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Commander decks are as varied as they are numerous. With a such a myriad of options available, it can be tearing to build a deck. Luckily, some of our helpful users have written comprehensive guides in hopes of inspiring others. This week we'd like to highlight one such primer: Kelzam's Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. Give it a read; it might just spark your creativity.
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The Dos and Don'ts of Silver-Border Commander
Recently legalized, silver-bordered cards aim to add a new layer of fun to the Commander gaming experience. Playing with these cards requires certain social etiquette, however. Understaind the Dos and Don'ts of playing with silver-bordered cards in Commander is important, and Andrew Weisel goes over their basic guidelines. -
Treasure Cruisin' with Mayael the Anima
This week guest writer Feyd_Ruin tackles another Commander, as readers have demanded. In the shard of Naya, gargantuan gods rule the world and Mayael beckons them with her call. Explore one of the strongest commanders that can decimate a table even on a strict budget. -
Commander 2016 Spoiler Digest
Commander 2016's spoilers came in last week, bringing with them an exciting array of new commander options. For the first time, players have the ability to use commanders with access to four different colors. On top of that, the new partner mechanic provides a ton of flexible options for each color combination, as well as providing new commanders for those players not interested in playing four colors. And to finish things off, there are over thirty other brand-new cards, some featuring the new mechanic "undaunted", and others featuring the returning mechanic basic landcycling. Finally, rounding out each deck are a series of exciting reprint cards, including a handful of rare dual lands!
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Word of Command - Kaladesh Post-Review
Kaladesh. The home of inventors, tinkerers, and master crafters. No wonder that this set is sure to excite the craftiest of deck builders! With the set now released, it is time to see what cards can provide value to existing decks, and which ones might push the creation of a new deck altogether. So let's get to looking at what works, and what does not.
In this month's look at Kaladesh, the Commander mod team looked over some of the cards that show great promise and selected the card of each color that showed the most promise.
We also came up with some more technical options: some hidden potentials which will not be for every deck, but something some crafty builders could make good use of. Finally, we of course go over the new legendary creatures of the set, and see how they might measure up as potential Commanders. -
Word of Command 14 - Getting Quality Feedback
Welcome to another edition of Word of Command! In this month's issue, Commander moderator bobthefunny goes over a more local issue of how to get the most out of your threads in our Commander subforums. If you need help with your deck, then follow the advice below to get the best chance of receiving quality answers.
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Spoiler Digest - Eternal Masters Spoiler Review
Eternal Masters is completely revealed. The set does not release until June 10th, however, giving us plenty of time to analyze it before it hits the shelves. Because it is a set of all reprints, there is little to discuss in terms of new card impacts. So instead, the focus is on popular Legacy decks and what is made available for them. -
Word of Command 13 - Troubleshooting a Deck
In this month's edition of Word of Command, our Commander mods give you a short guide to identifying problems in your Commander decks and how to fix them. -
Word of Command 12 - Commander Gets a Clue
In this month's Word of Command, we investigate a powerful new mechanic introduced in Shadows over Innistrad, and how Clues can aid a deck in myriad ways. Expanding on the concept of expanding one's hand through card draw, the Tariel deck from last month is given a suite of cards for card advantage.
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Word of Command 11 - A Basic Manabase
In this edition of Word of Command, we take a look at one of the most basic elements of Commander decks: lands. Building a multicolor manabase with basic lands can seem daunting, but isn't nearly as challenging as it might initially seem. Whether you're new to Commander or are simply looking to improve your manabase, make sure to read this issue! -
Word of Command #10 - Swearing an Oath of the Ban List
In this edition of Word of Command, we discuss the ban list update accompanying Oath of the Gatewatch, the removal of the partial Paris mulligan, the removal of the contested Rule 4, and some new cards of interest. Don't miss your chance to swear this oath before the shadows come over us! -
Word of Command - The Rise of Duel Commander
In this special issue of Word of Command, the Commander forum moderators speak with members of the Duel Commander rules committee and their regional coordinators. Learn more about Duel Commander, previously known as "the French banlist," and how MTGSalvation is increasing support for this popular format!
