I need a commander
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Nov. 24, 2015, 10:17 p.m. by wwhitegoldd
I want to get into commander but not sure what to make.
It has to have at least 2 or more colors, be fun, not totally broken (really consistent early combos.), have a lot of synergy, and NOT control. I'm looking more for commanders than deck lists.
Thanks
UpperDeckerTaco says... #3
Try out Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Lots of synergies and a lot of fun. Plus it gives you access to some great color combinations. You can choose to do broken stuff, or choose to just do value stuff.
November 24, 2015 10:30 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #4
What colors do you like for starters. I personally am a fan of bant colors nice balanced level of control and aggression. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Roon of the Hidden Realm to mention a couple.
November 24, 2015 10:40 p.m.
Maelstrom Wanderer is a solid choice. He's just pure value for days.
There is also Ghave, Guru of Spores a.k.a. Ghave of the 'I accidentally just combo'd off". He can have a few different builds too.
As for your comment about synergy, that more comes down to how you build the deck. Sure, some commanders help with that but on the whole synergy is a concept that every card in the 99 should work towards.
November 24, 2015 10:48 p.m.
I built a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck for playing in less competitive metas that has been a lot of fun to pilot. A commander with built in spot removal that can pump itself and acts as a free sac outlet is pretty versatile when it comes to building a deck around them. The deck has a lot of reanimation affects (Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni has been an all-star in the deck) and while playing I always felt like I had a strong impact on the board.
November 25, 2015 12:02 a.m.
Havok.Bane says... #7
I'd recommend Ezuri, Claw of Progress for a few reasons.
1: Fun combos with things like Sage of Hours or Fathom Mage
2: It's. A super cheap for a first deck because you don't actually want high power things.
3: You get an amazing feeling pitting 40 +1/+1 counters on an Invisible Stalker then killing someone in a single hit!
November 25, 2015 1 a.m.
Ok so some things I'd suggest would include Mogis, God of Slaughter with a really shit ton of death effects, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is pretty fun, Anafenza, the Foremost just fucks everyone over and has so many build possibilities its unbelievable and Edric, Spymaster of Trest is incredibly great if done right. All of these give non-control, fun options. Of course, you can always do tokens and go with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
November 25, 2015 2:20 a.m.
DeathChant17 says... #9
My wife has a Trostani deck that is really consistent. It's not super fast or broken, but it's a shit ton of life gain and creatures that get bigger and keep amassing more and more friends. For fun yet challenging casual play, it's awesome.
November 25, 2015 3:16 a.m.
griffstick says... #10
A mono black deck with Cabal Coffers maybe zombie or vampire tribal. That's a ggod start
November 25, 2015 4:19 a.m.
RussischerZar says... #11
I think pretty much any of non-monocolored pre-constructed Commander decks fit into this scheme.
Other than that, I can suggest Roon of the Hidden Realm for an ETB value build. He's rather easy to build around and also requires some technical skill so he's interesting to play.
November 25, 2015 6:58 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #12
Xenagos, God of Revels makes a very fun commander. You don't get turn 3-4 combos but you are consistently swinging threatening amounts by turn 6-7. He has some obvious weaknesses, but if no one has the card to exploit those weaknesses he is a house. This makes him great for anyone wanting a fun aggressive commander that isn't too oppressive.
November 25, 2015 10:20 a.m.
themindxyz says... #13
As a first deck, I would suggest one of the pre-cons. They are really fun, and are cheep and easy to power-up and make your own. For non-pre-con commanders, my favorite are Kresh the Bloodbraided, Marchesa, the Black Rose, and Progenitus. My oldest and favorite deck is Kresh is Love. Kresh is Life., it's able to play against all but the most competitive decks, but played right can allow your opponents to win.
November 25, 2015 10:38 a.m.
NoNeedToBragoBoutIt says... #14
I would go for Brago, King Eternal.
His mechanics are insanely versatile. Double strike and unblockable should be your focus, then build a deck around him any way you like. Creatures (etb/ltb), artifacts (untaps), planeswalkers (+ and -) or enchantments (etb/ltb), recursion is fantastic if you get to use nearly everything twice during your turn.
Marchesa, the Black Rose is similiar, even though your creatures move through your graveyard instead of exile. She isn't as flexible but extremly powerful.
