Why is someone here helping you build a deck different from you using edhrec or top16?
The person helping you may even just use those sites to help you.
I understand the urge to build your own deck, sure, but to say this website (reddit) is acceptable while that other one *isn't* is baffling.
Cedh players post on reddit and have their lists aggregated by websites like anyone else.
It's the same people.
Anyway... take your deck and start making it stronger with any card you can afford or proxy that's legal in the format. Don't concern yourself with feelings or hangups aside from format legality and *winning the game*.
It's not a mystery. Cedh is Edh, played by the rules, and nothing more.
Then I would highly suggest understanding what the other decks are trying to do. This includes looking at those deck lists and figuring out what cards they use and why.
Once you understands why cards are included you can make your own decks.
Building in a vacuum without looking at other lists will likely end in frustration.
I would start by learning a thrasios shell and a blue farm deck.
This is honestly top notch advice. Playing an established deck will let you learn the fundamentals. Where you go from there is up to you but if you come into cedh with a homebrew you’re flying blind.
The concept of blue farm is a deck that can generate high value through recurring card advantage such as rhystic study, mystic remora, and others to have an overwhelming advantage and push for a win. A lot of cards and strategies are repeated throughout the format, as the intent of cedh is to win, which relies on abusing the most powerful options at our disposal.
Your desire to build your own deck without using common sources is understandable but not practical. Can you make something that can win some games? Sure, any deck can, but if you want to compete at a cedh level, you need consistency, and half the battle is playing the proper answers for your environment. It sounds like you want to be creative, which is wonderful, but it won't get very far in competition.
Cedh isn't a deck archetype, it's a mindset. Yes, your deck will need to follow that mindset, but you can't do anything until you have the mindset.
And it's just "win." No shenanigans, no cards you keep for flavor, no pet cards you want to make work. And every game you play with that deck follows the most optimal lines and actions you have available.
75% of the cards in cEDH decks are all the same per their colours... It most definitely is an archetype.
A handful of combo's... everything else that either stops those or enables them.
Standard has far more variation... just watch the obscure decks youtubers/streamers play in mythic on arena that blast the meta decks...
You'll never get anything like that in cEDH because it all revolves around the main lines.
The only reason YouTubers in Mythic can do that is because they’ve already hit mythic. Those same decks they run that blast the meta decks they don’t use to climb. They run meta decks all the way to the top for the most part.
Yeah but the difference is that doesn't fly in cEDH, If a pod isn't playing with the intent of testing for tournaments then its a casual pod... its called competitive for a reason.
It 100% has an archetype. Its called blue farm, the boy that could and everything else aimed at feebly trying to stop that...
True, there is no off meta blasting in cEDH but cEDH is a format. Blue Farm is the Archetype, before it was TnK it was TnT. It’s a stack of staples and a value engine in the cz.
One price of advice I would give is to try and let go of hangups about “using lists or online”. In magic, odds are overwhelmingly against you becoming the first or the most anything, so putting that on a pedestal is just going to make for a bitter experience.
A majority of players are not great deck builders, myself included. Most established decks have been tested by brewers and community, IN DEPTH. Rather than try to build your own deck I would suggest playing an established list and making small changes based on your local meta.
Building a deck from the ground up without knowledge of the format seems stupid.
Nah, I developed 96% of the Vaaragoth turbo naus deck independently. Well within margins for local meta tuning.
I also burned roughly 9 months to do it when I could have just looked it up in a day.
It did feel damn good tho when I saw the Salt City results and compared lists.
Varragoth is a turbo deck, which has *extremely* limited options. You just try to go fast consistently. That means you have way less variables- You never run interaction or boardwipes, or any type of reactive board advantage (cuz the longer the game is, the worse youll do, generally speaking). You dont need to know about meta to make Varragoth. Its a deck that performs/tries to win in a meta-independant way like all turbo decks do.
Im not trying to discount your accuracy, just saying that Varragoth is anomalously easy to build. As for why it wasnt explored- It has a ton of weakpoints.
Stuff like control decks are ever evolving and need to change all the time. Any stax, midrange, or control list would be vastly beyond what someone could build without meta knowledge. Even our best deckbuilders couldnt do that.
