100. It's an auspicious number, isn't it? It's round, it's large enough to be big but not so large we can't think about it. Most of our math is base 10, and it's 10 squared. Of course, it's the number of cards in a Commander deck, and you probably wouldn't be here if you didn't like Commander. It's also my 100th article for CoolStuffInc!

In honor of that, I'd like to do something quite different this week: four short essays, connected only by their relevance to Commander. If one doesn't interest, skip to the next!

Mark's Top Five List of Number Ones!

5. Most competitive deck built

Brago, King Eternal. It's hard not to be powerful with a commander like this. He really just dominates most tables where he's played, and that's with every build I've ever seen of him, not just this one.

Honorable mention: Kess, Dissident Mage. I've been playing this deck IRL the last several months, and it's surprisingly strong. It could use a few more win conditions (just waiting for Torment of Hailfire can take a really long time) but it really works and can absolutely take over a table.

4. Most played deck built

Xenagos, God of Revels or Marchesa, the Black Rose. I played Marchesa a lot when I first built her. I even held my own against a table of much more expensive decks, one of my proudest moments as a budget deck-builder. Newer decks have moved to the front, though, so I play her much less. Xenagos is more recent but I play him a lot. He's not super competitive but my goodness he's so much fun! Sometimes you get stuck on lands and can't do anything. Other times you play him on turn five and something absurd on turn six and everyone is wondering why their life totals are now 4. It's amazing.

Honorable mention: Tromokratis or Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire. Not so much me as my dad, who has modified and built these and a number of the other decks from the series. He actually plays Tromokratis almost exclusively in its converted state with Thada Adel, Acquisitor at the helm, and he tends to save Vaevictis for more challenging matchups because, he says, "it's a wicked strong commander." Either way, both decks have seen a lot of play.

3. Most wacky deck built

Ulrich of the Krallenhorde. Among other things, this was kind of the genesis moment for Convertible Commander, but it's also really, really out there. The very idea of not knowing what's in your deck is a difficult one to take for most players; in fact, I have spoken to exactly no one who would be willing to try this deck out. "Maybe," they say, "if the lands weren't included." It may not have been the most popular of ideas, but it was seriously wacky.

Honorable mention: Sloth. It's not the only deck I've seen which "wins" with Divine Intervention, but the whole idea of doing as little as possible is pretty wacky.

2. Most expensive deck built

Lust. Just... yeah.

1. Most favorite deck built

Xenagos and Marchesa are both high on this list, but I think two others edge them out: Hythonia the Cruel and Vial Smasher, the Fierce. Hythonia is here because I just love playing Mono-Black control builds that don't let other players have stuff. Vial Smasher, on the other hand, gets a wonderful response from the table. "Without a partner? What are you, crazy?!" Then the deck starts doing its thing and people are losing a quarter of their life total because I just played some 7-mana enchantment they've never heard of. It's hilarious.

Honorable mention: Progenitus. It's been quite the ride. And she can hold a Magic card now! Though she does seem to want to just eat the tasty, tasty cards.

On Sol Ring

Sol Ring is, obviously, one of the best ramp spells in existence. Four mana on turn two is outrageous. If you're lucky enough to have a Signet, too, five mana starts getting silly. I once played my Sol Ring, a Mind Stone, and Sensei's Divining Top, all on the same turn one. How does that lose?

But it doesn't honestly need to be in every deck, and it doesn't break the game because it is in decks. If your deck doesn't run any other ramp... why are you running Sol Ring? Just for the 7/100 chance you have it in your opening hand and get a really explosive start? Presumably you've built your deck not to rely on ramping to work, so... isn't that better served as a card which does something worthwhile for your deck? Meanwhile, if you are ramping, aren't you doing yourself a disservice by not running one of the best ramp spells out there? If you need to get to 12 mana as fast as possible for some reason, Sol Ring is a great way to do it.

So I leave you with this: don't run any card because someone tells you it goes in every deck. Look at what your deck needs, and run the cards to make it work.

The Land Interlude

A brief intermission to discuss something that anyone who's read anything about Magic by me knows already: start building with 40 lands. Adjust from there. Most Commander decks should run 40, and there should be a good reason to run fewer.

This is a personal opinion, but it's based on a whole lot of games played, plus actual math. Frank Karsten did the math for us, though he did it for 60 card decks. The nice thing is, 24 lands in a 60 card deck = 40 lands in a 100 card deck, and even though it doesn't scale exactly, it's very close.