Daxos the Returned is another power house, plus most of the cards needed are rather cheap. Has the big advantage, that only against R or W decks he'll face recurring removal of enchantments.
As mentioned before Omnath, Locus of Rage is cool and very linear. High cmc though.
November 26, 2015 4:29 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #15
I must be missing how Daxos is any good at all. He puts out creatures with no evasion that could maybe possibly be large. Also red has no recurring enchantment removal, the only thing they have that can even touch enchantments at all is Chaos Warp.
November 27, 2015 9:13 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #16
I think DeathChant17 and Gidgetimer have excellent suggestions. Both of those commanders are fun, provide plenty of value and are not too hard to build.
But it would really help to know your color preferences, wwhitegoldd.
November 27, 2015 4:46 p.m.
GoblinBushwacker says... #17
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn commander, you know you want to. And yes, I am commenting and resurfacing an oldish forum, bring on the hate.
November 27, 2015 4:52 p.m.
GoblinBushwacker says... #19
whoops. don't play commander, so you can't really fault me. (actually you can fault me and probably should)
November 27, 2015 7:32 p.m.
Pre-cons are usually the way to go if your new to the game. I would also suggest that you pick 3 legendary creatures in your color scheme to give a fresh feel for your deck. Luckily pre-cons do this as well. My personal starter colors was B/W Teysa. You might already have a legendary creature in your collection that your fond of. Pick one that works for you. Have fun, and welcome to the community.
November 27, 2015 11:59 p.m.
NoNeedToBragoBoutIt says... #21
@Gidgetimer: Sorry, I meant G and W.
And Daxos is insane. The creatures aren't the deal on their own. The deal is, that his base are enchantments and those are rarely the main focus of removals.
November 28, 2015 7:58 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #22
If you want a deck to be enchantment focussed it is much better to go G/W than W/B because of all the enchantress effects in Green. The only thing that Daxos offers is the ability to make creatures that get larger the more enchantments you have played. He might be playable as 1 of the 99 in an Abzan enchantments deck but he has no reason to ever the commander unless you really want the token creatures.
November 28, 2015 8:15 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #23
@Gidgetimer: those non-evasive dudes get a lot more potent when there's twelve of them, they're all 13/13s, and you've been soft-locked so you just get to watch them eat huge chunks of your life total. Daxos generally just hangs out while you do what you would have wanted to do anyway, then rewards you for it in the late game. Having him in the command zone means you get to cast him early every game for the biggest payoff.
Are there better options for an enchantment deck? Sure. Is he useless? Not at all.
November 29, 2015 2:46 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #24
ComradeJim270: Would you call Daxos a "powerhouse" or "insane" though? Maybe you feel I am being harsh, and maybe I am. Daxos is a middle to low powered commander though. His abilities are mediocre and his colors are sub-optimal. White is a strong color for enchantment based decks, and black is a strong support color. The combination could be made better by inclusion of blue or green though.
November 29, 2015 5:46 a.m.
GoblinBushwacker says... #25
Gidgetimer you said - "White is a strong color for enchantment based decks, and black is a strong support color." You know that daxos is white blue right? because that comment, and previous comments where you mentioned putting him in an abzan deck would lead me to think that you don't know his colors.
November 29, 2015 9:56 a.m.
GoblinBushwacker says... #26
ah, never mind. You mean daxos the returned.
November 29, 2015 9:57 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #27
Yeah, for clarity the Daxos in question as an enchantment based commander that puts out non-evasive beaters is Daxos the Returned. Daxos of Meletis would be more suited to an equipment voltron build and I feel is the better choice for a commander. Not to say that there aren't better voltron commanders in 
or in general for that matter. I just feel the card would lead to a better deck than Daxos the Returned at all.
November 29, 2015 10:09 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #28
I would also like to clarify my position a bit. If the OP likes the look of Daxos the Returned, go ahead and play it. My stance is that people should play what they want in commander. However; don't expect him to be a powerhouse or super great. The requirements we were given were "It has to have at least 2 or more colors, be fun, not totally broken (really consistent early combos.), have a lot of synergy, and NOT control." Daxos the Returned is a commander that could fit those requirements. He isn't "busted", "a powerhouse", the best enchantment commander, or the best Orzhov commander. The OP didn't ask for a specific power level though. I'm not sayings its a bad suggestion, I'm saying don't get your hopes up to build a high powered deck.
