I’m pretty new to magic, I’ve been playing commander for just over a month now. I pretty much exclusively play 1v1 with my friend since he’s the only other person I know who plays commander and isn’t a dick. I picked up the Fae dominion precon and have slightly modded it with stuff I’ve pulled from packs but it’s still mostly the same deck.

My friend plays Mono-white angels, he runs [[Sephara, Sky’s Blade]] as his commander with [[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]] in the 99 and he seems almost unbeatable since his win-con is getting out 2 cards, one of which is his commander, and he has multiple artifacts and enchantments that tutor for angels, buff his angels and let him gain life like no tomorrow, and he can summon plenty of tokens which are then made indestructible. I can deal damage early game but he always just gains it back and gets his winning combo out right before I can deal lethal damage.

As I understand, there’s not a whole lot I can do within Dimir to deal with his artifacts and enchantments but some tips on improving my deck or just links to better deck lists(which stay relatively cheap) would be appreciated. I’m not married to faeries but I do enjoy black so any deck lists would ideally include black, whether mono or mixed.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/to-jmuG0s0GCFfRDLnPfgA

  • RampageDon
    4·
    1 year ago

    Here is some general advice that will get you started and then you can keep making adjustments from there. First off, especially in 1v1 you want to know which deck is the aggressor and which deck is playing more of control. Normally fae play a weird mix of both which is considered tempo, but for the sake of this post let’s label your friend as the aggressive deck and you as the control deck.

    Next is knowing threat assessment. Since the two angels you mentioned seem to be the combo you have problems with we will focus on that. A simple start is counter magic. You play a land, pass turn style where you are constantly holding up counter magic for the specific threats, or enablers that would get those threats. You will also play a lot of instant speed spells to take advantage of turns he either plays nothing or nothing you want to counter. These would be creatures with flash and instant speed card draw.

    You won’t always have counter magic available and sometimes threats get through so your next option is removal.

    Since your problem seems to be indestructible creatures there are two things to do. First are exile spells, and second are spells that give -×/-×. If a creature has 0 base toughness it dies, indestructible or not. Cards like [[tragic slip]] for single target or [[toxic deluge]] for board wipes. Honorable mention is a card like [[killing wave]] that will make him sacrifice his creatures.

    • NotSoSuperSaiyan@mtgzone.comOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thanks a ton mate. I played a game against him yesterday and took your advice, I added a few -X/-X spells to my deck and held up my counter magic/bounce spells for when he got close to having enough mana for the big threats while building up my board a bit early-game. He got his killer combo out but I immediately bounced them and whenever he tried to build his board I either countered, killed or bounced his stuff. I ended up winning with 40 health. He didn’t seem best pleased lol.

      • RampageDon
        2·
        1 year ago

        That’s awesome! Glad it was helpful even if it was generic advice. Don’t be surprised if your friend starts coming back with some new techs to counter your play style. You have started the arms race in a very small meta lol.

        • NotSoSuperSaiyan@mtgzone.comOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, he’s started doing it already lol He’s been looking at better commanders and upgrading a bunch of stuff specifically to counter me lol. I suppose I’ll just have to keep up by doing some upgrading of my own.

            • NotSoSuperSaiyan@mtgzone.comOPEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              That’s exactly what it. I don’t want to win all the time, ideally every game could go either way because that’s the kinda games I enjoy most but since he’s upgrading his deck I have to try to stay on par by upgrading my own or I’ll just constantly lose and that’s no fun either.

              I don’t have the money to build a whole other deck from scratch but when I do I’ve been considering a mono-black vampire/zombie deck to shake it up a bit so I don’t get tired of the faeries. Also, just because they’re cool af.

              • RampageDon
                2·
                1 year ago

                Teching your deck doesn’t mean who has more money. Not sure why this other person keeps coming here being negative about 1on1 and all that. Teching just means building for the meta and your case the meta is just each other. They might just start playing more hexproof and uncoutnerable creatures, or spells that give protection from a color. That doesn’t mean buying more cards or more money. It just means they might start playing cards that are more pointed at beating specific cards you play. Those kinds of cards wouldn’t be as playable against a larger field of decks but works since it’s you vs them.

    • NotSoSuperSaiyan@mtgzone.comOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for all the advice, I know I’ve not been playing optimally but I think I may have been getting a bit salty and blaming my deck when I seem to have enough tools to deal with the 2 main threats.

      I was under the impression that because of the indestructible his creatures would survive negative counters unless they were permanent, indestructible seems a lot less daunting now as I thought my only options were to exile the big 2 or make him sac them.

      Thanks for the card recommendations too, I’ll definitely pick some of them up.

  • delver@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    1 year ago

    Sounds like the deck power levels are mismatched if they’re playing avacyn and tutors, and you have a slightly upgraded precon?

    I’m a fairly new player myself so I can’t give much insight tbh but sounds like you need to get rid of Avacyn as soon as they come out (or even before!)

    Try some cards that exile specific cards:

    [[Duplicant]]

    [[Jester’s Cap]]

    [[Brittle Effigy]]

    [[Reality Shift]]

    [[Sever the Bloodline]]

    And so on. Thing is depending how quickly they can tutor up Avacyn, you might need to splash out on some tutors yourself to ensure you have one of your answers ready.