Commanders by Power Level [EDH Tier List]

Commander / EDH* thegigibeast

SCORE: 2477 | 9353 COMMENTS | 3305451 VIEWS | IN 1005 FOLDERS


Connorav says... #1

What would we rank Earl of Squirrel? My lgs accepts him as a commander

May 14, 2019 3:15 p.m.

Connorav says... #2

shrug I'd say mid but thanks lol

May 14, 2019 4 p.m.

skyhaven says... #3

is there already a god eternal kefnet list ?

May 14, 2019 4:26 p.m.

the_unseen89 says... #4

Would love to contribute some info. Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper got an upgrade from War of the Spark that is helping to mitigate some of the issues I have run into in Tomik, Distinguished Advokist . I have the highest rated Noyan Dar deck on Tapped Out. Here is the link The Sea is Woke - Noyan Dar Control for reference. I would say that it is still a High Power deck but is still a ways from Competitive. I love this post and have read through and learned a lot. Thanks for keeping up with this.

May 14, 2019 7:38 p.m.

CyborgAeon says... #5

@the_unseen89, I like the idea behind the deck - azorius beats via lands. Though if you're looking to recommend this as a cEDH deck, I'd definitely recommend some more optimization, locks & combos to close out the game.

If the best win you have available is as you say - via a 10/10 inkmoth beats then you may want to look at refining the strategy. Some notable cards you could include: Reset , Call to Glory , Energy Arc , To Arms! ; these would allow you to effectively Time Walk your opponents, provided enough of your lands are animated.

With the aim to win/create a lock/use enough disruption by turn four, you definitely could look at Stasis , I'd recommend that in a cEDH environment you look into Mystic Remora and many other format staples. In the description this list features many links to cEDH decks - by viewing these and the descriptions/primers for cEDH decks you'll likely be able to get a stronger understanding as to the differences in play-style and why your deck would likely not be considered "high-power"

May 15, 2019 7:04 a.m.

Does anyone have a good Godo, Bandit Warlord decklist that might change my opinion on the commander? I don't feel like the deck is any good, sorry if that sounds harsh, but let me try to explain how I see it.

Your Commander is a 1 card combo (by using the etb effect to tutor for Helm of the Host ), normally that would be great, you could either:
1. Fill your deck with ramp and try to get consistent turn 3 wins
2. or you could make a slow stax/control deck that is free to go for the win whenever it so chooses

Option 2 is not available to you because your playing Mono-Red (I'm just saying it like it is).

Therefore you have to just go straight for the combo, the problem is, at it doesn't matter how much ramp is in your deck, your too slow.
To top it off your gameplan is very telegraphed, at any point a player can just look at your boardstate and say with reasonable confidence whether or not you are going to go for your combo on your next turn.
Additionally, when you finally ramp up to cast your commander, if an opponent has interaction (which they will, they've had all game to prepare), your only option is to send Godo back to the command zone and get back to ramping, however, your playing mono-red so your going to have to do it in top-deck mode.
Finally, the combo isn't even that good when you get it, plenty of stax pieces stop it, ( Blind Obedience , Frozen AEther , Kismet , Torpor Orb , Humility , Hushwing Gryff etc.), and it's folds to Counterspells, Artifact hate, and Creature hate, which is the vast majority of interaction people will be playing (it does ignore graveyard hate which is something I guess.)

Sorry for the wall of text, but I realized if I just said "the combo is too expensive" and left it at that there would be a lot of unnecessary back and forth arguing.

TL;DR: Godo, Bandit Warlord is, in my opinion, slower, more predictable, and more easily disrupted than all the other fast combo decks in the format by a wide margin, for this reason, in my opinion, Godo, Bandit Warlord should be brought into the "High Power" tier.

May 16, 2019 9:05 p.m.

CyborgAeon says... #7

@ThrunTheTroll628

Your points are absolutely valid and I can definitely understand why you'd believe that godo is a slower deck that shouldn't be considered as high-power as it is. Here I'll hopefully show reasonable counterpoints to your arguments.
Forgive me if I'm wrong (@otherGodoPlayers) but Godo is considered a 0 card combo, as all you need to have is mana. It's irrelevant what's in hand, or on board, as you require only 11 mana to win. Furthermore, there are combos that become 1-card and require 5 mana fewer to pull off.

A fantastic example is Panharmonicon . This card allows you to search for Hammer of Nazahn in addition to helm, meaning that godo enters, gains indestructible and equips for no additional cost. Panharmonicon is also replaced in this instance by any "copy" effect - ie Heat Shimmer , Twinflame etc. all allow you to pull off this same effect for significantly less mana.

If you look into the extensive amount of work, time and research that went into this brew, you'll find that many cEDH players ie gtoast99, insertcleverphrasehere have spent a lot of time refining builds to come up with an evenly stax & combo efficient build. Looking at some builds that are only ritual effects and combo pieces, I could understand you'd be convinced the deck has flaws. But it's been proven time and time again that the best pilots show how worthy the deck is of it's tiered placement.
When you look at cards like Treasonous Ogre you may think "well, I'll add a mana here or there", but you could - in a godo build, see it as a single card that ends the game, as you have a 0 card combo in the command zone.

