Being lost isn't bad, it just means you are in the middle of an adventure.
I got sick recently, and had a lot of time to brew some decks. It got me to think about how I go about doing it. Here is how I go about it. As a note; I am currently in Phase 3 with the deck below; my deck list obviously has some real issues to it. But as you will read, I favor playing with the deck, than to trying to prefect it before you have it.
PHASE ONE - Answer the basic questions; What do I want this deck to be about? This could be lands matter, creatures matter, spells matter, or SOMETHING MATTERS. I knew I wanted Azusa, Lost but Seeking to be my commander, so lands matter was an easy choice. What do I want to do with this deck? I knew from the get go this was going to be a casual deck, no question about it. I expect this to be the weakest of my decks in favor of some flavorful land elements. This is something I think all players should really spend time and think about. Sometimes I will need a deck to play with a specific group, and their power level might run different than my normal group. Maybe it just as simple as I may want a color combination I don't have, or who knows what thing, Just pick one. What will be something unique about my deck? This means unique for me. I always try to have something special about each one of EDH decks. I am not saying that "goodstuff" decks can't be fun, but if every green deck runs the same core, it is no longer special to me. I always run light on lands, so this was going to be a deck with 70 lands.
PHASE TWO - ProtoType What will be my card advantage mechanics? This can be recursion, card draw, repetitive token generation, buyback, or countless other things. But being able to play cards, is one of the most important things in the game. Tireless Tracker, Recycle, Noxious Revival, Horn of Greed, Soul's Majesty, and Tamiyo's Journal are all pretty neat and efficient card engines. I have never ran any of them before, so we will try it for fun. What will be my interaction cards? These are things that impact board state, or counter spells. Admittedly, I am really weak right now on my interactions... Loaming Shaman, Bane of Progress, Krosan Grip, Primal Command, and All is Dust make up all of my real core interactions. I will have to expand this space later on I suspect. I decided this would be one of the major places to sacrifice power during this iteration. My girlfriends Ezuri, Claw of Progress deck, is going to CRUSH me, but I will re-evaluate power level when it becomes too much. What will be my fast win conditions? I think this is possibly the most important part of magic I think I have ever learned. I HATE durdle decks. (Durdle. To stand around and do nothing; taking a long time doing an action or set of actions and accomplishing nothing. wasting time.) Some examples of Durdle dekcs... I don't mind planeswalkers, I think they are fun and interesting, but PLANESWALKER decks, drive me nuts. The turns take forever, and they take even longer to win. Same goes for land destruction decks. If you destroy all of our lands, you better win in the next 2 turns or so. Excessive draws or tutors also fall into this category.
PHASE THREE - Build and Buy v1 Decide your budge in terms of dollars; target 50% of that. The point of this is to get playing. Don't sit and analyze till you are paralyzed. Buy the deck, play with it. You will learn and decide where to spend the other half pretty quickly from your own meta game. Oh, I don't have enough constant removal... Oh, I don't have enough win conditions... Oh, X is locking me up and I don't even have an answer for it. I have recently pulled apart 2 EDH decks, so I have a lots of nice value cards I can slide into this deck which are normally pretty expensive. I also decided to almost completely run basic lands. There are tons of value i am leaving on the table here, but I am okay with that. When I decide to spend the other 50%, it may be on lands, maybe not. Make sure you plan on winning 70% of the games you play. First off, if everyone build there decks to win 70% of the time, they won't reach that percentage. The point of saying that is to keep power level and focus in mind. It is a game, the goal is to win. Don't forget it, but don't let it drive all of your decisions. I am not saying don't do unique and interesting things, but to it in the spirit of getting to a win. Favor cards you don't play normally, break from the safe zone. It is very easy to rattle off the standard commander cards for almost every deck, but that shouldnt be the goal. DO SOMETHING NEW. There are a lot of cards in this deck that I have never played before. Stone-Seeder Hierophant, Wolfbriar Elemental, and Ring of Three Wishes. These are cards I wouldn't normally be interested in, but match the theme really well.
PHASE FOUR - PLAY and finish the budget Play the deck. Decide what you like. What you do not. Iterate and Improve. Try to be very fluid with cards early on, SWITCH IT UP
I got sick recently, and had a lot of time to brew some decks. It got me to think about how I go about doing it. Here is how I go about it. As a note; I am currently in Phase 3 with the deck below; my deck list obviously has some real issues to it. But as you will read, I favor playing with the deck, than to trying to prefect it before you have it.
