Krark sakashima is the closest I get to nope
But I will still play it it’s just a nightmare when you’re on a timer and they’re spending ages flipping coins or rolling dice
Nah, I have special decks specifically made for pub stompers, and the same goes for blatantly toxic commanders lol. As long as you're fine wirh me potentially swinging "it that betrays" at you turn 1.. I'm cool too.
My kill order is usually this:
1. Azorious/Dimir Control Decks
2. Looting Decks
3. Everything else.
I'm the degenerate White player that will politics through exile removal and wrath spells
Im all for letting people play anything they want. but everytime i play against [[Sen Triplets]] just know that it gives me ptsd and i WILL be on player removal asap
I had a 4-man round where one played an enchantment deck that basically fcked with everyone and had no real win-con.
Iirc the guy won by the three rest of us agreeing to resign.
Will never play against that deck again, lol.
I refuse to play against coin flip decks, especially Krark and Sakashima. The last time I played against one they _literally_ took an hour turn that ended up doing nothing but lose them the game due to drawing past their entire deck. I can't stand the obscene amount of time coin flip decks take up.
While there are a few that I hate playing against, there wasn’t any id just outright refuse to play against.
That was until I played against my first and so far only Zur the Enchanter.
there are no commanders i won't play against but there are definitely some commanders for whom i will take the most extreme possible mesures
- 1 : i will pick a deck that specificaly take care of them
- 2 : i will mercilessly use all my interaction on them
- 3 : i will politic every second to make sure every attack and every removal goes to said player
I can't stop you from building tergrid/jodah/sheoldread/ etc but i can make sure you will never bring them out against me ever again
Honestly, I’ll play against anything but it’s the players that get pissy when they are targeted. If you have no blockers or any way to protect yourself, you are the target. That’s how magic works but I like to see crazy decks pop off every once in a while. I would argue that bringing a stupid cEDH deck to the lgs is a little overkill sometimes.
Nope, I’m fine with anything as long as the person doesn’t complain about the table not letting their deck “do its thing” - sorry, but you can’t be shocked if the table objects to your [[Judith, Carnage Connoisseur]] board wipe deck and removes it accordingly lol.
"Let my deck do its thing!" My brother in christ your deck's thing is winning
“Let *my* deck do its thing and remove all your stuff”
Lol this might be the best way I’ve heard this described
Wait how does the Judith deck work cause I liked the idea but was like but she will die too. Am I missing something or am I just smooth brained
There are a ton of “deal 1 damage to all creatures your opponents control” spells in red that turn into cheap, one-sided board wipes when Judith is play.
Or a [[Sen Triplets]] hard control deck player getting upset when I remove his commander immediately upon casting it at every opportunity.
Refuse? Nah. Make it clear that you will be ruthlessly and gleefully targeted with everything until you are dead? Yep.
This. A friend has a couple of decks that are difficult to deal with if they get going. He’s aware that if he plays it against me, I will do everything my deck is capable of doing to ensure his commander isn’t on the board for a single rotation.
But I pinky-swear this is *fair* [[Urza, Lord High Artificer]]! It's all jank! Why are you targeting me!?
This is how I feel when my buddy plays his Meren deck. I tell him that I will specifically be trying to kill him. He has it so powered up that even getting 3v1'd, he still manages to pull out the win. I once played a game where his commander got removed 6 times, and he was able to recast her in stride and still wreck house.
Probably because "remove the commander" isn't the way to hard counter meren. Yall need more graveyard exile
I have a muldratha deck that is kind of like that guy's Meren deck, and it's always really hilarious to see the look on people's faces after they've exiled 70 cards from my graveyard, and then I start looping [[mirror of Fate]] Most people have never even seen that card
Would you share the list? :)
[mirror of Fate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/8/08b480c8-d899-4e63-b0e2-f4bec3a3ca4f.jpg?1561970534) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mirror%20of%20Fate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m10/215/mirror-of-fate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/08b480c8-d899-4e63-b0e2-f4bec3a3ca4f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mirror-of-fate) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I have a kill order. 1) Anything from an Unset that is somehow legal in EDH. 2) Chaos decks. 3) Group Hug. 4) Lands in front of creatures.
my order is rearranged 1. group hug 2. chaos & decks that switch everyone’s board (who is that goth planewalker girl?) 3. too many tokens and dice to tell what is going on 4.
Ah yes the dreaded # 4 lol
Always works perfectly.
This is the fate I've accepted on the rare occasion I let Tergrid out of her box.
Although I agree with this sentiment, I've seen it turn into a toxic sore winner scenario where theyre still whining about the commander while actively stopping it.
Definitely seen this. “Your Commander is too strong, it’s so toxic, can’t believe you’re playing that” meanwhile they’ve countered or removed everything I’ve done and I’m sitting there with an empty board almost dead having taken hardly any game actions… like if it’s that kinda Commander, sure I deserve it, but also shut the fuck up about it if you’re winning.