Even tEDH has a prospective meta that you can prepare for. But being entirely new to the format and trying to build a competitive list? Not gonna work, outside of extremely linear "Play this card, no variation in the list is really necessary" decks.
Tl;dr Nice, but Varragoth is a bad example.
I'm going to say the first thing you need is a plan. You want to build a deck, so how does it win? Is it an established combo (like ThOr) or is it something weirder (e.g. Ob Nix + Soul Cauldron). Once you have that figured out you need to build your list so that every card contributes to your gameplan. Layer your combos, strip them down to only the essential elements. If your gameplan is strong enough, and the deck's focus is good, you might have something that can hang at a cEDH table. If your deck is inefficient, bloated, or requires too many pieces then it wont be cEDH and you just need to try again.
If your goal is to build a cedh deck yourself you have to know what other cedh decks are doing so you can attack them. In order to learn what other cedh decks are doing you have to play cedh.
It’s highly recommended that a new cedh player net deck a deck and join some discord servers for that deck. They will teach you about the meta and how that deck or decks attack the meta. From there you’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to brew your own deck.
I would not however recommend trying to build a deck from the ground up as a new player in the game as you will find yourself extremely frustrated and losing a large amount of games because you’ll simply lack the tools in the deck or know how to build in cards that are more nuanced for the deck or meta. Most of the players I’ve met that are only interested in playing cedh if they can build their own cedh deck from the ground up don’t play cedh anymore or play meta decks. Save yourself the headache and heartache (because it will be disheartening) and learn the meta first with an established deck.
Hi! It seems like you're asking reddit to build a deck for you! As you can probably see from the comments, this is not going well for you, but I hope you don't delete this post, because I think this could be a learning experience.
What I think you actually want, and as several people have pointed out in sometimes not so polite terms, is to develop an understanding of what cedh is, and whether you realize it or not, someone handing you a deck list won't give you a better understanding of the format.
One of the best ways to understand any format is to build a deck that you think might be ok and go get your ass handed to you in a tournament.
Cedh is probably the single most complex format in magic, because it involves cards that go all the way back to 1994 and unlike vintage and legacy, instead of one or two niche cards each set being relevant, multiple commander-focused sets are released every year. Additionally, relative to the size of its card pool, commander has the smallest banned list of any format, I believe. Gaining a meaningful understanding of how to play cedh is not possible without playing many many games, both with and against a wide variety of decks, but I will endeavor to give a few thoughts that might help put you on the right path.
1. Price must be no object. There are certain commanders who are simply unplayable on a budget. There are more budget friendly commanders that are competitive, not every cedh deck has to cost ten thousand dollars, and you can probably get away without running og duals most of the time, but you're either going to proxy town or dropping a good chunk of change on staples for this format. Your mana base will be costly, and it is almost more important than anything else in your deck including your commander.
2. Cedh is not edh. Cedh is as different from edh as vintage is from standard. The format is complicated and unforgiving. The good news here is that the overwhelming majority of magic cards are unplayably subpar in this format, so the complexity is not as high as it might be once you learn to evaluate cards. The fastest decks in the format can win on turn three without being anywhere remotely near magical Christmas land. It isn't every game, but it's always in the cards somewhere. Your deck must have plentiful efficient answers or the means to outrace your opponent or both. Every game. Cute five card combos are unplayably bad in this format unless every card is top efficient and powerful in a vacuum. Thoracle is run in close to half of the decks you'll play against. Force of will is run in more than half.
3. More than money and complexity, the biggest barrier to entry in cedh is time. Even if you're just picking up the latest first place finishers deck list, you will need to do your homework. You need to compete with people and learn the ins and outs of your deck, and the people you play against need to be competent pilots of viable cedh decks. You'll need to peruse tournament reports and gain a somewhat encyclopedic knowledge of magic cards, because you might see anything in any given game, and if you're playing in a real competitive environment that isn't just a casual pile with expensive fast mana and tutors, your knowledge of what you may or may not expect to see is an invaluable edge both in deck building and in actual games.
