Really surprised Yawgmoth didn’t make the list. Card draw, -1/-1 counters, proliferate, with a discard outlet, and sac outlet. He’s the most Engine you can be for so many strategies.
Saved me from watching the full video. I agree, he's one of if not, the strongest engine for a deck based on him. His downside is thay he's mono colored
Here's a short list of some budget-friendly engine commanders you might want to check out: Slimefoot, the Stowaway: this guy is a beast. A saproling/fungus aristocrats deck can be built around this for cheap and still be competitive. When you're able to get Slimefoot's trigger going along with other similar aristocrat staples, it can be absolutely brutal, especially since the deck build around him can be very passive and defensive, relatively unassuming until it's too late. You want to build a saproling army and then use your fungus sac outlets or other means of sacrifice to start bleeding your enemies dry. A lot of fun and cheap to build, I highly recommend him. The Scorpion God: this is a wither/infect player's wet dream, and it can pop off very easily since you yourself don't even need to do most of the damage. You can play defensive and still land those -1/-1 counters and net the draw power from them as a result of other players going in for the kill. Whereas most Rakdos players will go for an aristocrats-style of play or some sort of hyper-aggro strat, this is an unsung hero in draw power for both proactive and reactive playing in the color combo. Building a viable deck around this god is cheap, and the salty victories are even cheaper. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: a combo-packed KING this commander does what an Izzet deck does best, you get the draw power and the shock power, it's all there baby. You can build a relatively cheap deck with him at the helm without the infinite combo pieces and still be an absolute menace. The first time I played the deck in a 4 player pod, the quote I remember from the game was "you're not the biggest threat, you're the biggest annoyance". You stack this deck with draw power and you're just going to whittle your opponents down while keeping your hand full. Let me know what you think of these commanders
Another interesting budget option that I've built one of my decks around is Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth. She's a bit heavy at 5 CMC, but in a sac deck she can absolutely combo off to an insane degree - pay 2 to sac a Clue, surveil, draw, repeat. Also a neat little infinite opportunity when combined with March of the Machines; it'll turn her Clues into 0/0s that immediately die, causing her to create a new Clue and repeat, which can trigger pings off of things like Blood Artist or Agent of the Iron Throne and win you the game.
Shorikai... Dude, what a value machine. Forget those vehicles bs; just ramp, control and draw into your Dramatic scepter Meanwhile, you are free to wipe the board constantly. Don't worry about green players pulling out artifact wipes; they are to greedy to put those (mandatory) cards into their decks. Bonus tip for shorikai: Polymorph into your only creature, Hullbreaker Horror, backup with reanimator stuff like Late to Diner, and simply enjoy life
@@damonbreuklander2155 figured I'd try a little different and lean into the lifegain aspect of it, works well enough but it's just a bit simple...Engine seems like it could be more fun
@@SinisterSwiss try adding things like teleportation cirlce, conjurers closet, manifold key, circuit mender, whirler rogue, Teferi ageless insight, and Teferi who slows the sunset. You'll draw enough cards you won't need Kotori as commander.
I'm kinda glad that my favorite engine commander - Arcum Dagsson - didn't get a mention, as it is obscurity that tends to keep people from realizing just how busted it is. T2, play your commander, T3 search for Thornbite Staff, T4 win.
Light-Paws should be an honorable mention for this list. I would definitely consider her a card advantage engine. It’s kind of remarkable how much she allows you to do for just a small amount of mana. Probably one of the fastest decks I’ve built, and she’s so budget-friendly.
Sythis is easily my favorite commander. When I first started playing commander, I built a budget Siona aura enchantress/voltron deck. Mind you, Sythis did not exist back then. The deck was fun, and worked pretty well once you started to draw your enchantress. But a few month later, MH2 was printed, and I knew I had to swap my commander. I did, tweaked a few cards to lean more on the enchantment side, and less on the aura one, but the vast majority of the deck was still the same. And man, that's a powerhouse. As you said, a 2cmc draw engine in the command zone is SO powerful. I don't even think that the card should exist. It's really, REALLY rare that I don't have a starting hand with 2 lands and an enchantment to play in turn 3. And after that, you're going.
Honestly, I kinda agree. I have a sythis deck as well, and seeing some comments of people hating to play against her made me question again how good and fair she is.. and I have to admit, she’s borderline busted.. not like korvald, but still. And I don’t play her nearly as staxy and mean as I could.. more of a pillow fort, but constant card advantage and a small bit of life gain are pretty nuts.
My theory to why Chulane is not higher on the lists, is because people knows he's not a fun commander to play against. I believe it's well-known that he is one of the most broken commanders ever.
@@kierancawley3990 I have never played personally against Chulane, but since he is Simic, in combination with hos abilities, he is very difficult to keep away from the board. Killing Korvold 3-4 times usually nullifies at least the commander aspect of the deck. However in my playgroup out Korvold player had built the deck in such a way that it could combo pff and win without Korvold. I made a very aggressive Xenagos deck to combat this. Kill fast-style. But that wasnt liked by the Korvold player thinking I was unfair for killing them fast and first (despite me not winning in the end).
