okay so i reference a video where i talk about both rodolf and torsten. turns out i switched the order of those videos, so that one comes out next. oopsy daisy.
My mono-green stompy deck is now on its 4th commander. Started off as Ghalta but I didn’t like using bad vanilla creature as “ramp”. I opened a number of +1/+1 counter support in my Wilds of Eldraine box so I tried it out as Yorvo but not having Trample felt bad, so I swapped over to Surrak and Goreclaw. That worked well but I realized that the “giving creature trample” was more useful most of the time than the +1/+1 support I had. So I dropped all the counter stuff I’d added, and switched over to classic Goreclaw. He’s “ramp”, gives attacking creatures trample and makes them bigger. This is the only deck that I’ve done this emergent style deck building experiment with and it’s been fun.
Usually I find a random legendary creature either in my legendary creatures binder or just finding it somewhere, I open my three binders of templates, my box of cards devided by theme, pick up the lands from my lands box, pick up the cards remaining that I may need, and done. 😂
The most important rule when choosing my Commander or deck archetype is that it doesn’t just do the same thing as one of my other decks (more or less). I may for example have more than one tribal deck, but my Slivers play nothing like my Sidar Jabari deck. There would be no point in making a Rohan deck, which would function much the same, as an aggro knights tribal. I don’t really care how unique my decks may be compared to other peoples decks (I mostly use popular Commanders because the road less travelled is often less travelled for a reason) but I do demand them to be unique amongst my own decks.
Dude Harbin, Vanguard Aviator is just THE BEST Soldier Tribal commander in my opinon. 2CMC, one white and a blue. 3/2 power toughness. Flying. If you attack with 5 or more soldiers (your commander can be included in that 5), ALL your creatures gain flying and +1/1 til end of turn. It's just awesome. It rewards you for creating lots of soldier tokens or playing lots of value heavy soldier cards like a Myrel, Shield of Argive or a Skystrike Officer and pumps up your entire board and allows you to fly over anything to get your dmg in with little soldier tokens that otherwise might not get through all of the enemy's defenses. And so what? Oh no, your commander got taken out...well it only cost you 2 mana the first time so....OH NO it's only 4 mana to recast again. I was looking for an Azorius commander like this FOREVER so I'm super happy with him. He does exactly what I wanted my Birds Tribal deck to do but cards like Kangee are just too bulky at 5 CMC for what they actually do and Birds themselves can have SOME useful abilities or passives but not like Soldiers at all. Soldiers just have so many great versatile or powerful battlefield effects and can go WAY wider and benefit. Harbin is like giving your army a jet engine when they otherwise would have walked to the battlefield. Not to mention, it also gives WAY more value to the Elspeth Planeswalkers as if they weren't already good cards. TL;DR: 2 CMC commanders can be GREAT provided their value of course. Harbin, Vanguard aviator for instance, turns any soldier tribal deck from a Catapult into an F-35 stealth fighter. Night and day.
Usually I make a commander deck after I opened a booster box and found a cool card I want to build around. It can become my commander, but it doesn’t have to be. My Imoti, celebrant of bounty deck was built after I pulled a vorinclex, voice of hunger and Jin-gitaxias, core augur in March of the machines and I retroactively searched for a commander with which they could work.
I'm definitely doing method #2 with this Ajani deck I'm trying to build. The idea is to put all the versions of Ajani planeswalker cards into the deck along with a few nods to the different characters and places he's encountered along the way. Marisi fits the build perfectly as commander, so now the challenge is getting everything else to mesh together.
i recently set about making a Barren Glory deck and needed a Mardu commander, I ended up going with a Tymna and Bruse Tarl deck so that I could get good draw and combat damage as an easier way to win the game if the Barren Glory plan doesn’t work and I’ve loved it so far
How fun, just ran across the concept of "I have an idea, but what commander should I use?" Still have not selected one, but looking at 3 color elemental - RGU and have zeroed in on some flavor of Omnath or Animar. This video is right on time
Ran Shirei for a long while and decided I needed something more flashy or aggressive. Zurgo Helmshasher was in my binder, and something drew me to it. It's a rather simple deck that I didn't expect to do well within my playgroup, but its been winning pretty often.
