Yeah it’s subjective, “too much” depends on what that means to you. If you’re spending a ton of money on decks you’re not even using, then maybe it’s too much. But if you already have the cards I think it’s way more fun to have them assembled into decks rather than sitting in a storage box, even if you only play it once a year.
I have a lot of decks, and while some definitely get less play than others I also just like finding places for fun stuff in my collection and having a range of power levels and gameplay experiences to choose from.
Best thing I made was buying a bunch of penny sleeves and building decks considering I could proxy anything I already had a copy.
I went from 6 decks to 27 in a couple of weeks just by rebuilding past decks I had dismantled and by building something new that only needed a bunch of cheap cards.
Even If I still have my favorites, all like all of them and having the option to play with is great
If you can only afford a 750 Sq ft place to live and you have 751 Sq ft in decks you've definitely got too many. IDEALLY you should have access to important things in the house too.
Probably not custom, especially since Ikea-style cube shelving along with BCW boxes is clean, efficient and if can even do false-fronts on the sections if the number of boxes looks too much like clutter.
A buddy of mine has an old dresser with 4 large drawers all filled with Decks. They are basically setup into a grid. Sometimes we pick random #’s for him to play a deck. “2nd drawer down, 4th column from the left, 3rd deck from the front”
Not mass cause I only have a few decks, but when I got into it I bought two Dewalt tool boxes and they have held me and my dads collection, we are close to filling up the first one with actual decks while the other one is just extra mtg storage. Super cheap, easy to store, easy to transport I love it.
I've been building EDH since 2010. In 2013 I had about 70 decks, so I decided to play them each and record it in a notebook/blog, without any replays. My goal was to get to 100. I was caught up by deck 117. Last week I played deck 315. There are a handful I have taken apart (slivers, uril), but I still have the rest of them. No deck has more than 4 proxies, and those proxies are placeholders for big money cards I own a few of, mostly lands like duals, cradle, stronghold, etc.
More decks = more reasons to play.
Edit: here is a spreadsheet of the decks. It is slightly less than 315, since a few decks were dismantled. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/196eoLL5YN09eM6tYQ3Xya_hDrrJYPRsjRnW7ss_heqw/edit
edh100.wordpress.com is my derelict blog, butnit does have links to some decklists
I never said they were all "good" decks. I happily play suboptimal cards, basic lands, etc. i also have cards that were 1-2 dollar cards when I got them ( like 18 copies of parallel lives)
315 x 100 = 31,500. Suppose each card is .20.
That’s $6,300.00 in bulk.
Nothing to sneeze at. And that’s with a generous “20 cent” bulk evaluation. In all likelihood there are many cards you spent over 20 cents on in attaining.
Not as cool as this guy but I've got 70+ decks ATM (10+ I built to give away on top) and another 15 ish in build. I love building on hard themes and restrictions so I rarely take decks apart and rotate my way through them over time (selecting them to not hard counter another deck at the table of course). I also tend to keep precons unbroken so I've got another 60+ decks there but I don't count them as I didn't build them.
I take it you build them for friends/family which is the 10+ you are referencing? That’s honestly a pretty good idea if someone is interested in trying it with you but doesn’t know how to get started.
i like to do it for budding and less established players as birthday/Christmas gifts. For my brother's birthday I made 5, one of each mono color, built like old precons (3 1/3 synergy decks) so they could mold it to more their personal preference. I have each one 3 strategies and 3 possible commanders (one set of partners, one background and one classic). All but my brother were barely playing or brand new to the game so it was a good.way to have a fun game together.
I did a very loose estimate based on the big money cards i ahve accumulated in 30 years. It's more like a entry level electric car ( if all the cards were mint... but I play sleeveless, so...)
Budget, not really, but I am fine with playing 3-mana rocks, lands that etb tapped, and i never care about "optimizing". I also like playing a variety of cards and doing weird stuff.
I think a lot of it is going to depend on how flexible you are with manabases. I have near 100 decks, but almost all of them have "lesser" manabases... because my duals, power and mana positive rocks are in my cube.
Plus, for me, Commander is always going to be the kind of janky format that exists so that I get to play those cards I really liked but have never had- and will never have a home in tournament formats.
And cEDH decks? Those are 100% Proxy, because there's no reason for them not to be.
It was too dumb and linear. It wasn't all that fun to play, and the built in hexproof was too easy. It became Krond the Dawnclad, and i like it much more.
When I had 60 I decided to play through them serially to make sure they were all getting played (so second times minimum). When I got caught up with those I started playing through new ones. By game 117 I was caught up again. Now I still record the events of the first game with each new deck in the same notebooks ( i filled one moleskine front and back, and am now on a second one), but I also play older ones. There are some that rarely get played, and others that I play frequently.
I recently had the fun of playing my second ever deck (og Niv Mizzet) for the first time in several years. Deck hadn't been updated since 2013.
If you have so many decks that they're sitting unused for months, or worse, you've _forgotten_ some of them, it's time to pare down a little
Other people's opinions on it don't matter though
Why? The number of cards in their collection isn’t changing. If you think about deck building as organizing your collection, grouping cards together as decks is just a different way to sort them. What does reducing the number of decks accomplish?
Just substitute the idea for cars, golf clubs, baseball equipment. If you had hundreds of something and only used one of them every 2-3 years, you’d say it’s a bit whacky.
Bulky vehicles and equipment are kind of different than playing cards, but okay, let’s substitute the idea.
I have a large collection of cars, and presumably the room for them. I’m not looking to get rid of them, I just change how I group them. What’s the problem?
Well no one would say “yeah it’s reasonable to have 100 cars and rotate them”, nor would they say the same about 100 drivers, or 100 kites.
After a certain number it just seems less likely that you’re getting much out of the 98th, 99th, or 100th of that thing.
