There has been a lot of talk about cards you should or shouldn't play in Commander. Sheldon Mennery wrote an article about cards he doesn't enjoy playing against and this prompted the guys on the Command Zone podcast to discuss his article and give a few cards that they aren't particularly fans of either. These chumps are all a little behind the times; I wrote about that four months ago!

While this is a great topic to get people talking, I thought I would take it a little further and talk about whole decks I don't like to see! The problem with this is that it essentially become a list of commanders I don't want to play against, which in turn suggests that I'm saying there is only one deck for each commander. That is a deck-building article that I'm not getting into here. What I'm thinking about is a little different. Let's look at a couple of hypotheticals to set the stage. These hypotheticals are works of fiction, but based on true stories. If you recognize yourself in these hypotheticals, think on what that means.

Hypothetical One

However, it's finally time for Magic night! I get the chance to shuffle up with my friends and forget all about all the garbage that is going on at work and just enjoy the night! Given the way the week has gone, it is hardly a surprise that I opt to start with Atraxa. My opponents grimace but we get started. I face some early hate, but I'm able to wipe the board of threats a couple of times and get a couple planeswalkers out. Atraxa finally hits the field and John was waiting for it with a counterspell. I Force of Will it away, and I can get started!

The mana starts flowing and the loyalty counters start to climb. I take a few dings in the next couple of turns as people start to recognize what is coming, but I draw into a couple more planeswalkers, then wipe the board again. My planeswalkers are about to make a bunch of tokens and emblems and I should be able to take the victory in just a couple more turns. At this point, the two other players still in the game scoop up and find a new game to get into. My Atraxa moves to a dominating 3-0 and the misery of the last few days slips into the background.

I dig out another deck and go looking for opponents. I end up on my phone waiting for players who are up for another game. The guys look reluctant and I assure them it isn't Atraxa and we get started. These guys are going to love my new Zur build!

Hypothetical Two

However, it's finally time for Magic night! I get the chance to shuffle up with my friends and forget all about all the garbage that is going on at work and just enjoy the night! Given the way the week has gone, it is hardly a surprise that I opt to start with Vorel. I made a few changes to Vorel and it has really taken off. My opponents chuckle when they see Vorel; some recognize the durdle master for what it was, while one of them has seen the updated removal package and knows that he'll need to be watchful.

We are talking about our predictions for the final season of Game of Thrones, and whether anyone is excited for George R. R. Martin's next book. My deck is kind enough to ramp up and I'm doubling counters here and there, then lean in for a vicious attack on John with a Forgotten Ancient that virtually everyone at the table had, indeed, forgotten. John blocks and I trample over for what should have been lethal, but I completely missed that he could give his blocker lifelink, so he was hanging on by a thread. One Eyeblight's Ending later and suddenly I'm the one reeling.

The game shifts back and forth with haymakers flying everywhere! The discussion shifts from Song of Ice and Fire to Ultimate Masters and how beautiful the art is on the Box Toppers. Harry focuses on a story about his roommates while Andy works out his attacks for the turn. The swing comes my way and I survive, but just barely. I'm left in a Kingmaker position and choose to leave it to Harry and Andy to determine who will win without my help. I survive another round, only because they are fighting each other, then die as an afterthought. This Vorel deck falls to 3-7.

Questions

There are a series of questions that we need to answer, and each feeds into the next. The first question is probably the most obvious:

Which deck is the better deck? Without the decklists all you have to go on is that the Atraxa build in Hypothetical One is 3-0, while the Vorel deck in Hypothetical Two is 3-7. The obvious better deck is Vorel.

Wait, one deck wins every single game and another only wins 30% of its games! How can the Vorel deck be the better deck? When determining the better deck, we need to define what makes one deck better than the next. A big part of that lines up with not just win percentage, but how many games you get to play with it. The Atraxa deck, after only three games, is already hated by everyone at the store. When hypothetical me tries to find opponents to play against with Atraxa it is really hard, since the players hate the deck. This must be factored in when determining which deck is better. The Vorel deck is winning 30% of the time, meaning it is winning more than the 25% you would expect from an average deck in four-player games. It also has no problem finding opponents. Everyone enjoys playing against the deck, so over the long run, Vorel is probably going to win more games than Atraxa, simply because the opponents refuse to play against Atraxa.

This leads to the next question: which deck is the most fun for you to play?This is a tough one to answer based on the hypotheticals since you could argue that hypothetical me enjoyed playing both of the decks. In reality, this is a trick question. How much fun you have playing the deck is not relevant. Of course I want you to have fun playing Magic or you wouldn't be playing. The key though, is that the amount of fun you are having playing your deck has no relevance to whether the deck is the better deck or not. This will make more sense in just a second.

The final question, which is the one that really matters when determining which deck is better is, which deck is more fun for your group?This question includes the last question, so we are looking for a deck that is both fun for you and for everyone else in your group. If you are having fun playing the deck, you'll continue to play it. If everyone in your group enjoys playing against the deck, they will continue to be happy to play against the deck. This means that a better deck is going to be a deck that everyone in your group enjoys playing against, and you enjoy playing.

When you take this and go back to our first question, "which is the better deck," the Vorel deck is the obvious answer. Many players can only see the competitive aspect and look for the best deck they can find. We all need to remember that our casual format is all about fun. If everyone is having fun, we all get to keep playing Commander. If you are the only one having fun, it won't be that long before you'll be on the sidelines, and that isn't fun at all.

-Bruce

@manaburned