Over the next few weeks I’ll be debuting some decks that I’ve designed to play against each other in a low-power meta. I’ve actually been keeping these decks kind of under wraps lately, but after playtesting them I was starting to get really excited to share. I do my best to optimize suboptimal strategies, and dive really deep into things that have possibly never been done before. I think of weird things that might be possible, and explore the idea fully. This is an article about what I do when I get a little bored with the format. This isn’t an article about Fatal Push or any other cards that are currently in Standard, though. It goes beyond that, too - because I’m also unlikely to play against cards like Fatal Push, I find myself totally unfamiliar with most of the cards in the last 4 or 5 sets. In that sense, I look at a card like Fatal Push, and - rather than thinking about how it’s one of the best removal spells that’s been printed in the last several years - I brush it off because it’s not likely to make the cut in anything I play regularly. One of the side-effects of playing a lot of cEDH, I think, is that I fall into the habit of assessing cards in new sets in the context of whether or not they’re likely to appear in fully optimized lists. I loved Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, but Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, Ixalan, and Rivals of Ixalan all fell a little flat for me. I really enjoy doing that, but to be honest with you I haven’t really been excited about the last 5 or 6 standard sets.

I recently released an article about brewing in Brawl, and I spent a lot of time explaining my thought processes and rationale behind including certain themes and cards. It’s been quite awhile since I did a segment on brewing in Commander.

Sidisi ant commander