Which Commander should I play?

[elmmonkey]

So I’m a relatively new player (been playing about two years now) and have absolutely no knowledge of metagame. I’ve been playing casually for the whole time, and my play group wants to start playing Commander. Inward wondering what commander I should use.
Any suggestions?

[ApothecaryGeist]

Much like asking "which deck should I play" in other formats ... we would need more information to help you answer that question.  What style(s) do you prefer?  (aggro, control, combo, etc).  What Magic color(s) do you prefer?  How big is your collection?  Do you currently own a bunch of Commander staples?  What is your budget for buying cards you don't already own?

[elmmonkey]

Sorry about the vagueness. I like to play decks that are somewhere in the midrange archetype, and my favorite shard is Naya. I won’t play blue. I have a tiny (~600) card collection with no commander staples whatsoever. I’m willing to pay around $200 for a good deck.

Does that help?

[Morganator 2.0]

If we're working with a small collection, we'll need a commander that can be built very easily. Take your pick.

Zacama, Primal Calamity: Zacama alone can control the board. Be sure to include land-based mana ramp (Sakura-Tribe Elder, Rampant Growth) and maybe some mana doublers (Dictate of Karametra).

Uril, the Mistalker: exactly what it looks like. Slap a bunch of enchantments on this dude (preferably some flying enchantments) and try to deal 21 commander damage to each of your opponents.

Ghired, Conclave Exile: Very simple token deck. You'll likely be able to find his pre-con at your local game shop.

Do any of these appeal to you?

[elmmonkey]

Zacama does. Thank you very much!! One last question…what other sorts of creatures should I have in that deck?

[CleanBelwas]

Zacama is good and flexible enough to be built in many different ways and works just as well as a Naya good stuff deck as anything else.

If you haven't already seen and used it, I would highly recommend edhrec.com . It's an excellent resource for ideas, each commander has it's own page that shows cards and strategies that are frequently played with them. An excellent resource if you've built 1 or 100 EDH decks and well worth checking out.

The Naya page can be found here:
https://edhrec.com/commanders/rgw

And Zacama's here:
https://edhrec.com/commanders/zacama-primal-calamity

[Xaarvaxus]

Over on ChannelFireball, Riley Knight recently posted his EDH Zacama deck and it's the only creature.  Everything else is ramp or removal.  Or you could alternately play full dino tribal or anywhere in between.

[Aetherium Slinky]

I enjoy Marath, Will of the Wild for its +1/+1 synergies.

Another commander you might enjoy (not in Naya but close - Temur) is Animar, Soul of Elements. You just play a lot of creatures, "enters the battlefield" effects, with their own abilites (like Stratus Dancer), morph creatures in general or go full cheerios with zero-costed artifact creatures. You'll pretty much have access to good protection (from blue), good ramp (from green) and powerful spells/creatures (from red). X-costed creatures are also really fun with Animar.

[Judaspriester]

Another commander you might enjoy (not in Naya but close - Temur) is Animar, Soul of Elements. You just play a lot of creatures, "enters the battlefield" effects, with their own abilites (like Stratus Dancer), morph creatures in general or go full cheerios with zero-costed artifact creatures. You'll pretty much have access to good protection (from blue), good ramp (from green) and powerful spells/creatures (from red). X-costed creatures are also really fun with Animar.

He already said that he don't want to play blue.

For a beginner, I can stronly reccomend Uril. He's kinda easy to build and the fact that he's hexproof by itself make him kinda hard to remove.

Otherwise, if you like playing political, Thantis, the Warweaver or Gahiji, Honored One would be interesting commanders. Just tell your opponents, that they want to attack themself in stead of you and prepare the final swing.

[Aetherium Slinky]

He already said that he don't want to play blue.

Sorry! Accidentally skipped that bit! Although Animar isn't your typical blue creature if one likes Naya (ehich was my first pick, too). I had a Gruul Animar with minimal blue interaction.

[elmmonkey]

Thanks everyone so much!! I never thought I’d get this much replies! I think I will look into Zacama, Ghired, Uril, and maybe Animar. Thanks so much for your help. I really needed it!

[dexflux]

While Naya does Midrange quite well, I'd say to also try some brews within Mardu (Queen Marchesa, long may she reign) and Jund (Lord Windgrace, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Shattergang Brothers). BRx can get really nice and grindy. Other than that, you might like Golgari, with Commanders like Savra, Queen of the Golgari that keep the board clear while you accumulate value.