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Best EDH Political Cards for Commander

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Theodore Roosevelt

Ignoring what you may think of his politics, the sentiment is powerful. And it is something very few players implement when building EDH political decks.

That said, the Big Stick idealogy is one of the best mindsets to have for EDH political cards. After all, rather than forcing people to do something with mechanics like Goad. It’s better to make them choose it on their own. This is exactly what makes these cards the best political cards in commander no one uses.

What Makes a Political Card in EDH Good?

Just like politicians, a political card is best when your opponents think it’s in their best interest. Doing so means they are more likely to not worry about you and be incentivized to attack the other person you are wanting dead. After all, we are much more likely to protect someone that gives us stuff rather than those who take the stuff away. And EDH political cards in commander do the same thing.

In fact, I would consider political cards to be the best kind of group hug cards out there. The best EDH political cards do at least one of the following:

  1. Distract opponents
  2. Incentivize combat
  3. Make people protect you.

If a political card in commander can do one of these things, then your deck becomes unassuming until it is too late. Leading to the other 3 players’ demise as you win by politicking your way to victory. Let’s go over 12 EDH political cards in commander that do this.

1. Breena, the Demagogue 

The first on the list and one of the most famous. Breena incentivizes people to not hit you, but your opponents. All the while, your creatures can get bigger and can even draw you cards as well. Making this a great one for having your opponents hit each other until it is too late.

2. Humble Defector

Humble defector is better known as the king of bribes. Play this card and watch as people do what they can to get 2 extra cards on their turn. This is one card that has some serious shenanigan potential and can drastically change games when played.

Edric, Spymaster of Trest

Edric, aka draw daddy, is a favorite commander political card of mine. Play this, and it doesn’t matter if others are goaded or not, a bloodbath will ensue as people fight it out to get as many cards drawn as possible. After all, who doesn’t like getting more cards in hand for beating up your opponents, it’s a win-win.

Fulminator Mage

I mentioned this card before in my budget staples for under a dollar, but I love this card. It doesn’t necessarily bribe others to attack someone else, but it does make people not mess with you. Especially when you declare “anyone who messes with my board loses a land”. Most people don’t like losing lands and fulminator mage makes it to where no one wants to mess with your board. Keep him around long enough and eventually, it will be too late for your opponents to do anything to stop you.

Curse of Bounty

Bear Totem, Sword of Feast and famine, and Curse of Bounty. Curse of Bounty is a really good but really dangerous political card for commander. While it allows you to be able to swing in at an opponent and give all your creatures pseudo vigilance, it also does the same for everyone else. Basically inciting a standstill as everyone will have blocks. Stalling the game until it is your moment to shine.

Kaervek the Merciless

This is actually a really fun political card that I saw on game nights. The trick with this one is to cast the spell and say “as long as none of the damage is coming at me or my cards, you get to choose the targets for the spell cast.” But be sure to retain rights to control who gets hit if it looks like they are running away with the game. No one will want to mess with you because they will also have access to this card. Making this a really cool political card for commander.

Nevinhyralls Disk

Hostage situations like Nevinhyralls Disk are a great way to make people not commit pieces to a board. As talked about in my article on best boardwipes, having a nuclear button that you can use at instant speed makes a great deterrent for anyone trying to mess with your board. Meaning people won’t mess with you as you continue to make more and more deals in your favor.

Curse of Opulence

Early form ramp, that allows for that early damage to be targeted at someone else instead of you. Just make sure to be careful though, as this one often gets the person cursed hostile at you, meaning why you have 2 people willing to help you out, you have 1 who wants to kill you. That said this early form of ramp is something that anyone would love to have and is definitely a card to consider for decks trying to be political.

Curse of Verbosity 

While the curse of opulence is a great form of ramp, the curse of verbosity is a great form of card draw. While letting other people draw cards, also helps you draw cards. And in the spirit of group hug, this does the trick. With this, you can expect all players to love your new political card for commander as everyone gets to draw and accelerate their board. Meanwhile, you will always pull out just slightly more ahead which is all you need to win.

Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant

Much like Breena, Karazikar the eye tyrant is a great card option for players looking for EDH political cards in commnader. With this, you can tap down a blocker and ensure your creatures connect, and in exchange, everyone will get the chance to draw cards and make for a much more impactful and fun game.

Monarch

Any card that gives you monarch. This adds such a cool and fun mechanic to the game that everyone will be wanting to make deals such as “let me hit you with this one creature so I can be monarch and I will help you destroy that deafening silence” This mechanic is a great way to ensure combat damage is happening all the while helping people not focus on you until it is too late.

Coveted Jewel

A personal favorite, Coveted Jewel is like the monarch mechanic, upon casting you will get to draw 3 and tap for 3 mana of any one color, but after that, you can help others by letting them take it only to make a deal to let you take it back. This works much like a humble defector in that players will love to make deals with you to get it. Just be sure to be careful about it as sometimes people might covet it too much and try to take it from you by force.

EDH Political Cards Conclusion

There you go! 12 EDH political cards for commander to spice up your games! Be sure to enjoy them to the fullest and see what unique deals you can make to try and come out ahead and win the game. If you enjoyed this article and are wanting to start using these in a deck, check out my article going over effective deck building. It does a great job at explaining the functions of cards as well as their deck uses to make your deck do what you want every time. Have a great day and remember to speak softly and carry a big nevinhyrals disk. 

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Archive Cards

Best Mtg Boardwipes In Each Color

Boardwipes are a necessity for most decks to function. Their power is simply something that can’t be denied. But, there are so many boardwipes out there it is hard to find the best board wipes for each color. Luckily I took care of the work for you and created a guide on the best board wipes for each color. That way all you need to worry about is playing the deck.

Each of these cards will have one of the 4 quality traits necessary to make a boardwipe the best. If you are looking to understand the power of boardwipes in your deck, then I suggest this article to get a good understanding. But to give you spark notes, the best board wipes are one or all these things:

  1. Low Mana Value
  2. Instant Speed
  3. Asymmetrical 
  4. High versatility

Best Blue Boardwipes In Commander

The best blue boardwipes are Cyclonic Rift, Curse of the Swine, and Rivers Rebuke. Each of these meets some if not all the requirements needed to make it the best blue boardwipe for MTG. Let’s go over why

1. Cyclonic Rift

Cyclonic rift is the powerhouse of all boardwipes. When people think of the worse card to be hit with, it’s a cyclonic rift. Cyclonic Rift is the best boardwipe for commander due to several reasons. One it has high versatility, able to remove a single threat or every threat. Two, it is asymmetrical by only hitting your opponents. And finally, it is instant speed. Meaning cyclonic rift can be activated right before your next turn, or as soon as a threat becomes apparent. Making this one of the best boardwipes ever made in magic.

2. Curse of the Swine

Curse of the swine is a little lesser known boardwipe, but serves as a versatile and powerful removal effect. The goal of this card is to be able to use it in a pinch by having the option to exile a single indestructible effect, or by being able to surgically hit every threat that is helping your opponents. Worrying about an opponent’s seedborn muse and someone else Drannith Magistrate? Curse of the swine for x=2 is a solid way to take care of 2 birds with one stone. The only downside is this does not work great against token decks so if you find yourself fighting token decks a lot, this next card might be better for you.

3. River’s Rebuke

People always assume boardwipes need to hit all your opponents. The reality is, that is not true. More times than not a board wipe is needed, not because everyone is ahead of you, but because one person is ahead of you. That’s where River’s Rebuke comes in. While lacking in 3 of the 4 reasons a board wipe is one of the best. Its ability to reset a single opponent makes this an overwhelming powerhouse on multiple occasions. Making it the final include in best blue boardwipes for commander.

Best Green Boardwipes In Commander

Green is not known for boardwiping. In fact, there is no classic board wipe in green. This makes for a very interesting list of the best green boardwipes.

1. Ezuri’s Predation

The best mono green boardwipe for commander is ezuri’s predation. While not, guaranteeing the removal of key threats, will fill your board up with an army of 4/4’s that can block, attack, and remove threats. Couple this with the fact they fight all other creatures when entering, and you get an asymmetrical boardwipe that has a high degree of versatility by giving you creatures to work with afterward.

2. Wave of Vitriol

Do you know that one player who refuses to run basic lands? Here is their kryptonite. Wave of vitriol is considered one of the best green board wipes for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is versatility. While not able to hit creatures, this hits enchantments, artifacts, and non basic lands. Making this a great way to remove treasures, enchantress decks, and multicolor decks. Add that to the fact that it sacrifices makes indestructible effects much easier to circumvent. Making this a great boardwipe in creature-heavy decks.

