EDH “auto adds”?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Aug. 22, 2019, 12:53 p.m. by Kozelek
So I’ve been making a list of must haves in 90% of casual commander decks, mana rocks, support artifacts and lands. I’m not talking situational cards or color specific cards but colorless and lands that you put in almost every commander deck you build regardless if it’s mono or multi color, combo, aggro or control.
Let’s start the list with must have mana rocks
Sol Ring Thought Vessel Vessel of Endless Rest Firemind Vessel Thran Dynamo Gilded Lotus
Then you get into optional expensive mana rocks like
Mana Vault Mox Opal Chrome Mox Mox Diamond Mana Crypt Grim Monolith
Then there are support artifacts like
Skullclamp Lightning Greaves Whispersilk Cloak
And optional support like
Grafted Exoskeleton Sensei's Divining Top
And there is one creature that almost makes the cut
And we will wrap it up with lands
Command Tower Cascading Cataracts Forge of Heroes Opal Palace Reliquary Tower Temple of the False God Tower of the Magistrate
So the first 6 mana rocks are auto adds then the second 6 are if you have them/the money to get them, this list does not include signets or talismans. Now I have had people argue Worn Powerstone but I feel it is a lesser form of Hedron Matrix that also didn’t make the cut imho.
The first 3 support artifacts are auto adds the second 2 depending on meta and budget.
As for lands they speak for themselves except the last one you might be thinking why? Lightning Greaves / Whispersilk Cloak , Cranial Plating , all the swords.... need I go on? I’ve also had people argue for Isolated Watchtower but as many commander deck run less than 50% basic lands that’s like 90% of the time will be just scrying 1 and there are better ways to scry 1. I thought about Rogue's Passage but there are combo/control decks that never attack (same reason Maze of Ith is not on the list)
So what are your “auto adds” when you start a commander deck and why?
I really dont see how these are auto includes in EVERY deck. Gilded lotus isn't that great unless you have a lot of high cost stuff in the deck. Cascading cataracts isnt all that great even in 5 color builds. Reliquary tower is just a worst basic in some decks. The vessel isn't very useful. You need to have a tutor to get the card back to your hand. Temple of the false God isnt that useful. I've had plenty of games where if I played it it would of never been active.
August 22, 2019 1:27 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #4
City of Brass Forbidden Orchard Exotic Orchard Reflecting Pool go in everything more than 1 color for me. That is the closest to an auto include. That being said, they will not see the light of day in a mono colored deck. In fact, I would say that most of the cards you included I would only play in certain decks if I played them at all. Not that your list is bad by any means, but I don't think there can be an end all be all list for auto includes simply because of
a)playstyles: a timmy and a spike will not want to do the same thing, so they will value cards very differently
B) commander: each commander or deck archetype will want different things. For example Kataki, War's Wage edh deck wont really wan't many mana rocks.
C) budget: the expensive mana rocks are basically a never include for most people. I see that you addressed them as optional, but they are almost always the correct choice if you are going to run a mana rocks.
August 22, 2019 1:51 p.m. Edited.
Gemstone Caverns always makes my lists for the games where it's in your opener and provides serious value.
Mana Confluence in basically any deck that isn't mono colored.
Ancient Tomb usually makes the cut for me in decks that have enough 2 cmc rocks to cast, other colorless cards I'd like to come down earlier than expected, and wheel effects I'd like to play by turn 2 after dumping most of an opening hand.
Karn, the Great Creator is very close to making the cut for me given the value generated from stopping a litany of artifact based combo archetypes and ability to provide serious utility resilience for decks that utilize an artifact based combo themselves.
Manifold Key and Voltaic Key aren't quite auto adds, but I really like to fit them into decks that run Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Sensei's Divining Top, Sol Ring, and Mana Crypt.
August 22, 2019 5:37 p.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #6
There are only five cards that count as auto-includes in every deck that has those colors:
August 22, 2019 6:57 p.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #7
Honestly I don't think there's even a single card that is auto-include. Even if we narrow by possible colors. Command Tower and Path of Ancestry go in every non-mono color deck I build, but that's about it.