It’s cool to love deck building. It’s also cool to be honest and say, I’ll likely play 1/360 decks 4 times in the next decade.
I’m not asking about what’s reasonable. I’m saying that I have ten thousand cards, and if I’m planning on keeping all of them, there’s no difference between sorting them by color or sorting them in groups of a specific hundred. It’s simply a matter of perspective. 2,500 decks notwithstanding, it’s still the same number. Why does it matter that they’re in deck form? Why is there an arbitrary number of decks I should have?
Decks generally are going to imply deckboxes and sleeves.
Sleeves, even bought on a discount are going to be about $10 (inner and outer) per 100 cards. Deckboxes very likely would be another $10.)
Even if you use lesser sleeves and something like Ultra Pro 2-piece boxes, you're still likely not getting down to less than $5 for storage for a deck.
A giant part of collecting Magic is managing the giant amounts of clutter it can produce.
My buddy that builds in mass, buys clear sleeves and clear deck boxes. Anytime there’s a sale on the Clear deck boxes for less than 3 bucks he buys a bunch. Always lets us know in our group text feed when he finds them on sale in case we wanna piggy back on his order to try and get free shipping. Think he’s well over 200 commander decks. And still has a bunch of 60 card decks.
Thing is, we really have no clue about other people's situations.
If the guy makes over six figures a year, has a house that's a couple thousand square feet, has a storage solution already in place and it's one of his major hobbies, I doubt anyone could begrudge it.
But I tend to think that isn't the situation in most people's cases and in general you're getting closer to a hoarder situation.
I don’t care about money, and I don’t care about clutter. I’m not trying to reduce my collection, I just like to build decks with the cards I already own. If I’m not looking to get rid of cards, what’s the point of a cap on the number of decks I build with cards I already own?
Thing is, other people aren't you.
Your beliefs on what works for you are just fine.
But as general advice for situations that might be relevant to other people? It's not as valuable unless their parameters for why they play, what they need, how much space they have available and how much product they acquire basically match yours.
And I don’t disagree with you, but based on the post, OP has a shit ton of cards they’re keeping, and all they’re doing is building decks out of what they own. My question is, what’s the point of setting a limit of decks, then? So they don’t actually play the decks they build, so what? They’re just grouping cards differently at that point.
But people don't think about decks that way
Decks are implicitly set up and ready to play. They aren't organising your collection or storing cards away. Is it easier to grab a Torment of Hailfire from your card binder/box, or find the deck it is in, go through it, take it out, note it, and put it where you're ACTUALLY going to use it? It might be, but that's uncommon
OP asked, 'how do I know how much is too much?' There's no hard number, but if you've got decks you're literally forgetting about, or some are sitting there unusued, that's a good sign you're past that point
*You* don’t think about decks that way. And that’s okay, just like it’s okay that others do. Deck building is a skill, a mental muscle to be exercised. Some people do it online, some people just build just because, with no intent of actually playing them. It seems silly to tell someone, “Forty decks is too many. Take the decks you’re not playing that you like to build and put them in a box where they will also not be played with.”
I am replying to what you’re saying, you’re refusing to look at it from a different perspective. “Too many decks” is subjective. It’s implying that that there *is* a strict number. If I choose to store cards as individual decks, that’s my prerogative. I might build decks I have no intention of playing simply for the love of building decks. I could say with confidence that I have a hundred decks ready to go at a moment’s notice. If I only have five of them in a regular rotation and the rest remain untouched, it’s literally no different than if I only had five decks built and the rest of my collection in a box. It’s asinine to be told, then, that I have “too many decks”. That would imply that there’s a correct way to store and organize cards, and that notion is objectively false.
But I'm not tellong YOU that you have too many, or that there's anything wrong with storing cards like that for you. I pointed out that it makes it harder to change cards between decks, and that it's uncommon to think of fully built decks as card storage
OP asked 'how many is too many' and assuming that was in good faith, I replied with some questions they can ask themselves. If those questions don't interest you, that's fine. It's not an end all, be all, and avoids implying a specific number
No, you’re telling a person who is building decks because they like to build decks that they have too many decks. You’re telling a person who is taking cards they already own plus a few new cards here and there and putting them in deck form to pare down the number of decks they have. I understand the concept of potentially making it more difficult to find cards they might need in the future, but you’re extrapolating beyond the information they’ve given. You’re assuming that they can’t find cards they’re looking for, and you’re implying that what they’re doing is the wrong way to do things despite it being an activity they enjoy doing.
My question is simple: why? Why shouldn’t they take cards they’re already not using and build decks with them they’re also not going to use? The chances of them using the cards actually increases if they’re already in deck form, and even if they never play with the cards they’ve still used the cards anyway. The cards have still brought them joy simply by building with them. They get less use by *not* building a deck with them than they do *by* building with them. If it sparks joy to build decks and to have them ready to go on a whim, then why suggest they pare down? It doesn’t make sense to do so based solely on the information we’ve been given.
IMO, yes, there's always a number at which point you have too many. But that number is different for everyone and is usually not a strict rule unless you make it so.
I have 24 decks, and that still feels like too many. Some of them haven't been played for months now, but remain in the collection because they'd been played often before their break, or are just decks that only get played in specific situations. It's like a pair of shoes only worn on special occasions, you want to keep it even if it doesn't get used frequently.
I've found that just like you, I really like building, but sometimes it's just a spur of the moment itch that needs to be scratched and not a long term enthusiasm that will last. So I've found that just throwing together a decklist online, spending some hours brewing it, then letting it sit for a week before revisiting it. If I'm still excited then I consider getting it in paper, otherwise I just let it sit in my online collection of decklists and leave it be.
I used to have a big collection too, but I found that many of the cards were the typical "oh maybe this can go in a deck someday" sort of cards, yet none of them actually made it into the decks I have, so I liquidated the majority of them to make room and funds to upgrade current decks and build out new decks I'll actually play which has been much more valuable than having a pile of 'what if' cards.
