Commander deck for a beginner
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on March 18, 2019, 3:32 a.m. by marco-piatti
Hello everyone, i've (re)started playing magic just a few months ago but in modern/standard format. Now i would like to play in commander. I've not many ideas since it's my first time in the format in terms of deckbuilding. If i had to chose some coulors i would say black and blue (and, eventually, white) but i'm open to different combinations if you suggest me deck you consider very solid for a beginner. My budget is around 100-120$.
marco-piatti says... #3
Well if i had to go by commander i would pick one between Oloro, Ageless Ascetic , Kaalia of the Vast or The Scarab God .. Who would you recomend considering my budget? In terms of style i would pick control over aggro.. I also like vampires but i've heard a lot of people saying that Edgar Markov/Olivia's commander deck are not very good unless you spend a lot of money (but, as i said, i'm new into commander so it's quite likely that could be said even for the other commanders i've listed so that's why i was talking about coulors and not commanders.)
March 18, 2019 4:17 a.m.
Starting from a precon is best at this time - I would not recommend last year's planeswalker offerings, but some of the alternative commanders in there are pretty sweet - Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is one of the coolest commnaders with lots of ways to build her.
March 18, 2019 4:49 a.m.
DrukenReaps says... #5
Of the ones you mention Oloro is by far the most control oriented. A friend of mine built him as a pillow fort deck that allows cards like Twilight Prophet to slowly bleed his opponents out. You can really build any Esper control shell around him.
At your budget I would flat out avoid Kaalia. A lot of the meat of the deck, the angels/demons/dragons, usually don't cost too much money but the support to make the deck run smoothly without her in play can eat a budget pretty fast...
Scarab I think makes for an interesting one to head a mill deck. You mill out your opponents and grab their creatures with him as you go, lol. Mill itself is usually a bad win con in commander but it can feed your deck and allow things like Bloodchief Ascension to run away with the game. It can also feed your opponent's graveyard deck too so be careful if you go that way...
I've watched an Edgar pre-con take out a table of '75%' decks. It was mostly just luck but the deck can be really well tuned around low CMC vampires and is just as aggro as aggro can be. I think the control element to it is pretty weak so you may not like Edgar very much. It should be within your budget though.
Olivia Voldaren should also be doable within budget, even more so because she is only 2 colors. I don't really think of her as vampire tribal but more of a creature control deck. Get a lot of mana with things like Crypt Ghast or give her deathtouch with Basilisk Collar and just go to town.
March 18, 2019 4:54 a.m.
marco-piatti says... #6
Thanks DrukenReaps and Boza for your advices.. my problem with the last pre-con decks is that the commanders are all planeswalker. I don't like them very much as commanders because, for what i've been able to see playing with my friends' decks, the starting order becomes a really important factor and i would like to minimize the importance of that element in a game (then again, i could be totally mistaken about this since i'm a beginner so please correct me if i'm wrong). I have some of zombies card so The Scarab God may be the best choice for me now. I think at this point i would chose between him and Oloro..
March 18, 2019 5:23 a.m.
DrukenReaps says... #7
marco-piatti I think the walkers make decent commanders but a lot of others disagree with me. It is worth noting that in each of those decks this year and most previous years there are other cards included in the deck that can be the commander out of the box. Both Varina, Lich Queen and Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign come in the Aminatou, the Fateshifter deck. That said the most important aspect of commander for most of us is that we play a commander that 'feels right' so if you are most interested in scarab/oloro go with that. You'll have more fun :)
March 18, 2019 5:34 a.m.
marco-piatti says... #8
DrukenReaps thanks again.. i would also like the theme of that pre-con (aside of the pw as commander thing).. however my decks should also be a decent match up for aggro players since in my playgroup 80% are aggro players and a very slow deck could be a disadvantage for me..
March 18, 2019 5:51 a.m.
multimedia says... #9
Hey, if you like control and your meta is that much aggro then you probably want to play primary white for board wipes ( Day of Judgment , Supreme Verdict , Fumigate , etc.) and anti-aggro cards ( Blind Obedience , Authority of the Consuls , Ghostly Prison , Swords to Plowshares , etc.)
To help your $120 budget for the manabase you could can play Oloro as two primary colors (blue and white) and only splash black for him using some budget lands in the manabase ( Swamp , Command Tower , Exotic Orchard (if an opponent is playing black), Caves of Koilos , Sunken Hollow , Choked Estuary , etc.) and budget mana rocks ( Dimir Signet , Orzhov Signet , Fellwar Stone (if an opponent is playing black), Talisman of Dominance , Commander's Sphere , Chromatic Lantern , etc.)
March 18, 2019 7:40 a.m.
triproberts12 says... #10
I highly recommend you check out Tomer over at MTGGoldfish’s budget commander articles. He typically builds those decks in the $50-100 price range with plenty of suggestions for upgrades.
March 18, 2019 12:56 p.m.
WitherLordPlayz says... #11
If you're looking at Esper, of course, Oloro, Ageless Asetic. If you're looking at blue-black, try Phenax, God of Deception because it's super fun to have your opponents mill the key cards in their deck. If you want to extend into green, definitely go for Arcades, the Strategist , and if you want an all-around awesome build (and are okay with being the #1 target at the table) then play slivers: Sliver Overlord , Sliver Hivelord , Sliver Legion , and Sliver Queen .
Again, Esper is pretty dang awesome. Good Luck my friend :D
March 18, 2019 10:02 p.m.
marco-piatti says... #12
Thanks everyone for your advices! I think esper is the best combination of colors so i'm planning on building one among the ones you suggested. I'm a little concerned about the strategy around the last pre-con otherwise i would have bought that.
March 19, 2019 5:26 a.m.
If you are fighting a lot of aggro, I'd like to suggest Varina, Lich Queen . Rooftop Storm And have your swarm of zombies teach them a lesson. Varina is a very decent body (4/4) and her lifegain ability and all the recursion you have will make sure you have a board presence. Plus with the White Enchants (Authority, Blind Obedience) you can abuse the extort and keep your life total up. Plus, it's Zombies!!!
March 19, 2019 8:33 a.m.
DAWT_PLAWT says... #14
I’ve been using both Olivia and scarab god as commanders, and I have the most fun with them mostly due to how they can be built anyways you want. Olivia can work well in either aggro or tempo, and scarab god is great in midrange and control. However, as you are just starting out in EDH, I’d go along with DR and say Aminatou is great for a first deck, and has a lot of flexibility to how you want to upgrade and build later on
March 19, 2019 3:55 p.m.
sub780lime says... #15
Kaalia of the Vast is super fun, but to run really well, the deck is going to get pricey in your mana base and in essentially wanted the best cards in 3 different tribes.
DrukenReaps says... #2
I think the best place to start with commander is picking up one of the most recent commander products. You should still be able to get Aminatou, the Fateshifter 's deck for roughly $40 here. Your in luck since that one is Esper :)
If that doesn't appeal to you then go through your collection and set all your legendary creatures aside. Then go here and look at the pages for those commanders and see what jumps out at you.
March 18, 2019 3:48 a.m.