I'm filling out my commander collection with mono colored decks, and have decided that the best way to do this is to make decks with simple, straightforward strategies that are extremely beginner friendly. This way, I can teach new players and have something casual(ish) to fall back on as the need arises. As an added rule I'm purposefully weakening the decks by insuring that they function, at least in part, with three different legends present in the deck to allow for varied playstyles, not unlike the commander precons.
What commanders and strategies do you think would be best for this experiment?
At the moment, only one deck is "complete" in this series, a mono blue ramp-heavy deck that's full of stompy undersea monsters and Eldrazi, essentially a Lovecraftian theme deck. The commander options are Thada Adel, Acquisitor who can loot artifact ramp and more from opponents, Arcanis the Omnipotent who is fun to ramp into and draws you into more of your mana rocks and bombs, and Lorthos, the Tidemaker who is the most enjoyable big dumb ramp target.
mono white? I think kemba, kha regent with a cat focus works pretty well in mono white and gives you a focus not shared by the others (equipment, tribal cats, voltron AND going wide). White especially likes the equipment focus because the equipment tutors are usually very cheap.
Green elves are pretty iconic, and easy for beginners to learn on.
I wouldn't play neheb the eternal as a red burn commander (unless you have a way of capitalizing on the mana otherwise). Burn doesn't usually scale well in multiplayer without going damage based sweepers. Most of which will kill neheb.... Red is also notorious for emptying its hand quickly and neheb is going to make that even more true. However, there is a viable strategy using him as a possibility. Tribal again (sort of), but using Lovisa Coldeyes as a possibility. Then all you need to do is include the tribal based card draw and removal and you have a deck. Neheb is much better in this sort of strategy (and himself is helped by lovisa). I would include some extra combat step stuff to ensure that people learn how neheb can be broken or that red style aggro has ways to go long in multiplayer.
Mono white and red Akroma(s) are both solid places to start. Mono red Zirilan is nice for some dragon flavor. Godo can be fun for a voltron samurai build. Kamahl is solid in mono green. Crovax in white or black can be effective. Volrath is pretty fun for mb with reanimate shenanigans. Baron Sengir or Kalitas or Drana for some vampire flavor. Memnarch is fun in blue. If you wanna mess with your opponents toys Sakashima the Imposter or Empress Galina can be a blast.
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Modern GB Rock U Flooding Merfolk RUG Delver Midrange WU Monks UW Tempo Geist GW Bogle GW Liege UR Tron B Vampires
Affinity Legacy
Fish
Goblins
Burn
Reanimator
Dredge
Affinity EDH W Akroma GBW Ghave BRU Thrax GR Ruric I advocate for the elimination of the combo archetype in Modern. I believe it is degenerate and unfun by its very nature and will always limit design space and cause unnecessary bans.
The trickiness with mono coloured general is that most of them want to you go double your mana repeatedly which can be expensive then the second issue that every colour has something it can struggle to remove or do and then you have to use gerenic answers to those which can be expensive both in money and mana.
I always suggest a two colour deck for beginners.
I have Zirilan of the claw, the dragons are supprisingly affordable, I don't use the most broken of the artifact mana (other than sol ring)... but the money cards are Ugin, the spirit dragon and all is dust... they are some of the only ways to deal with things like enchantments or creatures that have got out of hand. The budget alternatives Spine of Ish Sah and Scour from existence are extremely inefficent in comparison.
What this does is make mono coloured decks extremely linear and can struggle to help a table control a player that has snowballed. This gives incentive to speed up your deck and cut your inefficent removal and this makes it even worse for a table.
I'd advise you not to go for Elves. For one Elves can have the problem of having "all or nothing" boardstates in Multiplayer. And if they get going the stack interaction including untap shenanigans and orders to get the maximum of mana can be quite challenging for beginners.
B - Gonti, Lord of Luxury has very easy deck tech, allows for fun plays and is a great way for beginners to explore other decks as well. Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is a lot of fun as well.
As a huge fan of Zirilan, Zirilan is just about the WORST choice for a beginner red commander. He's a toolbox that requires knowing all your dragons to know when you activate him and which to get, not to mention synergies and engine pieces depending on how he's built. Like seriously, I can't think of a worse option. Even an experienced Zirlan player is going to have a hard time playing someone else's Zirilan deck without looking through the whole thing in advance.
