Diary of a newbie commander player
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 4, 2016, 4:18 p.m. by Draw_Wurm
Recently I moved to an area where a lot of the local games store nights play EDH rather than modern, which has been my preferred format since getting back into Magic a few years back via the iOS apps. With modern, from a budget perspective I liked the eternal nature, and the degree of brewing potential, with standard a bit too difficult to keep up with, but I often found the LGS culture around winning a bit sour. That and the fact that by nature the format was very defined and tiered. Now each to their own, and I realise it's by nature a competitive format. However I fancied a bit of a change.
So for the last few weeks I've been brewing commander decks, which has been a really interesting challenge.
From my reading around the format, I knew I wanted something fun, both for me and others at the table. So it didn't need it to be 'winningest'. I also wanted something that reflected my relationship and history with the game. I started playing in 94/95 when we used to stack up massive decks of all the cards we owned and Force of Nature, Leviathan and Craw Giant seemed like serious propositions... I also wanted to begin in mono colour, partly for cost, partly to simplify things for me a bit. I also wanted to include flavourful cards. Cards I'd played with or against, or cards where the art or 'feel' captured my MTG experience. I tried brewing an Adamaro deck:
Shoot that Adamaro through my deck
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 28 | 16 COMMENTS | 1676 VIEWS | IN 9 FOLDERS
And a Meriek deck:
I am the Assassin, providing your nemesis
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 7 | 15 COMMENTS | 617 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
But neither felt like 'mine'
So I went Mono Black. The "Sworn to darkness" 2014 pre-constructed deck seemed a starting point. I don't normally like buying pre-cons, but the structure of the list gave me somewhere to begin in terms of outlining possible cards.
Partly I like being contrary, and running underdog cards that you don't see very often. I also wanted a commander that supported the need for 'flavour'. Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief were good, but not quite the right fit. I wanted a card that reflected those older cards that I could brew around and settled on Christopher Rush's Ihsan's Shade. Clearly this wasn't the most powerful commander. Not modern playable, and potentially not commander playable. A 6cmc fatty with protection from white (and a bit of built in protection from removal being a black creature). But what direction to take the deck in? The 2014 pre-con lends itself to black goodstuff and zombie tribal builds. Zombie tribal seemed a bit obvious, and I'd discounted Ghoulcaller Gisa already. What about a goodstuff build, but using the flavour text of Ihsan as a basis? Weak, fallen, betrayer, suffering...
What about picking cards based on their art and artists as well. So Nether Shadow, Ritual of the Machine, Knight of Stromgald by the original MTG flavour artists that hooked me. Anson Maddocks, Mark Tedin et al.
Mono colour immediately led me down the route of devotion. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Combined with Abhorrent Overlord, and 'swamps matter' cards like Lashwrithe, Mutilate and Liliana of the Dark Realms, I could cast cheap knights as sacrifice fodder, and mana sinks, all the while stealing and corrupting my opponents creatures.
The weakness of Ihsan's Shade could be counterbalanced by the inclusion of powerful cards like Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena as draw engines, and Rise of the Dark Realms and Beacon of Unrest as creature stealers and bombs like Phyrexian Obliterator and Erebos, God of the Dead
It might not be any good, but it would be mine...
Poole Rush Tedin Maddocks & Associates
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 21 | 20 COMMENTS | 2296 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS
Now to see how it plays
The importance of politics, group dynamics, and playgroup character cannot be underestimated in edh.
I just thrill at playing "Talrand Says No" but I quickly found that having a few different decks to choose from worked best in reality. However, that may be because of how annoying Counterspells.deck can get haha.
My point is that having those other decks on hand could be handy enough to make it worth keeping a couple around.
Also, I suspect you will find that "your deck" really plays wildly differently depending on who is at the table in your pod and what they are running.
August 4, 2016 4:42 p.m.
Sounds like you're just using your commander, Ihsan, just for the color. A fun commander that I rarely see played whom is also mono black is Horobi, Death's Wail. He completely changes how the game is played and you can use rarely used cards like Baton of Morale or Squee's Toy to straight up Murder creatures. Horobi also neuters auras and equipment as they target the creature they attach to. Horobi's effect is symmetrical not one sided and he can easily utilize the powerful cards you listed above.
August 4, 2016 4:47 p.m.
Shane.Allen says... #5
Commander is a fun format. After having played very competitive formats for years, there isn't as great of a feeling as winning a pod with a 100 card deck you just built.
There's lots of great cards I think you could use for mono-black. Please take a look at my deck to see if you get any ideas. Sheoldred, Black Plague
August 11, 2016 8:36 p.m.
Hey. Thanks Shane.Allen, Flagellum, guessling, greyninja. Been playing around with the deck for the last few weeks and created a new evolution of it. Includes notes on card choices:
You're so cool Brewster
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 2 | 1 COMMENT | 118 VIEWS
greyninja says... #2
Just run Erebos, God of the Dead as your commander; so if the deck runs out of gas you can use his draw ability to keep it going
(I haven't looked at your deck yet, but) Bloodgift Demon is another good draw ability, Kothophed, Soul Hoarder, Mind's Eye, etc
Welcome to EDH! It's incredibly fun once you find a good playgroup!
August 4, 2016 4:37 p.m.