Topic: My First Deck- But it Keeps Losing. Any suggestions?

I built my first deck (commander) from scratch and was pretty sure it would be competitive but it got dusted all 5 games I've played. Experienced players- any ideas on how I can improve this deck?

Here's what I think is going wrong
I have too much mana.
It's a bounce deck but doesn't have enough defensive creatures or protection artifacts


Is there a strategy that I should be focused on here?

https://deckbox.org/sets/3044729

Last edited by kuhde1 (2021-11-12 00:02:12)

Re: My First Deck- But it Keeps Losing. Any suggestions?

Umm ... okay so firstly Your deck says Odric, Master Tactician is your commander? Is that right? If it is your deck is not legal.

One of the biggest parts of deck building in Commander in color identity. Your commander will have a color identity which is comprised of the colors of mana needed to cast or use its abilities. So basically you tell the color identity by looking at the color pips on a card (outside of reminder text) and that would be a cards color identity. For instant: Niv-Mizzet, Parun is red and blue; Crypt Ghast is black (because the white color symbol in the reminder text is ignored); Extus, Oriq Overlord is white, black, and red since his front side is white and black and his back side is black and red. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is all 5 colors, even though she is a red card she has an ability with all 5 colors; Odric, Master Tactician is white.

When you build a deck your deck needs to comply with the color identity of your Commander. Since Odric is white you can only have other white or colorless cards in your deck. Anything that has a blue color identity can't be in the deck. I see a lot of blue in your deck and none of these card can be in there. You will need to change your commander. Honestly Medomai the Ageless is the only legal commander in your deck right now. I don't know if you just made a mistake entering the cards in or if you didn't know, but it is a major part of deck building.

As far as your deck and how it plays, it doesn't look like there are a lot of great synergize here. I see you call your deck a bounce deck, but I don't see too many bounce targets. You want to focus on thing with good enters or leaves the battlefield effects in a bounce deck. For instance a Soulherder which gets bigger every time you bounce something of yours, Blade Splicer which gets you a 3/3 golem every time it enters the battlefield, Ranar the Ever-Watchful gets you sprits, Mulldrifter which gets you cards when it enters, or Agent of Treachery which steals things when it etbs. You want to focus on abilities like that than can be repeated over and over again. You also want a few more cards that will bounce additional things like a Conjurer's Closet or Flickerwhips or Ephemerate or Restoration Angel. It would be helpful (not necessary) if your commander also help with your synergizes. I'd look at Brago or Ranar see if you like how he works with these cards.

Remember this though, you are playing in a 4 player format. Your expected win percentage is only 25%. You are expected to lose more games than you win. Losing 5 games is not necessarily a bad thing; if you were 0-5 and then won the next 2 you are winning at a 28% and you are above your expected in percentage. What matters in how you lose. Were you about to win and couldn't close out the game? Were you blown out and you did not stand a chance? Did you feel your deck has a particular weakness that was exploited? These are the types of questions should be asking when gaging how your deck is playing b/c win/lose is not a great metric in this type of format.