Commander Crunch

Welcome back breakfast friendos! As Chesh departs this weekend on official trading card business, we fill the grinning Chesh-sized void with an extra special guest to share some hearty conversations with, it's none other the CMDR Central's Max Crandell! Max joins us to challenge the great trophy of longest guest feature (previously held by Jeff from MTG Lexicon), and absolutely delivers. We start with discussions on Wizards' latest announcements on Universes Beyond, including the ramifications of the Warhammer 40k and Lord of the Rings IPs being added to the game we all love, plus also muse over IPs we personally would love to see as Magic cards. We also run through Max's personal EDH philosophies as a 'tinkerer' rather than a brewer, the concept of Magic burnout and experiences of how to manage, the origin story of CMDR Central plus lessons learned over close to 250 episodes, and an incredible story about perhaps the greatest gift a magic player could ever receive (Thanks to Tim Rayburn & Ryan Peneff!) to punctuate how incredible the Magic community can be. It's a wild ride, join us as we hit the road.

You can find Max at:

and the CMDR Central podcast at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsored by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Greetings friends! This week we tackle two meaty topics with more in common than you may think... Firstly we run through the first Strixhaven offerings to be revealed this week, including the discussing the flavour of the set, what the school houses are leading on for relatability, and why Chesh feels particularly problematic with some of the trope-driven depictions of some of the school houses. On a big positive, we also run through the stunning new showcase and japanese exclusive card treatments (big thumbs up), before linking to the big topic; Mental health and how it connects with us and Magic. We discuss normalising mental help conversations, how connection through Magic has been a huge support network, and our experiences.

As mentioned in the episode, we absolutely need to reinforce that if anyone needs help whatsover to contact your relevant hotline: Lifeline if you're in Australia on 13 11 14

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsored by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Thanks for joining us at the breakfast table friends! This week we enlisted the brilliant mind of the always charming Peter aka MonoWhiteBorder to discuss building not only in mono white, but also generally to optimise enjoyment and originality. We run through the ever present topic of what exactly constitutes enjoyment for everyone at a commnder table, some discoveries from Peter's deep dives into the workings of mono white, plus even some Skeleton Ship appreciation! All that plus we cover those important ancillery influences with our guest, with chats involving competitive Mario Party, shoegaze, Morrowind and a heap of NBA discussion. It really is a cornicopia of tasty commander treats, enjoy!

You can Peter at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsored by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Greetings friends! We're taking a little intermission between guest features this week to spend some time chatting about the social contract, and showing consideration in Commander. Inspired by our previous guests the Scrap Trawlers recently, some discussions started around how do we all show kindness in commander, which led to our run through on this episode touching on our perspectives on navigating the social contract in commander, including a little about Rule Zero (we could easily do many more episodes on just that topic), and having healthy discussions to establish expectations in commander games. We run through some ways to make that discussion easier whilst establishing power levels, plus dissecting the difference between power in cards and intent of the player. We manage to cover some lofty topics, but look to continue discovering a range of perspectives on these matters as we continue our guest profiles ahead. Enjoy!

Sheldon Menery's Star City Games article about Rule 0 can be found here

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsored by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Welcome back friends! We're joined at the breakfast table this week by the brilliant Andy & Nick from Scrap Trawlers, an edh stream featuring budget deck challenges built around themes, and featuring regular guests from the commmander community. Andy & Nick have been fantastic advocates in the community for positive and creative commander play, using challenges to discover interesting cards and dynamics in the game, whilst promoting the idea that the game shouldn't be cost prohibitive for everyone to play. We hang out and chat through some great tales from the first few months of Scrap Trawlers, including interesting discoveries, bad beats, and somewhere in there we get in some solid theme park chat, with Nick admitting he was once a certified wizard at a Six Flags park. It's a good time, enjoy!

