I'm currently having a lot of fun with my Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck. Being able to play almost every spell in the deck at instant speed allows for all sorts of interesting tricks, plus it encourages an interactive control strategy which is always good fun.
I'm currently really enjoying my Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. It's zombie tribal with some combos but nowhere close to a cEDH version. There's several different ways to win in the deck and once every few times I play it I seem to come across an interaction that hadn't played out in the deck before.
When I think about EDH games that the whole table considers fun I think of the games where everyone is relevant for most of the game, nobody is dominating with multiple turns or really long turns, and there's a feel of back and forth, close calls, turns of fortune, etc. It feels like a game. Generals that contribute to games like that add some grease to a deck without demanding a linear gameplan and without dominating the game or turns of the game. I'd say pick colors you want to play and then pick a general that adds some flexibility to those colors. Like Simic? Play the new land general who both ramps you and is a big beater, like Azorius, play Raff who will let you flash in artifacts and legendaries but doesn't win the game on his own, etc.
my personal most fun commander is Krenko,Mob Boss. my build is aggro/sacrifice theme. goblins doing goblin stuff is always amusing. they either swarm and kill the opponents fast or kill themselves for amusing results.
Generally, I lean towards decks that one way or another, let me play a lot. Playing things is fun. Not playing things is less so. So even if I lose, at least I got to do some of my thing. This also leads to more interaction. So either keep a mind towards low-enough curve, or play enough ramp to get to bombs reliably.
As a result, I've steered away from pure voltron decks over the years. Though I do have a few that can still kill with commander damage here and there, it's pretty much never the sole goal of the decks anymore. (Helps that efficient voltron is also very boring to play...)
I tend to play a lot of ramp and draw in my decks for the above reasons too. That game-warping 7-drop is pointless if you don't draw it or can't cast it, after all.
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
I'm currently having tons of fun with a Nikya of the Old Ways gruul smash deck.
It's fun for the table because it just plays a big pile of aggro creatures without any theft, control or even much removal.
It plays super easy and everything you're doing is in front of you with no tricks or surprises.
It keeps your hand full with cards like soul of the harvest and wrecks face with pathbreaker ibex.
Good family fun!
My favourite deck is my Tomorrow Azami's Familiar deck. it's mostly a mono-blue enchantments deck. I call it Enchantments of Tomorrow.
There is a bit of every thing. There are some cards that make you hard to hit, some that affect your opponents and some that turn the game on it's head. There are a few minor combos but nothing that just says "I win". A great example is battlefield thaumaturge and icy blast. this says I pay U and everybody's stuff is tapped but add in dismiss into dreams and it becomes a one sided board wipe. If you want to check it out it is on mtg salvation. It's not hard to find as it is the only Tomorrow deck there. P.S. I tots forgot we were on mtg salvation.
My idea is that, since this is a chaos deck, it can really swing games into unique places. Since I'm not at all concerned with disrupting people's plays, everyone still gets to do whatever they want, and by virtue of the chaos, if some player is doing poorly, I might end up helping them due to mixing things up. I'm also trying to insulate myself from attack with at least half a dozen pillowfort pieces, and while there's a good chance I could accidentally swap myself into something like transcendence and kill myself on the spot, I could just as well acquire an assorted mix of my opponent's permanents and win with those in some interesting way too.
Warp World and all its friends included. It takes a very different approach to 'control' than most decks, in that the 'control' if you consider there to be any at all in it, is the chaos itself. I run barely any removal, and the removal it does have is only the kind that does not detract whatsoever from the massive chaos cards I plan to cast later. It's even running cards like Show and Tell and others to enable opponents to put more things into play that I can then divvy about randomly with those big chaos bombs.
My mentality in EDH these days is 'I don't want consistency, I want interesting and memorable games to write home about'.
Big props for Gishath. No, he's not good in cEDH. That strikes me as a feature, not a bug.
In my opinion, if a big stompy dinosaur deck doesn't have a place at the table, then maybe you should be playing Vintage, Legacy or Modern rather than Commander.
You take that back! draco may not be a stompy dinosaur, but it's making the rounds in legacy as a legit wincon (off an enlightened tutor)!
I think there was some other non-changeling dinosaur also propping up in some legacy lists too.
That said, i think the most fun games of EDH are the ones where there's some level of interaction, plus lines of play that are completely off-center and weird, and creates a mental challenge. Anyone use jace, the mindsculptor's ultimate on themselves, setting up a pseudo-doomsday pile for the win (i think it was a entreat the angels something something shenanigan)? certainly not me, but i've had someone do that to themselves, and then subsequently wipe the table with it. That, even if i'd lost, was memorable, AND good fun. i don't see myself being beat that way any time soon though.
The want for a mental challenge is what i like when playing against a stax/prison deck; i think theres something fun about trying to worm my way out of a lock, and i think it's fun and interactive. I get that there are people who don't like that, and i can accept that - that's why my 5c lands deck doesn't see much play anymore.
If you feel like you are winning too much, build a mono-red deck. Mono red is by far the worst color "combo?" in EDH. I was winning too much with UXX decks so I decided to go for Godo since it was an interesting commander with a kinda suggested theme to it and it probably wouldn't be that good, and would probably be terrible.
