I submitted this to TCGPlayer.com when I asked them about writing a regular Commander column on their website. Wish me luck!
Greetings all, my name is Cassidy and I will be your content provider for the next 1500 or so words. I have been playing Magic on and off since the release of Alliance though I was never as engaged by the game as much as when I played my first game of EDH, which has now been officially re-monikered as Commander. With the imminent release of the Commander preconstructed decks, there will be many questions floating around the MTG Community. Whether you are a seasoned veteran new to the format or if you are just a plain old newbie, a serious gamer or a kitchen table card flopper, the Commander format has plenty to offer any personality and preference. To this end, I will explain what Commander is and why you should play it, facilitating the discussion by breaking it down into pre and post deck construction considerations of the rules, strategies, and social aspects that make commander unique in the MTG universe.
So what is Commander, and why should you be playing it?
Commander is primarily a multiplayer format, though it can be played as a one versus one duel. With that said, the primary motivation for a player engaged in Commander is meeting new people and having a good time. The tone of the format is overtly casual, even going so far as to have a “suggested” set of banned cards instead of a hard banned list, though the suggested list is often followed implicitly. Social policing of offensive cards is encouraged within each meta-game and in essence, Commander operates on a sort of Rousseauian social contract. Cards and strategies will be discouraged on a local level, and if a player threatens or breaks this social contract through anti-social behavior, a reactive social response will often ensue, including but not limited to forcing a player off the table or even overt shunning if necessary. This leads to a phenomenon known as “group expectation,” examples of which would be the expectation that games will last long or the expectation that mass land destruction will not be employed. The group expectation is really the most important aspect of the Commander Social Contract. The social considerations on deck building is obvious then- some cards will garner more anger than others, and the reaction of other players to your cards and actions is more important than actually winning the game. In further articles, I will give each card a “hate rate” depending on socially acceptable a card will be. I encourage readers to voice their opinion.
Say you go to a store you have never been to before for an FNM fix but the draft/standard round doesn’t start for another half an hour. If you see some random people about to sit down to a game of Commander, you may ask to join. If you play a commander, card or combo that reduces the fun of everyone else at the table, there is less of a chance that this same group will want to play with you again. Seeing their displeasure, you can either A) remove the offending cards or change the strategy to keep games fun and interesting, or B) alienate yourself from the group and probably everyone else in the store by continuing with the obnoxious antics.
Many pre-deck construction factors set the Commander format apart from the other formats, the most prevalent of which is the unique ruleset on which it operates. Before deck construction, a player must choose a single legendary creature as the “Commander” of their deck. Any colored mana in the commander’s casting cost and text create what is called the “Color Identity” of the commander. Only cards sharing a color identity with the commander are allowed in the deck; for instance, the “Dawn Bringer” cycle from Fifth Dawn all have a five color identity despite being mono-colored creatures themselves. Similarly, split cards, split mana cards, and the phyrexian mana cards cannot be packed in the deck if they have a mana color on them that is not in the commander’s color identity.
Say your commander is Omnath, Locus of Mana. He is two colorless and one green mana to cast, and has no other mana symbols in his text, making his color identity mono-green. This Omnath deck cannot contain any other mana symbols, basically limiting the arsenal to green, artifact, and green/colorless producing land cards. Cards such as Kitchen Finks or Phyrexian Metamorph, despite the fact that they could technically be played by an Omnath player with only green mana to spend, do not share ‘Nath’s color identity so cannot be placed in the deck. If you switched to a WUG general such as Angus Mackenzie, either card will be legal.
Further impacting deck construction is the Highlander/Singleton format on which Commander is based. Highlander style decks have only a single copy of any non-basic land cards, totaling to an exact card count of one hundred including the commander, from any of the available Magic sets besides the “Un-“ expansions (though as mentioned, local custom can overturn even this rule.) Because of this highlander base, building a good Commander deck can be as simple or complex as desired. With each deck consisting of at least seventy different cards with no overlap, there is a lot more room for pet cards and different strategies to shine.
