What is the best commander deck and why?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on June 16, 2020, 3:56 a.m. by SynergyBuild
I am working on with a lot of statistics for the first video I am going to post, and I want a lot of information on the overall climate towards certain archetypes, strategies, and decks.
While the data on geometric proportions of specific draws for the decks and studying strategies is useful, Commander/EDH is about the community, and so I want to get as much of it as possible.
I really only need 3 main items:
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What commander do you think is most powerful?
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What archetype (Midrange, Aggro, Combo, Control, Stax, Tempo, or a hybrid mix of other archetypes) do you think is most powerful.
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(Optional) Why did you choose your answers to questions 1 or 2?
Thank you all for the support, I hope the best for all of you, in this environment.
GhostChieftain says... #3
1) I would say 1 of either Kenrith, Najeela, or TnT is the best.
2) Combo is king.
June 16, 2020 7:19 a.m.
GhostChieftain says... #4
I will say that I think you are better off looking at proactive, disruptive, or adaptive as archetypes because all of the best decks have a combo finish. Here is a link to the cEDH decklist database and Here is the Edh Tier list. I think these should help you research.
June 16, 2020 7:24 a.m. Edited.
griffstick says... #5
I've seen so many Tatyova, Benthic Druid decks come through and win so many times. I think without a doubt Tatyova, Benthic Druid is very strong. On another hand I've never seen a najela deck lose at my lgs. But a small sample.
Combo is the best. Especially ones that involve drawing when you have no cards left.
June 16, 2020 7:41 a.m.
griffstick says... #6
I also want to add that from what I think I know from observation. I've noticed that tymna Thrasios fish hulk decks are the best
June 16, 2020 8:01 a.m.
SteelSentry says... #7
Fish hulk took a hit with the Flash ban; Oracle is still a viable win con, but I don't know how ubiquitous Protean Hulk is.
I don't know what audience you are targeting, do you want to cover cEDH with the most objectively powerful, or cover the archetypes that typically dominate more casual tables? In the latter case, I would cover commanders like Urza, Lord High Artificer, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, and The Gitrog Monster.
June 16, 2020 8:22 a.m.
Gotta agree with TypicalTimmy on the first point it's all about enjoyment level, cause at the end of the day it comes down to luck of the draw and your own skill level, and skilled player can win against an unskilled opponent with a crummy deck just as any unskilled opponent will loose against a skilled opponent even with the best deck, so imo this question is kinda silly, especially considering the plethora of playstyles available in commander even the thrasios build will suck if a bad deck builder is behind it. To emphasize my point I run a Zirilan of the Claw deck that everyone laughs at cause he is considered low power, then they have a 25/5 doublestrike dragon with trample in their face t5, its probly my lowest rank commander yet its beat enough finely tuned atraxas/bolas/padeem/omnath/muldratha/ghost chief decks to make people nervous when I pull it out, so in short (k not that short lol) its impossible to call a commander best due to too many factors(yes I know many will disagree).
June 16, 2020 3:46 p.m.
TypicalTimmy generally the card draw has always been considered to be the most powerful aspect of a deck, since the beginning of MTG however, to reiterate my point, it depends on what your drawing and how you play it, a deck that just draws into more draw is worthess, and if you are busy trying to search and draw while your opponent needs not draw cause their deck is built streamline and all cards have solid value in regard to the overall strategy then you'll be to late so that's where playtesting and meta comes into play, the best t1 deck will still fall flat if your whole play group is playing that decks counter. Anecdote: a friend of mine won the 2002 Tennessee state championship with an otherwise crummy deck cause he built a counter to what everyone was calling the "best" deck around
June 16, 2020 3:56 p.m.
griffstick says... #10
Good point Vash13 I've played against combo decks and have lost to the same combo over and over again so I put several cards in the deck to deal with it. Not being in blue I had to get creative. I started using cards like Sadistic Sacrament, Praetor's Grasp, Slaughter Games and Jester's Cap type cards to deal with the combo before it happens. It worked great. It worked so good that they stopped playing combo against me lol. Playstyles and deck building can change the meta.
June 16, 2020 6:48 p.m. Edited.
2.) Combo-kill.
3.) The Gitrog Monster has a lot of casual variations, but it gets busted in competitive EDH if you plan to go infinite with Dakmor Salvage and any of the various free repeatable discard outlets such as: Earsplitting Rats, Grotesque Hybrid, Noose Constrictor, Oblivion Crown, Olivia's Dragoon, Oona's Prowler, Patchwork Gnomes, Putrid Imp, Skirge Familiar, Trespasser il-Vec, Tunneler Wurm or Wild Mongrel.
Upon discarding the Dakmor Salvage, The Gitrog Monster allows you to draw a card which you can use to dredge the Dakmor Salvage back. As you can see you have an infinite mill loop, BUT for every land you mill, you also get a draw trigger from The Gitrog Monster. Not only that, but in your deck you have one or more of these grave-shuffle effects: Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Gaea's Blessing. Milling any of those cards puts all milled cards back into your library, so you can keep racking up draw triggers until you have your entire deck in your hand.
