Your Commander Origin Stories
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 17, 2016, 9:53 p.m. by Crayfish
Everyone started playing commander for different reasons, and I'm intrigued to hear your EDH origins!
My commander Story (It's kinda long, so if you don't want to read, you don't have to. :3) Show
I was at Monday Night Magic with my Rakdos 7-drop deck, and I saw 2 people playing commander at the table next to me. I didn't really understand it. Then I got around to learning it (a few of my friends had precons, and I got the basic idea). I went on the build forward in this order: Lazav, Dimir Mastermind > Isperia, Supreme Judge > Doran, the Siege Tower > Muzzio, Visionary Architect (extra) > Wort, the Raidmother (designed for a friend (Topdeck22) to get him into the format but I loved the deck and built it.) > Ertai, the Corrupted (extra) > and I'm currently retooling doran, building momir vig, and slivers. What a ride it has been!
January 17, 2016 11 p.m.
I found Commander when Commander 2011 was released. I had recently starting going to FNM's at that point, that started with Mirrodin Besieged, but I didn't bring a Commander deck with me until Innistrad. On the night of the Innistrad Prerelease, I brought with me some lightly modified Ghave, Riku, and Kaalia decks. Once I played a few games with those, I decided Commander was the format for me, and once I quit Standard around Theros, I pretty much only played Commander and Cube.
January 17, 2016 11:02 p.m. Edited.
TheRealRoh says... #5
I started playing magic right about when Magic 2014 came out, and intuitively picked up standard as a first format which seemed easy enough to get into. After playing (and losing badly) at many FNM's I one day found myself at a table where some guys had came along to casually play commander. One was playing a mono-black deck, and with black being my favorite color I was immediately drawn in. I began asking questions: how do generals work, card limits, restrictions, etc. What brought me to commander was the fun factor. I like to play magic, and short competitive games of standard did not fulfill that desire. I wanted to play with a few friends at once, and just have a good time playing the game itself. So, I found myself asking for the Eternal Bargain deck for christmas that year, and after playing around with that deck and different control commanders (most notably Ertai the Corrupted) I finally changed it to a WU control deck using Isperia Supreme Judge and was very pleased I had essentially made my own commander deck. Afterwards I found myself quickly sucked in and making deck after deck, sometimes because I found a neat legendary creature to use, others because I found one card (most recently Faerie Trickery) and made a deck in their honor (Tribal Faeries with Wydwen, the Biting Gale). After making my 10th deck with Wydwen, I'm trying to slow down but there's just too many interesting archetypes, strategies and cards to play with out there. I'm proud to be a commander player, and I thoroughly believe its the most fun you can have playing magic.
January 17, 2016 11:22 p.m.
I first started playing commander a year or so before the first commander pre-constructed decks came out. I had a friend who was constantly telling me that I should build a commander deck, but being someone who likes the precess of refining decks I considered a singleton format to lack consistency and not worth the effort.
Eventually my friend wore me down once I found a few other people who played the format and I started looking into commanders. I decided that I wanted to try building an Uril, the Miststalker deck but I didn't have the cards I needed, so the first commander deck I built used Ertai, the Corrupted as the commander and aimed to stall the game out until I could play and sacrifice an Aura Thief after dropping Enchanted Evening onto the board. Uril ended up being my second deck.
Fast-forward to now and EDH is pretty much the only format I regularly play. It is difficult going back to 60 card constructed decks, because I find my commander decks play far more consistently than any of the decks that friends have loaned me for standard. The creative challenges that come with building a commander deck are fun for me and I enjoy how expressive deck building can be in the format.
January 17, 2016 11:34 p.m.
I started EDH after a long time of not playing Magic a little while after the first commander decks came out. I don't really play standard because I can't make it to FNM and I won't touch modern or legacy, but my playgroup is really focused on EDH, so thats fine.
I started with Ghave, Guru of Spores, then switched to Karador, Ghost Chieftain, but my first deck from scratch was a Sedris, the Traitor King. Long live reanimator.
January 18, 2016 12:36 a.m.
I started playing commander when my friends got into it. I started out with a good stuff deck, and since then I've built and taken apart about 10 decks.
