6 Things Every Commander Deck Should Have

[@JohnQueSacc]

First thing: sleeves.

[@JM16714]

I want to make an extremely cheap deck to play it naked. Just for the lols.

[@noxington4260]

Raw dogged a precon the other day, actually felt nice without the sleeves lol. But yes 99% of the time, sleeves

[@thrash208]

Which came first The cards? Or the sleeves?

[@bch9124]

Yes. Sleeves. Lots of sleeves.

[@chadbauer]

Sleeves are for kitties

[@casketbase7750]

It's worth noting that your Commander can help cover a category on this list. For example, *Killian Ink Duelist* provides ramp. *Marneus Calgar* provides card draw. *Mereike Ri Berit* provides spot removal. Granted, reliance on your Commander means you have to support them. Netherborn Altar to keep Killian castable, token makers to trigger Marneus, and untap effects to maximize Merireike. And of course, cards from the Protection category. You still dedicate deckspace to achieve the needed outcome (ramp, card draw, removal), but you do it with niche cards that have synergies unique to your Commander. This mixing of style and function is what makes EDH so appealing. Deckbuilding becomes a form of self-expression.

[@stationdisatrous647]

I run Ertai resurrected for spot removal and counterspelling when I really need it.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

very good point.

[@thekwjiboo]

Yeah, like my Tuvasa deck, she's built-in card draw. Or like a Tatyova deck.

[@soleo2783]

​@@thekwjibooaesi being ramp and card draw at the same time 🥱

[@tmore3]

Plan on playing my first Commander game today. Videos like this have been a huge help since I started building my first Commander deck. Great content

[@Arcadious10]

Welcome! Have fun and enjoy the journey of commander 🤙

[@sirlester3]

Excellent and greetings! I've only just started playing mtg since before Christmas and was taught on commander format I bought first and only deck so far just before new year's Now I also got to immerse in All be One with the bundle lol

[@kud5659]

So I built my first commander deck, haven't played it yet. I built an Ib Halfheart goblin deck. 99% of everything I've read says no land removal. Which is it?? Lol

[@sirlester3]

@@kud5659 so, apparently, it's just bad protocol and extremely impolite to target lands in commander Normally you would ask your playgroup first for permission beforehand

[@sirlester3]

Bad etiquette not protocol. It's considered bad etiquette to target opposing lands

[@canoli62]

I think the way you described brainstorm and village rights totally ignores the reason those cards are played. Brainstorm does let you stack the top of your library yes, but it also lets you draw 3 cards, then look at those cards and your hand and decide your best course of action. Coupled with any shuffle effect (which any deck playing it should have) it becomes card selection, which is flat out better than card advantage. I don't care if you draw 10 cards if they are all lands and you cant play em. Similarly, the card you sac to village rights (assuming it is a card at all, as it often tokens), WANTS to be sacrificed. That's the goal. Its a positive, not a negative. Its more bang, not less. You get to draw two AND sac something. That's two positives instead of one.

[@Eric_The_Cleric]

I gotta agree. I put it in my recurring Athroes+Shadowborn Apostle deck because even if I'm not strictly sacrificing the Apostle for a demon, I'm getting more cards in hand AND my opponents have to make the decision to pay the 3 life or give my Apostle back to me so I can go get a demon with it. And that's not even the best use of the card, it's just the one I have. Plus I have so many Apostles in the deck with more recursion effects than just Athreos that one little Apostle means nothing to me in the long run. I'm almost always going to have the advantage when playing Village Rites and it is cheap to boot. I can see the card being even better in a graveyard deck that has so much advantage when an individual creature is destroyed, even from the creature itself, that you would be stupid not to run the Rites.

[@andrewwebb3813]

IMO, the best text on Brainstorm is the part that stacks the top of your library. In any deck that’s playing off the top (Muzzio, Melek, Aminatou, Yuriko, etc) it’s perhaps the best way, and one of the only ones, to stack your deck and get bombs out of your hand and on top of your library where you want them.

[@Hombre944]

I've only seen one channel get into it, that the problem with Brainstorm isn't that it's bad (it's not), it's that it's way overused, and by people who don't understand that it's best when you utilize it with library manipulation

[@seanedgar164]

I play brainstorm to dig for something, it's not net positive so I don't count it. Village rites is in my token decks so I'm up a card, but it's also dig over a hand refill

[@happybrain2674]

demo's list: 1) ramp 2) carddraw 3) removal 4) land removal 5) gravehate 6) protection something i want to mention: - land removal is mostly needed in metas your friends play strong lands, outside it can be ignored. - gavehate is good, but be sure to not pick permanently choices like rest in peace or leyline of the void, those can take out alot of grave decks that have close to no enchantment removal like mono black decks. - protection is to some degree needed. if you can get the value out of your cards they dont need protection, but esp setup cards/decks might need them. - ramp is good on decks with higher mana bases, but if your low on them and effective (better then other players) this can be ignored too. - carddraw like demo said is more cardadvantage. you wanna go up on cards, esp if you at least play 2 cards each turn (like a land and a spell).

[@curtislove7558]

This is a great point. Mainly the ramp because I have a red, white, black equipment commander. I have zero ramp i just use more card draw. I run dihada as my commander so as long as I have at least a red, white and another multi-colored land I never need ramp. This is all casual of course.

[@louis-charlesnadeau3447]

the point about grave hate : i disagree,,, it's ok to play a continus effect. if you have 0 enchantment removal that's on you poorly building your decks. even a mono black deck has feed the swarm and a few decent colorless options. if anything play static grave hate cards, they basically act as protection for the enchantments that help you progress your gameplan

[@happybrain2674]

@@louis-charlesnadeau3447 i understand that point. on my side, if i can avoid that the grave deck has to play alot of tutors and maybe even mass sacrifice or other strong gamestalling cards to have a chance, ill choose to give in a chance to play humble by using less permanent solutions. bog or the artifacts are mostly set bag enough in my tables.

