Suggestion for Flash/control-oriented commander

[EMaxxi]

Hi all,

I've been playing commander since Commander 2015 and my first deck was a Keranos, God of Storms control deck that focused a lot on counterspells and removal, with very few creatures, and was not very good (though having an almost untouchable commander was cool).

Since then, I've been toying with flash/spellslinger/counterspells decks, but I can't find a configuration that I like.
So I wanted to ask a few things:
1) How many non-Instant, non-Flash cards would you play in this kind of decks?
2) What are some good commanders for this strategy?
3) What is your general opinion on these decks? Is old-school spell-based control viable in Commander?

Thanks!

[Somewhitedude001]

The best control commander I've played against is Rashmi, Eternities Crafter. She basically reads "Whenever you counterspell, draw your next counterspell", and since you're in Simic you can make a lot of mana very quickly.

[Morganator 2.0]

1) How many non-Instant, non-Flash cards would you play in this kind of decks?

Not many. Mana rocks and quality enchantments/creatures. Ideally most of your spells could be cast at instant-speed.

2) What are some good commanders for this strategy?

Nymris, Oona's Trickster was made for this, as was Rashmi, Eternities Crafter.

3) What is your general opinion on these decks? Is old-school spell-based control viable in Commander?

I'm not sure what you mean by "old-school spell-based control", but control in multiplayer is very different from 1 v 1 formats. You need to be very selective about what you remove/counter, as you will not be able to fully lock-out 3 other decks. And because removal and counter magic is inherent card disadvantage in multiplayer, you need a commander that gives good card draw.

Or play stax, but that's not quite what you're going for.

[EMaxxi]

I'm not sure what you mean by "old-school spell-based control", but control in multiplayer is very different from 1 v 1 formats. You need to be very selective about what you remove/counter, as you will not be able to fully lock-out 3 other decks.

I know, and I've gotten better at that. But I'm still under the impression that I need to get "on the board", or I get beaten up by creatures. I don't know if this is common or it's just my playgroup having a grudge vs control What is your experience?

Also, how would you handle boardwipes, since the best ones are sorcery?

[Morganator 2.0]

I know, and I've gotten better at that. But I'm still under the impression that I need to get "on the board", or I get beaten up by creatures.

I'm not sure what you mean by getting on the board. With counterspell control you should only answer things that are either game-ending states like combos or game-winning synergies, or things that directly harm your boardstate. If someone plays Rampaging Baloths, it's big, but you leave it alone. If someone plays Sylvan Library, it's strong, but falls into neither category. Leave it alone. If someone goes to remove your commander, that's something you counter. That's protecting your boardstate.

If you're worried about creatures attacking you, use pillowfort effects like Propaganda or Crawlspace. This should give you enough time to either get into your combo or grind out incremental advantage.

Also, how would you handle boardwipes, since the best ones are sorcery?

The best boardwipes are ones that don't hit your stuff. It's why Cyclonic Rift is so popular (also instant-speed). You also don't need that many boardwipes. I typically only do two or three, sometimes none. So I wouldn't worry too much if you have 1 or 2 sorcery speed wipes.

[Landale]

You could always go with Talrand, Sky Summoner. Every counterspell and unsummon type spell you've got comes with a 2/2 flier attached.
Toss in a couple redundancies for him, Shark Typhoon, Metallurgic Summonings, Murmuring Mystic, Deekah, Fractal Theorist, etc., along with a few things to add in draw like Kindred Discovery, Bident of Thassa, or Archmage Emeritus and you're good to go. If you're worried about running out of cards, stuff like Midnight Clock, Day's Undoing, or Commit // Memory will help take care of that.

[anjinsan]

Blowing things up at sorcery speed isn't exactly a problem. Only creatures with haste can attack you before you get chance to wipe, but the bigger threats are often things that don't need to attack. But, at least after the early game, you can often wipe and still hold up enough mana for one piece of interaction - which is often also enough, if you're not worried about countering or killing everything as soon as it comes out. This is why I like Doomskar a lot, since you can "pre-pay" some of the mana (also Toxic Deluge).

[EMaxxi]

Opinions on the new Errant and Giada?

It doesn't work very well with instants (), but casting Venser or Cast Out from the top of the deck doesn't sound bad.

[Aetherium Slinky]

There are a lot of Humans with Flash. This enables Katilda and Lier as a commander. You get to use your counterspells twice - especially if you include cards like Niambi, Esteemed Speaker to bounce and re-play your Flash-Humans again and again. Use green to ramp and Humans to cast your ramp spells twice to generate the mana needed for the loop to continue. Spells like Turnabout and Essence Harvest can burst you ahead in mana especially if you recur them somehow; Archaeomancer (Human), Eternal Witness (Human), Bala Ged Recovery (sorcery) etc...