Quick Overview of some Commanders
This isn't the only way to play these commanders, and there is a lot of debate if this is even the best way to play these commanders. I am simply stating the most common ways that these commanders are played. I’ve included both competitive and high-powered commanders, because different metas will lead to different deck needs. I won't be posting decklists (it would take up too much space), and I also won’t be ranking these commanders, because that will cause way too many unnecessary arguments.
Alesha, Who Smiles at DeathPlaystyle: Use hatebears like
Containment Priest,
Aven Mindcensor, and
Eidolon of Rhetoric to stax your opponents, ensuring that they can't combo off. If your creatures die, Alesha can bring them back.
Winning the game: Kiki-Jiki combo, or use a sacrifice outlet and
Blood Artist with creatures that make a loop together (Ex:
Reveillark and
Karmic Guide)
Aminatou, the FateshifterPlaystyle: The deck is mostly based around Aminatou’s second ability. Cards like
Wishclaw Talisman and
Gilded Drake have a lot of synergy with her. The deck is very adaptive, being able to either go for the combo, or use disruption.
Winning the game: Felidar Guardian goes infinite with Aminatou, but there is also
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries with
Demonic Consultation,
Ad Nauseam with
Angel’s Grace, and the
Smothering Tithe loops (see the Kraum+Tymna entry for more info).
Anafenza, the ForemostPlaystyle: Another hatebears deck. Using
Scavenging Ooze,
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Anafenza herself, you fine-tune this deck to be able to beat specific decks. Be warned; while this tactic is good at stopping other decks, it's pretty hard to win the game yourself.
Winning the game: Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite with
Living Plane (
Nature's Revolt for budget players) will soft-lock your opponents, so you can win with incremental combat damage.
Animar, Soul of ElementsPlaystyle: A very creature heavy deck. Animar gives you a discount on creature spells. Make sure to also have card draw (
Soul of the Harvest,
Runic Armasaur) to get into your combo.
Winning the game: Ancestral Statue makes Animar infinitely big. Paired with a draw engine, you draw untill you get
Walking Ballista, and then have it enter with lots of +1/+1 counters, to shoot people to death.
Anje FalkenrathPlaystyle: The madness cards are almost entirely in here for deck thinning, but some of them also have limited use. This allows Anje to very quickly rummage through the deck to find the combo pieces.
Winning the game: With
Worldgorger Dragon in the graveyard (Anje can discard it), target it with an enchantment like
Animate Dead or
Dance of the Dead.
Worldgorger Dragon continually enters the battlefield, exiles all permanents, gets sacrificed, returns all permanents, and then start all over. During this loop you can float infinite mana and use Anje to search for a winning outlet (
Comet Storm, Avacyn’s Judgement).
Arcum DagssonPlaystyle: The
Paradox Engine ban knocked
Arcum Dagsson’s power down. A lot. There is still a lot up in the air about the future of Arcum in cEDH, but it seems like most people have accepted that he will never be as powerful as before. He is still a combo deck that uses 0 mana creatures to search for things, but he has consistency problems.
Winning the game: Arcum Dagsson is used to search for Isochon Scepter. Take a
wild guess what instant needs to be in your hand first. After imprinting
Dramatic Reversal, activate it to untap Arcum. Then get him to search for
Aetherflux Reservoir. With infinite casts off of Isochon Scepter, you get infinite life, and then super-nuke everyone.
Atla Palani, Nest TenderPlaystyle: Combo deck that uses smaller stax effects (
Damping Sphere,
Collector Ouphe) in the early game, to buy enough time before combo turn.
Winning the game: This combo is confusing, so read carefully. To start, Alta needs some kind of buff (a +1/+1 counter, or something like
Mutagenic Growth) and
Mirror Entity needs to be on the battlefield. Activate
Mirror Entity's ability for X=0, about 10 000 times. This turns all your creatures into base 0/0, and they die as eggs (except Atla, she has a buff). For each of those creatures, you reveal until you hit another creature. Then the next instance of
Mirror Entity resolves, and you do it again. This keeps going until
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth shows up, and your graveyard gets reshuffled, starting the loop again. With enough cycles,
Dockside Extortionist gives infinite mana, which lets Atla make eggs, adding more creatures to the loop.
Village Bell-Ringer untaps Atla, so you can just keep making more eggs. Eventually, you will have all your creatures cycling through the deck. The loop stops, and
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and
Village Bell-Ringer win the game.
Azami, Lady of ScrollsPlaystyle: Counterspell deck with tribal wizards. Use Azami and wizards to draw lots of cards to counter your opponent's win conditions, and build into your own combo.
Winning the game: Using either Dramatic Scepter or
Mind Over Matter, draw your entire deck and win with
Laboratory Maniac.
Baral, Chief of CompliancePlaystyle: Another
counterspell deck. Use a heavy
counterspell package and lots of card draw to stall the game for other players.
Winning the game: Generate infinite mana with Dramatic Scepter, and win with
Blue Sun's Zenith.
Brago, King EternalPlaystyle: Stax deck. Brago blinks stuff, which basically amounts to the same as untapping artifacts. You can untap your things that remained tapped from
Static Orb. There are even some unique pieces like
Stupefying Touch and
Rishadan Footpad.
Winning the game: Accumulate more and more stax pieces, making it harder for your opponents to play, and then slowly
eliminate their permanents with
Rishadan Cutpurse,
Rishadan Footpad,
Armageddon, and other effects.
Brallin, Skyshark Rider + Shabraz, the SkysharkPlaystyle: Shabraz is just used for the colors. This deck is similar to Kraum + Tymna. Play lots of wheel effects until you can find a win.
Winning the game: Almost always starts with
Smothering Tithe. That way, you have the mana to keep playing wheel effects. End the game with something like
Molten Psyche or just Brallin.
Breya, Etherium ShaperPlaystyle: Amazing artifact deck. There are all kinds of infinite combos you can pack into Breya, so the goal of the deck is to build any one of them. Black, blue, and white have lots of artifact tutors, so you'll have little trouble getting the cards you need.
Winning the game: There's lots of combos, but the most common one is to generate infinite colored mana (with Dramatic Scepter, for example) and then sacrifice Breya and a thopter to repeatedly deal 3 damage to opponents.
Captain SisayPlaystyle: Toolbox stax deck. Sisay can search for a whole suit of legendary stax cards (
Linvala, Keeper of Silence,
Gaddock Teeg, Thalia, Gardian of Thraben) to match most decks. She can also search for pieces to protect her own board-state.