My favorite engine commander is definitely Animar. When you cast a creature put a counter on him, and creatures cost 1 less for each counter. And also if thats not enough he has pro white/black. He does either require a minute to get going or just a few cards so that he can get going, but he is a powerhouse when he does, and I've won games become other players couldn't hit him with doom blade
@@davestier6247 true. He does have quite a bit of infinite potential, the most potent of which being Ancestral Statue. He can bounce himself to your own hand after casting it and If you have four counters on animar, he costs 0. But most of my games involve slamming down beast whisper, elemental bond, Kira behemoth beckoner, etc. And play a thing for free or at least nearly free, and then draw cards, play more things. Normally I can take a player or two with animar himself, and then either win with lab man or swing wide
@@davestier6247 animar isnt black but umori could be interesting for animal since he could reduce the cost of noncreqture, however for him to be companioned the deck would be only creatures anyways. So I could just cast ornithopter and get roughly the same value. However I could certainly see morophon making good use of umori. Reduced colored and colorless mana. I was thinking about jegantha at first with morophon but realized that he counterintuitive unless i need a progenitus
I would my Hamza deck is a good engine example. Once it comes down and I have 4 creatures with +1/+1 counters, then I'm casting huge creatures for 1 or 2 mana. Free Eldrazi. I think my favorite part of the deck is being able to cast Apex Devastator for 2 mana. I think it's more busted than Animar for the simple fact that it can keep reducing its own tax and unless you deal with my whole board, then you retain the cost reduction. There's lots of ways in green and white to give your stuff protection or Indestructible. Often times I'll build my board and then be the first one to cast a board wipe while having Dauntless Escort or Heroic Intervention.
I don't know whether I'd call Hamza an engine. I have a Hamza deck. I agree with the fact that can reduce its own tax is great, and free eldrazi or a 2 mana Apex Dev. or 3 mana Avacyn is great also, I don't see Hamza much of an engine. It reduces casting cost but you still need to fill your hand somehow. Which is why the Great Henge is truly great in there, so are Armorcraft Judge, Mindless Automaton, Beast Whisperer etc. But with an empty hand, Hamza's reduction won't get you anywhere sadly.
@@lokumo13 I run Return of the Wild Speaker and Inspiring Call as well as all those others you stated. But I also run Eternal Witness and Temur Sabertooth so I can keep getting those spells back to my hand. Also, Kogla to help return Witness and Armorcraft Judge. I run Old Gnawbone as well for additional mana plus Traverse the Outlands. I have plenty of card draw
@@kingginger3335 I know how the deck works, you don't need to explain what you run. What I am saying is you need to run those to fill your hand up, because Hamza does not fill your hand. It just makes things cheaper and that is not really how an engine commander works.
@@lokumo13 not all engines draw cards. It just has to be the thing that turns the deck on. Without Hamza on the field the mana curve isn't the lowest of all time lol
@@kingginger3335 most engines draw you cards so you can keep going, which is why it is the engine. If mana reducers by themselves clunted as engines then there’d be a million engines, which there aren’t. With no draw, hamza is not an engine.
Good video. Korvold is definitely one of my favorite commanders to play, if not my favorite lol and I think some of the reasons people play him more is because it's more fun and interesting, even if it is as powerful as Chulane. Maybe people like Korvold's artwork, as well. Also, both commanders are easy to build around, but in a way Korvold can be way more unpredictable, and in many ways more versatile for certain situations
Here some that could contend: Mostly openended: - Henzie (costreduction and carddraw) - tivid (ramp + clue as carddraw) - prismatic bridge (cheat things) - zurrr (cheat things) - uro (ramp + draw) - kynaios and tiro (ramp + draw) - thrasio + tymna (draw + ramp or draw) Specific strat: - Malcom + breeches (ramp + "carddraw") - gavi (draw) - selvala explorer (draw + mana) I discounted some things like cascade, extraturn/attack strats, spellslingers, background or costreduction for artifact. Also i might forgot some. Magic is big.
I have a bant creature deck and played Chulane as the commander for a bit. He was good being an engine, but I found him boring. Cast spells to draw cards and ramp. He didn't do anything unique. I also didn't like how he required casting spells and specified drawing cards because there's a lot of card draw hate where I play and casting is weak to counterspells and stax in comparison with the blink strat that I ended up with. (I ended with Amareth, the Lusturous as my commander since he is a blink payoff and enables certain wincons. Plus he's a big flier which is a good blocker and attacker).
I've made some edh deck with engine commander, first being krenko as you can use goblin as a ressource to almost everything. Selvala heart of the wild is so powerful with both ramp and card draw. Light paws is a huge card tutor engine as well. Last one I made was grenzo and it was a lot of fun to build a deck around him. Will check some of your suggestions too!
My Prosper deck takes advantage of the consistent treasures to use all of the “exile from other/all players’ decks” cards to play everyone else’s decks. It’s not consistent since it depends on others’ cards, but it’s fun!
One of my favorite engine commanders is Omnath Locus of the Roil. I know Locus of Creation is a thing and it is four colors. However, I prefer Roil's ability to buff and draw cards once you hit eight lands. Yes, I know that can be quite a lot of lands needing to be played, but you are in temur and it is a cake walk most of the time. Plus while I'm digging through my deck to find a win condition I often come across protection to keep the combo going. Don't get me wrong, Locus of Creation is great, but I just prefer the streamlined ability of Roil. Set up the combo, hit eight lands, dig and win.
Recently I made a Yawgmoth, thran physician aristocrat deck and its amazing how sturdy it is Yawgmoth is great if you have stuff like nest of scarabs or undying creatures in the battlefield and it makes an incredibily resilient deck that works even if you don't have him on the battlefield cause you can just gain a ton of advantage in other ways with sacrificing your own things
Got a Yawgdaddy deck myself. He truly is an engine when it comes to draw but not necessarily by himself. You need bodies. Without bodies you can't sac anything and Yawg doesn't do much. It's ability to draw is great, but dunno if I'd call it an "Engine Commander" necessarily. It requires some set up for sure.
