Average CMC one should never pass in EDH?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 28, 2015, 3:36 a.m. by CChaos
Asking the question above to see the opinions of others and why.
My guess is it depends on the commander and or the type of deck you are playing (reanimation will have a higher average CMC due to the addition of many high costing creatures). However, maybe there could be more specific information you would like to present?
CChaos,
I've often heard 4.0 as a good rule of thumb for the upper bound on casual play. And like SaberTech mentions, much lower for competitive play (e.g.,
Epochalyptik's Dominus - Dreamcrusher Edition clocks in at 2.44).
But it totally depends on the commander too. EDHREC did an AMA on reddit a while back and one of the questions was on average CMC for different commanders. Average CMCs ranged from Isamaru, Hound of Konda at 2.76 to Mayael the Anima at 4.74.
December 28, 2015 4:23 a.m.
Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Ghave, Guru of Spores, Animar, Soul of Elements, Maelstrom Wanderer, Prime Speaker Zegana Totaly disagree with the aforementioned CMC rule. There just one thing, bad deckbuilding... and, sometimes, wrong tutors.
December 28, 2015 4:40 a.m.
As a personal rule, I usually aim for at least 50% of the spells in my deck to cost 3 mana or less to cast. The average CMC of my commander decks range between 2.8 to 3.5. The decks with a higher average CMC tend to use some way to get spells out quickly, like mana ramping out stuff with Animar, Soul of Elements or reanimating with The Mimeoplasm.
December 28, 2015 4:44 a.m.
Thanks for all the great answers.
I need to update my commander decks to learn more about them from a statistical point of view. I'll start later today after work.
December 28, 2015 6:17 a.m.
PookandPie says... #7
Your mana curve should roughly match that of the players with whom you regularly play. Too low, and your deck runs the risk of running out of gas too early or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, winning too quickly for the other players in your group.
Average CMC isn't exactly the best way to examine competitive capability, anyway, so I wouldn't worry about a, "Max CMC I should never cross." Keep your spells and permanents effect as roughly around the same range as your playgroup and you should be absolutely fine.
December 28, 2015 6:23 a.m.
mathimus55 says... #8
I think your curve is going to be pretty reliant on your commander and the build for them specifically. Maelstrom Wanderer decks have a consistently higher cmc than most decks to take advantage of the double cascade trigger, but a Rafiq of the Many aggro deck might not have a single spell over 4cmc. It's pretty deck dependent I feel. My Narset, Enlightened Master deck probably has an average cost over 5 with all the walkers, extra turns and all that, but my Ezuri, Claw of Progress(or any elfball deck) is right at 3 because I have very few 5+ cmc haymakers.
December 28, 2015 9:03 a.m.
Kinda depends.
My black/white stax deck has a cmc of like 2.5. Wins the game with 2-3 drops equipt with swords, while locking everyone else out of mana. Dark Confidant, Thalia, SFM, Miren Crusader and the like are my win cons. Very much a hate bears deck.
My green/red omnath deck has a much higher average cmc, as I have so much ramp and mana rocks that I can consistently drop stuff like Terastodon, entwined Tooth and Nail, Eldrazi, by like turn 4-6...while also being able to maintain a board presence of stuff like Courser of Kruphix, Oracle of Mul Daya, Empress of Beasts to help prevent board wipes and mana denial.
The omnath deck is honestly very subtle in its competitiveness. If you're playing with 3-4 others and they have competitive combo decks, they can't really afford to treat you as the threat. If they drop their counters on you, the other decks just go off.
December 28, 2015 1:40 p.m. Edited.
mathimus55 +1 your comment about deck building as the same general can play with different strategies.
December 29, 2015 7:44 p.m.
Deckologist says... #11
Usually the more competitive decks will have very low cmc. As mentioned Dominus has a very low cmc so that it can take advantage of every bit of mana to resolve a win on turn 2-4.
That does not mean however that having an average cmc of 4-6 is a terrible thing. There are a lot of strategies that run big creatures that are cheated out for little to no mana. I'll use en example with my own current decks.
My Zirilan of the Claw deck has a 4 cmc (roughly). But notice my general's ability. I'm cheating giant fatties out for 3 mana and beating face with them. It has won about 75% of its games which is considered on par for commander decks.
My Mishra, Artificer Prodigy deck has a cmc of 2.56. This is my competitive Storm deck that is designed to get a bunch of 0,1,2, or 3 drop spells out as soon as possible so that I can generate a ton of mana advantage and draw power to eventually cast as many spells as I want while doing infinite damage by turn 2 or 3.
In the end it's really up to your decks overall design. Is you're running Braids, Conjurer Adept I would expect to see a very high average cmc because you don't care about casting creatures due to her ability.
SaberTech says... #2
It depends on how competitively you want to build the deck. If you want to be really competitive then you are going to aim to keep your mana curve as low as you can get it while still effectively maintaining the strategy you are aiming for. If you are building for a more casual crowd, you can use cards with a cmc as high as you want (assuming you have the mana base and ramp to use them effectively). I've seen Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre often enough in people's decks.
In general though, I find that a large number of the flashy spells in Commander fall into the 5-6 mana range. If I'm looking to build a deck that isn't necessarily competitive but still reasonably tuned, I don't often play cards higher than 6 mana unless they offer really compelling advantages/utility to my deck.
December 28, 2015 3:55 a.m.