If you've never built a Commander deck before, it kinda goes without saying that your going to need cards to build with. Even someone like myself who's a big fan of the format with multiple decks under my belt, goes out of their way to acquire cards when attempting to build a new Commander deck.
You're going to need a lot of cards.
Ok, maybe not that many. Although you can build with every card ever printed, remember the limitations of the Commander format. You have to stay in-color with your chosen Commander, you can only run one copy of any given card. You can also start picking your effects now. Running black, but creatures not a big part of your game plan? Don't grab Raise Dead or similar effects. Also low cost creatures (without abilities) are dead draws in Commander as a format
Ah, that's more like it. This is where my last 2 Commander decks started. As approximately 400 loose cards. It took me roughly 4 months to accumulate the selection you see before you by trading with other players, as well as with my FLGS (friendly local gaming store). I spend a good deal of store credit and some cash both locally and online to get this selection of cards to build from.
I want to say that it's OK to have a list of specific Cards that you want to see in your deck. I strongly urge beginners to not build complete deck lists that they see online. Often these lists include expensive singles and aren't going to fit your play style. If you are picking the cards, then there's a good chance the deck is going to be fun for you!
- The Building Process
Why start with so many cards? Because it's relatively easy to cut cards you don't like or don't want. Also starting with 400 cards and cutting down to 60 (not including land), ensures that you get everything you need (but maybe not everything you want) into the deck. Also I find it preferable to finding yourself a few cards short, and attempting to fill those slots with miscellaneous commons you have lying around that quite possibly aren't going to work for your game plan or be syngeristic with the rest of your deck. Worst case scenario they might even work against you. Whereas if you find such cards in your stack of 400, you can simply cut them from consideration, or swap them out for cards you've already cut - but are better than junk.
- Sort your cards
You need to know what you have, before you can get building. I highly suggest sorting all your cards by color and card type. This gives you an idea of what resources your dealing with. It allows you to review your card choices, revise your overall game plan, find patterns, recognize cards that are going to make just about any cut, etc.
The only cards you should cut at this point are those that you have more than one copy of (a no-no for Commander).
Here I have my collection of cards for Zur spread out in front of me. The first row is Non-basic land, then Enchantments by color. The second row is the Commander (Zur), then auras by color. The third row is non-aura, non-creatures by color. The last row is creatures by color.
Slightly more dramatically the stacks are photographed here (left to right) as: Non-basic lands, Enchantments, Auras, Artifacts, Other spells (instants, sorceries, planeswalkers), and creatures.
- The First Cut
Well, the deck cannot come together unless we start to cut cards. I take time to look at each pile that I've made. Within each card type I sort the cards further. Cards that seem really good or fun go into one pile. Cards that seem strong or interesting go into another. Marginal cards go into a third, and cards that I just plain don't like go in a fourth.
Let's not mince words. Your goal here is to cut cards. You should be as brutal as you dare. I typically scoop up the weaker two piles and return them to the box. Culling close to half of my selection in the first or second go-arround.
First cut complete. Looking at the box of 'cut' cards it looks like I managed somewhere below half, but not by much. Not a bad thing.
- Creatures
Creatures are very important to any Commander deck, as they represent the Aggro part of any deck's strategy. Creatures can slowly and incrementally win you just about any game by attacking. Thus any deck should have a few big fat creatures that can win the game conventionally. It's also a good idea to invest some card slots in creatures that have utility functions like fetching land, killing other creatures, destroying pesky permanents (like artifacts or enchantments), and so forth. This is true even if your game plan is to control & combo.
I mentioned "Card slots" there. Let me explain a bit. A commander deck has to be exactly 100 cards. No more, and no less. So when you commit yourself to running a specific card, you've locked that in. By deciding that Zur wants about 20 creatures, and cutting my pile of creatures down to 20 cards, I've not only consumed 20 of my 100 cards total, but I've consumed 20 of my 20 creature cards total.
My 20 creatures, sorted by casting cost ... for now.
- Cut and Cut some more!
This is a process you repeat and repeat again for each stack. Each time you pick up a stack, you try to cut more cards. You distill the piles of junk into stacks of cards that (1) work with your strategy, (2) work synergistically with your other cards, and (3) you really _really_ like!