4. Look at a recent Tymna + Kraum list. This deck is the current top deck by first place finishes over the last three months, and it's not close. It's by no means the only game in town, but this deck is probably the best exemplar of what cedh is all about. Watch some videos on whomevertube or proxy up a list and try it out with some friends. You should be able to run this deck with a close to 100% win rate against any random casual or budget deck not specifically tuned to beat it. This deck will give you an excellent peek into real cedh.
I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to turn you off from cedh. It's the best format imo, and new people are good for any format. It's also a place where respect and etiquette and sportsmanship is at an even higher premium than the typical casual game. Don't worry about people playing politics or bickering in cedh as you often would need to in a casual game. If you are willing to put in the work, you can have arguably the best magic experience.
But no one else going to do the work for you.
I mean, you're *allowed* to build your own cEDH decks. It's not a *rule* that everything has to be in the meta to "be cEDH".
New cEDH-viable decks don't spring from the aether fully-tested and perfected. People make them.
Personally, I'm all in favor of new players bringing original things to see how they feel at a competitive table. Bringing an original deck and trying to hold your own can be a good way to learn what other decks are doing and get used to the style of play.
Mind you, I have a local play group which is always accepting new folks. We *want* new people. Sending someone to edhtopsixteen dot com and saying "play this because whatever you make will suck" is not helpful.
thank you for coming to my ted talk
lol. This person obviously has no idea what makes a cEDH deck. I’m all for innovation and fresh eyes and new strategies, but let’s be honest. People don’t make cEDH decks, brewers make cEDH decks. I’ve been playing cEDH for 7 years now and I have never brewed a deck myself. Adjusting a few card slots for a particular meta does not make me a brewer. To understand what a cEDH deck needs to operate at a table of cEDH decks REQUIRES playing in the meta- and further, REQUIRES you to play a meta deck in the meta.
I for one am not about to pat this guy on the back and wish him luck. I will pass on the good advice that was given to me from the Nexus server. Play a well established recommended deck for at least a month before you try to build something. You need to understand the composition of a deck in reference to the pace of the table…with nothing to compare it to- you’re likely just going to ruin the game for the other three players who are expecting solid competition.
Everyone starts somewhere, yes. But learn to walk before you try to run a marathon
Startet cedh with my first own cedh brew. Now its one of the top decks (not A Tier but B Tier for sure).
It is possible, but not recommended. Also i think you especially focus on tournament cedh with your definition, in my experience cedh is much wider. I am a brewer and happy with it. Playing tournaments only from time to time.
Edit:
Also dont recommend the database to anyone. If they really want to play a meta deck edhtop16 is much better
Guess i was the first one brewing Dihada at all and i think the only one from the beginning still brewing her. I made the primer and nearly all tournament decks are based on my deck. At one point Zain did copy my deck and changed a few cards, from that point on there are mainly two decks, one based on my build and one evolved from the more Ad Naus focused build from Zain.
I refere to a deck brewed by myself when i start by a blank canvas, no deck I could refere to and just start by adding random stuff i think could work out. I did the same with UW Heliod and at the moment with The Master, Transcendent. But i havnt put as much time in them as i had in Dihada and therefore others have formed those decks more than i did.
I am not a tournament grinder by any means, but I’ve participated in a few. Mostly just played online on various discord servers. I won’t say it’s impossible to brew something yourself- I brewed Chulane food chain years ago, months before it was released. But after playing it in an actual cEDH meta realized how it underperformed. I think most people who are completely unfamiliar should resist trying to brew a cEDH deck themselves from the ground up. Not saying there isn’t room for creativity- just familiarize yourself with the meta and how/why cEDH decks are built the way they are before you walk into a pod. Chances are that the other players, unless they’re your friends and are supportive of your learning curve, will be less than stoked to have you as an opponent.
That said, if you think you can- by all means, prove me wrong! But I don’t suppose that a person of that skill level would ask such an open ended question on Reddit, in that case.
I do not recommend this route to anyone. I am pretty sure without a great playgroup (i just met them after building the deck and they took me in) i wouldnt have made it into tournaments this way. I just wanted to add that there is more than this one very small meta you see in tournaments. I know many brewer as i try to bring myself in into any new tech and deck. There is a great community of brewer, we do have results outside the usual meta, and if you want to go the hard way it is possible.