[@mmburp]

@@louis-charlesnadeau3447 Sometimes you don't have enough removal for the gh hate since it's getting exiled when it resolves, as long as it is not a permanent card (or am I wrong about that). I had a game a couple years ago (Meren) in which one of my opponents recurred his Leyline of the Void FIVE fckn times... Ressources are limited, especially if you can't reuse them :(

[@thekwjiboo]

As far as protection, there are 2 specific cards that I'll almost always use if I'm in the associated colors. In white - teferi's protection. Always. No reason not to. In green (assuming it's creature based) - heroic intervention. Again, too good not to use. Either one of those can turn a board wipe into a huge advantage.

[@charliemarlow647]

Hey Demo! For your future video on card draw / card advantage, my way of thinking about it is "card access". Most decks don't care about specifically drawing cards, or having more cards in hand - what's important is that you're able to get to the cards you need when you need them. Drawing more obviously helps this, but so do tutor effects, graveyard recursion, card selection effects, and playing opponents' cards.

[@jacobstone4070]

For protecting your stuff, I think red has the redirect effects. Like Chef's Kiss and Shunt

[@Chonus]

bolt bend is like a budget deflecting swat

[@Tvboy777]

I have started to go up to 15 sources of card draw, and I've started to appreciate more the cheap 1-shot draw effects like Night's Whisper alongside draw engines as a way to quickly re-gas my hand without skipping my turn and also dig for lands.

[@danmorgan7775]

I have been putting copies of demolition field from brother's war in a few decks to up my targeted land destruction. It costs 2 to activate but unlike ghost quarter you don't end up down a land since you fetch one as well as your opponent. Definitely a solid option that I hope stays budget friendly.

[@chrisgebben2043]

the protection and removal and ramp really paid off for me in my gishath deck some guy played a "Destructive Flow" which forces a nonbasic sacrifice each upkeep (he was playing almost all basics) and not only a ramped hard to keep up and had the mana for "Austere command" to get rid of it and also got rid of the small creatures then when my commander was about to be removed i used "flawleses maneuver" to save it and may have gotten me the win with having 55 trample for the last player it was probably the best my Gishath deck ever performed in a deck ever.

[@jonasvincent3099]

Red has Deflecting Swat and Bolt Bend. Great protection. 2 for 1 spells.

[@brandonhiggs88]

Tibalts trickery can work in a pitch as well tho they might get something better

[@timothye.2902]

@@brandonhiggs88 Tibalt's Trickery and similar cards like Chaos Warp and Wild Magic Surge are "answer this thing to win/not-lose" type effects. If you Tibalt's Trickery something that would prevent you from winning this turn, and they rip another thing off the top that prevents you from winning this turn, well, you wouldn't have won either way.

[@shanewroe18]

Fork, shunt...theres many important options respectfully

[@GeneralEli]

I really like those brainstorm, thrill of possibility, etc effects for decks that want things in the graveyard like my Sedris deck

[@ericsanchz]

Why does nobody ever bring up green graveyard hatecards like turn the earth, repopulate, and blessed respite? All amazing and instant speed too they always catch your opponents off guard

[@tbonifiedable]

Because nobody want’s their opponents to keep the cards in their graveyard.

[@ericsanchz]

@@tbonifiedable repopulate and blessed respite get rid of one persons entire grave and turn the earth does the job when they’re trying to reanimate a couple big creatures

[@ericsanchz]

Shuffling the grave back into the library is just as effective as exiling it

[@diegoc5473]

@@ericsanchz don’t forget scavenging ooze!

[@markbehiter523]

Love those cards! I think one reason they arent as popular is because most players seem to want an effect that deals with each opponent at once rather than one opponent at a time.

[@TheSickjits]

Great video. New to the format, trying to absorb all that I can. This helped a lot. Thank you

[@Dragon_Fyre]

Whenever possible, I love including spells that remove a Commander without actually removing the Commander ie. taking control of it, turning it into a 0/1 with no abilities etc.

[@thekwjiboo]

I love loading up with stuff like that. Trapped in the moon, Dryads song, icthyomorphosis, kenrith's transformation...love em

[@Eric_The_Cleric]

My sister hates me because I play Captivating Vampire and Olivia Voldaren in my Edgar deck. I say it's all fair, especially when she's about to make her Rafiq an indestructible, hexproof, doublestriking Exalted monster. Most commander decks should be able to function without necessarily having their commander anyways, but I know how much it hurts to have it taken away from you

[@teradul2480]

Red has a few redirection spells for protection, with my personal favorite being Bolt Bend

[@origaminosferatu3357]

Love this. Some great insights into more nuanced deck building. Counterspells as protection draw as something to get more cards than you started with etc. Learnt the importance of grave-hate last week when a player was trying to repeatedly Mindslaver the whole table. At one point he tried to exile my yard and I duplicated the effect with radiant performer removing Mindslaver from the game.

[@Parzival274]

Thank you for the advice. I've built a few commander decks myself, either from scratch or trying to improve a precon, but even though they win some games, they tend to lose more than win. It's usually due more to luck than anything, so I'll definitely watch this video again and maybe a few more of your videos the next time I tinker with a deck.

[@elguapobandito2833]

I would love to hear your thoughts on the amount of cards for each category.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

i think i will do a video on each individual category moving forward.

[@TheGrantross]

great video. The only tiny disagreement I had would be calling village rites a cantrip. It can be but in decks that create a ton of creature tokens or ones based around recursion it functions more as +1 card.

[@MarkoSchreiber]

Thank you for mentioning Ornithopter of Paradise and Liquimetal Torque!. In my non green EDH decks they are an auto include for me alongside Wayfarers bauble. The torque is great at turning opponnents creatures into artifacts and blowing them up with artifact removal. Most playgroups and randoms I have played with absolutely agreed on single target land destruction. Ghost Quarter is another auto include - my main argument for it is simple: Glacial Chasm. 2 out of 3 opponent will be thankful for that lmao.

