There are so many commanders available inMagic: The Gathering. Every year, dozens, if not hundreds, of commanders are introduced, which is great for variety, not so great when it comes to deciding what you want to build. With how many commanders there are in the game, there are so many I’ve wanted to build, but for one reason or another, just haven’t.
I’m sure I’m not alone in theory crafting a ton of cool ideas for a Commander deck, but never actually sitting down to build them. These are really cool commanders I definitely want to get around tp building, but who knows when that day will come.
10Squall, SeeD Mercenary
Will It Even Be Fun?
I never played a Final Fantasy game until the crossover set was announced, but I fell in love with the series. So, of course, I wanted to build a Commander deck for a lot of characters. However, I never committed to building my favorite protagonist, Squall.
The problem with Squall is that if I want to pull the (gunblade) trigger, I’m not sure if it’ll be fun for my opponents. It would be a lot of recursion of forced sacrifice, and I question if it’s a deck people would even want to play against. I did win theStandard Showdown promo, so maybe it’s a sign to just do it.
9Chatterfang, Squirrel General
Time For Bracket Five
I have a Commander deck for every bracket, except for bracket five. Admittedly, I’ve never beensuper into cEDH. I respect the format, but it’s just not for me. That being said, it’s the only bracket for which I don’t have a Commander deck.
Chatterfang has always been my choice for commander if I ever decided to make a cEDH deck. Looking at Golgari colors, there are a lot of combos that Chatterfang can run, but the pricetag has been my main roadblock from actually building it. cEDH is a bit too out of my price range.
8Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
As The Lone Wanderer
Fallout is one of my favorite video game series, so of course I want to build a Commander deck featuring all the companions from all the precons that were released in the Fallout set. My idea was to use Sisay as the stand-in for the Lone Wanderer, with the companions making up the deck.
However, Sisay almost feelstooeasy of a commander, not to mention having to work with a five color mana-base. I fear the deck would just become stale very quickly, tutoring the best companions out every game with Sisay’s ability.
7Zedruu The Greathearted
The Problem With Spelltable Games
I love a bit of chaos, so I’ve always wanted to build a Chaos deck. Zedruu, the Greathearted seems like the perfect choice for the flavor of Chaos I’d want to play. However, there is one big problem: I primarily play on Spelltable (a way to play Magic through webcam).
Zedruu requires sending a lot of permanents to other players, which is incredibly hard and tedious by nature. Not everyone has dry-erase tokens to make the process easier, and tracking who has what just gets too complicated, so the amount of work that would go into playing this deck has turned me off from the prospect of it.
6Flubs, The Fool
Fun Or Solitaire?
Flubs, the Fool instantly grabbed my attention with its unique effect. A commander that wants your hand to be empty fascinated me, and it sounded almost like a challenge to build. However, every flavor of Flubs seemed to always fall back onsome kind of storm build.
Storm is fun, but I always worry it will turn into a game of solitaire, where I hope no one interacts with me while I combo off. I don’t know if I want to see my opponents go on their phones while I work towards a win.
5Light-Paws
Same Game Problem
Aura decks always sound fun, but as with many Voltron commanders, it feels like they devolve into the same game being played every time. Light-Paws is one of, if not the best Aura commander, but because its effect is so good, you always just tutor the best Auras out from your library early.
I never ripped the band-aid on building it out of worry that the deck would get boring quickly. I loved Light-Paws as a character in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and her art is just as fantastic, but ultimately, I’m not sure if her gameplay loop would be enjoyable.
4Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
A cPDH Commander
For the unfamiliar, cPDH refers to competitivePauper Commander, a variant of Commanderin which any uncommon creature can be your commander (legendary or not), and the 99 only have to be cards that have been released at common. I love Pauper Commander and have always wanted a competitive Pauper Commander.
Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar seemed like a fun commander that can combo freely since no one can interact with it. My main holdup is that I don’t have much of a Pauper Commander playgroup to actually play with. Perhaps I’ll revisit the idea if I ever do, but until then, Kutzil is on the shelf.
3The Twelfth Doctor
Too Many Options
I’ve been a long-time fan of Doctor Who since the reboot in 2005, sowhen the crossover set came out, I knew I’d be building a deck for every Doctor. However, when it comes to the Twelfth Doctor, I just could never settle on an idea.
I could build it semi-competitive by forcing opponents to copy spells that make them lose the game at the end step, or if they can’t pay a cost. I could also try a more casual copy and theft deck where I cast opponents' cards. With so many different ways and companion pairings, The Twelfth Doctor is the one Doctor I can never settle on a build for.
2Bello, Bard Of The Brambles
Too Much Support
Bloomburrow quickly became one of my favorite Magic sets and planes of all time, so I really wanted to build Bello, Bard of the Brambles, because of my love of raccoons. I did actually make a decklist for Bello once, but there have been so many new support cards released that I’d need to start all over again.
Bello has the problem Dragon decks do in that support keeps getting released, making it hard to commit to a build. Bello just keeps changing with every new set release, and I can never find a good time to build the cute little raccoon properly.
1Toxrill, The Corrosive
Do I Want To Build Stax?
Toxrill, the Corrosive is a commander that most dread sitting across from (myself included). But, I’ve neveractually built a control/stax deck in Commander, and I do appreciate the design of what Toxrill wants to be doing.
However, I don’t know if I want to be the one who reveals Toxrill in the command zone and see all those eye rolls. I hate to take away people’s fun, but that’s really the only way to build Toxrill. Maybe one day, if I want to try being the villain in a pod for a change, I’ll finally build Toxrill, whom I’ve owned since its release.
