The Commander’s Chair – Hmm, Upgrades

By now, the new Commander decks should be available to everyone. I hope everyone reading this is able to pick up at least one of the decks. After you are done playing with these decks against each other in their natural state, you will want to make some improvements, so that you can start playing against regular Commander decks.

Tweaking a Commander deck is an ongoing process for every Commander player. There is not a “best deck” available like you get with competitive formats. For most Commanders there is not even a best build for their deck. Today I will be going over the basic method for upgrading your Commander deck using the preconstructed deck Mirror Mastery as an example.

The Commander’s Chair – Why Everyone Should be Playing Commander

I have heard a slightly disturbing rumor; there are people out who walk among us who play Magic the Gathering, but they do not play Commander. As hard as it may be too believe, I still hear people saying they do not play and that they do not have any interest in playing. In general, these people are “competitive only” players who treat Commander and any casual format as a waste of time.

Today, I am here to tell you that while Commander is a casual format, Commander is not just for casual players. Everyone who plays magic on any level should find a way to get in a few Commander matches every now and then. Hopefully after reading this article, you can start playing yourself, or convince some of your spikier friends to start playing.

The Commander’s Chair – The Age of Legends

The full commander spoilers have been released. I do not think I have ever been more excited for a release. We have 51 all new Magic cards. More importantly, we have 15 all new multi-colored legends to add to the list of possible commanders. Today, I will be going over each of the new multi-colored commanders and what archetypes they could accommodate.

The Commander’s Chair – Magical Mushrooms

Last week on twitter, I asked which tribe people would like to see as an example tribal deck. The twitter community answered back with a wide variety of suggestions. These suggestions ranged from the commonly known elves and goblins to the more obscure tribes such a Homarid and Unicorns. The tribe that got more than 5 times the votes of any other – Fungus.

Tribal decks are unusual, in that they are not completely an archetype on their own. Tribal decks work by choosing a tribe, and then working with the natural archetype that goes along with that tribe. For example, Azami decks are wizard tribal decks. Most people do not think of them as tribal, since they play like either tradition control or speed combo decks. Still, they play almost exclusively within the wizard creature type.

Thran Utopia #10: Rules of the house

Hi everybody and welcome back! Today I would like to discuss the rules we have established within our group. When you are not playing in a competitive setting, there is absolutely no harm in changing a few things here and there to allow the group to keep having fun, or to have more fun. We have even done this outside of Magic, using the stack when things get blurry in Arkham Horror or Fluxx to solve these issues. But today, I’m gonna go over the house rules we have in our group, why we have them, and why house rules are good for you and your game.

The Commander’s Chair – Tap that Core

One of the most enjoyable Archetypes to play and to build for Commander is a Themed Deck. Themed decks are based around a specific card or mechanic. They are fun to build because they care more about playing with style than winning. There is a card out there that I absolutely love, but I do not play nearly enough;

The Commander’s Chair – The Archetypes

With the new Commander decks on the horizon, we are hopefully going to see a large influx of new players in the format. They are going to be wondering, “What kind of deck should I build?” There are so many possibilities that the format can be overwhelming for first timers. It could be productive to review the main archetypes present in commander, to better help them in deciding what they want to play. There are a surprising number of archetypes in commander;

The Commander’s Chair – RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

Sometimes it is acceptable just to have fun playing a Commander deck.  After some recent discussions on Twitter, I figured it was about time someone came out with a fun mono-blue deck.  I am not talking about a combo deck or a control deck.  I am not even talking about a deck that lets you draw a ton of cards or take a bunch of turns.  I am talking about embracing the essence of blue, water.

This is how I go through building decks that are just about having fun.  Winning with this deck isn’t about defeating your opponents; it is about seeing the look on peoples face when you actually play a Sea Monster deck.  It will pack just enough of a punch that you can pull of a few wins out of nowhere.

The Commander’s Chair – The Voltron Matrix

I  like to build decks with a strong overall theme and synergies that flow throughout the entire deck.  During the Reaper King contest, two particular cards were brought to my attention, Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Juniper Order Ranger. I want to build a deck around the strong synergies related to both of these creatures.  To accomplish this, I will use one of my favorite methods of deck construction, the Matrix.  The Matrix isn’t just an awesome movie. It is also a wonderful way to plan out a deck.  You start with a primary focus point for your deck and build around it.  In most cases, this is your general.  However, you can choose anything to be the focus of your Matrix.

The Commander’s Chair #5.2 – Bonus Tool Time! Starring NPH

“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

With New Phyrexia on the horizon, we have a whole new group of cards to look at for Commander. The biggest news (for me) is that we have been given a new Boros commander, Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer.  If you have metalcraft, Jor Kadeen only needs three swings to kill an opponent.  In the last article, I covered the basic idea of using a toolbox in Commander.  In this article, I will build a deck centered on Jor Kadeen and the toolbox strategy.