All About EDH

Commander / EDH* Casual Competitive Multiplayer Primer

All About EDH

All of this primer is my own personal take on the format. I am not perfect, and don't know everything, and so if you disagree about anything here, feel free to write a comment on it, explaining what we disagree on, and how to help change it.

Intro & Rules

What is EDH?

Elder Dragon Highlander, EDH for short, or Commander is a format for Magic: The Gathering, which currently is one of the most popular formats due to its ruleset and special gameplay in comparison to other formats.

In EDH, each deck contains exactly 100 cards, no more and no less, and no copies of any cards (unless the card is a basic card, or says it can be run more than once on the card itself) can be in any deck. This is normal for Highlander formats, so what is so special about EDH? To start, it is a multiplayer format, four players to be exact, and each player has 40 life. Also, one card in your deck is your commander.

What does this commander card do? Well, to start, it has to be a legendary creature (or planeswalker that specifically notes it can be your commander). The color identity of the card matters a lot. The color identity of a card is the color of it, like for Azami, Lady of Scrolls, added to each color symbol in its text. For example, Samut, Voice of Dissent has a color identity , even though its color is simply , because of the symbol in its text.

There is one last part of color identity, a land is generally colorless, with one exception: (Dryad Arbor). However, in color identity, a land must have its basic land type added, so for instance Godless Shrine has a color identity of .

Other strange rules on color identity are like extort. Basilica Guards is a card that when you read has the symbol in its text, right? Weirdly, it is considered simply , because the symbol is in parentheses, and all italicized text is removed when considering color identity. Windswept Heath may look like it is color identity, but it actually only is colorless, because it never has a color symbol, and though it fetches lands under a basic land type, it itself isn't a land under a basic land type.

So, how does color identity work in EDH? Every card in your deck needs to have a color identity that is under your commander's color identity. This means you can run any card in a deck with Cromat as its commander, however, you can only run colorless cards in a deck with Hope of Ghirapur as its commander. Seems simple enough, restricting, but simple.

So, is that all there is to EDH? It’s a 100-card, singleton (one of each card), four-player, 40-life format with a commander and restricted cards based on color? Not entirely. Remember that commander? There are a bunch of other rules involved. To start, when you begin a game, your commander isn't in your deck, it is in a zone called the Command Zone, in which you can cast your commander from it as though it was in your hand. Whenever your commander would move zones other than from the command zone (if someone killed your commander, or exiled it, or bounced it to your hand, or shuffled it into your library), you may instead choose to have it sent back to your command zone, ready to be cast again!

Well, this is great! You can always have access to your commander, except there are a few things to note if your commander was stolen, in the form of Mind Control or otherwise, it didn't move zones, only changed control. You cannot choose to send it to the command zone in this case. Also, each time you cast your commander from the command zone, the next time you do so it costs an additional . This is called the commander tax. The commander tax stacks, so if your commander is Hope of Ghirapur, it costs the first time, then the second time, the third time, and so on. Also noteworthy is that commander tax only increases and applies when you cast your commander from the command zone. If someone returns your commander to your hand, you can then cast it for its normal, un-taxed cost, and it won't increase the tax for next time.

The last main thing in EDH is commander damage. If your commander deals 21 combat damage to a player, that player will lose the game. Many decks revolve around winning in this way, like Rafiq of the Many, Uril, the Miststalker, or other lists with commanders revolving around getting out a ton of damage fast. These decks are commonly called Voltron. Keep note a commander like Nekusar, the Mindrazer dealing damage from its ability isn't considered combat damage, and so doesn't count as part of the 21 damage to win. Also note that this damage can be spread out over multiple attacks (i.e. you don't need to one-shot someone to kill them with commander damage), and is tracked individually for different commanders (i.e. if Johnny hits you for 11 with his commander, and Tammy hits you for 11 with her commander, you don't die because you don't have 21 damage from any single commander).

There is another popular way to play EDH, a 1v1 commander of sorts, called French, or Dual commander, which has a lot of specific rules to itself, from the Swap commander rules, a separate ban list, and multiple games in a match, etc.

I personally am not up to date on all of these rules, so I would like to forward you to http://www.duelcommander.com, an external link that provides detailed rulings and an in-depth explanation of the format, and constant updates. The format changes much more rapidly than normal multiplayer EDH, and I will not be talking about French in this primer.

Below you will find further information on EDH, but that is the basics of the format!

EDH Ban List

All of the following cards are banned in EDH/Commander. The rules committee formerly banned cards only for use as a commander, but have since done away with that process. The following cards are banned from use both as your commander and in the 99 other cards. A reason for each will be beside the banned card.

EDH/Commander Theory

The accordion blocks immediately following are going over some theory of the decks in EDH. For information on deck building or specific, recommended cards, you can find those elsewhere.

Main Archetypes

The following archetypes are generalized strategies that break down many types of decks into large categories. Many decks are hybrids of these strategies, as they are large brushes.

Aggro

Aggro is the type of deck that generally has a very simple strategy, kill each opponent as fast as possible, using damage, infect/poison counters or commander damage. Due to three opponents and each having 40 life, many Aggro decks need an edge to get out enough damage to win. Using your commander to deal damage makes it so you don't need as much damage, and if you keep buffing your commander, you can win much faster than a normal creature based Aggro build. Token strategies with Anointed Procession can double their damage, and effects like Gratuitous Violence can help deal more damage in almost any strategy. Things like these help close that 120 (40 life on three opponents) life gap to victory.

One upside to Aggro is that a slower player will most likely be unable to protect against your onslaught, however, a downside is it needs some luck against midrange opponents, and will sometimes struggle against faster combo lists.

Midrange

Midrange strategies are similar to Aggro in that they commonly want to beat the opponent down and win, a lot of time through dealing damage, but instead of trying to do it as fast as possible, they are trying to protect themselves at the same time, leading to slower play, and more consistent play than Aggro, yet faster and less consistent play than control.

A major upside is that the deck is powerful at all stages of the game. Few times are midrange decks entirely ‘Aggro-ed’ or controlled out of the game, however, the downside it is not extremely good in any stage of the game either. Kind of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none deal you have here.

Control

Control builds are slower builds that try to make the game go long, and then win. They normally either try to shut down the opponents, as a stax build, or use removal and countermagic to deal with threats your opponents play like a permission build. Either way, the game goes long into whatever win condition the deck is packing.

An upside is that control players are commonly the victors if the game goes long, but a downside is that they are much worse at playing the early game, and may have to spend a lot of the cards in there hand to survive.

Combo

Combo builds are normally like Aggro or midrange decks, except instead of attempting to deal damage as fast as possible, or protect their forms of damage, they are trying to use some combo to instantly win the game. This is different in many ways, from the use of tutor and card draw, and the lack of repeated card effects, along with generally more explosive turns and slightly less consistency.

An upside is that they don't generally care about life totals, and a downside is that they are more easily shut out of the game, due to a combo piece getting exiled or something.

It should be noted other types of decks exist, but most types of decks fall under these categories.

Power Levels

The following power levels are not decided upon, there are many ways of ranking lists, this way is simply how I found was both simple, effective, and reasonably common.

Tier 5 - Gimmick/Theme/Jank/No Focus

These decks are generally built as a joke, or from random cards a player has. These decks aren't considered very powerful, as they usually lack a clearly defined game-plan, little to no consistency, and aren't very fast.

Tier 4 - Casual/Unfocused

These lists are decks that have cards they were specifically chosen to follow a game-plan, but might not be the best cards for the job, the decks might not have decent ramp or card draw, and they normally aren't very consistent.

Tier 3 - Focused

These are the middle of the pack decks, they have a clear game-plan, have decent ramp, decent card draw, and decent consistency levels. Normally they don't run the best cards for the deck, due to budget concerns or otherwise, and usually reasonable in price, from $80-$400.

Tier 2 - Pub-Stomp/Very Focused

These are generally powerful, tried-and-true builds, like a Rafiq of the Many Voltron deck, an Atraxa, Praetors' Voice superfriends deck, or an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic control deck. All of these decks have a clear goal, are consistent, run very good cards for the game-plan, card draw, ramp, the whole package, all at a price tag many players can afford, from $200-$800 commonly. These decks can take over Local Game Stores and playgroups, and many players will find these decks are the most powerful decks they play with or against.

Tier 1 - cEDH/Most Focused

These are the most powerful decks in the format, with nearly always no budget replacements, and the best ramp, card draw, and consistency. The faster decks can win turn 1-4 with no disruption and turns 3-5 with medium disruption. The slower decks can shut off each opponent with extra cards in hand to win. Costing anywhere from $800-$8000, these decks are commonly out of reach for most players.

Keep note many different players use different ways to rank decks, and this is not a perfect way, but it is the method I personally would recommend to many players. Ranking decks 1-10, 1-3, and my names and not numbers are all normal.

Sub-Themes

I know there are more strategies than I am listing, there are a ton, please write more in the comments below!

Tribal

Tribal decks are decks that pick a tribe, like Zombie, and then make most of the deck's creatures have that tribe, then use cards like Coat of Arms, Door of Destinies, or any other tribal cards to get out more damage, or other effects like more card draw with Kindred Discovery.

See an example at Elf Tribal Ramp (AAEDH)

Artifact

Artifact decks are decks based around using synergies with artifacts, like Mox Opal, Darksteel Forge, Inventors' Fair, or other such cards to gain value. Many decks in this nature have the benefit of not using as many creatures as some other decks, so they are safe from Wrath of God effects, yet leave themselves more open to Shatterstorm effects.

See an example at Artifacts (AAEDH)

Enchantment/Enchantress

Enchantment builds are normally decks that simply run a lot of Enchantments and synergies with them, like Sphere of Safety, but enchantress decks use the specific Enchantress's Presence effects on some cards, to get a large card drawing engine when a lot of the deck is enchantments.

Voltron/Aura/Equipment

Voltron decks are decks that are based around building up one creature to be very large, whether by using auras, equipment, or other such effects. The creature is often the commander, as commander damage allows you to now rely too much on the pump abilities. Enchantress effects are recommended for aura builds.

Stax

Stax decks are control decks that attempt to stop opponents from casting the spells in their hand, not just countering spells or removing permanents. They can do this by using stax-pieces, or locks like Rule of Law, Rhystic Study, Smokestack, Tangle Wire, Winter Orb, Gaddock Teeg, or Trinisphere, all are powerful effects that make casting spells harder or detrimental for your opponents. These decks make sure not to lock themselves out by running cards in their deck that specifically deny these effects for themselves.

For example, if all of your cards are creatures, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben won't affect you, will it?

Permission

Permission decks are control builds based on answering specific threats with removal, "targeted" discard and countermagic. These decks need a lot of card draw as many of their answers only deal with one opponent’s threats when you have three opponents. Effectively every answer is card disadvantage then, so you need card draw to make up for it.

Lifegain

Lifegain strategies commonly are decks that use effects like Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Words of Worship, Well of Lost Dreams, Pristine Talisman, etc. Lifegain in itself isn't great, but it is good. Using it with effects like Felidar Sovereign can win games, which is truly the value here.

Infect/Poison Counters

Frowned upon in many playgroups, but infect allows you to get around the 40 life, and only need you to get 10 on each opponent. Using Proliferate effects and other ways of getting out more counters leads to very fast gameplay.

Tokens

Token strategies are very powerful in EDH, the number of token doubling effects like Rhys the Redeemed, Harvest Season, Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession, Doubling Season, and the like, allowing you to dole out tons of damage, and can lead to explosive gameplay. Using anthem effects along with a ton of small tokens can do even more!

Superfriends

Superfriends or planeswalker strategies are very good in EDH, due to the general slower gameplay, they are value engines, grinding out board advantage over time. Yes, creatures can kill them, but most board wipes don't, most removal doesn't hit them, etc. This means along with a decent couple blockers, you can protect 4+ walkers and take over a game.

Reanimator

Reanimator strategies are decks that are built around tossing a creature into the graveyard and cheating it out onto the battlefield with an effect like Reanimate. This allows you to get out giant threats with extreme speed, but leads to blowouts if an opponent has a Scavenging Ooze in play.

Aristocrats/Sacrifice

Sacrifice decks, using effects like Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, and Viscera Seer all are good at causing a lot of death triggers to go around, as well as give a lot of value in a 4-player game. What death trigger? Blood Artist can deal a ton of damage with all of that. Sacrifice decks are generally abusing a powerful commander such as Thraximundar or Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest.

Storm

Storm decks are generally combo decks based on the principle of getting more mana than a card costs and more card than a card costs for each card, allowing them to cast effectively their whole deck. Some of them rely on an engine, such as Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, Ad Nauseam, or Paradox Engine, others rely on simply having all of the good rituals and card draw.

+1/+1 Counters

With effects like Mer-Ek Nightblade, Hardened Scales, and Cathars' Crusade, abusing the +1/+1 synergies is very powerful. Using proliferate effects and the like is really common in it.

-1/-1 Counters

Not a super common strategy, mostly existing due to the popularity of Amonkhets's Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and The Scorpion God, cards like Necroskitter and Blowfly Infestation become really powerful in decks built with them in mind.

Mill

Mill is a strategy of deck that attempts to remove portions of your opponents' decks until they have no more deck, at which point if the draw a card they lose the game. Commanders like Oona, Queen of the Fae, Phenax, God of Deception, Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Szadek, Lord of Secrets, Circu, Dimir Lobotomist and The Scarab God are the most popular, leading to be basically the only color combo for mill.

Blink

Blink decks are decks that make creatures or other permanents 'blink' or get exiled and return to the battlefield all to gain value from ETB or LTB effects. Using Roon of the Hidden Realm every turn on a Thragtusk is a good example of the value they bring in, 2 mana for 5 life and a 3/3 every turn? Sign me up!

Discard

Discard decks are usually one of two decks, the first is the type that synergizes with making its opponents discard cards, using effects like Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Waste Not, Geth's Grimoire, Necrogen Mists, and Liliana's Caress type effects to gain value.

The other main type of discard deck is one that just makes opponents discard, instead of synergizing with it. If they have a commander that just over time will close out a game, all they have to do is stop players from playing and they win! Necrogen Mists, Bottomless Pit, Oppression, Words of Waste, Creeping Dread, Liliana of the Veil, Cunning Lethemancer, painful quandry, Sadistic Hypnotist and Chains of Mephistopheles will mean no one has a hand.

Lands

A lands matter deck is generally based around a commander that cares about them, like Borborygmos Enraged, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, The Gitrog Monster, or Omnath, Locus of Rage, and about 40+ lands to make the deck have a ton of synergy with the commander. Not all lands matter decks are like this, but the vast majority are. They often ramp out really well, have green in their color identity, and have some land-related win condition.

Bounce

A bounce deck is commonly misinterpreted as a deck that bounces your opponents' stuff, generally, it is the opposite, a deck that bounces its own cards to gain value, from stuff like Paradoxical Outcome to Uyo, Silent Prophet, and most of them are in blue. Similar to blink decks, bounce decks can use ETB and LTB effects over and over again, to gain value, like a Archeomancer with an Erratic Portal constantly retrieving spells from your graveyard, turn after turn.

Chaos

Chaos decks are pretty much exclusive to EDH, or multiplayer formats. It is a gimmicky style of deck, that needs some luck to win, and can often kill itself from playing weird effects like Planar Chaos, Possibility Storm, Warp World, or Scrambleverse. Generally, they need to be in red but aren't always.

Steal/Clone

Steal/Clone decks are decks that are good if you are in between playgroups, and want to play at different levels with the same decks. They most often are blue decks, that copy or steal your opponents’ threats instead of making their own. This allows you to only be as powerful as your opponents’ decks.

Self-Mill

Self-Mill decks like Tasigur, the Golden Fang normally have some graveyard synergies, like Traumatize and Creeping Rennaisance to get a makeshift draw half your deck! Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, The Mimeoplasm, and Muldrotha, the Gravetide are also great choices!

Legendary

Legendary decks are basically just tribal decks, with the tribe being legendary, but stuff like Time of Need, Captain Sisay, and Reki, the History of Kamigawa along with all of the Dominaria historic effects give them an edge in terms of card advantage! Heroes' Podium and Day of Destiny are also great ways to build up their bodies too.

Group Hug

Group hug decks are reasonably popular in EDH, though generally don't win, and instead give out tons of cards with Howling Mine or giving out tons of mana with Mana Flare. Effects that give each player resources are what make a group hug deck tick.

Wheels/Forcefeed

Generally, this is a single commander that helms wheel decks, Nekusar, the Mindrazer, and wheel specifically are effects like Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Magus of the Wheel, Timetwister, and their brethren. Wheel decks can also be storm builds, or builds like Nekusar, the Mindrazer, but not using him as the commander.

Swarm/Elfball

These lists are commonly green, creature-based decks using stuff like Primordial Sage, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Soul of the Harvest, and other effects that draw tons of cards when you cast creatures, and a lot of ramp, like Arbor Elf, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Devoted Druid, Priest of Titania and other fast-mana dorks, to make a fast deck that drops a ton of creatures onto the battlefield in an explosive manner. Using a haste enabler like Concordant Crossroads can be a near instant win in these builds!

