By this, I'm asking as to what do you look for in a Commander? What does it need to have for you to become interested in it and possibly build a deck? What does it take to make you keep it?
For me, it's all about mechanics. The mechanics decide if I become interested in a particular creature. After that, I start looking at what the deck will do to take advantage of those mechanics. If I think I'd enjoy building and playing that, I'll make the deck. I then test it out and see if like how it plays.
If I don't like it, I'll quickly deconstruct the deck. If a deck's mechanics and, thus, the strategy based around the commander aren't too my liking, then really, my interest in the deck and the commander wanes severely.
I often want a general that has a build-around theme: The deck can operate without the general on the field but works better with it.
My decks that don’t have that are partner equip goodstuff (just what extra cards I have around) and enchantress (so no true on-theme general yet in the right colors).
My general evaluation comes down to "what shenanigans does this point me at?" Good examples would be yeva, nature's herald (people never expect to hear "in response" from a creature heavy deck like yeva), norin, the wary (gaka's list is a good example of what I am often up to with my Norin list), zada, hedron grinder (unfortunately, others broke it before me), hazoret, the fervent (mono red empty handed control), neheb, the eternal (hilarious..haven't decided what to do with it, but I do love it), sasaya, orochi ascendant (mono green infinite turns), archangel avacyn (red/white stack control...and yes, I do mean stack, not stax), etc.
I've had the most fun with decks that prove to be resilient (almost regardless of the starting hand), challenging to pilot, do wacky fun stuff, and do the wacky fun stuff differently at least a good part of the time. Those are the ones that tend to stick around and/or get rebuilt.
As for what I look for to try... I look for commanders that are different. You don't see many Horobi decks around. And I like unique builds and approaches to the somewhat more common commanders. Maelstrom Wanderer, for example, seems to usually get built as GRU goodstuff or combo, but I think Dragon tribal with clones, no tutors, and a few random, explosive shenanigans like Spelljack sounds way more fun.
I look for generals that do something different then I already have built, I started with the 2011 decks and still have 4 together (Zedruu got changed to Oloro) and I try to avoid using the same colors combinations for my commanders but 4 of my decks are the same colors (Kaalia & Edgar, Mayael & Uril). With 21 decks this is becoming harder to accomplish and I still have 9 precons unopened but one day I'll get around to building the mono color planeswalker commanders.
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EDH DECKS:
GBW Ghave - BWR Kaalia - UBG Mineoplasm - URG Riku - GRW Uril - GBRProssh, I need food - BWU Oloro Lock - UGW Derevi Blink - RBU Nekusar, the Wheeler - UBRWGProgenitus - BR Lyzolda - UBGisa & Geralf Zombies - UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest +1 Counters matter - W Lin Sivvi - BWU Sydri Artifact Control - RWU Narset, the Attacker - GRW Mayael, the Cheater - RWUG Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis Landfall - GBW Doran, I like Big Butts -UR Mizzix Buyback BWR Edgar and his Vamps
Shenanigans, mostly. But I particularly am interested in originality, e.g. "I already have a half-dozen UB mill commanders, can't we do something else?"
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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!
"I already have a half-dozen UB mill commanders, can't we do something else?"
Everybody complains about this, but it's just not really true. There are only 3 UB mill commanders (Szadek, phenax, and mirko vosk) out of 26 dimir legends (I guess you could argue circu, but that's mostly a product of how his ability works in singleton - he wasn't designed simply to mill but to blank enemy cards).
It depends - some decks are built around a commander, and other decks are built around a mechanic or theme that then needs a commander. I've built over 50 commander decks, and I'm always looking for something new - a new playstyle or strategy that I haven't tried. When something like Mairsil pops up, I take notice because we've never seen anything quite like that.