3. Apex Altisaur

One of the more interesting boardwipes in existence. Apec Altisaur is one of the best green boardwipes by being a versatile and asymmetrical boardwipe. While unable to remove every creature on the board, this works much like curse of the swine in that you remove multiple key threats from the board. Which, afterward Apex can stay on the board, resetting his toughness to 10 and allowing him to be able to boardwipe again on your next turn if he blocks or gets blocked. Making him a fantastic option for those looking for the best green boardwipes in commander.

Best Red Boardwipes In Commander

Red is damage. Infamous for spells like lightning bolt, the best red boardwipes do the exact same thing. 

1. Blasphemous Act

We all know it, we all love it, Blasphemous act is the premier best red boardwipe. Dealing 13 damage to all creatures on board and casting as little as 1 red mana, this red boardwipe puts in work. It just goes to show you how important lower mana value boardwipes are for being effective staples in any deck.

2. Chain Reaction

Terrible when there is only 1 creature on board, fantastic when there is more. Chain reaction is one of the best red boardwipes due to its’ relatively low mana value making it a great option for nuking boards in a color that does not have many. Just be sure to time it correctly as this spell is only as good as the number of creatures on board, making this weak against metas with low creature counts.

3. Delayed Blast Fireball

A new addition to the best red boardwipes, but a great addition nonetheless. Delayed Blast Fireball will only deal 2 damage to all your enemies creatures. But, if you cast it from exile (something red is prone to do) then this will do 5 instead. And in worse-case scenarios, you can even fortell the card to cast it for a bigger payoff. While this may not seem high 2 damage will take care of low to medium level threats and 5 will take care of everything except big Voltron creatures. Making this one of the best red boardwipes for its versatility and asymmetrical ability.

Best Black Boardwipes In Commander

Black boardwipes are unique and oftentimes powerful. Able to circumvent most forms of creature protection, many of the best black boardwipes get their power from the versatility and flexibility needed to rain death on the enemy.

1. Toxic Deluge

No best black boardwipe is complete without including toxic deluge. Toxic Deluge is one of the cheapest boardwipes ever printed. Costing only 3 mana, this spell can devastate enemy creatures. It even comes built-in with the flexibility of paying life for -1/-1 counters. Meaning that if you have a big enough creature, it can survive the boardwipe. Therefore adding a small addition of asymmetrical power in the right circumstances.

2. Damnation

If you are running white, damnation is not good. 4 mana to destroy all creatures is considered the baseline for what a boardwipe should do nowadays. That said, if you are not in white, then damnation is one of the only spells of its kind. Making this one of the best black boardwipes you can have. There isn’t too much to say on this. The power comes from its ability to break the color wheel and have a simple but powerful effect.

3. Meathook Massacre

It was all the rage in innistrad, and has proven to be a great boardwipe for a couple of reasons. The first is versatility. Having an x in its cost functions similarly to toxic deluge where you can kill relevant creatures but keep your potential big creatures alive. Meanwhile, this also has a lasting effect of being an enchantment that synergizes well with sacrifice-based strategies. Making this a powerful effect for decks that synergize well with it. While mana intensive, this is in no way a card to hesitate on if your deck has even some synergy with meathook massacre’s second effect.

Best White Boardwipes In Commander

1. Farewell

This is a card that is neither low CMC, asymmetrical, or instant speed, but man is the versatility on this card powerful. Farewell shuts down any strategy. Effectively resetting the game in every way except lands. This exiles circumventing death triggers, indestructible, and several other niche effects. This hits all nonland cards and graveyards, crippling any strategy people come up with, and this can allow you to keep key pieces of your board by not choosing that effect. Making this the best white boardwipe for resetting the board.

2. Elesh-Norn, Grand Cenobite

Not a traditional boardwipe, but a powerful boardwipe nonetheless. This gives all creatures on your opponents board a -2/-2 for as long as elesh norn stays out. Making this a boardwipe that Stax your opponents by preventing them from playing other creatures to accelerate their board. On top of all this, even if an opponent plays a creature that survives, elesh norn boosts your creatures by +2/+2 making any of their creatures highly unlikely to be able to impact your board. 

Couple this with the fact that creature spells are hard to counter and you get one of the best white boardwipes to stopping creature strategies. 

3. Austere Command

The budget version of Farewell, the flexibility on this card is the main selling point. While this only destroys, this can hit creatures, enchantments, or artifacts. Allowing you to customize how you want to boardwipe to best preserve your boardstate. Allowing some asymmetrical features to the boardwipe as well. Needless to say, if you like Farewell, Austere Command is another great option.

Best Colorless Boardwipes In Commander

Coloreless boardwipes are cool because they can go in any deck. While more universal in their deck inclusion, these kinds of cards usually have a higher mana value to prevent them from being auto-included in every deck color. That said, you will find some of the best boardwipes in mtg are colorless.

1. Ugin, The Spirit Dragon

The classic colorless boardwipe. It exiles, can be asymmetrical if you don’t run colors, and has versatility afterward if ugin is alive. This is a powerhouse in the right decks. Planeswalker and artifact decks will love it as a boardwipe option for all the reasons stated above. Even if someone plays a creature threat after you Ugin, you can still always uptick him to deal 3 damage to that creature. Most likely killing it. In short, a great colorless boardwipe for you deck.

2. All is Dust

The eldrazi boardwipe is a fitting description. Besides decks like Tergrid loving this card, This gets around a lot of ways to protect your creatures and wipes out all permanent types besides colorless ones. Meaning, this can be a powerhouse for colors like blue usually utilizes very few blue permanents and relies on colorless artifacts, or only a few creatures to advance their board sate.

3. Nevinhyral Disk

Nevinhyral disk is my favorite of the colorless boardwipes. Why you might have to wait a turn before activating it, you can do this at instant speed. Plus the fact that this is a revealed card, has a lot of power behind it. It functions like all the other cards I mentioned in my political cards article. If people know that you can blow up all effectively all their non-land permanents at will, they are most likely not to play into the card. No one likes losing their cards when someone else can force the issue. Couple this with the fact that while everyone else is playing cautiously, you can advance your board until it is too late for them to interact.

Best Multicolor Boardwipes In Commander

Multicolor boardwipes are usually a favorite among players. The reason is that multicolor boardwipes dip into several different color wheels allowing for a large degree of variety when choosing your boardwipes.

1. Fire Covenant

The best multicolor boardwipe I can recommend. This not only is asymmetrical, instant speed, and low cmc, but can be a powerhouse removing multiple key threats with only one card. I recommend this to everyone in red black. Especially for its cost to buy. Just be sure to preserve your life total or this card will get too expensive real quick.

2. Pernicious Deed

A great boardwipe for enchantment and recursion decks. This is a known threat, much like nevinhyral disk so can be used politically, but its key function is replayability and asymmetrical boardwipes by pumping in only enough into it to kill your opponents threats while hopefully keeping yours alive. If you run a muldrotha deck this is by far the best multicolor boardwipe for you.

3. Toxrill 

The other Elesh-Norn. This not only applies a consistent stax effect every end step, but this also gives you creatures that can be used for attacking or sacrificing to draw cards off of toxrill’s other ability. Making this an expensive but powerful asymmetric boardwipe that has a large degree of versatility. Just be careful as unlike Elesh Norn, people can still play creatures to progress their board, especially if they have haste.

Conclusion

21 of the best boardwipes for commander. These should hopefully make your decks function that much more smoothly and allow for some great deck-building potential. If you are interested in boardwipes for your deck, then I highly suggest checking out my article that goes over the nature of boardwipes and how many to include in your decks. I think it sheds some great insights for those looking at deck building and how to make your decks perform better.

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Archive Tips/Tricks

How many boardwipes in commander?

How many boardwipes in commander?

1-2 boardwipes are the ideal amounts in commander. Any more and the deck gets too slow for the game to progress.

What Are Boardwipes In MTG?

Now before we go into detail on how many boardwipes to run in commander, we should answer what are boardwipes. To those unaware, a boardwipe, also known as a wrath, is a spell that destroys or exiles all permanents of a certain type. These are usually instant and sorcery spells, but are also found on creatures, enchantments, and artifacts. 

While most often found in white, boardwipes are in every color of the color pie, including colorless. These earned their nickname of wraths back in 1993 when the card wrath of god existed. To this day, the manner of boardwipes has not changed. Often destroying creatures, but occasionally other things as well. This can be seen in Austere commander, Nevinhrayls disk, and vandalblast.

Due to their nature, they have always been well-loved in control decks where faster decks might accrue too much value before they can pop off. Making boardwipes a great way to control your opponents till you can win.