[@punkypinko2965]

How about "Fake Your Own Death" to go along with "Supernatural Stamina" 17:05? Also "Undying Malice" and "Feign Death."

[@MTG_CMG]

Even though I know the general rules when it comes to these, it's good to reassure myself when working on decks.

[@timothye.2902]

I think the most important piece of meta-advice about including these 6 things, is to find ways to do them that fit the theme of your deck. If you just jam a bunch of staple cards that draw, ramp, remove, and protect into every one of your decks, your decks are going to start looking and playing very similarly. Even just 2 cards in each of these 6 categories is already 1/8th of your deck slots. I'll use the example here of Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora. Both are generically excellent draw engines, but I wouldn't suggest putting them in every single one of your blue decks. Maybe keep these out of your deck unless that deck cares about enchantments, or is a death & taxes style deck that will have more things which ask opponents to pay more mana to play their cards. This diversity will also help spread the power level of your collection out a bit. Both Rhystic and Mystic feel at home in the higher power range of casual commander, like 7.5-9. Don't run them in your power level 4-6 decks, instead find different, less efficient engines. EDIT: the flip side of this is two-fold. Firstly, if you like to make *a lot* of decks, yea, you'll start repeating some of the flexible and powerful cards in the colors. There's only so many cards in the format, especially as power level climbs. Secondly, reusing cards in multiple decks can be a budget thing. Sure Esper Sentinel is kind of pricey, but you can play him in every single one of your white decks, so if you have 2, 3, maybe even 4 white decks, he sort of costs less for each additional deck you can include him in. As long as you're willing to go find him from your collection and slot him in when you shuffle up.

[@c.r.bledsoe9322]

I feel like most edh decks really only have 30-35 cards for the actual strategy and the rest is like 10 draw 10 removal 10 ramp and then lands. So idk for me it almost feels hard to add everything I want to for a deck

[@TheUltimateRey]

Yeah it’s hard to go full synergy without having any kind of interaction because that’s the most important part of the game

[@riukenavatar8625]

Don't forget your strategy cards can also cover draw/removal/ramp. Weatherseed Treaty for example is ramp and token generation. Usually the best way to actually express your deck's concept.

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

Most compelling commanders either (a) are an engine for cards that can fill these niches in a specialized way or (b) fit one or more of these categories, enabling you to free up slots that would otherwise be dedicated to that category. Fwiw, I run one Beast Within across my nine green decks, one Generous Gift across my five white decks, and around five instants with the text "counter target spell" across my ten blue decks. And in each of those cases, the cards are very specifically on-plan and synergistic.

[@timothye.2902]

I find this difficult a lot too. I think there are some ways to mitigate it: 1) find cards that do multiple things. A counterspell can both remove a threat off the stack and protect your win condition from removal. Modal cards might have a draw option and a removal option. There's plenty of mana rocks you can sacrifice for card draw later on (mind stone, lockets, commander's sphere). 2) find cards that do these general things that also fit your deck's theme. An easy example here are the enchantress decks, because enchantments offer draw, removal, protection, and ramp. It's not difficult to run 40 enchantments in an enchantress deck. 3)find commanders that provide these things. Since you have reliable access to your commander most games, even if they get removed, a commander that draws, ramps, or removes is a huge boon in consistency at doing that thing.

[@allenyates3469]

​@@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos Reaper King run properly means you can essentially leave out removal and board wipes. I love my vulgar new Scarecrows deck so much 🤤

[@felltactician]

I run a bit less (1-2 board wipes; 2 pieces of grave hate; 11 pieces of removal [targetted removal from the board, grave, or hand] ) in favor of thief effects and using my opponents pieces against them. I run ninja tribal; so Rogue Class, Fallen Shinobi, Silent-Blade Oni, Nashi, Dauthi Voidwalker, Ink-Eyes, etc. Is it as good? Probably not nearly as good as running those pieces myself. But theres a certain joy I get from making an opponent's board crumble to their own spells; and I have enough card advantage to get what I want or need most of the time. (Yuriko, Satoru, Sage Owl, Augury Owl, Baleful Strix, Faerie Seer, Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, both Kaito planeswalkers, bident of Thassa, and a plethora of other card draw or advantage effects.)

[@christiansmith4909]

Most of my decks revolve around me drawing cards so mana rocks like Thought Vessel or Decanter of Endless Water are definite includes

[@jakobfalcke9458]

for protecting my stuff in red i am a huge fan of redirecting targets/hurting my opponents with their own spells with bolt bend or radiant performer also those two mana ,,copy any instant or sorcery" instants are quite versatile, i always keep the mana up when i have them in my opening hand and one of my opponents is playing green so i can ramp too it's a bit of a gamble though

[@MentalCrusader]

That's really helpful, I noticed that I have almost no board wipes, and they would've helped a lot in past matches

[@Rizso1]

Red protection is spell redirection. Bolt Bend, chefs kiss and Deflecting Swat are some prime example of red protection spellsm chefs kiss has won me pretty much every commander game i have casted it in.

[@timothye.2902]

even something like Reverberate could be used as protection. You can copy a counterspell to counter a counterspell, or you can copy your burn spell to just outright kill a player (player removal being the strongest form of removal)

[@tcgmetaslayer4202]

I still play plenty of 3 cost mana artifacts, its fun and thematic! 😎👍🏻👍🏻

[@Dragon_Fyre]

The comments on land destruction do not seem to be different from removal. Yes, there are powerful lands to be able to deal with but the same could be said for enchantments, artifacts, etc. where removal should include permanent removal. You just need to be able to remove anything that is allowing an opponent to take over the game which could include land(s). I think you need to include removal for all permanent types.

[@soleo2783]

Only reason people value land removal so much is because they can remove lands using lands, if they had to use an instant or smth it would much less common.