Winning the game: The
Paradox Engine ban hit this deck hard. Currently, the deck wins with locks.
Karn, the Great Creator +
Mycosynth Lattice,
Brisela, Voice of Nightmares +
Gaddock Teeg, or
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite/
Linvala, Keeper of Silence +
Nature’s Revolt/
Living Plane.
Cazur, Ruthless Stalker + Ukkima, Stalking ShadowPlaystyle: Food Chain deck with Ukkima as the outlet.
Winning the game: Food Chain combo. Also uses other combos that layer well like Tainted Oracle.
Chulane, Teller of TalesPlaystyle: A hatebears deck that gets to use the best parts of Alesha and Anafenza. Chulane also gives good card draw and green creature tutors let the deck search for the ideal hatebear.
Winning the game: Using something like
Cloudstone Curio,
Aluren, or
Intruder Alarm, Chulane can draw the entire deck to find a win condition.
Circu, Dimir LobotomistPlaystyle: This is a pure combo deck (with slight control elements) that wins by using the dramatic scepter combo. Even if you don’t net positive mana, the copies are cast, so Circu will mill out all your opponents.
Winning the game: I just said how to win. Use the dramatic scepter combo to mill out your opponents. Pay attention next time.
Damia, Sage of StonePlaystyle: Of the
counterspell decks, this one is probably the weakest in terms of countering ability. Still, sultai colors are powerful in commander, so you can build a combo, and protect it.
Winning the game: Tooth and Nail is the go-to. You can get
Protean Hulk and
Viscera Seer (see the
Protean Hulk combo in a previous post), or
Deadeye Navigator and
Peregrine Drake for infinite mana.
Daretti, Scrap SavantPlaystyle: Artifact stax deck, and one of the few mono-red decks that work in cEDH. If any of your artifacts get destroyed, bringing them back is really easy.
Winning the game: Daretti's emblem let's you out-value your opponents, but it's usually too hard to set up. Still, it soft-locks the game with either
Possessed Portal or
Smokestack. Alternatively,
Mycosynth Lattice and
Vandalblast.
Derevi, Empyrial TacticianPlaystyle: Stax deck. Because Derevi can untap things, she's less affected by cards like
Static Orb, and the tap effect can turn off a
Trinisphere if needed.
Winning the game: Soft-lock with
Stasis or
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and
Living Plane (
Nature's Revolt, for those on a budget).
Edric, Spymaster of TrestPlaystyle: Counterspell control deck. Use low cost creatures with evasion to hit your opponents and draw cards. Use counterspells and removal pieces to stop your opponents from comboing off.
Winning the game: Cast extra turn spells (notably,
Notorious Throng) and bring them back (
Regrowth). This is one of the few decks that wins with incremental combat damage.
Elsha of the InfinitePlaystyle: Combo-control deck, similar to most Jeskai builds.
Winning the game: Sensei's Divining Top with any cost reducer (
Helm of Awakening) and Elsha lets you draw your whole deck. I’m sure you'll find a way to win after that.
Ugh! Fine, I'll tell you. Use
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, then draw with an empty deck to win. Happy?
Fblthp, the LostPlaystyle: Deck with no creatures other than Fblthp. When
Proteus Staff is used on Fblthp, it allows you to completely re-order your deck. You also immediately draw the first two cards you put on top, so that’s nice too.
Winning the game: There are multiple routes, but the most common is to make the first four cards (top to bottom)
Gush,
Mana Crypt,
Dramatic Reversal,
Isochron Scepter. Use
Gush to draw into Dramatic Scepter, and generate infinite mana. Re-use
Proteus Staff on Fblthp to draw
Capsize. Infinite bounce loop.
General TazriPlaystyle: The deck uses heavy tutor power to find
Food Chain, and then either
Squee, the Immortal,
Eternal Scourge, or
Misthollow Griffin, to generate infinite mana.
Winning the game: General Tazri can then be used to search for a win condition (
Hagra Diabolist,
Halimar Excavator), and then she will be continuously recast for infinite
rally triggers.
Ghave, Guru of SporesPlaystyle: Weird combo deck. It can use cards like
Phyrexian Altar and
Young Wolf to make infinite mana and infinite tokens. Because this combo is pretty fragile, you’ll need to adjust this deck to your meta with relevant stax and protection.
Winning the game: Blood Artist,
Blasting Station,
Concordant Crossroads, or
Zulaport Cutthroat with the above loop.
God-Eternal KefnetPlaystyle: Kefnet functions as a light control deck, but ultimately builds into an infinite turn combo.
Winning the game: Using
Scroll Rack, you put an extra turn spell on top of your library (like
Time Warp). You draw the extra turn spell, and cast it’s copy with Kefnet. Then you use
Scroll Rack to put the extra turn spell back on top. With infinite extra turns, you can win with commander damage.
Godo, Bandit WarlordPlaystyle: Massive mana ramp. The deck is a race to 11 mana (tip: use
Treasonous Ogre). There are also cards like
Brass Squire and
Hammer of Nazahn that make it less mana.
Winning the game: Spend 6 mana to cast Godo, fetching
Helm of the Host. Spend 5 mana to equip him. Come combat, you get a non-legendary copy that gives an extra combat step. Win with infinite combat damage.
Golos, Tireless PilgrimPlaystyle: Combo deck that abuses one of Golos’ two abilities. More commonly the second ability, because it’s an infinite mana sink. Because Golos is all five colors, there is a lot of freedom for combo-crafting and meta adjustments.
Winning the game: Two ways. The first, more common way is to somehow make infinite mana (it’s a 5-color deck, you have every way of making infinite mana), and then activate Golos to cast your entire deck. The second, funnier way involves infinite
flicker of Golos (or self-mill and then
Splendid Reclamation) to assemble all the pieces of
Maze’s End.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IVPlaystyle: Stax deck that in my opinion is a little overrated.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (nicknamed GAA4 or just Pope) discounts your stuff, and taxes your opponents. This means your stax pieces/counterspells/card draw cost less, and your opponents’ answers cost more.
Winning the game: Gradually stax out your opponents more and more, or just win with a combo (usually making infinite mana and then looping
Blue Sun’s Zenith).
Grand Warlord RadhaPlaystyle: Use mana dorks and tokens producers to generate lots of mana fast.
