Official 'I need help picking a Commander' thread

[mada7]

Originally Posted by studderingdave

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?

Green

2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?

Aggro mostly, with whatever tricks straight green can tag along

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?

Healthy mix

4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike? (Don't know?)

I am Timmy

5. Are you working on a budget?

would like to keep the deck under 200 dollars, i already have a gaea's cradle to boot.

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?

smashing face. 80/20 aggro/tricks ratio. i want this deck to focus around making my lands into creatures and swinging.

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?

i want a commander who helps my lands be better creatures, or gets me more lands fast, so i was looking at Azusa, Lost but Seeking, but i am open to anything really.

Azusa is a good choice for what you want but Id also toss out Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Jolrael, Empress of Beasts. You'd probably want to include all three of those cards in your deck anyways so Id recommend building the deck you want then try out each one as a general to see which one works best

[ShAdOwFuRi]

Originally Posted by mada7

Azusa is a good choice for what you want but Id also toss out Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Jolrael, Empress of Beasts. You'd probably want to include all three of those cards in your deck anyways so Id recommend building the deck you want then try out each one as a general to see which one works best

Or, might I add Omnath, Locus of Mana for a more interesting ramp approach

[Creakwood]

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?
blue and white and/or green
2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
aggro with card draw
3. Is your meta competitive or casual?
casual
4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike?
I'm all 3 but lean towards Timmy

5. Are you working on a budget?
yes
6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?
Having a good amount of decent sized creatures and removal, but without counterspells. So far my favorite has been Ghave, but I want something that adds crazy blue card draw

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?
I don't know a lot of legendary cards.

[ShAdOwFuRi]

Originally Posted by Creakwood

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?
blue and white and/or green
2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
aggro with card draw
3. Is your meta competitive or casual?
casual
4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike?
I'm all 3 but lean towards Timmy

5. Are you working on a budget?
yes
6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?
Having a good amount of decent sized creatures and removal, but without counterspells. So far my favorite has been Ghave, but I want something that adds crazy blue card draw

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?
I don't know a lot of legendary cards.

Sygg, River Cutthroat is aggro control with lots of card draw. You don't have to run counterspells since black has plenty of removal as it is.

[Creakwood]

Originally Posted by ShAdOwFuRi

Sygg, River Cutthroat is aggro control with lots of card draw. You don't have to run counterspells since black has plenty of removal as it is.

Sorry if I didn't clarify better, the general doesn't have to have card draw in its abilities, but it would be nice if the theme of the deck worked well with card draw and had green and/or white

[thedefenestrated]

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?
I have the most good EDH cards in blue, green and white

2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
Not really aggro, I find it's kind of boring outside of like, super-fast RDW style things.
And not really control either. Really not a fan of stax decks, or red "so much chaos!" control. I wouldn't mind playing a couple counterspells, I guess.

So, I guess combo. But I don't really want to be going "I play these cards, turn 4 win, haha". More like card synergies? Like fun, interesting interactions that don't insta-win for you. I don't want to be spending the whole game setting up a combo turn, fetching pieces, etc.

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?
Definitely casual. But no one gets butt-hurt over infinite combos, world LD or anything. People playing like that do tend to get ganged up on, though. We play for fun, but recognize winning is fun.

4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike? (Don't know?)
A little of all three. I wouldn't be the "play a leviathan, smash face, hurk hurk hurk" side of timmy, but I like playing cards that are sweet, and I play for fun.

I think the most johhny, but I don't really feel like spending hours upon hours tuning a decklist, brewing. I'd rather be playing. However, the card interactions are why I play magic, its so interesting.

I like winning, but I like playing more. That's what I have to say about spikeness.

5. Are you working on a budget?
Yeah, kind of. I have a fair amount of trading fodder, but I don't have that much cash to devote to magic.

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?
I really just like value cards, things that do awesome things (very vague). ETB effects can be cool. I don't really like tokens, its just such a chore to play that way.