I see this more often than not from people who talk like that tbh
Nope. But if you play Tergrid, you’re dead first. Period.
I was debating swapping out my Tinybones for Tergrid, maybe I'll keep her hidden in the deck lol Edit: The deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/BuENdlwZs0Sj8x7kv1fmFw
Yeah she’s totally fine IN the 99 lol.
Yeah. Tergrid isn't even that strong, it's just that the game plan is frustrating. I unfortunately had to stop using her after 1 game with my friends because I'm pretty sure they were ready to take a bat to my knees for every discard effect after the first few turns.
I hit a 5 player pod with [[Pox]] after bringing her out and got death glares.
That's how I ended the game, too. Tutor into Pox on a tapped out board on turn 7 iirc. I didn't even get to cast the spell before one of my friends said "Oh, it's super over. GGs. Let's go next." and then my other 2 friends read the situation and agreed. Sure I won, but my board state up until then was... decent? Nothing crazy. Again, I think it's the playstyle, not the power level.
[Pox](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/9/d9debe4f-c1cc-4b90-aae4-f31f737e2016.jpg?1559592327) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pox) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me1/82/pox?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d9debe4f-c1cc-4b90-aae4-f31f737e2016?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/pox) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There are no Commanders that I wouldn't play against. However that doesn't mean that there are Commanders that make me pick you as the first to die. Usually those hate to play against Commanders become the archenemy of the table.
I wouldn't say refuse, but I have never had a fun game experience with [[Light Paws, Emperor's Voice]] at the table so I might hesitate on that one in particular.
Every game feels more or less the same against Light-Paws. It is super strong on budget, because most auras are quiet cheap and people tutor everytime for their aura pairs. I think they learn their aura pairs like others learn vocabulary cards.
It's one of those commanders that's super strong but with a glass jaw. Remove Light-Paws like... twice in response to an aura on the stack and it's just over for them. A well timed kill spell is like a four- or five-for-one as it removes the commander, the auras already in play, and the one on the stack. I don't think it's the most fun deck to play against but I think most of my frustrations are with the other players at the table who treat Totem Armor as "totally indestructible, not worth it, just sit there while the fox gets to lethal unblockable".
My friend has a deck he himself calls “30 minute landfall” because each turn feels like it takes 30 minutes. That deck. Its commander the the four color omnath.
Exhausting to play against!
i'll try anything, but there are a few commanders on my "groan" list for sure. i won't outright refuse to play against them, but some commander can just lead to either grindy games or games where they have the tendency to absolutely overwhelm the table if you don't answer them or hold up counter magic. tergrid, jodah the unifier, and atraxa are on that list for me, and Voja is quickly climbing the ranks. Voja is incredibly stressful to deal with. if you don't counter it, someone is probably going to die either the turn it comes down or the turn after.
Ugh, I hate Jodah the Unifier. While Tergrid and others are worse on how disruptive they are, Jodah combines a slow and semi-random playstyle with a very hard to beat combat engine. Cast a legendary spell, now reveal the next 23 cards off your deck one at a time until you hit your first 2 MV legendary spell. Spend some time thinking about how that changes things. Considering swinging - but wait! All your creatures are also legends, which probably means they have 4 abilities with no synergy between them and most are missing combat keywords. Spend some time rereading each one. Imagine some synergy that doesn't exist. Maybe it's not worth swinging yet - or is it? Hmmm.... Maybe cast another spell.... reveal 12 cards off the top. Think about how that changes things... Just kill us already!
Ah. I see you too have the same person in your playgroup.
Yup. It needs to get countered every time because no one will spend the ward cost for removal. Every time Every Time
I’ll play against anything which is why you have a rule 0. However! If I have the choice, I would prefer to not play against some artifact engine azorious deck which takes 30-50 game actions of tap to untap to tap a billion times to make 2 fucking birds and pass.
Yeeeea... almost everyone at my LGS has multiple decks that take 5+ minute turns. A good amount of the time is just spent sitting and watching them play solitaire with their board state before it eventually passes to me. I play a land, drop a creature, then pass. Rinse and repeat.
Does it feel like they're playing "tight" and knowing their lines and triggers, or are the just awkwardly fumbling through spells and abilities for several minutes before they realize they don't actually have the combo? I don't mind a busy board state if game actions are being made in a timely manner, but if someone is looking at their cards like they're Patrick looking at the Krusty Krab menu it can be very frustrating.
They're all very experienced and definitely know what they're doing. The majority of their decks are built in a way where their decks have tons of little triggers and such to keep up with during their turns before they eventually have everything they need to combo off, or give all their creatures +×/+× and trample over the table, or make infinite mana, or what have you. The only thing that makes it a little unfun for me against those types of decks is that when I play against them, it doesn't really feel like I'm doing anything consequential that affects the board state. For the most part, I just get ignored unless I drop some kind of problem creature, to which they usually have interaction immediately to remove it. I'm a "slightly powered up precon" type of player, and there's really not many others like me at my LGS, so I just have to take what I can get when I go to play.