It became by far my favorite deck to play and it's not terrible either. The one tip I would give you is that you need to go very heavy on artifact mana that taps for 2+ mana (No Fire diamond, fellowar stones, etc.). It became by far my favorite deck by far. It's definitely not super good, there are cards that you almost can not deal with (Stoney Silence...), but it makes it more fun when you pull it out (Anarchy).
The two basic shells I've had the most enjoyment with are bant clones with a lot of recursion and Jeskai aggro where a single attack can punch hard but also provide a lot of value.
Regardless of deck, I also enjoy cards that allow me to opt in to copy/reuse opponents cards both for the variety and the puzzle-like aspect. And I also like playing cards that either allow me to open lines of play for another player or allow another player to open up lines for me in situations where we have a common oppressor or even if it's just to help make something cool happen.
Building: Varina
WUBRG Some of these decks can actually win games...WUBRG
How I know I should build a deck:
As far as commander choice goes, I largely play commanders that enable/fuel my deck (Ephara, God of the Polis, Athreos, God of Passage, Varina, Lich Queen, Jori En, Ruin Diver etc.) or let me "cheat" one way or another (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Gonti, Lord of Luxury etc.). Commanders that directly further up my game. 'Course I have a few other oddballs here and there, but mostly it's about the commander making me go further - rather than a commander that's a wincon on their own.
As a result, I've steered away from pure voltron decks over the years. Though I do have a few that can still kill with commander damage here and there, it's pretty much never the sole goal of the decks anymore. (Helps that efficient voltron is also very boring to play...)
I tend to play a lot of ramp and draw in my decks for the above reasons too. That game-warping 7-drop is pointless if you don't draw it or can't cast it, after all.
It's fun for the table because it just plays a big pile of aggro creatures without any theft, control or even much removal.
It plays super easy and everything you're doing is in front of you with no tricks or surprises.
It keeps your hand full with cards like soul of the harvest and wrecks face with pathbreaker ibex.
Good family fun!
EDH:
[Primer]C Kozilek, Butcher of Truth C
RGNikya of the Old WaysGR
There is a bit of every thing. There are some cards that make you hard to hit, some that affect your opponents and some that turn the game on it's head. There are a few minor combos but nothing that just says "I win". A great example is battlefield thaumaturge and icy blast. this says I pay U and everybody's stuff is tapped but add in dismiss into dreams and it becomes a one sided board wipe. If you want to check it out it is on mtg salvation. It's not hard to find as it is the only Tomorrow deck there. P.S. I tots forgot we were on mtg salvation.
Chaos oriented, and just as liable to kill me as anyone else. It's mainly meant for the Secret Alliance/Kingdoms EDH variant gametypes. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zedruus-exports-incorporated/
My idea is that, since this is a chaos deck, it can really swing games into unique places. Since I'm not at all concerned with disrupting people's plays, everyone still gets to do whatever they want, and by virtue of the chaos, if some player is doing poorly, I might end up helping them due to mixing things up. I'm also trying to insulate myself from attack with at least half a dozen pillowfort pieces, and while there's a good chance I could accidentally swap myself into something like transcendence and kill myself on the spot, I could just as well acquire an assorted mix of my opponent's permanents and win with those in some interesting way too.
Warp World and all its friends included. It takes a very different approach to 'control' than most decks, in that the 'control' if you consider there to be any at all in it, is the chaos itself. I run barely any removal, and the removal it does have is only the kind that does not detract whatsoever from the massive chaos cards I plan to cast later. It's even running cards like Show and Tell and others to enable opponents to put more things into play that I can then divvy about randomly with those big chaos bombs.
My mentality in EDH these days is 'I don't want consistency, I want interesting and memorable games to write home about'.
Might be pretty fun, thus suggesting it here.
Search no more my friend for everything you always wanted is in here: Norin the Wary.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
You take that back! draco may not be a stompy dinosaur, but it's making the rounds in legacy as a legit wincon (off an enlightened tutor)!
I think there was some other non-changeling dinosaur also propping up in some legacy lists too.
That said, i think the most fun games of EDH are the ones where there's some level of interaction, plus lines of play that are completely off-center and weird, and creates a mental challenge. Anyone use jace, the mindsculptor's ultimate on themselves, setting up a pseudo-doomsday pile for the win (i think it was a entreat the angels something something shenanigan)? certainly not me, but i've had someone do that to themselves, and then subsequently wipe the table with it. That, even if i'd lost, was memorable, AND good fun. i don't see myself being beat that way any time soon though.
The want for a mental challenge is what i like when playing against a stax/prison deck; i think theres something fun about trying to worm my way out of a lock, and i think it's fun and interactive. I get that there are people who don't like that, and i can accept that - that's why my 5c lands deck doesn't see much play anymore.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
It became by far my favorite deck to play and it's not terrible either. The one tip I would give you is that you need to go very heavy on artifact mana that taps for 2+ mana (No Fire diamond, fellowar stones, etc.). It became by far my favorite deck by far. It's definitely not super good, there are cards that you almost can not deal with (Stoney Silence...), but it makes it more fun when you pull it out (Anarchy).
Regardless of deck, I also enjoy cards that allow me to opt in to copy/reuse opponents cards both for the variety and the puzzle-like aspect. And I also like playing cards that either allow me to open lines of play for another player or allow another player to open up lines for me in situations where we have a common oppressor or even if it's just to help make something cool happen.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill