Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Welcome to my sixth annual article in this series. I had at some point gotten the idea into my head that this would be the fifth one because there was a five-year anniversary for a 2019 event at work, but thinking about it exposes the flaw in that thinking. These reports have been for complete years. So yeah, it's been five years since December 30th, 2019. But these reports span all of the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. So yeah, that's six years, not five. Here are the relevant links.
For a couple of reasons, those first three years had some big gaps in which I wasn't building decks or even playing EDH on any sort of consistent basis. But that's notable because I didn't follow any particular rules for this year, although I probably got more actual games in than I did in previous years. One of the conclusions in my article for last year was that I felt burned out trying to follow a rigid structure like the "one new deck per week" I did in 2022 or the "build a new deck or revise an existing one each week" for last year. So I stopped! More precisely, my conclusion was...
Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood: "Smiletown"
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death: "Alesha's Old Frame Festival of Fun"
Savra, Queen of the Golgari: "Golgari Save the Queen"
Quintorius, Field Historian: "An Elephant Never Forgets"
The Pride of Hull Clade: "99 Ranch"
Senator Peacock: "Peacock's Clues"
Preston Garvey, Minuteman: "I Got Word of a Settlement that Needs Our Help. I'll Mark it on Your Map"
Tazri, Stalwart Survivor: "Tazri's Easter Egg Hunt 2024"
Eriette, the Beguiler: "Aurum Astrum"
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent: "Nicky's Xantcha Deck"
Rosie Cotton of South Lane: "Cracklin' Rosie"
Cayth, Famed Mechanist: "Servo Guarantees Citizenship"
Shay Cormac: "Black or White"
Phelddagrif: "Epic"
Glarb, Calamity's Augur: "Frog Bloom"
Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate: "Manifest Destiny"
Sivitri, Dragon Master: "One Lady, Twenty-Nine Dragons"
Marhault Elsdragon: "Heart of Rage"
The Haunt of Hightower: "The Haunt of Discardtower"
Barrin, Master Wizard: "BMW Shops"
The Master of Keys: "Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Parallax Enchantments"
Skeleton Ship: "Spooky, Scary Skeletons"
Maelstrom Wanderer: "Hypergenetic Eureka"
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal: "Bats for the Bat God"
Loot, Exuberant Explorer: "Meriwether Lootis Expedition"
The Gitrog Monster: "Oversoul's Commander Cube Deck from 11/22/2024"
Torsten, Founder of Benalia: "Unsavory Deeds 2.1 Now With More Lands"
Imodane, the Pyrohammer: "Matteo's Pyrohammer"
Zedruu, the Greathearted: "'Tis the Season of Giving"
Pashalik Mons: "Goblin Lives Matter"
That's 30 decks, but one of them is from a cube draft, so it's only 60 cards instead of 100. Over the course of the year, I swapped out a total of 66 cards while making revisions to my decks. I made a point of doing revisions to decks last year, so of course there were more swaps in 2023, but the difference isn't as big as I thought it would be. Last year there were 110 swaps.
In 2019, I used 1,360 unique cards across 4,160 total card slots. So my decks were about 32.7% unique.
In 2020, I used 677 unique cards across 1,460 total card slots. So my decks were about 46.4% unique.
In 2021, I used 700 unique cards across 1,500 total card slots. So my decks were about 46.7% unique.
In 2022, I used 1,719 unique cards across 5,405 total card slots. So my decks were 31.8% unique.
In 2023, I used 1,485 unique cards across 3,110 total card slots. So my decks were 47.7% unique.
This year, I used 1,426 unique cards across 3,026 total card slots. So my decks were 47.1% unique.
Uniqueness is technically down a bit from last year. The difference is small enough that it's probably not meaningful to analyze. Looking back at these numbers and at what they mean, I think it's probably the sort of metric which, superficially, seems like it might hold something interesting. And the problem is that all sorts of weird factors I can't show here are going to influence this metric. Participating in that cube draft gained me a bunch of uniqueness from cards that I normally don't use in my own decks, but took away uniqueness in other spots where I happened to be using cards that I'd only have used once this year. Building a deck for my brother gained me a bunch of uniqueness. Scrapping one mono-black discard deck to build another one as an experiment to see if it appealed to me more lost me a lot of uniqueness. It would be unproductive to try and weigh all of this stuff. I'll probably keep using the metric because it's easy and because extreme changes might be interesting. This year, though, there's nothing notable about it.