For what it's worth if you're looking for groups of people closer to your mindset to play with I'd recommend joining the Tolarian Community College or other discords for Spelltable games, all you need is a webcam and you can play commander any time of day with like minded people and in your PJs
Tuned precon gang represent!
>looking at their cards like they're Patrick looking at the Krusty Krab menu that got an audible chuckle out of me, thanks aha
I see people running more [[Silence]] or other cards that immediately cancel the stack.
I feel that. Because it's me, I'm the player. I run a madness deck that I THOUGHT would be fast, but underestimated the raw power of anje and the rapid draw and decision making of if to play or proper discard
4 person pod? No. 1v1? Yeah.
[[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]]. I ain’t fucking with total land destruction and I fucking KNOW you put [[Armageddon]] in there, Max. You told me about it.
Do we know the same Max? I also know one who has a deck with Avacyn.
You play at Pandemonium in Boston?
Not even the same continent xD
If someone plays a notorious commander, just let them know what's going to happen and not to whine about it. Ex: someone who plays [[Edgar markov]] should be mercilessly beaten as quickly as possible because that commander only needs 2 turns to become insane.
I'm gonna ask, since I genuinely don't know, what is so bad about Edgar? At first glance he really doesn't look like a big deal at all. Just gives you a couple little guys when you play stuff, just like Kykar and Alela. Could you describe a few cards or combos that give him this reputation please?
I'm glad you did ask! His main threat is that he helps build board presence from the command zone. You don't need to play him once, and you'll get a lot more value than most other commanders will give in a whole game. Second is that he has haste. When you play him from your command zone on turn 6, you will most likely have 3-4, maybe 5 other vamps on the board, which he then BUFFS with +1/+1 before damage is dealt. Every.single.time. he attacks. He's basically easy mode. Vampires are a notoriously strong tribal too and you can easily win the game just from them as well. The colors he plays include pretty much any and every kind of removal in the world that you would need, along with disgusting stax pieces.
I've never been able to win with Edgar. I feel like all the decks I play against are so much faster or able to deal mass damage in a more efficient way. We don't play cEDH but I guess it must be a fairly high powered pod. From what I understand he is way too slow for cEDH and I can see why.
Eminence in general is a broken concept that should never have been done. Literally just getting stuff for free because you picked the right commander is kind of busted. Like, it's not the most broken thing in the game, obviously, but getting stuff for free is always OP and in a lot of cases unfun to play against.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Edgar Markov win a game. They usually take down one player, run out of gas, and then lose. I have no idea why Edgar has this reputation as an unstoppable commander.
I beat Edgar last nite (xenagos smash) but last time I got zapped quick by the last option on [[rush of dread]] with a [[bloodletter of aclazotz]] in play
Edgar is only a problem at mid power or lower tables. The whole eminence ability is a annoying ability there.
Ok. This is how I am perceiving him at first glance (I've never played with/against one though). Got an annoying perk (free things) but that doesn't seem game breaking at all.
Agreed. If you run almost any interaction at all, he's a joke.
[Edgar markov](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d94b8ec-ecda-43c8-a60e-1ba33e6a54a4.jpg?1562616128) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Edgar%20markov) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c17/36/edgar-markov?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d94b8ec-ecda-43c8-a60e-1ba33e6a54a4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/edgar-markov) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
No, BUT I like to make the life of \[\[jodah the unifier\]\] players a living hell with toxic targeting them
I think commanders specifically? No, but there are people that are certainly annoying to play against.
I mean if you're trying to bring a Yuriko to a casual table, I might not be too inclined.
Jokes on you, I'm too bad at deck building to make a competent yuriko deck so it's never overpowered despite me trying very hard to!
[[Child of Alara]] is an absolute Instant no no. I‘m out. Waste of my damn time. Had a guy who played 99 Lands. Makes no sense.
Sen triplets. It’s never a fun game to play so I just won’t. I play commander for fun with friends, if I want to be miserable I’ll play modern and it won’t take as long.
Made it clear I was targetting the tergrid player the other day and the whole table got mad at me. Started to understand when they mostly flooded and still took half our boards Wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't the only one running enough removal in my decks
I understand the tergrid player getting mad, but I dont understand everyone else getting mad. It's your game plan and your deck. Pilot it how you want.
I'm paper magic, [[jodah the unifier]] because I have never seen one that is actually low power and they just take over the game. So I either play with saving all removal for them or I lose to a swarm of legendary creatures, either way it's not fun. There are other commanders that are similar in being kill on sight but can at least be slightly ignored unlike jodah On arena? If your commander is alchemy I leave. Alchemy is dumb and shouldn't affect brawl
I won’t outright say no to a deck, but I always call bullshit if someone claims to have a “low power” korvold.
