Commander is the format you are most likely to meet at a game store table. Four players, 100 cards each, and one legendary creature that leads the whole deck. This guide covers how to pick that creature, what goes in the other 99 cards, how to make your first deck better one swap at a time, and what to say when you sit down at Bat City Games & Comics.
What Commander is, in plain words
Commander is Magic: The Gathering for a crowd. Wizards of the Coast, who makes Magic, sets the rules like this. Your deck is one commander plus 99 other cards. You can have only one copy of any card, except basic lands. Everyone starts at 40 life instead of 20, and the game is a free-for-all, usually with four players, so you spend as much time reading the table as attacking it.
Your commander is the card the deck is built around, usually a legendary creature. It does not start in your deck. It waits in a special spot called the command zone, face up, and you can cast it any time you can pay for it. If it dies or gets exiled, you may send it back to the command zone and cast it again, but every trip costs two more mana than the last.
Two more rules are worth knowing before you sit down. Every card in your deck may only use the colors that appear on your commander, which Wizards calls color identity. And if one commander deals you 21 combat damage over the course of a game, you lose, even with life left.
Pick a commander you like saying out loud
Skip the advice about the strongest commander. For a first deck, pick one you would be happy to explain to three strangers. A character you love, a creature type you collect, or a color you already like all work. If you grin when you read it, that is the one.
If you would rather start playing sooner, start with a ready-made Commander deck. Wizards sells them already built around a commander, with all 100 cards in the box. They are a fast way to see how a deck fits together, and they leave you room to change things later. Four new ones arrive with the Star Trek set on Nov 13, and the release week rundown has the details. Ask at the counter what's on the shelf.
What goes in the other 99 cards
Here is a common starting recipe. Treat it as a recipe, not a rule, and expect to bend it.
- Lands: about 36 to 38. Commander games run long and greedy, and missing a land drop hurts more than drawing too many. Start here and cut one or two later if you want.
- Mana boosters: about 10. Cards that make extra mana or fetch more lands, so you can cast your big cards sooner.
- Card draw: about 10. Anything that refills your hand. A deck that runs out of cards runs out of ideas.
- Removal and answers: about 8. Cards that handle someone else's problem, like one wild creature or one enchantment that is ruining the table.
- Everything else: your plan. The last 30 or so cards are the reason you picked this commander. They do what your commander does, only more of it.
Count them in the deck you build. If you find you have only three answers and nothing that draws, that is your first shopping list.
Upgrade the deck you already have
You do not need to start over to make a deck yours. After three or four games, you will know which cards you never wanted to draw and which ones won you something. Here is the order we would go in.
- Fix the mana first. Count your lands and mana boosters. If one color keeps stranding you, swap in lands that make it.
- Cut the weakest five. Take out the cards that did nothing, or that you forgot were in there. Every deck has them.
- Replace them with cards that do your commander's job. If it loves a creature type, add more of that type. If it wants to attack, add ways to get it there.
- Change a few at a time. Swap five cards, play three games, then decide. Change forty at once and you will never know what worked.
You do not need to buy your way up. Most of the gain is in cutting weak cards and fixing the mana. Ask your table what they would cut, and bring the list to the counter if you want help finding replacements.
Match your deck to the table
Before the game, tell the table what you brought. Wizards publishes five optional Commander brackets to make that conversation easier: Exhibition, Core, Upgraded, Optimized and cEDH. The games get faster and more competitive as the number goes up. The brackets are still in beta, and Wizards calls them a way to start a conversation, not a rulebook.
A first deck usually fits Core, which Wizards describes as unoptimized and straightforward, with low-pressure, socially focused play. You do not have to memorize the list. The skill is a sentence you can say out loud.
This is my first deck, and I am not trying to win in four turns.
Your first game
- Say it is your first. At the counter and at the table. People slow down for a newcomer, and they will tell you what their cards do.
- Put your commander in the command zone. Face up beside your deck, where everyone can read it.
- Draw seven and start. Everyone begins at 40 life, and turns pass clockwise. A life counter or a twenty-sided die with a pencil for the tens will do.
- Read your commander out loud the first time you cast it. The other players will want to hear it, and so will you.
- Watch the whole table. You are not playing one opponent. Sometimes the best move is the one that stops whoever is about to win.
You'll hear a rule you have never heard before, probably within the first ten minutes. Ask. Nobody at the table has forgotten what it was like to start.
Where to play in South Austin
Commander Night is every Wednesday, 6 to 10 PM, at Bat City Games & Comics, 5001 Highway 290 in Sunset Valley. It is free to play. Wednesday is also new comics day, so you can grab the week's books on the way in.
If you are new, say so at the counter and we will get you a table. You will not need echolocation to find it. Look for the table with the open seats and someone explaining a card. Bring your deck, or come see how a table runs before you build one.