So I wanted to rewrite an old post (which I lost in the Curse-Media data transfer ) and maintain a list of all the broadly accepted Deck Types and Themes for Commander. I looked online before, and even now I still can’t find a comprehensive list, so I’m starting one again.
In terms of definitions, these can be a bit subjective, so I’ve lifted them from other forum posts, Wiki’s, EDH Rec, and WotC articles. So what do I mean when I say: An Archetype – “…is a recurring deck or strategy with many possible variations.” Broadly speaking, it tells you what the deck is aiming to do. A Theme – “…is a unifying idea, image, or motif repeated or developed throughout [a deck].” This is more like the ‘flavor’ and describes how the deck plans to achieve its aim.
Archetypes - What is the deck trying to do?
- Aggro
- Chaos
- Combo
- Control
- False Hug / Group Slug
- Good-Stuff / Mid-Range / BattleCruiser
- Group Hug
- Stax / Prison
- Weird/Janky Themes (E.g.: Chairs Tribal)
Themes – How does the deck plan to get there?
- Alternate Win Conditions (E.g.: Mortal Combat)
- Aristocrats (Death matters)
- Artifacts
- Blink / Flicker (ETB matters)
- Burn
- Cascade
- Clones
- Counters Matter (+1, -1, or other...)
- Cycling
- Discard
- Draw-Go / Permission Decks
- Enchantress
- Extra combat / Extra turns
- Hate Bears
- Infect
- Judo / Deflection / Theft (Use opponents resources against them aka. 'You brought this on yourself')
- Land Destruction
- Lands Matter
- Life Drain
- Life Gain
- Mill / Self Mill
- Miracle / Top-Deck Matters (Vaevictis, Maelstrom Wanderer, Aminatou , Yuriko)
- One-Shot Kills (or close to)
- Overrun / Swarm
- Pillow Fort
- Ramp or Card Draw (when the explicit aim is to get ahead of opponents, not just to keep up.)
- Reanimator
- Shadowborn Apostles (Or Relentless Rats, Persistent Petitioners, etc)
- Sneakand Tell (Decks that cheat the Mana Costs with cards like: rituals, or commanders like: Kaalia, Jodah, Braids, Jhoira, Rakdos etc.)
- Spellslinger
- Storm
- Suicide
- Super Friends
- Taxes
- Tokens
- ToolBox / Tutors Deck
- Tribal Creatures (Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, Zombies)
- Tribal+ (Defenders, Morph, Historic/Legendary)
- Voltron (Equipment, Auras, or Commanders like Jenara)
- Wheel Decks
- XY Monsters (Xenagos, God of Revels)
Have I missed something? Let me know and I’ll update the list (next time I’m around )
Disclaimer: There are some build-around commanders that are too niche to categorise, and there are always exceptions. By in large, any deck can be tucked into one or more of the categories above so don't sue me if yours isn't on here
I'd like to see more distinguishing between control deck types in your themes. Draw-Go (as ISBPathfinder suggested) is one way to do it, but control decks that usually tap out are also a thing. Compare a blue counter based control deck with a white based control deck based around things like Wrath of God. Very different ways of implementing a control gameplan.
Most of them can have more than one hat but I think the concept of toolbox does apply to many of them. Some of them you can classify as other categories but I think due to the consistent search for the right card concept of these that toolbox is a relevant tag as well.
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Would you consider Judo ("You did this to yourself") an archetype or a theme?
Can't say I've ever seen a deck that does this, are we talking about a deck with all the effects like Misdirection and Deflecting Palm?
Tell me more do you have a list?
I've added Draw-Go and Toolbox to the list ^^
Not sure what to call that, but i've seen stuff like that before. It's really annoying to play against, since you're liable to get your own attacks back in your face.
There's no suicide/tempo? As in sinking all resources in for a huge tempo gain at the cost of long-term mana, cards in hand and life (or whatever you'd call rakdos the defiler-style with rituals and kaervek's spite as a potential win-con). Suicide, or sligh, or musket deck perhaps?