Winning the game: Radha goes infinite with
Aggravated Assault or
Hellkite Charger. Because you can gererate mana on a massive scale,
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is another combo that you can insert.
Grenzo, Dungeon WardenPlaystyle: Pure combo deck. Search for
Doomsday as quickly as possible (black has the best selection of tutors, so this isn’t too difficult). You need to have Grenzo on the field when you cast
Doomsday.
Winning the game: There are two main piles you can make; one with
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and one with
Murderous Redcap. The first pile goes (from top to bottom) [any card],
Zealous Conscripts,
Goblin Sledder,
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker,
Priest of Gix. Use two mana from lands to activate Grenzo getting
Priest of Gix. Use two of that mana to activate Grenzo again, getting Kiki-Jiki. Tap Kiki-Jiki to copy
Priest of Gix. You now have 4 black mana floating. Use Grenzo to get
Goblin Sledder, and sacrifice the sledder to give Grenzo a +1/+1 counter. Activate him one last time to get
Zealous Conscripts, and win the game. The second pile goes
Metallic Mimic,
Murderous Redcap,
Skirk Prospector,
Priest of Urabrask,
Priest of Gix. You need three mana to start this combo. Activate Grenzo to get
Priest of Gix (4 mana left). Activate again to get
Priest of Urabrask (5 mana left). Activate again to get
Skirk Prospector, and again to get
Murderous Redcap (1 mana left). Sacrifice the Redcap to
Skirk Prospector. With the persist trigger on the stack, activate Grenzo in response to get
Metallic Mimic naming Goblins. You now have an infinite sacrifice loop.
Haldan, Avid Arcanist + Pako, Arcane RetrieverPlaystyle: Control deck that aims to get Pako out on turn 2, followed by Haldan turn 3. Pako is able to get you into your control and removal cards and also allows you to use your opponents’ interaction and tutors.
Winning the game: Seasons Past loop. Cast an extra turn spell and use
Seasons Past to get it back. Then use either
Mystical Tutor or
Personal Tutor to get
Seasons Past back. Take infinite extra turns, and win with Pako’s combat damage. Because this combo takes a lot of mana, it has to happen in the late game.
Hanna, Ship's NavigatorPlaystyle: Stax deck that uses irritating artifacts and enchantments. If they get destroyed, Hanna can bring them back.
Winning the game: Hard-lock using cards like
Rule of Law and
Knowledge Pool. Typically, the lock will only be engaged if Hanna has a stronger creature board (stuff like
Wurmcoil Engine) than other players.
Hapatra, Vizier of PoisonsPlaystyle: Combo deck that has all sorts of synergies with -1/-1 counters. Cards like
Wickerbough Elder,
Devoted Druid, and
Channeler Initiate can do some interesting things. Make sure you have lots of cards that support tokens like
Concordant Crossroads and
Skullclamp.
Winning the game: Hapatra has an infinite loop with
Blowfly Infestation, which can win you the game if you have
Blood Artist or
Zulaport Cutthroat out. There are also the usual combos with
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and
Protean Hulk.
Heliod, Sun CrownedPlaystyle: One of two mono-white cEDH commanders. This build uses the mono-white hatebears and asymmetrical stax pieces to delay the opponent’s win conditions.
Winning the game: Walking Ballista is a one-card combo with Heliod. Just play
Walking Ballista with two counters and then give it
lifelink. Everytime you remove a counter and it deals damage, Heliod gives it another counter.
Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy // Jace, Telepath UnboundPlaystyle: Mono-blue storm. Use Jace for card draw and recursion. This deck uses a lot of card draw spells (notably,
Gush and
Frantic Search) as well as lots of untap effects. Also
High Tide; you want to get this card almost every game you play.
Winning the game: Because you’ll have lots of 0 mana artifacts in this deck (all the moxes,
Mana Crypt) you can scrape out a win if you can cast
Enter the Infinite (
Mind’s Dilation is also really good). Once you’ve casted a bunch of stuff, you can win with
Aetherflux Reservoir and Dramatic Scepter.
Jeleva, Nephalia’s ScourgePlaystyle: Now seems like a good time to describe how grixis storm decks work. The goal is to cast a bunch of spells in one turn. To accomplish casting a bunch of spells in one turn, you need lots of card draw (
Wheel of Fortune), and untap effects that net neutral or positive mana (one of the reasons why
Frantic Search is so good). You also need ways to recur spells from your graveyard, using
Past in Flames or
Yawgmoth’s Will. While Jeleva is a good commander for this tactic,
Kess, Dissident Mage and
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder tend to work better. The advantage with Jeleva, is that you can use your opponents’ spells.
Winning the game: Aetherflux Reservoir racks up a lot of life as you cast spells, letting you nuke your opponents once you hit 151 life.
Tendrils of Agony also works really well (
Grapeshot has fallen out of favor, but it’s an option).
Jegantha, the WellspringPlaystyle: Proactive combo deck. Unfortunately, Kenrith is pretty much the same, only better.
Winning the game: Use something like
Pemmin’s Aura or Dramatic Scepter to make infinite mana. You’ll also need something to filter Jegantha’s mana into something usable.
Jhoira of the GhituPlaystyle: Suspend really big spells. Usually mass land destruction and Eldrazi with
annihilate. Mana ramp is super important; you want to get Jhoira out around turn 2, suspend something turn 3, and then use counterspells and stax to make sure no one else wins before you. Sadly, this deck is fairly slow, so it has fallen out of favor.
Winning the game: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with
Deceiver Exarch or
Pestermite (both of these cards also help a little with the deck). Alternatively, lots of Eldrazi with
annihilate.
Jhoira, Weatherlight CaptainPlaystyle: The better Jhoira. Use lots of 1 or 0 mana artifacts to draw yourself into a combo. Usually
Isochron Scepter+
Dramatic Reversal.
Winning the game: Use the
Isochron Scepter to loop
Capsize with buyback, mill people with
Blue Sun's Zenith, or use
Darksteel Forge,
Nevinyrral's Disk, and
Mycosynth Lattice to destroy everything your opponent's hold dear.
Mycosynth Lattice with
Vandalblast also works really well.
Jodah, Archmage EternalPlaystyle: May as well be titled
Omniscience: the deck. Jodah can cast really big mana spells, for 5 mana. There is also
Sneak Attack and
Show and Tell. If you can
Show and Tell into
Omniscience on turn 2, you basically just win.
