People play Commander for different reasons. I am not going to use my space today to dive into the different motivations for an unknowably large game-playing population, especially since my telepathy is broken and Cerebro is on the fritz. Rather, I want to talk about different potential driving forces and Magic in general.

I believe that Commander has the potential to be one of the most personal formats when played socially. While certain players can succeed at a high level of play with “their decks”—look no further than Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze champion Craig Wescoe’s predisposition to Plains—Commander is a place where a stack of cards can reflect a specific aspect found in the one who wields the spells.

Allow me to take a step back. You sit down to play with your group, and already, you have an idea of what’s going to happen. The player to your left loves to inject a little chaos into his or her matches while the player to your right loves to play Howling Mine. Across from you is the master manipulator, the one who can bend a table to his or her will.

Once you have the answer, ask yourself this: What colors are the players?

I believe that, at times, not only do people who play Commander exhibit characteristics of the color pie, but in turn, that drives how they approach multiplayer mayhem. Consequentially, this also helps to influence what cards they put in their decks and why some people, myself included, have problem playing against type.

Holding up the mirror, I would define the way I play Commander as very B/G with the occasional hint of blue. I love to scrape for every resource and hate letting things go to waste. At the same time, I care quite a bit about accruing card advantage and am not afraid to abuse the cycle of life and death to achieve my goals. For example my Xenagos, God of Revels deck features cards like Gobbling Ooze that are uniquely positioned to act as parasites on the circle of life. When I pilot Muzzio, Visionary Architect, I make great use of both Arcbound Ravager and Barrin, Master Wizard to further my ends. At the same time, the deck is about growth—evolution, if you will—and a willingness to cultivate the natural flow of things. Simic, anyone?

And this is just how I approach the decks. While I cannot see myself doing it, I believe it is possible to build a very white or red version of Muzzio, embracing chaos or order according to the whims of the pilot.

How do strategies break down? I have a rudimentary list of different strategies and deck types I would like to propose, and feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments.

White

Players who exemplify the white slice of the color pie tend to believe in the mantra, “A rising tide lifts all ships,” and they will be the most likely to do something that is equally beneficial as long as it does not harm anyone. The so called “group hug” deck strikes me as an alabaster pursuit unless it is pushed too far (but then we’re touching on group bear hug, something rather Orzhov). The goal behind these decks is to give everyone a similar abundance of resources to allow for more equal footing. A card like Collective Voyage may have a green color identity, but its effect on the battlefield falls to the other side of the Selesnya Conclave.

White players also want to lay down the law. Changing the rules of the game, nominally to protect everyone, those who pack Ivory Charms have no compunction about preventing lands from untapping or preventing spells from being cast. After all, everyone is being treated equitably.

The final aspect of playing Commander from the Plains is one of reaction. White players will never initiate the fight, but they come prepared with the tools to end them. Soul Snare is one such card, but No Mercy represents an extreme version of this strategy. I mean, sure, white doesn’t want to kill you, but you hit white first.

Dema’s Mesmeric Orb on Command Tower

Mesmeric Orb ? Commander | Dema

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Consuming Aberration
• 1 Drift of Phantasms
• 1 Duskmantle Guildmage
• 1 Graveborn Muse
• 1 Gravecrawler
• 1 Guiltfeeder
• 1 Nemesis of Reason
• 1 Selhoff Occultist
• 1 Sewer Nemesis
• 1 Undead Alchemist
• 1 Vesper Ghoul
• 1 Coretapper
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Empress Galina

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• 1 Jace, Memory Adept
• 1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

• Spells (41)
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Army of the Damned
• 1 Bitter Ordeal
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Head Games
• 1 Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1 Mind Grind
• 1 Minds Aglow
• 1 Prosperity
• 1 Sadistic Sacrament
• 1 Toxic Deluge
• 1 Traumatize
• 1 Tunnel Vision
• 1 Whispering Madness
• 1 Bloodchief Ascension
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Writ of Passage
• 1 Altar of Shadows
• 1 Altar of the Brood
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Jester's Mask
• 1 Keening Stone
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mesmeric Orb
• 1 Mindcrank
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Body and Mind
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (37)
• 5 Swamp
• 9 Island
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cephalid Coliseum
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Shelldock Isle
• 1 Sunken Ruins
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terrain Generator
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Seat of the Synod
• 1 Vault of Whispers

Buy This Deck

Here, cards like Mesmeric Orb, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Rhystic Study, and Minds Aglow all play into white’s propensity for setting rules. While this is definitely pushing toward the more bear-hug nature of the color, there is a definite theme of we’re-all-going-to-be-dragged-through-this-together pervading this chromatically U/B deck.