Also, similar to the first comment with the redirection-style deck, there's a clone-tribal-esque deck, where its power basically scales with the rest of the table (very low actual threat density in the deck; all it does is clone what the opponents are playing). So if you're playing craw wurm beats, it becomes a low-powered deck and so on. So sort of like a jujitsu-style deck maybe?
Ok so let's go with the term "Judo" for this deflection style of deck (though I definately want to see one in action ^^) My guess would be it plays similar to a pillow fort/ control deck, in that half your game would be spent holding up mana as a deterrant/threat, then aims to win with something like Insurrection or a really big deflecting palm? I'm not sure how many cards like that are out there, but I go with the consensus
As for suicide! That may be a theme under "I'm here for the fun"! But if we're doing it for speed, I guess it would come under the same branch as 'cheating the curve' (which was really difficult to put a name to...) How bout we call it 'Up-Tempo', to distinguish it from the 'tempo' decks in 1v1 formats, and to include not only ritual effects, but also the cards that cheat mana costs in other ways.
^^
Ps. Clones already on the list: was in two minds whether to put it under the 'tribal' bracket or not..
I'd also support adding suicide to the themes. Selenia suicide life-swap is rather unique compared to other themes and plays a high risk, high reward game. Just last week, I dropped my life to 1 and cast Repay in Kind before killing all three of my opponents. It's fits in the combo archetype to be sure, but I feel the theme warrants its own place on the list.
What about Top Deck Matters/Miracles?
Cycling decks?
And +1/+1 Counters should probably be complemented with -1/-1 Counters now that we have Hapatra and The Scorpion God.
I find it odd that you have Enchantress as its own theme but stuck Artifacts under "Tribal" - those feel like they should be under equal footing.
Can't disagree with that argument, I'd still call suicide a bit fringe, but a theme is a theme!
Moved Artifacts out of tribal, and added Top-Deck Matters.
What's a cycling deck anyway, things like Astral Slide? I've seen a Zur the Enchanter deck that makes cycling look strong, but its pretty unique, in the same way that Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is a Bottom-Deck Matters deck... but there aren't enough decks out there to really call it a theme... or am i being picky?
What's a cycling deck anyway, things like Astral Slide? I've seen a Zur the Enchanter deck that makes cycling look strong, but its pretty unique, in the same way that Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is a Bottom-Deck Matters deck... but there aren't enough decks out there to really call it a theme... or am i being picky?
The weird part is that each of these uses cycling as the main theme (and often 30%+ of their cards) but use completely different wincons - does that throw them into the other themes or make them a loose theme with varying strategies? I don't know. At what point does something become its own thing?
Astral Slide requires creatures with ETBs and falls under the blink theme. But Faith of the Devoted, Drake Haven, and Lightning Rift all leverage the cycling directly into a win condition that only works with a heavy commitment to cycling (even if it mimics other themes like Life Drain, Tokens, and Burn, you wouldn't call the deck one of those because it may only have one card matching that description). Wharf Infiltrator interprets the cycling as self-discard to build an army. A deck with lots of cycling creatures can use Living Death and other reanimators to leverage cycling as a wincon. And there are ways to leverage the card draw end of cycling into a win.
Archetypes- Battlecruiser - Play big threats every turn. This is a step up from Good-Stuff / Mid-Range in spell sizes, defines the casual format for Timmies.
Themes-
I would have "Superfriends" as it's own theme, so take it out of "tribal".
Stompy for big creatures.
Is "Overrun" going wide, then big?
I've seen the term Swarm for this as well, usually going wide with tokens, then possibly buffers to make them big.
I don't like the term "Up-Tempo Decks" (cheating the Mana Curve). Tempo means effecting the opponents board presence traditionally.
So something like Cast cheating.
Instead of - "+1/+1 or -1/-1 Counters" , have; Counters Matter (+1/+1, -1/-1, any type)
Because often decks have a theme around literally all types of different counters.
