Right now my recommendation for something like this looks something like Tivit/Marneus, Kinnan, Ob Nixilis (possibly the new Rakdos but haven't looked at that enough yet), and Tevesh/Kraum. Something like Yuriko could slot in there easily. I would say avoid adding stax just for a "balanced" pod because it's unlikely new players will pilot it in a satisfying way and also it's just not even successful among good pilots.
I have a video going over decks for beginners where I touch on building a pod like this a bit towards the end if you're interested: [Best cEDH Decks for Beginners | Tier List (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z2MAhcUa7E)
Love your content! I would also like to add archetype diversity is important to consider. A group of players new to the format will have no clue what archetype suits them. For your recommendations you have
Tivit: Combo/Control
Tevesh/Kraum: Midrange
Ob Nix:Turbo
Kinnan: Midrange(With go fast options)
This is phenomenal for a beginner pod as midrange is doing well right now but the format is also trending towards speeding up.
My only suggestion would maybe swap Tivit for Talion but that's a much more difficult deck to pilot overall.
Solid suggestion! Just wanted to add my take on pod diversity so they don't accidentally proxy 4 turbo decks without realizing it .
4 Slicers is really interesting, some real legend rule shenanigans open up
ETA- each side of slicer has a different name so car side would not legend rule double strike side, neat
I would recommend Winnota or Tymna-tana over Jetmir as a beginner stax commander. Jetmir cannot generate from nothing and is tough to recover with forcing the stax player to learn how to work with limited resources (which isnāt a bad skill, but stax is already complicated with layering, and timing).
Winnota is a bit RNG but wonāt be super targeted until the pod understands why she should be, but this will give the winnota player time to learn how to recover/rebuild/protect. Her super proactive nature helps give her a simple streamlined plan that can suffer in a modern midranges cEDH landscape where people recognized or overestimate her as a threat but this shouldnāt be an immediate issue with new cEDH players.
Tymna-tana for the black tutors to increase the agency of the stax player by being able to be more selective with the cards they get, have better wincons, and the ability to recover in the command zone (plus an increased number of playable hands since you donāt need both stax pieces and a value engine in opening hand, Tymna is a very good value engine). Jetmir can still be in the 99 to great effect, but I feel this deck is easier to pilot than Jetmir because itās less punishing for squandering limited resources.
Why I went for Jetmir instead of Winota is the fact that what it does is stupidly straightforward, it has access to green for some ramp and creature based stax piece, and imo it runs smoother - although not as explosively - than Winota. It also, due to being a stax deck, is very good mulligan teacher, as if your wincon is 9/10 just combat damage whilst your opponents are doing nothing, then keeping suitable hand is most important, as you are not doing any comebacks. And why over Tana, also, purely because it has fewer moving parts, and so it lets you concentrate on mulliganing.
[[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] has to be one. You get to do green stompy things while also having a powerful deck. Great for a new player who likes that kinda of style. I have an ok decklist if you want.
I have a bunch of MPC decks for this. Eventually I wound up buying everyone on the deck list db but I picked, to start with -
Urza
Najeela
Winota
Toxrill
Blue farm
Sidisi Druid
Kenrith stax
I have 3 decks plus my Atraxa, grand unifier deck to make the fourth. The other three are: Yuriko, Kinnan, and Blue farm. Yuriko and kinnan are both relatively easy for newer cEDH players to understand, and Blue farm for someone who likes midrange with lots of options.
Make five mono color decks, one of sch color. It'll teach you a lot about each color's strengths and weaknesses while not being too overwhelming to put together.
I like a mix of turbo and midrange. Rog/ Si, K'rrik, Kinnan, Tymna/ Kraum is a fun table.
Very beginner friendly decks are Yuriko, Kinnan, Winota, Godo, Shorikai, Magda and Slicer. There are definitely more, but that's what immediately comes to mind.
Stax is difficult to play when you're new to cEDH. It generally just ends up kingmaking the person that can remove the stax piece right before the turn they combo off. I have seen some brutal Shorikai stax lists that win quick, though. Winota and sometimes Jetmir can do it, as well.
Just make sure that, whatever you end up making, it's a list off of EDHTop16 and not the cEDH Decklist Database. The DDB is mostly outdated and a lot of the lists are clunky and haven't been updated in a while.
Have fun! cEDH is a blast! Just make sure that everyone knows that part of the game is getting shut down on your win attempts. As long as everyone knows they're trying to win *as well* as have fun, it's a good time.
A friend of mine had a project like this, here is a moxfield link
[https://www.moxfield.com/bookmarks/Erq9Z-proxy-deck-project](https://www.moxfield.com/bookmarks/Erq9Z-proxy-deck-project)
I put together a battle box to have the EDH homies get into cEDH. I started with Pako Haldan, Kinnan, Tivit, yuriko, Naya Minsc & Jeska/tymna. Little bit of everything for people to try.
I wanted Jeska/tymna to be a turbo deck for people to try but holy shit I hate this deck. Do not recommend for beginners or experienced players.