Even Sol Ring , believe it or not, doesn't belong in every deck I build. I have multiple 5 color decks that just have zero use for colorless mana. The only thing a Sol Ring could even hope to do in those decks is filter into some Signets, and that's fringe use at best.
I feel like the very concept of "auto-includes" hurts a lot of people's deckbuilding, because it's essentially the conscious decision to not bother considering whether a card is worth the slot or not.
Edit: Actually I guess I can agree with PhotogenicParasympathetic, but only out of respect for cards like Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter , otherwise I could go without in some decks.
August 22, 2019 8:37 p.m. Edited.
shadow63 the vessel is not just for your deck but to say tuck an annoying Gravecrawler
August 22, 2019 8:52 p.m.
Ok I do forget about the spikes in the room so I guess it’ll be 90% of the time auto adds unless your a spike lol
August 22, 2019 9:23 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #10
Even before I became a spike not all of these would have been auto includes. It is all very subjective from person to person as to the cards they will commonly play
August 22, 2019 10:26 p.m.
GhostChieftain That’s why my question at the end is “what’s yours and why” cause I know not everyone will agree with me or my list
August 22, 2019 11:02 p.m.
@ Kozelek I think most of the mentioned cards in this thread make a lot of sense for various players playing in various metas. Mostly everything mentioned is a card I feel is worthy of auto include consideration depending on meta circumstances.
August 22, 2019 11:38 p.m.
As has kind of been pointed out by a bunch of people already, I wouldn't call most of these "auto-includes". The second that you have to add a condition to using it like " Skullclamp is an auto incude if you make lots of 1/1 tokens" (not specifically your words, but an example) then it no longer becomes an auto-include.
If we are not talking about budget, because budget is such a sliding scale, then the only real auto-includes would be cards like Sol Ring , Mana Crypt , Mox Diamond and potentially Command Tower . And even then, there are corner cases for not running these.
And just like budget, "casual" is also a sliding scale. I have lists that I would consider casual and wouldn't run in competitive games, however would be considered competitive by like 50% of edh players.
I appreciate the discussion/information that you're trying to provide here - I think that most people do. Please don't get me wrong, it's a good idea and I don't want to detract from what you've done. My two cents would be perhaps to look a price brackets (which let's face it is the most tangible way of doing this) in conjuction with "Auto-includes*" (*terms and conditions may apply) which would then let you take the output of the discussion and turn it into a really useful list for players new to the game and looking for different options depending on their budget.
One other thought might also be to look at using bullet/numbered lists (which are much easier to read) and let you put text after each of the entries explaining the T's & C's of the card (if there are any).
August 23, 2019 12:05 a.m.
enpc I’m not sure how to do a bullet list it’s been a while sense I’ve used this site, as far as budget I like that idea I can add a -$1 -$5 -$20 and +$20
August 23, 2019 12:50 a.m.
Kozelek: Have a gander under Formatting, it's in the ordered lists/unordered lists section (depending on which you prefer).
August 23, 2019 1:24 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #16
There's only one colorless card that is present in all 19 decks of mine, and it's not Sol Ring... it's Boompile .
As for colored spells, Enlightened Tutor is in all my white decks, Cyclonic Rift is in all my blue decks, Decree of Pain and Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are in all my black decks, Stranglehold and Sunbird's Invocation are in all my red decks, and Song of the Dryads is in all my green decks.
As for multicolored cards, Ashiok, Dream Render is in all my decks playing blue and black and Assassin's Trophy is in all my decks playing black and green.
As for cards that aaaalmost made it, but was missing in one deck that could play it (but were in at least 3 decks), there were quite a few: Maze of Ith , Myriad Landscape , Strip Mine , Tolaria West , Gamble , Aven Mindcensor , Smothering Tithe , Weathered Wayfarer , Beast Within , Carpet of Flowers , Compost (currently being tested), and Sylvan Library .
August 23, 2019 5:35 p.m. Edited.
austintayshus says... #17
I kinda agree with Tyrant-Thanatos, but I also feel that if you're making a list of frequently used commander cards, there should be a spot for Solemn Simulacrum
Kozelek says... #2
I used to include Darksteel Citadel but Cascading Cataracts was just better and took its place
August 22, 2019 12:56 p.m.