Ok so let's go with the term "Judo" for this deflection style of deck (though I definately want to see one in action ^^) My guess would be it plays similar to a pillow fort/ control deck, in that half your game would be spent holding up mana as a deterrant/threat, then aims to win with something like Insurrection or a really big deflecting palm? I'm not sure how many cards like that are out there, but I go with the consensus
As for suicide! That may be a theme under "I'm here for the fun"! But if we're doing it for speed, I guess it would come under the same branch as 'cheating the curve' (which was really difficult to put a name to...) How bout we call it 'Up-Tempo', to distinguish it from the 'tempo' decks in 1v1 formats, and to include not only ritual effects, but also the cards that cheat mana costs in other ways.
^^
Ps. Clones already on the list: was in two minds whether to put it under the 'tribal' bracket or not..
Judo sounds good. Not much of a martial arts person, so i can't say. I used aikido previously, but maybe they're both using your opponent's attacks as resources.
hey man... suicide decks are definitely not only a 'I'm here for funsies' (though it IS very fun to play with and against)! it's a pretty competitive deck when given too much room to manoeuvre - think turn 4 hellcarver demon hit, casting lich and repay in kind. Or sinking 30+ life into treasonous ogre+torrent of hailfire.
tempo as i understand it, is upping my board presence and disrupting your board presence (and ignoring other resources). imagine sort of aggro-control, but it can be a very temporary sort of control. Up tempo as you used it means cheating on mana, and they're not really the same thing. I'd rename it to just cheating on mana, or curve-jumping maybe? or sneak and show? or cast cheating (as darrenhabib suggested).
I almost want to split these into mainstream and 'fringe', but the grey area would be so large we'd be arguing for weeks
I think I'll break off the 'Tribal' sub-categories as this has already come up once. On reflection I'm not sure what I thought it would achieve by grouping them together. Tribal means creatures, right? Other stuff is other stuff... so consider it done ^^
Battlecruiser - Play big threats every turn. This is a step up from Good-Stuff / Mid-Range in spell sizes, defines the casual format for Timmies.
Never really been convinced by the term battlecruiser... In my experience its just a word used to describe decks with terrible curves But I agree it's a term well known amongst Timmies, so who am I to ignore it? Added.
I don't like the term "Up-Tempo Decks"
Me neither! Can we come up with a good term for these decks that cheat the mana costs? How about Sneak Attack (or Show and Tell)? I know those cards aren't necesarily played with the above commanders, but they encapsulate the idea of the decks, and are infamous enough that most people will get the rough idea...
*
Added Cylcing, and Cascade.
Added XY Stompy (typically RG but i don't see color yo )
Overrun usually is Swarm (i forgot the term)
Tweaked 'Counters'
P.s. Thanks for all the awesome feedback, this is much much better than actual work
Just one more I wonder about - we have Life Gain, but what about Life Drain? It's not exactly Burn, and it isn't necessarily Aristocrats, but those are fairly close; sometimes it combines ETB, Death Matters, and Spellslinger all together, but the only common thread is Life Drain.
I would avoid listing all the mechanics as themes. It is true that you could list them but my counter argument is that yes, you could list all of them as themes. Most of those themes are barely fringe playable and it opens a lot of well if theme X which is a mechanic is listed then why not mechanic Y.
To me its more important to list themes that are a general way in which you are playing. Natural synergy that you see from set to set that can work together rather than a mechanic that has seen print in just a few sets.
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Political - has cards that can use opponents decisions to stop other opponents game plans, as well as a philosophical approach.
Eggs - Cheap artifacts that can be cracked to get mana and/or draw cards.
I really think Judo needs to be Deflection.
Group Slag is normally referenced as Group Slug.
I don't like Sneak Attack as the card cheating term. Naming specific cards is quite confusing, I'd read it as specifically attacking with fatties. How about Play for free.
The reason I'm being nit-picky is that I'm working on something and I'll be referencing the final list as well, so I want it to be matching perfectly.
I would avoid listing all the mechanics as themes. It is true that you could list them but my counter argument is that yes, you could list all of them as themes. Most of those themes are barely fringe playable and it opens a lot of well if theme X which is a mechanic is listed then why not mechanic Y.
Got an issue with any particular themes?
