The Command Tech: Commander Strategies Part 1

Commander, also known as Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), is a casual multiplayer format for Magic the Gathering. The appeal to join and play commander is the opportunity to make use of cards that are usually unused in other formats and a multitude of game strategies that they cannot play anywhere else. From a “Wall” strategy using Arcades, the Strategist to a more competitive combo storm build with Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge, Commander brings with it numerous play angles that tests the deck building capabilities of the contenders.

In today’s The Command Tech, we will breakdown the reason why we play certain colors and delve into the different archetypes specially in a more competitive setting.

Colors and Archetypes

Based on the study done by the Command Zone Podcast, here are the colors from best to worst.

1.     Black – A color full of tutors, reanimation effects, and stax pieces. Creature types are generally zombies, vampires or demons.

2.       Blue – A color full of disruption, permission, combo pieces, card draw and also stax pieces. Creature types are generally merfolk, cephalid or sphinxes.

3.        Green – A color full of ramp, tutors, hatebears and stompy creatures. Creature types are generally wolves, elves or dinosaurs.

4.       Red – A color full of burn, disruption and artifact and land destruction. Creature types are generally goblins, dragons or elementals.

5.       White – A color full of hatebears and tax effects. Creature types are generally clerics, humans, spirits.

We are all familiar with what these colors bring to a commander table, and that remains the same with CEDH (Competitive EDH) as well. What differs are the archetypes. For now we will focus on the following.

·         Control

·         Stax

·         Fast Combo

·         Slow Combo

·         A mixture of these archetypes

Control

Blue is by far the best color in a Competitive EDH (CEDH) format. Control capitalizes on this by combining blue and other colors to form a deck that wants nothing more than to keep its opponents timid and harmless. Control has the ability to remove problematic permanents of any card type, counter unwanted spells, and/or remove spells from the stack entirely. Naturally, it’s the control player who will do their best in thwarting those game-ending combo strategies.

However, control suffers from two issues.

First is that blue, by itself, has a hard time closing out games immediately. It usually takes a lot of politics to properly setup a win. Wincons are usually found in the commander’s other colors such as Approach of the Second Sun from White, in order to end the game. But, casting such a card would place a giant target on your back. Thus, they usually do this when they are confident in controlling the game long enough to finish it. The second issue is that control is extremely skill intensive in a 4-man game. Control players would typically not be able to keep three people down at the same time without a godlike hand of cards. They have to make certain decisions that play into the politics and the state of the game they are in. Should I counter this beast of a creature from my opponent who could potentially one shot me on his turn? Or should i help him so he turns his gaze upon someone else? And while the opponents are preoccupied with beating each other senseless, this is when control capitalizes by setting up the bombs to go off and subdue everyone.

Popular control commanders:

Sample Control Cards are

Stax

Stax is a term that comes from the card Smokestacks. It is a card that was used to lock people out of the game. While we don’t see Smokestacks as much, the concept of locking down everyone down and slowly whittling the opponent down is as alive as ever.

The game plan is to prolong the game as much as possible, and if they have their way they’ll be the only ones playing. Stax decks are notorious for being able to break out of their own locks. Playing mana rocks when you play Winter Orb or something as complex as Teferi, Temporal Archmage with Stasis. The best Stax cards are those that tax all their opponents out of their board state and hand; and not just a single opponent. Stax is the archetype that is least seen in casual edh due to the high griefer cards the decks tend to play. If you haven’t played against Winter Orb, Static Orb or Nether Void, I assure you – it isn’t very fun. However, just like control, these kinds of decks don’t usually win immediately and players USUALLY gang up on the stax player once their board states have been affected enough.

Stax Generals:

Popular Stax Cards:

Fast Combo

This is what many players jump into CEDH for – the fast combo decks. Casual players dread this archetype the most since these decks usually win around turn 3 – 4 consistently. Fast combo decks are vast and range in complexity.

Creature-based combo decks

With Animar, Soul of Elements with four +1/+1 counters as well as Purphoros, God of Forge in play, cast Ancestral Statue for free. When it enters the battlefield, Purphoros will deal 2 damage to each opponent and return Ancestral Statue to hand with its own ability. Rinse and repeat.

Graveyard-based combos

Hermit Druid Combo: A 3 – 4 color deck with no basic lands. Activate Hermit Druid and mill your entire library. Using the flashback ability of Dread Return to return Angel of Glory’s Rise in play which in turn will return Laboratory Maniac and Azami, Lady of Scrolls to play. Tap Azami, Lady of Scrolls or Laboratory Maniac to draw a card. Instead of losing the game, Laboratory maniac states you win the game.

Slow Combo

Slow combo decks still aim to win using a combo but in the mid to late game. They trade off some of its speed or consistency for resiliency. Slow Combo decks use a lot of disruption in the early game and combo off when there is an opportunity. Many control decks fall under this category. These kinds of decks are the ones that have to be monitored constantly. While their combos take time, sometimes it’s not even one big combo win they want. Some strategies involve many 2-3 card combos that turn their boards into a massive, hard-to-deal-with mass of stuff. Things like (Mycosynth Lattice + Darksteel Forge), (Meren of Tel Noth + ten experience counters), (Seedborn Muse + Planar Bridge + Omniscience), and many, many more. Watch them and make sure they’re kept in check to avoid a sudden loss.

Cast Isochron Scepter and imprint Dramatic Reversal. Tap Sol Ring and all of your mana rocks to activate Isochron Scepter which will cast a copy of Dramatic Reversal which will untap all of your mana rocks. This will allow you to have infinite mana. If you have Aetherflux Reservoir, each time a copy of Dramatic Reversal is cast, you gain life equal based on the number of times spells were cast this turn then lose 150 life to kill all opponents.

Combining Archetypes

One great thing about playing a 100-card format is the ability of combining multiple archetypes. A good example of this strategy is Teferi, Temporal Archmage EDH deck. Teferi makes excellent use of stax strategies such as winter orb or static orb to slow opponents down then combo off in the late game with the commander and The Chain Veil to activate Teferi’s ability for infinite activation and mana. In this kind of format, the game rewards decks with multiple methods to win. There are many linear decks with a staple win condition, but as we said, with 3 other players around and trying to power through all that disruption is very difficult. A good combination of strategies and archetypes is what will bring victory to your general. Control + Combo, Fast Combo with middle game slow combos, Stax + Aggro, these are just some combinations you can use. And while these things deal with decks, one thing will never be absent from a commander game: Politics. Using it to your advantage and playing the scene when your cards are unable to alter the situation is crucial, but that would be a topic for another day.

There are many other cool strategies out there and we should never limit our deck designs with only the above strategies. The beauty of Commander is that it allows creative builds which may lead to fun or chaotic games. What’s your favorite archetype? What commander do you like the most? Thanks so much for reading and until next time.