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Selvala Elfball ($100 Budget)
A friend of mine was watching me experiment with my Elfball deck, and wanted to try it out himself. Lent it to him, and he seemed to enjoy it enough to want to buy into it. He's even more of a Johnny than I am, though with far less of a budget to work with. In an attempt to help him out, I tried to construct an Elfball deck using two colors instead of the mono-green that was my Ezuri.I decided to go with two colors and a budget of $100 after an optimized Heavily Played search from TCGPlayer. While there are some pieces to Elfball combo that are non-negotiable (Staff of Domination being the big one), I found that there are some somewhat functional replacements for the other things which serve as signatures for Green decks.
The nice thing about White is that it offers another cheap wincon that functions well for the tribe (Mirror Entity), another 1CMC mana dork (Avacyn's Pilgrim), and also gives one cheap tutor for combo pieces (Steelshaper's Gift) and two more semi-cheap tutors for other pieces (Eladamri's Call, Sterling Grove). However, given our budget, we only have enough free space to run Steelshaper. Still, those two are very obvious upgrades to the deck, with Call matching Demonic Tutor in CMC and speed (though you have to reveal the card and it has to be a creature) and the other being storable.
Speaking of tutors, Elves has a bunch of cheap ones available even without getting into White. Elvish Harbinger doubles as a mana dork, Skyshroud Poacher can duck a lot of things by bringing stuff into play directly, Wirewood Herald can tutor for Caller of the Claw in response to a boardwipe, and Fierce Empath can bring you an array of useful 6+ CMC creatures.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Elvish Guidance won't match Gaea's Cradle in power, but you'd potentially run the two anyway AND they still can do the big mana plays that Cradle allows. Though both will have to be used a bit later than Cradle can, and Elvish Guidance in particular can get you two-for-one'd. Still, having big mana through lands as an option even without Cradle is great.
In addition to big mana, our various land tutors let us fetch everything from removal to unblockability to land destruction.
Genesis Hydra isn't anywhere near Genesis Wave in power, but it can dig just as deeply to find you what you need. We've also managed to squeeze enough budget to get Wave itself.
You'll need more mana to get Primordial Sage going compared to Glimpse of Nature, but it should be noted that it can be fetched with Empath.
If you can't red zone your way to victory, then Hurricane and Squall Line provide a way to just slam the whole table for big damage. Sure, you might also kill yourself, but you'll have done a nice impression of a Heartless Hidetsugu deck while doing it.
Staff of Domination is, in my opinion, mostly non-negotiable as it's both card draw AND another infinite enabler. You still pack some power in the deck without it (Umbral Mantle can do the infinite mana thing too) but it does enough that it deserves to be slotted in despite being over $10 in price.
They're not Craterhoof Behemoth or even Ezuri, Renegade Leader, but Chameleon Colossus and the aforementioned Mirror Entity can serve as ways to handily take out an opponent through damage while doubling as "Elves," meaning they're fetchable by our plethora of budget Elf tutors. Though Colossus does not have Trample or some form of Evasion, you can tutor it up for him using a land tutor for Rogue's Passage or utilize Triumph of the Hordes. For the amount of mana you'd spend on Hoof or a one-activation Ezuri, you can pump your forces up to 5/5 which can sometimes be enough. But more importantly, Entity enables more combos.
We have three main haste enablers in this deck: Concordant Crossroads, Thousand-Year Elixir, and Lightning Greaves. Each of them can enable infinite mana on the turn you've got the mana and the cards to start the combo, and are all quite cheap. That Green has the extra haste enabler helps us significantly. Joraga Warcaller also enables a combo with Devoted Druid in particular, but it requires a bit more mana to truly get going as a wincon.
Example combos:
Wirewood Symbiote + Devoted Druid + Joraga Warcaller (Kicked at least once) + Greaves/Crossroads/Elixir
Tap and untap Druid for 3+ mana, return it with Wirewood Symbiote, recast it and then tap it again for infinite mana since Devoted Druid only costs 2. Warcaller also fits as a potential wincon here since it can also be returned by Wirewood Symbiote and then recast with infinite multikickers.Wirewood Symbiote + Mirror Entity + Megadork (Tapping for at least 3 Mana)
Tap the Megadork for 3 mana or more. Turn all creatures into an Elf with Mirror Entity (you only have to pay 1 for now). Untap the Megadork with Symbiote targeting itself for bouncing back to hand since it's now an Elf itself. Recast Symbiote, retap the Megadork for 3 mana, re-use Mirror Entity's ability, untap Megadork and bounce Symbiote back, and repeat ad infinitum. Note that, again, a wincon is built in here with Mirror Entity as a way to dump all the mana.Megadork (Tapping for at least 4 Mana) + Umbral Mantle
Tap for 4, untap spending 3, tap for 4, surplus 1-- repeat for infinite mana. At a large enough table with a bit of luck, Selvala herself might be able to keep this going and add some card draw (albeit symmetrical) to the mix as well.Megadork (Tapping for at least 5 Mana) + Staff of Domination
Tapping for 5 will beat Staff of Domination's total tap and untap costs of 4 mana, netting you a surplus that you can repeat for infinite mana. You can use that surplus to draw your whole deck.Upgrades:
To be added.