Defender/Wall/Toughness

Originally a Doran, the Siege Tower-only deck, Arcades, the Strategist is now another commander that can use high-toughness creatures and make them very powerful. Using these creatures, specifically ones with low power like Wall of Omens, you can abuse sweepers like Retribution of the Meek, Slaughter the Strong, and Fell the Mighty to be one-sided sweepers (or three-sided in 4-player)! Assault Formation is a near-must-have in these builds, as if your commander is unable to be accessed it can still win games. Other good effects here are Meekstone, Overgrown Battlements, Wall of Mulch, Axebane Guardian, and Tower Defense!

Land Destruction

Land destruction decks are right what they say on the tin, destroy your opponents' lands! Use Armageddon/Ravages of War effects over Stone Rain effects, as they hit tons more, and aren't 1 for 1s. Generally these decks use artifact or creature mana so a Decree of Annihilation won't kill them, Ruination, Cataclysm, Catastrophe, Impending Disaster, and Devastation should be greatly considered for this type of deck.

Extra Combats

Decks based around extra combat steps usually are combo decks like Godo, Bandit Warlord/Aurelia, the Warleader with Helm of the Host, and a lot of Aggro tacked along. With other damage doubling effects like double strike or Gratuitous Violence, you can dole out absurdly fast damage!

Extra Turns

Extra turn decks are often frowned upon, due to the abundance of time spent on a single player's "turns". If you have a good card draw engine (or card advantage engine like Kess, Dissident Mage), you can repeatedly cast extra turn spells, and with recursion, you can chain together extra turns and go off really well! They effectively need to be in blue for the Time Warp, Temporal Manipulation, Time Stretch, Expropriate, and other extra turn spells, along with the card draw. These decks take a long time to combo out though, so be aware of that.

Dredge

Dredge decks are a form of self-mill deck, one that uses the dredge mechanic and card draw, like Golgari Grave-Troll in a Damia, Sage of Stone deck. If you have a discard outlet like Putrid Imp, you discard it, then you draw a card, dredging it to your hand as a replacement effect, milling 6. You hopefully mill some more dredge cards like Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Thug, then discard Golgari Grave-Troll and 2 other cards, dredging a bunch of cards, milling more! That is the power of dredge. Karador, Ghost Chieftan and The Gitrog Monster are other popular dredge commanders.

Pillow Fort

Pillow fort is a strategy that tries to shield yourself from your opponents with effects like Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Ensnaring Bridge, Leyline of Sanctity, Solitary Confinement, Aegis of the Gods, Orbs of Warding, Witchbane Orb, and occasionally Heroic Intervention and Teferi's Protection effects. These decks are commonly control decks that don't care about your opponent's threats at all, not stopping them, instead, acting like they don't exist. Generally, they build up to something like an Eldrazi Titan or some other unstoppable threat late-game once they have become effectively immortal.

Morph

Morph decks are basically tribal lists for face-down cards, with lords like Ixidor, Reality Scultpor, tribal benefits like Secret Plans/Trail of Mystery, and a common combo-lock with Vesuvan Shapeshifter + Brine Elemental!

Curse

Curse decks are decks based around the Curse Enchantments, commonly using Curse of Misfortunes and other curses to build up a powerful amount of hate. These decks can be extremely political decks, while also being able to shut out players more easily than most other deck sub-themes, for instance, you drop a Curse of Death's Hold and Overwhelming Splendor on a creature-based Aggro deck.

Wrath

Wrath decks are decks with a ton of sweepers, and normally are the EDH equivalent of turbo-fog effects. Commonly under a commander like Avacyn, Angel of Hope, so they can cast Catastrophe after Armagegeddon after Wrath of God after Ravages of War after Day of Judgment turn after turn sweeping out everything. ‘Wrathing’ like this is sure to get you some hate but is effective in many playgroups.

Etiquette

In many playgroups and local game stores, plenty of things in EDH are frowned upon or simply banned. Occasionally separate rules are made for different playgroups, such as making infect go from 10 to 20 poison counters needed for a player to lose. Other playgroups have different ban lists, such as legalizing Prophet of Kruphix and banning Sol Ring, stuff like that.

Below I will go over the most notoriously frowned upon things in EDH, and though I personally think players should play how they want to, and of course many playgroups have different standards of etiquette. Be sure to ask about that before playing in a new group.

Playing at a Different Power Level

When you play a Pub-Stomp deck against a casual deck, you will consistently win, and it won't be fun for them, so try to play where each player has a reasonable chance at winning. The best deck is one that both wins and can still lose to any opponent. If you are playing in-between playgroups, try a steal-your-stuff deck or a clone tribal deck, so you can only have threats as powerful as your opponents' threats.

Stax and MLD

MLD stands for Mass Land Destruction, like Armageddon, Decree of Annihilation, or cards in that category, and Stax can be effects like Rule of Law, Trinisphere, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, or Gaddock Teeg, together they can be extremely powerful ways to shut down your opponents, however not playing the game isn't very fun for most players, and so it is banned in many playgroups.

Infinite Combos

Though many playgroups don't care, plenty dislike fast combo, or infinite combos in general, most combat-based player groups have to become more controlling, slowing the game to a point at which they can't get a game in without sinking in an hour or two, or the rest of the playgroups needs to incorporate their own combos to compete. Combo-control is a playstyle many playgroups don't want to be drawn down, so they ban it outright.

Tell the Truth

Most playgroups ban lying as a way to win the game, if you make a deal, follow it. That is the general idea, but on a different note, well-worded deals are generally accepted, for instance, if you make a deal between another player and you that you won't attack each other, and you Fireball your opponent to death, that is perfectly fine, you didn't attack them, did you? Again, this is a general thing, some playgroups ban these well-worded deals, other times they allow you to lie as much as you want. I have seen a playgroup that basically has all deals written out and signed as though they were going to take each other to court or something!

Numeric Life Total Effects

Okay. I made up this term, I don't actually know what it is called, but most players ban these. Serra Ascendant, Felidar Sovereign, Test of Endurance, and the effects of that sort. Because you start with 40 life, a turn one Serra Ascendant doling out 6 ‘lifelinking’ damage a turn is much more powerful than most playgroups want to deal with, the same goes for winning the game with Felidar Sovereign, if you can Teferi's Protection and save yourself until you win the game, your opponents can't do much, and so they get banned or frowned upon.

Infect

Because of the relative increase in power, quadrupling the effective power of a creature in EDH instead of simply doubling it in modern, pauper, or legacy. This leads many playgroups to either make separate rules on poison counters such as setting it to 15 or 20 until the player loses. Occasionally they ban it outright, whereas other playgroups simply frown on players that use it.

Storm

Okay, storm decks are decks that try to chain cards together, normally with some cards that can help you do it like Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, and can take upwards of 10 minutes to win, that amount of time spent on winning can be annoying, and though commonly storm decks don't take that much time, if one does, it is commonly frowned upon.

Extra Turn Effects

Extra turn effects prolong an inevitable win, at least that is how most players see decks that use them like Narset, Enlightened Master, but most plenty of other taking-turns decks are still considered annoyingly slow to play against, and so are frowned upon, and many playgroups ban the use of extra turns in general, or just adopt more Ugin's Nexus/Stranglehold effects.

Scooping

Scooping in a game is normally find if you have to leave for whatever reason, but when a player scoops right before they would die, maybe before a creature would deal lethal combat damage to them like a Wanderwine Prohpets, someone will be upset with you. They wanted their extra turn and you denied it, not win an in-game effect but with something outside of the game, just to spite them. This is generally frowned upon and some playgroups ban instant-speed scoops and only allow sorcery-speed scoops.

Take-Backs

Okay, in some playgroups, take-backs are okay, in some they aren't I personally wouldn't suggest ever using take-backs, even when you did mess up, simply because messing up will allow you to learn better in the future, and that will allow you to play in playgroups where take-backs aren't allowed. Even where they are allowed, players that use them a lot will be frowned upon most of the time.

Rules Lawyering

Rules Lawyering is where a player specifically calls out other players when they don't follow the rules, for instance, some player casts a spell on your upkeep, but they didn't have priority, but some players have never heard of priority. Generally, it depends on the playgroup to decide how much they want to be specific on rules, but some players that follow the rules more closely and constantly call out other players will be frowned upon.

Politics

Politics in a multiplayer format is very important, especially at lower power levels, generally, politics occurs in wars and truces, and the more controlling decks are the best as truces, and the more aggressive decks are the best at wars. This leaves combo to rarely be good at either and midrange to be decent at both.

So what is this "Politics"?

Well, I'll give you an example of a game with wars and truces.

Player A goes first, then B, then C, then D.

We are on around turn 5, player A is decently aggressive, running a Sigarda, Host of Herons Voltron build, but are more of a midrange strategy, with just Sigarda on the battlefield. Player B is a very aggressive Rhys the Redeemed token strategy, with a wide field right now who has been swinging out some damage around. Player C is a Control player, running an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic lifegain/pillow fort list, with answers up but no permanents other than lands. Player D is a combo player, running a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker list, with a tutor (Gamble) in hand, but no combo right then.

It is now player A's turn, and they play out a Duelist's Heritage and swing 10 damage at the Player B, because Player B swung at Player A a turn or two ago, and then passes the turn.

Upset by this, Player B drops an Overrun and swings out with 6+ creatures at Player A in retaliation (this is an example of a war), then Player C asks Player A if a question:

"If you give me double-strike from you Duelist's Heritage, I will protect you from this, okay?"

Player A says yes, and Player C casts AEtherize, obliterating Player B's field of tokens. Player B then passes the turn to Player C, who passes to Player D, and the game continues.

Right now, there is an alliance or truce between Players A&C against Player B, Player D is simply trying to win, and so really can't easily help out to get in on an alliance. This means since Players A&C can pool their resources, they will have a good chance at winning the game, before they fight. This is politics in EDH.

We already mentioned two good cards for politics in your deck, AEtherize and Duelist's Heritage, both are good on their own, an instant speed sweeper for 4 is good, and so is a 3 mana double-strike on any creature is good too, but they can help your opponents if you need to make a deal.

Sweepers, in general, do this on their own. Any player without a large field won't mind a Day of Judgment if it kills a threatening player's It That Betrays and maybe some other threats too. Instant speed is also very useful, think Rout or AEtherspouts, all of these cards can be both useful on their own to protect you, or your opponents.

Other cards that can be double duty are removal spells in general if you don't need a threat removed, think about what your opponents need to be removed, think about what you would like from them, and try to strike up a deal. You can Into the Roil an opponent's commander if it was stolen, and help out its owner. Bounce spells can be very useful when saving your permanents, or hurting your opponents, but what about saving your opponents creatures with an Unsummon, that can score some serious political points.

Some decks run many cards based on politics, instead of ones that are simply good with or without politics. Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer is simply a political card, it is removal and card draw wrapped up in a nice package. Assault Suit on your Voltron commander gets out more damage, and also makes attacking your opponents more appealing to attack.

Effects such as Curse of Bounty make attacking an opponent more appealing, and Ghostly Prison makes attacking you less appealing, these aren't going to make truces per se, but they do use your opponents as a tool against each other, which is very political.

Most auras can be put on any creature, and so are useful tools in politics, especially when you are in the Voltron mirror match, and don't want to anger the other Voltron player, but still, want to have players die, why not attach a Armadillo Cloak onto it. It gets pumped +2/+2, and you gain life whenever it connects, what's not to love!

The Commander

So, the commander is a very important part of a deck, whether it is simply there for colors, like Karona, False God can be, or a commander that may not have the best colors, yet also is integral to the decks' gameplan, like Kess, Dissident Mage in a spellslinger deck.

So, are there some commanders that are staples? Yes, do those have to be the commander, no. Pick the commander that best suits your playstyle, or is the most fun for you. Many players play casually, and you will have no problem playing a commander that might not be the best, and even if you play in cEDH, the best decks in the format, you can still win with a subpar commander as long as the deck is built well and you play it to the fullest extent (Why Every Commander is Competitive for more information).

Well, to start we should figure out what the use of a commander really is. A commander is the 8th card in every opening hand, and a card you always have access too. This means if it is part of a 2 card combo, that combo is effectively a one card combo since you always have the other piece. If you always want ramp in your opening hand, run a commander that ramps you, if you always want card draw in your hand, run a commander with card draw.

But let's say you want to run Ad Nauseam as your commander, well, you can't since it isn't legal as a commander, so you should look for something similar to it. The closest there is to it is Griselbrand, but he is banned, so what is left? Run a commander that can find you Ad Nauseam, like Sidisi, Undead Vizier, and you will effectively have any card of your choice at your disposal. Commanders that are tutors, or cards that search through your library, are some of the most powerful commanders. Captain Sisay and Arcum Dagsson are commanders that similarly can search for cards in your library, and Sidisi, Arcum, and Sisay are all high tiered cEDH decks.

Card draw on a commander is very powerful, think Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Tymna the Weaver, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy . All of these commanders are similarly high tiered cEDH decks, with card draw in the command zone, you can always make sure your hand is full and ready to win or stop any opponent from winning.

Ramp is good too, a commander like Selvala, Explorer Returned can be a very powerful Stax commander, getting you the mana needed to drop some big locks on the game. Other good ramp commanders like Seton, Krosan Protector can make great elf ball lists, along with the right deck.

The last main category of commanders are the win conditions, think Godo, Bandit Warlord with a Helm of the Host in the deck. As soon as you cast it and get 5 extra mana you win. The colors it gives isn't great, it is a tutor, but just to win the game, and it doesn't give card draw or ramp.

Well, so what is the best all-round commander? Thrasios, Triton Hero is a good example of what might be the best commander, it is card draw, colors since it is a partner commander, is reasonably cheap in terms of its Converted Mana Cost, and is a win condition if you can make infinite mana. You really want a commander that does multiple things and helps you in all stages of the game. Think Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, it is a win condition with Umbral Mantle or Staff of Domination, it is ramp, it is card draw, and it is relatively cheap to cast.

Most of these uses are just what should be done when choosing any card. Some commanders are separate like Derevi, Empyrial Tactician for instance is specifically powerful, yet isn't card draw, it isn't exactly ramp, a tutor, or a win condition, yet has high synergy with Stasis or Winter Orb type effects, untapping your lands when your opponents can't is great. The point is a commander should be whatever card you most want in your hand at all times.

Now this doesn't work for all commanders, because of commander specific rules, a card like Sidisi, Brood Tyrant can be used in Food Chain combo decks because you can exile it, return it to the command zone, and recast it over and over, and use it for combo. Prossh, Skyraider of Kher is similar in it's use with Food Chain combo, these cards are different than a card you would want in hand, as you wouldn't be able to combo out with it without those rulings, but they are win conditions in essence, and you would want that in your hand.

The Aggro Problem (and why combo is good)

So, in EDH, there is a common dilemma called The Aggro Problem, which is what many believe to be the reason for the idea that EDH is so slow. Unlike Modern, Legacy, Standard, Pauper, or Vintage, EDH has each player's original life totals set to 40, or 50 for the Oloro, Ageless Ascetic player. This would be a bit difficult for normal Aggro to exist, but because it is a four-player format, from the point of view of an Aggro player, they need to dole out 120 life, which isn't something they can do nearly at all. Even if your opponents start killing each other, an Aggro player would averagely have to deal 60 damage if they attack each other and not you, or averagely 80 damage under a normal circumstance of each player dealing out damage to each other.

This is too much for them. Generally, there are a few ways Aggro compensates, one of which abuses the already built-in system of 'Commander Damage.' Building up a ton of auras and equipment on a commander to make it huge and swing in for 21 damage works in a lot of cases, and is called "Voltron." The main issue with this is a cheap and fast commander like Rafiq of the Many is too easily prone to removal like Swords to Plowshares, and more controlling commander like Sigarda, Host of Herons or Uril, the Miststalker are generally a bit too , slow to get around board wipes like Toxic Deluge, Wrath of God, Damnation, Day of Judgment and Supreme Verdict.

But there are other tricks Aggro has up its sleeves, think infect. Really, infect is just as powerful in Modern or Legacy than in EDH, right? Well, not exactly, yes infect still only needs to deal 10 poison counters to kill a player, but you still have to deal at least 30 damage given your opponents can't kill faster than you, or if they are also playing infect. It's tracked differently, so if someone is at one life, they can take up to 9 poison counters and still live. Running Atraxa, Praetors' Voice can give some inevitability to your infect win, and stuff like Saskia the Unyielding can also be run to make you only have to deal 20 damage to win with infect.

The biggest issue with infect is that players generally frown upon it, and will target you, or will play cards like Solemnity as a counter to it. Some playgroups set the poison counters needed to kill to 15 or 20, and some outright ban it. Also, since there are no commanders other than Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon directly support it, there is little consistency to infect decks, despite their explosive turns and wins.

