Last time in our basic level up moments we talked about how your commander deck has card packages and when it comes to deckbuilding it is better to set up the card packages right away so that you can discipline yourself and not overload on any one part of your deck to the detriment of the other card packages. If you have not read the level up moment you may do so here. Today we are going to give some examples on how to select the card packages and allocate card numbers to them. We will build on the examples that were given in the your decks have goals level up moments. If you need a refresher you can read hoth Part 1 and Part 2.
When it is time to deck build you just do not sit down and write out a goal and then immediately create card packages. There is a creative window where you will think about the commander and start thinking about different cards that go well with them. You can sit down at a computer and look at EDH rec or even use gatherer to look up key words that help create these synergies. But you do not have to. You can be driving to the gym or in the shower and just think about these things as you have a spare moment. It doesn’t have to be research or a chore. Make it as enjoyable as possible.
Card Packages #1 Avacyn, Archangel of Hope (Basic Concept)
Goal: Mana Ramp to Avacyn fast. Board wipe play answers and win.
WIth this deck we will want the basics of Land, Ramp, Card Draw, Removal, and Creatures We will build in Misc as well but Avacyn is our win condition she makes things indestructible so we can take over the game. People will have to save their exile spells for her and if I am lucky there will be other immediate threats people will have to burn their exile spells on. We do not need an additional win condition for this deck.
The basic packages before we tweak is
- Lands 36
- Card Draw/Quality 10
- Removal 10
- Ramp 10
- Creatures 24
- Misc 10
- Win Con 0
Odds are our ramp will be a mix of artifacts and just having land to play every turn so we will want to up the land a little bit to make sure we have it. Because Avacyn makes things indestructible I can skimp on the card draw because white is weak in this area and gain card advantage through board wipes after Avacyn is out. I can move the card draw into board wipes or removal for the card advantage. This works as Avacyn wants to board wipe and not exile. We will work with how many creatures we have and tweak them at the end. In order to keep the creatures alive early I will want first strike and vigilance. I will also want fliers to stop deter people from attacking me.
When I build my packages if I can pick out strong angels for an angel tribal that is a flavor win. Angel tribal can be a deception though if I just pick out strong cards. It may catch some opponents off guard.\ when I play some creatures slotted for miscellaneous effects. Grafted Exoskeleton is a strong card that works well with Avacyn with it she is a 10/10 indestructible flier with infect. It feeds into Avacyn as a win con.
Finally we will want to up our ramp to get Avacyn out quicker. We have to find mana rocks but we will also go searching for land to not miss a land drop. In the end I will cram creatures in the other categories where I can to up my creature count. They can be blockers in a pinch. If I can get Avacyn online I may not need as many big creatures.
Final Packages.
- Lands 37
- Card Draw/Quality 4
- Removal 15
- Ramp 14
- Creatures 19
- Misc 10
- Win Con 0
Card Packages #2 Zacama, Primal Calamity (Fitting extra slots elsewhere)
Goal: I want to generate lots of mana and blow a lot of things up with Zacama. I will have a big turn which will turn the tables and then win big by turning creatures sideways
Starting Point
- Lands 36
- Card Draw/Quality 10
- Removal 10
- Ramp 10
- Creatures 24
- Misc 10
- Win Con 0
Zacama is pretty straight forward. Blow stuff up and turn cards sideways to win. We are going to want to ramp hard to play Zacama at nine mana and when we ramp we want to do it with lands. This is because of Zacama’s enter the battlefield ability that allows us to untap lands. We also want mana redundancy cards that untap lands or allow lands to tap for extra mana. This redundancy will allow us to drop must answer threats and keep our opponents on their toes. For this we want to start with 15 ramp cards. Also because we want lands to ramp we want to increase lands if we can to assure we have enough to capitalize with all the ramp we have.
We want to keep a large miscellaneous category not only to for cards that untap lands but also cards that bounce creatures to the hand. We will want to reach a critical mass where we can drop Zacama and then have enough mana to bounce him back to the hand and then play him again to untap all my lands and have one extra mana or more put in may mana pool. This not only allows me to play out my hand but it also infinitely fuels Zacamas destruction abilities and when everything is destroyed to gain infinite life. Setting your life to a google should be enough for people to concede the game and move to the next one unless they are playing Voltron or have Sorin Markov in their deck. For these reasons and card slots we will want to keep 10 miscellaneous card package if possible.
As an alternative win con, Aggravated Assault plays well into this deck. It can give infinite attack phases to win the game. While not a creature card in and of itself. Assemble the Legion acts like a creature card pumping out tokens. Zacama does allow Boros so I will take advantage of adding this card in the 99. Unless deck builder’s deliberately add card slots to handle enchantments. Many metas allow enchantments to linger and an Assemble the Legion unanswered can allow you to go wide to pound in some final points of damage. Because we need to cut some slots we will not add these win cons in the win con package but look to build them into the other packages the deck wants.
