Commander suggestion help please!
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 16, 2016, 9:39 p.m. by KingCarter
Alright, so I have a commander deck that I just finished: deck:Newlamog-EDH. I have a problem with my choice of commander, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is a great commander, very heavy hitting. However, I have a problem with him, he takes forever to ramp into and then he gets cycled or I am forced to sacrifice him as soon as he hits the board. In addition to that, I am the biggest target in the game (when playing multiplayer EDH) that I hardly ever get to survive long enough to do anything. SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: What commander could I play instead of Ulamog? The deck is colorless so I can play anything I want. I'm just trying to decide if I want a commander that helps me mana ramp or a commander that protects my permanents. Obviously I don't know what all commanders do so I am open to any suggestion, so leave any and all ideas in the comments! Thanks!
EDIT: Topic no longer matches the thread as the deck, its name, and so in turn, the deck link has changed. The new deck can be found at
Kozilek, the Demon Butcher of Zendikar
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 1 | 4 COMMENTS | 572 VIEWS
and I no longer have the problem listed in the topic.
KingCarter says... #3
Pokemaster325 Thanks for the suggestions but I think I am looking for something else, I will keep Marath in mind though when I decide.
February 16, 2016 10:06 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #4
Play old Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Much more efficient. Saccing 4 permanents hurts a lot more immediately than losing 20 cards from a 99 card deck. Plus combos with It That Betrays or Strionic Resonator for added hatred.
Ulamog's Antiquities
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 7 | 25 COMMENTS | 1043 VIEWS
For protection, there's not a whole lot.
Soul of New Phyrexia to protect other permanents or if you swap commander to Kozilek or whatever, Darksteel Forge to protect mana rocks.
Cauldron of Souls for recursion.
All the mana rocks. Like literally every single one Blinkmoth Urn is a god in this deck. And even the bad ones like Worn Powerstone, Seer's Lantern, and Sisay's Ring.
the land base is equally important in here. Generally you want lands that have secondary effects that either benefit you in some way or hinder your opponents. (Eg: Winding Canyons and Mystifying Maze)
February 16, 2016 10:07 p.m.
Just wanted to clarify something for you. With Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as your commander, you will be able to use colorless cards ONLY, not any color. He is a colorless creature, so all the cards in your deck have to match his color identity, as well as all lands produce colored (or in this case colorless) mana. That is how commander/EDH works.
February 16, 2016 10:08 p.m.
Have you considered keeping the deck and increasing the land count and number of ramp spells? Otherwise you should change to a commander with green and build your deck around ramping into huge creatures. If you're on a budget, Karametra, God of Harvests could be good.
February 16, 2016 10:11 p.m.
KingCarter says... #7
Raging_Squiggle Thanks for all of that, I'll look more in depth at all those suggestions in a little bit, (I'm watching a movie with the family :D)
DrLitebur I know that with Ulamog as my commander I can only have colorless cards. I said I can play any color because I am trying to find an alternative to Ulamog, and with the deck being colorless, I can swap Ulamog for literally any commander and not have to change the deck too much. I obviously will have to get different mana sources that give any color mana but the reason I said I can play anything is because I can play any color commander I choose. Hopefully that makes sense lol sorry, I am multitasking right now so if my explanation doesn't make sense I apologize haha. Thanks for the comment though!
February 16, 2016 10:15 p.m.
KingCarter says... #8
zelian12 That's a good idea, I already own a Karametra, so what is another, possibly better, mana ramp commander? I kind of want to keep the deck as it is so I very well might up the land count. I wanted a colorless EDH deck revolving around Ulamog and a few other big eldrazi with different Annihilator abilities etc. So I might just increase the amount of ramp I currently have. The other problem I am trying to get around is that the friends I play with play a lot of removal and not everything I have is indestructible and I have been the focus of 2-3 people in every game of commander I have played so I die really fast. Maybe I need to figure out some life gain stuff to add to the deck.
February 16, 2016 10:20 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #9
Eternity Vessel + Ghost Town is solid colorless "life gain".
And when you take a look at my suggestions and/or my deck if you choose, tell me what you think and I'll do what I can to make you win moar. :)
February 16, 2016 10:25 p.m.
