Last week, I asked for some input on where to go next with MTGO, and the vote was clear: more Commander.

You guys are so savage and demanding. I mean, I only kinda love Commander and all.

For those joining a little late to the party, I spent a few weeks busting through a variety of options and pricing structures to flesh out a mean, green Kamahl, Fist of Krosa deck. It was an adventure in learning about pricing, scouting for some deals and staple cards, and honing in on a consistent deck.

If I'm completely off-base in assuming that was something you enjoyed, you'll have to comment below. Otherwise, let's get started in the options for expanding to another Commander.

The Good, The Bad, The "Well-Loved"

There are three ways that I can jump into something new:

• Try out a non-Green, monocolored Commander.
• Choose a dual-colored-with-Green Commander.
• Choose an arc-or-wedge-colored-with-Green Commander.

While this really sounds like two different ways (with Green and without), there's actually a little finesse to each that makes them distinct.

Monocolored Commanders are fairly intuitive to build. You add three parts of what the color is good at to one part artifact-enhancement and one part specialty lands. It's a recipe for success that my favorite color, Green, has demonstrated to me time and again. Every color has its advantages and disadvantages, and plays fairly differently.

How the color plays doesn't have much bearing on the financial aspect of going into a different color: The majority of the deck will be new cards that I don't have. In fact, if you're jumping into MTGO specifically to play Commander, building multiple monocolored decks is probably more expensive than going the multicolored route.

Going with a dual-colored Commander provides the attractiveness of using multiple colors: Weaknesses from one color are often compensated by the other, specific synergies and interactions can be exploited for profit, and unique abilities and powers exist only in multicolor form.

Financially, picking up some of the requisite mana base to smooth spell casting can be tricky, but there's been a lot of headway made thanks to the reprinting of the original dual lands in Master's Edition IV. Picking at just the very best cards in another color can be expensive, but with just two colors, we're halfway there.

Running full-tilt with an arc-colored (the Alara shards) and wedge-colored (a color paired with both of its enemy colors) is a powerful proposition. Many of the most powerful decks in any format use three colors, and you can hardly shake a stick without bumping into them in Standard and Legacy.

Financially, however, three-colored decks are rough. A wide array of dual lands and mana-fixing elements combined with cherry-picking the very best that colors have to offer means that deck-building is hard. While the total power of the deck is usually higher than decks with fewer colors, the hurdle to clear is substantially higher.

Or, for those of you on the tl;dr path:

• Monocolored would be the cheapest, but requires buying the most new cards.
• Tricolored would be the most expensive by far, especially through a whole new mana base.
• Dual-colored would be a blend of the other two paths.

What does this mean? It's time to pick some potential Commanders and have an old-fashioned Internet vote-off! I'll run down one Commander each for a variety of colors, explaining my thoughts and ranking the guesstimated cost of building the deck out. You'll get to vote at the end.

Ready?

White: Kemba, Kha Regent

I like tokens. I like attacking. I like casting my Commander early and often. I've seen great things happen with Kemba. She's a beautiful thing as a package, playing off an equipment-heavy deck with access to board-sweepers, artifact and enchantment tutors, and several Crusade effects.

Advantages:

• Uses existing equipment
• Doesn't create a lockdown state
• Tokens and attacking!

Disadvantages:

• Straightforward approach makes bluffing tough
• Board-sweeping isn't the best combo

Estimated price point: $30 to $40

Blue: Lorthos, the Tidemaker

Disclaimer: I have a too-long-running agreement to make a Lorthos deck to play against my friend's Lorthos deck. Obviously, I haven't addressed this issue yet.

Lorthos, being Blue, opens up access to some incredibly powerful effects (Acquire, Bribery), and one of the golden effects of Commander: Control Magic and its ilk. While I'm normally not a Blue player, ignoring the power that Islands hold (#BanIsland) would be fooling (and make some of you angry).

Advantages:

• Forbid, Dismiss, Hinder
• Control Magic (and friends)
• Plays very nicely with artifacts, a Snow theme, and more

Disadvantages:

• Overplayed in Commander (It's everywhere, for real!)
• Higher prices than other colors (see above)
• Lacking creature kill

Estimated price point: $50 to $70

Black: Geth, Lord of the Vault

Geth is a stellar guy in limited (I would know this from playing him to glory in many games), but I think he's still a little under the radar in Commander. While milling an opponent isn't always desirable, instant-speed graveyard recursion that steals amazing things from opponents is absolutely insane.

Black has a way of killing pretty much anything, and being able to play the longer game and benefit from others tutoring up their best (only to then die) seems strong.

