How to Pick Your First Commander

Since its inception, Commander has become the premier format of Magic: The Gathering. Its social styling and community driven gameplay has enchanted the casual player base and brought more players into the game we all know and love. Commander's popularity, coupled with the advent of the Universes Beyond product, has caused an even greater surge in players. With new players, comes new obstacles and a need to revisit previous concepts from the past.

Picking your first commander can be daunting and finding a niche you fit in can be even more difficult. Do cool combos strike your fancy? How about attacking with giant beasts? Maybe you like to be in control and always have the answers? This mini primer is designed to give you a few tips and tricks into picking your first commander, or if you're a veteran, this will help you recommend commanders to newer players. We can all benefit from going Back to Basics once in a while.

Compared to other games, Magic: The Gathering can seem incredibly intimidating to new players. There are layers upon layers of rules in the core game to begin with, and now you're adding a bevy of additional rules specific to the commander format. We don't want to overwhelm ourselves, or our new compatriots, with a lot of information all at once.

One of the easier rules to establish is that of Color Identity. Color Identity determines what cards can be played in our deck. If, for example, our commander has all Green mana symbols, we know that the only cards eligible for our deck will be Green and Colorless. In turn, the more mana symbols on our commander, the more colors are eligible for deck construction. In an attempt to keep things from being too overwhelming, let's start by making things a little easier on ourselves.

If we select a commander that limits our color choices, we'll get a better feel for how those individual colors play, and also prevent awkward situations where we may not be able to cast cards with complex color combinations.

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade helmed my very first commander deck. He's a Mono-Black */* that cares about how many Swamps you control. This was the perfect start for me as a new commander player, as I could jam all the cool Black cards I wanted into my deck with little to no concern. By keeping it simple, I was able to ease myself into the format and experience new and different cards.

Another approach could be to focus on Magic's creature types. It's relatively easy to take one type and create a deck style called Kindred. Building a Kindred deck can also take away some of the deck-building complication and give us a great base to start with. To continue with our previous Green concept, we should look to one of the most iconic creature types: Elves. Elves come in a wide range of Magic's colors, and there are tons of commanders we could choose from. Because we want to keep it simple, let's take a look at Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Ezuri's color identity is only Green, so like the example before we can only play Green and Colorless cards. Ezuri's special ability gives all other Elves we control a huge buff and the Trample ability, and both create an easy build around to recommend to new players.

As mentioned previously, Universes Beyond expanded the Commander community significantly. Characters like Captain America, First Avenger, Frodo, Sauron's Bane and even Optimus Prime, Hero have acted as a signal boost for both the game and the Commander format..

Shelob, Child of Ungoliant is a great example of this. This monstrous arachnid hits multiple points in our commander selection process. Shelob is recognizable, being an ancient monster from The Lord of the Rings. She follows our suggestion about Kindred, as she synergizes with the spider creature type. Also, she meets our requirements to not have a complex Color Identity. If MTG's in-game lore is a barrier, Universes Beyond sets like The Lord Of The Rings can remove it easily.

Choosing your first commander, or helping someone choose their first commander, can be a daunting task. Rule complexity in Magic: The Gathering can be difficult to grasp, and the additional rules of the commander format don't make it any easier. Keeping things simple by determining a non-complex Color Identity and focusing on one creature type through Kindred should help a new player grasp their own deck as they learn the rules and mechanics. The power of brand recognition can also work in your favor, as new players flood the game to play with commanders from Universes Beyond franchises they already know and love. With these quick tips, you now have a guide to building your first-ever Commander deck.