KingCarter says... #10
Raging_Squiggle That's a sweet combo, I had never heard of it before, thank you. I'll try to include it in my deck. I'll take a look at your deck soon, and thanks for being willing to help me! Have you looked at the deck I put in the thread description? What cards do you think I should add/take out?
February 16, 2016 10:30 p.m.
iBleedPunk says... #11
If you like graveyard shenanigans Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Karador, Ghost Chieftain are great Commanders.
If you want combo Nin, the Pain Artist is fun to pilot using Stuffy Doll to draw tons of cards and Dictate of the Twin Gods or Furnace of Rath to double the filtered damage
February 16, 2016 10:32 p.m.
Best protection from spot removal is probably Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves. They would also be easy to fit into your deck, just switch with some of the other equipment
February 16, 2016 10:32 p.m.
KingCarter says... #13
Pokemaster325 Thanks for the ideas, I'll think about them.
zelian12 I have both of those in the deck already, and a Whispersilk Cloak. Plus I have a Strider Harness that I would use in a situation where I know my creature won't last long so I attack for one turn and lose it immediately afterwards lol.
February 16, 2016 10:36 p.m.
Lightpulsar9 says... #14
You could play Sigarda, Host of Herons as your commander. Since the only real way to kill ulamog is sac, or exile. You can force your opponents to have a path or a swords to plowshares. That being said, you would be in green, so you have the best mana ramp colors, as well as solid creature tutors. And, if you want, you could use Asceticism and make your ulamog untouchable.
February 16, 2016 10:59 p.m.
you could always just run more ramp to fix the issue. You have so many mana rocks avaialble to you, yet are only running a few. with the right mana rocks, you sould be able to turn 4/5 your commander on a regular basis.
If you are looking into changing your commander while preserving the same kind of play style, I owuld recommend moving to a mono coloured voltron deck. Personally, I run a Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief deck:
In the Black
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 5 | 13 COMMENTS | 1779 VIEWS
which is still very colourless heavy (and runs Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as one of the 99).
It might give you a few ideas about alternate but similar directions you can take the deck in.
February 16, 2016 11:36 p.m.
KingCarter says... #16
Lightpulsar9 Thanks man, I have a Sigarda lying around and that was my first thought when thinking about what to change to, but I wanted to hear other suggestions as well. I'll look into changing to her.
enpc Yeah I like the colorless deck idea too much though, tbh. I'm not into traditional Voltron (I'm not sure cuz I haven't tried it) but I really like the idea of a colorless deck. I'll look at the deck you linked tomorrow and see what I can learn. Thanks for the comment!
February 17, 2016 1:23 a.m.
If you're wanting to stick with colourless, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is generally the best eldrazi commander, simply because he provides card advantage. This is important because you've usually just dumped your hand onto the battlefield to ramp him out.
As for voltron, the linked deck plays semi voltron, but runs combo and some beaters in there as well. It might give you a few ideas at least. I know your deck isn't traditionally voltron, but generally people wouldn't pick Newlamog unless they were planning on turning sideways with him :P
February 17, 2016 1:35 a.m.
Steelspike says... #18
Karn, Silver Golem as commander.
Darksteel Forge + Mycosynth Lattice is really neat to throw out there. Only exile can get rid of your stuff, and there's only a few mass exile cards out there.
February 17, 2016 2:03 a.m.
You could always switch your commander over to the old Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre . Sure you lose that mill ability that the new one has, but I think the old one is better overall. Being indestructible alone will make him last a lot longer against your opponents removal. You could always keep the new one in the deck as well if you wanted to.
If you really want a lot of ramp in colorless, you have to be willing ot invest a little into it. Things like Extraplanar Lens will greatly boost the value of your Wastes. You could also use Doubling Cube to help ramp faster. Everflowing Chalice is another good way to ramp up some mana in a colorless deck. There are also things like Sword of Feast and Famine that let you untap lands to use them again.
You could always try some locus lands, but not sure how well they would work in commander since you would be limited to one of each of them. Cloudpost+Glimmerpost+Thespian's Stage+Vesuva The last one is kind of pricey though. That would make 3 lands that tap for 4 mana each. Kind of a stretch though, but it's still a possibility.
February 17, 2016 10:54 a.m.
KingCarter says... #20
enpc Yeah I was thinking that I would most likely go to Kozilek, but I can't find anyone to trade with and he costs $20 lol so I'll keep looking but that's what I wanted to change to.
