The Pre-Game Podcast by WZKD-

Craig Mack WZKD
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The PREGAME Podcast is your weekly competitive Commander briefing hosted by Craig Mack of WZKD Games. Every Monday, Craig breaks down the biggest stories in cEDH, including tournament results, emerging decklists, metagame shifts, new card technology, spoiler season reactions, and the community conversations everyone is talking about. Whether you're preparing for your next tournament, looking for the latest cEDH tech, or just trying to stay ahead of the meta, PREGAME delivers fast-paced analysis, hot takes, deck discussions, and event coverage from across the competitive Commander landscape.

  1. 6d ago

    Sam Black: cEDH Deckbuilding, Rograkh & Thrasios | Pregame Ep. 21

    Sam Black joins the Pregame Podcast to talk cEDH deckbuilding, the brewer’s edge, and how Rograkh and Thrasios keeps evolving. Can an unfamiliar deck outperform the established best deck? And what does your list do when three opponents shut down Plan A? SUPPORT PREGAME ON PATREONEnjoy the interviews, tournament coverage, and deck discussions? Help support the show and what we’re building at WZKD Games:https://www.patreon.com/c/WZKDGAMES IN EPISODE 21 Sam’s approach to finding overlooked cards and building through interaction.How a viewer’s Oboro Breezecaller suggestion changed Rograkh and Thrasios.Tournament draws, seat order, incentives, and the community trust that makes competitive Commander work.Sam’s case against fetchlands, plus an unforgettable childhood Ancestral Recall trade.Duncan Gilchrist winning MBG Commanderpalooza #3 and Harley Anderson winning the Cian Colony Memorial Tournament 4, both on Blue Farm.Two different approaches to Tymna and Kraum, plus The Wandering Minstrel’s third-place finish.Upcoming cEDH events: Rocket City Liftoff and Yapsgiving.If you enjoy the episode, hit like, subscribe, and tell us: what overlooked card deserves another look in cEDH? PUSH TO 10KWe’re kicking off our Push to 10K giveaway next week. Full details are coming in the announcement. Stay tuned! SAM’S TABLE — SAM BLACK ON YOUTUBEhttps://www.youtube.com/@samuelhblack EVENTS YOU SHOULD BE ATRocket City Liftoff — Huntsville, AlabamaNovember 7 weekend; two-day cEDH schedule. Prize payouts scale with attendance.https://topdeck.gg/event/rocket-city-liftoff Yapsgiving cEDH 10K — Provo, UtahNovember 7–8, 2026. Saturday at Utah Valley Convention Center; Sunday’s cut moves to Riftgate.https://topdeck.gg/event/yapsgiving-10k Check the organizer listings for current registration, schedules, prize structures, and proxy requirements. CONNECT WITH PREGAME & WZKD GAMESAll our links: https://linktr.ee/CraigmackPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/WZKDGAMESWZKD Games: https://wzkdgames.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wzkdgamesDiscord: https://discord.gg/c5cCuSPtdYInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wzkdgamesTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craig.mackmtgX: https://x.com/craig_mackFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/wzkdgamesTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/wzkdgmz cEDH coaching with Andrei: andrei.blanton@gmail.com #cEDH #SamBlack #MTG