When evaluating commanders, I also try to see how many ways they can be used. Most have the obvious build, but some can go in several different directions (like Ramos). If it's a strategy I've never used, I'm content to try the standard build (like Gitrog lands). But sometimes I try to look beyond the obvious and see if there's a more offbeat way to leverage its ability. For example, rather than Doran big butts, I liked how his ability messed with the normal rules, and I went with a game-changers build, designed to throw off my opponents' strategies.
And sometimes I have a mechanic or strategy that I want to build around, but there's no commander that matches. Take five-color superfriends - it can run any five-color legend, but none of them interact favorably with planeswalkers. I looked at the options and chose Sliver Queen because her tokens can chump to protect my walkers, and she, like they, synergizes with Doubling Season.
"I already have a half-dozen UB mill commanders, can't we do something else?"
Everybody complains about this, but it's just not really true. There are only 3 UB mill commanders (Szadek, phenax, and mirko vosk) out of 26 dimir legends (I guess you could argue circu, but that's mostly a product of how his ability works in singleton - he wasn't designed simply to mill but to blank enemy cards).
She happens to mill (and you can use her for that purpose alone if you want) but she also produces tokens, and I'd argue that's the far more important part of her ability when used fairly. I mean if you're playing faerie tribal or just straight control, she'd basically function roughly the same if her ability was (U/B)XX: create x 1/1 flying UB faerie tokens.
szadek, phenax, and mirko basically only mill and it's pretty infeasible to build around them outside of mill. Circu also only mills in commander (mostly) but as I say that's not really the only function of the card, just the only function that works in commander (again, mostly).
If I like the ability of the commander I try to make it into a deck. The commander is the only card you always have access to so needs to be interesting. Next up is a colour consideration. I have a solid favorite jund deck that I plan on keeping but basically all of the other combinations are just waiting for the right commander to be printed.
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EDH 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.
"I already have a half-dozen UB mill commanders, can't we do something else?"
Everybody complains about this, but it's just not really true. There are only 3 UB mill commanders (Szadek, phenax, and mirko vosk) out of 26 dimir legends (I guess you could argue circu, but that's mostly a product of how his ability works in singleton - he wasn't designed simply to mill but to blank enemy cards).
I mean, I can find RW commanders that are Voltron, swarm, midrange, or combo, but everyone complains about RW being all the same.
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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!
If I like the ability of the commander I try to make it into a deck. The commander is the only card you always have access to so needs to be interesting. Next up is a colour consideration. I have a solid favorite jund deck that I plan on keeping but basically all of the other combinations are just waiting for the right commander to be printed.
This one's weird for me. Color combination is one of the last things I take into account. If the commander is exciting, I'll build it. If the deck's theme or mechanics are interesting are interesting, I'll build it. But I would never build a deck just for the colors and then try to find a theme or commander to match.
"I already have a half-dozen UB mill commanders, can't we do something else?"
Everybody complains about this, but it's just not really true. There are only 3 UB mill commanders (Szadek, phenax, and mirko vosk) out of 26 dimir legends (I guess you could argue circu, but that's mostly a product of how his ability works in singleton - he wasn't designed simply to mill but to blank enemy cards).
Yep. Usually when I see "an opponent's graveyard from anywhere" I think of mill, because Bloodchief Ascension/Archive Trap was just so lulzy.
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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!
"I already have a half-dozen UB mill commanders, can't we do something else?"
Everybody complains about this, but it's just not really true. There are only 3 UB mill commanders (Szadek, phenax, and mirko vosk) out of 26 dimir legends (I guess you could argue circu, but that's mostly a product of how his ability works in singleton - he wasn't designed simply to mill but to blank enemy cards).
I mean, I can find RW commanders that are Voltron, swarm, midrange, or combo, but everyone complains about RW being all the same.
How is disciple of iroas not voltron? Also it's just awful design. Voltron but he wants you to play other fat creatures? And how is aurelia combo? I mean I guess there's probably some combos (some sort of on-attack blink trigger? Does that exist?) but mostly I'd say it's also pretty go-wide.
