

Ultimately, if the card in your command zone represents access to even more cards, there's a good chance it has competitive potential. Mitigating the variance inherent in a singleton format is one of the best ways to ensure consistency and speed. The power of tutors - and my love of them - doesn't need restating, and it's easy to see why having them available in the command zone is powerful.

Commanders like Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, and Arcum Dagsson all provide reliable access to specific cards. The other type of card advantage we see in cEDH is commanders that can tutor. If you already play EDH, or have even a passing familiarity with Magic, you know how important card advantage is, but cEDH demands that the card advantage you have access to is reliable and efficient. Most information is drawn from the cEDH decklist database. This is my subjective analysis of the format, and mine alone. There are always exceptions to these criteria, and "viability" can be nebulous. Whether it's having more cards, more mana, or reliable access to a combo, each trait helps with one thing: consistency.īefore we dive into it, this article is descriptive, not prescriptive. The more of these traits they have, the more likely it is to be viable. For now, I want to look at three traits a legendary creature can have that make it appropriate for cEDH. What makes a commander good enough for cEDH? What draws competitive players to one new legendary creature while another is ignored? Why are casual nightmares, like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and Tergrid, God of Fright, largely irrelevant while otherwise unassuming legendaries helm some of the best decks in cEDH?Īny deck can throw a two-card combo and a fistful of fast mana in the 99 and call it a day, but without an appropriate commander, I'd hesitate to call it cEDH.Ĭolor identity is half the battle, but that's an article for the new year.
