It’s an interesting conversation. I don’t think monolith commanders are inherently bad, but I do think that, as the deck’s builder and owner, you have to know whether or not you have a monolith commander and prepare accordingly. Don’t be mad that everyone is gunning to remove your Muldrotha or Winota. You know what you’ve built and how integral your commander is to your deck working, so plan accordingly.

For gods sake, play weird commanders. Just do it. No one will remove your Mistform Ultimus until it’s too late

I just run alot of protection and recursion if I want to play with these decks. I feel like it's kind of mandatory. It sucks, because it takes slots of things that could accentuate the value but to me it's just the trade-off you got to go with if you want to play these guys.

There are synergies with Yurlok that aren't exactly manaburn but punish people for either tapping lands, leaving lands untapped, or deal damage for non-basic lands. Building around painful mana management works well for him.

I play Eriette, and it's true. You don't want to rush her out. But I play a combination of negative and positive aura's. I also play a number of recur auras from the graveyard spells. She's not necessary, but good when on the board. She is definitely a monolith, but then again, white aura's have a ton of protection. Make her indestructible and protection from all colours. Suddenly she isn't going anywhere.

Massacre Girl, Known Killer was an immediate add to my Toxrill deck, now they're best friends. Edit: Yes, I know slime counters aren't the same as -1/-1 counters.

Great topic. In the decks I run with these types of commanders I end up taking up about seven slots with protection spells more than in a typical deck. Seems like a big investment just to keep your bit target commander running and not suffer from commander tax.

Helpful stat from Salubrious Snail that I have been using recently when it comes to adding key pieces to a deck (like protection): the chance of having a particular card in your opening hand 53% of the time requires that you run 10 copies of said card (this is based on 99 card commander decks).

I just realized all my commanders are monolith lol. Arcades, imodane the pyrohammer, eriette of the charmed apple and ghyrson starn kelermoroh

My first deck was Omnath, Locus of Rage. When Omnath isn't out, the deck does very little. I eventually put some backups in the deck - mostly just X/X creatures where X is the number of lands I control. But also, the deck ramps so much, that I have paid 15 to cast the commander after a few removals.

With Eriette you put hexproof/indestructible/protection auras on her first before you go for your opponents. She’ll still die to board wipes though…but then so will your opponents’ creatures you enchanted.

I used to fall into this “trap” a lot when I first started playing and now i’m getting better at my decks being able to stand on their own without the commander. It’s a weirdly, satisfying(?) feeling to have your commander get removed and not really care.

We have someone in our regular playgroup who built Drana and Linvala, and then despite us explaining why them shutting off all activated abilities makes them a target still gets upset when we remove them on sight or after just a few rotations. You build a stax deck, we're gonna remove the stax pieces!

Anzrag decks specifically take advantage of Green having a ton of hexproof/indestructible instants to both protect and combo with Anzrag.

As a Fynn player, the amount of protection I run might look a bit... silly. But completely necessary. Always count on needing to protect your monolith.

Hey there, just wanted to leave quick props for what you are doing on this channel, found it a few weeks ago and you are taking edh to such a creative level. Will follow up in the future. Thanks and greetings from germany!

I have a Yurlok deck, but it’s more of a group slug deck. It doesn’t require Yurlok to function. He’s just a thematic commander and a bonus when he’s in play.

I disagree on the Charmed Apple because you can just be running curses and vows that work well without the commander

I've got like 10+ protection pieces in my Sen Triplets deck. It's worth it when your commander is usually kill-on-sight and grants you a ton of value if it survives a turn cycle.

Great video! This is definitely an interesting topic. I really think it boils down to the perceived power level for each commander. As we all know some commanders are definitely more powerful than others. I used to run k'rrik in my play group but after the first couple games everyone else got tired of it and killed it immediately. This is a very interesting way to look at each commander for sure. Keep up the good work!

In lack of a Jund Enchantress commander, I built Yurlok as a Group Slug Enchantress. He doesn't have to be in play, but it's ramp in the Command Zone for the "fun" enchantments.

Man you been killin it lately, thanks for being out there

Very good video! My opponents will naturally counter things I want to do, which includes removing a threatening commander. I like the way you ask the question of whether the deck can function if my commander gets removed.

Dang, just about scoped out an entire Hapatra deck just from this video alone. Thought these cards looked familiar

Corrosive Mentor is a mono black elemental rogue that gives black creatures wither. The back up for Massacre Girl Known Killer's wither effect.