[B]7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?[/B
Not really. I'm kind of clueless. Why I'm posting here.

[Universal]

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?
Anthing is fine, as long al blue is among them.

2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
Both combo and control would be fine.

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?
A bit of both, but we do play multiplayer.

4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike?
Spike/Johnny

5. Are you working on a budget?
No.

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?
I have a lot of favorite strategies, but countermagic is certainly among them. I also never mind extra turns.

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?
No, I really have no idea at all. I have been thinking about Momir Vig, but decided that was parhaps a bit too much aggro for me. I like to have control in a game, to have options.

Any ideas?

[Stridyr]

Hi Fellas,

Was hoping to get some help selecting a new commander to make a deck out of.

I have a pretty sweet Kaalia, of the Vast deck, and was hoping to build another commander deck that plays very differently. My Kaalia deck is essentially a "get big creatures into play and beat down my opponent" type of deck so i want to avoid creatures that are just big facesmashers.

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?

Because Kaalia is W/R/B I was looking for a U/G kind of deck, but as that is quite limiting I would be willing to go any dual or tri color deck that has at least one of U or G in it.

Even though Kaalia is somewhat tribal with the Angel/Dragon/Demon component, there arent any cards in the deck that take the tribal into consideration. I would be willing to make a tribal deck if you think that could be fun.

I don't find it enjoyable to have to keep track of too many tokens or counters.


2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike?

Control would be preferable, but aggro would be cool if it involvs creatures with cool abilities rather than just big creatures that cost lots of mana.

I am open to combos but in my opinion it is hard to get what you are looking for in a commander deck.

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?

More casual than anything, but I am a very competitive person and I want to win.

5. Are you working on a budget?
Willing to spend the following:
$50 on one card
$25 on 4
The rest need to be under $10 each

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?

I don't like land destruction or tokens/counters, but I'm probably open to anything else.

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?

Nothing has sparked my interest

[amazingxkcd]

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?

Whatever has the most broken combos

2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?

Combo, cause that's what EDH is all about. who cares about group hugs.

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?

Both, though I only care about the competitive part of it.

4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike? (Don't know?)

Timmy and Johnny doesn't exist in my eyes, so I'll go with Spike

5. Are you working on a budget?

No

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?

the fastest and the most consistent combos, however that is

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?

I don't know, Im posting here to look at possible options.

[thedefenestrated]

Originally Posted by Universal

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?
Anthing is fine, as long al blue is among them.

2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
Both combo and control would be fine.

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?
A bit of both, but we do play multiplayer.

4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike?
Spike/Johnny

5. Are you working on a budget?
No.

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?
I have a lot of favorite strategies, but countermagic is certainly among them. I also never mind extra turns.

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?
No, I really have no idea at all. I have been thinking about Momir Vig, but decided that was parhaps a bit too much aggro for me. I like to have control in a game, to have options.

Any ideas?

It seems like azami, lady of scrolls would be a suitable general for you. She likes combo (the sensei's divining top, future sight
, cloud key combo), as well as nuts combos with palinchron and phantasmal image.

Unsurprisingly, as a blue deck that draws lots of cards she makes a good control general too.

One concern, however, she may be too competitive for your meta, when well tuned she's pretty dominating.

[xxsaberxx]

Originally Posted by thedefenestrated

It seems like azami, lady of scrolls would be a suitable general for you. She likes combo (the sensei's divining top, future sight
, cloud key combo), as well as nuts combos with palinchron and phantasmal image.

Unsurprisingly, as a blue deck that draws lots of cards she makes a good control general too.

One concern, however, she may be too competitive for your meta, when well tuned she's pretty dominating.

I'd propose Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. That guy is just mean, and you've got access to combos like the "soggy pickles", all the while maintaining control of the board. Hell, your General alone slows down everyone by 2 turns (it reduces your mana costs by 1 and increases your opponents' by 1). What more would a control/combo player want..?

