I've always steered away from combat-centered/combat-reliant commanders because I feel like I'm really terrible at playing them. It always gets too political too quickly because I seem to attack at the wrong time or too early (to activate an ability, work with utility that requires attacking, etc), and the rest of the table sees me as the threat and starts to retaliate. But I can't be mad, because that's what those types of decks do.
My question is; how do you play these combat-centered commanders? I would love to delve into some different generals, but I'm finding myself going back to the same strategies for brewing deck ideas.
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If you're in a position to attack and get through while keeping blockers back if necessary, then you might technically be a threat. They might overprotective of their life totals or they might be right in an objective sense about your threat level. Objective threat level doesn't matter — perceived threat level is, though.
I tend to favor a fair amount of control and/or explosiveness for combat-reliant stuff. Either control such that retaliation is mitigated, or come at them so fast that they just don't have time. I'd have to say the Daxos deck I run is the former and Ruric Thar is the latter (though Xenagod would work, too).
In Daxos the control takes the form of a lot of enchantments that are speedbumps to slow other players down (soft prison) to give me time to ramp enough for spirit production or to get shenaniganengines in place. Once that mana is in place, somebody can wipe the board of creatures and Daxos will be able to rebuild them pretty quickly. Even easier if they just wipe enchantments and Daxos is still in play. Losing several 8/8 tokens and then rebuilding half or more in one trip around the table is hard to keep up with without a combo.
In Ruric Thar, I also use a bit of disruption (including Ruric Thar, themselves, if necessary) and then ramp into huge scary stuff as quickly as possible and smash face. Haste is important, but so is softening them up with noncombat damage.
Regarding commanders like Alesha who triggers on combat, there are also tricks like Reconnaissance that allow you to get the trigger but not hit anybody.
All in all, without knowing what commanders you're looking at or what your meta plays (and the forms of retaliation), this sounds like a good area to improve skill in by just practicing it until you figure out what works and what doesn't. Combat is usually rather political and often is somewhat of a negotiation. Small attacks early in the game can often get through without making anybody feel too threatened and soften up opponents a little bit. Sometimes they're the only one without a blocker and you hit them with a single creature for 3 so you don't overextend. Sometimes it's something they don't want to block because they don't want the consequences (e.g., they don't want to trade with a 2/2 deathtouch, or the result of your attacker dying benefit you way more than the small amount of life they pay by not blocking).
Midgame I love putting Sword of Rampant Growth on Academy Rector for a catch-22 situation. Do they block it and I tutor an enchantment or do they keep letting it through for 2 measly damage and I ramp?
The idea is to progress in these negotiations (this includes letting them soften you up a little) until you have enough leverage that negotiations don't matter as much.
An interesting example to watch sometimes is the Commander VS series on YouTube. Don't just watch what cards they play. Pay attention to the boardstate as it informs combat decisions and especially listen to how they think out loud and discuss with each other the decisions at hand.
KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid (not intending this as an insult or anything btw)
Sometimes you need to dumb down the complexity of what you are trying to do. Agro falls apart more when you try to push to go faster or you add more complexity to it. Sometimes what you want is a commander who just on their own is a threat and requires no additional fuel. What I am saying with this is actually a little bit of a concept of stop trying to push to kill people faster because its an all in strategy that either works or fails miserably. If you instead accept a good clock, keep moving card draw to keep yourself moving forward and splash in removal in a lot of cases it works out better.
I would say that I own and pilot 4 aggro decks and a midrage deck myself:
Kozilek - This is a great example of KISS, I rarely rely on anything to make Kozilek better, instead I resort to being a tempo deck and see how fast I can play Kozilek. In some regards this is complicating things because I spam stuff all over the board but assuming I get to cast him the first time I generally run away with things. The fact that he has draw, removal (counters), and evasion all in one makes him incredibly worth focusing the time and energy to running an exorbitant amount of ramp. My win percentage assuming I can make Kozilek by turn 5 is probably 85% or higher. Many of my few failings come from hands that dont make it on the mana front where I thought I would be fine and then I hit removal or I hit a pocket of no ramp / land.
Gisela - Kind of a classic mono white control angel style of deck. The fact that the commander has good stats for the mana and comes down early gives me a lot of reach in the extra life she gives me. I focus a lot on generating value and just keeping the deck moving with equipment value. She utilizes a lot of cool and flashy wincons including trying to Meld, Eldrazi, and just super buffing. There is also a lot of lifegain matters effects sprinkled in which are flavorful and cool. The concept here is to just keep generating value and keep swinging.
