I've been collecting Magic cards for more than 20 years. In that time, I've put together a collection of cards that includes some of the greatest hits. Because of this, it's allowed me to play a five color commander deck that is absolutely ridiculous. I bought cards I liked and I never got rid of them.
It was all luck.
I have a love/hate relationship with this five color deck: Burberry Cologne. Looking through the list of cards reminds me of years of playing Magic, all the way back to the beginning. I have the same pieces of cardboard with me that I had all those years ago, all in one place in a crazy-crazy commander deck. But, playing the deck is over-the-top and not much fun to play against.
It's the lock and kill that sucks.
The lock doesn't take that long to put together. And most players don't know they are in it until way too late. But the kill takes forever. And, like with a lot of control decks, it leaves the opponent feeling like they are one card away from getting out of the lock... forever.
I've been on the receiving end of a control deck, many, many times. I know the feeling.
There's another problem with the deck. It's a practical problem. Think of your own commander decks. For many of you reading this, you probably have at least a couple of commander decks and maybe a few decks for other formats, along with a trade binder and a collection of cards. All told, for people who like this game, we drop serious money on cards. It adds up. A draft here. A couple of cards there. A foil replacement. Some trades. Cards you've had for a while go up in value. It doesn't take long to have a commander deck that's $600 or more.
Throw some dual lands on the pile and that number really climbs. My five color deck is so damn expensive now that taking it out of the house makes me uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong. I can think of a dozen decks that are better - and more fun - for less money.
I don't want to feel like I need a bodyguard when I walk out the door.
To fix both problems, I started over. I built a new five color commander deck with a couple of key objectives.
Objective 1: I want to win with dragons.
Objective 2: I don't want to use any card that is worth more than about $5, except for my commander.
The deck list is here: 5C Dragon Toolbox.
I've only played one game with it so far, but it worked. I was able to cast relevant stuff. I was genuinely surprised at how well the mana worked out. Coming from playing with a manabase of 10 dual lands and 10 fetch lands, I was skeptical that a five color deck could work without all that nonsense.
As it turns out, it works fine.
For reference, the manabase looks like this:
15 basic lands, 3 of each
5 cycling lands
5 panoramas
5 tri-color lands
5 five-color lands
3 terramorphic/evolving/myriad
10 signets
4 ramp spells
That's a big chunk of the deck dedicated to making mana, but the dragons I chose generally cost 6 mana in a combination of three colors.
After only playing one game, the deck certainly needs work. I already pulled out Exploration. Chris noted that it costs about $9, making it the most expensive card in the deck. Next, I swapped Thawing Glaciers for Myriad Landscape, for the same reason. Quicksilver Amulet is on my watch list, which is too bad because I really, really like that card and this is one of the few decks where I get to play it. I'd like to make room for more dragons, especially the two-color legendary dragons from Tarkir.
The cheap ones, though.
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