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Genesis Hydra
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Stone-Seeder Hierophant
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Bane of Progress
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Animist's Awakening
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Noxious Revival
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sylvan Library
1 Genesis Wave
1 Horn of Greed
1 Krosan Grip
1 Natural Affinity
1 Abundance
1 Bear Umbra
1 Harmonize
1 Seek the Horizon
1 Seer's Sundial
1 Memory Jar
1 Primal Command
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Rude Awakening
1 Shamanic Revelation
1 Soul's Majesty
1 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Recycle
1 Summoning Trap
1 All is Dust
1 Zendikar Resurgent
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 The Great Aurora
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Temple of the False God
48 Forest
PHASE ONE - Answer the basic questions;
What do I want this deck to be about? This could be lands matter, creatures matter, spells matter, or SOMETHING MATTERS. I knew I wanted Azusa, Lost but Seeking to be my commander, so lands matter was an easy choice.
What do I want to do with this deck? I knew from the get go this was going to be a casual deck, no question about it. I expect this to be the weakest of my decks in favor of some flavorful land elements. This is something I think all players should really spend time and think about. Sometimes I will need a deck to play with a specific group, and their power level might run different than my normal group. Maybe it just as simple as I may want a color combination I don't have, or who knows what thing, Just pick one.
What will be something unique about my deck? This means unique for me. I always try to have something special about each one of EDH decks. I am not saying that "goodstuff" decks can't be fun, but if every green deck runs the same core, it is no longer special to me. I always run light on lands, so this was going to be a deck with 70 lands.
PHASE TWO - ProtoType
What will be my card advantage mechanics? This can be recursion, card draw, repetitive token generation, buyback, or countless other things. But being able to play cards, is one of the most important things in the game. Tireless Tracker, Recycle, Noxious Revival, Horn of Greed, Soul's Majesty, and Tamiyo's Journal are all pretty neat and efficient card engines. I have never ran any of them before, so we will try it for fun.
What will be my interaction cards? These are things that impact board state, or counter spells. Admittedly, I am really weak right now on my interactions... Loaming Shaman, Bane of Progress, Krosan Grip, Primal Command, and All is Dust make up all of my real core interactions. I will have to expand this space later on I suspect. I decided this would be one of the major places to sacrifice power during this iteration. My girlfriends Ezuri, Claw of Progress deck, is going to CRUSH me, but I will re-evaluate power level when it becomes too much.
What will be my fast win conditions? I think this is possibly the most important part of magic I think I have ever learned. I HATE durdle decks. (Durdle. To stand around and do nothing; taking a long time doing an action or set of actions and accomplishing nothing. wasting time.) Some examples of Durdle dekcs... I don't mind planeswalkers, I think they are fun and interesting, but PLANESWALKER decks, drive me nuts. The turns take forever, and they take even longer to win. Same goes for land destruction decks. If you destroy all of our lands, you better win in the next 2 turns or so. Excessive draws or tutors also fall into this category.
PHASE THREE - Build and Buy v1
Decide your budge in terms of dollars; target 50% of that. The point of this is to get playing. Don't sit and analyze till you are paralyzed. Buy the deck, play with it. You will learn and decide where to spend the other half pretty quickly from your own meta game. Oh, I don't have enough constant removal... Oh, I don't have enough win conditions... Oh, X is locking me up and I don't even have an answer for it. I have recently pulled apart 2 EDH decks, so I have a lots of nice value cards I can slide into this deck which are normally pretty expensive. I also decided to almost completely run basic lands. There are tons of value i am leaving on the table here, but I am okay with that. When I decide to spend the other 50%, it may be on lands, maybe not.
Make sure you plan on winning 70% of the games you play. First off, if everyone build there decks to win 70% of the time, they won't reach that percentage. The point of saying that is to keep power level and focus in mind. It is a game, the goal is to win. Don't forget it, but don't let it drive all of your decisions. I am not saying don't do unique and interesting things, but to it in the spirit of getting to a win.
Favor cards you don't play normally, break from the safe zone. It is very easy to rattle off the standard commander cards for almost every deck, but that shouldnt be the goal. DO SOMETHING NEW. There are a lot of cards in this deck that I have never played before. Stone-Seeder Hierophant, Wolfbriar Elemental, and Ring of Three Wishes. These are cards I wouldn't normally be interested in, but match the theme really well.
PHASE FOUR - PLAY and finish the budget
Play the deck.
Decide what you like.
What you do not.
Iterate and Improve.
Try to be very fluid with cards early on, SWITCH IT UP
Resources;
http://edhrec.com/
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/
http://tappedout.net/