Finding a Consistent Commander/EDH Staples List Online

[M.Hanako]

It's been about three years since I got myself in Magic as a former Yu-Gi-Oh! player back in the pre-pandemic days. I've played at Pre-Releases and the occasional Brawl event on an on-and-off basis while still keeping an eye on the meta. However, that was back then.
Over these past couple of months, I've been collecting cards that have been stored in my various Bundle boxes and binders, waiting to be showed off and played with. After organizing and viewing my latest acquisitions, I decided that it would be a great time to delve into Commander on the casual level via Discord from my LGS. Despite my enthusiasm, I find homebrewing a Commander deck as a beginner from scratch is a daunting task to uphold. However, I am willing to bite the bullet and take on this challenge. And here comes the roadblock: where do I start?

When my interest in Commander was perked by the Command Zone Podcast in early 2018, they posted a video about "EDH Essentials" from April 26, 2016. Although this video discussion was informative and useful at the time, but the format as a whole has evolved over the course of four to five years. I've been racking my brain and laptop on Google, searching for a causal EDH staples decklist that reflects the format as of the making of this post after the Year of Commander. Despite my efforts, I have not found the desired EDH staples list for 2020/2021; all of my results amounted to cEDH staples, which is not what I desired.

If anyone here can link any casual EDH staples decklist from 2020 into this discussion, your help would be greatly appreciated. It does not necessarily have to be a budget decklist worth of staples, but that would greatly appreciated either way.

[jlutzxinc]

I don't know where (or even if) a list of "casual" staples could be found, but you COULD try sifting through our own Morganator 2.0's "Best Cards for EDH" folder, which includes at least most of the "cEDH" staples along with at least a few cards that the hardcore types would scoff at; it's kept almost entirely up to date, and also includes many of the cards that were EVER good because a lot of them never stopped being so.

I'm also a former YuGiOh! player, who was attracted to Magic and then to Commander because I wanted games to last more than one turn.

[M.Hanako]

Thank you so much for the reply! I'll look into that folder once I finish reorganizing my card binders. Thank you for your help!

Personally, I got into Magic because I wanted to learn from the "Grandfather of TCGs" about deck strategies and archetypes and then go back into Yu-Gi-Oh! with my new found knowledge and mastery. However, after some time and deliberation with how much card stock is taking up space in my house, I had a new found love for Magic for the variety of formats and deck building strategies that Yu-Gi-Oh! lacked and left the game for its "Pay-To-Win" deck meta and the constant OTKs.

[robort]

This website https://edhrec.com/ has a list of top cards. If you look, click on cards and you can then choose top cards, saltiest cards, by type, by color and combos.

[CleanBelwas]

Hey M.Hanako,

You're posing an interesting question, the answer to which is vast and broad.

I would also like to put forward the notion that there are in fact very few "staples" for EDH, especially at the casual level. EDH is inherently a casual format and a lot of what people like about it is that it allows them to play their pet cards, cards that they love or are nostalgic for for example, without having to worry about if they are necessarily the "correct" or most optimised choice for their deck or strategy.

Generally what you will find for EDH decks is that there are certain actions that any given deck will want to be able to perform, but the specific card choice will vary from deck to deck and player to player. For example, any given EDH deck will want to include ways to ramp, ways to draw cards, ways to win, ways to interact with opponents, but how a deck does all of these things will be hugely dependent on the colours the deck has access to, the commander the deck employs and the strategy the deck is looking to use.

For example, a spellslinger deck, a big stompy deck and an aristocrats deck will all want to draw cards, but how they will do it will be different. Spellslinger will include things like Brainstorm, stompy will include things like Garruk's Uprising and aristocrats will include things like Grim Haruspex. As such, it's difficult to define a "card draw staple" and a lot easier to determine actions your deck wants to take and finding ways to do that that fall in line with your strategy.

A good place to start when building any EDH deck is to outline your ratios of cards. A solid starting point would be something like:

1 Commander
37 lands
10 ramp spells
10 draw spells/engines
10 spot removal / board wipes
5 utility cards (these could be things like graveyard recursion, graveyard hate, mana sinks etc.)
27 cards dedicated to what your deck wants to do.

These numbers will change depending on your strategy and will be tweaked with play testing, but this is a solid place to start. Also, it is often the case that one card can fulfil multiple roles, which frees up more room for other areas depending on your meta.

As robort points out. EDHRec.com is the go to resource for all things Commander. Under the 'Commanders' menu, there is an option for each colour combination. Selecting a colour or combination will take you to the home page for that colour/combo. On that page it will show you all of the possible commanders (ordered by popularity) and all of the "staples" for that colour / combo. Having a look there should give you a good idea of what cards you might want to pick up. Additionally, as robort says, there is a 'Cards' menu option. The 'Top Cards' option from this menu shows the most commonly used cards across the format, which would be another great place to look.