For red I'd go with something more like krenko. Waaaaay simpler. Make a bunch of hasty gobbos and attack.
Tutor effects are NOT good for beginners. Beyond the whole "being overwhelmed with choice" problem this might bring, you also get people who are annoyed by the "He takes too long" bit of it all.
I'd recommend a big mana green general. Omnath, Locus of Mana and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds both simply work with "Play lands. Play fatties. Punch face." It's clean and simple. Selvala is often a bit more explosive earlier on with Omnath better if it gets left alone for a bit.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
BBB: Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Erebos, God of the Dead, Sidisi, Undead Vizier.
I was tempted to go more all-in on the vampire theme with Yahenni, Anowon, and or Drana-KB to back up Drana-LoM, but I figure Erebos and Sidisi help teach what B typically does while Drana provides a good leader for combat. One could also go with zombies instead of vampires with Gisa, Geth, Sidisi while teaching reanimation.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking can be as simple or as competitive as you're willing to go. At her heart, she's best in class at allowing green to be green, playing all those Commander-favorite fatties that are the hallmark of the battlecruiser style of play popular amongst beginners. As your competition evolves to "less fun" playstyles, Azusa can do a Strip Mine lock like no other.
I like Ashling the Pilgrim or Dong Zhou, the Tyrant for monored. They don't need to be built around in an abnormal fashion, and teach that red can and should be more than just aggro in commander.
Because an actual aggro deck simply does not work in commander without slipping into voltron or using an 'overenabler' commander like Xenagos, Rakdos, or Kaalia.
Surprised to see no love for Talrand, Sky Summoner as a blue newbie commander. If you build everyone on a curve, you don't actually need to make it a Time Warp/hard control list - and new players love to draw cards, make drakes, and have fun.
I agree that Kemba or a God (Oketra the True or Heliod, God of the Sun are the best bets for white, as they give a clear direction, but another option is Avacyn, Guardian Angel - cheaper than other Avacyns and allows for a defensive, pillow-fort type deck full of Angels which are sure to be a big hit for the newbie crowd.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Mono U should be Arkanis. At lov power level / beginner just drawing a lot of cards is fun and mistakes are less punishing.
Mono R should be Krenko. It is fun, goblins are fun. The timmy likes a big board. It is also very forgivven for mistakes as you can just re grow your army.
I am unsure about the other two. I suppose the indestructable angel is very fun to play in a white ramp deck. A bit dangerush for other new oponents to face though.
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Mono U should be Arkanis. At lov power level / beginner just drawing a lot of cards is fun and mistakes are less punishing.
Mono R should be Krenko. It is fun, goblins are fun. The timmy likes a big board. It is also very forgivven for mistakes as you can just re grow your army.
I am unsure about the other two. I suppose the indestructable angel is very fun to play in a white ramp deck. A bit dangerush for other new oponents to face though.
My concern is that I am not sure super tribal decks are THAT great for newbies since they are inordinately math heavy. Krenko scales exponentially, and having to track that those 1/1s are actually 3/3 Mountainwalk, Haste, First Strikes can make combat tedious. It gets worse if everyone is playing Tribal, and that same goblin player also needs to know that those elves are all 4/4 Trample Forestwalk Hexproofs. Depends on what we mean by new though. I am mostly thinking of the times we've had my still-in-school nieces and nephews pick up Mirri Vampires or Doran Treefolk and find themselves constantly making bad combat choices because the on-board complexity is out of control.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
U - Talrand, Sky Summoner is a strong choice as it's easy to build, pilot and win with. For a fun build Braids, Conjurer Adept is my favourite mono blue commander of all time, she kind of assures a fun time for all.
R - Krenko, Mob Boss is remarkably easy to pilot. So much so that I pulled my iteration apart. Good beginner deck though.
Mono U should be Arkanis. At lov power level / beginner just drawing a lot of cards is fun and mistakes are less punishing.
Mono R should be Krenko. It is fun, goblins are fun. The timmy likes a big board. It is also very forgivven for mistakes as you can just re grow your army.
I am unsure about the other two. I suppose the indestructable angel is very fun to play in a white ramp deck. A bit dangerush for other new oponents to face though.