I know what you're saying, it's hard because it's subjective so you're not wrong. I've been working roughly on the basis that if you can build it in at least two or three different ways, then it's broad enough to count as a 'theme', and I'm not against listening to people's arguments coz who am I to call anyone wrong ^^
The aim is to list only the most popular and recurring mechanics. Obviously we could go too far and say things like: well 'Dredge' is a theme, 'Myriad' is a theme, but to that person I'd say 9 out of 10 times it fits into another category better, and the community at large doesn't use it as a term, and there aren't many cards that actually do that thing! But more importantly, if it isn't on the list, it's because nobody asked me to add it yet
I guess those decks would count as 'other' (or maybe weird/janky)?
*I've added Life Drain. In my opinion it rarely makes up the soul (or even main) wincon, but it's still a re-ocurring sight in EDH.
*Eggs sounds like a subdivision of artifacts, unless it's used for explosive mana or card draw, in which case it fits into one of the other categories?
*Corrected group 'slag' - must of had someone on my mind...
*I don't think there's a good short term for 'cheating the mana costs' yet, but Play for Free doesn't apply to all of the examples, is it worth breaking up the category? Could have one 'Play for Free' and another like 'Play for Less...' it's still messy
*I've seen 'political' come up a few times across posts, and I don't know... it feels more like a playstyle connected to the person than the deck (I guess it comes down to definitions?). Personally I can't think of a cards I'd call 'political' that couldn't also be called 'Control' or 'Group Hug'/'Slug'. But what do you think?
hey man... suicide decks are definitely not only a 'I'm here for funsies' ...
This made me chuckle. My apologies, it's just I've never seen one in action, and on the face of it 'suicide' doens't sound like an aggressive thing, but i get your point, and i retract my statement
...tempo as i understand it, is upping my board presence and disrupting your board presence (and ignoring other resources). imagine sort of aggro-control, but it can be a very temporary sort of control. Up tempo as you used it means cheating on mana, and they're not really the same thing. I'd rename it to just cheating on mana, or curve-jumping maybe? or sneak and show? or cast cheating (as darrenhabib suggested).
By the way. Any distinction in your mind between stax and prison? stax as in smokestack, prison as in tangle wire?
Sneak and Tell works for me, will tweak the name.
You're right Stompy is a Legacy term meaning something else. I will ammend that to 'RG Monsters' (or xy as it may be)
Stax and Prison are basically cousins, right? Added it to the list ^^
"Sneak and Tell" is a cute way of combining two different archetypes and I approve.
The decks that run things like Lurking Predators, Quicksilver Amulet, and Elvish Piper are known in my group as "Creature Drop" decks. To suggest putting creatures into play without casting them.
I found myself here after looking for a comprehensive list of deck archetypes. I'm on a continuous commander deck building journey where I'm actively trying to build a deck of every color combination, every cmc commander, and every archetype. I want to see what archetypes I haven't built yet.
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In my group there's this thing called taking a "Ryan turn."
Yeah, that's my fault...
Wow, I am back from the dead, so decided to post on something that is a Necro - but interesting.
Something that is getting overlooked as it becomes more common - Relentless Rats, Shadowborn Apostles, Dragons Approach, Persistent Petitioners etc
Duplicates and masses of them. Sort of a unique "theme". Yes they do often fall into another category such as Petitioners probably being mill - but, hey just throwing it out there.
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In terms of definitions, these can be a bit subjective, so I’ve lifted them from other forum posts, Wiki’s, EDH Rec, and WotC articles. So what do I mean when I say:
An Archetype – “…is a recurring deck or strategy with many possible variations.” Broadly speaking, it tells you what the deck is aiming to do.
A Theme – “…is a unifying idea, image, or motif repeated or developed throughout [a deck].” This is more like the ‘flavor’ and describes how the deck plans to achieve its aim.
Archetypes - What is the deck trying to do?
- Aggro
- Chaos
- Combo
- Control
- False Hug / Group Slug
- Good-Stuff / Mid-Range / BattleCruiser
- Group Hug
- Stax / Prison
- Weird/Janky Themes (E.g.: Chairs Tribal)
Themes – How does the deck plan to get there?
