For years, we’ve all obsessed over power levels in EDH. We’ve tried to give our decks power scores to try to seek out “even” matchups. However, we’ve all been in a situation where someone’s 6 turns out to be a 9 to you. …

As a software engineer, there are times when you look at something and think, “There has to be only one poor sod out there who needs this.” Once upon a time, Sun Microsystems provided a serial communications library in their distribution of Java for a few platforms (notably Solaris on…

Everybody thinks they have a 7. You (probably) don’t. The 1–10 Power Scale Most Commander players are familiar with The Command Zone podcast. In it, Josh and Jimmy talk about a power scale, where 1 is the weakest and 10 is the most powerful. …

We’ve talked about useful decks. But now, it’s time to discuss when to throw the rules away entirely because it gets in the way of something that you deem more important. What makes an Orthogonal Deck? An orthogonal deck is not trying to win the game. Period. It may be able to, if things go…

Finally, we get to the lowest power level of playable Commander decks: the Mechanical deck. These decks usually lack a focus or a good commander. Perhaps you’re playing an unsupported tribe. Perhaps you really like Manifest and jammed as many Manifest cards as you could find into a deck (there…

Let us begin with a decklist. Unusually for this series, I even have gameplay video of this deck, featuring its author, Graham Stark of Loading Ready Run. He explains the backstory of the deck in the video quite nicely. In fact, that video is the reason I chose this deck…

Once again, we’re going to start with a decklist. This is a bit more of a classical deck tech than previous articles, because this time that’s warranted. We’re starting to apply lessons already. …

Before, I begin, I want to start by sharing the decklist that will be the core of this article. I have this deck. But to start with, an Alton Brown quote: The only unitasker allowed in my kitchen is a fire extinguisher. Our Optimized Deck This is where I’d usually provide a summary…

I’m not a name in the Magic: the Gathering community. I don’t create content. I don’t stream. You wouldn’t recognize me from some rando at your LGS. In fact, if you play in the suburbs of Dallas, I probably am some rando at your LGS. …