Because I built so many decks in 2022, I covered all mainstream color identities (four-color EDH decks are fringe weirdness that we don't dwell on here). Last year, I made a point of noting color identities that I didn't cover. While color identity coverage wasn't a focus for this year, I think it might be useful to bold any identities that I've ommitted both this year and last year. If I got it last year, then good enough. If I got it this year, then good enough. But if I'm missing it in both? Might be worth exploring that space next year. Again, that's excepting four-color decks, as there are too few commander options for those to interest me.
WUG: 1
UBG: 1
WU: 0
BR: 1
RG: 1
WUB: 2
WRG: 1
W: 1
R: 2
WG: 1
UB: 2
UR: 0
UBR: 0
WUBRG: 1
U: 2
UG: 2
BG: 2
WBR: 1
UBRG: 0
B: 2
G: 1
WB: 1
WR: 1
WUR: 2
WBG: 0
URG: 1
BRG: 0
WUBR: 0
WUBG: 0
WURG: 0
WBRG: 0
C: 1
Total: 30
The last time I built an EDH deck with a blue/red color identity was "Heads I Ydwen, Tails from the Crypt" in December of 2022. The last time I built an EDH deck with a black/red/green color identity was "Adun Oakenshield's Hearty Thanksgiving Meal" in November of 2022. And the last time I built an EDH deck with a white/black/green color identity was "Erika Shiragami" in August of 2022. I knew that those were weak points in my repertoire. Now I'm seeing confirmation of that. But let's move on to everyone's favorite part of this article: top cards by category.
Swamps are back on top! And I guess my frustration with trying not to neglect white and red has finally caused forests to drop into last place. Once snow-covered basics are accounted for, the plains do indeed settle into last place here, but only barely. Forests are right there with them.
Basic lands
Swamp: 104
Island: 70
Plains: 69
Mountain: 68
Forest: 60
Snow-Covered Mountain: 52
Snow-Covered Forest: 32
Snow-Covered Island: 30
Snow-Covered Swamp: 26
Snow-Covered Plains: 21
Strip Mine remains in first place for non-basic lands, but there are some major differences between this year and last year. Maze of Ith is way down, in large part because I wasn't willing to poach copies from decks this year, so I ended up just building without it if I hadn't recently scrapped a Maze-bearing deck. Wasteland is below Strip Mine for much the same reason.
Non-basic lands (that appeared more than twice)
Strip Mine: 19
Scalding Tarn: 16
Bloodstained Mire: 15
Verdant Catacombs: 15
Wasteland: 15
Arid Mesa: 14
Flooded Strand: 14
Marsh Flats: 14
Misty Rainforest: 14
Polluted Delta: 14
Windswept Heath: 14
Wooded Foothills: 13
Reliquary Tower: 11
Maze of Ith: 10
Ancient Tomb: 9
Otawara, Soaring City: 9
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: 8
Crystal Vein: 7
Gaea's Cradle: 7
Urza's Saga: 7
Karn's Bastion: 6
Phyrexian Tower: 6
Plateau: 6
Tundra: 6
Volrath's Stronghold: 6
Buried Ruin: 5
City of Traitors: 5
Hallowed Fountain: 5
Scrubland: 5
Treasure Vault: 5
Tropical Island: 5
Underground Sea: 5
Boseiju, Who Endures: 4
Breeding Pool: 4
Cavern of Souls: 4
Commander Tower: 4
Fabled Passage: 4
Hall of Heliod's Generosity: 4
Inventors' Fair: 4
Miren, the Moaning Well: 4
Prismatic Vista: 4
Savannah: 4
Serra's Sanctum: 4
Taiga: 4
Volcanic Island: 4
Watery Grave: 4
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth: 4
Alchemist's Refuge: 3
Badlands: 3
Cabal Coffers: 3
Darksteel Citadel: 3
Deserted Temple: 3
Echoing Deeps: 3
Fountainport: 3
Godless Shrine: 3
High Market: 3
Lake of the Dead: 3
Mishra's Workshop: 3
Mutavault: 3
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: 3
Sacred Foundry: 3
Seat of the Synod: 3
Steam Vents: 3
Stomping Grounds: 3
Temple Garden: 3
Tranquil Thicket: 3
For a couple of reasons, those first three years had some big gaps in which I wasn't building decks or even playing EDH on any sort of consistent basis. But that's notable because I didn't follow any particular rules for this year, although I probably got more actual games in than I did in previous years. One of the conclusions in my article for last year was that I felt burned out trying to follow a rigid structure like the "one new deck per week" I did in 2022 or the "build a new deck or revise an existing one each week" for last year. So I stopped! More precisely, my conclusion was...