Blue

Blue seeks perfection. To me, a perfect game of Commander is one that goes exactly how I want it every time. In other words, there’s card-draw, tutors, and combo. The blue player is single minded in the drive for the unblemished win. The joy comes as much from victory as the flawlessness by which it is achieved.

Similarly, blue players will sit back and react, similarly to their comrades in the Azorius, but will do so in a far more denying way. Rather than dictate what happens on the field of battle, the azure ones will be the final judges of what makes it to the war zone in the first place.

To fuel these ways, the blue mage loves to draw cards. This is an obviously powerful strategy, but because of their willingness to sculpt games, blue players are able to make the best use of their extra resources. Abundance might be a green card, but in my mind, it is a blue concept.

Greg’s Erebos from CMDR Decks

Erebos, God of the Dead ? Commander | Greg

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Desecration Demon
• 1 Disciple of Bolas
• 1 Faceless Butcher
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Overseer of the Damned
• 1 Pain Seer
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms

• Spells (54)
• 1 Cabal Ritual
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Makeshift Mannequin
• 1 Malicious Affliction
• 1 Silence the Believers
• 1 Buried Alive
• 1 Consuming Vapors
• 1 Corrupt
• 1 Crux of Fate
• 1 Dark Deal
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Despise
• 1 Diabolic Intent
• 1 Diabolic Revelation
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Distress
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Duress
• 1 Exhume
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Fearsome Awakening
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Increasing Ambition
• 1 Mutilate
• 1 Nightmare Incursion
• 1 Praetor's Grasp
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Sadistic Sacrament
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Smallpox
• 1 Temporal Extortion
• 1 Worst Fears
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Dictate of Erebos
• 1 Exquisite Blood
• 1 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Sanguine Bond
• 1 Underworld Connections
• 1 Underworld Dreams
• 1 Waste Not
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Lashwrithe
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Mindslaver
• 1 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (34)
• 22 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

Tutors and card-draw—this deck, from the surface, wants to repeat game states over and over again. Rune-Scarred Demon, Diabolic Tutor, and Demonic Tutor all make it so that games can go according to the best-laid plans ad nauseam.

Black

Drawing power from the Swamps means doing anything at all to win. A pilot who comes at the game from the third point on the color pie is ruthless and will do whatever it takes for win.

One way of doing this is playing politics. While every color can play the negotiation game, it all comes back to the charcoal ones, as it is all about manipulating the game state to one from which the Swamps come out on top. Grixis mages are the best at this avenue of attack, but the Rakdos play on emotions while the Dimir play on knowledge. The Orzhov tend to manipulate the group into a position in which the group feels comfortable but there is only one person truly benefitting—a so-called group bear hug. The Golgari don’t play politics as much—they just abuse the transition from the battlefield to the graveyard.

Necromantic decks also want to benefit from things—well, dying. If graveyards are full, business is good because it doesn’t matter if it’s dead—black will use it. The proliferation of Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant decks play up this nature of the B in WUBRG by turning death itself into a resource. Vicious Shadows indeed.

Jason Alt’s The Mimeoplasm from “Uninfected”

The Mimeoplasm ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Consuming Aberration
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Golgari Brownscale
• 1 Golgari Grave-Troll
• 1 Golgari Thug
• 1 Gravedigger
• 1 Hermit Druid
• 1 Hydra Omnivore
• 1 Jace's Archivist
• 1 Kheru Lich Lord
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Lord of Extinction
• 1 Sewer Nemesis
• 1 Shambling Shell
• 1 Skaab Ruinator
• 1 Stinkweed Imp
• 1 Vulturous Zombie
• 1 Windreader Sphinx
• 1 Wonder
• 1 Woodfall Primus
• 1 Darksteel Colossus
• 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1 Phenax, God of Deception
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
• 1 Stitcher Geralf

