General Commander Help

[WizardSpartan]

Hey guys,

I need some help/advice involving the world of EDH and what decks I’m using.

Here are the current 3 decks I own:
https://deckstats.net/decks/120669/1481006-75-competitive-ezuri-elves/en
https://deckstats.net/decks/120669/1357840-kumena-tyrant-of-orazca-merfol/en
https://deckstats.net/decks/120669/1497596-so-you-see-that-s-where-the-tr/en

My elves deck is fine, and my merfolk deck is fine. Both are fulfilling their respective roles of optimized & fast, but non cEDH deck and more casual, do-nothing value engine deck.

Alesha is the problem. When I first started brewing her, it was a lot of fun. She’s cheap, powerful, has plenty of support, but has restrictions that make her fun to build. Playing, though, is tiring. It’s hard to profitably attack with her (despite including a lot of cards that allow her to attack unhindered), and her max 2 power limitation is a lot more annoying than I thought it would be when building. Enter Meren:
https://deckstats.net/decks/120669/1585735-meren-of-clan-nel-toth-aristoc/en
I have been wanting to build a Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck for a while, but all her version have been hanging around $15, outside my price range. She was reprinted in the Mystery Booster, and that version is $5! I snapped up a copy very quickly, but I am on the fence on building a deck right now. She’s a lot more fun than Alesha, don’t get me wrong. There’s something just downright hilarious about looping Avenger of Zendikar until you have 20+ plants, then dropping a Zulaport Cutthroat and sucking your opponents dry. Alesha just can’t do that. I’ve tried, but the biggest token producer I’ve found is Siege-Gang Commander, and there’s a big difference between Siege Gang Commander and Avenger of Zendikar.

The upside to having a similar deck that shares a color is that I already own a significant portion of the cards. In fact, even when including cool, yet expensive (to me) cards like Grave Titan and Sidisi, Undead Vizier, the deck totals out to a very nice price.

Why not just buy it? Well, I feel like I want to expand my horizons just a little, and Meren is in green. Just like Kumena. Just like Ezuri. While she does address a different aspect of green, she still shares the color. One of my main draws to Alesha was the colors she was in. Neither of my other 2 EDH decks share those colors, which mean there are basically no shared cards & no shared strategies.

This also leads me to ask a question of all you wonderful commander players. In regular EDH (not talking about cEDH), am I biased that green is just much more powerful than all the other colors? Alesha has problems with ramp, even with all the fixing, dual lands I can afford, etc. it’s just a lot easier to make Meren more fun and more consistent than Alesha.

Let me sum up what I’m asking.

Am I alone for feeling like having all my decks share colors is wrong/awkward?
Am I doing something wrong with Alesha?
Little bit off topic here, but am I missing something with non-combo based non-creature strategies? I’ve built plenty of spellslinger, artifact, etc. decks, but when they aren’t laser focused on comboing, they’ve just felt bad. Creature decks have the added bonus of leaving a board full of creatures to attack and kill people with, but spellslinger decks don’t have that (if they do, it’s often a board of easily disruptible 1/1 tokens that don’t really hold up in combat). As a result, they just get beaten down by creature-based decks. Also, I’m not a fan of specific combos simply because I get bored easily. Because of my experiences, I have mostly shunned decks built around non-creature spells.

What I’m thinking right now is to just save for all the commander products coming up and hope there’s a new commander that can replace Alesha (and hopefully put her cards to good use). Anybody have any other solutions?

Thanks, guys, for reading. It’s late for me, and I’m just spitballing & worried that I wasted money on a deck I’m tired of already.

[Slyvester12]

I'd say blue and black are pretty even with green in multicolor, probably even a slight edge to blue for interaction. White gives the best removal in the game, as well as some stax and recursion, but I'd still put it in fourth. Red has...goblins?

I wouldn't say green is definitively stronger, but ramping and color fixing are key aspects of any deck and green wins those categories by huge margins.

