Need help picking first commander
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Feb. 16, 2015, 12:12 p.m. by Thereddic
(warning, long post because I apparently like the sound my keyboard makes when I click the buttons)
Hi, I've been a lurker here for a while, but I recently finally made an account. The reason for said account building is because I need help. Commander is a rather popular passtime between and after rounds of FNM at my local gamestore, and after trying the format with some of the spare decks my friends have, I want to build my own. Problem is, I've been at this for a few weeks and I just can't setting on a Commander...or deck idea...or anything.
What am I looking for? That's hard to say since I don't really know myself. So I'll try and explain. First off, nothing one dimensional. I don't want to play a game that's just find my infinite combo and win every time.
Next, I don't want to be dependent on my commander. The commander should be important, but I don't want to lose if it gets tucked.
As for playstyle I like to have a lot of interactions. I hate sitting around on my opponents turn waiting to get to go. I like to be active at all stages of the game.
I also like to have a lot of synergies and triggers in my games. I love it when I do one thing and cause like, 5 other thigns to happen, just generating an absurd amount of value for little investment. That being said, I'm a bit adverse to tribal, simply because I feel it limits me to specific kinds of creatures instead of finding good things on their own.
Finally, I tend to prefer having a good mix of creatures and spells. Creatures are obviously nice because they can generate consistent value, but again, I really hate playing everything on my turn and then sitting off to the side while everyone else does their thing.
From what I've seen of other threads on this subject, colour identity tends to be an important aspect, so I guess here's my thoughts on that.
Blue: Blue is the colour I first really started MTG with, and I've always wanted to go back to it. I love pretty much everything here. I love drawing cards, I love evasive threats, I like taking things. I like instants and sorceries. I like counterspells, I like the shenanigans. My only real problem here is that I feel the colour is weak on it's own. The colour does a lot of cool support things, but I feel that it's at its best when supporting another colour.
Green: I've never really been fond of green. It always struck me as a ramp into big stompy things colour, which felt one dimensional and boring. I know that's not really true once you leave standard, but I'm still skeptical. Shardless Agent looks fun though. Plus Avacyn, Angel of Hope/Sigurda, Host of Herons/Archetype of Endurance looks hilarious. Overall, open to the idea, but largely unaware of what it really contributes that I would want.
White: I have no idea what to feel here. Angels are cool, I like having board wipes. But I really don't have a lot of experience here. I feel like there is a ton of power here, but I can never find it. Also the goodstuff here seems really expensive.
Red: I love red in the other formats, but it looks really weak and unappealing in commander. The colour is built around being really fast and targetting a life total of 20. Once we leave that realm, the colour just kinda falls apart. I like all the silly cards like Warp World, but that just feels like doing silly things for fun. amusing the first couple times, but overall not really a strategy.
Black: Everything at a price. Sounds like fun, considering all the power it can bring. Recursion mechanics are really appealing to me, and I'm always a fan of spot removal. Plus I have a Ghastly Conscription in Foil that I want to use. All the hate for graveyard shenanigans is a bit worrying though. Plus I don't like the idea of self milling to fill my graveyard as a resource.
Right, that should be everything. Sorry I droned on for so long. Just a could more things First off: I don't want to go overboard on control. Obviously that's going to be a part of it, considering what I said before, but nobody likes a game that just gets slowed to a grind as I patiently wait for a win con. Secondly, going infinite is fine, but not to be a main strategy. It's boring and frowned upon to focus on it, but it can exist every now and again.
Any advice? Again, sorry I wrote so much, I've had a lot of time to think on the subject. Thanks for any help you can provide!
fadelightningmm says... #3
My deck Masochistic Rewards started as a semi tribal demons. But through playing it I have discovered so many synergies I never intended. Basically it makes opponents sac tons and you gain value all around. Then since it ramps nicely you can do murder spells on their turn
February 16, 2015 12:29 p.m.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician would be good for you as PutridLeech suggested. I'd also suggest Shattergang Brothers as another possible general.
He gets interactive at all stages of the game by deciding what things people can keep. ALL the sac effects =P
Shattergang is a very creature based deck that aims to play control elements with a million ways to edict permanents and recur your own stuff to do it all over again.