Winning the game: If you have 10 mana (2 of each color) you can cast
Enter the Infinite, and then
Omniscience. You now have your whole deck in hand, that you can cast for free. You’ll win somehow (
Time Stretch and
Approach of the Second Sun is a simple option).
Kaalia of the VastPlaystyle: It really sucks that there aren’t a whole lot of good demons/angels/dragons that instantly win you the game.
Master of Cruelties lets you insta-kill someone if he was cheated in and
Hellkite Tyrant is a nice alternate win. In any case, you need to cast and attack with Kaalia as fast as possible, so don’t shrimp out on the mana ramp and haste enablers.
Winning the game: Use either
Doomsday or
Insidious Dreams to put five cards on top, in this order:
Hellcarver Demon,
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker,
Combat Celebrant,
World at War,
Grand Abolisher. Draw
Hellcarver Demon (somehow) and get him into play by attacking with Kaalia. When he deals damage, you lose your boardstate, but get Kiki-Jiki,
Combat Celebrant, and an extra combat. Thanks to
Grand Abolisher, your opponents can’t do anything, so you’ve already won. Then you use the Kiki-Jiki + Celebrant combo to win.
Karador, Ghost ChieftainPlaystyle: This was the
Protean Hulk deck before
Protean Hulk was unbanned. Unfortunately, all of the combos are super susceptible to interaction. Fortunately, Karador let’s you recur creatures, and makes
Entomb and
Buried Alive additional tutors you can use. Be sure to include hate bears; this deck is slow compared to other combo decks.
Winning the game: Boonweaver Giant combo. To start, you need a sacrifice outlet (like
Phyrexian Altar). Cast
Boonweaver Giant, and attach
Pattern of Rebirth when it enters. Sacrifice it to get
Karmic Guide from
Pattern of Rebirth.
Karmic Guide brings back
Boonweaver Giant, which reattaches
Pattern of Rebirth. Sacrifice Boonweaver to get
Fiend Hunter, which exiles
Karmic Guide. Then you sacrifice the
Fiend Hunter to bring back
Karmic Guide,
Boonweaver Giant, and
Pattern of Rebirth. Sacrifice Boonweaver to get
Reveillark. Sacrifice
Karmic Guide. Sacrifice
Reveillark bringing back
Karmic Guide and
Fiend Hunter.
Karmic Guide returns Boonweaver+
Rebirth, and
Fiend Hunter exiles
Karmic Guide. Sacrifice Boonweaver to get
Blood Artist. Sacrifice
Fiend Hunter to get
Karmic Guide and
Reveillark. You now have an infinite sacrifice loop, so you win with
Blood Artist.
Kenrith, the Returned KingPlaystyle: There are so many different ways to play Kenrith that’s it’s difficult to say which is preferred. Having an ability that draws cards and another that reanimates creatures makes his a very versatile commander in 5 colors.
Winning the game: Deadeye Navigator +
Dockside Extortionist gets infinite mana, and then Kenrith can force it’s opponents to draw their entire deck.
Keranos, God of StormsPlaystyle: Affectionately called mass everything destruction. The deck uses land-hate cards like
Blood Moon and
Back to Basics, as well as mass destruction cards like
Jokulhaups and
Decree of Annihilation (hard-cast). Because you will have Keranos (and a suite of enchantments and planeswalkers), these cards will hurt your opponents more than you.
Winning the game: After a massive boardwipe, Keranos can start attacking assuming the devotion is high enough. This is a little slow though, so the deck also includes some infinite mana combos with Dramatic Scepter into
Walking Ballista, or
Capsize loops.
Kess, Dissident MagePlaystyle: A grixis storm deck. See the entry for
Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge. It’s basically the same deck, but Kess makes a better commander.
Winning the game: Aetherflux Reservoir or
Tendrils of Agony. Sometimes Dramatic Scepter and
Capsize are used as a backup win.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror BreakerPlaystyle: Remember how I said Kiki-Jiki goes infinite with either
Combat Celebrant or
Zealous Conscripts? That’s basically what this deck does. The issue is that because this deck can win almost instantly mid to late game, but has little to no protection,
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker dies almost immediately after you play him. Damn near every time.
Winning the game: There are other combos like
Thornbite Staff and
Mogg Fanatic, or the
Lightning Crafter combo. With Kiki-Jiki on the battlefield, and a sac outlet (like
Skirk Prospector or
Ashnod’s Altar) you cast
Lightning Crafter. The rest of this combo as at instant-speed, and in response to the initial Champion trigger, so it never resolves. Tap Kiki-Jiki to make a copy of
Lightning Crafter, and get the copy to champion Kiki-Jiki, exiling him. Tap the copy to deal 3 damage to a player. Sacrifice the copy to return Kiki-Jiki from
exile, and the loop repeats.
Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyPlaystyle: Make massive amounts of mana.
Winning the game: Basalt Monolith,
Bloom Tender +
Freed from the Real, and Dramatic Scepter are good ways to make infinite mana. Then you can use
Thrasios, Triton Hero to draw your deck, and find
Thassa’s Oracle to win the game.
Korvold, Fae-Cursed KingPlaystyle: Another
Food Chain deck. Korvold provides better value than Prossh, which allows different avenues than just pure-combo.
Winning the game: Start with the
Food Chain loop to get infinite mana to spend on creatures. For best results, use
Squee, the Immortal as the
Food Chain creature. With infinite mana floating, cast Korvold, sacrificing Squee to draw a card.
Exile Korvold with
Food Chain, then re-cast Squee from the graveyard. Continue this cycle to draw the entire deck and find a win-con.
Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus + Tymna the WeaverPlaystyle: Combo deck that revolves around wheel effects (
Windfall,
Wheel of Fortune). The deck needs some kind of additional pay-off from the wheels to win. This deck performs very well against creature-based decks, because the lack of creatures with activated abilities cards like
Suppression Field and
Cursed Totem are used.
Winning the game: Four cards that do it;
Notion Thief,
Alms Collector,
Waste Not, and
Smothering Tithe. With either
Notion Thief or
Alms Collector, your opponents lose their hands after a wheel, while you draw a bunch of other cards, giving you a massive advantage and more-or-less putting them in top-deck mode (
Narset, Parter of Veils is also used sometimes). With
Waste Not, you get a bunch of value from having lots of black mana, and additional cards draw (zombie tokens are good too I guess). But the real combo involves
Smothering Tithe. After a wheel, you draw a new hand, and get a bunch of Treasure tokens. This means you can cast whatever cards you just drew, which will likely include other draw spells… like another wheel effect. Keep the massive card draw going to either storm off, win with
Laboratory Maniac +
Demonic Consultation/
Tainted Pact, win with
Angel’s Grace and
Ad Nauseam, or cast
Molten Psyche after your opponents have drawn a lot of cards.
