While the statement in the OP is true, have you considered Pauper? If I understand correctly, while I haven't built a Pauper deck yet, the limitations on card rarity should make it very possible to build a strong deck without spending too much. There's also proxies, which cost a fraction of real cards and shpuld be good enough to play with

maybe mtggoldfish on yt with their brewer's kitchen and against the odds playlists

Powercreep is real. I'm just fresh out of a precons-only match where each one was two years newer than the previous one and the most recent one won with overwhelming advantage, the one in the middle did something and the oldest one did nothing

I don't even play standard, but I've seen it and this is amazing news

I checked out MPC and their prices look very, very good, especially if you're getting a lot of cards, like I am. Thanks for the suggestion!

Oh, I hadn't considered the impact of tariffs, I guess I should wait and see how it evolves. Still, their prices are very good, so I'll keep MPC in mind and check out the other one you suggested. Thanks!

I like this! I'll build a Pauper Commander deck around it

oh, I didn't know that the cards are tagged like that. Nice! That answers my question, hopefully there's at least one swamp with angels in the art! appreciated, thanks!

MTG is our first TCG so it's definitely not that lol we like big boards and spells, we're actually few people so we don't really play super competitive, make many mistakes, and games take way too long (around twice as long compared to what WoTC say about Commander games' duration) lol

Yes, I guess that's what I meant! In my playgroup we're all new to MTG and I've noticed that everyone almost always taps out all mana (unless they have a removal/counterspell in hand), me included.

I should probably start avoiding going all-in like you do, to reduce both how I'm perceived by others and the resources I commit up until the boardwipe. I guess it can be a proper strategy, thanks!

You do have to like the commander and what it does (and the singleton and multiplayer format), but it sounds like you don't have the time to find out what that is, since yours get removed often and quickly. Getting obliterated is never fun, even when you love the format and the commander

If they have only high power decks, yeah you're better off trying to find a new-ish commander and proxy a whole deck around that. Keep in mind that usually older precons are pretty underpowered compared to newer cards. Still, since you sound new to EDH they could at least make an effort once and either borrow a precon or build something low power with the spare cards they have, if possible.

this is definitely what I'm doing. I did get a UB precon once, but it was before they shifted to UB being half the sets. not going to get any more UB stuff, on principle

Honestly just consider proxying the cards; after having spent a bit too much on colored paper I'm realizing that buying actual cards is nothing more than cosmetic (if you only play with friends). That way you can try out ALL the cards you feel like trying, without wasting money.

You can either print the full card with this site (https://mtgprint.net/) or an ever more ink-saving version with this one (https://playtestproxies.com/).

Of course always keep in mind the power level of the decks used in your group and ask them if they're okay with it.

Regarding your OP, it sounds like your pod is playing at a level higher than precon; when we play precons only we see maybe two single-target removals and maaaybe one boardwipe, which is normal since stock precons have very little removal. Ask them to bring precons next time

I'm new-ish, why give Deathtouch to an equipment? I mean, what kind of equipment could benefit from it?

Yes, I meant what you wrote in your second paragraph! Holding back something to not pull ahead too far and get all eyes on you. The T1 Sol Ring is a great example because one of us seems to be drawing it early so much more often than the others that we do often keep removals ready for whatever is coming out lol

You're right, very deck-dependent! One of us runs a heavily upgraded Pantlaza precon that's basically all creatures, and once they managed to win even after three board wipes even though they kept casting ALL creatures they could lol

So, yeah, I can see how overextending after you get to 7 devotion can leave you empty-handed when the wipe comes. Definitely something I'll keep in mind in future!

That's great haha very carefully managing how you look to others while actually assembling the pieces for your win is whay I was initially thinking about! But now I understand that in a casual setting I'd be better just playing, altough a bit smarter without going all-in at every turn, otherwise I'd be sitting there doing the bare minimum and watching others play. In a tournament is a great strategy, you're literally playing to win, in a casual group like mine winning is a good result but not the only objective

We do, would be nice to make games a bit shorter but I guess that will come with better decks and more experience with what we're playing haha

Love it

What do you more experienced players think of this? I'm kinda bad but this tiering doesn't really fit my decks, as it puts 9/10 into T1 and the tenth one above T2 but below T3 because it's got one "game changer" even though it's definitely not my best-performing deck