My concern is that I am not sure super tribal decks are THAT great for newbies since they are inordinately math heavy. Krenko scales exponentially, and having to track that those 1/1s are actually 3/3 Mountainwalk, Haste, First Strikes can make combat tedious. It gets worse if everyone is playing Tribal, and that same goblin player also needs to know that those elves are all 4/4 Trample Forestwalk Hexproofs. Depends on what we mean by new though. I am mostly thinking of the times we've had my still-in-school nieces and nephews pick up Mirri Vampires or Doran Treefolk and find themselves constantly making bad combat choices because the on-board complexity is out of control.
I think the 'complex' math would just be a good learning curve. It is not like you had to chuck it full of lords. But new players love to chump block to stay alive. Krenko alows that. Later on they will start to think more long term and take a dew hits early to have more tokens later. It is very educational.
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I have dyslexia, no I am not going to spell check for you, yes you have to live with the horrors of it.
Lots of good feedback here, taking a lot of things in mind I have cursory tri-commanders for this experiment, though I do want to address one clear thing. The decks, while beginner friendly and simplistic in their strategy (I.E. only running limited tutors if at all, which you'll notice in am moment) are not designed to be balanced against one another, nor necesarilly straight-up weak. While flexible and inherently weaker due to that flexibility (triple commanders will do that) they are still going to be designed to have a fighting chance. With that in mind:
R: Lovisa Coldeyes, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, and Neheb, the Eternal, an aggressive red deck with a tribal twist, designed to take advantage of combat steps and to be the most newb friendly of the entire bunch. Appeals to new players and aggro players.
W:Sram, Senior Edificer, Kemba, Kha Regent, Raksha Golden Cub transforming the cat pre-con into a mono-colored equipment-centric deck is kind of an no-brainer. A cuter, cat-centric aggro variant with an edge in artifice.
B:King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Geth, Lord of the Vault. Big-mana black with a commander that removes creatures while helping to gain mana and two powerful mana dumps. One of the two spikier decks with several flavorful incluesion to play on the clear royalty theme with a king, a chief, and a lord in the ranks.
G:Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, and Yeva, Nature's Herald. A mostly-elves deck with some green goodstuff with a handful of spiky ways to play. Ezuri is the clear casual-friendly options but Yisan let's a player get familiar with tutoring while severely limiting their options, while Yeva lets players do what they like on the opponents turns.
All the decks run both enablers (I.E. Sram, Yisan, Macar, Lovisa, and Thada) and payoff commanders for their respective strategies.
Whatever you decide with I think you should make sure there is synergy between at least two of the commanders. It'll make it a lot easier for the new player to know what's going on if their choice in commanders paint a good picture. I went through all of the available mono color commanders to see what I'd choose.
WWW: Sram, Senior Edificer, Kemba, Kha Regent, and Raksha Golden Cub.
Mono white is terribly lacking in card draw so I felt Sram was a necessary selection. Since equipment is the only realistic way to profit from Sram, Kemba was the best choice for a second commander. She continues the equipment theme and opens up a token theme. I debated between Jazal Goldmane and Raksha Golden Cub for the third commander. Both helped push damage but I thought Raksha did better job of conveying the equipment and cat token theme the other two commanders set up.
UUU: Baral, Chief of Compliance, Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar.
Talrand is my first choice for a mono blue commander. Converting spells in to small threats is fun. Baral helps enable Talrand, but he also allows for a more control or combo oriented game plan with is secondary effect. Since the majority of spells in Talrand and Baral are either cantrips or card draw I thought Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar would be a fun choice. Tomorrow allows the player to avoid flooding or sculpt an explosive hand. Arcanis the Omnipotent is another good choice.
BBB: Toshiro Umezawa, Horobi, Death's Wail, and Sheoldred, Whispering One.
Normally I prefer Erebos as my mono black commander, but Toshiro Umezawa provides a similar effect and has a more obvious cross synergy. Horobi is unique commander that has fun synergy with Toshiro. I wanted a reanimator commander for the last general I chose Sheoldred since she also enables Toshiro.
RRR: Neheb, the Eternal, Ashling the Pilgrim, and Akroma, Angel of Fury.
