One of my favorite ways is to find a combo I want and then decide on a deck from there. EDHREC’s main purpose is as a data-driven resource for deckbuilding in the Commander format. It helps players decide on their “perfect” deck as it tracks of all potential commanders and cards that can be played with them. Aggro is an aggressive theme that tends to focus on bashing your opponents with creatures.
After exporting my EDHREC clipboard to the deck list in Archidekt, I adjusted the number of basic lands to support the deck’s color requirements. At this point I used the Recs tab on Archidekt’s card search to get a few more recommendations. I added four more cards during this step, including Elsha of the Infinite. Elsha supports the deck’s primary strategy and could serve as an alternate commander for the deck. Many decks differ significantly in how many cards are needed in each category or the mana curve. A spellslinging deck will run less creatures, a lands heavy deck will run more lands, and higher power playgroups tend towards lower mana value decks in general.
You can see we have a nice curve of spells, focused primarily on mana value two and three. We can’t stop everything that our opponents do to remove our threats so these types of cards allow you to re-use them. If you want more clarity, try looking at similar lists on Archidekt as well. No matter how you do it, you’ll want eight to ten cards that increase your deck’s card velocity. With all those options, it’s important to choose the right ramp for your deck. A Landfall deck will definitely want to use Rampant Growth, but an Artifact deck would benefit more from Mind Stone.
Trading one card for two or more (Sign in Blood) is a classic example of velocity, but like we said with ramp, it’s dependent on your deck and commander. If you are a resident of California, you have the right under the CCPA to opt out of the sale of personal information to third parties. Use the options below to exercise this right, and please review our privacy policy for complete information on how your data is used and stored. Once you have 16 cards that work directly toward your strategy, set them aside. You’ll find a lot of resources online breaking down all the ends and outs of the process, in great detail. The details are great, but today we are looking at the easiest way to build a Commander deck and we’re keeping it simple.
Tutors and Card Advantage
Rule #1 about building a Commander deck is that there are no set rules about building a Commander deck. I am very passionate about deck-building and self expression. If you want your deck to be exclusively built from cards released in the Kamigawa block, please do that.
Step Seven: Make any necessary adjustments and buy your deck.
If it doesn’t bring you joy, throw it into the nearest wall and choose mtg decks something else. Of course, you could always just try searching for certain keywords that fit your idea on a site like Scryfall, too. Check out the final version this Kykar, Wind’s Fury deck and see the results of one Digital Deckbuilding process.
That’s not amazing, but adding our free mulligan increases those odds. You can bump those odds up to 90% by running 20 ramp cards but that also increases the risk of flooding out. Another factor that must be taken into consideration is synergy. Using the considered “best overall” cards doesn’t always mean they are always the optimal for your deck. I will further analyze budget synergetic deckbuilding in future articles. Graveyard Recursion is a common and very powerful way to gain card advantage.
If you query Recs with just a commander, the output will be the commander’s average deck list. As you add cards to the list, the results become more specific. You can create your own card packages by selecting “New card package” from the dropdown menu beneath your username in the top right corner of the screen.
“What is dead may never die” “But rises again harder and stronger.” That common saying from Game of Thrones reflects the power of graveyard recursion. Bring your best cards back from the grave is a big deal and there are whole decks and strategies build upon it. Whether you build a whole strategy or you simply reclaim your best card with a one-shot spell, the effect on the game can be of great gravity. There are spells that can target simple cards and mass recursion spells that can net you crazy card or even board advantage. In any case every deck is recommended to have at least 2 graveyard recursion cards. Sometimes, cards with instant speed that contain graveyard recursion can even be used as protection by bringing back your whole board from a board wipe turning it into a one-sided board wipe.
Spells
Either way, building the deck around the commander is how you make a top-down deck. If your budget allows it, I would also recommend playing lands that generate all colors of mana, such as City of Brass and tarnished Citadel. Strixhaven Stadium is also in here as a bit of a cute alternate win-con. However, I am not sure if it will fill that purpose too often.
Now that you’ve got your interaction and a rough idea for your land base, you’re left with around half your deck left to fill out. There is no right answer, but in most cases players run from 34 to 40 lands with the middle number 37 to be the golden number. Some believe 34 are too low and 40 are too high, but it all depends on the deck. I looked through the cards in the “In B, not A” category and found some great options to finish the Kykar, Wind’s Fury deck. Another token generator with the same trigger as Kykar is an outstanding finishing touch to this deck.
These both help your large board of Elves reliably attack for lethal damage and win you the game. See what others are playing in the current Commander meta here. Once this pile is complete, you’ll be able to combine all your piles and have a 100-card Commander deck! However, before you shuffle everything together, there is one more step. Now that you know how to build a new deck, how do you make decisions on what to cut and what to keep?
Prison commanders accomplish this either by increasing your opponent’s spell casting cost or taxing them for playing some sort of ability or interacting in certain ways. In addition to spot removal, it is important for Commander decks to have a few board wipes to clear everything away at once. Resetting the board back to zero and building back up is often times the best way to swing momentum back into your favor. On the other hand, if you run a lot of ramp spells and high-costed threats, you will probably want more lands. Nothing is worse than getting stuck on 4 lands with 5-drops being the cheapest cards in your hand. This might happen on occasion to the best of decks, but you can mitigate its frequency by adding a land or two to the deck.