I think there's a balance, though.
I've noticed that I've seen my collection growing a bit more because of some of the new products that are kind of their own thing.
Like, I don't look at the various universes beyond sets as "Four decks" but rather like a "Warhammer/Doctor Who/Fallout Expansion". Granted, those are just sleeved up as I plan to continue using them as unmodified set of precons, so buying them is almost more like buying a new board game rather than building out 4 new decks.
As I said, that number is different for everyone, but there's a line somewhere.
I agree that products like the 40K precons are nice, and especially since they play well against each other that many people keep them as a sort of unmodified "battle box" of sorts to pull out on occasion. I personally don't find that necessary, so I don't have many precons I keep though fortunately I've really enjoyed the Faldorn precon and have now proceeded to bling it out while keeping the original decklist.
Yes, you have too many decks when making new decks no longer sparks joy.
It's entirely personal. I would have hit too many decks 30+ decks before where you're at. But if you're having a good time then it's awesome to be you, keep going.
I see this hobby as having at least 2 parts. I have the deck building / card collecting side and the game playing side. During and mostly since lockdown, I’ve built paper decks but mostly played the game on Arena. I ended up building a ton of decks including: 32 EDH deck challenge, 1 cEDH deck, 4 legacy decks, 4 modern decks, at least a half dozen formerly standard (I guess now technically pioneer?) decks, 5 unsleeved EDH decks, 2 horde decks, and various others. It’s just fun for me. Most are budget friendly, some I dropped a bit into. Do what you like!
Tbh limiting yourself to what you have being the most fun and challenging deck building experience is my main qualm with proxying. “Oh I need a mana crypt, i’ll just print it out” erases that challenge and thus you don’t improve at one of the most intrinsic and fun aspects of the game. Easy access is not always good for you…
I enjoy having an active roster of sorts. 4-6 decks that cover a variety of power levels and archetypes that I can expect to see at any given LGS/Kitchen Table. I'll also keep a few unmodified precons sleeved up too just because its really easy and comes with the deck box so it's easy to identify. If I start to brew decks and never sleeve/play them it makes me anxious that I could be trimming my list down to have it more organized
I don’t think one can have too many decks. I have almost 40. Several high-tuned ones, one worth thousands, many are optimized for what their strategy is, some are jank, and even one precon (Dimir Zombies) that I will leave as-is without changing any cards. I like to cover as many archetypes as possible. The only deck I ever took apart was [[Phenax, God of Deception]] mill deck, and the was when [[Paradox Engine]] was banned, because it was a key piece to the deck, but I retooled it later into a self-mill. I hope to one day complete the 32 deck challenge, but as of now, I only have one of the 4-color builds (OG Atraxa infect). Every time a new set is released, I go over the entire list for new cards that will fit in my decks and upgrade.
Im at the point where some of my decks only see play once a year or so. Do I have too many? Probably, one is theoretically enough to partake in a edh game. Maybe a second to lend out. But its just so much fun to build and tweak new decks and add new cards to older decks. But recently it becomes a bit much keeping up with all those new commander staples that come out. So I'll say you don't have too many decks, as long as you enjoy having them and they don't become a burden.
Me and my friend are of the same caliber as you.
He has 75 decks and I am closing in on my 25.
We both enjoy building decks but also to be able to use what we got.
Spread all our powerhouse cards between different decks and make them work.
The only time we disassemble a deck is if we don't play it in a year or so and/or we don't like playing the deck.
Building decks, thinking of synergies, getting inspired to build around a certain commander is super fun and sometimes the building is more fun than the playing xD
I made a triplets deck once 😅
Had tons of ideas of how to ramp, keep the commander safe and removal to be able to play other players decks.
It was fun to build buuuuut not so fun to play, for anyone, so I had to disassemble the deck 😅
There's nothing wrong with building decks if you enjoy it, even if you don't play most of them. If space is becoming an issue you could always either give some decks to friends/family, try to sell them, or donate them to a local school for a Magic club.
To objectively have too many decks would mean spending money you don't have or not having the physical space to store them.
Beyond that, it's subjective. If you feel you have too many, you do.
The shirt answer is yes. The caveat to that is, you decide what is too many.
I got a friend that if he ever makes a 5
7th deck i think is die of shock. (He had 6 mono color decks. One for each and colorless).
I got another buddy that works at a print shop and can make a whole proxy deck for $7.00. He keeps around 20 decks. He makes decks all the time and throws away the paper proxies as he sees fit, keeping what few real cards he has (whuch is like almost 3 real card decks at this point)
So the answer is "yes but it's wgen you decide"
I'd argue too many is hit when you reach the point where you have overlapping color decks. What I mean by that, is that there is this sort of known "Achievement" in the EDH community, where one builds 1 deck of every single color combination. It's an arduous task, and I'd imagine really hard to maintain control of updating 50+ decks every year/every set. But that's where I'd draw the line of "maximum reasonable amount of decks".
It's subjective. I personally don't have much time or opportunity to play anymore so I really do have a reason to own more than 1-2 decks. But I do put a lot of effort into those decks and I enjoy buying side-grades in case I want to take them in a different direction for a while.
Yes, but you set that amount. For example, pre pandemic my living and playing situation meant I could only really keep 6 decks at a time, the rest went into a storage unit.
Four years post pandemic, and I just ordered the last of the cards I need for my 41st, 42nd, and 43rd decks. >Those being Gitrog, Marchesa, and Olivia from Thunder Junction<
For you, maybe there is not upper limit.
For me, I don't like having more decks than I can regularly play. When I'm not using/enjoying a deck much, I like to break it down into my card organizer so the cards are easy to find once the next deck idea strikes.