[@quantumperception]

If an effect is efficient enough at card filtering, I will sometimes include it in my card draw section when planning. Abundance is a perfect example; when you have decent mana and need a nonland card, being able to skip past a few lands is almost better than drawing those lands, and the same is true is you are color-screwed, and need a land. Being able to get pretty much exactly what you need is pretty much as good as drawing an extra card or two. I can't count the number of times that Abundance had me skipping at least 4 cards to get to the card type that I wanted to draw. My brother often includes similar effects, like the divining top or scroll rack, but I don't personally think those are powerful enough filter effects to qualify- I want something that potentially goes beyond the first few cards, if I am going to put that card in instead of one-time card burst cards (draw X cards sorceries, for example) or per-turn card draw (once per turn, or when triggered, card draw that is repeatable). But there are a handful of card filtering that are powerful enough to warrant including, even over actual card draws.

[@metalthrashingnerdpodcast9864]

Brainstorm is at its best if you have a shuffle effect. Ponder is a better can trip for commander in my experience. That shuffle really helps and you still look at top three if you don't shuffle.

[@Rizso1]

enchantment and artifact hate is pretty much just as important as creature removal. I cut my sweepers, i found spot removal to be way more important than sweepers. alot of creatures dont matter.

[@RollingCalf]

I like that I learned everything mentioned in this video just by analyzing my losses on mtgo

[@Commandasaurus]

The Problem is... if you put all those things in your deck, you usually have less cards for your deck synergy and theme (which should be around 30% in my opinion), but I agree with all assessments, but not all work for every color combination and cards like Strip Mine are not Budget, so no option for most (I don't pay 20 to 50 bucks for a card, UNLESS it evolves my gameplan (like Ashcoat who made my rats deck super strong). My personal plan for decks right now is: - went from 35 lands to 38-40 in my deck - reduced Ramp from around 12 down by halvish - increased card draw to around 15 cards - 3 to 5 Board Wipes (if possible) - around 8ish removal vor various targets (cheap to cast, choices, instant) - rest goes into deck theme, whereas some of those cards switch in for the spots above or add to them (f.e. Wakening Sun's Avatar in my Gishath Deck) So far a great way to start deckbuilding and the decks work amazingly well so far, even against stronger decks. When it comes to mass land removal... against a lands matter deck, this is fair in my opinion, since lands matter are abusing the "social contract rule" that lands are not to be touched, giving those already strong decks a further advantage.

[@timothye.2902]

It's important, in my opinion, to look for cards which do these things that do fit thematically with your deck, even if it means taking a hit in power level. Modal cards are great for this, as are type-specific themes. For example in an Enchantress deck, you can run a ton of draw, removal, ramp, and protection that are all enchantment cards, so they generate synergy and theme. Or another example: a spellslinger Izzet deck has access to Red's targeted land destruction sorceries.

[@Commandasaurus]

@@timothye.2902 Very good point and I agree whole heartedly. Theme for me is everything, may it be a tribal or mechanic, which makes it all the more sweeter if a tribal card can work as one of the things you need anyway (like ramp or card draw) :D In pure black for example, land destruction is tricky and expensive, but you still have "Befoul" which is a 4 mana sorcery that can hit most creatures and lands. Cheap, not great, but it helps :D

[@Chonus]

Brainstorm is more about card velocity and ensuring you hit every land drop in the first 5 turns than being considered card draw since it's technically just a cantrip/deck manipulation.

[@metalplaysgames]

Demolition field is another good include since you also get a basic

[@teradul2480]

While Village Rights isn't technically card draw in a vacuum (you're giving up a creature and a card in hand for 2 cards in hand), it easily can become advantageous both proactively (using it on a creature that replaces itself, or on a token that's super low value, like a decayed zombie token) AND reactively, in response to removal, so it is very easy to mitigate the downsides, while the upsides of creating death triggers and drawing two are really good, especially because the more workhorse style of card draw, these relliable short bursts, are often passed over for the less reliable, more flashy effects.

[@MustangMike52]

What about Reaver Cleaver as a "ramp" source since you can potentially get damage in and consistently get treasures?

[@magicsinglez]

Brainstorm is really good if you have ways to shuffle your library, like sac-lands?

[@scottricks1676]

Food for thought, what can red do as it’s 1-2 drop protection spell that plays into its color? Maybe impulse draw with some kinda protection?

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

Redirection effects

[@timothye.2902]

red is the second best color for interacting with the stack, behind blue. Their best protection effects are cards like deflecting swat, tibalt's trickery, and reverberate. Red can also recur artifacts from the graveyard, which I would consider to be a form of protection if your strategy relies on certain artifacts.

[@seanedgar164]

I've versed expropriate and craterhoof once in 8 years. I can't say this vid is applicable for all metas but worth considering. I wouldn't run any of the black protection you suggested or mass grave hate, because it turns off one player to deal with maybe 3 cards

[@spudkin564]

Brainstorm may not be good for card advantage, but if you have a card that let's you shuffle your library, it can help you get rid of two dead cards really effectively.

[@quantumperception]