    Sam Black: cEDH Deckbuilding, Rograkh & Thrasios | Pregame Ep. 21

  2. Oct 20

    From the cEDH Table to Real Life: Problem-Solving with Adam Holmes

    What does solving a tough Magic problem have in common with figuring out your next move in life? Adam Holmes of F6 Supplies joins Craig Mack for Episode 20 of the Pregame Podcast for a conversation about problem-solving in Magic: The Gathering, business, and life beyond the table. We talk Magic, cEDH, and the story behind F6, one of my favorite stops at any tournament. From the lightbox to the playmats and accessories, Adam brings a lot to this community. And those charging banks? I own two. My phone gets more backup plans than my deck does. Plus, we break down the weekend’s cEDH results from Pamplona and Fort Wayne, with Arcum Dagsson and Krark/Thrasios taking home the wins. Then it’s Tournaments You Should Be At, featuring Houston, Yapsgiving, Decatur, and Tacoma. What’s one lesson from Magic you’ve actually used outside the game? Let us know in the comments. Like, subscribe, and share this episode with your tournament travel buddy. Your support helps us keep bringing great people and great conversations to the Pregame. F6 SUPPLIEShttps://shopf6.com/ TABLE READY CARDShttps://tablereadycards.com/ SUPPORT THE SHOWWZKD Games Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/WZKDGAMES ALL OUR LINKSCraig Mack’s socials, content, and more:https://linktr.ee/Craigmack WZKD Games:https://wzkdgames.com/ YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WZKDGAMES cEDH coaching with Andrei Blanton:andrei.blanton@gmail.com TOURNAMENT RESULTS & WINNING DECKLISTS CEDH Norte: Pamplonahttps://topdeck.gg/event/cedh-norte-bilbao-zaragoza-pamplona Sendoa Cardiel’s Arcum Dagsson:https://topdeck.gg/deck/cedh-norte-bilbao-zaragoza-pamplona/egYwSEzhLIhHbw0OZnZg9kx0dBj2 Perfect Storm: Tabernacle 10Khttps://topdeck.gg/event/perfect-storm-comins-games-tabernacle-10k Ethan / Pickle_poltergeist’s Krark & Thrasios:https://topdeck.gg/deck/perfect-storm-comins-games-tabernacle-10k/F7oWrpk8MANUVKbpgzidjrj3Ia93 TOURNAMENTS YOU SHOULD BE AT Houston CCS Qualifier | October 24–25, 2026https://topdeck.gg/event/css-20000-cedh-invitational-qualifier-6 Yapsgiving | November 7–8, 2026https://topdeck.gg/event/yapsgiving-10k Decatur Deathmatch | November 7–8, 2026https://topdeck.gg/event/the-decatur-deathmatch Brainstorm, Tacoma | November 21–22, 2026https://topdeck.gg/event/brainstorm-tacomas-cedh-open-10k Check each organizer’s current registration, venue, prize details, and proxy policy before making plans. #cEDH #MTG #Commander

    From the cEDH Table to Real Life: Problem-Solving with Adam Holmes

  3. Oct 14 ·  Bonus

    They Saw Vraska. They Didn’t See Magda Coming. | cEDH Deck Tech

    We have Storm-Kiln Artist at home. Apparently, we also have tournament wins. I recently won a LandGO Qualifier with Vraska, Soul of Stone—and in this Pregame Podcast deck tech, I’m breaking down the list, the mulligans, and how all those Treasures turn into wins. From the top down, it looks like Rog/Ishai. Behind the wheel, it’s a midrange control deck that builds draw engines, fights over the stack, and saves up for an explosive turn. We’re covering: 🍔 Why Vraska is our “Storm-Kiln Artist at home” 💰 Treasure engines, haste enablers, Academy Manufactor, and Xorn 🤫 Silence effects and choosing your window to win 🔥 Underworld Breach and the secret Magda plan 🐉 Niv-Mizzet, Hullbreaker Horror, and alternate finishes 🃏 Draw engines, clones, and what makes an opening hand worth keeping And yes—we’re talking about the game where I tutor-chained into a Breach line DURING a stack battle with Niv-Mizzet already on the battlefield. You should have seen their faces. Priceless. 📋 FULL DECKLIST: https://moxfield.com/decks/iLagAXcOXnScboVvDDLv5Q Would you sleeve up Vraska? Drop your questions and card suggestions in the comments, and subscribe to The Pregame Podcast for more cEDH deck techs, tournament talk, and interviews. Clown on the commander if you want. You’re about to Vraska ’round and find out. #cEDH #MTG #Vraska

