How the Salt Score Works
The salt score on your Commander Bracket Calculator results measures how frustrating your deck is to sit across from, as rated by the Commander community. It is a table-feel signal for the pre-game Rule 0 conversation. It never changes your bracket verdict.
Where the numbers come from
Every year EDHREC runs a community salt survey in which thousands of Commander players rate individual cards on a 0–4 scale: how unpleasant is this card to play against? A 0 means nobody minds it; a 4 would mean everyone at the table hates it. Highlights from the top of the current list:
| Card | Salt rating (0–4) | Why people groan |
|---|---|---|
| Stasis | 3.06 | Nobody untaps; the game stops being a game |
| Winter Orb | 2.96 | Everyone's lands wake up one at a time |
| Tergrid, God of Fright | 2.80 | Your sacrifices and discards become her permanents |
| Rhystic Study | 2.73 | “Do you pay the one?” × 200 |
| Armageddon | 2.67 | All lands are destroyed; someone shuffles up early |
| Cyclonic Rift | 2.36 | One card undoes everyone else's whole game |
Our engine tracks 158 high-salt cards drawn from the survey's rankings, including its full current top 100, from Stasis at 3.06 down to Cursed Totem at 1.02. Every other card counts as zero: salt only measures a specific list of community-identified offenders, and says nothing about the rest of your deck.
How we compute your deck's score
We sum the salt ratings of every rated card in your deck (multiplied by copy count, which in singleton Commander is almost always one). A deck with no rated cards scores 0. One exception: decks built around Infect get a flat +15 added, because the strategy itself is the feel-bad part regardless of which individual cards deliver it.
A worked example: a deck running these six staples and nothing else from the list:
| Card | Rating |
|---|---|
| Stasis | 3.06 |
| Winter Orb | 2.96 |
| Rhystic Study | 2.73 |
| Thassa's Oracle | 2.59 |
| Smothering Tithe | 2.58 |
| Cyclonic Rift | 2.36 |
| Deck salt score | 16.3 |
That deck shows 16.3 in the stats row and gets a “High salt (16)” chip in the Table Talk panel. So a “high” total usually means six to eight of the community's least favorite staples, or two or three of the infamous ones plus support.
What the thresholds mean
| Deck total | What you see | Read it as |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 14.9 | Number only, no flag | Normal Commander seasoning. Every deck runs a little salt. |
| 15 – 29.9 | “High salt” chip (amber) | Worth a sentence in your Rule 0 talk: “I'm running stax pieces / heavy taxes.” |
| 30+ | “High salt” chip (red) | The deck's play pattern is the point of contention. Expect groans; pick your pod accordingly. |
Below the stats row, the Saltiest Cards section lists your five worst offenders with their individual ratings, so you can see which cards drive the number, and which swaps would lower it fastest.
Salt is not power
The salt score has zero effect on your bracket verdict. It does not feed the goldfish clock, the combo detection, the Game Changers count, or any bracket floor. The two axes measure different things, and they frequently disagree:
- A pillow-fort Bracket 2 deck running Stasis, Winter Orb, and Propaganda can be perfectly fair on power and still miserable to play against: high salt, low bracket.
- A cEDH deck that wins through a quiet two-card combo with protection can be a Bracket 5 monster with a modest salt score — nobody groans, everybody loses.
We report salt next to the verdict, not inside it. The bracket tells your pod how strong the deck is; the salt score tells them how it will feel to play against.
Common questions
- “Why is my low-power deck flagged high salt?” Because salt measures play pattern, not strength. Mass land destruction, resource taxes, and lock pieces annoy people at every power level.
- “Card X annoys my pod — why isn't it counted?” We only score the 158 cards we track from the community survey, where thousands of votes separate genuine offenders from personal grudges. Anything not on that list counts zero here.
- “Should I cut cards to lower it?” Only if your pod's fun matters more than the cards do. The score is there to make that conversation concrete.