What Makes Boardwipes Good

To explain why you should only run 1-2 boardwipes in commander, we should answer what makes boardwipes good?

The reasoning is simple, a boardwipe is a great way to reset the board. 

Let’s say you have an opponent with a very developed board that is just outvaluing you and your opponents. Surgical removal with something like a reality shift usually won’t cut it. The only option you have is to remove all the value they have generated in one swoop.

This will allow you to rebuild when you were too far behind. Because of this, a boardwipe is a necessary component to a deck because, in at least 75% of our games, we are going to have a less developed board than someone else. 

But, just because it is a necessary component, does not mean there should be a lot of them for a few relevant reasons. This is talked about in more detail in “why only 1-2 boardwipes”.

Why Only 1-2 Boardwipes?

Why should a deck only run 1-2 boardwipes? 

Because boardwipes suck. 

Boardwipes in commander are one of the worse cards to cast for several reasons. They are (1) mana intensive, (2) destroy your board, and (3) are only good when you are way behind. 

This means that casting a boardwipe sets the tempo in your opponent’s favor. You are effectively taking a turn off to destroy the board and let the next person set the tempo. Which, if your opponents have at least a few cards in hand, chances are you are going to be falling behind again as soon as your turn starts. Putting you in the same position you were before.

Now, that said, the ability to reset boards is amazing, and it is vital to being able to recover when a player has an overwhelming board. So a boardwipe basically trades you being really far behind, to only slightly behind.

Because of that, you should only have 1-2 boardwipes in commander. This reduces the number of times you will draw a dead card in a majority of games, while still giving you the silver bullet needed when you fall far behind. Making the deck as lean as possible while still having the power needed in worse-case scenarios.

When Should You Run More Than 2 Boardwipes?

Now, let’s assume you want to run more boardwipes. When is that a good decision?

When boardwipes don’t hurt you. A good example of this is Creatureless decks, planeswalkers decks, and enchantress decks. 

The reason for this is simple, when boardwipes don’t affect you, then they are more effective forms of removal that hit multiple targets without affecting you. 

Each of these strategies can run boardwipes like winds of rath, wrath of god, and Austere command without their board being affected. Allowing them to get mass value out of their decks by making their boardwipes effectively asymmetrical.

In fact, it is this benefit and others like it, that make certain boardwipes a league of their own, and are infinitely better options than your standard wrath of god.

Cyclonic Rift by Chuck Lukacs

What Makes A Good Boardwipe?

So, now that we talked about why boardwipes should be limited to 1-2, let’s go over what a good boardwipe should have.

A good boardwipe should have as many of the following traits as possible:

  1. Low Mana Value
  2. Instant Speed
  3. Asymmetrical 
  4. High versatility

Let’s talk about these briefly. 

The lower the Mana Value means the easier it is for you to cast. More importantly, the lower the Mana Value, means you can potentially cast another spell after boardwiping. Allowing you to set the tempo rather than your opponents.

Instant Speed boardwipes, mean you can do this before your turn allowing you to set the tempo on your turn. This also allows you to boardwipe in response to something, making this a great panic button that you can use at any given moment.

Asymmetrical boardwipes are beautiful. This means you get to keep your board while dismantling your opponents. Allowing you to not only set the tempo but also come out on top after the boardwipe usually.

High Versatility, any boardwipe can kill creatures, but a boardwipe that can hit multiple targets, exile, or cause mass disruption no matter a player’s game plan, makes this a much more painful boardwipe for your opponents to go against.

Each of these should be evaluated when considering a boardwipe and will be shown in the next section, best boardwipes for commander.

Best Boardwipes For Commander.

There are 5 boradwipes that are best for commander. Chances are you will know a few of them, but maybe not all of them. So buckle up and get ready for the 5 best boardwipes in commander.

  1. Cyclonic Rift
  2. Fire Covenant 
  3. Farewell
  4. Toxic Deluge 
  5. Blasphemous Act

Surprisingly, only 1 of these boardwipes are white, while 3 of them are in red or black. But, these are some of the most effective boardwipes you can find in magic.

Cyclonic Rift is instant speed, Asymmetrical, and can be used on a single target or multiple.

Fire covenant is identical to cyclonic rift but has a lower mana cost, but higher life cost.

Meanwhile, Farewell is neither asymmetrical, instant, nor low mana, but is incredibly versatile. Able to shut down any game plan a person can have.

Then we have toxic deluge, 3 mana sorcery speed, but can hit a lot of creatures and can get around indestructible. A solid boardwipe most black decks would love to run.

Finally, we have blasphemous act. The mana cost can be as low as 1 while still clearing the board. Making this a great option for those looking to rebuild their board after the wipe.

As you can see each of these meets some if not all the requirements for a good boardwipe due to the fact that they counter the usual negatives a boardwipe has.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this answered many of your questions in regards to boardwipes. In general, a deck should only try to run 1-2 boardwipes in a deck. More than that and you increase your chances of drawing a dead card in most games or stalling the game way past the limit most people want to play at. Making for a bad time for a lot of players.

If the top 5 boardwipes have piqued your interest. I highly suggest looking at my article “best boardwipes in each color. This will go over 20 boardwipes that are absolutely great for any deck.

Till next time and wrath away!

Categories
Archive Tips/Tricks

Can you exile a mtg commander?

Can you exile a mtg commander?

In most cases, you can not exile a commander unless a player chooses to leave their commander in exile. But, there are niche situations where, yes, you can exile a mtg commander.

That said it is incredibly hard to do.

When Can you not exile a mtg commander?

Usually, a commander cannot be exiled for any reason unless the commander’s owner chooses to be put them in exile. The reason for that is 

rule 704. 903.9b If a commander would be put into its owner’s hand or library from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead. This replacement effect may apply more than once to the same event.

Therefore, whenever a commander is moved from one zone to another, the commander can be chosen to be put in the command zone. Even if a person chooses to put it in the graveyard, if that graveyard would be exiled they can just put it in the command zone in response.

When can you exile a mtg commander?

That said, there is exactly one way to exile a commander, using effects from cards like Roon of the Hidden Realm.

Roon of the hidden realms ability is used to flicker your or opponents’ threats to generate value as the game progresses. But, if you use Roon’s ability to flicker opponents’ commanders, that player can choose to leave their commander in exile or put it in the command zone. 

If the player chooses to leave it in exile so it can be flickered back to the board, a delayed trigger will be put on the stack.

Now, what happens if someone stifles that delayed trigger? Then the commander is permanently exiled. After all the player already chose to leave it in exile. Meaning that with abilities from cards like Roon of the hidden realm, you can in fact exile a mtg commander.

To help you out here is a list of 10 cards with flicker abilities and 10 cards with stifle effects

10 cards with flicker abilities?

  1. Otherworldly journey
  2. Oblivion ring
  3. Admonition Angel
  4. Journey to Nowhere
  5. Parallax Wave
  6. Fiend Hunter
  7. Leonin Relic Warder
  8. Touch of the spirit realm
  9. Savior Of Ollenbock
  10. Long Road Home

10 cards with Stifle Effects

  1. Stifle
  2. Tales end
  3. Trickbind
  4. Disallow 
  5. Green slime
  6. Voidslime
  7. Overcharged amalgam
  8. Brokers Confluence
  9. Sublime epiphany 
  10. Repudiate

Conclusion

And there you have it exiling a commander is incredibly difficult but is a blast to do the first time you do it. Just don’t expect to win afterward as everyone will kill you in response. But well worth it in my opinion. If you like the idea of building a deck around Roon, I highly suggest taking a look at my guide to deck building. It can help you make sure your deck will do what you want more and lead to more fun overall. Happy exiling!

Categories
Archive Cards

Top 11 Dominaria United Spoilers

11 Dominaria united spoilers that I think are great includes in any deck or are powerful options for specific deck archetypes. I even included a hot take of a popular card that people love and stated my reasons why I don’t think it is good. Enjoy the read!

White Dominaria United Spoilers

1. Prayer of Binding

Prayer of Binding is a simple card but is a great addition for enchantress decks. It’s another one added to the list of cards like banishment. One of the great things about this is the instant speed on the card. The big problems with enchantress is its lack of instant speed synergistic interactions, and this definitely helps. While 4 mana can be a lot to have to leave open the fact that it can reliably cantrip thanks to commanders like Sythis, makes this a powerful include for any deck needing removal in enchantress.