@@lokumo13 I think all engine commanders need some setup (except chulanne imo cause even with Korvold if you start saccing lands you're gonna get behind real quick) if you get a few token generators on the battlefield which you're gonna do anyways, it becomes a relatively good engine that also removes creatures And with two undying creatures it basically becomes an infinite if you have enough life to kill everyone or draw to get your wincon
@@dudemaister18 I know how Yawgmoth works with undying...again, I have the deck. Even then you need to have a way of preserving or netting life totals while draining otherwise yeah sure you'll draw the deck but then what? Regardless, I disagree. Prosper sits there and offers you a spell and you make additional mana to carry you forward once you cast it. Rinse and Repeat. Gitrog, you can sac a land, no biggie because you can play an additional one next turn and that's what the deck wants you to do. Korvold yeah you can sac a land once and it's fine, won't be able to attack the turn it comes in anyways. Most likely will make up for the land next turn. Hell it is way better if it is a fetch too. With Yawgmoth, without bodies, nothing happens. Even if you have bodies to sac but none to put counters on, nothing happens. Aesi, and Jhoira are in a similar vein to Yawgmoth IMO. At least Aesi you get an additional land drop which still reward you with card advantage, similarly with Jhoria at least your mana rocks reward you with card draw, potentially into more stuff to keep it going. Yawgmoth, you need to use a lot more resources to get close to the engine quality mentioned with these commanders. Definitely more on the worthy mentions rather than in a top x list.
LOL I do have Ashnods/Doubling Season in my Ghave deck but I tend to win with other +1/+1 counter comboes. I think Ghave is underrated (didn't even get new art). I built my Ghave deck 5 years ago and there seems to always be new stuff being printed to use in it. I love that Ghave can go big, go wide or just combo. Funnily enough my Ghave deck was consistently the only deck that gave my buddies Korvold deck a run for it's money in our playgroup :P
I have aesi, and one of the best combos is double major into cultivator colossus which ramps really well and is a may ability so you don't mill yourself out (I've played it and it is possible to mill yourself out)
My friend used to have an Anje deck. He walked into our lgs and they were about to play a Commander game for a theros box that was damaged and couldn't be sold. I'm not sure what he did, but he got the right cards to win on turn 2 and walked away with the theros box.
I prefer Ghave over Tayam. Ghave with the right cards goes both wide and tall and can really use everything on the board as a resource to get extreme values
Ghave also enables the Grave Pact-type sac outlets if you want to annihilate the board and lose all your friends. Only problem is the mana it takes to play Ghave + Pact/Martyrs' Bond/Dictate + make a load of saprolings. Tends to need 2-3 turns
@@knightfromlordran You know that had never even occurred to me. But I guess adding an extra +1/+1 counter cancels out the -1/-1 counter from the persist? Cheers!
Yeah its an amazing effect! I also run Cauldron of Souls in the deck. And with Mikaeus, Woodfall Primus can go infinite with a sac outlet like Ashnods Altar
How did Tivit seller of secrets not make the list? He's SO good. He generates mana and card draw and has built in evasion and protection. I have often had 40 plus cards in hand and tons of treasures
Yeah, I agree. Though other than creating those tokens Tivit is not much on engine, rather the gas. I have a Tivit blink deck I love playing. Creates stupid amounts of artifacts with a myriad of blink effects and clones like Spark Double/Sakashima etc. Plan is to turn the artifacts into creatures with Cyberdrive Awakener or Rise and Shine and swing. Tezerret Master of the Bridge can also nuke people. Filigree Angel gains you stupid amounts of life as well, but Tivit is there to supply the deck with the artifacts, rather than to get the deck going.
@@lokumo13 he's definitely an engine you just need displacer kitten on the field for example. A lot of the engines on this lost require other cards to be an engine also. Tovit is way more consistent than half of this list. My win con with tivit is time sieve also.
@@nickchaput219 I don't run sieve because I don't like infinite combos or extra turns, I find them boring. I run Displacer Kitten too, no need you to teach me how to play my deck. Even then Tivit still is not the "Engine" of the tank but rather a fuel tank on the side that you pour into your board. Also, highly disagree with "A lot of the engines on this lost require other cards to be an engine also." Other than Jan Jansen, Aesi, Sythis and Jhoira, the rest are themselves mana advantage+card advantage or card advantage by themselves without the need of anything else. Tivit is most similar to Korvold if you sac a C with two Ts and draw, and do the same when you connect, netting a card for both of those the way Korvold does, but Korvold does that a lot more efficiently. Hell, the lands you sac draw you cards.
Jan is a tri-color three drop that needs sac fodder to make fewer treasures than the mana it took to cast him so I hardly see how that's OP unless you already have other tricks to break him. I really think people overstate how strong treasures are, it's really just cards that can come down and instantly make forty mana that are problematic.
In a local that plays a lot of mid-high casual / cEDH capable decks. There is a lot of understandable loop hate and salt flying about my locals. Got tired of all the storm/extra turn decks, decided to build a really nasty Shorikai/Stax-lite deck. The rare times I show up, the high level players just absolutely hate me. Of course in our tourneys that go on through the months, I always play as a spoiler, so yeah I am supposed to make them salty. Shorikai, as its name suggest, is a proper engine, fine-tuned to do what it is supposed to do. Halo fountain is an extremely good win-con for it since you just use your pilots, and you can easily trigger a mechanized production wincon or a win via mirrodin beseiged if you can protect yourself for 1-3 upkeeps. Run other Staples like the myr mana dorks, the standard mana rocks, monolith/crypt + voltaic/manifold key. Scepter + reversal/intruder alarm is mandatory. Run a decent counters suite, as for stax-lite stuff run Drannith Magistrate + Jin-Gitaxias, Ghostly Prison, meekstone, Rhystic Study as just general ideas. Have some cheeky bullshit like Karn + Mycosynth lattice/Darksteel Forge, Narset. Shorikai also works perfectly with Ashnod's Altar for more colorless generation.... As an alternate Idea with shorikai, using ashnods, you get plenty of colorless to fuel an eldrazi strategy.
