I’ve been playing Commander since 2012, and have played every color combination imaginable. I’ve been in the trenches with mono-colors before more modern designs shored up their weaknesses (and gotten color pie breaks that would make a player from the 90s swoon) and played quite a few 5-color legends that bored me to death. Rest in piss, Golos.
One of the more interesting challenges to me is building a deck at the appropriate color combination necessary for the deck building goals, while not compromising on the amount of colors, adding too many, or imposing limitations to bring more fulfillment in the game play novelty.
But what I’m aiming to talk about today is: how many colors do you need to run in a commander deck?
My name is Cole, aka TheBloodricGuy (aka, Johnny Mardu, the radioshow host that I sometimes play over on the Hero’s Blade Vibe Check podcast with my friend, Empress Quinn). I’m a Commander player who champions hoop jumping and niche strategies, and getting your Commander Bucket List checked off more than the win.
I’ve been having an issue recently, and no, it’s not just the rampant release schedule of WOTC, how Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Edge of Eternities are being swept under the rug for Final Fantasy and Spider-Man, the Universes Beyond sets coming to standard, seeing friends and associates drop content creation or the game wholesale because of these changes…
No, it’s another commander deck I’ve made, wanting to make it work, have some bespoke game play patterns and card choices, and hopefully not get bored with it. Enter: Shiko, Paragon of the Way.
Reacquainting Myself with Jeskai
I’ve made 3 other Dragonstorm commanders since release. Neriv, Heart of the Storm, Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan, and Eshki Dragonclaw. The set offers a lot of what I enjoyed about Tarkir block back in 2014-2015, a reinvigoration of the Wedge combinations (Mardu, Temur, Sultai, Abzan and Jeskai), thematic designs and my personally beloved card, Hero’s Blade.
However, as I’ve been playing more games with friends this year, and during the deluge of UB sets, I looked back and Shiko caught my eye. I knew I had a hurdle to jump over when it came to building her, as it turns out there’s a lot of 3 mana value nonland permanents to consider! I also had to think about what it was going to take for me to craft a 3 color mana base when I’m 40 commander decks deep in the hole…
I’ve had Jeskai decks in the past. I avoided Narset, Enlightened Master back when Khans of Tarkir came out (other friends of mine were much more enthusiastic about it). Numot and Ruhan were present, but weren’t as exciting or stimulating. My preference for green at the time was also an influence, so I ended up favoring other color combos.
Eventually, I ended up building a Zurgo and Ojutai Dragon Typal list that was exciting enough, as it allowed me to add the prior Ojutai cards as a sort of flavor win (there was also the benefit it not playing a Miirym deck and getting nuked from orbit, but that’s another reason altogether). Had to work in ways to cheat costs if I bounced a Dragon to hand, but my hands were kept full and my opponents were locked down or struggling to deal with my growing army of Dragons. Fliers win games, of course!
However, the novelty wore off, and the increasing speed of commander games via low-to-the-ground value engines made Zurgo and Ojutai obsolete without me heavily investing in the list, and as my tastes and goals change, I realized I needed to take a break, build the stuff I wanted to play, attempt to cull my deck total closer to 30 decks but end up failing, and come back with fresh eyes.
What TF am I doing with Shiko?
As a shallow overview, tokens. When you dig deeper, it's at risk of being a spell slinger combo list. The list can be found here on Moxfield.
I had accumulated various Azorius, Boros, Izzet and Jeskai cards over time and felt it was time to attempt to try my hand at playing a different Jeskai list, using a different Dragon commander. Shiko was on my radar since release, alongside Shiko and Narset, Unified, and with a self-emposed lull period between Edge of Eternities release and the barrage of previews for Spider-Man, I took it upon myself to put together a pile of cards, whittle it down to 60-63 cards, add some lands, call it a day. I’ll figure out the rest later.
(Shown above: a pile of approximately 200-300 cards dedicated to Shiko)
While the first iteration of the list mostly did what I expected (and did not win), further modifications resulted in a more dedicated spell slinger, tokens and flicker theme. Accumulate value, deal opponents damage via combat or ping damage, hope to survive. As it turns out (and upon peer review), it was a “Cole” deck, that had a level of resilience and could deploy threats that my friends would no doubt have to answer, because, well, I’m me and I’m that kinda guy! So, I’m on the direction I want to go, and I can only hope future games show it was worth the investment and time.
However, there’s an underlying issue that’s been bugging me with the last few decks I’ve made, is the following:
- Does it need to be more than 2 colors?
- Do I need to make another 3 color deck?
