Building a Commander Deck

Zimone, Paradox Sculptor card art

Three years ago, I did a partial post on building a commander deck ('partial' meaning I looked at only a few categories of cards in the deck). Today, I try to be more complete.

There are any number or articles and templates on how to build a commander deck. My aforementioned post provided two; here is another from MTGGoldfish. From there, the author provides his checklist for *budget* deckbuilding:

• 25 synergy; your commander and cards that pair well with them
• 50 mana; lands and ramp, usually a 37–13 split
• 10 card draw
• 6 targeted removal; split between creature / artifact / enchantment removal
• 3 board wipes; creature-light decks might want one more, creature-heavy decks might want one less
• 2 graveyard recursion
• 2 flexible tutors; higher budgets I recommend more tutors
• 1 graveyard hate; since you need to keep Graveyard decks honest
• 1 surprise "I Win" card; something that can win games the turn you cast it without too much setup

(I added the first bullet, as his list didn't add up to 100 cards; his 75 imply that the remainder are synergy cards.)

Compare his list to those from my first post, reprinted here but altered to use similar verbiage (and adding synergy cards):

• 35 synergy
• 40 lands
• 10 ramp
• 10 card draw
• 5 removal

And the template I pasted at the end of that article, again rearranged and adjusted to use consistent terms:

• 30 synergy
• 35-38 lands
• 10-12 ramp
• 10 card draw
• 10-12 targeted removal
• 3-4 board wipes

I could continue; sites like MTGBudgetCommander and EDHRec provide very similar lists or concepts (the EDHRec article doesn't provide numbers but does explain every category, which is helpful).

The main difference in the above lists is the number of removal cards (both targeted and board wipes). In aggregate, those vary from 5 to 16 in the above, with the one not even differentiating between the different kinds.

My take: removal is important. I often focus too much on synergy cards and not enough on removal. So I will err on the side of including more. Here is my list:

• 30 synergy
• 37 lands
• 10 ramp
• 10 card draw
• 10 targeted removal
• 3 board wipes

This will be my baseline moving forward. And, of course, some cards check more than one box . . . you may have a synergy card that can also provide targeted removal.

If you don't know what these terms mean, don't fret. I covered targeted removal in a separate post; next time, I plan to look at board wipes.

Looking Ahead

Arcane Teachings card art

Happy New Year! What will 2025 bring in Magic, both corporately and personally?

Corporately

Wizards intends to continue its release pace, with seven sets in 2025. 

image from the official site

Not shown (for some reason) is the very first 2025 release, Innistrad Remastered. That means the total list is:

- Innistrad Remastered (compilation set)

- Aetherdrift (in-world set)

- Tarkir: Dragonstorm (in-world set)

- Final Fantasy (universes beyond set)

- Edge of Eternities (in-world set)

- Spider-man (universes beyond set)

- [not yet announced] (universes beyond set)

From the above, it is obvious (and the official site spells this out more) that in-world Magic sets (meaning those that take place in the existing Magic intellectual property, with familiar characters/etc. unique to that) are a diminishing focus of Wizards as Universes Beyond (UB) sets (meaning those that leverage other intellectual properties) are taking center stage: three of the final four 2025 sets will be UB. And they will be Standard legal, per the same site (previous UB releases were legal in Modern but not Standard). That has big ramifications.

Incorporating UB sets into Magic's Standard rotation means we are going to see all sorts of weird mashups ("I block Spider-man with my Grizzly Bears"). I understand why Wizards is doing this: if they are going to release three UB sets per year, they should make them legal in Standard, the second-most popular format behind Commander. But how strange . . . the game feels less like traditional Magic all the time.

Another change is to Standard rotation; that happens this year on 1 August, but then will not happen in 2026 as they align rotation to the new year (so 1 January 2027). Wizards continues to change things around; it is hard to follow.

Finally, I heard Wizards is aware of product fatigue . . . years of blistering release pace (not just full sets, but other products not listed above) is wearying players and (probably) impacting their bottom line. So maybe they will slow down in 2025/2026? I hope so.

Personally

I want to do a few things:

- Play more. All formats (casual, standard, commander, cube, sealed, pauper, etc.).

- Build more 'home brews'. I realized last year that the preconstructed commander decks are often too wordy/complex for me and I like this game at its core: the core sets with (generally) simpler wording and interactions. It is easy to build and play decks like that . . . and more fun.

- Buy less. Very few of the year's stated releases intrigue me. Thankfully. I may buy a few singles from Innistrad Remastered, but otherwise stay out of the collecting game. And my wallet needs that.

- Minimize my collection more. Last year, I got rid of 5K cards. This year, I aim for 2-3K. 

To 2025!