MTG Salvation

I personally think that Teferi, Temporal Archmage is the best deck in Commander. I don't play it, but I've been beaten by it enough times to know that it's super, super hard to stop it from going off.

I think the next best deck is Nin, the Pain Artist.

What are the other decks people think are tier-1s?

Teferi for sure, also Zur and Thrasios. Maybe Prossh

Last I checked it was arguably general tazri, but I'm no expert.

Anywhere there's this list here which is generally what I use when I'm curious what's considered competitive. Although imo it breaks down quite a bit at some of the lower tiers.

Quote from DirkGently »

Last I checked it was arguably general tazri, but I'm no expert.

Anywhere there's this list here which is generally what I use when I'm curious what's considered competitive. Although imo it breaks down quite a bit at some of the lower tiers.

I think it is reasonable for tiers 1 to 1.5, then starts breaking down. Also, I think 5 color decks that are not focused on commanders should be noted as a separate category.

Quote from plushpenguin »

Also, I think 5 color decks that are not focused on commanders should be noted as a separate category.

Yeah that's one thing that annoys me about it. I asked them about it, and for some reason atogatog has to helm a tribal atog deck for purposes of power level consideration, but tazri gets to helm a combo deck that has nothing to do with allies except a few combo pieces and tazri herself. But as far as the top-tiers I think it's probably fairly accurate, not that I'm an expert or anything.

Quote from DirkGently »

Quote from plushpenguin »

Also, I think 5 color decks that are not focused on commanders should be noted as a separate category.

Yeah that's one thing that annoys me about it. I asked them about it, and for some reason atogatog has to helm a tribal atog deck for purposes of power level consideration, but tazri gets to helm a combo deck that has nothing to do with allies except a few combo pieces and tazri herself. But as far as the top-tiers I think it's probably fairly accurate, not that I'm an expert or anything.

Yup. Also, the reason I can confidently say that it breaks down a bit past tier 1.5 is the sheer amount of comparative testing that is impossible to do. Tier 2 are just commanders that are known to be quite strong but not often seen as the cutthroat decks. Tier 3 are all the commanders with sufficient and functional support. Tier 4s are those with some build-around but lack the support of tier 3s, and 5 is basically unfocused or complete jank. However, this is completely not reflective of how comparatively powerful they can be when built right simply because it would be impossible to do that kind of testing.

Quote from DirkGently »

Last I checked it was arguably general tazri, but I'm no expert.

Anywhere there's this list here which is generally what I use when I'm curious what's considered competitive. Although imo it breaks down quite a bit at some of the lower tiers.

I do not agree with that list at all, probably one persons opinion?

I've played a friends General Tazari Food Chain deck a few times and it inspired me to make my own and yes it is very, very good.

Quote from darrenhabib »

I do not agree with that list at all, probably one persons opinion?

I've played a friends General Tazari Food Chain deck a few times and it inspired me to make my own and yes it is very, very good.

I believe it's a group, or at least there's some collaboration.

My experience with Tazri was pretty hilarious. I had all the cards from my collection so I built it for a tournament at a GP to see how it went. Round 1 I got paired against a bunch of 75% decks like enchantress karametra and some other random stuff...kept a hand with food chain and counter backup...and then proceeded to never draw a tutor or combo piece for like 12+ turns and died without doing hardly anything, beaten to death by random enchantments turned into creatures by opalescence

Pretty sure if I'd brought any of my normal decklists I would have been able to win, pretty easily with some of the stronger ones like phelddagrif or child of alara.

I think it’s better to rank strategies in terms of strength, rather than generals, then highlight which generals support which strategy.

Tier 1 – Storm or Doomsday/Lab Maniac, as best supported by Kess, Jeleva, Thrasios and Tymna, and Yidris.

Also Tier 1 – Food Chain combos, supported by General Tazri (yes, the general is important), Prossh, and possibly others I am not recollecting atm.

Tier 1.5 – Blue-based infinite mana combos with Isochron Scepter or Basalt Monolith. These as supported best by Teferi, Thrasios and Tymna (second mention), Grand Arbiter, and down the list to Derevi, Azami, Narset and others worse at doing it than Teferi. Not every deck itself is Tier 1.5, although the strategy generally is.

Tier 2 – Prison, as best supported by Zur, Arcum Dagsson, Brago, then on down the line from there (Derevi, etc).

Also Tier 2 - Some sort of general-based combo out of a classic control shell, as best supported by Breya, Thrasios and Tymna, Tasigur, so on.

Tier 3 – Other general-based combo not out of a control shell, such as Yisan, Gitrog Monster, to include decks with tutors in the Command Zone – Sidisi, Razaketh. Captain Sisay.

Also Tier 3 – Graveyard based or other creature-based combo, as supported by Animar, Karador, Scion (Hermit Druid), and so on.

That is all I really care to rank, not as deep as the list above. There are other generals that do strong things, and the strategies above can also be supported by other generals. But when you get to the point that a deck has no counterplay against a storm deck with Nicol Bolas, never casting the general, you are at that point safely into territory where your general is not the main question. These decks would be worse than decks where the general is used to some effect, but would still perform better than many decks that do use the general for a different strategy.

I also look at that list a lot. I have it saved in a folder for useful edh stuffs.

But yeah I don't agree with it 100% eithor but it's probably the best list I've seen.

A friend recently built a Kumena deck that gets out of hand. Combining the 2 best EDH colours is pretty nuts. I find that Breya was tough to deal with at times but my local metas don't really run her so that may be out of touch.

Quote from Schreckstoff »

Zur is a doomsday/lab man commander, the whole point to playing Zur is to have necro in the commandzone

I have tried a Zurs Necropotence deck with Shimmer Myr to go off at end of turn, and found it a little inconsistent, but I'm sure my deck wasn't tuned, I only played it a few times.

Look8ng at that list, I am surprised at what was once some of the best decks have fallen to 2 or below.

Zur has been near the top going back to 2007 and maybe before. He has never been unseated.

I remember when Azami, Dralnu, Oona, and Narset were all once at the top or darned near the top.