Creature count
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Dec. 8, 2014, 3 p.m. by JRaynor
What's a generally good rule of thumb for the number of creatures to include in an edh deck? Maybe I've just had some rotton luck but since continues tweaking my usually good g/w token deck and Abzan counters deck both have just come up short against board wipes and removal lately.
ThisIsBullshit says... #3
Depends on the deck and the commander. Some decks are creatureless because their commander isn't synergistic with creatures. Others, like Kaalia of the Vast, require lots of creatures. Some decks only use a few and tutor for them, others throw crap tons of creatures onto the battlefield.
If you're struggling against field wipes, throw in some recursion or protection.
December 8, 2014 3:16 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
There's no magic number for most card types (lands are generally the most defined: 36-40 in a typical deck). Creature count is something you have to intuit and tweak as you get more experience.
There are resources on my profile page that might help you divvy up your deck space more appropriately.
December 8, 2014 3:21 p.m.
I would say you need a way to either make or take creatures in any deck, whether it's tokens or cards like Bribery. But either way, you need some board presence. Even then, some generals literally work better if your deck is 1 creature. It's all up to you.
MindAblaze says... #2
Generally creature decks get beat by X for 1 sweepers. You can mitigate the losses by not playing into them and having a self-destruct button ready for when it happens. Also, having a back-up plan to help you rebuild quickly will prevent it.
As far as number of creatures goes, I don't think there's so much of a "rule of thumb" rather than a gut feeling of what works for your deck. Your token deck probably benefits from having more anthems and/or ways to go "arbitrarily large" than having more creature cards (unless those creatures make tokens.)
Abzan counters probably needs something like Rootborn Defenses or Golgari Charm to save you from the sweepers themselves.
In the end, creature decks get blown out by sweepers. You invest your resources into a strategy, and one card takes all that away. You need to find a way to either rebuild, or 1 for 1 their sweeper. (ie, regenerate, indestructible, Ghostway etc)
December 8, 2014 3:16 p.m.