Well, that is the aggro problem, it is what leads so many decks to be control, midrange, combo, or hybrid builds, and why the format is generally considered slow. This isn't to say decks can't win turn 1 or anything, tons of combo decks can, however, and this is what leads to the final point. Combo is generally the best win condition, not to say a deck like Edric, Spymaster of Trest shouldn't beat face to win, but for most decks, combo with differing levels of disruption is the best strategy.

Many playgroups don't use combos, whether they are more casual, frown upon combo, outright ban it, or simply run more beat down strategies and don't care for combo particularly. This is perfectly fine, and reasonable, but it is the workaround for the Aggro problem, while not relying solely on control.

The Colors

The name of this section may be vague, but it will go over some of the major reasons to run each color, and some key spells in each color.

White

White is a color with a lot of powerful cheap removal, protection, and minor advantages such as small tokens. Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Return to Dust, Condemn, Day of Judgment, Wrath of God, and Disenchant are all great pieces of removal, leading to no permanent being protected from the versatility of white's removal. White has little card draw and tutoring, but cards such as Recruiter of the Guard, Weathered Wayfarer, Land Tax, Inheritance, Enlightened Tutor, and Idyllic Tutor still give some power in that aspect.

White is one of the best colors for protecting yourself and your permanents, Greater Auramancy, Ghostly Prison, Grand Abolisher, Silence, Mother of Runes, Magus of the Moat, Sphere of Safety, Aegis of the Gods, True Believer, Leyline of Sanctity, Teferi's Protection and Devoted Caretaker can be great help with combating removal, attacks, countermagic, and burn from your opponents, allowing white to be a great asset to combo lists, control lists, Aggro lists, and especially pillow fort lists.

White doesn't have a ton of ramp, though they can easily fetch lands with Tithe, Land Tax, Knight of the White Orchid, Weathered Wayfarer, Endless Horizons, and Gift of Estates type effects can get something close to ramp.

In terms of combos, Auriok Salvagers and Lion's Eye Diamond gives you infinite mana of any color if you discard your hand. Then dump that into a Thrasios, Triton Hero or Goblin Cannon or something like that and you win the game! Remember if you have a commander, it isn't in your hand, so if you run a Heliod, God of the Sun or Oketra the True EDH deck, you can cast your commander and use it infinite times with infinite mana, and you can make infinite tokens. Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience can exile any player's deck once per turn, due to strange interaction too!

White has powerful Voltron benefits, with equipments and auras specifically. Open the Armory, Puresteel Paladin, Kor Spiritdancer, Retether, Mesa Enchantress, Open the Vaults, and Sram, Senior Edificer are good card advantage in those decks.

White also has powerful tribal benefits with angels, cats, kithkin, soldiers, humans, knights, clerics, and kor creatures. They also are good with tokens, and have both token generators like Heliod, God of the Sun, but also anthems like Glorious Anthem, Honor of the Pure, Intangible Virtue, and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

Stax decks normally are in blue or white, due to their effects. White has mana disruption like Hokori, Dust Drinker, Stony Silence, Kataki, War's Wage, Armageddon, Ravages of War, Cataclysm, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Kismet, and Loxodon Gatekeeper type effects, along with tax effects in the form of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Aura of Silence, Glowrider, and Vryn Wingmare, and some stax-like hate like Spirit of the Labyrinth, Leonin Arbiter, Aven Mindcensor, Rule of Law, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Tocatli Honor Guard, Hushwing Gryff, and Ethersworn Canonist.

In terms of answering specific strategies in you meta, white is great at stopping specific decks from stopping reanimator with Containment Priest and Rest in Peace, stopping storm with Stax, ETB decks with Tocatli Honor Guard/Hushwing Gryff. With all of the removal, you can stop pretty much any commander and permanent, and generally are safe.

Planeswalker decks are also often in white due to cards like Call the Gatewatch, Djeru, With Eyes Open and Deploy the Gatewatch, along with a number of powerful walkers like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, one of if not the most popular planeswalkers in all of EDH.

Blue

Blue is a color of card draw, countermagic, bounce, untap effects, and artifacts. With blue, you are a well-rounded color, and though you don’t have green's ramp, white's protection and removal, or black's tutors, blue has straight card advantage to win a game, with powerful combos and efficient synergies.

In terms of removal, disruption, and protections, bounce and countermagic is generally where blue lies. Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Reality Shift, Ixidron, and Curse of the Swine are the exceptions, but blue has , or insanely versatile removal like Chain of Vapor, efficient removal like Into the Roil/Blink of an Eye, or even more versatile removal like Cyclonic Rift. In terms of sweepers, AEtherize, Cyclonic Rift, Evacuation, and Devastation Tide are all powerful effects, though mostly temporary.

Almost all countermagic is in blue, from the simple Counterspell, to the efficient Swan Song, Spell Pierce, and Remand, to more political cards like Arcane Denial. Free counterspells exist too, Force of Will, Mindbreak Trap, and Pact of Negation. Effects such as Unsubstaniate, Cryptic Command, and Supreme Will can be used for alternate things, whereas effects like Rewind and Condescend just do a lot at once. Countermagic can hit a lot of spells, and unlike removal, they can affect things before they enter the battlefield, but unlike removal, they have to be used at an exact time. The tradeoff is versatility of what it can hit for the versatility of when it can hit.

In terms of tutors, blue is generally good at tutoring three things, Artifacts, Instants, and Sorceries. Mystical Tutor, Fabricate, Whir of Invention, Personal Tutor, Spell Seeker, Trophy Mage, Reshape, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage, Transmute Artifact, and Merchant Scroll are the norm for blue tutors, with few exceptions like transmute effects (Muddle the Mixture, Tolaria West, etc.).

In terms of card draw, blue has it all, Brainstorm, Opt, Impulse, Ponder, Preordain, Sleight of Hand, and Serum Visions are all incredibly powerful ‘cantrips’, toss in Fact or Fiction, Dig Through Time, Windfall, Treasure Cruise, Timetwister, Time Spiral, and other such cards are the most powerful card draw effects in the game, let alone in EDH.

Combo in blue is plentiful Dead Eye Navigator combos with Great Whale, Peregrine Drake, or Palinchron, and Palinchron combos with High Tide, Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, Phantasmal Image, and Extraplanar Lens. Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal make infinite mana with enough mana rock/dork mana, and so can Power Artifact and Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith.

Blue has good synergy with artifacts, such as Vedalken Archmage, Etherium Sculptor, Thoughtcast, Argivian Restoration, Vedalken Engineer, Arcum Dagsson, Chief Engineer, Grand Architect, Grand Architect, and Muzzio, Visionary Architect. It is most often the best artifact color, and gives pretty much any synergy with artifacts you could ask for.

Tribes in blue are faeries, sphinxes, wizards, merfolk, sea creatures, illusions, moonfolk, and it has some good tribal benefits such as Kindred Discovery, Faces of the Past, Distant Melody, or Call to the Kindred.

Blue is very good with Stax builds, having cards like Back to Basics, Stasis, Frozen Aether

Black

Black is a color of tutors, creature removal, graveyard effects, card draw, minor ramp, and discard. It can do everything you need to do yourself but doesn't protect well against others. One of the best reasons to play in black is its abundance of tutors. Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, Mastermind's Acquisition, Diabolic Tutor, Cruel Tutor, Tainted Pact, Demonic Consultation, Dark Petition, Rhystic Tutor, Beseech the Queen, Razaketh's Rite, Increasing Ambitions, Diabolic Intent, Demonic Collusion, Insidious Dreams, Rune-Scarred Demon, and Liliana Vess are great ways to effectively remove the 'one-of' rule for each card in your deck. The more tutors in your deck, the more consistent, and black has the tutors that search for any type of card.

Other forms of card advantage exist in black as well, though normally at the cost of life. Dark Confidant, Underworld Connections, and Phyrexian Arena are engines to draw cards, and Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, and Read the Bones are efficient draw spells. Ad Nauseam is so powerful is practically made ~3 cEDH archetypes, from Sidisi, Undead Vizier Ad Nauseam, to Grixis Storm, and so on.

In terms of creature removal, black has Dismember, Fatal Push, Doom Blade, Slaughter Pact, Go for the Throat, and every single target destroy effect you could ask for, in terms of sweepers, Damnation, Mutilate, and Toxic Deluge have your back.

In terms of combo, black has a ton. Doomsday piles, Necropotence/Ad Nauseam storm kills with Tendrils of Agony, Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskellion, Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond, and tons more combos, along with the tutors, mono-black combo is easily able to be done, and splashing black in combo is normal if not expected.

The graveyard is probably most important to black decks, Reanimate effects are prevalent, so when using Buried Alive/Entomb effect a deck and dropping a giant Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger into the graveyard, all you have to do is cast an Exhume, Animate Dead, Necromancy, or any other reanimate effect to cheat it out turn 2 if you want. The risk is that effects such as Relic of Progenitus, Tormod's Crypt, or other graveyard exiling effects leads to 2+ card blowouts, and can be devastating to your tempo.

For instance, if you cast a Buried Alive, tossing in Bloodghast, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, and Triskellion, then play land to get out Bloodghast, then cast Victimize pulling your infinite combo out, you expect to win, but if an opponent discards a Faerie Macabre and exiles them, you effectively lose five cards and 6 mana worth of value to one card and 0 mana worth of value, which can be the thing that kills you further down the road.

In terms of discard effects, used to protect combos most often, Duress, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek can be used in this way, but when you want your opponents to not have a hand at all, Bottomless Pit, Oppression and effects in that same vein can be very cruel. Using Phyrexian Arena effects can still allow you to keep a hand yourself, and get ahead of the pack.

Ramp in black normally comes in two forms, rituals like Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual, effects that give you mana for a turn at the cost of a card, yet have no long-term benefit and mana doublers. Nirkana Revenant and Crypt Ghast are the go-to examples of mana doublers in black, but effects like Cabal Stronghold and Cabal Coffers are certainly similar.

Tribes in black include zombies, vampires, rats, spiders, demons, horror, skeletons, and mercenaries, and include tribal benefits like Cover of Darkness, Kindred Dominance, Aphetto Dredging, and Patriarch's Bidding.

Red

Red is a chaotic color of creature removal, artifact synergies, artifact removal, rituals, looting/rummaging, and Aggro. It has little 'card advantage' but makes up for it with cards like Faithless Looting, Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion, and Rummaging Goblin. Red also has nearly no ways of dealing with enchantments.

A major boon to running red is because of its artifact synergies. Trash for Treasure, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient, Goblin Welder, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer are all powerful effects that can make or break (often both) an artifact deck.

Aggro is another reason to run red, haste enablers such as Urabrask the Hidden, Ogre Battledriver, Anger, and Hellraiser Goblin can be useful, as well as cards such as cards like Furnace of Wrath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, or Gratuitous Violence can end games faster.

In terms of removal, red has artifact removal from Smelt, By Force, and Shattering Spree to effectively artifact sweepers like Vandalblast and Shatterstorm. Creature removal like Forked Bolt, Lightning Bolt, or Flame Slash to sweepers like Blasphemous Act, Anger of the Gods, Chain Reaction, Rolling Earthquake, or Sweltering Suns. Chaos Warp is probably one of the best cards in red for EDH, and is one of their only answers to enchantments, while also hitting nearly anything else.

Tutors in red are rare, there are a few though, Gamble, Imperial Recruiter and Godo, Bandit Warlord, the rest are simply tribal based.

Combos in red include Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and creatures like Combat Celebrant or Zealous Conscripts, along with Dualcaster Mage and Heat Shimmer or Twinflame

Red is actually pretty good with stax effects, having Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, and also a number of effects that can destroy an artifact or creature mana that is used to counteract the stax effects. MLD, or mass land destruction is rampant in red, from Ruination to Decree of Annihilation to Devastation, and is a great bonus to the destruction of artifacts and creatures, all together, when done properly you can remove all of the mana your opponents can generate. Some hate effects like Stranglehold or Treasure Nabber can be greatly beneficial dependent on your Meta, and are also used in stax decks.

Tribes in red are goblins, dragons, dwarves, elementals, ogres, soldiers, minotaurs, pirates, giants, devils, barbarians, demons, and devils. Tribal benefits include Kindred Charge, Shared Animosity, and Mana Echoes.

Green

Green is a creature color, with lots of non-creature removal, ramp, card draw, tutors, and recursion. Green has tons of ramp, from creature based ramp like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Arbor Elf, Boreal Druid, Birds of Paradise, Priest of Titania, and Devoted Druid to land ramp like Nature's Lore, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Skyshroud Claim, and Explosive Vegetation, and even enchantment ramp like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Carpet of Flowers, Fertile Ground, and Overgrowth.

With all of that ramp, what kinds of card draw does green have? Well, surprisingly a lot. Green has a lot of normal card draw and dig spells, like Harmonize and Commune with the Gods, along with card draw engines like Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Sylvan Library, Argothian Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms, Primordial Sage and Soul of the Harvest. Card filtering effects also exist in green, like Mirri's Guile and Abundance.

Tutors in green are almost always for creatures, whether it is single time to top like Worldly Tutor or Sylvan Tutor, to hand like Summoner's Pact, to the battlefield like Green Sun's Zenith or Chord of Calling, or repeatable like Fauna Shaman, Survival of the Fittest, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard or Birthing Pod.

Recursion is plentiful in green, and though it isn't reanimation like black, effects like Regrowth, Eternal Witness, Noxious Revival, and Reclaim are common, as well as reshuffling effects like Gaea's Blessing.

Combo is plentiful in green, from Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns/Staff of Domination + Priest of Titania/Karametra's Acolyte/Elvish Archdruid/Selvala, Heart of the Wild/Marwyn, the Nurturer to Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft to Protean Hulk/Survival of the Fittest/Hermit Druid lines.

Tribes in green include elves, cats, dinosaurs, snakes, treefolk, spiders, hydras, druids, fungus, walls, shamans, wurms, insects, archers, centaurs, wolves, kavus, beasts, dryads, trolls, bears, oozes, and green has tons of tribal benefits, like Alpha Status, Kindred Summons, Steely Resolve, Reins of the Vinesteed, Descendants' Path, Grave Sifter, Caller of the Hunt, Bloodline Shaman, and Tribal Forcemage.

Removal in green is artifact/enchantment removal like Naturalize, Nature's Claim, or Natural State, to land destruction like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, or the most basic variant of non-creature destruction being Bramblecrush. If you really want to remove creatures though, running Beast Within, Lignify, and Song of the Dryads are great options. Fight effects like Prey Upon can also be used.

Bluffing

Bluffing is an integral part of Magic: the Gathering, but even more so in EDH where the number of cards your deck can run is so much larger.

So what is bluffing? Well, to start, there is simply claiming you might remove a threat or counter a spell, if they cast it, even when you can't, and there is also the more subtle bluffing like leaving two untapped islands open, threatening a Counterspell.

So, in EDH, many players you play with you will have played with before, if they know a fair portion of your deck, you can abuse that in your favor. If your playgroup knows you run Fated Retribution, you may want to hold up 7 mana to threaten it, whether or not you have it, just so you don't get attacked, because if they think you have it and attack you, they would expect their board to be obliterated, and this will help you out.

If they don't know your deck but know the general staples of the format, you could hold up mana to overload a Cyclonic Rift, while not even owning one, but threatening it can really help you not get attacked, or your opponents not dropping threats.

So now that you know what bluffing is, there may be a glaring downside that you see, if you have 7 lands, for argument's sake make them all islands, and it is your turn, and you have a Fleet Swallower in hand, you could:

A - Cast the Fleet Swallower and leave up no mana.

B - Leave up 7 blue mana, threatening a counterspell or Cyclonic Rift.

Now, obviously, you would cast the Fleet Swallower if you know your opponents can't counter or remove it and have no nonland permanents. So what would make you hold up the mana? Well, if you think from the perspective of each opponent, each slightly different play they make having noticed your massive amount of open mana should be added together and considered in the making of the choice.

So, while bluffing is generally important, you need to know it is very based on the ideology of your opponents and will differ from playgroup to playgroup. I may bluff one way, for the people I play with, and you may bluff your own way, but the general rules are the same. Bluffing might not work against a 'YOLO' mentality, as they might just go for the win whether or not they think you could stop them. By occasionally testing your opponents' bluffs even when they could possibly stop you, and trying out bluffing yourself, you can learn your playgroup and adapt.

General Deckbuilding

The following will be broken down into steps, made for explaining how to build low/mid budget, focused/very focused decks. For an intro to building cEDH or most focused decks, look at Why Every Commander is Competitive.

Step 1: Choosing a Deck

When building a deck, you need to know what you want, what is your color(s), commander(s), archetype(s), sub-theme(s), budget, and power level that you want to build. The following will be broken up into steps that can be skipped about.

Part 1 - Choosing a Color

If you have gone over the tab 'The Colors' above, you may know just what colors you want, but if you don't, you should keep note that though the more colors you have, the more cards you can run, the less consistent your mana base is, unless if you have a lot of money to drop on shock and fetch lands along with other mana fixing.