Also, I think a lot of people, when talking removal/interaction, only focus on counterspells and destroy/exile cards, but forget about other things that I count in the same category. Sometimes it is better to make other people's things work for you, rather than removing them. For example, goading effects, or "gain control of" type cards; stuff that doesn't remove a threat, so much as redirect it towards your enemies, or makes it become your threat. I also include things that protect, like cards that say something like "creatures cannot attack..." or give hexproof/shroud. For example, a Moat card when playing a flying deck, or Ghostly Prison/Propaganda type cards. I don't need to remove my enemies' creatures if I neuter them, or at least keep them from attacking me. And why would I destroy something like Rhystic Study (that is the most often removed card in my play group), when I could instead "gain control of target nonland permanent"? So again, I always include board wipes, and a few "exile nonland permanent" type cards, but that is often only half of my removal/interaction; the more I play this format over the last decade (little over), the more I see the advantage in finding other ways to deal with threats. Exiling someone's favorite creature will likely piss them off and cause them to target you in vengeance; instead, say how scary the creature is, but that you don't want to remove it and make an enemy, but you also can't allow it to attack you, so instead, you are just going to Goad it and give it a little bonus to help it attack others; you would be surprised how much less people mind that type of interaction, because you didn't completely stop what they wanted to do, you just made them do it to someone else. They would rather you aim their gun at someone else, rather than disarm them. And if the card is really good, why would you want it in their graveyard, when you could have it on the battlefield under your control. And you won't need as many counterspells if you can include a card that gives "other nonland permanents you control have hexproof" type cards. I usually have 10-16 cards that are removal/interaction, and less and less of them are straight up destroy/exile or counterspell effects; increasingly, I am looking for more efficient/permanent ways to deal with threats, and ways in which it doesn't just hurt someone else, but also maybe benefit me (like goading instead of exiling). Also, it has happened a few times that me redirecting a threat made it hurt my enemies for a few turns, sure, but it also made those other opponents have to use their removal on my enemies' (now redirected) threats, so it ended up drawing out an enemy's card that might have been targeted at my stuff, if I had take out the threat instead of redirecting it. It often happens that, instead of exiling like I used to, which leaves the other opponents better off for me having dealt with the threat, if I instead redirect the threat, it hurts my opponents a few times before they remove it, and now not only did I get to use my enemies against one another, but I also got one to use some removal of their own, that they wouldn't have used (or saved for me later), if I had just removed the threat in the first place. So get creative; counterspells and destroy/exile effects are still useful and worth including, but I end up using much less of them, and using more redirect effects (or ones that make me immune from the bad effect).

[@neuro.bivergent]

Watching your channel is dangerous, I have way too many decks I want to build already. But still, thank you for every video

[@karlgrylls2406]

My experience in commander correspond with all of your points. In addition to your points i'll put graveyard recursion and alternative wincon on it

[@nafaridnafarid]

Do you mind offering more examples? Like pick a category and talk about how to make it happen. For example protection in red… there’s not a ton of synergy there so it makes it hard to want to run anything. How can I give up slots for protection, and are the 2 protection spells in my deck actually going to make a difference?

[@spurcalluth6300]

One example of red "protection" that comes to mind is Feldon of the Third Parh. I'm not sure it counts as protection, but if it doesn't then it is certainly protection-adjacent.

[@Tvboy777]

Deflecting Swat, and Bolt Bend are two fantastic pieces of protection in red.

[@timothye.2902]

Red protection mostly comes in the form of their stack interaction, which is second only to Blue. Deflecting Swat, Bolt Bend, Tibalt's Trickery, even something like Reverberate. Red can also recur artifacts so if you have an artifact based value engine or win condition you can protect it by getting it back from the yard.

[@rowanthorn4547]

How does rip apart go for 4 permanents? I'm probably missing something but it's a 'choose one'?

[@edhdeckbuilding]

it can hit 4 different kinds or permanents. it's all about versatility.

[@marimi46]

No mention of red's redirection effects under the protection category? Deflecting swat, bolt bend, wyll's reversal, even wild ricochet

[@edhdeckbuilding]

good point.

[@shanewroe18]

Yes and fork... theres a few

[@ottounojasmund1919]

Oh god, i just Saw something in your deckbuilding intro - that i now cant unsee… The negative space inside the “U”, looks like a tampon. Am i weird for seeing this? Anyways, very nice informative video! :DD

[@sorin_markov]

My problem is that with these sort of "auto-includes" they're slowing down what I want my deck to do. I feel like you put out a lot of "yeah if I'm in X theme or Y colors, I'm including this card no matter what" and those start to add up to where if I'm making a deck, you'd recommend 30-40 non-land must-haves! I put maybe 10 "staples" in my decks and theme the rest of my deck around what I want the gameplan to be. Yeah it stinks sometimes not having removal for that permanent, but in exchange, I put in a Midnight Reaper that's drawn me 10 cards over the course of the game.

[@someperson7622]

I feel ya on the board wipes, i usually start at 5-6 then cut down to 2-4 depending on the deck, damn has been stupid good for me and puts in a lot of work, but settle the wreckage sees more play due to sunforger, how sunforger isn't banned in commander is baffling to me, so many ways to search it up so it shows up fairly consistently

[@BigDrew49]

I prefer Demolition Field over Strip Mine / Ghost Quarter. I don't want my targetted land destruction putting me down a land. Helps especially in non-green decks.

[@riukenavatar8625]

Demolition Field is probably the most important commander card we got last year. Not the flashiest or even most popular, but very needed.

[@spurcalluth6300]

Dust Bowl is where it's at. Sacrifice a basic plains, get rid of a Maze of Ith or a Rogue's Passage.

[@JB-ni8lr]

@@riukenavatar8625took me a little bit to figure that out, but spot on, in my opinion.

[@ryanhenderson225]

Question: how much do your prioritize protecting your stuff?? I know the numbers will change depending on the deck and the colors of the deck and your local meta, but how much do you (and others in the comments) run protection??

