
The average deck should have somewhere between 34-42 lands, depending on its level of mana ramp, and its synergy with lands specifically. There are no hard-and-fast rules for building a Commander deck, apart from the singleton nature and a list of banned cards, like any other Magic: The Gathering format.


RELATED: Magic: The Gathering - Powerful Cards That Are Banned And Why They're Banned In Commander These are just a small taste of the archetypes available to build in Commander, and there are tons of resources available online to help find the commander that's best for you.

Oftentimes, these decks' Commanders are the key payoff for all their instants and sorceries, ensuring they can take quick advantage of their deck's theme. Some of these decks look to cast a high number of cheap spells in a single turn before unleashing a massive spell with the Storm mechanic, while others look to cast massive, game-defining spells at a high discount. Instant and sorcery decks eschew a varied board state for the ability to profit from repeatedly casting instant and sorcery cards, inundating their opponents with spell-slinging goodness. These decks have plenty of redundancy to make sure all of their cards work together in similar ways, giving a consistent style of play. Often these decks will play effects that discourage or prevent opponents from targeting them or their creatures, to more easily ensure the safety to execute their game plan. Lifegain on its own isn't enough to win you a game of Commander, however, so look for cards that turn a high life total or lots of lifegain triggers into more tangible value. Lifegain decks are exactly what they sound like, focusing on a variety of effects that increase their life total and make it incredibly hard to kill them quickly. Finally, keyword counter decks place new keywords and abilities on creatures through the use of unique effects, many from Ixalan block. +1/+1 Counter decks focus on the battlefield and on powering up one or many creatures with +1/+1. Infect decks kill opponents by placing 10 or more Infect counters on them, often also placing -1/-1 counters on their opponents' creatures. Apart from that, and a list of banned cards, Commander follows the same principles as normal Magic.Ĭounters' decks profit from having counters placed on permanents and players, using effects like Proliferate, and cards that care about specific types of counters. There's no way to provide yourself a wishboard in Commander, so abandon any dreams of using Burning Wish and its ilk early on. So, if your commander costs only green to cast, but has an activated ability that costs or produces red mana, then that commander's color identity is both red and green.Īt the same time, Commander has no sideboard, so cards that retrieve cards you own from outside the game don't work. This includes its mana cost, activated abilities, mana production, and any other instances of a colored mana symbol.

Color identity is the sum of all the colors represented on the commander's rules text. Secondly, every card in your Commander deck must match the color identity of the legendary creature that is its commander. You can only have one copy of any card with the same name between your commander and your library, so redundancy is king. There are a few rules that separate Commander from normal Magic: The Gathering to consider when building a commander deck.
