I've posted before about how I tend to build the same deck over and over. Doesn't matter what color I'm playing or even the format, I gravitate toward certain strategies. This isn't entirely surprising. I've been playing this game for a long time and have tried lots of different builds, strategies, and cards. But, when it comes right down to it, playing a deck that "clicks" makes playing the game a whole lot more fun.
I remember a guy who I used to run into at my friendly local gaming store, back when Tempest was the cool new set. This guy was into Magic, big time. He had the mana symbol ring from the back of the cards tattooed to his arm. No joke. And this guy did not like blue. He played aggro. Every week. Red aggro. If you were facing him, you could guarantee you would be facing a first turn mountain and something with haste. If you were facing him with a blue deck, he did not hold back with the trash talk. He main-decked Red Elemental Blast. You could take your combo deck or your control deck for a long walk off a short pier as far as he was concerned. He had clearly found his "thing" in an aggro-style deck, and red was the color that fit best with that strategy for him.
My thing is control. But, not "land, go, bounce, counter" blue control. I like five-color (5c) control. A million years ago, I played against a guy with a deck simply called "the deck." I had a bunch of decks with me at the time, and I threw everything at this guy. He beat me every game. I couldn't understand what was wrong. He was barely doing anything! I've picked up a lot of strategy and theory since then. Now, I know that his deck was building card advantage. And wow, do I like card advantage. It was like a whole new game when I figured that out.
Here's a link to the MTGSalvation Wiki article about "the deck." A lot of those cards are now banned in most formats, but the concept behind "the deck" can still be applied.
Does "the deck" work in Commander? Basically, yes.
I may have been a little harsh with my criticism of 5c control not winning in style. The trick is to ease back on the throttle a bit for the format and to choose your win condition(s) carefully. I'm still working on a mix of cards that feels like 5c control, without the soul-crushing control elements showing up too early.
Choosing the right Commander is a good place to start. There aren't many options for this deck because you need a Legendary creature in all five colors, and there just aren't that many that fit the bill. Selecting the Commander gets to the heart of building this deck because the format is multi-player and your Commander will signal how you intend to play.
For example, if your Commander is Scion of the Ur-Dragon, everyone at the table will assume you are running a dragon-combo deck and come gunning for you. Unless you are, in fact, running said dragon-combo, that's not what you want. Ditto for anything with "sliver" in the name. These 5c decks are fine, but they are not the deck we are talking about. They are based on an entirely different (combo) strategy.
I'm going with Cromat. Not only is he awesome in his weirdness, he can do lots of different things and makes use of all the colors we have available. In general, he ranges from non-threatening to down-right-confusing. That's what we want. We want people to squirm when they see him across the table because they are not quite sure what we are up to.
What does it mean to ease back on the throttle? If you are familiar with "the deck," you may recall that dropping a Moat can blank entire decks. Creature-based decks without fliers or enchantment removal roll over to this one card. And if they do have removal, you have counterspells. Awesome. Should we run Moat in Commander, then? Probably not.
I'm sure that there's a ton of guys out there running Moat with loads of success. What I'm saying is that Moat is the kind of card that shuts down the table. Suddenly, you have two-three-four players all looking right at you. One of them is going to have removal. One of them is going to have the counter for your counter. You don't want that. What you want is a card that says, "Hey, wouldn't you rather attack that other guy over there?" You want a card like Aurification.
(Also, good news: Aurification costs a million times less than Moat in real money.)
The same argument applies to The Abyss vs. No Mercy. The Abyss says, "Hey, you know all your great creatures that you love? Kill them. Again and again." On the other hand, No Mercy says, "Hey, you know all your great creatures that you love? Keep them. Just keep them away from me." That's what you want. Push the threats elsewhere while you bide your time to work your evil plans.
(Also, more good news: No Mercy costs a million times less than The Abyss in real money.)
Cards like Aurification and No Mercy are doing for you in Commander what Moat and The Abyss are doing in "the deck." But because this is a multi-player format, they are working for you in a slightly different way.
There's lots to consider for a 5c control deck. More to come.
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