2020 was – a year. I want to avoid a prolonged reflection of it, but for me it brought some notable positives. First, I started this blog. It has served as a great outlet for creativity, experimentation, and has been something productive to do throughout quarantine. Secondly, it saw me connect more with the commander community. As an extrovert in 2020, it’s been great to be able to socialize with other people who love magic in a year when it would have been otherwise impossible. However, despite the amount of time I spent thinking and interacting with magic in 2020, it didn’t feature a whole lot of new decks for me. Now I don't want to be misunderstand; I did brew. I brewed a lot, but these were just that – brews. Whether it was for my 31 decks in Moxtober, a post to this blog, or just general brainstorming, I spent a lot of time theory crafting. Those ideas, lists, or posts I crafted, never became paper decks. One of my goals for this year is to spend more time building — and tuning — new EDH decks. As I’ve become a more “entrenched” magic player, more and more of the building process has been front-loaded. Rather than building a deck and improving it over time, most of my deck building decisions are made before I play a single game. This is in stark contrast to when I first started playing commander and decks were more just an amalgamation of cards before being tuned over the course of months or years. I don’t believe the experience I described above is especially unique. The EDH Boxing League is one commonly used solution; however, the cost of this sub-format is outside my comfort zone. To recreate the feeling of the boxing league, I’ve created the following restrictions for myself. 1. Start with a deck made only of cards worth less than $1. The goal of this project is to create an initial deck that will be affordable, functional, and full of potential. Designing on a budget is a great way to not only save money, but acts as a natural power cap. 2. Start with a deck made of only cards printed in 2020. There are a variety of creators who build powerful decks on a budget. In order to further limit the initial potential of this build, I’m restricting the cards to which I have access. 2020 is a great year to do this because of the Mystery Booster Product which not only cut the cost on many cards but gives me access to a variety of reprints. This project gives me a chance to not only symbolically improve on the year 2020 itself, but also try out many of the new cards I otherwise haven’t had the chance to play. 3. After every 3 games upgrade that deck using only cards printed in 2020 or after. I want to make sure that this deck doesn’t have a linear path for improvement. By limiting the sets from which I can upgrade the deck, it forces me to improve and grow with new printings rather than reaching into the past for known strategies and powerful cards. The requirement of 3 games gives me plenty of games to explore each iteration of the deck. 4. Upgrades can be in the form of 3 cards, each with a value of less than $1 or a single card with value greater than $1. If I’m going to do this over a year, I need the deck to experience a controlled growth, but also has the flexibility to reach for a variety of cards. This price limit gives me a decision. I can either grab multiple cards to mold the deck more noticeably or grab a single card to possibly solidify a strategy or introduce a new one. I should have the initial deck built in paper shortly, and if you want to see the deck list you can find it here. As for the upgrading/tuning restrictions I have in place, those are currently still in flux. I’m not sure if I’ll need to extend the amount of time between each upgrade, change prices, or add a new restriction. That said, I do think that these base rules are a good starting point from which to begin this experiment. My blog will also shift focus to accommodate this new experiment. As I play and tune my deck, I’ll continue to update my blog with my experience and the evolving decklist. Once the deck is assembled, I look forward to getting to jam some games with it soon.
1 Comment
1/17/2021 11:58:00 am
Just wanted to say I love this and will be brewing a deck myself.
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AuthorMonoWhiteBorder -- A man who loves MtG and his small dog. Archives
June 2021
Categories"MonoWhiteBorder" and corresponding content is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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