Very interesting and well presented as usual. You didn't tell us about Monloith Commanders though, they sound fascinating.

Great topic! Id like to add to the Rowan discussion. Once You tap her, the ability is going to the stack, so doesnt matter if someone removes her because it's a activated ability not an static one, like Rakdos lord of riots for example, if You have an instant way to pay life You should pay after activating rowan, if rowan gets removed before You get to tap, You just don't play the life, all of this assuming You can make rowan Enter the field with Haste, otherwise i wouldnt Even attempt to cast her if You can't portect her, that's My 2 cents on this!!

Glad you talked about this. I've been going on about this to players I come across who complain about their commander being interfered with. While it's still great to play commanders that unlock a unique strategy, the most reliable way to play, and honestly have fun, is often to pick a strategy that your commander ENHANCES, not enables.

The voltron strategy as a whole. Love my treebeard deck regardless though, I know what I'm getting into when playing him

Great discussion. I hope you can make this into a short series :)

That was one of the best videos about EDH in your channel and every other EDH channel. Great topic. I have a Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire deck. it's not a Dragon deck. It is an Big (really big) creatures/permanents deck. And I've found an interesting way to "protect" him since he's 6 mana 6/6 flying and with a super monolith commander abilitie. I always let the other players choose what they want to remove from the other player. This always changes the atention of the table from my board (Vaevictis) to the other player who choose to remove their card. It's an psychological little game that I've found and it actually works really well. And my playgroup is not bad. We have a hig power pod and they are really good players. Of course I have some rules first like. If I'm playing against a B or W deck, I will always remove their swamps/plains to reduce their mana to cast a spot/global removal. Aftes this I always go for G players cause I have a lot of artifacts and especially a lot of Enchantments that give haste to my big creatures. That polictical aspect is another take on this topic and it's really interesting

16:40 Eriette CAN be. She definitely wants to be at least. But you can also just run her as an Auras Voltron Commander, completely ignoring her first ability. But if you pair it with Sphere of Safety then you at least have a backup for if she gets removed if you're using her first ability. There are also a decent amount of Auras that are inherently back ups for her by themselves in both black and white.

I have a Obeka deck and it is a lot a fun to Play. Yes the deck is running a lot of cards with a" at end of turn or at the beggining end phase" but with a lot of reading, i Found some interresting ways to cheat that situation without my commander in Play. And thats for me, this is the most challenging way to discover how to get the most of your strategy. Hell, in a sense every commander is based around its commander. I see it has an underwhelming commander. Great show as always, your one of my favorite channel and because of you, my deckbuilding skill and knowledge of cards are way better. Have a Nice Day.

Great video concept! This is very important for the format overall. Some people end up being way too salty because they built their decks way too much centered on their commander. Monolith type Commanders require extra protection, lots of reanimation or at the very least a ton of mana production. But no matter what, you need to have a plan B. A way to play without your commander. A different focus perhaps. Using Brenard, you could easily have Chulane in the 99 as a back up commander who works with the strategy either way.

Playing these types of commanders successfully is a combination of timing when you drop the commander and having ways to protect it. There are many options when it comes to silence effects, equipment/enchantments, protection/redirect instants, and counterspells that can all help tremendously in decks like these. They won’t always keep your commander from getting killed, but will at least ensure you get enough value out of them that they were worth the casting cost.

"Pop off before you cast your monolith commander so that they waste removal on your 99. Save your mC for once their shields are down." Ah- Muldrotha 101. You know the play pattern well.

Anecdotal but my most successful deck in Brawl is my Drana and Linvala lifegain deck. The commander's just kinda nice! Shutting down activated abilities is semi-niche but a guaranteed flyer + vigilance + a big butt (toughness) just works so well.

