Hi all!
As from the title of the thread, I’m pretty new at magic and I’ve only been playing for a few months or so and I’ve only been playing commander. My current commander is Mayael the anima, which was fun just starting out because I got to play huge creatures and mana ramp also, but I’m looking for a more technical(?) commander where I can play a more interesting deck. I was thinking of a couple commanders like Oona, queen of the fae, or Zur the enchanter. If anyone has ideas of fun and interesting commanders (preferably multicolored) then please mention them! I plan on making a cheaper deck to start out with and then invest more as I keep playing it and see where it needs improvements.
For some background... I play against my friend who uses Yasova dragonclaw. It’s not really her ability that annoys me, but he has SO many cards that give him extra turns, where he has once taken maybe 4 turns in a row where the game just wasn’t fun anymore. It’s all fun and casual though, and this summer after my spring term is over I plan on going to the local game store for EDH nights.
That... is a really open-ended question. Most any commander can make an 'interesting' deck that's fun.
What do you like as far as colors, themes, game mechanics, playstyles, tempo approaches go? Let's narrow it down and then folks can help you find "the fun one".
Extra turns are annoying. Toss in a Stranglehold for the expression on your friend's face. Or a Possibility Storm to mess any gameplans up if you're just ramping and playing big things.
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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
That... is a really open-ended question. Most any commander can make an 'interesting' deck that's fun.
What do you like as far as colors, themes, game mechanics, playstyles, tempo approaches go? Let's narrow it down and then folks can help you find "the fun one".
Extra turns are annoying. Toss in a Stranglehold for the expression on your friend's face. Or a Possibility Storm to mess any gameplans up if you're just ramping and playing big things.
yep, completely agree with the above. Another thing you could do is to play a more 'punisher' deck, where you're trying to aggro-out the table. zo-zu the punisher and with effects like blood moon, strangehold and ankh of mishra can go a long way to get everyone within killing-range!
if you want more 'fun' decks, you're going to have to diagnose what you find fun. In EDH for example, i like playing weird decks, so the stranger the strategy, the more likely i'd enjoy it. And then i have a rakdos the defiler all-in aggro deck to cleanse the palate.
There's also the clone-tribal style deck, where everything you do is essentially just copying what your opponents are doing. So your deck scales to the power of whatever you're playing against. If they play a lot of extra-turn spells, just copy/redirect them to give you extra turns. If they play humongous beaters, just clone them. But if your opponents' largest beater is a runeclaw bear, well, it's gonna be a sloooow game.
That... is a really open-ended question. Most any commander can make an 'interesting' deck that's fun.
What do you like as far as colors, themes, game mechanics, playstyles, tempo approaches go? Let's narrow it down and then folks can help you find "the fun one".
Extra turns are annoying. Toss in a Stranglehold for the expression on your friend's face. Or a Possibility Storm to mess any gameplans up if you're just ramping and playing big things.
yep, completely agree with the above. Another thing you could do is to play a more 'punisher' deck, where you're trying to aggro-out the table. zo-zu the punisher and with effects like blood moon, strangehold and ankh of mishra can go a long way to get everyone within killing-range!
if you want more 'fun' decks, you're going to have to diagnose what you find fun. In EDH for example, i like playing weird decks, so the stranger the strategy, the more likely i'd enjoy it. And then i have a rakdos the defiler all-in aggro deck to cleanse the palate.
There's also the clone-tribal style deck, where everything you do is essentially just copying what your opponents are doing. So your deck scales to the power of whatever you're playing against. If they play a lot of extra-turn spells, just copy/redirect them to give you extra turns. If they play humongous beaters, just clone them. But if your opponents' largest beater is a runeclaw bear, well, it's gonna be a sloooow game.
Thanks for the replies!
As far as colors, I really have no preference, I would prefer not to play a monocolor deck. I'm really open to any color combination. As for what I'm looking for...I'm looking for a deck that has a lot of interactions with one another, maybe I'm just thinking about a tribal deck? For example, I'm pretty interested (and leaning towards) making a spirit deck since they have a lot of interactions with one another. I just am not sure who I would use for a commander other than O-Kagachi, vengeful kami since it is 5 colors and I could use spirits and arcane cards from all 5 colors. Although I know 5 color decks may prove to be more difficult than a double or tri color deck. I have made sort of a list of commanders that I'm kind of interested in so I'll include that below.
The main problem I have is that I'm kind of getting bored of ramping up and playing huge creatures, I want to create something that is very interactive with itself.
Some of the commanders I'm interested in...
Zur the enchanter
Oona, queen of the fae
Child of Alara
Animar Soul of Elements
Prime Speaker Zegana
Tishana, Voice of Thunder
Urabrask the Hidden
Marath
The Scarab God
Damia, Sage of Stone
Queen Marchesa
Karametra god of harvest
Athreos god of passage
I've also read on the forum something interesting... Where you take something "not good" and make it good. Anyone have any thoughts on this and what commanders would make this interesting?