My deceased decks
Animar, Soul of Elements good stuff (has been taken apart since then)
Anafenza, the Foremost +1/+1 counters (also taken apart since)
Keranos, God of Storms goblin control (didn't work out and was taken apart)
My current decks:
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born planeswalker control/mill (originally had Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker as commander)
Thassa, God of the Sea control/combo (originally had Arcanis the Omnipotent as the commander)
Zurgo Helmsmasher token/dragon aggro
Xenagos, God of Revels ramp/aggro
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest spell slinger/burn/extra turns
Daxos the Returned enchantment control (was originally Triad of Fates but that was only for colors)
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Sacrifice and Graveyard shenanigans (BRAND SPANKING NEW)
Honestly those aren't the only decks I'll ever play commander with. But they're my babies and I'm proud of them.
January 18, 2016 12:56 a.m.
I became intensely interested when I saw the Plunder the Graves (Meren of Clan Nel Toth was just to good to pass up) and Call the Spirits 2015 EDH precons...W,B, and G are my favorite colors. Love that EDH can be so much more relaxed, friendly, and is a widely accepted format allowing mixed/older cards for us budget folk (versus casual which I play but feel like is somewhat frowned upon when it comes up in conversation at the local shop).
January 18, 2016 2:11 a.m.
I started magic in 2003 but stopped two years later. 1 year ago I wanted to sell the cards left from that period, but when I saw them I couldn't trade away all those cool cards. Therefore I called a friend if he wanted to play again and we played a couple of matches. To continue playing I went to the local shop but everybody there was playing a "strange format" named commander. After watching some of the matches where everybody was able to do crazy stuff with a lot of mana (so basically how we played magic when we were 10) I decided to build a commander deck, too. The deck went through a lot of changes and finally ended up as a Boros deck with Gisela, which is still my all time favorite deck for multiplayer. Without commander I guess I would not enjoy playing magic two times a week.
January 18, 2016 2:57 a.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #11
I was scouring online to seek to become better at magic, for I was only a casual player, and came across this format. Decided to let my playgroup know about it, we sat down at a buddies house, and each constructed our very own first edh deck from scratch. They were quite mediocre. Although, I had been researching the format prior to bringing it up and already started brewing. My first edh deck was Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind but it wasn't combo, it quickly became combo after more research and acquisitions. My friends and I fell in love with the format for its sheer flexibility and just able to pretty much build and construct your deck how you want. We loved the uniqueness of the format in which no cards besides basic lands could repeat. And that you always had access to at least cast your general. And that you were color restricted. This made brewing a lot of fun. Led to interactive Saturday nights with my buddies. Also, it led to them hating my combo variant of Niv-Mizzet. Lol. Good times. I continue to play. Just not Niv. And I don't net deck at all. I use ideas from net decks, but never copy and paste. My 2 most recent concoctions being Merieke Ri Berit and Sigarda, Host of Herons. Merieke is lots of fun, has a lot of interactive plays. Combo pieces, infinite combo pieces, all the removal. It did broken things. My Sigarda isn't a Voltron deck. It can be at times. But it's more like G/W good stuff where it's got a lot of power. And even on its bad draws, it has Sigarda to close things out. On its good draws, it doesn't "need" Sigarda. And that's my life!
January 18, 2016 6:06 a.m.
GearNoir there's a lot of enchantment support in G and a lot of revival support in W... You may wanna mix the WB deck and the BG deck to make one big super deck. That's essentially how I built my Anafenza, the Foremost deck when I had it.
January 18, 2016 10:16 a.m.
dbpunk yes, I'd considered mashing it all together at some point and Anafenza's pump / grave-hate makes for a decent combo. Still too much in love with Meren atm though lol.
January 18, 2016 11:42 a.m.
Honestly I understand GearNoir. She's a beautiful commander to use or even as a part of the 99 (which I use in my Sidisi deck).
January 18, 2016 11:58 a.m.
I've personally played Magic since about 2000. My friends and I never played competitively and we played our own makeshift format. We played with Standard rules without rotation or any banlist. We all bought packs here and there but never in bulk. We would modify our decks or build new ones but our Magic play was extremely casual.