Some player just want to play with a specific commander, if that is true then you are locked in your colors.

Part 2 - Choosing a Commander

Once you know your colors you can start picking your commander, there are tons to choose from, picking one that you want shouldn't be too difficult, check out https://edhrec.com/commanders (off-site link) and search for an option that you like, and is in your budget, or check out the Recommended Commanders tab under the Additional Resources section for good ideas on how to build different commanders based on color. You can also use the Sub-Themes tab under the

Plenty of commanders are build-around, for instance, a commander like Brago, King Eternal is an ETB/flicker deck. Other commanders like Jodah, Archmage Eternal can just be good cards in 5 colors. You can choose one that suits your ideal playstyle and deck ideas.

Part 3 - Choosing an Archetype

One major part of deckbuilding is the archetype, and that means picking one, you can see all of the archetypes under the 'Main Archetypes' tab under the 'EDH/Commander Theory' section. Remember a deck can be a hybrid or mix of the other archetypes.

To note, each color can normally pull off midrange and combo lists, red and green aren't great at control, similarly blue isn't great at aggro, however, each can pull them off, it is just more difficult for some colors to do certain things that others can do easily.

Part 4 - Choosing Sub-Themes

The last part of picking out the overall direction of your deck is the sub-themes, check them out under the 'Sub-Themes' tab under the 'EDH/Commander Theory' section. You can pick as many as you want, though focusing on as few as possible is generally recommended. Using a commander that supports your Sub-Theme(s) is normal, as a commander such as Azami, Lady of Scrolls is a good tribal commander, and isn't the best lifegain commander.

One thing to note is that other sub-themes exist, and my list isn't perfect, so feel free to research more!

Step 2: Building the Win Condition(s)

When building your deck, you probably want to win, right? Some decks are combo decks, in which case their entire deck is based around winning with some number of cards and their interaction(s) (like Earthcraft with Squirrel Nest). Others are control decks, with a few cards that effectively say 'I win the game' (like Insurrection). Midrange and Aggro decks can often be creature-based builds where the entire deck is effectively filled with possible win conditions.

Whatever the deck, you need to know exactly how you want to win, and consistently get to it when you need to. A midrange deck may be able to wait a bit to get it's win-con, and control deck might be able to wait a long time before it finds it's win-con, but an Aggro deck or some combo builds may just need to get to the win-con as fast as possible, and can't wait.

For Aggro decks, they commonly use repetition in their deck to always have access to it, but unless you are running 50 cards that are the same in a combo, a combo deck will use tutors, or cards that fetch another card from your deck into a more accessible zone, such as the battlefield or your hand (An example of a tutor is Eladamri's Call). These will be able to find combo pieces, leading combo decks to more consistently win the game.

Control uses a large amount of card draw most of the time and can dig for the win-condition when it is necessary, however normally can wait on finding it until the game has gone long. Midrange normally can be either like Aggro where it can run tons of copies of damage-dealing creatures or auras to pump a commander in repetition or dig to find their win-conditions when necessary.

Examples of Win-Conditions

Aggro decks may want to use cards such as Secure the Wastes and Honor of the Pure in conjunction to pull a win, by pumping up a ton of creatures, obviously running just these two cards won't be enough, so Gather the Townsfolk, Raise the Alarm, and Increasing Devotion might be run in addition, as well as Intangible Virtue, Glorious Anthem, and Marshal's Anthem to pump them all up! Voltron decks might run Rancor and Sixth Sense, but also may run Oakenform and Keen Sense as well for additional effects.

To see examples of aggro decks, look at the following: Mono-White Tokens (AAEDH) and Mono-Green Voltron (AAEDH)

Control builds commonly want to have answers and card draw in there deck, which takes up too much space to have there deck having a ton of duplicate win conditions, which means the win conditions it runs normally have to be compact. A planeswalker like Jace, the Mindsculptor is very compact, with the effect that it is card draw, so it replaces itself, it is removal, and similarly can replace itself, and with enough time it can kill a player. All of these things make it so that it can do what the deck wanted and still win. Chromium, the Mutable will win games given enough turns, and is also unable to be easily countered or removed, making it very efficient as well.

Combo is probably the most complicated, or least dependent on your outlook. They are fully built around a win-condition and will play with it in mind the entire game. Combo lists can run many different combos, but generally, you should pick a combo that:

A - Wins immediately, or with little room for interaction from the opponents.

B - Is compact, and requires little luck to get to the combo.

C - Is consistent, and has little to no chance to fizzle or fail.

D - Can't be easily hated out.

E - Costs little to cast.

Few combos fit all of the above points, but aiming to have your combo fit as many of them as possible is key. For instance, Demonic Consultation/Thassa's Oracle is a reasonably compact combo, that wins the game on the spot, is consistent however can be hated out with cards such as Torpor Orb or other ETB hate cards, as well as effects such as Stifle and is also cheap to cast.

Hermit Druid is super compact, being just one card, is cheap to cast, wins the game on the spot, but takes a turn to tap it and win, and can be easily removed, or still hated out with graveyard hate, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, and similar effects.

Other combos obviously exist, but these are simply decent examples, check out the 'Combos' tab under the 'Additional Resources' section.

Step 3: Building the Card Advantage

When games go long, you have used up a lot of your cards and are sitting on a ton of mana, you need more cards in hand, right? That is Card Advantage, think Divination, it is card advantage, it is one single card, and gets you two cards, so for the cost of you get +1 to the cards in your hand, but many things are mistaken for card advantage that simply aren't.

Take Brainstorm, or Demonic Tutor, while yes, those are cards that get you other cards in hand, the number of cards in your hand are equal before and after casting and resolving the spells. This is card neutrality and isn't card positive. Because of this, these cards will not be discussed in this section, but they will be in the next section, 'Step 4: Building the Card Selection'.

Now, where should we start? Well, I will start with explaining card advantage engines which may be a word you are unfamiliar with. Phyrexian Arena, Argothian Enchantress, Thrasios, Triton Hero, and Azami, Lady of Scrolls will be our examples. All of them see play in EDH/Commander and are powerful in the right deck.

How to use Draw Spells

Draw spells are cards like Jace's Ingenuity, Glimmer of Genius, Concentrate, Foresee, Windfall, and Ad Nauseam. I will be using these to compare and contrast and show the benefits of different types of card draw spells.

The first two spells I want to compare are Jace's Ingenuity and Concentrate, at face value, Concentrate is just cheaper, however that is not the case. Jace's Ingenuity is an instant, however Concentrate is a sorcery. The thing here is, if you are a deck with instant speed answers, such as removal like Swords to Plowshares or countermagic like Counterspell, you may not want to tap out on your turn to cast Concentrate if an opponent cast a spell you'd want to counter, if you had Jace's Ingenuity though, you could pass the turn, hold up the counterspell and the draw spell, and if you counter a spell, then great, or if you don't, on the end step before your turn you can cast Jace's Ingenuity. It's a win-win

Obviously one is not strictly better than another, but generally the more controlling decks would rather an instant speed card than a sorcery speed one. A similar comparison could be made between Foresee and Glimmer of Genius, with Glimmer of Genius being instant speed and Foresee being sorcery speed, but Foresee scrying four instead of two. I would generally say since both cost the same amount of mana, Glimmer of Genius is generally better, but if you don't run a deck with a lot of instant speed interaction, you might rather the Foresee

This leads to the next set comparisons, Jace's Ingenuity or Glimmer of Genius. Is being one cheaper worth switching a draw a card to a scry 2? Well, it depends on your goal. If you only have to worry about emptying your hand rounds 7+, then Jace's Ingenuity might be the better option, but if you will empty your hand earlier, using up too many spells, then Glimmer of Genius is cheaper. If you just need to dig for a combo, Glimmer of Genius is also better.

The same is sometimes true of the comparison for Concentrate and Foresee, but since they cost the same amount of mana, then it depends on two separate things. If you are only splashing blue, Foresee is easier to cast than Concentrate, but if you want more cards in hand Concentrate is better. If you are a combo deck trying to dig as far as possible to reach a combo piece, Foresee looks deeper in your deck.

All of these above cards are good but need to be thought about a lot before simply tossing in any old card draw spell if you have found you don't have enough cards in hand to play out into the late game. Make sure to pick the right spells for your deck.

Some decks that empty their hands very fast, specifically faster than its opponents can run cards like Windfall, by forcefully randomizing your opponents’ hands, which could have been crafted well by tutors or card selection. Windfall can give you a new free hand. Effects such as Day's Undoing, Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, and Time Spiral can be similar in nature. These are all called Wheels, and shouldn't be run unless you consistently have a smaller hand on average than your opponents or can storm off with them. Some people try to abuse them with effects such as Alms Collector or Consecrated Sphinx.

Ad Nauseam and cards like it trade life for cards at an absurd rate and are while risky, extremely valuable cards when considering that in EDH you start with 40 life, and so can spend a fair amount. Some decks aim to spend nearly all of their life, or in some rare cases more than all of their life (Phyrexian Unlife/Angel's Grace) to draw a ton of cards from their deck, and cast them all racking up a huge storm count (number of spells cast in one turn), just to win with a card like Aetherflux Reservoir or Tendrils of Agony. Other cards like it are Necrologia and Necropotence.

Again, choose cards that fit your playstyle and deck, and think carefully about what you want to top deck or see in your opening hand, and pick cards from there.

Explaining Draw Engines

To start, I want to explain why you shouldn't use Phyrexian Arena in most decks, for 3 mana, it uses a card in hand, and at least until your next turn, doesn't draw you any cards. For the turn you drop it, it is card disadvantage. The next turn, it will have only drawn you one card, and be card neutral, until 2 turns after you drop it, it has finally been card advantage. This may seem fine, but Night's Whisper is both cheaper, and two turns faster than it at that rate. Only until 3 turns after you drop it is it finally better than it's sorcery speed counterparts. I would still rather a Ancient Craving, though it does cost one more, it also doesn't take 3 turns, so I'd say it is better. Read the Bones is equivalent at 3 mana and still doesn't take 3 turns.

Generally, Phyrexian Arena and cards like it, for example Dark Tutelage, are simply too slow unless you are a discard deck, with effects like Bottomless Pit and Necrogen Mists that means each player won't have cards in hand, so you can break the symmetry. Even then there are occasionally better alternatives, but it will have a spot in that kind of deck.

Argothian Enchantress is a different kind of engine, instead of simply drawing cards every turn, it draws you a card for each enchantment you cast. This means if a lot of your deck is enchantments, you can hopefully draw an enchantment for each enchantment you cast, drawing another enchantment when you cast the last, so on and so forth. This kind of engine, if you are lucky can give you effectively infinite cards to cast, all you need then is the mana.

Thrasios, Triton Hero is a great commander, but also is just good in a deck that can make a lot of mana over the course of different turns, (Seedborn Muse is a good example of how you could abuse it) and don't have much to spend it on, if you don't have a lot of card advantage. Stroke of Genius effects might be better if you only make that amount of mana on one turn.

Azami, Lady of Scrolls alone may seem similar to Phyrexian Arena, but I'd like to make note a few things, the ability on Azami, Lady of Scrolls doesn't have the symbol, meaning it can be done the same turn that it comes out or the turn that the wizard comes out. This allows it to draw the turn it comes out, making it at least a turn faster than Phyrexian Arena. Also, if it is your commander, it doesn't cost a card in your hand to cast. Also, you can use it like Argothian Enchantress if your deck is jam-packed with wizards. You can even use effects like Dramatic Reversal to draw a card for each wizard you have. In the right deck, it can easily draw your whole deck in a single turn.

Using Draw Engines in EDH/Commander

To pick what engines you might want for your deck, first, you should realize why people run them. Thrasios, Triton Hero can be used for good value, but it can also be used in an infinite combo to draw your deck if you can make infinite mana. Azami, Lady of Scrolls with Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal will draw you infinite cards, yet it can also just be used when you are running out of cards in your hand mid-late game.

Really, you need to know when you are going to need cards. If you are an aggressive deck that empties its entire hand on turn four to swing with a bunch of small creatures, Edric, Spymaster of Trest might be a good addition to your deck, rebuilding that hand and helping you with politics. This might not be the best card for a control deck that doesn't even really want to attack at all. In that case, a Rhystic Study can slow your opponents or draw you until your heart's content, similarly, a midrange creature ramp deck might not need such an aggressive draw engine or an engine at all, and rather simply run some draw spells like Divination.

Step 4: Building the Card Selection

Card selection is integral for a consistent deck, tutors like Muddle the Mixture, dig spells like Commune with the Gods, these are all great ways of getting further in your deck when you need a specific card. At a hefty price, you can get whatever card you want, with cards like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Imperial Seal (Ooh, Imperial Seal costs $200... yeah I'm not buying a playset today) you can fetch out combo pieces until you win the game. Other spells in other colors are more specific, like Idyllic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor in white, Gamble and Imperial Recruiter in red, Worldly Tutor and Sylvan Tutor is green, and Personal Tutor and Mystical Tutor in blue. Obviously, there are many tutors in each color, but that is not all that card selection is.

Sensei's Divining Top might not really draw you cards per se, but it can let you pick the cards you want when you want them, and that is incredibly useful in many decks and strategies, and so are cantrips.

Cantrips are cards that you spend to draw another card. Normally they come with some upside, like letting you dig further than simply spending one card to draw one card. Brainstorm for instance lets you draw 3, and put 2 back, this means you end up with the same number of cards that you began with, but still looked further into your deck. Ponder, Preordain, Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, Impulse, and other similar cards are powerful and shouldn't be underestimated, digging you further to a combo or board wipe or counterspell you desperately are searching for. Running a handful of these are amazing if you aren't a hardcore Aggro or combo deck that is absurdly mana hungry, and doesn't care too much the cards it gets.

Looting effects like Chart a Course or Careful Study and rummaging effects like Cathartic Reunion or Tormenting Voice can also be card selection, allowing you to discard dead cards in hand for better ones, these effects also are powerful on engines such as Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and similar effects like on Search for Azcanta . By repeatedly digging further in your deck, you will get the more valuable cards for the situation and should be able to ride that advantage to a victory against slower metas.

Outside of these, card selection engines are incredible, think Rummaging Goblin or Merfolk Looter, not a lot to look at immediately, very simple in card design, but both allow you to get a bit further ahead on crafting the perfect hand. Other similar engines might be Sigiled Starfish or Thassa, God of the Sea. Scrying, in particular, is a powerful ability when wanting to see exactly what you will get. Crystal Ball is another great engine, especially in non-blue, black, or green decks. A lot of these cards are good, but they do take time to get going in terms of the value they lost by spending a card and the mana on the spell.

Step 5: Building the Ramp

Ramp or mana acceleration is a powerful part of every deck that is trying to drop large spells. Cards like Sol Ring are extremely fast options, but other cards from Cultivate to Mind Stone to the signet sections or a Solemn Simulacrum are all good in their own way. Many types of ramp exist in many forms, and this section will be breaking a lot of them down.

Land Ramp, cards like Rampant Growth, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, and Kodama's Reach come to mind, so many think it is only in green, but cards like Wayfarer's Bauble, Burnished Hart, and Solemn Simulacrum are in any color. A benefit to ramping with lands is that a lot of removal will not hit them, similarly with sweepers. Stax decks will though, so if your Meta has a lot you may want to stay away from these types of ramp.

Artifact Ramp, also called mana rocks, these cards are like Mind Stone, Thought Vessel, Azorious Signet, Worn Powerstone, and Sol Ring, commonly these options are very good, as they are reasonably fast ramp outside of green, and are considerably powerful effects when used with untap effects like Dramatic Reversal. Many have other upsides to ramping, like Hedron Archive or Magnifying Glass being able to draw you cards or Boros Keyrune being able to attack and block.

Creature Ramp, also called mana dorks, these cards are like Llanowar Elves, Boreal Druid, Elvish Druid, Arbor Elf, and Devoted Druid and are mostly green, with minor exceptions like Sea Scryer or the Myr Cycle (cards like Gold Myr). They are most often 1-2 mana and are considered quite powerful in many creature-based decks that need ramp or general stax builds.

Enchantment Ramp mostly comes in the form of Enchant Land auras, which are like Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, or Overgrowth, and are generally very fast, but occasionally are weak to Strip Mine type effects, with them being inherent card disadvantage if that were to happen. Carpet of Flowers and other occasional effects can give mana, but they are far and few between.

So, what type of ramp is best for you? Well, there are some more obviously good options, like in a creature-based deck, creature-based ramp can synergize well, and in an enchantment deck, enchantment ramp is particularly powerful, but in other scenarios, you'd have to think about what you want. Generally many decks run a mix of ramp, for instance, they might run some signets (A type of mana rock like Golgari Signet), a few dorks, some land ramp spells, and top it off with a Carpet of Flowers. The benefit here is no single card will generally shut off all of their mana, like an Armageddon might shut off some land ramp, but not the rest, or a Toxic Deluge, Vandalblast, or Back to Nature won't stop the mana entirely.