[xxsaberxx]

Originally Posted by Stridyr

Hi Fellas,

Was hoping to get some help selecting a new commander to make a deck out of.

I have a pretty sweet Kaalia, of the Vast deck, and was hoping to build another commander deck that plays very differently. My Kaalia deck is essentially a "get big creatures into play and beat down my opponent" type of deck so i want to avoid creatures that are just big facesmashers.

1. What color/s are you interesting in choosing?

Because Kaalia is W/R/B I was looking for a U/G kind of deck, but as that is quite limiting I would be willing to go any dual or tri color deck that has at least one of U or G in it.

Even though Kaalia is somewhat tribal with the Angel/Dragon/Demon component, there arent any cards in the deck that take the tribal into consideration. I would be willing to make a tribal deck if you think that could be fun.

I don't find it enjoyable to have to keep track of too many tokens or counters.


2. Do you wish to play combo, aggro, or control?
4. Do you identify yourself as a Timmy, Johnny, or Spike?

Control would be preferable, but aggro would be cool if it involvs creatures with cool abilities rather than just big creatures that cost lots of mana.

I am open to combos but in my opinion it is hard to get what you are looking for in a commander deck.

3. Is your meta competitive or casual?

More casual than anything, but I am a very competitive person and I want to win.

5. Are you working on a budget?
Willing to spend the following:
$50 on one card
$25 on 4
The rest need to be under $10 each

6. What are your favorite strategies (such as extra turns, land destruction, countermagic, etc)?

I don't like land destruction or tokens/counters, but I'm probably open to anything else.

7. Are there multiple commanders that you can't decide between?

Nothing has sparked my interest

Try Edric, Spymaster of trest. I did a snake tribal with it - no fatties there. But you've got control elements in the form of stuff like Mystic Snake that, overall, would pretty much control the game if you'd pair it up with stuff like Cloudstone Curio. You get tons of card draw while hammering away at your opponents with (i quote from my friend JP) "insignificant" snakes while you draw cards and play permission (of course, he died soon after after he was bitten by my marsh viper a few times). I guess the only card in there that's really expensive would be Gaea's Cradle. For countermagic/control elements, well, you control players would know how to do it. Capsize is a card I see in most control decks with blue, and the mana off cradle means you'll only need to worry about the blue. All this, while Edric says to your opponents "if you wanna draw cards, hit everyone BUT me. Well, I can't think of a better candidate.

If you're interested, I think i could just post my snake decklist in here so you could get an idea, and the snake legends are pretty powerful too.

[Universal]

It seems like azami, lady of scrolls would be a suitable general for you. She likes combo (the sensei's divining top, future sight, cloud key combo), as well as nuts combos with palinchron and phantasmal image.

Unsurprisingly, as a blue deck that draws lots of cards she makes a good control general too.

One concern, however, she may be too competitive for your meta, when well tuned she's pretty dominating.

She's certainly something to consider. From what I've heard she might indeed be a bit too competitive... Do you have any other suggestions?

I'd propose Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. That guy is just mean, and you've got access to combos like the "soggy pickles", all the while maintaining control of the board. Hell, your General alone slows down everyone by 2 turns (it reduces your mana costs by 1 and increases your opponents' by 1). What more would a control/combo player want..?

I do like this idea, but unfortunately another player in my playgroup has this general allready. I'd rather play a different general. Any other ideas?

[Sinfire Titan]

Originally Posted by Universal

She's certainly something to consider. From what I've heard she might indeed be a bit too competitive... Do you have any other suggestions?

A more fair version of Azami is Arcanis the Omnipotent. He's about the same in combo potential, but moderately less competitive due to being easier to disrupt.

[Universal]

Thanks, I'll have a look at Arcanis, the Omnipotent. Another suggestion somebody did was Ertai, the Corrupted. Do you have any experience with this general? And is it a good, but not too good, and fun general?