I build either way, #1 or #2. With 2 I can spend a lot of time floundering while I look for the perfect commander. After a billion iterations of my deck that wants to put Lure effects on Stuffy Dolls I recently rebuilt it as an Ardenn & Tana auras and equipment to build your own Doll (or more so Brash Taunter) and I think I'm happy with it for now. A lot of times win cons in the command zone are too telegraphed for me, I prefer 3 or 4 mana commanders that I need to build around. I'm still looking for a commander to do Portal Mage/Illusionist's Gambit shenanigans that isn't tribal wizards or faeries or goad. Maybe it will be Esper, because I also want to cast Opposition Agent while I Winds of Abandon or Settle the Wreckage my opponents, but I need a good reason to use the mana and probably a lot of generic pips. As I write this I'm thinking maybe I'll try Dakkon Shadow Slayer to get an artifact win con, but that might actually be stronger than I wanted to make it (I want the meta to actually have attacking creatures in it rather than a bunch of people comboing to win), and it has the "I'm going to get my win con," red flag problem.
Of the 35 decks I have built, all but 3 were option 1 here. Usually I see a legendary creature that I really like and then decide to build a deck for that creature. In this case, I don't look at the MV of the commander or other options and then I use EDHREC in the very traditional way to find cards I forgot or didn't know about in the first place. The 3 decks where I went with option 2 were tribal - I wanted an elf deck, and Lathril struck my fancy, I wanted a goblin deck and then pulled Krenko out of a mystery booster, and I wanted a dragon deck, so I found my Scion of the Ur-Dragon and went to town, but that was too combo-centric so I got an Ur-Dragon when the price dropped to something reasonable.
Many times I look at cedh piles and tone them down while keeping the core identity. My Nymris and Greasefang decks fall under that train of thought. So in that sense the commander was already picked for me, as well as the direction... The actual deck was just up to my discretion. Maybe you can consider that to be behind the "Picking a commander to fit the deck" archetype, since typically the identity of the deck is what is calling out to me. But I'd still say "soft-net decking" is it's own way of deck building. Where you're looking at decks that have been built for strategies that call out to you.
Besides that, I think it's too broad to say that anything else would be different than "deck for commander, commander for deck." Cause even if it's just because you like the commander and throw it at the helm, or throw a random dart for the commander... You're still "building your deck and choosing a commander that fits the deck, at a minimum color wise."
I built a 'play from the top of my library'-theme deck. I looked for a commander for a long time. It was Elsha of the Infinite first (allready had the deck before she was released) and finally settled with the partners Thrassios and Akiri as I really need green to play multiple lands. But yeah, they do not really matter. It is a very unique deck with no decklist on EDHREC, which is the one thing deckbuilding which sattisfies me the most.
I bought the Nekusar deck way back when it came out and completely forgot I had it because commander wasn’t as big as it is nowadays. I rediscovered it going through my boxes of mtg stuff and I was blown away since the theme was so similar to a standard deck I had rigged up. But this has the added bonus of causing loss of life! Another deck I built, I found Dina soulsteeper. Figured I can put in a ton of ramp and a ton of lifelink to proc as many instances of life gain as I can fit in. Sometimes you just find one that tickles your fancy. I also have an idea for a mono green landfall deck that I think is going to stomp. Speaking of commanders you don’t need to cast at all, child of Alara deck might be pretty fun to explore. Not even to ever cast her out, but to have a huge threat just sitting in my command zone to scare my opponents into playing defensively while I get my combo rolling.
I usually pick the commander I build around over a theme but I really wanted to make a blink deck and was originally going to use Garth one eye but built tivit seller of secrets instead
Salubrious Snail has a video where they talk about a really interesting deckbuilding strategy which sounds somewhat similar to what your goal is with your dromoka deck- to have your deck and commander do the exact opposite of one another. You could build a deck which has a glaring commander-shaped hole which your commander fills. Essentially picking a commander that covers your deck's weakness since you always have access to it
Third reason is to upgrade your deck. I have a couple of decks, where either they weren't quite hitting the high notes I expected, or the plethora of new cards out, and added, allowed me to go in a slightly different or better direction. When that happened, I searched for a different commander that was similar, but allowed for more or varied game play, or just interacted better with the deck so it "went off" as per my original intentions. Some commanders, although incredibly similar to others, are just so slightly different that they limit your ability to keep up with the others at the table.
All of my decks that I don't break apart have tended to be from method 2. When I first started playing, the meta I was introduced to was "play blue and counter commanders" (awful). It's been a long time since then, but my favorite decks tend to hold themselves up now because of it. My commanders are an option, not a requirement. Although EDHREC is a fantastic resource and it existing is great for the format, I find the sequence of deck idea, pick commander, scryfall searching and ending with EDHREC to produce the most unique decks. It's not for everyone but great for a brewer!