I have two of these commanders in my stable of decks and rarely play either of them. People know they have to have something to stop them right away, or they can scoop. On occasions that I have played Jhoria, it's normal to get her on turn 2 and win on a 20-minute turn 3. If you're playing with friends, no one wants that.
i play alot of eveyln the covetous & i think she deserves a spot here, its a newer-ish commander but i think shes an engine commander. You can play her in alot of different way with her being grixis, spellslinger, vamp tribal, comboy, ect but you’ll be surprised at how fun and crazy she is 🔥
@@mibbzx1493 you are a f'ing legend mate! I was already asking on reddit because I only started playing in kamigawa. esp. evelyn and cormela take a different Route with what vampires seemed to be doing in the past - add in some xander and there will be trouble :D I just love grixis (I dont know why) and all of the possible vampire commanders in grixis are a hell lot of swag
I had a Gitrog deck for a while that was insanely powerful, but I honestly got tired of every one of my turns taking 10 minutes lol. But I was 100% positive he would be in this list.
Artifact creatures with battle enter or exit triggers. Both if possible. Let’s you play it, immediately turn it into 2 treasures and get both triggers. I have a few different ways to make Jansen infinite but the main piece is making him an artifact then doing an untap trick from artifacts leaving or entering battlefield.
It's problem is that it's a worse Jhoira. Chulane has to play a bunch of clunky stuff to be strong, so when it doesn't Go Off it also doesn't do anything useful. e.g. a board state of Earthcraft and no basics, Wirewood, Drake, and Chulane costing 7+ because he ate an STP. Congrats, your deck watches someone else win? And when it wins it does so all in one loop without meaningful interaction points. It is has to resolve a CMC 5 commander that has no inherent defense and lacks haste. It also scoops to a resolved Chains, among other things.
I think emry should be a honorable mention instead of Azami 😭, similar to Jhoira strategy and more pieces to think of, besides strong recursive commander & combo/synergy
Really appreciate the videos but PLEASE take the time to read the cards you discuss..a lot of us listen as a podcast of sorts or while we can only listen and not watch. Thanks for the content
sythis is less broken than jhoira. yes sythis cost two mana less but artifacts being historic make jhoira much worse. their arent any enchantments that you can cast for 0 mana.
i build a cedh jhoira deck and its not fun to play against, i won in turn two after playing solitare for 20 min while everybody else was just watching me. Omnath locust of rage is still my favorite engine commander or my favorite in generall
Same here. It is cEDH level but has non-deterministic wins that you have to manually play through. Legit terrible experience and it's not Tier 1 cEDH. It's probably the most outright powerful on the list and yet has no home in either casual or high level competitive.
Urza is not much of an engine but rather an enabler. It generates you mana, and his ability cheats stuff in but you don't really start snowballing like the ones in this video can.
thought yarok would be on here ngl, you can play a card with an etb effect and you'll double it! treasures, land, bounce, tap, sacrifice. the list is long
![[SALAMANGREAT] TIER ZERO IS BACK WITH BROKEN SKILL CONSISTENCY 200%(Combo Guide+REPLAYS)IN YuGiOh DL](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qj42jS1kzzI/mqdefault.jpg)
Really surprised Yawgmoth didn’t make the list. Card draw, -1/-1 counters, proliferate, with a discard outlet, and sac outlet. He’s the most Engine you can be for so many strategies.
He is my favourite commander! My play group hate playing against him because he is so versatile.
@@QS69-q61 same my favorite too, and same with the play group 😂😂😂
Saved me from watching the full video. I agree, he's one of if not, the strongest engine for a deck based on him. His downside is thay he's mono colored
Yeah, yawgs is super, super strong. Shocked he didn't make the list
Idk how many times I have come back in a game with yawg. He truly is an insane engine.
Here's a short list of some budget-friendly engine commanders you might want to check out:
Slimefoot, the Stowaway: this guy is a beast. A saproling/fungus aristocrats deck can be built around this for cheap and still be competitive. When you're able to get Slimefoot's trigger going along with other similar aristocrat staples, it can be absolutely brutal, especially since the deck build around him can be very passive and defensive, relatively unassuming until it's too late. You want to build a saproling army and then use your fungus sac outlets or other means of sacrifice to start bleeding your enemies dry. A lot of fun and cheap to build, I highly recommend him.
The Scorpion God: this is a wither/infect player's wet dream, and it can pop off very easily since you yourself don't even need to do most of the damage. You can play defensive and still land those -1/-1 counters and net the draw power from them as a result of other players going in for the kill. Whereas most Rakdos players will go for an aristocrats-style of play or some sort of hyper-aggro strat, this is an unsung hero in draw power for both proactive and reactive playing in the color combo. Building a viable deck around this god is cheap, and the salty victories are even cheaper.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: a combo-packed KING this commander does what an Izzet deck does best, you get the draw power and the shock power, it's all there baby. You can build a relatively cheap deck with him at the helm without the infinite combo pieces and still be an absolute menace. The first time I played the deck in a 4 player pod, the quote I remember from the game was "you're not the biggest threat, you're the biggest annoyance". You stack this deck with draw power and you're just going to whittle your opponents down while keeping your hand full.
Let me know what you think of these commanders
I proudly play a non-curiosity(etc)-combo Niv Parun and he's still a beast. Totally agree
Definitely all seem like a fun build around with a whole lot of potential
Im currently working on getting a scorpion god feck together, already have locust and scarab going. Fun stuff
Nice list homie
Another interesting budget option that I've built one of my decks around is Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth. She's a bit heavy at 5 CMC, but in a sac deck she can absolutely combo off to an insane degree - pay 2 to sac a Clue, surveil, draw, repeat. Also a neat little infinite opportunity when combined with March of the Machines; it'll turn her Clues into 0/0s that immediately die, causing her to create a new Clue and repeat, which can trigger pings off of things like Blood Artist or Agent of the Iron Throne and win you the game.
