So I've always wanted to get into commander but I could never truly pick a theme or approach. But with ixalan and rivals I've fallen head over heels for dinosaurs and enrage. What's my best route here?
‘oah boy. This is always the big question: How do i start playing Commander? I mean, the simple answer is to just get 100 cards and throw them in a deck. I cracked a box of Ixilan and managed to build a pretty solid Dinosaurs deck out of what was in it. But that’s not really an answer.
I would say you’re about half way there. The first step is finding what you love about a current set or Legendary Creature and building your deck at that. Which is what this format is about; enabling what you love. Unless you’re enjoying yourself there is no point in playing. Its a casual game at the end of the day. So look to the kinds of things you like playing and the kinds of aspects of Magic you love the most and build your deck towards that end.
Then comes the hard part: actually building the deck. Off hand knowledge of cards comes with years of experience and the pursuit of new cards and ideas. I’ve basically surrounded myself with the game for the last few years and I’m still keen to find new stuff. Two of my favourite resources are mythicspoiler.com and edhrec.com. The former to be able to search for cards by set easily and with an easily broken down visual layout, and the latter to let me search for the most popular cards by Legendary Creature, single card, colour and tribe. They’re both super powerful. Outside of that Gatherer is wonderful for searching by keywords or sets and its advance search option is a godsend, if only a little open ended. Finally, I use the app Decked Builder as a way of keeping track of neat cards I find while at FNM or listening to podcasts, as well as a method of card searching and deck management. But only use the free version. The paid version is identical in every way that matters. All of these use visual representations of cards just because I find art and layout easier to recall than pure mechanics and name.
Now, with the resources to build your deck you’ll want to begin to use The 8x8 Theory. Break you deck into two parts. Lands and spells. You want 35 lands, 64 spells and your commander. Leave the lands to last. Now break down your 64 spells into 8 groups of 8 cards. Label each group based on what best works for your deck. For example, a Narset deck may look for Aura’s to buff her. Or a Oloro deck may want counterspells. Always try to dedicate one to Mana Acceleration (Ramp), one to Card Advantage (Draw) and one to Removal (Removal). Then, fill these groups with cards that fit into that category you’ve labelled it. This breaks your deck down into simple systems and mechanics and provides a guideline for consistency within your deck. The biggest mistake a new player makes is letting their deck get messy. The Theory helps avoid that.
To build your mana base count the number of different mana nibs on all cards across your deck by colour. Then, divvy up your lands based on the ratio between your different colours. Maybe throw in a few more in one colour if you have more early drops in that colour. For example, if 80% of your 1 drops are Green, but you have more Red in your deck as a whole, including more Green sources than Red helps keep your deck consistent.
At this point, your deck is finished and you’re ready to play. Remember though, a deck never truly is finished. Come back to your deck and change stuff as you need. I’ve found even adding a single land can drastically change how consistently I get my land drops. And don’t be afraid, after this to deviate from The 8x8 Theory. Its a guideline for deck building, but not something that should be kept in mind soon thereafter. Simply put it will never build the best deck. But its not meant to.
Anyway, I hope you found this useful, if not a bit long!~ Take care and happy brewing!
---Max, @commandtower-solring-go