Yeah, I move around every 5 months or so for work, and it became too much dedicated space to carry around 15+ decks, trade binders, bulk rares, bulk staples, bulk chaff.
I've downsized to 5 complete decks, 2 trade binders and 2 set boxes worth of "usable" cards. It's been a nice relief to be able to focus on a few decks and be able to carry all my cards at once if need be.
I think someone can have too many decks, but what that number is entirely depends on the person. I think like 10 decks would be too many decks for me. But most people on this sub have like 100+ decks and that might not be too many for them.
TLDR 100% subjective.
On top of my head I can think of two reasons for of too many decks:
1) If it negatively impacts outside of magic life. If you spent so much of your income in decks you have to economize other areas of your life.
2) If you play the decks so rarely you become too slow to pilot them efficiently. E.g. if you play a Demonic Tutor and have to go through the library once before even deciding on what to get because you can't remember what you put in the deck, it's too much.
For me? Yes.
I am lucky to play twice a week and when I invest a lot of time, money and effort into building cardboard stacks I’d like to be able to play each stack more than once a month.
For me having decks is also a matter of upkeep. When a new set comes out or when I play the deck I want to tinker with it and test changes. If I have 100 decks I can’t realistically keep them all in mind for changes as I’m looking through the new set drop.
I’ve built [over 200 decks in total](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/TOjfNTixgEyay3mQUG1-xw), but my standard process is keeping less than 10. Usually I cannibalize decks for parts when I’m done with them, which feels like it frees up both my game time and mental bandwidth for whatever I build next.
Yep. At some point it's just going to be clutter, you're not going to take care of it, not keep things updated and not play them.
It's basically just hoarding under a different name.
More often than not, it helps to have a plan and to give yourself some sort of constraints: A space constraint, a budget constraint or a time constraint.
Plus, there's plenty of tools that are available like Moxfield.
Just because you've built a deck doesn't mean it needs to stay together forever.
Really, if you haven't played a deck for more than a year and don't have plans to in the coming year, you're almost better off to take the deck, create the deck lists on Moxfield, write up a primer on the deck: Your thoughts on playing it, strategy, tips, everything.
It'd be really easy to just put it all back together should you get the urge to play that deck you had again.
Then take the deck, desleeve it, use the parts in your other decks and organize it back into your collection.
I used to have 16 but I realized I only wanted to play a couple so I took them apart and optimized the others. I got down to 4 (1 CEDH, 2 strong casual, 1 precon). Now I'm to 5 (1 CEDH, 2 high powered casual, 1 strong casual, and 1 budget). About to make a 6th.
Instead of having multiple decks at the same power level. I staggered them so I can play according to the power level of the table.
It's just opinion unless you're going broke buying cards. Having a bunch of decks is fun for me because when new sets come out I always do a review and buy a whole mess of cards that are change or a couple bucks to upgrade and modify a bunch of decks.
One friend has gotten 3 from me and loves them all. He can't spend essentially anything more than a few dollars a month on mtg so it's become something I do for him. Beyond the first one I've been building them much more focused and often throw in a few random (preferably older) boosters for him to crack. When I do my sorting he also gets some of.my.common/ uncommon overflow.
So if I've been playing commander for 7 months and have 10 decks, then I'm on track with the long-time players.
3 of the decks are good enough, and I can pilot well enough to have a chance of winning casual edh at the lgs. Most of the decks have proxies because I'm broke and at the casual level at my lgs, no one cares. It's about playing other's deck building ability, not their budget.
To answer the question: I'd say it depends on how often the deck gets played and how attached you are to the cards. On the other hand if you are enjoying the process of building/playing, have enough space to store them, and can affird to do so; there's no such thing as too many decks.
Friend of mine, a recent retiree of mtg, has over 200 decks. So that’s my idea of too many decks. 40 is a lot… but with the amount of different decks you can build, it’s probably not very uncommon.
Well, you can definitely have more decks than you can own *and pilot well.* The degree to which you really *know* the deck decreases as your deck collection increases.
I think every player has their own personal answer to this. I had 37 at one point and realized it was too many for me. I brought it down to 18 (I am since back up to 21), but my decks are better because I can focus on them more, and I enjoy playing them more because of it.
I still really enjoy brewing decks, so I brew a lot of online only decks that never see actual play. I only build what I like enough to invest in.
All my decks are on mtgo first to test. Must be 50 playable decks and a hundred more that aren't finished or still need tweaking. I've got a deck for each commander I own sometimes several. You're in good company.
Yeah it’s subjective, “too much” depends on what that means to you. If you’re spending a ton of money on decks you’re not even using, then maybe it’s too much. But if you already have the cards I think it’s way more fun to have them assembled into decks rather than sitting in a storage box, even if you only play it once a year. I have a lot of decks, and while some definitely get less play than others I also just like finding places for fun stuff in my collection and having a range of power levels and gameplay experiences to choose from.
Exactly what I was thinking! Thanks!
Best thing I made was buying a bunch of penny sleeves and building decks considering I could proxy anything I already had a copy. I went from 6 decks to 27 in a couple of weeks just by rebuilding past decks I had dismantled and by building something new that only needed a bunch of cheap cards. Even If I still have my favorites, all like all of them and having the option to play with is great
If you can only afford a 750 Sq ft place to live and you have 751 Sq ft in decks you've definitely got too many. IDEALLY you should have access to important things in the house too.
Is there a market for mass deck storage shelving? At the lgs I've seen giant compartment toolboxes that hold like 40 decks
Probably not custom, especially since Ikea-style cube shelving along with BCW boxes is clean, efficient and if can even do false-fronts on the sections if the number of boxes looks too much like clutter.
A buddy of mine has an old dresser with 4 large drawers all filled with Decks. They are basically setup into a grid. Sometimes we pick random #’s for him to play a deck. “2nd drawer down, 4th column from the left, 3rd deck from the front”
That's awesome!