I also have the problem of trying to play other colors. I've been wanting to make mono black aristocrats for a while, but my Yawgmoth deck is still sitting at 120 cards or so. I built an Alela Myr deck, which I love to a surprising degree, but it took a lot of tweaking and testing to get there.

But, green will always be my favorite. I ended up picking up a second Gaea's Cradle because I was tired of deciding between elfball and any other high-powered green deck I would want to build. I own four Sylvan Libraries and I don't know how many copies of different elves and green staples like Krosan Grip. At some point, I just accepted the fact that I have more fun with green decks and resigned myself to buying multiple copies of important cards.

All of this wasn't meant to brag. I'm lucky enough to have a job and living situation that affords me disposable income. Not everyone has that situation, but given that, this is how I've "solved" this problem.

[Morganator 2.0]

Am I alone for feeling like having all my decks share colors is wrong/awkward?

Not really. Green is my favorite colour in commander, but I also make a lot of red decks. It's pretty common for people to favor some colours more than others, as some fit your playstyle, while others don't. And I know you didn't explicitly ask this, but some colours are stronger than others in commander. White is the obvious underdog. There is some debate as to whether green or blue is strongest (most say blue, I say green).

Am I doing something wrong with Alesha?

Perhaps, but there could be other factors. You said that at first you liked her, but not so much anymore. People do get bored of decks. Some just take longer than others. She also might not be performing as well in your given meta. Looking at the deck itself it seems like you went for a combination of incremental combat damage and incremental effect damage (Zulaport Cutthroat). This strategy is fine, but it takes time. You either need to add in some bomb cards that either win you the game outright or at least get you very close (Cathar's Crusade, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite) or you need cards that can slow the game down just a little, but long enough to make combat damage from 2/2 creatures viable (Aven Mindcensor, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite... again).

Little bit off topic here, but am I missing something with non-combo based non-creature strategies?

Maybe. These decks also need some level of a control package added to them. A commander like Breya, Etherium Shaper or Niv-Mizzet, Parun can have some level of control against other commanders by removing them. They eventually win the game through incremental damage if they are going for a non-combo win.

What I’m thinking right now is to just save for all the commander products coming up and hope there’s a new commander that can replace Alesha (and hopefully put her cards to good use). Anybody have any other solutions?

Experiment a bit. Try out some other non-green reanimator decks like Chainer, Nightmare Adept or Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. Figure out what you like. And it's okay if you just keep coming back to green decks. I have about 5 copies of Birds of Paradise.

[CleanBelwas]

Nah dude, you're fine. There's nothing wrong with liking what you like.

I have about 12 decks built right now at varying power levels. Only one of them doesn't include black. 4 of them are mono black. That's what I like to do, so I do it.

I hear you about shared space, but there are definite solutions out there. I'm not about to buy 8 copies of cabal coffers. I have one, and that's enough. What I do is implement a placeholder system. All the cards I own that I want in multiple decks sit, sleeved up, inside a deck box. Then in each of my decks I have placeholders for them. I put a bit of effort into mine (I got my wifes acrylic paints out and did my best attempt at the art for example, even though they still suck). Then, before each game I look through my deck and swap out the placeholders for the proper cards. Takes less than a minute usually. It's a nice way of being able to brew and build the things you like without having to splash on multiple copies of the more expensive staples.

With regards to Alesha, I think it's perfectly natural to sometimes be dissatisfied with a deck. As I've mentioned in posts before, I brew new decks all the goddam time and mostly I'll play them a few times and be done with them. The reasons vary from didn't enjoy it, didn't perform how I wanted it to, wasn't powerful enough, too powerful, fucking storm/combo, accidental fucking storm/combo, no fun for my opponents. Sometimes it just doesn't feel how you want it to feel, and that's fine.

I also agree with Morganator and recommend experimenting as much as possible. I've tried just about every archetype going and all it did was solidify for me the ways I do and do not like playing. It's thanks to all the decks I didn't enjoy that I know which ones to keep.