• Spells (38)
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Golgari Charm
• 1 Sultai Charm
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 1 Wake the Dead
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Increasing Confusion
• 1 Jarad's Orders
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Mind Grind
• 1 Nature's Resurgence
• 1 Prosperity
• 1 Scout the Borders
• 1 Serene Remembrance
• 1 Stitch Together
• 1 Traumatize
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Vigor Mortis
• 1 Villainous Wealth
• 1 Wave of Vitriol
• 1 Whispering Madness
• 1 Exoskeletal Armor
• 1 Greater Good
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Rites of Flourishing
• 1 Spidersilk Armor
• 1 Thought Lash
• 1 Wreath of Geists
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Mesmeric Orb
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (35)
• 7 Forest
• 7 Island
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Dakmor Salvage
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Opulent Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Shelldock Isle
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

Buy This Deck

While featuring black, cards like Hermit Druid and Greater Good are the ones that play up the darker nature of this deck. The library is just a tool used to fuel a very grim end, while creatures are simply fuel for the cause.

Red

We all know a red player. He or she may or may not load up his or her deck with world-altering effects, but no matter what, that player wants to play for an experience. The red commanders are concerned with enjoying themselves and trying new things. Random attacks and effects are not beyond their range.

Spinning the wheel and letting the game devolve into powerful things is exactly what red wants to see happen. I will not lie: Red is the color I have the hardest time ascribing to multiplayer play, so if you have deeper thoughts, do not hesitate to let me know.

I had a hard time finding a deck that exemplified red, but that’s because red is more of a mindset than a deck. Anyone can play reckless or with emotion. While certain cards may play that up—Jixed Idol perhaps—it is more about the pilot than the deck.

Green

If a game ends as it should have ended, green is happy. Green wants a natural unfolding of events. Now, if that course of action involves extra land drops and giant monsters, well, green is just fine with that.

Green has no qualms about using its ties to the land to reach the predetermined end of game faster than everyone else. This isn’t manipulating nature, just encouraging it to act along its own accelerated path. The process of ramping resources is distinctly green (and borders on blue’s desire for the scripted game) if it allows for titanic creatures to do their thing.

The other emerald strategy is about building up the biggest, baddest threat possible. Voltron, or the loading up of enhancements on one threat, is about survival of the baddest and biggest, if not the fittest. Green does not mind making things better and the process of crafting the perfect killing machine is absolutely verdant.

Alex’s Bruna

Bruna, Light of Alabaster ? Commander | Alex Ullman

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Auratouched Mage
• 1 Drogskol Reaver
• 1 Iridescent Drake
• 1 Kor Spiritdancer
• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Nomad Mythmaker
• 1 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Taj-Nar Swordsmith
• 1 Thassa's Emissary
• 1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
• 1 Umbra Mystic
• 1 Void Stalker
• 1 Willbender
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Daxos of Meletis
• 1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator

• Spells (37)
• 1 Banishing Stroke
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Vanishment
• 1 Divine Reckoning
• 1 Three Dreams
• 1 Winds of Rath
• 1 Angelic Destiny
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Compulsion
• 1 Diplomatic Immunity
• 1 Eel Umbra
• 1 Empyrial Armor
• 1 Ethereal Armor
• 1 Felidar Umbra
• 1 Flight of Fancy
• 1 Fool's Demise
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Lightmine Field
• 1 Ordeal of Heliod
• 1 Ordeal of Thassa
• 1 Prison Term
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Righteous Authority
• 1 Righteous Cause
• 1 Sage's Reverie
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Soul Snare
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Spirit Loop
• 1 Steel of the Godhead
• 1 Treachery
• 1 Treasure Trove
• 1 Tricks of the Trade
• 1 Unquestioned Authority
• 1 Eldrazi Conscription
• 1 Honden of Seeing Winds

• Lands (34)
• 7 Island
• 7 Plains
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Azorius Guildgate
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Calciform Pools
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Coastal Tower
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Drifting Meadow
• 1 Esper Panorama
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Flood Plain
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tranquil Cove
• 1 Boreal Shelf
• 1 Serra's Sanctum

Buy This Deck

My Bruna deck is one of my oldest Commander decks, but it’s one I break out rather infrequently. The deck is all about growth and making the baddest Angel on the block. While there are definitely white and blue elements here, the focus is on Bruna and making sure she is a force of nature. When I play the deck, I definitely feel far greener than anything else.

This framework is just that: a skeleton. The idea that players craft games based upon color has been rattling around in my head for a while, and while not fully formed, I wanted to put this idea out into the aether to see what you think. Are you an avowed red mage but play blue cards? What about a rule-setting magus of the woods? Did I miss any concepts or strategies? Let me know. The hypothesis is a work in progress.