Great observation. This is a concept I've been aware of for a while now but I dig the label you've coined for it! I tend to prefer decks that use their commander to compliment the strategy, instead of those that completely revolve around the commander and rely heavily on it being in play to function, as the latter strategy is much easier to disrupt (as you point out in this video). If I do decide to build a Monolith commander, I make sure to focus on one of or both of the following concepts during deckbuilding: 1. an anti-disruption package- if you're the Rocco player in the viewer's comment at the start of the video, don't get mad about the disruption, DISRUPT the disruption! Use counter-magic, protection, indestructibility, hexproof/shroud, recursion, cloning.... whatever you need to do to keep your advantage as ever-present as possible. 2. building in a complimentary side strategy- even though a monolith commander by definition must be in play for the main strategy of the deck to function, you can still dedicate a few slots to a contingency strategy as well. I've got a Prossh deck that is primarily a Voltron strategy, which obviously requires Prossh to stay in play so that it can one-shot ppl ftw. But if I find myself in a game where my opponents are heavy on spot removal and I can't keep the big Dragon alive to reliably shove it through, well, that's why I sprinkled in a handful of aristocrats pieces and overrun effects too! If I don't have Prossh out to sac my token pile to, I can just mobilize the tokens themselves to be my source of lethal damage instead

One thing that I find really funny is when people THINK your commander is so instrumental to the plan. Adun Oakenshield always gets removed, but the theme is recursion - he's just one of many tools to get back Channel/Evoke/Cycling nonsense. Henzie gets better when I have to recast him, and the rest of the deck is still threats. Shirei is my monolith, but with enough protection and other recursion options, that spooky boi does okay. I just have to be aware of it and plan for it... but he's the big enabler. Even when you have a commander with a build-around, you need a plan B. Rowan absolutely is a good example. If you have Death's Shadow or Shadow of Mortality, you're on the right track at least...

I am new to paper Magic. I have been playing for years, and had my first paper experience at my local MKM pre-release a few weeks ago. I know how popular commander is as a format, so I've been wanting to build a deck for the format. I got very lucky, and, at my pre-release event I pulled the promo card I was hoping to get of the three - Tomik, Weilder of Law. Perfect as that was what I was hoping to build as my first commander. Being new to commander, I've no idea how to build a decent commander deck. This video was very informative and I'm glad it randomly popped up in my feed. I got some great deckbuilding advice about making sure my deck does stuff, even without my commander and I learned that Tomik doesn't really check the "monolith" boxes so I can be a bit more flexible in my card choices., as Tomik gets better (discounted) with Planeswalkers in play, and helps defend them a little, but a well-built version of the deck can function entirely on its own. You even brought up Eriette, which can be used as supplemental Planeswalker protection and a bit of drain, which I like the idea of. Thank you

My Eriette has been a remove-on-sight commander, but it hasn't mattered; the whole deck has such an insanely low mana curve that I have enough to recast her over and over. It's getting enchantment wiped that hurt. P. S. Also I like monolithic commanders. I think them being the keystone holding it all up is what makes edh so fun. I have one out of like 24 decks that doesn't care what happens to the commander lol

Big disagree on this one, all my commanders are monolith commanders because when I play commander, I wanna do the commanders thing and I want that to be the central synergy/strategy of the deck, what way I don’t end up with generic goodstuff decks. I want my decks to be wildly unique in how they play/win. To combat the monolith commander problem, I just run way more protection/recursion/interaction that most people, or my commander has built in protection.

Great topic. I received some great advice when I first started playing. Decks should have a good strategy without your commander, but your commander powers it up when it’s on the battlefield.

Can't say Eriette of the Charmed Apple is truly monolith, because it depends upon your build.

Finally a topic I’m looking for

As a boardwipe tribal avacyn player, enjoy the archenemy feel, it's such a fun and unique experience, everyone at the table knows if they cant remove it quickly they lose, embrace it, be a monster.

I personally think it doesnt matter. Theres plenty, and i mean plenty, of ways to protect your commander whether it's shroud/hexproof equipment or auras or even totem armor auras. If you have blue, that adds a few auras that give shroud or hexproof. Just have to add those and youre good to go

One of my favorite commanders is Mairsil the Pretender which is like ....THE monolith commander imo xD The deck can do stuff without him but he enables everything and if he has been used a few times then he is the only way to use the exiled cards. I also tend to be the arch-enemy at my table xD It just makes putting in enough of the protection effects all the more needed. Great topic! Something to be aware of for sure when building a deck. Commanders like this require a different approach to build if you don't want to be constantly frustrated.

This is an excellent video. This wisdom has been knocking around in my head for a long time, but I tend to ignore it because the decks that are the most fun to build are Monolith Commanders. I like the term btw, and I hope it gets adopted by the community.

I play uril the miststalker and they’re really fun because they got built in deterrent with hexproof. Once you start stacking up totem armors, you’re gonna need a farewell or an Edict effect to remove them. Yes the deck is monolithic but you can have some back ups like kor spirit dancer or if you got the cash calix, guided by fate.