    They Saw Vraska. They Didn’t See Magda Coming. | cEDH Deck Tech

  4. Oct 13

    What Makes a Great cEDH Player? | Drake Academy & Team Monolith

    What separates a great cEDH player from someone with a powerful deck? Jordan and Lily Drake of Drake Academy and Team Monolith join Craig Mack and Andrei to talk coaching, tournament preparation, threat assessment, and the future of competitive Commander. Also: what happens when the person standing between you and the top cut is the person you married? On Episode 19 of the Pregame Podcast, we get into the decisions, practice habits, and honest feedback that help players improve—and why being competitive doesn’t mean making everyone at the table miserable. IN THIS EPISODE: • The mistakes Jordan and Lily see when coaching cEDH players• Mulligans, threat assessment, and trusting your decisions• How Team Monolith practices, reviews games, and develops players• Competing against your spouse—and surviving the ride home• Teamwork, tournament integrity, and the line between preparation and collusion• What cEDH needs from tournament rules, qualification, and championship events• The weekend’s tournament report and Events You Should Be At And yes, Craig may need professional help learning to win before turn eight. Fortunately, this time we mean coaching. 👇 What’s holding YOUR cEDH game back: mulligans, threat assessment, table politics, or knowing when to go for the win? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe to the Pregame Podcast for cEDH interviews, tournament reports, deck discussions, and more Magic: The Gathering. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━SUPPORT & FOLLOW THE PREGAME━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WZKD Games Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/WZKDGAMES Craig Mack — all socials, content & links:https://linktr.ee/Craigmack WZKD Games:https://wzkdgames.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━cEDH COACHING WITH ANDREI BLANTON━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Want help tuning your deck, improving your decisions, or preparing for your next tournament? Coaching inquiries: andrei.blanton@gmail.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━TABLE READY CARDS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Check out Table Ready Cards:https://tablereadycards.com/password ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━DRAKE ACADEMY — JORDAN & LILY━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Watch Drake Academy on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlFNc9TrgcE Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/drakeacademymtg/ X:https://x.com/DrakeAcademyMTG Discord:https://discord.gg/F8DsU3UUsU Jordan’s Moxfield:https://moxfield.com/users/JordanDrakeAcademy Lily’s Moxfield:https://moxfield.com/users/HellaLily ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━TEAM MONOLITH━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Website:https://monolithmtg.gg/ YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@MonolithMTG X:https://x.com/Monolith_MTG ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━PRISMARI DECKLIST━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ View the Prismari deck on Moxfield:https://moxfield.com/decks/zC5McfdD0EWpvKa8agS9bA #cEDH #MTG #Commander

    What Makes a Great cEDH Player? | Drake Academy & Team Monolith

  5. Oct 8 ·  Bonus

    BIG DACK ENERGY! Mono-White’s Brutal Win Combo | Dack Fayden cEDH Deck Tech

    Six mana. One commander. Anybody have a response? Dack Fayden, Helping Hand brings BIG DACK ENERGY to cEDH—a mono-white combo deck built to turn its commander into a game-ending chain of creature loops and dungeon triggers. This is the deck Etali, Ang, and Gyruda wish they could be. With the combo pieces available and the loop protected, we’re skipping the suspense and getting straight to your opponents picking up their cards. 🔗 DECKLIST ON MOXFIELD:https://moxfield.com/decks/1QmhAfnYGnurqbK_6yKB7w 🔗 ALL OUR LINKS — SOCIALS, CONTENT & WAYS TO SUPPORT:https://linktr.ee/Craigmack In this Pregame Podcast deck tech, we break down:• How Dack’s creature package builds the winning loop• Fast mana and explosive turn-one and turn-two possibilities• Setting up a turn-three win attempt• Stax pieces and creature removal that buy you time• Silence effects and protecting your combo• Which opening hands to keep—and when to mulligan• The counters, bounce spells, and disruption you need to respect Mono-white. An extremely direct game plan. The confidence of a guy blasting Creed in a modified Camaro. Would you bring Dack to a tournament—or are you already holding up interaction? Tell us below. Subscribe to Pregame Podcast for more cEDH deck techs, tournament reports, and competitive Commander conversations. #cEDH #MTG #DackFayden