Other decks, like a Food Chain deck might just want very fast mana, and so only run the fastest ramp in each type, like Wild Growth or Mana Crypt, and then use the rest of the ramp on mana dorks so they can exile them to Food Chain on combo turn. Not all in on dorks, but mostly.

The main thing that should be done, if you know who you are playing against and what type of answers they have is to play around them. Does your playgroup have a lot of creature and artifact hate, but no land destruction? Toss in a Solemn Simulacrum and Nature's Lore, does your playgroup have a lot of creature sweepers and land hate like Winter Orb, sleeve up a Mind Stone, Thran Dynamo, and Gilded Lotus and keep on playing.

Lastly, though this varies from deck to deck, with some needing more, and others being able to function without, most decks I would recommend about 10 pieces of ramp. This is higher than many run in their lists, but in EDH most players can enjoy dropping 10 mana spells or casting 4 spells on a turn, and so many players want to do that and end up building an over-costed deck to play with, using just lands and need to consistently hit a bit of ramp.

Obviously a deck that wants to cast Genesis Wave for 40 can run as much as 30+ pieces of ramp, with many of those spells doing other things, and other decks being only 1-3 mana spells and not needing nearly any ramp, but in between 10 is what I have found is a good base.

There is one more type of ramp, and though many decks would use them for their inherent card disadvantage, Rituals are run commonly in some storm and combo lists and can be used to great effect in EDH. Dark Ritual will be the example I use. Other effects such as Seething Song, Rite of Flame, Cabal Ritual, and Turnabout (untapping lands) can do similar things, but what they do is give you mana on one turn, and cost a card.

This can be great, imagine casting a 5 drop turn one between Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual, yes it sounds great, but there are disadvantages. Some of these are simple, like that you spent three cards and now are sitting at 4 cards while everyone else is 2-3 cards ahead of you. If that spell is countered you effectively lost 3 cards, instead of just one. Other things include in the mid-late game when you need to draw something to turn the tides, and just draw a ritual that won't do anything. Generally, they are only good in some combo lists or storm decks.

Step 6: Building the Interaction

Interaction can be a few things, but in essence, it is the part of your deck that isn't based on winning or gaining resources such as a large number of creatures, mana, card draw, etc. Really it comes down to two similar categories. 'Protection' and 'Hate', protection might be something like Leyline of Sanctity, or something that doesn't directly hurt your opponents, yet you wouldn't need it if you didn't have an opponent who will attempt to hurt you. Leyline of the Void doesn't generally help your game plan, but obviously can hurt your opponents, making them 'Hate'.

Many times, your interaction is much more dependent on your playgroup and meta than your normal card types. Win-cons, card draw, and ramp won't really change too much, but interaction will. Commonly Negate is a great card, but if you pretty much just play with Animar, Soul of Elements or other creature-based decks, with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combos and card draw like Azami, Lady of Scrolls and ramp like Solemn Simulacrum, you may feel better with a Counterspell despite the double blue cost.

Hate

Hate will be very important, there are many types, Targeted Removal, Countermagic, Hand Disruption, Mana Disruption, Game-Changing Hate, and some other smaller types like Library Disruption. Hate is very meta-dependent, and so can be changed out for cards that better suit the decks you play against. If you go against a lot of decks that abuse counters, Solemnity might be your best friend, but if you are playing against a ton of Aggro, Tainted AEther might be a better card.

Hate can be things such as removal, and each color has good removal. Cheap removal (in terms of mana), or removal that hits multiple things should be the go-to for most decks. I personally suggest around 5-10% of your deck to be built with removal, such as targeted removal like Dismember, Unsummon, or Path to Exile, or sweepers like Toxic Deluge, Evacuation, or Settle the Wreckage.

Removal, in particular, can be 'subbed out' or replaced with countermagic, like Counterspell. Countermagic can hit instants and sorceries and can stop creatures or other permanent cards with 'Enter the Battlefield' effects before they trigger, to stop an effect such as Terastodon without your lands being obliterated. They have the downside of not being able to hit a card after it resolves though, so you get more versatility in what it can hit with the downside of not choosing when you can hit it.

Other types of hate like Stony Silence or Kataki, War's Wage against artifact decks needs you to know what your opponents are doing. In a more competitive setting, you can expect to see some of the more popular decks and can build your deck's hate with them in mind, but at a more casual table, you will have to test out different strategies when you add in hate.

Mana disruption, most notably used in Stax decks, can be a simple Armageddon, but can also be a more complex card like Cursed Totem, both disrupt mana, but one shuts down lands, the other shuts down mana dorks or creatures that give you mana. If you play against a large number of decks with Birds of Paradise and other dorks as their main way to ramp mana, using one in your deck can slow them down for turns. It also can stop other types of cards like Captain Sisay at the same time, so as long as it does your opponents collectively more damage than it does to you, it is generally worth it to run.

A number of hate cards are game-changing hate, which instead of countermagic, targeted removal, sweepers, or other similar effects, last as long as possible, with the goal of slowing your opponents down, if not shutting their decks down. The goal of Cursed Totem can be in this way, but Aven Mindcensor, Tainted AEther, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, and plenty of other cards can do the same. Generally, they are more powerful than removal when played correctly, but cost more, and can be removed themselves, becoming much worse, it really is meta-dependent.

Hand disruption is powerful hate in most formats but sees less play in EDH due to having more opponents. Some of these cards are very famous, like Thoughtseize. These cards can remove a threat before it ever happens to be cast or hits the battlefield, and can ruin someone turn one, given you now know their whole hand. Other effects in this vein are Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Harsh Scrutiny, and Divest, and there are a plethora of other effects, though nearly all are black.

Protection

Protection is when instead of slowing your opponents directly by hurting them, you slow them from hurting you. It is a little complex, but cards such as Greater Auramancy are great examples. If your plan is just to win with angels with effects like Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne, Greater Auramancy doesn't directly help you win, however your opponents might want to destroy your angel-makers, and so Greater Auramancy can protect them from a Nature's Claim.

Other types of protection exist too. One-shot protection like Heroic Intervention can protect your stuff, and Angel's Grace can protect you, while Teferi's Protection does both, for a higher cost. Permanent protection like Privileged Position and Avacyn, Angel of Hope protect your stuff for as long as they remain, Ghostly Prison, Leyline of Sanctity, and Solitary Confinement are close to permanent Angel's Graces, and can protect you for a long time too.

Protection requires you to know a few things, really just two. The first is how your opponents plan to win/kill you, the second is how they plan to stop you from stopping them. If the first answer is they want to drop a ton of tokens on the field, double them with Rhys the Redeemed, then you might toss in a Propaganda to stop them from killing you. If they want to run Oblivion Ring to get rid of you Propaganda, you might run more effects like Propaganda to compensate, such as Dissipation Field, Ghostly Prison, and other 'pillow-fort' effects, or you can attempt to protect your stuff with Greater Auramancy, Sterling Grove, Teferi's Protection, Privileged Position, and Heroic Intervention.

You could also run more removal for their removal, acting as 'counter-hate', which is effectively your hate for your opponents' hate.

Helpful Tip

All of this can be confusing, so you must ask yourself a question every time you add in a card that doesn't directly help you, such as hate or protection, "Would I like to see this card in my opening hand, would I commonly tutor it, or would it just sit there until a perfect situation came up?" If it is the latter-most of the three options, don't run it. Find a more versatile card, or instead run something that would help you win instead.

Step 7: Building the Landbase

When building the landbase for a deck, there are 5 main questions:

Question 1 is are you multicolored? If yes, then your landbase has to go through a lot of topics, otherwise, you can mostly fill it out with normally 37-28 basics with the addition of some utility lands.

Question 2 only applies if you said yes to Question 1, if so then the question is how many colors do you have? 2-3 colors are normally pretty easy to set up, but 4-5 can be very difficult, especially on a budget.

Question 3 is what budget do you have? If you a lot of money and can get shock and fetch lands, you can build a good manabase for nearly any deck. Otherwise, making sure you can budget is key.

Question 4 asks how fast you need mana. A faster deck may not be able to afford running tapped lands, whereas a much slower deck might be able to afford a quarter of their manabase entering tapped.

Question 5 is how much the deck needs life. Many combo decks can afford to lose 39 life as long as they get to their combo, other decks might not feel as comfortable, and need at least 20-30 life to feel safe. They might not run 30-painlands as a manabase.

Once you have all of this information, you will need to gather a bit more, and then pick the perfect manabase for you.

How many lands?

This is the question that everyone asks, how many lands do you need? Well, it certainly isn't the same for every deck. Some lists that are very controlling may go close to 40, having ~37 lands isn't rare, but dependent on how much ramp you run, you may only need 28 if you have Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Elvish Mystic, Birds of Paradise, Boreal Druid, Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox and other fast ramp. This means you should find a system.

To start, the average CMC or converted mana cost of a deck should be figured out. If your decks' average is around 2, you don't need nearly the mana a deck with the average CMC of 4. Card draw should also be added to this equation. When determining the average CMC of a deck, a card like Brainstorm and Spell Pierce aren't the exact same, because brainstorm will generally draw a card, that you will then want to cast, or it can draw a land, that will ramp you further. This means that if your deck has a low-CMC or a lot of ramp Brainstorm will be effectively a lower CMC card than if your deck was a bunch of dragons and no ramp.

How do you figure it out then? I have found that the general amount of lands that should be run is 40. This is given a normal CMC of the deck, and absolutely no mana-generation outside of ramp. For each 3 CMC card it shaves off a quarter of a land, for each 2 CMC Ramp card, that shaves off half a land, for each 1 CMC ramp card, it shaves off 75% of a land, and for each 0 CMC Ramp card, it shaves off a whole land.

The equation would be:

y=40-x-.75z-.5a-.25b

Where Y = The Number of lands you need, X = 0 CMC Ramp, Z = 1 CMC Ramp, A = 2 CMC Ramp, and B = 3 CMC Ramp.

All of this is assuming that the ramp spell only ramp 1 mana, if they tap for 2, bump them up to be .25 lands more in value. This also means that lands that tap for more than one mana can shorten the overall lands required.

How Many Dual Lands?

Well, it depends a lot of how many colors you run. If you are in two colors, I would suggest at least a third of your manabase to be dual lands and the rest basics. Three colors should only run a third of their decks as basics, and two thirds as duals and tri-lands, preferably the latter. Four color decks should really run minimal basic lands, possibly only around a quarter or a fifth, and the rest of the landbase should be fully optimized with duals, tri-lands, and quad-lands. Five-color mana base really shouldn't run more than 5 basic lands, and require the rest to be as optimized as possibly with preferably all of the affordable five-color lands, and duals to fill out the rest.

So, what mana-fixing lands should you pick?

Well, there are many lands to pick from, there are many categories, below I have listed them in order of how good they generally are. Remember, some of these are better or worse depending on the deck.

Five Color (Untapped)

(Command Tower, Exotic Orchard, City of Brass, Tarnished Citadel, Mana Confluence, Forbidden Orchard, and Reflecting Pool)

These lands are probably the best options for any multicolored deck, even 2 colored decks can use these at around the same value of Fast Lands.

Fetchlands

(Flooded Grove, Polluted Delta, Bloostained Mire, Wooded Foothills, Windswept Heath, Marsh Flats, Verdant Catacombs, Misty Rainforest, Scalding Tarn, and Arid Mesa)

These are the best all-around lands, being good enough to run in nearly any deck, however, their costs are steep, and they need the use of Shock Lands or Original Dual Lands.

Original Dual Lands

(Tundra, Underground Sea, Badlands, Taiga, Savannah, Scrubland, Bayou, Tropical Island, Volcanic Island, and Plateau)

These lands are the best duals for any deck that can afford them, with good fetch land synergies.

Shock Lands

(Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, Blood Crypt, Stomping Ground, Temple Garden, Godless Shrine, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool, Steam Vents, and Sacred Foundry)

Similar to the Original Dual Lands, slightly worse because you must pay life to get immediate value, yet still has good fetch land synergies.

Commander Duals

(Sea of Clouds, Morphic Pool, Luxury Suite, Spire Garden, and Bountiful Promenade)

These are some of the most budget-friendly new duals, and if you are in the colors to use them, I'd suggest them.

Pain Lands

(Adarkar Wastes, Underground River, Sulfurous Springs, Karplusan Forest, Brushland, Caves of Koilos, Llanowar Wastes, Yavimaya Coast, Shivan Reef, Battlefield Forge, Horizon Canopy, and Grove of the Burnwillows)

These are also very powerful lands, good on a budget. Horizon Canopy and Grove of the Burnwillows are being put in this category since they are duals with similar abilities.

Fast Lands (Not for Permission Control)

(Seachrome Coast, Darkslick Shores, Blackcleave Cliffs, Copperline Gorge, Razorverge Thicket, Concealed Courtyard, Blooming Marsh, Botanical Sanctum, Spirebluff Canals, and Inspiring Vantage)

These lands are impressively powerful in the early game when you really need to get your colors. They aren't great, however, they are still awesome in many 2-3 colored decks.

Buddy Lands

(Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacombs, Dragonskull Summit, Rootbound Crag, Sunpetal Grove, Isolated Chapel, Woodland Cemetery, Hinterland Harbor, Sulfur Falls, and Clifftop Retreat)

These normally need a number of basics, shocks, original dual lands, or fetch lands, but are very powerful in the later game.

Five Color (Tapped) (Only for 3+ Colored Decks)

(Path of Ancestry, Grand Coliseum)

Really, these lands are inclusions to budget/tribal decks aiming to get some extra fixing without using the fetch/shock/dual combo. Entering tapped means they have to be in a deck that doesn't need much mana turns 1-3 or else they could ruin an openning hand.

Tango Lands

(Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, Smoldering Marsh, Cinder Glade, and Canopy Vista)

Budget duals/shocks because they have the basic land types, but generally good for 2-3 color decks if you want to get them untapped. Control lists and decks that don't need much mana turns 1-3 can easily run these.

Ravnica Bounce lands

(Azorius Chancery, Dimir Aqueduct, Rakdos Carnarium, Gruul Turf, Selesnya Sanctuary, Orzhov Basilica, Golgari Rot Farm, Simic Growth Chamber, Izzet Boilerworks, and Boros Garrison)

These bounce lands are often played as a form of 'card advantage', run in more budget lists as tehy act as 2 lands. Try not to run more than 3 of these, as multiple in an openning hand, without another land makes them bounc themselves.

Additional Resources

Plenty of the following resources will link off to separate lists, and I will not take credit for them, as they were made by separate amazing users, please upvote them and give them kind words!

Recommended Commanders (Sorted by Color)

For each color combination, I will write out exactly what top four commanders I recommend, and why. This is only a recommendation for newer players, and will not go over more commanders that are generally only made for competitive EDH.

Colorless

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is a good commander for Ramp decks, that want a giant fun Eldrazi to head themselves, while drawing a Tidings amount of cards! It can be a fun Eldrazi Tribal deck, and also general colorless good-stuff

Kozilek, the Great Distortion is the other Kozilek, and can be played with the same Eldrazi Tribal or Ramp strategies, but is also very good for Permission Control decks with the discard ability. Make sure to run a lot of cards with different converted mana costs, and remember you can discard a land to count cards like Ancestral Visions or other such suspend cards, or a Memnite if you really want.

Hope of Ghirapur can be a powerful Voltron commander, with evasion and a ton of equipment, you can really make a powerful deck. All you have to do to make it one-shot a player is something like Argentum Armor, Grafted Exoskeletom, and Fireshrieker. It can also be useful in the occasional Stax deck.

Karn, Silver Golem is another good commander, specifically when wanting to build an Artifact deck. It has a cool combo with Mycosynth Lattice where, because lands are non-creature artifacts, you can pay to destroy an opponent's land, and you can repeat that as many times as you want, at instant speed. Other times it can simply be a win condition to slam a Darksteel Forge in your opponent's awe-struck face.

White

Sram, Senior Edificer with Sram, you can build a powerful Voltron deck, or just really any Aura or Equipment deck. In white given the lack of ready card draw, Sram provides a powerhouse of an engine that can really get you to win games with a lot backing you up.

Eight-and-a-Half-Tails is a really interesting commander, with the ability to protect your permanents from most threats. Pentarch Paladin and other cards based around hating on a single color can be useful ways to have a secondary use for him, and many of those decks lead into a Pillow Fort strategy, but general goodstuff and color-combo cards are often used as well with 8&1/2 Tails at the helm.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is a very good card, and so it would make sense it would be a good commander. Commonly part of midrange or aggro Token decks, it can turn a field of 20 1/1s into a threat that can kill each opponent in two turns. Other white weenie decks can use it as a threat and a way to change the field of battle in their favor as soon as they get the mana to cast her.

