Like many others I use EDHREC for card ideas when building decks. This got me thinking - does it essentially reinforce itself?
Often times I pick many of recommended cards that others have chosen with a given commander - which in turn reinforces those cards as synergistic cards for that particular commander. Note: I build using moxfield (which I believe is used as a data source for EDHREC). More recently I've been using scryfall as an additional resource for deckbuliding, and I was really surprised how many cards that work well with a particular commander / archetype are not listed on EDHREC.
Don't get me wrong, I still think EDHREC is a wonderful tool, but now I wonder if it's essentially narrowing down the cards that people consider when building EDH decks due to it's reinforcement loops.
Thoughts?
Yeah it totally is reducing deck diversity overall, but it’s also benefiting the brewers who care about deck diversity. Like if I don’t want to build another good stuff version of some commander, EDHRec helps me figure out what’s a novelty and what’s a staple.
Plus the salt scores are directionally helpful, as someone who tries to consider overall table fun.