Your color suite is pretty good. Black blows up things (Damnation and Decree of Pain for example) and tutors. Green ramps hard and lets you play some VERY value creatures and permanents (Woodfall Primus, Cultivate, and Greater Good). and Red gives you SOME variance and utility if you play the really good things (Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Sneak Attack and Wheel of Fortune).
February 16, 2015 12:32 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #5
Marchesa, the Black Rose works well. Her ability as your commander is pretty ridiculous, a sac outlet and a graft creature means she nor any of your creatures ever go away.
Only real vulnerability is split second and grave hate.
February 16, 2015 12:43 p.m.
FatherLiir says... #6
Another fun general I think you could use The Mimeoplasm running cards to turn players own decks against them or Marchesa, the Black Rose and have dozens of ETB effects on creatures and permanents.
February 16, 2015 12:45 p.m.
This guy fits the theme of the commander not being essential yet is very powerful. You've got access to black & blue control and can utilize the graveyard more with dredge green/black cards if you wanted. You can make a tri-color or just a dual-color deck.
Throw in Crucible of Worlds to completely utilize what's in your graveyard.
February 16, 2015 1:41 p.m.
I was also going to suggest bant, but not Derevi. Derevi is hands down the best bant commander. That said, it's also broken as hell if built correctly and is first and foremost a combo centric general. It's just as hated and broken as a dedicated Skithiryx, the blight dragon or Kaalia of the vast deck.
Roon of the hidden realm is a fun bant commander in an enter the battlefield deck. It can range from creature control to beat down, and also have some combos.
February 16, 2015 1:55 p.m.
Julius_Mufasa says... #9
If you don't want to lean on your commander too hard, Abzan/Junk/GWB is always a good color combination. Lots of powerful spells at your disposal with kill spells, Making your creatures difficult or unprofitable to kill, boardwipes, Doubling Season for tokens/ +1/+1 counters/ planeswalkers craziness. Also some insanely powerful creatures like Vigor, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Sheoldred, Whispering One, and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger just to name a few.
That being said Ghave, Guru of Spores is usually the go to commander for +1/+1 counters, token producing, and sacrificing creatures to hurt your opponent. Daghatar the Adamant is an alternative option.
February 16, 2015 2:04 p.m.
Personally I would choose the type of deck you want to play and then choose a commander from there. Many examples have been posted but a list is:+1/+1 counters, enter the board effects,Tribal theme, tokens, The list goes on, but once you decide what type of deck you want then you can see what the best commander is.I personally have Kaalia of the Vast because I love her flavour and just think demons, dragons and angles are awesome. My other deck is an Orzhov themed extort deck that is commanded by Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts. She honestly doesnt even come into play that often but when she does she really protects me.
February 16, 2015 2:18 p.m.
thegigibeast says... #11
A commander I suggest is Medomai the Ageless. It gives access to both 
and 
, he is powerful on it's own but yet not necessarly obligated to cast to win the game. For example, I built a deck using him and abusing upkeep effects. It is really easy to play, since the only time you need to pay attention is during your upkeep not to miss a trigger.
He is also really fun to make unblockable with Whispersilk Cloak or to give double strike with Fireshrieker, yet easy to use.
February 16, 2015 2:40 p.m.
ramenloverninja says... #12
From your post I think you would be a blue black player. But I'm going to suggest you play The Esper commander Oloro. He can just sit in the command and gain you life or you can bring him out to draw cards. You will use blue for card draw and counter spells. Black for hand attack and board control. White will also be use for board control. Also look at some death and taxes builds for unorthodox forms of control. Things like Leonin Arbiter can stop tutors and fetches. Creatures like Skittles and blightsteel colossus are good finishers that are hard to deal with. Also you may not like decks that just go for their infinite combo, but you should have a few as alternate win cons. Mikeaus the Unhallowed has a few that would fit your colors.
February 16, 2015 3:24 p.m.
