Commander Deck Overview
I was inspired to put this into writing when I realized that I thoroughly enjoy my current Commander decks. I don’t think that’s always a given, especially once the number of decks you maintain begins to inflate. Sometimes you find yourself building decks just for the hell of it, or just to highlight some specific or unusual interaction (especially as a “Johnny”). These decks may be good for one or two games before you come to the sad realization that they are too repetitive or not actually enjoyable to play after the novelty wears off. I’ll admit that some of my decks fell into this category, and I’m really hoping that my current Lavinia list doesn’t suffer from this phenomena. Only time will tell, I’ve enjoyed it thus far and it has felt alright in the handful of games I’ve played. I also feel that others enjoy the novelty despite that novelty being infect-related. More on that later…
What I want to do here is lay out my decks’ game plans and strategies, some of the game-winning combos (if any), and highlight what I enjoy about each of them. I also want to note some of my failed/retired decks and explore why they weren’t enjoyable or why I retooled them. As you read through this, you will come to see the two main archetypes I enjoy are control and spellslinger, as well as combos. I am a big believer that control decks should contain combo finishes in contrast to winning through attrition, which is generally a miserable experience.
For those of you familiar with the player psychographics, I am mainly a Johnny, so to me games are more about doing a thing or proving a thing than winning at any cost. I also must state that I am at my core a blue-white/Azorius mage, but I desire the chaos of blue-red/Izzet when playing games. These labels won’t mean much to non-Magic players but color identity is useful in many situations to understand a person’s/character’s motives and aspirations (I have this old MTG color pie quiz saved for a reason, I highly recommend it for creating characters and giving them consistent motives and traits). But enough foreplay, let’s start with a chronological list of my Commander decks.
Wizard Tribal, ETB Value, Clones
For my first foray into the EDH format, I bought the C17 Inalla precon. She has gone through many upgrades and recently a huge shift into full copying shenanigans. For a long stint she was filled with combos and tutors, and that was not as fun as I would’ve liked. Despite containing several different combos, often the most straightforward win would be to tutor up Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame. So I cut all the good tutors (Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Grim Tutor, and even Spellseeker) and most combos (Wanderwine Prophets doesn’t have another home, let’s be honest).
Now she capitalizes on Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge to ping people down with all the wizards from Inalla’s triggered ability and cards like Reflections of Littjara, Molten Echoes, and Flameshadow Conjuring. The deck is much more punchy, even including Dire Fleet Ravager to soften up those life totals.
What I like about this deck is the shenanigans you can pull off, such as aiming for a high-roll on Mirror March. The wizard ETB effects can be marginal, but they really add up when you get 3+ copies (not to mention Panharmonicon to double the effect). Ghitu Journeymage can do an absurd amount of damage if the stars align.
And of course this deck holds a special place as my first commander deck, despite going through many changes. It’s in an enjoyable spot now, and I’m glad I can pull it out at random 7-8 power level tables, which is not something I could say for the combo/tutor variant. I actively didn’t want to play the deck at a certain point, since it was just a race to combo out, and the tutors were too consistent. There’s something to be said for disarming a deck, compared to the natural progression of slowly adding stronger cards to a deck over time. One card every few sets and you may have accidentally optimized the fun out of your deck. Just something to consider for non-Spikes out there.
Blink, ETB value, Topdeck Manipulation, Control
I didn’t buy the precon for this one, but Aminatou’s ETB synergy called to me so I cobbled together my own version. I like to contrast this with other popular ETB/Blink commanders, in particular Roon. The obvious difference is that you swap Green for Black, which means less ETB ramp in exchange for ETB creature destruction. To make things more interesting, I also leaned into the topdeck manipulation theme of Aminatou with some Miracle cards. I recently splurged for a Sensei’s Divining Top (it dipped in price with the Double Masters printing, in my defense), which I expect to be very strong (I have yet to draw it in my Aminatou games).
The deck itself is quite controlly, packing a whopping 8 single-target removal effects and 7 mass removal effects (Primaris Eliminator pulls double-duty here). Board wipes are often a good pair with Planeswalker commanders since most board wipes hit non-Planeswalker permanents. Aminatou has additional synergy with Miracle cards like Devastation Tide and Terminus, so the deck is quite interconnected despite having two seemingly disparate main themes.
