Then – and this is where it gets good – you can cast that spell if it’s a nonland card. Different colours will have different removal, so Black and White are going to be able to use cards that destroy and exile. Blue will have to counter spells or put creatures back in their owner’s hands. Red will mtg card be able to use spells that deal damage to destroy things, and Green is stuff with cards that let your creatures fight other creatures.
You can build ramp decks in various ways, like relying on mana rocks or ramp spells. But however you do it, the main goal for ramp is to cast big spells to put you in the front seat of every other deck. Before choosing your commander you might want to know the most common Commander archetypes. Understanding and utilizing mulligans is vital in Commander games. The mulligan rule allows you to shuffle an unsatisfactory opening hand back into your library and draw a new one with one fewer card. If your opening hand doesn’t support your early game plan or lacks the resources required for consistency, it’s wise to take a mulligan and hope for a better draw.
How to Build a Great Commander Deck (4 Steps)
Then, when it comes to adding a new card to your deck, you’ll have an easy time deciding which cards to replace. However, if you’re playing a commander that doesn’t generate value, such as [c]Kaalia, the Vast[/c], you’ll definitely want to include many ways of drawing extra cards. [c]Farseek[/c] counts as mana ramp, but so does [c]Dockside Extortionist[/c], and those are two very different cards. [c]Pyretic Ritual[/c] is also a form of mana ramp, although it only works when you cast it.
This can be fun, just to see how your deck compares to another person’s. It can also be an extremely helpful way to see things you missed. The compare decks tool is available in the top right corner of the deck page.
Land Types
Some would call this “card advantage” or just straight up “card draw” but I think the concept is a lot more nuanced than that. I like the term “velocity” because it evokes a feeling of speeding through your deck, and there are different ways to do that. Commanders of all colors exist to support these familiar, out-of-the-box deck strategies, from Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Trostani’s Selesnya’s Voice to Edgar Markov and Melek, Izzet Paragon. Yeah, a lot of decks play around 38 or lower, but that’s right around average for decks that don’t want to be playing lands like crazy and just want to make sure they have lands to play. And you can still find lists with 40 lands without looking too hard.
This will also help make sure you don’t go over the budget you have. If you have a limit to spend around $100 on a deck, this will help you narrow your choices and keep your budget in mind. Commanders like Phenax, God of Deception fall in the first category, while commanders like Grolnok, the Omnivore, and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant fall in the second. If you’re super into control and want to become a master at playing the archetype, check out Corey Burkhart’s in-depth course over on Spikes Academy. Choosing your commander is the most important part of where to start, since your commander will lead you where you want to end up most of the time.
I hope you and the other players in your community enjoy Digital Deckbuilding as much as I do. Every card on an EDHREC commander page is assigned a synergy score. Joey Schultz of EDHRECast offers a fantastic explanation of Synergy scores in this YouTube video. Synergy score is calculated by subtracting a card’s inclusion rate in all eligible decks, from its inclusion rate in decks for the selected commander. A high synergy score means a card is more unique in a given commander deck, compared to other decks with overlapping color identities.
Feel free to be creative when planning on how to cast your powerful spells earlier than your opponents expect. Without mana ramp, you’re restricted to playing one land per turn. If you want to play a five-mana card, you’ll have to wait until turn five to do so assuming you draw enough lands.
Let’s go over some of the most important factors and how they affect your land base. Riku of Two Reflections is probably the most popular tokens commander, followed by Rhys the Redeemed. But any commander that can exploit the ETB mechanic can be used as a token payoff, like Purphoros, God of the Forge. Because of this you need to know what kind of deck you want to build. I’m reconstructing my blue/red wizard tribal because my last one had no cohesion to it. It was my first EDH, so I’m still trying to figure out card ratios.
In an Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle deck, a ramp spell that you can cast on turns 1-2 would mean you can cast your commander on turn 3, making 1-2cmc ramp is far more valuable than 3+cmc ramp. Always remember the purpose of ramp in your deck and what you’re using it for. Once you’ve got your theme, you need to flush out the deck itself.
There are plenty of lands out there, but the best ones come into play untapped so they can tap for mana right away. As for how many tutors you should play, I say play as many as you can! Obviously, we’d all love to just draw the perfect card each turn, but anyone who’s played a game of Magic knows that hardly ever happens. The more tutors you play, the more likely you are to get your hands on the card you need. 100 cards is a good number of cards to play with, so you can have a good mix of different types of card in your deck. Cards in a Commander deck can generally be sorted into the following types.
Card Draw and Cantrips
To use this feature, enter the name of your commander, or names of your partner pairing, in the appropriate fields, paste your list as plain text in the Decklist box, and submit. EDHREC presents a page for each of the thirty-two possible color identities. The data on these pages is divided between two tabs called Staples and Mana Staples. The staples pages conveniently display cards that will generally work for any commander in a given color-identity. Similar to card packages, using the staples pages can save time and trouble compared to searching for individual cards.
It doesn’t always have to be an obvious one either; sometimes just wanting to play all of the best cards in a mana colour is a good enough idea. That said, the more niche it is, the more fun you’re likely to have – and the more creative you can be with your card choices. A big part of the fun of Commander is in building a deck and finding obscure cards to include. Since most of your creatures are artifact creatures, you can attack with them freely and still have blockers since they’ll untap.