I have two commander decks that I personally really love, each one follows either philosophy when it comes to building the deck. I have a Hazezon Tamar deck which is a token deck, which needs some setup, but is explosive, and he offers solid payoff himself. The other is an Archangel Avacyn deck where she is not needed for the deck, but can be used as a sweeper or protection if needed. Both are very fun decks, the latter of which is a Barren Glory deck, with a few other options to win.
I think the deck you’re building is connive tribal to make your Ramirez DePietro (fun name to say btw) making it bigger, seeing more cards and selecting the best one thrown away. Tossing cards like Wonder to give evasion, Circular Logic maybe to play with madness, Dark Withering for cheap removal, Teferi’s Ageless Insight to draw more maybe, and my last guess is a Lethal Scheme/ Pile On for free mill and interaction. I say this mostly bc i played against a Raffine deck yesterday and it kicked my ass with so many synergies that it astounded me. Some was what I mentioned others im speculating based on the chosen commanders.
A third way to choose your commander is by choosing a legendary creature to build around but then switch the legendary and keep the theme. For example, I liked Hylda of the icy crown so i built a deck around her. She needs some setup, so she plays more like a 6 drop but the deck doesnt feel like its doing anything before you get her down. So im going to keep the theme but switch the commander to Sharae of numbing depths since she doesnt need any setup and move hylda to the mainboard. The deck needs a few swaps here and there since Hylda was the main wincon, but its still functionally the same deck.
Just built a Nadier/Toggo partner commander deck. Toggo is 3 but its "landfall" ability can help Nadier (6mana) grow cuz it gets +1/+1 counters every time a token leaves the battlefield. I can use it as an anti-board wipe, but also it makes my board wipes stronger.
Most of the time, (on top of not having a full enough grasp of my own collection) I don't have enough faith in myself or Wizards for "Type 2", so I usually go for "Type 1". Also... ...I like to avoid the party-pooper/on-sight commanders for the most part, because their "wanted posters" likely indicate "preferably dead". So, I built Squee (the Immortal) as a pseudo Daretti (Scrap Savant) deck as a jank red goodstuff deck, and instead of the popular dragons, I built Skanos Dragonheart//Acolyte of Bahamut mono-green dragons Choose a Background instead. The latter allowed me to yet again run a Vedalken Orrery style of strategy, even if just to a scant extent. The former is a bit of a red herring distraction from the massive burn damage it can inflict. As for type 2, my Varragoth assemble the silliness deck picked up where my banned Golos deck left off. I'm curious if any future sets (like Thunder Junction) are going to encourage any type 2 brews.
I usually just grab a Legendary that I like for any reason, and then I try to find a strategy that fits well around it. That's how my Kytheon Deck is a mono-white Aggro/Goodstuff (since a lot of the deck attacks and Kytheon makes things indestructible when he becomes a Planeswalker), and how my Cecily/Sophina is a mix-match between tokens, Legendaries and Card-Draw Matters.
Dragonlord Dromoka is a card that I always side eye. Why do you not want me casting spells on your turn. What are you trying to do. When I build decks it depends entirely on the strategy, if I want to be sneaky i choose a commander people have never seen or rarely see. I have treasure deck with Ganax and Iron Throne. People ask to see it but dont get it until half way through the game.
Rule number one to a good commander deck. Don't build a deck that revolves solely on your commander. In my experience having a commander that can fit in the 99 is the best that way you don't run into the issue of your commander being way to expensive from being killed on sight and your deck can function. My favorite deck is my ink eyes deck, don't need her to do graveyard stuff but she can if i play her and my play group knows i don't need her to reanimate their stuff
Can I just say I’ve been playing edh since it came out in 2011 and I STILL love your videos and fine them informational. Keep it up. 👍👍 is the patreon the only way to submit decks for you to give an insight on? Because I have a sisters of stone death deck that I’ve built so many times because I can’t get it to work and it’s probably one of my favorites.
I’m trying to wrap my head around your Sultai deck and the only thing I could come up with was life gain deck maybe a Voltron subtheme. Knowing you…it’s probably way cooler and way more complicated though.
So... I broke that rule of not being a target by using Moldrotha. Deck doesn't combo, I just wanted her for the colors and how it could make my plans more robust It's a "force the opponent to attack, and if they can't the creatures die" sort of thing (Nettling Imp, Norrit, Maddening Imp, Siren's Call)
It’s always #2 for me. In fact, I still feel like I don’t have the right commander for the color and themes I’m going for and the current commanders for those decks are just stand ins until they make someone better.