Krenko, Mob BossPlaystyle: While not the best commander, he has always been my favorite. This is also one of the few decks that can win with combat damage. Your goal is to build up a board of goblin tokens as quickly as possible. Be warned; there is very little card draw in red, and the deck is susceptible to stax effects. Also, calculating damage takes a lot of math skills.
Winning the game: Either massive combat damage from something like
Shared Animosity, burn spells like
Goblin War Strike and
Skirk Fire Marshal, or infinite token combos with
Thornbite Staff,
Umbral Mantle, or
Breath of Fury.
Kruphix, God of HorizonsPlaystyle: Generate lots of colorless mana. Keep in mind, if that mana has some property attached to it (like from
Cavern of Souls) it keeps that property as phases change. The deck plays Stax and control until it’s ready to combo off.
Winning the game: Lots of combo potential, so do whatever strikes your fancy.
Biovisionary copied with
Rite of Replication,
Laboratory Maniac,
Blue Sun’s Zenith loops, or powerful Eldrazi (the Eldrazi one is a little weak).
Kykar, Wind's FuryPlaystyle: Strong combo/Storm deck that I find plays very similarly to
Elsha of the Infinite. The deck uses only two creatures, which makes it very easy to get spirits with Kykar.
Winning the game: Cast
Divergent Transformations targeting two of your spirit tokens. This causes you to flip into the only two creatures you have;
Leveler and
Thassa’s Oracle.
Lavinia, Azorius RenegadePlaystyle: A stax deck that is really good at hating on fast combos. The downside is that slower combos, or creature-based combos are harder for Lavinia to counter, so make sure you have regular stax effects to deal with those.
Winning the game: Knowledge Pool hard-locks your opponents.
Marwyn, the NurturerPlaystyle: Elf Tribal. Use lots of elves, along with pump spells, to generate insane amounts of mana. You also want a significant amount of card draw, so you can keep playing stuff. You can also use
Umbral Mantle or
Staff of Domination for infinite mana.
Winning the game: Overrun effects like
Craterhoof Behemoth or
Triumph of the Hordes, or storm off and win with
Aetherflux Reservoir.
Meren of Clan Nel TothPlaystyle: The graveyard deck. No creature you lose stays gone for long. You can generate insane value off of creatures like
Plaguecrafter.
Winning the game: Necrotic Ooze combo or Mikaeus combo that I described in a previous post.
Mizzix of the IzmagnusPlaystyle: Use low cost draw spells (
Brainstorm,
Faithless Looting) and counterspells to get experience counters, before moving up to extra turn spells. Use recursion to get the extra turn spells back, and just keep going until you find a win-con.
Winning the game: Typical blue stuff. Dramatic Scepter or
Deadeye Navigator combo for infinite mana, and then use
Capsize,
Blue Sun’s Zenith, or
Laboratory Maniac.
Momir Vig, Simic VisionaryPlaystyle: This deck uses a card like Mind Blend,
Sleight of Mind, or
Trait Doctoring to change the “blue” text in Momir to “green”. Now, whenever you cast a green creature, you effectively search your library for a creature and put in into your hand.
Winning the game: This in a complicated combo, that is hard to give a quick overview of. Basically, once you have changes the text of Momir, you start a tutor chain, where you cast a green creature, to get another creature. The first one you get is
Heritage Druid followed by
Nettle Sentinel. Then you need to grab a bunch of mana dorks (
Elvish Mystic,
Llanowar Elves, etc.) that can also be used to tap for mana immediately, thanks to
Heritage Druid. This allows you net a lot of mana, so you can then grab
Wirewood Symbiote,
Birchlore Rangers,
Temur Sabertooth, and
Phantasmal Image. Note that
Phantasmal Image ends the tutor chain, so grab it last. Have
Phantasmal Image copy
Nettle Sentinel. Now when you cast a green creature, you untap two creatures. Now you can play a mana dork, tap it and the Nettle Sentinels to make 3 mana, return the mana dork with
Wirewood Symbiote, and then return the
Wirewood Symbiote with
Temur Sabertooth. Each time you cast the elf/
Wirewood Symbiote, you get 3 green mana, so you net 2 green mana each cycle. With
Birchlore Rangers, you also make infinite blue mana. You also get to search out every creature in the deck. Use
Heart Warden to draw a card,
Nantuko Tracer to put
Heart Warden back, and return
Heart Warden with
Temur Sabertooth. This loop let’s you draw your entire deck.
Muldrotha, the GravetidePlaystyle: There is plenty of room for modification for this commander, because people are still trying to figure out the best way to play her. Stax/combo looks like the way to go. Play annoying stax effects (like
Contamination) to mess up your opponents. If they get removed, bring them back.
Winning the game: Necrotic Ooze combo,
Protean Hulk, and
Food Chain combos seem like the way to go. I still haven’t seen a deck that has wowed me yet, so I encourage lots of experimentation.
Najeela, the Blade-BlossomPlaystyle: Najeela's activated ability is the win condition. Find a way to generate 5 mana at each combat (
Druids' Repository,
Bear Umbra,
Sword of Feast and Famine) to get infinite combat steps.
Winning the game: I just said how to win. Generate 5 mana at each combat to get infinite combat steps. You really need to pay more attention.
Narset, Enlightened MasterPlaystyle: Cast a bunch of free stuff. Most notably extra turn and extra combat spells. You'll want heavy mana ramp to get Narset out fast (and preferably haste). You usually start the extra turn chain with just one attack.
Winning the game: Eventually,
Approach of the Second Sun,
Beacon of Tomorrows, and Nexus of Fate will be the only cards left in your library (this is expedited with
Enter the Infinite). At some point, you'll draw
Approach of the Second Sun and be able to cast it to win the game. Alternatively, combat damage with +21 extra turns and combats.
Nin, the Pain ArtistPlaystyle: Nin is simultaneously a control deck to destroy enemy threats, and a draw engine. Use both of these aspects to stop your opponents, while looking for your combo.
Winning the game: Get
Laboratory Maniac out and infinite mana, then get Nin to shoot herself so you draw your entire deck.