I think you could fairly categorize every boros commander into either voltron or swarm except a small handful, and all of them except a few (munda - sucks, depala - pretty limited but amusing, and basandra - sucks and bad design) basically boil down to "deal damage to players", which is generally a craptacular focus for commander.
Having minor synergy with mill doesn't equal mill commander. Who cares if most dimir commanders get some benefit from mill - UB has a lot of graveyard synergy, of course some of their commanders CAN be used with that. I think the more important question is "is dimir limited in which strategies its commanders support" and the answer is "not particularly". Certainly not as limited as boros, which even has quite a few commanders that do almost the exact same thing - adriana, agrus, A&C, and jor for example.
And FWIW, even mill doesn't just have to be mill. I used phenax as a lantern control deck and it worked great.
A commander must generally be "build around" and be somewhat unique in how you build around them. You have to really want to cast the commander. Building around the commander should be strongly rewarded so you aren't just much worse than good stuffs deck. The build around should be non-obvious.
Very very very few new commanders fufill this anymore, because most of the build arounds are just obvious, like the gitrog monster.
A commander must generally be "build around" and be somewhat unique in how you build around them. You have to really want to cast the commander. Building around the commander should be strongly rewarded so you aren't just much worse than good stuffs deck. The build around should be non-obvious.
Very very very few new commanders fufill this anymore, because most of the build arounds are just obvious, like the gitrog monster.
Concur, I dislike a commander who's too obvious in its route, not only because fewer variation could be build around it, my opponents could also expect certain cards/combo just by looking at it.
A commander must generally be "build around" and be somewhat unique in how you build around them. You have to really want to cast the commander. Building around the commander should be strongly rewarded so you aren't just much worse than good stuffs deck. The build around should be non-obvious.
Concur, I dislike a commander who's too obvious in its route, not only because fewer variation could be build around it, my opponents could also expect certain cards/combo just by looking at it.
How about both? There are Commanders that might have been "solved". Yet, no one keeps you from flipping them with a theme, if possible.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - How about Human Tribal, since 1.017 ones fit her criteria? Undying Hatebears? Artifact Creatures? Heck! Walls!?
If I don't already know what Commander I want next, I will pick a color combination and look through all of the options to find one that looks fun or else has a mechanic I want to exploit. Like some of the others here, I don't like to replicate things I'm doing in my other decks, but that also includes 60 card decks. For example, my hypnotoad 60 card deck has a bunch of frog-themed polymorphing, and my Zegana edh has a bunch of control magic effects and blue shenanigans so I decided against Jalira as a new deck.
Other decks, like Cromat, I just wanted to play with the commander as much as possible, and just built a deck to do that.
A commander must generally be "build around" and be somewhat unique in how you build around them. You have to really want to cast the commander. Building around the commander should be strongly rewarded so you aren't just much worse than good stuffs deck. The build around should be non-obvious.
Concur, I dislike a commander who's too obvious in its route, not only because fewer variation could be build around it, my opponents could also expect certain cards/combo just by looking at it.
How about both? There are Commanders that might have been "solved". Yet, no one keeps you from flipping them with a theme, if possible.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - How about Human Tribal, since 1.017 ones fit her criteria? Undying Hatebears? Artifact Creatures? Heck! Walls!?
That's hard to say, but I think the undercurrent for me has been: My commander needs to help me set up for what I want to do rather than be my goal.
Tajic is a wall that helps keep me safe while I board wipe and develop into my end-game. He's a safe creature to attach Sunforger to, which is really the card I care about playing. Attacking with Tajic is almost always an afterthought, but it does let him transition to the late game well.
Derevi is ramp from the command zone that also lets me untap opponents lands when I play her. It makes her both mildly thematic but also just very good at getting my deck going. In my blue decks I tend to run a heavy looter package at 2-mana and she turns half of theminto mana rocks and the other half into added card flow. It just makes the deck go much more smoothly.
Ludevic (& Bruse) works much like Derevi in turning my Looter il-Kor and Wharf Infiltrator into very effective low-cost card flow. I will always value resources from the command zone that doesn't really require my deck to do anything special to take advantage of.
