Special Guest Content- The Standard Commander Challenge
November 7, 2013
Redditor 956Wulfe (http://www.reddit.com/user/956Wulfe) recently posted (http://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/comments/1o1anv/lgs_t2_edh_challenge/) regarding a local game store’s hosted Standard Commander Challenge and asked for deck building advice. Cassidy Silver last dealt with this type of deck building challenge when Scars of Mirrodin block was legal with a Glissa the Traitor deck (http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10184). It’s an interesting challenge and inspires exploration of the idea further for a variety of reasons.
A play group may wish to try this format for any number of reasons. Cassidy Silver noted long ago that Standard Commander decks are a good way to depower any gaming group that has evolved into an arms race. Limiting deck construction to Standard allows deeper exploration of lesser-played card interactions. If a playgroup is trying to incorporate newer players without access to as many card or players on a budget, Standard Commander encourages a more level footing between the various players in the group. A Standard Commander format also has about the same power level as the Commander 2013 product encouraging interaction with that product.
Deck Building Considerations
Tutors
There are a few notable observations to make regarding the Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash/Dragon’s Maze/Magic 2014/Theros card pool. First, the current Standard Commander format like many New World Order designed Standard environments has a minimal number of tutors, reducing the consistency that Eternal Commander can engender. Of all the available tutors, only black’s Diabolic Tutor is unconditional. If a combo deck actually existed in Standard, the lack of tutors in a singleton format makes combo decks ever more unlikely and aggro, control, and midrange strategies de facto archetypes. The list of available tutors currently in Standard are:
Black (unconditional):
Diabolic Tutor
Green (funtionally basic landcyling):
Izzet (three low-casting cost instants):
Golgari (creature only):
Artifact
Any player building for a Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash/Dragon’s Maze/Magic 2014/Theros Standard Commander challenge should automatically that each opponent will be running Ring of Three Wishes. It’s comparable to a slightly more expensive Jayemdae Tome for decks lacking card draw and is an obvious, extremely strong multiple use tutor, especially for control and acceleration decks. Lastly, Traveler’s Amulet functions as a basic landcycling spell for all decks.
Mana Acceleration
Next, mana acceleration decks must have a strong green component. Outside of Chromatic Lantern, Darksteel Ingot, guild Cluestones, guild Keyrunes, and Opaline Unicorn, non-green Standard Commander decks have no further options. Green decks can utilize up to twelve additional mana accelerants and/or mana fixers which include:
Obviously Nylea, Selesnya, Simic, Golgari, and Gruul decks will have a very specific advantage over other Standard Commander decks. In addition to these possible green cards, don’t be surprised if every deck runs a copy of Burnished Hart as a colorless substitute of Ranger’s Path to accelerate or fix mana. Most mono-colored decks will also try to squeeze in Chromatic Lantern and Darksteel Ingot for additional mana reach. All the guild-colored decks will run the appropriate guild Cluestone and Keyrune for additional card draw and battlefield body.
Card Advantage
Most importantly, card draw/advantage is heavily regulated to blue, black, and green, putting white, red, and Boros decks at quite a disadvantage. Izzet also has a superior amount of card draw with Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius as a Commander and Mercurial Chemister in the deck. Mercurial Chemister is a creature that has been showing up more often in Grixis Eternal Commander decks and has proven its worth to both repeatedly draw cards and remove creatures. Simic similarly has lots of options for card draw with Prime Speaker Zegana being a Commander, but is less abusable than Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. (Red is not included on this list because few of the cards offer complete card advantage.)
Blue (draw spells, draw triggers, and repeatable scrying):
Black (frequently costs additional life or another resource):
Green (conditionally dependent on creatures or lands):
Azorious:
Orzhov (conditional and slow):
Dimir (mostly conditional or slow):
Izzet:
Simic (conditional on +1/+1 counters or functionally cycling):
Golgari (repeatable, conditional scrying):
Artifact (repeatable scrying):
Witches’ Eye
Witches’ Eye is possibly one of the most interestingly innocuous cards available to a Standard Commander deck. For the sorcery speed cost of {2} and tapping a creature, a player could scry repeatedly regardless of deck color during their turn. This is as close to Crystal Ball a deck pilot will find in this environment outside of Thassa, God of the Sea and Crystal Ball is often called a “poor player’s Sensei’s Divining Top” by budget Commander players.
Creature Removal
Lastly, creature removal will be most likely one of the most difficult aspects of a Standard Commander challenge. This format is missing many of the more-efficient, non-conditional, flexible, and instant speed staples and board wipes available in the Eternal card pool. Mass creature removal is mostly the domain of white and blue making Azorious the most obvious creature and board control guild. A list of possible removal and board wipes in Standard Commander looks like this, but is not a conclusive list:
White:
Blue:
Black:
Red:
[card]Anger of the Gods[/card
Azorious:
Orzhov:
Boros:
Selesnya:
Selesnya Charm
Dimir:
Simic:
Rakdos:
Golgari:
Colorless:
Mana Base
Mono-colored decks in a Standard Commander format are quite limited in the number of utility lands and dual lands available. Two of the three types of dual lands, ten guild gates and five scrying Temples, enter the battlefield tapped, further reducing the speed of non-green decks. The third type, shocklands, allow the expected flexibility with loss of life, but have no sterotypical fetchlands to pair with them. The remaining utility lands that are applicable to the format are:
A player using Encroaching Wastes has the ability to knock an opponent out of a crucial color or utility land at the right time. So reasonably assume every deck will be running Encroaching Wastes. This presumption is why Standard Commander brewers will probably want avoid running Shimmering Grotto, Thespian’s Stage, Transguild Promenade, and Unknown Shores. Additionally, Shimmering Grotto and Unknown Shores are simply inefficient to use and are unfetchable with Burnished Hart, making them even less desirable. Basic lands are less flexible, but they’re much less complicated in this narrower card pool.
Summation
Notably, Standard Commander is currently missing many stereotypical “enters the battlefield” creatures, exceptionally strong Equipment, and graveyard value recursion. For instance, there is currently no no targeted instant speed removal for white, counterspells with “draw a card” text in blue, artifact manipulation for red, and Acidic Slime for green. The Gatecrash Primordial cycle should also have an even larger impact on longer games than they already do due to slower games and lack of efficient board control cards. Additionally, the mana base of each deck will be impacted with the limitation of dual lands and decks run an increased risk of mana problems.
One of the issues that Standard Commander players–particularly players that power down from Eternal or Modern Standard to this format–will notice noncreature cards are more problematic or impactful without the ability to answer those threats. The Theros indestructible Gods will be glaring for players’ inability to react outside of Angelic Edict, Fade into Antiquity, Council of the Absolute, and Merciless Eviction or counterspells. Once a Theros God makes it into play, the legendary permanent will continually impact the game until its over.
Interestingly, this block has some really unexpected synergies that will be quite entertaining for Johnny type players and harken back to Limited drafting strategies. Trading Post allows you to recycle Vial of Poison. Bubbling Cauldron turns your creatures into 4/4 Angels with Angelic Accord.