The last time I played mono red I found I was lacking in card draw. There are more options now for card draw but I wanted to assume I needed mana sinks to keep up in the late game. Akroma is a late game beatstick style of mana sink. Ashling is an early/mid game board control mana sink. If Neheb works the way I think he does with Ashling he should generate a lot of mana. Seems fun to me. Akroma is pretty replaceable honestly.
GGG: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Surrak, the Hunt Caller, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
Good assortment for mono green ramp or good stuff. Selvala provides reliable ramp and card draw. Kamahl is one of the better mono green commanders. If you have both Selvala and Kamahl then you double overrun. Surrak, the Hunter Caller and Yeva, Nature's Herald do more or less the same thing. There are a lot of good mono green commanders to use in the third slot. Although, since non of the mono green commadners have XG mana cost to guarantee a Selvala proc.
Can't name three legends for it a but mono-green could run Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer Focus on land ramp and he is perfect. My brother plays him and effectively get him out turn 4 or 5, (hard cast with lands, though he does have mana rocks as well) The deck also has a bit of draw power so you are not top-decking all game. ure it is a "turn sideways" deck but with a general (Who gets massive) wit trample, usually you can break through and you are focusing on dealing 21 direct damage as opposed to 40+
Granted Control and combo decks outshine it, but as a casual deck, it can put in work.
Given how much mana ramp you have, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa could work with all the pump you ca, put into his second ability, (And make yoru lands creatures) Omnath, Locus of Mana could save up tons of mana too. (though omnath compliments Kamahl more than molimo, he still gets big and you can get some universal trample in the deck)
I think you hit the nail on the head with your choices so far, my only suggestion is switch Thada Adel and put Arcanis as the main commander. Thada is a tutor commander and will eat up alot of wasted time searching for artifacts in opponents decks.
What commanders and strategies do you think would be best for this experiment?
At the moment, only one deck is "complete" in this series, a mono blue ramp-heavy deck that's full of stompy undersea monsters and Eldrazi, essentially a Lovecraftian theme deck. The commander options are Thada Adel, Acquisitor who can loot artifact ramp and more from opponents, Arcanis the Omnipotent who is fun to ramp into and draws you into more of your mana rocks and bombs, and Lorthos, the Tidemaker who is the most enjoyable big dumb ramp target.
I'm thinking green Elves with Ezuri, Renegade Leader as the base, Red burn with Neheb, the Eternal, and Big-Black voltron with Korlash, Heir to Blackblade, and some kind of mono white token deck?
Green elves are pretty iconic, and easy for beginners to learn on.
I wouldn't play neheb the eternal as a red burn commander (unless you have a way of capitalizing on the mana otherwise). Burn doesn't usually scale well in multiplayer without going damage based sweepers. Most of which will kill neheb.... Red is also notorious for emptying its hand quickly and neheb is going to make that even more true. However, there is a viable strategy using him as a possibility. Tribal again (sort of), but using Lovisa Coldeyes as a possibility. Then all you need to do is include the tribal based card draw and removal and you have a deck. Neheb is much better in this sort of strategy (and himself is helped by lovisa). I would include some extra combat step stuff to ensure that people learn how neheb can be broken or that red style aggro has ways to go long in multiplayer.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
GB Rock
U Flooding Merfolk
RUG Delver Midrange
WU Monks
UW Tempo Geist
GW Bogle
GW Liege
UR Tron
B Vampires
Affinity
Legacy
Fish
Goblins
Burn
Reanimator
Dredge
Affinity
EDH
W Akroma
GBW Ghave
BRU Thrax
GR Ruric
I advocate for the elimination of the combo archetype in Modern. I believe it is degenerate and unfun by its very nature and will always limit design space and cause unnecessary bans.
I always suggest a two colour deck for beginners.
I have Zirilan of the claw, the dragons are supprisingly affordable, I don't use the most broken of the artifact mana (other than sol ring)... but the money cards are Ugin, the spirit dragon and all is dust... they are some of the only ways to deal with things like enchantments or creatures that have got out of hand. The budget alternatives Spine of Ish Sah and Scour from existence are extremely inefficent in comparison.
