Is there a name for this commander deck concept?
TappedOut forum
Posted on June 5, 2020, 4:17 p.m. by XiphiasX
Hi all,
What I like so much about the pre-con decks, is that they come with multiple legendary creatures that can serve as your commander. And that allows you to play with the power level of the deck, which also works wonders for its re-playability.
Now, I like recreating this "Choose your Commander"-concept in my own decks: picking a legal legendary creature as its commander from among 100 cards when you set up a game. It has the advantage of (1) offering a proper challenge to a wider range of opponents' decks and (2) giving you the opportunity to choose a specific play style for that particular deck. A downside is that it's hard to go above a power level of 7 with a deck (as cards have to synergize with multiple commanders), but I'm not into cEDH, combos, insta-wins and heavy price-tags anyways, so I'm fine with that :-D
In the next weeks/months I'd like to create this for each color, guild, shard, and wedge - with each deck having at least 2 creatures eligible as commander. Does this concept have an official name in Magic: the Gathering?
I think "secret commander" is more "there's a card in my 99 that my deck is actually built around and my gameplan involves getting it out." I think the term I've heard most often for what you're describing is "alternate commander," though I don't know if that's a WOTC term or just one that the community has come up with.
June 5, 2020 5:40 p.m.
Cool, I've started using #Alternative_commander a few months ago coincidentally, so that already feels familiar, haha ... But how shall we title them then ... "With alternative commanders"? "Commander's Choice"? "Secret partner", the name has resemblance with the partner mechanic in commander specifically - but hey, it does sound exciting :-)
gavriel1136 says... #2
I can't think of anything exactly like this, but Secret Commander is a term I've heard before. That one means there is a legendary creature that is not your commander but is within the 99 that your deck relies on. People do that often to play a commander with colors that the card itself does not have.
June 5, 2020 4:33 p.m.