Hey EDH loved the vid! You mentioned that you talked about Rodolf and I have my eye on him being my commander for my first deck! Which video did you talk about him, I'd love to watch it and see how you break him down
@@edhdeckbuilding OH okay that makes sense! Well looks like I have something to be excited about for tomorrow! You've really been helpful for me learning about commander and luckily you have quite the backlog of videos too! Cheers
Want to build a Krenko combo deck and not become a target? Instead play GW and use Tolsimir with Thornbite Staff. White has better tutors for Thornbite Staff and If you want Blasting Station + Thornbite Staff + Token creation og Tolsimir works just fine. Not the same but similar enough. And GW Multicolor GW, Legends Matter deck is kinda nice getting the death and etb triggers of all kind of cards through the legend rule or spam the board with 4/4s after slamming down Mirror Box/Gallery. The expression of my former play group (i moved) was priceless when someone said. Wait you basicly play Krenko but in Selesnya?
My Aurelia deck is all just small growing threats and boardwipes. Shes only there to be a finisher once everyones all gassed out of removal and blockers
Im currently building a Marneus Calgar deck. I want it to be a Mid-High powered deck and if I see some good success with it Im going to get some fancy alt arts for the non Warhammer cards
I'm #2. I have an idea, look for a legendary for that style and run with it. Ex: Isu the Abominable because I wanted a snow deck. Guess it's going to be a bant deck
Hey Demo!!! I hope you see this. I really want to see something cool you can come up with playing Hofri Ghostforge. I think he's so cool and unique for boros.
you might have to just watch all my videos. the more videos you watch the clearer the picture gets. but you can start with this: ruclips.net/video/pMs4LbCvx3Q/видео.html
how bout making a commander deck with you commander dousent rile mater at all ? like my bant deck with lagrella she just in it to shout down peoples big crèches thow the deck is 1 p 1 stacking and artifact growth is that ok if my commander has no big meaning for the deck ?
One of the oldest quandaries in EDH is "I want to build a WUBRG deck. Who should lead it?" What answer do you guys go with? Most people prefer Kenrith. I say Progenitus is the ultimate Chad choice.
I'm mostly a method #2 person, and I feel like that method is slowly dying as WotC prints commanders laser focused for every theme. I feel they've forgotten some people enjoy the process of forging a deck together from pieces that aren't meant to fit together.
I assume you mean a Commander that is specifically designed for Beast tribal, as there are plenty of Gruul commanders that have excellent potential synergy as a beast deck.
I can't stand edhrec. I respect it as a tool there is so much information there. But it is NOT a deck building resource. Edhrec is an offensive resource. Think about it. "I don't want to build YOUR deck, I wanna build MY deck and know how to take yours apart." I actually use mtgassist far more in deck building. It allows me to break singleton way more when I build, it saves me so much money on older and obscure cards that have been doing the same thing for 3 decades, and it keeps my opponents guessing.
Step 1: Open EDHREC's 100 most popular commanders. Step 2: Scroll past the top 100 and click "show more." Step 3: Repeat step 2 multiple times. Step 4: Pick from commanders listed at rank 800 and below. Step 0: Don't be an Atraxa player.
okay so i reference a video where i talk about both rodolf and torsten. turns out i switched the order of those videos, so that one comes out next. oopsy daisy.
For me, mainly #1. "Love the art of this legendary, build the deck." Fairly simple for me.
My mono-green stompy deck is now on its 4th commander. Started off as Ghalta but I didn’t like using bad vanilla creature as “ramp”. I opened a number of +1/+1 counter support in my Wilds of Eldraine box so I tried it out as Yorvo but not having Trample felt bad, so I swapped over to Surrak and Goreclaw. That worked well but I realized that the “giving creature trample” was more useful most of the time than the +1/+1 support I had. So I dropped all the counter stuff I’d added, and switched over to classic Goreclaw. He’s “ramp”, gives attacking creatures trample and makes them bigger. This is the only deck that I’ve done this emergent style deck building experiment with and it’s been fun.
There are tons of underwhelming commander decks I own the are so much fun
Usually I find a random legendary creature either in my legendary creatures binder or just finding it somewhere, I open my three binders of templates, my box of cards devided by theme, pick up the lands from my lands box, pick up the cards remaining that I may need, and done. 😂
The most important rule when choosing my Commander or deck archetype is that it doesn’t just do the same thing as one of my other decks (more or less). I may for example have more than one tribal deck, but my Slivers play nothing like my Sidar Jabari deck. There would be no point in making a Rohan deck, which would function much the same, as an aggro knights tribal.
I don’t really care how unique my decks may be compared to other peoples decks (I mostly use popular Commanders because the road less travelled is often less travelled for a reason) but I do demand them to be unique amongst my own decks.
great point. i also don't like having decks that do the same thing. also don't love having decks that are the same colors.