Niv-Mizzet RebornPlaystyle: Food Chain deck similar to
General Tazri. Build up the
Food Chain combo, and then recast Niv-Mizzet to get every multicolored spell in your hand.
Winning the game: Four options. Using
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist, you can mill out your opponents (Keep re-casting Niv-Mizzet through the
Food Chain loop), using
Sparkcaster you can deal infinite damage (it can bounce itself), or
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain or
Hydroid Krasis can draw your entire deck.
Niv-Mizzet, the FiremindPlaystyle: Both similar and different from
Nin, the Pain Artist. This version uses more untap effects as well as draw cards to control the board, while Nin uses her mana pool.
Winning the game: Cards like
Curiosity,
Ophidian Eye,
Tandem Lookout, and
Mind Over Matter allow Niv-Mizzet to deal lots of damage and draw out the deck.
Laboratory Maniac and
Elixir of Immortality are used to prevent yourself from losing from drawing your whole deck.
Omnath, Locus of the RoilPlaystyle: Food Chain combo deck. Unfortunately, this is the weakest of the
Food Chain decks. Without access to black, it’s hard to search for
Food Chain.
Winning the game: After getting infinite mana from
Food Chain, sacrifice and re-cast Omnath for infinite damage.
Oona, Queen of the FaePlaystyle: Weird combo deck that revolves around making infinite mana. Dramatic Scepter and
Basalt Monolith +
Rings of Brighthearth are common ways.
Winning the game: Dump that infinite mana into Oona's ability to mill out an opponent. Then do it to the other opponents.
Prime Speaker VannifarPlaystyle: Combo deck with an excellent protection suite. Vannifar is used to search up a creature combo.
Winning the game: Chain Hulk combo, that can start from any creature at 2 or less mana. Note that you don’t have to start from 0 mana, but I’ll explain this combo assuming that you start with
Dryad Arbor. Sacrifice
Dryad Arbor to get
Quirion Ranger. Return a
forest to untap Vannifar. Sacrifice
Quirion Ranger to get
Scryb Ranger. Return a
forest to untap Vannifar. Sacrifice
Scryb Ranger to get
Trophy Mage.
Trophy Mage searches for
Thousand-Year Elixir. Play the elixir and untap Vannifar. Sacrifice
Trophy Mage to get
Fatestitcher. Use
Fatestitcher to untap Vannifar, thanks to the
Thousand-Year Elixir. Sacrifice
Fatestitcher getting
Peregrine Drake.
Unearth Fatestitcher and tap it to untap Vannifar. Sacrifice
Peregrine Drake getting
Great Oak Guardian, which untaps Vannifar and
Fatestitcher. Sacrifice
Great Oak Guardian to get
Protean Hulk. Tap
Fatestitcher to untap Vannifar. Sacrifice
Protean Hulk finding nothing with Vannifar's ability (or
Archetype of Endurance). Use Hulk's death trigger to find
Sage of Hours,
Ezuri, Claw of Progress, and 4 creatures with 0 power and CMC 0 (like
Memnite,
Ornithopter,
Endless One, and
Shifting Wall). You instantly get 5 experience counters. Come combat, you put 5 +1/+1 counters on
Sage of Hours. You now have infinite extra turns.
Prossh, Skyraider of KherPlaystyle: Combo deck that revolves around
Food Chain.
Winning the game: Use
Food Chain to Sacrifice Prossh and all the Kobolds. Recast him and do it again, making infinite mana, along with infinite enter the battlefield triggers (so you can win with
Impact Tremors or some effect).
Rashmi, Eternities CrafterPlaystyle: This deck focuses a lot on casting spells on your opponents’ turns. Counterspells and removal are usually the options, but even
Brainstorm has its uses.
Winning the game: This is a weird combo. First, you need infinite mana, and a way to draw your whole deck (
Enter the Infinite).
Seasons Past is the main win-con. Repeatedly cast
Seasons Past, alternating between bringing back
Noxious Revival +
Reality Shift +
Frantic Search, and
Ponder +
Regrowth +
Beast Within. This let's you destroy any permanent with
Beast Within, then
Reality Shift to get one card off your opponent’s library. Keep going until all opponents are milled out. Alternatively, just use
Blue Sun’s Zenith or
Stroke of Genius to mill your opponents.
Ramos, Dragon EnginePlaystyle: This is basically the Kraum+Tymna deck explained earlier, but with green added to the mix. Ramos is better at the mana ramp aspect of the deck, but loses consistency without Tymna, the Weaver.
Winning the game: Same ways as Kraum+Tymna.
Ruric Thar, the UnbowedPlaystyle: In order for this deck to be successful, you must do a good job tuning it to the meta. Many cEDH decks use few creatures and many non-creatures, so Ruric Thar himself is a stax piece.
Winning the game: With many decks (notably storm decks) Ruric Thar himself can kill an opponent. You can also use a Kiki-Jiki combo (there are many creature tutors in green) or mass land destruction.
Scion of the Ur-DragonPlaystyle: Toolbox Dragons. Dragons like
Dragonlord Dromoka can be used for protection, and a
firebreathing dragon +
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon can one-shot someone.
Winning the game: Use
Scion of the Ur-Dragon to put
Worldgorger Dragon in your graveyard, then use
Animate Dead or
Dance of the Dead to bring
Worldgorger Dragon to the battlefield. In response to its enter the battlefield effect, float all your mana. When it enters, everything gets exiled, including the
Animate Dead. It promptly leaves the battlefield and brings everything back (including the
animate dead). Repeat to generate infinite mana. You can stop this combo at anytime by getting the
Animate Dead to target something else. Then use
Scion of the Ur-Dragon to become a copy of
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. Pour all that mana into his effect, and shoot everyone to death.
Selvala, Explorer ReturnedPlaystyle: This commander provides both card draw, and mana ramp, in the same blow. Using untap effects lets you draw even more cards, and make even more mana. Then you can use stax effects to keep your opponents down.
Winning the game: Keep pilling on the stax, and finish off your opponents with
Craterhoof Behemoth or something similar. There is also the
Beast Within Loop.
Selvala, Heart of the WildsPlaystyle: Fast combo deck with consistent turn 3 or 4 wins. Get Selvala out on turn 2. On turn 3, you play a low-cost, high power creature so Selvala can tap for lots of mana (
Phyrexian Dreadnought,
Lupine Prototype,
Phyrexian Soulgorger, etc.). Then you use draw outlets (
Greater Good,
Momentous Fall) and untap effects (
Staff of Domination,
Umbral Mantle) to generate lots of mana (possibly infinite) and look for a win condition.