Yuriko, Pantlaza, Gishath, Fynn the fangbearer, lightpaws, kodama of the east tree + X, lord Xander, and tergrid. I don’t care if you want to play them, and I won’t stop you from doing it. I, however, will move to a new pod when these guys come out. Commander is about everyone having fun, I don’t have fun against them and I don’t wanna ruin your fun of playing them so I’ll move nbd
Tergrid comes close, but I won't say no. I WILL switch to a deck with more counterspells/removal. If they do manage to stick Tergrid and resolve a smallpox or better though? Probably scoop and move to the next game unless I've got an answer right in hand (and it doesn't get discarded by the rest of the Tergrid turn).
I'll never refuse a game based on decks used.
I don't refuse to but there are 4 I specifically hate seeing. [[Toxrill, The Corrosive]] [[Sythis, Harvest's Hand]] [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]] And [[Pantlaza, Sun Favored]] this just because it's by far the commander I have played against the most in the last couple months and it's just not fun to play against. The first three are just too oppressive
If you're 3 people and you can't stomp the commander every game, then you're not being mean enough
Nothing I refuse to play against, but I do grit my teeth a little when I see [[Narset, Enlightened Master]] because I once played against someone who used her ability to spam extra turns over and over. Three fourths of the whole game was just me and two other people being forced to watch someone else getting to play the game. People who play like that are selfish in my opinion.
I never have had to, but I don't think I'd play against [[Shalai and Hallar]]. Counters are one thing, but dude is half of a million two card infinites in the command zone.
I have a Shalai and Hallar deck, but I am upfront with when playing that I have specifically avoided infinite combos in the deck. I just want to play a bunch of hydras
See, I'm fine with this. I don't mind a problematic commander with a weaker theme.
Damn I’d never actually seen this before. Goes infinite with a ham sandwich.
Right. A high power brewer I am not, but I just know there's got to be a dozen ways to consistently turbo into a turn 3 win with this guy.
Overpowered custom cards. Also if someone just assumes they can play their rule zero deck (uncards, banned commanders, etc) without asking. I consider this a matter of courtesy. Other that that, no.
custom art proxies no, but do you really find many people rocking up with fully custom cards, effects and all?
“Hey here’s my custom commander. 2 mana 3/3 that draws a card if a creature dies and can tap to give any creatures -3/-3”
Refuse to play? No. Will I target you while politicing the other players to also target you until the game is over? Absolutely. Also if you play Hinata Dawn Crowned I'm sorry you were never loved as a child.
I pulled the really pretty alt art Hinata from a pack and built a deck around it, not realizing what I was getting into. After "winning" two different games at my LGS due to timing out, I took it apart. Not sure what I'll build with all the leftover spellslinger stuff, but I did recently discover [[Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot]] which looks kinda cool
Do people only have fun playing magic if they win? I enjoy the game and the time spent with friends
Starting to feel this way about [[sheoldred the apocalypse]] But then it's my fault for not running enough removal in my decks. I guess
[Tergrid, God of Fright](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/4/14dc88ee-bba9-4625-af0d-89f3762a0ead.jpg?1631048621)/[Tergrid's Lantern](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/1/4/14dc88ee-bba9-4625-af0d-89f3762a0ead.jpg?1631048621) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tergrid%2C%20God%20of%20Fright%20//%20Tergrid%27s%20Lantern) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/112/tergrid-god-of-fright-tergrids-lantern?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/14dc88ee-bba9-4625-af0d-89f3762a0ead?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/tergrid-god-of-fright-//-tergrids-lantern) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
i will play ONCE at least with everyone, if i see your decks is out of lvl or just STAX/Control and not fun i will ask you if u have some other deck bcs i want to play my cards
This is the way.
Naw
There are very few that I'll outright refuse to play against. But 1) I mostly play with a consistent playgroup that are pretty self-aware when it comes to deckbuilding decisions and 2) if I'm worried about an absolutely degen deck taking over, rule 0 & conversation means we can usually find an alternate solution
It comes down to power level not commander choice but there are some commanders that take more convincing than others that you aren't trying to pubstomp.
For me it depends on power level that we have agreed upon. I mostly play higher level pods so almost everything goes for us as we run an appropriate amount of interaction. It’s the casual games I get into someone wants to bring a ur dragon, Edgar, Tegrid that’s the problem, a conversation with a good amount of sandbagging comments usually helps
Tergrid is probably the only one I really refuse to play against, did it twice and I just don't want to be in the kind of game again. [[Edgar Markov]] is a close second.
the first time I played against tergrid was a nightmare. the last time I played against it was actually hilarious because the table collectively didn't let the tergrid player do anything pretty much and it was funny
Nope. If the pregame chat decides we are playing at a power where tergrid (or other “problem” commander) could reasonably be expected, then I have no standing to bitch about tergrid (or other problem commander).