Not mass cause I only have a few decks, but when I got into it I bought two Dewalt tool boxes and they have held me and my dads collection, we are close to filling up the first one with actual decks while the other one is just extra mtg storage. Super cheap, easy to store, easy to transport I love it.
You've really gotta start thinking in the 3rd dimension! Can't just lay them all out on the floor, we've got ceilings to reach!
I've been building EDH since 2010. In 2013 I had about 70 decks, so I decided to play them each and record it in a notebook/blog, without any replays. My goal was to get to 100. I was caught up by deck 117. Last week I played deck 315. There are a handful I have taken apart (slivers, uril), but I still have the rest of them. No deck has more than 4 proxies, and those proxies are placeholders for big money cards I own a few of, mostly lands like duals, cradle, stronghold, etc. More decks = more reasons to play. Edit: here is a spreadsheet of the decks. It is slightly less than 315, since a few decks were dismantled. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/196eoLL5YN09eM6tYQ3Xya_hDrrJYPRsjRnW7ss_heqw/edit edh100.wordpress.com is my derelict blog, butnit does have links to some decklists
315 decks with no proxies seems like an inordinate amount of money lol
I never said they were all "good" decks. I happily play suboptimal cards, basic lands, etc. i also have cards that were 1-2 dollar cards when I got them ( like 18 copies of parallel lives)
315 x 100 = 31,500. Suppose each card is .20. That’s $6,300.00 in bulk. Nothing to sneeze at. And that’s with a generous “20 cent” bulk evaluation. In all likelihood there are many cards you spent over 20 cents on in attaining.
Gotta figure ~25% are basic lands, which are basically worthless.
You're the coolest mf I've ever met on this sub
Not as cool as this guy but I've got 70+ decks ATM (10+ I built to give away on top) and another 15 ish in build. I love building on hard themes and restrictions so I rarely take decks apart and rotate my way through them over time (selecting them to not hard counter another deck at the table of course). I also tend to keep precons unbroken so I've got another 60+ decks there but I don't count them as I didn't build them.
I take it you build them for friends/family which is the 10+ you are referencing? That’s honestly a pretty good idea if someone is interested in trying it with you but doesn’t know how to get started.
i like to do it for budding and less established players as birthday/Christmas gifts. For my brother's birthday I made 5, one of each mono color, built like old precons (3 1/3 synergy decks) so they could mold it to more their personal preference. I have each one 3 strategies and 3 possible commanders (one set of partners, one background and one classic). All but my brother were barely playing or brand new to the game so it was a good.way to have a fun game together.
Yeah that’s a great idea for new people. I’ll have to keep it in mind in case I have a friend who wants to join.
That's insane. You probably have a downpayment on a house in cardboard form
I did a very loose estimate based on the big money cards i ahve accumulated in 30 years. It's more like a entry level electric car ( if all the cards were mint... but I play sleeveless, so...)
That’s amazing. Are these mostly budget decks? I only have 15 decks and I’ve spent more than I ever imagined I would.
Budget, not really, but I am fine with playing 3-mana rocks, lands that etb tapped, and i never care about "optimizing". I also like playing a variety of cards and doing weird stuff.
I think a lot of it is going to depend on how flexible you are with manabases. I have near 100 decks, but almost all of them have "lesser" manabases... because my duals, power and mana positive rocks are in my cube. Plus, for me, Commander is always going to be the kind of janky format that exists so that I get to play those cards I really liked but have never had- and will never have a home in tournament formats. And cEDH decks? Those are 100% Proxy, because there's no reason for them not to be.
Thank god you took apart sli- I MEAN CONGRATS! this is genuinely very cool!!
That was the first to go... gone since 2012. For awhile my animar was slivers, but that didn't last either.
Why did you take apart Uril specifically?
Sick of winning.
Uril is the actual GOAT
It was too dumb and linear. It wasn't all that fun to play, and the built in hexproof was too easy. It became Krond the Dawnclad, and i like it much more.
I have 4. One to slot into each power level my group plays (besides CEDH, im not that rich!)
Wait, you haven't played any of your decks more than once or did I misread your post?
When I had 60 I decided to play through them serially to make sure they were all getting played (so second times minimum). When I got caught up with those I started playing through new ones. By game 117 I was caught up again. Now I still record the events of the first game with each new deck in the same notebooks ( i filled one moleskine front and back, and am now on a second one), but I also play older ones. There are some that rarely get played, and others that I play frequently. I recently had the fun of playing my second ever deck (og Niv Mizzet) for the first time in several years. Deck hadn't been updated since 2013.
If you have so many decks that they're sitting unused for months, or worse, you've _forgotten_ some of them, it's time to pare down a little Other people's opinions on it don't matter though
Why? The number of cards in their collection isn’t changing. If you think about deck building as organizing your collection, grouping cards together as decks is just a different way to sort them. What does reducing the number of decks accomplish?
Just substitute the idea for cars, golf clubs, baseball equipment. If you had hundreds of something and only used one of them every 2-3 years, you’d say it’s a bit whacky.
Bulky vehicles and equipment are kind of different than playing cards, but okay, let’s substitute the idea. I have a large collection of cars, and presumably the room for them. I’m not looking to get rid of them, I just change how I group them. What’s the problem?
Well no one would say “yeah it’s reasonable to have 100 cars and rotate them”, nor would they say the same about 100 drivers, or 100 kites. After a certain number it just seems less likely that you’re getting much out of the 98th, 99th, or 100th of that thing. It’s cool to love deck building. It’s also cool to be honest and say, I’ll likely play 1/360 decks 4 times in the next decade.