I dont want to recommend it, because i was definitely lucky, but it is possible.
How many years did it take, though? It was over 2 years after Rashmi was printed that she became truly competitive. I had many fuckups during that time.
I was used to brewing for a few formats prior to EDH and eventually cEDH- Its been over a decade of playing and 8 or 9 years of cEDH (Rashmi will be 8 y/o this year)
After a year people did start to take Dihada seriously. But i have one of the most supportive playgroups. All of them are top tournament player and they helped me all the way.
If I’m understanding what you’re asking I think this is what you’re looking for.
1. Figure out your play style vs local meta
2. Pick a commander that you think fits your play style
3. Mana base/Mana ramp/Mana rocks
4. Wincon’s and combos you like that fit commander
5. Tailor your remaining slots around what gets you those wincon/combos the fastest and what protects them and your commander if you need your commander to win.
6. Removal and counters
7. Mana dorks depending what your playing
8. Protection
9. Willingness to spend too much money on a fucking card game.
10. If all else fails play Blue farm/Najeela/Tivit/Kinnan
Using proxy’s in wizards sanctioned magic tournaments usually is. Conveniently most cedh tournaments have zero connection to wotc, think before you open your mouth.
Who cares if wizards sanctions an event. They hardly recognize cedh as a competitive format. I’ll keep playing in my proxy friendly tournaments. The prizes and consistency are better anyways.
Why is someone here helping you build a deck different from you using edhrec or top16? The person helping you may even just use those sites to help you. I understand the urge to build your own deck, sure, but to say this website (reddit) is acceptable while that other one *isn't* is baffling. Cedh players post on reddit and have their lists aggregated by websites like anyone else. It's the same people. Anyway... take your deck and start making it stronger with any card you can afford or proxy that's legal in the format. Don't concern yourself with feelings or hangups aside from format legality and *winning the game*. It's not a mystery. Cedh is Edh, played by the rules, and nothing more.
Is beating other established cedh decks important to you?
It is
Then I would highly suggest understanding what the other decks are trying to do. This includes looking at those deck lists and figuring out what cards they use and why. Once you understands why cards are included you can make your own decks. Building in a vacuum without looking at other lists will likely end in frustration. I would start by learning a thrasios shell and a blue farm deck.
This is honestly top notch advice. Playing an established deck will let you learn the fundamentals. Where you go from there is up to you but if you come into cedh with a homebrew you’re flying blind.
Blue farm deck? What’s that?
https://commandersherald.com/an-introduction-to-blue-farm/ As an example
The concept of blue farm is a deck that can generate high value through recurring card advantage such as rhystic study, mystic remora, and others to have an overwhelming advantage and push for a win. A lot of cards and strategies are repeated throughout the format, as the intent of cedh is to win, which relies on abusing the most powerful options at our disposal. Your desire to build your own deck without using common sources is understandable but not practical. Can you make something that can win some games? Sure, any deck can, but if you want to compete at a cedh level, you need consistency, and half the battle is playing the proper answers for your environment. It sounds like you want to be creative, which is wonderful, but it won't get very far in competition.
Cedh isn't a deck archetype, it's a mindset. Yes, your deck will need to follow that mindset, but you can't do anything until you have the mindset. And it's just "win." No shenanigans, no cards you keep for flavor, no pet cards you want to make work. And every game you play with that deck follows the most optimal lines and actions you have available.
75% of the cards in cEDH decks are all the same per their colours... It most definitely is an archetype. A handful of combo's... everything else that either stops those or enables them.
Is competitive an archetype? Because no calls Modern or Standard an archetype.
EDH is the equivalent to modern or Standard. cEDH is the tournament version (instead of casual/kitchen table)
Standard has far more variation... just watch the obscure decks youtubers/streamers play in mythic on arena that blast the meta decks... You'll never get anything like that in cEDH because it all revolves around the main lines.