Sounds like you want a versatile commander. How about Varina, Lich Queen? There are multiple ways to build her and her mechanics sync well together.
She definitely seems like an interesting commander. Since I haven't had a lot of experience with magic yet, I'm just curious what some of the ways to build her and use her mechanics would be like.
i'm helping a guy make a child of alara deck.. it's not the same as the 'dream crusher' deck that's here on the forums. It's basically god-tribal (since all of them have indestructible/resilience of sorts), and runs some darksteel stuff.
Also uses spine of ish sah as troublesome land killing. I figured i'd mention it since it was on your list.
I also have a damia, sage of stone as advisor-tribal. It's not too interactive though. it DOES help a lot with people who're trying to manipulate the top of their decks.
i'm helping a guy make a child of alara deck.. it's not the same as the 'dream crusher' deck that's here on the forums. It's basically god-tribal (since all of them have indestructible/resilience of sorts), and runs some darksteel stuff.
Also uses spine of ish sah as troublesome land killing. I figured i'd mention it since it was on your list.
I also have a damia, sage of stone as advisor-tribal. It's not too interactive though. it DOES help a lot with people who're trying to manipulate the top of their decks.
The child of alara deck you're making sounds interesting. Do you find that the deck is fairly expensive mana-wise?
I think I will decide to go with one of these three choices...
a spirit deck with O-Kagachi as the commander (or a better multi-color commander suitable for spirits?)
a Child of alara deck
or a Varina Lich Queen deck
I'm curious if O-kagachi would really be a good commander if I were to play a 5 color spirit deck? I'm leaning toward Child of Alara because I feel like it would really make the opponent wary on what to play since he/she knows that I would be able to just board wipe. My interest with Varina is because she has such a unique ability and it would be something completely different for me since I am not used to playing zombies and discarding cards as well. Thoughts?
One advice on O-Kagachi is that you do not necessary have to play 5 colors if you're worried about consistency. You could play UWG as your main colors (since the best Spirits are W, U and G) with just a splash of Red and Black mana sources (Commander Sphere would be a good example) to make sure you can cast your commander reliably.
i'm helping a guy make a child of alara deck.. it's not the same as the 'dream crusher' deck that's here on the forums. It's basically god-tribal (since all of them have indestructible/resilience of sorts), and runs some darksteel stuff.
Also uses spine of ish sah as troublesome land killing. I figured i'd mention it since it was on your list.
I also have a damia, sage of stone as advisor-tribal. It's not too interactive though. it DOES help a lot with people who're trying to manipulate the top of their decks.
The child of alara deck you're making sounds interesting. Do you find that the deck is fairly expensive mana-wise?
well, you can make it as expensive as you want. if you want to run all the dual lands and fetch lands, then it can be kinda expensive. The guy I'm helping with is using a bunch of tri-lands and basics with some number of fetches. it's not the best of the best manabase, but it works. I don't think he's usually being colour-screwed. the god deck is somewhat more annoying mana wise though, since the colours are so even all the way through. My old child of alarm build was a UGwbr deck, so i could actually focus the coloured mana to UG, and enough lands to let me splash the other 3 colours.
Thanks for all the helpful replies! After going to my local game store and speaking with the workers at the Magic area, I decided to go with Varina, Lich Queen. I do however plan on creating a spirit tribal deck and a Child of Alara deck since I have the commanders, but that will be quite a while from now.
Do note that you will have more fun in magic with a consistent manabase. The more colors you add the more difficult it will be to be able to enact your gameplan and have fun in a timely manner. This is exacerbated if you're not playing with Green. I always suggest to newer players that if they feel the desire to play more than 2 colors that one be Green so they can actually play the game instead of sitting with uncastable spells stuck in their hands.
Are both you and your friend newer to magic/EDH? Knowing whether or not the playing field is "even" is important for us to help assist you.
I see that you already went with Varina, which I've found to be a fun deck to build with a tribal token focus.
As you continue to build your collection, I'd give a strong recommendation to Animar. He can be near top tier with the right deck, but even a budget build can be fun, interactive, and versatile. I posted a budget decklist a while back that I'll copy over here. Good luck!
Do note that you will have more fun in magic with a consistent manabase. The more colors you add the more difficult it will be to be able to enact your gameplan and have fun in a timely manner. This is exacerbated if you're not playing with Green. I always suggest to newer players that if they feel the desire to play more than 2 colors that one be Green so they can actually play the game instead of sitting with uncastable spells stuck in their hands.
Are both you and your friend newer to magic/EDH? Knowing whether or not the playing field is "even" is important for us to help assist you.
