Way too much random good stuff cards, too many titans, not enough value eldrazi. You only have like 10 non-legendary eldrazi creatures, no cards like mirror box or sakashima to get around legendary, so when you finally get set up with mana you’re just copying cast triggers. Having a couple titans on board isn’t as powerful as it sounds.

Also, I’ve found it usually pretty hard to get off a copy on 10-12 cost eldrazi unless you have a lot of cost reducers or mana doublers going on.

I would cut all the random off theme cards, especially the ones like brilliant restoration that require a lot of colored mana. Add some decent eldrazi value cards that can pay off Ulalek’s copy. Get your payoffs a little lower to the ground. Honestly my most common wincon has been glaring fleshraker. And once you get echoes out it’s gg.

Gavi had stuff popping every turn, as card cycling and cycling triggers are happening all the time.

However it can get tedious to have one player taking up so much of the table time and slowing things down.

No. When a commander changes zones (such as exile), you can always move him back into the command zone.

You'd be better off with cards like lignify, kenrith's transformation, imprisoned in the moon, oubliette, nevermore, and cards like that. But simic has no problem bouncing/destroying/countering enchantments, and Nadu is usually storming off for value the turn he comes down. Good luck 1) drawing a relevant hate card 2) having Nadu on the board 3) getting back to your turn where you can cast an enchantment at sorcery speed 4) outplay the Nadu player who likely has a ton of mana and card selection which includes access to free counters and naturalize type effects.

No, it’s a triggered ability.

What are you naming when you play needle? Nadu doesn’t have any activated abilities.

Let me know how that Pithing Needle works out for you.

That’s a cool idea. Like a WUBRGC Thanos deck, each stone is a mono-color mana rock, if you have all 6 on the board you win the game. But make them like coveted jewels- if you take combat damage, the player takes them

A “not that kind of deck” always seems to draw an opening hand with “that kind of deck” cards, with the usual suspects of Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Cyclonic Rift, Deadly Rollick, the One Ring, and others.

I think for a lot of folks, excluding Mana Crypt and Dockside and a couple other obvious offenders is enough in their mind to make it a casual and friendly deck.

It’s honestly pretty difficult to make a weak Nadu deck.

I mean you literally had combo, tutors, and top shelf card draw in just the half dozen cards you mentioned. Those few cards are worth 2-3 precons. Nothing wrong with that, but you might be bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Coven counters is solid and straight forward, buckle up was a great deck to tinker with and try out different vehicles

I’m the other one. After finishing a deck, it stays finished unless I just absolutely hated it (Tergrid, Izzet Storm solitaire, etc). I really enjoy pulling out an older deck and giving it a spin.

I think you need to find a deck you enjoy outside of the raw game components. Like a deck that you simply really like all the art on the cards, or find some satisfaction on having a vintage old border type of theme, or you just really like vampire lore and mythology, so you always find your imagination tickled when you draw into the deck and start playing.

It’s also okay if you just enjoy the deck building and play testing but find the actual gameplay unengaging. Maybe the novelty is what you enjoy?

Somehow this story needed to end with, “I was beaten, on one knee, staring at my killer as he raised his sword to strike me. As the blade descended, a shield appeared above, deflecting the blow. I raise my eyes, and behold…the child had returned a man! ‘It comes back around!’ he bellowed.”

A few thoughts:

Paying $20 to double sleeve a $40 precon always seemed silly to me, if the goal is protecting cards.

90% of the time, a $2 pack of random ultra pros on sale at your LGS will probably do just as well as double dragon sleeves.

Also resale these days don’t care about minor wear to card condition very much, especially when it’s been sleeve played and when the card is not very pricey. I can’t remember the last time I really cared or noticed the difference between one rhystic study and another.

I’m guessing for most people, it’s just the peace of mind and maybe the tactile feedback of double sleeves that make it worth the money and effort.

After about a decade of playing EDH, there was only one time I had a spill threaten a few cards. Coffee got into the single sleeve. An immediate wipe down left absolutely no visible trace on the card, which happened to be about 0.50 cents anyway.

I do have double sleeves for some decks in the $300+ range but that’s partially because I did it a while ago and don’t mind how they shuffle. Most of my newer decks are sub $300 and single sleeves are fine for my peace of mind.

There’s such a thing as playing with a handicap if the game isn’t competitive because of skill disparity. Fortunately in Commander, you can very easily do that by toning down your deck. There’s nothing wrong with that if she wants to keep her playgroup invested and having fun. Her choice of course, but she asked for advice.

Placing 1st in 90% of games amongst 4 players with equal access to game resources and mechanics is absolutely “crazy”. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but something is extremely out of balance.

In part because casual is slow. Players are reading their cards, chatting, thinking about stuff, etc. So when a long turn 5 comes around and my one play is counterspelled, a good chunk of the game became less active for that player. Compound that with how long it might take to find a new pod after the game and simple disruptions can be a 15 minute wait til the next thing.

CEDH is nice in part because things tend to move faster and if you lose it’s NBD and you shuffle and play another.

Problem with old content creators and players remembering the good ole days is that the majority of current EDH players entered into MTG, or even the TCG hobby as a whole, after the current EDH popularity explosion. They weren't jaded Modern/Standard players who found the appeal of finding old jank cards that found new life in a casual format. They picked up a precon and learned to deck-build in the EDHREC modern era.

There is certainly an appeal that WOTC sacrificed to ride the shift to EDH, but the players have pretty unanimously shown their approval of things through their support of the format.

90% wins in a 4-player game is crazy. Even through just odd chances that you don't really hit the right cards, starve out for card draw or mana, other players hit their dream hands, etc.

It sounds like you enjoy the deck-building aspect a lot, so it's hard to tell a person not to do that and buy a pre-con. Maybe consider a deck theme that's more low-power that you may enjoy building and optimizing.

This isn't really a post about whether a play was good/bad/salty, etc. You had a confrontation with a volatile and aggressive person you will likely see again. I'd more address that issue than your deck construction.

If the store isn't willing to address that kind of behavior, I'd probably be looking for a new place to play. Most towns have at least a few options.

I'm 20 minutes from the border to Canada and have been playing at a friend's LGS over there recently. There are some odd types like usual, but none of the rude aggressive weirdos. Even has like 1/4 to 1/3 players being normal young women, which just isn't the culture in my own town.

In general for decks with green Dorks > Nature’s Lore/Farseek type land ramp > Enchant ramp > Mana rock ramp. It’s very easy to have 3-5 dorks (Llanowar, fyndhorn, mystic, ignoble hierarch, etc) and a few of Farseek/Nature’s Lore/Kodama’s Reach/Cultivate, Sol ring, arcane signet, gruul signet, etc, which can often speed your game plan up 1-2 turns and reduce your mana curve so you have a more productive early game.

One of the simplest and cheapest changes is to cut lands and add ramp. Talismans, signets, arcane signet, fellwar stone, worn power stone, mind stone, etc. I noticed you didn’t even have Sol ring and arcane signet in some, which is as auto Include as it gets.

In decks with green add mana dorks, enchant lands, ramp sorceries.

Overall cut some bloat on nice to haves and add fundamentals like card draw and interactions.

It might also feel samey because you’re playing the same deck against the same player playing the same deck every time.

Also, you haven’t mentioned the other players. Are they obviously as threatening as you, but ignored? Obviously as easy a target as you but ignored?

Is some other clearly stronger deck winning in the aftermath every time? Or do you or he still manage to win sometimes despite being hated on?