I didn't set a specific goal, so I can't really say whether I succeeded or failed here. But here's the part of the article where I list all of my decks for the year. This time, to highlight my theme of revisiting old decks, I'll color-code the commander for each entry. Black is for ordinary new decks. Magenta is for obligatory commanders from new sets (since I try to build at least one deck helmed by a commander from each new set that is released). Blue is for returning commanders, this year's theme. Red is for Legends legends, my long-term project to build a deck helmed by each of the original 55 legendary creatures. And finally, Green is for my first-time decks helmed by Legends Retold, another sort of project that I adopted despite neglecting the first one.Oversoul said:
Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood: "Smiletown"
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death: "Alesha's Old Frame Festival of Fun"
Savra, Queen of the Golgari: "Golgari Save the Queen"
Quintorius, Field Historian: "An Elephant Never Forgets"
The Pride of Hull Clade: "99 Ranch"
Senator Peacock: "Peacock's Clues"
Preston Garvey, Minuteman: "I Got Word of a Settlement that Needs Our Help. I'll Mark it on Your Map"
Tazri, Stalwart Survivor: "Tazri's Easter Egg Hunt 2024"
Eriette, the Beguiler: "Aurum Astrum"
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent: "Nicky's Xantcha Deck"
Rosie Cotton of South Lane: "Cracklin' Rosie"
Cayth, Famed Mechanist: "Servo Guarantees Citizenship"
Shay Cormac: "Black or White"
Phelddagrif: "Epic"
Glarb, Calamity's Augur: "Frog Bloom"
Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate: "Manifest Destiny"
Sivitri, Dragon Master: "One Lady, Twenty-Nine Dragons"
Marhault Elsdragon: "Heart of Rage"
The Haunt of Hightower: "The Haunt of Discardtower"
Barrin, Master Wizard: "BMW Shops"
The Master of Keys: "Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Parallax Enchantments"
Skeleton Ship: "Spooky, Scary Skeletons"
Maelstrom Wanderer: "Hypergenetic Eureka"
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal: "Bats for the Bat God"
Loot, Exuberant Explorer: "Meriwether Lootis Expedition"
The Gitrog Monster: "Oversoul's Commander Cube Deck from 11/22/2024"
Torsten, Founder of Benalia: "Unsavory Deeds 2.1 Now With More Lands"
Imodane, the Pyrohammer: "Matteo's Pyrohammer"
Zedruu, the Greathearted: "'Tis the Season of Giving"
Pashalik Mons: "Goblin Lives Matter"
That's 30 decks, but one of them is from a cube draft, so it's only 60 cards instead of 100. Over the course of the year, I swapped out a total of 66 cards while making revisions to my decks. I made a point of doing revisions to decks last year, so of course there were more swaps in 2023, but the difference isn't as big as I thought it would be. Last year there were 110 swaps.
In 2019, I used 1,360 unique cards across 4,160 total card slots. So my decks were about 32.7% unique.
In 2020, I used 677 unique cards across 1,460 total card slots. So my decks were about 46.4% unique.
In 2021, I used 700 unique cards across 1,500 total card slots. So my decks were about 46.7% unique.
In 2022, I used 1,719 unique cards across 5,405 total card slots. So my decks were 31.8% unique.
In 2023, I used 1,485 unique cards across 3,110 total card slots. So my decks were 47.7% unique.
This year, I used 1,426 unique cards across 3,026 total card slots. So my decks were 47.1% unique.
Uniqueness is technically down a bit from last year. The difference is small enough that it's probably not meaningful to analyze. Looking back at these numbers and at what they mean, I think it's probably the sort of metric which, superficially, seems like it might hold something interesting. And the problem is that all sorts of weird factors I can't show here are going to influence this metric. Participating in that cube draft gained me a bunch of uniqueness from cards that I normally don't use in my own decks, but took away uniqueness in other spots where I happened to be using cards that I'd only have used once this year. Building a deck for my brother gained me a bunch of uniqueness. Scrapping one mono-black discard deck to build another one as an experiment to see if it appealed to me more lost me a lot of uniqueness. It would be unproductive to try and weigh all of this stuff. I'll probably keep using the metric because it's easy and because extreme changes might be interesting. This year, though, there's nothing notable about it.