Without a deck list I am only able to talk theory on Rocco, Street Chef as a commander. That being said I did net deck and test it against 3 of my decks to see what it does well and where it falls short in Table Top Simulator. Rocco will typically die after the first turn cycle of play if it does not make any deals to draw aggression away from the commander. Due to it being 3 mana it comes out faster than most decks but not all of them, this means in a pod with 2 mana commanders or lower they can be the targets and Rocco could survive. However for every turn it sticks around you open the amount of options you can do and are generally limited to the impulse drawn card the turn after Rocco is played. This means after Rocco hits the field everyone knows exactly what you will be doing next turn if it hits anything that is not a land. In the case of a land they know Rocco gets bigger and you make a food and will likely play something that capitalizes on this fact like a creature to spread the counters out or something that cares about artifacts/food. Your opponents can opt out of Rocco. This makes Rocco significantly less threatening and is likely what will happen until you have enough value on the board that "well me playing a land from exile won't hurt me, he already has a 10/10 it being 11/11 doesn't mean much." The Rocco deck I played features: 18 cards that care about food/artifacts 5 cards that care about counters/power 30 cards that care about exile/outside your hand Rocco did win on turn 12 with the commander being removed 3 times twice was due to him exiling someone's removal spell and Rocco being the best choice on turns 4 and 8. The third instance was on the start of turn 7 on Rocco's turn being countered by Bar the Gate.

Not refuting that most people build Yurlok as a gift mana deck, but one way you could use it is a jund burn/pressure list. You run a lot of permanents that pressure life totals, and then your commanders ability can be activated during your turn to play out more of that stuff and also burn everyone for 3 at the same time.

I play with a fairly experienced playgroup and I have a deck with Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient as the commander. My advice for commander players who’s commanders are absolute removal magnets is to build the deck with the expectation that your commander isn’t going to last forever. Make sure the deck still functions well without the commander, and is only accelerated by your commander’s presence

Good video. thanks

As someone who used to have an Eriette deck, it runs fine when she's NOT on board, but the issue I always run into is the game goes from a 4 way free for all to a 3v1 the second I show her as my commander. So The deck's been taken apart. It was a good concept, but it's not fun to play.

It's a complicated issue because the commander is often the thing that draws one to wanting to build a deck. For example, new Judith was my prerelease card from Murders, and being my prerelease card & an interesting commander, I resolved to build her. My early drafts of the deck, she was the main spellslinger synergy in the deck. There were a lot of burn spells to take advantage of her ability to give them deathtouch & lifelink. I think that build of the deck is probably potentially very strong & that if someone chose to build her that way, they could probably have a lot of fun. I didn't want too big of a target on my back, so I decided to tone down the burn effects & focus more on her ability to make imps and run more other spellslinger cards. Now, the deck is more about token generation, with the intention to sacrifice them for card draw & damage. The tradeoff is that it's probably a lot less unique when compared to other Rakdos spellslinger commanders (although probably more unique when compared to other Judith, Carnage Connoisseur decks).

Yup great points! I used to run a lot of voltron/monolith style decks but after too many games falling apart after multiple cmdr removals, I find myself leaning more towards value engines these days. Aside from Sigarda voltron, she still slaps and is at least somewhat removal resistant on her own

You can tap rowan and pay all the life in response with ability on the stack, it is an insane card that must die every time. And only 15 of your slots are dedicated to big X spells or life loss because the rest is incedental and just rakdos storm

I think Eriette CAN be a monolith commander, but there's so many aura curses that have the goad effect or "this creature can't attack you" effect as well as other things that benefit you that you can easily build redundancy into the deck to protect yourself, meaning you rely on Eriette less for the deck to function.

10:57 Rowan doesn't need to be on the battlefield for the cost reduction. The ability checks for life lost at time of ability's resolution and then discounts your spells regardless of whether Rowan remains on the battlefield. If you have Anger in the GY, lose all your life first, cast Rowan, and activate the ability. If you don't have a way to gain haste but are able to start a turn with her, do your life losing stuff as separately as possible. If she gets targeted, simply tap her and continue to lose life at instant speed if possible.

Eriette with return to battlefield from graveyard auras are super helpful. Light-paws is my secondary commander to soak removals.