[@Zacharadus]

Personally, the amount of protection spells I play vastly differ depending on my deck. I have two "monolithic" commander decks in Firesong & Sunspeaker and Obeka, Brute Chronologist and I run 6-9 protection spells in those decks because keeping my commander alive is imperative to my gameplan. Meanwhile, my Henzie "Toolbox" Torrie and my friends Yuriko, Tiger's Shadow decks have such a high frequency of synergistic cards and care so little about the commander being removed, that we find it acceptable to play in his case just a couple counterspells (2-3), and in my case literally no protection spells. TLDR: It can safely range from on average 3-7 protection spells depending on how important it is to protect key pieces of your gameplan

[@ryanhenderson225]

@@Zacharadus Thanks dude! I have a Volo and a Jon Irenicus deck and they are both magnets for removal. I always struggle with putting in highly synergistic cards and making sure I have a critical mass of those versus putting in protection. So your thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[@JessBritvec]

For me it depends on what my game plan in addition to how its going to be perceived by my opponents. The deck that I devote the most slots to protection is Kamiz (Esper), where I want a very small board until I'm ready to win. I want to get two creatures down and keep them on the board, investing game actions into them so the longer they stick the more precious they become. I have 12 cards that help protect my board, half of them are more versatile, so I'd say I dedicate 6 slots in that particular deck. If you have enough cards to do it, I would consider running a lot of redundant effects as protecting your game plan as well. A bunch of pieces that serve the same purpose are more expendable and you don't have to worry as much about protecting them and probably want to lean further into being able to rebuild your board. Cards that want you to invest fewer resources are more likely to serve their purpose before they are removed; so cards that do something right away are more expendable, while cards that have a big prerequisite to play/turn on or need a turn cycle to be able to use need more protection. If you have a blink deck or an aristocrats deck a lot of your creatures are probably expendable, if you have a bunch of pieces that have activated abilities or attack triggers you probably want to have a lot of protection. If your deck leans into either extreme of being explosive or telegraphing when you are playing a more precious piece you might not need a ton of protection for the majority of the game, but you probably want to make sure you have something in your hand to ensure you get to do the thing. I think all decks should have protection for their commander, redundant effects when possible, and/or ways to win without their commander even when the rest of their deck doesn't need a lot of protection. Ideally, I don't want it to take more than one or two turns to stabilize and get back to moving my game plan forward. Just for reference, I'm usually considered a threat in my meta, not always arch enemy, but I have to plan to be targeted even when I'm doing something benign. We play interaction and expect interaction, I also regularly play against control, so my decks are made to withstand it.

[@donschellenberg6625]

Great Video Demo!

[@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299]

Command Zone and Tolarian Academy suggests when building EDH decks to: - 36-38 Lands - 10+ Ramp - 10+ Card Draw - 6-8 Single Target, 4-5 Boardwipes - 25+ Creatures LOL I don't think I have ever really come close to this but it is a decent suggestive guideline to a decent deck. Keep in mind you can use modal cards to fulfill multiple niches. I think it is always good to go for flexible cards that can be used in many situations. The biggest thing to always remember when making your EDH deck is to have fun, don't feel like you are being pigeon holed into using certain cards and no other, Good Luck :P

[@vectorstrike]

4-5 board wipes are too many. 2-3 are enough, I'd say

[@Chonus]

@@vectorstrike especially if you run tutors, allot of my decks just have cyclonic rift and that's it unless I'm playing a super control slow deck.

[@timothye.2902]

I think CMND Zone has revised their ratio of spot removal and board wipes to 10-12 spot removal and 2-3 board wipes

[@xaeoxic7328]

volatile fault is my jam. destroy non basic (fair) and they tutor, but i also get a treasure. its awesome.

[@nikolamatasin3877]

talking about cmc 3 mana rocks... Chromatic Lantern i 4-5 color decks

[@urahara64360]

Almost no one in my play group ever plays spot removal it's pretty much all board wipes

[@DedicatedCaffeineUser]

My favorite card draw spell is Inspiring Refrain. You can cast it for its CMC if you need it right away or you can cast it for its suspend cost if you need it later or don’t have the mana to cast it outright. The best part about it is that once it resolves, it becomes suspended again so it’ll keep giving you card advantage for as long as it keeps resolving.

[@MagiConch28]

I don't think that's how suspend works, the counters only come off when you spend the suspend cost, and after they would remain and you wouldn't get the card back again. At least that's how I've been playing it, could be wrong

[@DedicatedCaffeineUser]

@@MagiConch28 The suspend reminder text reads: “Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may spend (suspend cost) and exile the card with (suspend number) time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When there are no more time counters on it, cast it without paying its mana cost.” Additionally, Inspiring Refrain states to exile it with 3 time counters on it as part of the card’s effect so yes you do keep getting it back.

[@bryceduyvewaardt8136]

Are board wipes removal in this video? If four are needed, then how many single targeted removal cards do we need?

[@moedark4390]

No!!! you dont need a board wipe, if you wanna reset the game.... just play another game.....repeated board wipes is one of the least fun experiences in commander..not all of us wanna play a 2 hour game.

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

@@moedark4390 "No, don't wipe my board, just let me win!"

[@bryceduyvewaardt8136]

@@moedark4390 Good to know. Should there then be 5 cards that remove creatures and 5 that remove artifacts/enchantments to keep the game moving and stop players from getting out of hand? The video made it clear that it's important, but having specific amounts helps me with deckbuilding.

[@timothye.2902]

I'd generally advise 2-3 board wipes and 8-10 pieces of targeted interaction. Both categories should skew somewhat toward creatures, since creatures are the most common type of permanent, but being able to remove artifacts, enchantments, and lands is important too. As this video suggested, in a casual EDH setting versatile removal that can hit multiple types of permanents is important. So cards like Anguished Unmaking which can hit any nonland permanent, or Generous Gift which can hit any. For sweepers that'd be cards like Farewell and Austere Command over cards like Wrath of God.

[@bryceduyvewaardt8136]

@@timothye.2902 I see, I guess it's been unclear for me when targeted interaction hasn't been categorized. I just guessed that 2 ways to remove creatures, 2 for artifacts, 2 for enchantments and 1 or 2 for lands would work since they all fit under the umbrella term. The removal cards having more than one type that they can remove makes more sense now.

[@leobousset9451]

Lion sash is my favorite graveyard hate card :-)

[@brandonhiggs88]

Proper is my favourite deck to play with rewards you get off prosper is just so got it's card draw and ramp

[@bubzettel922]

It's actually pretty frustrating to play in a meta where you play a "proper" amount of removal and most other players just care for comboing off or synergies. I often end up keeping the two best players in check while pf course losing card advantage doing that. Afterwards the 3 other players casually kick me out. So play removal folks!!

