All Types of Commander Decks

Commander, also known as EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander), is a highly popular and engaging format in the Magic: The Gathering (MTG) game. It's a one-on-one multiplayer format that allows players to build 100-card singleton decks around a legendary creature, known as the 'commander.' The sheer variety of these decks makes Commander a vibrant and dynamic format. Let's delve into the diverse types of Commander decks that players can build and enjoy.

At its core, Commander decks are defined by their focus on the commander itself. The commander sets the pace, style, and theme of the deck. While Commander decks typically fall into one of two broad categories - control or combo - the interplay between the two can lead to a vast array of deck types. Let's explore some of these.

Control Commander Decks

Control decks aim to slowly gain advantage over your opponents while preventing them from doing the same. They typically have a lower curve and focus on card advantage, disruption, and inevitability. The goal of a control deck is to outlast your opponents, wearing them down until their resources are depleted.

Control decks are often associated with specific colors and strategies. For instance, blue control decks rely on counterspells and draw spells to mana denial, while black control decks focus on graveyard hate and recursive threats.

Goodstuff Decks

Goodstuff decks, also known as 'jank' or 'jeggins' decks, are a type of control deck that relies on a mix of good, efficient cards that often don't have a synergized theme. These decks are often constructed with fun, whimsical, or overlooked cards that pack a surprising punch. They are called 'goodstuff' because they often feature multiple powerful, individually good cards that don't necessarily work together.

For example, a deck built around the commander Yisan, the Wanderer Bard could include a variety of powerful, efficient creatures in green, along with utility and mana acceleration to play them. While these cards don't share a particular synergy, they are all powerful in their own right and can overwhelm opponents over the course of a game.

Prison Decks

Prison decks are a subset of control decks that focus on disrupting your opponents' game plans. They do this by using cards that lock down resources, prevent коеказан from being played or cast, or mill your opponents' libraries. Prison decks can be incredibly frustrating to play against, but they can also be very rewarding to pilot.

For instance, a deck built around the commander Helm of the Host could include cards like Winter Orb, Stasis, and Linvala, Keeper of Silence to slow down your opponents' game plan. Meanwhile, fetch lands, creature lands, and recursion spells allow you to sustain your own strategy despite the slowdown.

Combo Commander Decks

Combo decks are built around assembling a specific combination of cards that produce a powerful effect, often resulting in an instant win. Combo decks typically have a higher curve than control decks and are more reliant on their commander to assemble their combination.

Combo decks can be further divided into 'good stuff' combos, where the individual parts of the combo are powerful cards in their own right, and 'stax' combos, where the individual parts are often weak, but they create a powerful combination when assembled.

Good Stuff Combos

Good stuff combos are often identified by their commander, which provides the central component of the combo. For example, a deck built around the commander Devoted Druid could include Manabond and Elise, Wayfinder for mana acceleration, and Priest of Titania and Protean Hulk for card advantage. The combo itself involves playing Protean Hulk and sacrificing it to find and cast Devoted Druid, which then finds another creature to sacrifice, allowing you to cast your desired win condition.

This combo is powerful due to the strength of its individual components. However, it's also surprisingly resilient to disruption. If one part of the combo is stopped, the deck can often pivot to another strategy, such as using its creature-based card advantage to grind out a win.

Stax Combos

Stax combos, on the other hand, rely on the weakness of their individual components to catch opponents off guard. For example, a deck built around the commander Baral, Chief of Compliance could include Blue Sun's Zenith, Dramatic Reversal, and لتم to interactrittled by cards like Mana Vault, Sol Ring, and Lightning Bolt.

The combo itself involves playing a during-dependent artifact like mana vault, tutoring for a mana filter spell like Blue Sun's Zenith, and casting it for a large amount of draw. This can often be done on the first turn, resulting in an instant win. However, the individual components of this combo are relatively weak, making them less threatening to opponents and more likely to be overlooked.

In the world of Commander, decks come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. From the intricate workings of combo decks to the steadfast resilience of control decks, the format offers a wealth of strategies to explore and enjoy. Whether you're a seasoned Commander player or just starting out, there's always something new to discover in this rich and diverse format.