Is a colourless Commander deck viable?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 22, 2017, 7:53 a.m. by Argy
I grabbed some BFZ packs the other day on a whim, and some of the cards got me thinking about building a colourless Commander deck.
My question, for those of you who know the format well, is whether a colourless deck is viable.
At the moment my playgroup isn't super competitive, although their decks aren't weak, either.
We're not talking Turn 4 wins. More like Turn 8-10.
Thanks for any feedback.
I have an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.
For some reason I picked one up on a whim.
I've been doing a bit of research and it seems that you need a lot of the Zendikar Eldrazi to make a colourless deck competitive.
I'm thinking at this stage that I might build a weak version and see how it goes against my friends, and add more expensive spells to it if it is underpowered.
Anyone know where I can buy non-full art Wastes?
I would LOVE all my non-basic lands to be those.
November 22, 2017 8:18 a.m.
StarCity sells them, but they are out of stock.
:0(
You know you are spending too much time on TappedOut, when you start answering your own questions.
November 22, 2017 8:22 a.m. Edited.
Lost_Ascendant says... #5
As said by ERoss8 devoid would not work.
Seconded, a colorless commander is extremely viable. I ran a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth combo beat down deck when I was still in paper that actively killed tables. Land destruction or mass artifact wipes are very painful but proper timing can lessen that. Also cards like Blinkmoth Urn speed you up more than opponents but make them like you for the extra mana.
My list is gone but it was based off this one: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/477463-kozilek-butcher-with-juice
November 22, 2017 8:23 a.m.
You should check out my deck Planar Annihilation. It needs to be updated but it should give you a general idea.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is the best Commander. You want the 11/11 as that only requires two swings for a Commander damage kill, or one swings with Eldrazi Conscription. Both Ulamog require 3 swings base. Butcher of Truth is just the better of the Kozilek as his abilities are more consistent.
Overall you want to ramp hard, your average CMC is excessively high. You probably want to abuse the broken mechanic Annihilator. Your deck will be slow, and have a lot of high value targets. It can be fun, but the deck is usually just not good enough, in my experience at least.
November 22, 2017 11:33 a.m.
Emrakul, the Promised End can be good too as you can use one opponent's turn to beat on someone else
November 22, 2017 11:36 a.m.
My sister has a colorless edh deck. She uses some of the devoid cards. And runs Kozilek, the Great Distortion as the Genny. I say go for it!
November 22, 2017 12:04 p.m.
According to the rules, as has been mentioned already, if your Commander is Colorless, you can NOT use Devoid cards.
November 22, 2017 12:28 p.m.
goblinguiderevealpls says... #10
viable? yes, definitely
competitive? probably not, but it still functions properly
its also the most limited of any "mono color" edh options, but with the right pricy artifacts and lands, eldrazi titans and Karn, Silver Golem make good generals, karn is my personal favorite, combine him with Mycosynth Lattice for gross land destruction
November 22, 2017 12:45 p.m.
Talonisnthavingit says... #11
If you run Hope of Ghirapur and add a ton of equipment and artifact support, you can make an okay deck. A prototype I made with it could win on turn 5 to 10 if your opponents had no fliers or kill spells. If they do, it would set you back two to three turns, but usually you'd just cast hope and put most, if not all of the equipment on it again.
So, yes; A colorless commander deck is viable at times. The eldrazi decks would be expensive, but the Hope deck I made was only $60, although it could've been about $100+ if I put the best equipment in it.
November 22, 2017 12:50 p.m.
One option I enjoy is pretty much just mono-mana-rocks with Kozilek, the Great Distortion as your commander to refill your hand, and a bunch of other Eldrazi as finishers.
November 22, 2017 1:07 p.m.
If your looking for non full art waste I know some of the bfz intro decks have them
November 22, 2017 1:15 p.m.
interesting about the official devoid ruling. oh well. that's what house rules are for.
November 22, 2017 1:16 p.m.
The official ruling states Devoid doesn't change Color Identity. The cards that can go in a Commander deck follow the Color Identity ruling.