Winning the game: Use either
Temur Sabertooth or
Cloudstone Curio to bounce
Eternal Witness, giving you infinite graveyard recursion. Insert
Beast Within to destroy all your opponents’ permanents. Then use
Somberwald Stag to kill all the beasts. There are many other combos, but this was the easiest one to explain.
Seton, Krosan ProtectorPlaystyle: Mono Green storm. Each druid you play can immediately be tapped for mana. You chain up casting one mana druids, as well as draw spells (
Recycle,
Shamanic Revelation) to search for a win condition.
Winning the game: Usually
Aetherflux Reservoir.
Umbral Mantle,
Staff of Domination, or a
Craterhoof Behemoth also work.
Shattergang BrothersPlaystyle: Battlefield control deck. If your opponents play something you don’t like, you destroy it with
Shattergang Brothers. Simple as that.
Winning the game: Kiki-Jiki combo,
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combo, and
Hermit Druid combos.
Sidisi, Brood TyrantPlaystyle: Pure fast combo. Low cost mana ramp, lots of tutor power, and effects to protect the combo. This deck aims to consistently win on turn 3 at the latest.
Winning the game: Protean Hulk,
Hermit Druid, or
Food Chain. For this
Food Chain combo,
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is repeatedly cast until the whole library (or enough of it) is milled to bring back
Necrotic Ooze (using
Dread Return) and then win in the same way as the
Hermit Druid combo.
Sidisi, Undead VizierPlaystyle: Having a search effect in the command zone is kinda good. Keep in mind that she can exploit herself (ignore the innuendo).
Winning the game: Search up
Ad Nauseam. Resolve it to get lots of mana from 0 mana artifacts (ex:
Chrome Mox), and
Skirge Familiar. From this you find some way to make infinite mana (or just a lot of mana) then either win with
Aetherflux Reservoir, or a super big
Exsanguinate/
Torment of Hailfire.
Sisay, Weatherlight CaptainPlaystyle: A toolbox deck that tries really hard to do what
Captain Sisay did before the
Paradox Engine Ban. The advantage to being 5 colors is that other combos can be thrown into the deck.
Winning the game: Note that I’m only listing the way that the deck wins
with Sisay. There are other combos that win independently of this commander. With three colors among legendaries you control, activate Sisay searching for
Jace Wielder of Mysteries. Then cast either
Demonic Consultation or
Tainted Pact, to
exile your entire library. Activate Jace’s +1 to win the game.
Sliver OverlordPlaystyle: Tribal slivers. You can look for mana ramp (
Manaweft Sliver), protection (
Crystalline Sliver), and removal (
Harmonic Sliver).
Winning the game: Jeskai Ascendancy with
Gemhide Sliver/
Manaweft Sliver,
Sliver Overlord, and some other slivers. This way, you can get every sliver out of your deck (including the haste enabler and buff slivers) to win the game.
Sliver QueenPlaystyle: Not tribal slivers. She is a 5-color infinite mana sink. With infinite mana you get infinite 1/1 sliver tokens.
Winning the game: Global haste enabler,
Impact Tremors,
Altar of the Brood, all with those infinite tokens I mentioned earlier.
Sram, Senior EdificerPlaystyle: The other mono-white commander. Play lots of 1 and 0 mana equipment to draw lots of cards.
Winning the game: Voltron is the backup win. Primarily, you want to storm off and win with
Aetherflux Reservoir.
Sydri, Galvanic GeniusPlaystyle: Artifact-based stax/combo. The downside is that
Breya, Etherium Shaper tends to be better for this strategy. Still, Sydri is filled with soft-lock land destruction loops, and all sorts of combos involving artifact creatures.
Winning the game: Use
Aetherflux Reservoir to get to 50 life. Then use Sydri to turn it into a creature and give it
lifelink. Now when you deal 50 damage, you also gain 50 life, so you can do it continuously.
Taigam, Ojutai MasterPlaystyle: Weird control deck that rebounds draw spells (to get double the draw) and extra turn spells.
Winning the game: Enduring Ideal to search out
Dovescape. This locks out your opponents from casting non-creature spells, but you'll be making more birds than them. Because
Enduring Ideal can't be countered (thanks to Taigam), you still get a free enchantment each turn.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is the cherry on top.
Tana, the Bloodsower + Tymna the WeaverPlaystyle: Stax deck. Threat assessment is very important for this deck, because you need to know which stax piece is going to slow down your opponents the most. All three of them.
Winning the game: Birthing Pod combo.
Tasigur, the Golden FangPlaystyle: Arguably the best commander for these colors. His mana cost is easy to pay thanks to delve, and his ability is really good recursion if you know how to play the deck. You need to strategically choose which cards in your graveyard to
exile with Tasigur when you cast him, so your chosen opponent has little choice on what to give you when you activate his ability.
Winning the game: Protean Hulk is a go-to, but any combos in this color work well with Tasigur.
Tatyova, Benthic DruidPlaystyle: Land-storm? No really. This deck uses lots of cards that grant extra land drops, to function as drawing lots of cards. As a result, this deck uses an abnormally large number of lands.
Winning the game: Using
Sakura-Tribe Scout,
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, and
Retreat to Coralhelm, you can get infinite landfall triggers, which means you draw your whole deck with Tatyova, and win with
Thassa’s Oracle.
Cloudstone Curio works as a replacement for Oboro.
Teferi, Temporal ArchmagePlaystyle: Stax deck. Because Teferi can untap your permanents, cards like
Static Orb and
Stasis will hurt you less.
Winning the game: This is hard combo to wrap your head around, so pay attention. Use
The Chain Veil to get another activation of Teferi. Use Teferi to untap
The Chain Veil, as well as some permanents that tap for mana. Each time you activate
The Chain Veil, you can activate another Planeswalker's ability. This includes Planeswalkers that enter afterward. So keep using
the Chain Veil until Teferi Leaves the battlefield, due to having 0 loyalty. When you recast him, you'll be able to activate his +1 and -1 a bunch of times before you have to start using
the Chain Veil again. This means each cycle you get 5 additional times of alternating between his +1 and -1 abilities. You generate infinite mana and draw your whole deck. Now you either win with
Thassa’s Oracle, or loop
Blue Sun's Zenith to force your opponent's to draw.