2. Serra Paragon

Next up we have Serra Paragon. Serra Paragon is a powerful engine in any white deck, but especially so in blink decks. With Serra Paragon and blink decks you can not only activate Serra Paragon multiple times a turn, but you can also remove the exile trigger on your other permanents. Allowing them to go back to the graveyard if they were removed. There are tons of ways to make this card from Dominaria United broken, but this and displacer kitten becomes a broken combo that any blink deck will love to have.

Blue Dominaria United Spoilers

3. Academy Wall

Academy wall is a new Dominaria United card that spell slinger decks will enjoy. While maybe not as good as archmage emeritus, this will allow you to be able to loot through more of your deck as you cast more instant and sorcery spells. Combine this with the fact that spellslinger decks have a lot of ways to cast stuff on other people’s turns and this is a card that can easily let you see up to 2-4 cards a round. Throw in some grave recursion like mizzix mastery or underworld breach and all those cards you discard can just add fuel to your fire and come back with a vengeance later in the game.

Black Dominaria United Spoilers

4. Cut Down

Cut down is the new card that Cedh players love. This is considered one of the more pushed cards of the set and will absolutely demolish in several of the more competitive games. The reason for this is simple. The bigger threats in casual games are things like Avenger of Zendikar, while in more competitive games the threats are cards like tymna. Meaning the power behind this card will shine in those metas rather than the other ones. So, if you find yourself in games where the lower power creatures are your threats then this is a great card to keep an eye on.

5. The Cruelty of Gix

The Cruelty of Gix is a personal favorite of mine. While its first ability is not worth the 5 mana, the ability to read ahead is what makes this great. This effectively works like a mystic confluence where you can choose the abilities that you want. Letting you tutor any card you want, then reanimate on your next turn. This can allow for some great combo potential with things like demonic consultation and reanimation a thoracic, or a sac outlet and reanimating a protean hulk. Add in the fact that if you do want to use the 1st ability, you can add more fuel to the reanimation targets making this one of the more powerful sagas of Dominaria United.

Green Dominaria United Spoilers

6. Defiler of Vigor

The defiler cycle is an interesting cycle. While weaker than a card like krirk son of yawgmoth. This is a card with lots of potentials. I feel like commanders like Chulane and Animar will love this card the most. The biggest thing about defilers is their mana reduction is actually the secondary effect to focus on since it is heavily restricted.  What will make the defiler good or not is the final ability that is unique to each of them. The ability to put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control every time you cast a green permanent, allows for all your creatures, including the defiler to get really big and swing for game when you are ready. Making this a great Dominaria United spoiler.

7. Tail Swipe

Tail swipe seems unassuming but is a great card for those big stompy creature decks. This adds another fight card to your arsenal that can be used as part of the 20 control cards that I recommend for every deck-building strategy. But, the most important thing about this, is its low cmc, Savage Swipe, Blizzard Brawl, and Prey Upon are all popular fight cards that cost 1 mana, but they have specific conditions to buffing your creatures and are sorcery speed. Tail swipe on the other hand is one of the newest Dominaria United spoilers that cost 1 mana, is instant speed, and has some of the lowest restrictions to getting a buff. Making this a great include in decks like Neyith of the Dire Hunt.

Multicolor Dominaria United Spoilers

8. Tear asunder

There are some really good multicolored spells in the Dominaria United spoilers that lots of decks will love. My favorite one is tear asunder. Tear Asunder is a great option for those in green/black, that love cards like anguished unmaking but aren’t in those colors. Not only is this one of the few exile effects green or black has for artifact and enchantment removal, but this can also get even better by kicking it and hitting any non-land permanent. This allows for any green-black deck to function better with this solid form of control.

9. Warhost’s frenzy

I really like this card. It works great for go-wide strategies in more token-focused decks or in sacrifice decks. Making this actually a personal favorite for decks like Garna, bloodfist of keld which I built for everyone to see in an earlier post. The reason is the versatility behind it. It can work as a good finisher when you have a large board presence or can draw you a lot of cards if you are going to sacrifice a bunch of creatures this turn or are about to be boardwiped. Add to the fact that this is instant speed and you can use this at the last possible moment for either scenario. Just be wary that you need 4 mana to do this.

Colorless Dominaria United Spoilers

10. Karns Sylex

One of the new stax pieces that decks are looking at running. This one seems to have potential, especially considering that there are going to be new phyrexian cards. A set of cards known to use life to do things. This can hit a lot of things such as force of will and toxic deluge, but its most powerful mechanic is shutting down fetchlands. This makes this a great option to consider in low-color decks like mono red prison stax, or in decks that are going against higher-powered metas. But my favorite part of this card comes from the board wipe attached to it.

I talk about why I love cards like nevinyrral’s disk as a political card in my article coming out on 10/3/2022. But a short synopsis, is The ability to threaten a boardwipe whenever needed, forces people to hesitate so they don’t overcommit. Allowing you the time needed to secure the victory as they slowed down.

11. Relic of Legends

The final card of Dominaria United spoilers, but a really interesting one. Now, I am not a fan of 3 mana ramp. In fact in cards that ramp for 3 mana, the ability to tap for mana should just be an added benefit, the real value comes from its secondary effect. A great example of this is chromatic lantern, a great card for 4+ color decks as it fixes your lands and ramps you.

Now, while I think chromatic lantern is better than this card, I think letting your commanders and any other legendary creature you control tap for mana, makes this a solid anthem effect that can give you as much as 3+ mana the turn you play it, making this a huge boost to mana. So, if you love your legendary creatures or playing partners, this is a great option for you.

Hot Take

Finally, we have my hot take for Dominaria United spoilers. The Phasing of Zhalfir is not that good. The phasing of zhalfir is trash and not a good boardwipe in most situations. The reason for this is the fact that they get 2/2 creatures afterward. The thought behind this is simple, a boardwipe is played when you are behind. This usually means they have 1) a lot of creatures or 2) a huge value board.

If they have a huge value board then a board wipe that gives them an army of 2/2s can be useful as they do not get many creatures replacing their value. If, however, they have an army of creatures, then all you are doing is replacing them with an army of 2/2s. Combine this with the fact that this fails to meet any of the requirements in my best boardwipe article (comes out on 9/19/2022 but states a boardwipe needs to be: 1:Low CMC, 2: Instant Speed, 3:Assymetrical, 4: High Versatility), and this fails to do any of those significantly. I would not consider this card for even my mono-blue decks. But let me know your thoughts on my hot take, do you agree or disagree, and why?

Dominaria United Spoilers: Conclusion

11 Dominaria United spoilers that I think are great card options for decks. While there were many great options, notably none of the red cards stood out. In your opinion, is there anything interesting missed? Twinferno seemed like a good option but, I feel like it lacked something that would make it truly noteworthy for the top 11. Meanwhile, cards like phasing of zhalfir are hot topics, but I feel like are overhyped and not worth it.

If you liked these cards though and are looking for a new commander, Dominiaria United spoilers have tons of new legendary creatures and I highly suggest checking out my top 3 recommend Dominaria United commanders here. It has budget decklists that can cost below $100 while still able to function in several low-mid power games and have recommendations if you are wanting to go to high-powered games as well. Hope you have a wonderful day!

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Archive Decks

3 Dominaria United Commanders To Love: With Decklists

When Does Dominaria United Come Out?

You are probably like me and excited for all the Dominaria United commanders we will be getting. Well, if you are the wait is almost over as Dominaria United will be coming out on September 9th and have a plethora of cards people would be interested in. Feel free to check out the total list here.

The set goes over the plane of Dominaria where Karn takes a look at the history of Dominaria and begins planning their counterattack against the enemy: Phyrexians. Of course, if you want to read the full story of what is going on, I suggest checking out the story.

But, for anyone excited about this set, you should be! This is starting a story that is going to span across 4 sets and have repercussions for probably more to come. So if you are a fan of big stories this is a great starting point for players to get into the story of magic and get a deeper understanding for the lore.

But, more than that, let’s take a look at some of the Dominaria United Commanders that this set has to offer and some good decklists for them.

Shanna, Purifying Blade

Shana, Purifying blade is a really cool Dominaria United commander and is one I am personally excited for. For anyone who loves decks like Oloro, this is a great option if not a better option for you. The reason is simple, the commander is 3 mana, can draw you a ton of cards, and has lifelink built into her. Thus allowing you to draw more cards via combat damage. Making this a great deck for those that love having lots of life.

Decklist

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/sYJJZn5Tf0e8m57N3LISEA

Who will like it

One of my favorite traits of Shana, Purifying Blade is her versatility. It can win via commander damage by pumping her up to be really big then draw a ton of cards off the lifegain she generates. Or, you can build this to be more of a combo deck working off many of the wincons lifegain strategies have. Making this Dominaria United commander a great option for anyone interested in lifegain will love. That said these colors don’t have a lot of lose life cards, so if you like gaining life to use those kinds of cards, then this can be a little lackluster due to its lack of black and red.

