AI Summary
5 min readA deck that draws two fogs is a deck with a problem
The Command Zone hosts Rachel Weeks and Josh Lee Kwai open with a surprising statistic: if you assume an eight-turn game where you'll see roughly 25 cards, playing three copies of a redundant effect gives you a 58.7% chance to draw at least one—but only a 15% chance to draw two. That second number is the one worth paying attention to. Playing five copies pushes your chance of drawing one to 77.5%, but your chance of drawing two jumps to 37.3%. At seven copies, you're at 87.9% for one and 56.8% for two. The practical takeaway: effects that don't stack—Crucible of Worlds, fogs, haste enablers, evasion pieces—should live in the three-to-five range, not the seven-to-ten range. Card draw, by contrast, stacks beautifully. Drawing a second card-draw spell when you already have one is rarely dead because it digs you toward something else. The hosts recommend treating card draw as a solution to redundancy problems: you can run fewer copies of a non-stacking effect if you're drawing enough cards to find it reliably.
The EDHRec trap and the complexity trap
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Opening & Sponsor** - Episode begins with Alienware ad, then host introductions and topic setup.
- 2 (00:58) **Trap 1: Too Many Redundant Effects** - The hosts explain why stacking non-stacking effects (like multiple Crucible of Worlds) is a trap.
- 3 (05:37) **The Rubric for Redundancy** - A simple rule to evaluate if you have too many copies of an effect.
- 4 (06:24) **Sponsor Break: Card Kingdom & UltraPro** - Brief ad segment.
- 5 (09:08) **Trap 2: Copying from EDHRec Directly** - The danger of blindly using the "average deck" list on EDHRec without filtering by theme.
- 6 (12:18) **Trap 3: Game Plan Too Complex** - The pitfall of needing too many steps to execute your strategy.
- 7 (16:40) **Trap 4: Trying to Do Too Much** - Building a deck with multiple, competing sub-themes that dilute each other.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Deckbuilding may seem fun, but it’s also incredibly DANGEROUS! From unfocused gameplans to awkward mana curves, everywhere you look there are traps and pitfalls just waiting to kill your grand vision. Today, let us be your guides through the perilous world of brewing Commander decks. With our help, you can avoid these common missteps and make sure your decks are all ready for action!
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ULTRA PRO:
Huge thanks to Ultra PRO for sponsoring this episode! Be sure to check out their amazing APEX sleeves and super classy MANA 8 product line. If you want to keep your cards protected and support the show, visit: https://ultrapro.com/command
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Relevant Links:
Commander Deckbuilding Template for the New Era | The Command Zone 658:
https://youtu.be/OSNV6224cHg?si=XzfwDSqg2FkXThcE
How to Level-Up Your Removal | The Command Zone 762:
https://youtu.be/LDkLS6fo6cU?si=XULSVJId8FlzIi-a
Why Your Deck Feels Clunky and How to Fix It | The Command Zone 730:
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