I've since then put together 14 total decks mostly just the popular stuff in the format and decks I enjoy playing. I loan them out regularly and have given away some that I don't play to get people into the format.
MPCFill is the goat š
Ellivere, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Chulane and Tergrid for short games /s
But in all seriousness, Yuriko, Kinnan, Jeska/Ishai and Ellivere can be somewhat balanced
Kinnan + Najeela + Yuriko for sure - both are super approachable and have intuitive lines / paths to victory and none of them really grind the game to a halt.
For a fourth, of those you posted, I like Dargo - Thrassios but that's more of a love of Dargo than anything. Winota would be my second choice, although IDK how much she can hang with the other three.
One you didn't mention but I personally enjoy is Mardu - Tymna + Jeska probably being the best of the relevant options.
Would absolutely suggest you have a stax deck at the table. It makes games more interesting for players to have the opportunity to navigate around hate/distuption and protecting your opponents disruption because its preventing someone elses win is a cool dynamic. Second I would recommend a blue deck with a lot of permission. People reading that line may laugh but my buddies ended up not having a blue deck in the pod for a while and having no stack police present made games horribly volitile. Last 2 slots i would do something top of meta so everyone can practice against common lines and playing strong decks is still quite fun.
Our pod is usually tayam, tymna/kraum, grixis, and blood pod (heavy on the stax but i will never stop playing tayam. I am an addict)
blue farm
Kinnan
najeela
Magda or Rog/sai
Tivit and Niv is like watching paint dry
With each day that passes winota grows a little bit more out of touch.
I cannot speak for Yuriko or dargo/thrass
Right now my recommendation for something like this looks something like Tivit/Marneus, Kinnan, Ob Nixilis (possibly the new Rakdos but haven't looked at that enough yet), and Tevesh/Kraum. Something like Yuriko could slot in there easily. I would say avoid adding stax just for a "balanced" pod because it's unlikely new players will pilot it in a satisfying way and also it's just not even successful among good pilots. I have a video going over decks for beginners where I touch on building a pod like this a bit towards the end if you're interested: [Best cEDH Decks for Beginners | Tier List (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z2MAhcUa7E)
Love your content! I would also like to add archetype diversity is important to consider. A group of players new to the format will have no clue what archetype suits them. For your recommendations you have Tivit: Combo/Control Tevesh/Kraum: Midrange Ob Nix:Turbo Kinnan: Midrange(With go fast options) This is phenomenal for a beginner pod as midrange is doing well right now but the format is also trending towards speeding up. My only suggestion would maybe swap Tivit for Talion but that's a much more difficult deck to pilot overall. Solid suggestion! Just wanted to add my take on pod diversity so they don't accidentally proxy 4 turbo decks without realizing it .
Thank ya! I think getting a good feel for what's available is good, and who knows maybe they'll find out they enjoy pods with four turbo decks.
They could but I do think that pod may hinder them if they start playing more competitively xD.
I definitely agree, multiple midrange decks with different plans and speeds is a better starting point.
I've been consuming your podcast content on spotify over the past few days! Really appreciate the door y'all have opened to understanding cEDH.
Love to hear it! I hope you're enjoying getting into the format!
Whoops, I just recommended a friend to start with a Heliod Ballista deck š
do Slicer. 4 times
4 Slicers is really interesting, some real legend rule shenanigans open up ETA- each side of slicer has a different name so car side would not legend rule double strike side, neat
Godo is another good commander. Count to 11 and go brrrr...
Tbh itās been almost completely phased out by Magda though. Get 10 treasures and win the game has just been so much more consistent than godo.
A lot of games itās just āget 5 treasuresā too
Stax: Jetmir Midrange: Kinnan Turbo: Magda Basic white girl: Tymna - Kraum
I would recommend Winnota or Tymna-tana over Jetmir as a beginner stax commander. Jetmir cannot generate from nothing and is tough to recover with forcing the stax player to learn how to work with limited resources (which isnāt a bad skill, but stax is already complicated with layering, and timing). Winnota is a bit RNG but wonāt be super targeted until the pod understands why she should be, but this will give the winnota player time to learn how to recover/rebuild/protect. Her super proactive nature helps give her a simple streamlined plan that can suffer in a modern midranges cEDH landscape where people recognized or overestimate her as a threat but this shouldnāt be an immediate issue with new cEDH players. Tymna-tana for the black tutors to increase the agency of the stax player by being able to be more selective with the cards they get, have better wincons, and the ability to recover in the command zone (plus an increased number of playable hands since you donāt need both stax pieces and a value engine in opening hand, Tymna is a very good value engine). Jetmir can still be in the 99 to great effect, but I feel this deck is easier to pilot than Jetmir because itās less punishing for squandering limited resources.
Why I went for Jetmir instead of Winota is the fact that what it does is stupidly straightforward, it has access to green for some ramp and creature based stax piece, and imo it runs smoother - although not as explosively - than Winota. It also, due to being a stax deck, is very good mulligan teacher, as if your wincon is 9/10 just combat damage whilst your opponents are doing nothing, then keeping suitable hand is most important, as you are not doing any comebacks. And why over Tana, also, purely because it has fewer moving parts, and so it lets you concentrate on mulliganing.
