What Is Commander – Bringing It All Together

Once I begin building a Commander deck, I find it most helpful to start a decklist in a Word or Google document. I start by adding the card types: creatures, sorcery, instant, planeswalkers, etc.

When I find a card I want to include: I add it to my deck list along with the number of copies in the deck, a link to where I can buy the single, and the mana value in parenthesis. This allows me to easily build a deck with all of the information. For example:

1 Biovisionary (3)
1 {copy} Card Name (mana value)
Since this is a Commander deck, my next step was to find a commander. The Magic Card Database is extremely helpful for finding specific cards based on type, text, or name.

To keep my deck plan on track, I will write a basic outline of my commander and the strategies I need to incorporate into my deck. Keeping with the Biovisionary example, this might look like:

Commander: Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
Deck Plan: Fetch target creature from deck // Create token creature copies // protect from control & removal // return target creature from graveyard // atl win: stompy creatures with trample & haste