Cultivate and Phyrexian Arena from the command zone are just more attractive to me than some top-end threat that I can't use if I don't have a good starting hand to develop toward it. They just make the number of "keepable" starting hands much higher which lets me play more casual and loose while not ending up in dead end hands nearly as often, which Tajic definitely ends up doing.
Alesha is slightly different as a recurring source of value, though she's intended as a mid-game/backup plan. I have to play more set up cards in her to get her going, but she has a psuedo tutor effect by recurring what I need from the graveyard, so she's flexible and reactive, compared to some big dragon that isn't capable of responding to many different types of threats.
I built Merieke Ri Berit because it seemed attractive to have reliable access to removal in any game, but the social cost of taking creatures drew too much heat.
I built Shattergang Brothers as way to have flexible removal from the command zone, but they required too much setup and didn't actually ever get rid of what I cared about.
I built Tasigur, the Golden Fang because he seems interesting from a political angle, but he's only ever good after you've already set up and is very expensive to use reactively and very time consuming to resolve, especially repeatedly.
Zur, the Enchanter has the same set of elements as Alesha, and Ludevic. Assuming a threshold of mana is reached, card flow becomes smooth as silk. I built him with extremely narrow tutor options to prevent the worst of the degeneracy he is capable of, but he's still extremely strong as he consistently produces cardflow and reanimation which lets everything else in the deck fall into place. His biggest pitfall is that he consumes a lot of play time shuffling and resolving ETB retriggers. He ends up doing a lot of powerful free actions every turn even before casting spells, which makes him snowball pretty hard.
I'm drawn to Samut because she gives haste to cards I'm already playing in a lot of other similarly-colored decks and because she can pose a pretty reliable threat if that's needed instead.
I have a GUR deck I want to build but don't have a commander I'm drawn to. I'm using Riku because it's creature-based and I do plan on it winning with multiple copies of Stuffy Doll which Riku theoretically can help with. A Ludevic combination might be more attractive to me as I get closer to finalizing the card pool. The looter package I tend to use works best with repeatable recursion that this combination doesn't have much of, so the low-cost setup might be harder to actually use.
If you're looking for power house or cEDH (which is aweful) decks, yes, creativity might not be the way to go.
But other than that there might be tons of original/creative decks that might as well keep up with Tier 2.5 decks, which i wouldn't consider particularly weak.
In fact, while i wouldn't go as far, for a lot of people these decks are the ones that make EDH what it is.
That in mind, i'm sure creativity might be one of the major criterias for people to choose Commanders from. I wouldn't sacrifice too much deck strength for that, but i'd prefer any of the above decks over the next generic list of a allegedly "solved" commander, that could have so much to offer, flavorwise!
For me, it's all about mechanics. The mechanics decide if I become interested in a particular creature. After that, I start looking at what the deck will do to take advantage of those mechanics. If I think I'd enjoy building and playing that, I'll make the deck. I then test it out and see if like how it plays.
If I don't like it, I'll quickly deconstruct the deck. If a deck's mechanics and, thus, the strategy based around the commander aren't too my liking, then really, my interest in the deck and the commander wanes severely.
BK'rrik Goodstuff
GWSythis Enchantress
URYusri Coin Flip
BRGKorvold Tokens
BGUYarok Lands Matter
WUBRaffine Looter
My decks that don’t have that are partner equip goodstuff (just what extra cards I have around) and enchantress (so no true on-theme general yet in the right colors).
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
As for what I look for to try... I look for commanders that are different. You don't see many Horobi decks around. And I like unique builds and approaches to the somewhat more common commanders. Maelstrom Wanderer, for example, seems to usually get built as GRU goodstuff or combo, but I think Dragon tribal with clones, no tutors, and a few random, explosive shenanigans like Spelljack sounds way more fun.
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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
"Is it different from the strategies of my other decks?"