That means if we play 40 lands, we have about a 63.8% chance of hitting our fifth land drop. Considering five-drops are regularities in Commander, I'd say that's worth doing. Drop that number to 36, and it's like running 21 lands in a 60, which is just under a 50% chance. That means half the time you won't hit your fifth land.

Do yourself a favor and build your decks with 40 lands. You'll cast more spells, have more to do, and will enjoy the deck more. Adjust after play-testing as necessary. End intermission.

The Six-Mana Wrath (and why we should probably sometimes play sub-optimal cards)

But it's the best because it's the cheapest. Damnation is the same in Black except Wrath of God, at the time of this writing, is $8 and Damnation is $32. And I'd like to argue cheaper, in mana, isn't always better.

Let's start with six mana. At six mana, in White, we get Phyrexian Rebirth. It's the same as Wrath of God, except it leaves us with a giant creature! At worst it's a chump blocker, at best it puts on Lightning Greaves and actually kills an opponent. In Black, we get Life's Finale, which lets us go through someone's deck and pull their three best cards. Or maybe we're playing a graveyard deck and it's our own Entomb x 3 plus a Wrath!

Seven mana gives us Rout (cast at instant speed) and Necromantic Selection, which gives us the best of the creatures that got killed. Plus All is Dust, which forces a sacrifice and gets around Indestructible creatures.

Eight mana? Decree of Pain draws us a new grip or three. In Garruk's Wake leaves behind all our stuff.

Not to mention all the Wraths at five mana and that they all have some extra effect.

The argument can be made "but saving mana is a good thing! Sometimes I need to Wrath, play my commander, and equip my Sword of Feast and Famine all in the same turn!" Guess what? That's literally always true. We could make our own version of Magic where every spell costs {0} and never run into this problem, but the problem is part of what makes the game fun.

Sometimes a slower deck is actually better for the game. It means rather than doing all the things this turn, you have to go through another turn cycle. Everybody gets to play some more! Plus you didn't just combo off and kill someone or everyone in a single turn! Not to mention, the extra effects are often worth the extra cost; sure, Damnation may mean you can do everything a turn sooner, but Decree of Pain will give you a ton of options for later in the game, all while everyone gets to keep playing.

This is true for lots of things. We tend to play Cultivate over Rampant Growth because we'd rather 2-for-1, but what about Peregrination? That Scry is often going to be worth the extra mana cost. We play Lightning Greaves over Chariot of Victory because it's cheaper, but the Greaves elicit groans while people need to read the Chariot, plus you trade Shroud for First Strike and Trample, which seems worthwhile.

Not to mention, as of this writing, Cultivate is $1 while Peregrination is $0.20. Play some "sub-optimal" cards and you can build your deck for the cost of that Damnation. Wouldn't you rather have another whole deck than one slightly better card?

(I'll concede that if you're trying to win a tournament or something, do what you need to do to win. Otherwise, think about getting some extra effects in exchange for going a bit slower and saving some extra cash.)

Why do a thing?

Goodstuff decks can be really neat. That was true three years ago, and it's true now. However, nothing but goodstuff gets boring, and specific commanders drive us to do intentional things with them. We could build a Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind deck which doesn't draw cards, but that seems to sort of... miss the point, right?

Which leads me to the question I just asked up there: why do a thing? Because those things are what make Commander so very, very special. We can do anything we want within the game. We can make decks that win on turn three or four, decks which give away cards (or even packs!) to our friends, decks which mill ourselves to win, decks which mill everyone else to win, decks which win only with cards in our opponents' decks, decks which make everyone tie, decks which drive everyone crazy, decks which make everyone laugh, decks made with cards that only start with the letter "m".

And it's that thing that we're doing that makes the deck special, creative, personal. I run Ride Down in every deck I can. Why? Not because it's good. Because I love that card. Run your pet cards. Build decks that don't ramp even when they should because it'll be fun to have some variance. Build a deck that doesn't win and make your own definition of winning (I win if I pull off my infinite 0/1 plant combo! Nevermind that I die to my own Poisonbelly Ogre). Lean into themes, self-impose limitations, and push yourself to do something you don't normally do. You'll probably surprise yourself with how creative you can be and what you can come up with.

Thanks for sticking with me these last 4 plus years and 100 articles. You can see the two ways I really like to play Magic: highly tactical decks which must grind out every bit of value and super explosive and flashy decks that win out of nowhere. What styles of decks do you like? What would you like from this column going forward? Your comments really do affect the way all of us here at CSI write. If any of you are in the Austin area, let me know and we'll make sure to catch a game sometime.

Thanks for reading.