Hokori, Dust Drinker is effectively a Winter Orb in the command zone. By running artifact mana like Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, and Sol Ring, you can make mana through Hokori, while your opponents might not be able to. These types of decks are generally called Stax or occasionally Hatebears. Many of them run 'tax' effects like Winter Orb, Sphere of Resistance, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Kataki, War's Wage, Magus of the Tabernacle, Glowrider, Vryn Wingmare, and Ghostly Prison to really rub in the fact that they don't have a lot of mana.

Blue

Azami, Lady of Scrolls is sheer card advantage in the command zone. Obviously a good commander for Wizard Tribal, even without running a ton of cards like Patron Wizard or other wizard benefits, just running a few key wizards like Spellseeker or Snapcaster Mage, Azami, Lady of Scrolls can draw enough cards to make a powerful Control commander, and even has Combo potential with Paradox Engine or Mind Over Matter and ending the combo with Laboratory Maniac, another wizard!

Talrand, Sky Summoner is another powerful commander for mono-blue, where it can make a win condition out of just casting some cantrips like Brainstorm, Preordain, Ponder, removal like Chain of Vapor, Into the Roil, Cyclonic Rift, or countermagic like Counterspell, Negate, and Arcane Denial. This makes it a good Control commander, and it also is good with effects such as Temporal Manipultation or Time Stretch, to create a great Extra Turns deck.

Baral, Chief of Compliance is a great control commander, having benefiting countermagic, and also making them cost less. A weird effect of Baral's influence on the deck is that though it is mono-blue, players would rather Negate than Counterspell since he only makes them cost one less, and that won't affect cards with only blue mana symbols. The commander is powerful (enough so to get banned for brawl), but can be played in nearly any playgroup at different power levels.

Jalira, Master Polymorphist is a personal favorite, and because I believe many EDH players to be more casual and like randomness, Jalira can be very fun to sacrifice a Storm Crow and find a Blightsteel Colossus, or something absurd like that. To make it much less random, you could only run large non-legendary creatures, and then run a bunch of small legendary creatures or token generating effects.

Black

Erebos, God of the Dead is a great card-advantage engine in the command zone, allowing you to get a lot of value, as long as you have the ramp to compensate. Due to it being a good beatstick, it is a really good Midrange or Control commander and even is powerful as a Devotion or Ramp deck for various reasons.

Chainer, Dementia Master is a very powerful commander for Reanimator strategies, and is generally a powerful commander for some Combo lists as well. Using tutors like Entomb or Buried Alive you can cheat out large threats such as Sheoldred, Whispering One, to close out games with efficiency. A cool trick is that you can get around the exile effect by sacrificing all of the nightmares to something like Viscera Seer.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier is another popular option for mono-black decks, commonly heading Combo with Ad Nauseam or just being a good value commander when put into an Aristocrats/Sacrifice deck. Because it can exploit itself, immediately heading back to the command zone, it can act like a 5 mana Diabolic Tutor, then a 7 mana one, then 9, and so on. It is a repeatable tutor which is a lot of power.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a build-around commander, generally a mix of Blink and Bounce strategies, and based on using its "Enter the Battlefield" triggered ability to get value. Cards like Panharmonicon and Strionic Resonator duplicate the ability, while Erratic Portal and Conjurer's Closet repeat the trigger. These decks are effectively 'Steal-Your-Stuff' decks, and can be very powerful, if not requiring a lot of luck.

Red

Godo, Bandit Warlord is a very fascinating commander, winning as long as you can get to , with one of that mana being , you instantly win. How? Well, Helm of the Host is the answer. The plan of a normal Godo deck is to drop Godo, fetch the Helm, attach it, and move to combat, making a hasty copy of Godo, and then you can swing with the copy, making a new combat, with a new hasty Godo. That is the whole gameplan, and it wins with just the commander hitting and a single attaching of an equipment. Decks of this nature can run a lot of Ramp, or they can be Stax or nearly any other type of deck, and all of them have a win available i they cast the commander.

Neheb, the Eternal is a really interesting deck, generally built around making a ton of mana with effects such as Heartless Hidetsugu to get like 60 mana, then dump that into anything that wins. They can be Storm, Ramp, or nearly any other red deck that wants mana in loads. I have seen them be Dragon/Eldrazi Tribal decks. Aggravated Assault can go infinite, and other Additional Combats decks can use it at the helm.

Krenko, Mob Boss is generally thought off as a very Aggro-Goblin Tribal commander, but can win the game without other goblins, given time it will just double and double up until it will kill, being great for a Stax or Midrange strategy too. You may see a number of untap effects in Krenko lists to speed him up, and it can go infinite really easily with them, such as Mana Echoes and Umbral Mantle comboing to create infinite tokens and mana. Impact Tremors or other such cards can be similarly useful in this type of deck.

Daretti, Scrap Savant is a great Artifact or Stax commander, being good in many Midrange strategies too. It is a great way to gain card selection in red, and can be powerful with using the yard, especially with cards like Kuldotha Forgemaster and Myr Battlesphere, making tons of tokens, getting tons of powerful artifacts, and just generally winning!

Green

Yeva, Nature's Herald is a powerful commander, especially with effects such as Quest for Renewal, Curse of Bounty, and Seedborn Muse to make tons of mana on your opponents' turns. This can lead to a large advantage but needs card advantage to really bring in the win. Soul of the Harvest, Primordial Sage, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Sylvan Library, and other good engines can get you the cards to cast on every turn with your excess of mana.

Omnath, Locus of Mana is a powerful Ramp and Voltron commander, directly turning every extra mana into damage. Able to abuse every bit of mana and win from it is Omnath's biggest selling point and can win with extreme efficiency with ramp alone. Normally quite straightforward though, leading to it being easily hated out.

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard a good Toolbox commander, with the ability to start and fetch something like Wirewood Symbiote then Priest of Titania, then Fierce Empath into Soul of the Harvest, then Temur Sabertooth to go infinite and draw your deck and make infinite mana. It is a very powerful Combo deck, with great Midrange capabilities.

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury can be a very fun Elf Tribal commander, dropping tons of Ramp turn after turn, building up a large board, and being able to draw a ton of cards for a Swarm/Elfball strategy. It even can remove dangerous threats like Cursed Totem or other powerful artifacts and enchantments. Really it is a one-card army and does nearly anything you need for a commander to do.

Azorius

Ephara, God of the Polis is a great Token and Blink commander, with the goal of dropping having a creature enter the battlefield at least once every turn, including the turns of your opponents'. This will be a great card advantage engine, and in blue-white, you can do a lot of blinking and token generation. Some are Midrange decks, trying to edge out the competition with card draw value, other variants are control decks, with the aim of stopping your opponents and getting to the late game, while you have every answer you need and your opponents' are worn down.

Brago, King Eternal is a powerful commander, commonly used for Blink or Stax decks, and can be built with high-resiliency, full based around his combat damage trigger, or only somewhat based around it. By running effects like Static Orb and other stax locks like Stasis, you can shut off your opponents, but whenever Brago connects you can flicker your field (except lands), generally including mana rocks, to make mana when no one else can, and untapping Brago to swing the next turn. Other times it is just good value, like flickering a Solemn Simulacrum and Mulldrifter turn after turn.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is a powerful Control commander, commonly either a mix between Permission and Stax or just all-in Stax. Being able to tax your opponents whilst cheapening everything you cast is powerful, and sometimes can be powerful doubly, by making a Sphere of Resistance not affect you, and double up on the opponents. Thorn of Amethyst, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and other tax effects are very often run.

Hanna, Ship's Navigator is a good Enchantment/Artifact commander, with a very powerful recursion effect that is very good when able to be done multiple times with untap effects like Umbral Mantle or Paradox Engine and sacrifice outlets like Faith Healer and Krark-Clan Ironworks. Sometimes used for a Voltron commander, given the synergy with Equipment and Auras.

Dimir

Oona, Queen of the Fae is a powerful Faerie Tribal and Mill Commander, that is commonly used for Combo due to the way it instantly wins with infinite mana. Its powerful Token generation can be used to win on its own, and the library disruption isn't something to scoff at. It is a popular commander for a good reason.

Phenax, God of Deception is a powerful Mill commander, that can occasionally be used for Toughness/Wall decks, and has great synergy with other cards such as Tree of Perdition and other similar cards. Occasionally used in Combo as a win condition with Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal/Paradox Engine effects.

Gisa and Geralf is a Zombie Tribal, Reanimator commander, with general tribal use, and can be very powerful when not playing against graveyard hate, constantly bringing back dead threats, one by one. Also useful with Bounce or Flicker effects to mill further, and get additional casts from the yard.

Dragonlord Silumgar is a good Steal-Your-Stuff commander, being able to easily grab and take threats for yourself, and can be commonly run with Flicker effects in addition to sacrifice outlets to gain a massive advantage from what is effectively removal and always having access to the best card on the field.

Rakdos

The Scorpion God is a really powerful commander I don't see getting played very often. It has powerful -1/-1 Counters synergies, and can draw a ton of cards, has minor forms of protections, and can remove a ton of threats. All of that together leads to what is normally really good, however without access to green or blue, it does have less potential to abuse the counters and really be powerful. It is also a very powerful Aristocrats/Sacrifice commander if you can get -1/-1 counters on your own creatures easily, as well as just being good value for any Goodstuff deck.

Olivia Voldaren is both a good Steal-Your-Stuff commander, whilst also being good at Vampire Tribal, and is a powerhouse of a Goodstuff commander. Other synergies include enrage cards like Silverclad Ferocidons, +1/+1 Counters, and Voltron strategies. Able to synergize well with Captivating Vampire and Ramp decks, it is an extremely well-rounded commander.

Rakdos, Lord of Riots is a very interesting Ramp style strategy, commonly attempting to drop an Eldrazi by using mass damage like Chandra's Ignition or other similar effects to make them cost around less. It is explosive, if not chaotic, but can be hated out with the right cards, and so is a very risky deck to play.

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is almost one-of-a-kind in abusing the bottom card of the library. More competitive varients abuse him in Doomsday decks, others like abusing bottom-of-deck effects like Crystal Ball, and simply cheating out large threats, either way it is a lot of fun to pilot for most variants just due to the mana sink being in the command zone, being an effective form of card advantage.

Gruul

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a powerful commander generally built around Hating out your opponents, and is generally a creature-based strategy that runs him as a Goodstuff commander if you are in a meta with a lot of Storm or really any non-creature based decks, Ruric slams 6 damage in their face over and over until they can either neutralize it or die.

Omnath, Locus of Rage is a powerful Lands Matter commander, commonly used with some mix of Elemental Tribal and Ramp strategies, whilst also being a small bit of Aristocrats/Sacrifice to top it all off. It is a build-around, and though there are many different decklists, most of them attempt to win and get to the win in the same way.

Grand Warlord Radha is a good Aggro, Ramp commander, with the ability to turn a field sideways, and drop a whole new field with the mana, killing the opponents with efficiency and speed. Many times it is abused with Elf Tribal, Swarm/Elfball, and Token strategies, but the goal is normally always the same, they just achieve it in different methods.

Wort, the Raidmother is a token commander, with emphasis on instants and sorceries, and doubling them up. By using spells that make tokens, and doubling those up, you can make a large field, that is able to be quadrupled by effects like Harvest Season, or doubled by Parallel Lives. The deck can be built in many ways, however, with some being midrange, and some control.

Selesnya

Captain Sisay is a powerful commander, and though many players want to just get out a bunch of big legendaries, some abuse it as Legendary/Historic decks. Thran Temporal Gateway, Paradox Engine, Reki, the History of Kamigawa and other powerful cards can really make Sisay a powerhouse. It can be a fun commander, Superfriends, Combo with Paradox Engine, or Stax with cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Hokori, Dust Drinker, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, and a lot of other cards. It is even so powerful it is a Tier 1.5 cEDH commander by many standards.

Rhys the Redeemed is a very powerful Token, Aggro or Midrange commander. The token doubling ability alone is powerful, but the occasional 1/1 you make is fine too. Used fairly often with elf ramp, and sometimes untappers and token doublers, such as Paradox Engine & Doubling Season/Parallel Lives can give you many hundreds of tokens with ease.

Gaddock Teeg is a good Stax/Hatebear commander, with the ability to shut down a number of strategies like Ad Nauseam/Tendrils of Agony/Aetherflux Reservoir/Exsanguinate/Torment of Hailfire black storm, and Aetherflux Reservoir being unable to being cast is incredible advantage against nearly every storm build. Take into consideration you are stopping a number of staples from Force of Will to Dig Through Time & Treasure Cruise, then toss in Fact of Fiction being shut off, and also every random spell like Green Sun's Zenith, Blue Sun's Zenith, Stroke of Genius, etc. and you have yourself a commander that is oppressive on its own, why not build the rest of the deck to be similarly oppressive, right?

Sigarda, Host of Herons is commonly either a Goodstuff or Voltron commander, when Voltron, you normally see either Aura or Equipment strategies, as she doesn't prefer either. Sometimes the strategies are even mixed. Unlike most Voltron commanders, she doesn't have a large body, however, has hexproof and anti-sacrifice effects, as well as flying to have some evasion. Really it is nearly impossible to kill outside of mass exile/bounce if you toss Indestructibility on her.

Orzhov

Karlov of the Ghost Council is a very good Lifegain, Voltron, semi-Control commander. Really, byt simply having a lot of lifegain triggers, Karlov is both a form of control by exiling opposing creature and an easy wincon with a giant body. Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, and Deathgreeter are the type of cards you should expect in Karlov, the amount of life doesn't matter at all really, just that you did gain any life.

Teysa, Orzhov Scion is generally thought of as a Token, Aristocrats/Sacrifice commander, and that isn't wrong, nearly all variants on the deck have some level of those themes, however Teysa is more often a Combo deck, aiming to land a Darkest Hour and something like Blasting Station, Altar of Dementia, or Ashnod's Altar and something that wins with infinite mana due to infinite sacrifices. It can be very fast with the tutors in the colors, such as Demonic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, etc.

Daxos the Returned is a very fun, build-around, Enchantment, Token commander, with a lot going for it. Generally, your goal is to drop a bunch of powerful enchantments from Ghostly Prison to Nercropotence to True Conviction, getting a lot of experience counters, just to make a huge field, and swing out. This can take place in aggro ways, such as trying to have a lot of mana rock mana, dropping small, impactful enchantments like Authority of the Consuls, Reconnaissance, and Underworld Coinsmith, then build up a fast field, all the way to more controlling strategies using card engines like Necropotence, Underworld Connections, and Mesa Enchantress, then dropping enchantment-based removal like Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring.

Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a powerful Lifegain, Stax/Hatebear commander, with a lot of possibilities for how to build him. One might go full in lifegain, another might hatebears it out. It is a very wide open commander because the ability only affects your opponents. I have seen it helm an Advisor Tribal deck to great success in the past, despite how silly it sounded.

Golgari

The Gitrog Monster is the frogger, it is big, it is mean, it draws cards and is green, it is great. To start, you get to play an additional land, however, you have to sacrifice a land each upkeep, but you draw a card whenever a land is put into the graveyard, the point is that you can do a few cool things with it. For one, you can run Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator type cards to negate the sacrifice, and so it becomes just an additional bit of card draw and ramp. You could also consider attempting to abuse it by discard lands, how? Barren Moor or other cycling lands are great at this, drawing twice the cards. Retrace effects like on Worm Harvest are similarly useful. Additionally, World Shaper, or Self-Mill cards become very powerful, leading to many to build Dredge with The Gitrog Monster, and it even makes a powerful combo deck with Dakmor Salvage and a discard outlet.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth is an incredible card for Aristocrats/Sacrifice decks, Reanimator strategies, and many other decks. It is very versatile, and though many will run staple cards like Sakure-Tribe Elder, Spore Frog, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier, the rest of the deck can be built in many ways. Some variants are simply Self-Mill decks that get back some creatures as a weird card-advantage deck, others are just Goglari Goodstuff.

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf is a powerful Discard commander, with good use as a Stax and Elf Tribal commander as well, and is good with Tokens as well. Random discard is pretty good disruption and can be built very competitively.

Glissa, the Traitor is a very cool Artifact, creature-hate commander, with interesting Aristocrats/Sacrifice synergy. It can commonly be used as a recursion engine for artifacts, leading the decks built around its ability to use self-sacrificing artifacts such as Executioner's Capsule for repeatable removal, with it recurring itself, or cards like Horizon Spellbomb to gain value whenever any creature an opponent controls dies. Those decks also commonly run a lot of creature-removal, leading them to be slower, more Controlling decks. Other decks can just use it as a goodstuff commander, relegating it to be a powerful blocker.

Simic

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix // Thrasios, Triton Hero is our first partner pairing, making a powerful ramp and card draw strategy, that is commonly based around going infinite with an effect like Umbral Mantle with Kydele, dumping that infinite mana into Thrasios to win. That Combo deck is competitive, but not extremely high-tiered.

Rashmi, Eternities Crafter is a powerful bit of card advantage that can cheat out spells from time to time. It has a ton of value, however, doesn't indicate much of how you decide to build your deck at all, and given its good colors, it is commonly used as a Tempo or Goodstuff commander.