You can find Scrap Trawlers at:

You can Andy at:

You can Nick at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsored by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Greetings wizards! We're joined at the breakfast table this week by the wonderful Lenny Wooley, known around the commander community as Ajani's Gay Pridemate, to hang out and run through his never ending list of reputable and exquisitly creative deck brews and personal philosphies for cultivating fun in Commander. We also take a left down tangent lane to chat great board games, and the link that often exists to themes and concepts in playing edh with social interaction, plus we run Lenny through our profile obstacle course for some chats on everything from spooky doughnuts to a story about a hotel mixup in Vegas involving those CCO boys. It's a good one, enjoy!

You can find Lenny at:

You can also find Lenny's husband Stephen's crafty creations at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsored by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

The Crunch is back to continue exploring our magical conversations with the commander community for 2021! We welcome our favorite Canadian cracker of packs Mr Bevers to the breakfast table this week to hang out and discuss the addictive nature of the humble booster pack and our relationship with value, and his latest project of Cracking for a Cause which pairs opening packs with donating to charities. We also run through latest commander brews, with Chesh building Averna and MrB's project to build the entire set of Theros gods with the stargazing Secret Lair, and of course we run Mr Bevers through our profile questions gauntlet to explore the ancillery influences behind the man and mystery. It's good to be back, Enjoy!

You can find the great Mr Bevers at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsered by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Welcome back to the Crunch for the last time this year breakfast denizons, we made it! To end the year on the most positive note possible, we're joined by one of the most joyous smiling faces in the commander community we could think of, it's Colin o'clock! Colin hangs out with us to chat about streaming commander with a focus on creativity and positivity, our forays into the epic commander sealed league, thoughts on the first previews of Kaldheim, and wrap it all together with huge reflections on what 2020 has been personally and for commander in the form of a retrospective of the decks we've all put together this year. We also run through some concluding thoughts and some sentiments filled with gratitude and love directed at everyone who's joined us on this journey this year, as guests and listeners – thank you all so much, and here's to a strong 2021!

You can find our wonderful guest Colin o'clock at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsered by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Welcome back friends! We've got a super special guest for another mammoth episode this week, he's an exquisite alterest of cards, advocate of Brash Taunter and good times, hosts of legendary podcasts Commander Cookout and Commander AdPopulum, joining us live from the great Prairies of Saskatchewan it's Ryan Peneff! We promptly crack a beer and kick it with Ryan with chats about Australia and Canada in the global Magic scene and how it can improve, what living with nature has taught about community, and also Ryan's all time decks in the quiver. We also run through our profile questions, getting to talk some sweet Smash Bros, plus mentions of Pink Floyd and another notch to team pro-pineapple on pizza. Enjoy!

Also, bit of a language warning on this one - we go a little off the rails...

You can find Ryan and his many endeavours at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsered by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.

Welcome back friends of the breakfast table! This week we continue our explorations into the essence of edh with a very special MTG (and well, Hearthstone) community member and all round wonderful Canadian Joel, aka Enthralimund from the Hearthstone podcast Squelch! Joel brings years of magic and life experience to the table with great perspectives as an art teacher, family man, and advocate for reinforcing the positive side of why we play card games. We run through the release of Commander Collection: Green, Joel's background in Magic and Hearthstone, and what each game has taught about the other, plus philosophies on what constitutes a healthy edh game and community. We also have some fun with a little excercise based on some of the greatness that comes from Squelch! where we relate Gas station customers to Commanders, and hilarity ensues. We round it out of course with our classic profile questions, of which Joel delivers some quality content including Modest Mouse, the movie Willow, and the wacky antics of Snorlax. Enjoy!

You can find Enthralimund and Squelch! at:

Send us feedback, questions, pictures of Cephalids to [email protected], we'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on twitter at: @cmdr_crunch

Chesh's Youtube content, including Deck Techs and Commander: The Distancing Series can be found here

This Podcast is sponsered by PureMTGO.com as well as Josh & Pat's MTG Bazaar

Intro Music by our very own DJ Cheshy Chesh, purveyor of the tastiest beats.