Steelspike I have Mycosynth and Darksteel Forge in the deck already, and Karn doesn't really do anything for me tbh. Thanks for the comment though!
Ender02 I was considering the old Ulamog but the more I think about it, I think Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is a better idea. It's a 10 cost 12/12 with Annihilator 4 that lets you draw 4 cards. That beats Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in my opinion, plus I can still have him out long enough to attack at least once because I have Lightning Greaves, Strider Harness, Fleetfeather Sandals, and Swiftfoot Boots, and even if I can't give him swiftness I can give shroud with Whispersilk Cloak or I can duplicate him in a number of ways with Mirrorpool and a couple other cards that duplicate. I am getting more and more interested in having Kozilek as my commander and just putting Newlamog in the other 99.
February 17, 2016 2:08 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #21
The problem with Kozilek, and all the protection you just said, he can die to a Doom Blade.
In response to you trying to equip any of the Boots or Cloak to him, he can die. In response to you saccing your Mirrorpool to copy him, he can die. and you will have lost a land for nothing.
Ulamog is at least indestructible, which in my book is a quality that far outweighs whatever Kozilek can give you because it shuts down at least 80% of removal.
There is numerous card draw in colorless that Kozilek would do just fine as one of the 99.
February 17, 2016 3:10 p.m.
KingCarter says... #22
Raging_Squiggle That's true, but they would only get one Doomblade, so yeah they could kill Kozilek and he'll cost 12 next time but that just means I get 4 more cards and I can play him the turn after and then equip the protection. On top of that, the friends I play against don't run Doomblade in any of their decks. They do run a lot of removal but I am not sure how many of them are instants. Either way, I'll probably add the Kozilek to the deck anyways, so I might as well try him as the General for a couple games and see if it goes any better.
February 17, 2016 3:19 p.m.
BigDrewTheAnimal I was just going off the fact that you commented that the people you play against run a lot of removal and you were having trouble keeping your general on the field long enough to make use of him. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre gets around most of that due to his innate indestructibility. I agree that Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is good for his card draw, but that was not the problem that you were looking to solve in the original post.
February 17, 2016 5:50 p.m.
If they keep removing your commander, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is the much better option as they effective keep feeding you cards :P
And while indestructibility is nice, a decent chunk of removal is based around exile which still leaves you with an empty hand and no commander.
February 17, 2016 6:13 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #25
Aside from Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, or Merciless Eviction, what sort of non-permanent creature exile do you come across on a regular basis?
February 17, 2016 8:17 p.m.
Utter End, Duplicant, Fiend Hunter, Archon of Justice, Silence the Believers, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Toxic Deluge (-x/-x removal gets past indestructible), Reality Shift, Mangara of Corondor, Teysa, Orzhov Scion to name a few. I either play these, or play against these (or both) on a regular basis. Not to mention that Swords to Plowshares is like a super commonly run card.
February 17, 2016 8:22 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #27
I should have rephrased that to instant-only exile. Because he would have hexproof by the time sorceries could be cast, and any permanents that exile would be destroyed by his cast ability. So that leaves Utter End, Reality Shift, Swords to Plowshares,Silence the Believers, and Path to Exile. Not very much compared to instant destroy effects. Logically speaking, Ulamog is the more powerful commander. Sure card draw is nice, but you will run out of mana quickly if they keep destroying your Kozilek.
February 17, 2016 9:03 p.m.
KingCarter says... #28
Ender02 And Raging_Squiggle: Yeah, they do run a lot of removal, but usually the do it by way of exiling, some instants, some sorceries, some enchantments. I have seen a lot of Journey to Nowhere, Chaos Warp, Path to Exile, among a couple others, and they have a lot of cards that force sacrificing Liliana of the Veil and a few others. Not so much damage removal. I don't ever see any Swords to Plowshares, Utter End, I see Duplicant and Fiend Hunter a lot though, but by then, if I play smart I can have Shroud already on him. And even if they do that, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth's draw ability is on cast, so even if he is bounced immediately, I still get 4 cards and they waste some removal.
ALL THAT BEING SAID, I still have the ability to make Kozilek indestructible. Once in a blue moon, like today, I pull Mycosynth Lattice and Darksteel Forge, making Kozilek as well as all other creatures indestructible. That's not something to lean on, but it can still happen, and with the card draw, it's more likely to happen.