- Alternate Win Conditions (E.g.: Mortal Combat)
- Aristocrats (Death matters)
- Artifacts
- Blink / Flicker (ETB matters)
- Burn
- Cascade
- Clones
- Counters Matter (+1, -1, or other...)
- Cycling
- Discard
- Draw-Go / Permission Decks
- Enchantress
- Extra combat / Extra turns
- Hate Bears
- Infect
- Judo / Deflection / Theft (Use opponents resources against them aka. 'You brought this on yourself')
- Land Destruction
- Lands Matter
- Life Drain
- Life Gain
- Mill / Self Mill
- Miracle / Top-Deck Matters (Vaevictis, Maelstrom Wanderer, Aminatou , Yuriko)
- One-Shot Kills (or close to)
- Overrun / Swarm
- Pillow Fort
- Ramp or Card Draw (when the explicit aim is to get ahead of opponents, not just to keep up.)
- Reanimator
- Shadowborn Apostles (Or Relentless Rats, Persistent Petitioners, etc)
- Sneak and Tell (Decks that cheat the Mana Costs with cards like: rituals, or commanders like: Kaalia, Jodah, Braids, Jhoira, Rakdos etc.)
- Spellslinger
- Storm
- Suicide
- Super Friends
- Taxes
- Tokens
- ToolBox / Tutors Deck
- Tribal Creatures (Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, Zombies)
- Tribal+ (Defenders, Morph, Historic/Legendary)
- Voltron (Equipment, Auras, or Commanders like Jenara)
- Wheel Decks
- XY Monsters (Xenagos, God of Revels)
Have I missed something? Let me know and I’ll update the list (next time I’m around
Disclaimer: There are some build-around commanders that are too niche to categorise, and there are always exceptions. By in large, any deck can be tucked into one or more of the categories above so don't sue me if yours isn't on here
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EDIT: Toolbox / tutors is also sometimes an archetype / theme. Especially when the commander specifically tutors things like say Captain Sisay.
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WGKarametra EnchantressGW
UBGSidisi, Brood Tyrant ReanimatorGBU
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WBGGhave TokensGBW
WUBZur RebelsBUW
WUBErtai CursesBUW
WRFiresong and Sunspeaker Spell SlingerRW
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Most of them can have more than one hat but I think the concept of toolbox does apply to many of them. Some of them you can classify as other categories but I think due to the consistent search for the right card concept of these that toolbox is a relevant tag as well.
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Can't say I've ever seen a deck that does this, are we talking about a deck with all the effects like Misdirection and Deflecting Palm?
Tell me more
I've added Draw-Go and Toolbox to the list ^^
Not sure what to call that, but i've seen stuff like that before. It's really annoying to play against, since you're liable to get your own attacks back in your face.
There's no suicide/tempo? As in sinking all resources in for a huge tempo gain at the cost of long-term mana, cards in hand and life (or whatever you'd call rakdos the defiler-style with rituals and kaervek's spite as a potential win-con). Suicide, or sligh, or musket deck perhaps?
Also, similar to the first comment with the redirection-style deck, there's a clone-tribal-esque deck, where its power basically scales with the rest of the table (very low actual threat density in the deck; all it does is clone what the opponents are playing). So if you're playing craw wurm beats, it becomes a low-powered deck and so on. So sort of like a jujitsu-style deck maybe?
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Ok so let's go with the term "Judo" for this deflection style of deck (though I definately want to see one in action ^^) My guess would be it plays similar to a pillow fort/ control deck, in that half your game would be spent holding up mana as a deterrant/threat, then aims to win with something like Insurrection or a really big deflecting palm? I'm not sure how many cards like that are out there, but I go with the consensus
As for suicide! That may be a theme under "I'm here for the fun"! But if we're doing it for speed, I guess it would come under the same branch as 'cheating the curve' (which was really difficult to put a name to...) How bout we call it 'Up-Tempo', to distinguish it from the 'tempo' decks in 1v1 formats, and to include not only ritual effects, but also the cards that cheat mana costs in other ways.
