Commander with Standard cards

Commander Deck Help forum

Posted on Dec. 5, 2016, 11:53 a.m. by ROUROU

Hello, my question is very simple.Many players, have just started mtg and are fairly new to the different formats of the game. Do you believe, that it is possible for someone to brew a commander deck with STANDARD only cards and win a tournament? . To be more specific, i mean the last 4 sets. (khans, origins, zandikar and kaladesh).

I sure believe, it will be very cheap and dun to build. Thanks!

Atony1400 says... #2

there's a block in between,

December 5, 2016 1:04 p.m.

DrukenReaps says... #3

id recommend grabbing a commander precon and beefing it up but depending on meta it should be possible. we talking duel commander tournament or multi player tournament? this makes a big difference given the ban lists. Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Padeem, Consul of Innovation, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, The Gitrog Monster, Sigarda, Heron's Grace, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Archangel Avacyn  Flip or any flip walker are all decent starting points. keep in mind im not overly familiar with recent sets so some of these like eldrazi may not have enough support. personally id go with Padeem, Consul of Innovation, Archangel Avacyn  Flip, or Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim.

December 5, 2016 1:04 p.m.

sonnet666 says... #4

Against other commander decks that aren't just using standard cards? No way.

Cards in commander are good based off of different qualities than cards in 60 card formats, with the most important qualities being card advantage, scalability to multiplayer, mana advantage, and tutoring. There just aren't enough cards that fit these criteria in a single standard rotation to make a commander deck competitive.

However, there are many commander playable cards that, while not being he most popular or efficient in the format, are good and cheap enough that you could easily upgrade a deck based out of your standard collection without spending too much money.

If you like, Commandertheory.com is a blog that helped me get into Commander when I was just starting out. They do reviews every time a new set comes out to rate the commander playable cards. Here are links to their reviews for the recent standard sets:

I'd also check out their "Top Cards in Commander" section, which can be found in the sidebar. They review the top 50 generally useful cards for commander in each color identity (opinions, of course), which is super helpful when you're just staring out and don't know what's what.

Some other resources I use when building decks:

Manabasecrafter.com: An quick, easy way to find every land and mana producer in you commanders color identity.

edhrec.com: An aggregate site that shows you which cards are most popular with the commander you're building around.

Also, remember that Commander is a social format, and if you wanted to organize a "Standard Only" commander tournament, there's no reason it wouldn't work.

December 5, 2016 1:31 p.m.

CRKFIEND says... #5

I'd recommend checking out: Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper

There's plenty of Awaken and Rebound cards you can mess with, plus the deck has great synergy with Planar Outburst and Crush of Tentacles for board wiping. You can use Narset Transcendent, too! You have access to some awesome cards like Brain in a Jar making your sorceries instant speed as well. Don't underestimate the power of land creatures with counterspells. It's proven very effective.

I have a deck together you should peek at if interested. It's not standard only, but does use a lot of cards in standard due to the badass synergy:

Annoyan' Dar

December 5, 2016 2:44 p.m.

Errast says... #6

Anafenza, the Foremost might be your best option. +1/+1 counters have gotten quite a lot of support, and Khans block gave the Abzan a lot of their best tools. It'll certainly hold up to more casual leaning commander decks.

December 5, 2016 9:02 p.m.

This discussion has been closed