I think Mitch at Commanders Quarters has shown that it's possible to build decent decks on a budget. Certainly enough that you can get a feel for a deck before knowing if it's something you want to invest in. Also, testing decks out online is a good way to get a feel without dropping the money on it.

In my playgroup, we're super happy for people to proxy cards if they want to try before they buy (I mean, we're happy to proxy even if they have no intention to buy, but that's a different conversation). Is this something your playgroup would be cool with? I believe it's quite a common solution to this kind of thing.

Oh, and definitely give mono black a go. You'll never go back.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Am I alone for feeling like having all my decks share colors is wrong/awkward?
Am I doing something wrong with Alesha?

You're absolutely normal. Au contraire - I think the colour-huggers that brew 32 different decks in all the different colours are a little cuckoo in their head.

Building and playing are two very different processes. What you might miss out on though is playing decks in colours you don't enjoy tinkering with. By this I mean that if you enjoy playing Simic, mono-white and Grixis and you enjoy building mono-green, Jund and Orzhov you're not in luck because you'll "never" build a deck you'd actually enjoy playing with.

I mean I like all things Esper and I enjoy both brewing and playing with them. I'm not bothered by the lack of ramp, I have my lovely rocks and they rock!

When it comes to disliking something you've built... Sorry to hear! I don't think you're doing anything wrong, really, it's just that you don't enjoy the deck and you should retire it. Fun is meant to be fun.

[WizardSpartan]

Yayy, I feel justified! Thanks for all the answers. About experimenting, I have built 123 commander decks and have spent quite a long time going through each guild, tricolor, etc. on EDHRec, looking for commanders in addition to hitting the random commander button in the top right 20+ times in one sitting. I feel like I've looked through pretty much all the good commanders (there's a lot of commanders like from Legends, etc. that I have no interest building) and really am just sitting on my butt waiting for commander products that add new commanders/reprints that bring certain commanders into my price range (I will be building Queen Marchesa soon, as she seems interesting and I basically own the landbase already). I kid you not, 75% or more of the suggestions people make for what to build as my commander I have already built. For example, Morg, I have built and tested both Chainer (actually also both Chainers) and Shirei.

Because certain cards I really want for Alesha like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Recruiter of the Guard, and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite were reprinted in the Mystery Boosters (I love this set so much lol), I will be testing how much better the deck feels with certain upgrades. Maybe I just need to invest a bit more money for it to start feeling fun. I will also look to include some bigger bombs, as I already have a Cathars' Crusade and several cards you mentioned are now closer to my price range.

I do need to take a look at some of Mitch's videos, as they could definitely give me some ideas.

I'm definitely happy to hear that I am not alone in leaning towards one color (CleanBelwas, you and I seem to be in very similar boats in our respective colors), I guess I just have not picky friends. One  has bunches of decks, all different colors, and another only has 2, but they are polar opposites of each other (Yarok, the Desecrated & Kykar, Wind's Fury), so from my small sample size, I thought I was just weird. Glad to have my fears dispelled.

Oh my playgroup is definitely fine with proxies for testing cards in a deck or a whole deck. I do that a lot. Our problem is making time to actually play the decks. Hopefully all this Covid shit will be over by this summer and I'll be able to play a lot then.

Thanks guys, lot of good reassurances. I honestly wasn't putting a lot of thought into this, mostly just stream of consciousness, but I'm glad you all were able to understand what I was talking about

[robort]

I am constantly running ideas about new decks in my head. Tweaking and messing around with made decks and trying out things.
I do kn w that certain colors of the color pie don't satisfy my certain play style. The one color in particular which is the stronges of course is blue. I am just not a counter type style player, I prefer shanningans happening down on the table. I want stuff to happen, no dirdling, slowing things down and what nots. That is probably why I hate using the recent pre-con planeswalker commanders. They dirdle to much for me. I tried tweaking both Saheli and Windgrace but I hardly use those anymore. I admit and granted I don't want the game over by turn 2-7 but it happens I like seeing who becomes archenemy first and everyone scrambling trying to stop this person. The other colors though I enjoy, big green beaters, red burn ,white weenies and black does something but you must do something in return.

