How To Choose Your Commander

Hello there, and welcome to the world of Commander, Magic: The Gathering's most popular format! My name is Brian, and I aim to be your guide for navigating this format that we at EDHREC know and love so much!

In our last article, we took a look at some guidelines for building a Commander deck. Those are guidelines to get your deck built and playable, but there is a lot more to learn after that.

Before we get into the finer details of deckbuilding, I actually want to take a step back and help you answer the true first question of the deckbuilding process: What commander should I play?

If you read my first article in this series (and you should!), you may have picked up on a common theme. Most of the guidelines I laid out came with the caveat "but it depends on your commander".

In this article we'll cover the some of the main reasons (archetype, colors, cool cards, etc.) to pick a specific commander. Of course, I'll highlight all the tools that EDHREC and our partner sites have to help with this decision.

After all, building a commander deck can be a big investment of time and money, so using all the tools at your disposal maximizes your investment!

My Orzhov Story

A personal anecdote to set the stage: It's no secret that my favorite color in the game is black. I set out to build four two-color decks, one for each color pair with black.

Since I settled into the other color pairs pretty easily, I thought Orzhov (white-black) was going to be easy too. After all, Liesa, Shroud of Dusk was just printed around this time, and I wanted to play a Group Slug deck.

After I built it, it turned out that the deck just wasn't very good. Group Slug really excels with red cards, which I didn't have access to.

So Liesa came apart and I moved more towards the Aristocrats space with Felisa, Fang of Silverquill. After a few games, Felisa was fun, but its play patterns were so similar to my Rakdos (red-black) deck, that I tended not to play it and eventually took that apart too. Then, a miracle: Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik offered an Aristocrats play pattern with a legends subtheme, and I was so intrigued that I built the deck with just what I had lying around from the other Orzhov decks. I was instantly hooked.

Fast forward to today, and my Ratadrabik deck is my favorite, most played deck, and I even have multiple different versions of it depending on the power level. The sample article for my application to write for EDHREC was even focused on Ratadrabik, and look how that turned out!

Why did I subject you to this boring story? Well, just look at how many different reasons I had for choosing commanders! I love black, so I built four black decks.

I wanted to try a certain strategy with Liesa Group Slug, and I wanted a play pattern different from my other decks. All of these are fantastic reasons for building a deck. Let's examine them and see what's out there to help you make these decisions.

One last thing before we jump in. If you want to build a commander simply because you like it, that is absolutely valid and you don't need any more reasons for making that deck. Commander is the format of fun and self-expression, so you do whatever floats your boat!

Choosing for Archetype

Perhaps the most basic reason to choose a particular commander is the type of gameplay it offers. Maybe you played some Limited recently and really liked the Rakdos sacrifice strategy in that format, and you want to build a deck like that. Or perhaps you really love to ramp out giant Dragons and bash your opponents with them.

Do you want to see how many swords an Ornithopter can hold? All of these gameplay options (and many, many more) are fair game in Commander. But how do you find a commander that matches your playstyle?

That's where EDHREC comes in, of course! Head over to the homepage and check out the "Tags" dropdown. Clicking on this will let you see all of categories that we tag decks with, and you can find your favorite in there.

Once you've found the theme you want, click on it, and you'll get a list of top commanders for it, along with additional filters by color combination. Now you can see what other brewers are cooking up with your playstyle, from the most popular commanders to what color pairs best support your theme.

From there, I recommend checking out the "top cards" and "high synergy cards" sections, as this will give you an idea of what other pilots are including most often across that ENTIRE archetype. Check out this example from the Artifacts tag.

No matter what artifact deck you're running, you'll probably want to include a card like Foundry Inspector. There are other great sorting and filtering options over on the right side to help you narrow it down.

After you get an idea of the cards people are playing in that particular archetype, that can help you decide if it's for you.

There are so many choices out there that choosing your archetype, especially if you're new to the format, might be overwhelming. If you aren't sure, take a look at the next section that's a little bit more broad.

As you get some games in, I'd encourage you to pay attention to your opponents' decks and see if those playstyles interest you too!

Kindred Decks

If you're really stuck on your archetype, one of the simplest ways to choose is by taking a look at the Kindred page on EDHREC, also under the "Tags" dropdown.

Kindred decks are a huge subset of decks that focus on a particular creature type or types. Picking a type that you like can make the deckbuilding process very straightforward, by choosing the best cards that synergize with your creature type.

Dragons, Elves, Vampires, Zombies, Dinosaurs, Humans, and Goblins are all among the most popular and have the most support, but you can go for something more unique like Spiders, Hydras, or Dwarves too.

A kindred deck is definitely my recommendation for a starting point if you're uncomfortable with building decks. Check out my other articles to help you too!

Choosing for Colors

Commander is a great way to explore the colors and how the different combinations thereof work together towards a coherent strategy. If you're not looking or aren't sure about a particular archetype, choosing based on a color combo might be an easier starting point.

If you want to see what a color combination can do, just click on the "Commanders" tab at the top of the EDHREC homepage, and find your desired color combo. Now you're presented with its most popular commanders:

Clearly there is a mistake in our data for Orzhov...

From here, clicking on these commanders will bring you to any of their individual pages, and you can see the cards that most people are putting in all those decks.

Each of the colors tend to have different playstyles, and combining them opens up even more. If you're unfamiliar, here's a list of the ten two-color pairs (and their commonly referred to name) and how they tend to play in Commander (at least according to me).