I didn't discover Commander until 2014 when I moved into a new apartment. I had a new neighbor that played Commander and introduced me to the format. I immediately loved it, loved the idea, the singleton format and the length of the average game. It was casual as I was used too and could be played for cheap or expensive, it was your choice.
I bought the Black 2014 Commander deck as my first but quickly realized I couldn't stay away from my beloved Zombies and modified it to be a Zombie tribal. I'm not sure if any cards from the precon actually ended up in my final Zombie EDH.
Since that time I have created countless decks. I usually sit down with an idea and a pad of paper. I will write down a rough draft for a deck list. I then modify it, and modify it, and modify it. Once I see my complete idea on the paper, I build the deck. I have torn so many decks apart that I was really proud of. I will attempt to start posting all that I create on here lol.
The one thing I have always found lacking and I really want for EDH, a Sultai ZOMBIE Legendary. I have about every Zombie EDH you can think of. I desire to smash Dimir and Golgari together yet seem to be lacking a proper Commander. I want a Sultai Zombie Legendary but also want it to be good to build a deck around. Hopefully I get one with the new Innistrad block.
Dimir just has the better Zombies while Golgari has better ramp and support. Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, are both amazing. Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season + Helix Pinnacle makes for an easy win on your opponents End Step, especially if you can still tap Ghoulcaller Gisa. Sadly I Dimir makes for a better deck to play. I truly wish to combine the two into an epic Sultai Zombie tribal.
January 18, 2016 11:44 p.m.
Greendawg81 says... #16
I Got into commander with the 2013 precons. Our group used to play a lot of 2HG and FFA before that so the idea of EDH was always appealing and the precons made it affordable for all of us. A buddy bought all 5 of the precons for our group and we opened em on New Years Eve for some drunken magic. I got the Marath deck, we played a couple games with the precons before ripping em apart and making our own additions. We stayed up for 2 days playing EDH, only breaking for coffee in the morning and more beer and pizza the next night. Been hooked ever since.
January 19, 2016 11:05 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #17
My very first deck ever was the gatecrash Mill intro pack. I fell in love with the colors and only tried to play them since. I started playing Magic just before the Journey into Nyx came out, so it hasn't been too long still. My playgroup was a bunch of guys that would get together between classes during the day at college and they all would often play Commander and leave me to watch since all I had was my crappy mill deck.
I quickly purchased the 2013 PreCon Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck so I could get in on the action. Being a PreCon, it wasn't the best, but it was really fun for me, one for including the colors I loved, and two, for being able to cast big stupid stuff. Since then I have vastly expanded my skill and knowledge both on the battlefield and behind the scenes. I have an L1 test set up later this month, and so far, I have maybe 12 or so EDH decks laying around. You'll almost never see me playing the same deck in a week, unless it's one of my top favorites.
January 19, 2016 4:21 p.m.
PookandPie says... #18
So I was teaching this guy, Gidgetimer, how to play Magic, right? And he says to me one day, he says, "Hey, this Commander thing looks fun." And I said, "Ehhhh.... I don't know." And he said, "Maybe you'll like it." And I said, "'Kay."
True story, ladies and gents.
So I built Arcum Dagsson, and it was a little too strong for our group, starting out. Then I built Roon of the Hidden Realm and Ghave, Guru of Spores. Then I just kept building. Kind of became a bit of an addiction, since I got to use all of these random cards I had collected since 2007-2008 but had no use for as a Legacy player (Extraplanar Lens, Cabal Coffers). I'm up to 9 real life decks and also working on a tenth (thinking Zur Doomsday). So, you know, this is cool.
January 20, 2016 6:31 a.m.
Dalektable says... #19
I had always been interested in EDH from the moment I heard about it, but I didn't have anyone to play with. At the time, my only chance to play magic was at FNM. But since then, I've developed a playgroup of sorts after teaching a close friend of mine and him teaching some of my other friends. Now, I am by far the most into commander but they are all gaining traction with it. I currently have three EDH decks built, I only really like two of them to be honest haha. My first deck was my beloved Teysa, Orzhov Scion which I built an optimized list for on a budget and built it outright. Then, I built my Arcanis the Omnipotent deck out of cards I owned and I have slowly upgraded it and I also love it. Lastly, I built a Zedruu the Greathearted chaos deck and I've found that I neither enjoy playing it and the people I play with also don't enjoy it often, so It was a bit of a waste. Not to say that other people wouldn't enjoy it, I've just found its not my style. Right now I am considering building another deck or upgrading the ones I have now.