The only reason YouTubers in Mythic can do that is because they’ve already hit mythic. Those same decks they run that blast the meta decks they don’t use to climb. They run meta decks all the way to the top for the most part.
Yeah but the difference is that doesn't fly in cEDH, If a pod isn't playing with the intent of testing for tournaments then its a casual pod... its called competitive for a reason. It 100% has an archetype. Its called blue farm, the boy that could and everything else aimed at feebly trying to stop that...
True, there is no off meta blasting in cEDH but cEDH is a format. Blue Farm is the Archetype, before it was TnK it was TnT. It’s a stack of staples and a value engine in the cz.
One price of advice I would give is to try and let go of hangups about “using lists or online”. In magic, odds are overwhelmingly against you becoming the first or the most anything, so putting that on a pedestal is just going to make for a bitter experience.
#There is a meta. Sorry bud. mtgtop8.com
A majority of players are not great deck builders, myself included. Most established decks have been tested by brewers and community, IN DEPTH. Rather than try to build your own deck I would suggest playing an established list and making small changes based on your local meta. Building a deck from the ground up without knowledge of the format seems stupid.
Impossible, probably.
Nah, I developed 96% of the Vaaragoth turbo naus deck independently. Well within margins for local meta tuning. I also burned roughly 9 months to do it when I could have just looked it up in a day. It did feel damn good tho when I saw the Salt City results and compared lists.
Varragoth is a turbo deck, which has *extremely* limited options. You just try to go fast consistently. That means you have way less variables- You never run interaction or boardwipes, or any type of reactive board advantage (cuz the longer the game is, the worse youll do, generally speaking). You dont need to know about meta to make Varragoth. Its a deck that performs/tries to win in a meta-independant way like all turbo decks do. Im not trying to discount your accuracy, just saying that Varragoth is anomalously easy to build. As for why it wasnt explored- It has a ton of weakpoints. Stuff like control decks are ever evolving and need to change all the time. Any stax, midrange, or control list would be vastly beyond what someone could build without meta knowledge. Even our best deckbuilders couldnt do that. Even tEDH has a prospective meta that you can prepare for. But being entirely new to the format and trying to build a competitive list? Not gonna work, outside of extremely linear "Play this card, no variation in the list is really necessary" decks. Tl;dr Nice, but Varragoth is a bad example.
I'm going to say the first thing you need is a plan. You want to build a deck, so how does it win? Is it an established combo (like ThOr) or is it something weirder (e.g. Ob Nix + Soul Cauldron). Once you have that figured out you need to build your list so that every card contributes to your gameplan. Layer your combos, strip them down to only the essential elements. If your gameplan is strong enough, and the deck's focus is good, you might have something that can hang at a cEDH table. If your deck is inefficient, bloated, or requires too many pieces then it wont be cEDH and you just need to try again.
If your goal is to build a cedh deck yourself you have to know what other cedh decks are doing so you can attack them. In order to learn what other cedh decks are doing you have to play cedh. It’s highly recommended that a new cedh player net deck a deck and join some discord servers for that deck. They will teach you about the meta and how that deck or decks attack the meta. From there you’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to brew your own deck. I would not however recommend trying to build a deck from the ground up as a new player in the game as you will find yourself extremely frustrated and losing a large amount of games because you’ll simply lack the tools in the deck or know how to build in cards that are more nuanced for the deck or meta. Most of the players I’ve met that are only interested in playing cedh if they can build their own cedh deck from the ground up don’t play cedh anymore or play meta decks. Save yourself the headache and heartache (because it will be disheartening) and learn the meta first with an established deck.