How it plays

Now, while she can be built either way, I built this one to lean more into combos as I love the combo strategies lifegain has to offer. Your general goal is going to be to mulligan to a card that can reasonably generate you lifegain on your upkeep or get your commander out turn 2-3. From there you leverage your commander’s ability to draw cards and hold up interaction thanks to your blue to control the board. At the end, if you time it right, and read your opponents correctly then you can try to win through several different ways such as felidar sovereign, Spike Feeder, or Approach of the second sun.

How it wins

  • Evra, Halcyon Witness
  • Approach of the second sun
  • Cleric class+Spike feeder+ Aetherflux reservoir
  • Felidar sovereign
  • Angel of Destiny
  • Combat via Speaker of heavens/Lathiel

Upgrades/customizations

Now all these Dominaria United Commanders decklists are built with the idea of being 150 or less on cardkingdom to make this more accessible to newer players.This one can be bought for 98.78 on TCG though so the deck clocks in for under 100 dollars. That said, for those looking for some easy deck upgrades I would suggest some tutors, or more efficient win cons or protection.

5 easy upgrades

  • Veil of summer
  • Pact of Negation
  • Utopia Sprawl
  • Chord of Calling
  • Eladamris call

These are all good cards for protecting your wins or commander while also giving you some card draw needed to tutor out your wincons quicker or get your commander out turn 2 with cards like utopia sprawl

Garna, Bloodfist of Kheld

Garna is a fun Dominaria United commander who rewards you for being aggressive. Designed to punish players for blocking this is a great commander for those that like to swing and not worry about the math. If a creature you control dies, you make everyone lose a life, if they died while attacking then you draw cards. It’s a win-win. Making this a fun and aggressive commander.

Decklist

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9zg4hg4Ym0msk2hwSLzkog

Who will like it

The people who will like this are combat players and sacrifice decks. This can be built in a few ways, contributing heavily to the sack outlets to ping everyone or to go combat heavy and swing wide dealing lots of damage to players. It really depends on your playstyle.

How it plays

A lot of people are building a token strategy behind this, but I took it a little differently and leaned into the sack outlets. The problem with tokens is that when they die you lose them and can’t reuse them. Making them subpar in a lot of situations for me. But this deck instead sacrifices the tokens strategy and puts in more resiliency. Drawing you cards is a great feature for the combat strategies but I would much rather sac creatures to generate value on top of drawing cards. 

So, usually, you are looking for a reanimator effect and some early-form ramp or card draw engine. From there you can begin doing your sac loops to generate value, play your commander and win via burn damage from there.

How it wins

This wins via a few different means where burn and combat damage is the name of the game. Due to it being not definite there is a more cards that can pull the effect off than usual but they do a great job.

  • Cut//ribbon
  • Mayhem devil
  • Syr Konrad the Grim
  • Bladewing deathless Tyrant
  • Blood Tyrant
  • Falkenrath Noble
  • Gray Merchant Asphodel
  • Zulaport Cuthroat

Upgrades/customizations

Built to be 150 or less on cardkingdom to make this more accessible to newer players. This one can be bought for 87.45 on TCG or 124.28 on card kingdom. That said, for those looking for some easy deck upgrades I would suggest some cards that make the deck more efficient such as

  • Pitless plunderer
  • Ashnods Altar
  • Razaketh the foulblooded
  • Underworld Breach
  • Skullclamp

Meria, Scholar of Antiquity

While I am a little iffy on green getting artifact support, I love this commander. Able to make all your artifacts mana rocks are great. Throw in the fact that you can tap 2 to basically draw a card makes this even more powerful. A good description is this works like Urza, and while not as busted as Urza, it is definitely a Dominaria United commander that will accrue too much value too easily to leave if unchecked. 

Decklist

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/O5KIC-ovzUePTlvokkbExg

Who will like it

Value Hogs, and artifact lovers. Plain and simple if you are a person that loves insane value or love artifact synergies, this is a deck you will love. Able to work off multiple different playstyles this deck is designed to ramp you a lot, cast spells, and win from there. Some good other commanders are Jhoira and Prosper. So if you like either one of those, you will love Meria, Scholar of Antiquity.

How it plays

The deck plays very simple, cast a lot of cheap artifacts, draw cards, and cast spells with the artifacts. Assemble a win with grinding station or commander damage and win. This one in particular leverages commander damage as the primary win con. That way the artifacts can keep working on the win, but it has a backup strategy of utilizing clock of omens to generate insane value with things like magda + liquimetal torque or grinding station +clock of omens+ myr turbine. Doing either of these combos is a great way to win if push comes to shove.

How it wins

  • Grafted Skeleton
  • Nettlecyst
  • Clock of Omens+ Myr Turbine+ Grinding Station
  • Salvaging station+ Flayer Husk+ Grinding Station
  • Blasting station+Myr Turbine+Clock of omens

Upgrades/customizations

This Dominaria United Commanders decklists is built to be 150 or less on cardkingdom to make this more accessible to newer players. This one can be bought for 117.49 on TCG or 149.1 on card kingdom. That said, If you are looking for upgrades there are some really simple ones.

Things that untap your artifacts. Getting more mana and more card draw is always good and things like seed born muse is an absolute house in this deck. Or you can choose some better draw or synergy cards, Mycosynthi lattice makes everything able to tap or draw you cards, and the backside of birgi and mystic forge make for great draw options. Making these solid upgrade options for Meria, Scholar of Antiquity.

  • Unwinding clock
  • Seedborn muse
  • Birgi, God of Storytelling
  • Mycosynth lattice
  • Vedalken Orrery

Dominaria United Commander Conclusion

And there you have it! 3 of my favorite Dominaria United commanders with decklists. These are some great options for those looking for new commanders and each play differently from the last.

Shanna Purifying Blade is a great lifegain commander that allows you to draw cards and keep the lifegain going to draw your deck and win. Garna, Bloodfist of Kheld is a solid option for those looking to swing wide or do sacrifice loops to burn your opponents to death. With Meria, Scholar of Antiquity is a great value commander where you churn through your deck at lightning speeds, outvaluing your opponents until you win via commander damage or a complicated artifact combo that wins you the game. 

If you loved how these decks are built, I suggest checking out my other decklist posts like my 9 storm commanders you will love It goes over 9 great storm commanders how they play and affordable decklists for players as well. All the while holding to the core principal of the site, The Rule of 20. Have a great day and let me know your favorite Dominaria United commanders that are coming out!

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Archive Tips/Tricks

18 Mtg Commander Win Cons

Needing some commander win cons? This article has you covered! This will give you 3 win conditions in each color to say “I win”.

Mono-Red Commander win cons

Mono red is a combo color for winning through combat. So as such mono red win conditions will usually do exactly that.

Twinflame+ Dualcaster Mage

A classic combo where you cast twin flame targeting a creature, then flash in a dual caster mage. When dual caster mage enters the battlefield, he copies twinflame and targets himself. The copies then proceed to do this an infinite number of times and then you swing with 42,069 dualcaster mages and win the game.

Basalt Monolith+ Rings of Brighthearth+ Fireball

One of the classic mono red win conditions, fireball. Fireball is simple, create infinite mana and win the game. Which Basalt monolith and rings of brighthearth will do. The goal of this is to tap basalt for 3 mana, use the ability to untap basalt monolith, then pay 2 mana to copy the ability. From there you will generate infinite colorless as you continually pay only 2 mana to untap it and then tap it for 3 colorless mana. Once you have a googleplex of colorless mana you cast fireball and win.

Kiki Jikki + Zealous Conscript

Probably one of the most famous mono-red win conditions. This one may cost more mana than the dualcaster mono red combo, but has the added protection of being all creatures, making it much harder to interact with. The goal of this win con is to tap kiki, to make a copy of zealous conscript. Zealous conscript etbs targeting kiki, which will untap it. Then you repeat the process and swing out with your 80,085 zealous conscripts and win the game.

Mono-White Commander win cons

Karmic Guide+ Reveilark+ Blasting Station

More convoluted than kiki jiki, this mono white win con is to play the cards, reveilark and karmic guide to infinitely cause etb triggers. As these creatures continuously enter the battlefield and replace each other, blasting station is going off and dealing 1 damage to everything. After doing this 69 times to a player they are going to most likely be dead.