With the extensive history of MTG, the vast array of different play styles and archetypes, and the inherent nature of EDH being a format of playing what you like, defining a list of staples for casual players is very difficult. Have you decided on a strategy/archetype/commander/individual card you are looking to build your first deck around? If you have, this will give us a little more direction in recommending cards that would be good for that deck, but not so narrow that they wouldn't be useful in other decks too.

I hope this has helped a little. Good luck with whatever deck you decided to run with.

[M.Hanako]

Hey robort, I appreciate your response in this discussion recommending EDHREC.com as the best hub source for all things EDH/Commander.

I know this might sound strange, but I when used to deckbuild for Brawl during Dominaria Standard, I would do it blindly with the cards that were legal in the format at the time and without any online websites for reference because the format was new at the time and I wanted to surprise myself with the results (which did vary from deck to deck).

Knowing that this blind approach will most likely cause trouble for me transitioning into the Commander format, I thank you for mentioning this special gem of an EDH website that can guide me in the right direction for reference.

[M.Hanako]

CleanBelwas, I would also like to thank you for your detailed response and providing a general deck template/card ratios to get me started with brewing my first Commander deck from scratch. You are right in regards to how the answer to this discussion is broad and will depend from one deck to another when it comes to "format staples". The reason why I brought this question up on the causal level is because I am currently compiling a "EDH/Commander Toolkit" binder filled with format staples that are readily available on the spot (when applicable to the deck, of course) so I don't have to go through my Bundle boxes and binders for them. Overall, I greatly appreciate your response and will hopefully update you and everyone in this forum what deck I will be building for my LGS meta. (Note: I'm aiming for a two-color Commander, such as Teysa Karlov from Ravnica Allegiance and Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca from Rivals of Ixalan. Therefore, whatever is in my personal collection should narrow the Commander selection down.)

[jlutzxinc]

I am currently compiling a "EDH/Commander Toolkit" binder filled with format staples.

Snip, snippety, snip...this one line sounds like an amazing idea and something I should also do.  I won't insist that you share your results even though I'd love to see what that would look like.  Best of luck with your endeavor.

[stuffnsuch]

https://edhrec.com/top

That's the most common cards in the format.  However, since you're new to the format, you're looking at it in kind of a different way than most Commander players typically look at deck building.  In Commander, you're not interested in any given cards until you've decided on a commander.  Take Eternal Witness for example.  It's a very popular card in green, but, if you're not interested in having creatures on the battlefield, perhaps because you're routinely wiping the board or building a pillow fort or you're hoping to combo off the same turn you get something back from your graveyard, you may find Regrowth to be a better fit for your deck.  It's cheaper to play and does the same thing, minus getting a creature.  If you think it won't be as important to get something from your graveyard or play a creature as it will be to play a land in many cases, you might choose Bala Ged Recovery, which does the same thing, but can be a land in a pinch as well.  There are cards that may be really good in almost every deck, but not in the one you build.  The best part about Commander is that there's A LOT more variety in decks and strategies, and even just gameplay from game to game.  The reason you may be having a hard time finding a list of staples is because as a community, Commander players don't think of the format that way nearly as much as Vintage, Modern, Legacy, Pauper or other format communities typically do.  We embrace the quirky and off-the-beaten-path decks and love to be surprised each and every game.
Try looking through your legendary creatures for a card you'd like to build around.  It doesn't have to be powerful or popular, just interesting to you, personally.  Then decide on a strategy or theme for that commander.  Finally, look for cards that work for that strategy or theme.  People have built decks that will not ever win but are fun to play, and that's okay.  I've lost far more games of Commander than I'll ever win, but I love playing it and enjoy almost every loss.

Also, I am talking about casual commander.  There is a competitive Commander community, and if you're interested in that, disregard everything I said.

[Bonethousand]

I am currently compiling a "EDH/Commander Toolkit" binder filled with format staples.

Snip, snippety, snip...this one line sounds like an amazing idea and something I should also do.  I won't insist that you share your results even though I'd love to see what that would look like.  Best of luck with your endeavor.

I do this too. I have a box of staples I always use, but also where I dump cards that are janky, but seem like they'll fulfill the most important factors of EDH: effective against multiple opponents, strong synergy with basic strategies (draw, mill, beaters, tokens, blink, etc.), relatively efficient cmc, and just all kinds of ramp and removal. It's led me to some really weird combos when I open it to plan a deck and find a card I had forgotten existed. It also is an added level of strategy that feels like deckbuilding when you have that urge to dig through your bulk boxes.

[krichaiushii]

Give it enough time and your commander staples binder will swell into several boxes.  Especially if you cycle through Commanders by the score.

Years ago, I would spend lots of time on MTG Salvation, and I think they are still active, so I would check around there. 

Good luck!

[WWolfe]

Years ago, I would spend lots of time on MTG Salvation, and I think they are still active, so I would check around there. 

The site still exists but is nowhere near as active as it use to be. It essentially split into two sites a little over a year ago (maybe longer than that) with neither being nearly as active as MTGS was back in the day.