As mentioned last week, this post will be all about how to play commander and its brief history.
A Brief History
MTG was originally designed by a small company at the time Wizards of the Coast. WoTC for short made MTG in 1993, The format of commander was not officially recognized by WoTC until 2011. Before Commander was called commander it was originally named Elder Dragon Highlander. The name comes from two things, Elder dragon comes from the fact that originally the format only allowed Elder dragons as leaders/generals for your deck. Highlander was another format that consisted of 100 cards with 0 duplicates (aside basic lands) so if you put them together you have an Elder dragon highlander deck hence the original name. Since 2011 commander has grown a whole lot in 2011 wizards released pre constructed decks that made getting into the format even easier. These decks later on would become very popular as they would contain unique and powerful cards.
How to play this format!
To begin playing commander one must first pick a commander, a commander can be any creature in MTG that contains the text Legendary Creature on its types. An example is Meren here, she is a Legendary Creature – Human Shaman. This Commander determines one major thing, and one minor thing. The major thing being your decks colors. So Meren contains a Black Mana and a Green Mana meaning your deck CAN ONLY contain cards of those colors, either fully green, fully black or green/black combo cards. In the highlander format it could allow you to play cards with split mana that contain colors not in your main deck, in commander that is not the case, all cards MUST be in your commanders color identity. The minor idea is the theme of the deck, some commanders work a lot better when a synergistic theme is in mind. Meren likes to use the graveyard so getting cards that make effects when they die or enter the battlefield/graveyard are her main idea! This by no means that you must follow a theme, it just helps make the deck flow together much better.
Next up is the rules of commander aside from picking your commander! In commander each player will start with 40 life instead of 20, and unlike normal magic your not allowed duplicate cards. You must make a deck containing 100 unique cards aside from basic lands. Well some exceptions to this rule apply its few and far between. Your commander is considered in the total count so 99 other unique cards are required! After designing your deck around your commanders colors and getting all 100 cards your deck is essentially all good to go! The next rule in commander is called “Commander Damage”. Commander Damage is essentially a way to win even if your opponent has 20,000 life, all this rule means is that if your commander deals 21 or more damage to an opponent then they lose no matter what. Commander also has a nice little extra rule in place being that there are no restrictions to sets, time of release on the card aside from unhinged cards which are intentionally meant to be silly and game breaking those are still not allowed. Aside from those rules commander functions very similar to normal MTG. The format does encourage 4 player games though, but it can still be played with 2!
How can I get into commander?
The best way to learn and get into commander is 2 ways. A live demonstration from friends who play the format, and maybe borrowing a deck and trying to play yourself! The easier and more direct start is the pre-constructed decks made by WoTC. They are typically easier to play, built around a theme, and overall hold a solid fight against a lot of custom decks! They are not too expensive either, they when released as a yearly product range to be around 45 – 50 dollars, whereas recently the new decks have come out to be about 20 dollars. They also include instructions on how to play the format that go more in depth then even I did! To help give an example of what a commander deck list might look like I plan to post a deck list next week that hopefully helps break down how to build a proper deck.
Leave a Reply