Rest in Peace + Helm Of Obedience

Who says blue is the only color that can mill? White can do it too. In fact, this mono-white win con does a better job milling than most blue decks. The reason being is with rest in peace on the battlefield, no creatures actually hit the graveyard, so helm of obedience will keep milling that player until their deck is gone. Resulting in them losing the game.

Walking ballista + Heliod

The best mono-white win con to date. Simple, easy to play, and resilient. This is a solid choice for decks needing a combo in white. The goal is simple, play heliod, sun-crowned. Cast walking ballista for 1. Give it life lifelink. And every time it loses a +1/+1 counter you gain a life and give it a +1/+1 counter making it infinite. Do this 420 times just to be safe and you win the game.

Mono-Green Commander win cons

Earthcraft+ Squirrels nest

That’s right squirrels win games. Simply play squirrel’s nest and EarthCraft, tap the land to create a 1/1 squirrel, tap that squirrel to untap squirrel’s nest, and repeat. Get 855 squirrels on board and swing out to win the game Be sure to do this on the player before you end step so they have the least likely chance of dying

Food Chain+ Eternal Scourge+ Walking Ballista

Another walking ballista combo, but honestly, that card is broken. The goal of this is to play food chain and cast eternal scourge. Then exile it to food chains ability. From there you constantly replay eternal scourge and constantly get 1 more mana each time. Do this 8,554,013 times and use it on walking ballista and kill everyone.

Kodama of the East Tree+ Field of the Dead + Guildless Commons

Kodama was considered broken when it was first revealed, and this mono green win con proves it. The goal of this is to get infinite 2/2 zombies that can swing for game. You cast Kodama, with field of the dead online. You play Guildless commons, bouncing field of the dead back to hand. Kodama triggers, allowing you to put field of the dead on the battlefield. Field of the dead triggers creating a 2/2 zombie. Kodama triggers allowing you to put guildless commons back on the battlefield. Repeat this process until you have 4,377 zombies ready to swing and kill the board.

Mono-Blue Commander win cons

Dramatic Reversal+ Isechron Scepter+ Aetherflux reservoir 

The dramatic reversal + Isochron Scepter is iconic. It works so easily that it breaks with a ham sandwhich. Simply play isechron scepter, imprinting dramatic reversal. Cast dramatic reversal with at least 2 mana-producing rocks. Generate infinite casts + mana. Cast Aetherflux reservoir and death star everyone with this mono blue win con.

Mystic Forge+ Sensei’s Divining Top+ Etherium Sculptor+ Laboratory Maniac

This mono blue win condition looks complicated but is actually relatively easy. Play mystic forge and sensei. Proceed to dig until you find Ethereum sculptor. Play Ethereum sculptor until you find laboratory maniac with sensei’s top. Cast lab man and draw with top until you win. Simple as that.

Bruvac, the grand delinquent + Maddening Cacaphony 

The ultimate mono blue win con for milling. Play the mill master himself, Bruvac, then cast a kicked maddening cacophony and watch as everyone mills their entire library and loses.

Mono-Black Commander win cons

Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond

Life gain decks love this combo. Simply play a sanguine bond and follow up with exquisite blood. Gain life or force someone to lose a life, and the chain begins, killing everyone with a combo that drains the table.

Bolas Citadel+ Senseis, divining top+ Aetherflux reservoir

This works a lot like Mystical forge. Play Bolas citadel and tap top to draw a card and put top on top. Pay 1 life to recast top. Do this until you find aetherflux reservoir. Cast aetherflux and proceed to gain an abnormal amount of life and kill your opponents with an insane amount of damage.

Professor Onyx + Chain of Smog

The mono black win con that is scary to cast. Play professor Onyx, then cast chain of smog on YOURSELF. Discard 2 cards then repeat, repeat, repeat. Do this until everyone is dead or counterspells the copy when you have no cards in hand. Either way, this wins games more often than not, just be careful of blue players.

Artifact Commander win cons

Painters Servent + Grindstone

Now time for the colorless artifact win cons. Painterservant and grindstone are one of the oldest combos in the world. Have grindstone on the battlefield, play painter servant naming a color. Proceed to mill target opponent till they have nothing left, and watch them lose the game.

Myr Battlesphere+ Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod’s Altar

This colorless combo requires 3 cards. The win con is simple, play myr battlesphere with Nim deathmantle on the board and ashnods altar. Myr triggers giving you 4 myr tokens. Sac a token and Myr Battlesphere to get 4 mana for Nim’s Deathmantle. Recur this ability until you have 69,420 myr tokens and swing out to win the game.

Salvaging Station + Flayer Husk+ Grinding Station

Another mill strategy but wins nonetheless. Play flayer husk getting you a 0/0 germ token. Sack the husk to grinding station milling someone for 3. The germ dies causing salvaging station to trigger. Return flayer husk getting another 0/0 germ token. Do this 42 times per opponent and watch this colorless combo win games.

Commander Win Conditions: Conclusion

There you have it 18 win conditions for any mono-color deck. With this, you should have a strategy that any deck can implement to win you the game. Be sure to check out my article, top 10 best combos in commander. It goes over more than just mono color win cons, but the most powerful win cons in the game for players to use. Have a great day and enjoy comboing!

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Archive Decks Tips/Tricks

Commander Deck Building Template

Looking for a Commander Deck Building Template! Whether you are new or looking for a fresh take on how to build a commander deck, commander20 has you covered. 

A good commander deck building template has 4 steps

  1. Step 1: Choose Your Commander
  2. Step 2: Include your ramp, draw, and control
  3. Step 3: Put your win-cons in there.
  4. Step 4: Shuffle up and play!

But, before we get into the discussion of the commander deck building template, it should be mentioned, that this template is designed to give you a streamlined look at “how-to” build a commander deck. It does not go over the reasons a ton.

The logic is that there is a huge detailed guide linked here, that this entire guide is based on. This has math, examples, and reasoning to defend each part of building a commander deck.

So if you want a full in-depth guide that teaches you the entire logic behind this article, I highly recommend getting the free guide. That said, if you don’t have a lot of time, this will cover the highlights and give you the streamlined Commander Deck Building Template.

Alright, enough of that, lets build a commander deck.

Step 1: How to Choose Your Commander?

The first step to building a commander deck is choosing your commander. 

To choose your commander, the simple answer is to choose a commander that is any legendary creature you like. So if you like Yargle, Glutton of Urborg, then that is your commander, if you like Tymna and Thrasios, then there is your commander.

This is the usual suggestion for new players as, a commander you are passionate about is easy to choose and begin building.

BUT, there is an alternative way to build your commander deck and it is a way I am a firm believer in, function. 

The idea behind this one is that, rather than choosing your commander first, you decide on what your deck wants to do first. Once you do this, you look to find a legendary card that can fufill that desire which then becomes your commander. 

For instance, I love being able to reuse spells to progress my board state, therefore I would look into cards that allow me to recast spells multiple times or get multiple copies. From there I would look at commanders that can do that, where I then stumbled upon Muldrotha. Muldrotha seems to fit the function of my commander so that is who I choose to be my commander.

Either way is a good way to choose your commander and the choice is up to you! If you are looking for inspiration I suggest looking at the most popular commanders of all time which are listed here. From there, we need to decide what should be in our commander deck.

What should be in your commander deck?

There are a few things that are should be included in your commander deck. These are 

  1. A commander who is a legendary creature
  2. A deck with a total of a 100 cards (including commander)
  3. Anything not on the commander ban list

As long as you abide by these 3 rules, then you should be fine no matter who you play with. That said, there is more to building a commander deck than this and there are 4 functions that every commander deck should include. These are:

  1. Ramp
  2. Draw
  3. Control
  4. Value

If you can include these 4 functions in your commander deck, then building a commander deck becomes remarkably easy. Now if you have read “The Rule of 20”, then you should know all this and more. That said, let’s briefly go over these and why they are important to building a commander deck.

Ramp

Ramp is simply “anything that nets you more mana”.

This means things like strike it rich which stores 1 mana for later is ramp, just as things like mana rocks such as sol ring, or mana reducers like Goblin Electromancer are all in the category of ramp.

At the time of writing, there are four main versions of ramp

  1. Storing mana for later
  2. Mana rocks
  3. Mana reducers
  4. Burst ramp

Draw

If you have no cards in hand, your ramp doesn’t matter. Drawing cards is fundamental to deck building for commander.

While ramping is necessary for consistently casting spells, drawing cards is necessary to consistently play the game.

So what defines card draw? Put simply anything that allows you to see/use more cards. Scrying, tutoring drawing, exile effects, recurring and milling are all common ways that work for card draw and are commonly used.

There are currently 5 common ways to draw cards.

