SynergyBuild couldn't have worded that any better, 100% accurate. And also to answer your question from earlier, I do not and have not ever played EDH online. I wish I could get into it, but it's another expense I don't want to pay and I'd much rather have cards on paper. I don't know, just a preference thing.

SynergyBuild that is along the lines of what I was thinking and have seen: immediate threat assessment and ways to deal with that. Thank you for clarifying

Politics in competitive play is more about bluffing than anything else. Everything that is on the table is (hopefully) judged correctly by everyone and the only aspect of the game that you can haggle about is unknown information.

Winterblast, yeah but most games only have around 500 or so possible answers or options that players can bluff, and dependent on the deck, mana available, and the cards that are most useful in a situation, for each player I can estimate only around 80 or so possible cards in their hand, given they have around 4 cards, which I have found is average. I can break that down further to normally only 20 or so cards dependent on what they have previously played, and down to 5 options when accounting for players whose decks I know. Many times, given if they have less cards in hand, the way they have played around other cards, and the tells they have been showing such as looking down at their lands, at specific creatures, reading other cards, or staring at a specific card in their hand, I can estimate down to one or two possible cards in each players hands for interaction.

It takes time to memorize this, make sure I am not showing tells, and also studying my opponents, but normally it isn't too difficult, so even unknown information becomes one of two possible pieces, rarely ever is any information completely unknown, even turn one when you know how players mulligan, and if they scryed to top/bottom, or if they kept the original seven immediately, or had to think about it a lot. While a well-timed Thoughtseize in some lists can easily help to make it perfect information, that isn't necessarily needed if you use the information you do know and apply it.

Would anyone happen to know a ranking of the generals within the Competitive tier? I'm a GAA4 player, and I'd like to have a general idea of where he falls within the competitive meta. My initial assumption was that he's closer to the top of the tier, but a general consensus would be nice!

GAA4 is sweet as a stax deck, however I find it a pretty middle-of-the-pack deck.

Gotcha! Do you have an idea of what outcompetes him? I have Animar, Prossh, Jeleva and Yidris ranked higher but I'm not sure about the rest.

Well, Brago and Derevi are close equivalents, I would say both are a little better in my meta, however GAA4 is better against food chain lists, which I see little of, so it depends. Tana/Tymna Blood Pod, Edric Turns, and Season's Past Tasigur are probably some of the other better lists.

glad Yidris was taken out of tier 1. Not that the deck is not insanely powerful. I just think it lacks consistency. Whereas the other decks in tier 1 are practically predetermined.

Reaper King, Ruric Thar, Tishana moved to High.

Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire, Progenitus moved to Mid.

Hi, why don't i see Grixis Twin in the list? Under Kess perhaps..

@Radha vs Ruric discussions

Ruric IS the stax piece in your Command Zone. It basically shuts of storm decks once it is out and punished people trying to get rid of it.

It loses to Hulk, yes, but realize once Hulk leaves or an answer is found, Ruric just sits in the corner waiting of yummy storm decks to bully.

Radha adds mana. That doesnt affec

Question - the definition of competitive above is turn 3 dominance, and Yisan is considered a competitive deck. How can Yisan be competitive if its a turn 5 deck with little board control?

Question - the definition of competitive above is turn 3 dominance, and Yisan is considered a competitive deck. How can Yisan be competitive if its really a turn 5 deck with little board control?

Limejuice the yisan deck is primarily a stax deck in which you toolbox creatures to completely shut down your opponent's board. and with the amount of ramp in green, you could realistically have a decent engine on turn 3 with Yisan

Neat that this got remade. Is there any plans to make categories or a graph classifying the commanders? In the sense that Mono-B Sidisi or Mono-G selvala tend to be fairly all-in on their combo, while Teferi runs a fair amount of disruption.

In addition, it seems like there's a bit of inconsistency at the lower power levels. For example, Borbogymos and Emmara Tandris are in Mid Power and while Mono-W Gisela is Casual. Where is the line drawn for 'mechanical reason to play them?' As bad commander damage is in EDH, I'm inclined to believe the clock Gisela provides is more relevant than those expensive creatures that don't do much. Or Gonti vs. Belzenlok. Both of these are a mono-B commander that gives a body and something to play later. Why is one in casual but not the other?

Colors is why Borb and Emmara are better than Gisela.

Gonti is sweet when flickered, and Belzenlok takes more mana and can't be abused as much, for instance, you instantly lose if you infinitely flicker Belzenlok, yet instantly win when infinitely flicker Gonti.

Well, one straight up tutors Engine, the other has half the colors, worse tutorable stax, and needs to sacrifice an artifact creature to do it.

However Arcum tutors to the battlefield, not the hand, and has counterspells for interaction, whereas Sisay depends on permanent based stax pieces for disruption. Sissay's combo also requires more mana, and while there is more creature based ramp in green, the combo is usually a turn slower than a tuned Arcum deck. Having to sacrifice an artifact creature is almost never a problem. I believe that if Sisay in the Maximum Power category, Arcum should be too, although even if he stays in his current placement, TranscendingAll's list is more recently updated to the meta than the current list.

(Primer) Arcum's Infinite Puzzle Box

Commander / EDH TranscendingAll

SCORE: 2 | 11 COMMENTS | 1329 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

Yeah... however Sisay isn't a fast combo deck, it is a hybrid combo-stax list, and Arcum can't switch between those, making it suck going late-game, while Sisay have a very consistent game for, you know, the whole game. In fact, I would rarely ever use Arcum over Sisay for anything, it wastes more space in the deck to combo out, needing a ton of artifact creatures, etc. It has work protection, despite countermagic being nice, Dosan the Falling Leaf negates countermagic, and tutorable answers for any problem is what Sisay gives, white having incredible options like Grand Abolisher, Silence, etc. and green not falling far behind with Autumn's Veil.

Arcum Dagsson isn't even a bad deck, it just isn't comparable when looking at how much better Sisay is in the current meta. Trust me, Arcum could eventually be better given they print a bunch of good artifacts to tutor up that protect the line, and if their ends up being a better line, that could implement a well-timed Defense Grid before Paradox Engine, yet still keep going off with speed and resiliency to effects like Null Rod, and not wasting too much space in the deck, like maybe only 5-7 cards like Sisay.

That Najeela deck doesn't hold a candle to Winterblast's list.

Fair enough

Can anyone explain to me why Ishai is in Competitive?

What would you classify the power level of lets say Niv-Mizzet, Parun but was built to be only cards from ravnica sets? In other words a themed deck that doesn't have accesses to certain cards in the first place with the tier 2 and up decks.

the_monogreen_h3dr0n_c0llector thanks for the replay. There are many comments and I appreciate you taking the time for my question.

Yisan really only has 7 stax pieces and none that are tutorable (I don't count bane of progress because of how difficult it is to play, or targeted removal either) - thorn, sphere, trinisphere, null rod, root maze, winter orb, and tangle wire. And the odds of drawing one in opening hand is below 50%. If it's a stax deck it needs to mull very aggressively.

I played Yisan for years and could never really slow down combo, or out pace control. Against stax Yisan has a good matchup, but that might be it. I wouldn't consider Yisan a dominate deck, or label it maximum power like the above.