Something I was sort of worried about was the fact the I wouldn't be playing a deck with green since I am used to a ton of mana ramp. I'd like to try something different and I thought it would be interesting steering away from green. It'll be completely different and challenging, but I think that's all part of the fun.
As for the person I play against, he is by no means new to EDH. He has about a decade more experience than I do. He gives me tips and pointers of course, which is helpful. I feel like his deck is one of those decks that is so good that it's just not fun to play against. I know he is sort of in the works with creating a new deck with Alesha, who smiles at death, as his commander which is somewhat relieving
I see that you already went with Varina, which I've found to be a fun deck to build with a tribal token focus.
As you continue to build your collection, I'd give a strong recommendation to Animar. He can be near top tier with the right deck, but even a budget build can be fun, interactive, and versatile. I posted a budget decklist a while back that I'll copy over here. Good luck!
I've definitely been thinking about playing Animar. I've slowly been buying commanders that I'm interested in and I've had my eye on Animar for quite a while. The only reason I don't have Animar is because I typically buy cards from Ebay auctions and I feel that it gets a little pricey and end up backing down.
I see that you already went with Varina, which I've found to be a fun deck to build with a tribal token focus.
As you continue to build your collection, I'd give a strong recommendation to Animar. He can be near top tier with the right deck, but even a budget build can be fun, interactive, and versatile. I posted a budget decklist a while back that I'll copy over here. Good luck!
I've definitely been thinking about playing Animar. I've slowly been buying commanders that I'm interested in and I've had my eye on Animar for quite a while. The only reason I don't have Animar is because I typically buy cards from Ebay auctions and I feel that it gets a little pricey and end up backing down.
That's completely understandable. The list I posted here shouldn't run you much more than $50 and each of the pieces can be upgraded over time. Whatever you decide to go with, good luck!
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As from the title of the thread, I’m pretty new at magic and I’ve only been playing for a few months or so and I’ve only been playing commander. My current commander is Mayael the anima, which was fun just starting out because I got to play huge creatures and mana ramp also, but I’m looking for a more technical(?) commander where I can play a more interesting deck. I was thinking of a couple commanders like Oona, queen of the fae, or Zur the enchanter. If anyone has ideas of fun and interesting commanders (preferably multicolored) then please mention them! I plan on making a cheaper deck to start out with and then invest more as I keep playing it and see where it needs improvements.
For some background... I play against my friend who uses Yasova dragonclaw. It’s not really her ability that annoys me, but he has SO many cards that give him extra turns, where he has once taken maybe 4 turns in a row where the game just wasn’t fun anymore. It’s all fun and casual though, and this summer after my spring term is over I plan on going to the local game store for EDH nights.
Any information is well appreciated!
Chris
What do you like as far as colors, themes, game mechanics, playstyles, tempo approaches go? Let's narrow it down and then folks can help you find "the fun one".
Extra turns are annoying. Toss in a Stranglehold for the expression on your friend's face. Or a Possibility Storm to mess any gameplans up if you're just ramping and playing big things.
yep, completely agree with the above. Another thing you could do is to play a more 'punisher' deck, where you're trying to aggro-out the table. zo-zu the punisher and with effects like blood moon, strangehold and ankh of mishra can go a long way to get everyone within killing-range!
if you want more 'fun' decks, you're going to have to diagnose what you find fun. In EDH for example, i like playing weird decks, so the stranger the strategy, the more likely i'd enjoy it. And then i have a rakdos the defiler all-in aggro deck to cleanse the palate.
One somewhat inexpensive deck that can be surprisingly effective is selenia, dark angel deck where the goal is to control people's life totals. So children of korlis, tainted cure, exquisite blood, reverse the sands and repay in kind all come to mind. most of the pieces are relatively inexpensive, and you can win out of nowhere.
There's also the clone-tribal style deck, where everything you do is essentially just copying what your opponents are doing. So your deck scales to the power of whatever you're playing against. If they play a lot of extra-turn spells, just copy/redirect them to give you extra turns. If they play humongous beaters, just clone them. But if your opponents' largest beater is a runeclaw bear, well, it's gonna be a sloooow game.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
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
Thanks for the replies!
As far as colors, I really have no preference, I would prefer not to play a monocolor deck. I'm really open to any color combination. As for what I'm looking for...I'm looking for a deck that has a lot of interactions with one another, maybe I'm just thinking about a tribal deck? For example, I'm pretty interested (and leaning towards) making a spirit deck since they have a lot of interactions with one another. I just am not sure who I would use for a commander other than O-Kagachi, vengeful kami since it is 5 colors and I could use spirits and arcane cards from all 5 colors. Although I know 5 color decks may prove to be more difficult than a double or tri color deck. I have made sort of a list of commanders that I'm kind of interested in so I'll include that below.