^^
Ps. Clones already on the list: was in two minds whether to put it under the 'tribal' bracket or not..
Like Gaddock Teeg or Anafenza, The Foremost decks. Filled with cards like Aven Mindcensor, Reclamation Sage and it's many variations.
What about Top Deck Matters/Miracles?
Cycling decks?
And +1/+1 Counters should probably be complemented with -1/-1 Counters now that we have Hapatra and The Scorpion God.
I find it odd that you have Enchantress as its own theme but stuck Artifacts under "Tribal" - those feel like they should be under equal footing.
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Moved Artifacts out of tribal, and added Top-Deck Matters.
What's a cycling deck anyway, things like Astral Slide? I've seen a Zur the Enchanter deck that makes cycling look strong, but its pretty unique, in the same way that Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is a Bottom-Deck Matters deck... but there aren't enough decks out there to really call it a theme... or am i being picky?
The weird part is that each of these uses cycling as the main theme (and often 30%+ of their cards) but use completely different wincons - does that throw them into the other themes or make them a loose theme with varying strategies? I don't know. At what point does something become its own thing?
Astral Slide requires creatures with ETBs and falls under the blink theme. But Faith of the Devoted, Drake Haven, and Lightning Rift all leverage the cycling directly into a win condition that only works with a heavy commitment to cycling (even if it mimics other themes like Life Drain, Tokens, and Burn, you wouldn't call the deck one of those because it may only have one card matching that description). Wharf Infiltrator interprets the cycling as self-discard to build an army. A deck with lots of cycling creatures can use Living Death and other reanimators to leverage cycling as a wincon. And there are ways to leverage the card draw end of cycling into a win.
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Battlecruiser - Play big threats every turn. This is a step up from Good-Stuff / Mid-Range in spell sizes, defines the casual format for Timmies.
Themes-
I would have "Superfriends" as it's own theme, so take it out of "tribal".
Stompy for big creatures.
Is "Overrun" going wide, then big?
I've seen the term Swarm for this as well, usually going wide with tokens, then possibly buffers to make them big.
I don't like the term "Up-Tempo Decks" (cheating the Mana Curve). Tempo means effecting the opponents board presence traditionally.
So something like Cast cheating.
Instead of - "+1/+1 or -1/-1 Counters" , have;
Counters Matter (+1/+1, -1/-1, any type)
Because often decks have a theme around literally all types of different counters.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
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-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Judo sounds good. Not much of a martial arts person, so i can't say. I used aikido previously, but maybe they're both using your opponent's attacks as resources.
hey man... suicide decks are definitely not only a 'I'm here for funsies' (though it IS very fun to play with and against)! it's a pretty competitive deck when given too much room to manoeuvre - think turn 4 hellcarver demon hit, casting lich and repay in kind. Or sinking 30+ life into treasonous ogre+torrent of hailfire.
tempo as i understand it, is upping my board presence and disrupting your board presence (and ignoring other resources). imagine sort of aggro-control, but it can be a very temporary sort of control. Up tempo as you used it means cheating on mana, and they're not really the same thing. I'd rename it to just cheating on mana, or curve-jumping maybe? or sneak and show? or cast cheating (as darrenhabib suggested).
Stompy in my mind is turn 1 ancient tomb-chalice of the void, turn 2 magus of the moon beatdown. Maybe it's something else in EDH (i've never heard the term used outside of legacy before).
By the way. Any distinction in your mind between stax and prison? stax as in smokestack, prison as in tangle wire?
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
I think I'll break off the 'Tribal' sub-categories as this has already come up once. On reflection I'm not sure what I thought it would achieve by grouping them together. Tribal means creatures, right? Other stuff is other stuff... so consider it done ^^
Never really been convinced by the term battlecruiser... In my experience its just a word used to describe decks with terrible curves
Me neither! Can we come up with a good term for these decks that cheat the mana costs? How about Sneak Attack (or Show and Tell)? I know those cards aren't necesarily played with the above commanders, but they encapsulate the idea of the decks, and are infamous enough that most people will get the rough idea...