I feel that this deck is fairly strong and has enough interaction to keep other decks in check. As any good control deck does, there are some infinite combos I can assemble to end the game succinctly, rather than drag the game out after a board wipe. The typical combo is Felidar Guardian, Aminatou, and some payoff for things entering/leaving the battlefield: Altar of the Brood, Corpse Knight, or Vela the Night-Clad. With Spark Double in place of Felidar Guardian I can’t use the creature-specific payoffs, so it can only be paired with Altar of the Brood. The deck can create a threatening board state with Entreat the Angels or Sepulchral Primordial to achieve a more normal, combat-based win. But mostly it wants to generate value from ETB effects and be the deck at the table that has an answer to the question “does someone have removal for that?”
Spellslinger, Voltron, Spell Copying
In the run-up to C21 and Ikoria I was on the prowl for a spellslinger commander, and also for a commander with Green in its color identity (I had seen the power that is ramp, and was quite jealous). I got exactly what I wanted, and it was an Elemental Dinosaur to boot! Unfortunately Kalamax goes infinite with the slightest breeze, but I choose not to take those lines unless I have some other payoff (such as Ral, Storm Conduit) on board that would also end the game. Jori En, Ruin Diver and Kykar, Wind’s Fury were two other commanders I was looking at, but Kalamax was spoiled at just the right time. It was love at first sight.
The deck wants to copy spells for value, but I’ve found that most of the time I have to bring my own. So I’ve cut down on the Twinspell/Reiterate/Fork effects and opted to have lots of instants of my own to copy. This requires Kalamax to be tapped, which means getting into combat, crewing a vehicle, or paying for some other activated ability. I don’t have any vehicles yet but I need WotC to print some that would synergize with the deck. I took the opportunity to make this my first Voltron deck as well. I have auras and equipment that can give Kalamax protection and evasion to allow it to attack with reckless abandon. Once tapped down, I can leave up mana to copy all the instants I’d like (once per turn).
As such, commander damage is a relevant win condition in this deck, as Kalamax can get large pretty quick. Copying Nexus of Fate is a spectacular way to achieve this. I love that the deck can turn mediocre cards into busted effects. Have you ever copied a Harrow? It’s absurd. Volcanic Offering is practically a board wipe when doubled up. With cards like Twinning Staff in play even a lowly Opt or Growth Spiral can be nutty. It is probably my most powerful deck between the explosiveness and the protection, but if Kalamax dies often enough, even a Green deck might have trouble casting it.
Slurrk/Reyhan/Umori
100% Creatures, +1/+1 Synergy, Sacrifice Synergy
This deck started as a meme, following up on both Ikoria’s companion mechanic and the additional Partner commanders introduced in Commander Legends. Initially it was Slurrk and Nadier as partners, which seemed like a good fit until I realized they both cost 6 mana (I was more focused on their effects and color identity, in my defense). Reyhan is an even better fit to the +1/+1 counter theme (and much more palatable at 3mv), so that was an easy swap. I set out to determine which partner pairs could also have a companion, giving you effectively 3 commanders. The additional restriction of only having one card type among nonlands really drew me in, so I had to build it.
Being restricted to only creatures means that interaction comes almost exclusively from ETB effects (Adventures are one way around the restriction). The deckbuilding challenge really grabbed me and I also didn’t want to spend too much money on the deck, so it is relatively budget and the expensive cards were ones I already had in my collection. The power level is very low, I playtested it against some precons (the $20 ones) and it lost. There are a lot of +1/+1 counter synergies, but I had to cut a lot of the sacrifice synergies unfortunately. Some remain, but it’s a smaller package than it could’ve been. I also didn’t go the route of Ooze Tribal, but that’s not an unreasonable build either.
The best way I like to describe the deck is that it has a lot of moving parts to accomplish very little. To really optimize the +1/+1 counter output requires specific sequencing of your plays, but ultimately the reward is big creatures that sometimes don’t have evasion. I don’t often have an opportunity to break this deck out, so I’ve played it only a handful of times in total. It definitely does stuff, but it has a low ceiling.
This is the one deck I have upgraded the least, in fact it’s the one deck I’ve cannibalized the most from. Unsurprisingly, some of the better pieces ended up in Colfenor, which contains both Black and Green and has both a +1/+1 counter and sacrifice theme. I know there are better creatures that could fit into the deck that have been printed since I made it, but considering the fact that I rarely play it and the low power level, I have little reason to keep this list tuned up.
