This concept isn't about grabbing a single card that wins you the game, but rather grabbing you a card within your deck that has a unique effect that can't be your commander. One of my favorite uses of tutors in Commander is for what's called a "hidden commander". That means between your opening 7 and one card drawn each turn, odds are you'll draw into a combo card or a tutor for a combo card by turn 3. You've gone from a 5% chance to draw one of your combo cards to a 10% chance. So now imagine you have 5 or more copies of the 4 or 5 cards that combo directly with your commander. Najeela can go near infinite, enough to win the game, with one of any 4 or 5 cards- Druid's Repository, Bear Umbra, Sword of Feast and Famine and more! That's what makes these decks consistent and consistently powerful. Godo can tutor his own one card when he enters the battlefield, making him remarkably consistent and just requiring a volume of mana to DO THE THING. These are both commanders that can win with one card from within their libraries. Look at high power level darlings like Najeela, the Blade Blossom or Godo, Bandit Warlord. Commanders and decks with that level of consistency are very powerful, pushing into the upper tiers of power level. Meaning with your commander and that card you can pop off, often winning the game. When looking at synergies within your deck and the ability to win there's a fondness for saying "this is a one-card combo with my commander". So finding a balance between being too consistent and being consistent ENOUGH is crucial. Some people love tutors, and some people don't. When THE THING your deck does results in winning the game, the more consistent you can do THE THING the more likely or often you can win. Tutors can be a slippery slope-when you have a saturation of them and your consistency improves considerably, so does power level in most instances. If you NEED a specific artifact to complement your strategy you can have FIVE OR MORE copies between Fabricate or Whir of Invention or Reshape and all of the black tutors that can grab any card. So I insert tutors into decks so I can ensure I get a lynchpin card or a hidden commander or a valuable synergy piece. Nothing wrong with that at all-there's no right or wrong way to play Commander.īut for someone like myself, who builds decks that are aimed at doing A THING IN PARTICULAR, it's more satisfying to me when the deck DOES THE THING than when it doesn't or can't. They WANT to see different cards from their deck each and every time they play. It removes the CHANCE of seeing it and introduces inevitability.įor some, adding this consistency is anathema to what they want from Commander. And in a singleton format like Commander, having 2 copies of a Sylvan Library or Wrath of God means we are twice as likely to see it when we want it. The important thing to know about tutors is that they are essentially an additional copy of any card in our deck. Tutors make up important parts of many deck builds for many different reasons making our decks more consistent, ensuring we have crucial pieces that allow us to work, or getting silver bullet solutions to board states when required. Avoid not being able to play the game due to deck building issues, avoid imposing poor scenarios on others, and ensure you have concentrated efforts in mind when deck building.īut, as always, Commander is about having fun YOUR WAY-don't let anyone tell you there's a right or wrong way to play this game. Throughout this series I want to take a look at how you can improve play experience-your own and that of others-before you ever play a game. Expectation mismatches, lack of communication, and differing opinions on what constitutes 'fun' can all play a part in how much you enjoy Commander. There's a lot to be said about other players' impact on play experience. More of the game is played before you ever sit down at a table with other players. Some have said I take a competitive mindset and apply it to casual Commander, but I prefer to think of it as taking an efficient look at deck building. You may recognize me from my YouTube Channel or from guesting on major streams around the community-I'm a deck builder and brewer with a very analytical view of the format of Commander. Hey folks, I'm Chris and I'm YOUR Commander Mechanic.
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