Tier 1 commanders?

Sorry for the post if its already answered but what are some of the tier 1 commanders in edh and decklists if possible? Ive been playing a control combo deck but looking for more competitive decks!

Posted Mar 10, 2014, 11:09 PM UTC

352
JasonEAltMTGKing of all Maelstroms•

I think based on how subjective it seems to be, I don't think you can put commanders into Tiers because it depends way too much on the deck and there is no "right" way to make a deck. EDH will never be a solved format, and everyone is basing their responses on anecdata from their own playgroups. That's good, frankly.

4
WyvrynNin's Shiny Trinkets•

Which ban list are you going by? Imo French 1v1 rules have a bit more of an established meta whereas normal rules are more open ended in terms of choice of commander.

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

he stated elsewhere he was using the 4-man pod banlist

1
WyvrynNin's Shiny Trinkets•

Well, in that case color choices are more important than commander choices imo. In a 4 man pod the most efficient way to win is to eliminate the entire table at once or lock everyone else out of the game. It really depends what strategy you want to go with, but usually two or more colors are more efficient than mono-colored. The only exception to this I can think of is Arcumm.

Green will give you ramp, to put out your combo pieces into play before your opponents are established.

Blue gives you draw and counters to protect your strategy

Black has the best tutoring out of all the colors and draw out of all the colors in cards like Demonic Tutor, Necropotence, and Ad Nauseum.

White is more of a controlling color and has board wipes that can help stall the game until you draw your combo.

Red is kind of a toss up imo. It has some great cards if you build around them and a bunch of great infinite mana sinks, but a lot of red is burn spells which can be very inefficient in competitive multiplayer.

Esper colors have a lot of synergy and I think Sharuum is the best competitive general for those colors.

RUG also has a lot of synergy, with Malestorm Wanderer being incredibly strong if built properly.

That being said, I've seen a guy with a Reaper King combo deck destroying tables because he took the best of every color and combined it all into one crazy combo deck. He had Sylvan Library, Ad Nauseum, Hive Mind and the Pacts, Counterspells, all the black tutors, ramp, Rite of Replication, etc.

In multiplayer it's all about consistency. You're against 3 other people, so trying to slow one of them down or hoping they all get bad draws is inefficient. You need to think of it not as a 4 player free for all, but as a 1v3. Each other player wants you to lose, so you need to be as efficient and consistent as possible.

0
IMZeedexOP•

My Lgs uses the general wizard banlist, just looking for ways to do better in 4 man pods my deck generally gets hated off the table to early to combo out.

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

Here's what I would say are T1 commanders:

-Mimeoplasm (A reanimator deck with a blitzy engine)

-Arcum (A combo/lock deck)

-Jarad (A combo deck that works with the graveyard; I play this)

-Maelstrom Wanderer (A combo / aggro deck that spits out threats)

-Krenko (A tokens / combo deck with a Goblins tribal theme)

-Sharuum (A combo artifact deck with a control midgame)

-Uril (A voltron enchantress deck)

-Grand Arbiter (A control / stasis deck)

-Shattergang Brothers (A permanent-based stax deck, what's come to be known as ShatterStax)

-Glissa the GB (Similar to ShatterStax)

-Derevi (Usually a Stasis build, occasionally aggro)

-Edric (U/G Weenie combo)

-Azusa (Mono-green fatties)

-Azami (Combo control)

-5c Hermit Druid (Graveyard combo)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. There are probably more.

1†
prevolution•

Personally, I think Azusa and Omnath deserve places on this list.

2
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

Edited in Azusa and some others. I think she's pretty much just better than Omnath, who is tier two.

2
prevolution•

I am weird... I designed my Azusa EDH deck to be more like 43-Lands in Legacy and Vintage formats.

2
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

Hmm. An alternate build, but perhaps viable. May I see it?

1
FuckRedDecksOmnath •

For 1v1 I'd add Zur the Enchanter to that T1 list

2
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

I meant multiplayer. In 1v1 Zur is banned.

3
TheSoggyWalrus•

Do you have a glissa list?

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

no

1
I_Love_StasisStroke of Genius is my General•

I wouldn't consider all of these tier 1. Some are powerful in what they do but not tier 1. Tier 1 would be a deck like Jin-Gitaxious or Nin. Able to control entire tables, ramp, and win all at the same time. Jin is probably the most powerful deck in a nutshell.