Dude Harbin, Vanguard Aviator is just THE BEST Soldier Tribal commander in my opinon. 2CMC, one white and a blue. 3/2 power toughness. Flying. If you attack with 5 or more soldiers (your commander can be included in that 5), ALL your creatures gain flying and +1/1 til end of turn. It's just awesome. It rewards you for creating lots of soldier tokens or playing lots of value heavy soldier cards like a Myrel, Shield of Argive or a Skystrike Officer and pumps up your entire board and allows you to fly over anything to get your dmg in with little soldier tokens that otherwise might not get through all of the enemy's defenses. And so what? Oh no, your commander got taken out...well it only cost you 2 mana the first time so....OH NO it's only 4 mana to recast again. I was looking for an Azorius commander like this FOREVER so I'm super happy with him. He does exactly what I wanted my Birds Tribal deck to do but cards like Kangee are just too bulky at 5 CMC for what they actually do and Birds themselves can have SOME useful abilities or passives but not like Soldiers at all. Soldiers just have so many great versatile or powerful battlefield effects and can go WAY wider and benefit. Harbin is like giving your army a jet engine when they otherwise would have walked to the battlefield. Not to mention, it also gives WAY more value to the Elspeth Planeswalkers as if they weren't already good cards.
TL;DR: 2 CMC commanders can be GREAT provided their value of course. Harbin, Vanguard aviator for instance, turns any soldier tribal deck from a Catapult into an F-35 stealth fighter. Night and day.
Usually I make a commander deck after I opened a booster box and found a cool card I want to build around. It can become my commander, but it doesn’t have to be. My Imoti, celebrant of bounty deck was built after I pulled a vorinclex, voice of hunger and Jin-gitaxias, core augur in March of the machines and I retroactively searched for a commander with which they could work.
I'm definitely doing method #2 with this Ajani deck I'm trying to build. The idea is to put all the versions of Ajani planeswalker cards into the deck along with a few nods to the different characters and places he's encountered along the way. Marisi fits the build perfectly as commander, so now the challenge is getting everything else to mesh together.
i recently set about making a Barren Glory deck and needed a Mardu commander, I ended up going with a Tymna and Bruse Tarl deck so that I could get good draw and combat damage as an easier way to win the game if the Barren Glory plan doesn’t work and I’ve loved it so far
How fun, just ran across the concept of "I have an idea, but what commander should I use?" Still have not selected one, but looking at 3 color elemental - RGU and have zeroed in on some flavor of Omnath or Animar. This video is right on time
Ran Shirei for a long while and decided I needed something more flashy or aggressive. Zurgo Helmshasher was in my binder, and something drew me to it. It's a rather simple deck that I didn't expect to do well within my playgroup, but its been winning pretty often.
I build either way, #1 or #2. With 2 I can spend a lot of time floundering while I look for the perfect commander. After a billion iterations of my deck that wants to put Lure effects on Stuffy Dolls I recently rebuilt it as an Ardenn & Tana auras and equipment to build your own Doll (or more so Brash Taunter) and I think I'm happy with it for now. A lot of times win cons in the command zone are too telegraphed for me, I prefer 3 or 4 mana commanders that I need to build around.
I'm still looking for a commander to do Portal Mage/Illusionist's Gambit shenanigans that isn't tribal wizards or faeries or goad. Maybe it will be Esper, because I also want to cast Opposition Agent while I Winds of Abandon or Settle the Wreckage my opponents, but I need a good reason to use the mana and probably a lot of generic pips. As I write this I'm thinking maybe I'll try Dakkon Shadow Slayer to get an artifact win con, but that might actually be stronger than I wanted to make it (I want the meta to actually have attacking creatures in it rather than a bunch of people comboing to win), and it has the "I'm going to get my win con," red flag problem.
Of the 35 decks I have built, all but 3 were option 1 here. Usually I see a legendary creature that I really like and then decide to build a deck for that creature. In this case, I don't look at the MV of the commander or other options and then I use EDHREC in the very traditional way to find cards I forgot or didn't know about in the first place. The 3 decks where I went with option 2 were tribal - I wanted an elf deck, and Lathril struck my fancy, I wanted a goblin deck and then pulled Krenko out of a mystery booster, and I wanted a dragon deck, so I found my Scion of the Ur-Dragon and went to town, but that was too combo-centric so I got an Ur-Dragon when the price dropped to something reasonable.