Shorikai... Dude, what a value machine. Forget those vehicles bs; just ramp, control and draw into your Dramatic scepter
Meanwhile, you are free to wipe the board constantly. Don't worry about green players pulling out artifact wipes; they are to greedy to put those (mandatory) cards into their decks. Bonus tip for shorikai: Polymorph into your only creature, Hullbreaker Horror, backup with reanimator stuff like Late to Diner, and simply enjoy life
Don't suppose you have an example list? Tempted to switch to this commander from the precon face one!
@@SinisterSwiss There's no reason to run kotori over shorikai tbh
@@damonbreuklander2155 figured I'd try a little different and lean into the lifegain aspect of it, works well enough but it's just a bit simple...Engine seems like it could be more fun
@@SinisterSwiss try adding things like teleportation cirlce, conjurers closet, manifold key, circuit mender, whirler rogue, Teferi ageless insight, and Teferi who slows the sunset. You'll draw enough cards you won't need Kotori as commander.
I'm kinda glad that my favorite engine commander - Arcum Dagsson - didn't get a mention, as it is obscurity that tends to keep people from realizing just how busted it is. T2, play your commander, T3 search for Thornbite Staff, T4 win.
Light-Paws should be an honorable mention for this list. I would definitely consider her a card advantage engine. It’s kind of remarkable how much she allows you to do for just a small amount of mana. Probably one of the fastest decks I’ve built, and she’s so budget-friendly.
Sythis is easily my favorite commander. When I first started playing commander, I built a budget Siona aura enchantress/voltron deck. Mind you, Sythis did not exist back then. The deck was fun, and worked pretty well once you started to draw your enchantress. But a few month later, MH2 was printed, and I knew I had to swap my commander. I did, tweaked a few cards to lean more on the enchantment side, and less on the aura one, but the vast majority of the deck was still the same. And man, that's a powerhouse. As you said, a 2cmc draw engine in the command zone is SO powerful. I don't even think that the card should exist. It's really, REALLY rare that I don't have a starting hand with 2 lands and an enchantment to play in turn 3. And after that, you're going.
Honestly, I kinda agree. I have a sythis deck as well, and seeing some comments of people hating to play against her made me question again how good and fair she is.. and I have to admit, she’s borderline busted.. not like korvald, but still. And I don’t play her nearly as staxy and mean as I could.. more of a pillow fort, but constant card advantage and a small bit of life gain are pretty nuts.
I honestly thought Niv-Mizzet Parun would've made the list for certain.
My theory to why Chulane is not higher on the lists, is because people knows he's not a fun commander to play against. I believe it's well-known that he is one of the most broken commanders ever.
I'm kind of surprised people don't have the same attitude towards Korvold
@@kierancawley3990 I have never played personally against Chulane, but since he is Simic, in combination with hos abilities, he is very difficult to keep away from the board.
Killing Korvold 3-4 times usually nullifies at least the commander aspect of the deck. However in my playgroup out Korvold player had built the deck in such a way that it could combo pff and win without Korvold.
I made a very aggressive Xenagos deck to combat this. Kill fast-style. But that wasnt liked by the Korvold player thinking I was unfair for killing them fast and first (despite me not winning in the end).
Jan surprised me, lot of people don't want to even touch baldurs gate, happy to see someone just mention it at all
I love my Yan Yansen deck. It’s been crushing.
I made a Fain the broker, jansen is the easy mode of playing a trading post commander
My favorite engine commander is definitely Animar. When you cast a creature put a counter on him, and creatures cost 1 less for each counter. And also if thats not enough he has pro white/black. He does either require a minute to get going or just a few cards so that he can get going, but he is a powerhouse when he does, and I've won games become other players couldn't hit him with doom blade
Yeah between great whale and all the other infinite enablers he goes off
@@davestier6247 true. He does have quite a bit of infinite potential, the most potent of which being Ancestral Statue. He can bounce himself to your own hand after casting it and If you have four counters on animar, he costs 0. But most of my games involve slamming down beast whisper, elemental bond, Kira behemoth beckoner, etc. And play a thing for free or at least nearly free, and then draw cards, play more things. Normally I can take a player or two with animar himself, and then either win with lab man or swing wide
@@steffenlee3768 word. I've also run a creatures only build of it with umori as a companion, it was funny
Oh nevermind that was a morophon deck
@@davestier6247 animar isnt black but umori could be interesting for animal since he could reduce the cost of noncreqture, however for him to be companioned the deck would be only creatures anyways. So I could just cast ornithopter and get roughly the same value. However I could certainly see morophon making good use of umori. Reduced colored and colorless mana. I was thinking about jegantha at first with morophon but realized that he counterintuitive unless i need a progenitus
I would my Hamza deck is a good engine example. Once it comes down and I have 4 creatures with +1/+1 counters, then I'm casting huge creatures for 1 or 2 mana. Free Eldrazi. I think my favorite part of the deck is being able to cast Apex Devastator for 2 mana. I think it's more busted than Animar for the simple fact that it can keep reducing its own tax and unless you deal with my whole board, then you retain the cost reduction. There's lots of ways in green and white to give your stuff protection or Indestructible. Often times I'll build my board and then be the first one to cast a board wipe while having Dauntless Escort or Heroic Intervention.
I don't know whether I'd call Hamza an engine. I have a Hamza deck. I agree with the fact that can reduce its own tax is great, and free eldrazi or a 2 mana Apex Dev. or 3 mana Avacyn is great also, I don't see Hamza much of an engine. It reduces casting cost but you still need to fill your hand somehow. Which is why the Great Henge is truly great in there, so are Armorcraft Judge, Mindless Automaton, Beast Whisperer etc. But with an empty hand, Hamza's reduction won't get you anywhere sadly.