    BIG DACK ENERGY! Mono-White’s Brutal Win Combo | Dack Fayden cEDH Deck Tech

  6. Oct 6

    Stop Blaming Your Deck: Getting Better at cEDH ft. Logan from CriticalEDH

    Is your deck holding you back—or is it how you’re playing it? Logan from CriticalEDH joins Craig Mack to talk cEDH strategy, threat assessment, better practice, and turning tournament experience into better decisions. Welcome to Episode 18 of the Pregame Podcast! We’re getting into competitive Commander, the community that keeps us coming back, and why “just get more reps” isn’t the whole answer. I played 141 games of cEDH in one month. That’s a number you say proudly to your playgroup—and very quietly to your wife. Logan and I discuss how the Crit League helped get me hooked, what players can learn from established meta decks, and when loyalty to your favorite commander becomes staying together for the sleeves. IN THIS EPISODE:• Meaningful practice, online leagues, and improving at cEDH• Threat assessment, table politics, and when to spend interaction• Mastering one deck versus learning multiple strategies• Off-meta brewing and understanding why the best decks work• Logan’s Even Flow Krark–Thrasios brew• Welcoming new players and growing the cEDH community• Tournament standards, transparency, and honest prize support• Baked Ziti 4 and Mulligan Championship Series tournament reports• BIG DACK ENERGY: our Dack Fayden deck tech• Sunshine Showdown: last call for October 10–11, 2026 Logan has opinions. I have follow-up questions. Neither of us knows how to leave it at “yeah, fair enough.” 👇 What improved YOUR game the most: mastering one deck, trying different decks, coaching, or reviewing your mistakes? PREGAME PODCAST — FOLLOW & SUPPORT All our links, socials, and content:https://linktr.ee/Craigmack Support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/WZKDGAMES CRITICAL EDH — FOLLOW, PLAY & SUPPORT Official links, YouTube, socials, and league information:https://linktr.ee/CriticalEDH Join the CriticalEDH Discord:https://discord.gg/rkrJsqy8HD CriticalEDH Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/CriticalEDH Ad Naus — cEDH community discussions:https://adnaus.gg cEDH coaching directory:https://pregame.gg BIG DACK ENERGY — DACK FAYDEN cEDH DECK TECH Watch the full deck tech:https://youtu.be/nanBy6ZBnv4 My decklist on Moxfield:https://moxfield.com/decks/1QmhAfnYGnurqbK_6yKB7w TOURNAMENT REPORTS Baked Ziti 4:https://edhtop16.com/tournament/baked-ziti-4-goldsabertooths-ny-cedh Mulligan Championship Series:https://edhtop16.com/tournament/mulligan-championship-series-october-w-guaranteed EVENTS YOU SHOULD BE AT Sunshine Showdown — October 10–11, 2026Coconut Creek, FloridaEvent details and registration:https://topdeck.gg/event/sunshine-showdown-cedh-tournament Subscribe to Pregame Podcast for cEDH interviews, tournament reports, deck techs, and conversations about the future of competitive Commander. #cEDH #MTG #Commander

    Stop Blaming Your Deck: Getting Better at cEDH ft. Logan from CriticalEDH

  7. Oct 5 ·  Bonus

    This Witherbloom Deck WON Breach the Bay 2 | cEDH Deck Tech

    Seven straight wins. A Breach the Bay 2 Open victory. And yes… Lurking Predators.Craig Mack sits down with Andrei Blanton to break down Witherbloom, the Balancer—a Golgari cEDH deck built around creature engines, instant-speed combos, and some absolutely BASED card choices.Andrei explains the strategy behind his tournament-winning build, the changes he’s made since, and how this deck turns an innocent-looking board into a table-ending problem. From Corpse Dance loops to Sprout Swarm combos, we walk through how the pieces work—and when to go for the win.IN THIS DECK TECH:• Why Andrei chose midrange over turbo• How to build your board and when to cast Witherbloom• Corpse Dance, Entomb, and Eternal Witness combo lines• Sprout Swarm combos and their different outlets• Razaketh and Hoarding Broodlord tutor chains• Why Lurking Predators earned its slot• K’rrik, Chatterfang, Yawgmoth, and Warren Soultrader synergies• Removal, table politics, and winning at instant speedDECKLIST + PRIMERhttps://moxfield.com/decks/05oZVnIK4EOL5O3A6osldQQUESTIONS & cEDH COACHINGWant help piloting Witherbloom or taking your cEDH game to the next level? Reach out to Andrei Blanton for deck questions and coaching:andrei.blanton@gmail.comFOLLOW CRAIG MACK / WZKD GAMESFind our socials, streams, and more:https://linktr.ee/CraigmackCHAPTERS00:00 Meet the Breach the Bay 2-winning deck01:53 From abandoned brew to tournament winner06:21 The Beledros Witherbloom origins10:55 Witherbloom, the Balancer explained15:30 Token engines and creature synergies19:11 Lurking Predators is absolutely BASED23:48 When should you cast your commander?26:57 Braids, card advantage, and table politics32:34 Disruptive creatures and stax34:10 K’rrik and Corpse Dance synergies39:04 Chatterfang and Warren Soultrader41:00 Opposition Agent and Wandering Archaic44:00 Tutors and sorcery choices50:26 Removal and the interaction package59:09 How the deck wins1:00:07 Corpse Dance combo walkthrough1:04:43 Sprout Swarm combos1:09:17 Hoarding Broodlord combo walkthrough1:12:20 Razaketh ties it all together1:13:08 Strengths of the deck1:15:26 Coaching and closing thoughtsWhat’s the most BASED card in this list—and would you sleeve up Witherbloom? Let us know in the comments.Like the video and subscribe for more cEDH deck techs, tournament breakdowns, and the Pregame Podcast:https://www.youtube.com/@WZKDGAMES#cEDH #Witherbloom #MTG