We are big mana in strategy. Similar to this is cards and card abilities that allow you to cheat creatures into play or at a discount. As I am tight already on the card packages when I select cards for my packages, I want to select some of these cards that discount. An example of this kind of card is Etali, Primal Storm. It is a big stompy creature that will allow me to play other players cards for free.
In the end to make up for the extra ramp we cut one each of card quality and card draw cards, one removal card, and one miscellaneous card. We also cut ramp down to 14 cards and we will look to slot the missing card for these categories with a card that has a dual purpose and can fit into another package.
- Card Quality Draw 9
- Mana Ramp 14
- Lands 37
- Removal 9
- Creatures 21
- Cards that Discount Mana 8
- Misc 9
In the end I was able to fit eight cards that can double with packages Above is the actual card slot breakdown. This does not include effects that are on creatures. I did not double count Garruk, Primal Hunter will make the deck list as creature generation because when I cast him it is my intention to immediately kill him for the card draw. The following is how allocation looks with cards that can count as two different packages.
Final Packages
- Card Quality Draw 13
- Mana Ramp 17
- Lands 17
- Removal 10
- Creatures 25
- Misc 9
Card Packages #3 Sigarda Host of Herons (subthemes)
Goal: I want a deck where I voltron the commander and kill someone with 21 commander damage. I will pump up my commander using +1/+1 counters.
Starting Point
- Lands 36
- Card Draw/ Quality 10
- Removal 10
- Ramp 10
- Creatures 24
- Misc 10
- Win Con 0
The strength of green is mana ramp. Like other green builds I will want to play to that strength and build in extra ramp spells.It does not need to be land fetch but we will want some of that to thin the deck. This is because Voltron builds tend to be a little creature light. If we can thin out our deck and draw into our creatures it will help protect us. The additional ramp cards helps ramp us into Sigarda as a guaranteed creature and to have the mana to cast the spells we will need in order to quickly use Sigarda as a voltron commander.
Sigarda as a 5/5 creature it is a slow commander to kill with commander damage. With no buffs it will take five attacks to kill a player. The good news is any bonus to attack will speed the kill time up. A +2 to attack turns SIgarda into a three turn killing machine. The good news is Sigarda is hard to kill so she should stay on the board except when board wipes are cast.
Normally voltron strategies use equipment unless the commander’ ability supports another strategy. We will want an equipment category. We are also in green which opens up Doubling Season as a card so if we are willing to include it it opens up a counters matter theme to pair with equipment. While loading up on equipment may be slightly stronger to win the game I will split the way I pump up my commander this diversity can be difficult to stop. This protects from mass artifact wipes such as Vandalblast.
With Doubling Season already an include for the deck a superfriends subpackage has a possibility. The Chain Veil can cause multiple triggers and there are many different Ajani planeswalkers that will put counters on creatures. While I will not count on ultimate abilities of planeswalkers, each planeswalker when cast will provide two different options and multiple lines of play. This creates value and another target for people to attack instead of me directly.
The additional bonus is the change in rules that now allow the same planeswalker with different card names to be on your side of the battlefield at the same time. A hand full of planeswalkers is not all that restrictive. Green-White is a little weak for a superfriends strategy so it can only be used for support for Sigarda as a voltron commander and mana ramp. There will not be room for alternate win conditions so that category will be cut.
- Lands
- Card Draw/Quality
- Ramp
- Removal
- Equipment
- Counters Matter
- Creatures
- Misc
- Planeswalkers (Subtheme)
This build will attempt to cram in equipment or counters matter in the other categories in order to increase my ability to pump up Sigarda. If I can squeeze in cards that have additional card draw effects elsewhere I should do so as well as creatures as I will have to cut creatures to make room for the voltron cards. Miscellaneous can be cut as we have planeswalker subtheme and it will limit what else we can do that is cool. I could not build that much additional card draw in as a package for itself but I was able to select a couple of cards that will help get things into my hand that fit elsewhere usually they were cantrip effects that allowed me to draw an extra card. I was also able to include nine additional cards that are either creatures or make tokens.
Final Packages
- Lands 37
- Card Draw/Quality 11
- Ramp 16
- Removal 9
- Equipment 9
- Counter Matter 8
- Creatures 8
- Misc 4
- Planeswalkers (subtheme) 18
A lesson From College
I was blessed to be married to my wife, Victoria, for fourteen years. We were in college in the early dating phase, At that time she wated to speak out more in class and participate. Being a phychology major she set up a positive reinforcement program where she rewarded herself with some of her favorite potato chips whenever she participated in class. This experiment was very successful.
There is a lesson here if you do not like to deck build, if it is not your cup of tea. Try rewarding yourself with something small when you do it. These little rewards positively rearward you for the deck building behaviors. This will help encourage you to perform these tasks in the future. Stay faithful to the process. Your decks will be more focused for it.
As always if you have any questions feel free to email me at commanderclinigmtg@gmail.com and I will get back to you as quickly as possible.