@@lokumo13 I run Return of the Wild Speaker and Inspiring Call as well as all those others you stated. But I also run Eternal Witness and Temur Sabertooth so I can keep getting those spells back to my hand. Also, Kogla to help return Witness and Armorcraft Judge. I run Old Gnawbone as well for additional mana plus Traverse the Outlands. I have plenty of card draw
@@kingginger3335 I know how the deck works, you don't need to explain what you run. What I am saying is you need to run those to fill your hand up, because Hamza does not fill your hand. It just makes things cheaper and that is not really how an engine commander works.
@@lokumo13 not all engines draw cards. It just has to be the thing that turns the deck on. Without Hamza on the field the mana curve isn't the lowest of all time lol
@@kingginger3335 most engines draw you cards so you can keep going, which is why it is the engine. If mana reducers by themselves clunted as engines then there’d be a million engines, which there aren’t. With no draw, hamza is not an engine.
As much as it's salty I love my narset deck because when it pops off it's kinda unstoppable
Good video. Korvold is definitely one of my favorite commanders to play, if not my favorite lol and I think some of the reasons people play him more is because it's more fun and interesting, even if it is as powerful as Chulane. Maybe people like Korvold's artwork, as well. Also, both commanders are easy to build around, but in a way Korvold can be way more unpredictable, and in many ways more versatile for certain situations
'Shorikai, Genesis Engine. Quite literally an engine.' 🤣🤣 best comment
Here some that could contend:
Mostly openended:
- Henzie (costreduction and carddraw)
- tivid (ramp + clue as carddraw)
- prismatic bridge (cheat things)
- zurrr (cheat things)
- uro (ramp + draw)
- kynaios and tiro (ramp + draw)
- thrasio + tymna (draw + ramp or draw)
Specific strat:
- Malcom + breeches (ramp + "carddraw")
- gavi (draw)
- selvala explorer (draw + mana)
I discounted some things like cascade, extraturn/attack strats, spellslingers, background or costreduction for artifact.
Also i might forgot some. Magic is big.
I have a bant creature deck and played Chulane as the commander for a bit. He was good being an engine, but I found him boring. Cast spells to draw cards and ramp. He didn't do anything unique. I also didn't like how he required casting spells and specified drawing cards because there's a lot of card draw hate where I play and casting is weak to counterspells and stax in comparison with the blink strat that I ended up with. (I ended with Amareth, the Lusturous as my commander since he is a blink payoff and enables certain wincons. Plus he's a big flier which is a good blocker and attacker).
I've made some edh deck with engine commander, first being krenko as you can use goblin as a ressource to almost everything. Selvala heart of the wild is so powerful with both ramp and card draw. Light paws is a huge card tutor engine as well. Last one I made was grenzo and it was a lot of fun to build a deck around him. Will check some of your suggestions too!
I don't know if it should be top ten but the reality chip should get a mention
My Prosper deck takes advantage of the consistent treasures to use all of the “exile from other/all players’ decks” cards to play everyone else’s decks. It’s not consistent since it depends on others’ cards, but it’s fun!
One of my favorite engine commanders is Omnath Locus of the Roil. I know Locus of Creation is a thing and it is four colors. However, I prefer Roil's ability to buff and draw cards once you hit eight lands. Yes, I know that can be quite a lot of lands needing to be played, but you are in temur and it is a cake walk most of the time. Plus while I'm digging through my deck to find a win condition I often come across protection to keep the combo going. Don't get me wrong, Locus of Creation is great, but I just prefer the streamlined ability of Roil. Set up the combo, hit eight lands, dig and win.
Personally I think the best engine commander is muldrotha the gravetide I have had a 30 minute turn with muldrotha and have a lot of combos in it
Recently I made a Yawgmoth, thran physician aristocrat deck and its amazing how sturdy it is
Yawgmoth is great if you have stuff like nest of scarabs or undying creatures in the battlefield and it makes an incredibily resilient deck that works even if you don't have him on the battlefield cause you can just gain a ton of advantage in other ways with sacrificing your own things
Got a Yawgdaddy deck myself. He truly is an engine when it comes to draw but not necessarily by himself. You need bodies. Without bodies you can't sac anything and Yawg doesn't do much. It's ability to draw is great, but dunno if I'd call it an "Engine Commander" necessarily. It requires some set up for sure.
@@lokumo13 I think all engine commanders need some setup (except chulanne imo cause even with Korvold if you start saccing lands you're gonna get behind real quick)
if you get a few token generators on the battlefield which you're gonna do anyways, it becomes a relatively good engine that also removes creatures
And with two undying creatures it basically becomes an infinite if you have enough life to kill everyone or draw to get your wincon
@@dudemaister18 I know how Yawgmoth works with undying...again, I have the deck. Even then you need to have a way of preserving or netting life totals while draining otherwise yeah sure you'll draw the deck but then what?
Regardless, I disagree. Prosper sits there and offers you a spell and you make additional mana to carry you forward once you cast it. Rinse and Repeat. Gitrog, you can sac a land, no biggie because you can play an additional one next turn and that's what the deck wants you to do. Korvold yeah you can sac a land once and it's fine, won't be able to attack the turn it comes in anyways. Most likely will make up for the land next turn. Hell it is way better if it is a fetch too. With Yawgmoth, without bodies, nothing happens. Even if you have bodies to sac but none to put counters on, nothing happens.
Aesi, and Jhoira are in a similar vein to Yawgmoth IMO. At least Aesi you get an additional land drop which still reward you with card advantage, similarly with Jhoria at least your mana rocks reward you with card draw, potentially into more stuff to keep it going. Yawgmoth, you need to use a lot more resources to get close to the engine quality mentioned with these commanders. Definitely more on the worthy mentions rather than in a top x list.