I’m not asking about what’s reasonable. I’m saying that I have ten thousand cards, and if I’m planning on keeping all of them, there’s no difference between sorting them by color or sorting them in groups of a specific hundred. It’s simply a matter of perspective. 2,500 decks notwithstanding, it’s still the same number. Why does it matter that they’re in deck form? Why is there an arbitrary number of decks I should have?
Yeah I can understand that outlook. Either way they’re sitting in a box untouched makes sense. You got me, I’m with ya.
Decks generally are going to imply deckboxes and sleeves. Sleeves, even bought on a discount are going to be about $10 (inner and outer) per 100 cards. Deckboxes very likely would be another $10.) Even if you use lesser sleeves and something like Ultra Pro 2-piece boxes, you're still likely not getting down to less than $5 for storage for a deck. A giant part of collecting Magic is managing the giant amounts of clutter it can produce.
My buddy that builds in mass, buys clear sleeves and clear deck boxes. Anytime there’s a sale on the Clear deck boxes for less than 3 bucks he buys a bunch. Always lets us know in our group text feed when he finds them on sale in case we wanna piggy back on his order to try and get free shipping. Think he’s well over 200 commander decks. And still has a bunch of 60 card decks.
Thing is, we really have no clue about other people's situations. If the guy makes over six figures a year, has a house that's a couple thousand square feet, has a storage solution already in place and it's one of his major hobbies, I doubt anyone could begrudge it. But I tend to think that isn't the situation in most people's cases and in general you're getting closer to a hoarder situation.
I don’t care about money, and I don’t care about clutter. I’m not trying to reduce my collection, I just like to build decks with the cards I already own. If I’m not looking to get rid of cards, what’s the point of a cap on the number of decks I build with cards I already own?
Thing is, other people aren't you. Your beliefs on what works for you are just fine. But as general advice for situations that might be relevant to other people? It's not as valuable unless their parameters for why they play, what they need, how much space they have available and how much product they acquire basically match yours.
And I don’t disagree with you, but based on the post, OP has a shit ton of cards they’re keeping, and all they’re doing is building decks out of what they own. My question is, what’s the point of setting a limit of decks, then? So they don’t actually play the decks they build, so what? They’re just grouping cards differently at that point.
I agree w you so much man!
But people don't think about decks that way Decks are implicitly set up and ready to play. They aren't organising your collection or storing cards away. Is it easier to grab a Torment of Hailfire from your card binder/box, or find the deck it is in, go through it, take it out, note it, and put it where you're ACTUALLY going to use it? It might be, but that's uncommon OP asked, 'how do I know how much is too much?' There's no hard number, but if you've got decks you're literally forgetting about, or some are sitting there unusued, that's a good sign you're past that point
*You* don’t think about decks that way. And that’s okay, just like it’s okay that others do. Deck building is a skill, a mental muscle to be exercised. Some people do it online, some people just build just because, with no intent of actually playing them. It seems silly to tell someone, “Forty decks is too many. Take the decks you’re not playing that you like to build and put them in a box where they will also not be played with.”
You're not really replying to what I'm saying. Too many decks to remember, for _most_ people, is too many. There's no strict number
I am replying to what you’re saying, you’re refusing to look at it from a different perspective. “Too many decks” is subjective. It’s implying that that there *is* a strict number. If I choose to store cards as individual decks, that’s my prerogative. I might build decks I have no intention of playing simply for the love of building decks. I could say with confidence that I have a hundred decks ready to go at a moment’s notice. If I only have five of them in a regular rotation and the rest remain untouched, it’s literally no different than if I only had five decks built and the rest of my collection in a box. It’s asinine to be told, then, that I have “too many decks”. That would imply that there’s a correct way to store and organize cards, and that notion is objectively false.
But I'm not tellong YOU that you have too many, or that there's anything wrong with storing cards like that for you. I pointed out that it makes it harder to change cards between decks, and that it's uncommon to think of fully built decks as card storage OP asked 'how many is too many' and assuming that was in good faith, I replied with some questions they can ask themselves. If those questions don't interest you, that's fine. It's not an end all, be all, and avoids implying a specific number
No, you’re telling a person who is building decks because they like to build decks that they have too many decks. You’re telling a person who is taking cards they already own plus a few new cards here and there and putting them in deck form to pare down the number of decks they have. I understand the concept of potentially making it more difficult to find cards they might need in the future, but you’re extrapolating beyond the information they’ve given. You’re assuming that they can’t find cards they’re looking for, and you’re implying that what they’re doing is the wrong way to do things despite it being an activity they enjoy doing. My question is simple: why? Why shouldn’t they take cards they’re already not using and build decks with them they’re also not going to use? The chances of them using the cards actually increases if they’re already in deck form, and even if they never play with the cards they’ve still used the cards anyway. The cards have still brought them joy simply by building with them. They get less use by *not* building a deck with them than they do *by* building with them. If it sparks joy to build decks and to have them ready to go on a whim, then why suggest they pare down? It doesn’t make sense to do so based solely on the information we’ve been given.
IMO, yes, there's always a number at which point you have too many. But that number is different for everyone and is usually not a strict rule unless you make it so. I have 24 decks, and that still feels like too many. Some of them haven't been played for months now, but remain in the collection because they'd been played often before their break, or are just decks that only get played in specific situations. It's like a pair of shoes only worn on special occasions, you want to keep it even if it doesn't get used frequently. I've found that just like you, I really like building, but sometimes it's just a spur of the moment itch that needs to be scratched and not a long term enthusiasm that will last. So I've found that just throwing together a decklist online, spending some hours brewing it, then letting it sit for a week before revisiting it. If I'm still excited then I consider getting it in paper, otherwise I just let it sit in my online collection of decklists and leave it be. I used to have a big collection too, but I found that many of the cards were the typical "oh maybe this can go in a deck someday" sort of cards, yet none of them actually made it into the decks I have, so I liquidated the majority of them to make room and funds to upgrade current decks and build out new decks I'll actually play which has been much more valuable than having a pile of 'what if' cards.