This is exactly why I dismantled my John Irenicus deck. Over half the deck consisted horrific draw back awful creatures to donate that without him in play do NOTHING for you. I spent every game just PRAYING Irenicus wouldn't get removed before his ability could hand off a creature. Very stressful and ultimately hardly any pay off.

I knew full well that Obeka would be monolithic, and that's why I added plenty of haste spells and permanents, as well as Hellkite Courser to bring her out of the command zone and give her haste. I also put other spells in that can end the turn just in case

I absolutely have a few monolith commander decks (love the name you gave this concept). I just go into a game with way more protection spells in my deck and yhe knowledge that I could get blown out. All part of the experience when you choose to build that way.

I have to bring up my old Kathril voltron deck here. I loved that deck, it never won a game, everyone in my pod kept saying it was like the scariest deck they'd ever seen. Cause sure fairly reliably getting to a one-shot sized commander that's hard to remove and nigh on unblockable seems decent. But fairly, hard and nigh on still left a lot of wiggle room. eventually I was pumping so many staples into the deck to give it a backbone so that it wouldn't fold when people dealt with Kathril that it ended up being smarter to just sell the thing and buy a warhammer army...I do miss that deck though.

It's like a Muldrotha deck and one of the main reasons I stopped playing my Muldrotha deck. Such a hard-learned lesson. People aren't going to allow you to keep Muldrotha on the table, that's literal seppuku. Packing all the protection you need for Muldrotha also removes the point of playing Muldrotha. Not having consistent access to Muldrotha basically means a Muldrotha deck is nullified. Nowadays, I actually have a removal-heavy EDH deck with Grist and teach people these lessons the same hard way. :D

I usually only go all in on building around a commander if it has some sort of built-in protection or costs 3 mana or less.

Interesting topic. I run a Zangief deck (or Marikaa for the Universes beyond haters) and I feel like I absolutely pummel monolith commander decks, while also being a monolith commander myself. My friends who built Muldrotha and the Ur-dragon definitely hate the targetting that happens, and losing their commander once or twice shuts them down really hard. The idea that commanders are unique and dont have a lot of theme support outside of themselves is interesting

My main man Orvar is somewhat of a monolithic commander. He's a huge target, and a lot of the best spells in the deck like Whim of Volrath and Twiddle don't do much when he doesn't stick. He's only 4 mana, but I rarely play him without having an extra 1-2 mana to trigger his ability at least once or protect him. Since Orvar dropped in Kaldheim, Wizards has printed a lot of blue cast trigger payoffs which help the deck function much better without the commander on board. Vesuvan Duplimancy is basically a more narrow Orvar, that functions as backup for our game plan but also doubles as a combo should our commander stay on board. While other "enhancer" creatures like Archmage Emeritus, Displacer Kitten and Hullbreaker Horror provide additional payoffs for what the deck wants to be doing anyway. While the fastest builds of the deck undoubtedly lean heavily into the commanders strengths, I've had a lot of success by focusing on covering his weaknesses.

Got the Morska precon. What I have found about it is that it plays like the T1000. Removal can hit it, but it's got enough resources to start reforming after a wipe.

If you really want to play a ‘monolith’ commander-dependent deck, pack extra boardwipes instead of extra protection. You want to take out my commander and set me back 3 rounds? Fine, but now the whole table is going back to the Stone Age. It’ll buy you time to ramp and pay the tax or find protection.

I have a yurlok deck, the backup plan is mana ramp. The deck may give other people a ton of mana, but they cannot utilize it as well as I can. The mana sinks, x mana costs, and huge dudes. A stompy shell almost- I think you just have to be aware of your downside while building

This is honestly a great topic. I see too many people play decks constantly that revolve solely around the commander’s ability. My first instinct from that is to always try to include some single-target “removal” like inprisoned in the moon or a transform aura.

Related to Don Andres - My favorite deck of mine is my Yasova Dragonclaw theft deck, and it fits the bill. She isn't strictly necessary to the deck, as the rest of it still has plenty of theft and just general good cards that make it function even when she isn't around, but her being out has its own benefits that make it better - one extra Threaten every combat, but I also have stuff that makes her bigger, which means it's *very* easy to get commander damage kills with her. I think my only true Monolith commander deck is Arcades which...it's rough when he goes away enough times. I'm gonna have to revise that deck eventually with more protection and less jokes (because the deck is Arcades' Nuts, so it has a squirrel/ligma subtheme) to make it actually playable.

