Mortlocke I will agree, that yes I can do a better job describing it. I typically run a lot of my decks I want to build IRL in Tabletop Simulator to see if I like it before I go out and spend around a 100 bucks to get the pieces I don't own. Sadly not many randos will do a rule 0 talk outside of some pretty universal, "no mass land destruction", "no oppressive stax", stuff. But if I go to a table running the 6-8 PL range, and no one is describing their decks, then unless it's a common commander, everyone should be relatively in the dark on everyone. That's why I was confused on why it seemed like my deck was being singled out in a lot of games.

I'll see about trying to initiate more conversation to see if that helps.

So I recently modified a content creator's older deck. An Xavier Sal, Infested Captain Saga deck.

Deck here: Xavier Sal, Infested Captain (Sagas)

It's pretty slow due to requiring specific pips for my drawing/searching, so I rarely have more then my commander, a creature, and maybe a saga by turn 4-5 (and that's if I am lucky).

I don't think most random people know this deck, but do seem to target me when I play stuff. They typically target Gadwick's First Duel, Song of Earendil, est. Mostly my, very limited, resource cards.

Some I understand, yeah Bitterblossom, Eidolon of Blossoms, Quest for Renewal. Big value engine pieces, they probably would be targeted in any deck.

But meanwhile cards like The Phasing of Zhalfir, Death in Heaven, Genesis of the Daleks, Kiora Bests the Sea God, One Ring to Rule Them All, the big bombs haven't even seen the light of day cause I'm normally either so far behind in mana compared to everyone else or am already dead before I could even play them.

Have I misread the room here about this commander and it's an Sen Triplets level of scorn people have for the card where I becoming the archenemy at my 6-7 power tables for just having the commander, do I need to dial back the power (even though I've always gotten last place in every game I've played with it), or am I missing something else entirely?

So I have tended to notice some of my decks, particularly my Jund (non-landfall) decks, seem to always start lacking in lands whenever I play. I have upped the lands from 36, to 38, to 40 now and still a majority of my games I need to go down to 5 or 4 cards to get a starting hand of a minimum of 3 or even 2 lands. Even then I'll also not typically see a land draw until turn 3 or 4.

There are also a healthy number of mana rocks/dorks as well as some ramp, and my curves for these decks tend to put around 40-60% in the 2-4 CMC range (more of a general trend, as this isn't the place for a deck by deck analysis)

So what would be the advice here?

-Run more lands? 42-45, or should I go higher? -Add more ramp options? -Add more mana dorks? Something I'm missing here?