What this does is make mono coloured decks extremely linear and can struggle to help a table control a player that has snowballed. This gives incentive to speed up your deck and cut your inefficent removal and this makes it even worse for a table.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
I also wouldn't build decks that don't interact too much with their Commanders. E.g. i'd rather pick Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Sun Quan, Lord of Wu over Thada Adel, Acquisitor at the helm of that fattie deck.
My best bet would be:
W - Odric, Lunarch Marshal is straight forward and easy to grasp.
U - as said Sun Quan, Lord of Wu or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir monsters.
B - Gonti, Lord of Luxury has very easy deck tech, allows for fun plays and is a great way for beginners to explore other decks as well. Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is a lot of fun as well.
R - Krenko, Mob Boss/Grenzo, Havoc Raiser as exchangable gobo tribal Commanders.
G - Yeva, Nature's Herald goodstuff creatures.
Overall i wouldn't pick any Commanders/Archetypes with a lot of tutoring. Those require knowledge of the Decks/Archetype.
Anyway, have fun! I've built the color cycle recently and it was very interesting exploring said card pools.
For red I'd go with something more like krenko. Waaaaay simpler. Make a bunch of hasty gobbos and attack.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Ashling the Pilgrim works great as a noob friendly deck
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Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
Mirri the Cursed
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Visara the Dreadful
For beginner, Sidisi, Undead Vizier is probably the best with that tutor effect.
I'd recommend a big mana green general. Omnath, Locus of Mana and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds both simply work with "Play lands. Play fatties. Punch face." It's clean and simple. Selvala is often a bit more explosive earlier on with Omnath better if it gets left alone for a bit.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
WWW: Kemba, Kha Regent, Sram, Senior Edificer, Nahiri, the Lithomancer.
BBB: Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Erebos, God of the Dead, Sidisi, Undead Vizier.
I was tempted to go more all-in on the vampire theme with Yahenni, Anowon, and or Drana-KB to back up Drana-LoM, but I figure Erebos and Sidisi help teach what B typically does while Drana provides a good leader for combat. One could also go with zombies instead of vampires with Gisa, Geth, Sidisi while teaching reanimation.
RRR: Feldon of the Third Path, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Krenko, Mob Boss.
GGG: Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Yeva, Nature's Herald, Silvos, Rogue Elemental.
Yes, each of the first ones is a 3-drop requiring 1 generic and 2 colored mana. No, I didn't plan that out.
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Because an actual aggro deck simply does not work in commander without slipping into voltron or using an 'overenabler' commander like Xenagos, Rakdos, or Kaalia.
- Rabid Wombat
I agree that Kemba or a God (Oketra the True or Heliod, God of the Sun are the best bets for white, as they give a clear direction, but another option is Avacyn, Guardian Angel - cheaper than other Avacyns and allows for a defensive, pillow-fort type deck full of Angels which are sure to be a big hit for the newbie crowd.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Mono R should be Krenko. It is fun, goblins are fun. The timmy likes a big board. It is also very forgivven for mistakes as you can just re grow your army.
I am unsure about the other two. I suppose the indestructable angel is very fun to play in a white ramp deck. A bit dangerush for other new oponents to face though.
My concern is that I am not sure super tribal decks are THAT great for newbies since they are inordinately math heavy. Krenko scales exponentially, and having to track that those 1/1s are actually 3/3 Mountainwalk, Haste, First Strikes can make combat tedious. It gets worse if everyone is playing Tribal, and that same goblin player also needs to know that those elves are all 4/4 Trample Forestwalk Hexproofs. Depends on what we mean by new though. I am mostly thinking of the times we've had my still-in-school nieces and nephews pick up Mirri Vampires or Doran Treefolk and find themselves constantly making bad combat choices because the on-board complexity is out of control.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
U - Talrand, Sky Summoner is a strong choice as it's easy to build, pilot and win with. For a fun build Braids, Conjurer Adept is my favourite mono blue commander of all time, she kind of assures a fun time for all.
R - Krenko, Mob Boss is remarkably easy to pilot. So much so that I pulled my iteration apart. Good beginner deck though.
G - Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa are both strong and should be easy enough to pilot.
W - Kemba, Kha Regent, Sram, Senior Edificer or Nahiri the Lithomancer.
B - Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath is a solid starting commander that doesn't see a lot of love. He's got a lot of options from the command zone. Ghoulcaller Gisa is solid too.