"Allied" Colors:

• (Azorius) - These decks tend to be more controlling, with some focus on artifacts, blinking, or decks with a lot of flyers.
• (Dimir) - This pairing tends to have a lot of graveyard-based decks, and the primary home for mill decks. Also, Zombies!
• (Rakdos) - Here you'll find a lot of burn/punisher decks, along with some self-discard, Demons, Vampires, and Goblins.
• (Gruul) - Big stompy! Gruul is home to aggressive creature decks, including Werewolves, Dinosaurs, and Dragons. You also find many "Lands-matter" decks in these colors too.
• (Selesnya) - Tokens, +1/+1 counters, and enchantment decks make up the most popular decks here, and the common creature types are Humans and Cats.

"Enemy" Colors:

• (Orzhov) - My personal favorite, Orzhov includes lifegain, tokens, and reanimator decks, usually with a sacrifice theme. Spirits, Humans, and Vampires tend to hang out here.
• (Izzet) - Izzet is all about spells! Plan on casting a lot of instants and sorceries in these decks. If not that, there's also a ton of artifact decks, Pirate decks, and Wizard decks.
• (Golgari) - Golgari can do just about anything with the graveyard, including reanimator, self-mill, and lands. Elves, Squirrels, and Saprolings are popular creature types.
• (Boros) - If you like attacking or Equipment, this is your color pair. Boros is somewhat straightforward in that way, but there are hidden gems that offer different playstyles too.
• (Simic) - Simic is primarily the home for +1/+1 counters decks, ramp decks, and Merfolk, but also some self-mill strategies and of course, Sea Monsters!

You'll noticed I included common creature types for some of the color pairs. If you're taking my advice to build a Kindred deck, many of the creature types will also play into the themes of their colors as well.

This can also help you get a feel of how a certain color combo plays out. Dimir Zombies will often use the graveyard, Simic Sea Monsters will ramp, etc.

Choosing for the 99

"But Brian, I just wanna play with this cool combo..." This is another great reason to play a deck. If you've got a group of cards that you love and want to jam them all in a deck together, you can choose a commander that focuses on them. Say for example you went over to the premier database for Commander combos, Commander Spellbook, and found what I like to call the "Screaming Cat" combo:

Both cards in the combo are black, so it can go in any black deck! But if you want some more redundancy with the combo pieces, you want to include Knight of Doves.

Well now we need something that is in at least the Orzhov color identity. Elas is a good choice since it can be part of the combo to win the game, but maybe you want the more Aura focused Killian, Ink Duelist instead. If you want to see my take on Screaming Cat, check out this Rakdos deck!

The cards you want in the 99 don't necessarily need to be a combo. If there's a card or cards that you really like, you can also search them individually on EDHREC.

Not only will you get a list of the commanders that your card is commonly played in, but we can also show you similar cards that you might've not known existed. Here's an example for my favorite card of all time, Dread Return:

You can see we also have links to recent articles, combos with that particular card, and other resources for you too.

Other Considerations

There are a number of other things to consider when choosing a commander that transcend any specific category.

Mana Value

Many of the most popular commanders are within the three to five mana value (MV) range. This is because it makes casting it multiple times in a game easier, which is important if your entire deck is built around it! Higher MV commanders aren't bad, I'd just keep in mind that you won't have access to it in the early game.

You also might want to consider some more lands, mana acceleration, recursion, and protection spells to make sure you can keep your haymaker around! On the flip side, lower MV commanders can be cast multiple times per game but might be easier to deal with as a result.

Mana Acceleration and Card Velocity

Don't worry, this isn't a physics lesson. Two of the most important aspects of successful Commander decks are its ability to accelerate your mana and give you some form of card velocity. Having a commander that does one of these key aspects is extremely helpful, and some of the most powerful Commanders actually do both.

Prosper, Tome-Bound is one of the most glaring examples, providing Treasures and "impulse draw". Muldrotha, the Gravetide is one of the most popular commanders because it basically turns your graveyard into a second hand, which is HUGE card velocity.

Your commander doesn't have to do one of these things, but it certainly helps.

Commander Keywords

If you've decided that the way you want to win the game is by dealing to 21 Commander damage to your opponents, that's great! There are whole archetypes (a.k.a. Voltron) that are focused on just that.

Keep in mind that it'll probably be important that your commander has some built-in evasion, like flying or trample, in order to make your life easier.

Commanders with built-in protection are also good ones to consider as well. I love giving my opponents a sly grin when they target Ratadrabik with a removal spell and I simply state "Trigger Ward ". Hexproof, Ward, and other forms of protection make it easier for you to keep your commander around.

Wrapping Up

If I had to guess, most people building a deck choose their commander based on the three ways above. However, there are a ton of other reasons you might want to play a certain commander, and they're all just as valid. I've seen people build decks around their favorite plane or their favorite TV show.

There are decks that feature certain art styles, or only cards that released before a certain date. Heck, I wanted a deck where every card references volcanoes. Whatever your reason, brewing Commander decks is a lot of fun, so get out there and get started. Check back here for more content about deckbuilding, from me or any of our other talented writers. I'll see you next time!

Brian Cain

Brian played Magic intermittently between 2003 and 2017 when he fully embraced his love for Commander. Finding ways to maximize the value of each piece of cardboard in the deck is one of his favorite things to explore, especially if it involves putting lands in the graveyard! Outside of Magic, Brian works as a consultant in the marine industry, turning his passion for boats and ships into a career.