Advantages:

• Creatures will die (mostly everyone's)
• Punish decks that tutor for the best
• Play with Exsanguinate and other "all opponents" effects

Disadvantages:

• Milling can dump better things for opponent's to reanimate
• Black "struggles" with fighting artifacts and enchantments

Estimated price point: $40 to $50

Red: Homura, Human Ascendant

I saw a Homura deck once, and it was awesome! The idea of a Red creature you throw away in a blaze of glory that turns your entire army into Dragons is as epic as it sounds. With access to things like Anger and Urabrask the Hidden, and what seems like every other hasty critter, it would be easy to build an aggressive, in-your-face attack deck backed up by powerful burn.

Why does this sound so familiar, and sexy?

Advantages:

• Board-sweeping that is also face-burning
• Hasty creatures can slip through after sweeps
• Underrated as a color in Commander

Disadvantages:

• Distinct lack of tutors and recursion
• Few ways to reload a hand with effects

Estimated price point: $30 to $50

Multicolored

For the dual-colored and tricolored Commanders, I'm going to pick four of my favorites to share. There's just too many pairing to make a lengthy breakdown efficient (though if you want to see more, I can certainly revisit later).

Rhys the Redeemed

Yes, this would be blatant cheating. I have a paper version of the Rhys the Redeemed deck already built, so taking a journey into building one online would be almost identical to how I approaching transforming my paper Kamahl deck into its digital analogue.

That doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

Rhys is a token-making machine in colors suited best for it. Combines with powerful tutors, I've found that Rhys makes an excellent toolbox Commander that is backed up by speedy play and redundancy. He's an efficient killer when firing on all cylinders.

Advantages:

• I know the deck inside-out
• Tokens are great to leverage
• Reloading after a Wrath of God thanks to mana-ramping

Disadvantages:

• It's nothing new and will be less "exciting" for me
• Hyperaggressive Commanders are often targeted first

Estimated price point: $60 to $80

Glissa, the Traitor

Glissa feeds the dark side of things I like in Magic: repeatable removal, graveyard recursion, and a color pair that can handle any permanent with relative ease. I love Green/Black, and building the "everything-has-value" deck is a solid exercise in deck construction.

With some of the best creatures in the game backed up by abundant tutoring and recursion, playing the waiting game to punish the survivors of a round of haymakers is an easy way to notch up victories. And reusing artifacts repeatedly is an excellent angle of value fairly unique to her.

Advantages:

• Power and recursion in one package
• Rewards playing to the longer game
• Several powerful combos exist in this color pair

Disadvantages:

• She's the hottest Commander of the hour
• Powerful recursion and combos but a large target early

Estimated price point: $60 to $80

Uril, the Miststalker

Uril is a badass. The flagship of "Voltron Commanders" is simultaneously fun and frustrating to play. Casting Uril and a boatload of enchantments is an easy way to make the strongest creature. While Auro cards are normally considered card disadvantage, Uril more than makes up for the buy-in to playing them.

Uril, however, paints a neon sign of "Kill me!" on any player's face and makes political movement difficult. Having a repeatable nuke on standby to swing across and deliver 21+ Commander damage payload is a frightening prospect for every opponent.

Advantages:

• Aura cards are underappreciated
• A control-style build with board-sweepers can be built
• Glass-cannon effect makes games more exciting

Disadvantages:

• Other players will hate you just for using Uril
• Equipment, the usual offender in creature battles, doesn't benefit us as much here

Estimated price point: $60–$80

Jenara, Asura of War

I have a buddy who both lives at a distance and has a pretty nice Jenara deck. Unlike the usual Bant builds of a Blue/White control deck with mana-ramping, his take on Jenara is one of opportunity. If mana comes, he goes aggressive. If boards are cluttered, Wrath effects clean up. A few emergency-button counterspells float at the edges.

It's an eclectic mix of new and old, power and potential . Approaching each game with eyes on taking advantages where they pop up is an exciting way to break up the monotony of hyperconsistent decks.

Advantages:

• The classic elements of mana-ramping, removal, and card theft
• Jenara is a mana sink and can grow to kill quickly
• She isn't obviously threatening

Disadvantages:

• People hate Blue (I know I do)
• She's all-in for aggro; one sweep resets a lot of hard work

Estimated price point: $70–$90

The Rest of the Story

As asked, I hope that somewhere in the eight options above you find the one you want to see most. While there are dozens more Commanders that can be considered, these are the ones I'm most interested in playing.

If you have further ideas or comments about specific Commander, by all means, please share them! I'd love to hear your take! And now, the polls:

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Thanks again! Join us next week when I try something a little different that tournament types might love.