Commander reading

History

Commander is the format that has grown explosively over the past five years. The format was started by a group of judges winding down after judging tournaments. Many of you probably know that the format is also called EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander) and comes from the fact that the Commanders we started with were the dragons that came in the Legends set (-94). All the dragons were 7/7s and that comes to the 21 in “Commander damage” required to lose a match - three hits from a 7/7.

In 2011, Wizards of the Coast saw the potential of the format and released the first ready-made sets you could buy, and over the years the format gained more and more players. Somewhat unexpectedly for Wizards, Commander became the format that new players started with and soon Commander was the most played format of all.

Your first game

Buying a pre-built deck is really recommended when getting your first Commander deck. But when you've played it for a while, the urge to build something of your own might creep in... Where should you start? And how do you know what kind of game you think is fun to play?

The answer to question two is simple but takes a long time - try different kinds of games.

Figuring out the answer to the first question is easier to give some tips on. Either you start with a legendary creature you think looks exciting or a playstyle that attracts you. For tips and ideas, the website edhrec.com is a must for anyone who wants to build commander games. Here you can easily find among different types of commanders in all different colors, get tips on cards that go well with the commander in question and many examples of decks that other players have built. Keeping track of all 10,000 cards in magic's history is impossible, and if you don't have a large collection yourself where you can browse through the cards at home, you have here a fantastic tool to find the right one.

Ban list

Something to keep in mind when building a commander deck is that there is actually a list of cards that are considered banned (forbidden), something that you and your gaming group decide for themselves if you want to follow, but if you are going to play in a shop or play with new acquaintances you can it would be good to adapt the deck to the official track list ( mtgcommander.net ).

 

/ElderDragonThe Cod