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade (deprecated)
Hatebears, Control
This deck has gone through some huge changes, rivaling Inalla, so let’s go through the history. As mentioned, I am blue-white/Azorius at my core, so I wanted a pure Azorius deck to reflect this. Whenever a blue-white deck or commander is mentioned, a friend of mine always notes that most Azorius decks would be better with Brago at the helm (and he’s right). With that in mind, I wanted to create a deck that uniquely synergized with the commander that didn’t contain too many generically good ETB effects. The first iteration of this deck was an Azorius Hatebears deck that leaned on control elements and soft locks with Lavinia and Knowledge Pool or Omen Machine. The deck had no ETB effects and ran Hushbringer and Hushwing Gryff to shut down those effects from opponents (a nightmare for my Inalla and Aminatou decks). It could be mean, but not necessarily oppressive. I also wanted to highlight particularly nasty interactions with Confounding Conundrum, Parallax Tide, and Winds of Abandon, punishing players for ramping too hard. Ironic side-note: Confounding Conundrum can actually supercharge Tatyova, Aesi, and other landfall decks. After playing a couple games, it just wasn’t a satisfying deck to me. I think I was in a weird place at that moment where hard control just wasn’t jiving with me, as we’ll see with the next iteration of the deck.
Kwain, Itinerant Meddler (deprecated)
Echo and the Bunnymen, Group Hug, Card Draw
One aspect that has remained constant throughout this deck’s iterations is the presence of alternate win-cons. I really wanted a place to play Azor’s Elocutors, and Approach of the Second Sun is both a nostalgia hit from Amonkhet as well as a reasonable win-con alongside powerful draw engines. When Kwain was released with Commander Legends, I was surprised how many people were interested in building it. Sure, it has pillowfort and group hug appeal, but that’s not how I view Azorius. When I think of blue-white decks I imagine Grand Arbiter Augustine IV, Brago, and Lavinia. So I was equally surprised when I found myself building the deck.
However, I only built it because of the meme potential. My plan was to make an Echo & the Bunnymen themed deck. So Kwain was the obvious general, and I got to include a very old card of mine: Vizzerdrix. I fit cards into bins related to Echo & the Bunnymen songs: The Killing Moon (removal and cards with moon-related names), Seven Seas (sea-related and 7-related), Do It Clean (board wipes, more removal), Rescue (protection and recursion), and Bring on the Dancing Horses (horse tribal). It was quite a mish-mash, and I really bent some of the categories to fit playable cards into the deck. The glue of the deck was card draw and related payoffs like Empyrial Plate, Psychosis Crawler, Archmage Ascension, and Iron Maiden. And as noted there were a couple alternative win conditions in Approach of the Second Sun, Triskaidekaphile, and Azor’s Elocutors.
The deck was fun to play, but I had an even more off-the-wall deck idea: Azorius Infect. Plus I had a bunch of hatebear and control cards that I wanted to put into a deck (not just from the first iteration of the deck, otherwise I would’ve just played that). And that’s how Lavinia returned to the helm.
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade (redux)
Poison, Proliferate, Control
This revisit began with yet another unusual thought: could I create an Infect deck in Azorius? I’d argue that the three worst Infect color pairs are as follows in no particular order: Boros, Azorius, and Izzet. Lack of Green and Black is a real hindrance. But Blue and White provide decent Proliferate support, so I took the idea and ran with it. It’s a fun deck to play, but initially there wasn’t really enough Infect/Poison support to call it the main theme (there were only 8 cards that generate Poison counters in the deck) but it is definitely the most novel aspect of the deck.
Naturally I still have Omen Machine and Knowledge Pool in the deck because I’m a monster. Proliferate supports the Infect theme while also synergizing with Azor’s Elocutors and Luminarch Ascension. I’m looking for more ways to capitalize on the Proliferate theme. Darksteel Reactor could be a reasonable consideration as an alt win-con, and I expect across the next few Magic sets (Phyrexia: All Will Be One and March of the Machine) to get either Poison or Proliferate support.
I began writing this before spoiler season, but now that ONE has been released, there are some cards that interest me but the Toxic cards from the set were underwhelming. ‘Corrupted’ is a great mechanic that incentivizes spreading out Poison counters and not knocking players out with Poison damage. Of course, these are centered in Abzan colors, but Blue does get Proliferate at least.
