Commander Challenge! Build A Block Deck
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on June 18, 2021, 12:52 p.m. by TheMeadiator
Every now and then, someone in my playgroup will challenge everyone to a commander deck-building challenge for our kitchen-table magic nights. Like building a tribal deck, or making a $10 budget deck. A while ago, we made decks from only cards in our favourite block (for example Tarkir Temur). Has anyone else made a commander deck using only cards from the same set/block? If so, leave a link to the deck in the comments below! If you haven't, what block would you choose, and why?
I haven't, and we don't really have blocks anymore, so I'd have to pick Ikoria for a single set, or The Oddesy or Onslaught block (for nostalgia reasons).
June 18, 2021 1:53 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #4
I've certainly considered it! Seems like it could be fun :)
June 18, 2021 2:38 p.m.
Alara. It's the set where I really started to get invested in the game, and it's got a good selection of flavor and power. I'd probably build Rafiq of the Many , Sedris, the Traitor King , Kresh the Bloodbraided , or my first mythic rare, Progenitus .
June 18, 2021 8:22 p.m.
TheMeadiator says... #6
legendofa I love Progenitus ! I've always wanted to build something around them. Sedris is really cool too - I can't say I've ever seen a build like that. Good choice!
June 19, 2021 2:34 p.m.
golfdeltafoxtrot says... #7
My group has done challenges similar to this, though not exactly the same. We've done Sealed Commander where we pulled packs from a single set or block (I ended up with a couple of reasonably good decks from AKH/HOU).
We've also done Guild Commander where we could pull cards from all the Ravnica sets but couldn't use cards with other guilds' watermarks and the Commander had to be one of the guild's leaders, which resulted in a very pleasing Savra, Queen of the Golgari aristocrats deck.
We love doing deck building challenges, it's a great way to explore new cards and new ideas. It's particularly good building decks on TappedOut then exporting them to TableTop Simulator to play online, as it's essentially infinite free decks and allows us to build new things every week.
June 21, 2021 8:14 a.m.
TheMeadiator says... #8
golfdeltafoxtrot I really like the sound of those variations too. I love a good draft/sealed event with friends.
Oh! So do you like Tabletop Simulator for Magic, then? I've heard mixed things. My group used to use Cockatrice, and then recently switched to SpellTable. Have you tried either of those - and if so, how do you like them vs Tabletop Sim?
Thanks for the great challenge ideas
June 21, 2021 2:47 p.m.
golfdeltafoxtrot says... #9
I’ve not tried either of those, we’re exclusively TTS. It’s worked really well for us, we’ve been using it for well over a year now and it’s pretty streamlined - it’s easy to import decks, add tokens, basic things like that. It works well for draft too, we drafted MH2 last week and it was a lot of fun.
June 21, 2021 3:28 p.m.
If I were to build around a specific block, probably Scars of Mirrodin since Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon was my first ever Mythic. Kind of tempted to build that for real...
Second choice would be Innistrad block with Olivia Voldaren or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed . This set I was far more familiar with and saw much more of that than SOM block. It's hard to choose a favourite between those two blocks, but I think I have to give it to Innistrad.
1empyrean Ikoria is definitely a good set to build around! My Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt deck was almost entirely cards from Ikoria when I built the rough draft of it (plus some from Theros Beyond Death). After editing, the majority of the cards were still from sets that came out that year (although to be fair, some of those included cards from Mystery Booster and 2020 Commander). Still, over half the non-land cards are Ikoria, and if I had to make a version that was Ikoria only, it could definitely be done and not be much different.
June 25, 2021 4:32 a.m.
I never got around to building a Snapdax deck, but I love mutate decks and they can easily be over half from Ikoria without much effort.
June 25, 2021 9:19 a.m.
TheMeadiator says... #12
Vallaris Oooh, you should totally make a Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon block deck!! That would be so gooood. But mono-colour using only cards from one block would present problems of its own. Hmm, interesting.
June 25, 2021 12:03 p.m.
TheMeadiator I may have joked once about building a deck with Skittles and 99 Swamps...decided it would still get targetted too much to be any fun.
June 25, 2021 12:13 p.m.
TheMeadiator I dunno, that's the block that has lots of spicy infect and proliferate cards in black and colourless that would go oh so nicely with Skithiryx! Darksteel Plate to make him indestructable, Swords to give him protection from other colours, and so on hahaha. This block also has some fan favourites such as Painful Quandary , Blightsteel Colossus , and Mindslaver too!
For sure I am tempted to build this, but the real question is whether or not this deck will ever be allowed to be played more than once by any given playgroup...
June 25, 2021 4:34 p.m.
TheMeadiator says... #15
Hahaha, well, best to build them digitally and playtest them first anyway, right??
Caerwyn says... #2
This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum (auto-generated comment)
June 18, 2021 1:38 p.m.