Kaseto, Orochi Archmage is a very good Voltron commander, and given enough Ramp, it can easily take over a game with just about 10 activations, and though that might sound like a ton, with blue for card draw, drawing into green's ramp, it can make it to that mana easily. And given other equipment or auras, it can make the one-shotting process extremely easy. The biggest drawback to it is protection. Sometimes, these decks use other creatures with built-in protection or Infect type effects with Kaseto's ability instead of just going all-in commander damage.

Edric, Spymaster of Trest is a powerful Aggro strategy, with themes in Extra Turns, Group Hug, Elfball/Swarm, and Token builds existing. The more competitive variants aim to drop a large amount of fast creatures that ramp you or have differing forms of evasion, such as Fyndhorn Elves and Slither Blade, to get a lot of cards draw each turn, hoping to draw and cast an extra turn spell, like Time Warp. Chaining enough together, while ramping more and more, getting more lands, creatures, and card draw will snowball into a large win. More casual decks can just appreciate the powerful card advantage engine and good colors.

Izzet

Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind is a powerful Combo commander, comboing with Curiosity, Tandem Lookout, Ophidian's Eye, and Mind Over Matter. Generally, they are built to be combo-control, using red and blue's removal/countermagic to slow the game and gain card advantage with the commander.

Mizzix of the Izmagnus is a powerful Storm commander, with the ability that can make rituals incredible, and every other spell better. It leads to the deck having a lot of card draw since the commander (mostly) takes care of mana.

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus / Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist are great Goodstuff commanders, giving tons of card draw to you, and if you don't get card draw, your opponents are seriously slowed. Either way, you win. Because they are value engines, they make great Control commanders, especially Permission builds, who need to answer almost every threat.

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is a powerful Artifact, Storm commander, with the ability to chain spells with extreme efficiency, hopefully drawing a historic card (generally an artifact) each time you cast a historic spell. Generally, they win with something like Aetherflux Reservoir, and make mana with mana-rocks or cards like Paradox Engine to untap them.

Boros

Aurelia, the Warleader is a powerful commander, that generally helms Aggro decks, but is good at Equipment, Combo, and Stax, too, with a 2-card infinite with Helm of the Host, and good colors for locking your opponents out, with cards like Stranglehold, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Ruination, and Cataclysm.

Archangel Avacyn is a powerful flip commander, that is a really cool commander for creature-based Goodstuff decks, especially with a creature-based playgroup. It can act as both anti-board wipe, and be its own board wipe, all with ease, and has a decent body for flash-blocking, or swinging when flipped.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is a very interesting card, doubling damage your opponents take and halving yours. This can lead to one-sided effects, such as negating the damage dealt from Manabarbs to you and doubling it to your opponents. It is also simply powerful as a big anthem effect for aggro or midrange creature-based deck.

Iroas, God of Victory is an interesting take on a lot of red and white staples, packed into a single card. Dolmen Gate and Goblin War Drums are tacked onto a body, semi-similar to Tajic, Blade of the Legion, all good cards. It makes it a powerful commander for and against creature-based decks while remaining a threat all on its own, killing in three connects if you can hit devotion. It comes with multiple forms of protection, and some evasion too, so it can be run for Voltron variants, commonly Auras so it actually helps with devotion.

Esper

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is a very famous commander, with good Lifegain and Control subthemes, and has value without ever needing to be cast. This allows it to also be a generally powerful Goodstuff commander. The life may be inconsequential in many cases, but it is a nice buffer and is used with Pillow Fort strategies. Many times, the card draw can also help with good control lists, and also a few combos exist with it, such as with Exquisite Blood.

Merieke Ri Berit is a great Steal-Your-Stuff commander, and can be used as good removal too. Some decks attempt to repeatedly untap her, just to blow up all of your opponents' creatures. It can also be a simply powerful Goodstuff commander, stealing the occasional creature to help out your goal when there is a good target, or just sitting back as a threat.

Zur the Enchanter is a good Enchantment commander, that can also be a powerful engine for Storm. Many variants are based around the powerful Necropotence enchantment, then using it to draw ~30+ cards, and win with Shimmer Myr, rituals, mana rocks, untap effects, and finishing with Aetherflux Reservoir. This is called Shimmer Zur, and variants on it exist that go up to Tier 1 in cEDH. Other decks use it as a card advantage engine for Pillow Fort decks fetching Solitary Confinement, Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, and Greater Auramancy, while others are Aura/Voltron and fetch Battle Mastery, Steel of the Godhead, Ethereal Armor, and Daybreak Coronet.

Sen Triplets is an interesting commander, and while it is an Artifact, it is rarely used as an artifact commander in comparison to Sharuum the Hegemon. It is normally a type of Control based Steal-Your-Stuff deck, taking a peek into its opponents' hands and just casting their spells. In some ways, this means the deck always has cards in hand if anyone does, and nearly can get whatever answer it needs by taking the answer out of its opponents' hands.

Grixis

Nekusar, the Mindrazer is a powerful commander, that is very popular. It is usually built to use cards that make every player draw cards. Sometimes the commander is a Wheel commander, using cards like Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, and Whispering Madness. Other variants are more Forcefeed, using effects such as Howling Mine, Dictate of Kruphix, Temple Bell, and Font of Mythos. Either are very powerful ways to pump out damage, which many abuse by giving Nekusar Infect or Lifelink.

Marchesa, the Black Rose is a good Steal-Your-Stuff commander, as well as good with Reanimator, Goodstuff, +1/+1 Counters, Aristocrats/Sacrifice, and has great synergy with both Persist and Undying creatures. If you steal an opponent's creature with an effect that only lasts for a turn, you can then sacrifice it and it will come back under your control forever. Many other good synergies exist.

Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge is an incredible Storm commander, and is the most popular Grixis Storm commander, which is a powerful Tier 1, cEDH combo list. Jeleva also is popular in Steal-You-Stuff and Mill lists and is able to play Voltron too. Jeleva being able to dig deep into each player's decks gives it a powerful edge over most commanders.

Kess, Dissident Mage is a powerful Combo commander, helming Grixis Twin a Reanimator strategy, and also is a secondary commander for Grixis Storm, a powerful Storm deck. Both are Tier 1, cEDH decks, and Kess is also good with Taking Turns decks, and many other strategies, even so far as Wizard Tribal. Kess is a very well-rounded and powerful commander.

Jund

Xira Arien is the premiere Storm commander in Jund, consistently being powerful with Paradox Engine and Worldgorger Dragon combos, drawing your deck so you can combo out. This strategy is very powerful, however more casual Xira decks can simply use her as a good card advantage engine, gathering value here and there.

Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire is a good commander for large-permanent based strategies, helming a number of Dragon Tribal decks that want to toss a big dragon on top with a Worldly Tutor, then sacrifices a land or other less valuable permanent to get it out. The deck is normally more Pub-Stompy than competitive, and many variants only run permanents other than a single copy of Primal Surge for an instant win in the deck.

Shattergang Brothers is the premiere Stax commander in Jund, giving a lot of value when you are able to destroy all of your opponents' nonland mana, just to blow up their lands as well with a red mass-land-destruction spell like Devastation or a cycled Decree of Annihilation. This strategy is one of the best Jund decks there are, only beneath the likes of Xira Arien storm.

Kresh the Bloodbraided is a powerful Aristocrats/Sacrifice commander, with good synergy in a +1/+1 Counters deck. The deck can abuse death triggers, and make a large Voltroned up Kresh, which can lead to very fast one-shots due to commander damage. This Aggro strategy is very focused, and though complicated, I would suggest greatly to players that want to have a fun new deck.

Naya

Mayael the Anima is a common Pub-Stomp commander, and is powerful, however generally too slow for cEDH. The deck is commonly built around dropping out giant creatures with speed and efficiency, with a large Ramp package. This allows it to be cast early, and activate over and over really early on, getting out giant threats before your opponents should easily be able to react.

Marath, Will of the Wild is a very well-rounded commander, with strategies based around +1/+1 Counters, Tokens, and Combo, instantly winning if you can get infinite mana. Many times, it is simply a good mana dump, and so it is run as the commander to a number of Ramp strategies. The commander is very popular for these reasons but generally is never super necessary for the deck to work.

Uril, the Miststalker is a powerful and popular Aura, Voltron commander, with a deck based around dropping a few auras on it, getting it to 21 damage unblockable, and one-shotting players turn after turn, protecting Uril to stop an opponent from interacting. This strategy is helped by Uril's hexproof, but generally use of cards like Hyena Umbra, Shield of the Oversoul, and other similar cards are used to protect it from effects that would get around hexproof.

Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa / Tana, the Bloodsower are a great pairing, getting in unblockable damage, gaining more unblockable creatures every time. These two are such a powerful engine together, that they can take over the game on their own, with the rest of the deck being basically just some good synergies with the tokens, like Skullclamp, and then a ton of answers, a bit of ramp, or whatever else you want. Very powerful at Midrange and Goodstuff.

Bant

Rubinia Soulsinger is a great Goodstuff commander in Bant, helming many decks that don't have a good commander for the strategy, and is also a good Steal-Your-Stuff commander, with good synergies with untap effects and sacrifice outlets. Rubina also happens to be very budget-friendly, and so is popular for decks like Pillow Fort lists without the budget for Angus Mackenzie.

Roon of the Hidden Realm is a popular Blink/Flicker commander, with great synergy in many lists, whether by flicking an evoked Mulldrifter for a 5 mana 2/2 flyer and draw 4, or more powerful abilities like Terastodon. The commander is very popular, however, isn't very competitive.

Rafiq of the Many is a powerful Voltron, Aggro commander, that swings for 8 all on its own turn 5, given no ramp and normal land drops. That is powerful all on its own. Toss on a decent buff like Grafted Exoskeleton, and it swings for 12 infect, one-shotting people with just a single buff. The downside in comparison to the alternatives like Uril, the Miststalker, or Sigarda, Host of Herons is that the commander has no built-in protection like hexproof, and leads to it being very vulnerable to spot removal.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is a good untap/tap commander, specifically for Stax or ramp strategies, and is able to get very out-of-hand with a couple vigilance creatures and a Stasis, Static Orb, or Winter Orb, breaking the parity and gaining a massive advantage over your opponents' given they aren't playing the same deck! Other times, it can be a goodstuff commander, just giving effectively vigilance to your creatures, or making a little more mana, turn to turn.

Mardu

Queen Marchesa is a good Pillow Fort, Control commander, that gives tokens if you don't get card draw. Either way, you are going to get the Monarchy, and you will use it to win the game through card advantage. Eventually, you normally attempt to protect yourself to a point you win the game. The deck also has good Token synergies, and the ability to change the landscape of the game with the Monarchy going around.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is a good build-around Reanimator deck with many variants built around good synergy like Karmic Guide or combo-kills with Master of Cruelties. The commander is very popular due to how many ways it can be built, and is a very well-rounded commander.

Kaalia of the Vast is a big-creature-beatdown strategy, with a commander that can help cheat out large threats such as Iona, Shield of Emeria, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and Steel Hellkite. This means an opponent rarely has a choice but to remove Kaalia as fast as possible, otherwise, they might die or be very close to death out of nowhere. Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and other protection/haste options help to negate the removal, but even so, Kaalia rarely resolves with one on the field, given an opponent can.

Edgar Markov is a very interesting Token, Vampire Tribal, Aggro commander, with a powerful ability without even needing to be on the battlefield. With enough vampire lords in the deck, you are set to build a huge field. If Edgar Markov is allowed to resolve, it pumps the field large enough to kill with nearly no say about it. It is the premier aggro commander in these colors, beating out commanders like Zurgo with ease.

Temur

Riku of Two Reflections is a powerhouse of a commander, able to double creatures, instants, and sorceries when needed. This ability can go infinite with a card like Palinchron, or can just be useful value with cards like Mulldrifter. Normally, Riku is a bit of a Pub-Stomp commander, powerful, and can take over a gamestore, but not cEDH level.

Animar, Soul of Elements is a powerful commander, that can either be a powerful Combo enabling Ramp engine, that has built-in protection, or it can be a good way to pump out giant Eldrazi, Giants, Dragons, Beasts, and Leviathans. Either way yo build it, it is a fun and powerful commander. It really is reliant on the commander, however, so a well-timed Song of the Dryads might be able to take three or more turns from the Animar player.

Maelstrom Wanderer is a really cool commander. Plenty of the time it helms Ramp decks, acting like a big and fun finisher. Occasionally though, you find a deck with 97 lands, all of which made to make the most amount of mana on a single turn, such as storage lands or lands that can sacrifice for more mana, the commander, and two cars, normally a 2 card Combo like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Pestermite. This will instantly win the game, and you are assured both cards because of the double-cascade.

Intet, the Dreamer is a very interesting commander, and is normally more Goodstuff than anything else. It can be used to drop big threats, or just dig a little further in a board-stall. The commander doesn't necessitate anything about the deck, making it both versatile and interesting to play against, because you don't know what you are doing. Many times, the deck is a Battlecruiser deck, with large Eldrazi or Dragons to cheat out, but you never know.

Abzan

Karador, Ghost Chieftain is a powerful Reanimator commander, that can use the graveyard not only as a resource to cast spells from but also as a way to get rid of the commander's cost. It is a common Self-Mill/Dredge deck and is a powerful build-around. It is a very popular commander for these reasons.

Ghave, Guru of Spores is a really powerful commander with Combo, +1/+1 Counters, and Tokens. A lot of the time, effects like Hardened Scales, Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, Doubling Season, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, and Annointed Procession all make going infinite or gaining a ton of value easily possible.

Anafenza, the Foremost is a very powerful Goodstuff commander, acting as graveyard hate, additional +1/+1 Counters, and good value in general. It is a popular commander for Stax/Hatebears strategies as well. Many times, Anafenza is the best option, despite not helping out a ton, it is almost always a good beatstick and hate.

Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa / Tymna the Weaver are a great pairing, getting in damage and consistent card draw between each other. This leads to a lot of good Midrange creature strategies. Generally, they get a fair amount of value on their own, without anything else, and so can be good in a board stall as well, leading to them being Goodstuff commanders from time to time.

Jeskai

Narset, Enlightened Master is a powerful commander, with built-in protection and ability that cheats out cards for free, and 'draws' you the cards, turn after turn. This ability is powerful enough many decks attempt to abuse it by having them based on Extra Combat Steps and Extra Turns. Commonly, it also is based around destroying lands, so that if it doesn't hit another extra turn or extra combat step card, it still can win, by getting to swing on its next turn. Other variants are Voltron, as it cheats out big auras onto itself for free.

Zedruu the Greathearted is an interesting commander, that benefits you for Donateing your permanents out to your opponents. This allows you to gain life and draw cards, which is great for Control and Lifegain strategies. Some decks abuse the donation of permanents by giving permanents that are equal on any side of the battlefield like Howling Mine or ones that are detrimental like Illusions of Grandeur. Other times, they are simply giving good cards are Group Hug or political decks.

Numot, the Devastator is a powerful Land Destruction/Stax commander, with the ability to blow up lands left and right. Even though it takes time to get going, it can really build up and advantage over time. Many times, it is just a Goodstuff deck in these colors though and has little to do with the commander, just using it to mess over greedy manabases and whatever deck didn't hit their land drops. It can be used politically, for instance, you can make a deal that one person takes the damage so you can blow up the lands of someone with blockers.

Ruhan of the Fomori is a very good Voltron commander, able to not make enemies because the attacks are randomized. Ruhan is a popular choice for more political players when they get into Aggro and want a deck they are comfortable with. It has 7 damage and is relatively easy to cast, all of which is very good. It is also in very good Aura/Equipment colors and can abuse some damage doublers to get a one-shotting engine extremely fast, for instance, if you drop a Duelist's Heritage and Inquisitor's Flail on it, you are a few combats from winning if it connects.

Sultai

Tasigur, the Golden Fang is an amazing commander whether you are a Combo deck that wants to abuse it with infinite mana for an instant win with Beast Within and Reality Shift, or you are a deck that wants to just have a bit of card draw/recursion in the command zone. Really, Tasigur allows for any strategy, can be cast for cheap, has good graveyard synergies, and is easy to use when you have extra mana. It is the premiere Goodstuff commander in these colors.

The Mimeoplasm is a weird, Reanimator-esque commander that is a deck that likes to cast a Buried Alive or some similar effect, cast The Mimeoplasm, and bring out a 15/14 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur or something stupidly overpowered like that for 5 mana. The deck is rarely much more complicated than drop big, stupid fatty into the yard, Mimeo, win. It is straightforward, however very fun to pilot or play against, knowing exactly what will happen.

Damia, Sage of Stone is a control commander based on making sure you always have cards in hand, it will get you to 7 if it is the only thing it does. It has some good Discard synergies, and can even play Self-Mill with Dredge cards. It isn't extremely versatile, but is a powerful build-around.