Tymna & Ikra Shidiqi - Its kind of a cool duo of creatures that give psudo anthems to creatures. I play it as somewhat of an efficient dumb beaters style of deck where I try to just jam fat beaters at people's faces and utilize the draw and lifegain from my commanders to keep it moving along. Its an interesting approach that focuses on tempo and quick turn about draw.
Edgar Markov - It is my most recent addition. I focus on generating value off of ETB / Deaths of creatures and I try to syphon my opponents life total. It has been an interesting deck in that my commander acts more like a continuous value engine from the command zone.
To some degree, I would say that with most of these decks of mine my focus is almost always on keeping the deck moving forward. If you don't run enough draw you will fall flat. Some of these if I get interrupted at the right time I will stumble harder but my goal is almost always to keep the deck moving even if I eat a wrath. I guess what I am saying to some degree is hope that your deck can kill someone on turn 6 if it comes up great but plan to kill everyone in turns 10-20 and you wont fall flat as hard.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Maelstrom Wanderer. It's a hasty 3-turn clock by itself, and casting it comes with two free utility and/or threats. Sun Quan, Lord of Wu makes him effectively unblockable. The biggest consideration for Maelstrom Wanderer is if you run any counterspells, consider the case of cascading into them. That's why my counters are things like Spelljack and Glen Elendra Archmage, as opposed to Counterspell.
Beat face... draw cards...
The classic example is Edric, spymaster of trest, I have a Derevi, empyrial tactician bird tribal that is beating face, untapping lands, casting more creatures and drawing cards... getting wrathed... starting the process again.
The other option is the semi combo one big turn where you crash in for double digit amounts of damage... the classic example of this is Xenagos, God of Revels... I use Zirilan of the claw to just set up a kill turn when I drop a bunch of dragons and swing for 40. And basically anything using Craterhoof behemoth.
And well voltron commanders are considered aggro in this format but I haven't played one.
As for playing them, you have to attack it is what your deck does do not let yourself be swayed from your goal. You have to choose your first target. Are they a combo player.. they die, are they a ramp player that will quickly over power you.. they die... are they the control deck that will wrath you they die. Basically you kill people in order of thier ability to stop you. I typically choose to fight the player with the most wraths you want to force the wrath early and often will not play an aggro deck at all against a combo deck. You have to decide someone is a threat before they show themselves to be a threat you are the prevention that is better than the cure :).
I would agree with adding more card draw in. If you do try to go as fast as possible you likely won't have the space for it and it is hard to win a game where you only draw 1 card a turn.
Xenagod still has a weakness of being surprisingly complex for its goal, but at least I try to gain as much board state advantage out of my attacks as possible.
Mass vigilance and indestructible or evasion will make choices a lot less painful.
A big thing is to find creatures that offer card advantage on ETB, either as removal or card draw; less useful (usually) are cards that provide tokens, but they can still be played. And don't be afraid to politick a bit: You'd be surprised how many times I've attacked a player with no creatures just to proc Sword of Fire and Ice to hit another player's hatebear.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Stop attacking people just because they are open. It looks random, and wastes your turn. You will tick them off and make enemies. Also, the other players will see you as reckless and therefore a threat to them.
Whenever possible, justify your attacks based on the following strategy:
Aggro Playbook
1) Kill the combo player(s)
2) Kill the control player(s)
Alternative) Kill the player who has been playing Magic the longest.
Have more in your deck than JUST turning your creatures sideways to win. Classic example for me is Edgar Markov - without too much tampering the deck plays ok, but runs out of steam early, and soon enough you're topdecking with no momentum. Find a way to keep your draw coming, change the combat math in your favour, and pack answers. If you're primarily focused on combat, creatures are crucial to you, so pack a way to protect them or make the most of them.
It does seem like I'm reiterating what has been said so far, but it's not less true. There are very few decks that do a really short clock with combat, so pace yourself and keep momentum, which means draw, answers, combat math, smart combat steps. If you overextend you'll run out of cards, creatures and answers.
My question is; how do you play these combat-centered commanders? I would love to delve into some different generals, but I'm finding myself going back to the same strategies for brewing deck ideas.
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I tend to favor a fair amount of control and/or explosiveness for combat-reliant stuff. Either control such that retaliation is mitigated, or come at them so fast that they just don't have time. I'd have to say the Daxos deck I run is the former and Ruric Thar is the latter (though Xenagod would work, too).
In Daxos the control takes the form of a lot of enchantments that are speedbumps to slow other players down (soft prison) to give me time to ramp enough for spirit production or to get shenanigan engines in place. Once that mana is in place, somebody can wipe the board of creatures and Daxos will be able to rebuild them pretty quickly. Even easier if they just wipe enchantments and Daxos is still in play. Losing several 8/8 tokens and then rebuilding half or more in one trip around the table is hard to keep up with without a combo.