Well from the post it sounded like 
was appealing to you so here's a list of the Grixis legends Crosis, the Purger, Garza Zol, Plague Queen, Gwendlyn Di Corci, Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, Lord of Tresserhorn, Marchesa, the Black Rose, Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (would really only work with Possibility Storm), Nekusar, the Mindrazer (my personal favorite), Nicol Bolas, Sedris, the Traitor King, Sol'kanar the Swamp King (only on the list because I said all), Tetsuo Umezawa, and Thraximundar
February 16, 2015 3:46 p.m.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician: I've seen a lot of praise for this guy, but I never understand the reasoning behind it. I admit that my card knowledge is very limited outside of standard though, so I'm probably just missing something big. Can someone explain why Derevi is so good?
Shattergang Brothers: Shattergang is a commander I have considered before, although that was in a Token-sac Prossh deck. It sounds like it could be powerful, but I'm not sure where the win con is, considering I'm based around saccing everything. Any advice there?
Marchesa, the Black Rose: I certainly like her ability, although I'm a bit worried about dethrone forcing my hand in a lot of games. Plus I feel the +1/+1 theme is better with Abzan/Gogari than Grixis. Although Grixis COULD be a fun chaos colour...
The Mimeoplasm: Eh, it feels really voltron-y. Strong, but I feel like I'd be putting all my eggs in one basket with this Commander.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: I'm confused. This card is publicly available? It's so rare I thought that the two copies I've seen around my store were proxies being allowed out of pity.
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Well, I DO have a lot of cards that work with +1/+1 counters, like Varolz, the Scar-Stripped, Death's Presence, Corpsejack Menace and a few others. The big problem I see with this guy is that the pitch surrounding him is filled with really expensive cards, and I'm a budget player. Plus while I like the exponential potential, it feels like it just amounts to making a bunch of big thigns and punch people with them. Am I mistaken?
Kaalia of the Vast: Ow, my wallet. it hurts.
Oloro, The Ageless Ascetic: I'm a little reluctant considering that there's already someone running Oloro at my store, but it could work. There's a ton of things that trigger off of lifegain, after all. I'm worried about how passive the deck looks though. I tend to prefer influencing things rather than sitting back and developing all day.
Medomai the Ageless: It sounds fun on paper, but I can't help but feel I'd be painting a massive target on my head if I ran a deck that says "I slap you, I take a bunch of extra turns."
As for what kind of deck I want altogether...that's been another tough subject for me. I run into the problem of overthinking things a lot, and I've reached a stage where I look at just about every deck archetype and simultaneously think of them all as really cool and really bad at the same time. I'm tempted to just build some kind of toolbox to just do a bit of everything. But that feels like both a copout and a really inefficient deck. I guess some kind of aggro control deck is where I sit? Sorry, that doesn't narrow it down much.
February 16, 2015 4:14 p.m.
I use Rith, the Awakener as my commander. It's a token deck that has many win conditions and Rith is just one of many token producers, so it doesn't rely on him too much.
The deck I use:
Saprolings and Explosions Playtest
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 3 | 16 COMMENTS | 900 VIEWSFebruary 16, 2015 5:44 p.m.
You seem to favor black and blue and adding white to go esper could be a good idea. I feel like Ertai, the Corrupted is a pretty cool commander that can work with multiple strategies. Whatever you end up deciding on good luck with the deck
February 16, 2015 8:43 p.m.
jandrobard says... #18
@tjcole1 Your suggestion Ertai, the Corrupted is cool. Tibor and Lumia is also fun, but a little less build around.
February 17, 2015 12:37 a.m.
@Thereddic: the way that a good Shattergang build would work (in my opinion) is with baby makers to have a steady stream of creatures to sac. These would include stuff like Awakening Zone or Bitterblossom. Next, you have twin effects like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Splinter Twin to make extra copies of value creatures that you can sac. Anything that benefits you when stuff leaves play is good (Fecundity and Harvester of Souls are awesome here) or persist/undying triggers on creatures is fun. Spine of Ish Sah is an MVP in Shattergang. The trick is you don't play the deck sacrificing ALL of your value permanents, you set it up so you sac things that do nothing but generate value to create a sudo card advantage engine that allows you to shut off your opponent's things while you slowly build your own board.
February 17, 2015 12:50 a.m.