Muldrotha, the Gravetide is a powerful graveyard recursion engine in the command zone, with synergies ranging from self-sacrificing cards like Sakura-Tribe Elder or Vessel of Nascency to Self-Mill and Reanimator lists. It can be used as a simple Goodstuff commander, but in general it is a powerful build-around, with powerful cards like Traumatize to nearly instantly draw half of your deck or other cards in that vein, to Spore Frog which can shut the aggro player out entirely.

For the four color variants, I will only be going through ~2 commander options each.

Glint-Eye

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder is a powerful Storm commander, even being a Tier 1 cEDH list, based on connecting with Yidris, casting spells, for double the advantage, abusing the fact that if you cast a 1 CMC spell like Brainstorm, you can only hit a 0 CMC spell off of cascade, hitting a possible Lotus Bloom or Ancestral Visions, negating suspend at all. This can lead to insanely powerful gameplay, and the deck normally instantly wins if Yidris connects.

Thrasios, Triton Hero / Vial Smasher the Fierce are popular commanders, and can lead to a very fun Controlling gameplan, of activating Thrasios whenever it is the end step before your turn for card advantage, and casting general control spells like sweepers, removal, countermagic, and the like for Vial Smasher damage as a wincon.

Dune-Brood

Saskia the Unyielding is a very powerful Aggro commander, that has good synergy with Infect, and many other strategies. It targets one player, and so normally you swing at another, killing two for one. Then you can either just kill the last, or bounce/flicker Saskia, and then kill the last at double-speed. This is a great way to minimize the Aggro Problem (see an explanation for this under the EDH/Commander Theory section).

Tana, the Bloodsower / Tymna the Weaver are great Midrange/Stax commanders, with good card draw, synergies such as with Skullclamp and Birthing Pod, as well as many other cards, and is even powerful enough to be a Tier 1, cEDH deck. Together, the deck's main strategy is normally either Beatdown or Combo, and to draw enough stax-pieces from Tymna or clamp to win.

Ink-Treader

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis is a powerful Group Hug commander, with good card draw, Ramp, and also is a large wall. These decks can be toughness-based, sometimes like a Wall Tribal deck, but usually aren't. It really is just a Goodstuff commander in these colors, as there aren't too many options outside of it.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist / Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa allow for a powerful amount of both alpha-strike capability, and card draw, making them very well fit for a Midrange, creature-based strategy, such as Hatebears. Occasionally these decks are similar in nature to Edric, Spymaster of Trest, drawing cards and swinging sideways, but it has more evasion, less card draw, and more colors.

Witch-Maw

Thrasios, Triton Hero / Tymna the Weaver are some of the best commanders and paired together they are even better. They give massive card draw, leading them to be considered very competitive, and can be run in combo lists that attempt to make infinite mana, dumping it into Thrasios, Triton Hero, from things like Demonic Consultation+Thassa's Oracle or some other combo. These decks can loop recursion like Memory's Journey and Timetwister to cast their whole deck infinitely, and win with milling their opponents out with something like Beast Within+Reality Shift, reality shifting the beast token, and then shifting the manifest token until their deck is exiled. Additionally Assassin's Trophy can be looped, Swan Song for infinite tokens, really whatever the user wants!

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is the most popular commander by many metrics. It can do many things people like, from Superfriends decks to general +1/+1 Counters/-1/-1 Counters deck strategies as well. It can even help Infect decks. Really, it is a powerful 4-color Goodstuff commander, with the ability to abuse counters in many ways, from ramping with Everflowing Chalice, Astral Cornucopia, and storage lands, to pumping creatures like Walking Ballista over time.

Yore-Tiller

Breya, Etherium Shaper is a powerful Artifact commander, with the ability to turn a lot of board states into an instant infinite Combo. If you can make infinite mana, which with artifacts isn't complicated, you can sacrifice Breya to herself, and sacrificing one token, then recast it, infinitely making tokens and bolting opponents until you win. It also is a good Aristocrats/Sacrifice deck with cards like Ichor Wellspring and Chromatic Star, sacrificing them for card draw and value.

Akiri, Line-Slinger / Silas Renn, Seeker Adept are fun Artifact commanders, that together allow for a very powerful Voltron, Equipment deck, based on placing as many equipments on Akiri as possible, and if they get destroyed, bring em' back with Silas. This allows the deck to get around the major issue of Voltron, which is what do you do if your equipment/auras get destroyed? (after what happens if the creature itself is destroyed) Well, in this case, it won't matter.

Five-Color

Ramos, Dragon Engine is the real premiere Goodstuff deck for five-color decks. Yeah, many people say Jodah, Archmage Eternal is, but when you want a commander that can be cast with any landbase, and can have Ramp synergies, good Voltron, Artifact synergies, and nearly anything else, you know where to go. Really, Ramos can be a powerhouse for a variety of archetypes that want all colors but don't know what to pick as a commander. It can be abused with Flicker/Bounce and be made into a good Storm deck, as well as be used with +1/+1 counter decks and be made into a one-shot killing machine for Control decks alike, but it doesn't need to be.

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is a great five-color Aggro commander, with good combat synergies, and especially good with Combo, such as with Druids' Repository, Sword of Feast and Famine, along with a lot of other cards that go well with it, and is a great commander for Extra Combat steps decks. Obviously one of if not the best Warrior Tribal commander, as well as a great Token deck.

Scion of the Ur-Dragon is a very good Reanimator commander, Dragon Tribal commander, and Combo commander. It is the best Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy combo commander. It can be run as also a general Goodstuff commander, turning into a bit of a toolbox, such as becoming a Dragonlord Dromoka when you are about to combo out, or a Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius for some cards in hand.

General Tazri is a powerful Combo Food Chain commander and a powerful Ally Tribal commander. In fact, it is the commander of one of the most powerful decks in the whole format, yet can be built to be very casual, more focused, all the way to cEDH. Being a toolbox for allies, it Tazri is very powerful when built properly, being able to fetch card draw, wincons, and ramp at a moments notice, as well as being a powerful way to spend mana when you have built a field.

Combos

(This was stolen from Why Every Commander is Competitive, a list made by me luckily!)

Below are some of the most common combos for decks by colors.

Colorless

Paradox Engine + Strionic Resonator + or more mana from nonland permanents = infinite mana, syphon this off in a outlet like Sensei's Divining Top (Tap the top, then the resonator, untap the top, rinse and repeat until you draw your deck, then Aetherflux Reservoir for the win.)

Paradox Engine + Isochron Scepter with a castable spell like Warping Wail imprinted + or more mana from nonland permanents = infinite mana, syphon this off in a outlet like Sensei's Divining Top (Tap the top, then the scepter, untap the top, rinse and repeat until you draw your deck, then Aetherflux Reservoir for the win) or Aetherflux Reservoir (Isochron Scepter casts spells, so it will trigger it infinitely).

The above combos were Banned. Paradox Engine is now on the banlist.

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth = infinite mana, with an outlet like Sensei's Divining top to win (use Rings of Brighthearth to double the Sensei's Divining Top ability, so you draw the top card, them draw Sensei's Divining Top again, rinse and repeat to draw deck and win with Aetherflux Reservoir).

Metalworker + Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns/Staff of Domination = infinite mana as long as you can support the cost with enough artifacts in hand (2 artifacts for Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns, 3 for Staff of Domination), siphon it off into any Goblin Cannon effect and you win.

Painter's Servant + Grindstone = Infinite mill, as written these two combined mills out an opponent or yourself, whichever you prefer. If you have access to other colors, milling yourself could create a situation like Hermit Druid, which is listed below!

Basalt Monolith + Mesmeric Orb = By activating the Monolith using the Monolith's mana, you can get infinite Mesmeric Orb triggers, allowing you to mill yourself, winning most likely in a similar situation to Hermit Druid, however this way you can stop milling at any point!

Mono White

Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience = Instant exiling of target opponent's deck.

Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond = Infinite mana and recursion of artifacts in your graveyard with a converted mana cost of 1 or less. Siphon this mana by recasting and sacrificing a Conjurer's Bauble to draw your deck with infinite mana, so you win.

Mono Blue

Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + or more mana from nonland permanents = infinite mana, syphon it off in any outlet like an Aetherflux Reservoir and you win.

Power Artifact + Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith = infinite mana, siphon it off into a Goblin Cannon (activate it in response to the last activation, so you never have to sacrifice it until you are out of mana and then kill each opponent.)

Phantasmal Image/Gauntlet of Power/Caged Sun/Dead-Eye Navigator/Extraplanar Lens + Palinchron = Infinite cast triggers and mana, Aetherflux Reservoir or any other outlets work.

Deadeye Navigator + Great Whale/Peregrine Drake = Infinite Mana, siphon it off into an outlet and win (Goblin Cannon will do the trick.)

Mind Over Matter + Arcanis the Omnipotent/Azami, Lady of Scrolls/Archivist/Enclave Cryptologist/Lu Su, Wu Advisor/Sea Gate Loremaster/Talas Researcher = infinite loot (use this to either dig for other combos, or set up the win with a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth so you can cycle your deck infinite times and win with whatever you want)

Mono Black

Triskelion + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed = Instant win, you ping your opponent's face once, then spend two counters damaging Triskelion. Repeat the process until win.

Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond = Causes a loop that wins the game as soon as one opponent loses life or you gain any.

Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obedience = Tapping Helm of Obedience and paying at least mana into it exiles target opponent's library.

Magus of the Coffers + Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns/Staff of Domination = infinite mana as long as you have the swamps to support the loop (4 swamps for Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns, 5 for Staff of Domination) and siphon it off into a Goblin Cannon to win the game.

Morality Shift = Balthor the Defiled in the yard, exile him to put Phyrexian Delver and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed to the battlefield, putting the Triskelion from the yard to the battlefield as well, and go off with that.

Mono Red

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Combat Celebrant/Zealous Conscripts = infinite hasty creatures ready to attack.

Heartless Hidetsugu + Gratuitous Violence = Instant kill each opponent

Neheb, the Eternal + Aggravated Assault = Infinite mana and combat phases as long as at least 6 life has been lost in total by each opponent, infinite combat steps will occur with only 5 life loss. Put that into an outlet like Goblin Cannon and you win.

Heat Shimmer/Twinflame + Dualcaster Mage = Infinite hasty 2/2 tokens.

Mono Green

Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest = infinite tapped 1/1 squirrel tokens.

Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid/Wirewood Channeler/Karametra's Acolyte + Sword of the Paruns/Umbral Mantle/Staff of Domination = infinite mana with 4-5 elves in play or 4-5 green devotion.

Ley Weaver/Argothian Elder + Maze of Ith = Infinite mana/untaps of lands, Goblin Cannon or any other outlet will win.

Food Chain + Eternal Scourge = Infinite colored mana for creatures, Walking Ballista is a good outlet.

Hermit Druid = You can win from a single tap of hermit druid on your upkeep and an additional to flashback Krosan Reclamation topping a two-card combo.

Dimir

Thassa's Oracle/Laboratory Maniac/Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation = Win on draw/ETB/activation.

Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage + mill or make your opponents lose any life to kill them if you can activate Duskmantle Guildmage's ability.

Golgari

Hermit Druid = Mill out your library on tap if you have no Basics in your deck, then reanimate Bloodghast and Dredgscape Zombie, sacrifice them all to Dread Return, bring back Necrotic Ooze, with Wall of Roots to get a green, Blighted Bat to give it haste, Devoted Druid+Channeler Initiate to make infinite mana, and Walking Ballista to win the game! Phantasmagorian/Cabal Therapy can be used to sacrifice creatures you need in the yard to cast or to discard combo pieces.

Surival of the Fittest + Creature in hand = Discard a creature to fetch Protean Hulk, discard the hulk to fetch Apprentice Necromancer, cast it, recur the hulk, sacrifice it Mogis's Marauder + Deathrite Shaman + Hermit Druid, give haste to the shaman and the druid, go off with Hermit Druid.

Selesnya

Boonweaver Giant + Sacrifice Outlet = Win (fetch Pattern of Rebirth, sacrifice him, fetching Karmic Guide, bringing him back, sacrifice them both, fetch Reveillark sacrifice it, recur the Karmic Guide, recur the Giant, recur the enchantment, sacrifice the giant, fetch Saffi Eriksdotter, sacrifice Saffi to herself, targetting the guide, sacrifice the guide, return it to the battlefield, target the lark on ETB, respond by sacrificing the guide, bring back the lark, recur Saffi and the Guide, recur the Giant from the Guide, recur the enchantment from the giant, sacrifice the giant, fetch a Pierce Strider, sacrifice Saffi to herself, target the Guide, sacrifice the rest, the guide comes back, recur the lark, respond by sacrificing the guide, recur saffi and the guide, bring back the strider, rinse and repeat), tons of variants on this

Simic

Flash + Protean Hulk = Fetch Hermit Druid, Vitaspore Thalid, and Tukatongue Thalid. Sacrifice the Thalid, haste up the druid, tap the druid, Journey's Memory targeting only a Laboratory Maniac to make it your top card, Think Twice to draw Laboratory Maniac and cast the Maniac, then Deep Analysis to win, tons of variants on this. (Mine takes like 11 mana but I am too lazy to look up a better one)

The above combo was Banned. Flash is now on the banlist.

Sultai

Flash + Protean Hulk = Fetch Mogis's Marauder, Deathrite Shaman, and Hermit Druid, give haste to the shaman and druid, go off with Hermit Druid.

The above combo was Banned. Flash is now on the banlist.

Feel free to research more win conditions and combos!

More Sub-Themes and Hubs

The following resource is a great way to find more sub-themes, but it is actually explaining each and every 'hub,' or category of deck on Tappedout, and was made by legendofa, so check them out too!

A Complete Hub Glossary for TappedOut

Vintage* legendofa

SCORE: 30 | 45 COMMENTS | 1076 VIEWS | IN 19 FOLDERS

MagicalHacker Lists

MagicalHacker is a brilliant user that has set up a ton of lists for EDH staples in large lists, and are amazing resources, check MagicalHacker's user page and give him some love, and check out the following decklists!

deck-large:mh-draw-steady

deck-large:mh-draw-burst

MagicalHacker - List of All Recursion

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 98 | 54 COMMENTS | 47012 VIEWS | IN 63 FOLDERS

deck-large:mh-tutor

MagicalHacker - List of All Optimum Ramp

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 58 | 82 COMMENTS | 36062 VIEWS | IN 46 FOLDERS

deck-large:mh-value

deck-large:mh-land

MagicalHacker - List of All Anti-Recursion Cards

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 21 | 8 COMMENTS | 4332 VIEWS | IN 13 FOLDERS

deck-large:mh-creature-removal

deck-large:mh-item-removal

deck-large:mh-tuck

deck-large:mh-gold-hate

deck-large:mh-counterspell

deck-large:mh-board-wipe

MagicalHacker - List of All Fogging Wipes

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 12 | 1 COMMENT | 1018 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS

MagicalHacker - List of All Pillow Fort

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 91 | 56 COMMENTS | 46034 VIEWS | IN 69 FOLDERS

MagicalHacker - List of All Anti-Tutor Cards

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 15 | 9 COMMENTS | 4298 VIEWS | IN 15 FOLDERS

MagicalHacker - List of All Anti-Infinite Cards

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 18 | 29 COMMENTS | 6376 VIEWS | IN 17 FOLDERS

deck-large:mh-anti-control

MagicalHacker - List of All Anti-Board Wipe Cards

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 41 | 25 COMMENTS | 24669 VIEWS | IN 24 FOLDERS

deck-large:mh-protection

deck-large:mh-group-hug

Gatherer & Scryfall

https://scryfall.com/ and http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx (off-site links) are powerful card search websites that can find you the best cards for any deck, and are both very popular.

DeckStats

http://deckstats.net/ (off-site link) is a great website that can be used similarly to Tappedout. It has a less user-friendly interface, but more deck statistics, and a proxy maker for testing out decks.

EDHrec

https://edhrec.com/ (off-site link) is a great website that can help with things like picking commanders or sub-themes, with articles on EDH and plenty of valuable information on the topic.

Manabasecrafter

http://manabasecrafter.com/ (off-site link) is a great place to find good lands for your deck that are in your color identity!

Who made this?

SynergyBuild, the current maker and upkeeper of this primer. That's me!

Special thanks to the community for their support of this project. I hadn't updated it for a while, yet have returned for consistent updates now!

Thanks for reading through this primer, more will be added soon, so stay checked up on it!

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Update 4 - 100 Upvotes — Aug. 25, 2020

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Not a major update, looking to add a tier list a few more tabs, otherwise, thank you all for all the support!

Update 3 - The Return — Aug. 16, 2020

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Update 2 - Disregard - Failed — Jan. 15, 2019

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Update 1 - Fixed Spelling and Grammar — Sept. 19, 2018

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Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 6 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Cards	0
Folders	informative, Resource, Interesting Brews, Useful, Basic References, Saved stuff, Source Material, Refrence, Primers, all about EDH
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