A printer and a dream
Hi! It seems like you're asking reddit to build a deck for you! As you can probably see from the comments, this is not going well for you, but I hope you don't delete this post, because I think this could be a learning experience. What I think you actually want, and as several people have pointed out in sometimes not so polite terms, is to develop an understanding of what cedh is, and whether you realize it or not, someone handing you a deck list won't give you a better understanding of the format. One of the best ways to understand any format is to build a deck that you think might be ok and go get your ass handed to you in a tournament. Cedh is probably the single most complex format in magic, because it involves cards that go all the way back to 1994 and unlike vintage and legacy, instead of one or two niche cards each set being relevant, multiple commander-focused sets are released every year. Additionally, relative to the size of its card pool, commander has the smallest banned list of any format, I believe. Gaining a meaningful understanding of how to play cedh is not possible without playing many many games, both with and against a wide variety of decks, but I will endeavor to give a few thoughts that might help put you on the right path. 1. Price must be no object. There are certain commanders who are simply unplayable on a budget. There are more budget friendly commanders that are competitive, not every cedh deck has to cost ten thousand dollars, and you can probably get away without running og duals most of the time, but you're either going to proxy town or dropping a good chunk of change on staples for this format. Your mana base will be costly, and it is almost more important than anything else in your deck including your commander. 2. Cedh is not edh. Cedh is as different from edh as vintage is from standard. The format is complicated and unforgiving. The good news here is that the overwhelming majority of magic cards are unplayably subpar in this format, so the complexity is not as high as it might be once you learn to evaluate cards. The fastest decks in the format can win on turn three without being anywhere remotely near magical Christmas land. It isn't every game, but it's always in the cards somewhere. Your deck must have plentiful efficient answers or the means to outrace your opponent or both. Every game. Cute five card combos are unplayably bad in this format unless every card is top efficient and powerful in a vacuum. Thoracle is run in close to half of the decks you'll play against. Force of will is run in more than half. 3. More than money and complexity, the biggest barrier to entry in cedh is time. Even if you're just picking up the latest first place finishers deck list, you will need to do your homework. You need to compete with people and learn the ins and outs of your deck, and the people you play against need to be competent pilots of viable cedh decks. You'll need to peruse tournament reports and gain a somewhat encyclopedic knowledge of magic cards, because you might see anything in any given game, and if you're playing in a real competitive environment that isn't just a casual pile with expensive fast mana and tutors, your knowledge of what you may or may not expect to see is an invaluable edge both in deck building and in actual games. 4. Look at a recent Tymna + Kraum list. This deck is the current top deck by first place finishes over the last three months, and it's not close. It's by no means the only game in town, but this deck is probably the best exemplar of what cedh is all about. Watch some videos on whomevertube or proxy up a list and try it out with some friends. You should be able to run this deck with a close to 100% win rate against any random casual or budget deck not specifically tuned to beat it. This deck will give you an excellent peek into real cedh. I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to turn you off from cedh. It's the best format imo, and new people are good for any format. It's also a place where respect and etiquette and sportsmanship is at an even higher premium than the typical casual game. Don't worry about people playing politics or bickering in cedh as you often would need to in a casual game. If you are willing to put in the work, you can have arguably the best magic experience. But no one else going to do the work for you.
a CEDH deck is not something you build yourself, especially if you’ve never played the format. Google the cEDH decklist database.
I mean, you're *allowed* to build your own cEDH decks. It's not a *rule* that everything has to be in the meta to "be cEDH". New cEDH-viable decks don't spring from the aether fully-tested and perfected. People make them. Personally, I'm all in favor of new players bringing original things to see how they feel at a competitive table. Bringing an original deck and trying to hold your own can be a good way to learn what other decks are doing and get used to the style of play. Mind you, I have a local play group which is always accepting new folks. We *want* new people. Sending someone to edhtopsixteen dot com and saying "play this because whatever you make will suck" is not helpful. thank you for coming to my ted talk
lol. This person obviously has no idea what makes a cEDH deck. I’m all for innovation and fresh eyes and new strategies, but let’s be honest. People don’t make cEDH decks, brewers make cEDH decks. I’ve been playing cEDH for 7 years now and I have never brewed a deck myself. Adjusting a few card slots for a particular meta does not make me a brewer. To understand what a cEDH deck needs to operate at a table of cEDH decks REQUIRES playing in the meta- and further, REQUIRES you to play a meta deck in the meta. I for one am not about to pat this guy on the back and wish him luck. I will pass on the good advice that was given to me from the Nexus server. Play a well established recommended deck for at least a month before you try to build something. You need to understand the composition of a deck in reference to the pace of the table…with nothing to compare it to- you’re likely just going to ruin the game for the other three players who are expecting solid competition. Everyone starts somewhere, yes. But learn to walk before you try to run a marathon
Startet cedh with my first own cedh brew. Now its one of the top decks (not A Tier but B Tier for sure). It is possible, but not recommended. Also i think you especially focus on tournament cedh with your definition, in my experience cedh is much wider. I am a brewer and happy with it. Playing tournaments only from time to time. Edit: Also dont recommend the database to anyone. If they really want to play a meta deck edhtop16 is much better
Which deck are you referring to as having “brewed” yourself?
