What are some of everyone's staple commander cards for almost all decks?

[Bobby’s Budget Builds]

What are some of everyone's staple commander cards for almost all decks?

[Bobby’s Budget Builds]

I am a budget player so unless, I somehow got a really expensive card in a trade or pack I don't normally spend more then $5 a card. These are some of the staples I have found so far.

https://deckstats.net/decks/196163/2611198-commander-foundational-templat/en

[CleanBelwas]

I run Trading Post in pretty much every deck I have.

There is nothing this card can't do.

Need a chump blocker?
Need to gain some life?
Need to sacrifice a creature?
Need to pitch a card?
Need to get a(n artifact) card back?
Need to draw a card?

Trading Post has you covered.

One of my favourite cards of all time, budget or not.

[Morganator 2.0]

Additional Reading

Finding a Consistent Commander/EDH Staples List Online

New "Staples"

EDH staples?

[Bobby’s Budget Builds]

Thank you.

[Cuadrado]

Definitely Tragic Arrogance for me, that card has only overperformed in all the decks I have where it can go in 

[The Golgari Guy]

Sol Ring

[robort]

Besides the simple basic 2 of sol ring and arcane signet. I don't try to add everything that could or can be a staple. I try to have my decks do a bunch of different things. Using the same cards in every deck I don't get that option of doing different things

[Bobby’s Budget Builds]

Yea I get that but if your deck has some of the needs all decks need like draw or ramp built in with the synergy you can remove some of those cards for others synergistic cards.

Besides the simple basic 2 of sol ring and arcane signet. I don't try to add everything that could or can be a staple. I try to have my decks do a bunch of different things. Using the same cards in every deck I don't get that option of doing different things

[anjinsan]

I got so bored of this I actually wrote a script to do it for me.

It's pretty basic. You give it colours, then it adds a certain amount of "staples"/favourite cards. Then it looks for so many ramp, so many removals, and so many wipes, and it just goes down a list each time adding things that meet the colours, and then checking to see if it has enough. Then it adds all the relevant dual/tri lands in some order of preference, then enough basic lands (min one of each) to make it up to ~35.

In practice I end up switching a bunch of cards in or out afterwards. As others have said there are often things that fit more or less with a particular synergy. So, if it's a reanimator for example, I might take out one or two of the "staple" removal and put in, say, Ravenous Chupacabra or Plaguecrafter or whatever. However I still find it very useful as it (a) does my manabase for me and (b) makes sure I don't, like, just forget to put in removal at all.

So, for example, my current "staples" in White are:

• Smothering Tithe, Enlightened Tutor, Esper Sentinel
• Wayfarer's Bauble, Solemn Simulacrum, Expedition Map, Ancient Tomb, Strip Mine
• War Room if it's 1-2 colours
• Flagstones of Trokair and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire if it's 1-3 colours
• Emeria, the Sky Ruin if it's monowhite

But then, top of my "removal" list is Swords to Plowshares, and top of my "ramp" list is Sol Ring, so both of these will go into a White deck (or in fact any deck with White), too.

It basically boils down to having a template for each colour combo, but I can ask for more or less ramp, removal, etc if I want. It's not sophisticated enough to do anything more so say I wanted to make a monogreen "hates creatures" type stax deck, I might up the ramp numbers then take out all the mana dorks so that I'm left with enchantment and spell/land ramp but still have enough.

[Slyvester12]

I got so bored of this I actually wrote a script to do it for me.

It's pretty basic. You give it colours, then it adds a certain amount of "staples"/favourite cards. Then it looks for so many ramp, so many removals, and so many wipes, and it just goes down a list each time adding things that meet the colours, and then checking to see if it has enough. Then it adds all the relevant dual/tri lands in some order of preference, then enough basic lands (min one of each) to make it up to ~35.

In practice I end up switching a bunch of cards in or out afterwards. As others have said there are often things that fit more or less with a particular synergy. So, if it's a reanimator for example, I might take out one or two of the "staple" removal and put in, say, Ravenous Chupacabra or Plaguecrafter or whatever. However I still find it very useful as it (a) does my manabase for me and (b) makes sure I don't, like, just forget to put in removal at all.

So, for example, my current "staples" in White are:

• Smothering Tithe, Enlightened Tutor, Esper Sentinel
• Wayfarer's Bauble, Solemn Simulacrum, Expedition Map, Ancient Tomb, Strip Mine
• War Room if it's 1-2 colours
• Flagstones of Troika and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire if it's 1-3 colours
• Emeria, the Sky Ruin if it's monowhite

But then, top of my "removal" list is Swords to Plowshares, and top of my "ramp" list is Sol Ring, so both of these will go into a White deck (or in fact any deck with White), too.

It basically boils down to having a template for each colour combo, but I can ask for more or less ramp, removal, etc if I want. It's not sophisticated enough to do anything more so say I wanted to make a monogreen "hates creatures" type stax deck, I might up the ramp numbers then take out all the mana dorks so that I'm left with enchantment and spell/land ramp but still have enough.

Okay, I'm curious. What did you write the script in and how is it structured?

Do you just have several lists of cards you consider staples that are given a ranking and inserted based on that? How do you prioritize staples in multicolor decks? Does the script favor certain colors or does it just add everything of a certain ranking from each color? How long are the lists?

[anjinsan]

It's just a python script, which loops through things in particular categories.

I only have a small number of cards which are considered "staples", which go in every deck (by default), and those are largely personal preference. So for White it would be Tithe, Tutor, Sentinel. Of course I sometimes take them out. I have a bit of logic for multicoloured, like put Emeria only in monowhite decks.

The rest, it does have a ranking in that it just goes down the list. I haven't thought very hard about the order of the list. For example, right now at least the removal list goes:

• Swords to Plowshares
• Anguished Unmaking
• Utter End
• Assassin's Trophy

So in a monowhite deck you'd get Swords, then whatever's way down below for monowhite later. In WB you'd get Anguished and Utter End too, if it was BG you'd only get Assassin's Trophy, etc. In practice the order doesn't actually matter that much at the very top anyway because I'm going to add like eight removal spells or whatever so who cares whether Swords or Path to Exile is top? Both will end up in monowhite decks. It's only around the cut-off point. And anyway, like I said, it's a template, I tend to switch stuff in and out. Dispatch for example is not on this list but becomes really good when metalcraft is likely.

It's not sophisticated enough to make smart decisions about rounding the suite out given the colours or anything, so multicoloured literally just amounts to "add what you can, in this order".

The removal list probably isn't long enough because it usually gets down to Introduction to Annihilation in monocoloured which I don't really like. But then, it only has a few monocoloured removal spells on there, particularly for some colours. It's primarily creature-based removal, too, it's not sophisticated to say "make sure you have three artifact removal as well" or whatever (could be, I guess, I'd just add a category or something)... it gets hard though when some colours just don't have good options for some things. But then, I'm probably going to have to actually think about such things in that situation anyway, and this is just to get a baseline.

Frankly, the big win IMO is in doing the lands.  Ain't nobody got enough time to keep adding all the different duals and stuff each time.

[Slyvester12]

...Does anyone else have the sudden impulse to make a Deckstats GitHub to see if we can make the best automated deck templating script?

[anjinsan]

At this rate you will be making AIs and playing them against each other.

[Slyvester12]

At this rate you will be making AIs and playing them against each other.

I just meant in the same vein as your script. Take the generally agreed upon staples for each color/strategy, set some constraints like CMC and budget, then automatically produce a staple shell. That would save a lot of time for people who just want a reasonably good version of a given deck.