[@Kuehnpiano]

Chulane is the one stop that does it all lol

[@craigstuckey319]

My Edgar deck is a dedicated aristocrats deck. It is essentially boardwipe proof. A boardwipe may actually just kill you lol.

[@floridaman6982]

Feel like it’s not bad to focus hard on a gameplan and allow others in the pod to cover weaknesses. Don’t need to play board wipes or gravehate if I have consistent boardstate threats. Then the other players will use their boardwipes and I can focus on making my board again quickly.

[@LimboLance]

Why is there such a love for Basic Lands? With all the specialty Lands (ETB effects, effects that turn the lands into creatures, indestructible, etc), Fast Lands, Tap Lands and so forth - why not look at decks without basic lands? Is there an advantage to having them and/or a disadvantage to not having them that I have missed? With the attitude of WoTC [(un)Happy 30th - lets celebrate by raising prices and watering down the value and quality of all new Sets], I have focused my $$$'s on buying Artifacts, Lands and specific cards in the $ingle$ market rather than "cracking packs" - so, I now have a wide variety of them.... For example: In my Ashcoat (You Dirty Rat Deck) I have: Ancient Tomb, Bojuka Bog, Buried Ruin, Command Beacon, Command Tower, Crypt of Agadeem, Darksteel Citadel. Demolition Field, Gemstone Mine, Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai, High Market, Hive of the Eye Tyrant, Leechridden Swamp, Mortuary Mire, Mutavault, Path of Ancestry, Piranha Marsh, Plaza of Heroes, Reflecting Pool, Reliquary Tower, Secluded Courtyard, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Strip Mine, Swarmyard, Takenuma, Abandoned Mire, The Dross Pits, The Mycosynth Gardens, The Seedcore, Thespian's Stage, Tower of the Magistrate, Unclaimed Territory, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Vault of Whispers, Vivid Marsh, Witch's Clinic. I also have artifacts (Arcane Signet, Crowded Crypt, Phyrexian Atlas, Sol Ring) and MDFCs that generates manna for a total of 41 Mana generating cards. These allow Graveyard Hate, Indestructible Lands, No hand size limitations, creatures upon destruction, and so on.

[@timothye.2902]

I can see a few reasons: 1) monetary cost. Basic lands are cheap, many utility lands are not 2) entering untapped and tapping for colored mana. Many utility lands either do only one of these, or in some cases neither of them 3) nonbasic land hate. Blood Moon, Ruination, Price of Progress, and Archon of Emeria type effects are going to hurt decks without basics significantly more than they do decks with basics 4) spells which care about basics. If you have 0 basics in your library when your creature gets Path to Exile'd, you've lost a lot of value. Land ramp also often only fetches basic lands or maybe a few select nonbasic lands like shocks and true duals.

[@robertsweeney7040]

@@timothye.2902 I agree about the cost aspect… …before the 30th Anniversary that is… After the “Flying Fickle Finger of Fate” (look it up if you don’t know the reference) given to us by WoTC… …the $200-$300 for the Set Booster Boxes with each release is now going solely into $ingle$ and LGS Draft events (as recommended by WoTC as well). I primarily am aiming at Lands, Artifacts and Commanders. I have about 3,000 non basic lands (4-5 of each type if I can) and am separating my Lands into those that tap on entry and those that do not - primarily trying to use the non tap Lands first. I also try to avoid Fetch Lands as I am reducing the number of these Basic Lands to 2-4 per deck (half of those Snow Lands). So, these non basic Lands do all kinds of things that may not be synergistic to your deck premise - but unlike Creatures, Spells and Artifacts - the effects are a side bonus. It makes opponents try to protect against multiple attack avenues besides the theme of your deck (after all the primary purpose is Mana - the ETB or trigger effects are gravy). I primarily play Commander but am now looking at Proxie$ to get the more expensive Lands as I am not a collector and $500 a card Lands hold no joy for me. Since WoTC has gone down the “dark rabbit hole”, there is no reason to not do so for friendly play (as long as all players agree and I intend to allow them to use my Proxie$ against me!). So, since “Mass Land Destruction” is frowned upon in friendly play (though targeted destruction still is a thing - MUCH harder when 95% of your Lands are non Basic) - why not decrease the Basic Lands???

[@floridaman6982]

Playing phylanth, you get tokens equal to the number of basics in play. Also a bunch of creatures lands and Plainswalkers search for basics. Also they are cheap!

[@robertsweeney7040]

@@floridaman6982 there is always synergy to consider. But, specialty lands can give limited land destruction, become or create creatures, give counters and so on. In effect two cards in one - economy staple! So, instead of cracking a pack - I buy 1 or 2 non tap specialty lands; instead of a box of mostly worthless cards - I get 5-10 of the more expensive lands. In Commander, you need only one. Just saying it’s a viable strategy (I think - going to start play testing it soon).,..

[@kuttkymyst]

Great video 👍

[@nicholasdickson8698]

#1 a commander #2 lands #3 spells #4 win conditions #5 sleeves #6 interaction

[@Zatsumaster]

inb4: ramp, interaction, boardwipes, protection, wincon, synergy

[@DioxideCad]

How high do you rank life gain in a deck that isn’t built around it?

[@alex_oxGee]

What are yalls thoughts on cards like weathered runestone for graveyard hate

[@pedroarthurpereira3679]

Ghost Quarter is the first card i put in my decks since one of my friends use Glacial Chasm and i have no way to win this game cuz i hadn't any land removal.

[@jayjayhooksch1]

I think spot removal is generally overplayed and overrated rather than underplayed; when you have 3 opponents, trading 1 for 1 on resources isnt playing to win, it's playing to not lose. This is especially true for the types of removal so often recommend, the generous gifts, beast withins and chaos warps of the world. Not only do they give your opponent a resource back, but they are 3 mana! Instead you should be looking for board wipes and synergy driven removal. Either set up some card advantage with the board wipe, or advance your game plan while dealing with threats with the synergy based removal.