Teysa, Orzhov ScionPlaystyle: Pure combo. This deck uses sacrifice effects, taking full advantage of Teysa's abilities. Sacrifice outlets (especially
Phyrexian Altar) are a must. An example combo is
Phyrexian Altar and
Nether Traitor with
Teysa, Orzhov Scion, to generate infinite mana.
Winning the game: Darkest Hour allows Teysa to make infinite spirits with a sacrifice outlet (like
Blasting Station).
The First SliverPlaystyle: Also not tribal slivers. Currently, this is the most powerful
Food Chain deck. No slivers needed.
Winning the game: By continuously re-casting
The First Sliver, you can Cascade through your entire deck, and cast pretty much every spell. You can pretty much make anything your win-condition at this point.
The Gitrog MonsterPlaystyle: Sacrifice lands to draw lots of cards and look for a combo. Fetch lands get significantly better with
The Gitrog Monster, so be sure to include all 7 for these colors. You can also use discard outlets to discard lands from your hand and draw cards.
Winning the game: Using a discard outlet (example:
Skirge Familiar), discard
Dakmor Salvage. Instead of drawing a card, dredge 2 and get
Dakmor Salvage back to your hand. If any lands get milled, draw some cards. Because the deck uses cards like
Gaea's Blessing, you don’t need to worry about milling yourself out. But with these cards you can basically keep looping your graveyard, and any cards in it. For example, you can loop
lotus petal for mana,
Sunscorched Desert to
deal damage, and then
crop rotation to sacrifice the
Sunscorched Desert so you can do this all again.
Thrasios, Triton Hero + Tymna the WeaverPlaystyle: Arguably the most consistent combo deck. With the large amount of tutors this deck boasts, a commander that gives card advantage (Tymna) and another commander with an infinite mana sink that wins the game (Thrasios) it is very easy for this deck to
threaten early game wins (turns 1 to 3).
Winning the game: Infinite mana combos, so that the deck can draw out and then win with
Thassa’s Oracle. Also common for the deck to just play
Thassa’s Oracle +
Demonic Consultation to win. It’s the new
Flash Hulk, now that
Flash Hulk is gone.
Thrasios, Triton Hero + Vial Smasher the FiercePlaystyle: Control deck the tries to stop everyone else from comboing off by countering/destroying all combo pieces.
Winning the game: Notion Thief + a wheel effect to put all your opponents in top-deck mode, making them much easier to control. There is also
Divergent Transformations, which can be used to get both
Notion Thief and
Whirlpool Warrior to initiate this.
Titania, Protector of ArgothPlaystyle: Sacrificing lands gets you some pretty strong tokens with Titania. While this mono-green strategy isn’t as combo-centric as elfball, it still packs a punch. Use lands that sacrifice themselves, spells like
Crop Rotation and
Scapeshift, or even
Zuran Orb and
Crucible of Worlds.
Winning the game: 8 of these tokens is enough to take a player out. Because pillowfort isn’t really used in commander, a large enough attack can take out whichever player you
fear the most.
Urza, Lord High ArtificerPlaystyle: Super powerful stax deck. There are a lot of stax cards that get disabled when they are tapped (
Static Orb,
Trinisphere,
Winter Orb). Urza is able to tap these artifacts for mana, disabling them when needed. Aside from that, the deck has powerful mana ramp, and can play a light control strategy well.
Winning the game: By generating infinite mana, Urza can
exile the entire library, and then cast all of the spells in the deck. The first one to get cast is
Aetherflux Reservoir or
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
Varolz, the Scar-StripedPlaystyle: Deck that makes use of creatures with death abilities. Varolz is used to sacrifice those creatures.
Winning the game: So I know I pluralized creatures, but it's really only
Protean Hulk that matters. The deck uses the
Protean Hulk combo described in a previous post.
Yarok, the DesecratedPlaystyle: Panharmonicon: the deck. Yarok gives extra value for each creature entering the battlefield. Draw extra cards with Ice-Fang Couatl, search for two cards with
Spellseeker, or net positive mana with
Cloud of Faeries.
Winning the game: Some kind of infinite bounce loop. With just creatures it can be
Shrieking Drake with
Cloud of Faeries (infinite mana) and then
Wall of Roots (infinite draw). Cards like
Aluren and
Cloudstone Curio can help with this. In the end,
Words of Wind can be used to lock your opponents, while preventing you from decking yourself.
Yidris, Maelstrom WielderPlaystyle: A luck-based deck that makes its own luck. If you keep a low mana curve, with lots of 0 mana artifacts that give mana, you can storm off… or completely flop. It’s possible to win off of just one Yidris attack, but you never know for sure at the time.
Winning the game: Aetherflux Reservoir after casting a bunch of spells.
Doomsday is another option.
Yisan, the Wanderer BardPlaystyle: Build up your mana ramp, then use Yisan to search for strategic creatures. There are some weird ways of getting around stax. By responding to Yisan's ability with untap effects (like
Quirion Ranger), and then activating him again, you can get two creatures at 3 mana, instead of one at 2 and one at 3.
Winning the game: Overrun effects like
Craterhoof Behemoth, or combo loops with stuff like
Temur Sabertooth.
Zacama, Primal CalamityPlaystyle: Board control deck. Ramp hard and cast Zacama. Then, strategically use his abilities to destroy creatures, artifacts, and enchantments. Mana doubling effects also help tremendously.
Winning the game: There is a way to do infinite combat steps with
Hellkite Charger and
Bear Umbra, or you can generate infinite mana and win with lifegain and
Aetherflux Reservoir. I've seen both.
Zaxara, the ExemplaryPlaystyle: Another Sultai combo deck. Haven’t seen a lot of those.
Winning the game: Stick a
Freed from the Real on Zaxara. Get infinite mana and find a way to win from there.
Zur the EnchanterPlaystyle: Use Zur to search for
Necropotence... That's it. I mean, you use a lot of search effects to find combo pieces... But Zur is used for
Necropotence. A more fun version of the deck uses Zur as a toolbox to find pesky stax enchantments to mess up your opponents, but this is at the cost of combo power.
Winning the game: Use
Necropotence to draw
Doomsday (or a card that gets you
Doomsday) and make a stack that wins with
Thassa’s Oracle, or use
Ad Nauseam with
Angel's Grace to draw your deck and win with
Thassa’s Oracle. You can also play it like a storm deck and use
Aetherflux Reservoir paired with
Shimmer Myr to get multiple lifegain triggers in one shot.