Many times I look at cedh piles and tone them down while keeping the core identity. My Nymris and Greasefang decks fall under that train of thought. So in that sense the commander was already picked for me, as well as the direction... The actual deck was just up to my discretion.
Maybe you can consider that to be behind the "Picking a commander to fit the deck" archetype, since typically the identity of the deck is what is calling out to me. But I'd still say "soft-net decking" is it's own way of deck building. Where you're looking at decks that have been built for strategies that call out to you.
Besides that, I think it's too broad to say that anything else would be different than "deck for commander, commander for deck."
Cause even if it's just because you like the commander and throw it at the helm, or throw a random dart for the commander... You're still "building your deck and choosing a commander that fits the deck, at a minimum color wise."
I built a 'play from the top of my library'-theme deck. I looked for a commander for a long time. It was Elsha of the Infinite first (allready had the deck before she was released) and finally settled with the partners Thrassios and Akiri as I really need green to play multiple lands. But yeah, they do not really matter. It is a very unique deck with no decklist on EDHREC, which is the one thing deckbuilding which sattisfies me the most.
I bought the Nekusar deck way back when it came out and completely forgot I had it because commander wasn’t as big as it is nowadays. I rediscovered it going through my boxes of mtg stuff and I was blown away since the theme was so similar to a standard deck I had rigged up. But this has the added bonus of causing loss of life!
Another deck I built, I found Dina soulsteeper. Figured I can put in a ton of ramp and a ton of lifelink to proc as many instances of life gain as I can fit in. Sometimes you just find one that tickles your fancy.
I also have an idea for a mono green landfall deck that I think is going to stomp.
Speaking of commanders you don’t need to cast at all, child of Alara deck might be pretty fun to explore. Not even to ever cast her out, but to have a huge threat just sitting in my command zone to scare my opponents into playing defensively while I get my combo rolling.
I usually pick the commander I build around over a theme but I really wanted to make a blink deck and was originally going to use Garth one eye but built tivit seller of secrets instead
Salubrious Snail has a video where they talk about a really interesting deckbuilding strategy which sounds somewhat similar to what your goal is with your dromoka deck- to have your deck and commander do the exact opposite of one another. You could build a deck which has a glaring commander-shaped hole which your commander fills. Essentially picking a commander that covers your deck's weakness since you always have access to it
Third reason is to upgrade your deck. I have a couple of decks, where either they weren't quite hitting the high notes I expected, or the plethora of new cards out, and added, allowed me to go in a slightly different or better direction. When that happened, I searched for a different commander that was similar, but allowed for more or varied game play, or just interacted better with the deck so it "went off" as per my original intentions. Some commanders, although incredibly similar to others, are just so slightly different that they limit your ability to keep up with the others at the table.
All of my decks that I don't break apart have tended to be from method 2.
When I first started playing, the meta I was introduced to was "play blue and counter commanders" (awful). It's been a long time since then, but my favorite decks tend to hold themselves up now because of it. My commanders are an option, not a requirement.
Although EDHREC is a fantastic resource and it existing is great for the format, I find the sequence of deck idea, pick commander, scryfall searching and ending with EDHREC to produce the most unique decks. It's not for everyone but great for a brewer!
I have two commander decks that I personally really love, each one follows either philosophy when it comes to building the deck. I have a Hazezon Tamar deck which is a token deck, which needs some setup, but is explosive, and he offers solid payoff himself. The other is an Archangel Avacyn deck where she is not needed for the deck, but can be used as a sweeper or protection if needed. Both are very fun decks, the latter of which is a Barren Glory deck, with a few other options to win.
I think the deck you’re building is connive tribal to make your Ramirez DePietro (fun name to say btw) making it bigger, seeing more cards and selecting the best one thrown away. Tossing cards like Wonder to give evasion, Circular Logic maybe to play with madness, Dark Withering for cheap removal, Teferi’s Ageless Insight to draw more maybe, and my last guess is a Lethal Scheme/ Pile On for free mill and interaction. I say this mostly bc i played against a Raffine deck yesterday and it kicked my ass with so many synergies that it astounded me. Some was what I mentioned others im speculating based on the chosen commanders.
A third way to choose your commander is by choosing a legendary creature to build around but then switch the legendary and keep the theme.
For example, I liked Hylda of the icy crown so i built a deck around her. She needs some setup, so she plays more like a 6 drop but the deck doesnt feel like its doing anything before you get her down.
So im going to keep the theme but switch the commander to Sharae of numbing depths since she doesnt need any setup and move hylda to the mainboard. The deck needs a few swaps here and there since Hylda was the main wincon, but its still functionally the same deck.
this is a similar idea that i'll have for my next 10 deck ideas video.
