Okay so last Tuesday I was staring at my Magic card collection feeling completely lost about what Commander deck to build next. You know how it is – too many options, too little time. So I grabbed my laptop and decided to figure this out once and for all.
Starting With Total Chaos
First I just dumped all my favorite legendary creatures on the kitchen table. Big mistake. Ended up with 37 possible commanders surrounded by piles of cards looking like a cardboard hurricane hit my apartment. Felt overwhelmed after 20 minutes so I brewed some coffee and changed tactics.
Asking The Real Questions
Sat down with a notebook and made myself answer these things:
- Do I wanna smash face fast or play the long game?
- Which colors make me happy? (Spoiler: I always crawl back to blue)
- Can I actually afford the crazy expensive cards?
- Will my playgroup murder me if I play another counter-spell deck?
Took me two hours to admit I’m basically a control player who pretends to like aggro sometimes. Felt good to be honest with myself for once.
The Playtesting Disaster
Built three different deck ideas using placeholder cards:
- Superfriends planeswalker nonsense
- Merfolk tribal with way too many lords
- Some janky artifact combo thing
Played against myself like a crazy person. The artifact deck kept fizzling, merfolk got boring after three games, and my cat knocked over the planeswalkers twice. Total mess but learned what doesn’t work.
Stealing Ideas Like A Pro
Checked out what commanders were winning at my local game store tournaments. Copied three decklists that looked fun but swapped out cards I couldn’t afford or hated playing against. Watched a bunch of Commander gameplay videos while eating pizza – best research method honestly.
The Final Choice
After all that headache I finally settled on building around Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Why? Cause it hits all my checkboxes:
- Loves artifacts (my secret obsession)
- Plays blue (duh)
- Can be built budget-friendly
- Recurring stuff from graveyard feels powerful
Just sleeved it up last night and already won three games by milling myself to victory. Feels good man.
Biggest lesson? Stop overthinking and play what actually makes you cackle like a supervillain when the combos pop off. Your gut usually knows better than your brain with Commander decks.