At this point you can free cast Lotus Petal and/or Dark Ritual and then shuffle them back into your library to draw again by discarding a grave shuffler followed by any number of lands in your hand to draw them back and repeat. You now have infinite mana of any color in your hand along with every card in your library in your hand and the ability to recast any card in your hand as many times as you want. Simplest method of winning is just to cast Walking Ballista for a million mana but really any card that causes a loss of life that can easily be put back in the grave upon use so you can cycle it back will work. Also if your opponents have something like Leyline of Sanctity or any other protection card you can freely cast and recast your Assassin's Trophy and/or Maelstrom Pulse as many times as you want to bypass the issue.
But what if they exile your Dakmor Salvage? Use Riftsweeper to get it back and if that fails use your back-up Mirror of Fate to recur it after you've milled your library thoroughly with some value engine like Mesmeric Orb. You basically have to also exile their recursion cards to remove the land for good or use Praetor's Grasp as a silver bullet.
Why not just use a removal spell or graveyard hate spell/ability while the first dredge trigger is on the stack to interrupt the combo? Well, that could work, but keep in mind if they discard a another land card while its on the stack they can dredge off of that and run through their combo all while removal is on the stack effectively bypassing any number of removal spells equal to the extra lands in their hand. By the time the removal spell as has resolved they will have infinite black mana from Dark Ritual and a Lotus Petal to cast afterward allowing them to just recast whatever was removed or just win by hard-casting the aforementioned Walking Ballista.
If Tormod's Crypt won't work you could use Rest in Peace or Planar Void to stop it, but these decks run so many Naturalize effects because they know that's the only real effective answer you have to stop it.
Oh, and get this. If you can't find a discard outlet you can use your discard step to discard down to hand size to go infinite and win the game that way as the discard step repeats if an ability is triggered due to discarding down to hand size. Which means all you really need is the land which you can find with all the black tutors and green provides its own land tutor effects as well. Given you're also in green playing a turn 2 or 3 The Gitrog Monster is fairly possible which can be the same turn you win on.
The deck is too consistent at winning. People don't play it though, because certain interactions get very complex in rules interactions which means you need a solid understanding of how to pilot it, and those who do know how to pilot it find it boring as winning can be so fast and consistent it doesn't even feel like you're playing Magic anymore. Also the deck can get pretty pricey to acquire all the cards you need. That combination of factors is why it doesn't see much play otherwise it would be banned straight out of existence if sanctioned competitive EDH tournaments were more common in my opinion.
June 16, 2020 6:54 p.m.
StopShot yes girtog is insane, thats is why anyone who plays one gets hated out of games as quick as possible lol, and as you said the knowledgeable player does not play it cause well... as you said your not even playing cause you just end up explaining that you have infinite mana and draw, cause no one wants to actually do that combo correctly lol
June 16, 2020 7:20 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #13
If I were to pick itd be the partners. Specifically thrasios and either tymna or krum. You can go in blind with a strong build and always fair well. They do it all. Combo, interact, and can grind. Other commanders are way more reliant on favorable match ups and slow starts.
June 16, 2020 7:54 p.m.
1) You're asking the wrong question here. A true T0 cEDH deck isn't built around having the commander(s) in play. It's a consistent deck that can win games by turn 2, and consistently by turn 3 if undisrupted. The commander simply adds a level of consistency, whether by tutoring for win-cons or by themselves being a piece of the winning combo.
2) In cEDH, everything has elements of control and combo, even stax. Permission and "I win" buttons are too powerful to ignore.
The real question you should be asking is "What's the simplest, most difficult to disrupt, and consistent game winning combination of cards available within the EDH pool?" Before the flash ban it was Flash + Protean Hulk because it was a 2 mana, 2 card, instant speed win-con. Because it was in U/G, Thrasios, Triton Hero (+ partner) and Tatyova, Benthic Druid were largely considered to be the strongest commanders. Thrasios + Tymna were largely considered to be the best, because their colors provided more tutors, combo outlets, and thrasios provided an infinite mana outlet to make the combo more robust. Note that the T0 commanders are selected based on how well they enable the combo, not the other way around.
Honestly I don't pay that close of attention to the cEDH scene, so I'm not sure what the "best" game winning combo is. Find that combo, and you'll quickly find your answer of what the "best" commander is.
Colonel_Kink says... #2
well i can give a few ideas. i think that power of a commander depends on 5 aspects -colour identity from 0 colours to 5 colours. -do you win with it? or does it lock opponents? -do you need to build around it? or is it just an extra card in hand to a power deck?
-how efficient is it? -how consistent is it?
those 5 points create a scale that could be used to give an empirically proven "Bert" Commander.
example, zur the enchanter, gives access to 3 good colours, tutors for win and impossible to remove. it must have some card built into the deck, but they dont need to detract from the deck.
it runs as a combo, or stax or control, or voltron etc. many flexible options.
or you could say , Godo. he is mono red, not good. he is expensive, not good. with enough mana the turn he comes into play you win on the spot without interaction. Massive power, more impactful than most other commanders out there.
it is a zero card combo, which means that you have your wincondition in the commandzone. so could argue for power, but lack of flexibility in other areas lowers its total grade.
i said all this cuz i think that these parameters might be better at creating the data
June 16, 2020 7:18 a.m.