@@lokumo13 ye I guess you're right
Bloatfly infestation is great against go wide token decks. If nest of scarabs is out too then, WHEW gg.
I like that Aesi's draw power is optional so if you play anything that gives you a huge land drop, you aren't at risk of milling out by accident.
LOL I do have Ashnods/Doubling Season in my Ghave deck but I tend to win with other +1/+1 counter comboes. I think Ghave is underrated (didn't even get new art). I built my Ghave deck 5 years ago and there seems to always be new stuff being printed to use in it. I love that Ghave can go big, go wide or just combo. Funnily enough my Ghave deck was consistently the only deck that gave my buddies Korvold deck a run for it's money in our playgroup :P
I have aesi, and one of the best combos is double major into cultivator colossus which ramps really well and is a may ability so you don't mill yourself out (I've played it and it is possible to mill yourself out)
Where's the best nuclear engine of all times? I'm talking about Urza.
Zaxara is also a honorable mention, for have some infinitys with his mana ability.
And I like Hydras :)
My friend used to have an Anje deck. He walked into our lgs and they were about to play a Commander game for a theros box that was damaged and couldn't be sold. I'm not sure what he did, but he got the right cards to win on turn 2 and walked away with the theros box.
Chulane is mega unfun to play against, just too easily powerful imo...Tayam is one of my favourite decks, though!
same with korvald.
@@Fausto_4841 korvold seems “almost”managable. If you kill it that might stop the player. But korvold players run hella sacrifice shenanigans lol
I prefer Ghave over Tayam. Ghave with the right cards goes both wide and tall and can really use everything on the board as a resource to get extreme values
Ghave also enables the Grave Pact-type sac outlets if you want to annihilate the board and lose all your friends. Only problem is the mana it takes to play Ghave + Pact/Martyrs' Bond/Dictate + make a load of saprolings. Tends to need 2-3 turns
Yeah I do run dictate of erebos and it is powerful. Woodfall Primus as well is insane in the deck too
@@knightfromlordran You know that had never even occurred to me. But I guess adding an extra +1/+1 counter cancels out the -1/-1 counter from the persist? Cheers!
Yeah its an amazing effect! I also run Cauldron of Souls in the deck. And with Mikaeus, Woodfall Primus can go infinite with a sac outlet like Ashnods Altar
I find it interesting that there are no mono color commanders on your list.
How did Tivit seller of secrets not make the list? He's SO good. He generates mana and card draw and has built in evasion and protection. I have often had 40 plus cards in hand and tons of treasures
Yeah, I agree. Though other than creating those tokens Tivit is not much on engine, rather the gas. I have a Tivit blink deck I love playing. Creates stupid amounts of artifacts with a myriad of blink effects and clones like Spark Double/Sakashima etc. Plan is to turn the artifacts into creatures with Cyberdrive Awakener or Rise and Shine and swing. Tezerret Master of the Bridge can also nuke people. Filigree Angel gains you stupid amounts of life as well, but Tivit is there to supply the deck with the artifacts, rather than to get the deck going.
@@lokumo13 he's definitely an engine you just need displacer kitten on the field for example. A lot of the engines on this lost require other cards to be an engine also. Tovit is way more consistent than half of this list. My win con with tivit is time sieve also.
@@nickchaput219 I don't run sieve because I don't like infinite combos or extra turns, I find them boring. I run Displacer Kitten too, no need you to teach me how to play my deck. Even then Tivit still is not the "Engine" of the tank but rather a fuel tank on the side that you pour into your board. Also, highly disagree with "A lot of the engines on this lost require other cards to be an engine also." Other than Jan Jansen, Aesi, Sythis and Jhoira, the rest are themselves mana advantage+card advantage or card advantage by themselves without the need of anything else. Tivit is most similar to Korvold if you sac a C with two Ts and draw, and do the same when you connect, netting a card for both of those the way Korvold does, but Korvold does that a lot more efficiently. Hell, the lands you sac draw you cards.
One of my all time face commanders is dear Are Konrad. Would he be considered a engine commander, do you think?
Korvold is a beast. Want to try it in Legacy Nic Fit
This is the kind of comment I am here for
Jan is a tri-color three drop that needs sac fodder to make fewer treasures than the mana it took to cast him so I hardly see how that's OP unless you already have other tricks to break him. I really think people overstate how strong treasures are, it's really just cards that can come down and instantly make forty mana that are problematic.
In a local that plays a lot of mid-high casual / cEDH capable decks. There is a lot of understandable loop hate and salt flying about my locals. Got tired of all the storm/extra turn decks, decided to build a really nasty Shorikai/Stax-lite deck. The rare times I show up, the high level players just absolutely hate me. Of course in our tourneys that go on through the months, I always play as a spoiler, so yeah I am supposed to make them salty. Shorikai, as its name suggest, is a proper engine, fine-tuned to do what it is supposed to do. Halo fountain is an extremely good win-con for it since you just use your pilots, and you can easily trigger a mechanized production wincon or a win via mirrodin beseiged if you can protect yourself for 1-3 upkeeps. Run other Staples like the myr mana dorks, the standard mana rocks, monolith/crypt + voltaic/manifold key. Scepter + reversal/intruder alarm is mandatory. Run a decent counters suite, as for stax-lite stuff run Drannith Magistrate + Jin-Gitaxias, Ghostly Prison, meekstone, Rhystic Study as just general ideas. Have some cheeky bullshit like Karn + Mycosynth lattice/Darksteel Forge, Narset. Shorikai also works perfectly with Ashnod's Altar for more colorless generation.... As an alternate Idea with shorikai, using ashnods, you get plenty of colorless to fuel an eldrazi strategy.
I'm utterly stunned trynna the weaver isn't on this list.