  1. Draw
  2. Mill
  3. Scrying
  4. Tutor
  5. Casting from outside of hand

Each of these can be used to see, or reuse cards allowing for maximum deck usage.

Control

While ramp allows for consistently casting spells, and drawing allows you to consistently play the game, control is necessary to let your deck operate.

Think of it as the grease in a machine, ramp gives you the power for your deck to work, while drawing allows the machine to operate as it should, the grease is there to make the machine work smoothly.

Control does one of two things; 

  1. Protect your board, or
  2. Stop other people’s boards.

By correctly utilizing control, you will see your decks consistently perform better, while other decks have a hard time doing their thing. The ratios of each are gone over in more detail in this guide here, but the general rule of thumb is 13/7 or 7/13 depending on your decks goals.


Value

Now if you noticed, assuming 30-32 lands, 1-2 commanders, and 60 other cards, that only leaves 6-9 cards left over for everything else.

These are your “Value” cards. These are cards that don’t necessarily progress your board state but win you the game. Some common examples of this would be Beastmaster Ascension, harmonic prodigy, or Seedborn Muse. These cards are powerful but neither draw, ramp, nor control the board, making them really only useful in winning the game.

Now while some cards are strictly value (like the ones mentioned above) there are some that can win you the game but work in other categories. 2 common examples of this is underworld breach and mizzix mastery.

Both can be a form of card draw in that you get to use the draw function ‘of cast from outside your hand’ but an overloaded mizzix mastery or an underworld breach+brain freeze can be great ways to win the game. Determining which cards bring your deck the most value, is a very important function of actually winning the game. As talked about next.

How To Build A Win Con In The Commander Deck Building Template?

There are 3 ways to win in commander when building an mtg deck.

  1. Beats
  2. Combo
  3. Value

Beats win through beating people to death, usually through a swarm of small or big creatures.

Combo is usually playing an effect that just states you win the game.

While value is winning through an overwhelming amount of board advantage that the other three can’t beat.

When following this commander deck building template, you will need on average at least 3-6 cards dedicated to winning. If you don’t then even if you run the 20 ramp, draw, and control cards, you will end up having a great board state, but you can never end the game. Leaving people unhappy. As such a deck should always be built with at least 1-2 ways to win the game. Failure to do so leads to more losses on your end and a lower overall enjoyment rate with the other players.

That said, how to build a win-con for commander decks?

Simple, put your cards that you want to see win the game as your win cons. 

If you want to win through beats, play cards like blightsteel colossus, then blightsteel is your win con, and the rest of the deck should go to being synergistic or supporting these win cons.

If you want to win through combos, find your favorite combo such as dualcaster + twinflame, and build your deck around doing that.

Then if you want to win by value, just find the cards that will overwhelm your opponents and make it impossible for them to catch up, like consecrated sphinx.

Finding those cards can be a challenge so I recommend looking at actual decks you want to play and see what win-cons those include.

How Many Lands In A Commander Deck?

The final part you need to know for building a commander deck, is how many lands?

A commander deck should have 28+commanders value in land count. 

The reason is explained in this article, but the general reason is that lands are best for casting your commander and ramping, outside of that they have very little function.

Therefore, if you go off that number, your land counts should be what you need fairly consistently to progress your board and play the cards you want.

That said, once you play the deck a few times, feel free to add or subtract lands to the deck depending on personal preferences, but 28+ commanders value is the best starting point for discovering how many lands in a commander deck.

Commander Deck Building Template: Conclusion

There you have an easy-to-follow commander deck building template. With this, you should be able to easily build any deck you want. As long as you abide by this deck-building template, then I am sure you will have your deck do what you want every time.

Of course, if you are looking to become a master deck builder, then I highly recommend “The Rule of 20” it is a great ebook that goes over everything you will ever need for deck building. Making you a master class deck builder that everyone will be jealous of! Be sure to keep an eye out for my next article going over some of the more advanced options that deck building and strategy can have. 

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Archive Decks Tips/Tricks

How To Build A CEDH Deck?

Looking to build a CEDH deck? If so, here is the content you need to do just that! This will go over everything from the spirit behind CEDH, to even providing a template needed to build a CEDH deck. Excited? Let’s begin!

The Spirit behind CEDH

CEDH, otherwise known as Competitive EDH, has only 1 rule. Build the best deck possible with your commander. There is no need for a rule 0 conversation because every deck is supposed to run as optimally as possible.

This means no card, strategy, or tactic is banned. As long as you can make it work at the highest power it is free game. Yes, that also includes land destruction by the way.

While this belief is very freeing for many players, it is also what makes the format “Restrictive” for many. The reason being is the best cards are played, and unfortunately, not every card is the best. This means cards like Teferi’s Protection, Eerie Ultimatum, and even Bala Ged Recovery, very rarely would see play in this environment. That said, just because they are harder to play does not mean they don’t have room. 

The difference is that these cards will underperform against most cards, but there are ways around that, such as specific commanders that have powerful synergy with these cards or building around the specific card and finding a way to win with it. A common example is Anje and Godo who play very unique cards most decks don’t run in order to make their deck work. But both are considered CEDH commanders.

Therefore as long as you come in with the spirit of “I will take this 1 card to the max with no restrictions”, your deck will most likely end up being CEDH or Fringe CEDH (A Power level that can compete against most CEDH decks but usually require more experienced pilots.)

What Makes a Deck CEDH

In short, to build a CEDH deck, it must be optimized, efficient, and have a good win-con to be considered CEDH.

A deck that has one or neither will not be CEDH but Fringe or lower.

But what are efficiency and optimization? 

Efficiency is the ability of your deck to consistently do what it wants.

Optimization is the ability of a card to be the best at what it wants.

In short, Efficiency is how well your deck can consistently do something and optimization is how good your card is compared to similar cards. 

But what are the steps to building a CEDH deck?

Step 1: How Do I Win?

Rather than your commander, the first step to building a CEDH deck is determining, “how do I win?”

There are 3 ways for a deck to win.

  1. Beats
  2. Combo
  3. Value

Beats win through beating people to death, usually through a swarm of small or big creatures. An example of this is Tymna/Kamahl. Whose win con is to stax the board and win with beats. These decks are rare due to how easy they are to disrupt.

Combo is usually playing an effect that just states you win the game. Thassa’s and Consultation are the most popular ones you see. This is the most powerful way to win and is usually what most decks play.

While value is winning through an overwhelming amount of board advantage that the other three can’t beat. From there, you pull the win through a combo or some other effect. Two good examples are Dockside in Korvold which basically wins you the game, or Ad Nausuem strategies.

From there, choose the best commander to match your win-con or deck function and you are good to go!

How Many Win-Cons to Build a CEDH Deck?

A deck usually needs around 2-3 ways to win the game to be effective in closing out games. Failure to do so leads to more losses on your end and a lower overall enjoyment rate with the other players.

That said, how do you build CEDH decks win cons? Simple, put cards that you want to see win the game as your win cons. 

If you want to win through beats, play cards like craterhoof behemoth, and the rest of the deck should go to being synergistic or supporting the win cons.

If you want to win through combos, find your favorite combo such as dualcaster + twinflame, and build your deck around doing that.

Then if you want to win by value, just find the cards that will overwhelm your opponents and make it impossible for them to catch up, as consecrated sphinx does in Kinnan.

Finding the best win condition for your deck can be a challenge so I recommend looking at actual decks you want to play and see what win-cons those include. A good resource for this is the Cedh Database.

Finally, a good rule of thumb, is that each win needs only 1-2 cards to work. The less cards needed to win means less chance for disruption and easier to pull off. So 4-8 cards should be dedicated to winning the game.

Step 2: Make A Deck Efficient

Efficiency has been recorded extensively in my book Rule of 20 as well in the CEDH.Guide Report. In short, there are 4 mechanics that make up every deck, 1) Ramp, 2) Draw, 3) Control, and 4) value. If you are unfamiliar with what these are then I suggest either reading the previously mentioned Rule of 20 or my deck building template. Both give you answers to all of these.

In short though:

  1. Ramp is anything that lets you use more mana
  2. Draw is anything that lets you see more cards
  3. Control is anything that protects your board or disrupts others.
  4. Value is anything that helps you win.

Understanding these is vital. The reason why is a failure to understand efficiency means you can never understand optimization. As optimization is the ability of a card to be the best at each of these 4 categories.

Now, a deck’s efficiency needs vary from commander to commander. CEDH.Guide did a great report located here that goes over the statistical average for every deck in the CEDH database, on average they run 18 control, 21 draw, 20 ramp, and 10 value cards. The rest are commanders and lands. 

