iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

My theory: Commander is weed. It's not collapsing; it's the single most popular format in a game that made 1.7b last year. Legal weed did 29b. Both are initially novel, but the hedonic treadmill kicks in. Then we expect there to be something MORE. There isn't. This is, more or less, it.

2112

Yup! As third spaces decline, having a "group" dynamic becomes increasingly popular in gaming.

020

All depends on what people want. Commander is a social format and people respond to that for myriad reasons. Think about it if we were talking about alcohol. "Drinking optimally is at home, by yourself, because it's fastest and cheapest," misses the point that the experience is the goal.

I don't smoke weed or play Commander anymore. The former because I was self-medicating with weed for a long time. Therapy, baby! The latter because I don't really have the group to do it regularly, so it's not a social outlet. But I love thinking about both still, so those are my thoughts.

130

We thought mainstreaming would be good, and in some ways it was! Prices dropped and access was easier. But it also was subject to optimization. 30%+ THC was the weed version of power creep. Making everything stronger doesn't make it inherently better.

Weed was no longer this thing you had to know someone for, had to find little ways to signal you were "in" the community, felt like you were a part of a thing. All of a sudden, the thing you had built identity around had been commodified and adopted by the mainstream.

So when you read nesta's thread (who I think is great, btw), it's people projecting all of the ways Commander has changed for them into the reason it's falling apart. In the early '10s in Colorado, we were having the same conversation about "the culture" of cannabis.

Same with weed! People get physical/psychological benefits from it, they use it to bond with people socially, etc. Novelty wears off? People try something less predictable. 🐸🧙🍄 In that way, Cube represents the psychedelics of Magic? I don't know, just thinking out loud.

120

People who stick with Commander get something beyond the initial kick from it; they like the playgroup they're in, they have the cash to brew forever, they're successful with content, etc. Whatever it is, they're incentivized to try to push further than just the cards on the table.

130

Ether Diver @etherdiver.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

2112

Reposted by Jake Browne

I'm not part of your target demo but you should know Secrets of Strixhaven just about convinced me to start playing Arena again but then Marvel Superheroes dropped and so did my interest level. Let Magic be Magic ffs.

071

Jake Browne @brownefordenver.com · 10/07/2026

oh shit the joy of seeing that @themountaingoats.bsky.social are opening when you finally download your tickets b/c you haven't been paying attention at all. hell yeah.

010

Jake Browne @brownefordenver.com · 07/07/2026

We walked down the aisle to our friends playing The Avett Brothers. This weekend, we get to see them for the first time live. Reminding myself of this on a Tuesday because the rest of the day and week will be brutal.

170

Jake Browne @brownefordenver.com · 07/07/2026

Appreciate the kind words. I have to imagine Murdock's Crusade went through a few different iterations because of that very fact. Chrysalis' daily peak was just under 67%. Devastating for a common but Hero in Training has never posted under 60% which is wild.

3. It's so splashable. Common duals + landcyclers means that the best color (white) gets an opportunity to throw it in for damn near no cost. This really needed a second red pip in it. At 2WRR (or 1WWRR), I think it's still a very busted card, but one that can really Dream Trawler a draft.

2. It nearly guarantees your Mutiny effect has targets. Clash can be a wild blowout or a total whiff depending on their board. Now, as long as you've stolen a minimum of one thing and they haven't totally abdicated their role of playing the game, you're getting a fight.

100

Why is it so miserable? 1. Threaten effects are pretty unpopular with players. Consider how much the card file has changed: what used to be a staple for red at common. It hasn't been printed below uncommon since 2024. Designers don't want it to be your whole thing.

100

This card was a mistake. For historical context, only three of the 3,156 non-alchemy rares on Arena have EVER had a 70+% GIH win rate through the first two weeks of a format. The Super Hero Civil War is one of them.

141

Be streamlined UW/GW or greedy, ya. I would prefer the former since playing to the board on 2 is so good when other people are taking the turn off.

000

Have a token for this weekend's qualifier, but after that taking a little break until Hobbit so I can enjoy the summer.

010

I had SIX 6-2 runs which felt brutal. Being 6-0 and having 80% of my draws after turn 4 be lands (in a game that went 11 turns) felt brutal. www.17lands.com/history/d7ae... Not making a land drop for 3 turns despite scrying 4 at 6-1 was a dagger. www.17lands.com/history/d7ae...

17lands.com

17Lands.com

WU is just busted when it comes together, though, and this two rare version without a hero in training exemplifies it. Jane is great (and with a T4 John, devastating) but the deck is built on the strength of the lower rarity cards.

100

Another case where most of the time, I wanted to spend T2 cycling for a land. One of those times where opening two rare lands isn't the feelsbad it usually is. The pool: sealeddeck.tech/17lands/deck...

100

Really wanted a little interaction in this, so Frozen in Ice felt fairly free, although I think I had initially built this mana base to try to get Loki in here, too. The pool: sealeddeck.tech/17lands/deck...

100

Obviously, that Doom is WILD but this deck could play a much longer game than most traditional UW decks, so it wasn't much of an issue. You can build it yourself here: sealeddeck.tech/17lands/deck...

sealeddeck.tech

SealedDeck.Tech

100