Just built a Nadier/Toggo partner commander deck. Toggo is 3 but its "landfall" ability can help Nadier (6mana) grow cuz it gets +1/+1 counters every time a token leaves the battlefield. I can use it as an anti-board wipe, but also it makes my board wipes stronger.
If you’re building your miirym deck right your going to have like 16 ramp cards so it costing six mana isn’t that big of a downside
Most of the time, (on top of not having a full enough grasp of my own collection) I don't have enough faith in myself or Wizards for "Type 2", so I usually go for "Type 1". Also...
...I like to avoid the party-pooper/on-sight commanders for the most part, because their "wanted posters" likely indicate "preferably dead".
So, I built Squee (the Immortal) as a pseudo Daretti (Scrap Savant) deck as a jank red goodstuff deck, and instead of the popular dragons, I built Skanos Dragonheart//Acolyte of Bahamut mono-green dragons Choose a Background instead. The latter allowed me to yet again run a Vedalken Orrery style of strategy, even if just to a scant extent. The former is a bit of a red herring distraction from the massive burn damage it can inflict.
As for type 2, my Varragoth assemble the silliness deck picked up where my banned Golos deck left off.
I'm curious if any future sets (like Thunder Junction) are going to encourage any type 2 brews.
I usually just grab a Legendary that I like for any reason, and then I try to find a strategy that fits well around it.
That's how my Kytheon Deck is a mono-white Aggro/Goodstuff (since a lot of the deck attacks and Kytheon makes things indestructible when he becomes a Planeswalker), and how my Cecily/Sophina is a mix-match between tokens, Legendaries and Card-Draw Matters.
FBLTHP is the greatest commander in Mono Blue :P
The utterly broken Elder Dragons from the DND set are also a factor in the popularity of the Ur Dragon as a commander.
Only the green one is good. And not really broken I would say. Strong for sure
The red one is like 80 bucks, so I’m gonna say you’re wrong on that one
I have all the ancients with Tiamat as my commander. The UR dragon is also in there. Ramp is the most important component to the deck.
@@gogaschnitzel3222they’re all good.
@@Garl_VinlandI think he meant old gnawbone from the Standard dnd set
Dragonlord Dromoka is a card that I always side eye. Why do you not want me casting spells on your turn. What are you trying to do.
When I build decks it depends entirely on the strategy, if I want to be sneaky i choose a commander people have never seen or rarely see. I have treasure deck with Ganax and Iron Throne. People ask to see it but dont get it until half way through the game.
Rule number one to a good commander deck.
Don't build a deck that revolves solely on your commander. In my experience having a commander that can fit in the 99 is the best that way you don't run into the issue of your commander being way to expensive from being killed on sight and your deck can function.
My favorite deck is my ink eyes deck, don't need her to do graveyard stuff but she can if i play her and my play group knows i don't need her to reanimate their stuff
Can I just say I’ve been playing edh since it came out in 2011 and I STILL love your videos and fine them informational. Keep it up. 👍👍 is the patreon the only way to submit decks for you to give an insight on? Because I have a sisters of stone death deck that I’ve built so many times because I can’t get it to work and it’s probably one of my favorites.
Good video.
I’m trying to wrap my head around your Sultai deck and the only thing I could come up with was life gain deck maybe a Voltron subtheme. Knowing you…it’s probably way cooler and way more complicated though.
So... I broke that rule of not being a target by using Moldrotha. Deck doesn't combo, I just wanted her for the colors and how it could make my plans more robust
It's a "force the opponent to attack, and if they can't the creatures die" sort of thing (Nettling Imp, Norrit, Maddening Imp, Siren's Call)
It’s always #2 for me. In fact, I still feel like I don’t have the right commander for the color and themes I’m going for and the current commanders for those decks are just stand ins until they make someone better.
i would say i was entirely a #1 method builder, but i am more and more becoming a #2 method builder.
Hey EDH loved the vid! You mentioned that you talked about Rodolf and I have my eye on him being my commander for my first deck! Which video did you talk about him, I'd love to watch it and see how you break him down
@@BoinkadelicJones that's funny, i forgot i did that. it's my video coming out next, i ended up rearranging them.
@@edhdeckbuilding OH okay that makes sense! Well looks like I have something to be excited about for tomorrow! You've really been helpful for me learning about commander and luckily you have quite the backlog of videos too! Cheers
Want to build a Krenko combo deck and not become a target? Instead play GW and use Tolsimir with Thornbite Staff.