I think the 'complex' math would just be a good learning curve. It is not like you had to chuck it full of lords. But new players love to chump block to stay alive. Krenko alows that. Later on they will start to think more long term and take a dew hits early to have more tokens later. It is very educational.
U: Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Arcanis the Omnipotent, and Lorthos, the Tidemaker. Big on flavor and designed to appeal to timmy and vorthos. Artifact-seeking cultists summoning undersea monsters and Eldrazi.
R: Lovisa Coldeyes, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, and Neheb, the Eternal, an aggressive red deck with a tribal twist, designed to take advantage of combat steps and to be the most newb friendly of the entire bunch. Appeals to new players and aggro players.
W:Sram, Senior Edificer, Kemba, Kha Regent, Raksha Golden Cub transforming the cat pre-con into a mono-colored equipment-centric deck is kind of an no-brainer. A cuter, cat-centric aggro variant with an edge in artifice.
B:King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Geth, Lord of the Vault. Big-mana black with a commander that removes creatures while helping to gain mana and two powerful mana dumps. One of the two spikier decks with several flavorful incluesion to play on the clear royalty theme with a king, a chief, and a lord in the ranks.
G:Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, and Yeva, Nature's Herald. A mostly-elves deck with some green goodstuff with a handful of spiky ways to play. Ezuri is the clear casual-friendly options but Yisan let's a player get familiar with tutoring while severely limiting their options, while Yeva lets players do what they like on the opponents turns.
All the decks run both enablers (I.E. Sram, Yisan, Macar, Lovisa, and Thada) and payoff commanders for their respective strategies.
WWW: Sram, Senior Edificer, Kemba, Kha Regent, and Raksha Golden Cub.
Mono white is terribly lacking in card draw so I felt Sram was a necessary selection. Since equipment is the only realistic way to profit from Sram, Kemba was the best choice for a second commander. She continues the equipment theme and opens up a token theme. I debated between Jazal Goldmane and Raksha Golden Cub for the third commander. Both helped push damage but I thought Raksha did better job of conveying the equipment and cat token theme the other two commanders set up.
UUU: Baral, Chief of Compliance, Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar.
Talrand is my first choice for a mono blue commander. Converting spells in to small threats is fun. Baral helps enable Talrand, but he also allows for a more control or combo oriented game plan with is secondary effect. Since the majority of spells in Talrand and Baral are either cantrips or card draw I thought Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar would be a fun choice. Tomorrow allows the player to avoid flooding or sculpt an explosive hand. Arcanis the Omnipotent is another good choice.
BBB: Toshiro Umezawa, Horobi, Death's Wail, and Sheoldred, Whispering One.
Normally I prefer Erebos as my mono black commander, but Toshiro Umezawa provides a similar effect and has a more obvious cross synergy. Horobi is unique commander that has fun synergy with Toshiro. I wanted a reanimator commander for the last general I chose Sheoldred since she also enables Toshiro.
RRR: Neheb, the Eternal, Ashling the Pilgrim, and Akroma, Angel of Fury.
The last time I played mono red I found I was lacking in card draw. There are more options now for card draw but I wanted to assume I needed mana sinks to keep up in the late game. Akroma is a late game beatstick style of mana sink. Ashling is an early/mid game board control mana sink. If Neheb works the way I think he does with Ashling he should generate a lot of mana. Seems fun to me. Akroma is pretty replaceable honestly.
GG G: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Surrak, the Hunt Caller, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
Good assortment for mono green ramp or good stuff. Selvala provides reliable ramp and card draw. Kamahl is one of the better mono green commanders. If you have both Selvala and Kamahl then you double overrun. Surrak, the Hunter Caller and Yeva, Nature's Herald do more or less the same thing. There are a lot of good mono green commanders to use in the third slot. Although, since non of the mono green commadners have XG mana cost to guarantee a Selvala proc.
Granted Control and combo decks outshine it, but as a casual deck, it can put in work.
Given how much mana ramp you have, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa could work with all the pump you ca, put into his second ability, (And make yoru lands creatures) Omnath, Locus of Mana could save up tons of mana too. (though omnath compliments Kamahl more than molimo, he still gets big and you can get some universal trample in the deck)
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Joke aside, I read some players really build such a deck and replace mountains 1 by 1 with some spells.
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.