Still another rekative newcomer question, sorry!
I've finally started finding my footing in draft a little bit, and I've found some cool unofficial formats that I've enjoyed deck building for, but this is something that's stuck in my craw a little bit for a while and I'm curious what my options are.
My friends all play EDH, so if I want a casual game I have to play that. They have a number of decks I've been able to borrow, and I did buy a precon I saw at a toy show (Prosper, Tome Bound -- Planar Portal), but so far, I've just not really found the fun, and I'm wondering what I'm missing.
The main problem is that during each of these games, I wind up mostly sitting there waiting to play the game. Not just hecause of long turn times (although when someone has a lot of triggers, that is a factor), but also due to my commander getting instantly removed, or having little in hand to play, or someone having only flyers and my not having any kind of protection or removal in hand...ever. Maybe my luck is phenomenally bad, but I mostly sit there with a near empty board after a couple board wipes or targeted removal or just...well I assume my precon must just be kind of bad because i wind up with a bunch of treasure tokens and nothing to spend them on. In short, for almost any game, my turns have been draw > land > pass, with an occasional play > removed/countered > pass. I've thought about trying to buy a different precon or maybe finding a budget deck list on edhrec and buying that, but I'm hesitant to spend more money on a format I haven't really enjoyed or even gotten to actually play in so far.
So I guess I'm looking for advice. Have I just been playing the wrong decks? Is it because I'm bad at the game (Only about 2 years in, so this seems plausible)? Is it something else? What do I have to do to enjoy it?
What I've been enjoying is Primordial. I got the group to try it but I can tell it's not going to replace or even really augment EDH as their social format. But I dont want to be completely locked out of the social angle with my friends, so I'm determined to find a way to have fun with commander and get into it with them.
I think there are going to be a couple issues at play here. Precons are a bit on the weaker side, so your deck may be lacking in draw, protection, ramp, whatever. What doesnt help is Prosper is kind of a strong commander on his own, he does draw a decent amount of removal by himself.
I do feel cautious recommending it, but building your own deck may help out. Knowing your own deck intimately is a better experience than a precon or borrowing a deck, plus you can customize your deck to do a thing you want it to do
Any tips on that then? I really don't want to spend more than $15-20 tops (although I realize this is impossible hecause of shipping, so I guess as little as possible will have to do) and it has to function without the commander (which seems to defeat the purpose of the format but whatever) because no matter who I've played, it just gets removed to the point where the tax makes it unplayable (Kess, Muldrotha, Pantlaza, Prosper, Hakbal...several more).
Also maybe you can answer, what happens when you are technically not dead (>0 life) but can't take any useful actions? Friends seem upset when I say I'm ready to scoop, but I'm also not interested in sitting there for another hour not being able to play. I guess they want my life total to stay for damage triggers maybe? Or they think someone can come back from an empty hand and a recent board wipe?
Theres going to be no solution to the price tag, which i get. However MTG is a game of rules, and all rules are made to be broken. Yuriko and Derevi get around commander tax, so that you may still build a deck that revolves around your commander.
Technically not dead is up to you to decide whether to scoop or not.