I was recently in a game against Shilinda Yevan Acolyte, and I gotta tell you, she was kind of an overperformer, like she came in clutch.

You might say that when you're in need, Shilinda Hand. Hey, it's Joey, welcome back to the channel.

Let's get EDA tracked. And let's talk about Brackett 1 1 and still yourself because it's going to be kind of a tough conversation.

I've previously done some videos investigating some of the nuances of various brackets,

from exploring practical examples of a deck at each bracket to showcasing the rate of user-selected brackets according to the data.

As part of those videos, I've seen a lot of comments about bracket 1 specifically and have experimented a little bit more with bracket 1 in my own time as well. So I've basically been sitting on just a whole lot of thoughts about bracket 1 for a while now. And since CommandZone recently did a video about the cool parts of both Bracket 4 and Bracket 1, this feels to me like it might be the right time to actually take some of my abstract thoughts just rolling around in my head and give them some proper analysis.

I've probably called this video like the Bracket 1 problem, but is it actually a problem?

Are the issues that I'm about to discuss just growing pains? Or is there something structural about how Commander gets played that makes Brackett 1 feel kind of awkward no matter how good the intentions are.

Well, to even begin answering any of those questions, we have to take a step back and look at the brackets themselves and what players actually expect from them when they sit down at the table.

All right, so Context Part 1. And I know a lot of people will know this already, but let's just make sure we're all on the same page here.

The bracket system has five distinct categories of deck that serve as a very broad way for players to begin to identify a pod of like-minded players to better align with what's going to bring that group the best time in a game. Bracket 5, for instance, is the highest power of decks that you can imagine. And you wouldn't want to bring a Bracket 3 deck, which is much more measured in its power, to a pod with all fives, or vice versa, because that type of mismatch wouldn't make for the most dynamic or satisfying game.

Bracket 1 is in many ways the meme tier. A decks like this prioritize shiggles. They prioritize creative expression at the expense of being good.

I saw someone on Reddit make a really good comparison, actually,

that this is a lot like the architect deck building challenges that happen every month,

which linked below for anyone interested.

But yeah, in those, it's not that you're trying to win a game.

Imagine it more like you're trying to win over a judge's panel based off of how well you committed to the bit or leaned into

the gimmick. Think of like a Socrates all philosophy deck where you're playing like stoic

rebuttal. Or linked below, I have a reading the card explains the card deck where all of the

cards are textless or confusing or lying to you. Or another one that I've been working on is

everything reminds me of him.

A deck that contains a bunch of cards like deep wood and colossal plow and portable hole.

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