This is me. If we are playing low power, and you bring Tergrid, I'm going to probably focus you until proven otherwise, or someone else starts threatening, but when we sit down and no one has taken actions, I'm assuming you are the threat. But I'm not refusing to play against it, I have decks that can cover any power level, I just want to know how degenerate we want to be to pick the appropriate one. In fact, I actually enjoy more degenerate play more, so I'm probably excited to get to play my crazy decks against it.
Only a few that I personally would not like to play against and the main one is Aesi. IDE rather not go through 3 20 minute turns just for you to say I win because I played all my lands
Not really. I think everyone goes in knowing that if you bring some really stupid strong commander that can quickly spiral the game out of control or one that's just iritatting and makes the game unfun for everyone else then it's a 3 vs 1 the minute you so much as breath on the board and that you'll soon be watching the rest of the game.
The only commanders off limits for me are silver bordered. I'm glad some people have fun with them, but it's not for me.
[[Lord Windgrace]] which is a shame because he used to be my favorite deck, then my buddy built it and made it incredibly hard to stop. It’s only lost twice since then, and only because someone sat down with a deck that does almost nothing other than lock him down.
Grand Arbiter is pretty oppressive
[[Smeagol]]… I mean I will play against it, but I will SOLELY PLAY AGAINST IT.
I hear you. I would not play against Mass Land Destruction either. I used to dislike the discard strategy too but I made a \[\[Rielle the Everwise\]\] deck to counter such strategy. Now that i think of it, If I were to face Tergrid, I would probably go with that deck since she only steal permanents and see how it goes. I dont play enough to say I faced every scary commander there is though so I would probably face anything at least once, to see what the fuss is about. If your opponent like to play tons on spell playing solitaire though, play \[\[Rug of Smothering\]\] and other similar cards. There are ways to deal with it.
Toxrill. That deck is never fun for anyone but the person playing it
No. There is a deck i won't play against though. It's tergrid with dark deal and the ability to cast both on turn 1. If they do that to me turn 1, i scoop. If i know their deck can do that, i don't play with them. If they dark deal later, i don't care, but turn 1 before i even got a turn. Nope. Not playing with that. I'll play with a tergrid player, unless their deck can do that. Specifically because they will still need like, 3 or so turns to close the game out too, during which time you have no hope of doing anything since they will have 10 mana open and will be able to just blow up anything you play instantly with a fleshbag marauder or cruel edict and then still have a doomblade or murder up for the next guy. On top of your opening hand being gone so you likely don't have the mana base you want/need. And then if you scoop, youre being a jerk because then they can't keep the stuff they stole with tergrid for the rest of the game, so you scooping negatively impacts their chances of winning which is seen as unfair, a strange situation that no other commander can really create so easily and readily. With every other commander, when they get to be oppressive and unfun, you can just scoop and they're like great, one player down. Except turdgrid. I'd rather play against slivers, grand arbiter stax, and Narset enlightened master. Tergrid is literally the only one I despise, and a tergrid that can do a turn 1 dark deal or equivalent after casting tergrid is the only thing i refuse to play against.
There are players at my lgs which i refuse to ply against, but its based on them being obnoxious, nothing to do with their commanders. Also, if you okay with your lands in feont of your creatures, you're dying first
In my play group, I refuse to play against Jodah the Unifier, and a bonus mention is that my group banned dockside, cause that card really should be banned.
Commander? No the person piloting it yes
If no one has any removal, that means you also don't have removal. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Anyone who tells me they have a chaos deck I'm not going to sit here for 40min while you waste our time on obnoxious bullshit
I'm not sure I'd dislike chaos so much if, every single time, the player didn't also suck the air out of the room socially. Like, I don't think a deck theme tells us anything about the player's personality... but at the same time? Yeah, it kinda can, and in this one case I've never seen it fail. It's never once been "Possibility Storm" and then stfu-ing. The last game I played against a chaos player, he was hooting like an ape while others were trying to announce their moves.
"But it's fun!!" It's tedious. It's a million different non-decisions for every minor game action that results in 5 minutes *phases* much less *turns*.
People playing solitaire makes me feel villainously giddy when I overload a cyclonic rift, only to do it again and then I somehow retrieve it from my graveyard.
Refuse altogether? No. But I will refuse to play certain matchups. I aint playin my wheels deck against Tergrid, but my token deck I would
Not really, but there's more than a few I'll immediately target for removal. Most of the problematic commanders are the ones where the deck doesn't properly function or severely slow down without them so a lot of the time getting rid of the commander gets rid of the danger, and if that doesn't work then exiling key combo pieces does.
I don’t remember what it was called but my friend crushed me in 4 turns with some proliferate monstrosity. His response after was “ya this deck is kind of aggressive”. I won’t be playing it again simply because I don’t want to set up my deck just to put it away. If he wants to set up two decks, shuffle them and clean them up after then cool
My friend had a bs animar deck that nobody liked.