I know I argued against this when it released. I think there is wasted potential with Devoid. It should get around color identity, would make Devoid much more interesting.
November 22, 2017 2:35 p.m.
OK no need to keep telling me that I can't use Devoid in a colourless deck.
I got it the first time.
November 22, 2017 6:10 p.m. Edited.
I recently put together a colourless Kozilek, Butcher of Truth deck for less than $200 and it is great fun. With some mana rocks and a bit of luck you can get Kozilek out around turn 4-5 pretty consistently and start swinging. The annihilator mechanic will disrupt your opponents' board state and a Strionic Resonator will make it twice as painful.
If you have no budget then cards such as Mana Crypt, Metalworker and Mishra's Workshop enable turn 2 Kozileks, which is filthy and will probably result in mass scooping in your playgroup. Average CMC was around 5.something but can be brought down to mid 4s if you try. As for removal, the Ulamogs will blow up cards when you cast them, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a usually a boardwipe for opponents with its -X, Karn Liberated will exile stuff before they enter the battlefield and Scour from Existence can remove nasty enchantments. Also goes without saying that All Is Dust is a disgustingly good board wipe that leaves all our stuff intact, plus it causes creatures to be sacrificed, getting around any annoying indestructible things
The deck will be very artifact heavy and probably won't have too many creatures, but it's up to you how you want to adjust it for your playgroup. I've ended up cutting some creatures and replacing them with ones that have the annihilator mechanic on it because I like watching opponents decide whether they sacrifice their lands or mana rocks
November 22, 2017 7:40 p.m.
We don't tend to use cards with Annihilator in our playgroup, as we don't like playing games that lock one Opponent out.
I have a spare Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Karn Liberated, and lots of Scour from Existence.
Seems as though I will be able to build a decent deck. I must admit that I do love mana rocks like Meteorite.
November 22, 2017 7:51 p.m.
Usually I just roll a die to decide who gets hit if no-one has blockers, or just choose the biggest guy/someone who is setting up an infinite combo. I don't really like locking people out either so i just end up balancing the annihilator trigger so everyone end up sacrificing similar amounts of permanents. It also allows me to play archenemy too ;)
As for mana rocks there's so much to choose from to suit your group, and most of them are pretty cheap unless you're getting the 0 cmc/moxen/Grim Monolithrocks. Colourless is pretty versatile and you can tune it up/down pretty easily if it starts getting too powerful in your group. I'm curious to see what you come up with :)
November 22, 2017 7:58 p.m.
Very viable.
Paradox Engine + Planar Portal + Many Mana Rocks is not an uncommon situation to find yourself in. Spit out an unkillable boardstate and you're golden.
Im partial to Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as the commander, as he serves as near-unstoppable threat removal. And the more they kill him (well, not kill, as he's indestructible) the more threats he removes. Not to mention if he sticks and swings, you can knock out combo decks pretty easily, which is very important for how aggro you'll be.
November 23, 2017 8:06 a.m.
goblinguiderevealpls says... #21
the best option for colorless is a heavy artifact themed deck, with a splash of synergy for whatever commander you choose, but colorless artifact edh is actually very strong, due to an insane amount of combos and stax cards available, plus you will of course be running a dozen or so colorless mana rocks so an artifact theme is already half there, and cards like Platinum Angel Platinum Emperion and Darksteel Forge make it hard to lose or worse, get focused, which is the worst part of multiplayer
ERoss8 says... #2
A colorless deck certainly is viable, however, many of its cards can be expensive. It has boardwipes in Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and All Is Dust, interaction in Spine of Ish Sah and Unstable Obelisk, and access to the ramp that all other none-green colors use, plus it now has basic lands (Wastes), helping with the mana base a bit. The only problem is price, as many of these pieces cost a good bit, as well as the real finishers of Ulamog and Kozlilek (this an be ignored, but the deck won't preform as good).
As for devoid, it wouldn't work, because devoid changes the cards color, not its COLOR IDENTITY. This only allows cards like Sire of Stagnation to be played in the decks they normally would be played in, like Dimir in this instance.
November 22, 2017 8:14 a.m.