Before we begin, I should point out that last week the Rules Committee decided to unban Worldgorger Dragon. This is only a big deal if you like or know someone who likes to play infinite combo decks. The best way to deal with it is to respond to the enters-the-battlefield trigger and kill the Dragon, making the player return everything that’s been exiled, which is nothing, and then he exiles his side of the board. Then he’ll see how much fun that card is.

Oh. Jace and Stoneforge Mystic are still legal in Commander, they’re just restricted.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Commander release.

When Wizards renamed everything last year, the Legend leading your deck went from a General to a Commander. Looking at military rankings, your Legend actually became less decorated. So while the name change makes sense (though the title “Commander,” for the product, Legend, and format can sometimes get a little confusing), I just find that amusing. This isn’t an argument about which branch of the service is better (much respect to anyone serving), it just seems to me like these Legendary Creatures might get mad when they aren’t as high-ranking anymore.

What do you do with a General when he stops being a General?

Recruit him for a greater purpose.

If you are a Johnny (of the player profiles of Spike/Johnny/Timmy), one of your favorite toys growing up was probably Legos; you love to build things your own way. Sure, you might have followed the instructions, but after playing around for a little while, you took it apart and built what you wanted to build.

Magic, especially the Commander format, gives you that same chance to mess around and just constantly build and tinker around. I love that feeling of making the deck your own; it’s your own personal statement about the game of Magic. If you’re reading this column, you most likely have at least one Commander deck, maybe two or three if you have the cards.

I’m going to have nineteen Commander decks.

I would like to introduce you to the Highlander Collective.

For a while now, I knew that if I didn’t start writing down what decks I wanted to build, I was going to build a deck for each Commander out there. I don’t have the cards, or the time, for that kind of endeavor. I have gone through all of the Legendary Creatures in existence and recruited eighteen of them for their service to lead my Commander decks to victory. As for the nineteenth, we’ll get to that in a minute.

It’s easy to think of this concept like a superhero team: There might be some additions and some subtractions, but generally there will be a constant cast of characters. It’s with this focus that I can get a starting point and start to build the decks I want to play instead of just writing up deck lists. Something I haven’t done before.

Until now.

Here’s the part that might interest you, the reader. As I build and change these decks, you can follow along and see what’s going on. Something I learned while reading other Commander articles on the Web is that players are always looking for advice. They either want help with their own decks or are looking for a place to start. But I still believe that building your decks is a personal expression; no one should have the same hundred-card list that I do. I’m of the philosophy of teaching a person to fish rather than catching the fish for him. Extrapolate the metaphor for deck-building, and you get the point I’m trying to make.

But reading those other Commander articles, I tend to get bored with the entire deck lists and why it’s good to include [insert obvious card here]. I’ve been over this before, so I’m not going to rehash it here. I tried doing a deck clinic before on 99EDHProblems and felt the result was a strange hybrid of what I wanted to do and what the reader wanted. But that’s not what the Highlander Collective is going to be about.

You are going to see the full deck lists of all the decks I build. And you are going to see the changes; this is the key part. By using both the Gathering Magic forums and my own Commander Blog, you will be able to see the deck evolve over time as more sets are released, and what playing the deck reveals over deck construction. I believe that a deck’s evolution is a very important piece of Commander that is currently overlooked. Sure, sometimes Sheldon writes about some of the changes in his decks, but you have to read through all of the archives to see what’s going on. With the Highlander Collective, it will all be on one page.

Here is a decklist I used to have for my Rafiq deck. It’s fun to look back at that deck and see what I was trying to do. When I first built it, Rafiq was all about combat damage triggers. It’s evolved into something much different now (but still not finished and hasn’t found its true identity), and half of those cards aren’t in the deck anymore. Seeing what cards you chose and why can help you learn more about your skills as a deck-builder.

But nineteen decks is a lot of decks. Yes it is. Currently I have eight put together ready to play, though not all of them are updated with Commander cards. A few are scattered all over my home office waiting to be put back together, and some are just piles of cards waiting to find a home. None of these decks are perfect, nor do I want them to be. Commander decks are living, breathing entities; we’re just helping them grow and find themselves.

Here are the charter decks in the Highlander Collective (decks with a "(T)" designate tribal decks):

Each one of these decks is something I want to build. There’s no set order in which they are going to be built or edited. As I said before, this is an active list based on what I am currently interested in; it is quite possible for me to replace some of these Commanders with new Commanders when they are printed or if I want to shake things up. Currently there are two Commanders that may see the chopping block sooner than later: Lim-Dul and Baru.

Lim-Dul seems fun, but I wanted to build him before I saw Tariel and I may want to combine the two (neither are currently built). Baru on the other hand is a compromise that I had to make. I want at least one mono-color Commander for each color and ever since Channel was banned I haven’t had the desire to tinker around with my Vedreloth deck. Looking through the Green Legends I saw that most deal with lands or trampling over with creatures. So I chose Baru while waiting for a new Green Legend that tickles my fancy.

But I want one more. This is where you guys come in. Suggest to me a Legend to use to build my final deck for the Highlander Collective. And, I want you to tell me where you want it to go. No deck lists, but card suggestions are perfectly fine. Yes, this is partially inspired by Adam’s Community Cube.

There are some stipulations:

• This deck is for other people to play. I bring it with me, and people who have never played the format or don’t have a deck can borrow this one.
• I’m looking to capture the feel of Commander, what it’s like to play the format. Sure Zur is cute and all, but would you really give that deck to someone who’s never played Commander before?
• There can’t be any expensive cards in the deck that would have to make the deck function. Yes, expensive is a relative term but here’s the definition I’ll go by: Because I’m letting other people borrow it, I won’t be able to keep track of it. If a card falls on the floor, gets shuffled into another deck, bent during shuffling, etc., I won’t feel too bad about having to replace it. So obviously no foils or foreign cards.
• It can’t be a mono-colored Legend, nor any color combination I’ve got up there. I would like something different and it’s only fair to the person playing the deck.
• This is not a deck clinic. I’m not here to fix your deck. If you suggest a Commander you are currently playing, that’s fine but I’m doing my own take on it.

Convince me. The person who ends up with the Commander I’m going to pick will win a prize of some sort. Not like a dumb prize, but something awesome. The last day to enter will be Thursday, July 6, two weeks from now. Make your suggestions in the comments section below.

This deck will enter into the Highlander Collective and get updated and treated just the same as all of my decks. If you guys are interested, I can also open up the edits to what you suggest. And if you ever meet up with me at an event, I’ll have the deck so you can play it.

Building and working on your Commander decks are a personal thing. I imagine that’s what restoring on a car is like. You could take it to a mechanic and get it all fixed up and running properly, but you feel the sense of pride when you do it yourself. But when you’re starting a project, sometimes you want a place to start. A springboard. That’s the other intent of this collection of cards.

I’ll be continuing to mention the Highlander Collective, but you won’t see the deck lists on here. Most likely I’ll be referring to those decks a little more often for examples, but my column won’t become just these nineteen decks. Believe me, I’ve got more stuff to talk about. This, however, is a starting point.

I’m excited to see where this goes, and I hope you are too.

Next week, I’ll address the issue Mark Rosewater brought up in his Making Magic article that I know other Commander players have an issue with. Until then, I hope you find enough Generals for your army.