GBW Ghave - BWR Kaalia - UBG Mineoplasm - URG Riku - GRW Uril - GBR Prossh, I need food - BWU Oloro Lock - UGW Derevi Blink - RBU Nekusar, the Wheeler - UBRWG Progenitus - BR Lyzolda - UB Gisa & Geralf Zombies - UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest +1 Counters matter - W Lin Sivvi - BWU Sydri Artifact Control - RWU Narset, the Attacker - GRW Mayael, the Cheater - RWUG Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis Landfall - GBW Doran, I like Big Butts - UR Mizzix Buyback BWR Edgar and his Vamps
On phasing:
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
I've never considered how many color combinations there are in Magic - and thus, Commander color identities. 32?
5 monocolor
5 ally pairs
5 enemy pairs
5 color arcs
5 color wedges
5 four color
1 five color
1 colorless
When evaluating commanders, I also try to see how many ways they can be used. Most have the obvious build, but some can go in several different directions (like Ramos). If it's a strategy I've never used, I'm content to try the standard build (like Gitrog lands). But sometimes I try to look beyond the obvious and see if there's a more offbeat way to leverage its ability. For example, rather than Doran big butts, I liked how his ability messed with the normal rules, and I went with a game-changers build, designed to throw off my opponents' strategies.
And sometimes I have a mechanic or strategy that I want to build around, but there's no commander that matches. Take five-color superfriends - it can run any five-color legend, but none of them interact favorably with planeswalkers. I looked at the options and chose Sliver Queen because her tokens can chump to protect my walkers, and she, like they, synergizes with Doubling Season. And Oona, even if she is exile mill.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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Useful Resources:
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EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
szadek, phenax, and mirko basically only mill and it's pretty infeasible to build around them outside of mill. Circu also only mills in commander (mostly) but as I say that's not really the only function of the card, just the only function that works in commander (again, mostly).
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
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.
"Is it tricky?"
Pretty much that for me.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I think it's more the "synergy with mill", which would include things like Wrexial, the Risen Deep and The Scarab God.
I mean, I can find RW commanders that are Voltron, swarm, midrange, or combo, but everyone complains about RW being all the same.
On phasing:
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
On phasing:
I think you could fairly categorize every boros commander into either voltron or swarm except a small handful, and all of them except a few (munda - sucks, depala - pretty limited but amusing, and basandra - sucks and bad design) basically boil down to "deal damage to players", which is generally a craptacular focus for commander.
Having minor synergy with mill doesn't equal mill commander. Who cares if most dimir commanders get some benefit from mill - UB has a lot of graveyard synergy, of course some of their commanders CAN be used with that. I think the more important question is "is dimir limited in which strategies its commanders support" and the answer is "not particularly". Certainly not as limited as boros, which even has quite a few commanders that do almost the exact same thing - adriana, agrus, A&C, and jor for example.
And FWIW, even mill doesn't just have to be mill. I used phenax as a lantern control deck and it worked great.
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
Very very very few new commanders fufill this anymore, because most of the build arounds are just obvious, like the gitrog monster.
Concur, I dislike a commander who's too obvious in its route, not only because fewer variation could be build around it, my opponents could also expect certain cards/combo just by looking at it.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - How about Human Tribal, since 1.017 ones fit her criteria? Undying Hatebears? Artifact Creatures? Heck! Walls!?
Brago, King Eternal - How about Clones? Mill with Altar of the Brood and others? Etb Token Generators? Maybe enhanced with a Proteus Staff to burp them out as fast as possible?
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Assisting Group Hug with Self-Bounce? "When XY get's (un)tapped" tribal?
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - Group Hug Nonlands? Reassembling Pillow Fort?
Kaseto, Orochi Archmage - Pseudo Tron with itself, Illusionist's Bracers and mana doublers?
Kess, Dissident Mage - Counterless Acquire/Beacon of Unrest/Bribery/Talent of the Telepath/Telemin Performance/Stolen Goods/... things?
