It's no secret that Commander—and, in fact, casual play in general—requires a delicate balance. With endless possibilities and a very small banned list, if any, insane combos are easy to come by. However, those kinds of ultra-powerful decks are not why most people are interested in the format. Finding the right balance between power and fun is difficult, especially since everyone's idea of what makes Commander fun is a bit different. However, there are many ways to help find and maintain an enjoyable environment.

Limiting yourself to only commons, however, seemed a bit harsher than necessary to me. This bred the idea of a rareless Commander deck. Built under the same rules as normal Commander decks, it could be played against those, albeit at somewhat of a disadvantage, or against other rareless decks.

This deck-building limitation has other advantages as well. It can be a self-limiting factor if you find your decks are too powerful for your current playgroup. It can also be used to build your own Commander deck from scratch despite being on a tight budget. Of course, this is all just speculation. It doesn't mean anything until I've at least built a rareless Commander deck. So, let's get started.

It seems best to allow a rare for the commander—there aren't many uncommon legendary creatures from which to choose. However, I chose to use one of these uncommons anyway. It’s partially for consistency, but it’s mostly because he has basically the greatest name ever. I give you: Barktooth Warbeard.

I have some experience in the realm of budget decks, and I've found that when you know your opponent has better cards than you have, your best bet is to prevent him or her from using them. Although control strategies with high amounts of removal and counterspells can work, I prefer to play aggressively, simply killing my opponent before he or she can murder me with Baneslayer Angels and Inferno Titans.

Of course, Commander gives you twice the life of a normal game of Magic, and it's primarily a multiplayer format. This means that you need to bump your numbers up higher as well. An aggressive Commander deck might focus on 3- and 4-mana creatures rather than the 1- and 2-mana threats you'd use in a normal game. This also means your opponent will have more time to find and cast answers.

Since many of these discard effects hit all player and not just opponents, I've included a selection of the best cards with madness, such as Big Game Hunter and Reckless Wurm. More than just reducing the cost, madness allows you to use a card that would otherwise have just gone to the graveyard, helping you gain a bit of card advantage.

In order to stay in it for the long haul, you'll need ways to push damage through even when your opponents have played a creature or two. Evasive creatures, as well as cards that make your normal creatures difficult to block, can help tremendously. Flying is all right, but fear and intimidate are better much of the time. Best of all are cards that make your creatures completely unblockable, such as Whispersilk Cloak. I've also taken advantage of the oft-forgotten mechanic shadow. Dauthi Embrace is the headliner here, making any of your creatures unblockable for just 2 mana.

The last method I'll discuss is direct damage and life-loss. This has the advantage of working even if your opponents have stabilized by killing all of your creatures. There are a huge number of ways to deal damage to your opponent, but in Commander, the best ones are those that punish other players for going big.

Backlash and Delirium can deal a huge amount of damage to opponents who like playing the biggest monsters. They also tap the creature you target, eliminating an attacker, a blocker, or both. Price of Progress and Acidic Soil also scale up nicely in Commander, punishing opponents who overload on fancy nonbasics and green players who toss piles of Forests onto the battlefield.

Another thing many Commander players love is artifacts, and Ancient Runes will keep them hurting throughout the game. You'd be surprised at how much damage this card will deal even to players with no focus on artifacts at all. Certain cards, such as Sol Ring, Lighting Greaves, and Sensei's Divining Top, are almost ubiquitous in the format, and most players take advantage of a number of mana-producing artifacts for acceleration.

Wherever possible, I tried to include sources of card advantage to help maintain parity against multiple opponents. Most of these are in the form of creatures that produce additional effects. Nekrataal and Shriekmaw give you a creature in addition to destroying one, and Abyssal Specter will strip an opponent’s hand whenever it sneaks in a bit of damage.

Finally, we come to the lands. Due to the lower curve in this deck, I included far fewer mana sources in this deck than I usually would. Despite a few 6-mana spells, the deck functioned just fine in my brief testing session. Although there are few dual lands below rare, playing only two colors makes mana troubles less likely, and there are still a number of good options to help ensure you can always cast your spells.

Here's the list I ended up with:

"The Warbeard"

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Abyssal Specter
• 1 Basilica Screecher
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Bloodfray Giant
• 1 Carnage Gladiator
• 1 Dauthi Marauder
• 1 Dauthi Mindripper
• 1 Flametongue Kavu
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Grave Scrabbler
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Hellhole Flailer
• 1 Howling Banshee
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Marauding Maulhorn
• 1 Markov Warlord
• 1 Morkrut Banshee
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Rage Thrower
• 1 Reckless Wurm
• 1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Spawn of Rix Maadi
• 1 Spiteflame Witch
• 1 Stronghold Rats
• 1 Syndicate Enforcer
• 1 Thrull Parasite
• 1 Urborg Syphon-Mage
• 1 Wild Celebrants

• Spells (34)
• 1 Backlash
• 1 Breath of Malfegor
• 1 Cauldron Dance
• 1 Dark Withering
• 1 Delirium
• 1 Price of Progress
• 1 Reckless Spite
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Acidic Soil
• 1 Ashes to Ashes
• 1 Delirium Skeins
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Syphon Flesh
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Torrent of Souls
• 1 Unnerve
• 1 Ancient Runes
• 1 Bottomless Pit
• 1 Dauthi Embrace
• 1 Pain Magnification
• 1 Shrieking Affliction
• 1 Vow of Lightning
• 1 Vow of Malice
• 1 Barbed Battlegear
• 1 Demonspine Whip
• 1 Executioner's Hood
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Specter's Shroud
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (36)
• 12 Mountain
• 17 Swamp
• 1 Akoum Refuge
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Mirrodin's Core
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

Buy This Deck

If you're looking to build a Commander deck that won't crush the others in your playgroup, or if you're just starting out and want to build an inexpensive deck from scratch, give rareless Commander a try. You'd be surprised by how many powerful cards are hidden away in the uncommon slot, and the extra complexity over using only commons keeps thing interesting. If you like the idea, you could even convince others in your group to build a rareless deck, and you can try it out as a format rather than as a self-imposed restriction. I, for one, would be curious to see how that would look.