To add to what iLikeDirt said about Shattergang Brothers, Grave Pact effects help keep the field clear of creatures by forcing them to lose an extra creature every time you use that ability. It's also beneficial to have other sac outlets so you're not always relying on your Commander, at least for creatures. There aren't as many sac outlets available for Enchantments/Artifacts, so he would likely still be your best bet for that purpose. You would also want to maximize the usability of ETB/LTB abilities.
Another thing that works well alongside/instead of token producers is recursion effects (ie. Lifeline, Undying) so you can keep using the same creatures over and over. I used to be able to use Sylvan Primordial to pull almost every land out of my deck in a single turn before it got banned. Now I just use Woodfall Primus to reset everyone else's board to nothing at once.
February 17, 2015 1:22 a.m.
Poptartz95 says... #21
I have quite a few commander decks, a Kaalia of the Vast
, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Aurelia, the Warleader, etc many more, I would suggest for your first commander, Aurelia, the Warleader or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, if you are cool with mono decks, Erebos, God of the Dead mono-black enchantment decks can be a players worst nightmare. Also Marath, Will of the Wild is a godsent amazing commander to. GL in your choice, many to choose from :) All these generals tend to stay a pretty decent price as long as you stay away from foils, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is the most expensive of my suggestions, but she is pretty disgusting, and can literally win you the game in one turn as a general, she drops bombs, and if you are willing to fork out some $$ a really good commander that I wish more people made decks with is Eight-and-a-Half-Tails he himself isnt to bad in price....getting a deck where you can max his potentional on the other hand can be a bit pricey sometimes
February 17, 2015 6:11 p.m.
Memnarch: THis guy looks silly and fun, although I'm worried about it being monocoloured. Monocolour on it's own feels like a big handicap in this format considering all the big powerful spells being cast, and unless I'm really misinformed about magic, blue seems like the weakest monocolour in MTG.
Rith, the Awakener / Marath, Will of the Wild: I've actually played a deck around these two guys that a friend lent me when I was trying out the format. The deck certainly performed well, but it definitely was not the game plan I want to be on. I never felt like I was always just hoping my opponent wouldn't have a solution and feeling helpless on their turn. I say that when I was producing 10+ tokens a turn with haste because of Parallel Lives and Concordant Crossroads, so that should say something of my thoughts on the strategy.
Ertai, the Corrupted: Interested, although control + tokens to fuel the counterspelling feels like a poor combination, even if W/B are good for that. Plus there's the whole target on the head for being annoying and counter-y
Tibor and Lumia: Interesting, but I feel like they don't do enough. Their abilities seem inefficient, and for their colours I feel like I could do better.
Aurelia, the Warleader / Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: Perhaps I'm mistaken, but they feel like they just lend themselves to one dimensional beatdown strategies, which get boring really fast.
February 18, 2015 1:49 a.m.
Deckologist says... #23
Might I be the weird one here and suggest Experiment Kraj. You run the deck around him being able to copy abilities. Don't freak out! He's not essential. The creatures with the tap and untap abilities all interact with each other as well. So your deck synergizes very well. now his ability is nice for people who are running a lot of tap creatures. When I ran my kraj deck we had someone playing krenko at the time. Let me tell you how frustrated this guy looked when I gave kraj his generals ability and was pumping out more tokens than he could. Now kraj is simic 
but that's where the fun is. You have a ton of creatures that just do dirty work for you. Most of my wins with kraj were in other peoples turns and most of the time it was abusing their generals abilities. I hope this helps.
February 18, 2015 2:15 a.m.
jandrobard says... #24
@Thereddic Blue is actually very strong, even as a monocolor. It has a lot of things in it's allotted color pie, compared to green or red.
February 18, 2015 12:58 p.m.
@jandrobard Really? Looking at it, it always seemed to have the weakest creatures and no reliable way of dealing with things on the board beyond bouncing them and countering when they get replayed. Either way though, I feel like I'd rather play with multiple colours to keep things diverse. After doing a bit of searching, the current list of Commanders I'm looking at is
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord / Varolz, the Scar-Striped Mainly because I have them. These are the first two commanders I considered building a deck off of. Jarad has some neat synergies with stuff like Mossbridge Troll or the undying/persist mechanics (which I love). Varolz on the other hand, takes advantage of all the 1/1 counter cards I seem to have, although it feels a bit reliant on the commander, and fairly singular in how it plays (play Varolz, scavenge Death's Presence and Phyrexian Dreadnought and hit for lethal commander damage.