Prosper with diving top is really nice. But fae cursed king is also good......so I'm torn on who my #1 would be.....prosper, hands down
I have two of these commanders in my stable of decks and rarely play either of them. People know they have to have something to stop them right away, or they can scoop. On occasions that I have played Jhoria, it's normal to get her on turn 2 and win on a 20-minute turn 3. If you're playing with friends, no one wants that.
The way you said "fun" during sythis made me giggle lmao
i play alot of eveyln the covetous & i think she deserves a spot here, its a newer-ish commander but i think shes an engine commander. You can play her in alot of different way with her being grixis, spellslinger, vamp tribal, comboy, ect but you’ll be surprised at how fun and crazy she is 🔥
Dude i will Kiss your feet for a list. I have all the grixis commander vamps but she is the one i want to go for
@@JE-mg1zj ill upload it on moxfield and link it here
@@mibbzx1493 you are a f'ing legend mate! I was already asking on reddit because I only started playing in kamigawa.
esp. evelyn and cormela take a different Route with what vampires seemed to be doing in the past - add in some xander and there will be trouble :D I just love grixis (I dont know why) and all of the possible vampire commanders in grixis are a hell lot of swag
Theres more than 100 cards in here because theres some cards i haven’t gotten yet so ill swap them out later when they get here.
Great list, though i would certainly have added muldrotha and kenrith to the list!
You're forgetting Veteran, voice of duality. By far the best spell slinger engine
Veyran is my fav. Just put permanents that trigger off of spells. Then enjoy the show when eveything is doubled
Another good engine is Magda, brazen outlaw. She’s a super strong commander and very easily combo ready if that’s what you’re trying to do
Prossh is my number favorite as well. I even put the number 1 in the Prossh deck even though I know Prossh isn’t as crazy of a engine compared to him.
How is kenrith not listed?
From personal experience, Gitrog is borderline busted with the right cards
Yes, he’s degenerate 😈
Gitrog, if built "right" is simply boring
I had a Gitrog deck for a while that was insanely powerful, but I honestly got tired of every one of my turns taking 10 minutes lol. But I was 100% positive he would be in this list.
Yeah once you have a board full of landfall effects and ways to recycle lands from the gy it gets kind of ridiculous
No Yawgmoth on the list?
Missing:
1) Light Paws regularly swings for 10+ on like turn 3
2) Syr Carah is a lot of fun in a low power setting
3) Yawgmoth
My Jan Jansen has been crushing my group of friends. Maybe not EDH ready but I can produce turn 5 wins pretty reliable.
I made an energy Chulane deck and it's so much fun... when people let him live.
I have been building Jan and am struggling a bit as i have never build an artafict deck before, anyone know any good includes.
Artifact creatures with battle enter or exit triggers. Both if possible. Let’s you play it, immediately turn it into 2 treasures and get both triggers.
I have a few different ways to make Jansen infinite but the main piece is making him an artifact then doing an untap trick from artifacts leaving or entering battlefield.
Shorikai better be on that list, he's literally an engine 🤣
Chulane isn't played more because it's known to be OP and boring.
I still play Prosh and Korvald is in the 99.
It's problem is that it's a worse Jhoira.
Chulane has to play a bunch of clunky stuff to be strong, so when it doesn't Go Off it also doesn't do anything useful. e.g. a board state of Earthcraft and no basics, Wirewood, Drake, and Chulane costing 7+ because he ate an STP. Congrats, your deck watches someone else win? And when it wins it does so all in one loop without meaningful interaction points.
It is has to resolve a CMC 5 commander that has no inherent defense and lacks haste.
It also scoops to a resolved Chains, among other things.
No love for Yidris?
No love for Kenrith?
I think emry should be a honorable mention instead of Azami 😭, similar to Jhoira strategy and more pieces to think of, besides strong recursive commander & combo/synergy
I like Tameshi more than Emry tbh
*cries in Kykar*
I love Prosper. I believe i create a very good Commander Deck.
No henzie???
Jan *Michael Vincent* with clock of omens
Really appreciate the videos but PLEASE take the time to read the cards you discuss..a lot of us listen as a podcast of sorts or while we can only listen and not watch. Thanks for the content
sythis is less broken than jhoira. yes sythis cost two mana less but artifacts being historic make jhoira much worse. their arent any enchantments that you can cast for 0 mana.
i build a cedh jhoira deck and its not fun to play against, i won in turn two after playing solitare for 20 min while everybody else was just watching me. Omnath locust of rage is still my favorite engine commander or my favorite in generall
Same here.
It is cEDH level but has non-deterministic wins that you have to manually play through. Legit terrible experience and it's not Tier 1 cEDH. It's probably the most outright powerful on the list and yet has no home in either casual or high level competitive.
Urza?
Muldrotha!!!???
Huh, I sort of thought Yarok would be at least an honorable mention, its a great engine for ETB's (lotus cobra, any etb to draw cards, etc)
Anje going crazy.
Thrasios??
no Yuriko? even in honorable mention?
ramos no honorable mention??
Ormos has been cool
Sweet I got 2 out of the 10.
What? No Urza?
Urza is not much of an engine but rather an enabler. It generates you mana, and his ability cheats stuff in but you don't really start snowballing like the ones in this video can.
thought yarok would be on here ngl, you can play a card with an etb effect and you'll double it! treasures, land, bounce, tap, sacrifice. the list is long
The whole deck loses to Hushbringer tho
You dont see Chulane as much because he's frankly boring to pilot.
We can all agree on one thing. Korvold is the best.
If shorikai isn't on the list it's a trash list
You never met a Norin Commander deck?
I call shenanigans because Edric, Spymaster of Trest isn't on this list.
Neat
To cool
Prossh!
Chulane fkn rules
Tayam Sweep
Anje isnt an engine commander, she’s a tutor lol