-3
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

Neither of those decks are T1 in my experience; I haven't seen a single Jin deck in a competitive pod. I have seen one Nin deck, which I beat once and lost to once. It belonged to u/Wyvryn. Jin is far to expensive in mana to be T1.

2
I_Love_StasisStroke of Genius is my General•

I took a look at that Nin list and didn't really like it. It was too combo oriented and not enough control. Also played a few combos that I think are just bad(but they can still be fun to play).

I'm kind of surprised you haven't seen a tier Jin list. They're able to cast Jin turn 3 with counter backup like 20%. If not turn 3, then turn 4 60% of the time. The only reason I know this is because I've had a list together for a while and did a 100 game spreadsheet of what turn I was able to cast Jin, whether or not I had counter backup, if I won ect.(took a very long time) once Jin goes around the table once, you've pretty much won.

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

List?

1
WyvrynNin's Shiny Trinkets•

My problem with control in multiplayer is that it is just not strong enough, unless you lock people out of the game. 1 for 1 counterspells or even 1 for 2 will eventually run you out of steam against three other people.

1
IMZeedexOP•

thanks for all the feedback im considering doing maelstrom wanderer

1
I_Love_StasisStroke of Genius is my General•

Don't do it! It's a trap! Although he can be vey powerful he has some downsides. Counter spells are bad in the deck because of cascading into them. And also, it is a very repetitive deck. Ramp, cast wanderer, repeat. Gets very boring very fast.

Something to consider is that any deck you play, no matter how powerful, can be adjusted to. If you start spamming q deck that keeps winning over and over again, people will start adding trump cards to their lists. I wish ya good luck in finding a deck you like!

6
Jaytron•

I agree, Wanderer gets super boring to play.

Source: I play wanderer.

3
I_Love_StasisStroke of Genius is my General•

Gotta love the source. I feel like we all have lol

3
Jaytron•

Yeah, I'm playing around with other generals now to see what the hell I want to play. I have a Norin deck for the lulz. Maybe Sharuum or something. I want a strong deck, but something that interacts more than just vomiting your cards on the table like Wanderer lol.

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

It's a powerful deck; I encourage you to do this. Note that it costs a lot of money.

2
suddoman•

I can't think of any decks that are cheap.

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

Arcum Dagsson and other mono-colored decks are less expensive.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-1
QuazziMotto•

T0: Scion of the Ur-Dragon (Hermit Druid)

T1: Arcum Dagsson, Maelstrom Wanderer, Derevi, Sharuum the Hegemon, The Mimeoplasm, Oona, Zur the Enchanter, Damia, Azami, Ghave

T2: Azusa, Edric, Krenko, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Prossh, Rafiq of the Many, Uril, Momir Vig, Karador, Animar

1
goodeye2113•

myael?

1
Ghepip•

Do you think Prossh will ever be T1?

1
kurotenshi15Prossh, Army of Khombo•

Already is. Check my primer.

I can beat any of those T1 decks :P and I have.

1
Ghepip•

I just looked at your army in a can yesterday ^^, I love it.

1
kurotenshi15Prossh, Army of Khombo•

'Tis powerful.

1
Stasis_DetachedProssh the infinite•

http://mtgtop8.com/format?f=EDH

The top commanders at the last few events is a good place to start. There are about a dozen super aggresive/tier1 commanders - but many commanders can be broken and rogue decks can be very powerful.

0†
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

this is 1v1

4
Stasis_DetachedProssh the infinite•

So is the above^

1
razzlioxJarad Ooze Combo•

I know. The OP wants 4P.

2
Stasis_DetachedProssh the infinite•

10-4, my info is no good here!

1
TheTwoFourThree•

The two two decks that are by themselves in at the top of edh are Hermit Druid and Ad Nauseam. Both are 5 color decks with 1 card wins and the generals aren't really that important but Hermit Druid commonly uses Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Ad Nauseam uses Child of Alara.

0
ShaperSavant∞ •

Do you have a list for Ad Nauseam?

1
TheTwoFourThree•
0
Jaytron•

Looks super fun! How does this play out in multiplayer pods? Do you just wait till people are low to go off?

1
[deleted]•

Those two combos are not as strong as you think they are.

0