Because I built so many decks in 2022, I covered all mainstream color identities (four-color EDH decks are fringe weirdness that we don't dwell on here). Last year, I made a point of noting color identities that I didn't cover. While color identity coverage wasn't a focus for this year, I think it might be useful to bold any identities that I've ommitted both this year and last year. If I got it last year, then good enough. If I got it this year, then good enough. But if I'm missing it in both? Might be worth exploring that space next year. Again, that's excepting four-color decks, as there are too few commander options for those to interest me.
WUG: 1
UBG: 1
WU: 0
BR: 1
RG: 1
WUB: 2
WRG: 1
W: 1
R: 2
WG: 1
UB: 2
UR: 0
UBR: 0
WUBRG: 1
U: 2
UG: 2
BG: 2
WBR: 1
UBRG: 0
B: 2
G: 1
WB: 1
WR: 1
WUR: 2
WBG: 0
URG: 1
BRG: 0
WUBR: 0
WUBG: 0
WURG: 0
WBRG: 0
C: 1
Total: 30
The last time I built an EDH deck with a blue/red color identity was "Heads I Ydwen, Tails from the Crypt" in December of 2022. The last time I built an EDH deck with a black/red/green color identity was "Adun Oakenshield's Hearty Thanksgiving Meal" in November of 2022. And the last time I built an EDH deck with a white/black/green color identity was "Erika Shiragami" in August of 2022. I knew that those were weak points in my repertoire. Now I'm seeing confirmation of that. But let's move on to everyone's favorite part of this article: top cards by category.
Swamps are back on top! And I guess my frustration with trying not to neglect white and red has finally caused forests to drop into last place. Once snow-covered basics are accounted for, the plains do indeed settle into last place here, but only barely. Forests are right there with them.
Basic lands
Swamp: 104
Island: 70
Plains: 69
Mountain: 68
Forest: 60
Snow-Covered Mountain: 52
Snow-Covered Forest: 32
Snow-Covered Island: 30
Snow-Covered Swamp: 26
Snow-Covered Plains: 21
Strip Mine remains in first place for non-basic lands, but there are some major differences between this year and last year. Maze of Ith is way down, in large part because I wasn't willing to poach copies from decks this year, so I ended up just building without it if I hadn't recently scrapped a Maze-bearing deck. Wasteland is below Strip Mine for much the same reason.
Non-basic lands (that appeared more than twice)
Strip Mine: 19
Scalding Tarn: 16
Bloodstained Mire: 15
Verdant Catacombs: 15
Wasteland: 15
Arid Mesa: 14
Flooded Strand: 14
Marsh Flats: 14
Misty Rainforest: 14
Polluted Delta: 14
Windswept Heath: 14
Wooded Foothills: 13
Reliquary Tower: 11
Maze of Ith: 10
Ancient Tomb: 9
Otawara, Soaring City: 9
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: 8
Crystal Vein: 7
Gaea's Cradle: 7
Urza's Saga: 7
Karn's Bastion: 6
Phyrexian Tower: 6
Plateau: 6
Tundra: 6
Volrath's Stronghold: 6
Buried Ruin: 5
City of Traitors: 5
Hallowed Fountain: 5
Scrubland: 5
Treasure Vault: 5
Tropical Island: 5
Underground Sea: 5
Boseiju, Who Endures: 4
Breeding Pool: 4
Cavern of Souls: 4
Commander Tower: 4
Fabled Passage: 4
Hall of Heliod's Generosity: 4
Inventors' Fair: 4
Miren, the Moaning Well: 4
Prismatic Vista: 4
Savannah: 4
Serra's Sanctum: 4
Taiga: 4
Volcanic Island: 4
Watery Grave: 4
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth: 4
Alchemist's Refuge: 3
Badlands: 3
Cabal Coffers: 3
Darksteel Citadel: 3
Deserted Temple: 3
Echoing Deeps: 3
Fountainport: 3
Godless Shrine: 3
High Market: 3
Lake of the Dead: 3
Mishra's Workshop: 3
Mutavault: 3
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: 3
Sacred Foundry: 3
Seat of the Synod: 3
Steam Vents: 3
Stomping Grounds: 3
Temple Garden: 3
Tranquil Thicket: 3