November 29, 2015 10:27 a.m.
DeathChant17 says... #29
I'm having a hard time rating Daxos the Returned. I don't see him as insane, but pretty damn close. White has a good amount of anthem effect enchantments. One of my favorites being Spear of Heliod. Aside from that are the exile spells. Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light, Path to Exile, and Swords to Plowshares. You can also fort up with Ghostly Prison, Story Circle, and Crawlspace. Replenish brings back all enchantments. Sun Titan brings back pretty much every white enchantment I'd throw in, Nevermore, Unquestioned Authority(mean with Phyresis).
Black has removal, card draw, hand disruption, and tutors. Not to mention creatures like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Grave Titan. Both colors have very useful instants to use with Isochron Scepter-(Path to Exile, Go for the Throat, and Vampiric Tutor. There's also extort and plenty of life gain in those colors which can be used against your opponent or to make your stuff even bigger- Archangel of Thune, Cradle of Vitality, Bloodbond Vampire, Serene Steward, and Karlov of the Ghost Council.
Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood would go in if you want an infinite possibility. Though Sanguine bond would be enough in my opinion.
I'm gonna stop now cause I feel I'm dragging on, but you should see my point. I think daxos could be pretty fricking mean. Lay out a controlling enchantment barrier, poop out tokens that are buffed up, go aggro, and the whole time you drain their life while gaining your own.
After that, I really want to build this deck now lol.
November 29, 2015 10:56 a.m.
DeathChant17 says... #30
Obviously my build has control, which OP doesn't want.
It would be nice, wwhitegoldd, to hear what suggestions you've liked so far.
November 29, 2015 11:02 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #31
No Gidgetimer, I don't think he's either of those things and it doesn't sound like the OP wants a commander who is. The bigger deal breaker is the request that the deck not be control, and Daxos can't really be built for any other archetype.
November 29, 2015 12:52 p.m.
Not necessarily. I mean, you could build a Daxos deck that's based around tokens. It'll just be really weak probably.
Maybe he should just go ahead and check out the elder dragons like Numot, the Devastator or Vorosh, the Hunter. They're multicolor and all of them require some form of aggressive game play and mana creation to work well.
November 29, 2015 10:20 p.m.
wwhitegoldd says... #34
I've been on vacation these last couple of days and a lot of questions have been asked since then so I thought I'd answer them.
I've decided that I don't want a three or more color commander because every time I've tried to build one I've found that there are just so many different ways to build the decks with so many different cards I should include and so many pet cards I want to include that I can't decide what to do.
As for color preferences I don't have any as long as it fits what I said in the OP.
I think I've narrowed it down to Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, and Brago, King Eternal. New Daxos looks interesting but as mentioned above he seems like he should be more of a controly commander and that's not really what I want.
December 1, 2015 1:34 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #35
How do you feel about combo? Ezuri and Brago are both great for it, but Ezuri is more viable as an aggro commander. Meren is more of a "grind your opponents right out of the game" commander and probably not the best choice if you're not a fan of control.
December 1, 2015 2:04 p.m.
poorpinkus says... #36
I've found a surprising amount of fun from Thelon of Havenwood, and Rosheen Meanderer can make some crazy huge creatures/damage spells and Experiment Kraj is really weird and has fun interactions, but he does have the ability to do a lot of infinite combos (you can just avoid that though). Ruhan of the Fomori might seem scummy but he can lead a pretty freakin fun coin flip "tribal"/randomness deck. I've had tons of fun with mine, and then there's Phelddagrif group hug but people tend to be wary of that, depending on your playgroup though he's hella fun
I have a lot of mono-colour commanders that I find interesting but I figure you'd probably rather dual/tri colour
Midna-Kun says... #2
Try Omnath, Locus of Rage, but make it a Primal Surge deck. Your goal will be to ramp a fuckton, cast Omnath, then Primal Surge for your whole deck, sacrificing the tokens generated to something like Goblin Bombardment to kill everyone at the table. You can throw in a bunch of wacky green fatties as well for fun.
November 24, 2015 10:30 p.m.