For me when i was start playing commander i'm way gravitating on building monolithic commander because it's so easy to build upon this kind of commander of how there effect mostly focus on a linear strategy. But throughout the years i find new things on how to build commander with various synergy and combination that don't make the deck convoluted that its hard to understand or rigid like how linear some on monolithic commanders are. But time to time i find most this type of commander fun and comfortable to play if we test new commander or just being competitive

Need to get my hands on a Rukarumel, Biologist for my multi-tribal slivers Monolithic? A little. Menacing? Maybe. Weird? Absolutely! We're playing Atogatog, Haakon, and Aluren!

I have several commanders that could be considered monolith, if not built correctly. The closest right now being Imodane, the Pyrohammer. She quickly became the target of my pod which is both frustrating and flattering. The deck will do the burn thing with or without her but she certainly accelerates the win several fold when she's on the battlefield. I do run a decent protection / interaction package with her though. At least. as good as you can probably run in mono red, lol.

Rocco street chef is a great commander, it's a group hug effect that turns nasty quick

My main deck (that I play 99.9% of the time) is Mishra, Eminent One - definitely a monolith commander. I've built the deck to be able to keep him out sustainably. Protection plays a huge part (although I've only just started running both the boots with the fur *and* the Reeboks with the straps; I was just running Lightning Greaves for a while), but I also run a buttload of ramp that also serves other functions in the deck so building insurance for multiple instances of casting Mishra. There are a couple of alternative wincons, too - primarily Aetherflux Reservoir. I don't mind Mishra being a target because I'm almost always able to get him to stick in one way or another.

Couple of thoughts Demo: 1. I have 10 decks and 1 of them (Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald) I built 100% monolith. I totally agree that it’s easy to shut down but… at the same time it’s fun to lean super hard into a strategy (for me). I hate playing the same cards in multiple decks and the harder I lean into a strat the easier it is to avoid those cards. Also, building in multiple ways to protect your commander/ramping to recast/trying to duplicate the ability as you mentioned are all things one might want to be considering more when you have a monolith commander. Weigh more heavily the protection spells in this scenario when possible. 2. As for the idea that people are going to see a commander and immediately target it, I try to choose my deck strategically. I play my Faldorn deck against the scarier decks. If someone else is a bigger problem, then me popping off and making a ton of wolves is less threatening. So deck selection maybe helps if you build a monolith commander. A follow up video to this could be ways to play a monolith commander and be more successful. Sandbag when possible/mulligan to prioritize protection or duplicate effect cards/ lean harder into the strat and build it faster to out run the other players maybe? I know my Faldorn deck moves fast and it does so because once she’s down the deck folds. I like trying to play this way personally. I would rather stick to one strat than run out a bunch of good stuff creatures. Unfortunately in Gruul there aren’t many options for exile payoff creatures that do what Faldorn does. Only one from Dr. Who that I’m aware of. I would be interested to have you look at the deck. Might have to jump in the discord and let you see. Thanks for the great topic!

As a quick note about 90-seconds in. I think more playgroups need to sacrifice a game and let the player with the new deck pop off. 1) It can be frustrating to build a deck, even at the behest of a friend, just to have that commander targeted. 2) Are you just afraid of a bunch of perceived value or is his deck really scary? let him pop off and see what happens if you don't respond. If the game goes super short, shuffle up and play again, but let the person play with their new deck if you're going to suggest it

I ran into this problem with Arcades, the Strategist. Even with redundancies and protections in the deck it's so easy to shut it down.

i have a rowan deck i rule zero it as a monolith commander because once shes out unless i am very unlucky i am looking at a storm win out of no where. i like playing it but i'm not sure if it will stay as long as other decks

Got a neheb deck, it's the definition of a monolith commander, you just have to learn that your whole plan is out there for everyone else to prepare for, either wait for defence down or wait until you have protection, not every games it will work but most games you will at least have an impact, also within a playgroup having a lower level of power may help, otherwise prepare accordingly, make your deck be ok without the commander and oppressive with it in play, that way you always have an impact but the table will be aware

I remember being excited to build Mairsil and Obeka when they both came out. But I eventually learned how much the deck relied on them. It became a feel bad for everyone. Had to deconstruct them.