This unique deck building ruleset necessarily creates strategies distinct to Commander. As we will discuss in a bit, the chosen commander is almost always available for the player to cast, making it a prime starting point to build a deck around. A good example of this is Rhys the Redeemed, who will lead a strong token creature centered deck. On the other hand, a specific commander can be chosen for their unique color identity, especially the Planar Chaos wedge Elder Dragon cycle such as Vorosh, the Hunter or Intet, the Dreamer who were the sole legendary creatures in their colors, in this case BUG and RUG, until the unique cards in the Commander pre-constructed decks were printed. Not that a commander deck needs to be built upon a commander- some players use key-word/mechanic themes such as land destruction/resource denial or haste and choose a commander who will fit in with the theme; one can even build a deck based on the knowledge that the games will be multiplayer and capitalize on this fact, creating what is commonly known as a “group hug” deck, usually commanded by Pheldagriff or another legend that can create goodwill towards men/women. Due to the casual nature of Commander, a player can even choose their commander based on how hilarious the card is, whether or not it is “good.” While not overtly powerful in conception, a five color Atogatog deck will be very fun if for no other reason than you are playing a freaking Atogatog. Atogatogatogatogatogatog.
After the deck has been constructed, the commander has another unique role in the deck- your commander is always available for play providing you have the mana, making it the most reliable card in your deck and the natural focal point for strategic planning. When any game starts, players place their commanders in the ‘command zone’ where they will remain as long as they are not in play or ‘tucked’ back into the deck via certain spells and abilities. A player may cast their commander from the command zone by paying its mana cost as normal at anytime they could normally cast a creature. Once a commander dies or is exiled, instead of going to the graveyard or into exile, the commander is returned to the command zone with a counter marking the death. A player may play the general again, at a cost of two extra colorless mana for each death counter.
Following the previous example, Omnath has been cast from the command zone after his player taps three forests. Unfortunately, an opponent taps their two swamps and sends a terror ‘Nath’s way. Omnath goes back to the command zone with a death counter. If ‘Nath’s player would like to cast him again, the player must pay four colorless and one green mana. If he dies again, it will increase to six colorless, and so on.
Commander’s last distinctive trait is the life total and the corresponding ‘commander damage.’ Each player’s life total starts at a whopping forty (40), double that of traditional formats. To balance this bountiful vitality, a player loses if they take up to twenty one (21) damage from a commander, including their own.
“Fine, Commander is obviously very unique, but why should I play?”
As a primarily multiplayer format, Commander lends itself to friendly games, possibly around the kitchen table, possibly to fill time before a tournament. On the other hand, the interaction between cards can become quite intense and games can become cut throat as players accumulate cards and their decks become fine tuned killing machines. You can play a game of aggressive domination or a game of political bargaining. You can play an extremely goofy commander, such as the previously mentioned Atogatog or a no nonsense commander like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. You can play a game that lasts four turns where a player combos off and wins the game with cards like Exsanguinate, or games that last for hours as the players build their forces, poised for an epic showdown. In other words, whatever kind of game you want to play, Commander is like All State- there for you.
For those that have played Magic for years, Commander is a great place to put all those unused cards that are awesome but have long since rotated out in other formats. As a bonus, these old cards will interact with newer cards in strange and hilarious ways, breathing new life into your collection. Elder cards such as Seedborn Muse, Future Sight, and even Strip Mine all take on new dimensions in a Commander deck.
Conversely, for newer players, Commander is an inexpensive way to get into the game and learn the ins and outs of playing Magic in general. Many older cards are one dollar or lower, and a decent commander is usually around two to five. Adding to this, most expensive cards have low costing alternatives that will do in a pinch. One could easily assemble an effective commander deck for under forty dollar, and a not so effective one for much less. Even if you can’t afford to build a deck, go to your LGS, ask to sit in on a game or if you know how to play ask to borrow a deck from another player. Most Commander players have multiple decks; I always carry around my Omnath, Kemba, and Captain Sisay decks that I would be more than happy to lend anyone without a deck.
Thus ends my primer on the Commander format, I hope its relevance was apparent. Stay logged for future articles about Commander including deck building, strategy, and social contract.