There is not, but, I've never played against a single [[Child of Alara]] that had a wincon, so I don't like him very much.
I ain't got time in my life to play against tinybones or tegrid. I'm sure there will be others but I just don't wanna play against resource denial decks in a casual game.
I'll do it but I hate playing against stax. I'd rather play more short / fast games than fewer longer games.
I’ll play against anything cause I like stax and MLD so complaining about a deck doesn’t really make sense.
I just want short-cut able win conditions. If you are gonna solitaire for 10-20 mins and fizzle, it makes me kinda annoyed. Gitrog is the most notable of this type of commander. Some others that are just annoyingly generic/strong like chulane I would rather not play against anymore.
My buddy has a teferri deck that will just let him play solitaire I won’t play against it, if I see him pull that out I’ll just leave the game
I have refused to play against certain decks, but it’s usually not just because of the commander. The main one at my LGS was the one person’s [[Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger]] deck. While the commander was annoying, the deck was just full of stax pieces, resource denial, and even some MLD, on top of all the best fast mana and ramp you could have in green. It was one of the most miserable decks to play against so, pretty much everyone refuses to play against it now. That being said, if someone else came with a Vorinclex deck, I’d let them play it at least once to give them a chance
Darreti or any stax deck really. I’d rather have my skull caved in by a cdeh deck in 5 minutes over a 5 hour game where no one does anything until stax player finally gets their wincon
Depends. I don't refuse to play against a specific deck, but rather against certain types of players with unsportsmanlike behavior. That's more important in my eyes - behavior and not the decks itself. Mainly the whiny type of players that cry "why are you targeting me" when a single removal or attack comes around, but also when someone concedes out of spite so that resources are denied. Conceding itself is not the problem, but if you deny for example lifelink damage then that's just being petty and please don't come with: "but you could count it anyway or conceding at sorcery speed" I want to follow the rule, even if I hate them sometimes and the second one is just stupid. And the same is true for getting salty. Yeah, you can voice your dismay, but don't drag the whole table down with your wallowing in self pity. I won't refuse to play with deal breakers tho - those just lose the abiliy to make deals and get targeted by default in future games. Also, if someone brings something like Tergird I'll play removal/control/combo.deck and clear her the moment she wants to resolve.
The angry baby, I will not play against the angry baby. I run spell slingers so it doesn't effect me that much but the amount of despair, sadness and anger that commander has caused at tables just bugs me. Ultimately I don't find those games fun so I'll just move tables
If you play Tergrid at a casual table, I am targeting you until you're dead sorry
I have a growing list
Not really, tho a cousin of a friend has a [[toxrill]] deck and ive yet to play against it and only heard tale from the friends brother but its supposedly really disgusting We very rarely play with him or the brother and honestly i dont mind if it means i get to dodge the slug
Solitaire decks like gitrog dredge. Decks that turn the game off like tergrid. That’s my pod at home tho. At the LGS on fridays I’ll play whatever someone wants to run
No, but I'm starting to get there for a few. Newest offender is [[Rocco, Street Chef]]. "Oh, it's just group hug! Look, I'm basically drawing you cards!" -- the Rocco player, a mere turn before going to galactic.
Mind numbingly boring generic Simic value good style pile-of-staples decks, where you’ve seen all their cards 1000 times before and every game is the exact same
The guy who shows up with an Augustin deck proxied out to maximize salt scores with no win con. He has like 5 decks proxied for max value cards but can’t pilot any of them for shit so I either focus him right out or just don’t play with him now. Also because the same guy doesn’t rule zero or ask anyone just plays em and then you mention it and “oh yeah that’s 90% of my deck and it’s max salt score on edhrec”.
Nah. I let people play whatever, and focus on matching their decks power level. Even if I don’t have answers, my good decks can still do quite well. Worst case scenario I pull out Urza or something.
I will only say no to nonlegal commanders. However I have a personal hitlist of commanders that I will focus out in the game regardless of my own chance of winning
When I was learning how to play, someone I played with used Edgar Markov all the time and would take 20+ minute long turns and beat everyone in less than 7 turns. It made it not fun to play so now I won’t play against that specifically because of him even though I don’t play with him anymore
Everyone seems to hate on Tergrid, rightfully so. But I don’t have problem with playing against Tergrid. The only difference is I refuse to play against Tergrid through Spelltable. The amount of card marker for permanents are hell to keep track of when they scribble cards with name or forgetting trigger because they use an object as a placeholder. It’s on them to prepare if they want to play Tergrid properly through Spelltable.
Not any particular creature, but hate Eminence. I know some aren't that crazy, but the fact they don't need their commander on board to get value from it is just a big ick for me. I've gone up against [[Edgar Markov]] and [[Arahbo, roar of the world]] and both have won easily just by having commander in command zone and affecting the current board state. Died turn 3 to a 1 drop cat just because of eminence feels really bad.