Phenax, God of Deception - Deceptive Self-Mill into Laboratory Maniac?
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest - Pseudo Tron Spellslinger with Artful Dodge, Distortion Strike, Taigam's Strike and Buffs?
Zedruu the Greathearted - Chaos? Group Hug? Group Slug?
...
It's EDH, guys. The most limiting factor will always be the player and his imagination.
Other decks, like Cromat, I just wanted to play with the commander as much as possible, and just built a deck to do that.
Imagination tends to lead to weak decks.
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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
Tajic is a wall that helps keep me safe while I board wipe and develop into my end-game. He's a safe creature to attach Sunforger to, which is really the card I care about playing. Attacking with Tajic is almost always an afterthought, but it does let him transition to the late game well.
Derevi is ramp from the command zone that also lets me untap opponents lands when I play her. It makes her both mildly thematic but also just very good at getting my deck going. In my blue decks I tend to run a heavy looter package at 2-mana and she turns half of them into mana rocks and the other half into added card flow. It just makes the deck go much more smoothly.
Ludevic (& Bruse) works much like Derevi in turning my Looter il-Kor and Wharf Infiltrator into very effective low-cost card flow. I will always value resources from the command zone that doesn't really require my deck to do anything special to take advantage of.
Cultivate and Phyrexian Arena from the command zone are just more attractive to me than some top-end threat that I can't use if I don't have a good starting hand to develop toward it. They just make the number of "keepable" starting hands much higher which lets me play more casual and loose while not ending up in dead end hands nearly as often, which Tajic definitely ends up doing.
Alesha is slightly different as a recurring source of value, though she's intended as a mid-game/backup plan. I have to play more set up cards in her to get her going, but she has a psuedo tutor effect by recurring what I need from the graveyard, so she's flexible and reactive, compared to some big dragon that isn't capable of responding to many different types of threats.
I built Merieke Ri Berit because it seemed attractive to have reliable access to removal in any game, but the social cost of taking creatures drew too much heat.
I built Shattergang Brothers as way to have flexible removal from the command zone, but they required too much setup and didn't actually ever get rid of what I cared about.
I built Tasigur, the Golden Fang because he seems interesting from a political angle, but he's only ever good after you've already set up and is very expensive to use reactively and very time consuming to resolve, especially repeatedly.
Zur, the Enchanter has the same set of elements as Alesha, and Ludevic. Assuming a threshold of mana is reached, card flow becomes smooth as silk. I built him with extremely narrow tutor options to prevent the worst of the degeneracy he is capable of, but he's still extremely strong as he consistently produces cardflow and reanimation which lets everything else in the deck fall into place. His biggest pitfall is that he consumes a lot of play time shuffling and resolving ETB retriggers. He ends up doing a lot of powerful free actions every turn even before casting spells, which makes him snowball pretty hard.
I'm drawn to Samut because she gives haste to cards I'm already playing in a lot of other similarly-colored decks and because she can pose a pretty reliable threat if that's needed instead.
I have a GUR deck I want to build but don't have a commander I'm drawn to. I'm using Riku because it's creature-based and I do plan on it winning with multiple copies of Stuffy Doll which Riku theoretically can help with. A Ludevic combination might be more attractive to me as I get closer to finalizing the card pool. The looter package I tend to use works best with repeatable recursion that this combination doesn't have much of, so the low-cost setup might be harder to actually use.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
If you're looking for power house or cEDH (which is aweful) decks, yes, creativity might not be the way to go.
But other than that there might be tons of original/creative decks that might as well keep up with Tier 2.5 decks, which i wouldn't consider particularly weak.
In fact, while i wouldn't go as far, for a lot of people these decks are the ones that make EDH what it is.
That in mind, i'm sure creativity might be one of the major criterias for people to choose Commanders from. I wouldn't sacrifice too much deck strength for that, but i'd prefer any of the above decks over the next generic list of a allegedly "solved" commander, that could have so much to offer, flavorwise!