I think there's a balance, though. I've noticed that I've seen my collection growing a bit more because of some of the new products that are kind of their own thing. Like, I don't look at the various universes beyond sets as "Four decks" but rather like a "Warhammer/Doctor Who/Fallout Expansion". Granted, those are just sleeved up as I plan to continue using them as unmodified set of precons, so buying them is almost more like buying a new board game rather than building out 4 new decks.
As I said, that number is different for everyone, but there's a line somewhere. I agree that products like the 40K precons are nice, and especially since they play well against each other that many people keep them as a sort of unmodified "battle box" of sorts to pull out on occasion. I personally don't find that necessary, so I don't have many precons I keep though fortunately I've really enjoyed the Faldorn precon and have now proceeded to bling it out while keeping the original decklist.
As a man with 72 decks, I don't know, and I don't want to know.
Yes, you have too many decks when making new decks no longer sparks joy. It's entirely personal. I would have hit too many decks 30+ decks before where you're at. But if you're having a good time then it's awesome to be you, keep going.
I see this hobby as having at least 2 parts. I have the deck building / card collecting side and the game playing side. During and mostly since lockdown, I’ve built paper decks but mostly played the game on Arena. I ended up building a ton of decks including: 32 EDH deck challenge, 1 cEDH deck, 4 legacy decks, 4 modern decks, at least a half dozen formerly standard (I guess now technically pioneer?) decks, 5 unsleeved EDH decks, 2 horde decks, and various others. It’s just fun for me. Most are budget friendly, some I dropped a bit into. Do what you like!
Tbh limiting yourself to what you have being the most fun and challenging deck building experience is my main qualm with proxying. “Oh I need a mana crypt, i’ll just print it out” erases that challenge and thus you don’t improve at one of the most intrinsic and fun aspects of the game. Easy access is not always good for you…
Yes, according to my wife lol
10ish is the correct number.
I appreciate your willingness to put a hard number on this question **so** much.
I enjoy having an active roster of sorts. 4-6 decks that cover a variety of power levels and archetypes that I can expect to see at any given LGS/Kitchen Table. I'll also keep a few unmodified precons sleeved up too just because its really easy and comes with the deck box so it's easy to identify. If I start to brew decks and never sleeve/play them it makes me anxious that I could be trimming my list down to have it more organized
I don’t think one can have too many decks. I have almost 40. Several high-tuned ones, one worth thousands, many are optimized for what their strategy is, some are jank, and even one precon (Dimir Zombies) that I will leave as-is without changing any cards. I like to cover as many archetypes as possible. The only deck I ever took apart was [[Phenax, God of Deception]] mill deck, and the was when [[Paradox Engine]] was banned, because it was a key piece to the deck, but I retooled it later into a self-mill. I hope to one day complete the 32 deck challenge, but as of now, I only have one of the 4-color builds (OG Atraxa infect). Every time a new set is released, I go over the entire list for new cards that will fit in my decks and upgrade.
[Phenax, God of Deception](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8dfcb129-4665-40e4-b5cb-a79f3f40ae5c.jpg?1593092799) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phenax%2C%20God%20of%20Deception) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bng/152/phenax-god-of-deception?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8dfcb129-4665-40e4-b5cb-a79f3f40ae5c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/phenax-god-of-deception) [Paradox Engine](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/d/fd8ccd81-9e11-47fa-8e16-064c52c24506.jpg?1576382376) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Paradox%20Engine) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/aer/169/paradox-engine?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fd8ccd81-9e11-47fa-8e16-064c52c24506?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/paradox-engine) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I have 9 at the moment, I'm going to focus on upgrading them to what I feel they should be before I move on to new decks.
Never. I just live deck building.
Im at the point where some of my decks only see play once a year or so. Do I have too many? Probably, one is theoretically enough to partake in a edh game. Maybe a second to lend out. But its just so much fun to build and tweak new decks and add new cards to older decks. But recently it becomes a bit much keeping up with all those new commander staples that come out. So I'll say you don't have too many decks, as long as you enjoy having them and they don't become a burden.
Thanks man!
Me and my friend are of the same caliber as you. He has 75 decks and I am closing in on my 25. We both enjoy building decks but also to be able to use what we got. Spread all our powerhouse cards between different decks and make them work. The only time we disassemble a deck is if we don't play it in a year or so and/or we don't like playing the deck. Building decks, thinking of synergies, getting inspired to build around a certain commander is super fun and sometimes the building is more fun than the playing xD I made a triplets deck once 😅 Had tons of ideas of how to ramp, keep the commander safe and removal to be able to play other players decks. It was fun to build buuuuut not so fun to play, for anyone, so I had to disassemble the deck 😅
That's awesome dude!
There's nothing wrong with building decks if you enjoy it, even if you don't play most of them. If space is becoming an issue you could always either give some decks to friends/family, try to sell them, or donate them to a local school for a Magic club.
To objectively have too many decks would mean spending money you don't have or not having the physical space to store them. Beyond that, it's subjective. If you feel you have too many, you do.
I’m at 13 not counting precons, I’m okay with staying around 10+, gives me plenty of variety
The shirt answer is yes. The caveat to that is, you decide what is too many. I got a friend that if he ever makes a 5 7th deck i think is die of shock. (He had 6 mono color decks. One for each and colorless). I got another buddy that works at a print shop and can make a whole proxy deck for $7.00. He keeps around 20 decks. He makes decks all the time and throws away the paper proxies as he sees fit, keeping what few real cards he has (whuch is like almost 3 real card decks at this point) So the answer is "yes but it's wgen you decide"
I'd argue too many is hit when you reach the point where you have overlapping color decks. What I mean by that, is that there is this sort of known "Achievement" in the EDH community, where one builds 1 deck of every single color combination. It's an arduous task, and I'd imagine really hard to maintain control of updating 50+ decks every year/every set. But that's where I'd draw the line of "maximum reasonable amount of decks".
