Okay, we've got our mana base in order. Our ramp is ticking along and appropriate for the deck strategy we're employing. We've built in plenty of card draw. Now all that's left is to win the game!

...Hm. It appears that might be a problem. Why? The other players are all trying to win the game too. They're doing it with their Creatures, their Enchantments, and their Instants and Sorceries. They're comboing off with Artifacts or making too many tokens. Either way, they're out to get us and the rest of the table, too. But if we want to win, we can't let them do that. So, what's a Magic player to do?

Run interaction.

Interaction is a broad term we use to describe anything we do which affects another player's stuff. If we cast a Llanowar Elves, that's not interactive - we're putting something down on our side of the board which only affects us. If we play a Reclamation Sage, though, and target our opponent's, say, Sol Ring, we're interacting with the board.

It's more than just blowing up people's stuff, though. We can interact with someone's Hand (Thoughtsieze, Mind Sludge), their Library (Praetor's Grasp, Hedron Crab), or their board state (Humility, Moat). We can kill their Creatures (Wrath of God, Terror), destroy their non-Creature permanents (Naturalize, Shatterstorm), and even just bounce their stuff without destroying it (Call to Heel, Consign to Dream). Of course, we can counter spells before they've resolved, too (Mana Drain, Counterspell). As we see, they can be targeted (Vraska's Contempt) or wide-reaching (Jokulhaups).

For the sake of our discussion, we're going to define "interaction" as something that directly affects one or more other players' stuff. There's an argument that something like Propaganda and other pillow fort style cards which keep people off your back might be considered interaction, but because they don't reach out and touch someone directly, I'm not counting them. Additionally, I think Stax pieces require some judgment calls. Does Thalia, Guardian of Thraben count as interaction? I don't think so. Yes, it affects other people's stuff, but only just. Humility, on the other hand, also affects everyone like Thalia, but somehow there's a difference between Thalia taxing people's spells and turning everyone's board into a bunch of 1/1s - the second feels more interactive.

Often, though, interaction is one of the more difficult parts of building a deck. How much should I run? What kinds? Are Wrath effects (sweepers, like Wrath of God) or targeted removal spells (like Path to Exile) better? Are counter spells any good in EDH? These are all good questions, and I'm going to try to give you some insight into my strategies when building a deck.

The general consensus is a Commander deck should run some interaction. In my Top-Five tips for beginning deck-builders, I mention every deck should have some ways of responding to problems presented by other players. But much like with ramp, the real answer is more nuanced than that, and it really comes down to what you want to do.

The first time I built a Xenagos, God of Revels deck, I had a great deal of fun building an all-in aggro strategy designed to play Xenagos, then another big Creature, and swing for a million. The hope was on turn seven the Creature would also have Trample and Double Strike, which meant I was often able to take out a player with a single attack. It was great fun, but I commented that the deck wasn't going to draw cards, ramp, or interact in any way. It was completely one-note because that's the deck I wanted to build. That right there is a perfectly good reason to ignore any deck-building "rule" laid out by a writer on the internet. I wanted a deck which went out in a blaze of glory, whether with massive hasty attacks or fizzling out in a puddle, with no in-between.

A less extreme example might be an Elf Typal deck. Those decks are often focused on making a ton of mana and little dudes, then running an Overrun to crash into the rest of the table. While it's certainly possible for that deck to be interactive - Reclamation Sage is, after all, an Elf - it's not at all a focus of the deck. Elves wants to set up its board and swing for the fences, and if it's got a ton of resources tied up in kill spells and such, it won't be able to go as fast as it needs to win.

At the other extreme, we have a deck like the one I built for today's column.

Saruman, the White Hand | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Saruman, the White Hand

• Instants (25)
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Bitter Downfall
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Commence the Endgame
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Deadly Rollick
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Flame of Anor
• 1 Fling
• 1 Glorious Gale
• 1 Grixis Charm
• 1 Jace's Ingenuity
• 1 Lazotep Plating
• 1 Mystic Confluence
• 1 Negate
• 1 Orcish Medicine
• 1 Quick Study
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Saruman's Trickery
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Terminate

• Sorceries (23)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Boon of the Wish-Giver
• 1 Chandra's Ignition
• 1 Claim the Precious
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 Ensnared by the Mara
• 1 Foray of Orcs
• 1 Gandalf's Sanction
• 1 Great Intelligence's Plan
• 1 Languish
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Mordor Muster
• 1 Sorcerous Squall
• 1 Subjugate the Hobbits
• 1 Toxic Deluge
• 1 Treason of Isengard
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Vandalblast
• 1 Volcanic Salvo
• 1 Wake the Dragon
• 1 Widespread Brutality

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Mind Unbound

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Fiendlash
• 1 Inherited Envelope
• 1 Relic of Sauron
• 1 Silumgar Monument
• 1 The One Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (40)
• 8 Island
• 5 Swamp
• 5 Mountain
• 1 Barad-dur
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Frostboil Snarl
• 1 Mines of Moria
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Restless Spire
• 1 Rivendell
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 The Black Gate
• 1 Xander's Lounge

Buy This Deck Export text format

Saruman goes in the entirely opposite direction. We get a 2/5 for four mana, but the important bit is whenever we cast a non-Creature spell, we get to either make a dude or make the dude we've got bigger. So, what we can do is cast the correct kind of spell and we get a win condition built in - a huge Creature, ready to attack. If we can keep the board decently clear in the process, we should have minimal trouble getting our huge Army through to kill our opponents. And we'll keep the board clear by interacting.

