Commander: Having a Plan

= Having A plan

Last week I introduced Commander as a format, this time I'm going to write about how one can go about building a Commander deck.

The reason why I'm writing about the Commander format lately is because I recently completed my fourth Commander deck (well, that and because I enjoy it). Except for my first Commander deck, I have followed a series of steps and phases when building decks of this type. I have worked out a framework for how to build a successful commander deck. Thus far, it has turned out 2 reasonably good decks in my local play group. Hopefully this newest one will be the third. I thought I'd share what exactly this framework entails. Hopefully this will enlighten those new to the format, inspire those who want to get into the format, and encourage those already in the format.

Let's say your interested in putting together a Commander deck, but you don't know where to start. You need to set yourself on a road map, develop a plan, and work out a strategy. Probably the most important question you need to ask yourself is what do you want the deck to do? Or more accurately, what do you find fun in Magic? (Mark Rosewater has written a handful of articles on Timmy, Johnny, and Spike which can help you discover what you find fun in Magic).

Painting in very broad strokes every (successful) deck that has ever been built does some combination of the following.
(1) Aggro: Swing with creatures.
(2) Control: Manage the board.
(3) Combo: Get some subset of cards that do something well together.

Now I believe that a good Commander deck will actually do all three of these, but in varying amounts. Each deck is will possess an overall play style or strong focus that will be the deck's core strategy. The deck will contain multiple win conditions which will fit into one of the three strategies. I'll feed you some examples from my own Commander decks.

Thraximundar
The deck itself has lots of spells, only about 20 creatures, and focuses on effects that destroy, sacrifice, or steal cards from other players. It's primary strategy is Control.

Rith, the Awakener
This deck has a decent array of creatures, not as many spells, and focuses on effects that accelerate the game, and pump my creatures. It's primary strategy is Aggro.

Sliver Overlord
This deck is mostly creatures. Even less spells than Rith, and focuses on a wide diversity of creature-based effects. Slivers are creatures, and therefore the deck is most likely to kill by attacking (an Aggro win condition). Slivers however, are inherently synergistic creatures, and the deck does include one combo (that requires 5-7 individual cards) that allow it to explode into unlimited mana/sliver tokens, thus it has a strong synergistic component with a possible combo win condition.


- Choosing a Commander

Choosing who your Commander will be is an important and vital part of building your deck. I can't tell you who to pick as your Commander, but I can tell you that there are a few philosophies behind why people pick the creatures they do.

(1) It's just the color(s) I need.
Sometimes a player knows what color(s) they want to play, but do not have a specific Commander in mind. The different colors in magic specialize in different tasks. You want to play a specific color or colors because it's what you want the deck to do. If you want to sit there and throw burn at your opponent then you're going to be playing red. If that's going to be a primary focus of your deck you may even choose to run Jaya Ballard, Task Mage.

A player can be forced to choose using this philosophy. This occurs most frequently when a player decides on a two or three color combination that include more "enemy" colors than ally colors. For example if you really want to play Blue and Green in a commander deck you have to pick between Experiment Kraj or Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. Similarly, if you want to destroy everything with extreme prejudice in White, Black, and Red - then the only Commander available to you is Oros, the Avenger - At least until the Commander decks come out this summer.

Oros, the Avenger

(2) I'm Building around this commander.

Sometimes a player knows what commander they want, and they simply build around them. In this case, there is some rules text on the card that gives the player a parameter that they want to run with. Sometimes it's as simple as creature type. Eladamri, Lord of Leaves? Looks like mono-green elves!

More often than not the legendary creature has an ability that the player plans on using to their advantage. Sedris, the Traitor King is Blue, Black and Red. However his ability lends him to a creature-based strategy, specifically one that generates extra damage or card advantage out of bringing things back from the graveyard.

Sedris, the Traitor King

(3) This commander goes with my deck..

Sometimes a player has an idea for a deck, or set of cards they want to play, or a type of effect they want to play. The player then has to find a commander that is a "best fit" with what they want to do. Both of my Rith (Naya) and Thraximundar (Grixis) decks mentioned above evolved this way. For each deck I was considering multiple possible commanders before settling on the ones I now use.

In case your curious Rith was once in contention with Johan and Mayael the Anima. Mayael was eventually cut from the deck entirely when I determined the success rate of her ability was too low. The deck still includes a Johan, but Rith's stats I thought were generally superior and more in tune with what the deck's plan was as a whole.

As an example, I will tell you that my latest Commander creation is:
Zur the Enchanter
My planed strategy for this deck is mixed. I hope to stall the game, swing with creatures (specifically Zur), and create some synergistic situations all by using enchantments. My primary focus is to attack (with Zur), and win using Commander damage rules. I choose Zur as a build-around general (Philosophy #2).