In Ruric Thar, I also use a bit of disruption (including Ruric Thar, themselves, if necessary) and then ramp into huge scary stuff as quickly as possible and smash face. Haste is important, but so is softening them up with noncombat damage.
Regarding commanders like Alesha who triggers on combat, there are also tricks like Reconnaissance that allow you to get the trigger but not hit anybody.
All in all, without knowing what commanders you're looking at or what your meta plays (and the forms of retaliation), this sounds like a good area to improve skill in by just practicing it until you figure out what works and what doesn't. Combat is usually rather political and often is somewhat of a negotiation. Small attacks early in the game can often get through without making anybody feel too threatened and soften up opponents a little bit. Sometimes they're the only one without a blocker and you hit them with a single creature for 3 so you don't overextend. Sometimes it's something they don't want to block because they don't want the consequences (e.g., they don't want to trade with a 2/2 deathtouch, or the result of your attacker dying benefit you way more than the small amount of life they pay by not blocking).
Midgame I love putting Sword of Rampant Growth on Academy Rector for a catch-22 situation. Do they block it and I tutor an enchantment or do they keep letting it through for 2 measly damage and I ramp?
The idea is to progress in these negotiations (this includes letting them soften you up a little) until you have enough leverage that negotiations don't matter as much.
An interesting example to watch sometimes is the Commander VS series on YouTube. Don't just watch what cards they play. Pay attention to the boardstate as it informs combat decisions and especially listen to how they think out loud and discuss with each other the decisions at hand.
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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
Sometimes you need to dumb down the complexity of what you are trying to do. Agro falls apart more when you try to push to go faster or you add more complexity to it. Sometimes what you want is a commander who just on their own is a threat and requires no additional fuel. What I am saying with this is actually a little bit of a concept of stop trying to push to kill people faster because its an all in strategy that either works or fails miserably. If you instead accept a good clock, keep moving card draw to keep yourself moving forward and splash in removal in a lot of cases it works out better.
I would say that I own and pilot 4 aggro decks and a midrage deck myself:
To some degree, I would say that with most of these decks of mine my focus is almost always on keeping the deck moving forward. If you don't run enough draw you will fall flat. Some of these if I get interrupted at the right time I will stumble harder but my goal is almost always to keep the deck moving even if I eat a wrath. I guess what I am saying to some degree is hope that your deck can kill someone on turn 6 if it comes up great but plan to kill everyone in turns 10-20 and you wont fall flat as hard.
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[Modern] Allies
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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The classic example is Edric, spymaster of trest, I have a Derevi, empyrial tactician bird tribal that is beating face, untapping lands, casting more creatures and drawing cards... getting wrathed... starting the process again.
The other option is the semi combo one big turn where you crash in for double digit amounts of damage... the classic example of this is Xenagos, God of Revels... I use Zirilan of the claw to just set up a kill turn when I drop a bunch of dragons and swing for 40. And basically anything using Craterhoof behemoth.
And well voltron commanders are considered aggro in this format but I haven't played one.
As for playing them, you have to attack it is what your deck does do not let yourself be swayed from your goal. You have to choose your first target. Are they a combo player.. they die, are they a ramp player that will quickly over power you.. they die... are they the control deck that will wrath you they die. Basically you kill people in order of thier ability to stop you. I typically choose to fight the player with the most wraths you want to force the wrath early and often will not play an aggro deck at all against a combo deck. You have to decide someone is a threat before they show themselves to be a threat you are the prevention that is better than the cure :).
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
Xenagod still has a weakness of being surprisingly complex for its goal, but at least I try to gain as much board state advantage out of my attacks as possible.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
A big thing is to find creatures that offer card advantage on ETB, either as removal or card draw; less useful (usually) are cards that provide tokens, but they can still be played. And don't be afraid to politick a bit: You'd be surprised how many times I've attacked a player with no creatures just to proc Sword of Fire and Ice to hit another player's hatebear.
On phasing:
Whenever possible, justify your attacks based on the following strategy:
Aggro Playbook
1) Kill the combo player(s)
2) Kill the control player(s)
Alternative) Kill the player who has been playing Magic the longest.
It does seem like I'm reiterating what has been said so far, but it's not less true. There are very few decks that do a really short clock with combat, so pace yourself and keep momentum, which means draw, answers, combat math, smart combat steps. If you overextend you'll run out of cards, creatures and answers.