I've written before about what you are trying to do when you sit down to a game of Commander. It's not about winning. It's about winning with style. I don't win most Commander games I play, but I do my best to create interesting board states that make the game into something compelling and memorable for everyone involved. I've also written about lands that come into play tapped and passing my turn without doing anything. That's no fun for me or anyone else. Plus, it seems like it takes for-ever for my turn to come around again.
Every slot must do a lot.
In the course of a typical game, you might see one-third to one-half of your deck. That means you won't be playing the same game every time. You do silly things. Your opponents do silly things. Commander is messy. The board state is in flux. Spells are cast and countered. The stack can get huge. The individual card choices matter as much when you are building your deck as when you are playing your deck.
Let's look at an example. Take Sol Ring, please!
Sol Ring is one of those cards. The ancient one. Banned and restricted and never to see the light of day. Totally legal in Commander, though. Why? Because what makes Sol Ring really good in a constructed duel is almost useless in most Commander games. Check it out.
If I'm playing a Vintage match, good ol' Sol Ring does some pretty broken things by effectively speeding my deck up a turn or more. It costs one mana and can be tapped immediately for two mana. On the next turn, it pumps out two mana again. Imagine this scenario with Sol Ring in your opening hand:
Turn 1: Land, Sol Ring
Turn 2: Land
Now, on turn 2, I have 4 mana available. I'm "two lands" up on my non-Sol-Ring-playing opponent. I can do all kinds of dirty deeds with 4 mana. Not to mention chaining Sol Ring into Sol Ring. No wonder it is restricted in Vintage and banned everywhere else. It's "broken" in those formats because it puts one player too far ahead too quickly.
But how about in Commander? Imagine this scenario with Sol Ring in your opening hand:
Turn 1: Land, Sol Ring
Turn 2: Land
Whooptie do. At best, you power out something that either paints a target on your head or allows you to chip away at one opponent (of many) who starts at 40 life. Good luck with that. If you happen to be playing combo, powering out stuff can still work to your advantage, but there is a special place in hell reserved for you anyway. By all means, please end the round more quickly so that we can get on to a real game.
In other words, while Sol Ring is damn near an auto-include in a constructed Vintage deck (and would be in other formats if it was legal), it is fighting for a card slot in Commander against a lot of other options. For example, I run Sol Ring in my demons deck because the deck wants to sit back and build up anyway. "What's he playing over there? Sol Ring? Oh, ok." Sol Ring almost never registers as a threat on its own, so I get a pass while still developing my mana. And I never play it on turn one. But in my other decks, I don't run Sol Ring. I don't need it. I'd rather fill that slot in my deck with something that does something right then and there.
This isn't a "right / wrong" type of thing. You can run Sol Ring. I'm just saying that every slot must do a lot. What is your Sol Ring doing for you? If you have it in your opening hand, are you actually powering out something special that wins you the game? If you draw it later, wouldn't you have rather drawn something else? A threat? An answer? Anything.
Hell, at least Mind Stone replaces itself if you draw it mid-to-late game.
When you are building your deck, pretend that your opponent has a Maralen of the Mornsong in play. He is almost certainly tutoring up combo or lock components. Are you putting cards into your deck that you would tutor for? It's not a perfect example because all kinds of crazy things can be happening in a real game, but if you are essentially in top deck mode halfway through the game, what card do you want to see smiling back at you on the draw?
Winning or losing, as long as I can cast my spells I'm going to enjoy the game. But I want my spells to matter. Making those spells matter starts when you build your deck. Every slot must do a lot. In Commander, it's all about the bombs.
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If you find yourself disagreeing with me, consider how often you play against only one or two opponents. This probably happens a lot. You know a couple of people who play Magic and you play Commander with them into the wee hours of the morning. When you play with so few opponents, it's more like a duel where developing early and gaining a quick advantage matters a lot more. If you lose before you can cast your bombs, it doesn't matter how cool your spells are. But, in the bigger games, the late game matters more. And unless someone is running combo, you are likely to see the late game. So, plan for it.
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