I’ve Been Playing Way Too Much Magic: The Gathering and Now It’s Your Problem Too

7 min readDec 11, 2024

Hello everyone,

If for some reason you clicked on this post then you’re invested in me as a person, are into Magic: The Gathering, or both. That last one is probably like one or two people, so if you fall into it, hey guys!

Earlier this year I made a post talking about my discovery of MTG, my enjoyment of the game, and the various decks I had made/was working on at the time. However, that was eight months ago, and these days eight months might as well be 12 years. Point being, it’s been way too long since talking about the game, and…well, let’s just say a lot of disposable income has gone into it.

Though the other formats have sparked my competitive interest, most of my time with the game has continued in the more casual format commander, in which a player builds a 100-card singleton deck and battles it out with (typically) three other players. Given the less serious nature of commander, many strategies that would not work in faster, more competitive formats are given legs to stand on. Thus, I’ve opted to work on a ton of different decks with various strategies.

Recent Builds

The decks I’ve worked on.

Blink and You Miss It

Niko’s newest iteration comes from Duskmourn, a set that has quickly become among my favorites since starting the game. Once a planeswalker, Niko now relies primarily on the power of shards which allow him to seal enemies away along with their powers. Niko could be built a couple of ways, but my deck opts to focus on a strategy called flicker or blink. Basically, the deck aims to play creatures that create value when they enter the battlefield (mainly Niko themselves) and then play other spells that allow those creatures to leave and re-enter for extra value.

The deck definitely lends itself more towards control, as blue and white is a color combo often known for this style of deck. However, Niko’s second ability allows them to turn value into board presence to close out games, provided one has a good enough creature.

Open the Flood Gates

Despite some saying otherwise, the Dungeons and Dragons-themed sets that came out earlier this decade were both huge wins in my book. Though it may not be 100% accurate to D&D lore, it came with a lot of interesting mechanics. In this case, the decision to make a commander that focused on a specific land type in Gates always sounded really fun and flavorful to Baldur’s Gate itself.

In the case of Nine-Fingers Keene, she helms a deck that was previously commanded by Koma. However, I wanted to make something that was more directed than a typically blue-green landfall deck. The deck is, in its current form, a bit of a Swiss army knife. Landfall decks in general tend to win out on value and tokens. However, Keene herself can often get in for a lot of damage, making commander damage a valuable win-con as well. On top of that, one of the cards in this deck says “You win the game” provided you can get enough gates on the board, which the deck already wants to do.

A Bunch of Little Guys Who Will Literally Just Kill You

Of the newer decks I have built, this is probably the one I enjoy the least. Eldrazi’s are definitely cool in the context of MTG’s story, but mechanically they’ve never been my personal favorite. However, my friend really wanted a deck I had built and wasn’t particularly attached to it at the time, so I ended up trading it for the Modern Horizons 3 Pre-con and so, out came Azalask.

The main goal of the deck is to make Scions and Spawns, token creatures that can sacrifice themselves for mana. Azlask itself benefits from seeing creatures die in the form of experience counters that scale its second ability. Basically, sacrifice a bunch of creatures and power up what’s left behind. It’s a bit boring which is honestly why I am considering taking it apart, but for now, it’s fun every once and a while.

A Stupid Idiot Who Throws His Trash Around

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Bello has since become my favorite commander out of all the decks I have currently. Not only is he one of the most mechanically unique cards in the format, but he also packs an insane punch if the other players aren’t careful. Basically, during your turn, Bello turns all of your high mana artifacts and enchantments that typically just sit on your board and provide passive effects into creatures that can attack and draw you cards. Oh, and they’re also indestructible because he needs it.

I’ve gone to multiple casual commander events since getting into the game more frequently and in nearly every game Bello has come out people usually end up staring down an army of big enchantments while I draw roughly a million cards a turn to fuel my expansion. The one downside is that because Bello is so unique and recent, there isn’t really any redundancy with regard to his effect, so if he gets removed your game plan goes on pause for a turn or two at least. This is also why the deck needs roughly a million pieces of mana ramp and a good bit of protection.

Some Cool Cars I Found

This is another deck I have been struggling to enjoy. However, unlike Eldrazis, Vehicles are an archetype that I find actively fun to play, but it has been a struggle deciding what commander I want at the helm. For now, Kykar has been my main choice, primarily because he offers three colors from which to pull as well as the ability to generate extra bodies and turn those bodies into mana when necessary.

However, he is a bit wonky in the commander role. While he does provide a good base, there are a lot of good things a vehicles deck would want to be doing on turn four that kind of get outshined by just playing Kykar instead. My hope is that the upcoming set Aetherdrift which seems to be focusing on an interdimensional race will give us some more options to choose from.

Future Commanders

Since I am a greedy mf, there are still a ton of commanders I would like to make a deck for, so I’ll feature a few here.

Planeswalkers Meet the Shire

Superfriends typically describes a deck that focuses primarily on Planeswalkers, cards that have their own unique abilities but can be attacked as though they are a player. As such, they are generally considered weaker in commander since there are three other people that can attack them instead of one.

However, get enough of them on the board and eventually it probably won’t matter because everyone will be dead anyway. Typically this strategy involves playing a bit more defensively with cards that force people to pay extra for things they were going to do anyway. In Aragorn, my hope is to eek out a little extra value to make that strategy more reliable.

Speculative Deckbuilding

Those who don’t follow MTG at all might not even be aware of the recently announced crossover with Final Fantasy. It has been confirmed by Wizards of the Coast that there will be a whole set with cards inspired by the entire Final Fantasy franchise. Released in the promotional material for this upcoming set was a confirmation that my favorite character, Lightning from FF13, would be getting her own card.

It hasn’t been confirmed what sort of card she will be, but based on the name of the art and her overall character background and design, my guess is as follows. Lightning, assuming there is only one iteration of her, will likely be a red-white commander who focuses on a Voltron-style game plan. Regardless of whether or not that turns out to be true, she is a very heavy consideration for one of my next decks.

Thanks for reading!