That said, a simple guide to follow is the Rule of 20, which states that a deck should try to run on average 20 control, 20 draw, and 20 ramp. The rest is value, lands, and commanders. In doing so, you achieve some of the highest efficiency a deck can make before losing its ability to win. Making this the best rule of thumb to follow for consistency.

To summarize, a cedh deck should try to run 20 ramp, 20 control, and 20 draw cards to be consistent. From there, you can cut or add pieces to synergize with your game plan.

the countdown is at one: Jesper Ejsing

Step 3: Make A Deck Optimized

An optimized deck is the most expensive deck… Or so the joke goes. In reality, an optimized card does not need to be expensive, wild growth, tinder wall, and Fire covenant are optimized cards, but aren’t 50+ dollars. In fact, two of them are below 50 cents. 

An optimized card is a card that achieves the best results for what your deck is trying to do. This is a little hard to identify as it is so subjective and is changing with each new set printed, but there are a few common traits to look for.

  1. Low Mana value

A card that has a lower mana value is usually the better choice as it is less intensive than a card even one mana higher. Ideally you are looking for 2 CMC or lower.

  1. Flexibility

A card that has an increase in flexibility is great. This isn’t necessary more options like mystic confluence has, but rather “lines” that make it better than other options.

A good example is stifle when running final fortune. Stifle on its own is not great due to its limited uses, but a stifle makes it to where you can take an extra turn at instant speed and not lose the game. Increasing its flexibility.

  1. Power

This is simply how powerful of an effect the card has. A counterspell against only instants is much less powerful than a card that can counter any spell. This is usually defined by the previous 2 traits, but some cards are just game warping in power, such as smothering tithe or seedborn muse.

So when deciding what the optimized card is, compare that to every card that does a similar function, if a card has lower CMC, more flexible, and higher power then this is an easy upgrade to build a CEDH deck. (A good example is lightning bolt and lightning strike). 

Besides that, getting familiar with more cards is the best way to discover what is optimized. I suggest checking out the CEDH Staple Database. It is filled with optimized cards that most decks want to play. 

Put It All Together And….

You have built a CEDH deck! If you can understand these three steps then you can make any deck CEDH. 

Simply watch more content and play more games if you want to get better. I recommend reading my guide to deck building, or my 2 ebooks Rule of 20, or Commander Better. Both are about becoming better at the game so your decks can always do what you want in any game. Good luck and happy playing!

Categories
Archive Cards

11 Cards Like Rhystic Study

We all want cards like Rhystic Study. What was once a 25-cent common is now a $30 rare. Which, unless you have a ton of money, it can be hard to own multiple copies or even a copy. 

So, to help all you commander players out there. I have searched, playtested, and compiled a list of 11 cards like rhystic study. Giving you access to cards not as broken but still a good bang for your buck. 

Plus if you have trouble hitting the 20 card draw recommendation that the Rule 20 guide states, then these are some great includes in addition to rhystic study. So without further wait, let’s go over these cards like rhystic study.

Ghostly Pilferer

First up is ghostly pilferer, with cards like Jeska’s Will, Underworld Breach, and a plethora of other exiles/reanimation card draw engines, ghostly pilferer puts in work. Not only does an early ghostly pilferer mean you will draw off people’s commanders, but you can also filter your hand by discarding and drawing with their second ability. For two mana this is a great choice for those looking for a card draw engine.

Verity Circle

Mana dorks are your best friend. Chances are someone is playing green, and if they are playing green, they are probably playing mana dorks as well. Which turns into a card draw engine for you. I have noticed that it’s not always a huge payoff but I can usually get 1-2 draws off of it every game at worst or 6+ if going against multiple green players. All in all a solid choice.

Runic Armasaur

Not the usual card like Rhystic Study, Runic Amasaur can put in work depending on your meta. Even in casual, there are tymna, thrasios, and a plethora of ability commanders. Which makes this a great choice in those matchups. This is a solid choice if you find yourself constantly going against commanders with activated abilities or people who like to run combos like Kiki-Jikki, Isochron Scepter, or birthing pod. Making this actually really good in the right situations.

 Compost

Another Meta dependent card, but a solid choice all the same. Great against, sacrifice, discard, and vampiric tutor decks, compost is another great card like rhystic study. While not as popular of a color as green, black cards usually love being put into the graveyard. Which lets compost draw you cards consistently throughout the game. Not only that, but a cool deck tech of compost is that the cards don’t care how they end up in the graveyard. So mill decks will get so much value out of this card. Making this a really fun alternative to rhystic study.

Insight

The other version of compost is Insight. Insight cares about cards not going to the graveyard but cast. Which, with green being one of the most popular colors for commander, means you will draw a ton of cards off this one. If you can get this down early, then all sorts of ramp cards will allow you to draw. But, if you get it down late, then all sorts of big creatures will allow you to draw cards as well. Meaning no matter which part of the game you are in, drawing will be happening. Honestly, this is my second favorite card like rhystic study just because this always performs better than I expect.

Viridian revel

Treasures are a thing. While the debate over treasures is lengthy, the fact is most decks use treasures nowadays. Meaning Viridian Revel becomes great against treasures. While a popular card for the mentioned reason, I find the card to either perform or underperform, but never just okay. Meaning if you are in a huge treasure meta, this card is fantastic and is an auto-include, but if you find yourself very rarely against treasures, it’s a dead card that draws you 0-1 cards a game. But, the draw function is nothing to sneeze at just be aware that this variance is higher than most.

Heartwood Storyteller

More friendly than the other cards like rhystic study, but still a great alternative. Heartwood storyteller is only good in creature-heavy decks. The reason being is this card can help your opponents too and as such needs to be used as cautiously as possible. If you are playing in more casual settings where removal isn’t common, or are playing a group hug deck then heartwood storyteller becomes the best rhystic study alternative out there. Being both political, it can allow players to cast noncreature spells to let others hopefully draw into removal, or if an opponent is trying to win via non-creature spells, it makes it much harder for them to do anything without feeding everyone else. Becoming a great way to shut down spellslinger, artifact, and enchantment decks, while also feeding your creature-heavy deck.

Everwatching Threshold/cunning rhetoric

Another version of propaganda, but definitely has its uses. Reliant on opponents attacking you is never fun, but today’s meta is much more combat-heavy than it was 3-4 years ago. With the making of really powerful creatures in magic, combat now has more significance besides just killing your opponents. So this works as a great way to prevent people from attacking you, or to get a lot of card draw as people swing 2-3 damage your way to get value from combat. An interesting take on rhystic study, but still not without its merits.

Nezehal Primal Tide

The most expensive alternative to rhystic study, but an absolute powerhouse if you can get on board. Able to draw you a ton of cards, this is no small threat to the board. A 7/7, can’t be countered, no maximum hand size, draw engine off every noncreature spell, and a form of protection? This card wins games. If you are in a deck that can ramp you a lot quickly, this is the card I would recommend to put into your decks. Able to win the game with damage, able to protect itself if targeted, and able to draw you cards reliably, this is the best card like rhystic study in most games. 

Wandering Archaic

Wandering Archaic may not seem like card draw, but cantrips, draw spells, and other forms of instant and sorceries that draw you cards, make this a great include. Consisting of only colorless mana, this can go into any deck and find a great way to be a value engine against other players playing stuff like a demonic tutor, blue sun zenith, and read the bones. I originally did not think of this as a draw engine, but wandering archaic works as a great way to draw a few cards throughout the game. Making this another solid alternative to rhystic study.

Mystic remora


Finally, the best card like rhystic study. While yes, the most known, its’ power can’t be understated. Play this early, and ramp spells draw you cards, play this later, and value/removal cards draw as well. Meaning, that you can play this at any point of the game and still draw your cards. Thus making this the best alternative to rhystic study. Highly recommend.

11 Cards Like Rhystic Study: Conclusion

Not only are each of these great budget alternatives to the commander staple, but these are also great includes in addition to rhystic study. Able to draw cards off other players’ work is a blessing that can work wanders when going against 3 other players. Meaning cards like rhystic study, mystic remora, and insight, become great ways to power your board state to a winning position. Allowing for more games to be won, and for your deck to do what it wants every time. 

If you are looking for other great ways to optimize your decks, I cannot stress enough my FREE book, Rule 20. It is a solid way to transform the power behind your decks with only simple tweaks. Allowing for your games to be that much more fun. Till next time! Happy drawing.

P.S. A great way to support this site is by clicking on this link here when buying your cards from TCG. They give me a nice kickback that can be used on magic cards of my own to playtest and report to you. Thanks!