- How much money am I willing to invest in a mana base appropriate for the list’s demands?
People who know me will know that I heavily dislike fetchlands, the OG duals and any land that happens to be more than a dollar or two. We’re entering a pretty comfortable time to be able to pick up budget wedge or shard lands without paying too much. Give me the Snarls, give me the Zendikar Battle Lands (please finish them, WOTC) and gimme the Pain Lands. AND PLAY MORE BASICS!
If someone is playing fetchlands, I know they’re up to no good, they’re probably abusing them, and I don’t have time or the money for that. Now, that’s just lands, and not including mana rocks or other forms of ramp, and that’s a whole other beast.
The other problem is the density of colors vs the colored pips of cards and their demands. You won’t see most people hard cast Invoke Justice outside of 2-color or a mono-color list, but it’s not impossible, if your mana base is fleshed out. But that also means I’m not thinking about including a card like this in a 3c list when there’s more efficiently pipped spells that do similar things.
Finally, for the strategy or theme you have in mind, how many colors do you actually need to add before it becomes too restrictive or expensive to run? Running 3 colors is a tried-and-true commander staple of deck building, it allows you to have the best of 3 worlds without going super insane on your investments, but what if you cut a color? What if you add more?]
The list of legends here range from being dedicated spirit-matter legends, to making tokens, to caring about a creature type in some capacity.
Shiko needs some help on the mana base front. Being spread thin with 40 decks is an obvious issue, and I should be taking decks apart and reallocating resources for other lists. But, I’m on a deck building binge, and the cuts I plan on making would leave me with a lot of Azorius cards and lands, but I’ll be lacking on Boros or Izzet cards (due to heavy Boros and Mardu investments in other decks I’m far more fond of, and a lack of investment on Izzet resources).
The other issue is that part of me wants to make Shiko more of a dedicated Spirits typal list, similar to how I tried to force Bant spirits in Standard of 2011. The reality is, I need to feel the deck out more, see if it’s worth my time and investment, and if it doesn’t work, be content to just take it apart and try something else instead. Why force what isn’t meant to be, when it didn’t work for the same reason I’m dealing with now?
Why Am I Focusing On The Color Combos?
Look, I’ve been chasing a high for Boros for over 5+ years, and as part of that high, you learn a lot about deck building. And part of that is realizing maybe - hear me out- you don’t need to go more than 2 colors.
Sure, there’s gonna be legends that cater to a specific strategy that only functions when those 3 colors merge, but when it comes to my favorite decks and games, I find that simplifying the list by avoiding that third color leads to more considerations. Cards that would be shuffled aside for whatever the third color offers, but better. With two colors, you get to only choose between the two, without the third color mucking it all up.
With Shiko, there’s an extremely disorienting amount of directions to take the deck, and that’s not even getting into the disappointing look at her EDHrec page. Pretty sure I clocked a heavy amount of cEDH staples, because that’s what people want to do with her. The call to optimize and exploit Shiko is ever-present, and understandably so. You can cast a lot of powerful spells for cheap, as long as you’re able to keep the engine going. I’m just hoping to not indulge too heavily while keeping a fun core concept. One can’t help but wonder what it would look like if she were only Boros or Izzet, perhaps.
Back to the Innistrad deck I mentioned: if I had waited or looked at what Innistrad block and Return to Ravnica had offered, I’d have realized I could have made a decently strong Azorius Spirits/tokens list for a fairly affordable price, instead of trying to jam a mish-mash Bant Spirits list, all because I wanted to put 4 Strangleroot Geists and 4 Drogskol Captains together with a bad land base. Sometimes an idea is not meant to be when you don’t have the means, or you’re only seeing the Forests for the trees.
The long and short of it is: there’s so many legends now that you could feasibly do whatever archetype you want, but it’s up to you to get the bang for your buck or find the right brain-tantilizing hoops to jump through. I’m someone who wants cards and strategies to be affordable, and since I’m not a proxier, I usually want to recommend budget picks. I just find even with all the new Dragonstorm legends I built, I wish things were simpler, so I don’t have to worry about running a certain amount of dual lands to make sure I can play my cards on curve, and on-color without issues.
Sure, there’s a hint of “skill issue” in the air, but gimme a Mm'menon, Uthros Exile list over another 3, 4 or 5 color legend any day.
You can find more of me and my stuff over on Bluesky, hear my podcast Hero’s Blade Vibe Check where podcasts are sold, and see me and my friends play Commander at MTG Lexicon on Saturdays on Twitch.
Comments
Post a Comment