White has better tutors for Thornbite Staff and If you want Blasting Station + Thornbite Staff + Token creation og Tolsimir works just fine.
Not the same but similar enough. And GW Multicolor GW, Legends Matter deck is kinda nice getting the death and etb triggers of all kind of cards through the legend rule or spam the board with 4/4s after slamming down Mirror Box/Gallery.
The expression of my former play group (i moved) was priceless when someone said. Wait you basicly play Krenko but in Selesnya?
cool art.
My Aurelia deck is all just small growing threats and boardwipes. Shes only there to be a finisher once everyones all gassed out of removal and blockers
Im currently building a Marneus Calgar deck. I want it to be a Mid-High powered deck and if I see some good success with it Im going to get some fancy alt arts for the non Warhammer cards
9 out of 10 times its nr 2 for me. Altho sometimes i've been thinking about a theme while waiting for a fitting commander/-pair for it.
I originally built my deck around Breya. Now my deck functions even without Breya. Some times I don't even need to play her.
I always look forward to uploads on this channel! Great deckbuilding info.
Much appreciated!
When miirym comes out, next turn or two game should be over. It’s a crazy powerful commander especially with all the ramp in magic.
Is there any known issues why your Patreon page might not be opening correctly or timing out? I'm having trouble accessing it.
I'm #2. I have an idea, look for a legendary for that style and run with it.
Ex: Isu the Abominable because I wanted a snow deck. Guess it's going to be a bant deck
I wanted to build a Mono Blue Voltron deck. I picked Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp and currently working out the details
Hey Demo!!! I hope you see this. I really want to see something cool you can come up with playing Hofri Ghostforge. I think he's so cool and unique for boros.
ruclips.net/video/yD6r1Ua7yHE/видео.html
Where can I find info on your deck building process beyond choosing your commander?
you might have to just watch all my videos. the more videos you watch the clearer the picture gets. but you can start with this: ruclips.net/video/pMs4LbCvx3Q/видео.html
okay you inspired me to make a playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLEHbzOQhUWFvzECS75LSwP22rYUvzikcA
Thank you man. I appreciate you. @@edhdeckbuilding
how bout making a commander deck with you commander dousent rile mater at all ? like my bant deck with lagrella she just in it to shout down peoples big crèches thow the deck is 1 p 1 stacking and artifact growth is that ok if my commander has no big meaning for the deck ?
7:07 for me this is exactly my Noyan Dar deck, it just doesn't work out very well for me
One of the oldest quandaries in EDH is "I want to build a WUBRG deck. Who should lead it?" What answer do you guys go with? Most people prefer Kenrith. I say Progenitus is the ultimate Chad choice.
I built a Jodah cascade Legendary Shrines :P
Last WUBRG player I faced off against was Omnath, Locus of All. He called it Ultimatum Tribal. It was brutal.
Where is your dragon lord Drakuma deck? I would like to try it.
I'm mostly a method #2 person, and I feel like that method is slowly dying as WotC prints commanders laser focused for every theme. I feel they've forgotten some people enjoy the process of forging a deck together from pieces that aren't meant to fit together.
you dont use edhrec to see if there's some lesser known synergy cards that work with your commander? why?
edhrec doesn't show lesser known cards. it shows the popular ones.
On the other hand, Scryfal is great for advance searches, and you can sort by EDHREC popularity to find less used/known cards.
I'm still waiting for a grull commander for beast tribal. 2 recent great simic but no grull
I assume you mean a Commander that is specifically designed for Beast tribal, as there are plenty of Gruul commanders that have excellent potential synergy as a beast deck.
@@Dragon_Fyre yes, in the meantime I'm using Ruby, Daring Tracker with some success
Anyone know how to join the Discord?
Most of my decks are method #2.
Actual worst case for Torsten is he just gets countered.
I can't stand edhrec. I respect it as a tool there is so much information there. But it is NOT a deck building resource. Edhrec is an offensive resource. Think about it. "I don't want to build YOUR deck, I wanna build MY deck and know how to take yours apart." I actually use mtgassist far more in deck building. It allows me to break singleton way more when I build, it saves me so much money on older and obscure cards that have been doing the same thing for 3 decades, and it keeps my opponents guessing.
Step 1: Open EDHREC's 100 most popular commanders.
Step 2: Scroll past the top 100 and click "show more."
Step 3: Repeat step 2 multiple times.
Step 4: Pick from commanders listed at rank 800 and below.
Step 0: Don't be an Atraxa player.
i play gisela , the deck is designed to protect her , with Mother of runes effects.
I'm guessing Dredge / Cycling for the Sultai deck/