Just to keep things in order, our mana base is the standard 40 Lands plus about eight mana rocks, all but two of which tap for all our colors. The only rocks which don't make all three colors we need are Silumgar's Monument, because we need Black and Blue more than Red and believe it or not that 4/4 flyer can be the difference between winning and losing, and Thought Vessel, because we want all the cards we can get in our hand. (Also, all our rocks cost a bit more because they have other effects, including drawing more cards or being tempted by The Ring.)

We've also got several card draw spells, ranging from Brainstorm all the way up to Mind Unbound, which is one of my favorites. We shouldn't have any problems keeping cards in our Hand.

Then we're going to do a ton of interaction. The idea is simple: we always have an answer for whatever anyone else wants to do to hurt us. Each time we cast one of those answers, we make our Army bigger. Eventually, the Army is so big we can kill people with it.

Somewhere, I'm sure, there is a much more comprehensive list of this information, but just to be totally clear, here's a general understanding of what each various color does well in terms of interaction:

White tends to be able to respond to just about any problem. It can destroy and exile Creatures (though it's often limited to when they're attacking and/or blocking). It can also manage non-Creature permanents like Artifacts and Enchantments. It has a bunch of Enchantments like Oblivion Ring which can deal with anything other than Lands. It also has the most Wrath effects.

Blue tends to be more permissive and temporary. While there are a few spells which actually get rid of things (there are Auras which tap down a Creature and keep it there, not unlike Pacifism in White), and of course the occasional spell like Pongify, Blue is more likely to bounce something back to its owner's Hand or Library. Blue is also the color of Counterspell, and has a near monopoly on the effect (there are a couple of non-Blue counters, but they're exceptionally rare).

Black can kill Creatures. It can kill single Creatures or kill them all; it has the second highest amount of Wrath effects, though they tend to be a bit more expensive. Recently, Black also gained the ability to destroy Planeswalkers and Enchantments. It struggles with Artifact destruction.

Red deals damage. That means it can often kill Creatures, but most often it's limited to damage-based removal like Lightning Bolt or Fireball. It's also really good at destroying Artifacts, but can't deal with Enchantments. It does have some damage-based Wrath effects, too.

Green, being the nature color, doesn't like constructs, so it's quite good at destroying Artifacts and Enchantments. It's less good at managing Creatures, though recently we've seen a lot more of the Fight mechanic, and even one-sided Fight, where one of Green's Creatures deals damage to someone else's Creature.

One of the reasons I think we hear that White is a great support color in EDH is because it gives you access to some of the best removal in the format: Swords to Plowshares, Oblivion Ring, and Wrath of God (plus their variations). However, every color has ways to manage problems, it's just a question of building to them. Even Red has Fissure! But it's helpful to know what you're going to be able to do a lot of as you start to build.

In our case, we've got Red, Black, and Blue, so we shouldn't have any trouble. Red can handle any artifacts, Black can take care of anything else that gets through, and Blue should be able to make our opponents wonder if they're going to be able to cast their spell in the first place. You'll see as you look at the deck, that's basically what we've got. We have a mixture of counters, kill spells, Artifact and Enchantment removal, and Wrath effects, all designed with one thought in mind: don't let anyone do anything you don't want them to do. Interact with everything. And eventually, kill people with an Orc Army. (Fiendlash should help.) The nice thing is, we get to use our Commander to make our interaction always be more valuable for us.

And there's the gist. The first thing you need to do is determine how interactive your strategy needs to be, while understanding interaction will often weaken your main game plan. Are you going to ramp hard to a big Creature and attack for the win? Minimal interaction - focus on your game plan and give yourself a couple of ways to break through. Are you going to go to the mid game, building up an infrastructure to either assemble a combo or win with a bigger team? More interaction, then - you need to be able to survive to the mid game, and make sure no one else beats you to the punch. Or are you playing a control game, where you want to lock down the board and win at your leisure? That's where you run a ton of interaction, because you're actively trying to keep everyone from doing anything.

Then you want to build your interaction into your game plan. Big Creatures? Fight spells! Mid game? Wrath effects! Control build? All the things! A Commander like Saruman can help a lot with something like this, where each one of your spells pushes you toward your end game. Sometimes you just have to run a Go for the Throat, and that's fine too. The big question is how much? Hopefully this has helped.

I'd like to say one more thing. Almost 10 years ago, I wrote an e-mail to a writer on Coolstuffinc.com. He wrote an entire article about my deck, giving me ideas and responding to my thoughts. He did it with grace, humor, and kindness, and it got me interested in the idea of writing articles. Three months later, I became a writer here at CSI. I'd like to thank Jason Alt for everything he's done for this community. 75% Commander was an inspiration for many decks, many great games, and many excellent articles. He'll still be in the community, but if you're looking to learn some things, I recommend checking out his stuff. Good luck on this next phase, Jason! I look forward to slinging some cardboard with you someday.

Thanks for reading.