Planned updates to the list have increased the Poison generators to a whopping 11 cards. While still not a lot, I’m a little less embarrassed to call it the main theme of the deck compared to when it was just 8 cards. The Proliferate package is also a lot more robust, my favorite card of the set is Experimental Augury, which is just Anticipate with Proliferate. Both Impulse and Anticipate were legitimately in the deck for card selection, and Experimental Augury is strictly better, which is fantastic. I’m excited to see how the deck fares after the updates. I still believe it will be a fun and novel experience for all players involved, despite being an Infect deck, because (let’s be honest) it’s in the wrong colors.
Cast from Exile, Impulsive Draw
This deck is a great one to break out in 4+ player games, as Nassari is a Stolen Strategy in the command zone. I know Nassari is a double-faced card but I assure you I will never cast Uvilda (if I wanted Suspend I’d just play Jhoira of the Ghitu). The deck wants to cast cards from exile, utilizing mechanics like Cascade, Suspend, and Foretell. Red has a lot of impulsive draw in the form of “exile the top X cards of your library. Until the end of your (next) turn, you may play/cast them.” As such, the deck has a lot of card velocity and gives access to your opponents’ cards as well. Nassari’s payoff is unfortunately very minor (just a +1/+1 counter per spell cast from exile), but the important aspect is the extra Stolen Strategy.
The chaos of this deck is one way I really enjoy playing EDH. While I have access to decent synergistic cards in my own deck, I have multiple effects that allow me to cast cards from opponents libraries. Having both Chaos Wand and Wand of Wonder out at the same time can be pretty silly, but I’ve realized a lot of players don’t like to rely on instants and sorceries as much as I do. Ok, chronologically Kalamax made me realize that but Nassari reinforced it.
I really enjoy breaking this deck out and I consider it to be more casual. It is also relatively budget (I opened the Jeska’s Will in my CMR box) but it now has a reputation among some of my playgroup as being pretty strong. I underestimate the value it can generate, and it does disrupt opponents’ synergies by nabbing their cards (especially if their only instants/sorceries are key combo pieces or tutors). Having access to so many different resources is why I like to play the deck, as it provides an extra layer of chaos and decision-making, but it is a hidden strength of the deck that I don’t always account for when considering power level. In this way, it scales up pretty well to the table, similar to copycat/clone decks, where the available tools are only as good as whatever my opponents put in their decks.
Combo, Aristocrats
I’d consider this my first real non-Blue deck with a reasonable power level. This is a combo deck with graveyard loops and a lot of redundancy. That is the beauty of the deck in my opinion: there are multiple lines of play involving similar pieces that typically result in constantly sacrificing 1-2 creatures (or casting creatures that die as they enter the battlefield) for infinite ETB and death triggers. As such it is pretty resilient and consistent. There are a few tutors, which should be able to find the final piece of a combo in most cases.
Initially I thought Colfenor was a reprint, as I opened the foil-etched version of him in a Commander Legends Collector Booster. So I thought that people had already done the graveyard looping shenanigans and become bored of him. When I realized that people simply weren’t building the deck (or were interested in other legendary creatures from CMR), then obviously I had to be the one to highlight some of these wild interactions.
This is a deck I’ve played a few times, but I think it’ll require a lot more practice to master. I need to become more familiar with the lines of play and all the different combo components. I even made myself a little cheat sheet with various related pieces and combo “shells” with generic pieces. Here are some generic lines of play:
Note I don’t have all the cards listed in the categories in the deck, but while I was cutting down the list they were all in consideration. The green section contains the actual combo lines, and fortunately not all of them require Colfenor, which is a good thing since I likely have to expose him to removal by casting him the turn before popping off or delay popping off by casting him and 1 or 2 final pieces on the combo turn. I like the flexibility of the X-cost creatures in particular in this deck, which can also be played on-curve as extra blockers while you amass combo components.