Changelog:
12/15/2015:
-1 Seeker of Skybreak, -1 Nullmage Shepherd, -1 Dauntless Escort, - Viridian Zealot
+1 Vitalize, +1 To Arms!, +1 Village Bell-Ringer, +1 Caller of the Claw
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Word of Command #8 - Introducing the 2015 Commander Decks
This year's enemy colored decks have just come out, so we're going to take this issue of Word of Command to look over the new Commanders and assess their strengths and potential builds. Enemy colored pairs have generally had low representation for Commander options, so this years product helps shore up some pairs with less options, and opens new playstyles for other pairs.
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Pack #61: Magic Origins, featuring Knight of the White Orchid
(Opened for August 01, 2015)
I’ve yet to create a Commander deck that features green, but I have white in four of my first five Commander decks and all of them include Land Tax. When it comes to mana ramp, It’s hard exclude that enchantment in any deck that has white in it simply because it generates an absurd card advantage, an advantage that is easy to abuse in multiplayer Commander where at least one player is sure to be one land ahead of you in the arms race.
As I continue to accumulate non-basic land cards, however, I began to feel less and less enamored of Land Tax. Sure, it nets me three cards in an instant, which may begin as nothing but basic lands but can easily filtered out to more useful cards with the use of Scroll Rack and Teferi’s Puzzle Box). In the first few turns of the game, however, one-shot cards like Tithe are even more useful since they allow you to play with non-basic Plains cards as well (like Sacred Foundry), which, in the long run, are even more helpful than a bunch of basic Plains. In spite of Moonmist Plains], I think there is still much room for Wizards to print non-basic plains to make Gift of Estates matter more than Land Tax in a multi-colored deck.
Knight of the White Orchid falls into the non-basic side of this debate. None of my white decks are creature-based, however, so I’m still looking for a niche for this reprint. Perhaps it’ll fit right into a Naya-tokens Commander deck that I’m hoping to build some day? Who knows.
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Pack #59: Magic Origins, featuring Sword of the Animist
Mad Blue (Part 2)
(Continued from here)
The plan that I have for my Temur Commander deck is to play lots of chaotic cards like Grip of Chaos and Shared Fate to mess around with everybody’s planned courses of action and prove to Kira that blue isn’t always as calculating as she think it is (and that, Counterspell’s aside, it can actually be fun). The thing about such a plan is I’d then have to rely on spells that have really high mana costs, so I have to figure out a way of surviving the first few turns by slowing my opponents down.
Then again, I realized that I don’t always have to slow them down if I can speed myself up –after all, green is part of the Temur palette, so I might as well take advantage of it by playing lots of mana ramp. Typically, you’d want cards that not only searches for lands from the library, but also immediately bring them out onto the battlefield. I’d much prefer sorceries to do this for me because they are more mana-efficient, but Sword of the Animist would also be a good addition since it’s a repeatable source of extra land drops.
This would mean that I’ll have to play more basic lands in the deck, which is not easy to do since I rely so much on non-basic lands for utility (ex. Halimar Depths) and consistency (ex. “shock lands” like Steam Vents). Then again, that decision wouldn’t be so hard to make in the next few months, considering the return of full-art lands in Battle for Zendikar.
(To be continued)
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Pack #58: Magic Origins, featuring Displacement Wave
(Opened for July 24, 2015)
Mad Blue (Part 1)
My close friend, Kira, said that the reason she disliked building a Commander deck that had blue as part of its color identity was that she hated to overthink when playing a game. A very mindful, analytical, and diplomatic tactician in real life, Kira sought an escape in Magic by playing a persona that allows her to throw caution to the wind. Because of this, I’ve been toying with the idea of making a fun, chaotic, deck for my blue-green-red commander.