This picture I snapped somewhere around my 5th or 6th attempt to cut cards. At this point in time I still had 70-some odd cards on the table, and had to cut another 10-15 to pair it down to my final 60. Why 60? Because you need to run Land, and 40 percent is about right for a Commander deck whose spells typically peak in the 3-5 range, and go up to 10. Also keep in mind that I have limited mana-ramping in my chosen colors.
It goes without saying that each time you go back to cut cards, it's going to be more difficult. You may end up revising exactly how many cards your setting aside for creatures, for example. To make more space for say ... enchantments. Which is something I did for Zur.
It might also help to sort your cards using different Criteria. Sorting them by mana cost is something I like to do when I only have a few cards left to cut. I look for mana costs that have a lot of cards at that cost. I then look at all the cards that cost the same, and try to cut a card or two that aren't worth the mana investment compared to other cards of the same cost. I'm particularly critical of spells costing six or more. With that kind of mana investment I should get something that's going to significantly impact the game.
Some more Zur cards, sorted by cost.
You may also want to sort by color. In a multi-color deck like the one I'm building this helps identify if your relying on one color too heavily, or ignoring another.
Looks like it could be a case of too much white, not enough black?
After agonizing over card choices for a while, you eventually settle on a stack that you feel is playable. I ended up with ... 19 Creatures, 11 Other spells, 15 Auras, and 15 Enchantments. Yeah that's 30 total enchantments, but you have to remember that I am building around Zur. Incedentally 20 of those enchantments are casting cost 3 or less, and thus suitable fetches for Zur's ability.
- Mana Balance.
Land is vital to the performance of the deck. The key to figuring out what kind of land you want to run is figuring out what colors your deck is. I know you know what colors your deck is, but the trick is to run land in the right proportion. This is of course a moot point if you happen to be running a mono-colored deck. It's less of a concern for two-color decks, but I would still recommend this process for them. I find it absolutely necessary to do this for 3-5 color decks of any style.
I've worked out an algorithm that works for me and I use for nearly all my magic decks.
(1) Count the number of mana symbols on each card.
I do this step with pen and paper. Using tally marks to mark how many mana symbols of each color appears on each card. I include mana symbols that appear in rules text also. Hybrid symbols count as both colors. Thus Debtors' Knell adds both 3 white and 3 black tallies to my sheet.
Debtors' Knell
(2) Total the number of symbols in each color, and Total mana symbols overall.
For Zur I had 55 white symbols, 30 blue, and 29 black, the deck has a total of 114 mana symbols.
(3) Find the percent of each color in your deck.
This is the number of symbols in a specific color divided by the total symbols in the deck.
(decimals used for accuracy)
White = 55 / 114 = 48.24%
Blue = 30 / 114 = 26.31%
Black = 29 / 114 = 25.43%
(4) Figure out how many land slots your running.
Zur was going to be running 40 land, but I had 20 non-basics to deal with first. Looking at my non-basics I found 14 that I could effectively ignore because they were colorless, any color, or completed sets of multicolor lands (Ravnica bounce and Lorwyn filters). This leaves me with 26 land slots to fill. Note that 6 of these slots will be filled by my remaining 6 non-basics.
(5) Find the number of mana sources you need of each color.
(Land slots multiplied by the percent of the deck in the color your working with above).
White = 26 x .4824 = 12.54 White sources
Blue = 26 x .2631 = 6.84 Blue sources
Black = 26 x .25.43 = 6.61 Black Sources
(6) Get your Basics.
I substituted 2 plains for a Serra's Sanctum and a Celestial Colonnade from my remaining stack of non-basics, and added 10 Plains. (12 Sources).
I substituted 2 Islands for a Faerie Conclave, and Creeping Tar Pit, and grabbed 5 Islands (7 Sources).
I substituted 2 Swamps for a Bojuka Bog and Dreadship Reef, and grabbed 5 Swamps (7 Sources).
Congratulations, you are now ready to sleeve up your deck and give it a test or two.
Um, please use sleeves. You spent all that time and money making this deck, give it some respect. Plus I cringe when I see people shuffle up without them.
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