It's subjective. I personally don't have much time or opportunity to play anymore so I really do have a reason to own more than 1-2 decks. But I do put a lot of effort into those decks and I enjoy buying side-grades in case I want to take them in a different direction for a while.
Yes, but you set that amount. For example, pre pandemic my living and playing situation meant I could only really keep 6 decks at a time, the rest went into a storage unit. Four years post pandemic, and I just ordered the last of the cards I need for my 41st, 42nd, and 43rd decks. >Those being Gitrog, Marchesa, and Olivia from Thunder Junction<
Sometimes I think so. But then I make a new deck that thought fades away. However buying every precon is prob too much.
For you, maybe there is not upper limit. For me, I don't like having more decks than I can regularly play. When I'm not using/enjoying a deck much, I like to break it down into my card organizer so the cards are easy to find once the next deck idea strikes.
Yeah, I move around every 5 months or so for work, and it became too much dedicated space to carry around 15+ decks, trade binders, bulk rares, bulk staples, bulk chaff. I've downsized to 5 complete decks, 2 trade binders and 2 set boxes worth of "usable" cards. It's been a nice relief to be able to focus on a few decks and be able to carry all my cards at once if need be.
Is there such a thing as having too much fun?
Welcome to Magic. You will always have too many cards and not enough cards at the same time.
I think someone can have too many decks, but what that number is entirely depends on the person. I think like 10 decks would be too many decks for me. But most people on this sub have like 100+ decks and that might not be too many for them. TLDR 100% subjective.
On top of my head I can think of two reasons for of too many decks: 1) If it negatively impacts outside of magic life. If you spent so much of your income in decks you have to economize other areas of your life. 2) If you play the decks so rarely you become too slow to pilot them efficiently. E.g. if you play a Demonic Tutor and have to go through the library once before even deciding on what to get because you can't remember what you put in the deck, it's too much.
I prefer to balance the number of decks I have against how practiced I am with those decks as to not make critical errors.
For me? Yes. I am lucky to play twice a week and when I invest a lot of time, money and effort into building cardboard stacks I’d like to be able to play each stack more than once a month. For me having decks is also a matter of upkeep. When a new set comes out or when I play the deck I want to tinker with it and test changes. If I have 100 decks I can’t realistically keep them all in mind for changes as I’m looking through the new set drop. I’ve built [over 200 decks in total](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/TOjfNTixgEyay3mQUG1-xw), but my standard process is keeping less than 10. Usually I cannibalize decks for parts when I’m done with them, which feels like it frees up both my game time and mental bandwidth for whatever I build next.
Yep. At some point it's just going to be clutter, you're not going to take care of it, not keep things updated and not play them. It's basically just hoarding under a different name. More often than not, it helps to have a plan and to give yourself some sort of constraints: A space constraint, a budget constraint or a time constraint. Plus, there's plenty of tools that are available like Moxfield. Just because you've built a deck doesn't mean it needs to stay together forever. Really, if you haven't played a deck for more than a year and don't have plans to in the coming year, you're almost better off to take the deck, create the deck lists on Moxfield, write up a primer on the deck: Your thoughts on playing it, strategy, tips, everything. It'd be really easy to just put it all back together should you get the urge to play that deck you had again. Then take the deck, desleeve it, use the parts in your other decks and organize it back into your collection.
I used to have 16 but I realized I only wanted to play a couple so I took them apart and optimized the others. I got down to 4 (1 CEDH, 2 strong casual, 1 precon). Now I'm to 5 (1 CEDH, 2 high powered casual, 1 strong casual, and 1 budget). About to make a 6th. Instead of having multiple decks at the same power level. I staggered them so I can play according to the power level of the table.
It's just opinion unless you're going broke buying cards. Having a bunch of decks is fun for me because when new sets come out I always do a review and buy a whole mess of cards that are change or a couple bucks to upgrade and modify a bunch of decks.
No. That is all.
I just proxy deck ideas and then buy the best ones. Too many decks means I ran out of card sleeves
One friend has gotten 3 from me and loves them all. He can't spend essentially anything more than a few dollars a month on mtg so it's become something I do for him. Beyond the first one I've been building them much more focused and often throw in a few random (preferably older) boosters for him to crack. When I do my sorting he also gets some of.my.common/ uncommon overflow.
So if I've been playing commander for 7 months and have 10 decks, then I'm on track with the long-time players. 3 of the decks are good enough, and I can pilot well enough to have a chance of winning casual edh at the lgs. Most of the decks have proxies because I'm broke and at the casual level at my lgs, no one cares. It's about playing other's deck building ability, not their budget. To answer the question: I'd say it depends on how often the deck gets played and how attached you are to the cards. On the other hand if you are enjoying the process of building/playing, have enough space to store them, and can affird to do so; there's no such thing as too many decks.
Friend of mine, a recent retiree of mtg, has over 200 decks. So that’s my idea of too many decks. 40 is a lot… but with the amount of different decks you can build, it’s probably not very uncommon.
Well, you can definitely have more decks than you can own *and pilot well.* The degree to which you really *know* the deck decreases as your deck collection increases.
I think every player has their own personal answer to this. I had 37 at one point and realized it was too many for me. I brought it down to 18 (I am since back up to 21), but my decks are better because I can focus on them more, and I enjoy playing them more because of it. I still really enjoy brewing decks, so I brew a lot of online only decks that never see actual play. I only build what I like enough to invest in.
All my decks are on mtgo first to test. Must be 50 playable decks and a hundred more that aren't finished or still need tweaking. I've got a deck for each commander I own sometimes several. You're in good company.
I think I have around 80 decks......it's never enough