The point I am making there is nothing wrong with trying to make a commander deck that feels just right but there are going to be times when you do miss.

[WWolfe]

I think a lot of people lean towards certain colors or strategies. I have 8 decks currently and 5 of them include green, 2 of which are zombies (and I'm building a 9th deck that is also zombies but doesn't include green). Granted they all have different strategies but I have always leaned heavily towards green looking at back it.

Like Morganator said, experiment some with different commanders and see if something else in that strategy but a different color jumps out at you. I have a friend that has a Shirei Shadowborn Apostle deck. I have one that uses Karador as the commander (mostly for the access to green, specifically for ramp & Bloodbond March; & white, specifically for removal and a few support cards) and while we have similar endgames...weaponizing the Apostles...they really couldn't be more different in how they get there or how they use the Apostles.

[WizardSpartan]

Okay, so I've done some testing, and I have a decision to make. I can either purchase about $40 worth of upgrades for Alesha or I could just hold onto the money and spend it on a precon I'm interested in. CleanBelwas and I were discussing the potential for a better Mardu Aristocrats commander than Alesha coming in 2020. Even though not much has been released about Commander 2020, but didn't they mention Baron Sengir getting a new version? He seems somewhat on theme for an Aristocrats approach? One of you lore gods gimme some fact checking. Ikoria is releasing in May, right? Commander Collection: Green is coming in Q4 this year, and do we know when Commander Legends is coming this year? If Ikoria is the earliest of the Commander products this year, I feel mostly comfortable upgrading Alesha.

Overall, I'm sort of worried about purchasing some upgrades for Alesha, a better Mardu commander being released, me purchasing said Mardu commander, and many of my new inclusions not being as useful as they are in Alesha. Do y'all think it's a legitimate worry? There is a lot of time between now and all the commander products coming later this year.

[Morganator 2.0]

Wait until after the full spoiler of Commander 2020 is released. You can always upgrade Alesha at that point if there is nothing you like.

[CleanBelwas]

I'd say it would depend on what the upgrades were. If you feel like they're cards you could make use of in other decks it could be worth it. Then if Alesha does get replaced one day it still hasn't been a waste.

If they are very specific to Alesha then I'd say it's probably worth waiting. Ikoria spoilers are starting in the next few days. I'm not exactly sure when the commander deck lists are included in that schedule, but it'll likely be within the next few weeks. If you feel you can wait that long, it'd probably be worth it to see what comes out.

[WizardSpartan]

Wow, didn't realize how quickly the spoilers were starting. I saw that it released in the U.S. in May and figured we still had a bit. I'll wait a couple days for that.

The main cards I'm looking to grab are Thought Vessel (for another deck), Recruiter of the Guard, Goblin Bombardment, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. All are in my sights because of their recent reprints, and I'm afraid I'll have another Yawgmoth, Thran Physician experience where I hold out on buying the card and it shoots up in price. Literally overnight, he went from ~$9 to ~$20. It hurt to shell out the cash for him. It was so worth, though. He's soo good.

I think I'll wait a few days/weeks to see what the spoilers are looking like, then probably just buy those 4 cards (the other cards on my list are a lot more stable and not as expensive) if I'm not interested. I'm hoping that because these are reprints rather than a new card, they won't have any major price spikes? Fingers crossed.

[CleanBelwas]

Yea I believe the paper release has been pushed back to May but spoilers are going ahead as usual and all the online stuff for Arena etc. is still going ahead in April. I saw a timeline for it somewhere. I'll see if I can dig it out and find out the specifics.

Edit: According to WWolfe's thread on Ikoria, the spoilers are running April 2-10. Not sure if it includes the commander stuff but I haven't seen anything to say it would be separate so hopefully won't have to wait long.