February 17, 2016 9:50 p.m.
KingCarter says... #29
Ender02 Raging_Squiggle PS. I have Soul of New Phyrexia in there too, so that helps with making stuff indestructible as well.
February 17, 2016 10:06 p.m.
meh, screw the whole thing and make Memnarch your commander, lol.
February 17, 2016 10:33 p.m.
The other thing you have to weigh up is counterspells. Assuming your commander never hits the board, the 4 cards seems better than exiling 2 things, especially in a 4 player game.
Card advantage seems better than removal on your commander. You still run Ulamog(s) in the 99 but the card advantage at will seems like the better move.
February 17, 2016 11:03 p.m.
KingCarter says... #32
Ender02 Lol k.
enpc Yeah, I am currently buying a Kozilek lol, this thread sold me, and I'll throw Ulamog in the 99, the card draw and Annihilator are so much better.
February 17, 2016 11:26 p.m.
KingCarter says... #33
Now I need a new, Kozilek themed name for the deck. Ideas? Lol.
February 17, 2016 11:29 p.m.
Get an alternate art "KoziRekt, Butcher of Truth"? Works on the deck name too.
February 17, 2016 11:45 p.m.
KingCarter says... #35
enpc Hmmmm... maybe... Good idea though lol.
Raging_Squiggle I just thought of something. Earlier when you recommended Blinkmoth Urn I just realized that although it is good in most situations, when I put out Mycosynth Lattice it would kinda screw me over, because then everyone gets a mana for every card on their side of the table. The urn would be good, but a major combo in my deck relies on the lattice, so I gotta pass it up. I can get enough ramp through other means. I just picked up an Extraplanar Lens and I am working on getting a Thran Dynamo and a couple other rocks.
February 18, 2016 12:05 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #36
Not if you have an Clock of Omens out because it only functions when it's untapped.
February 18, 2016 12:43 a.m.
KingCarter says... #37
Raging_Squiggle True, however, Unwinding Clock ruins that too. IDK, it's a good suggestion but I am not sure about it. If I tapped it with Clock of Omens at the end of my turn it would untap itself at the beginning of my next turn, right?
February 18, 2016 12:53 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #38
Correct, and that's exactly what you want. To have it tapped on everyone else's turns but untapped on yours.
February 18, 2016 1:26 a.m.
Your other option is that you don't care since you'll get a much bigger benefit from it.
February 18, 2016 1:31 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #40
And no, Unwinding Clock doesn't ruin it either. Since Blinkmoth Urn has an intervening "if" clause, it checks on resolution if the Urn is still untapped. So in response to its trigger on each opponent's main phase, just tap it and the ability is removed from the stack.
February 18, 2016 1:31 a.m.
KingCarter says... #41
Raging_Squiggle Oh, ok. Well, I'll think about adding it.
enpc Lol yeah, I was just saying that with Mycosynth Lattice out, it would screw me because everyone would get like 30 mana every turn lol, and I don't want that.
February 18, 2016 1:37 a.m.
That just comes down to not playing those cards together as well :P
February 18, 2016 2:12 a.m.
KingCarter says... #43
enpc Yeah, but at that point I have to chose what I want more, no cards whatsoever on my opponents tables or a ton of mana. I would rather blow everything up with Mycosynth Lattice + Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk. I have enough mana ramp and there is an infinite mana combo already in the deck, and I can get more ramp by other (less expensive might I add) means.
February 18, 2016 12:52 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #44
To each their own, I suppose. It hasn't failed me yet every time I use it, even when the Lattice is out, because I benefit much more from it than my opponents.
February 18, 2016 12:55 p.m.
Deckologist says... #45
Kozilek, cause why not?
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 4 | 15 COMMENTS | 645 VIEWS
This is my Kozilek build. Being in colorless limits us but we have ways of dealing with it do to artifacts. Sandstone Oracle is extremely useful as it can act as a second Kozilek for me as far as draw. Only reason Kozilek is the commander is for the card draw...and the beats...
iBleedPunk says... #2
Marath, Will of the Wild is cheap and fun to play, allowing you multiple uses with his ability and also lets you play with
. He is a blast to play against and pilot as well
February 16, 2016 10 p.m.