    This Witherbloom Deck WON Breach the Bay 2 | cEDH Deck Tech

  8. Sep 30

    How the Best cEDH Player Thinks | Evan Pierce of MTG Basics

    Evan Pierce of MTG Basics joins Pregame Podcast to talk winning at cEDH, his approach to Kinnan, tournament mindset, and the future of competitive Commander. He’s my pick for the best player in the world, a good friend, and apparently incapable of letting me win at foosball. MTG Basics is one of my favorite channels, and this conversation shows why. Evan makes you think differently about the game—between opportunities to make fun of me. In Episode 17, we get into:• Evan’s life outside Magic and how he found cEDH• Tournament preparation, mulligans, and playing without letting results get in your head• Table politics, threat assessment, and making deals that actually make sense• Kinnan’s place in the meta and the “little flips” build• Rhystic Study, Samut, and where the format goes next• F6 Supply and Evan’s projects outside the command zone PLUS: Tournament Report returns with results from the CCS Invitational Qualifier and Ohio cEDH: Highlander 3—meta share, Top 16 conversion rates, Top 4 pilots, and my patented HAT TIP to the winners. And our Dumpster of the Week? Kinnan. Fifteen entries across both events. Zero Top 16s. We invite Evan on to explain why the deck is good, and the deck immediately requests legal representation. We also cover Events You Should Be At, including the Black Lotus Invitational qualifier I’m hosting at WZKD Games and why you should get involved with Land Go’s Commander Invitational series. I went to the Invitational in Nashville and loved it. It’s cEDH MagicCon—and I want more players and stores to be part of it. What’s the best piece of cEDH advice you’ve ever received? Drop it in the comments. EVAN PIERCE & MTG BASICSSubscribe to MTG BasicsShop F6 Supply cEDH COACHING WITH ANDREI BLANTONWant to sharpen your game? Contact Andrei for cEDH coaching:andrei.blanton@gmail.com SUPPORT & JOIN THE PREGAME COMMUNITYPatreonJoin our DiscordCraig Mack’s Linktree EVENTS YOU SHOULD BE ATWZKD Games Black Lotus Invitational Qualifier — come play, I’m hosting!Land Go Events — learn about the series, find qualifiers, and get your store involved TOURNAMENT RESULTSCCS Invitational QualifierOhio cEDH: Highlander 3 Subscribe to Pregame Podcast for cEDH interviews, tournament reports, deck talk, and questionable jokes delivered with unreasonable confidence. #cEDH #MagicTheGathering #Commander

    How the Best cEDH Player Thinks | Evan Pierce of MTG Basics
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The PREGAME Podcast is your weekly competitive Commander briefing hosted by Craig Mack of WZKD Games. Every Monday, Craig breaks down the biggest stories in cEDH, including tournament results, emerging decklists, metagame shifts, new card technology, spoiler season reactions, and the community conversations everyone is talking about. Whether you're preparing for your next tournament, looking for the latest cEDH tech, or just trying to stay ahead of the meta, PREGAME delivers fast-paced analysis, hot takes, deck discussions, and event coverage from across the competitive Commander landscape.

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