How to Build Your First Commander Deck In MTG

Commander has quickly become one of the most popular choices for gamers Magic the Gathering to get involved in the hugely popular strategy card game. With huge decks led by unique legendary creatures, Commander can feel very different to regular Magic: The Gathering for newer players.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – Everything You Need to Know About the Commander Format

But don’t be intimidated by the different ruleset. Getting started with the system can be as simple as putting together a Commander deck. From choosing your titular commander to making sure your deck feels personalized to your preferred way of playing magic, here’s how to build your first Commander deck in Magic: The Gathering.

Rules to be observed

There are a few rules that make Commander different from regular Magic: The Gathering to keep in mind when creating a Commander deck.

You can only have one copy of a card with the same name between your commander and your library. So redundancy is king.

Secondly, Each card in your commander deck must match the color identity of the legendary creature that is its commander. Color identity is the sum of all colors shown in the commander’s rules text. This includes its mana cost, activated abilities, mana production, and any other instance of a colored mana symbol. So if your commander only costs green to cast but has an activated ability that costs or produces red mana, then that commander’s color identity is both red and green.

At the same time, Commander doesn’t have a sideboard, so cards that retrieve cards you own outside of the game won’t work. There is no way to get a wish board in Commander, so give up any dreams of using Burning Wish and such early on. Aside from that and a list of forbidden cards, Commander follows the same principles as regular Magic.

Find your Commander style

The main obstacle is figuring out exactly what you want your deck to do. There’s a near-endless list of deck types you could theoretically build in Commander, but most of these fall under larger archetypes. Here are some of the most popular archetypes in Commander.

artifacts

Artifact decks rely on the inherently strong synergies between Magic’s mostly colorless artifacts, which can cover everything from mass removal to powerful combo engines and mana ramps. Usually these decks look like this cheat powerful artifacts by not paying their mana cost, cheaply retrieving those artifacts from the graveyard, or increasing powerful win conditions thanks to the multitude of mana acceleration effects available through artifacts.

That are often highly synergistic decks that have a web of combos to ensure they are having the impact they need when the time is right. Popular artifact commander options include:

• Urza, Lord High Artificer
• Sharuum, the hegemon
• Breya, Etherium Sculptor
• Daretti Scrap Savant
• Sai, Master Thopterist

aristocrats

Aristocrats is an archetype named after a standard deck that uses Orzhov Aristocrat and Falkenrath Aristocrat to repeatedly sacrifice its creatures for value. This name has taken over as slang for Any deck that focuses on regularly sacrificing creatures to trigger on-death effects.

These decks often have a commander who either has an offering in their own rules text or an ability that works with you and periodically sends your creature tokens and cards to their demise. Popular aristocrat commanders are:

• Korvold, king of the fairies
• Ayara, First of Locthwain
• Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
• Ziatora, the cremator

tokens

Tokens is a timeless and simple strategy in Commander. The goal of these decks is to assemble a massive legion of creature tokens, and then charge them all up to potentially kill multiple enemies at once. Token decks refine Creating a wide board state out of small tokens and infusing these cheap throwaway bodies with strong anthem effects who buff all their creatures.

TThese decks want Keep the tokens alive so they can charge up to deal a really ridiculous amount of combat damage. Often the commanders of these decks either create tokens, buff creatures, or otherwise reward the large number of creatures that come into play during a game. Popular token commanders are:

• Trostani, Selesnya’s voice
• Rhys the redeemed
• Purphoros, god of smiths
• Winota, Union of Forces
• Jinnie Fay, Jetmir’s second

counter

Counter decks benefit from counters being placed on permanents and players. Use effects like proliferate and cards that take care of specific types of counters. Infect decks kill opponents by putting 10 or more infect counters on them, often also putting -1/-1 counters on their opponents’ creatures. +1/+1 counter decks focus on the battlefield and buffing one or more +1/+1 creatures. Finally, keyword counter decks place creatures with new keywords and abilities through the use of unique effects, many from the Ixalan block. Popular counter commanders are:

• Hamza, guardian of Arashin
• Atraxa, the voice of the praetor
• Skullbriar, the walking grave
• The scorpion god
• Volrath, the shape thief
• Toxrill the Corrosive

life gain

Life Gain decks are exactly what they sound like, focusing on a variety of effects that increase their overall lifespan and make them incredibly difficult to kill quickly. Life gain alone is not enough to win a game of Commanderhowever, look for cards that yield a high life total or many life gain triggers in more tangible value.

Often these decks play such effects Discourage or prevent opponents from attacking them or their creatures, to more easily ensure safety in executing their game plan. These decks have plenty of redundancy to ensure all of their cards work together in a similar way and offer a consistent playstyle. Popular life gain commanders are:

• Dina, soul steeper
• Oloro, timeless aesthetic
• Beledros Witherbloom
• Karlov from the Ghost Council
• Vito, thorn of the twilight rose
• Heliod, sun-crowned

Instant & Sorcery

Instant and sorcery decks forgo varied board states in order to take advantage of them they repeatedly cast instant and sorcery cards, flooding their opponents with magical goodness. Some of these decks attempt to cast a large number of cheap spells in a single turn before unleashing a massive spell using the storm mechanic, while others attempt to cast massive, game-changing spells at a deep discount.

Often, The commanders of these decks are the main payoff for all of their instants and sorceries. making sure they can quickly capitalize on their deck’s theme. Popular instant and cast decks include:

• Mizzix the Izmagnus
• Vale’s Edge, Sky Summoner
• Kalamax, the storm father
• Lier, disciple of the Drowned
• Chun-Li, countless kicks
• Kess, dissident Archmage

This is just a small taste of the archetypes that can be built in Commander, and there are tons of resources available online to help you find the Commander that’s best for you.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – Powerful Cards That Are Banned and Why They’re Banned in Commander

Build your deck

There are no hard and fast rules for building a Commander deck, aside from its singleton nature and a forbidden card list, like any other Magic: The Gathering format. The average deck should have between 34 and 42 landsdepending on the level of the mana ramp and specifically the synergy with lands.

If you want to tap into the crush spirit of other Magic: The Gathering players, Check out community resources like EDHRecshowing you what players like you are packing into their decks for specific commanders. Putting together your first Commander deck doesn’t mean it’s done, as you will be sure to plug and unplug cards as you play with it and find out exactly how it works. Commander decks are always a work in progress.

Make sure you have significantly more cards that cost one through three mana than cards that cost four through six and up. Being able to get your plan off the ground early is paramount. You should also make sure that expensive spells generally give you enough advantage to be worth waiting to cast or use.

A good rule of thumb is to split your deck around these numbers.

• Seven to ten mana acceleration effects if you have them.
• Five to seven removal spells, including both targeted removal and board wipes.
• Draw six to ten card pieces.
• At least twelve cards that interact directly with your commander or central strategy.

Fill in the rest with a card balance and you’re well on your way to becoming a veteran Commander.

That’s all you need to know to build your first Commander deck, go out there and dominate your opponents!

NEXT: Magic: The Gathering – Best Manadorks for Commanders