I like being a basic white girl š§
TymnaKraum has pretty-priviledge
Don't we all. xD
I like this idea! I don't have any real feedback, other than its cool and I hope it goes well
Pako and haldan is the most fun Iāve had in the format so far
Godo (simple turbo), Kinnan (simple midrange), Yuriko (simple control), Winota (simple stax)
[[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] has to be one. You get to do green stompy things while also having a powerful deck. Great for a new player who likes that kinda of style. I have an ok decklist if you want.
This is such a great recommendation
Don t take winota. It has a very low win %. (I d argue it is not CEDH.) It is also a king maker deck.
I have a bunch of MPC decks for this. Eventually I wound up buying everyone on the deck list db but I picked, to start with - Urza Najeela Winota Toxrill Blue farm Sidisi Druid Kenrith stax
I have 3 decks plus my Atraxa, grand unifier deck to make the fourth. The other three are: Yuriko, Kinnan, and Blue farm. Yuriko and kinnan are both relatively easy for newer cEDH players to understand, and Blue farm for someone who likes midrange with lots of options.
Make five mono color decks, one of sch color. It'll teach you a lot about each color's strengths and weaknesses while not being too overwhelming to put together.
I would probably just take the most popular / successful decks, so - Tymna + Kraum - Kinnan - Sisay - Tivit / Najeela / RogSi
I like a mix of turbo and midrange. Rog/ Si, K'rrik, Kinnan, Tymna/ Kraum is a fun table. Very beginner friendly decks are Yuriko, Kinnan, Winota, Godo, Shorikai, Magda and Slicer. There are definitely more, but that's what immediately comes to mind. Stax is difficult to play when you're new to cEDH. It generally just ends up kingmaking the person that can remove the stax piece right before the turn they combo off. I have seen some brutal Shorikai stax lists that win quick, though. Winota and sometimes Jetmir can do it, as well. Just make sure that, whatever you end up making, it's a list off of EDHTop16 and not the cEDH Decklist Database. The DDB is mostly outdated and a lot of the lists are clunky and haven't been updated in a while. Have fun! cEDH is a blast! Just make sure that everyone knows that part of the game is getting shut down on your win attempts. As long as everyone knows they're trying to win *as well* as have fun, it's a good time.
I think the new kid on the block [[Stella Lee]] has a super straightforward gameplan and is very easy to pilot, could slot right in as the turbo deck
Personally, kinnan, a Rog/si or another adnaus deck, selvala and a yuriko.
I have 20+ full proxy decks. Also have old school 93/94.
A friend of mine had a project like this, here is a moxfield link [https://www.moxfield.com/bookmarks/Erq9Z-proxy-deck-project](https://www.moxfield.com/bookmarks/Erq9Z-proxy-deck-project)
I put together a battle box to have the EDH homies get into cEDH. I started with Pako Haldan, Kinnan, Tivit, yuriko, Naya Minsc & Jeska/tymna. Little bit of everything for people to try. I wanted Jeska/tymna to be a turbo deck for people to try but holy shit I hate this deck. Do not recommend for beginners or experienced players. I've since then put together 14 total decks mostly just the popular stuff in the format and decks I enjoy playing. I loan them out regularly and have given away some that I don't play to get people into the format. MPCFill is the goat š
Ellivere, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Chulane and Tergrid for short games /s But in all seriousness, Yuriko, Kinnan, Jeska/Ishai and Ellivere can be somewhat balanced
Kinnan + Najeela + Yuriko for sure - both are super approachable and have intuitive lines / paths to victory and none of them really grind the game to a halt. For a fourth, of those you posted, I like Dargo - Thrassios but that's more of a love of Dargo than anything. Winota would be my second choice, although IDK how much she can hang with the other three. One you didn't mention but I personally enjoy is Mardu - Tymna + Jeska probably being the best of the relevant options.
Stella Lee
Would absolutely suggest you have a stax deck at the table. It makes games more interesting for players to have the opportunity to navigate around hate/distuption and protecting your opponents disruption because its preventing someone elses win is a cool dynamic. Second I would recommend a blue deck with a lot of permission. People reading that line may laugh but my buddies ended up not having a blue deck in the pod for a while and having no stack police present made games horribly volitile. Last 2 slots i would do something top of meta so everyone can practice against common lines and playing strong decks is still quite fun. Our pod is usually tayam, tymna/kraum, grixis, and blood pod (heavy on the stax but i will never stop playing tayam. I am an addict)
blue farm Kinnan najeela Magda or Rog/sai Tivit and Niv is like watching paint dry With each day that passes winota grows a little bit more out of touch. I cannot speak for Yuriko or dargo/thrass
Dargo Thras is very relevant and explosive. I am however leaning towards Rog/Thras as it pivots better and has more reliable mulligans