And you have that guy that their 6 commanders decks are like these and he still gets upset lmao. Really nice and interesting vid demo. I try to stay away from these commanders (had Obeka some time and learned it the hard way) and recently I turned my Rionya deck into a Delina deck. Only had to move some pieces and it has been wonderful. The randomness and explosivity of Delina is way more fun and less, I have to have lots of cheap instants to really make the deck work and everyone will just kill my creature I have been tempted so hard to build a Rowan group slug/life change deck so hard that maybe would be the only monolith deck I would play and even then I wouldn't relay so much on giant spells

Kinda the point of commander, unless you are playing with combos that do not depend on the commander. If you don't build into the commander you risk every Grixis as an example deck being the same deck, you want to leverage your commanders abilities.

I had a Deck around Atla Palani, Nest Tender that only had big dinosaurs and eggs in the deck, and ran into this exact issue, so I ended up dismantling it and built a different Naya deck instead.

Even if Anzrag isn't on the battlefield you got pretty good options for another combat phase and to punish your opponents. Such as, a Commander i use with Anzrag on my deck, Maarika, Brutal Gladiator; Karlach, Fury of Avernus; Mogis, God of Slaughter (immediate removal); things that call out big creatures like Owlbear Cub. Anzrag is usually the least of their worries. Of course, i pull target creature fights target creature and it usually hurts alot.

This an interesting topic and really just comes down to being cognizant of your playstyle and what you enjoy in a game. I have built quite a few Monolith commanders e.g. Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief or Ghyrson Starn. Those decks plummet in efficiency without the commander in play, but I've learned to adjust how I play them in a way that accounts for the fact my opponents will try to remove them early and often. Some people clearly enjoy playing piles of generically good cards Steve, Eternal Witness etc. I get bored of those. Swords to Plowshares is obviously the best creature removal in the format but that doesn't make me want to play it. I'm ok with (on rare occasion) just not getting to impact the game much, because othertimes I can do very "silly" things like steal every creature in play with Charisma and those moments are more memorable to me

i can agree with this, a lot of my decks are monolith decks, but my best deck overall is probably Watcher in the Water, the whole deck is blue shenanigans and instant speed draw so half the time if he gets removed i just go on and do blue things while i wait for everyone else to burn out their removal.

I have satorou umezawa deck And: 1 has a lot of protections. 2 it does not rely on the commander, the deck is about halving life total, is either with equipped unblockables or creatures that can become unblockable.

There are some legendary creatures that are too linear to make effective commanders. Rowan, Scion of War and Massacre Girl, Known Killer fall into that category for me and are best used in the 99 of other decks. Rowan is going in my Licia deck, which benefits from gaining and losing life. Not only is she an alternative way of reducing Licia’s cost, but the deck is about 50% black spells, some of which are very expensive to cast. Massacre Girl is going in my Kelsien deck and is essentially replacing Everlasting Torment as a wither damage modifier. I’m fine with giving up preventing life gain if I can draw a few cards off of it. Kelsien is meant to draw hate away from the other creatures and even if she were to be targeted, this version uses flicker effects to avoid removal.

Definitely agree with the concept, I do have an obeka deck, I run all the end the turn spells as well as the artifact and +/-6 stifles, while it’s not the greatest deck in the world these other affects do functionally similar things to obeka so I don’t feel like my game plan is overly reliant on her.

I have a Toxrill deck, but I can use the Kill on Sight status to distract my opponents from a combo I have to set up. Basically, I bring out Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, then Kormus Bell. I then play Toxrill untill he sticks, then End Turn to KILL ALL MY OPPONENTS' LANDS! As it's also continuous, it's pretty much game.

I disagree simply because sometimes these commanders allow you to do something you couldn't do otherwise or play cards you normally couldn't.

Esika//prismatic bridge superfriends is my favorite commander deck and it’s one of those commanders that never has to come out of the command zone to be a good deck you just control the board blow everything up and play the best planeswalkers in mtg. Pretty simple.

This is why I personally lean towards tribal decks. I don't need my commander on the field, but the commander enhances it

I am personally a massive monolith commander fan. I play low-mid power magic mostly, and I came into this format from yugioh 3-4 years ago, where I primarily played ‘boss monster’ decks. The appeal of commander to me (and a lot of friends) is having a central creature a deck is played around. Plenty of the problems faced by playing these commanders can be alleviated by a rule zero discussion, especially at lower power levels.

I'm honestly constantly confused about how Don Andres got to be so talked about and built and played as a commander, yet Evelyn the Covetous who does essentially the same thing in the same colors went so far under the radar. Especially because Don Andres slots perfectly into Evelyn's 99.