*
Added Cylcing, and Cascade.
Added XY Stompy (typically RG but i don't see color yo
Overrun usually is Swarm (i forgot the term)
Tweaked 'Counters'
P.s. Thanks for all the awesome feedback, this is much much better than actual work
Just one more I wonder about - we have Life Gain, but what about Life Drain? It's not exactly Burn, and it isn't necessarily Aristocrats, but those are fairly close; sometimes it combines ETB, Death Matters, and Spellslinger all together, but the only common thread is Life Drain.
I'm thinking cards like Virtus the Veiled or decks like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord with Archfiend of Despair, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Dire Fleet Ravager, Netherborn Phalanx, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, and of course stuff like Kokusho, the Evening Star. Or cards like Stronghold Discipline, Exsanguinate, Retreat to Hagra, Suffer the Past, Torment of Hailfire...
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To me its more important to list themes that are a general way in which you are playing. Natural synergy that you see from set to set that can work together rather than a mechanic that has seen print in just a few sets.
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Eggs - Cheap artifacts that can be cracked to get mana and/or draw cards.
I really think Judo needs to be Deflection.
Group Slag is normally referenced as Group Slug.
I don't like Sneak Attack as the card cheating term. Naming specific cards is quite confusing, I'd read it as specifically attacking with fatties. How about Play for free.
The reason I'm being nit-picky is that I'm working on something and I'll be referencing the final list as well, so I want it to be matching perfectly.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Got an issue with any particular themes?
I know what you're saying, it's hard because it's subjective so you're not wrong. I've been working roughly on the basis that if you can build it in at least two or three different ways, then it's broad enough to count as a 'theme', and I'm not against listening to people's arguments coz who am I to call anyone wrong ^^
The aim is to list only the most popular and recurring mechanics. Obviously we could go too far and say things like: well 'Dredge' is a theme, 'Myriad' is a theme, but to that person I'd say 9 out of 10 times it fits into another category better, and the community at large doesn't use it as a term, and there aren't many cards that actually do that thing! But more importantly, if it isn't on the list, it's because nobody asked me to add it yet
I guess those decks would count as 'other' (or maybe weird/janky)?
*I've added Life Drain. In my opinion it rarely makes up the soul (or even main) wincon, but it's still a re-ocurring sight in EDH.
*Eggs sounds like a subdivision of artifacts, unless it's used for explosive mana or card draw, in which case it fits into one of the other categories?
*Corrected group 'slag' - must of had someone on my mind...
*I don't think there's a good short term for 'cheating the mana costs' yet, but Play for Free doesn't apply to all of the examples, is it worth breaking up the category? Could have one 'Play for Free' and another like 'Play for Less...' it's still messy
*I've seen 'political' come up a few times across posts, and I don't know... it feels more like a playstyle connected to the person than the deck (I guess it comes down to definitions?). Personally I can't think of a cards I'd call 'political' that couldn't also be called 'Control' or 'Group Hug'/'Slug'. But what do you think?
This made me chuckle. My apologies, it's just I've never seen one in action, and on the face of it 'suicide' doens't sound like an aggressive thing, but i get your point, and i retract my statement
Sneak and Tell works for me, will tweak the name.
You're right Stompy is a Legacy term meaning something else. I will ammend that to 'RG Monsters' (or xy as it may be)
Stax and Prison are basically cousins, right? Added it to the list ^^
The decks that run things like Lurking Predators, Quicksilver Amulet, and Elvish Piper are known in my group as "Creature Drop" decks. To suggest putting creatures into play without casting them.
I found myself here after looking for a comprehensive list of deck archetypes. I'm on a continuous commander deck building journey where I'm actively trying to build a deck of every color combination, every cmc commander, and every archetype. I want to see what archetypes I haven't built yet.
Yeah, that's my fault...
Something that is getting overlooked as it becomes more common - Relentless Rats, Shadowborn Apostles, Dragons Approach, Persistent Petitioners etc
Duplicates and masses of them. Sort of a unique "theme". Yes they do often fall into another category such as Petitioners probably being mill - but, hey just throwing it out there.