January 20, 2016 5:43 p.m.
Deckologist says... #20
I was at my store when I kept hearing the term edh passed around. I thought it was terrible and didn't want any part of it. This was later reinforced when I was asked to cover for someone's turns while they went to pick up a friend. I hated everything about it. Then finally my friends begged me to play and in a last ditch attempt they agreed to go through my collection and make a deck. They ended up making without a doubt the worst Thraximundar deck that has ever been created. I initially played just to help my friend combo out against players I didn't like. Yeah it was immature and terrible to do but man, I really didn't like those guys. I eventually learned to have fun with deck building as the possibilities were endless and I got to implement old legacy combos into my deck and then it all went crazy from there. I have made roughly 80 decks which include my favorites:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary - simic toolbox
Sydri, Galvanic Genius - heavy control and combo for tournaments
Thraximundar (revisited it about 2 weeks ago) aggro control
Glissa, the Traitor - eggs
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy - better eggs
Azami, Lady of Scrolls - heavy control combo
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - pillow fort then super control(current)
Melek, Izzet Paragon - storm
Zurgo Helmsmasher - heavy control aggro
Squee, Goblin Nabob - for fun originally but actually became a thing at my shop.
January 24, 2016 2:01 a.m.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief Hate. Pure hate! My shop calls it the black hand of tyranny!
January 26, 2016 2:40 p.m.
RicketyEng says... #22
The friend of mine who taught me how to play MTG had suggested a couple of times that I might like EDH and he had quickly described it, but I did not understand enough about the game yet to understand what he was talking about (when I was first learning, I thought my friend was cheating when he got a creature token because it looked to me like a card that wasn't in his deck which he just decided to use). Nearly a year later I hadn't played much but then was just starting to get exited about the game. Then I found the C14 decks on a shelf in a store and read the back to figure out one which sounded appealing to me. I chose Daretti, Scrap Savant because artifacts sounded neat to an engineer. A little while later I taught my wife to play and got her the green C14 deck, but she later saw Nahiri, the Lithomancer and felt a greater connection to her. Over the past year I have built a bunch of EDH decks and my wife and I both love having flavourful decks. We've also found a tendency to like tribal decks. When it comes to EDH, the part I enjoy the most is the deck building. It's fun trying to come up with interesting interactions and combos and all within a colour identity. I also like not needing play sets of cards when I am shopping.
My (our) generals:
Daretti, Scrap Savant: currently my strongest deck, heavily modified from the stock version
Nahiri, the Lithomancer: my wife's first EDH deck, slightly modified
Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip: Zombie tribal with demons and Lili flavour, designed for my wife after she got promo Liliana at the Origins prerelease.
Narset, Enlightened Master: Tron with auras, equipment, and 3 creatures in the whole deck including Narset. Also features Narset Transcendent, a brew using cards I already owned.
Omnath, Locus of Rage: Elemental tribal and landfall, another one built with whatever I have.
Mizzix of the Izmagnus: bought it to learn a bit about building control.
Ezuri, Claw of Progress: Elf tribal built from the elves of C14 and C15 with a few other neat tricks.
Prime Speaker Zegana: Merfolk tribal, my wife's current project.
Arvail says... #2
I got into commander two years ago when my group bought all the pre-cons for C13. I got Mind Seize mostly for financial reasons, but the format seemed interesting. I immediately traded True-Name Nemesis for 3x Steam Vents and 2x Watery Grave and used Baleful Strix to upgrade the precon somewhat.
My group immediately fell in love with commander and we've been playing around one full day a week ever since. The competitiveness of the group quickly shot up. Atm, I'd rate us at 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.
The political nature of the format appeals to me and I love the challenge of jumping through hoops to get my combos live.
January 17, 2016 10:04 p.m. Edited.