I’ve initially thought about creating a scaling “envy” deck using Yasova Dragonclaw (Maelstrom Wanderer would have been better, but Yasova is all I have at the moment), and originally, it was to include all sorts of cloning, copying, stealing, and swapping effects to take advantage of the best creatures and spells that opponents had to offer.
Chaotic, high-impact spells, however, often have ridiculously high mana costs, and I’ll mostly likely be overrun by my hasty opponents who have come bursting out of the gates if I just rely on my land drops to hit 6 (or more) mana. I need to survive the game until I’m ready to cause some mayhem, and one of the ways I can do that is by slowing my opponents down. Returning permanents en mass to their owner’s hands sounds like a good plan, and when done carefully, Displacement Wave will even leave behind permanents like Shared Fate so it can continue to cause more mayhem.
(To be continued) -
Pack #48: Magic Origins featuring Archangel of Tithes
(Prerelease Pack #1 opened for July 11 to 17, 2015)
It's easy to anyone who looks at this card in isolation and assume (or hope?) that Liliana Vess (probably after redeeming herself?) turned into an angel. This is because the Archangel of Tithes is wearing Liliana's signature headband. Alas, we see in Unholy Hunge that this is actually the original owner of the said headband, and Liliana took it for herself after burying the poor angel underneath a mob of brain-hungry zombies.
This is a pretty nice card in Commander, though, especially in multiplayer. War Tax-effects that discourage your opponents from attacking you will most likely send them rampaging towards other opponents instead. If you have more of these in the battlefield, you would have dealt with two (or more) problems at the same time, as you leave your opponents exchanging blows with each other while you hide comfortably behind your pillow fort and assemble a game-ending combo.
This is an angel that will most likely be coveted by players who helm Kaalia of the Vast on their decks not just because they draw too much attention, but because the angel's second ability makes it even harder for their opponents to block their upcoming onslaught of angels, dragons, and/or demons. Then again, the Archangel of Tithes will find a sure home in my Oloro, Ageless Ascetic deck as well: I've noticed that gaining two life per turn paints a bright red target on my forehead, and I'm hoping that this beauty would at least distract them and make that target less appetizing to hit.
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Pack #34: Fate Reforged, featuring Jeskai Runemark
(Opened June 1, 2015)
I opened this pack while I was on a holiday in Japan for my birthday. Jeskai Runemark reminded me of a very unique Zedruu the Greathearted Commander deck. The decklist can be found at the end of this article:
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/carlosgutierrez-09132014-five-decks-you-cant-miss-this-week/
This Zedruu Voltron build caught my eye because it's precisely the opposite of what most people would expect of a Zedruu Commander deck. It's easy for people to assume based on the minotaur monk's ability that its controller will be piloting a "group hug" deck that tries to win favors from its opponents by giving them free stuff.
The giving doesn't stop in this build, but the stuff that it gives to people are precisely stuff that they can't use while still benefiting the Zedruu player: creature auras. Because the enchantment cards say "enchanted creature gets...", it wouldn't matter if the enchantment switched controllers: the creature would still get the buff. As a result, the deck ended up with lots of cheap and cost-efficient auras that easily suited up Zedruu for battle while netting its control extra life (to last through the game) and extra cards (to further fuel the aura chain).
The fact that this deck even managed to find a use for obscure cards such as the scarabs from Ice Age just speaks genius.
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Pack #17: Dragons of Tarkir, featuring Tail Slash
(Opened May 15, 2015)
When building a Commander deck, it's really tempting to just stuff your 99 with all the mythic/rare good stuff that you have in your binder that also happens to be in your commander's color identity. I, however, try to resist the temptation whenever I can. I believe that every Commander has a unique personality that should dictate the cards of at least half a deck, especially with cards that are have little to no use in other Commander decks.
Take this card for example. This card is just begging to be included in a deck that's filled to the brim with vampires that mimic Sengir Vampire's ability. Don't be misled: this card is not exactly a combo with Olivia Voldaren, but it's a perfect addition to a deck that has Zurgo Helmsmasher at its helm. This, teamed with cards like Fall of the Hammer and Arcbond can just make a laughing stock such as Zurgo rise to prominence equal to that of Kaalia of the Vast.
(Okay, not that high, but pretty close.)