The first two games I played this deck were particularly explosive, not nearly cEDH level but I think it garnered a bad reputation among my playgroup because of that initial impression. I want to play this deck more but in some ways the gameplay is linear and it isn’t well-positioned for a drawn-out value game. This deck has filled the hole that the combo version of Inalla left, which is also why I don’t play it very often. Most of the combos in this deck take a few more turns to pull off than Inalla’s combos did, and it’s slightly less consistent by comparison. Inalla could find 2-3 combo pieces using just 1 card (Wizardcycling or Transmute into Spellseeker, mainly). Overall I’d consider this a combo aristocrats deck, in contrast to more value-oriented aristocrat decks that generate a lot of tokens. Some combos involve a lot of tokens (with Pawn of Ulamog or Sifter of Skulls), but that’s semantics.
Counterspells, Spellslinger, Budget, Control
My first foray into paper Magic was at the Aether Revolt prerelease in January 2017. In that prerelease pack my promo was Disallow and I also opened a foil Baral. This deck was thus a long time coming, especially considering I am a Blue player who enjoys control decks. Initially this deck was comprised of entirely draft chaff and random cards I’d acquired over the years that didn’t currently have another home. I did eventually purchase a couple choice synergy pieces like Guile and Hullbreaker Horror, but this is still a budget list.
Unlike other Baral builds, this is not a Polymorph deck, obviously, it’s just control and countermagic. I haven’t had a lot of chances to test it, but it’s definitely on the lower end of the power scale compared to my other decks, probably around precon level.
Ultra Magnus, Tactician
Artifact Creatures, “Sneak Attack”
Once the Transformers crossover cards were revealed alongside The Brothers’ War, I knew I had to build one of them. I’m more of a Beast Wars fan but I still have respect for the OGs. I brewed lists (read: threw 150+ tangentially synergistic cards into a deckbuilder) for Optimus, Soundwave, and Ultra Magnus. I had a Cyclonus list as well, which would’ve been a Voltron style deck where I buffed him up with auras and equipment, until I remembered that the Living Metal ability would make all the auras and equipment fall off when Cyclonus became a vehicle on my opponents’ turns. If they didn’t, though, that would’ve been a fun and unusual Dimir deck.
If you’re keeping count, I have a lot of Blue decks, including an Esper deck already so Soundwave would be a redundant color combination with Aminatou, and Optimus is Jeskai, a Blue color combination for which I don’t currently have a deck. But I ended up having the most interest in Ultra Magnus, whose ability allows you to cheat big artifact creatures into play.
A smattering of 8+ cost Artifact Creatures, including cameos from Optimus Prime and Megatron as Darksteel Colossus and Blightsteel Colossus, respectively.
In addition to Ultra Magnus himself, the deck includes Elvish Piper and Monster Manual as additional ways to cheat big creatures into play. I don’t have Sneak Attack in the deck because I’d prefer for my big creatures to stick around, but I do have Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded though more to giving my team haste. The deck is comprised of a bunch of 5+ cost artifact creatures to cheat in or just ramp into. As a Green deck, it has a fair amount of ramp effects, so even without Ultra Magnus on the battlefield I can hard cast the big creatures. Regardless, the game plan is a little slow, as the early turns are mostly spent ramping and not necessarily affecting the board.
It’s my first true deck with the traditional “turn creatures sideways” gameplan. I’ll certainly continue tinkering with the list as I test it out, I already have some cards in mind that I can substitute depending on what feels clunky. But as my second real non-Blue list (sorry again Slurrk/Reyhan/Umori) it will be an opportunity for me to grow as a player, hopefully.
Those are the decks I have at present, all 9 of them! As a summary:
Inalla: Grixis/UBR Wizard ETB/Creature Copying
Aminatou: Esper/WUB Blink/ETB Value
Kalamax: Temur/URG Spellslinger/Spell Copying/Voltron
Slurrk/Reyhan/Umori: Golgari/BG +1/+1 Counters/Oops All Creatures
Lavinia: Azorius/WU Poison/Proliferate
Nassari: Izzet/UR Cast from Exile
Colfenor: Abzan/WBG Aristocrats/Combo
Baral: mono-Blue Counterspells/Spellslinger
Ultra Magnus: Naya/WRG Big ‘Bots
I’m still on the hunt for a new and exciting Sultai, Jeskai, Dimir, or Simic commander (the other 3-/2-color combinations containing Blue), but I also want to explore different deck strategies/archetypes. Or just more spellsinger decks in colors I haven’t used yet, that would be ok too (Sultai spellslinger commander please, Wizards of the Coast!).