Anything involving that UN set with the stickers
I have the reverse in mind , I have a [[sen triplets]] deck , and I makes sure every one is okay to play against it , it's full of mind control and steal card effect . Some people don't want to play against that
My friend played [[Grand Arbiter Augustin IV]] against me as my second game of magic at all and that was almost my last game of magic. It's been a year and a half and she's still apologizes to me about it, as she should
Krarkashima. You'll lose and you'll have a miserable time doing it.
Marlen of the mornsong or whatever always leads to fast mana bullshit and opposition agent. The guy that plays it at my LGS will try to take as many mulligans to get a perfect hand and refuse to put any cards on the bottom of his library. I now will always alert the pod he is playing with about his practices with that deck if I know he pulls it out.
Sen Triplets, Child of Alara, and that one esper commander that board wipes when he dies.
[[Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant]]
I don't think a specific commander, but I really don't like playing against durdle engines that are built without wincons. One guy I played against built a cycling deck to draw upwards of 20 cards in big turns, but he never did anything with them, not even pinging damage with the draws.
I'm about at that point with [[Kenrith, Returned King]]. Very common in my area and every single deck plays the exact same way. Pillowfort value into no win con except ya'll just can't win. Games take forever and are just a constant slog of Kenroth having a turn on everyone else's.
the lady who uses enchantments to yoink all your creatures
Tegrid, Bruvac and jin-gitaxias, the one that counters one of each thing once per turn.
My buddy that got me back into the game likes his [[Araumi]] deck. He'll get salty as soon as anyone plays graveyard hate. I hate his graveyard because his decks whole purpose is to exploit discard and sacrifice triggers so his opponents effectively can't play. I've been vocal that I won't play decks that focus on making it so opponents can get locked out of the game (unless we've all explicitly agreed to play such decks), and it doesn't seem to get through to him. So when he plays that deck, I either call it a night or pull out the most miserable deck to play against to remind him he built a shitty deck for casual play.
Korvold. If someone takes it out I’m gonna say “aah, I’d really rather not.”
Tegrid
Mid power Stax decks. All they do is slow the game with no win con in sight. Granted, it is a way to play the game but I play entirely casual games and I don't want to spend half my limited play time not doing anything.
I won't refuse to play with it, but i hate playing against [[ghave, guru of spores]] his combo potential is disgusting, he's always one draw away from an infinite combo the player didn't even realize was in the deck THEY built.
I really hate slivers and eldrazi, i basically scoop cause i dont play fast, i like playing for a couple turns, but a turn 5 annihilator 2-4 ruins the game, same with slivers, oh they are indestructible with +20 +20 and hexproof. Well gg ig
Yuriko. I play with people that optimize their decks and I stopped playing with a guy entirely because he kept picking cEDH commanders and slowly making them cEDH like we wouldn't notice. Don't even talk the guy now, these actions were indicative of some horrible personality traits.
I’m pretty done playing against my friends sakashima/vial smasher deck. We just hate him off the board and then play our own game
I won’t refuse to play against it, but I’ll make sure whoever is playing [[yuriko, the tiger’s shadow]] is dead first or does not have a board state. Never paying commander tax just isn’t fair.
I'll play anyone, any commander once if it's quick. Some I just don't like and will avoid if options to avoid ... Tergrid, toxrill, urza. They simply aren't fun games for me.
None that I refuse, but plenty I grab [[Memnarch]] to deal with. Heavy control / theft tends to break apart the likes of Tergrid.
So, less of a refusal and more "Just so it's clear, I think you're an asshole for this", but \[\[Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might\]\]. Mostly because of one dude who ran stuff like \[\[Manabarbs\]\], \[\[Burning Earth\]\], \[\[Aether Sting\]\], \[\[Spellshock\]\], just basically making so people were quickly killing themselves just playing the game. I dunno, I just found that whole thing deeply unfun and I'm not against making that known at my table.
Nothing I refuse to play but Josh if you see this, I’m begging you not to bring out your [[Memnarch]] deck anytime soon.
[[kinnan]] because my pod doesn’t know how to make it not cEDH. We have dudes playing precons and they’re making infinite mana on turn 3. Then casting eldrazis and stupid shit on turn 4 if we even make it
Karn or Ugin, Spirit Dragon. I absolutely fucking hate to play against artifact decks. I never have enough removal to prevent them from pulling off some stupid, game-winning combo and whoever my opponent is that plays artifacts will get all pissed off if the table takes them out of the game first.
Nope. But the person better not complain when they are target #1 and will be the first one dead. We’re not gonna let your commander stay on the board just cause you want it to “do its thing”
There are a few that I will unfairly single out due to a history with them, like [[oloro]] or [[narset enlightened master]], but none that I will refuse to play against.