Admittedly, when you begin reviewing cards such as Soulbright Flamekin I can understand that the mana investment may not seem strong enough. Nonetheless, with all the fast mana available - the deck consistently pressures wins from 1-2 cards required. Though ritualling to victory is still an option

Absolutely fairly - you've found the crux of the deck. A pilot needs this card to resolve, or it's all for naught. With that in mind, I believe most decks run the full suite of blue specific counters, some even using Burnout . This is not always enough, but comparatively, often charbelcher wins legacy tournaments, just because sometimes you luck out and your opponents don't open with Force of Will . For that reason, both decks are considered strong
Yes, you've got a great point. Godo folds to A LOT of stax cards, but similar to the above, it consistently wins before these are an issue.

This point could be summed up with the above, but it's relevant for me to mention that many decks have switched from some of the above stax pieces to combat Flash -hulk decks, as they're just as fast as godo, but have more interaction and a greater consistent speed. While Torpor Orb & friends are great, most people have cut it from lists, as it doesn't do enough to combat the more common threats.

TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26SblcKLQsM

May 17, 2019 9:33 a.m.

Tae_Grixis says... #8

Can we get a list like this for Oathbreaker?

May 17, 2019 10:25 a.m.

@CyborgAeon Thanks for the in depth response! I see that you've put thought into all my issues with the deck. I suppose I can see the deck has enough going for it to at least be of note.

I still feel the deck doesn't stand a chance in my meta, but I can see it being an option in meta's with less stax + interaction.

As a final question, what advantages does Godo have over other fast combo decks? Is the "0 card" combo all? Why would I choose Godo over Shuffle Hulk or, if I still wanted to be all in, Hermit Druid ?

May 17, 2019 11:19 a.m.

Hissp says... #10

ThrunTheTroll628 I'd suggest you read through the primer I posted early:


Waiting for Godo - cEDH primer

Commander / EDH gtoast99

SCORE: 137 | 109 COMMENTS | 33180 VIEWS | IN 71 FOLDERS


Godo actually performs very well through most stax. It has to deal with Null Rod (which it has workarounds for) and Torpor Orb (which is sort of a fringe stax card) but gets under (and runs!) Cursed Totem , Grafdigger's Cage , and Spheres and also doesn't care much about Rest in Peace or Draw/Spell cast limiting Stax.

May 17, 2019 12:12 p.m.

Your decklist is the one I've been looking at. At least in playtests it seems to average turn 4 wins with no interaction, I'm open to the possibility that I'm just playing suboptimally, but it still seems too slow, all the same. I can see that the deck can certainly make some upsets but I'm not sold yet.
All the same, I've only played against the deck twice, the first time it crumpled to a counter spell, the second game shuffle hulk just won on turn three. While these seem like frequent issues with the deck I'll wait till love played it some more and see if my opinion has changed.

May 17, 2019 12:30 p.m.

shoeonthemoon says... #12

Where is the decklist that made Vannifar competitive?

May 17, 2019 6:06 p.m.

shoeonthemoon says... #13

Yes, mine is certainly a sub optimal list due to budget restrictions, but I did find this one (http://http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/prime-rib-3/) and it seems a lot better, with no budget restrictions. I think 28 land is a little light, but with all the ramp it almost makes up for it. Thank you.

May 20, 2019 9:54 a.m.

skyhaven says... #14

ShaperSavant should the Captain Sisay not be replaced by another list ? like your Boat Arc list? Just saying the list in description is not optimal anymore and did not see any change in the past 11 months.

just my 2 cents. That deck still runs great but its getting old and not up to date.

May 21, 2019 6:46 a.m.

pokejerk20 says... #15

skyhaven Boat arc list?

May 21, 2019 9:47 a.m.

skyhaven says... #16

pokejerk20 yea the boat arc list. Been playing it for a month and playgroup hates it played the other list 2 but this one is so much faster.

May 21, 2019 11:16 a.m.

ShaperSavant says... #17

Paradox Sisay - Boat Arc

It's a prospective upgrade to Paradox Sisay that LabManiac_Sigi, Lerker, myself and the current Sisay primer's author Beau aka biopower worked on.

It is currently in the testing phase and we will make updates to the listed resources once we've thoroughly tested the lines and list.

skyhaven pokejerk20

May 21, 2019 11:21 a.m.

MagickedOne says... #18

Is the Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain “eggs” build also part of its tier 2 standing or is there a different build ?

May 21, 2019 12:30 p.m.

skyhaven says... #19

ShaperSavant LabManiac_Sigi Lerker if this helps local game store is playing a really heavy cedh meta I'm speaking of bloodpod,shimmer zur, Gitrog monster,etc it's holding its own realy wel against all of these and even winning a lot of the times. Most of the time it comes down to the die roll. Love the the deck Keep up the good work :)

May 21, 2019 2:13 p.m.

PyreCracker says... #20

Urza, Lord High Artificer! Nuff said.

May 21, 2019 4:02 p.m.

pokejerk20 says... #21

The new sliver is easily better than Tazri and Niv.

May 22, 2019 5:47 p.m.

ChibiNature says... #22

pokejerk20

I agree 100%

May 22, 2019 5:52 p.m.

I'll third, lol

Sounds nice to not really have to worry about exiling your wincons

Even if they have to add in a couple of sliver wincons, hard casting the new sliver seems like a better "plan Z" then all the others.

Also, thoughts on Urza? Seems like a Teferi that's better at breaking parity (plus much easier to cast) but at the same time, it doesn't have a two card combo, which has always helped Teferi stand out compared to all the other Mono-blue generals.

May 23, 2019 7:55 a.m.

pokejerk20 says... #24

Urza is a better Teferi IMO. Not super familiar with Teferi so that's just my outside perspective.

May 23, 2019 10:43 a.m.



Easy maximum power tier, assuming she doesn't get banned of course.

May 23, 2019 2:45 p.m.

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