Hey there! I’m new to paper MTG and play Commander with my playgroup. We’ve been having a debate about whether the total value of a deck really indicates how strong it is. One of my friends argues that value doesn’t equal strength, but I can’t help but wonder when I keep losing to a deck with a higher price tag than mine.
I’ve been playing 1v1 games with my friend for a few months now, so I know their deck almost as well as mine. It can be frustrating when I can predict their moves but still can’t win with my basic deck. I understand the point that a couple of expensive cards in a deck won’t guarantee a win, but when a deck is upgraded with so many pricey cards, it feels like a whole different ball game.
For reference, we both started with precons, and both upgraded. I spent $20, they spent $120+. Inputing my deck list in a deck value calculator returns $103, which is lower than their upgrade alone lol
I don’t mind losing when the match is good. I hate losing when I’m always on the backfoot and can’t do much besides hoping to survive another turn
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear different perspectives on the relationship between deck value and strength in the game.
edit: I received more responses than I expected, so I’ll need some time to go through them all and respond. Thank you in advance!
Money has an impact but is largely irrelevant outside of competitive environments which you’re clearly not in. There are $40 tuned pauper decks that could walk all over your edh deck. You can slot a $2700 Tabernacle at Pendrale Veil into any deck and that isn’t going to make it better. Are you ever going to beat a $25k fully powered blinged out cEDH deck? Probably not. But as a new player your likely issues are with building efficient mana bases, prioritizing cards that advance your game plan over being fun, and making your deck more consistent. Nobody says you’re required to do any of that, just understand what your goals are. Do you want to have fun, make friends, and/or win? None of those are a wrong reason to play magic, you just need to pick yours
You are absolutely right, and I completely forgot to mention that neither of us invested in expensive lands. I agree that focusing solely on upgrading lands wouldn’t have necessarily increased the combat power of our decks. The same goes for purchasing one large expensive card. Instead, our upgrades were aimed at improving our creatures, by swapping weaker ones for stronger ones. So, I don’t think we wasted any money on unnecessary items.
Before the upgrades, our matches were evenly matched and quite enjoyable. However, after the upgrades, I have consistently been on the losing end, never having a moment where I am able to take control and set the pace of the game. I always find myself responding to their moves, that’s why I thought about the correlation between upgrade cost and performance.
Thanks for the reply!