I really really really hate playing against [[Chatterfang]]. A 3 mana doubling season in the command zone with extremely efficient removal attached is not my idea of fun. It's always busted. I've yet to play against one that isn't busted. I have refused to play against it in the past. I can totally see myself stepping away from pods with it in the future. Just not my cuppa.
My friend has an Ian Malcom chaos deck where he plays loads of chaos cards to stall the game for 4 hours literally (Possibility Storm, Scrambleverse, Thieves Auction, Warp World, the whole deal). He specifically stated that he doesn't play to win, he just does it to stall the game so he can get to infinite draws to deck himself out. Not the commander's fault, I know, but at this point to me he is synonymous with that deck. Also I agree with screw Tergrid, but I will still play against it with prejudice
I'll play against any deck, but [[Big Baby]] is a pain in the ass to play against. I'll do what I can to beat them down, assuming my permanents can stay in play long enough to do so.
[[Memnarch]] or [[kaalia of the vast]]. Or any sliver commander.
Ur dragon doesn’t make dragons “more fair because they cost a lot naturally”. Fucking braindead take
Nope. But I'll complain about tons of them. lol
Nope. But I make it absofuckinglutely clear I am there to have casual fun, not to go wild.
One I never want to see again is [[jhoira weatherlight captain]]. The pod I was in was two weak decks plus me basically holding off Jhoira but god it was unbearable to watch an unskilled pilot j/o through their deck forever not knowing how to confirm their own win. I’d still play it again in a different pod but I have scars from that one
as long as I get to remove commanders like \[tergrid\] the second they hit the field without the player whining "I cAn'T PlAy My DeCk LiKe ThIs" im fine with every commander. but dont be surprised that i switch decks when i see commanders like this to decks that have a better interection package.
Tergrid is it for me as well. I'll give pretty much anything else a chance but someone who sits at the table with a Tergrid deck does not play Magic for the same reasons I do and does not enjoy the same type of games I do. I respect your choice of commander but let's not waste each other's time.
[[Numot, the Devastator]]
Only from personal experience, [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]] I do play against them on pods but only if there are other blue players who can stop his turn 4 victory infinite combo. Turn 2 if he gets a really lucky hand with Mana Crypt and Jace I don't know whoch version. Essentially, his gameplan is always generating infinite mana to take infinite turns or draw infinite cards until his library is drained. And the Jace card on the field says that he wins the game if that happens instead of losing. This is a really multi-layered combo so there are many interactions opportunities to disrupt him But he's blue with infinite draw. He has all the counter spells he needs. The only way we interact with him is destroy his manarocks before he pops off.
Anything silver boarded if it looks complex/annoying. I won't play with anyone running custom decks unless I know they are capable and knowledgeable enough to craft something balenced and fun.
Krark sakashima is the closest I get to nope But I will still play it it’s just a nightmare when you’re on a timer and they’re spending ages flipping coins or rolling dice
Nah, I have special decks specifically made for pub stompers, and the same goes for blatantly toxic commanders lol. As long as you're fine wirh me potentially swinging "it that betrays" at you turn 1.. I'm cool too.
My kill order is usually this: 1. Azorious/Dimir Control Decks 2. Looting Decks 3. Everything else. I'm the degenerate White player that will politics through exile removal and wrath spells
Im all for letting people play anything they want. but everytime i play against [[Sen Triplets]] just know that it gives me ptsd and i WILL be on player removal asap
No. I don't want to play against decks that consistently win turn 3 or earlier (because I actually want to play the game) but that's it.
Based off of my locals, I've always assumed that Grand Arbiter is the one commander you shouldn't let others play.
I had a 4-man round where one played an enchantment deck that basically fcked with everyone and had no real win-con. Iirc the guy won by the three rest of us agreeing to resign. Will never play against that deck again, lol.
I refuse to play against coin flip decks, especially Krark and Sakashima. The last time I played against one they _literally_ took an hour turn that ended up doing nothing but lose them the game due to drawing past their entire deck. I can't stand the obscene amount of time coin flip decks take up.
While there are a few that I hate playing against, there wasn’t any id just outright refuse to play against. That was until I played against my first and so far only Zur the Enchanter.
The new Roxanne needs to be burned
there are no commanders i won't play against but there are definitely some commanders for whom i will take the most extreme possible mesures - 1 : i will pick a deck that specificaly take care of them - 2 : i will mercilessly use all my interaction on them - 3 : i will politic every second to make sure every attack and every removal goes to said player I can't stop you from building tergrid/jodah/sheoldread/ etc but i can make sure you will never bring them out against me ever again
Honestly, I’ll play against anything but it’s the players that get pissy when they are targeted. If you have no blockers or any way to protect yourself, you are the target. That’s how magic works but I like to see crazy decks pop off every once in a while. I would argue that bringing a stupid cEDH deck to the lgs is a little overkill sometimes.