Is Your Commander Deck Fun?

Commander has evolved over the past few years. We have more cards to choose from, some of which were printed in specific Commander products. Gaps are filled in.

Things are better.

This means that you can play pretty much any deck you want, with any commander you want, and dial the power level up or down as needed.

So, what is a Commander deck?

"Commander deck" means many things to different people. For some people, themes are important. Heck, even having the right artwork on your basic lands is important. For other people, making the deck do something very specific is important. Putting 1000 elephant tokens into play is super-cool.



I get that.

But at some point, a commander deck is a pile of 100 cards that follow the deckbuilding rules of the format. You can fancy it up, or not. Your choice.

All by itself, the coolest deck in the world does not make a game of Magic. It's when a couple of decks come together that the "magic" happens. A "gathering" of decks, if you will.

That sounds familiar.

But, even when you are sitting across the table from someone, facing off after furiously shuffling cards, sometimes the decks you brought just don't interface well. They don't go together. It's like two entirely different games are being played at the same table.

It's still playing Magic, technically. But, 99 times out of 100, when I sit down to play Commander, the better the decks interface with each other, the more fun the game turns out to be. One guy sitting in the corner putting a combo together while the rest of the table pushes creatures into the red zone does not add much to my Magic experience.

When I talk about decks interfacing, I'm talking about having cards that interact with the other guy's cards. If you watch competitive Magic, you see this kind of thing happen all the time. You'll even hear the players talk about it, saying things like, "My deck just doesn't have the right cards to interact with that deck."

It's like bringing a golf ball to a soccer field. Both games involve a ball, but that's where the similarities end.

So, when I take a look at another person's Commander deck, I'm always trying to figure out if that deck interfaces with mine. If we shuffle up, what would the game look like? Would my strategy change based on the cards in that guy's deck?

That's the key.

If your strategy doesn't change no matter what you are up against, you aren't really playing Magic. You are playing solitaire with Magic cards.

Think about the Ad Nauseum Commander deck. Does it matter what everyone else brings to the table? Not really. You win or lose the same way every game.



I'm not saying that it can't be satisfying to put a combo together. I'm not even saying that every deck doesn't have a certain amount of "autopilot" built into it. I'm saying that when I take a look at another person's deck, I'm trying to see if the game it plays against the game my deck plays will be interesting.

For me - for Commander at least - playing an interesting game of Magic is way more important than winning a boring game of Magic.

In my experience, decks that create an interesting game of Magic have a similar mix of cards that perform certain functions. The further a deck deviates from that general mix, the more linear and less interesting the games become.

It's a formula for Commander fun!

38-40 Lands
5-7 Ramp Spells
7-9 Tutor/Draw/Manipulate Spells
4-5 Recursion (Spells, Lands, Enchantments, etc)
25-30 Creatures
3-4 Mass Removal
3-4 Spot Removal/Counterspells
3-4 Equipment/Auras
2-3 Planeswalkers

With enough lands, you don't get stuck not being able to cast anything. It's worth it. Not being able to cast anything because you are drawing bricks is the worst.

The worstest!



Ramp is the hallmark of the format. If you want to get to the big spells, you need to push it. Push it real good.



Tutoring, drawing, and manipulating your library increases consistency in an inconsistent format. You have to watch this category closely as too much consistency makes the game less fun. Conversely, getting stuck not being able to cast anything sucks. Ride the lightning.



Commander games can and do go long. Recursion is a good way to take advantage of that and can create little puzzles for everyone to solve. My favorite puzzle is, "Can you deal with Sun Titan?"





Put lots of creatures in your deck. Creatures smashing into other creatures, dealing damage, coming into play with sweet abilities, and all that jazz, is what takes the "interactivity" through the roof.




Sometimes - but not too often - you need to reset the board. It can drag out the game if it happens too often, but played smartly it can break open a stuck game, too. The best kind of "mass removal" is one-sided.



Spot removal is another way to get rid of problematic things and clear a way to victory. Too much spot removal, especially counterspells, can stop the game cold, though.



Equipment tends to stick around long enough to create more of those mini puzzles that make things interesting. "I can remove your Sun Titan, but what the heck am I going to do about that Argentum Armor?"




Some people hate Planeswalkers in Commander. I'm not one of those people. Many of the 'walkers have powerful ultimates that make dealing with them before they can get there a mini game all on their own. Think of it as a spell that changes the fabric of the game, but without wiping everything out and starting over.

In my experience, that's a good card mix for an interesting game of Commander. It doesn't matter what cards you put into that mix, as long as the mix stays the same. You can follow this mix in any color or combination of colors and get a good result. In fact, think of the best, most interactive, games of Commander you've played. What deck did you use? How closely does that follow that mix?