[@joshrobinson2409]

I have a deck were mana rocks just slow it down and fuctions way better with out them I found that out afte working on my deck for a long time the only thing I have is sol eing and that seems to be enough cause I can get wins really fast like on turn three or four sometimes turn 2

[@williamkeiser7562]

Land destruction isnt frowned upon for us. Its free game and honestly always should be. Dont understanf why people hate it so much when its a legit strategy. I'm starting a mass land destruction deck too.

[@fullgopherman7066]

Do yall not know ab bone splinters and bone shards? I feel like those are better removal spells

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

I don't think _any_ of my decks have all six. The closest I get is probably my Muldrotha list, which lacks only card _draw_ (because of the overwhelming card _advantage_ offered by Muldrotha herself). Suffice to say, I disagree with the sentiment that you _need_ all of these things to have an effective deck.

[@kindathor]

loving the colors~~

[@DerpHerper]

Say you're playing Boros aggro: You still putting in board clears and spot removal? If so, how many?

[@idkjustleavemebeplease]

I'm one of those odd balls who have started to not run removal. I run 2 board clears and rarely ever use them tbh. Why??? Because one of the guys at my table throws a tantrum when he gets targeted by literally anything. It has gotten to the point where I only play arena nowadays.

[@EvolutionSTUD10S]

Lots of must-erbating here. Build your options around your cube... not a mythical right amount of cards. Synergy and flexibility are more important than anything here. If you're waiting on a 1/99 or 1/49 or even a 1/20 chance to top deck the card you need then you have an issue since most likely you only have access to the about 1/4 of your deck in an average game. Play cards that work well with your strategy or increase your options (mdfcs anyone?) rather than adding one more extra board wipes because the man said so. Also, if you're at a table that plays Tabernacle or Gaea's Cradle then land destruction is probably the least of your worries considering the other cards likely at that table.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

this video is me giving my opinion on what i do and what works for me. nobody has to do what i say, it's just a suggestion. if you think your opinion is better perhaps start your own youtube channel and give it regularly like i do.

[@Yarradras]

The sad thing is that when you are done with these six categories, you have only like 30 slots left for stuff you actually want to do. So I am always looking for cards that fall into these categories but also do the thing I want to do.

[@quantumperception]

Land destruction is HEAVILY restricted in my group. Not only is mass land destruction banned, but also even destroying a single basic land is banned. We barely allow single non-basic land destruction; I've never seen it included as a card with that single purpose, and even the few times where someone has a card that has that as one of the possible effects, everyone is very clear about which lands we destroy. We NEVER go for lands that just give normal mana; even if they have a dual land that is the only source of one of their colors currently, it would be considered wrong to destroy that dual land. Pretty much, land destruction is limited to special cases that do more than a single mana per turn; Cabal Coffers is the most often destroyed land, and no one argues that is an unfair use of land destruction- everyone agrees that is exactly the type of card that created the exception. I think there is one that gives their creatures some type of landwalk (islandwalk?), and that is another valid target. Basically, it has to do more than give you just one mana, for it to be a valid target for destruction in our play group. But if you have a giant hand, and one land gives you "no maximum hand size", then a player can remove that land legally in our group. I think that is fair, and everyone in the group seems to agree; 98% of lands are not allowed to be destroyed, but there are those rare exceptions that do more than give you one mana per turn, and those are usually fair game. But destroying someone's command tower (arguably one of the best lands) is considered off limits, because regardless of the color fixing, it still just produces one mana a turn.

[@Boygamer0312]

Top 6 things 1: sleeves 2: cards 3: lands 4: instants 5: creatures 6: black lotus

[@Hombre944]

If the odds of drawing a single board wipe from the 99 are pretty terrible, how are the odds of drawing a single land destruction or a single graveyard hate any better? Moving up to 2 apiece still isn't good odds... It sounds like 35 lands, 10 ramp, 10 draw, 10 interaction, 4 land destruction, 4 graveyard hate, 4 protection... 77 cards... So your deck has 22 cards to do its thing? How long do you want your games to last? What turn are you trying to win by?

[@Turn2Ugin]

Good shit man

[@WraysCustoms]

Are there board wipes for mono-green elves?

[@edhdeckbuilding]

sadly the only downside of green is the creature boardwipes.

[@WraysCustoms]

@EDH Deckbuilding That's saddening. Time to regenerate I guess.

[@TakiHaki]

Hi, how many lands do you have in your decks (no landfall)?

[@edhdeckbuilding]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pn7WZX-YeNurabM

[@nikolibarastov4487]

Card Advantage is digging through your deck faster. However, I want the Card I am using to get me 3 cards at a time, minimum in my Commander Decks, if it is a Raw Draw Card. As far as Protection, in the vein of Combat Damage, a lot of people sleep on Blustersquall, and Polymorphed's Jest. Because there are a lot of cards that can't be counters which are a pain in A$$.

[@bobhouses2036]

Thraben charm is my favorite grave hate card

[@noogieboyskullbustah7799]

It was funny to me when you mentioned counterspell for protection. Because in my Aesi I have Twart and Mystic Sanctuary and I got to admit, that's quite annoying, but effective.

[@Pixel165]

Demolition field is the shit for land destruction. Ghost quarter is bad imo

[@profitsdaily2]

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." _Margaret Thatcher

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Lightning +Greaves = thing is YOU cannot either target your own character once you equip it with that, no? Kind of a "Better be sure you don't wanna interract with it before you equipe that !"

[@Alexander-mw1ek]

A commander deck needs, first and foremost, a creator/pilot

[@orgazmo686971]

#1 Ramp #2 Card Draw #3 Removal #4 Land Destruction #5 Graveyard Hate #6 Protecting Your Stuff 2/6 a'int bad.