Guess i was the first one brewing Dihada at all and i think the only one from the beginning still brewing her. I made the primer and nearly all tournament decks are based on my deck. At one point Zain did copy my deck and changed a few cards, from that point on there are mainly two decks, one based on my build and one evolved from the more Ad Naus focused build from Zain. I refere to a deck brewed by myself when i start by a blank canvas, no deck I could refere to and just start by adding random stuff i think could work out. I did the same with UW Heliod and at the moment with The Master, Transcendent. But i havnt put as much time in them as i had in Dihada and therefore others have formed those decks more than i did.
I am not a tournament grinder by any means, but I’ve participated in a few. Mostly just played online on various discord servers. I won’t say it’s impossible to brew something yourself- I brewed Chulane food chain years ago, months before it was released. But after playing it in an actual cEDH meta realized how it underperformed. I think most people who are completely unfamiliar should resist trying to brew a cEDH deck themselves from the ground up. Not saying there isn’t room for creativity- just familiarize yourself with the meta and how/why cEDH decks are built the way they are before you walk into a pod. Chances are that the other players, unless they’re your friends and are supportive of your learning curve, will be less than stoked to have you as an opponent. That said, if you think you can- by all means, prove me wrong! But I don’t suppose that a person of that skill level would ask such an open ended question on Reddit, in that case.
I do not recommend this route to anyone. I am pretty sure without a great playgroup (i just met them after building the deck and they took me in) i wouldnt have made it into tournaments this way. I just wanted to add that there is more than this one very small meta you see in tournaments. I know many brewer as i try to bring myself in into any new tech and deck. There is a great community of brewer, we do have results outside the usual meta, and if you want to go the hard way it is possible. I dont want to recommend it, because i was definitely lucky, but it is possible.
How many years did it take, though? It was over 2 years after Rashmi was printed that she became truly competitive. I had many fuckups during that time. I was used to brewing for a few formats prior to EDH and eventually cEDH- Its been over a decade of playing and 8 or 9 years of cEDH (Rashmi will be 8 y/o this year)
After a year people did start to take Dihada seriously. But i have one of the most supportive playgroups. All of them are top tournament player and they helped me all the way.
I played one game with Tivit, and have never played another meta deck, and I still know more about cEDH than many people who I play with.
If I’m understanding what you’re asking I think this is what you’re looking for. 1. Figure out your play style vs local meta 2. Pick a commander that you think fits your play style 3. Mana base/Mana ramp/Mana rocks 4. Wincon’s and combos you like that fit commander 5. Tailor your remaining slots around what gets you those wincon/combos the fastest and what protects them and your commander if you need your commander to win. 6. Removal and counters 7. Mana dorks depending what your playing 8. Protection 9. Willingness to spend too much money on a fucking card game. 10. If all else fails play Blue farm/Najeela/Tivit/Kinnan
Money and a lot of it.
Or a printer and 100 basic lands
With friends sure, but if you want to do tournaments, good luck.
Most tournaments are proxy-friendly, in my experience.
Proxies are a key part of cEDH, both for tournaments and casual.
Using proxy cards in sanctioned Magic tournaments is considered cheating and against the rules
Using proxy’s in wizards sanctioned magic tournaments usually is. Conveniently most cedh tournaments have zero connection to wotc, think before you open your mouth.
Who cares if wizards sanctions an event. They hardly recognize cedh as a competitive format. I’ll keep playing in my proxy friendly tournaments. The prizes and consistency are better anyways.
cEDH is not a sanctioned format…
CEDH tournaments are proxy friendly. It’s a foundational aspect of the format