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher Mainly because I can buy the precon of him and get a good start. Prossh was the next card I considered after Jarad and Varolz. his alpha strike commander damage seems fun and reliable, but the many tokens and sac outlets that would come with his theme feel like they can still give him a varied gameplan. Also he's a friggin dragon that eats things. What's not to love.
Shattergang Brothers same as Prossh, but with a bigger focus on control I guess. Less appealing than prossh, mainly because I have no idea where the wincon is with this
The main problem with the above decks is that they are all rather creature reliant. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I like spells. And since the most effective way to deal with the elf player is boardwipes, I'd rather not be eating all of my creatures along with his, even if I CAN bring them back.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician He's been recommended to me, and I still want to know how is tap/untaping is so powerful.
Wrexial, the Risen Deep Hey, he's blue and black, my favourite colours (Red doesn't count in such a slow format) and he steals things from my opponents! I like this guy.
Something Blue: still don't have much on this front. I liike blue things, but I seem to be having trouble finding good Blue commanders, since most things suggested or talked about (not trying to be rude) have been really creature based. Although that might not even be the issue. I just like having action on other people's turns, so really even just activated things and/or flash stuff also works. Yeah, I know I'm being vague, I'm frankly a little unsure of what I want to do myself.
February 21, 2015 11:43 p.m.
TheCeltic814 says... #26
Personally I love Rhys the Redeemed for tribal elves/tokens. He is a really cheaper commander mana wise not cash ($17). Even after a boardwipe he still probably going to get on the battlefield and refill it with tokens. Left unchecked he swarms the board with tokens and combining the synergy with elves this deck can get crazy. Also getting your commander tucked after in your deck is always a nightmare but with elves are pretty powerful without him and you will most likely to have some tutor like Chord of Calling and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard as examples since you probably seen them in standard. It literally took me about 7 months to finally settle down with a commander. Teysa, Orzhov Scion-> Riku of Two Reflections-> Rafiq of the Many (didn't actually get but close)->Derevi, Empyrial Tactician-> Ezuri, Renegade Leader-> Rhys the Redeemed
Here are some links to some commander or highlander deck techs to see if this will spark any ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3T6vkIHmzA (Sidisi, Brood Tyrant)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYRQyBV263c (Slivers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH0SZLnqYs0 (Tajic, Blade of the Legion)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igNR9F7NkqM (Goblins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tFd3xySPG4 (Teysa)
Best of "insert color" commander cards under $5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtUuKKtY4gQ (black)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv3Nw_0QxrU (blue)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61lMxG_G1GM (red)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMSDmnhyIbw (white)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6FCBpK3SPw (green)
February 22, 2015 2:43 a.m.
Based on everything youve said i would sugest Riku of Two Reflections this card allows you to get double use out of creatures and spells. Red/blue offers a lot of control cards and creatures that get buffed from spells. Green offers ramp and strong creatures as well as artifact and enchantment and land removal/control. A combo that is fun is Izzet Staticaster + any deathtouch added to her. Pretty much the deck lets split creature and spell right down the middle and while the commander speeds the deck up and is nice he isnt essential.
March 3, 2015 12:57 p.m.
HeroInMyOwnMind says... #28
Based on what you said in your post, and how you have reacted to suggestions in the comments, it seems like playing Bant, Simic, or Azorius would be ideal. I would not play mono blue because of the eventuality of ending every game the same way, which you mentioned is not ideal.
Knowing the colors is easy though. Honestly, you really just need to pick HOW you want to win. Combat damage, mill, combo, oppression - once you have that figured out it will be easy to pick the right commander. Making sure that commander falls in the right colors means you get to play the way you want (blue + green is the most "play on other people's turns" colors there are).
Dylan says... #2
I think the perfect commander for you would be Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
It allows you to be interactive on other's players turns
It allows to run both a control based deck an creature based deck at the same time
And as one of my favorite commanders, I think it extremely fun to play, not to mention the games are different every time.
Also depending on your budget it can be a extremely good budget deck that can be built up over time with better cards
February 16, 2015 12:19 p.m.