The main problem I have is that I'm kind of getting bored of ramping up and playing huge creatures, I want to create something that is very interactive with itself.
Some of the commanders I'm interested in...
Zur the enchanter
Oona, queen of the fae
Child of Alara
Animar Soul of Elements
Prime Speaker Zegana
Tishana, Voice of Thunder
Urabrask the Hidden
Marath
The Scarab God
Damia, Sage of Stone
Queen Marchesa
Karametra god of harvest
Athreos god of passage
I've also read on the forum something interesting... Where you take something "not good" and make it good. Anyone have any thoughts on this and what commanders would make this interesting?
She definitely seems like an interesting commander. Since I haven't had a lot of experience with magic yet, I'm just curious what some of the ways to build her and use her mechanics would be like.
You also run things like gift of immortality and sidisi's faithful to kill and revive child to constantly blow the world up.
Also uses spine of ish sah as troublesome land killing. I figured i'd mention it since it was on your list.
I also have a damia, sage of stone as advisor-tribal. It's not too interactive though. it DOES help a lot with people who're trying to manipulate the top of their decks.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
The child of alara deck you're making sounds interesting. Do you find that the deck is fairly expensive mana-wise?
a spirit deck with O-Kagachi as the commander (or a better multi-color commander suitable for spirits?)
a Child of alara deck
or a Varina Lich Queen deck
I'm curious if O-kagachi would really be a good commander if I were to play a 5 color spirit deck? I'm leaning toward Child of Alara because I feel like it would really make the opponent wary on what to play since he/she knows that I would be able to just board wipe. My interest with Varina is because she has such a unique ability and it would be something completely different for me since I am not used to playing zombies and discarding cards as well. Thoughts?
Esper - Sydri - Alternate take on the Artifacts meta
Orzhov - Regna and Krav - Tokens and Lifegain and +1/+1 counters
Mono Green - Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar - Land Matters
WURG Kynaios and Tiro Grouphug/Fistbump
well, you can make it as expensive as you want. if you want to run all the dual lands and fetch lands, then it can be kinda expensive. The guy I'm helping with is using a bunch of tri-lands and basics with some number of fetches. it's not the best of the best manabase, but it works. I don't think he's usually being colour-screwed. the god deck is somewhat more annoying mana wise though, since the colours are so even all the way through. My old child of alarm build was a UGwbr deck, so i could actually focus the coloured mana to UG, and enough lands to let me splash the other 3 colours.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
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StaffAre both you and your friend newer to magic/EDH? Knowing whether or not the playing field is "even" is important for us to help assist you.
As you continue to build your collection, I'd give a strong recommendation to Animar. He can be near top tier with the right deck, but even a budget build can be fun, interactive, and versatile. I posted a budget decklist a while back that I'll copy over here. Good luck!
1 Shrieking Drake
1 Man-o'-War
1 Dream Stalker
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Ancestral Statue
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Wood Elves
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Embodiment of Spring
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Mystic Snake
1 Draining Whelk
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Duplicant
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Den Protector
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Voidmage Apprentice
1 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Meteor Golem
1 Disruptive Pitmage
1 Chromeshell Crab
1 Willbender
1 Voidmage Husher
1 Clone
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Panharmonicon
1 Abundance
1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
1 Tishana, Voice of Thunder
1 Raven Familiar
1 Fierce Empath
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Mulldrifter
1 Sages of the Anima
1 Primordial Sage
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Riverwise Augur
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Riptide Survivor
1 Ruric Thar, The Unbowed
1 Maelstrom Wanderer
1 Nullstone Gargoyle
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Thunderfoot Baloth
1 Decimator of the Provinces
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Opal Palace
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
1 Llanowar Reborn
1 Halimar Depths
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Gruul Turf
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Sheltered Thicket
1 Cinder Glade
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Grove
3 Mountain
8 Forest
8 Island
Something I was sort of worried about was the fact the I wouldn't be playing a deck with green since I am used to a ton of mana ramp. I'd like to try something different and I thought it would be interesting steering away from green. It'll be completely different and challenging, but I think that's all part of the fun.
As for the person I play against, he is by no means new to EDH. He has about a decade more experience than I do. He gives me tips and pointers of course, which is helpful. I feel like his deck is one of those decks that is so good that it's just not fun to play against. I know he is sort of in the works with creating a new deck with Alesha, who smiles at death, as his commander which is somewhat relieving
I've definitely been thinking about playing Animar. I've slowly been buying commanders that I'm interested in and I've had my eye on Animar for quite a while. The only reason I don't have Animar is because I typically buy cards from Ebay auctions and I feel that it gets a little pricey and end up backing down.
That's completely understandable. The list I posted here shouldn't run you much more than $50 and each of the pieces can be upgraded over time. Whatever you decide to go with, good luck!